Game Three

Red Wings Nicklas Lidstrom (5) celebrates Pavel Datsyuk's (13) goal in the second period with Henrik Zetterberg (40), Tomas Holmstrom (96) and Brian Rafalski (28) as Colorado goalie Jose Theodore skates away dejected. (caption and photo: Detroit News)

Two… out of 148. That’s the number of teams that have come back from a 0-3 deficit in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Ever. From the Rocky Mountain News:

So, for now, the Avalanche will just try to keep the postseason going with a win Thursday night at the Pepsi Center instead of thinking about the prospect of joining the 1975 New York Islanders and 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs as the only teams in Stanley Cup playoff history to claim a series after dropping the first three games.

"We have to win one game," captain Joe Sakic said Tuesday night after the Avalanche's 4-3 loss. "Just keep your heads up and try and get that game and then you never know . . . see what happens. We can only worry about one thing at a time.

"They've got a great hockey team. Definitely they deserve to be up 3-0 the way the series has gone. They've outskated us, outworked us. We didn't quit, we battled back. But it wasn't enough. Hopefully, next game we can find a way to win it and at least extend it and get some momentum."

Interestingly enough, fans in New York and San Jose are singing the same sad song as those in the Mile High City. The Rangers are down 0-3 to the Pens, who have been perfect in the playoffs so far… that would be 7-0, what with sweeping the Sens in the first round and winning all three so far against the Rangers. And Dallas! How ‘bout them Stars? The Stars took second-seeded San Jose to the brink last night, winning a thriller in OT…the second overtime game of the series. No one, and I mean NO one, saw this coming… except maybe for Marty Turco, who’s been hotter than hot. Dallas can wind their series up tonight with a win at home, but I’ll be rooting for the Sharks. I want to see this series go on just a little bit longer…say two more games… before Dallas moseys on up to Deetroit for the conference finals.

But…who’d a thunk it? Not one, not two, but three teams in that 0-3 hole in the second round? In this age of NHL “parity?” Amazing.

About last night, specifically last night in Denver. The game wasn’t nearly as close as the score (or the shots-on-goal) would make it seem. The Wings were in control all the way and handled everything the Avs could throw at them, as well as self-inflicted wounds in the form of two back-to-back bench minors in the third period for too many men on the ice. From The Freep:

A furious attack by the Avs in the third period saw Detroit’s two-goal lead reduced to one when Andrew Brunette scored his second of the game, whacking in Joe Sakic’s rebound at 5:19 during the first of two straight penalties the Wings received for too many men. This baffled Mike Babcock, because he doesn’t remember the Wings taking more than one such bench minor all season.

“It’s not like we were matching or anything, we just made a couple mistakes,” he said. “I guess that’s excitement; I don’t know exactly. But we gave them momentum and then we were able to fight through it. I thought Ozzie made some good saves and yet down the stretch, I thought we got on top of them again.”

The Wings were on top…as evidenced in the final minute of the final period when the majority of play was in Colorado’s zone, with goalie Theodore on the bench. The Avs, try as they might, just couldn’t pull together enough offense to score that last-second desperation goal to tie it. And now they’re staring into the abyss.

I love it.

And…as always, last night’s highlights. All the goals, some of the hits, and some of the saves.

Good Writing, Redux

My Bud Ed in Florida sends the following along… and note the final paragraph. Oh Hell. I’ll highlight it, just so you can’t miss it, Gentle Reader:

DEAR ABBY ADMITTED SHE WAS AT A LOSS TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING!

Dear Abby,
A couple of women moved in across the hall from me. One is a middle-aged gym teacher and the other is a social worker in her mid twenties. These two women go everywhere together and I've never seen a man go into or leave the apartment. Do you think they could be Lebanese?

Dear Abby,
What can I do about all the Sex, Nudity, Fowl Language and Violence On My VCR?

Dear Abby,
I have a man I can't trust. He cheats so much, I'm not even sure the baby I'm carrying is his.

Dear Abby,
I am a twenty-three year old liberated woman who has been on the pill for two years. It's getting expensive and I think my boyfriend should share half the cost, but I don't know him well enough to discuss money with him.

Dear Abby,
I've suspected that my husband has been fooling around, and when confronted with the evidence, he denied everything and said it would never happen again.

Dear Abby,
Our son writes that he is taking Judo. Why would a boy who was raised in a good Christian home turn against his own?

Dear Abby,
I joined the Navy to see the world. I've seen it. Now, how do I get out?

Dear Abby,
My forty year old son has been paying a psychiatrist $50.00 an hour every week for two and a half years. He must be crazy.

Dear Abby,
I was married to Bill for three months and I didn't know he drank until one night he came home sober.

Dear Abby,
My mother is mean and short tempered. I think she is going through mental pause.

Dear Abby,
You told some woman whose husband had lost all interest in sex to send him to a doctor. Well, my husband lost all interest in sex and he is a doctor. Now what do I do?

Remember these people can vote which probably explains the current situation in Washington, DC.

It probably most definitely explains Barack Obama. But leave us not digress. Too much, anyway.

Whimsy

Via Phlegmmy…

I’ve always liked this song (which: Gary Jules' version of Mad World by Tears for Fears), and this video struck me in just the right way this morning. Some people’s creativity is simply astounding, innit? The video is more than worth the wait to download, even if you’re on dial-up. If you have broadband just sit back and enjoy. Twice, even.

―:☺:―

Yesterday’s “Quote of the Day,” (that would be MY term in quotes, not AFA’s) from the Air Force Association’s web site:

“What’s it like being retired?”
“My wife was asking me the other day, ‘What’s it like being retired?’ ... For the first year or so, I had plenty of time on my hands. I would get up whenever I would want in the morning. Nobody called me at night. I didn’t have anybody bugging me about work. No expectations. I could play golf whenever I wanted. And I told her I always wanted to know what it was like to be a Navy admiral.”
—retired Gen. Chuck Wald, joking about his experiences after leaving the Air Force in July 2006 following 36 years of service while addressing a Capitol Hill audience on energy security issues, April 15, 2008.

From a recurring feature titled “Verbatim,” which changes daily…

Word Verification...

Most of you have noticed Blogger's word verification feature has taken on a "new look" lately... and that ain't A Good Thing. I turned my word verification OFF this morning, simply because the new word pictures are nearly impossible to read. I've had to make four or more attempts at deciphering the word puzzle-pic at numerous blogs today and it's extremely irritating!

If you don't like this new "feature," go here to complain! You'll have to join the group first, though, but it's a fairly easy process. Hell, this Ol' Geezer (that would be me) figured it out, so it can't be THAT hard, eh?

That Was Quick...

Just off the Brown Truck of Happiness... not six minutes ago. Pretty cool, eh? (The shirt, Gentle Reader...the shirt.)

An Early Start

I did something quite unusual (for me) today: I set my alarm clock. Well, that’s not quite true since I no longer own an alarm clock. I set my cell phone, same diff. I had to get up early, as today was The Annual Feeding of the Vampires, courtesy of the Cannon AFB hospital clinic. At 0830 hrs. Which, as you know, Gentle Reader, is as close to the crack o’ dawn as it gets these days, unless I watch the sun come up from the wrong side of the bed. But I was a good boy last evening, retiring sometime just after midnite and sleeping fitfully until the cell phone went off at 0600. I also set the timer on the coffee pot last evening before I hit the sack, so all I had to do this morning was roll out, get the half and half out of the fridge, and pour that first cup: no waiting required.

Nice, that. I’d do it more often… if I kept regular hours.

So…I’m back from the base, the vampires are fed, and the car has been fed, too. At $3.73/gallon (premium). About which: Aiiieee! The Green Hornet took a lil over eight gallons this morning, for a total of slightly less than $32.00. I’d damned sure hate to fill up El Casa Móvil De Pennington at these prices…

―:☺:―

Well, this guy might know a lil something about the Rangers, but it’s clear he don’t know sh!t about Deetroit:

I never liked the Avalanche. Still don't. But, rooting interests aside, I have to give them the edge over Detroit.

Right from the get-go, I never endorsed Mike Babcock having ancient Dom Hasek in goal. Sure, Chris Osgood has been an effective pinch-goalie, but Jose Theodore has been out of his mind all year. In goal, it's no-contest.

Colorado's defense hardly impresses me, while Detroit's -- thanks to Nik Lidstrom -- does. But what I can't feel strongly about is the Red Wings' offense delivering in the clutch.

Nashville proved that the Wings are vulnerable, and I expect that Colorado will be more invasive than the talent-short Predators. Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Ryan Smyth and Paul Stastny comprise a formidable quartet. They should drive Hasek or Osgood nuts, and either replacement will have migraines.

THE MAVEN PICKS: COLORADO IN FIVE

Heh. Need some picanté sauce with them words?

―:☺:―

So… there was this interesting link in Site Meter this morning and I chased it up to find…

Buck Pennington: Docked in Portales

Game Two

“Colorado coach Joel Quenneville, center, and the Avalanche look glum on their bench after Johan Franzen scored his third goal of the game, making it 5-1 and sealing the victory.”
(Detroit News photo and caption.)

Yesterday:

The gloves hit the ice, albeit delicately, and the Joe Louis Arena crowd practically jumped to the roof.

Darren McCarty and Colorado's Cody McCormick engaged in the old hockey warrior's tribal dance -- slowly circling, then gradually moving toward each other, one tempting the other with the question all have waited to be asked in this young series.

Do you want to go?

But in the new NHL, you must first politely request a skirmish with your potential adversary.

"I had to ask him again," McCarty said. "Are you sure? Then let's go."

The pair staged a pugilistic throwback Saturday, reminding us that although the majority of names have changed on the sweaters, there remains an inner hostility when it's the Wings and Colorado on the ice in the playoffs.

The Wings are forcing the fight, applying relentless pressure on the Avalanche and precipitating an avalanche of rapidly falling Colorado intensity and discipline. The Avs already are gasping for breath, and they're a mile down at sea level.

The Wings assumed a 2-0 series lead with their 5-1 win.

But because it's the Stanley Cup playoffs where momentum change is often one unfortunate bounce away, everyone must resist the urge to immediately take a shovel to the Avalanche's chances of making this an interesting series.

The Avs are beaten down physically and mentally. But wasn't Nashville as well two games into the last series?

[…]

Franzen has been this series' star with five goals in two games, including the Wings' first playoff hat trick since McCarty did it six years ago against the Avalanche in the conference finals.

"That's pretty cool," said McCarty, told he had the previous hat trick. "But (Franzen's) caught me now, so that means I've got to do it again."

McCarty perfectly performed his role. This was precisely why fans wanted him back. He's the old-school policeman trying to find his identity within a league that now frowns upon frontier justice.

That’s Drew Sharp, writing in today’s Freep, and note the highlighted bits. D-Mac ain't just an enforcer, to make things perfectly clear. But when it comes to fighting... McCarty can hang in there with the best of 'em. Joe Lewis Arena literally erupted when McCarty and McCormick went at it yesterday, and although the fight was a draw, it certainly energized the crowd. Interestingly, McCarty gets the honor of being in the Wings’ first fight during these play-offs, and yesterday’s fisticuffs at The Joe was just the fifth fight in ALL play-off games to date. The NHL on NBC commentators threw out some fast facts about play-off fights to illustrate just how much the NHL has changed of late. Their first exchange drew knowing chuckles from both color guys… both of whom are ex-players… who began their discussion by mentioning the Wings were “a very different team back in ‘87… when Probert and Kocur were still around.” I’m quoting from memory here, but I seem to recall the announcers saying something to the effect there were 17 fights in the first round alone that year, followed by some astronomical number (that I don’t remember) for the entire play-offs. As for today? Well…this ain’t your father’s NHL. I’ll not get too nostalgic — it’s sufficient to say I miss the old league.

The bigger story, of course, is the Wings’ dominating performance in yesterday’s game, not the least of which was Johan Franzen’s previously mentioned hat trick. Franzen’s nickname is “The Mule” but he’s more like a horse, in that the Wings have saddled him up and rode him to victory in these first two games of the second round. Franzen is also tied for the most goals in the play-offs so far (seven, along with the Flyers Briere)…and to say he’s been stellar in the play-offs so far is an understatement of massive proportions.

