How 'bout passing one of them NY State laws here?

Click here.

Are we supposed to feel sorry for this goon, who killed a teenager because he was texting while driving his huge, oversized SUV? Sad that our culture would rather feel sorry (check the article; it's absolutely written with a tone of atonement for the murderer, a Boston Globe staple) for a moron than put him behind bars where he belongs for killing someone. Where's the outrage, and where are the cell phone laws designed to keep drivers from distracting themselves while driving?

16-0

Regular-season perfection is only one meaningless Saturday-night game away. The Patriots will be hosted by the NY Giants, a game to be aired on CBS, NBC, and the NFL Network, tomorrow night. For the Giants, they may talk a big game, but they're banged up and have a wild-card playoff game to worry about next weekend. Their seed - #5 in the NFC - is locked; their opponent is set in stone. For the 15-0 Patriots, regular-season perfection is 4 quarters away, and it looks like they could easily pass against this Giants team as long as their O-Line comes up big, as it always does, and protects Brady from the team leader in sacks (the G-Men defense).

In January 2007, just when many Patriots fans began to wonder whether or not the Super Bowl run of Brady and Belichick was over unless a complete overhaul of the team occurred, our wonderful team owner Robert Kraft goes out and overhauls the entire team - another example of why it's great to have a billionaire fan as an owner. This is a team that wants a fourth (and fifth...and sixth) Super Bowl so badly that being within one darn 5-yard grab by Jabar Gaffney of the Super Bowl forced the team to look at how, exactly, they needed to improve to ensure they didn't suffer the same fate during the next postseason. Most owners and management groups would chalk it up to bad luck and just try to do well in the draft with what they're given.

The result? The best receiving corps in the league and a few key free agents. Sammy Morris, the team's rushing leader until he went down with a chest injury not to return this season, was averaging over 100 yards per game. Adalius Thomas came here from Baltimore to help the team's aging linebacker corps, and has been doing really well - and is especially needed now that Roosevelt Colvin is out for the season with a foot injury. And back to that receiving corps, coupled with the best QB in the league, the Patriots have a chance to set at least four more offensive records on Saturday. Most TD passes by a QB, most TD receptions by a player, most points by a team...there's at least one other, I'm sure of it.

I just love how everyone is criticizing the Patriots team because they are under the microscope more than any other, saying they'll have a tough time with the Colts, or how the Jaguars are hungry, or how Pittsburgh might regroup. Lest anyone forgets, the Patriots had an intensely tough schedule and will still likely come out of it with a couple of (admittedly key) injuries, and a 16-0 record. 19-0 is not too far off. It'll be easily the best team sports achievement of the decade, and that's saying a lot for the new NFL Dynasty.

"You remember...surly-lookin' guy with the square jaw?"

I generally dislike TV series. There are a few notable exceptions which seem to be filmed with more an eye toward cinema than the TV-viewing public. Lost is defintely one of those shows. Other shows in this category would include The Shield, The Sopranos, and Nip/Tuck (in my humble opinion). I hear The Wire is also excellent.

Season 4 of Lost premiered at the end of January 2008 and is easily one of the most anticipated seasons of television in recent memory (obviously, The Sopranos was the most anticipated comeback show of 2007, with Lost Season 3 close behind).

For some strange reason, an obscure character in the series sticks out at me. That would be Federal Marshal Edward Mars, known in real life as Frederic Lehne. He has popped up in Kate's flashbacks nearly every single time, and I think the writers feel that good ol' Fred Lehne is a good enough actor - at least in that part he plays as a Federal Marshal - to keep him around as long as possible. There are a few interesting circumstances surrounding his character:

• He was the first character in the show who was murdered. Jack had to put him out of his misery after Sawyer attempted to use the last bullet (at the time) to attempt to do the same thing. All Sawyer accomplished was to puncture the guy's lungs, when he was already in painful shock due to shrapnel from the crash being lodged in his abdomen.


• He was the focal point of a few of the early episodes, in part because people wanted to know why he was carrying a gun


• My favorite: He was referred to as "the surly-lookin' guy with the square jaw...with the piece of shrapnel the size of Texas stickin' out his breadbox" by Sawyer during late Season 1, when the entire camp figures out that Kate was the prisoner being escorted back to the States.


• His voice is very distinctive. If you listen closely there's a nasal sarcasm which permeates almost everything he says, making it an adventure every time he opens his mouth. Even better, every time he does speak, he's usually criticizing Kate. During the episode, "What Kate Did", he tells Kate he knows exactly what she did and why, to which she rebuffs him, explaining that he has no idea why she blew up her "step-"daddy. He replies, "Lemme guess, goes something like this: white-trash mom divorces dad, marries new guy, only the thing is, he likes to drink. Daughter has listen to him bone her mommy in her old daddy's bedroom, and even that wouldn't be so bad if he didn't beat her mommy. Only the thing is...she loves him...she can't leave him. That sound about right?"

There are other amusing tidbits about the character, especially some of his verbatim quotes, which I'll post later. For now, go here for the "white trash" quote and to get a general idea of how great this character is. Every time the guy shows up, it's great. I only hope it comes out that he drew her to Australia and was somehow part of the plotline circulating on the fan forums, which comprises rich and/or powerful figures leading all of the survivors of the crash to the Island. It's likely wishful thinking but one never knows.

http://tviv.org/Lost/Edward_Mars

Ride the Bulleit! Part II

So I've already written about my newfound fascination for whiskeys (specifically, Kentucky bourbons). I've dug deeper and found a great resource, Chuck Cowdery. His blog (click here) is a great place to read about the industry, and his website is a great place to brush up on some basics. He was kind enough to recommend some good bourbons based upon my taste for Bulleit and Maker's Mark. Next up will be Evan Williams Single Barrel, if I can find one in the area.

Massachusetts does not allow liquor to be mailed, neither within the state nor from out of state. It makes my quest to find a good bourbon more complicated, but it's more fun to hunt them down and ask about them at local liquor stores - at this point, at least. Having more than one bottle of bourbon in the house is already going overboard for me as I don't drink very often, but do enjoy finer spirits, when I do partake. If I become an amateur collector, I may have to move to a state that allows me to order bourbon!

One for me...none for you.

Does it really need to be more complicated than this? History is history for a reason - you study from it, you learn about it in hopes that the mistakes of the past are not repeated. But you keep history where it belongs. For an illegal immigration wave to suddenly change into a movement to reclaim the American Southwest...what would these people do with the land? Would the Mexican government give it back to the natives who inhabited the land before the Spanish came? Likely not. They would use it against the US as a resource, just as we did the same thing.

Message to Mexico: Learn from your past mistakes and stop allowing druglords to rule your country. But most of all, keep your parasites OUT of MY country.

Social Security and Medicare - thanks, US Gov't!!

I understand that Social Security was not meant to be an everlasting institution. But it could have been, is the point, when one considers the prosperity of the US in subsequent years. Instead, our great country and its leaders decided to overspend at every opportunity.

Anyone wanna move to Canada?

(from http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=34873242&blogID=339204971)

[P]ayment of Social Security and Medicare Hospital Insurance (Part A) benefits are limited by law to the balances in the respective trust funds. Consequently, future scheduled benefits are limited to future revenues plus existing trust fund assets. As discussed in Supplemental Information, the Social Security and Medicare Part A trust funds are projected to be exhausted in 2041 and 2019, respectively, at which time they will be unable to pay the full amount of scheduled future benefits. For Social Security, projected future revenues would be sufficient to pay 75 percent of scheduled benefits in 2041, the year of trust fund exhaustion, and decreasing to 70 percent of scheduled benefits in 2081. Similarly, for Medicare Part A, projected future revenues would be sufficient to pay 79 percent of scheduled benefits in 2019, the year of trust fund exhaustion, and decreasing to 29 percent of scheduled benefits in 2081. p. 164-165

http://www.fms.treas.gov/fr/07frusg/07frusg.pdf

The sound of good Brit-pop dying a horrible death

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4KSDo5onN4

Or at least the sound of good Brit-pop on a respirator with no hope of surviving.

Maybe it's more of a "last gasp".


Let me explain: I'm hopelessly and inexplicably obsessed with music from the 90's. Most of what I listen to has not come out during this decade, which is now close to being over.


This U2 performance of "Please" was one of the last gasps of 90's Brit-pop, at least as it pertained to American patience for the genre, at that time. Thankfully, after years of Britney Spears and Limp Bizkit, the internet music landscape has changed so drastically, we can ignore what's on MTV entirely and listen to good music again.

