Thursday, June 30, 2005

D-Rays Fans, Unite!

Amazing to think that not only are there enough Devil Rays fans out there to warrant a fan site, but there's enough to create a sub group of fans who want the current owner, Vince Naimoli, to give up control of the team. Such a young franchise, and it's always finished in last. Hard to imagine there being a significant fanbase. These days, being "loveable losers" isn't easy.

All Look Same?

The president-elect of Iran looks exactly like a guy who was involved in the 1979 US hostage situation. This news seems a bit frightening and also very believable. Then again, maybe it's a case of mistaken identity? Is there an alllooksame.com the former hostages could take for Iranians?

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Poor Jets

Seems like everybody's getting a brand new stadium except them, and theirs was the highest profile project of them all. Mets? Yankees? New places across the street. Nets? Brooklyn. Giants? Renovating Giants Stadium. The Jets? Nothing, and they spent tons of time and money advertising for their project.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Elevators

Some observations about riding elevators.

When two people are stuffed into an elevator with a bunch of other people, they usually stop talking. If they continue talking, especially at a loud volume, they get glares from the other elevator occupants. The glares are indicative of the hostility often involved with riding the elevator (check out the looks on faces when an elevator stops at a floor and nobody gets on or off -- always unhappy). People tend to avoid standing in the center of the elevator as well. But when the elevator's not particularly crowded, there's a certain comfort in the elevator in conversing with strangers or making little jokes. It's almost like the quick version of the "single serving friend" they talked about in Fight Club.

Monday, June 27, 2005

Umbrella Case

Make a list of items that seem to get lost often, and you'll often find on it: sunglasses, gloves, socks. (Aside: when you lose a single sock, you might as well have lost the pair, since one sock is fairly useless)

Add to the list of lost items the umbrella case. It's never easy to fit the case back on the umbrella once you've used it, and there's no good place to put the case while you're walking around with the umbrella.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Frequent Flier

In those parts of the world that use the metric system, do you think they get frequent flier "miles" or "kilometers?"

Since all the airlines share frequent flier programs, do you think you would have to convert your frequent flier miles to frequent flier kilometers and vice-versa? I thought maybe those countries using the metric system might get frequent flier "points" which were equivalent to miles but seemingly arbitrary per flight. Royale with Cheese, anyone?

French Things

French toast in China was made on french bread. I was wondering if that was because they took the "french toast" concept too literally, or if french toast in France was really on french bread. Then again, in France, if you just order "toast," do you get french toast? Is that like getting "bacon" in Canada?

This got me thinking, is french toast even French? For that matter, are french bread, french maids and french knit things from France? French fries are from Belgium. But then, what about Belgian Waffles?

3-7

This is why the Yankees will not make the 2005 playoffs (my first prediction to go in the "Predictions" section). They are 3-7 versus the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

I'm not off the bandwagon yet... but I've got one leg dangling off the edge.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Amstel Light

I usually drink an Amstel Light if I'm having a beer. The other night, when I ordered just "Amstel," a friend told me that she had never heard anyone order a "regular" Amstel. I said that whenever I order "Amstel," I usually get an "Amstel Light" and that I didn't think there was a regular Amstel. When the waitress came back, she said she couldn't find "Amstel" that they only had "Amstel Light" in the back. This got me to wondering, "Is there a non-light Amstel?" It would certainly make sense, although I've never had a miscommunication where ordering "Amstel" got me the non-light beer.

To resolve this question, I went to Amstel's website. There is definitely an Amstel non-light beer, but I'm not sure if it's available in the United States. It is, according to their web site, available in 75 countries, but which countries is not apparent. You can buy Amstel Light on Freshdirect, but not plain "Amstel."

Snapple Ice Pops

I wish I was in Union Square last night so that I could have seen the giant Snapple popsicle disaster. Snapple, trying to make the largest ice pop ever, failed, and it melted all over Union Square. Apparently there was some problem when they had to put it upright in order to qualify for the Guinness Book of Records. The rats in the sewers must have loved all the Snapple that was all over the place.

This reminds me, how great a job would it be to be the Guinness World Records inspector? First of all, you probably get to go to all these exotic locales and see all sorts of exciting things. Secondly, you are the arbiter in determining if it's even a success. In the case of the ice pop, the Guinness guy gets to say, "Nice ice pop, but it's got to be upright."

Monday, June 20, 2005

Pink Floyd: The Wall

I thought I ought to see "The Wall" considering that I have heard much of the music, and I don't have the familiarity with a lot of 70's rock. You can see in this film how this was definitely the era where MTV was started, and the vignettes are pretty interesting. But a lot of it is over my head as well. The animated sequences, convoluted storyline, and imagery are all strong, but in the end, I can't synthesize the concepts well enough to really understand what's happening.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that it's a really elaborate and confusing music video. Perhaps it needs to be seen while using some sort of drugs for best appreciation.

Saturday, June 18, 2005

Metrostars???

