I’m in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this weekend, the Copper Country to be exact. The other day I picked up the local fishwrap, The Daily Mining Gazette and read that the 51st annual World Championships of GUTS Frisbee are being held right here in Hancock, MI this weekend. My first thought was what the hell is GUTS frisbee? My second thought is that if you’re in town and the world championships of any sport are going on you need to check it out, whether it’s hot dog eating, rock/paper/scissors or even air guitar.
It turns out that the UP is the mecca of GUTS frisbee. The sport was invented in Eagle Harbor, MI a picturesque town towards the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, the northernmost reaches of Michigan. Back in the day I was told, at least by my cousin Mike, there were tournaments with as many as a thousand spectators. The wacky 1970’s even saw the sport featured in Time Magazine. Like anything there seemed to be a lot more participation back in the day— before cable and video games.
So today I made my way down to the local fairgrounds for the championships.So what exactly is GUTS frisbee you ask? Think of two teams of five people. The two teams face opposite each other on the field about fifty fee apart. Five players would stand as far apart as their arms could stretch while a player on the opposing team threw the frisbee as hard as he possibly could at them. Make a catch, get a point. First team to 21 wins. The local rumor, at least from the newspaper, was that there’s a local guy that can project the frisbee an astounding 87 miles per hour toward the other team. I didn’t see that guy but did see an interesting mix of characters. It seemed like a combination of college kids, college professors, guys you may see playing ultimate frisbee and a few hackey sack types tossed in for good measure. Sitting right at the entrance to the event was a massive trophy called the “Julius T. Nachazel Memorial Trophy” that goes to the World Champion of GUTS Frisbee. The defending champions are a team from Japan. They didn’t make the trip this year which makes sense because the UP is a hell of a long way from Tokyo.
Here’s a well written article on the origins of the sport. Like most of my favorite sports nowadays, including beer pong, lawn bowling and ladder golf, GUTS frisbee started as a drinking game. From the article:
At its inception, Guts wasn’t a bloodthirsty sport. It was a drinking game, invented by the Healy brothers at a 1958 Fourth of July family picnic in the Upper Peninsula’s Eagle Harbor. The boys–Bob, Jake, Tim and Pete–had gotten their hands on a Pluto Platter, the 1955 precursor to the Frisbee, and began tossing it around.
Then, as now, there were no official uniforms. There were few official rules, with one exception: the oft-cited addendum 69B, wherein players were required to have a beer in one hand at all times. (Hence, the evolution of one-handed play.)
Which strikes me as a very sound rule. Here’s a video courtesy of good ol’ YouTube.
There’s even a web page that touts the sport as the “original” extreme sport. I didn’t have much time due to a run up to Copper Harbor scheduled later in the day. For a brief moment I did get to witness the championships of something.
How can you not love the UP?
As I woke early in my hotel room this morning Wimbledon was on ESPN. Remember how big of a deal “Breakfast at Wimbledon” was back in the day? I have fond memories of watching the Wimbledon finals, often from my grandparent’s house in Michigan (4th of July week). The likes of McEnroe, Lendl and Boris Becker with a little Mats Wilander thrown in there. Has there ever been a sport that’s fallen more in the national consciousness? Most people in the US couldn’t pick Roger Federer out of a lineup. Thirty years ago probably half the people in the country new John McEnroe, before cable nonetheless.
I just realized Chris Fowler has to have about the best gig at ESPN. Each fall he goes around the country and hosts “College Gameday”. The guy basically spends every weekend at a big party before a huge college football match up, then gets to cover the game. Then he goes off and covers the grand slam of tennis. So after getting his fill of football he gets to spend two weeks in Melbourne, Paris and London. As the Comman Man would say, “A pretty good gig if you can get it.”
I think it’s safe to call Madonna the Julio Franco of the entertainment world. Not only does her British accent get better every year she gets more ripped every year. Nearly twenty years after she was courting Jose Canseco in her Manhattan apartment she’s not allegedly courting Alex Rodriquez in her Manhattan apartment. Advantage Canseco.
