Sunday, February 28, 2010
Oh, Canada 3,
Simply a fabulous game and a shame one team had to end up with silver. Ryan Miller, Team USA's goalie received the unofficial Player of the Series designation and a rousing cheer from the home crowd when his name was announced at the silver medal award ceremonies.
Credit to Team Canada, a more talented team with a huge burden on its shoulder ( FOUR million people in Canada watched the announcements on TV when the members of the tema were (simply) chosen. It could have folded, especially after Teasm USA tied the game 2-2 with less than 25 seconds left (Zach Parise (of the NJ Devils!), the perpetual hustling one, banged it in past the struggling Roberto Luongo.
But then, in the sudden death OT period, Sid the Kid deeked past USA Defender Brian Rafalski and put a quick wrist shot between Miller's pads. A most suitable way to end the game, the series, the Vancouver Olympics. It would have been criminal to end this game with a shootout, which would have resulted if the O/T period finished scoreless.
Labels: 2010 Vancouver Olympics
Friday, February 26, 2010
Perfectly Good Game (About to Be) Ruined
Well, Curling has probably reached its apex of appeal and innocence. Per the NYT, Wall Street has now fallen in love (and you know how short and messy THAT usually ends up) with the sport, thanks to CNBC.
So, expect Curling to shortly tumble into obscurity, banrupcy, ill-repute, etc. since the Boys of Greed have now taken to this gentle repaste. Another fine event (to be) ruined.
A shame. I fell in love with Curling back in my college days up in Montreal, where Curling clubs were quiet places to escape the paper-churning pressures that were part of McGill U. Equipped with a flask of Moose Milk and a small entourage of equally attentive students, a 2 hour visit at a Curling match was usually what the doctor ordered to instill of calm into the storm of self-induced academic brouhaha.
An aside: Mike Babcock, hockey coach of Team Canada in this year's Olympics is a McGill alumni. He played defence for the univereity's team, the Redmen. Four women from this year's Olympic champion hockey team also graduated and skated for McGill.
So, expect Curling to shortly tumble into obscurity, banrupcy, ill-repute, etc. since the Boys of Greed have now taken to this gentle repaste. Another fine event (to be) ruined.
A shame. I fell in love with Curling back in my college days up in Montreal, where Curling clubs were quiet places to escape the paper-churning pressures that were part of McGill U. Equipped with a flask of Moose Milk and a small entourage of equally attentive students, a 2 hour visit at a Curling match was usually what the doctor ordered to instill of calm into the storm of self-induced academic brouhaha.
An aside: Mike Babcock, hockey coach of Team Canada in this year's Olympics is a McGill alumni. He played defence for the univereity's team, the Redmen. Four women from this year's Olympic champion hockey team also graduated and skated for McGill.
Labels: 2010 Vancouver Olympics
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Attention! New Word to Me. Gibbet. You can look it up.
In his proposed, tongue-in-bitter-cheek, solution to the results of the 7-3 shellacking recieved by Team Russia last night in the 2010 Olympic quarter-finals, the Russian coach, Vyacheslav Bykov, suggested that "Yeah, let's bring some guillotines and gibbets. We have 35 men in the hockey team, let's kill them on the Red Square!
Gibbet? Yep. I assumed there was a mis-spelling of the translation and the word should have been "giblet", although I'm not sure what killing, Red Square, "giblets" and guillotines have to do with each other. But then ,heck, every country has its own peculiar customs.
Gibbet? Yep. I assumed there was a mis-spelling of the translation and the word should have been "giblet", although I'm not sure what killing, Red Square, "giblets" and guillotines have to do with each other. But then ,heck, every country has its own peculiar customs.
Labels: 2010 Vancouver Olympics
Frightening
That about sums up my thoughts on yesterday's Olympic hockey games. The only thnig to decide is which game was more frightening.
This one?
Or...
this one?
