waagnfnp

Update: Wednesday 6/6/07  - Will be on about 8 for some Stanley Cup Game 5 coverage - not looking so good for the Senators though

Join us in the comments for Liveblogging Cavs/Pistons Game 6 (seamlessly intertwined with Ducks/Senators Game 3) starting at 8:00 PM Saturday, June 2nd. (Update: game coverage starts at comment #9)
Sports fans, non sports fans, knitters, left-handers. malcontents, those that belong to the emperor, sockpuppets and and anyone else are welcome.
Seamlessly intertwined, I tell you … seamlessly.

I know that many think that he is a jerk per Open Thread (#9), but if you didn’t see LeBron score the last 25 points in a row for the Cavs in their victory Thursday night (including all of Cleveland’s points in both overtimes) to go up 3-2 in the series, well, then I guess you didn’t see it. I had Detroit in 6, so I’m happily wrong in my prognosticoratoring.

Next game: (i.e. next NE Ohio Post-Traumatic Sports Loss opportunity)
Cavs v Pistons: Game 6 Sat., June 2 at Cleveland, 8:30 p.m. ET, TNT

Which pretty well overlaps with another mega-important sports event:
Senators v Ducks Game 3 Sat., June 2 at Ottawa 8 p.m. ET, NBC, CBC, RDS
At least it is on fracking NBC and not the VS. Channel like the first two games. I know that many of you enjoyed that horse race thingie last Saturday (and yes, I watched the race itself and it was good), but, Michael Michael motorcycle!! What in the hell was NBC doing cutting away from an overtime game over an hour before the frigging Preakness even started? Like are ratings and ad revenue really that important? … not quite the Heidi game, but Jesus. (and I’m afraid that if this one goes to OT, they will cut to a rerun of Law and Order). Official waagnfnp team to cheer for is Ottawa - one of those “Hey! We only lost to the champs” kind of deals for the Pens.

Oh, and Northwestern is still alive in Women’s softball.
Game 5 Friday, Jun 1– Washington vs. Northwestern, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

And as much as I’d love to go on at length about the LPGA, I will defer to the We Are All LPGA Bloggers Now stylings of TC.

Harmonic Convergence of the Geeks - By Oaktown Girl

The Star Wars geeks are all a-twitter over some big 30 year anniversary celebration happening this weekend. It will be all Star Wars, all the time, all weekend.

So let’s talk about Star Trek instead. (Don’t worry, Lucas fans. The WAAGNFNP’s leading Star Wars geek, TC, will give us all a full report on Star Wars next week, including facts, memoirs, free appraisals of your Star Wars memorabilia, and Lord Astaroth knows what-all else).

WAAGNFNP MOOAD Tribunus Laticlavius christian h. has a good Open Thread idea: program 6-8 hours of Star Trek television, from any of the TV series. Tell us which episodes would you choose, in which order, and why. Remember, this is not merely a “favorites” list, so put on your “Spock’s Brain” helmet and get to thinkin’. Yes, you may post as you ruminate, so we can all do some thinking together.

But the MOJ is ever-merciful, and is willing to share this space with all sci-fi/fantasy fans seeking refuge from the Star Wars onslaught. You are welcome to discuss Babylon 5, Buffy, Lord of the Rings (movies), or whatever your little hearts desire - TV and movies only - any topic. Please visit the Readers Anonymous thread for book chat.

Mirror Universe Spock….mmmmm…sexy. DS9’s Captain Sisko once they let him drop the dweeb look and be his natural hot, hunky self…very sexy indeed. So here’s another idea: tell us your secret (or not so secret) Sci fi/Fantasy TV/movie crushes. Go ahead, ‘fess up. The truth will set you free.