As I was driving down last night I listened to the Twins as well as a nice chunk of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove on tape. I’ve watched the mini-series multiple times, read the book and am now listening to it on tape. It gets better every time. A true master of recapturing the old west and developing unique characters. It made a four-hour drive seem like nothing. Plus it was the perfect elixir for a long Twins game. As a true fan I hate to admit that I listened to Lonesome Dove for much of the drive and simply watched the Twins score/inning/outs on the XM receiver.
What is the deal with hotel rooms that connect the iron to the ironing board with that massive and bulky contraption? Are there really that many irons being stolen? It’s not like I’m staying in a flea bag. It’s Iowa, it’s the middle of the week and (my company) is paying $110 per night. It’s not like they’re going to stop the iron from being stolen if someone is really hell bent on stealing a $12 iron. What they are successfully doing in making the ironing process a bit more difficult.
What is the deal with the Dems irritation with John McCain using his military record to his advantage? First of all, he’s not really using the record all that much. Second, John Kerry’s military record was about the central theme in the 2004 election. Now that the tables are turned and the Dems have a candidate without a military record it’s suddenly uncouth to tout your sterling record. Seems like a bit of a contradiction to me.
First it was Alec Baldwin and now Republican Stephen Baldwin says he’ll “leave the country” if John McCain is not elected. Whether it’s Sarandon/Robbins or Mr. Baldwin I’m sick of hearing this tired story of somebody leaving the country if their guy/gal (can’t forget Hillary) doesn’t get elected. Complete arrogance, always from Hollywood types. There’s probably common folk that wouldn’t mind leaving the country if so and so is elected but you know what? They can’t afford to. It’s not that simple to pack up and head to Canada or Europe if you have a regular job to pay the mortgage and stock the fridge.
It realize the economy isn’t exactly on fire but if you listen to the MSM outlets it sounds like the second great depression has hit us. Not only are we not in a “depression” we’re not even technically in a “recession” yet. You have to have two quarters of negative economic growth for a recession and we haven’t even had one. Things are unpredictable though, with Warren Buffett having his worst first half in nearly twenty years.
In the “you can’t make it up department” the gals of the FLDS in Texas are now selling their unique styles of children’s clothes online in an effort to make some additional income. Since I’m pretty much surprised by all youth clothing trends lately It wouldn’t shock me to walk into the MOA and see some kids decked out FLDS-style come fall. Or at least the Salt Lake City Mall.
A tough couple of days for the Minnesota Wild. First they lose arguably their top leader in Brian Rolston in free agency. Then they trade a top young prospect who could conceivably could be a future team leader like Rolston in Ryan Jones for a short term fix in Marek Zidlicky. The heat is definitely on in St. Paul for Doug Risebrough with impending free agency for Marion Gaborik. It was a nice move to bring back Andrew Brunette who’ll fill some of the leadership gap left by the loss of Rolston.
Let’s set politics aside and consider Harry Reid for a second. If you’re a constituent of the fine State of Nevada how can you keep electing this guy? The fact that he’s the leader of the Senate makes it even more embarrassing. Is this the best he’s got? “Coal makes us sick. Oil makes us sick.” No kidding Harry. Do you think it may take us a bit of time to come up with some “alternative sources”. I give you the honored Senator from Nevada.
Some Random Thoughts.
♦ The whole Tim Donaghy situation and Hue Hollins speaking publicly about Dick Bavetta, etc reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live Referee Pittman skit. I’ve heard talk radio hosts make the point that the NBA would be better off to make officials available for interviews after games to remove the distance between game officials and the public. The idea is that it would give them an opportunity to “explain” their calls. Like why the Sacramento Kings were royally screwed in 2002. Which brings us back to Referee Pittman. I’d love to post the Youtube clip to remind viewers of the brilliance of the John Goodman skit but Saturday Night Live has removed everything from Youtube including decades old obscure stuff like this. But thanks to the Internet, we still have the transcript. So, with Dick Bavetta substituted for Referee Pittman, here’s a couple of questions the press could ask the referee in such a press conference— courtesy of SNL.
Audience Member #1: Uh, yeah. It’s great to be here, Ref. Um.. listen, I just wanted to know, um.. are you totally blind, or just legally blind.. uh.. so that, you know, you can make out shapes and degrees of light, you know, that kind of thing?
Dick Bavetta: Well, actually.. I have 20/20 vision. I have mentioned this on the show before. I’m not blind, never have been. Thanks for your question.