So...which Canadian team will show up (if all goes to plan) in the final. The Team Canada, which seemed unearthly (and finally playing up to the sum of its components) in its brutally quick dismantling of Team Russia (anyone out there get the feeling the Russkies were getting paid in platinum for folding quickly and completely)? Who was that guy in nets for them? It wasn't this Nabokov; any chance it was this Nabokov..(I know! I know! The latter's been dead for quite a while, but the Russian guy between the pipes had a cadaverish performace last night). Look, the Canadians were playing like a house afire and they probably woudl have won anyway, but I was sorely disappointed with the game. I was sure the Canada-Russia game was going to be THE BEST game of the entire Olympics.
Or the Team Canada that wilted agaisnt the US in the preliminaries?
And how 'bout the USA team? Which one will show up at the Finals? I know the Canadians had equal problems with the Swiss that the US did last night...but the US had 2 games against the Swiss and you think they would have figured things out as to how to play them. Team USA did not play as well against the Swiss last night as they did the first tiem they played them this Olympics. And the Swiss? Well, they certainly seemed eager to make it to the semi-finals. Thank God that the Devils' Zach Parise showed up for the game.
I'm not trying to hop to the finals, folks. Really.
Slovakia beat the Russians as did Team Canada last night. The Candians play the Slovaks on Friday. And the Americanos? Well, Finland is no pushover; frankly Team Suomi makes me quite nervous; those socks they are sporting are mesmerizing and may take away Team USA's attention from the puck and the matters at hand.
So, Friday night. Phone off the hook, dog fed and walked and given a large leather chew, ever-loving wife complimented to the nines. No distractions; just sitting and watching. Nervously.
This one?
Or...
this one?
So...which Canadian team will show up (if all goes to plan) in the final. The Team Canada, which seemed unearthly (and finally playing up to the sum of its components) in its brutally quick dismantling of Team Russia (anyone out there get the feeling the Russkies were getting paid in platinum for folding quickly and completely)? Who was that guy in nets for them? It wasn't this Nabokov; any chance it was this Nabokov..(I know! I know! The latter's been dead for quite a while, but the Russian guy between the pipes had a cadaverish performace last night). Look, the Canadians were playing like a house afire and they probably woudl have won anyway, but I was sorely disappointed with the game. I was sure the Canada-Russia game was going to be THE BEST game of the entire Olympics.
Or the Team Canada that wilted agaisnt the US in the preliminaries?
And how 'bout the USA team? Which one will show up at the Finals? I know the Canadians had equal problems with the Swiss that the US did last night...but the US had 2 games against the Swiss and you think they would have figured things out as to how to play them. Team USA did not play as well against the Swiss last night as they did the first tiem they played them this Olympics. And the Swiss? Well, they certainly seemed eager to make it to the semi-finals. Thank God that the Devils' Zach Parise showed up for the game.
I'm not trying to hop to the finals, folks. Really.
Slovakia beat the Russians as did Team Canada last night. The Candians play the Slovaks on Friday. And the Americanos? Well, Finland is no pushover; frankly Team Suomi makes me quite nervous; those socks they are sporting are mesmerizing and may take away Team USA's attention from the puck and the matters at hand.
So, Friday night. Phone off the hook, dog fed and walked and given a large leather chew, ever-loving wife complimented to the nines. No distractions; just sitting and watching. Nervously.
Labels: 2010 Vancouver Olympics
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Road Dangers
From Michael Wade who posts daily, diligently, and with interest over at the Execupundit is this blog post. Number one profession for dangerous driving (based on filed accident reports)?
Lawyers and judges. Puts a whole different take on the term "ambulance chaser", as in "Which came first? The ambulance chaser or the ambulance chaser?"
Care to guess who's at #2?
Financial professionals.
Hmm... I'd have thought #1 or at least #2 would be folks claiming to be professional physicists, mathematicians, or philosophers as I wouldn't hink they'd be concentrating too much on the road as their minds drive down more interesting avenues.
Wonder if there's a correlation between crash-loving professionals and their addiction to continual communication, as in cellphonitis?
Lawyers and judges. Puts a whole different take on the term "ambulance chaser", as in "Which came first? The ambulance chaser or the ambulance chaser?"
Care to guess who's at #2?
Financial professionals.
Hmm... I'd have thought #1 or at least #2 would be folks claiming to be professional physicists, mathematicians, or philosophers as I wouldn't hink they'd be concentrating too much on the road as their minds drive down more interesting avenues.