For some reason, after Oasis' Be Here Now came out (and, by the way, outsold Morning Glory worldwide and accounted for 2/3 of all music sold in Great Britain the week it came out), after Princess Diana died, and after the 1997 MTV Music Awards, the musical landscape in this country changed. Apparently people got sick of the cocky Brits and their wanna-be Beatles and Rolling Stones behavior. The Verve was really the last group standing, which toured through 1998 after Oasis had released their cocaine album and U2 was wrapping up PopMart, not to be heard from again until over two years later. When The Verve broke up in 1999, we of good musical taste knew the party was over at last.

It wasn't just the groups breaking up or indulging in far too many drugs to retain a decent touring schedule, it was the lack of American counterparts taking the place of bands like The Verve and Oasis. There will never be even an attempt at replacing or outdoing U2, but the US response to Oasis was Third Eye Blind. Third Eye Blind? Even Foo Fighters were pretty good for a bit, but it's been downhill since The Colour and the Shape...apparently, Dave Grohl used the "u" in "Colour" to attract the Brits to some decent American music, and since then, he's been shamelessly playing to the UK audience while becoming a self-parody. Can we blame him for playing to the UK audience, though, when no one in the US was listening? On the other hand, every band wants to become DMB these days; albums come secondary to touring schedules and raping customers of their hard-earned cash with absurd ticket prices.

Sadder still is the example of the Smashing Pumpkins, who seemed to age overnight with constant drug problems and then the sacking of Jimmy Chamberlain, perhaps the best Neil Peart knockoff who ever existed. The video for Thirty-Three could easily be the funeral music of the last true Smashing Pumpkins moment that mattered. "Adore" had to be the worst post-1997 alt-rock album. Garbage kept things hopeful for a bit with "Version 2.0", but ultimately, couldn't keep the "alternative music" segment, that strange grouping of bands as diverse as Green Day and Pulp, going by themselves.

Part of the problem in the late 90's was that there was a time when everyone wanted to have center stage, have it all, be the next big thing; and then of course it all imploded. Oasis' attitude toward their fame, after winning the battle of the bands vs. Blur, could partly be blamed for that attitude. Garbage may have been a bit immune to that because nearly the entire group (except that redhead who, ya know, had nothing to do with their success or anything) was made up of music producers who were too busy with other projects to worry about whether or not they were the highest-grossing new act of the 1990's. But I recall one time in particular when I was watching an airing of the Smashing Pumpkins in the UK, and they were playing Tonight, Tonight. The stage was covered in flowers and Corgan was yukking it up with his bandmates half the time instead of performing the song; I realized then that the Pumpkins had outgrown even Mellon Collie's huge borders, and just wanted to be big for the sake of being big. Gone was the badass, messed-up looking kid who defiantly sang "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" with a backdrop of disturbing-looking individuals rolling around in mud. In his place there was a bigger-looking guy with clean teeth and a polished, shaved head, sporting dark clothes everywhere he went. Billy Corgan had become a product, nothing more.

Every band followed the lead, and interestingly, PopMart was the least of it. PopMart was a colossal joke on the American psyche that, ironically, we were too stupid to understand. A band of alt-rock heroes like the Pumpkins becoming too big, Green Day trying to outdo themselves with Insomniac (though, in fairness, they recovered quite well with everything they've done since), Oasis snorting far too much coke and unplugging themselves from their fanbase, The Verve not being able to handle their would-be savior role...these were all symptoms of the genre collapsing, making way for the record executives to say "you had your shot doing it your way; now we're going to use the 'push' method and just force any junk down your throats that we can cram in there".

Now, ten years later, we have iTunes, torrent sites, blogs, and other methods of grabbing great music out of the airwaves (or the cable internet pipeline). We also, finally, have great bands again, like White Stripes, BRMC, etc., who can at least partially thank the internet and a loyal cult following for spreading the word. It might be more segemented and the record companies might have a harder time keeping tabs on their own "business"...but I dont' think any of us fans of a much better time in music are complaining.

Sure, the new era comes with its own set of complications: there's more pressure on bands to keep themselves ultra-connected to their fanbase; these bands still only make money off touring, and with the shrinking attention span in this country it's become harder to retain a good reputation in our insta-internet world by the time a decent money-making tour can be organized; record contracts for six-plus albums still exist, which keep bands locked down to a horribly tradionalist and 50s-esque way of releasing music...but overall, the scene is much better than going through commercialized genre-pushing decade in and decade out.

Sports Guy Q&A session

My favorite question of the SG Mailbag:

Q: If Boston gets Santana from the Twins, why don't you just take my wife and my 14-week-old daughter while you are at it? Minnesota is truly the farm system for every single Boston professional sports team. I can't wait to watch Brady hand off to Adrian Peterson in three years.-- Adam W., Rosemount, Minn.

Classic. Did I mention the Celtics are 19-2?

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/071214

OK maybe this one is my favorite...

Q: While visiting one of our friends in Boston this past weekend, a few of my college buddies and I spent Saturday getting hammered at various bars near Fenway. When we called it a night, we took the T back to the Maverick station, a trip that included half of the train spontaneously singing "Don't Stop Believing." When we got off the train, we decided to step into this bar called Eddie C's, a dive with none other than Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap. When we got inside, we encountered a few regulars with the strongest accents imaginable, who asked us if we were Sox fans. We aren't, which was fine by them, until my friend Tommy proclaimed his allegiance to the Yankees. They all gasped immediately, and one of them shouted, while smiling ear to ear, "... let's tie him to a tree!!!" He proceeded to reach into his jacket and, I kid you not, pulled out a 12-foot rope. We went outside and my friend was, yes, tied to a tree, complete with some road cones. The scene was unbelievable. We decided to leave when the same guy showed us his knife and said that he could cut some more rope if we needed it.-- John, Washington, D.C.

Machine Girl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBt1SihHDt0

'Nuff said. Go watch it.

"Eff-you" Patriots update

Pats are 13-0 with two "gimmies" left, and one game against the Giants in NJ that might see both teams resting a lot of starters (Giants has no chance at the division now and clinched a playoff spot this weekend).

Gotta love Brady and Belichick having fun at the expense of another player:

Brady exploited Smith again on the very next offensive series. He faked the handoff to Laurence Maroney and watched with glee as the safety came up to help stop the run, then got burned on Brady's 63-yard bomb to Moss. Asked if he intentionally called a play to embarrass the kid, Brady answered, "No, he just ended up being in the right place at the right time."

And then he burst out laughing.

There were yuks all around at Smith's expense. Even coach Bill Belichick, who never will be mistaken for Chuckles the Clown in his postgame news conference, joined in. When asked if he used Smith's guarantee to rally his team, Belichick deflected the question to comments made by Rodney Harrison earlier in the week. Under normal circumstances, the coach would have immediately reverted to his usual Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, but he couldn't resist.

"We've played a lot better safeties than him, I'll tell you that," he said.

Santana Part II

...or not.

At least not yet.

FINALLY!

...that was my first reaction to this news.

The other was general bitterness. These people stay illegals for ten years, ride the gravy train of our economy, some get arrested and spend their terms in jail cells paid by us taxpayers..and when the economy goes south they just pack up and leave with a "don't come back for ten years" message by our wonderful Ministry of Homeland Security. On top of that, the media actually has sympathy for these people, as if living in America and sucking off taxpayer dollars is a right. It's not. It's a privelege. The people who feel priveleged to be here and act accordingly, trying to find some level of cultural identity in this crazy country, are labeled as bigots or worse for wanting people who don't belong here out of the country. Wonderful.

I kinda hope the economy sucks for years just so they continue leaving...

Santana may be coming to the Sox

I've held off writing about this until the last moment, and now it appears the Sox and Twins are working out a deal for Minnesota Twins lefty pitcher Johan Santana - pretty much the biggest name in free agency this offseason.

Santana is a two-time Cy Young winner - if given the opportunity to play during the last year of his contract, Minnesota will have no leverage because Santana will just keep pitching real well until he hits unrestricted free agency. Minnesota knows this as he already turned down Minnesota's highest offer, $18million per year, so Minneosta has been shopping him around so they get something in return for him. Enter Boston and New York, the usual suspects.

It looked for a couple of grim days as if the Red Sox were willing to part with Jacoby Ellsbury, their prized 2008 Rookie of the Year, who only outdid Coco Crisp in CF, particularly on offense, when it counted. Now it appears as though the Sox will be letting go of Jon Lester, the cancer survivor who went 11-2 this year and clinched Game 4 of the World Series, Coco Crisp, and a couple of prospects. I hate the idea of giving up Lester but the reason the Sox have such a deep farm system is precisely so they have building blocks, as well as some trade bait for a team like Minnesota ready to trade a superstar player. Lester would only play every five days and no one knows what he will do over the next couple of years. Ellsbury, on the other hand, has not played as long as Lester in the bigs, but he's got so much speed and natural talent that he just should not be traded away, period. You can never have too much pitching but the Sox have to think about a rotation that makes everyone happy; with Ellsbury, they can get rid of Crisp with a clear conscience and start their CF of the future. Everybody wins.