Audience Member #1: Okay, thank you.
Rock Clark: Okay, next?
Audience Member #2: Uh, yes, I wanted to ask you about last Sunday’s game.
Dick Bavetta: Yes. Go ahead.
Audience Member #2: Yeah, I was just wondering, were you watching a different game while you were officiating? Like, on a little mini-TV, or something like that?
Dick Bavetta: No, I wasn’t. I was concentrating on the game I was officiating.
Audience Member #2: Oh, wow! You know, because it seemed like your calls were related to a game being played somewhere far away.
♦ Speaking of the Referee Pittman show long time MLB umpire Tim McClelland actually has a radio talk show in Des Moines during the offseason. Of course everyone’s too nice in Iowa to call McClelland and ask some Referee Pittman type questions. Such as:
Radio Caller: Yeah, uh, hi, great show. I saw the last game, and I just want to know, do you find it helpful to keep your head up your rear end? I mean, why during the game? It seems that during the game you want to have your head, you know, out and in the open air so you can see the plays. I mean, is it comfortable, or is it for the warmth, or what?
Tim McCelleland: [ thinking ] No. No, nope, never done that. I wouldn’t even know how to go about it, it’s an interesting position, but, uh.. nope.
♦ As far as SNL and Youtube, Why? They removed all the videos but it’s been months and there is still no sign of “Fly High Duluth” on the SNL site, one of the best SNL skits I’ve seen in the last decade. Under Will Forte’s bio they mention the skit but don’t have it on the site— even though they have at least ten McGruber clips. Good luck ever seeing Referee Pittman again.
♦ Thank You New York Giants! Thank you David Tyree. With the Celtics on the brink of an NBA championship it’s Mr. Tyree and Mr. Eli Manning who have saved us from the fact that Boston could have held the titles concurrently in all three major sports. There would have been a wee bit of arrogance coming out of Beantown.
♦ I saw my first smart car on highway 100 North this morning. I’m all for high gas mileage and saving the environment but I saw this little car in the left hand lane going about seventy sandwiched between a big Ford Pickup and a Lincoln Navigator. For all the chain reaction rear end episodes I’ve witnessed on that stretch of road over the years I’d hate to see what would happen in the above mentioned scenario.
♦ To use an overused Denny Green quote, Livan Hernandez “Is what we thought he was.” I’ve been a backer, touting his performance early on, but the league may have once again caught up with him. With the Twins sliding into the 78-82 win team we thought they were I’m wondering how long they’ll keep trotting him out there. With Perkins in the rotation and Liriano potentially on the way in the second half there may not be a rotation spot long. It’s hard to even write about the Twins right now as it is.
♦ I’m sorry, I just can’t watch it. I don’t know if its due to the fact I’m nearly out of the 18-34 demographic, but the NBA finals have become virtually unwatchable for me. This is coming from a guy who loved the Celtics in the 80’s. I don’t know how they’ve done it but the NBA has lost it’s mojo and just can’t find it. I can’t pinpoint exactly why but the product just doesn’t entice me anymore. Tuesday night while at my hotel room in Iowa I found myself watching a a minor league baseball game between Peoria and the Quad Cities on the telly rather than watching the NBA finals.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks back the site was on hiatus while I crammed like my college days to pass an IT certification for work. Well, I’m happy to announce that I am now certified and ready to get on with things. In my absence the site went over 20 thousand hits, which is small by most standards but more than I ever thought this site would get when I started things three months ago.
Happy to be back. More to follow.
Twins in Chicago. Ouch.
The latest news from the economic downturn– people are turning towards more “economic” beers, according to Miller Brewing Company.
The Milwaukee-based brewer saw some shift between higher-priced, premium beers and economy beers such as Miller High Life and Milwaukee’s Best starting in January, Tom Long told reporters on a conference call.
Time to stock up on Milwaukee’s Beast.
What exactly are those Miller “premium” beers? I hope they’re not referring to Genuine Draft.
Mickey’s?
An Australian man has been fined after buckling in a case of beer with a seat belt but leaving a 5-year-old child to sit on the car’s floor, police said Tuesday.
It’s still early but this guy’s out of the running for father of the year. I will admit that I have restrained my beer before– but my child typically isn’t in the car when the beer run is made. Child car seats actually give your case of Mich Golden a nice snug fit.