Wonder if there's a correlation between crash-loving professionals and their addiction to continual communication, as in cellphonitis?
Labels: 2010: Are We Recovering Yet?
"Yukon Goes Fishing", a New Addition...
... to the Daily Blog check list.
Yukon, with plenty of time on his hands while standing in running water waiting for a fish to be taken in by his fly-fishing wand of pescatorial subterfuge, opines on the tricky art of Fly-Fishing, a self-delusional sport wherein the Black Hole of continuous equipment purchases meets with man's need to better a presumably lesser grey-mattered creature in a hide-and-seek game carried out in the latter's home-court advantage venue.
May he continue to hook us with his wit (detection of his Slavic roots are easily detected) and his burgeoning wisdom as he develops his skills of water-based chicanery in aquatic vertebrates capture.
Yukon, with plenty of time on his hands while standing in running water waiting for a fish to be taken in by his fly-fishing wand of pescatorial subterfuge, opines on the tricky art of Fly-Fishing, a self-delusional sport wherein the Black Hole of continuous equipment purchases meets with man's need to better a presumably lesser grey-mattered creature in a hide-and-seek game carried out in the latter's home-court advantage venue.
May he continue to hook us with his wit (detection of his Slavic roots are easily detected) and his burgeoning wisdom as he develops his skills of water-based chicanery in aquatic vertebrates capture.
Labels: Montana
Monday, February 22, 2010
Glaucon of the North
Don't know about you, but there's nothing like a newspaper or magazine article that gets me chortling with excitement than one that combines inisight, humor, and the need to consult a dictionary/encyclopedia (online or a tactile one).
Ian Brown's take on the loss last night by Team Canada to Team USA in Olympic hockey had me laughing and scrambling for a reference book/site simultaneoulsy. Ian Brown, by the way, is like Rick Reilly, only more awarded. Both Mr. Brown and Mr. Reilly have similar acerbic wits that gently poke holes in our over-the-top sports maniacal view of the world as we know it.
A clip follows:
"The morning conversation on the Canada Line yesterday was about the hockey team. There's a conversation on the Canada Line, Vancouver's newest subway line, every morning during the Olympics. It's very high level - a regular rolling Plato's symposium. All strangers, people on their way to the Throb downtown....Everyone predicted a game with lots of fore-checking. "They'd better figure out they're playing for the red and white, and not for money," the Glaucon of the group said. "So far they don't seem to realize how big this is." There were at least five people in the conversation. None of them had known each other two stops earlier. "
What a great little piece! Hockey, opinionating, and new/refreshed knowledge....
....Oh, and yeah, a Team USA win.
Sorry, Darrell! You have to admit, though, a loss is much more interesting to talk about, in most cases, than a win.
...and, yes, I am getting tired of the Miracle of Ice thing being dredged up here, south of the border, for the umpteenth time. Give it a rest, NBC!
Just hoping that this last game will bring out Ms. E from her dormancy so that her fans can once again enjoy her puck prose at A Theory of Ice, a most intelligent site of hockey insight.
Ian Brown's take on the loss last night by Team Canada to Team USA in Olympic hockey had me laughing and scrambling for a reference book/site simultaneoulsy. Ian Brown, by the way, is like Rick Reilly, only more awarded. Both Mr. Brown and Mr. Reilly have similar acerbic wits that gently poke holes in our over-the-top sports maniacal view of the world as we know it.
A clip follows:
"The morning conversation on the Canada Line yesterday was about the hockey team. There's a conversation on the Canada Line, Vancouver's newest subway line, every morning during the Olympics. It's very high level - a regular rolling Plato's symposium. All strangers, people on their way to the Throb downtown....Everyone predicted a game with lots of fore-checking. "They'd better figure out they're playing for the red and white, and not for money," the Glaucon of the group said. "So far they don't seem to realize how big this is." There were at least five people in the conversation. None of them had known each other two stops earlier. "
What a great little piece! Hockey, opinionating, and new/refreshed knowledge....
....Oh, and yeah, a Team USA win.
Sorry, Darrell! You have to admit, though, a loss is much more interesting to talk about, in most cases, than a win.