Thank you, Minnesota...you've single-handedly broken 86 years of baseball drought AND 21 years of basketball drought, all in the same decade ... just for the wrong CITY. Losers.

^Boston

<--Minnesota

It's strange....Moss, who came from Minny originally...Garnett...Ortiz...now Santana? I think since McHale started working there he's been infesting every sport with his hairy self.

"You are what you doooo....."

It's about time to stop talking about sports and start talking about crappy 80's and 90's action flicks that just can't be beat no matter how much time goes by.

The kernel of thought you can thank for this post originated last night, during a commercial break of the Patriots' improbable come-from-behind, "please let us give it away"-Baltimore-clock-mismanaged-game. I saw the first trailer I have ever seen, on television mind you, for the new Rambo film.

Yes, Rambo. Rambo is an American hero, and I guess ol' Sly decided he wasn't going to allow Bruce Willis to keep ridiculous sequels that should never have been made to himself. No, Sly decided that he would indeed ride John Rambo to victory for a fourth time.

Click here for the R-rated trailer; scroll down and click play. How this movie even got an "R" rating with some of this stuff is ridiculous. We're back to the days of good ol' blood and gore, folks! And just in time - during an election year!

Back to Total Recall. A classic film. I have yet to read the book, but any movie which features a creature protruding from a human's thorax as a central figure to the movie in a big-budget blockbuster is always going to be good. And any movie where Ronny Cox (Robocop, Total Recall, folk singer galore) plays the bad guy, with lines such as "Can you handle that? Good, cuz otherwise I'll erase your ass" is a can't-miss opportunity.

Let's start from the beginning. Quaid is played iun serviceable fashion by Ah-nuld, a guy whom we are quick to find out is stuck in a Matrix-like reality: hot woman, nice house, good job. Turns out he used to be a super secret agent on Mars, part of the bad guy alliance fighting the "rebels" who want more clean air (air on Mars is controlled by Ronny Cox's character). They erased the memory of the man who is now known as Quaid (formerly Hauser) so they could plant him on Earth, give him a desire to go to Mars, and infiltrate the rebels so he could destroy Kuato, the 'George Washington' of the rebellion.

Quaid, not knowing who he really is, decides to check out "Recall" to have a memory of a Mars spy mission implanted into his brain, so that he feels he was actually there (another future convenience - fake memory implants that seem real. When will this stuff actually happen?)

This is one of the most underrated scenes in the film. The actors who play the "Recall" staff (Bob McClane (any relation to John McClane?), Dr. Lull, Ernie) are perfectly cast and their lines & delivery are excellent. Quaid nearly has (one of my favorite terms in the film) a "schizoid embolism" before they have a chance to implant the fun memory. With his steroid-assisted muscles, Quaid nearly fights off these three Recall staff members while screaming about a mission to Mars (even though Recall hadn't implanted the memory yet). They subdue him with those cool, futuristic subdue-type-thingies; syringes that appear to act on pump-action. Once he's under, the conversation between the three Recall staff members is classic. Not only is Bob McClane, the sales rep who loses a customer to the distraction, visibly pissed off, but he calls Dr. Lull a "dumb bitch":

Lull: He has been going on and on about Mars; he has actually been there!

Bob: Use your head, ya dumb bitch! He's just acting out the spy mission story from his memory implant!

Lull: I'm afraid that's not possible.

Bob: Why not??

Lull: Because we haven't implanted it yet!

Bob: Oh, Jesus...

Lull: I've been trying to tell you...someone has erased his memory.

Ernie: Wait, someone? I mean, we're talking about the fucking agency here.

Lull: Shut up!

Later, McClane asks Lull to see what she can do for Mister Quaid, so she says "I'll try...it's pretty messy in there." Then McClane says, "you two try to drop him in a cab...and if anyone comes asking we've never even heard of Douglas Quaid." Perfect.

Other random moments of perfection include Richter's pursuit of Quaid, so frustrating for poor, doomed Richter that he ultimately makes an error that costs him his arms. As Richter's body falls to the ground with Quaid holding the bloody nub-arms, Quaid screams, "See you at the party Richter!" in response to Richter's prior sucker-punch. Richter had punched him earlier because the "bad guys", Quaid's former employees on Mars who are controlling all of the airflow, are about to erase his Quaid identity and revert him back to Hauser, so he can party it up, be rich, and never know what it was like to lead a good life and care about others. If I were Quaid I probably wouldn't have fought so hard against this...

Other classic scenes include Benny the Mutant ("face it man...his fortune-tellin' days are over") who ultimately dies at the hands of Quaid, assisted by a perfect line ("Benny! Screwwwww youuuuu!"). Kuato himself is classic and, with the growth of the internet, just google Kuato and you'll find lots of goofy stuff modeled after the original character, along with crazy YouTube videos of Kuato with "In Your Eyes" voice overs, etc.

There's other deep stuff in this movie, like Quaid breaking through his former identity and realizing that he didn't want to be a super-spy for the bad guys; identity crises galore; whether or not what's happening is a dream or reality and whether or not it even matters, etc. But let's face facts here: the book might have been chock full o' these themes, but this is one of those timeless movies that can be taken just as much at face value as it can be picked apart and analyzed. That's why seeing this or Robocop (another Paul Verhoeven classic) on cable late at night always makes one stay up past one's bedtime: waiting for the buildup to lines like "schizoid embolism" and Kuato's first appearance (and his subsequent, untimely death) are worth every minute.

Ten new Patriots rules

In order to address the complaints and hurt feelings of the rest of the NFL, the commissioner has adopted 10 new "Special Rules" for all New England Patriots games. They take effect immediately, and are as follows:

Special Rules for the Patriots

1) In the course of an NFL game, if the Patriots go up by more than 31 points, they are not allowed to play offense until the opposing team draws to within one score. (Pats will kick-off after an opposing team's touchdown or FG).Once the team is within one score, the Pats offense may play, but Tom Brady may not, unless:the Pats play with 8 players (including Tom), or the Pats play with 9players, but 1 player for the Patriots is chosen by the opposing team from the stands. no Patriots linebacker is allowed to play offense,unless that LB is inserted at quarterback. However, Mike Vrabel cannot be quarterback.

2) If an opposing player states "It's like were playing 7-on-5s" (7 offense, 5 defense during practice), such as indicated by Justin Smith,DE, Cincinnati Bengals 10/1/07, the Patriots must take a time out and serve ice cold lemonade or hot tea (weather dependent) to the opposing team. Scones are optional.

3)Once the 31 pt rule is in effect, Patriots may challenge any play, but the opposing team gets veto power over the referee.

4)Once the Pats offense is allowed back onto the field (7 pts), for any forward pass the Pats QB must point to the receiver and call out his number BEFORE passing. If Tom Brady is quarterbacking at the time, he must do that, plus turn the opposing team's water cooler into wine BEFORE passing.

5)Belichick must diagram any Patriots play to the opposing defense and ensure they understand exactly how to disrupt the play. This all must be done within the play clock. If this process is not complete prior to the play clock expiring, the Patriots will be assessed a delay of game and double unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.

6)Randy Moss must play with 10lb ankle weights on each ankle. An additional pound will be added for each TD this season.

7)Wes Welker is not allowed to have "that crazy look" in his eyes. 10yd, "crazy eyes"penalty assessed.

8) Tom Brady must immediately stop dating supermodels as he will not be allowed to date anyone that is more attractive then the least attractive significant other of an opposing team member (including coaches). He also must start doing commercials for every product imaginable, especially ones where he chants "cut that meat!"or refers to himself "as a 6'5" quarterback with a laser-rocket arm"

9)Bill Belichick is not allowed to be within 100 yds of any infant, for fear that his evil supergenius powers would assimilate such a defenseless creature into the Patriots System. We have already seen this effect on an inordinate amount of chipmunks, squirrels, and 'possum that commit suicide while crossing Rte 1 to reach Gillette Stadium.

10)Patriots must respect all opposing players feelings and apologize for every first down. Touchdowns must be followed by a written apology and a fruit basket presented with a hug.

Jokela shootings

This is what I'm talkin' about...I wouldn't consider myself an ecofascist but at the very least we need to start worrying about population control - instead of trying to breed more and more consumers to ingest more and more plastic and become more and more cancerous each year so doctors can keep playing golf and our health care system can start to bankrupt us instead of the other way around...

"Pentti Linkola calls himself an ecofascist and believes Western democracies have overindustrialized their natural land due to individualism and obsession with consumer products. He advocates mass genocide, war, famine and a strong dictatorship to keep the population under control."

Full article here.

Ride the Bulleit!

