Tag: Non-partisan blog posts

Wow! SU’s 2007 Football Really Does Suck

Not that a university team is as similar to a pro team from one year to the next but last season the Syracuse Orange lost to Iowa in overtime. This year they lost 0-35. Yikes. That after being massacreed at home by Washington in last week’s season opener.

This makes the decision as to which game to take in tougher. What game won’t be a boring blow-out. To reiterate, then: which is the most likely home game to give the best experience?

Fri, Aug 31 – Washington: lost by blow-out.

Sat, Sep 15 – Illinois: No, a confusion of orange and Illinois is 1-1 with a shut-out win yesterday. Plus it may be on TV this early in the season. Chance of a win, sure, but I do not see it happening.
Sat, Oct 6 – West Virginia: yes, a hated rival but one that has scored 110 points in its first to wins. Blow-out by a bowl team.
Sat, Oct 13 – Rutgers. Ba-low out by a better bowl-bound team.
Sat, Oct 20 – Buffalo. They better win this one. This is the best chance. Blown out by Rutgers in game one, Buffalo smoked Temple who, it turns out, actually has a football program called the Owls.
Sat, Nov 10 – South Florida. If they have not won by now, why would I go? Maybe to check out the new coaching staff?
Sat, Nov 24 – Cincinnati. Ditto time ten.

So there you have it. I forecast at best three wins and a good chance of one with zero wins not being out of the question. Will I go? Will I go see a Division II game instead? Stay tuned.

More angst in more detail at Orange 44.

I Forgot Why Mulroney Was So Fun

Remember when Canadian politics involved people against whom you could actually have a reaction?

“Look, out of 11 million citizens of this country, there were a million people — young men from British Columbia to Newfoundland — who rose to fight the Nazis. The most evil machine ever known to man, trying to exterminate the Jews, everybody knew that, and all these young Canadians rose and went overseas to fight them. Pierre Trudeau was not among them. That’s a decision he made. He’s entitled to make that kind of decision. But it doesn’t qualify him for any position of moral leadership in our society.”

That is the sort of good clean fun we haven’t seen in Ottawa for 20 years. Too bad.

Bye Pav

This is the sort of pop culture news to which one has a weird closeness and, yet, dislocation. It is sort of a touchstone as to the disutility of pop culture, as the obit in the Times tells in perhaps a bit too honestly than need be:

And in the early 1990s he began staging Pavarotti and Friends charity concerts, performing side by side with rock stars like Elton John, Sting and Bono and making recordings from these shows. Throughout these years, despite his busy and vocally demanding schedule, his voice remained in unusually good condition well into middle age. Even so, as his stadium concerts and pop collaborations brought him fame well beyond what contemporary opera stars have come to expect, Mr. Pavarotti seemed increasingly willing to accept pedestrian musical standards. By the 1980s he found it difficult to learn new opera roles or even new song repertory for his recitals. And although he planned to spend his final years, in the operatic tradition, performing in a grand worldwide farewell tour, he completed only about half the tour, which began in 2004. Physical ailments, many occasioned by his weight and girth, limited his movement on stage and regularly forced him to cancel performances.

How to celebrate Pavarotti? You will have to decide for yourselves. In the interests of ensuring the word “girth” does not appear in my obit, I will do a sit up in his memory. Maybe the fourth one. And maybe I can avoid having past unfortunate collaborations with Sting and Bono referenced in my obituary, too.

Ralph’s Rib’s Sauce Is Back!

Despite being a man who does sit ups – have I mentioned that? – I have to make sure I do not forget those who made me a man who does sit ups including those fine purveyors of BBQ. One of the saddest days in my family was the day back in 2006 that we learned that Ralph’s Ribs of Ithaca had shut. Well, we can relive the past in the comfort of your own home now according to an email I got today:

Ralphs’ BBQ sauce is back!!! This is a one time email so don’t worry, I just wanted to let everyone know that they’re making sauce again. It’s going under the name of Ralph’s Mammas BBQ. it’s still the same award winning recipe!! The sauce is only available at 3 locations:

  • Habitat of Ithaca, located in Center Ithaca on the Commons.
  • Krafted Keepsakes, located at 288 Hayts Rd.
  • Hosmer Winery: 22 miles from Ithaca. Look for our sign at the corner of County Road 138 and NY Route 89. Continue on NY Route 89 and the winery is immediately on your left.

OK. So I get emails from former BBQ restaurateurs. What of it? Ralph’s was a North Carolina rib joint with a vinegar sauce as well as very hammy meat. Tangy. Good. I have a hat from the restaurant. I heart Ralph.

An Election In Ontario

Ontario suffers from a funny sort of guilt – sorry it is so large and populous and diverse and economically strong and sets the national agenda. It could spin off Toronto, you know…that might work. And, because someone had a whacky idea a few years back, Ontario has fixed provincial elections and I guess one is coming up. The problem with fixed elections without primaries and stuff is that they sort of creep up on you so here we are about five weeks off and no one is listening that much. Well they will today:

There was a real holiday flavour to the unofficial kickoff of the Ontario election campaign yesterday. The Liberal party promised a new statutory holiday in February if it is re-elected on Oct. 10, something that would give Ontarians a long-called-for winter break.