Franzen’s performance is just one of the things that make this year’s Wings so dangerous for the opposition, along with guys like Zetterburg, Datsyuk, Holmstrom, Lidstrom, Draper, McCarty…yadda, yadda. And let’s not forget great goaltending… Osgood’s 1.09 goals-against-average is third in play-offs (as of today), and first amongst starting goalies. So, yeah…the sticks are falling the right direction. It looks like the intangibles are there, too, but that remains to be seen. The next two games in Denver will reveal a lot… if not everything… about how far the Wings can go this year.

As for the Avs? Only a fool would count them out, but it sure ain’t looking good for them right about now. Everyone seems to think the Avs will be a completely different team when and if Peter Forsberg gets healthy and returns to the line up. But Forsberg is just one guy. Yeah, he’s good… great, even. Yes, he’s a leader. Yes, he’s a motivator. Yes, his performance has been a key factor in the Avs’ past successes. But Sakic and Foote, just to name two guys, were also “keys to success” in the past, and they haven’t shown up in this series…so far. As I said: all (or most) will be revealed next week at the Pepsi Center. Some guys in Denver ain’t optimistic.

Highlights from yesterday’s game. All the goals, some of the hits, and a brief view of the fight:

Just Before the Game Starts...

Which city in the world has the most billionaires? The answer might surprise ya… I sure was (surprised). It ain’t Noo Yawk but you’d be close, if that was your guess. And Bill Gates is no longer the richest person in the world. He’s slipped to Number Three. Poor Bill, eh?

―:☺:―

Your elected officials (if ya live in Florida) at work:

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Senate lawmakers in Florida have voted to ban the fake bull testicles that dangle from the trailer hitches of many trucks and cars throughout the state.

Republican Sen. Cary Baker, a gun shop owner from Eustis, Florida, called the adornments offensive and proposed the ban. Motorists would be fined $60 for displaying the novelty items, which are known by brand names like "Truck Nutz" and resemble the south end of a bull moving north.

The Florida Senate voted last week to add the measure to a broader transportation bill, but it is not included in the House version.

In a spirited debate laced with double entendre, Senate lawmakers questioned whether the state should curtail freedom of expression in vehicle accessories.

Critics of the ban included the Senate Rules Chairman, Sen. Jim King, a Jacksonville Republican whose truck sported a pair until his wife protested.

The bill's sponsor doubted it would succeed.

"It's probably not going to make it through the process," Baker said on Thursday. "It won't be much of story in a few days."

Yep, they got no balls, those guys… and they don’t want YOU to have any, either. Not visibly, anyway.

Don’t these guys have something better to do? Like change the date on the state’s primary election, or something? Anything?

―:☺:―

One of the downsides of the hockey play-offs is the games pre-empt things I would otherwise watch… for reasons various and sundry. A classic example: The Obamanon’s former pastor, Reverend Wright, was on Bill Moyers Journal (transcript here, which I haven’t read, yet. But I will. After hockey.) last evening for an extended interview, in case you missed all the brouhaha surrounding this very public event.

Fox News touched on Wright-Moyers lightly, but CNN had extensive clips from the show and waaay too much “analysis” on the subject, which devolved into both extended navel-gazing interspersed with moments of highly charged, partisan argument between Hillary and Obama supporters. But… I don’t have first-hand knowledge of the interview itself because, as noted, I was watching hockey all evening and late into the night. That said, Ann Althouse has a lengthy and quite good post up on the subject today… if you’re at all interested. Excerpt:

Moyers plays a long chunk of the sermon that ends "God damn America," and asks "What did you mean when you said that?"

Wright answers that governments can deviate from the will of God and says "you are made in the image of God, you're not made in the image of any particular government." What should follow is a statement about the degree of allegiance people owe to their country, but Wright jumps to an invocation of free speech: "We have the freedom here in this country to talk about that publicly, whereas some other places, you're dead if say the wrong thing about your government."

At this point, Moyers could follow up either with a question about the allegiance religious people owe to a country they think has deviated from the will of God or a question about how, while it's true that Americans have free speech, free speech includes criticizing the things people say. But Moyers observes, inanely: "Well, you can be almost crucified for saying what you've said here in this country." Moyers extends his heartfelt sympathy to Wright for the suffering — the suffering of Christ! — he's endured over mere words.

Wright accepts the comforting: "That's true. That's true. But you can be crucified, you can be crucified publicly, you can be crucified by corporate-owned media." You know, you could be nailed to a cross or you could be lambasted in the media. The corporate-owned media. (Getting criticized on independent blogs may not quite equate with crucifixion. Maybe we bloggers correspond to mere flogging or piercing with thorns.)

Moyers and Wright are fellow-travelers in my view. Moyers, as an über-lib, has never met anyone critical of America he didn’t/doesn’t like. That said, Moyers is usually standard Friday-night fare for me… “know your enemy,” and all that. I was gonna do the UCR strike-out thingie with “enemy” and replace it with “opposition,” but…nope. Moyers IS the frickin’ enemy, as far as I’m concerned. I have a serious dislike for that guy. That’s putting it mildly.

Anyhoo. If you don’t want to wade through Moyers’ puff-piece, Ms. Althouse has the salient points. Long, it is, but quite good.

―:☺:―

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a hockey game to watch in about 10 minutes or so. One must prepare, ya know.

Lessons in Writing Humility

(OK… I was saving this post for tomorrow. But My Bud Dan’s comment to the post immediately below cut me to the quick. He’s right. I’ve been phoning it in of late. So here’s something that contains a lil bit more “substance.” Not a lot, mind you…just some.)

Apropos of not much…but, by way of introduction, this: I’m often struck by the quality of writing I encounter in my wanderings around these here inter-tubes. Or, more better, the absolute dismal state of most of the writing I encounter. Present company excepted, of course. All y’all write well, for the most part. There are exceptions…and all I can offer is: “if the shoe fits…” But in most cases it won’t fit. Mainly coz I have little or no tolerance for poor writing, there being some exceptions. I’ll leave it at that… criticizing others is not what we’re on about in this post.

The Second Mrs. Pennington and I, the both of us being professional writers (of a sort) and more to the point… she being an English teacher (of a sort)… used to have this on-going argument discussion as to whether good writing can be taught, or not. My position has changed back and forth over the years and still isn’t firmed up to this very day. On the one hand, the mechanics of writing most certainly can be taught… which is to say grammar, punctuation, subject-verb agreement, and the like. Anyone with half a brain can go out and buy a copy of Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style,” study it intently, absorb all the lessons therein, and call himself a writer. And a lot of people do just that. On the Other Hand… good grammar and punctuation doesn’t begin to make what we know as “good” writing. It’s a start, but only a start.

Once upon a time I considered myself a “good” writer. I’d taken several undergrad courses in English and composition, I had a fairly extensive writing background acquired as an additional-duty Public Affairs Officer (NCO, actually, but the title was “PAO”), and was recognized by various and sundry Air Force supervisors and such as a “go-to” guy when it came to putting words on paper. So, it came to pass (in my post-USAF career) I was assigned to a proposal writing team sometime in 1986 or thereabouts. And here for your illumination, Gentle Reader, is my very first effort in this space, as returned “for corrections” by my proposal editor:

(click for larger, if you have the inclination)

Bloody. Literally dripping with blood, in the form of the dread red editor’s pen, and this is but four of 14 pages, all similarly deeply scarred and dripping red. Including all 14 pages in this post would be overkill, not to mention boring beyond belief. My draft was returned with a post-it attached that said “Good Work!” (the post-it has gone missing after all these years). I scanned my draft, bloody as it was, and immediately went to my proposal manager/editor and said words to the effect of “You think this is Good?”… to which she replied “Yeah. I didn’t tell you to re-write it, did I?” Well, OK, then.

So... I returned to my desk, made the corrections and re-submitted my draft, which was accepted without further edits. Things got progressively better for me (and my editor) as time went on. At the end of the six-month pursuit cycle I came out a much better writer than when I went in. My first proposal was a learning experience of the first order.

I became very, very close to my editor… a woman by the name of Mary who later went on to become an EDS corporate VP, and I had the delightful opportunity to work with her on a couple of other proposals while she was still doing that particular gig. I learned nearly everything I know about writing today from that woman… lessons that are much too detailed to repeat here but had a lot… nay, everything… to do with word-choice, economy of language, what to leave in your writing, and… much more importantly… what to take out. Another thing Mary emphasized is one needs to recognize good writing before one can even begin to emulate it. In other words: good writers are voracious readers. Mary was also of the opinion that the best writers read a wide variety of “stuff…” fiction, non-fiction, op-eds, soup cans, cereal boxes, and (she emphasized) poetry. Mary maintained poets are all about economy of language, which, to her way of thinking, is the very essence of communication.

Mary was a wise woman indeed. My only regret is I failed to keep in touch with her. So... take what you will from this, and leave the rest. Such as it is.

Small Stuff

I know most of you Gentle Readers don’t give two hoots in Hell about my hockey posts (Becky), so here’s a few mundane, trivial, most un-interesting bits from life this past week…

I had an interesting sort of experience yesterday. So… there I was (all war stories told by USAF veterans begin this way, no matter how hair-raising or mundane they may be, and no matter if you’re still part of The World’s Greatest Air Force, or not. That’s just the way it IS, Gentle Reader.)… sitting at my desk around 1145 hrs, drinking the third cup of the day and making the rounds when the phone rings. Dr.Thompson’s office on the line…asking if I might could come in today and have that MRI done? Early? Dr. Thompson got his new MRI machine installed and the staff were going through training with a factory rep and they wanted real, live patients to practice on. Well, sure… but ya gotta give me a half-hour to clean up and get dressed.

I did just that (showered and scraped my face) and scooted on downtown. The ensuing 45 minutes were pretty cool, what with four women fussing over me, the Good Doctor hovering in the background, and such. The staff took two MRIs, and then I went on my way, but not before briefly discussing the wonderfulness of the new machine with the factory rep and staff. I was most gratified to learn the machine is American-made, and I said so…which prompted a brief round of vigorous north-south head nods and a couple of “ain’t that the truth” war stories. Until I said “But who am I to talk? I drive a Japanese car…” followed by incredulous looks from the staff and then (thankfully) laughter.

I really like my dentist, Gentle Reader, and the whole staff, for that matter. Good folks, they are. The best.

―:☺:―

My motivational mojo has kinda-sorta returned. Enough for me to buy myself a new vacuum cleaner earlier this week (Hey. I said this was “small stuff.” Whaddaya expect?). I’ve been living with this lil piece o’ crap vacuum for the last five years or so, which is essentially a hand-held vac that fits into a handle with a built-in and supremely ineffective carpet brush as part of the bargain. But it was small and fit into my closet quite well, and space (specifically storage space and the lack of same in El Casa Móvil De Pennington) was the driving criterion behind its purchase.

So. I bring the new vacuum home and have to try it out immediately. Imagine my shock: after vacuuming this oh-so-small space I was startled to discover the dirt canister was half-full. This, after I had vacuumed a scant three days earlier. God only knows how many years have been taken off the life of my carpet because of inadequate cleaning. But: no more.

Still more evidence of returning motivation… I attempted to replace the tinted window film on the afternoon-sun-side of the house yesterday and was semi-successful. I’d bought new film at the same time I bought the new vacuum and set about trying to install it yesterday… only to give up in disgust. The instructions for said film said there was a “transparent protective film on the adhesive side” which must be separated from the film before application. Well, that might be true but I strongly suspect it’s NOT… coz I spent a half-hour trying to separate the non-existent “protective layer” from what was CLEARLY one single piece of film. I gave up in disgust and threw the whole shootin’ match in the trash. Fortunately I had some static-cling film left over from last year’s application and the remnants were just enough to cover one window.

It's not often you encounter situations like this without having to make a return trip to the store. I like it when a plan comes together...accidently, or otherwise.

―:☺:―

“Walk away with victory…”

It’s an Al Green sort of day. And guess what? There’s NO wind to speak of! I’m gonna put this post up and go outside and fire up the first stick from a new box of Spanish Rosados, which the nice lady who drives the Brown Truck of Happiness put in my grubby lil hands this past Wednesday. And I’m gonna have a hefeweizen with it, too. Or two. Whatev.

So there you have it: an oh-so-mundane, yet 100% hockey-free post. You’re welcome.

Game One

Ozzie Makes THE Save of the Game, with 8.4 seconds on the clock...in the third. (Detroit News photo)

Well, we took Game One…and the game was nearly as good as Wings – Avs games of old. Here’s Helene St. James, writing in The Freep:

The Red Wings saw their lead dwindle goal by goal but held on through a fierce, last-minute attack to defeat their old playoff rivals.

