Yao Ming Playing Well

Yao Ming is playing well, but the Houston Rockets are not. It's too bad for Yao, who is putting up the best numbers of his career, that Tracy McGrady is out. While the games might be relatively meaningless for the Rockets at this point, Yao is playing great, with double-doubles in 12 of his last 14 games, scoring 20 points or more in every game during that stretch. I might have to try and catch a few Rockets games on TV while their season's still going.

Tags: basketball, NBARockets, Yao Ming

Knicks Beat the Pistons

What's that? The basement-dwelling Knicks beat the Eastern Conference Champion Pistons? I would have never believed it. They won the game in green uniforms? Wait a second, isn't there another team (in the same division) that wears Green, Irish-influenced uniforms?

Is this a new Knicks tradition? Those are ugly uniforms. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if they played the Celtics on St. Patrick's Day and broke those green duds out?

Tags: basketball, Detroit Pistons, NBA, New York Knicks, St. Patrick's Day, uniforms

Doughnut Plant

Doughnut Plant
379 Grand Street (between Essex & Norfolk Streets)
New York, NY 10002
Phone/Fax: (212)505-3700

I went to this place on Saturday morning. It was well worth it. Much better than Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donuts, this store usually sells out of doughnuts by 2pm. We bought a ton of doughnuts including chocolate cake, cinnamon cake, coconut creme, jelly and orange glaze. The cake doughnuts were the worst, and the coconut creme was the best. The doughnuts were huge and I had a sugar high for a while afterwards. Check it out if you're on the Lower East Side. I was going to try and post a photo but for some reason the Blogger photo uploading is having problems.


Tags: doughnut, donut, Lower East Side, New York City, restaurant

Pearl Jam's New Album

Pearl Jam has a new self-titled album coming out in May, their first in three or so years. It's their first with their new label, J records, and it looks like the band is making a pretty big push, with a website makeover, release of their new single, World Wide Suicide, on myspace (it's no longer available) and now the single available on iTunes, complete with a second track from the album, Unemployable. They've also announced a tour. Maybe my favorite band will actually become current again.

This is my first post in March!


Tags: music, Unemployable, World Wide Suicide

Knicks Car Wreck

Watching the Knicks is like watching a car wreck. You can't stop watching but it's so gruesome!

Take this Steve Francis trade. Francis isn't a bad player, but is he going to improve the Knicks? Now they have Francis, Jamal Crawford, and Marbury all fighting for playing time in the guard position. If Francis and Marbury play alongside each other, they'll be undersized at the guard position. Also, they are both are point guards who can score but aren't known for their passing ability.

Larry Brown, who supposedly emphasizes defense, now has Marbury, Francis and Jalen Rose, all players who are considered to think more about scoring than defense.

Contract-wise, things aren't much better, the trio of Francis, Marbury and Crawford are locked up through 2008-2009 season. As an aside, before this trade, 4 of the 12 players on the worst team in the league are locked up through 2008-2009!

The funny thing is, even though I don't want watch this team play much basketball, I'm totally interested in the soap opera outside the court! I don't know who to blame / credit for this mess but Larry Brown, Jim Dolan and Isiah Thomas have put together the best sports version of "unintentional comedy" I've ever seen.


Tags: basketball, Isiah Thomas, Larry Brown, NBA, New York Knicks, Steve Francis

Thirst Quencher

Over one year ago, I pointed out that Poland Spring had a silly marketing campaign where they labelled their water bottles with the tag line, "Thirst Quencher."

Here's the image again.



This absurd marketing line seems to have spread to their sister company, Deer Park.



Water: a thirst quencher. I think the New York Times should put a label on that says, "reading material" and clothes should include a label, "so you don't go naked."


Tags: bottled water, marketing, slogans

Knicks Acquire Jalen Rose

The KFB Sports corner continues...

The Knicks acquired Jalen Rose and a first round draft pick from Toronto (Denver's pick) for Antonio Davis.

I understand the general philosophy of this trade - get rid of a player who isn't going to make an impact on the team in general because he's older and has an expiring contract (Davis), acquire a first round draft pick (because they gave away theirs - see Eddy Curry trade), and get a player with a high, but expiring contract next year (Rose). But at the same time, this strategy hasn't been working!