According to the local constable, Wayne Burnett:
“I haven’t ever seen something like this before,” he said. “This is the first time that the beer has taken priority over a child.”
If anyone has read In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson or watched Crocodile Dundee you’ve heard about Alice Springs, aka, the “Capital of the Outback”.
From Crocodile Dundee…
“That’s not a Knife…THAT’s a Knife”
Here’s another sign that gas prices are too high. Many old gas pumps can’t go higher than $3.99 a gallon. The same pumps can only go as high as $99.99 on the total sale. From the article:
To deal with the problem, some state regulators are allowing half-pricing _ displaying the price for a half-gallon of gas, then doubling the price shown on the meter.
In North Dakota, regulators recently told service stations their mechanical pumps could use half-pricing, provided they use signs to alert costumers and find a permanent solution by April 2009.“
Who would have thought of this back when gas was ten cents a gallon?
On a side note I work with one of those people who’s of the opinion that gas prices aren’t high enough, that the higher they go the less people will drive and save the environment, etc. It may make sense in theory but the fact is without reasonable public transportation we have to drive. It’s the middle class people that use their car for work that will suffer. I’m in sales and drive about 35,000 miles a year. Am I going to stop driving?
Interesting article from the Strib. At first glance it would seem hard to believe but these guys actually visited all 48 states in just over four days. There’s a map that lays out the journey in the article. They traveled just over 7,000 miles total. The amazing thing to me is the fact that they averaged a speed of 66 miles per hour during the trip so they must have avoided rush hour traffic along the way as well. I regularly drive to Iowa for work and only average about a speed of 69 MPH on the way home (with stops for gas, etc).
This guy would be proud:
East Bound and Down
In the stats part of my site I have the ability to view what people searched to end up at this site. It’s always interesting to see what people are Googling. In the spirit of search engines I give you the Top 5 Searches of the Week.
5. Norm Coleman Womanizer: I’ve blogged on Norm Coleman but not on his tendency to womanize. Is that you Al Franken?
4. Dan Gladden Minnesota Reunion: I haven’t posted on Gladden at all but hope this person finds the Gladden family reunion.
3. Happy Hour South Florida: Due to the name of the site this is a popular one. I’m inundated weekly with requests for happy hours (typically on Thursday and Friday) from all over the country. Most frequent? Happy Hour Duluth.
2. Paparazzi for hire Detroit: This one just came in today, twice. They must me desperate for attention in Motown.
1. Alligator Driving a Car: This one may be tough to top for a while. Yes, we did have the guy driving a car with an alligator in it post, but if there’s a story on an alligator driving a car I’d like to see it.
By the way you can now buy Super Terrific Happy Hour T-Shirts. I have nothing to do with the existence of these shirts but endorse them nonetheless. Impress your friends. They may even find this web site.
I had another near Larry David moment. The only thing is that I follow the conventions of society and didn’t make a scene like Larry would have. I sure would have liked to. After a long week in Texas I was on my way home. Thunderstorms in Dallas made a rocky flight even rockier. I’m flying the DC80 which is stressful enough as it was since the whole fleet has been grounded twice in the last two months. Remember a couple years back when some of the airlines took a few seats out of each plane to make more leg room? Well, it’s clear that American Airlines didn’t— they’re still under the impression that the average height of American males is 5′9″. I’m a tall guy who has issues sitting in an airline seat as it is. All I wanted to do is get up in the air and turn on my laptop so I can watch season five of Curb Your Enthusiasm and make the two hour flight home go quick. Unfortunately I have unbelievably bad luck when I fly. Literally every time I fly, even in the middle of the day (who sleeps in the middle of the day?) the person in front of me immediately jacks their seat back with no warning.