Pumped up by two goals from Johan Franzen and saved by a particularly big stop by Chris Osgood, the Wings took Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal against Colorado, 4-3, on Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena.

Franzen helped the Wings build a 4-1 lead 21:13 into the game, chasing goalie Jose Theodore, but the Avs scored twice in the second period to make it a one-goal game for the final 20 minutes. Osgood made 18 saves, his biggest on former Spartan John-Michael Liles with eight seconds remaining.

"We have to play with more focus, a little more solid defense, otherwise they're going to take advantage of it," Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg said.

The Wings showed the same tendency in Round 1, allowing Nashville to get back into games rather than putting them away.

"We owned the first period and the first half of the second, but then we let them back in," Franzen said. "We're usually better playing with a one-goal lead than we are playing with a multi-goal lead. We relax and let them back in. It's a mix from them being desperate, as well. They have nothing to lose when they're down. We haven't been able to stop them so far, so we have to do a little bit better job there to play for 60 minutes."

(ed: about the octopi…for the uninitiated yet curious among you.)

When I say nearly as good as the Old Days I mostly mean edge-of-your-seat suspense, coupled with some really beautiful hockey. There wasn’t one fight last night, no one was ejected, and the penalties were relatively few (five on the Avs, three on Detroit)…considering this IS the Wings – Avs we’re talking about. All in all… a most interesting game. Or, as I told SN1 last evening after Colorado scored its third goal, “this is getting TOO interesting!” But the Wings hung on to get the “W.” They’ll have to be a lil bit better than they were in the final period of last night’s game to take the series. There’s not much doubt in my mind they will be, but I’m thinking this series will last at least six games, if not seven.

Highlights from NHL.com… all the goals, some of the hits and Ozzie’s brilliant save with 8-point-four-seconds left in the third to win it:

Game Two is tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. (EDT) on NBC.

Heh

About which:

from Despair Inc. unfulfillment-noreply@despair.com
reply-to unfulfillment-noreply@despair.com,
to Norman Pennington ,
date Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 12:14 AM
subject order demotivators-4XXXX from Despair Inc.

Thank you for your recent order from Despair, Inc.

I'd like to personally welcome you to our growing body of Dissatisfied Customers(tm), but to do so might evidence some actual concern for service and protocol. This might then lead to customer satisfaction, which would defeat the purpose altogether. That is why you have received this generic, form-generated email, written by some nameless lackey in our marketing department.

Having established that any pretense of consideration for *your* needs would be counter-productive to our raison d'etre at Despair Inc, let us now ponder a subject of greater interest to those among us who are worthy of both of our collective attentions – that person being me.

[…]

[lots more dot-dot-dot]

[still more dot-dot-dot]

[…]

If any of the information shown below is inaccurate, please notify us immediately using our new Troubled Ticketing system.

http://www.despair.com/trti.html

We will rectify your error immediately, and on some occasions, without snickering.

It is the least we can do, which, as a matter of policy, is the most we can do.

Sincerely not really writing you this email,
E.L.

E.L.Kersten, Ph.D.
Founder & COO,
Despair, Inc.

Should be here sometime next week. With any luck that will delay laundry yet another day. Or two.

Thanks, Anon.

Barrel, Bottom Of...

I’m having the damndest time viewing videos today and it’s irritating the living HELL out of me. At first I thought it might be me, or rather my system, so I cleared my cache. Nothing. Then I closed out Firefox and re-opened it. No joy. So I rebooted the whole box, and things worked “normally”… for about six or seven minutes. And then: nothing. I click on a video…any video… and I get that swirly thingie in the center of the vid that indicates loading is in progress, but it’s clearly NOT. There’s also a message in Firefox’s status bar at the bottom of the screen that sez something to the effect of “connecting to cache.googlevideo.com” while the swirly thingie continues to swirl…but NO frickin’ video. This is driving me NUTS.

Which, as Mom used to say, is a short trip. A very short trip.

―:☺:―

Further on “Procrastination…” It occurred to me last evening that one of my “issues” these days is the decided lack of nagging in my life. Now most men would consider this particular lack a blessing, and I most certainly DO… most of the time. But, let’s be honest about this, Guys. A lot of stuff gets done around the house (other places, too) simply because the nag-ee desperately wants the nag-er to STFU. Or more diplomatic words to that effect. Men being men, inertia will raise its ugly lil head in the absence of “motivation.” We’ll do what’s expedient, we’ll do the absolute minimum of what’s required to keep us breathing, fed, and smelling less bad to those we encounter, and we’ll most definitely accomplish things that must be done in the face of penalties…such as paying the bills on time. But we’ll also put off to the VERY LAST MICROSECOND those things we find distasteful or even boring. If left to our own devices, that is. In my current situation, for example, I find reading every single game recap and poring over obscure hockey stats infinitely preferable to, say, doing laundry. Especially since I haven’t even come close to tapping the emergency vintage tee shirt supply, and I don’t wear socks once the temp is consistently over 60 degrees. Ergo: there’s no real need to do laundry, yet. That changes, once the supply of clean clothes runs out. Or: I’ll be off to the laundromat in my LAST clean tee shirt at the very last microsecond.

Necessity is the Mom of Execution in My World. NOT invention, as is commonly thought.

Oh. I don’t want a live-in nag, thankyouverymuch, if you’re thinking along those lines. Procrastination may be bad, but there are worse things in life.

―:☺:―

I’ve been keeping a weather eye (heh) on the skies all day… we’re under a severe t-storm watch as I speak, and although there’s been storms all around P-Ville today we’ve received nary a drop. Lotsa wind, though.

What’s new?

―:☺:―

Today’s Pics: From the “Wishing I Were Somewhere Else” files… and this place would be as good as any and better than MOST. An interior shot of my room at the Swissotel Hotel in A-dam, and the view from my window in that very same room. Taken during the Great European Divorce Tour of 1999.

Yes… we ARE scraping the bottom of the barrel. Time to fire up the ol’ scanner, innit?

Shilling...

... but not the monetary sort of shilling, which no longer exists anyway (if you don't count Austrian schillings, with a "c," to be accurate). It's the "go-look-at-this-stuff" sort of shill. Just for grins and giggles I went over to despair.com to check out the latest de-motivational posters (one of which headlined my post, below) and found they're doing merchandise now. They've got some pretty funny stuff there.

I'd buy the shirt above if the verbiage was changed from "your blog" to "my blog." Coz it would be entirely (and sadly) true...but funny. I've always been into self-deprecating humor and this would most certainly fit if the change was made.

Procrastination...

… is getting the better best of me. There are any number of things that should be done around El Casa Móvil De Pennington but, sad to say, aren’t. Things like “wash the car,” which really, reeelly needs it, since the rain last week (last week!) made a complete and total mess out of it. Things like the full laundry bag, which sits in plain sight and silently nags me each time I glance over at the corner where it sits. Things like take Ms. Zukiko in for her first service, which has been delayed since January (!) because it’s still pretty danged chilly in the morning and I don’t ride if the temp is below 60 degrees (now we’re into serious rationalizations, which includes the fact that Zia Powersports doesn’t “do” appointments, it’s “get it in before 0830 hours.” That’s out of the frickin’ question this time of year. As I said: serious rationalization.). So... we're not even close to beginning these things, let alone completing them. They're not even on the “To-Do” list except for the one I keep mentally, and that particular list is kicking my butt, as we speak. Otherwise, why would I be whining about it, in public, even?

In my defense (now here I go…playing point – counterpoint with myself!), I have taken care of everything on the formal (written) To-Do list, the last of which I scratched off this morning, to wit: order new tires. This is a classic example of the seriousness of the problema I’m moaning about… in that I became aware I need new tires on April 4^th, and finally took action today, April 22. Also on the To-Do, and done: call my broker and arrange to have money transferred out of my 401(k) into my cash account to cover the first installment on my new teeth. That lil item contributed in no small part to the angst I’m baring in this public space, as well.

About which… astute readers will note the two month lag between my Adventures in Magnetic Resonance Imaging and the transfer of money to cover the ensuing and subsequent dental adventure, the first installment of which begins next month with sinus lifts on both sides of my face. That is major surgery accompanied by general anesthesia, an event that, while necessary, fails to (a) fill me with anticipation and (b) excite me. Quite the contrary, but back to the delay. It seems the quality of MRIs done at the local hôpital is somewhat lacking. So much so that Dr. Thompson (who I dearly love, this screed should in NO way be construed as being critical of him or his services, which are frickin’ great) is having his very own MRI machine installed in his offices, and we’ll do that MRI thing one more time before my surgery. But the Good Doctor will do this next MRI gratis, which is a Good Thing indeed. Coz MRIs are pretty danged pricey, Gentle Reader.

But… back to the whining. I was also informed that my situation is worse than originally estimated, thus the two vs. one sinus lift that was originally called for. That, of course, results in increased cost, which is now up to the equivalent of 72.4% of a new Miata (and that is an actual percentage figure, not an estimate. According to the Kelley Blue Book.). And we’re not talking your basic Miata here, Gentle Reader… nope, we’re talking loaded, full-boat Miata…top o’ the line with retractable hardtop, satellite radio, Bose audio, sport suspension, six-speed, leather, yadda, yadda.

{sigh} It’s always sumthin’, ain’t it? But what does all this moaning and groaning have to do with my To-Do list, you ask? It’s state-of-mind, Gentle Reader…just state-of-mind. Which ain’t too good these days.

But we’ll get over it. We always do. I’ll not whine again for at least a month. That’s my promise to you.

Thanks for listening.

Promotion...

...from the comments to the front page:

As promised, you are now a character in the stupidest play ever written. Well, actually, I didn't promise to make you a character in the stupidest play ever written, but that's how it turned out. Come see for yourself...

That's Jim talking. Do go. In addition to being entertained (highly entertained!), you’ll probably see some folks you know from the neighborhood in addition to YrHmblScrb. Who, methinks, delivers his lines quite well. (he said, modestly)

P.J. on the T.R.

Via (who else?) Lex… one of my favorite auteurs visits The Big Stick… ostensibly looking for “background” on one of our presidential candidates. And he finds it… In Spades:

Some say John McCain's character was formed in a North Vietnamese prison. I say those people should take a gander at what John chose to do--voluntarily. Being a carrier pilot requires aptitude, intelligence, skill, knowledge, discernment, and courage of a kind rarely found anywhere but in a poem of Homer's or a half gallon of Dewar's. I look from John McCain to what the opposition has to offer. There's Ms. Smarty-Pantsuit, the Bosnia-Under-Sniper-Fire poster gal, former prominent Washington hostess, and now the JV senator from the state that brought you Eliot Spitzer and Bear Stearns. And there's the happy-talk boy wonder, the plaster Balthazar in the Cook County political crèche, whose policy pronouncements sound like a walk through Greenwich Village in 1968: "Change, man? Got any spare change? Change?"

Some people say John McCain isn't conservative enough. But there's more to conservatism than low taxes, Jesus, and waterboarding at Gitmo. Conservatism is also a matter of honor, duty, valor, patriotism, self-discipline, responsibility, good order, respect for our national institutions, reverence for the traditions of civilization, and adherence to the political honesty upon which all principles of democracy are based. Given what screw-ups we humans are in these respects, conservatism is also a matter of sense of humor. Heard any good quips lately from Hillary or Barack?

Oh, my. Yes. Do read the whole thing, coz P.J. is at his finest here. And it’s more of a tour of (and a paean about) magnificent machinery and the kids that make it go than a political piece. I just chose the political bits because they rang MY bell, ya know?

After-Action Report

So. SN1 pulled in to El Casa Móvil De Pennington around 1230 hrs yesterday afternoon and is on the road again this morning, headed back to South Carolina. The visit, short as it was, was a good one. We drank a few beers, shared a few war-stories, and watched hockey… two games, in fact. We watched ALL of the Deetroit game and most of the Dallas-Anaheim tilt before Buck had to take off and spend time with his in-laws. All in all: good times, and they happen way too infrequently these days.

As for yesterday’s (premier) game? Well, the outcome was as good as it gets. From The Detroit News:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Shades of 2002 against the Canucks, that's exactly what it was.

Same player, Nicklas Lidstrom. Identical type of goal.

Lidstrom took a shot from the neutral zone officially listed at 103 feet that bounced, hit a bump, took off in a direction unexpected by Nashville Predators goalie Dan Ellis on Sunday and into the net in the second period.