JF and I enjoy partaking in the occasional drink together. If you replace "occasional" with "daily" and "drink" with "glass after glass of straight-up booze", you might get the general idea. But seriously, nothing is better than the Bulleit, so far, as bourbons go. It's got a smooth, oaky taste that is very flavorful but not overly sweet. After polishing off a bottle of Gentleman Jack over the course of a couple of months (it did take me that long, only because I'd go drink JF's booze when we got together), I found it to be a great whiskey, but a bit on the sweet side.

Then JF introduced me to Bulleit when, by some queer happenstance (like how I just used both the words "queer" and "happenstance" in a sentence?), we found $1.00 nips at a local liquor store. $1.00 for 50mL of great Frontier Whiskey, as they call it, which adds up to $15.00 for 750mL, which is HALF THE NORMAL PRICE OF A 750mL BOTTLE. Sick f***s that we are, we decided to clear this liquor store out of all Bulleit nips at every opportunity.

Officially, it's known as "Straight Bourbon Whiskey", likely due to its age and how it's aged. Not sure on that, I'm no expert, but I do like a good bourbon, and Bulleit is great stuff - highly recommended.

Check it out here. Can be bought in Braintree, MA and Route 16, Arlington/Medford border.

Official site is http://www.bulleitbourbon.com/.

Why our society will fail

Great corrupt.org article here.

The general idea here is that popular consensus leading a population made up mostly of morons leads to only one end: a society where our best resource (people with an IQ of over 120) feels alienated among a politically-correct, lowest-common-denominator environment.

We can even relate this back to sports: Bill Belichick, clearly the best coach in the history of the National Football League, is about to lead his team to a perfect season. "But this is the league of parity, every team should have an equal chance!" Well, you can hinder someone with money restrictions - salary-cap - but you can't fault a team for having more natural talent because they are better at draft picks and fell into one of the best quarterbacks of all time back in 2000. So of course, the passive-aggressive behavior kicks in: allowing everyone to make a huge deal, then shadily destroying the evidence in the taping scandal; ticky-tack penalties for huge yards in one of the most important games of the entire season (Indianapolis); non-calls when Randy Moss is getting raped in the end zone; and most recently, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady having to come up with new audibles each week because NBC thought it would be a great idea to focus in on those audibles as clearly as possible during every play. Now every team will review that tape and that audio to see what his audibles mean at the line of scrimmage. Would NBC have done this with any other NFL team? Probably not. The passive-aggressive behavior penetrates every aspect of our society these days - even football.

Does anyone feel this isn't true, with all the shallow crap on TV, on the news, without any real discussion by our own presidential candidates of the really important issues of the day and the really important effects of man-made causes? Is any one of our presidential candidates even willing to engage someone in the following issues?

• Israel, as a political ally, needs to go. We bail these guys out time and time again because England the US force-fed zionists to the Arabs, and they've needed our protection ever since we allowed the systematic disenfranchisement of the Palestinians.
• Our over-population and lack of a sense of social responsibility will ultimately lead to the death of most of us when water and other resource-related wars begin.
• As a society, we're getting dumber. Period. Something needs to be done. This is inter-related with lots of fun issues that will never be discussed in politics again, the way our system is currently constructed: our lack of cultural identity, our increasingly politically-correct environment, our ignorance of our country's own foreign policy, etc.
• Illegal immigration has as much to do with Mexican politics as it does with US politics. Mexico has a beautiful piece of land between two beautiful shores, with lots of natural resources, but they'd rather leach off the US than get their act together and get rid of their druglords. If the US took a hard line with illegal immigration, maybe Mexico would be more apt to clean up their act.

The week's sports...

Of course, the above picture is just one of the best pieces of art I've ever seen. Great stuff.

Patriots look to go 12-0 in Baltimore this coming Monday Night in the third Pats' night game in a row.

Celtics, rebounding after a tough loss to budding rivals Cleveland, rebounded by absolutely destroying the Knicks 104-59.

Red Sox look to be in the lead in the "Sign Johan Santana at any cost" sweepstakes. Oh wait...that should actually read: "We're the Minnesota Twins, PLEASE sign Johan Santana so we can get SOMETHING for him as he already rejected $18million/year from us...Sox? Yanks? You can just give us prospects and one of your least desirable players; really! PLEASE take this off our hands NOW so we don't look like idiots at the end of the season when he hits the free agent market and we get nothing for him!!!" Yeah, something like that.

Packers cheat, too

The Green Bay Packers have violated a ticky-tack rule but will not be fined $750,000 nor lose draft picks. Their players have essentially been gambling ON EACH OTHER's performances during games, but Goodell is going to let that slip by.

Every week closer to 19-0 in February is a good one...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3128645

More Sports - Thanksgiving Weekend wrap

- Good article/rant on Brazilian footballers and the effect showing only utter dominance on TV can have in a country as it relates to soccer:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=484942&cc=5901

First, I thought it was one of my own blog rants. Then I realized they were merely quoting FIFA President Scott Blatter. I hope he stays president for a while and can change the rules - I don't want to see a Brazilian suiting up in Italian blue for the national team any time soon.

Clubs are one thing - Milan should be able to sign anyone in the world willing to play there; most players on American professional teams are not from the hometown. This is professional sports. But the idea of allowing this to extend to national team matches is outrageous, and if the rules aren't changed soon, Blatter has a point: we may see naturalized Brazilians (or whomever) playing ANYWHERE.

Why a Brazilian would want to play for a national team other than Brazil is beyond me. They have five world cups and, much as I hate to admit it, are the class of the world (until Italy wins their fifth in 2010!). I guess if you're not good enough to play for Brazil, move to Croatia like da Silva did, and become a naturalized citizen. Residence as defined by FIFA should simply be based on birthplace, or some amount of years that would prohibit someone from deliberately planning to be naturalized into a country for the sake of playing international soccer, like fifteen years.

- Pats almost lost last night. Yes, it's big news when the Patriots do not blow a team out. I'm still hoping for Brady to capture the season TD record, passing yards record, and would love to see Moss catch something like 30 TDs. The Pats are too well-coached to allow one game of poor play in the secondary affect them, so the 19-0 hopes are very much alive.

- Celts are 10-1 on Ray Allen's last-second three pointer in Charlotte the other night, after containing Kobe and the Lakers the night prior. Ridiculous. Please don't wake me up just yet.

Mike Lowell reportedly returning to the Red Sox for three more years

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3118926

Without Scott Boras, this likely never would have happened. Sad day when I have to give the shout-out to Boras for melodramatizing the Yankees/A-Rod ordeal, but it all worked out for Sox fans as we avoid A-Rod and get to keep our World Series MVP.

Sorry...but yes, this is yet another sports post

The Celtics finally lost a game and are still sitting pretty at 8-1. They lost to a young and motivated Orlando squad who were playing at home. Despite the loss, the Celtics showed a lot of grit by coming back from about 20 down to tie the game, and pretty much owned the second half - but you can bet their 18/26 free throw shooting will be the big focus in practice this week.

Would it have been fun to see them make a run for tying or breaking the best start ever by a team? Sure...but as Dan Shanoff points out, if they can win eight out of every nine games, that's one hell of a season.

What else can be said about the Patriots? 10-0 record, 56-10 trainwreck win over the Bills (oh, and uh, speaking of the Bills, we now have the soccer equivalent of the 1990's Buffalo Bills...congratulations for another listless second half of Finals soccer, boys!). The only thing we worry about as Patriots fans these days is, "did anyone get injured?" and "did Brady throw for enough TDs to ensure he'll break Manning's record by Week 15 or so?". To put that second question in perspective, the team's number one running back, Laurence Maroney, ran for his first touchdown of the season last night, ten games in. He had seven at this point last year.

There have only been a couple of games where the Patriots can be accused of running up the score. Their 52-7 win against Washington was one of them - throwing deep late in the game, throwing on fourth down late in the game...okay, I get it, it might be annoying to watch for the other team. But now there's finally a backlash against the Pats-haters: even coaches and players are finally saying, "it's our job as a defense to stop them". The Patriots are obviously a team on a mission, and watching it has been great for the league, despite what the detractors say.

