Weekend Wrap-up 6-10-2006

Blog site on fritz, blogger goes insane

Yep, folks, the reason that I haven't posted since Wednesday is because the Blogger site had some kind of mechanical problems, and I couldn't log on. To make up for my absence and just because I love you guys, this week's Weekend Wrap-up will be a little longer. :-)

Dallas Maverick win Game 1

Normally I save the sports stuff until the end of my Weekend Wrap-ups, but I'm so excited by the Mavs finally getting to the finals and winning game 1 that I couldn't wait to get to this entry. First, it was an ugly win, but more important than that is that it was a win. The one thing that I did see right off the bat for the Mavs to work much harder on is rebounding. They were outrebounded as a team for the first time in this playoffs. And unlike the Phoenix series, driving to the basket to get the foul won't work as well against someone the size of Shaq. This stresses the need for the Mavs to work on their perimeter shots and their 3 pointers.

However, unlike both the San Antonio and Phoenix series, it didn't take a first game loss for the Mavs to learn how to adjust to a new team. That's a good sign, and it's also why I'm changing my prediction for this best-of-seven series. Before I had said that the Mavs will win it in 6. Due to this mid-game adjustment in game 1 to win it, I now think that the Mavs can win it in 5. :-D

Terrell "Terrible" Owens wears Shaq's jersey to Mavs game

Remember that old Jim Croce song that has these lyrics? “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. You don’t pull the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger and you don’t mess around with Jim.” Well, Terrell “Terrible” Owens would do all those things.

In probably an indication what is likely to come for the Dallas Cowboys, T.O. came to the Mavs game wearing a Miami Heat jersey with Shaq’s number. He had on a Mavs’ hat, but the whole thing smacked of an ego trip to get attention. The best thing to do would have been to ignore him –which is the last thing he’d want –but the sports media isn’t about to ignore someone as controversial as T.O. I hope some huge Mavs fan gave him a wedgie.

Man-hugging blog entry

On a site that I frequently post on, I posted the text of my man-hugging blog entry from earlier this week. Boy, I tell ya, that started a conversation the length of which I did not expect. Apparently, some folks take this issue very seriously, and I was lectured on how things are done differently in other countries and how in some countries, men even kiss and hold hands as well as hug. Well, gol-ly! I guess we've been doing it all wrong, then! Others talked about how they (the men, that is) aren't keen on man-hugging largely because their fathers weren't affectionate in that way with them.

Seriously folks, that blog entry was meant more as tongue-in-cheek humor rather than as a serious expression of dissatisfaction of hugging my fellow men. Yeah, I'll hug my buds and male family members --it's really not that big a deal. I just found Randy Galloway's column the topic funny enough to mention here and on that other site; I didn't mean to open up anyone's repressed memories of how they didn't get along with their fathers and such. By all means, go hug those men!

But I still prefer to hug women. That hasn't changed.

Hillary, Gore and Kerry: The Democrats' 3 Stooges

In this column, Peter A. Brown comments on Hillary Clinton's recent showing in Florida, in which she couldn't pull 50% even against GOP unknowns. According to conventional wisdom (I just gotta find out who this "Conventional Wisdom" guy is, since they quote him so much), a candidate who can't get 50% against an unknown is not likely a winnable candidate. Well hell, I coulda told them that about Hillary Clinton. Hillary has too much baggage to win as president. Plus, her recent attempt to "reinvent" herself as a moderate comes off as so phony that it's unbelieveable even by a politician's standards. The main draw for her running in the first place is largely that she will be the first female candidate to run as president. But this is a novelty that won't work as intended so long as Hillary is the candidate. No doubt that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have literally a file cabinet or two of stuff that they can bring up against her should she indeed become the Democratic Party's candidate for president.

Other possible candidates include Al Gore and John Kerry. I say, no and no. They both lost to Bush, despite having so much working in their favor; especially Kerry, who couldn't beat a wounded candidate who had a poor showing in the debates. So I say go with somebody else --someone who isn't known to be a liberal hack. Go with someone who really could be a draw, even for members of the GOP. My recommendation would be Joe Leiberman. It's not going to happen, of course, but if the Dems really were serious about unseating the GOP's power structure, this this sort of bold move is what they would need to do. Too bad that it ain't gonna happen.

"Animal House" raided

In a case of life imitating art, the fraternity house that inspired the 1978 movie "Animal House", was raided by the police after a two-year investigation. Thanks largely to this movie and the reinforcement given by stations such as MTV, universities now seem to have a reputation for using time in college to party and get drunk. I think that's unfortunate. I don't mean to be a prude, but I'm rather tired of hearing how some college student literally drank him or herself to death because they overdosed on alcohol. Time spent in college is supposed to be a time of learning --but what does a college student learn when they drink themselves to death?

Many universities have been trying to fight this perception of college life being a 4-year long bacchanalia, but at this point in time, it's an uphill battle. But it's a battle that still needs to be fought. These young people work so hard to get where they are, and their parents spent so much time and love on their children, and for what? For these parents to lose thier children in such a way as death by alcohol overdose, there's no other way that this can be described than as as a senseless tragedy. This insanity needs to stop, folks, and colleges need to dry out. I don't mean to end this blog entry on a down note, but this is a serious matter that needs addressing.