Comic for Wednesday, February 15th, 2006

Posted: 7:30 am, Wednesday, February 15th

2.0 greatly enjoyed her Build-a-bear, I'm sure you're all relieved to know this.

The SI swimsuit issue came out yesterday, meaning some dudes probably got theirs on Valentine's Day. Which I'm sure worked out just swell for them.

Also in the world of sports, pitchers and catchers report, like, tomorrow or sometime. So baseball's a mere month and a half off, which is always good news. Jayson Stark, whose columns were a lot better before they made him do Baseball Tonight every night, tabulates the 25 top innovations in baseball in the last 25 years. By my calculations, there's only about fifteen. The Wild Card and expansion are basically the same thing; stats, retrosheet and fantasy baseball can all basically be summed up as 'stats'; MRI and Tommy John surgery can be lumped under medical advancement; burgeoning offensive numbers and steroids are pretty clearly related (although Stark allows for that in his list); the Latinization and increased number of Asian players (Asianization?) can be lumped under globalization of the game; "sun don't shine," and "day and night" are basically the same damned thing, and pitching specialization and the splitter are pretty closely related. Hell, the splitter can be lumped with Tommy John, as it's the most damaging pitch to throw. So, anyway, 15 innovations. Still more than the NCAA has enacted in the same time.

And now a quick blog round-up. I found a bunch of new ones yesterday, and one old fav. The old fav is Booklust, which I try to visit often but usually fail to for some reason, by the lady that did Tart. Check out this absolutely crazy sculpture made out of books. It looks like a Richard Serra sculpture. Also found through Booklust but better detailed in the following link, the book bar. I wish I hadn't put out all those books in a box on the stoop, now.

Meathenge and Three Martini Lunch are ones I found while trying to figure out what to cook for 2.0 for Valentine's Day supper. I did not make a recipe from either, but I wholeheartedly endorse the ideas behind both of these beautifully titled blogs. "Meathenge." Brilliant.

Finally, you may have heard about some snow we had the other day here in New York City. That did not stop some intrepid New Yorkers from hitting the bars. One party was held in order to Watch Someone Turn 30, and another party was a pubcrawl of bloggers. I'm linking to this one because her name is humorous and vaguely Dantillian.

You may notice I did not mention any sort of party I attended during the storm - this is because I passed out watching North by Northwest at, like, ten thirty at night. Honest to God, that film doesn't make a lick of sense to me.

bullfrog

Some teenager from the Charlotte area made it into the SI swimsuit issue and it was on the top banner of yesterday's paper and the lead story on the website most of the day. It was quite the low point for me, knowing that this was what qualified as the big news of the day.

North by Northwest is up there with Sixteen Candles for me.

It's not meant to be, bullfrog.

I'm not saying I don't like it - it just doesn't make any sense. To the film's defense, I've been dog-tired or walked in halfway through every time I've seen it. Plus, now I'm feeling all Hitchcocky.

MNP, you watch the Olympics - is this Johnny Weir guy as tremendously entertaining as he's being made out to be?

You gotta see hitchcock's "Rope". It's supposed to look like it was shot all in one take, but every 6 or 7 minutes it will focus on an object and then continue with the story, so that the camera guy could change the film reel (thank you TCM).

Also, NBC coverage sucks and I have become strangely addicted to curling and the biathlon.

I keep trying to tell 2.0 that the Biathlon is pretty cool. She's not having it.

I don't care about the NBA, so I skipped this article when it first appeared on the ESPN page. Deadspin just linked someone mocking it, which piqued my curiosity just enough to bother with it.

Dear God, what are they doing in Bristol?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/flash/galaxy

That's the one where you shoot and ski? My problem is, what is the reason these two "events" were brought together (I hesitate in naming shooting as a sport)? Seems any two things could be a Biathlon. Why not Ski jumping and diving...or hockey and curling?

"Rear Window" is very good, as is "Psycho". Really, Psycho genuinely weirded me out for a long period of time. Just freaky.

Official Fivebucks family announcement: The next Suckerfish (due June 20) will be a boy, according to the ultrasound, thus giving Ben a little brother.

I'm feeling old today, so I need to spread it around. My FIFTH wedding anniversary is this year.

Is *this* one going to be named Lou?

In addition to the two you mentioned, I liked the Birds. It's fun to yell at people, "You brought the birds, you're evil!"

I think ski jumping and diving would be a great combo, by the way - preferably done simultaneously. Who wouldn't watch that? Jump off a huge ramp, shed your skis in midair, and hit the water in a perfect dive. That would be awesome.

Except for the guys who came up short on their jumps. Ow.

Dude, you better name this one animal. But suckerfish is good too.

And not only is biathlon cool, they must have said this guy's name (Ole Einar Bjoerndalen) about 12 million times in coverage yesterday. Ole Einar. Say it, it's just funny.

And why are shooting and skiing even remotely related? Apparently, they think it is one of the oldest sports, since cave drawings in the north lands depict hunters on skis carrying bows. So the modern sport adapted from hunters carrying rifles on skis. So, i guess it really wasn't much of a sport to start off with, just kind of living. Sort of like NASCAR i guess. This information brought to you by the USA network, not me. The NASCAR part was mine.

Johnny Weir is just a teenager trying to get attention by being what he thinks is "edgy". He's basically like Jack from Will & Grace except NOT funny & just rude & annoying. I heard the tail-end of an interview where he was putting down his family for not supporting him. Do you KNOW how expensive Ice Skating is?? Of course he's been supported. He just likes the martyr role. Frankly, I think I grew out of ice skating sometime in the last 4 years. I'm just watching for the skiing :)

And, yay, suckerfish!! Although now JJ's WAY outnumbered.

2.0 hesitates to call shooting a sport, but have you seen the curling? It's the oddest "sport" I've witnessed. And incredibly slow-moving. And if you look closely at the crowd....oh, wait....there ISN'T an crowd....because it's CURLING. And apparently USA only broadcasts hockey and curling. My entertainment is provided by the commentators who, this year, seem to come up with the cheesiest and lamest things to say. If only I could remember a good example.

I didn't mean to say thata the commentators have never said lame and cheesy things in years past....they just seem to have surpassed the usual level this year.

One of my good friends in the office is Canadian. I heckle her about curling mercilessly - it's evidently popular in Canada.

So I have CNBC on the TV on my desk. and every day during the Olympics it changes to Curling at 5 pm. and we all sit there and try to figure out what's going on...very productive :)

The Olympic-Obsessed-One (a.k.a. Grafe) has a freakish amount of knowledge about the sport.

Curling is awesome!!!!!

I want to build a rink. Except it's not cold enough around here. It scores like bocci, there's 10 "innings" (ends), each team gets 8 stones per end.

hemoglobin. hemoglobin. hemoglobin. this concludes USA today coverage of the biathlon.

Bocce. Sheesh.

Curling very much reminds me of those long table-top shuffleboard games with the wax dust and the metal pucks that you can only find at dive bars, e.g. "Our Tavern" on the NW side of Grand Rapids. Man I love that game. Maybe even better than darts, and less chance of bleeding.

I am with you on the shuffleboard, MJL!