Of course this was no exception. A millisecond after the pilot announces that the plane has reached cruising altitude this guy has to jack his seat back. I realize everybody has a right to put the seat back if they want to sleep on the flight— that’s why the seat goes back. But this guy didn’t even put his seat back to sleep, he doesn’t even sit all the way back. To put it more bluntly he’s one of those slouchers. Naturally my first reaction is to turn around and look at the guy behind me to ask him if its ok if I put my seat back (Minnesota nice). I then realize that the guy behind me is the tall guy that passed by me when we were boarding, probably 6′5″. I realize, like my 6′2″ frame that if I put my seat back I would crush his legs, so I don’t. At this point it’s just about impossible to even get my laptop out much less watch a movie on it. Immediately to my left is a little alcove where the flight attendants prepare the beverage cart. The flight attendant sees me, sees what’s going on and realizes the guy isn’t even looking to sleep and isn’t even leaning back. She politely tells him that there’s a tall guy behind him and if he’s not going to sleep could he move his seat up. In this situation you’d expect people would take into account the comfort of people around them and do what the flight attendant suggested. Not this guy, he refuses. In fact he makes a little bit of a scene and says that “he paid for the seat” and can move it back if he wants. Then, to prove his point he decides he is going to put his head all the way back. So I get to spend the rest of the ride with his greasy hair six inches from my face. I’m not exaggerating the greasy part either, we’re talking multiple days without the shampoo/rinse combo. Nothing like flying the friendly skies. The kicker? We get up to exit the plane and the guy can’t be taller than 5′5″. So for the guy in seat 28D on the American Airlines flight from Dallas— my knees thank you.
Which naturally brings me to the show that I was able to watch on my laptop through various contortions, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Perfect fodder for part of an episode. As I’m watching his show I’m thinking of what Larry would do in such a situation. Me? I’m too nice.
P.S. I could have used the Knee Defender. This shows I’m not the only one who despises the airline seat recline. Here’s a device that prevents it. From their web site:
If the airlines or the FAA will not protect passengers from being battered, crunched, and immobilized by seats that are too small and aggressive reclining passengers – very real problems according to healthcare professionals, medical studies, government agencies, and even some airlines – then people need options to protect themselves.
As my wife can attest I love the State of Texas. If I ever left Minnesota I’d fill up the car, hit I35 and not stop until I pulled into the Lone Star State. On the way I’d probably pass through towns like “Gun Barrel City” and “Cut and Shoot” as well as “Oatmeal” and “Bigfoot”. I may even pass through Brazoria home of one crazy beareded SOB named William Johnson. During my week in Dallas Mr. Johnson has been the talk of the town.
This past Sunday William Johnson was driving down the road and came across a six-foot alligator, a rather large gator by any standard. He made the incredible decision to pick up the alligator and amazingly was able to get it into his car. I’m not sure how he was able to wrassle the gator into his car but in true Steve Irwin style he did. At that point rather than take the gator directly home Johnson decided to rob a house on the way. Why not?
Then according to Texas State Police:
DPS Trooper Steve Stanfield explained, “From my understanding, he tried to get a big screen TV out of the house. He couldn’t get it in the car by himself, so he recruited a neighbor, who, when he saw the alligator, dropped the TV and said, ‘Alright, I ain’t got nothing to do with it.’”
On his way home Johnson was stopped by police who found the alligator. His justification for picking up the alligator? He wanted to put it in a friends pond. One hell of a prank. I myself would have trouble concentrating on the road with an alligator in my back seat. Not only that, he also had a water moccasin in the car— and it had already bit him.
Don’t mess with Texas; Or William Johnson. Reese Bobby would be proud:
Well let’s see. I got mauled by a cougar, learned nothing about driving and my Crystal Gayle shirt was ruined. Other than that, it was great.
When you take a look at how many Youtube hits this clip has had I realize a lot of my readers have probably already seen it. For those who haven’t seen it you won’t believe it. Just when you think it couldn’t get any more amazing mother nature takes it to the next level. Buffalo, Lions, Crocodiles, awed spectators– amazing. The National Geographic Channel will have a special on “The Battle at Kruger” on May 11.
Note: There is a Lion attack in this video— but don’t stop watching it after the Lion attack. It gets more amazing then you can ever imagine. You have to see the entire video.
Seattle’s Squirrelman is coming down from his perch. Not much need for comment here, the article speaks for itself. Here’s a couple of comments from his neighbors.
“He’s built this amazing tree house in the middle of a city,” Janet Yoder, one of Csaky’s neighbors, told the paper. “I certainly believe he’s not a threat of any kind to anyone.”
