Parker is Two!!!

Just wanted to get in a quick post congratulating Little Big Man on his second birthday! We love you!

Lost "Stranger in a Strange Land"

Ratings be damned, I think the first few episodes of the "2nd half" of the season have been superb. That being said, my wife has dropped out of this house's Lost fan club because of the same complaints you hear in the press: the storyline has become too convoluted.

Well, I disagree.

But . .

Tonight's episode SUCKED. I'm bitter as all he** that ABC spent the week promoting this as the week we get 'answers'.

Answers to what?

That the Others didn't kill the captives outright?. Uh, I never thought they did. Why bother going to the trouble of kidnapping them if you're only going to kill them?

Other than that slim revelation,  I can't think of a single question, big or small, that the episode answered.

Oh, my bad. It told us how Jack got his tattoo.

Whoopee.

Be careful Lost. It isn't the episode so much as the false promo, but with me you're on shaky ground, thin ice, ready to jump the shark, etc.  

Pick your cliche - they all apply.

Tags: Lost

Wikipedia

So I was perusing the newsblog over at Baseball Think Factory when I came across this article about a baseball player who intentionally wrote a false entry about himself on Wikipedia.

"If Holdzkom does have a musical past, he won’t admit it, except to say that he and his brother, John, cooked up an elaborate story and posted it on the online encyclopedia site Wikipedia — a site that can be edited by the public.

“It’s not true,” Holdzkom said of his child prodigy story. “We just make things up, and Wikipedia puts it on there. I’ve never been on Johnny Carson. It just sounded good.”

Well, what an a**.  To me, that's no better than painting graffiti on a stranger's wall.

I've only recently become a fan of Wikipedia, but in that short amount of time I've come to adore the site.

Sure, a publicly edited encyclopedia has it's flaws: there's no guarantee the info is correct and there's always the idiot factor (case in point: Ed Gein's entire page disappeared yesterday. It was there at 9 am and gone by 10 that night, with only an offensive sentence left in its wake.)  I've also lost track of how many Digimon and animie entries there are (gag).

But it harkens back to my geeky youth, where I'd joyfully pass time reading random entries in a Children's Encyclopedia we owned. (and boy do I remember my joy when my Dad won a complete set of the adult version!)

So I sit and randomly sift through the site. The wife rents Marie Antoinette? Well, let's look her up. From there, I open multiple windows for different terms and people mentioned in the article, from the Revolution to the guillotine to the Bourbon lineage.

 After that, I might just become curious about the cast of the movie and look up Kirsten Dunst. That inspires me to look up Spiderman, which takes me to Marvel, where I look up Stan Lee, who in turn brings me to Kevin Smith . .

And on and on.

It's obnoxious really. My wife's taken to watching TV with me and saying, whenever some fact presents itself,  "Uh oh, better hurry and look that up on Wikipedia"

And I do.

Tags: Wikipedia, Baseball Think Factory

Follow up on Buddy Holly

The recent coverage (what there was of it) of the anniversary of Buddy Holly's death must have brought some folks out of the woodwork.

Today's Journal Sentinel features a front page article that includes two never before published photos from the Milwaukee leg of that fateful final tour. Up until today, there were thought to be no photos from the show in existence.

Check out the story here.

 

Tags: Buddy Holly

YaYa bows to peer pressure

First, she followed along when the girls in her class ditched pants in favor of skirts (and in the middle of winter). Now she has announced that she no longer enjoys, favors, or idolizes the Disney Princesses that were so important to her for years, right up to our trip in November.

It's horse hockey, but whatever.

That didn't prevent her from being excited about the release of Cinderella III. I'd rag her for days: "Well, if you don't like them anymore there's really no reason to watch . . " and she'd come up with one excuse or another as to why she'd still have to see it.

And one day while driving home from Grandma's, where she saw a preview of the movie, she told me all about the plot. In the movie the Wicked Stepmother gets ahold of the magic wand and reverses the events of the first movie.

YaYa then asked me, with hesitant but genuine concern, "But, there's no way Cinderella will really be hurt, right? She'll be ok because she's still in Florida in her castle?"

Funny. One minute they're all mature and precocious, the next they seem just like the little children they are. :)

Tags: YaYa

Baby Slapinons In Utero

Yesterday we had our first ultrasound, establishing that the Mrs. was 14 weeks and 5 days pregnant with a due date of August 10th.

The baby was very active, twisting and kicking and moving throughtout the procedure.

It's very early, but they also said there was a 60% chance that it's a girl . . so we're probably looking at the first pictures of Lauren Kathleen.