Despite the image Belichick had of not rubbing it in or not playing for individual achievements until this year, it was clear, for example, even in 2004 that he wanted Corey Dillon to get every cent of his incentive money by giving it to him as much as possible on goal-line plays. He does this for guys he likes and wants to reward when it makes sense to do so. They did everything that year to ensure Dillon got his max purse, short of intentionally running out of bounds at the one-yard line to set up a TD run. But they did it as part of an offensive plan to put balance in their attack. This season has been more of the same: After losing to the Colts in the AFC Championship game last year, just barely, Belichick convinced his organization to get whatever weapons were available to annihilate every other team on offense, and now Belichick wants it all - like Nicky Santoro in Casino: he wants the quarterback TD record, he wants the receiving record, he wants the total offense record, he wants the undefeated record, he wants 19-0, he wants that fourth ring. How can you blame him, having Brady, Moss, and Welker to toy around with? The man is giddy; while it's not showing up in press conferences, you can tell him and his staff are having a lot of fun out there, and his players are rewarded after grueling practices by getting these big wins. It's simply amazing seeing a coach and his players in complete harmony: no drama; everyone has the same goal, everyone knows his place, everyone is prepared, and any individual player will come in and do whatever necessary to help win the game. There will be a statue built of that man some day at Gillette Stadium. As much as I'm fine with 15-1 if they decide to sit Brady and most of their offensive stars against the Giants in Week 17, part of me wants Belichick to go for the 16-0 record just so us fans can say we had the best team of all time. Of course, that will make a heart attack all the more likely in January if any of the playoff games are close. But do we really think anyone besides Green Bay, a team the Patriots haven't seen yet and seem intent on making a run for the Super Bowl, will keep any game close the rest of the way?

The real Belichick?

While fans of New England love to take pride in the reputation of our coach, the man really is NOT the anti-Christ. He's just a guy who has learned a hard lesson about the media and doesn't want to add any fuel to the fire by justifying anything that is written about him, good or bad.

No, really.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=belichick&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab4pos1

Great piece...and certainly one most of the media will ignore because it's easier to label a coach who doesn't show his cards to the media, "evil".

Italy beats Scotland 2-1 to qualify for Euro2008 finals

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=197478&cc=5901

Italy has now officially qualified for the finals in Austria/Switzerland next year for the Euro 2008 tournament.

Click on "Tony's Azzurri Blog" to the right for more.

Italy takes early 1-0 lead vs. Scotland - 11/17/2007

...in other news, their new away uniforms are, in fact, horrible.

First half is over, but not before Luca Toni puts one in the net 1:11 into the game. Should be smooth sailing from here as long as they come out playing their typically tight defense. Should I really worry with Cannavaro out there? Probably not.

Courtesy of JF...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Italy vs. Scotland - 11/17/2007

Tomorrow, Italy plays Scotland in a very important Euro 2008 qualifier. Italy is on the road, in Scotland, and will have to play the best squad they can put on the pitch for 90 minutes. Why? Italy is currently third in their group ranking, behind both France and Scotland. Italy has only one loss, but they have played less qualifiers to this point than both Scotland and France, so they have one less win than both teams, with 7 as compared to 8 wins for both Scotland and France. The draw against France this past summer didn't help, which Italy easily should have won.

What you see on the right is Italy's new away split. There are more pictures here, just toggle between "previous" and "next". The Uni Watch blog called it 'disgusting', but this is the same Uni Watch that gets the occasional column on ESPN.com and which called last year's Italy jersey "boring". In fact, it was a marvel of modern fabric and the best design worn by the team that I have ever seen - I have a replica, and the fabric is super light, wicks away moisture very, very well, and has welded seams to keep the weight of the jersey down. It's like wearing silk, but silk that doesn't absorb any water. This is especially important if you're running for 90 minutes and sweating more than any American football player does in 4 or 5 games. Americans simply don't understand soccer uniforms - the MLS ones have to have all kinds of piping (which is okay as long as it's controlled) and huge logos with team names - typically American, which is okay. I think part of the disconnect is that league teams abroad do not have names - there's no "Liverpool Beatles". It's just Liverpool Football Club, or whatever. So in international play, the teams sometimes have nicknames, but they are simply known as Italy, Germany, etc. When there's no team colors, just a country's flag or traditional soccer garb to use as a reference, color schemes become less creative (until recently - the new, England jersey was a huge hit in Germany, as was the Portugal wine-rid color, and the Italy jersey, despite Uni Watch's comments).

Anyway, Italy's new away split has a weird gold strip and a collar, as well as funky numbers and a logo that's far too high up on the left chest - why not make the team logo bigger, keep it at center, and leave the Puma logo where it was? I hate the collar, to be honest. Why does a soccer player need a collar - for tradition? It also seems the jersey has more gloss in the fabric, which could add to the weight. These guys are star athletes, running around a soccer field, and need the lightest possible material to do their job. So PUMA decides to add a collar...??? I'm hoping they get such negative feedback on this thing, that they hold off on redesigning the home jersey. Interestingly, the home and away Italy jerseys have historically been very different. PUMA has been on a home-run streak with design - workout clothes, shoes, and their pride and joy, the Italy kit from the 2006 world cup. But I think they overshot this one.

Oh, there's a game to be played, right. If Italy can get this win, it'll pretty much guarantee them one of the top two spots for Euro 2008 next year. They should be able to control their own destiny at that point with only 2 games remaining. And then the real tourny begins next summer in Austria & Switzerland, which should feel like home games for Italy considering Germany is the only decent competitor closer to both countries. Plus, I'm becoming a Donadoni fan - the coach really knows what to do when he's pressured, it seems, and has been putting the appopriate players out there when needed. He's like the Tito Francona of the game now - he has loads of talent at his disposal, just needs to ensure he knows where to put it and when. Winning this game and entering the finals of Euro 2008 will stave off any talk of Lippi coming back to the team. I love Marcello Lippi as much as any Azzurri fan, but we don't need a coaching scandal/replacement in the middle of trying to get an 8th and then a 9th win in these qualifiers.

Workplace bathroom habits

OK, I'll try...try...to keep this as clean as possible.

Since I started working at my third "real" company after college, where I had to share a bathroom with many (I've had a nice, nearby, easily monitor-able, single-stall setup at two companies so far - and wow, I sound like George Costanza right now), I've noticed some odd fuckin' things in the bathroom. Here's a list of some of them.

1. Dorm room treatment: Why do people feel it necessary to treat the bathroom like it's the one in their dorm when they were 18 years old? Not only do you end up with toilet paper and water and/or piss everywhere, you end up with these morons coming into the bathroom with ESPN.com printouts, sitting on the toilet for something like an hour, and then throwing the printouts and/or newspapers everywhere instead of throwing them in the trash. I guess because their wives or mothers don't allow them to act like they're still potty-training, they have to let loose at work. Guys, it's a professional environment; I don't want any trace of your presence after you leave.

2. Fixing the hair: OK, I'm kinda-sorta losing my hair, but I still take pride in my appearance. Still, I think most men should try to keep their haircuts relatively clean and easily manageable - short if necessary (if you have hair like mine, you definitely need to keep it short - or it'll just look like hay), and without too much gunk. This is coming from someone who used to put so much crap in his hair, one of my friends used to say it looked like it had been soaking in roast beef juice for days. Now, I just keep it clean and short - I'm too old and too married to be worrying about what anyone thinks about my hairdo.

So of course, even though there are some younger, some older guys than me in the office, you get these guys who stand there in front of the mirror, fixing these tiny little strands of hair out of place, looking for nose-hairs, fixing their ties if they have them on...I mean, do they look at themselves in the mirror in the morning?? One guy at my last company was notorious for always being in the bathroom (actually, all of the inside sales guys were, it was like a carousel and all of them brought the newspaper with them - disgusting), never looking at anyone else, and then standing there for five minutes while he fixed his hair and tie. The gag was on him - he was an inside sales guy!!! For those of you who don't know, this means his job was to be on the telephone all day - he never met with clients! He was labeled "goon" from then on.

3. Guys who talk or mutter while on the toilet: This happens more often than one would think, which is very unfortunate for those of us that simply want to do our business in peace with no awkwardness, wash our hands, and leave the bathroom so we can go back to blogging about toilet behavior. I'm of the opinion that bathrooms, in particular men's, shared by many people during the day should have far better ventilation systems than they are given. When a new building is going up, doesn't anyone say "hey, while we're working on the frame, let's leave some space so that the exhaust from the HVAC can be connected to a fan to each bathroom, and make that ventilation force much greater than normal"? No one has thought of this yet?? Anyway, once, I go in there, I'm washing my hands, some guy had come in to use the 'real stall', and he actually mutters to himself - knowing there was only me and one other guy in there - "man, it stinks in here". He literally whispered it to himself but clearly wanted us to hear him. What the hell were we supposed to say?? "Yeah, dude...uh...that's cuz people SHIT IN HERE." Would that have appeased this guy? Would he have been pissed off if we had responded? My suggestion: Keep your mouth shut while in the bathroom, unless you're having a conversation with a coworker. Keeping the noise level up is fine in the bathroom, because it's real awkward when there's a few guys in there and everyone is silent. But for God's sake, only talk to people you know, excluding yourself.

4. Dirty People: There are still people who leave toilets unflushed, wet toilet paper hanging off god-knows-where, sinks that have crap in them, etc. I'm all for dental hygiene, for example, but if you're going to brush your teeth in a bathroom where the sinkhole is mesh and doesn't let much through, clean up after yourself so the rest of us don't have to see your toothpaste and mouthwash for the rest of the day.

