As we recover from our Thanksgiving Day engorgement, I would like to say that I am thankful to live in such an amazing time. So much air and pixels are devoted to the bad in the world, but the fact is that I see so much progress, from sitting on the edge of the commercial space flight era, to medical breakthroughs promising so much hope to the formerly hopeless, to the fact that, with so much violence and bigotry in the world, we can still see humanity becoming more open minded and tolerant towards each other. With each passing generation old prejudices and mores are looking more and more like embarrassing relics of the past. I’m thankful for the Wife, the Bug, the critters and all of my wonderful friends and family. And I’m thankful for you, one of the, what, five or six people who might actually read this.
Courtesy Nerdgasm (https://www.facebook.com/NerdgasmOnline)
- Comet ISON – did it or didn’t it?
- NASA says maybe.
- Donte (W)Hitner? More like Donte Whiner (see the last item in this bullet list). San Francisco is still can’t accept the fact they got beat. I rarely recommend reading comments sections, but the WhoDat’s are out in force on this one, including these two excellent points:
- “Brees didn’t make the call, maybe next time try to gain more than 200 yards on offense and allowing less than 400 yards on defense. Even with two gifted turnovers they couldn’t blow the saints out.”
- “Oh, I see Brees “used” the penalty to win the game. Brees didn’t throw the flag, the ref did. What is he supposed to do? Lay down and lose? Hey SH*tner, sometimes calls go for you sometimes they go against you. You guys had two chances to stop the Saints, you didn’t. And you had a chance to go down and score your own field goal at the end. You didn’t. I swear there is no end to these whiny Whiners whining.”
- I thought one of my favorite Cubs the last few years, David “Lover” DeJesus might be coming to Baltimore. Turns out it’s a different DeJesus.
- The Wizards beat Milwaukee in overtime for their 5th win in 6 games. For a team that has struggled in three areas in recent years – (1)on the road (2)in overtime (3)against teams they “should” beat – this was a very nice victory. If they can split their last two games of November they will have fulfilled my pseudo-prediction of a 6-3 finish to the month.
- The game tonight against the Indiana Pacers is the tougher of the two contests – the Wizards will close out the month against an Atlanta Hawks team that has, as of now, lost 3 straight. For the streaking Wizards though, tonight is the very definition of a “measuring stick” game.
- Speaking of measuring stick games, the Saints travel to Seattle to take on the 10-1
RoidHawksSeahawks. Not going to write much about this, because I’m damn nervous, even with more PED suspensions hitting the Seattle defense this week. - But, don’t suggest that the Saints are your typical dome team that can’t win on the road. In fact, they might be the best road team in the NFL. Just ask Sean Payton.
- The Cubs meme for this weeks pixels has been “99% that Samardzija will be traded this off season.” These reports come from the always reliable “industry sources.” I won’t suggest that anyone is “lying” or “making things up”, but if these things were reported more honestly it would be something like, “99% that Samardzija will be traded if Jed and Theo can get exactly what they want for him.” They aren’t trading him just to trade him (Baltimore, it’s probably taking Weiters, Gausman and/or the fabulously named Dylan Bundy, plus other pieces, to get him).
- Set your reminder for “The Whole Gritty City” coming to CBS on February 15th, it should be a dynamite documentary on New Orleans and it’s complicated ties between culture and poverty.
- This is funny – as people debate whether or not Steelers coach Mike Tomlin intentionally interfered with Jacoby Jones last night, Torrey Smith says it was just a little stanky leg. For the record, I actually don’t think it was intentional, I think he was watching it on the Jumbotron and went, “oh crap, he’s about to run into me!” at the last second.
- Sometimes fan theories about movies are awesome and this is one of the best I’ve seen – The horrifying truth about the Labyrinth.
- If anyone is in Annapolis tomorrow you can see some great music for a great cause at JessFest Annapolis 2013. I’ll be going to support my good friend Tim Atkinson, who writes some great original tunes.
- Mysterious internet mystery is mysterious…
- I may have posted this in the past, but just in case, this is a cool case of artist collaboration.
- Being the new father of a little girl, I am so happy to read intelligent takes on how women are used and portrayed in the music industry.
- Musicians will appreciate this, and, no, I’ve never heard any of these things at sound check.
- Louisiana Tech is tearing down one of my old
gulagsdorms. Ah, the memories (of broken elevators, non-functional AC and trains going past your window at 3AM)… - Closing this weeks filaments with a new feature, the Song of the Week. In honor of black Friday I give you Nickel Creek with Spit on a Stranger.