The improbable goal triggered a 3-0 Wings victory over the Predators, helping the Wings win the first-round series in six games.

Detroit now awaits the identity of its second-round opponent. Calgary beat San Jose, 2-0, Sunday to force a Game 7 in that series. If Calgary wins that series, Detroit would face Colorado Calgary (ed: a rare screw-up by a sportswriter). If San Jose wins, Detroit will play Colorado.

Shades of 2002, indeed. The Wings were on the ropes in that first round series, down 0-2 to eighth seed Vancouver. And then Lidstrom scored that fluky goal and the Wings proceeded to win four straight, advancing to the second round on their way to winning the Stanley Cup. They faced Colorado in the conference final that year… an exciting series that went seven games, ending with a 7-0 blowout in Game Seven.

I watched that game in a sports bar in San Francisco… which was filled to over-flowing with Wings and Avs fans in approximately equal numbers. My fondest memory of that game…and that series… was a particularly loud Avs fan that ripped off his Patrick Roy jersey at the end of the game and stomped on it in frustration, accompanied by LOUD cheers from the Wings fans in the bar. As for me? I was at a table with three other expat Wings fans, and we celebrated like there was no tomorrow. But there was a tomorrow, and it just kept getting better and better. The Wings, as previously noted, went on to win the Cup, beating Carolina in five games.

So. Shades of 2002. One can only hope…

One thing we know for sure: The Wings won’t face Anaheim anytime soon. The Stars sent the Ducks off to the golf course last night, coming from behind to beat Anaheim by a score of 4-1. In Dallas, which was way-cool. This might just end my rooting for the Stars this year… unless San Jose prevails over Calgary. At which point I’ll back the Stars against the Sharks.

Tonight I’ll be rooting for the B’s when they play game seven against the Habs in Montreal. This particular series has been among the best in the first round, and tonight’s game ought to be a real classic…what with two Original Six teams going head-to-head in a game seven for the seventh time in their long-standing rivalry. It’s gonna take some REAL doing to get more exciting than Boston’s 5-4 win in this past Friday’s game, however. I don’t want to seem like a guy who’s overly impressed with the last game he saw… but Friday night’s game was simply superlative, what with Boston overcoming one-goal deficits three times to win it in the last three minutes of the game. Hockey rarely gets any better than that, period. I don’t expect any less tonight.

Photo: Nashville goalie Dan Ellis shakes Chris Osgood’s hand after yesterday’s game. David Guralnick / The Detroit News

―:☺:―

Just for grins… My Bud Ed in Florida sends the following along…

Jake is 5 and learning to read. He points at a picture in a zoo book and says,

"Look Mama! It's a frickin' Elephant!"

Deep breath. "What did you call it?"

"It's a frickin' Elephant, Mama! It says so on the picture!"

and so it does ...

"A f r i c a n Elephant "

Hooked on phonics!!! Ain't it wonderful?

Indeed. Wonderful!

And now it’s off to make the rounds…

The Late and Oh-So-Abbreviated Saturday Post

It was a major housecleaning day here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington, mostly because of SN1’s imminent arrival, which I believe is supposed to be sometime late tomorrow morning. At any rate… he’s on the road as we speak, having left Beautiful Lost Wages, NV sometime earlier today.

And about that major housecleaning: we wouldn’t want our offspring to think we live like pigs, now, would we? I’m VERY glad whenever visitors come through P-Ville. Incentive, ya know. It’s waaay too easy for me to do that “mañana” thing when it comes to housecleaning. I keep the place reasonably well picked up, dusted, and I do vacuum occasionally. But I did some major work today, such as getting rid of eleventy pounds of old NatGeos, Air Force magazines, and such. It was past time to purge, judging from the heft of the garbage bags I trundled off to the dumpster… and there was more, too. But I’ll not give you the play-by-play of my housecleaning activities.

You’re welcome.

So. All that is done and I finished off a late lunch from Subway about an hour or so ago. About which: as I was getting into the car to leave Subway, a 50-ish woman with a teenager and a couple of dogs in her Subaru pulled into the parking space adjacent to mine. I gave her a polite smile as she got out of her car and she quickly turned her head away from me. That puzzled me for a brief moment, but all was revealed as I backed out of my parking space and got a good long look at the back of her Subaru. The thing was literally covered with moonbat bumper stickers… a pristine “Kerry-Edwards” sticker (obviously well-cared for, maybe even waxed), several flavors of “Bush Lied – People Died” stickers, an Eastern NM U sticker, and an “Honor Teachers!” sticker, among many others. The last of which made me chuckle to myself. I do “honor teachers,” but I most definitely don’t honor those who flagrantly flaunt their ideological immersion, especially those of the “Bush Lied” persuasion. It doesn’t take too much imagination to picture what this woman’s classroom environment is like…

Oh. And why, you may ask, Gentle Reader, did the woman turn away and avoid my smile? I suspect it might have been this:

Ya think?

Today's Question: Why does it seem like it’s always Subarus that are festooned with moonbat shit? You rarely see a Ford or Chevy so adorned, unless it’s over 20 years of age (the car, not the owner).

Discuss.

Yet Another Good Read

Today is the 66^th anniversary of the famous Tokyo Raid, led by General (then Lieutenant Colonel) Jimmy Doolittle. Wherein Gen. Doolittle and his brave men flew B-25s off of aircraft carriers to strike the heart of Imperial Japan. USAAF bombers…flying off of Navy carriers. As SJS sez: "Joint" before Joint was kewl.

Steeljaw Scribe has a great post (with video!) commemorating the event. And, as noted in the title, yet another good great read.

Do go.

Mammatus

Have you ever seen mammatus clouds, Gentle Reader? Well, here's a shot of some, from that Wiki link:

But... there are more, and MUCH better, photos here...which is THE reason for this post. I'd have posted one of those pics, but the images are clearly copyrighted, much to my dismay. So you gotta chase the link. It's oh-so-worth your time to do just that. I had a hard time believing the images weren't photo-shopped. Amazing.

And... I think the clouds are aptly-yclept. Coz they look like huge celestial mammary glands. Thus spake The Dirty Ol' Man, reverently.

(h/t: Phlegmmy)

All The Buzz That Fits...

This lil item, while not the lede on memeorandum, is the second-from-the-top story as I type. From the LA Times: “Barack Obama makes a one-fingered gesture while speaking of Hillary Clinton.”

Whaddaya think? I think the Times has frickin’ lost it. You know I think Barry’s nothing but an opportunistic empty suit, Gentle Reader. But I just don’t believe he’s flipping Hillary off here, despite the Times’ claims, to wit:

He pauses. He smiles slyly as the crowd begins to mumble and then he tries, somewhat distracted, to continue his remarks, smiling as the buzz spreads through the crowd.

He'll no doubt deny it later, but that mischievous smile seems to confirm plenty. And the crowd sure sees something.

I call bullshit, as do most people commenting on the Times site. Some Dems, however, wanna believe!

Sheesh. (That's for The LA Times, not Taylor Marsh.)

Update: A comment at Hot Air:

If he mooned Hillary, now that would be something.

hepcat on April 18, 2008 at 7:06 AM

Agreed!

Just a Lil Sumthin I Found In Site Meter...

This doesn’t qualify as a “Fun With Site Meter” post… but I just had to share. Pay attention to the search term, OK?

Location
Continent: Europe
Country: Germany (Facts)
State/Region: Baden-Wurttemberg
City: Stuttgart

Language Danish
Time of Visit: Apr 17 2008 1:17:29 pm
Last Page View: Apr 17 2008 1:21:49 pm
Visit Length: 4 minutes 20 seconds
Page Views: 2
Referring URL: http://images.google...0%26hl%3Dda%26sa%3DN
Search Engine: images.google.dk
Search Words: dog humping painting
Visit Entry Page: http://exileinportal...7_02_01_archive.html
Visit Exit Page: http://exileinportal...7_02_01_archive.html

Now, don't get me wrong. The search term is crude, not funny. But the image this Danish googler clicked through on?

This:

Your 15 minutes of fame may be up, Cindy… but your dog-humping persona (or would that be personality?) lives on.

PS: Click the search link if you doubt me. S'true.

"But It's a DRY Heat!"

…note the humidity or, more-better, the lack of same in the graphic above. When we say “it’s dry heat” in these parts, we mean it! That said, yesterday was miserable. The combination of mid-80s heat and sun beating down on the exterior of El Casa Móvil De Pennington made things rather unbearable indoors yesterday... and the combination of heat, wind, and blowing dust made things just as unbearable outdoors. Or, in other words, it was an air conditioned sort of day. I normally wouldn’t run the AC unless and until it gets over 90 degrees. I simply lower my awning, open the windows and door, and revel in the warmth. But: I can’t put my awning down if the wind is over 20 mph (or so) and you’ll note we were having consistent wind in the mid-30 mph range, with gusts over 50 mph. That sort of wind has been known to shred awnings, and I have a certain amount of… ummm… experience with that phenomenon. But, leave us not digress, eh? You’d be amazed at how much difference the awning makes in the interior temperature of El Casa Móvil… not to mention its impact on my electricity bill.

So. Fast-forward about 19 hours and this is what we’re like today:

No AC required. But the furnace has been running all morning.

Ahh… Spring on The High Plains of New Mexico.

Just More Stuff

Via Lex, an interesting counter-point to the Left’s newest end-the-war meme: “It’s ruining the economy.” Hogwash, sez Larry Kudlow:

Surprise, surprise. Having failed to puncture Gen. David Petraeus' story about great improvements on the ground in Iraq, liberals now say the cost of the Iraq war has somehow undermined the economy — even caused the current slowdown. What complete nonsense.

First point: The United States has spent roughly $750 billion for the five-year war. Sure, that's a lot of money. But the total cost works out to 1 percent of the $63 trillion GDP over that time. It's minuscule.

But here's the real question we should ask: What is the cost of freedom? While the Left refuses to acknowledge it, the U.S. homeland has not been attacked since Sept. 11, 2001. Right there is a big economic plus. Since President Bush went on the offensive and took the battle to Iraq, al Qaeda and other extremist terrorist groups have been utterly routed by U.S. forces. Tying the jihadists down on their home turf, and keeping them from mounting another coordinated attack on the United States, have benefited our economy incalculably.

Then again, the antiwar forces might want to recall John F. Kennedy's Inaugural address, in which he called on Americans to "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to ensure the survival and the success of liberty."

Do these folks actually think 1 percent of GDP is too large a price, too heavy a burden? I sure hope not.

I’ve noticed the “cost of war,” in purely economic terms, has been getting a lot of press these days. There seems to be a coherent and immaculately orchestrated campaign to convince the American public that we cannot afford this war, to the tune of “a depression ain’t far away if we continue as we’ve begun”…or, in other words, if we finish what we started.

About which: predictable. “If at first you don’t succeed,” and all that. Somehow I get the feeling this gambit isn’t going to work, either. No matter what the Left thinks, Americans just don’t have a taste for defeat. Especially when we’re winning.

―:☺:―

Your hockey update… I watched the most wretched play-off game I’ve seen in quite a while last evening. It’s not often one sees a team…in the play-offs!… melt down quite like Minnesota did last night.

DENVER (AP) -No fluke finish to this one. No overtime, either. But plenty of punches and penalties.

Jose Theodore stopped 24 of 25 shots and the Colorado Avalanche used a three-goal first-period to rout the Minnesota Wild 5-1 on Tuesday night, tying their first-round playoff series at two games each.

The first three games of the series - as well as the last two when these two teams met in the 2003 playoffs - all went into overtime and ended in 3-2 scores.

The series goes back to Minnesota for Game 5 on Thursday night, and it should be interesting - this game featured a whole lot of fighting, including some fisticuffs after the final horn sounded.

Minnesota had an astounding 111 minutes of penalty time, 24 by Derek Boogaard, who was ejected, and 35 by Stephane Veilleux, who received a 10-minute misconduct that was assessed at game's end.

Colorado had 43 minutes of penalty time on a dozen infractions - the Wild were whistled 26 times.

26 penalties! Twenty-freakin’-six, on just one of the teams! The upshot of it all was the game lasted as long as the previous game that went 11 minutes into overtime, and that’s counting the “regulation” intermission in the between the third and overtime periods in Tuesday’s game. Here’s a screenshot of the penalties:

(click for larger. Graphic from NHL.com)

Note there were eight misconducts handed out, six to Minnesota. This is the sort of game that gives hockey a bad name amongst the uninitiated. Not that some of it wasn’t interesting… there were moments. I can’t imagine just what the HELL was going through Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire’s mind, and why he didn’t put a stop to it. Here’s Lemaire:

"I couldn't wait until that game gets over," Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said. "I knew there was nothing to do. It was getting ugly, the guys were frustrated. The more they got frustrated, the more we got penalties. Guys were talking on the bench, we got bench penalties, it never stopped."