...and, yes, I am getting tired of the Miracle of Ice thing being dredged up here, south of the border, for the umpteenth time. Give it a rest, NBC!
Just hoping that this last game will bring out Ms. E from her dormancy so that her fans can once again enjoy her puck prose at A Theory of Ice, a most intelligent site of hockey insight.
Labels: 2010 Vancouver Olympics
Friday, February 19, 2010
Self Referential: Luge a Deux (or my Mis-Spelled..
Luge a doux was a post I'd writen over 4 years ago. I don't want to mention the circumstances, but it seems this post has gone almost viral. Usual daily hits to this site are in the 70-100 range. A few days ago, there were almost 1,000 with the majority steered through search engines to the 4 year old entry.
While I certainly appreciate the traffic, I'm ashamed, embarassed, and feeling rather repugnant about the underlying reason. We humans are a curious breed of animals (I'm inlcuding myself completely in that category) to the point of mordancy.
While I certainly appreciate the traffic, I'm ashamed, embarassed, and feeling rather repugnant about the underlying reason. We humans are a curious breed of animals (I'm inlcuding myself completely in that category) to the point of mordancy.
Labels: 2010: Are We Recovering Yet?, Blogs
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Love this Headline..
..from the NY Post. It's so rare to see my name in a headline (even though the last name is never my own), that I do get a tad giddy.
And, yes, it is true that I've been sent to the wolves, although that send-off was figurative, I believe.
And, yes, it is true that I've been sent to the wolves, although that send-off was figurative, I believe.
Labels: 2010: Are We Recovering Yet?
Monday, February 15, 2010
2010 Vancouver Alpine Combined Medal May Go To...
The Fast Train (Brzi Vlak)
Ivica Kostelic came in 18th today in the Alpine Downhill competition. Notice the GoggleTan he's sporting, just having stepped off the slopes to contribute some vocals to a harmomica-ed tune.
Crossing fingers and hoping that NBC actually broadcasts his run. Bob Costas...we're watching you! Imminent celebration will be breaking out.
Labels: 2010 Vancouver Olympics
Trying to Cadge a 2010 Vancouver Olympics Opinion
Last night, for me, was disheartening. There is only one thing I'd rather not be watching on tv more than gymnastics or bowling and that's figure skating.
Yes, you truly DO have to be quite athletic and fit to skate.
Yes, you DO have to be strong, flexible, and loaded with tons of resolve to make it in the grinding-to-the-bone world of figure-skating.
Yes, Scott Hamilton, like his predecessor Dick Button and the cockroach/Keith Richards like Dick Clark, seems like he has been and will be here for all of eternity.
But, I simply can't stand watching not even one second of the saccharine over-loaded ice spectacles...
...save, perhaps, for the always entertaining melodrama that is Johnny Weir.
And this is nothing to say about the Notally Bad Commentary version of events we're seeing stateside. After a few luge runs, I thought I could be doing the commentating since it was so predictable. ("Bad start", "Losing time", "Slow curve").
Then, on the way to work this morning, WIP announced that the US-Canada hockey game on Feb 21 would be pre-empted by Ice Dancing. Ice Dancing? Are you serious? NBC is the broadcast network of the NHL and they're pre-empting a great hockey showdown with Ice Dancing? Where has sports broadcasting in this country sunk down to where Ice Dancing aces Ice Hockey?
I was wondering if I could hook up with CTV. In Canada, the games will be the first Olympic Games broadcast by a new consortium led by CTVglobemedia and Rogers Media, displacing previous broadcaster CBC Sports. Main English-language coverage will be shown on the CTV Television Network, while supplementary programming will be mainly shown on TSN and Rogers Sportsnet.
Anybody out there know of that possibility? I'd be willing to pay big (Canadian) dollars! That is, as long as they minimize (or even better, don't even show) figure skating broadcasts.
Yes, you truly DO have to be quite athletic and fit to skate.
Yes, you DO have to be strong, flexible, and loaded with tons of resolve to make it in the grinding-to-the-bone world of figure-skating.
Yes, Scott Hamilton, like his predecessor Dick Button and the cockroach/Keith Richards like Dick Clark, seems like he has been and will be here for all of eternity.
