Lists, lists, lists ...Top 50 Loose Ends of Lost - I still like Lost, but dwelling on too many of these questions may change that. Premiere's 20 Most Overrated Movies of All Time list is good because it's not particularly gentle. (American Beauty and Gone With the Wind are first ballot Overrated Movie Hall of Famers to me.) There's probably a movie or two you don't think should be there. While we're acknowledging things, we should note that James Bond has been uncool often enough for a list, which thankfully features a Connery moment. Lastly, this list of Worst Band Names helpfully comes with rules, such as "no prepositions." Archers of Loaf is a truly awful band name. Vanilla Trainwreck (unlisted) is almost as bad without violating any of the rules. I kind of like Death Cab for Cutie, though.
I Fought the Law and I Won Even though it was incredibly inconvenient, I went to hearing last night in Mansfield to appeal a parking ticket I got at the train station last month. I was in a legit spot and paid my two clams in the box but got ticketed anyways. Nice crowd at the town hall, very friendly, not the group of vaguely suspicious looking miscreants I packed in with a few years back in Woonsocket when I appealed a moving a violation. No judge this time, just an amiable clerk who didn't need to hear my theory (Susan B. Anthony dollars mistaken for quarters by a harried collector?) and waived the fine based on a double payment logged in the records that day. I suppose it's possible I paid the wrong slot, in which case anybody else who got a ticket for non-payment that day would be the off the hook as well. Justice has been served.
My branch gives me rolls of Sacajawea dollars now, instead of the Susie Bs, so if it was coin confusion, it shouldn't happen again. All of this serves to remind that the Susan B. Anthony dollar may be the unit of currency with the best song written about it: The Junkers "Susan B. Anthony Dollar Rag."
Fantasy Grading Part 2 | Otuska's Bazookas Last time I reviewed league winning Meatwad's Igloos ... this time I scan the wreckage of the Bazookas from the Yahoo Private Test Monkey Attack League.
Overall Grade: F
Final result: Dead last, Borg name -- Five of Five.
Draft Assessment: Ortiz with the first pick worked out great ... but Michael Young with the 2nd?! How the heck did that happen? Only Giambi in the 5th round could be considered a steal. Garland and Buehrle were a disaster, as was Guardado, all in the first 10 rounds. My pitching was horrible. D-
Free Agent and Trade Acquisitions: Otsuka was OK. Trading Rivera for Papelbon midseason didn't do me any good, Rivera got better, Papelbon broke down. Trading away Giambi was stupid and I picked up Kenny Rogers a little late. F
Name Assessment: I changed names when I acquired Otsuka. Don't even remember what my name was originally. Just weak. F
Smack Talk: Yeah, there really wasn't much. I got out of the gate OK and may have ran my mouth a little but couldn't say much after a week or two. Other than that, the message board is basically John and Will bickering. F
I had a first place, last place and middle of the pack team this past year. Worst and first are covered, next time it's the Providence Grays to close out baseball.
I'm loving this fan music video of Office dancing. The show has more physical comedy than I might have guessed. Also, given my general dislike of radio and MTV, I've never actually heard the song it's set to, Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback." It pains me a bit to type this, but that's a pretty cool song. I predict years from now I will be defending it the same way I'm currently willing to defend Hanson's "MmmmBop" at the drop of a hat.
In CT's 2nd district Joe Courtney's win over Rob Simmons is now official. My district went blue by 91 votes, meaning the BoneDaddy household provided over 2% of the winning margin. Pretty cool, but not as cool as '94 when we provided almost 5% of Sam Gejdenson's margin. Voting is worthwhile around here.
Since c-dog is giving us the low-down on all his fantasy teams of various sports and leagues (which may be his way of telling us that the kids are being raised by wolves at this point) I thought I'd post the fantasy Congress league. Draft some congressmen and rack up points.
Now that's a cover! (Take that, Time magazine with your "call to the center" cover - cleverly photoshopped into perspective here by Ghost in the Machine) Mainly I just wanted to slap that cover up here, but check out David Corn's take on post-election Iraq. Election euphoria aside, we're still in a lose-lose situation.)
Fantasy Time Sports. Fantasy Sports. I hate doing self-assessments for work ... but I think it's important to look for ways to improve as Fantasy GM. So, I'll do a grade for each of my 2006-07 teams and pick sets starting with the baseball teams, then moving through football, basketball, NASCAR, hockey, Premiership soccer, basketball (college and pro). I can sense your excitement at the prospect of learning from my experience, so without further ado ... Baseball Yahoo Public 114672 - Meatwad's Igloos - Overall Grade: A+
Finished 1st of 12, coasted to victory on a 10 point cushion.
Draft Assessment: Made only 9 moves over the course of the season. Second place team, by comparison, made 28 and third place made 45. Manny, Ortiz, and Chris Carpenter with the 1st 3 picks anchored the team. Dominated, winning 5 of the 10 categories and finishing top 4 in all but SB and Ws. Beltran in Round 6 of the draft was my steal, only Kerry Wood in the 11th was a dud. A
Free Agent and Trade Assessment: Acquired Akinori Otsuka to shore up the bullpen and I can't remember what trades I made. Didn't need to do much because of the strong draft though and certainly didn't hurt my team. B-
Name Assessment. Meatwad is perhaps the most likable of the Aqua Teens, not as clever as Frylock, but without Shake's core of meanness. His ability to transform into a meat igloo made him uniquely suited to represent this team. The next most creative and intriguingly named team in the league was "ilovechicken" ... I clearly dominated in this category as well. A
Smack Talk: I routinely posted press releases and team awards but was unable to engage any of the semi-literate mouth breathers in that league in flame war. B-
Meatwad's Igloos were my success story of the '06 season, next time I'll analyze the stunning failure of Otsuka's Bazookas.