5. People who use the Handicap-Accessible stall when there's no need to do so: I'm not the most politically correct person in the world. I understand that. But why does one need so much damn space to go to the bathroom? There are four stalls in our men's room here at work. Whenever I go in and there's no one in there except one guy, if that guy is taking up one of the stalls, he's invariably in the handicap-accessible one. I mean, what if a guy in a wheelchair actually came through the door? Or, more realistically, a guy on crutches who suffered an ankle injury? He would get pissed off if he saw that you took the handicap-accessible stall instead of one of the other three available stalls. Get it right, people.

6. People who continue conversation in the bathroom after their hands are dry: As I stated above, casual conversation between two co-workers who know each other is welcome in the men's room. It keeps the noise level up and the awkwardness down, if only temporarily. But when everyone who's talking is done washing their hands and drying them, leave the bathroom. This is not a place for social hour, it's a place to get in and get out. If you happen to have a short conversation while you're in there, hey, good for you. But overstay your welcome and you end up getting in people's way when they are entering or exiting. Leave in a timely fashion.

People suck.

Actual WWII Poster from Germany...(this 'perspective' thing sure is interesting!)

Thom Yorke Will Eat Your Children If You're Not Careful...

Thought of the night before bed:

Thom Yorke: "We live under a world banking system and media that make it almost irrelevant who is in power. Political systems worldwide are at the mercy of business and bullshit economies. I can't recycle any of the polythene packaging that fills my house. Why?"

That's gotta be one of the best things he's ever said. It doesn't even matter in what context this was taken; it just matters that he managed to string these three sentences together while speaking about god-knows-what. The man is fucking brilliant. I think I'm officially on yet another Radiohead kick...

"We haven't seen homefield advantage work that well since Hitler invaded Russia."

Gotta love a good Hitler reference.

As linked below and here, Sports Guy is the only national columnist defending the Patriots or even mentioning the ridiculously one-sided officiating in the Pats/Colts game, that the Pats ended up winning 24-20. Not only did the Patriots only play about 9 minutes of decent football and beat an undefeated Super Bowl champion on the road, but they had to also play against the poor officiating.

Another Max von Sydow moment!

Go here:

Sports Guy - 11/9/2007

For those of you who don't believe in the legend that is Max von Sydow.

The Ten Commandments

You don't wanna mess with the Godfadda...

Yahoo! Mafia News

"I coach through fear."

This says it all for me.

SIMMS: We go to the Colts practices and you never hear the coaches say anything in practice. The only person you really hear at an Indianapolis Colts practice is Peyton Manning because he is telling everyone what to do. His style (Tony Dungy) is so different from Bill Belichick's.

I asked Bill Belichick once before the Super Bowl in Houston, how would you describe your coaching style? And he responded, 'I coach through fear. I tell people they better play better or I'll bench them or it will cost them their job.' That is how he learned. I don't know if he still coaches exactly that way but he definitely has a different style than Tony Dungy.
Belichick has balls and Dungy doesn't.

I can't wait...

Holy F***ing S**t...the Celtics are good again

Last night, I had the good fortune of going to the first Celtics opener in about 50 years that felt like it was meaningful. OK, maybe 15. Tons of great stuff was happening last night, starting in the bar we all hung out in before the game:

• Matt, a guy I had only met once or twice before, was firing it up. Screaming "woooo" at random times, and conversing with me about how the Patriots and Red Sox are going to continue their new-age dynasties, with the Celtics to hopefully follow suit. All we could talk about was how great it is to be a sports fan in Boston these days - and how we love that we're so annoying, that the rest of the country probably hates us.
• Once at the game, we found our seats to be at the club level. I had sat here once before with my sister way back in the first season of the Fleetcenter's existence, when the Celtics were not exciting in the least to watch and the place was half-empty. They played the Utah Jazz that night and lost by about 10. It was cool to see Karl Malone and Stockton in their primes and all, but luckily, I have a feeling there won't be many nights in the near future where the Garden is half-empty.
• The 'new' parquet floor (which, I believe, is at least partially replaced from the original WWII-ear parquet floor) was renamed the "Red Auerbach parquet floor", with a Red signature painted onto the wood about where an NBA Finals logo would go.
• I never get tired of seeing those championship banners in the rafters. Seeing the 1959-1966 banners all belonging to the Celtics (EIGHT in a row, not even the Yankees can say that), knowing that they're the most storied franchise in history, and knowing that they may be on the verge of breaking a 21 year drought...it's an amazing thing.
• While I'm not the biggest fan of the "little Celtic dancers", which is comprised of 7-year olds wearing risque outfits and doing backflips during timeouts, the Celtic dancers (the actual grown women) weren't TOO bad...though one was actually named Jennafa, as my wife pointed out in our complimentary program. Seriously - "Jennafa". This is how I pronounced Jennifer growing up, but the cheerleader actually spelled it that way. In related news, the Squire is now looking for more part-time help due to a sudden lack in availability from most of their staff...
• The atmosphere overall was incredible. Not only was Bob Kraft & wife, Laurence Maroney, Ty Warren, Vince Wilfork, and more Patriots there, but Ainge & Co. went out of their way to make sure that the Boston atmosphere was at full pitch. From the "Pats vs. Colts" header in the new jumbotron (new since the last time I was there, at least, and it's a thing of beauty), to a World Series dedication with a presentation of the trophy by Lucchino and some of the members of the Red Sox on the parquet floor, it was a madhouse by the time the lights went out. It was just perfect, and I savored every moment. What other city is like this, seriously? I have a feeling that even in NY...well okay, you may have seen Jeter at a Knicks game in 99 during the NBA Finals, but besides NY & Boston, there aren't many cities where you're going to see actual dedications of world series trophies, a ton of football players from the local franchise at the game...all of these teams and players are winners, and again, it's hard not to savor every moment.
• More on atmosphere - Paul Pierced made a speech before the game. This, to me, was unprecedented...do we have a statistic on the last time this happened, or more importantly, how many teams LOSE when their star players make an emotional speech to the fans before a game? He thanked the fans for being patient all these years, and he reiterated his love for the city of Boston and the fans who have made playing here such a joy for him, despite some down years. He promised that this new-look team is going to do all it can to pay the fanbase back for their unending patience. What a class act. Some backstory here: Pierce got a reptuation by George "I want to be known as the best coach ever" Karl during the 2002 world basketball championship because the US team was lethargic (finishing 5th) and Pierce was the only one who cared. It was a strange time for Pierce, as he had been stabbed a couple years prior to that, and as Bill Simmons has explained in more than one column on ESPN.com, it's very likely it has taken years for Pierce to recover from the incident...from rushing himself back into game shape, to not emotionally dealing with it, to playing on a lousy team and having to bear the brunt of responsibility, to losing Antoine Walker, to getting a coach in Doc Rivers a couple years ago who no one really thought was a good fit. Finally, Pierce has something to be excited about, truly excited about, and he's not going to be shy about it. The goose-bump factor was up there, seeing Pierce in the middle of the floor addressing all of us fans in the stands.
• Did I mention the Patriots and Red Sox were pre-game attractions? Did I already ask if there's a better time to be a Boston sports fan? I think I did...
• Oh, the game itself. Yeah, good game...Ray Allen was serviceable with 17 points, and looks like he may avoid inury this year if the team stays healthy and he can be the shooting forward. Garnett put up 20, Pierce 28. This may be the unstoppable trio in the East. I can't wait for an intense Garnett to play an out-of-shape, and already looking to his post-basketball career as a private eye, Shaq.
• I listened to an interview with Danny Ainge in the car on my way to the game. I was very surprised at his honesty...he admitted the team's expectations were different last year, admitted that they weren't very good last year, and talked about how he's so happy for Pierce now that he has another genuine superstar on the team. Ainge may have made some odd quick-fix decisions in his tenure as Celtics GM, but how else do you run a basketball team in the NBA? Again, refer to Bill Simmons here - he has written a column or two about how difficult it is to make a trade for a player, how those trades are almost always lopsided, how needs are different on each team, and how Ainge has pretty much nailed his draft choices. It was worth the three-year wait while we suffered through poor trade after poor trade and looking to our young draft picks, thinking it would be five or six years before we saw a 2nd or 3rd place Eastern Conference team again. Turned out that the Celtics crappy luck in the lottery for the second time in ten years was parlayed into gaining one of the best players in the league in Garnett during the offseason. So thank YOU, Danny-boy.
• It felt like a playoff atmosphere, particularly with Gilbert Arenas guaranteeing a win before the tip-off. I was in a bar, talking up Boston sports before the game, and I saw that quote on the TV from ESPN.com...who guarantees a win in the first game of an 82-game season? Seriously? The fans were all over him...from booing him loudly before taking foul shots, something we never really see at the Garden these days until an important game late in the season, to chanting his name when he airballed or missed a field goal. Great stuff, great crowed...everyone was into it.
• A couple of fans behind us were quite entertaining. I tried to make some small talk with the guy next to me by sarcastically stating that with all the Boston sports hoopla at the game, Belichick probably should have been assistant coaching. No dice; the guy barely looked at me, so I was content to look up and laugh at the two goons behind me who kept making some pretty cool comments and seemed to know the game well. They said, at one point, "wow - I forgot Antoine Jameson was still in the NBA, let alone on the Wizards." So did I - what was once a promising young player now is just a relief valve for the Wizards after their #1 and #2 options are exhausted on offense. He's pretty good, but I mean, Brendon Haywood got the ball more last night.

