After Glow

Since I'm not a big hoops, hockey, or golf fan (although I do enjoy bringing the hate to a few of the male golfers who've pissed me off in the past by spewing some arrogant bullshit...and I won't mention any names like Singh, Lefty, or Montgomery), sports-wise all I can really do these days is bask in the after glow of the Giants beat-down of the hated New England Patriots in the Super Bowl a few weeks back. Mmmm...good times.

This time of year is my Sports Black Hole. Baseball season is weeks and weeks away. I appreciate basketball and do cheer heartily for my local team (Go Warriors!) and my school team (Go Bears!), but basketball really kind of stresses me out, so it's not good for my escapist diversion needs like football is. I cheer for the local hockey team (Sharks), but hockey is best live, and going to a game is not a financial reality.

Being a sports fan, one of my most-utilized escapist diversions is sports talk radio--flawed and oft-maddening as it may be, what with the endless parade of white male hosts bringing a near-uniform perspective. But for me, sports talk radio is really the pits this time of year. I guess the best I can hope for is that the Bill Belichick "Spygate" scandal has "legs." I could be nicely entertained listening to that drama for a while.

Anyway, in case you missed it, here's big-time Giants fan Carl giving his post-Super Bowl joy-rant. Good stuff!

Webb Wins in Australia

All you academic Super Bowl bloggers, please take note: Karrie Webb's playoff win over KLPGA superstar Ji-Yai Shin lends even more weight to my thesis that the LPGA will be more interesting than the PGA this year. Not because Shin will be competing regularly in the U.S.--we have to wait till 2009 for that. And not because the showdown in Dubai between Tiger Woods and Ernie Els lacked drama--heck, Tiger's chasing down Els made the top sports news everywhere, despite the biggest upset in Super Bowl history happening the same day. And not because J.B. Holmes did what Shin was unable to do and knocked off Phil Mickelson in a playoff on the PGA Tour itself.

No, it's the fact that Webb, who started the 2007 season as Lorena Ochoa's top contender but never got it going on the LPGA despite winning two early-season events in Australia, is finally showing signs of life again. Her win is more impressive than Annika Sorenstam's win in Dubai at the end of the 2007 season--stronger field, clutch play down the stretch, a come-from-behind win over one of the best players in the world playing near her best--and immediately makes my prediction that there are 20 other players on the LPGA with better chances than her of becoming the 2008 Player of the Year look mighty dumb. (I'd move her up to barely in the top 10 now if I could.)

Now, if Phil or Ernie had won this past weekend, I'd have a little more hope for serious competition among the men happening this year....

Nope, with the most recent wins coming from Lorena Ochoa, Suzann Pettersen, Paula Creamer, Momoko Ueda, Annika Sorenstam, Laura Davies, and now Karrie Webb, I have yet another reason to be excited about Valentine's Day!

Premature and Irresponsible Political Speculation

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that money wins out in the primaries and Hillary and Mitt turn out to be their parties' nominees. What are the odds, do you think, that the likely runner-ups at this point--Obama and McCain--would decide to run together on an Independent ticket? How would you feel about such a scenario? And do you think they'd have a better chance to win the Executive Office outside rather than inside their parties?

Before you answer, check out this piece from the UK on Obama's appeal to moderate conservatives and this one from LA on his bipartisanship emphasis being in the American grain. And consider that while Obama can afford to wait 8 years for another presidential run, McCain can't, so if bridges between them and their party leaders get seriously burned in the coming months, Obama is in a position to demand some serious concessions from McCain (including, perhaps, the top of the ticket) in exchange for joining forces with him.

Sorry, all the sports-style coverage of the primaries has got me thinking like an NFL fan whose team is out of the playoffs (go Bills!) and is looking for ways to make them interesting. To borrow from Oaktown Girl's brilliant and prophetic playoffs post, I'm thinking of Hillary as the Patriots, Edwards as the Chargers, Obama as the Giants, Romney as the Cowboys, and McCain as the Packers.