But, I simply can't stand watching not even one second of the saccharine over-loaded ice spectacles...
...save, perhaps, for the always entertaining melodrama that is Johnny Weir.
And this is nothing to say about the Notally Bad Commentary version of events we're seeing stateside. After a few luge runs, I thought I could be doing the commentating since it was so predictable. ("Bad start", "Losing time", "Slow curve").
Then, on the way to work this morning, WIP announced that the US-Canada hockey game on Feb 21 would be pre-empted by Ice Dancing. Ice Dancing? Are you serious? NBC is the broadcast network of the NHL and they're pre-empting a great hockey showdown with Ice Dancing? Where has sports broadcasting in this country sunk down to where Ice Dancing aces Ice Hockey?
I was wondering if I could hook up with CTV. In Canada, the games will be the first Olympic Games broadcast by a new consortium led by CTVglobemedia and Rogers Media, displacing previous broadcaster CBC Sports. Main English-language coverage will be shown on the CTV Television Network, while supplementary programming will be mainly shown on TSN and Rogers Sportsnet.
Anybody out there know of that possibility? I'd be willing to pay big (Canadian) dollars! That is, as long as they minimize (or even better, don't even show) figure skating broadcasts.
Labels: 2010 Vancouver Olympics
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Ashley MacIssac @ 2010 Vancouver Olympics
Well, not this performance (although this live performance of Sleepy Maggie is worth seeing)..(can't believe YouTube doesn't have him on yet; wonder if it's some Olympic Committee paranoia thing.)
So, how about those opening ceremonies?
I thought they were fabulous! Well, except for the @#*^#*@#& USA coverage/camera work/commercial interruption/idiotic commentary.
Examples?
1) Ashley MacIssac is fiddling like mad and no close-ups, simply a wide view of the general dance movements. Don't they know how quirky and entertaining this guy is and why close-ups are de rigeur?
2) Croatia's team entrance was cut off by another stupid commercial. So...only a mention and a quick flash of the team after commercial break. Croatians have not forgiven Bob Costas from the last Winter olympics when he introduced the winner of the women's downhill as being from "tiny, teeny Croatia". Bob! "Tiny" was enough, Bob; throwing in "teeny" was a twist of the knife. You were not forgotten and now this time around you pre-empted our glorious entrance. I put the official Stara Baka curse on you! May your diminutive physical stature decrease even more so (HA! We'll see who's teeny, tiny then!)
Wish I could get a Canadian broadcast of these events this time around.....
...and Gordie Howe!? Where were you Gordie? If ever we needed a hard check into the boards of Mr. Costas and Mr. Lauer, it was last night.
Addendum 02/14/2010:
Curious, I Googled Why does Bob Costas hate the Croatians? and it seems over 1,110,000 other inquiries were made about the same subject. Not sure if that represents over one million folks of Croatian descent who could not get to sleep without finding out the TRUTH about Mr. Costas' dissing of Croatia, or simply about 1,000 of us repeatedly asking the same question 1,110 times. Ouch! My index finger is killing me...
Labels: 2010: Are We Recovering Yet?
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Tony Hoagland Wrote This..
..Poem. Apropos of a day when I've been listening to a lot of CD's pleading for my attention in between being in and out shoveling the packed white stuff off of cars, porches, sidewalks, and streets.
"On the CD I Buy for My Brother"
A forlorn guy with a guitar
issues bulletins from the coast of Melancholia,
plainitive dirges in which the macho and the romantic
run together like two rivers
joined into a watershed area that could be called
Big Mississippi Pity Party,
and the singer is a loner with a boner
and he's a Gomer and a moaner and a longtime roamer
and the moon in his rearview reminds him of a redhead
in Natchez with a little anorexia problem
who danced the hoochie coochie clad in just a green bandana.
He says, "Love don't last but I recall her haid on the pillow"
shorely was a purty sight;
he says, "Daylight's just a torn-open letter saying Larry I'm sorry."