Great night - and no time to write any more...will certainly be writing a Pats/Colts entry on Sunday night or Monday.

[Edit 11/9/2007 - My buddy PS was quick to point out that Pierce makes a speech before every home opener (not sure since when; certainly not his rookie season). Since I've been labeled a "bandwagoner" by a lifelong Sox fan who was disappointed at the 4-0 sweep this year because he happens to collect a paycheck from the Rockies, allow me to resopnd: My family never had season tickets to any Boston sports teams (which, to me, does not make me a bandwagoner - my father, as a business owner, didn't have the time to go to many games and thought of the Garden as a rat-infested fire trap - and he was right, it just happened to house some great teams). This was the first Celtics home opener I've been to in quite a while (my brother in law took me to one in the mid-90's). Plus, it's been frustrating as a Celtics and an NBA fan to watch Doc Rivers coach for the past couple years. What's my point? Nothing, as usual - only that I am trying to achieve "above average" status among my fellow alumni, and failing miserably.]

11/2/2007 Update

There's simply too much going on in the sports world for me to even write about. It would be about fifteen pages long. So a couple bullet points before we get to yet another random memory from my youth:

• I hope the Patriots win by at least 5 touchdowns. That's right, five. I hope they run up the score at the end, and win something like 63-21. That would f'n rule.
• Favorite Pats-Colts quote of the week - Gerry Callahan, WEEI: "I think the Patriots need new uniforms...maybe they should try swastikas or something...".
• Sox won another world series. I think for those Sox fans out there who never liked the Pats, they're still basking in the glow. For me, I've been so busy looking forward to the best regular-season NFL matchup we've had in at least a decade, that I haven't "basked" as much in it as I should have to this point. I mean, the SOX WON ANOTHER FREAKIN' WORLD SERIES...we're the new Yankees...people are gonna be sick of watching this team in the postseason by next year...we (potentially) have one of the best young pitching rotations out there...could it really get any better??? Maybe if they win back-to-back-to-back like the Yanks did from 98-2000. If the Yankees can win three World Series in a row with George Costanza presumably in prison, I can't believe the Sox can't do it with a young & healthy Theo Epstein out of prison. Did that make sense? Didn't think so.
• I am lucky enough to be attending the season and home opener for the Boston Celtics tonight. The last time I was at a game was, I believe, 2002 when they came back from 25 points down in the fourth quarter to take a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals...I may have gone to an Indiana/Boston home playoff game since then but for some reason I can't remember when that was. That 2002 East Finals game was probably the best Celtics game I have ever been to - and I've been to both the home and playoff finales at the original Boston Garden, been to see Robert Parish's last game in Celtic Green, and I remember, barely, seeing Reggie Lewis and Larry Bird on the same floor at the same time back in 1990 or so. Seeing Kevin freakin' Garnett in a Celtics uniform made me want to bow down to the mormon god that is Danny Ainge. I can't believe I can finally be excited about the Celtics again...even five years ago in the East Finals, no one had any illusions about the championship, but it was a fun thought that they were only 2 wins away from being swept by the Western Conference team that year. The icing on the cake? Kevin McHale, the Minnesota GM, gave up Garnett this offseason for, admittedly, a bunch of youngsters who could easily become quite good...but none of them will ever be as valuable on a team as Garnett.
• The Bruins? I mean, are you kidding? It's too early in the season but they've already avoided a life-threatening injury to Bergeron, their goalie is actually doing well, and they beat Buffalo last night. I think the last time they beat Buffalo was when Ray Bourque was on the team...feels that way at least. They might even fight for their division this year.

Hm, random memory time...random MOVIE time, actually...I could write my own column based on random movies. Today's winner? Needful Things, a lost classic from 1994 (or 1993...IMDB gives you the date the movie was wrapped, not the time it was actually released). Let's see what you had here:

• Leland Gaunt...I mean, Max von Sydow was born to play that part. It's like Stephen King already had the movie in mind when he wrote the book.
• Danforth "Buster" Keaton III...again, J.T. Walsh was born to play that role. He's paranoid, he runs into someone's office screaming "they're after me", then he bludgeons his wife to death with a hammer after she calls him his dreaded nickname, "Buster", in a fit of rage. He's also a gambling junkie who nearly eats (yes, eats) an entire cigar in trying to figure out which horse will come in first in a plastic horse-racing wind-up toy, while finding the time to tell his wife she needs a nose job. Who could have pulled this off better than J.T.? Long live J.T.
• Alan Pangborn...I was never the biggest Ed Harris fan. He always seemed like a gym teacher to me with that weird, hardass demeanor of his; a guy who you know would blow up like a balloon if he let himself go, but always kept himself in really good shape, so that he could make movies like Milk Money where he gets to make out with women like Melanie Griffith at the tail end of her prime. I didn't even have to look that one up - how scary is that? I don't know why, but Ed Harris just rubbed me the wrong way when I was younger, and still does. However, in trying to come off as unbiased, he was good for the role...I much prefer him in roles like Carl Fogarty, the Philly toughguy with lots of scars, in A History of Violence (I DID have to look that one up).
• Bonnie Bedalia...okay, she became a Liftetime/Women's Network regular after she started to look old, which was about the time she lost some of that cute Marilyn Monroe-esque extra weight after the second Die Hard movie and her skin started to wrinkle up. She looked pretty hot here for an older chick, but that's just it - like everything else in most Stephen King movies, she looked real, she didn't look like a supermodel. Watch "IT" or "The Stand" - both TV movies, I know - and check out the characters. These are NOT people you see in People's 50 Sexiest every year. I mean, Harry Anderson and John Ritter in the same film? John Ritter in a serious role?? I loved the guy - LOVED him - in Three's Company, but come on...what's next, the guy that played Larry, in the film adaptation of Dreamcatcher? Oops, they already did that one with Jason Patric, never mind...
• The role players...I'm talking mainly about Hugh, the bum ex-football star who misses his youth. He gets a varisity letter jacket w/ his name on it from Mr. Gaunt so he can keep living in the past, after getting his ass kicked out of a bar by the owner (also his nemesis). He goes into the bar with a shotgun, and lo and behold, the bartender has one too. Hugh calmly states, "Hello, Henry." Henry calmly states, "Hello, Hugh." They blow each other away with simultaneous shots. Simply perfect. Other great role players include the Baptist and Catholic priests, who end up in a fist-fight, damn near ready to kill each other by the end - King can always be counted on for religious satire.
• Side note on role players: In the book, Ace from Stand By Me, now grown up and a complete loser, was reprised - albeit, for a brief appearance. It would have gone over the heads of most at the theatre, but how cool would it have been to see Ace and Eyeball Chambers on film again - played by the original actors? Can you imagine Kiefer Sutherland taking a step down to reprise that role, with makeup to make him look older than he was at the time? OK, it might have cost him a lot of acting gigs, but it would have been great to see a grown-up Ace in Needful Things. Two problems: my Oregon comment below, and the fact that the only one who could ever pull off that character, had already done so in Stand By Me.
• While Stephen King is not shy about his New England roots - which makes the fact that Stand By Me took place in Castle Rock, OREGON, instead of Maine, perhaps the oddest book-to-movie detail blunder ever - I feel like Needful Things captured the essence of New England in the autumn perfectly. Small town, leaves everywhere, priests talking about the holidays, the scenery, a box of granny smith apples, a kid who collects baseball cards, old houses with basements that feel like they could have been there since time began...for some reason it all came together really well in this movie.
• Notable Quotes are located here.
• Lastly, and part of the reason I still remember this film 13 years later...I saw this movie in the theatres with JF. I remember almost every movie we've seen in the theatres together...from Children of the Corn 2, to Pulp Fiction three times over April vacation in 1994, to Needful Things, to Grindhouse more recently (still a topic of hot debate between us). Thirty Days of Night simply never happened, even though I blogged about it. It's unfortunate, really, that the experience of going to the movies has been so downplayed in recent years. Part of it is justified: dumb-ass kids making too much noise and eating with their mouths open; Hollywood churning out such trash; good movies being sold out the first weekend and then discarded so we forget about them when the next Cedric the Entertainer shitpile comes out; etc. But my memories of seeing a movie in the theatres are far better, in most cases, than just watching them at home. Even with the advent of home theatre systems, which have become unbelievably good, there's still something to be said for grabbing some unhealthy popcorn and kicking back in a seat that's not quite as comfortable as your couch so you can watch a movie in the dark with strangers. Apparently. That's how I felt about American Psycho, Grindhouse, Pulp Fiction...hell, even Cool World. Yeah, I went there - I actually mentioned Cool World.