Lemaire was right on one count: it never stopped. I believe he could have put an end to it, had he so desired. But here we are… the series is all tied up at two apiece and the next game is in Minnesota. This will be verrry interesting.

In other play-off news… Anaheim avoided going down 0-3 in their series against the Stars, winning last evening by a score of 4-2 (and Phlegmmy was there). Philadelphia took a 2-1 lead in their series…which looks like it just might be over in five games. Washington looked pretty bad... dismal, even. San Jose tied up its series with Calgary in what looked like the best game of the day, what with San Jose winning the game with eight seconds left on the clock. I would have MUCH preferred watching the Calgary – San Jose game yesterday, all things considered. Here’s Joe Thornton’s winning goal in Calgary last night:

I don’t have a dog in this fight, except for the fact the Wings might get Calgary in the next round should the Flames win. I’m leaning pretty heavily towards Calgary, though. Don’t ask why…

Tonight it’s Game Four for the Wings and the Preds… which begins in about three and a half hours or so. You know where I’ll be at that time, Gentle Reader. Parked in front of the teevee, beer and popcorn at hand.

My "Alarm Clock" This Morning...

I fell asleep this early this morning (which: more accurate than “last night”) watching C-SPAN2, as is my wont. And the wonderful folks at C-SPAN woke me up about 45 minutes ago with this:

By way of explanation: whenever the House or Senate votes, or waits for a quorum, or is involved in other such non-activity, C-SPAN broadcasts video of the floor with a piece of classical music as the “soundtrack.” Such was the case this morning.

Now, this isn’t the version C-SPAN played. Pachelbel’s Canon might just be the most-recorded piece of classical music, ever (I think I have at least three versions in my music collection). This interpretation was posted to YouTube yesterday, so you are among the first to listen to this particular version on these here inter-tubes, Gentle Reader. Quite nice. And such a wonderful way to begin my… or anyone’s… day.

And now it’s off to answer comments and make the rounds.

Back in a bit…

Meme

Blog-Bud Jim tagged me with a fairly simple meme: publish your desktop photo. Now that's the sort of meme I like! Simple, easy, and requires NO thought. At all.

So, without further ado: my desktop.

You've seen the pic before, Gentle Reader (the larger version is at the link). It's The Second Mrs. Pennington, standing in a doorway to one of the colleges at Oxford University... in Oxford, England... strangely enough. I took the photo sometime in 1980 or perhaps 1981 when TSMP and I lived in England.

I think I'm supposed to tag others. I won't tag Lin, she doesn't do memes and says so, oh-so-prominently in her blog's header. But Ashley, Becky, Lou, Mike, and Jay might. Phlegmmy could be interesting, too. We'll see...

Just Another Windy Day Here On The High Plains of NM...

I was the beneficiary (?) of an anonymous, drive-by shooting comment from a Barack-Booster yesterday. Said Obamaphile quoted a Gallup poll and pooh-poohed the impact of Senator Obama’s foot-in-mouth moment out in SFO… to wit:

He's two points up since then, according to Gallup; Hillary's down two. Obama spoke the truth in San Francisco, but only Clinton and McBush have twisted their knickers over it. So dream on, Gentle Blogger.

Well, now. One can spin all one wants… but then there’s this:

If the Pennsylvania primary to select a Democratic nominee for president were held Tuesday, a week before the actual primary, Hillary Rodham Clinton would defeat Barack Obama by double-digit figures, a new SurveyUSA poll found.

The fourth SurveyUSA tracking poll, released exclusively for NBC 10 and three other television stations throughout the state, concluded that the contest is "not necessarily tightening, nor is it considered a "tight race."

It concluded that 54 percent would vote for Clinton and 40 percent would vote for Obama. Three percent chose the "other" category.

The Quinnipiac poll shows similar results.

Hillary’s down two, eh? Someone didn’t get the memo…

More at The New Republic, which is hardly a hotbed of right-wing thought:

Some liberal commentators have downplayed the effect of Barack Obama's fundraising speech at a San Francisco fundraiser last week. But that's wishful thinking. Along with the revelations about Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright, his remarks in San Francisco will haunt him not only in the upcoming primaries in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia, but also in the general election against John McCain, assuming he gets the Democratic nomination.

While Obama may not be toast at this point, he’s definitely toasty.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

―:☺:―

Well, I can’t leave the Obamanon alone, it seems. But you should be aware of this, Gentle Reader:

The co-founder of the radical anti-war group Code Pink has “bundled” more than $50,000 for Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and pro-troops groups are demanding that he return the money.

Jodie Evans, a Code Pink leader, gathered at least $50,000 from friends and associates and donated it to Obama’s presidential campaign, according to information compiled by the nonpartisan watchdog group, Public Citizen.

Evans and her son, a student who lives at her Southern California address, each also gave the maximum individual allowable donation of $2,300 to Obama’s campaign.

The donations have raised questions about Obama’s association with the more radical elements of his base. Code Pink has harassed, vandalized and impeded military recruiters across the United States in a campaign it calls “counter-recruitment.” The group also gave $600,000 to the families of Iraqi terrorists in Fallujah, whom it called “insurgents” fighting for their homes.

Mom always told me “you’re known by the company you keep.” Code Pink’s “support” just might be enough to finish Senator Obama off. In a just world, that is. But: politics, strange bedfellows (I’ll leave that alone!), and all that. (Aside: I’m all about free speech, but it would do my heart good to watch either Jodie Evans or Medea Benjamin get bitch-slapped by an angry military Mom. I don’t want to see real damage, mind you… just a well-placed smack on the cheek. Hard. Leave a mark, ya know?)

But, to get back on point: there’s always the chance Barack might come to his senses (such as they are) and give that dirty money back. But I kinda doubt it.

―:☺:―

Your hockey Wings update:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -The Nashville Predators are back in the series. The Detroit Red Wings are searching for their lost momentum.

Jason Arnott scored with 3:58 left in the final period, the second Nashville goal in 9 seconds, and the Predators rallied to beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 Monday night and cut the first-round series deficit to 2-1.

"There's moments that are going to happen in a series that can change the whole series," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "I don't know, we might have just had ours."

So it would seem.

I dunno about the series, but the Preds sure had their game-changing moment last evening. Nashville avoided falling into the black hole that is an 0-3 series deficit by winning one at home. Still and even, there’s a lot of hockey left to be played. Nashville has to win three more to take the series, Detroit only two. And as for last night’s loss: “you can’t win ‘em all,” as Mom (and every sentient being in America, at one time or another) said.

Speaking of that 0-3 black hole… that’s exactly where Dallas wants to put Anaheim tonight. I think the Stars have a very good chance of doing just that, too. The Stars are fresh off of taking two games from the Ducks… at The Pond, no less… and are looking pretty danged good at this point. Blog-Buddy Phlegmmy will be at tonight’s game in Dallas, and I’m GREEN with envy. Simply Green! Given: I’m not a Stars fan, far from it. But I’d be happier than the proverbial pig-in-you-know-what to be at the Stars’ game tonight. There’s nothing in all the world like play-off hockey!

One more thing… Last night was a late night at the Pepsi Center in Denver:

DENVER (AP) -The Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche are so evenly matched that neither team can win in regulation and what keeps separating them in overtime is a funny bounce.

Pierre-Marc Bouchard took the pass from Brian Rolston from behind the net and sent it past Jose Theodore 11:58 into overtime to give the Wild a 3-2 win over the Avalanche on Monday night.

It was the third straight overtime game in this first-round series, with the Wild winning two of them.

Going back to 2003, the teams have played five straight overtime games in the playoffs, all of which ended in 3-2 scores.

Weird, that. It must suck to be an Avs fan right about now. OTOH, it sucks worse if you’re a Sens fan… coz Ottawa will probably be swept tonight. What an ignominious end for last season’s Eastern Conference champions.

―:☺:―

So…yesterday’s 50,000^th visitor was yet another googler. I have no quibble with this person coz he was looking for plane pr0n. That’s cool. As most all y’all know: it could have been worse. We haven’t done a “Fun With Site Meter” post in quite a while now. But we’re saving that meme for when the well goes truly dry. Coz there’s always weirdness in Site Meter. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

Aside: Blog-Bud Morgan was visit # 49,999 yesterday, he missed being 50,000 by six minutes. I thought about disqualifying the real 50,000^th visitor and giving the prize (?) to Morgan, but didn’t.

It is what it is.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: …is a sorta re-run from last year. Or, to put it another way… this is what I didn’t see this year, as the cherry tree failed to bloom… more’s the pity. The failure to bloom must have something to do with climate change. Or Cheney. Or maybe Halliburton.

Whatev. As always... click-for-larger, if you're so inclined.

March, 2007.

Not Your Usual Mid-April Post

So. Did Obama’s campaign effectively end out in San Francisco last week? Were his condescending remarks about small-town folks in Pennsylvania enough to sink his ship? One can only hope, Gentle Reader. In the meantime, the political blogosphere, not to mention the paid pundits, are all a-twitter over this latest tempest-in-the-political-teapot. Personally, I like what Jules Crittenden had to say:

Surveying the bloody Dem contest, I just keep thinking of the old Clinton campaign theme, “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.” This will go on at least until April 22 and more likely June 3, maybe into the convention in August. So many tomorrows to not stop thinking about!

Mickey Kaus has some very astute observations on Obama, as well. Among which, this (emphasis in the original article):

Yes, he's condescending. It's not just that in explaining everyone to everyone Obama winds up patronizing everyone. He doesn't patronize everyone equally. Specifically, he regards the views of these Pennsylvanians as epiphenomena--byproducts of economic stagnation--in a way he doesn't regard, say, his own views as epiphenomena.** Once the Pennsylvanians get some jobs back, they'll change and become as enlightened as Obama the San Franciscans to whom he was talking. That's the clear logic of his argument. Superiority of this sort--not crediting the authenticity and standing of your subject's views--is a violation of social equality, which is a more important value for Americans than money equality. Liberals tend to lose elections when they forget that.

Yet the usual suspects aren’t fazed in the least. If anything, they’re more fired up about the Obamanon than ever. But not everyone is enamored with Barack. (Liberal use [heh] of f-bombs at that last link. You are warned.)

―:☺:―

This is interesting: “Russia’s New Leader: Fan of the Internet.” I’m not being facetious, either. Excerpt:

The incoming Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, has repeatedly promised to follow the course of his patron and predecessor, Vladimir V. Putin. But in one area, Mr. Medvedev is clearly blazing his own trail.

…

The Russian Internet, often called Runet, has 40 million users, or 28 percent of the population. Russian sites do $3 billion in annual transactions and have $370 million in advertising revenue, Mr. Medvedev said. There are over one million Russian language sites on the net, and the average Russian Internet user spends an hour a day online.

Unlike in China, the Internet in Russia is not censored and is full of online newspapers, magazines and videos that criticize the government. By contrast, the Kremlin controls television, and although independent newspapers and radio stations exist, they have relatively small audiences.

Under President Vladimir V. Putin, the Kremlin has considered measures that would tighten control over the Internet. It is currently drafting a law that would force websites to register with the government.

Well, there’s both good and bad news, eh? But a Russian president that’s tech-savvy can’t be ALL bad.

Wait. Lemmee think on that for a minute, or six.

―:☺:―

And then there’s this: “An Engineer’s Guide to Cats.”

You must be asking “Why in God’s Name would you post a seven minute video about cats, when you’re a dog person?” Good question, Gentle Reader. And thanks for not bringing up the “it’s Teh Gay!” point about this vid… I so appreciate your consideration, civility, and deference in this matter. Still, the point remains: Why? Equal time, I guess. And I suppose cats do have a certain place in life… it’s just not here.

You can’t play Frisbee with a cat.

―:☺:―

A pending milestone… sometime this afternoon or early this evening I’ll get my 50,000^th visitor, assuming traffic is at normal levels (we’re at 49,965 as I post). Interestingly, it took 20 months for me to get to 25,000 visits, and only seven months to get to the next 25,000. Still very small potatoes, though.