Let's say the Knicks never made the Curry trade. They would have had at least the fourth pick in the draft, would have had Tim Thomas's expiring contract to trade away and not have to take on Jalen Rose's max contract. They'd also still be bad.

This sort of trade is what has gotten the Knicks into their current hole. I was trying to do some calculations with the help of HoopsHype. If they hadn't made the Curry trade, Kurt Thomas trade or Jerome James signing, I think they would have been under or close to under the cap next year. Isiah's got to have a little patience instead of just prolonging this wait to get under the cap. No single player, short of LeBron James, could make this team instantly better.


Tags: basketball, Isiah Thomas, Jalen Rose, NBA, New York Knicks

World Baseball Classic

With all the players backing out of the World Baseball Classic in March, and questions about how well people will pitch because they haven't warmed up, perhaps MLB should consider moving the classic to November, after the World Series. That way, if a player got a minor injury they could recover in the three months before spring training. The pitchers would also be in shape in general and have less risk of injury.

I think the World Baseball Classic might be a cool exhibition but the quality of play can't be that good, or at least not as good as it could be.


Tags: baseball, MLB, World Baseball Classic

Super Bowl XL

Unfortunately, I won't be able to see the game tonight. Rather than grace you with an awful pick, here are some questions I have about the game in general:

1) In two weeks, can't you convince yourself of anything? People have invented all sorts of reasons how different things could happen. There's one group that thinks for sure that Pittsburgh will blow Seattle out. Another group thinks Seattle has a chance and can win easily. With two weeks to think about it, I think people can come up with any reason for anything, and convince themselves it's right.

2) Is Pittsburgh's running game that good? It seems like from the playoffs they've done very well throwing short pasess. Their average rush per carry in the regular season was 4.0 yards, which is actually way below Seattle's 4.7.

3) Is the 6th seed in the AFC really better than the 1st seed in the NFC? That's what the oddsmakers say. Granted, if Roethlesberger had been healthy the entire year, the Steelers may not have been #6 (after all, they were 15-1 last year).

4) Will there be any good commercials? Usually there's a ton of buzz for the commercials to look out for. Not so with this game. The pre-game buzz has been fairly low even for the game itself. Did you know Jerome Bettis grew up in Detroit, MI?

5) How good is Seattle's defense? They are 16th in yards allowed and 7th in points allowed. Their rush defense was 5th overall, was that because they were 25th against the pass? Their defense was pretty poor a year or so ago, can a team really turn it around that much in one year?

6) Does it make a difference that Pittsburgh plays a 3-4 defense? Seattle's offensive line is supposed to be one of the best, but they haven't had to match up against a 3-4 this year except for Houston in week 6. The speed and coverages of the 3-4 are a little different than the 4-3, so could this be an edge?

7) The coaching match-up of this Super Bowl may be between two Hall of Famers. Bill Cowher would beat a lot of his demons by winning this one. Mike Holmgren would go down with a select few in professional sports as coaches who have won championships with two different teams. You can check that out - many coaches have brought two different franchises to the championship level but very few have won two with different teams. Of course, the coaches don't play on the field.

8) What happens with the shirts that say "Super Bowl Champions" but are for the losers. For example, there must have been a ton of "Super Bowl XXXIX Champions - Philadelphia Eagles" merchandise. Does it just get destroyed? I think that stuff should be given to the homeless.


Tags: football, NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks, Super Bowl, Super Bowl XL

Post Office Shooting

There was a shooting at a California post office facility this morning. I was thinking, why are post offices associated with shootings? What is it about the employees or working conditions that have driven employees to killing their coworkers? Is there something about the hiring practices that are looser than other government jobs, or do they have such horrible working conditions? Certainly it seems like there is a lot of monotony in the job, and customers at the post office aren't particularly nice, but is that any different than other places? It's so bad that if someone is going crazy a common phrase is, "going postal." Nobody ever "goes UPS" or "goes FedEx."

Tags: going postal, post office, post office shooting, postal service, USPS, US Postal Service

Tribal Sovereignty

In honor of the State of the Union address tomorrow, I thought I'd post this amusing clip that I just saw today.

