Cotto-Martinez

I finally had the chance to watch last week's Cotto-Martinez middleweight championship fight. Great win for Cotto, who put on an intelligent "master class" as he took down the champ. Kudos to Martinez, who lasted nine rounds on two bad knees. The only cruddy part of the fight was having to listen to Larry Merchant call the action. I can't stand Merchant's perpetually cynical, dry and often as*holish commentary.

Alexander Imich

Alexander Imich, the world's oldest man, has died in NYC at the age of 111. He was born in Poland in 1903 and was a retired chemist and parapsychologist. RIP

That's Why huh?

Well. That would be why you don't cut the grass in open toed sandals, wouldn't it? (I whacked a toe with the weed eater. Bloodied but undeterred.)

On This Day

On this day 40 years ago, Whovians said farewell to the Third (aka The Best) Doctor and welcomed the Fourth, played by Tom Baker.

Happy Birthday Barbara Bush!

Happy birthday to First Lady Barbara P. Bush, who turned 89 today!

Boo

We watched California Chrome come up empty in his search for a Triple Crown . . . a colossal waste of TV time better spent watching "Vanilla Ice Goes Amish" (seriously: a great show. Watch it!) Still, it was *almost* worth it to watch the bitter rant Chrome's owner gave to NBC after the race.

Exactly

Guitar Lessons

@Beaulah Brinton Community Center with YaYa for her guitar lessons

30 Rock News

BREAKING NEWS: 30 Rock actor Tracy Morgan is in critical condition after being injured in a car accident this morning . . .

My Thoughts on the Slenderman Case

Controversial opinion of the day: As horrific as their actions were, I don't think the two 12 year old's who stabbed their friend should be imprisoned for the rest of their lives. 

 A - they are twelve. Not 30, not 20, not 17 - TWELVE. At 65 should they be still be paying for what they did at the onset of puberty? No.

 B - the victim did not die (thank God). She's already been released from the hospital. 

 C - if you seriously, honestly, are so young and naïve that you can't tell the difference between make believe and reality, then you don't have the mental capacity to warrant being charged as an adult. Plain and simple.

 Fire away folks. The most valuable diversity is that of thought, so feel free to speak your mind. That said, I'm right and you're wrong 😉

It's True

I spend half the summer fixing our bikes, and the other half listening to Lisa and the kids demanding new ones and complaining about how often I have to fix them . . .Pfui to it all.

Hollywood News

Per the magnificient reporting that is Facebook, Antonio Banderas & Melanie Griffith are going to divorce after 18 Years of marriage

D-Day

A big thank you to all the veterans of the Normandy invasion on this, the 70th anniversary of D-Day 🙂

LuLu's Birthday Cupcakes!

We're here at Incrediroll celebrating LuLu's 11th Birthday! And it features yet another baking marvel by Lisa!

Don Zimmer

RIP Yankees coaching great, and former Boston manager, Don Zimmer

TV News is a Joke

From JSOnline's Duane Dudek, commenting on the Slenderman story:

"The crime was "graphic, disturbing and hard to believe," said Meekins, as a WTMJ onscreen headline screamed "Slumber Party Stabbing" and later "Plot to Kill." Reporter Jermont Terry practically leaped off the screen describing the crime and sat on a bicycle while reporting that the victim was discovered by a bicyclist. WISN reporter Christina Palladino prefaced her report by noting "the people I talked to literally have no words" and then interviewed people who used words to speak on camera."

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

We watched "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" over the weekend. If I'm being honest, I thought it was slow. His fantasy life, so hyped in the trailers, was a throwaway that wasn't needed to establish his character's yearning to break free from his rut, and the movie moved at a PBS pace. Still, not a bad film and certainly not the worst way to pass a few hours.

Want

Tiananmen Square

25 years since Tiananmen Square . . . man I'm getting old. And in China, the government is still hiding their crime.

The Slenderman Stabbing

I'm sure you've heard the media jump on the story about the two local 12 year old girls who stabbed their friend after hatching a murder plot, then tried - so far successfully - to blame it on the influence of the video game character SlenderMan. 

I saw some Alpha Male sheriff, looking all howdy doody in his little dress up costume, give a stern lecture about the dangers of the game and boy did the local stations slurp up his crap. 

For the record, SlenderMan is a thin, very tall, faceless paranormal being who inhabits a first person horror game that is downright, legitimately pulse-raising creepy. I wish I'd come up with such a scary, iconic character. 

 All of my kids know of the game, and OJ and PD have played it. I've watched them play it, I've heard them talk about it, and I don't have a problem with it - and that's coming from someone who enforces a no-video game system household. We have no Playstation, X-Box, etc. None. These 12 year old's hacked away at their friend because they are sick, warped f**ks, not because of some computer game.

Shame on the media (yet again) for jumping on the nearest bandwagon. Once the SlenderMan angle falls short, they'll start talking about how the girls were bullied, boo-hoo. Just you watch.

Ugh.

Table Ettiquette

Ann B Davis

RIP Ann B Davis, beloved live-in housekeeper to us all.

The Matrix

I sat down to watch The Matrix with YaYa and was prepared to a) argue in defense of its worth and b) explain it BUT she surprised me by saying at the outset that she's seen it before and that it was one of her favorite movies. Huh. Well, okay then 🙂

Unbelievable! Gross Incompetence

I just checked my bank account and was floored when I discovered that iconic downtown restaurant Real Chilli charged me ........$1708.21 (!) for a couple of hot dogs for the kids and a bowl of chili. I got the # for the restaurant owner who said he saw the charge go through, knew it was an error, and lacking my name, was "waiting for an angry customer to call". Well, mission accomplished. There is a mortgage check and utility payments in the mail and now disaster looms, although the owner claims he'll cover all charges if that happens before he can reverse the charge Monday morning. What a life.

Spring Grades

Spring grades were posted. I didn't do as well as I hoped, notching only a B and a B- and taking a 2.912 GPA into the fall. 

The B in Civil Procedure ticks me off, b/c even in looking over the material in retrospect, I thought I kicked ass on the final. I'm left shaking my head and wondering what I have to do to earn an A.

Maybe it's beyond me. 

That said, that B- in Property Law features an obligatory reduction of my final grade because car trouble caused me to be late for the final, and the Professor informed me of the penalty before I was allowed to start the exam. Sooooooo, looking at it in that light, and remembering the awful stress that put on me in the moment, I guess I'll notch that as a shaky "win", or at least a draw.

As is almost always the case, EGBAR.