He may not be a threat to anyone but is a threat to himself in the fact that he lives in a giant treehouse with a wood burning stove on city property. I wonder how Janet would feel if a couple of other people moved onto the open lot and built their own little squatter village?
But wait, there’s more:
Squirrelman has nowhere to go. Officials have approached him with a list of shelters that don’t accept pets — Csaky lives with pet rat “Lucky,” a ferret named “Rainbow” and an off-balance squirrel called “Tilt” — but all Squirrelman really wants is to live it out for a few more years in his handmade home, the paper said.
Squirrelman is 52 years old— yet only wants to “live out a few more years in his handmade home.” He looks in pretty good shape to me in the picture— good enough to build this giant treehouse. Here’s an idea for a place to go, a place that could help “Squirrelman” find another place to live— the employment line.
In the words of the other Jeff Lebowski, the millionaire:
“My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir”
Everyone who watches any TV in Minnesota has seen the commercials for Grand Casino. They take supposed “real” Minnesotans and tell their story. A group of hairdresser chicks from White Bear Lake, or some dorky looking couple that met on a blind date there. Probably the most popular (according to the Barrette household research) is the one about the older couple that sneaks out of their house to go to Grand Casino. They have to sneak out of their house because their kids live next door, kind of like Everybody Loves Raymond. The reason I like the commercial is the mom has an absolutely phenomenal Minnesota accent. About as good as any accent I’ve ever heard. I’m talking right out of the movie Fargo, let’s cook up a hot dish, “you betcha” Minnesota accent. She has the accent of every stereotypical Minnesota grandmother— and I love it. Her most memorable line is “we’re so busted.” She lays a little extra on that one.
So the folks at Grand Casino made a decent little commercial. Not because its so entertaining but because it reminded me that there really are people like this in Minnesota. Two generations living next door to each other in some suburb like Rosedale or Golden Valley with the parents sneaking out to go to the Casino— i.e. their Grand Casino story. For some reason it was comforting that people with such accents still actually exist. The kind that go to church, watch the Vikings on Sunday, hit the grandkids hockey game on Tuesday night and then drop a hot dish off at the VFW benefit on Saturday This is how she SEEMED. Until I turned on the TV on Tuesday.
Lo and behold there’s a new commercial for Twin Cities Vehix.com. And in that commercial, wearing a freaking bowling shirt, is our nice grandmother from the Grand Casino commercial. Not only is she wearing the bowling shirt, she’s lost her Minnesota accent. My Grand Casino grandmother is not a bowler. She’s much to proper for that. At best she may play bridge with the gals from church. So the old couple that in my mind said “Uff Da” and “You Betcha” and maybe even “Darn Tootin” from time to time are just a couple of commercial actors. They may not even be from Minnesota. The same lady could be doing an ad for Mohegan Sun in Connecticut and saying things like “wicked awesome” in a southie accent.
Interesting article by Maureen Ogle in the Los Angeles Times. Seventy-five years ago today Prohibition ended and the beer flowed again. For someone not against the notion of occasionally having a pint or two, an interesting read.
Prohibition lasted thirteen long years. Legalizing brew again, according to Ogle, played a role in the revitalization of the economy and helped pull us out of the Great Depression. So next time you’re in the dog house with the missus for staying out too late remind her of how beer saved the country. Another interesting fact about Prohibition is that it wasn’t isolated to the United States. Canada and Russia (if you can believe it) also had periods of Prohibition around the same time. So no Molson for the boys up north around the same time.
I realize its a Monday, but if you are so inclined, crack open a cool one and think about your ancestors who were able to do it legally once again seventy-five years ago today. If you’re old lady (or old man) gives you a hard time remind them the NCAA men’s basketball championship game is tonight— so that’s two good reasons.
In other beer news we very well could have a first lady who is also a beer executive. As anyone who reads this blog can tell I am a McCain admirer and have been since my time at the University of Arizona– now I find his wife is a beer executive. It just gets better and better. I have a feeling that Cindy McCain has been “proud of her country” more than once in her adult life.
P.S. As I posted here the title of this site comes from a Seinfeld episode. Staying on the beer theme it also gets some interesting Google visits. The site tracks what people searched to get here. In the last week I’ve had searches for “Happy Hour South Florida”, “Northeast Minneapolis Happy Hour”, and “Duluth Happy Hour”. So for those of you looking for a happy hour, welcome. Feel free to check out the site a bit. And if you’re still looking for a happy hour in Duluth check out the Tap Room.