"It was the end of the road for the boy genius and his can’t-miss strategy that Washington sycophants predicted could lead to a permanent Republican majority"Frank Rich on what 2006 meant, a link I stole from Colin McEnroe. McEnroe's post runs down a fascinating appearance by Joe Lieberman on Meet the Press during which he said he wouldn't "rule out" turning Republican. I didn't watch the show - I can't watch those things or Lieberman - but I would bet the host didn't point out to Lieberman that he did rule out turning Republican during the campaign. Speaking of the election, Joe apparently feels the American people turned against partisanship. Uh, smacking around the incumbents of one party and transferring power of both houses and many state offices to the other party is partisan. "We want these guys not these guys," is partisan. You just don't like it.
I watched Bush's horrible press conference. When he got to the "gave you the answer to move you on to the next question bit," I thought, "He lied. And he just admitted he lied. And the media really won't say much about it because it's okay for Bush to lie."
Not at all election related, but Johnny Marr of the Smiths, a band I could never really get into much because my dislike of the lead singer nearly hit Jagger proportions, has joined Modest Mouse, a band I really am into. Since whatever talent he has was drowned out by Morrisey without a struggle, I assume he'll fit in seamlessly.
Link to crazy - Ann Coulter pretends the Democratic gains are meaningless and paltry. No surprise, but she also characterizes them as "the death throes of a dying party." That's high comedy since the last time I heard the phrase "death throes" it was Rumsfeld talking about the Iraq insurgency. These people just don't get reality. Or language. Maybe both.
Finally, I'd point out that My Left Nutmeg has the Lieberman interview, along with previous promises that he would caucus with the Democrats, but that would be partisan of me. And the American people don't want partisan.
Smacktastic I'll apologize in advance for my slightly mixed feelings about the Democrats gaining control of the Senate. Leadership positions are great, but actual legislation will be a mess with every single senator having, in effect, veto power. And one of those votes Democrats will depend upon belongs to that sick little creep Joe Lieberman. Also, Democrats have been in the minority so long we may have forgotten how centrist and rightist they can be when prodded with money and power.
Putting all misgivings aside, "Hell to the Yes!" Chew over this for a minute: Senator Bernie Sanders. Dust off some of those names of Rising Stars in the Republican party. Rick Santorum, George Allen, Michael Steele. Lost, lost, lost. Nancy Johnson, who ran a nasty campaign? Katherine Harris, who took illegal marching orders from the Bush camp in 2000? Crushed, humiliated. Frankly, it's pretty easy to get stuffed on good news here. Claire McCaskill beat Jim Talent in Missouri. Thanks for your input Rush, speak up anytime. In what is clearly a repudiation of Republican incompetence, not a single Democratic incumbent in the House, Senate or Governor's houses lost their seat. I can't chew on all this at once. It's a feast.
Oh, and Rumsfeld has decided he needs to spend more time with his family and receive subpeonas.
Even though I know, say, Sherrod Brown might not exactly ride in on a white horse, I'm not really expecting too much from Pelosi and company. At this point, I'll settle for less evil. A decrease in villiany would be a refreshing change. I don't ask for much.
I'm very proud to have voted for Ned Lamont, even sensing defeat. He was a piece of the '06 puzzle. Lieberman's defeat in the primary signalled Democratic candidates across the country that we were sick of the war and sick of corrupt Republicans and those who coddle them and eager to vote on it.
Also, it looks like my district will go blue, depending on a recount. No more Rob Simmons? I can't go on, I'm stuffed.
The Morning After I vote in RI, so I was actually a little conflicted about the Senate race. I voted for Whitehouse, who won, but our Republican, Lincoln Chafee, actually voted against the invasion of Iraq -- a vote on principle that, frankly, I doubt if Whitehouse would've cast had he been in office in then. Plus, the WEEI sports talk/hatchetmen hate Chafee (for the same reason I respect him) so he can't be all bad, for a Republican. Anyways, I feel like at least I did my part to change the direction of the Senate. Sadly, my neighbors to the west failed to elect Lamont, so Kissin' Joe the Republidependent candidate and the GOP got the last laugh after all.
The other big issue here was Question 1, which would've paved the way for a Narragansett/Harrah's casino in West Warwick. As much as I wouldn't have minded a casino closer than Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun, I let Will's anti-casino propaganda sway me to a 'no' vote. The well-funded proponents gave the hard sell on property tax relief and job creation but, it all smelled like a shell game ... sure, the casino would bring money in, but who would go to Lincoln or Newport Grand anymore? So the state would lose that revenue while Harrah's loaded up the Brinks trucks for Nevada. And, as much as they talked about the benefits to restaurants, hotels, etc. near the planned site, I can't help but think about the areas around Mohegan and Foxwoods ... not exactly thriving. There are no other restaurants to speak of nearby -- just the Dunkin' Donuts. People go to the casinos to game, drink, and eat, they aren't making another stop outside. I seriously doubt tourist dollars would've gone into the surrounding area here either. Now, if Newport Grand and/or Lincoln were allowed table gaming ... that's another story.
A woman came to tune our piano the other day and as she was working she told me a little about her trips to Germany, where her family is from. She talked about going back every other year and how handy it is to speak German almost well enough to be mistaken for a German. "Or at least a Hungarian." Anyway, she told me a story about getting lost trying to find a family reunion a year ago and how she spent a lot of time talking to her German cab driver. She said she had a great time in the cab and really got to like her driver. "I even told him I was American."