Google makes a mistake?? Be still my heart

As first reported on AOL's The Feed, the 'L' is missing on the Google homepage.

The Day the Music Died - 48 years ago

For most of a month now we've been unable to access the AOL software on my home computer due to a 'runtime' error. Tonight, in my eagerness to post, I finally realized I could do so via Internet Explorer. I'll try to update y'all soon.

Today is the 48th anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper outside of Clear Lake, Iowa.

Buddy remains one of my favorite artists of all time - my personal (if eclectic) concert in Heaven would feature Buddy, Led Zeppelin, Artie Shaw, and Nirvanna, among others.

Here's a few clips of rare footage of Buddy performing.

Rest in Peace.

 

Tags: Buddy Holly

The Post about the Baseball Hall of Fame 2007

Tomorrow the doors to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown will open for the class of 2007.

Cal Ripken Jr.will certainly be voted in and so will Tony Gywnn; both men richly deserve the honor.

Borderline candidates like Harold Baines, Paul O’Neil, and Alan Trammell will get a few votes but stay home.

The annual debates about Andre Dawson, Goose Gossage, Jack Morris, and Jim Rice will rage again.

Oh, and the guy who ranks 7th in career home runs, who hit 49 home runs in his rookie season and 70 a decade later, the man who brought baseball back to front and center in the glorious summer of 1998, will almost certainly be left sitting at home.

Choosing to keep Mark McGwire out of the Hall isn’t a tragedy. I’ll reserve that term for something that doesn’t involve getting paid millions to hit a baseball.

But it is hard to rationalize.

Months ago,  if I had a vote, I too might have decided to leave him off the ballot, just to tweak my nose at the whole Steroid Era.

Instead, by golly, I got the chance to read voter after voter’s explanation for skipping over McGwire.

You can imagine how most of the articles go: Mark is suspected of doing steroids, he’s a symbol of the era, he wouldn’t talk to Congress, etc. Thus, leave him off the ballot.

Well, whoopdedoo.

Forget for a moment his true guilt or innocence and consider the hypocrisy of these writers. Most must have had some clue, some inkling of what was going on in the years they were busy making Mark a national hero, right?

Sure, I sat around in ’98 oblivious, believing that expansion and smaller ballparks alone were leading to more homers. So what?

I didn’t have the opportunity to visit the locker rooms, I wasn’t clued in to the rumor mill, and just to pound the fact home, I’m not the one paid to investigate and publish the news.

Don’t the writers share part of the blame? And yet here they are, the gatekeepers for entrance to the Hall.

How wonderfully ironic.

As far as McGwire’s appearance before Congress, that was a no-win situation. If he admits fault he is ostracized from baseball, and folks that say differently are fooling themselves. If he denies it, he’d be labeled a liar, especially after Palmerio’s perjury.

And apparently, if he just keeps his mouth shut, he’s out of the Hall.

You know the most duplicitous argument? That the decision to leave him off the ballot has nothing to do with steroids and everything to do with a one-dimensional career that isn’t Hall worthy.

If you think for even a second that those same writers weren’t drooling over his numbers at the turn of the century and booking tickets to watch his enshrinement, you’re as crazy as their argument.

Do I believe McGwire did steroids? Yes. Do I have proof? No.

Does he belong in the Hall? Honestly, I don’t know.

But I do know this is the opening bell for a decade or more of debate. Eventually Sosa, Palmerio, Giami, Sheffield, and Mr. Bonds will be up for enshrinement.

Can you legitimately keep an entire era of superstars out of the Hall?

Here’s an idea that’ll never happen, and one that even I’m not that keen on: keep the borderline (and certified cheaters) Palmerio, Giambi, and Sheffield out, even if their final numbers warrant inclusion.

Then put Sosa, Big Mac, and Bonds on a single plaque, extolling them as the dominant sluggers of the era but mentioning the controversy surrounding their accomplishments.

Would it mean rewarding cheaters? Probably.

But it would acknowledge an important era in the sport, and give the (officially) innocent the benefit of the doubt.

Five years ago McGwire was a guaranteed lock for the Hall. Now he’s a pariah.

That in itself might be punishment enough.

Tags: Cooperstown, steroids, Mark McGwire

The BCS Championship

I've had the game on as white noise off and on all evening, and I am shocked.

 If I thought it was going to be a blowout, I'd have said Ohio State would be on top.

The worst part is that a friend of mine, a Florida native, will be insufferable now.

Any chance of Boise State sneaking in to the #2 slot? I'm not familiar enough with the BCS to know . . .