I mean this guy is always rowing upstream on the Bad Luck River
with a rusty hubcap for a paddle
or looking downward from the precipice of I'm No Good
at the base of which an ocean of whiskey and beer
has been performing erosion for years,
so it's possible that I am doing my brother no favor
by appealing to certain tendencies already in his disposition,
but then, why should I try to improve him on his birthday?
when at this stage of our lives what we are and what we aren't
is so very apparent
and the grown-ups we once needed to please are endlessly silent
and the nights are long and hollow like the inside of a tunnel
and the train rushing through that tunnel is moving faster and faster
and you know the cargo in those boxcars is some serious business,
while the singer goes on bringing the news
that all cliches are true
and the sunsets are breaking their old records for beauty.
Hmmm,
Great, right?!
So, please..PLEASE buy Mr. Hoagland's "What Narcissim Means to Me". This poem, "On the CD I Buy for My Brother", and 37 other ones are contained within the thin tome.
How's "Poem in Which I Make the Mistake of Comparing Billie Holiday to a Cosmic Washerwoman" sound to you? GO! This poem's in the same book. BUY!
And while you're there pick up his "Sweet Ruin" or his most recent collection, "Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty". Hey, even a poet gets hungry on occasion; feed the poet.
"On the CD I Buy for My Brother"
A forlorn guy with a guitar
issues bulletins from the coast of Melancholia,
plainitive dirges in which the macho and the romantic
run together like two rivers
joined into a watershed area that could be called
Big Mississippi Pity Party,
and the singer is a loner with a boner
and he's a Gomer and a moaner and a longtime roamer
and the moon in his rearview reminds him of a redhead
in Natchez with a little anorexia problem
who danced the hoochie coochie clad in just a green bandana.
He says, "Love don't last but I recall her haid on the pillow"
shorely was a purty sight;
he says, "Daylight's just a torn-open letter saying Larry I'm sorry."
I mean this guy is always rowing upstream on the Bad Luck River
with a rusty hubcap for a paddle
or looking downward from the precipice of I'm No Good
at the base of which an ocean of whiskey and beer
has been performing erosion for years,
so it's possible that I am doing my brother no favor
by appealing to certain tendencies already in his disposition,
but then, why should I try to improve him on his birthday?
when at this stage of our lives what we are and what we aren't
is so very apparent
and the grown-ups we once needed to please are endlessly silent
and the nights are long and hollow like the inside of a tunnel
and the train rushing through that tunnel is moving faster and faster
and you know the cargo in those boxcars is some serious business,
while the singer goes on bringing the news
that all cliches are true
and the sunsets are breaking their old records for beauty.
Hmmm,
I guess I'll go out again, shovel propped on one shoulder, and delve into Mr. Hoagland's Hesitatin' CD Bequest Blues as I throw my additions to the gathering snowpiles......
I'm at that age where self-improvement has muted to self-realization and self-denial has become self-delusion and I'm merely trying to trash all the "self"-things and let the sediment of my soul settle into a quiet pool where disturbance is minimal and the sediment solidifies into personality.
Now,
where's that CD I've been meaning to listen to?
Addendum (3/01/2010): Ok, folks. A lot seem to be drawn here because of the lines, "I mean this guy is always rowing upstream on the Bad Luck River with a rusty hubcap for a paddle".
Great, right?!
So, please..PLEASE buy Mr. Hoagland's "What Narcissim Means to Me". This poem, "On the CD I Buy for My Brother", and 37 other ones are contained within the thin tome.
How's "Poem in Which I Make the Mistake of Comparing Billie Holiday to a Cosmic Washerwoman" sound to you? GO! This poem's in the same book. BUY!
And while you're there pick up his "Sweet Ruin" or his most recent collection, "Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty". Hey, even a poet gets hungry on occasion; feed the poet.
Labels: 2010: Are We Recovering Yet?
It's Snowing and It's Quiet
Kids. Again. Nothing like a solid snowstorm to revive the 6 yr old genes, long suppressed by lower, middle, and higher education and then coated in the amber of work-a-day worlds.
Click on pix for larger views
Addendum: HEY! This is the 1,000th post on the blog. Who would thought I'd still be at this 5? 6? years now. Thanks to all of the faithful who come around, even when the offerings are meager.
Labels: 2010: Are We Recovering Yet?, Delaware