―:☺:―

Ha! A post without a single mention of athletic activity on ice. And you thought I was obsessed, dint ya? C’mon, you can tell me the truth, even if it hurts…

D-Mac

Some of you Gentle Readers might be familiar with Mitch Albom, and most may know him only for his best-selling books. But Albom began his writing career as a sports columnist for the Deetroit Free Press, otherwise known in these parts (and all of Deetroit) as “The Freep.” He continues on in that capacity at The Freep, and is still (arguably) one of the best sports writers in the biz. One of the things that separates Albom from run-of-the-mill sports writers is his occasional human interest story, sometimes sports related, and sometimes not. Albom’s column in today’s Freep focuses on one of my all-time favorite Red Wings… Darren McCarty. Excerpt:

But the highlight was McCarty, who scored the first -- and in so doing, choked up half of Joe Louis Arena in Saturday's 4-2 victory over the Nashville Predators. At 36, McCarty may be the youngest of that group, but he has lived the hardest. He has put on the most miles. Many of us never expected to see him back on the ice again -- let alone in his old Detroit uniform. The script on McCarty was to be a sad but familiar one: good guy, bruising hockey player, falls in with the party life, blows his money, loses his family, gets lost in alcohol, dope and gambling debts, disappears off the face of the earth.

McCarty did all except the last part. And he escaped that only because he was thrown a rope by some special people. But there he was in Game 2, on the scoreboard, and the fans thundered the rafters as his goal was announced: "First of the playoffs, No. 25, Darren McCarty ..."

It’s a short column, and it’s one of those “feel good” pieces. But Hey! It’s OK to feel good about D-Mac, and I certainly do. SN1 and I were on the phone together yesterday about ten seconds after D-Mac’s goal and we were ecstatic, both of us. First and foremost, McCarty’s goal drew first-blood and put the Wings in the lead early in the game. Following close on the heels of our celebration of that goal was an extended discussion about how good it was to see McCarty back… in every sense of the word. And yeah, that goal from the ‘97 play-offs came up (see yesterday’s post), and that particular goal will probably remain the highlight of D-Mac’s career…forever. But maybe not. There’s a lot of hockey left this year.

Here’s McCarty scoring yesterday’s goal, and a good one it was, too. Be warned: Ya gotta look close; things happen VERY quickly in hockey.

Dang. I love the way NHL.com has ALL the goals from every play-off game on their web site this year. It’s a blessing of magnificent proportions for us fans, and the videos just might help create a few new fans, as well.

One can only hope.

Your Hockey Update

GREAT hockey on my teevee last evening! The night started off with Philly at Washington and ended with Colorado losing to Minnesota in overtime… the second time the Avs and Wild have gone into OT in as many games. The Avs and the Wild played a corker last night, complete with third period heroics and a tying goal by the Avs with just 43.8 seconds left in the game. All that work and heroics on the part of the Avs were for naught, however. Minnesota’s Keith Carney put the game away with a fluky sort of slap-shot (off a skate and into the goal) a minute and 14 seconds into the overtime. And the crowd went bonkers. Minnesota has got some fans…and they are loud!

So. The series is tied 1-1 and moves to Denver for Game Three on Monday. This looks to be a good one.

So much for the nitecap, which was VERY good, but the evening’s first game was the better of the two. The Flyers and Caps began rather slowly (one goal apiece in the first) and it looked like it was pretty much over after the Flyers scored three unanswered goals in a little over three and a half minutes mid-way in the second… but it wasn’t. Not even. The best was yet to come. From ESPN:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Alex Ovechkin was bumped around, boxed in and, well, pretty much Broad Street Bullied for most of his NHL playoff debut.

And then, with the outcome hanging in the balance, Alex the Great emerged.

Held without a single shot until late, the league's leading scorer stole the puck and netted the tiebreaking goal with 4 ½ minutes remaining, giving the Washington Capitals a 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series Friday night.

…

That's pretty much all Ovechkin got against the Flyers, who led 4-2 heading into the final period, thanks to two goals apiece by Danny Briere and Vaclav Prospal. But Ovechkin got going by helping set up the first of two goals by defenseman Mike Green that lifted Washington into a tie.

Ovechkin’s winner was one of the prettiest goals I’ve seen lately… and was the result of some inspired play and other-worldly skill. I just have to share it:

Oh, and did I mention it was unassisted? But you can see that… if you look closely. AO’s winner last evening added a lot to an already good case for the Hart trophy. And this series looks to be one of the best of the first round…but, as the saying goes: there’s a lot of hockey left to be played.

So. While I was watching the Caps – Flyers last evening I got to thinking… When was the last time I watched the Flyers? I think the last time might have been Game Four of the 1997 Cup Finals, which, as games go, ranks right up there in the Top Five of “The Best Games I’ve Ever Seen.” Here’s a highlight from that game:

Ron Hextall was in goal for the Flyers and McCarty made him look like a doofus, not to mention the hapless defenseman McCarty skated around oh-so-effortlessly. That goal, in addition to being one of the prettiest goals of the modern era, sealed a sweep for the Wings. In Philly. I was watching from a bar in Ra-cha-cha that evening in the company of two good friends, both of whom were also Deetroit expats. The bartender bought us a round when the horn went off at the end of third… the Wings had won the Cup, ending a 42-year drought. My friends and I were absolutely ecstatic, and that might be understating the case by more than just a little bit. That hockey game was very, very close to a religious experience.

So. The long drought was over. And there certainly wasn’t a drought in Rochester that night. It got really, reeeelly drunk out, to say the least. The very least.

Strangely enough, there are few links between this year’s playoffs and the 1997 season. Sergei Fedorov, who was on the Wings’ Cup-winning team in ’97, plays for the Caps this year. And Darren McCarty is back with the Wings for the play-offs this year. McCarty has had a rough couple of years of late, but it looks like he’s turned his life around. Good for him. And the fact he’s back in Hockeytown is good for the Wings, too. I think it’s an omen…a good omen.

And now…Game Two of the Wings – Preds series begins in less than 45 minutes. I love this time of year.

PSA

Cynthia at “Gazing at the Flag” sends along the following via e-mail:

It’s time for a new Letters from Home project. This time I will be collecting letters for the Navy. I’ll be sending them off to the USS Russell — DDG-59. So, just like last time, please send generalized supportive emails to me, and I will make sure that they get to the men and women aboard the Russell. When you send your email, please be sure and put “Letters from Home” in the subject line. We’re aiming for about 250 emails, so I’m hoping to have them collected and packed up by the end of the month. As with last time, anything you all can do to help spread the word would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, they have their own blog there on the Russell. There’s some great writing going on there! Their crew gives you a good close look at life aboard a modern destroyer at war.

This news comes from Jim at the great blog Thinking Right.

Well, now. That’s not a LOT to ask, now, is it? And check out The Destroyermen, too. If you read Lex, you know a lot about life in the Naval Aviation world. You can learn a lot about the world of Surface Warfare just by perusing The Destroyermen.

Sad to say…but the Navy has it ALL over the Air Force when it comes to exploiting New Media. Feel free to correct me if you think I’m wrong, Gentle Reader.

And… just for Grins and Giggles… long-time readers know I have a “certain affinity” for destroyers and the sailors who man them. Here’s a reminder.

"Detroit Leads the Series, 1-0"

Well, we took the first one. But it sure wasn’t easy…from the Freep:

When the Red Wings needed them, their two superstar forwards came through with a goal that changed the momentum of the game.

The Wings had just endured a frustrating second period against Nashville on Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena, thwarted yet again by a hot goalie. The score was tied at 1, but then Pavel Datsyuk spun his magic with the puck and Henrik Zetterberg, reading his Eurotwin's every move, slid across the ice to finish a perfect setup. Zetterberg added an empty-netter to lift the Wings to a 3-1 victory over the Predators and a 1-0 lead in the first-round series.

Detroit pretty well dominated the game, statistically. From ESPN:

(click for larger)

While the shots are probably the most telling statistic, the shots-on-goal stat also illustrates what a fantastic job Nashville’s Dan Ellis did in goal (he was last night's Third Star)… and the very last thing Deetroit needs in these playoffs is yet another hot goalie. But a quick perusal of the stats shows the Wings are well-prepared for Nashville. Nothing about last night’s game disappointed me.

Not many Anaheim fans can say the same thing this morning… Your five-word mini-review: The Ducks sucked, Turco didn’t. Schadenfreude ‘R’ Us today! (That has nothing to do with last year, Gentle Reader. Nothing at all. Heh.)

Speaking of fans… Here’s a couple of photos from the Freep’s photo gallery of last night’s game that illustrate (in a small way) another reason why I love the game. Captions as found at The Freep.

Detroit fans (Left) Betsy Cushman from Dearborn and Linda Padgett from Northville cheer the Red Wings in the closing seconds of the game between the Detroit Red Wings the Nashville Predators, April 10, 2008 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, MI. the Red Wings defeated the Predators 3-1. KIRTHMON F. DOZIER/Detroit Free Press

Alyse Schaub, 8 years, gets a puck from Detroit's Aaron Downey as the team warms up prior to the start of the Wings first game against the Nashville Predators, April 10, 2008 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, MI. (KIRTHMON F. DOZIER/DFP)

And now it’s off to make the rounds. Back later with “more better stuff,” as Blog-Bud Jim sez…

Update: Added from NHL.com... Zetterberg's winning goal. The video ain't the best, but if you pay attention you'll see (a) an aborted clearing pass by Nashville, (b) a lucky bounce and superb puck handling by Pavel Datsyuk, followed by (c) a dazzling cross-ice pass by Datsyuk to Zetterberg who is perfectly positioned for (d) the game-winning one-timer. Ellis had NO chance...

Pretty, ain't it?

I'm Simply Blown Away

Or I might be, by day's end. You simply cannot imagine the dust and such, Gentle Reader. I'd be amazed were I not so annoyed.

Needless to say, we'll be indoors most...if not all... of the day.

It's Here!

Well, we’re OFF! My favorite time of the year has begun… with about six hours of non-stop hockey on the tube last night, to be followed up with more of the same this evening. Tonight is when the real action begins for us Wings fans, last night was just hors d’oeuvres. But such tasty hors d’oeuvres they were! I watched Pittsburgh totally dominate Ottawa; the Sens were never in it last night and will be lucky to win one game in this series. I don’t get to see too much of the Eastern Conference during the regular season, given as how I live in a Hockey Wasteland. But based upon what I saw last evening, I think the Penguins have what it takes to make it to the Finals. I imagine folks in Montreal, New York, Boston, Philly, and New Jersey might have other ideas, however.

The Pens – Sens game was good, but the San Jose – Calgary game was what playoff hockey is all about… the game was physical and fast, complete with beauteous moves, bone-crushing hits, the odd fight or three, and an outcome that was in doubt until the final horn went off. Case in point:

Last minute in the third, the Sharks pull Nabokov for an extra skater and they score with less than a minute left. That wasn’t enough, however. San Jose couldn’t score again to send the game to OT, despite the flurry...nay, bombardment!... of shots in the remaining 50 seconds. Still and even, I’ll bet there were LOTS of hearts stuck in throats on The Red Mile until the horn went off. And lots of disappointed fans in San Jose, too. Game Two in the series is tonight, but it won’t be televised. Versus will show the Detroit game, followed up with the Dallas – Anaheim opener. The Ducks and the Stars will be every bit as good as the Sharks – Flames. As it's said: It's ALL good!

I wasn’t disappointed with last night’s outcome. On the one hand I’d like to see San Jose go out in the first round, as I have a tendency to root for the underdog. OTOH, that means the Wings would get Calgary in the second round (assuming the Wings advance), and I’m not so sure that would be a good thing. We handled them easily last year, but the Flames can be…and are… a dangerous team. But if San Jose wins the series and Colorado upsets Minnesota (the Avs are on their way), then Deeetroit gets the Avs in the second round. A Wings - Avs series is always entertaining, to say the VERY least. And it could be shades of 2002, as well.

Either way is fine with me. We just have to get by Nashville first. Game ON!

Today's Pics...

(As always: click for larger. Especially the top photo)

…taken but a very few minutes ago. One of the few things about Spring I don’t like: tree junk. On my car. It’ll get worse, too, as Spring really kicks in later this month. There will be light green alien dust all over everything…

Thank God I don’t have allergies. I sympathize with those that do… this time of year really sucks for them.