Now please enjoy the following nifty edit of “Mirror Mirror”. Definitely worth a look:

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

Well, the Bulls choked game six away yesterday in horrible fashion, the same day the Cubs’ bullpen coughed up the lead for the third time on a seven-game road-trip. The Warriors are already out. Only JP likes LeBron. {Note from the MOJ - I haven’t been following LeBron closely enough to know if he’s been being a pill lately or not, so no official WAAGNFNP opinion on LeBron at this time.} And the A’s are just at .500. {Waaaaahhhh! - MOJ.} So, what to do? What to blog about this weekend?

Well, if Street Sense wins the Preakness this weekend, we will have live blogging for the Belmont (which will surely derail all Triple Crown hopes). But that’s a few weeks away, and only if Street Sense wins the Preakness.

For something to do, drinking comes to mind. Followed by the inevitable hangover. So let’s all share our most embarrassing stories about hangovers, and flashbacks, and come-downs on this blog. {Please enjoy the following highly amusing Family Guy bit where Brian and Stewie are in an Amsterdam cafe and get a “contact high”! -MOJ}

Maybe you’re under 21. Or you are a teetotaler (you think I fashioned this whole post only so I could use that word? Maybe.) Then you have another choice: talk about the NCAA Softball regionals. Not only is Northwestern really good (ahem), it’s also a very interesting sport. No-hitters galore! Eileen Canney had 28 strikeouts in an 18 inning complete game in 2006.)

Or, talk about anything that comes to mind, even the LPGA - it’s an open thread, after all. Anyway, I’m off for some field studies regarding the first topic. Giving my sanity to science, as it were.

[Update: Thanks to JP for his topic-inspiring comment here. I know drunk/high stories are a little heavy on the intellectual side for a weekend Open Thread, but hey, we gotta stop fooling around and get serious every now and then, right? -MOJ]

Up until 1970 i used to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, the very merry month of May, with the rest of the Californios. After that, it became just another day in another month, a post-fourth of May acknowledgement of that dreadful moment in US History. Well in honor of all of those killed by our governments’ evils, i propose that we accept lists of the top-ten, alltime, worst, governmental administrations in world history. Bushco clearly has moved into the top spot in the US pantheon, but is it so horrible, so corrupt, so imperiously evil as to even garner a nod in the top-ten all time on the planet; and by what do we measure that dark force’s influence??? The candidates are nearly unlimited, even if we just stick to the 20th century. But buried deep in the minutiae of history’s dustbins and rubbish piles are some real winners spread across the continents. For example, i might consider Pizzaro more vile than Pinochet, but another would take Colombus over Cortez. Richelieu or Torquemada? I might consider Rove vastly more evil than either Bush or Cheney?? Go have fun with this one, while i research my fabulous ten and post later today.

Well, the frenzied fun of the Kentucky Derby Live Blogging pretty much blew out Open Thread (#6), so here’s a fresh one because there’s just so much going on this weekend - NBA and NHL playoffs, TC tells us there is LPGA action this weekend, a boxing match that is supposed to save boxing, and of course Paris Hilton possibly maybe actually doing jail time saving the corporate media from having to possibly maybe actually perform their duty to keep us informed of things that really matter.

A tip of the MOJ’s gavel to WAAGNFNP newcomer Ya Ya who not only picked the Derby winner, but picked it with authority. Maybe Ya Ya will resurface later this weekend when she reemerges from her Oscar De La Hoya-induced swoon.

Me, I’m missing a killer concert because I’m stuck inside with a horrible cold. So I rented a couple of movies. One is a Czech film, and the other is this one:

Which, can you believe, I still have not seen and it came out in 2000?

Live Blogging the Kentucky Derby!
Sat. 5/5/07 beginning one half hour before start time: 5:30pm Eastern, 2:30pm Pacific. Start time for the race is (I belive) 6:04pm Eastern, on televised on NBC.

[Hey Folks, I’m still fighting a bad cold, so there will be more links than writing here. But that’s OK because I’m not a writer anyway!]
***************

Tomorrow will be the 133rd running of the Kentucky Derby. How many of you know these names: Oliver Lewis, Jimmy Winkfield, or Isaac Murphy?

