Velvet Hammer
The NCAA has spoken and now Penn State gets to deal with another part of the rebuilding process after the Sandusky Affair. A $60 million fine. A four-year bowl ban. The loss of ten scholarships per year for four years. And vacating all wins from 1998 to 2011. That fine is not insignificant. Neither is the loss of bowl games…
Rocky Mountain High
Four days in Denver. Sounds like a bad political thriller from the 1970s, no? Our weekend in the Mile High City was far from bad movie from my childhood. The highlights: The girls travelled very well on the way out. S. sat in a row with C. and L., while M. and I sat a row up. We were lucky…
BOOOOOOOO!!!!
For a crappy game, the 2012 All Star Game will certainly go down as one of the more memorable All Star weeks in recent memory. Thanks to the mini-controversy of Yankee Robinson Cano not selecting Royal Billy Butler for the Home Run Derby, the event turned into an opportunity for Kansas City baseball fans to unload 25 years of frustration…
Time Is Flying
What a busy few days. Let’s see if I can cram some of what’s happened, and is about to happen, into a post of reasonable length. We spent last weekend enjoying a fine Indiana freshwater recreation site with some good friends and family. The weather continued to be ridiculously hot, but being in the water was a fine way to…
This Is Interesting
Def Leppard is rerecording their back catalog because of an argument with Universal over the digital distribution rights of their original songs. Despite being the slickest of the 80s hairbands, it took some effort. ”You just don’t go in and say, ‘Hey guys, let’s record it,’ and it’s done in three minutes,” Elliott notes. “We had to study those songs,…
Off The Board
I love it when events coincide with specific dates so that they are easy to remember. Example: earlier this year we purchased a new lawn mower. S. wondered how long we had our old one1 and I said, “I can tell you exactly when we got it.” “OK, what game was that day?” She knows me well. “It wasn’t just…
The Reign Of Spain
For a minute or two, I thought Italy had a chance in Sunday’s Euro 2012 final. But then Spain got rolling, picked apart the pressing Italians, and rolled to a dominating 4-0 win that gives them a legitimate claim to be the best soccer team ever and in the conversation for best sports team ever.1 Those moments of hope were…
NBA Draft, 2012
To start, a link back to the beginnings of my blogging life and my 2003 draft breakdown. I just reread it and it’s fun, especially my panning of Miami drafting D. Wade. I actually have a few decent observations in there. And a lot of inside stuff that makes no sense A) nine years later and B) without watching the…
On Owning Music
Ahh, more Gen X navel gazing about the changes in the music world. I’m sorry, I can’t avoid reading these pieces, linking to them, or adding some comments of my own. I think most of that is because this profound change in the technology of music has come right at the time my generation shifted into true adulthood: the getting…
Tabloid News
First, a quick story from my youth. I once had a babysitter who had stacks of newsstand tabloid magazines. I recall them mostly being The National Enquirer but I believe she had some of the really crazy ones, too. Anyway, I liked to read and since the TV was usually on soaps or the news, I would hide in the…