I say the Conservatives go one better and promise to mirror the, what, 37 or so statutory holidays of Newfoundland. Until we get Regatta Day off – are we really free?

How Fast Is The New Fast?

The BBC reports on a study showing that computers are bunging up the work place due to lack of proper implementation. Here is the
executive summary of the report, which includes the following:

The problem lies with people rather than the systems themselves,
concludes the iSociety think-tank. Workers do not have enough guidance about technology, support staff are cut off from other staff and managers are “naive”, said the year-long study. This contributes to “endemic annoyance” with computers which can be avoided with better understanding.

Having worked in a
number of digital offices in the public and private sector since 1990, I can confirm my experience that implementation of IT resources often is about as thoughtful as buying Winnebagos for wheelbarrow functionality needs as both are things with wheels. Why is this? The drive to upgrade needlessly pushed by
consultants, IT marketing and procurers without the information required to say no to the bright new toys. Before buying new communications and information
systems few organizations seem to themselves ask questions about how they communicate, what information they need and, most importantly, why.

Narcissim Used To Be A Fault

Can we be collectively narcissistic? Could it be that too much access and too much information can be too much? What happens to a society when everything is ok and everything should be open and available to and from all? Is it only simply a flourishing or are their limitations inherent either in a healthy society or being human? We can hardly be both tribal and non-hierarchical. We can hardly be exposed and not take in or be shaped by that exposure. Yet that seems to be a working principle:

“Most of the content on the network is contributed by the users of the internet,” he said. “So what we’re seeing on the net is a reflection of the society we live in. Maybe it is important for us to look at that society and try to do something about what’s happening, what we are seeing.

He added: “When you have a problem in the mirror you do not fix the mirror, you fix that which is reflected in the mirror.”

That is an odd analogy. You do remove the mirror when it is a distraction, is aimed into someone else’s space or is just in the wrong place. It does not seem to capture what we are. Is it possible that we are so obsessed with not having certain people tell us the modern is corrupt that we have determined that free discourse is an absolute, utterly uncorruptible and uncorrupting?

Still Six Games Up…Let Me Check…Wow…Six Games

Well, it was a damn good thing the White Sox got a thrashing last weekend and that the Tigers played well against the Yanks or it would be more like a two game lead instead of six. That being said, the Yankees have played the last two games like…the Yankees. Pettitte and Clemens were both powerhouses on the pitchers mound, though to be utterly biased, their strike zone was a tad bizzare. And Damon [Ed.: pittuie] has played…(gak)…[Ed.: hairball sounds]…well. Yet, if Shilling plays well today, the season’s games in the Bronx will be over and the lead will be seven.

No, the concerns (because what is a fan without concerns) are really long term. One wonders what will happen way down the road, you know, in September. Here are my thoughts:

  • Dice-K has been a minor bust. But so was Beckett in his first year. Maybe it does take a year to settle in sometimes but there is something sloppy about Matsuzaka that seems dislocated in relation to big innings. It’s like he averages one really poor inning every ten to fourteen. That is disconcerting. It will be interesting to see if he ups his game or if he can.
  • Mike Lowell is the A-Rod of the Red Sox. If he wasn’t on the team, the race would now be tied. Youk and Pedroia are the something of the surprises of 2006 and 2007. Likely they are not surprises to those in charge (note: me fan) but it is these three players who have the Sox where they are this year.
  • There may have been a combination of bad picks (Drew and Willi Mo) and neccesary reliance on certain guys for too many seasons (Shilling, Ortiz, Manny) but there is a gap between the young players and the players at the end of their careers that could be looming and may be a reason that the rest of 2007 is not too pretty.

Thankfully, there is an afternoon game today. I will have to deal with it at a distance, though I think I can jimmy a make-shift antennae at work to pick up the Yankees broadcast if I can reach high enough and the chair will stay up on the bookshelf.

Sign Of The Endtimes #3378

There are some things I won’t put on the beer blog – including some new gack called “Guinness Red”. Apparently the much jiggered with recipe moves over the last few decades have done their deed leaving the brewer to consider “the brand is the asset” now that it has destroyed the actual drink:

The launch of Guinness Red is the latest in a series of slightly odd, innovative brand extensions for the famous beer brand, which has been hit with declining sales. In February, in time for St Patrick’s Day, Diageo tied up with Marmite to produce a limited edition Guinness-flavoured Marmite spread, with just 300,000 hitting supermarket shelves. The company also launched the battery-powered “ultra-sonic” Guinness Surger that enables Guinness fans to create a proper “tight creamy” head to their beer when drinking at home. Perhaps the most bizarre brand extension was a tie-up with Northern Irish bread company Irwin’s Bakery, to create – after two years of research and development – Guinness bread. Guinness Wholegrain Bread, which has 17% Guinness content, is described as “the perfect malty bread” by Irwin’s.

Stonch has it right: “If this diabolical stuff passed the taste test, I despair of the British people.”

One Man Burning Man Crime Wave!

So at Burning Man it is a crime to…burn the man. You know the free collective spirit of the communal community (that is and then is not – like the wind) can’t work without a schedule, people! Not to mention the need to do what you are told by the leadership. This is up there with that Ayn Rand Society or organization or whatever.

And always a nice touch when libertarians and anarchists call in the cops.

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