Here’s an article from the BBC. Global temps have cooled over the past year and there hasn’t been an increase in temperatures since 1998. And according to Drudge the lack of natural disasters is putting pressure on insurance firms.
But, we’re not quite in the clear yet. According to Ted Turner we may be eating each other in forty years. Thomas Malthus only tied population growth to misery, vice and poverty. Ted Turner is taking it to the next level. Raise it up Ted!
For my loyal readers you may remember about a month back when I was giving occasional updates on the state of the family tadpoles. We received some tadpoles from some friends and were raising them to witness the miracle of life. You’ll also notice the updates ended. Well, it turns out that when Melissa was on vacation in Mexico last month I accidentally killed them. I’m not sure what I did and the autopsy was inconclusive, but they perished pretty rapidly a couple of hours after I changed the water one night.
Well, there is good news to report. The Brockel family, who we started this tadpole experiment with, gave us back four of the original tadpoles we had initially given to them when their tadpoles died. We now have four thriving little tadpoles who will shortly have names. They look something like this.
Melissa is not scheduled to have any vacations in the near future so I’m not anticipating any future tadpole deaths.
Here’s an interesting invention. My wife could have used it on Monday when she was having a quiet dinner with a friend at Acapulco in Coon Rapids only to see the restaurant overrun by a bunch of overly aggressive high school punks. An argument inside eventually turned into parking lot fight. For those of you who were in town and remember what Monday was like we had about three inches of snow on the ground with little attempt in many places to plow it out of the way. So picture a bunch of teen age punks attempting to brawl in a slippery, slushy parking lot in jeans and sneakers like something out of Fight Club. I’m guessing they didn’t have the choreography and grace of the Sharks vs the Jets.
To prevent such hooliganism a British inventor has created a device that emits a high pitched noise that will repel teenagers. According to the inventor the device makes an irritating noise that people under twenty can hear but almost nobody over thirty can. The best part? The inventor describes the device as sort of like a “demented alarm clock.”
I may have to e-mail this link to the folks over at Acapulco.
Webster’s dictionary has a couple of definitions for the word “homer”. Of course you have the Greek poet Homer and the baseball homer, as well as the US painter and the homing pigeon. Here locally there is another definition of the term, one that causes a little too much consternation for several folks.
Ho-mer-
n
A local Minneapolis/St. Paul sports reporter or broadcaster who according to the “enlightened” among the local media show favoritism and blind judgement towards the local team. At various times, according to those smarter than us, may include Jeff Dubay, Dan Gladden, Dave Mona, Sid Hartman, Charlie Walters, Paul Allen, etc.
I’ve lived in a handful of media markets but never a market that’s so obsessed with whether or not someone is a homer. There’s even a website dedicated to it. In fact I would venture to say the anti-homer crowd spends as much time in pointing out the homers as the homers do being homers. So Monday night it took Dan Gladden about ten minutes to compare Carlos Gomez to Rickey Henderson. It then took Barreiro ten minutes Tuesday afternoon to call out Gladden for comparing Carlos Gomez to Rickey Henderson. Gomez is not Rickey Henderson, as Dan Gladden is well aware of. But he does have remarkable speed and as a radio analyst you have to find some way to describe the speed and potential of Gomez to the listener. I don’t think Betty and Pearl in outstate Minnesota are going to get that excited if Gladden compares him to Otis Nixon.
The obsession with the concept of “homer” is a little bit over the top around here. It’s about half of Dan Cole’s material, and that’s not a lot of material. The Sid and Shooter types have been labeled homers by so many people— including the Homersota website we have in town— that people are constantly reaching for examples to call them out. Who cares? It’s not like we’re dealing with issues of national security here. Just cover the teams and stop worrying about what everyone else is saying. The fans aren’t idiots. We know that Al Jefferson is not Moses Malone and Carlos Gomez isn’t Rickey Henderson. We’d also like to think that Carlos Gomez could be Rickey Henderson.
Fellas, lets lose the obsession with whether or not so and so is a homer. It’s getting a bit stale.