We had very brief but intense thunderstorms with an inundation of rain early this morning. I’ve written before about the racket rain makes on an RV roof, and it’s awesome…unless you’re trying to sleep. We had hail this morning, too. Hail on an RV roof is akin to being inside the microwave when the popcorn really lights off. Or maybe the inside of Keith Moon’s drum kit at the end of “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” It’s LOUD, Gentle Reader.

Well, Hell...

...my problem ain't Da Blooze or even depression. Here's my problem: The New World Order, or… How Extreme Low Frequency (ELF) Weapons Wielded by (Unwanted) Aliens, Amongst Other Nefarious Beings and/or Organizations, Are Ruining My Life:

I stumbled on this by way of chasing a google hit from someone searching for “Boycott Cannon AFB.” That same search page had this lil interesting item... “Detainment Facilities and Death Camps for the Coming Antichrist War Against the Saints.” (No link, Gentle Reader. I don't want these wackos haunting me.) Sample:

CALIFORNIA

Vandenburg (sic) AFB - Rex 84 facility, located near Lompoc & Santa Maria. Internment facility is located near the oceanside, close to Space Launch Complex #6, also called "Slick Six". The launch site has had "a flawless failure record" and is rarely used.
Norton AFB - (closed base) now staffed with UN according to some sources.
Tule Lake - area of "wildlife refuge", accessible by unpaved road, just inside Modoc County.
Fort Ord - Closed in 1994, this facility is now an urban warfare training center for US and foreign troops, and may have some "P.O.W. - C.I." enclosures.
Twentynine Palms Marine Base - Birthplace of the infamous "Would you shoot American citizens?" Quiz. New camps being built on "back 40".
Oakdale - Rex 84 camp capable of holding at least 20,000 people. 90 mi. East of San Francisco.
Terminal Island - (Long Beach) located next to naval shipyards operated by ChiCom shipping interests. Federal prison facility located here. Possible deportation point.
Ft. Irwin - FEMA facility near Barstow. Base is designated inactive but has staffed camp.
McClellan AFB - facility capable for 30,000 - 35,000
Sacramento - Army Depot - No specific information at this time.
Mather AFB - Road to facility is blocked off by cement barriers and a stop sign. Sign states area is restricted; as of 1997 there were barbed wire fences pointing inward, a row of stadium lights pointed toward an empty field, etc. Black boxes on poles may have been cameras.

…

NEW MEXICO

Ft. Bliss - This base actually straddles Texas state line. Just south of Alomogordo, Ft. Bliss has thousands of acres for people who refuse to go with the "New Order".
Holloman AFB (Alomogordo)- Home of the German Luftwaffe in Amerika (ed: this is true. The Luftwaffe has been at Holloman for years); major UN base. New facility being built on this base, according to recent visitors. Many former USAF buildings have been torn down by the busy and rapidly growing German military force located here.
Fort Stanton - currently being used as a youth detention facility approximately 35 miles north of Ruidoso, New Mexico. Not a great deal of information concerning the Lordsburg location.
White Sands Missile Range - Currently being used as a storage facility for United Nations vehicles and equipment. Observers have seen this material brought in on the Whitesands rail spur in Oro Grande New Mexico about thirty miles from the Texas, New Mexico Border.

Jesus. And here I thought the Troofers were nuts. Note the “UN” references in the list above. We’re being invaded by the frickin’ United Nations and I didn’t even know it. I’ll bet all those ELF rays had something to do with that…

How I Spent My Morning...

The Senate Armed Services committee hearing on Iraq just wrapped up. I watched as much as I could from 0730 MDT until just now, with about an hour gone missing when C-SPAN switched to the House floor. I think Her Hillaryness was on during the hour C-SPAN switched to the House floor, coz I missed her questioning pontificating. No big thing, that.

I remain impressed with General Petraeus, and nearly equally so with Ambassador Crocker. Nothing new or unexpected happened in this morning’s hearing. There may be fireworks in this afternoon’s hearing before Joe Biden’s Foreign Relations committee. I’m particularly interested in what the junior senator from Illinois might have to say…

But I’ll have to watch it on the ‘puter (C-SPAN streaming video), if I watch in real-time. C-SPAN one and two will cover “business as usual” from the floors of the House and Senate, respectively, and C-SPAN3 will have the Foreign Relations committee hearing. I don’t get C-SPAN3 with basic cable, unfortunately.

That sucks, nu?

Ah, well. I have to go out to the base today anyway... and there’s always re-runs. C-SPAN is good about that.

Signs of the Impending Apocalypse, Item 58

Dang. They got Bert and Ernie. Is nothing sacred?

(h/t: Barry)

Da Blooze & Stuff

Yesterday was a pretty good day, unlike other days this past week… or perhaps longer. I’ve alluded to the fact I’ve been…um… “out of sorts” of late. It’s actually been worse than that, but that’s beside the point. Let’s get back to yesterday.

I awoke around 1000 hrs, put the coffee on, lit off the teevee and switched it to NBC… to catch the final game of the Red Wings’ season, which was televised nationally (lucky me!). I was anticipating a bit of a pre-game show but this being Texas (well, not really but my NBC feed is out of Amarillo), what I got was Today’s Evangelical Sermon For Shut-Ins. Instant and immediate zzz’s ensued, until I was awakened by the beep-beep-beep of the coffee pot signifying all was right with the world. So we roused ourselves yet again, made our way into the kitchen, poured that first cup and puttered about a bit before the game began.

About a minute after the puck dropped, my phone rang… SN1 on the line… and we proceeded to watch the game together but separately as is our custom. SN1 demonstrated what it means to be a true hockey fan, as he was out until 0400 hrs Sunday morning yet still roused himself after only six hours sleep just to watch the game. You may remember, Gentle Reader, I’ve mentioned SN1 is TDY to Nellis AFB in Beautiful Lost Wages, NV attending yet another boondoggle “career broadening” activity, this most recent one being an advanced service school. He and his class had some sort of function last evening and Buck served as the gaggle’s Designated Driver. So…no hangover involved, just a lack of sleep. But true hockey fans rise above this sort of thing… and so he did. We traded off phone calls as the game progressed, mostly when the Wings scored or Hasek made a spectacular save…things like that.

The game wasn’t a disappointment. The Wings dispatched Chicago easily… winning by a score of 4-1. Hasek came close to his sixth shutout of the year but it wasn’t to be, as Chicago scored on the power play with a little less than three minutes left in the game. Overall, the Wings looked really good and I’m taking this as an omen of future success. The playoffs begin next Saturday, and it looks like Buck and I might get to watch the first game together… in meat space, rather than on the phone. He graduates from his school at the end of next week and will swing through P-Ville on his way back to South Carolina.

That’s a great good thing, ya know. Beer will flow with wild abandon and there will be LOTS of yelling, cheering, and the odd moan or two. Kewl. It don’t get much better than that (for a geezer).

Deetroit Free Press Photo: Nick Lidstrom and the President’s Trophy, at a presentation before yesterday’s game. Nick never touched the trophy. The only hardware you actually TOUCH at play-off time is The Cup itself, once you’ve won it. It’s one of the quainter superstitions in the NHL.

―:☺:―

So. The wind diminished enough yesterday to allow me to put my awning down, open up the windows, and take in the gentle Spring air minus the gale force winds. We only got up to 70 degrees, which is dead-solid-perfect in my Big Book of Weather. Just the kind of day that made sitting out side with a couple of hefeweizens and a good cigar most enjoyable. (A critical beer review here. Beer snobs might wanna bookmark that link; good stuff be there.) A few more days like yesterday would do a whole lot towards restoring my mental health. Speaking of which…

My step-mother (“Mom,” hereafter) called on my birthday lo these two weeks or so ago. Mom is only about ten years older than I, so we relate to each other more as peers than in a traditional mother-son sort of way. Talk flows easily between us, punches certainly aren’t pulled, there are no agendas or games. The conversation turned almost immediately in this sort of direction (and it’s most certainly not verbatim, either):

Mom: So. How ARE you, anyway?

Me: I’m about a six on a scale of ten.

Mom: Really. Why is that? Birthday thing? Introspection about aging?

Me: That’s part of it. Growing old ain’t for sissies. One makes adjustments, one realizes there are “certain things” you can’t do as well as you used to, if at all. Your reflexes slow, your appearance changes, yadda, yadda. You adjust. But that’s only part of the issue.

Mom: Well…what else?

Me: I find myself missing (The Second Mrs. Pennington) a lot these days. I know that’s neither rational nor normal, given the fact it’s been nearly ten years now.

Mom: I understand. It’s been 17 years since your Dad died and I’m still not over it. I doubt I ever will get over it. Some wounds just don’t heal.

Me: Wow. Thanks for that. I’ve found friends and even family have a very limited tolerance for wounds that don’t heal; the expectation is you should just “get over it” and get on with life. After a bit you just stop talking about it. But (The Second Mrs. Pennington) was in my life for so long, and so deep…

Mom: What you and (The Second Mrs. Pennington) had was very special, Buck. And you have to realize some people never have what you two had, even for a moment. I understand completely.

Me: Thanks.

Ah… that’s what Moms are all about, innit? Even we geezers need a shoulder once in a while. Or a therapist, if you believe in that sort of thing…which I both do and don’t. As in I “do” believe where other folks are concerned and “don’t” when it comes to me, based upon past experience. “Therapy” in my situation would be both a waste of time and money... two commodities in relatively short supply in these parts.

Lest this pity-party get completely out of hand, let me reassure you I’ve just got Da Blooze. It ain’t nuthin’ serious. Sitting outside yesterday with a cigar and a few beers got ‘em on the run, for the moment. It also helps (me, anyway) to “count your blessings” when you hit the lower points in life. I went through that exercise yesterday, too. I have a lot to be thankful for… relatively good health, two wonderful and successful adult children, beautiful grandchildren, financial security, and a life-well-led, with tons of great memories.

That should be enough, no? But sometimes it’s not. Who knew this damned torch would burn so brightly, for so long?

Not me.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: Mom and Dad, sometime in 1990…about a year before Dad died. Taken in Newport Beach, CA.

Fine W(h)ines...

Today is one of only two days every year the Trinity Atomic Test Site is open to the public, and I should be there…rather than typing this post. But: best laid plans, mice, men, tires, wind, etc., etc., came into play and I’m here, not there.

My Buddy Greg in Detroit called me up to remind me about Trinity last week, we discussed it, and I made a mental commitment to go. Trinity isn’t a long way from P-Ville…about 200 miles or so… so a day trip seemed to be in order. Four hours down, an hour or two at the site, and four hours back…with a little time off for lunch and/or dinner in Ruidoso… or somewhere like it. I could pretty much do the whole deal in daylight, should I choose. So, why am I not there, you ask, Gentle Reader? Let me explain…

I had a flat fixed a few months back and the guy who fixed the flat didn’t balance the wheel correctly. As a result I’ve been living with a very minor, yet irritating, vibration that occurs between 72 and 80 mph…right in The Green Hornet’s cruising sweet-spot. So, I got off the dime yesterday, thinking I couldn’t stand eight hours of bad vibes (heh) and drove over to The Big(ger) City to get that wheel balanced. That was when the guys at the tire shop told me I’d be throwing my money away and I had better replace the rear tires, doncha know, coz they’re worn out. And they were. Are. This is an embarrassing admission on my part. I’m always on top of things like this, to the point of replacing tires well before they’re worn out. It’s a safety thing, not to mention performance… as in handling/cornering. But… in my defense… I had been checking the health and well-being of my tires, but only the fronts, mainly because they’re more accessible and visible. Here’s the strange part: the front tires are fine and have at least two or three thousand miles left in them. The two rear tires, OTOH, are worn to the point where the tread wear bars are flush with the tread… or as the tire guys said… “You’re running slicks.”

So. The Big(ger) City being Clovis, there were all sorts of tires available for garden variety SUVs, pick-ups, and Hondas. And none for a Miata, of course. “Gotta order those, they’ll be in Monday or Tuesday, at the earliest” sez the helpful tire guy. Not only are tires in my size not immediately available, they’re immediately expensive once they arrive… ergo: Thought required. The last time I put tires on the Green Hornet I did what most sensible people do: I bought them from The Tire Rack. I’m not sure I want to go that way this time, however, mainly because the last time I bought tires I bought much more tire than I need here in New Mexico, with its arrow-straight roads and dearth of corners. Goodyear Eagle F1s just might be overkill (and overpriced, locally, at $200.00 a pop), especially in light of my recent mini-rant on frugality. Bottom line: I made no deals yesterday…even if I could have done so. But I need to replace those tires before I take a road trip further than out to the base or back over to The Big(ger) City. And even then I don’t like riding on worn-out tires. Add in the fact we have major wind still at play here on The High Plains and the bottom line is no road trip to Trinity. I’m thinking the weather will be better in October and I’ll definitely have good rubber on the car then.