Oliver Lewis was the winning rider in the very first Kentucky Derby in 1875. He was also Black. In fact, African American jockeys dominated the sport in this country until the dawn of the 20th century:

From Tony McClean:

African-American jockeys rode 14 of 15 horses in that first Kentucky Derby. The horse racing sport was built with the talents of Blacks whose jobs typically included trainer, jockey, and owner.

From the Library of Congress’ review of the definitive Edward Hotaling book, Great Black Jockeys:

Decades before baseball player Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier to become the “first” black to play with whites in modern professional sports, black and white jockeys were competing alongside one another on racetracks such as Saratoga.

What happened? Again, from Tony McClean (part II of his article):

To no surprise, some white jockeys resented the choice mounts and big money earned by successful Black riders. Races became combative including several riots between Black and White jockeys in Chicago.

Isaac Murphy

Who has it worse: The poor sap who has to go through Astaroth-only-knows-how-many levels of Dante’s hell trying to reach a real live useful human being at the Help Desk, or the Tech Support person who has to answer the calls?

This Open Thread is dedicated to Loyal Party Patriot “Seattle.” I’m sure she’ll be happy to tell you why!

Video from Bore Me.

Life Changing Moments of Highs and Lows
{in praise and thanks to Amanda French}

This has been one hell of a week (the last seven days). From the IPCC report, released in its toned-downed version and yet still deeply troubling and downright scary, to the questioning of the US Attorney General, withering under the surprising assault of his own party faithful for his complete dereliction of duties and gross mismanagement of the Department of Justice and the US Constitution (perhaps it was only just neglect and endangerment, but still, if this had been a hearing in family court, the judge would have immediately revoked his visitation privileges). Sandwiched in there were some great professional sports moments (the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s taking the field for the boys in blue), some environmental fun (the Great Turtle Race {and yes I am cheering for Stephanie Colburtle), and hideous evil acts of violence.

In the spirit of this past week and this upcoming weekend, and in the hope of inoculating some sort of anti-despair vaccine, the old cynical me will take a brief respite to talk about seeing the highs through the lows and the music that helps make that so.

Continue Reading »

We have all heard of the famous Monty Hall problem, and only the most stubborn
still disbelieve the solution - you gotta switch!

In this spirit, here’s another one. Let’s say you have a choice of two envelopes containing money, one of them twice as much as the other. You are not, however, told how much money. You select one envelope; a person opens the envelope you chose and gives you the opportunity to change your choice to the other envelope. What should you do? Is there a paradox here, and if so, how is it resolved?

We accept all answers - mathematical, poetic, political,…

Also, this is an Open Thread.

It’s How You Play (or Write About) the Game

By JP Stormcrow

A kinder, gentler intro to the rituals of surrogate warfare this weekend. I will attempt some calm, cool, collected liveblogging of the NCAA semis (~6:00 and 8:45 PM EDT Saturday) and invite all to join in (even if you are not watching the games.) [And I might throw a little Pens in there if I need a fast-paced break from the giants lumbering up and down the hardwood.] 

In the meantime, Open is as Open does, so have at it. A suggested topic is folks’ favorite sports writing (fictional, autobiographical or actual sportswriting.) [And despite my transparently dishonest attempt at taking a positive approach above, I will note that even Grantland Rice’s famous Against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again piece focuses on oppositional fear.]

Oh, and I just wanted to say There is nothing old under the nebular collapse created by a supernova shock wave again, because I can and it is so original. A continuing hat tip to James Killus.

[Update: Picked up this amusing link from Crooked Timber. You may also want to try this blast from the past future or this little escapade.]

[Update #2 - Monday evening: Please go ahead and liveblog tonight’s championship game on this thread. I am at a family member’s house out here in meatworld - so need to maintain minimum level of social interaction, but will try to pop in on breaks. In comments spyder points out what is at stake tonight:

Aaaahh the state that stole another presidential election for Bushco competes against the first state]