Tags: Bush, George W. Bush, President, President Bush, State of the Union, Tribal Sovereignty

Two Underdogs

Today, two major underdogs vie for Super Bowl berths. I'll try to pick the games. Since the "seeding" format, each Super Bowl has had either a #1 or #2 seed in it. So it seems unlikely that both underdogs would win this week. Also, both home teams are undefeated at home this year, so picking against one of them would be breaking a streak.

Pittsburgh at Denver - If the Broncos can blitz the way they blitzed New England, I think it will be harder for the Steelers than people think. Everyone is high on them the way they played in Indianapolis, and rightly so. Maybe this year the Steelers won't be as tight since they aren't heavy favorites and Cowher can make it back to the Super Bowl (he is 1-4 in Conference Championship games, including several disappointing losses). However, while Pittsburgh's defense should get a lot of pressure on Denver (just as New England did), I think people forget the trouble QB Ben Roethlisberger had with presure last year in the playoffs against the Jets and New England. Denver's front 7 should be able to harass Roethlisberger more than Indianapolis was able to, and I think that will make a big difference. I like Denver here.

Carolina at Seattle - I don't know what to make of the injuries to the Panthers. I have to think they travel well (and Jake Delhomme has only lost one game in the playoffs ever, the Super Bowl versus New England). So I have trouble picking against them, but I think the Seahawks being at home may be the biggest factor. This game is "strength versus strength" with the Panther defense versus the Seahawks offense. I'll go with Seattle, if for any other reason than to cover my ass and get at least 50% of my picks correct. I'd be shocked if both home teams lose.

Another "rule" to watch for - on Conference Championship weekend, one game is usually a blowout and the other is usually close.

Tags: Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos, football, NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks

You Can Call Us Aaron Burr...

...From the way we're droppin' Hamiltons!

Google video allows embedding of videos on your website. Pretty cool discovery. This is the recent SNL smash hit, "the Chronic." I think part of the reason I find this funny is because it's based in New York.





Tags: Andy Samberg, Chris Parnell, The Chronic, SNL, tv

Iran Bans CNN (then lifts the ban)

Iran banned CNN for a brief period after a mistranslation CNN's translation agency made of a speech by the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I am hoping for Iran to misunderstand the Daily Show in the same way a Chinese paper misunderstood the Onion.

Tags: China, Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

FEMA for Kids

Disaster and emergency preparedness geared towards children. Is this the 21st century "Duck and Cover?"






Tags: duck and cover, FEMA,kids

Bank Robber

This story probably won't inspire the next episode of Law and Order. A man in Massachusetts had been robbing banks saying he had a bomb in his bag. It turns out, the bag had books in it. One book was a phone book, with his name and address on the outside.

I guess this breaks the Spaceballs rule of "evil will always triumph because good is dumb."


Tags: off beat news, offbeat news, robbery

24 Season 5

The fifth season of 24 starts tomorrow night, and boy, am I excited! There are four episodes airing between Sun and Mon, and back-to-back is how I tend to enjoy the show the most. Season 4 is the only one I didn't watch consecutively, and it was the one I enjoyed the least. So hopefully this jammed pack set of episodes will provide some relief! On Black Friday '05 I picked up seasons 2 & 3 for $20 each at Best Buy, so I'm pretty psyched to see Jack Bauer break the rules all over again.

Tags: FOX, Jack Bauer, television, TV

NFL Divisional Playoffs

Well, it looks like we're down to 8 teams in the NFL. I missed last week's games, but from the scores, it doesn't look like I missed that much. Here's a brief analysis from someone who hardly follows the NFL these days except to find out if the Jets will get Eric Mangini, Patriots Defensive Coordinator, as their head coach.

Washington at Seattle
The Seahawks are generally tough at home, but the Redskins have been really tough down the stretch, which reminds me of teams like the 2001 Patriots or 2000 Ravens. So which will be a bigger factor here, injuries to the Redskins or Seattle's recent playoff futility? Seattle the last two years has reminded me of the recent iterations of Colts or Vikings that made the playoffs strongly and then lost tragically. I'm not sure what will be the stronger factor, but I think the Redskins keep this one close. Washington takes the 9.5 point spread and possibly even the game.