Here’s a theme to start your Saturday. What a difference a week can make. The sun is out, the snow is melting and its time to clean the garage, Summer in Minnesota is on the way. And that’s a good thing.
A little bit of drama on the morning commute as the northern suburbs had a high speed chase this morning. A lot of talk about it around the old water cooler. The Strib breaks it down HERE. I was going to take 94 to 494 on my often brutal commute from God’s Country (Ramsey) down to the southern Metro. But since its spring break and everyone from Minnesota is at Disney World or in Cancun I decided to go down 169. Obviously a good choice.
According to the Strib article he was throwing money bags out of the car while hitting speeds of nearly 100 mph.
“Money? What money? Do you see any money in this car? I’m just late for work. No, that’s my roommates weed.”
There’s so many bank robberies going on that you have to do something particularly crazy, like a high-speed chase, or knock off a whole bunch of jobs to get attention. Also helps to wear a fishing hat while doing it so they can give you a nickname like “The Fishing Hat Bandit.” I’m sure by the time Mike Pomeranz gazes into the teleprompter tonight this guy will have a nickname.
A little drama on an otherwise gorgeous Friday. Very soon we’ll be hitting the links and pulling in the Walleye.
AMEN to that
For those of you that have seen it— and if you have you are lucky— Saturday Night Live and Will Forte created a little bit of heaven a couple of years back. Also starring Scarlett Johannson the skit was titled “Fly High Duluth” and it was absolutely flippin brilliant. Forte played a character named Wally Hammerlick. Scarlett played his “She-Tiger Mate for Life” Char. The best SNL sketch I’ve seen in years— probably since Blue Oyster Cult Behind the Music.
The skit was based on a fictitious morning show in Duluth, MN. For obvious reasons (my ties to Duluth) there was immediate appeal. Anyway, the band kept interrupting the morning show with endless riffs and hilarious dialog. Describing it doesn’t do it justice. I probably watched the video over one-hundred times on Youtube. It became a rallying cry for anyone from Duluth I know.
Now, it has disappeared. The video is no longer on Youtube and isn’t anywhere else for all I can tell. I heard from someone that SNL cracked down on all videos on Youtube. Whatever the case it’s gone.
So, if anyone has or knows of the video, drop a comment here.
Meanwhile— in the interest of entertainment. Here’s a little bit of heaven from Thin Lizzy. RIP Lynott.
Speaking of Duluth— here’s a perfect re-creation of the “I’ve been to Duluth” T-shirt from The Great Outdoors.
Courtesy of Dan Barreiro is this little nugget:
Say it ain’t so: The two Minnesotans who invented Zubaz claim they’re ready to offer the same sick horizonal stripes to a new generation.
Somewhere the makers of Zima, Members Only Jackets, Friendship Bracelets, and Parachute Pants are smiling. Zubaz are making a return. According to their website:
In the fall of 2007 Zubaz made their proud return, featuring classic patterns and bold colors, just like you always remembered. With only slight refinements, our Zubaz pants are ready for the next generation.
Do they really think they’re ready for the next generation? I’m not quite sure of that. Yes there are some beefy bodybuilders that kept the fad going but I just can’t see this thing catching on again. According to Minneapolis/St. Paul magazine there is “overwhelming popular demand” to bring back Zubaz. If I were the Zubaz company I’d be a little concerned about who’s doing my market research.
Living in ABC country (Anoka, Blaine, Coon Rapids) I’m sure I’ll be on the leading edge of the resurgence. Who knows, I may have to dig out the Packer Zubaz.
Next stop: Mullett?
Everyone knows the US is obsessed with celebrity. Let’s face it. If you’re sitting in a doctor’s office and you have a choice between Atlantic Monthly and People magazine you’re going to pick up People. I’m as guilty as anybody. Who wants to read about conflict in the Middle East when you can read about Jennifer Love Hewitt’s love handles. Do I care about the struggling economy? Not when Britney Spears is driving 90 MPH down the 405 sans underwear with her kid on the dashboard while she’s texting Paris Hilton.
Because of our love of celebrity it’s all come to this: you can now hire your own personal paparazzi to follow you around while you “pretend” to be a celebrity. I wonder if you can do the full Sean Penn treatment and smack the cameraman upside the head?
I may read People and may care a little too much about Brangelina but this is too much.