I'm watching MSG Sportsdesk, a local cable sports highlight show so that I can catch up on the action from the Yankees and Mets today. Instead, the lead story of Sportsdesk is of the NY/NJ Metrostars, the local MLS entry. How do the Metrostars warrant the lead story of Sportsdesk? Time to change to ESPNEWS.

Friday, June 17, 2005

A Bus Trip to Boston

Two anecdotes from a recent bus trip I took to Boston:

I learned from the last bus trip that the best way to stay occupied on the bus was to either sleep or watch DVD's. So I armed myself with a mini DVD player and two discs of Seinfeld Season 4 and Super Size Me, a Netflix disc that I had in posession for several weeks.

When I got on the bus, I took the window seat, and it was packed. The guy who sat next to me must have been 300 lbs and was ready to crush me. He carried a large soda cup that nestled into the area between his tit and belly quite well. I was a little apprehensive about watching Super Size Me at this point, but I figured, "What the heck?" and popped it in. The first five to ten minutes of the movie are full of shots of fat people, so I angled the player to prevent my oversized neighbor from seeing that I was watching a movie that ridiculed him. Fortunately I had headphones. At the rest stop, I had to get off the bus, and this guy was so large it was awkward for him to step into the aisle, so he saw I was antsy and kept apologizing. Of course, I said, "No problem, it's okay" (but it really wasn't okay).

On the return trip, it turns out I had the same bus driver! What are the odds? I know it was the same guy, not only because of his appearance, but because of his Yankees #12 (Alfonso Soriano?) pin. Midway through, I had to pee like mad, and I wasn't sure if we would make a rest stop. So it was the bus bathroom for me. The bus bathroom is not a friendly place for a male trying to pee, and I was terrified that I would end up nailing my leg after we suddenly stopped. Fortunately, only through luck and great balance, I was able to avoid any messy situations.

Haiku Friday is Dead

I just killed it.

Leaving Friday posts as haiku-only was too difficult -- the positive side was that I would post less on Fridays, but the negative side was that any post I wanted to make became much harder since I only had 17 syllables to use in order to express it.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Barad-Dur


I'm not really sure how to present the details of my two weeks in China on this blog yet, but rest assured, there will be many photos.

That said, I couldn't help but post this photo of the Tomorrow Square building in Shanghai because I really thought it looked a lot like a modernized version of Sauron's tower in Lord of the Rings. And no, I did not know the name of that tower off the top of my head, I had to do an internet search to find it.

Question Answered

I was wondering what would happen to John Madden once ABC decided not to renew Monday Night Football. Now we know. It all worked out fine for him.

Weather

The weather forecast is certainly something that I've enjoyed picking on in this space. But I think I've got good reason. For example, today, accuweather.com suggests that it will be 66 degrees in New York today. On the other hand, weather.com suggests a high of 84. To break the tie, I flipped on the local news channel, NY 1, and it said 88 degrees. Well, I guess 2/3 in the 80's must be right.

Monday, June 13, 2005

Life Is Like A Hurricane

In a fit of nostalgia, I was searching for DuckTales: The Movie on Netflix, only to discover that it's not available on DVD! What gives?

Tangent

My use of the word "entendre" in the previous post brings to mind a conversation that I overheard at a wedding this past weekend.

Apparently, the word "forte" when used in the context of meaning "strength" is pronounced "fort" instead of "for-TAY" like it is in music. Thus, in the usage "Addition is not his forte" you would pronounce the word as "fort."

Of course, this could lead to the pun-tastic expression, "Pronunciation is not his for-TAY."

Synergy

I love synergy, which is why it pleases me that I can link my China trip with this recent post about the Hooters casino.

In Shanghai, heavily advertised in the tour magazines and maps was the only location of Hooters in China. Hooters Shanghai.

I didn't go.

There is, surprisingly, no Hard Rock Cafe in Shanghai. Is Hooters the new Hard Rock? Insert tasteless joke here. Please enjoy the double-entendre.

Job Security

Imagine you worked for a company, and whenever they said, "You're doing a great job, you don't have to worry about this round of layoffs" it actually meant, "Pack up your desk, you're about to get canned."

That's the world of pro sports managers and coaches. Given this, Joe Torre can't be too thrilled about getting the dreaded "vote of confidence" in an article from the NY Times:

---
Over the weekend, the principal owner George Steinbrenner indicated through his spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, that he was pleased with how Torre was handling the team. Steinbrenner said Torre's job was safe, and during this latest losing stretch, he has given no public signs of wanting to fire any coaches, either.
---

You're doing a great job! Your job is safe!

42




Not only is it the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything, it is also the number of free songs on iTunes that I redeemed from Pepsi.

Cablevision

When I heard about this new stadium as part of an alternate plan in New York to get hosting for the Olympics, the first thing I thought was, "What will Cablevision complain about for this plan?"

Sunday, June 12, 2005

First Post Back

is about Las Vegas...

Do you think if you're a man or less attractive woman working at the San Remo hotel in Las Vegas, you're concerned about your job security after this announcement?