New England at Denver
I don't like to bet against Tom Brady who is undefeated in the playoffs. The fact that the Broncos beat the Patriots earlier this year doesn't mean much to me. A strange Monday Night game in 2003 where the Broncos with Danny Kannell as QB nearly beat NE (and Belichek took a safety in the end zone) gives me hope that Shanahan could be the coach to beat the Patriots, but I'm not banking on it. Patriots take this one. By the way, a Patriots victory would further prolong the Jets coaching situation, so my pessimistic inner-Jets fan has to go with New England here. I'll take the Pats. I think if you can only watch one game this weekend, this might be it.

Pittsburgh at Indianapolis
If the Steelers win this, I'd be shocked. The Colts were playing great, got a little derailed, but should be back on track, and at the dome. I'm not so sure about that spread, though. While the Colts destroyed the Steelers in the first match-up, this one should be a little closer, but even closer means the Colts cover.

Carolina at Chicago
This game made me wonder, "what's the over/under?" since both teams aren't known for their offense. I think the Bears can take this one but it's not really based on any fact or observations, other than that the Panthers are pretty inconsistant. I think there's some home advantage here as well. I suspect the game will come down to the turnovers and Steve Smith. If Chicago keeps the ball safe and contains Smith, they should win. This will be a close game where field position will make the difference. I'll take Chicago.

So the KFB predicts that next week we will see:
Washington at Chicago
New England at Indianapolis

Tags: NFL Playoffs, Playoffs

Spider-Man's New Duds

Marvel Comics has just announced that Spider-Man will be getting a new costume, and just released this image of it.



This sort of reminds me of the "Superman Blue" costume (below). When Superman donned these silly duds (along with gaining electrical powers) we all knew he would switch back. Now it looks like Spidey's getting the same revamp.



Of course this isn't the first time that Spider-Man has changed costumes, and the responses have been mixed in general. Perhaps one of the more popular costumes was a black, living costume that he received during the Secret Wars series. After Spider-Man realizes the costume is alive and tries to get rid of it, the costume finds another suitor, Eddie Brock, a Daily Planet reporter. This combination becomes Spider-Man's popular enemy, Venom.

More recently, Spider-Man underwent a pair of unpopular costume changes. The first, pictured was the Scarlet Spider costume, and the second was a modification of the classic red and blue. I'm not sure why the red and blue modification was so unpopular but the hoodie of Scarlet Spider just looks a bit silly. Fan dislike for these costumes is probably related to the fact that they were the result of the awful clone saga crossover that featured other events that were eventually reversed, such as Aunt May's death.




(Comic covers from www.comics.org - the grand comic book database)

It seems safe to say that even though I don't really like the new yellow and red Spider-Man costume, it doesn't matter what I think since it probably won't last and is only a temporary change.

Tags: comic books, comics, Marvel, spider man, Spiderman

The Daily Show / Burger Joint

I went to a taping of the Daily Show tonight followed by a visit to Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien Hotel. Then, I made some ice cream with a new Cuisinart ice cream maker I got for Christmas.

I was going to take a photo of the Daily Show set while we were there but we were strictly prohibited from doing so. I thought I might be able to sneak a glance with my camera phone by why risk getting kicked out?

The show was pretty funny, and the guest was New York Times writer James Risen, who broke the NSA phone tap story. In general, I think the show's quality has declined since Stephen Colbert left for the Colbert Report. There were bits by Rob Corddry and Ed Helms, but no major segment, just a lot of news. The headlines were funny but I was hoping that they might get into the Alito hearings. The main focus was Harry Belafonte's visit to Venezuela and Dick Cheney's recent health troubles.

Burger Joint was the site of an excellent burger, on par with Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. The menu is very limited - pretty much burgers only. Very tasty, tight quarters for seating.

The ice cream maker makes good ice cream. Last night I made strawberry which was pretty time intensive but very good. The consistancy was a little soft (like a thick milkshake) after it came out of the machine but after overnight freezing it was solid. Tonight I made just plain vanilla and it came out like softserve. I think chocolate chip or cookies and cream would be very successful here.