The illustrations were taken from The Wiki’s article on the Trinity Test Site.

―:☺:―

Too bad about the above. I’m feeling a need for a road trip, and Trinity would have been perfect. I’ve been very out of sorts lately and I find there are a tremendous number of things that simply irritate the Hell out of me… for no apparent reason. And some things irritate me for VERY good reasons, such as politics. You may have noticed I’m in yet another of my apolitical phases, Gentle Reader. We also happen to be in a dead zone where presidential politics are concerned. The on-going Democrat soap-opera is moderately interesting in a “He said – She said” sort of way, but even that gets old after a while. Spare me the Clinton tax returns, if you will. Please.

The Big Event on the horizon is the upcoming congressional testimony/progress report on the war by Ambassador Crocker and Gen. Petraeus… but I expect nothing but sniping and partisan rancor out of that, based on the press conference given by San Fran Nan and her Band of Merry Men this past Thursday or Friday. I watched about half of their presser before shouting a few selected obscenities at my teevee and flipping over to the WX Channel, which is infinitely more useful. As long as their whining, nagging and berating global warming climate change Chicken Littles aren’t around, anyway. Speaking of which: TWC hired a side-kick for Heidi a while back. We now have two full-time Prophets of Doom. The new gal reminds me for all the world of Morticia Addams (except Morticia was better looking), and that’s sorta appropriate, innit? Just sayin’.

See what I mean, Gentle Reader? Irritation ‘R’ Us.

―:☺:―

I did manage to get my taxes done and in the mail before April this year… I did ‘em this past weekend and mailed ‘em out on Monday. Wonder of wonders: I’m getting a refund. I never get a refund, what with not being in the business of lending money to the Feds, which I leave to the Chinese and people like them. But the convergence of The Bobby Deduction (it’s my year; The Second Mrs. Pennington and I alternate), coupled with an over-withholding of Federal tax on this year’s 401(k) distribution resulted in a refund. I was very disappointed/irritated that 90% of my Social Security is taxable, which was yet another reason I over-withheld tax on the 401(k) distribution. Planning for the unknown ‘R’ (also) Us.

Except where tires are concerned.

Congratulations!

News Item:

DETROIT — Henrik Zetterberg wrapped up the Presidents' Trophy for Detroit, scoring with 11 seconds left to rally the Red Wings to a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.

With 113 points, the Red Wings took the Presidents' Trophy as the regular-season points leaders and earned home-ice advantage throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs.

All well and good, Boys, and congratulations. Well done. One more piece of silverware for the trophy case and not an insignificant one, at that. You know what the real objective is, though. Rest up, get well, and don’t worry about that last game of the season. The most exciting time of the year is right around the corner…and just to remind you: We have high expectations.

What He Said...

Here’s a compelling essay about one of my VERY serious hot-buttons in life… Frugality, and its obverse, our spendthrift society… courtesy of The Art of Manliness. Excerpt:

I was once watching a TV show in which a round table of finance gurus were dispensing money advice to the studio audience. One of the advisors said that people should give up little luxuries like a daily Starbucks run and save and invest that money instead. A woman in the audience stood up and cried, “But what if I don’t want to give up Starbucks?” The crowed roared and clapped in approval.

The Founding Fathers feared such attitudes. They feared that too much luxury made a nation weak. They would often point to the Greeks and Romans as examples of what happens to a nation when it lets prosperity go unchecked by temperance and frugality. John Adams often preached against “effeminate luxuries.” And although wealthy, Ben Franklin lived a relatively simple life. He made an effort to eat and dress plainly.

Unfortunately, Americans have lost sight of the importance of frugality. For a generation of men who have grown up in a period of unprecedented affluence, living frugally seems down right silly and old fashion. But if a man wishes to remain economically and emotionally independent, frugality is an essential virtue to develop.

Why Being Frugal is Essential to Manning Up

(ed: and the essay continues from there…)

Brett, the blog’s author, emphasizes that frugality is essential to one’s independence… in the sense that debt enslaves you, taking away a lot (if not nearly all) of the choices in life. Brett’s argument is mostly couched in “manly” terms, but his advice applies to everyone…man, woman, or child.

My parents were children of The Great Depression, and as such, were very well-equipped to teach their children the value of being frugal. Nothing teaches us as well as experience, be it personal or anecdotal. I use “anecdotal” in the sense that my father, while never destitute, saw enough destitution in pre-war (WW II) Detroit to fully appreciate what being destitute meant. There are damned few among us today that learned that lesson first-hand, and those that DID learn it won’t be with us all that much longer. So…it’s understandable, perhaps, that our instant-gratification, No-Money-Down!, Bad-Credit?-NOT-a-Problem!, society is out there on a rather thin limb.

Some of us, anyway. The thing that pisses me right off is the spendthrifts will take the rest of us down when that limb breaks. I’m not the first person to say this, but a LOT of our current financial crisis is due to the fact people bit off more… a LOT more… than they could chew. Who, in their right mind, would willingly take on a mortgage they KNOW they can’t afford? And the same thing goes for cars big-ass SUVs, boats, swimming pools, so on and so forth.

It’s waaay past time for us to Man Up…financially speaking.

(h/t: Mike…who tipped me to The Art of Manliness, but not about the frugality bits. Mike was on about pocket knives, and he was right about that.)

Potty Mouth...

Created by OnePlusYou

The level of profanity here at EIP is 16% MORE than other websites who took this test, according to this quiz. The cuss-o-meter would be pegged if I used the REAL F-Bomb in place of my standard euphemism for same, i.e., “frickin’” or “freakin’.” Or if I were blogging while still on active duty. I’ve really cleaned up my act since I got out of the Air Force, ya know.

Hard to believe, yet true.

(h/t: Fire Fox)

Finding My Place

I’m obviously living in the wrong place, if you believe this:

(click for larger)

The article is slanted towards the younger demographic, however, and apparently has little or no value for us geezers who would be dating the (semi-) geriatric segment of the population. Then again, conventional wisdom (which ain’t always wrong) sez I should button up El Casa Móvil De Pennington and head out for Florida’s Gold Coast, or somewhere like it. Assuming mate-finding is Priority Number One, which it clearly isn’t, Gentle Reader.

I had to laugh just a lil bit over this, tho:

In Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area, single men outnumber single women by roughly 65,000.

[…]

Being in a place where the gender odds are stacked against you can be very frustrating. "When I was in Chicago, it was never long between dates" says one single male. "When I'm hanging out with friends [in the San Francisco Bay Area], often times in a large room with few if any women, we routinely turn to the topic of how the dating scene sucks."

My Best Bud, who was also my boss whilst I was living and working in the Bay Area, had NO sympathy at all when I began to whine about the lack of suitable “opportunities” available in the Bay Area dating world. He’d say something to the effect of “you’re a successful single straight male in a city where single straight males are at a premium. And you can’t find a date? Something’s wrong with you, My Friend…”

Well, yes and no. I didn’t lack for dates… there were many more than a few of same. My issue was finding someone suitable (read as: compatible), which gradually and relentlessly moved, over time, to one simple qualification: “not frickin’ crazy.” That proved to be a Fool’s Quest, however, given I was in the Bay Area. There were other issues, of course, not the least of which was my age. A good friend of mine once told me her roommate thought I “would be perfect if he (me) were 20 years younger.”

{sigh} She was a lil hottie, herownself. And what’s 30 years difference in age, give or take a decade, between friends?

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: YrHmblScrb during the time period discussed above. Mind you, I lived in Berkeley at the time... so what you see is the relatively short-lived Berkeley persona. Which might have been yet another part of the problem, eh?

Berkeley, CA. February, 2001. I turned 56 the following month.

Poisson d’Avril

It’s April Fools’ Day. But ya knew that. One thing you might not know, Gentle Reader, is there’s a web site that lists the “Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of All Time.” Great good stuff there. Blog-Bud Barry, from whence I got the link, likes Number Five on the list…and I have to agree with him, being the language person I am (or like to think I am, anyway).

#5: San Serriffe

In 1977 the British newspaper The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement devoted to San Serriffe, a small republic located in the Indian Ocean consisting of several semi-colon-shaped islands. A series of articles affectionately described the geography and culture of this obscure nation. Its two main islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. Its capital was Bodoni, and its leader was General Pica. The Guardian's phones rang all day as readers sought more information about the idyllic holiday spot. Few noticed that everything about the island was named after printer's terminology. The success of this hoax is widely credited with launching the enthusiasm for April Foolery that gripped the British tabloids in subsequent decades.

I could see this particular hoax flying long and far in the USofA, given our woeful geographic knowledge. But it surprises me the Brits were taken in, what with the fact the British are very well-traveled (compared to us), and especially the blatantly obvious “Upper Caisse,” “Lower Caisse,” yadda, yadda.

Also from the list… the first internet hoax, ever:

#12: Kremvax

In 1984, back in the Stone Age of the internet, a message was distributed to the members of Usenet (the online messaging community that was one of the first forms the internet took) announcing that the Soviet Union was joining Usenet. This was quite a shock to many, since most assumed that cold war security concerns would have prevented such a link-up. The message purported to come from Konstantin Chernenko (from the address chernenko@kremvax.UUCP) who explained that the Soviet Union wanted to join the network in order to "have a means of having an open discussion forum with the American and European people." The message created a flood of responses. Two weeks later its true author, a European man named Piet Beertema, revealed that it was a hoax. This is believed to be the first hoax on the internet. Six years later, when Moscow really did link up to the internet, it adopted the domain name 'kremvax' in honor of the hoax.

Who said Commies had no sense of humor?

The Wiki also has an impressive list of April Fools’ Day pranks… Also from The Wiki is this bit of trivia, with which I have personal experience, given I lived in Paris as a boy: “The April 1 tradition in France includes poisson d'avril (literally "April's fish"), attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed.” You cannot imagine, Gentle Reader, the lengths young boys will go to just to attach a paper fish to another boy’s back (or girl’s…but not so much at ages 8 ~ 10). It’s pretty danged difficult to spend an entire day with your back to the wall, so to speak.

―:☺:―

And then there’s this:

Happy April Fools' Day!

As expected, Google's Gmail rolled out a fake "custom time" feature, which purports to let users send e-mails into the past and consequently never miss important deadlines again. The new feature "utilizes an e-flux capacitor to resolve issues of causality," Google wrote.

"I just got two tickets to Radiohead by being the 'first' to respond to a co-worker's 'first-come, first-serve' email," a fake testimonial on the Custom Time site read. "Someone else had already won them, but I told everyone to check their inboxes again. Everyone sort of knows I used Custom Time on this one, but I'm denying it."

April Fools' Day is something that the Gmail folks take very seriously--the product's real beta launch was, in fact, on April 1, 2004.

Fun at the Googleplex… I use G-Mail but I missed the prank. Google must have taken “custom time” down by the time I rolled out of bed.

―:☺:―

This is no joke, however:

A new storm worm with an April Fool's Day theme is targeting the Web, according to security software firm PC Tools.

"The Storm worm gang has done it again. This time e-mails are being circulated, which are associated with the April Fool's Day theme," said PC Tools chief threat officer, Kurt Baumgartner.

The e-mail messages contain links that direct users to Web sites that contain malware. Once the files are downloaded and executed on the computer it sets a firewall exception rule and then attempts to 'phone home' using various outgoing ports.

According to Baumgartner, the packer and major sections of executable code have changed significantly, indicating that it could be another variant and AV detection for this threat is close to nonexistent.

"The most effective way users can protect against these new threats is with antimalware products that use behavioral technology. Traditional AV products, which use signature detection are simply not equipped with this behavioral technology and the threat is currently evading those users' defenses," he said.

Read the whole thing…and be careful out there.

―:☺:―

Not related at all to Poisson d’Avril… but here’s another link, this time from Blog-Bud Mike… News I can most definitely use (and you might as well, Gentle Reader):

Worth noting that if you haven't heard by now, every single episode of South Park is now available for viewing for free at their website. Let me repeat that: Every. Single. Episode. For free.

Bookmarked for those times The History Channel is in re-runs and The Discovery Channel is doing yet another of those oh-so-lame “survival in the wild” things.