That's all the time we have for today. I'm away tomorrow after what should be a great Celtics game tonight, then I'm lounging at the folk's for the football game.

Oasis recording louder, more psychedelic songs for seventh studio album

Not much more I can say about it that NME or BBC doesn't already tell you...so here are the links:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/news/20071029_oasis.shtml

http://www.nme.com/news/oasis/32155

Should be a good effort. Well, it kind of has to be...my personal opinion is that they've been getting better since 2000's terrible Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, so hopefully they improve on their last album which had more highs than their previous two works combined.

Radiohead, Oasis, AND the Verve succeeding in the US at the same time again? I never had to leave the year 1997, did I? Maybe they should make a Back to the Future IV with me as Marty McFly, trying to change the future so Oasis wouldn't make Be Here Now so bloated. Yeah, that'll work...anyone for Zemeckis' number?

Being a Boston Sports Fan

Well, this has as much to do with my own personal tastes for international football and formula one racing as it does with Boston. But since I simply can't put into words how f***ing cool it is to see the Red Sox AGAIN sweep the World Series (uh, Terry Francona is now the winningest manager in postseason baseball history...thinking Belichick yet?), I'll just highlight everything going right in my own personal sports universe at this moment:

• World Series Champions - 2004 & 2007 Boston Red Sox. Now the class of the league. Much like the Patriots, soon to be hated for winning by too many runs in a game for too long a stretch of time, after they find Francona stealing signs from opposing teams.
• Super Bowl Champions - New England Patriots - 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007. Ok, the last one isn't set in stone yet. But the last three weeks saw scores of 48-21, 49-28, and 52-7. Two of those wins were against teams with winning records; one of those wins (Dalas) was against a team that was 5-0 and is now 6-1. We're seeing one of the best football teams ever assembled in a league of parity, tear it up against everyone, including the now-infamous "eff you" touchdowns that the Patriots are simply not holding back, despite the potential for backlash down the line (okay, not down the line, it's already happening).
• 2007 Formula One - Constructors' and Drivers' Championship - Ferrari. After Schumacher left last year, finishing second, Kimi Raikkonnen steals the driver's title this year away from hot rookie Lewis Hamilton and teammate/sworn enemy to Hamilton, Fernando Alonso (2-time defending champ). It was the first time in twenty-plus years that there was a three-way battle for the championship, and Raikkonnen had the lowest chance of winning, but they gutted it out.
• 2006 World Cup Champions, automatic qualifiers for 2010 World Cup, and contenders for the 2008 European Cup - Italia. As I've stated here before, another "eff you" team...can't get enough of that.

Did I mention that Kevin Garnett is playing for the Celtics and even the Bruins are showing signs of a bright future with a couple of amazingly talented young players? I think everyone outside of New England hates us about now...I wouldn't have it any other way.

As long as the Sox keep Lowell & Manny, & don't bother with A-Rod, all should remain well for the foreseeable future.

Patriots beat Redskins, 327-0

That's what it felt like. The Patriots scored the most points they have all season and the most since 1978 in a single game. I have many sentiments about this year's Patriots team, so I have to bullet point them before this turns into yet another four-page special. Before I do that, though, let me share an exchange I had with GB earlier today...yes, it involves meat. Read from the bottom of the bolded section up as it's an email exchange.


From: GB
Subject: You love it

...by the way, you are one f****d up individual.

From: Me
Subject: You love it

Hey I was in xxxx for halloween..not sure if i texted you but did i tell you that i scared off a guy who was hanging around us & wouldn't go away by telling him of my desire to dress up us Nick the Nazi (yes, I used that word) from Falling Down? The guy was kinda...f***ed up..and he took a picture of the four of us outside ****'s place...then wouldn't leave. He was talking about wanting to be some female cartoon character from the 80's next year for Halloween. So in my half-drunken state I said "dude, i wanna be NICK THE NAZI next year...you know the guy from Falling Down? Come on, Michael Douglas? Have you seen it??" and he talked to me for maybe 20 more seconds until he just said "uh, well i gotta go now....".

I F****G RULE...MEAT HELMETS ALL AROUND!

From: GB
Subject: Re: You love it

No refinery. It would be frightening to look up and see Rosy Colvin or Mike Vrabel barreling at you with grissel hanging from the side of their mouths, blood running down their respective chins and mad cow and/or salmonella shooting out of their pores...

From: Me
Subject: You love it

The best would be if the fans ate it...and that was part of the ceremony. Crowned with a hat of meat, Belichick walks through the bleachers - or better yet, walks down a red carpet on the field where his players hungrily wait to take a big wet bite out of the meat-hat. That would RULE. Then mangini would have to watch with his maggot-infested lid while the Pats players fatten up on raw tenderloin.

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh meat-eats!

Dude, these are the things that go through my mind. What the f**k is wrong w/ me???

At the same time, is there any better way to show your dominance in football over another team by ripping into raw meat in front of them, served up by the coach? You know this should happen...albeit in a more refined form, if that's possible...

From: GB:
RE: you love it

Yah, one guy's got angus adorning his squash and the other's wearing rotted, maggot-infested, spoiled bovine atop his lid?

From: Me
Subject: RE: you love it

dude, he should force-fit a HAT OF MEAT on him (hatsofmeat.com). That would rule. Imagine a meathat game? where the loser has to wear a hat made of grade D meat, and the winner gets to wear a tenderloin meat hat? YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MEAT-FEST, PART I! YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

From: GB
Subject: RE: you love it

I want Belichick to slap Man-gina in the face with a hunk of pork.

From: Me
Subject: you love it

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! GB RULES! 52-7 WIN BY THE PATS! I WANT THEM TO SCORE 100 WHEN THEY PLAY THE JETS IN DECEMBER YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

~~~~~~~~~~~~


Oh, and yes, I really am that classy. F**k you.

• In terms of points, the Patriots are putting up a ton, of course...a little more than the 2000 St. Louis Rams. The difference? St. Louis needed to score those points in a lot of games and didn't win a couple close defensive battles that year. The Patriots are dominating every phase of the game.
• OK, they go for it on fourth-and-one with a 38-0 lead in the 4th quarter. If they kick the field goal they're up 41-0. If they turn the ball over on downs, it's Redskins ball. They let the QUARTERBACK sneak the ball in on a 4th and 1, and that's running up the score...?
• Let's say they are running up the score. Doesn't matter what the reasons are, the point is, you're in the NFL to win. So what, you lose by 28 points or 48 points...the Patriots have a great offense, and the best coach and best QB in the game. Should they take a knee? Should their defensive ends eat donuts for eight straight days and get lazy to give other teams a chance?
• I've said for a while - even in this blog - that I wanted to see the Pats hurt teams back in 2005 before the season started. Now they're doing it. Part of me cringes when they go for the "Eff You" touchdown, because they are putting a huge target on their back whenever they leave starters in needlessly for plays like that. But most of me - the part that loves Be Here Now stubbornly, the part that would buy a $180,000 S-Class Mercedes if I won the lottery...ya know, that part...loves it.
• I can't wait for the Colts game. I think Bill is really just firing up his team to go in to Indy with so much confidence, nothing will stop them. I think it'll be a good game but the Pats pull away in the second half for something like a 48-21 win.
• I don't blame Belichick one bit for coaching the way he is. He's like a kid in a candy store with all those offensive weapons. He's using them. Big deal. I don't feel bad for millionaire athlete crybabies who try to call out the Patriots for running up the score. You're a man, not a baby - deal with it, take your licks and move on. Our politically correct, passive-aggressive culture is silly - be good, but not too good. Dominate, but not by too many points. This is parity, people; don't mock that by beating up on all the teams that aren't as good as you. Bullshit. Guess those Harvard & MIT kids should leave school because they're smart and it would offend too many people if they were too smart. No one had a problem with the Pats when they won by scores like 12-0 and had an occasional offensive outburst, like 31-0 against Buffalo to end the regular season in 2003. Now that they're embarrassing teams, something's wrong with it because they have the talent to do so. I don't get it...typical anti-New England bias from the football community, because the QB's last name isn't Manning and the Patriots aren't from Heartland, USA. Just like with Boston College...I could take them or leave them, but I kinda like that they will piss the entire football community off in a big way if they win the National Championship.