Yeah, yeah, I know. At least I lived up to the post's title, eh?

[Update 2/8/08: Ah, well I accidentally invoked the Mostly Harmless jinx on Romney. Now if it'll only kick in on my real target. McCain vs. Obama is much more interesting than McCain with Obama.]

Playoffs: AFC/NFC Championship Games

Because everybody has a right to my opinion (optional quickie pre-requisite reading is here.)

Yes, I'm bringing the hate to the new england patriots (small case letters intentional sign of disrespect). Anyone who wants to get up on their high horse and preach about how we should all just enjoy watching the "marvel" that is the 2007-8 patriots can kiss my Black ass. (So pucker up, fools!)

But praise Gojira, I'm not going to spend time here listing all the reasons I hate the pats. Let's talk about some other stuff.

1. Brett Favre - Now, you might think I'd dislike Favre simply because all the hype he gets could indeed make one nauseous. But oddly enough, it doesn't bother me too much. Yes, the yearly "is he or isn't he" retirement drama gets tedious, but in general, I'm cool with the guy. That's mostly because to my knowledge he hadn't said or done anything particularly offensive or stupid.

2. New York Giants - It's rare indeed that I'm ever cheering for a New York team, but damn if I wasn't cheering my butt off for them last week to beat Dallas. (I'm not a New York hater, just a yankee hater). Dallas hasn't been good enough in several years to be "bring the hate" worthy, but now they have enough hate-worthy elements about them to makes watching them lose fun again. And last week was a crushing loss for Dallas. Tony Romo is now 0-for2 in the playoffs. As for head coach Wade Phillips? Please. That dude's always been a joke.

3. Colts - I find the Colts to be a very likable team, and had believed them to be the best hope for stopping the patriots. What the hell happened? Ugly, ugly, ugly loss to San Diego. Damn, even if they had managed to win, they were playing so badly, new england would have stomped the shit out 'em. Pitiful. Just pitiful.

4. San Diego - Well, it was a Pyhrric victory against the Colts. So now with injuries severely limiting if their QB and star running back Ladainian Tomlinson, an upset may take nothing less than all the curses Lord Astaroth can heap upon new england (and boy are they deserving of some fierce interrogation!), as well as the divine intervention of Gojira herself.

The patriots don't turn the ball over much, and it's very frustrating. I'd love to see them get a whole season's worth of turnovers in one game tomorrow. And if not tomorrow, in the Super Bowl. No, I'll never stop dreaming.

5. Ladanian Tomlinson - have you ever just stopped and taken in the name "Ladainian"? If you move beyond the sheer uniqueness of it (or "weirdness" if you feel that way), you'll notice it's a truly lovely sounding name. Elegant, yet stong. Rolls off the tongue like it's royalty or something. Say it a few times. Ladainian.
Mmmm.

6. Cheering Squad - Obviously I'm cheering for San Diego. Well, to be accurate, it's more like "praying for a miracle" than actual cheering. As for the NFC, I'd just like to see a good, competitive, entertaining game. I'll be watching from Ministry of Justice HQ, where the high temperature is supposed to be 51 degrees. High temp in Green Bay is predicted at 11 degrees. Game time temp could be as low as 1 degree, with a wind chill factor of Sweet Lord Astaroth!

Postmodern Sunday: Bakki and Sloucho

Sloucho is still far too busy to start posting here, but he just wrote what would have been a great one over at his paying gig at Fantasy Football Today on postmodern sport. Clearly he's angling for the postmodernism beat here at Mostly Harmless.

Or maybe the tsuma is. Thanks to her, I was able to introduce you earlier to Kimutaku and the Disney version of the "para para" dance that was popular in Japan around the turn into this millennium. Here are a few more versions (non-Disney) based around this character he created for the Smap x Smap variety show he and his bandmates have made the most popular in Japan. So without further ado, I present to you Bakki ...

...at an elementary school:



...in the park:



...at a construction site:



...at a disco bar: