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The Best Thing About Last Night's Hollywood Salute To Al Gore…
….is that thanks to the career revival of Jackie Earle Haley, we have now have a better idea of what Steve Nash will look like at the age of 46.
….is that thanks to the career revival of Jackie Earle Haley, we have now have a better idea of what Steve Nash will look like at the age of 46.
Manny Ramirez arrived early at Fort Myers. Dice K is being followed by a ton of reporters. Water is wet. There's going to be a lot of projectile vomiting in the Boston area on St. Paddy's Day. Zzzzzzz.
Rob Bradford's doing a bang up job of making the mundane seem interesting this Spring Training, but even miracle workers need some downtime. I'm not sure how the intrepid Eagle-Tribune reporter missed out on The Greatest Television Program of All Time until now, but better late than never.
My surreal television moment of the day: Watching a show called "Cheaters" last night, which has a camera crew and private investigators follow suspected cheaters in relationships. The victim in this case was an 88-year-old named Lightning McLeod, who was in a relationship with a 33-year-old. After they built their case against the woman (obviously finding she had been unfaithful to McLeod), the host of the show, a man named Joey Greco (above), a team of cameras, and a cane-wielding McLeod confronted the two. Things got a little feisty, with the older gentleman (whom Greco had called a "dashing young man" earlier in the episode waving his cane at the cheaters.
Then came the Hallmark moment when Lightning McLeod warned his younger no-good doer: "Watch out, I'll strike twice!" I've got a feeling Lightning was using this same threat back in days of prohibition. Oh, and did I mention Lightning made a Mohawk out of whatever hair he had left?
Though Jason Whitlock's confusing, self-congratulatory coverge of All-Star Weekend hasn't escaped notice at CSTB (pt. 1, pt. 2), Edge Of Sports' Dave Zirin (above) is especially aggrieved at the AOL columnist he accuses of "acting like the love child of Clarence Thomas and Haystacks Calhoun."
When you have the unholy arrogance to compare your crusade against "ghetto acting" black people to the actions of Rosa Parks, when you call young African American kids "the Black KKK", and when you liken walking the Vegas strip to being in "the yard at a maximum security prison", it's simply time to say, "enough."
In your own words, "Instead of wearing white robes and white hoods, the new KKK has now taken to wearing white Ts and calling themselves gangsta rappers, gangbangers and posse members. Just like the White KKK of the 1940s and '50s, we fear them, keep our eyes lowered, shut our mouths and pray they don't bother us."
Please, please, please take a moment to listen to yourself. The Klan at its peak had 4.5 million members. They organized campaigns of lynching and terror to keep people of color from voting, holding jobs, or even existing in peace. To compare an NBA player's entourage with this bloody nightmare makes you sound scared, small, and simple.
You actually write, "This must be the way Rosa Parks felt on that bus. She was just tired of eating white racist (spit). I'm tired of eating black racist (spit)."
Wow. You, Jason Whitlock. The new Rosa Parks. I suppose it is Black History Month, the one time we hear a great deal about Ms. Parks and her contribution to building a better world. I don't quite recall her droning on about strip clubs and lap dances the way you do (maybe I just missed it). I don't remember her reveling in the excess that seems to define your personal life. I'm not positive but I don't think she ever referred to herself as "Big Sexy". I do know she cared more about fighting for the less fortunate than cozying up to power. Maybe she was just "bojangling."
(the bad news is that there's no sign of Bill Bellamy quitting)
The New York Post's Marc Berman reports Knicks PG Steve Francis' ailing right knee might result in early retirement.
"You know a terrorist alert, when a security alert is orange," Francis said. "That's my frustration level."Francis's comeback lasted all of five games. He had rehabbed in Houston for five weeks before returning two weeks ago on the West Coast trip entering the All-Star break.
After missing Friday's foul-aided 95-93 win over Milwaukee, Francis sat out last night's 101-92 loss to the Nets. Asked if this may be it, Francis said, "I don't know. I don't want to say something that isn't there but I'm not sure. You just got to be smart."
The following tidbit appeared in the Nets.com pregame notes yesterday :
Bernard Robinson slipped on the ice outside of his hotel, hurting his knee.
Fill-in your own snowboarding joke.
Not only is Flip Saunders calling Sid Hartman a liar, but he's convinced that he's at the top of his profession.
"I made a decision back when I left college at Tulsa and went to the CBA that this (NBA) is the route I would go and that's where I'm at," Saunders said. "When I am old — and I am not that old, yet — I could see myself coaching a high school team or a small college team, just to coach, but I am not at that point yet."
Rick Pitino and Tim Floyd were unavailable for comment.
(video link swiped from True Hoop). Yuck, yuck yuck. While this isn't one of the "lame commercials" the Owner With A Boner raged about, I'm also unconvinced the D-Wade signature model Sidekick III is a particularly good deal.
"Life is good for Jason Giambi," insists the NY Daily News' Marc Feisand, though reminding us that " it hasn't been so easy for the Yankees' slugger for the past few years, as he found himself embroiled in the BALCO steroids controversy, battled a mysterious illness and watched his status as one of the fiercest hitters in the game wither away in the blink of an eye."
Those experiences could have destroyed Giambi's career. Instead, they strengthened his resolve.
"I've gone through some tough times, so I'm definitely stronger," Giambi said yesterday. "I might have come over here as a boy, but I'm a man now. There's no doubt about it."
Giambi has realized his desire to win outweighs his desire to post numbers for the back of his baseball card.
"Over the last couple years, being hurt with my wrist and my knee, I didn't go on the DL," Giambi said. "I may have sacrificed some personal numbers, but it gave me more gratification when we won. It was better than hitting .290 and not making the playoffs. You learn that as you get older that it's all about winning."
More importantly, Giambi has erased the fear of failure from his head. After all, when you've hit .208 with 12 home runs as recently as three years ago – and survived – what is there to be afraid of?
An indictment? Dropping dead? Shrinkage? Anybody else have an idea?
That was one brutal 3rd quarter. But if your idea of fun TV is watching Vince Carter repeatedly blow past an overmatched
No. 1 Point Guard In The NBA Stephon Marbury, this was probably more entertaining than Joan and Melissa Rivers.
I don't know how many malls they have in that part of the world, but Channing Frye might wanna get the heck out of the way the next time Bostjan Nachbar drives the lane unless his wants to be a fixture at Slovenia's version of Spencer Gifts.
Along with taking shots at Otis Smith and Scottie Pippen in Sunday's Hoops Du Jour column, Peter Vescey couldn't lay off renowned sprint champion Charles Barkley.
Just when I thought Mike D'Antoni had reached the penthouse in my esteem, he crushed Charles Barkley with the truth. During a recent TNT telecast the monotonous mope criticized the Suns coach's stunted rotation, ignorantly claiming Phoenix had the deepest bench in the league and arguing the reserves should be used more.
D'Antoni responded by saying he wasn't sure he should take basketball advice from someone who "choked" away championships and had his own playoff conditioning questioned.
Last year during the playoffs, I told Jerry Colangelo I was aghast he had retired Barkley's number. For a decade or so he ostracized his former franchise player with good reason; the Suns outgoing chairman/CEO believed Barkley's after-hour playoff carousing had cost him a championship.
"Two championships," Colangelo replied.
At the risk of Dan Steinberg claiming I'm making fun of a guy with serious issues, I sincerely hope Darryl Strawberry had a good seat for Maryland's wild 89-87 win over Carolina yesterday afternoon in which son D.J. had a career high 27 points. While the Terrapins got off to a 2-5 start in the ACC, they've now won 5 straight against conference opponents and look likely for an NCAA tournament invite.
After Thursday's widely publicized slugfest between the Sabres and Senators, Ottawa won the rematch last night, a 6-5 decision that also happened to feature a brawl between Buffalo hitman Andrew Peters and Brian McGrattan (who'd not dressed in 10 games). The New York Post's Larry Brooks, no doubt mindful of how the Sabres/Senators feud has generated more attention for the league than anything else in recent memory, contends "that was the essence of hockey in Buffalo on Thursday, and that always will be the essence of hockey no matter how deeply committed Gary Bettman and his administration are to the misguided mission of cleansing the sport of its soul."
It's a violent game and always has been. It's a game of physical intimidation and it always has been. Chris Drury should have kept his head up.
They can add all the gimmicks to the NHL they want, they can attempt to turn the game into a skills competition, but the attraction of hockey is primal.
It's taken nearly two full seasons, but the pendulum is slowly beginning to reset itself. Toughness is reasserting itself as a value. Look around. The NHL is again becoming more rocky road than vanilla.
Sixth Avenue should understand that those who would assail the sport because of the images from Thursday featuring the fight between goaltenders and coaches screaming at one another from the tops of their benches have no interest in the sport under any circumstance.
Sixth Avenue should recognize that its primary focus must be on maintaining its core base. Sixth Avenue should be concerned with the astonishing number of empty seats in the lower tier in both Detroit and Dallas on Friday night. These were seats that always were filled before the lockout and before the administration accelerated its program to sanitize the game.
Rather than provide any insights (heaven forbid ) regarding the deadline deal that sent Keith Tkachuck to Atlanta, San Jose's acquisition of D Craig "Pop" Rivet, nor Dallas' Jere Lehtinen putting an end to Vancouver's 6 game winning streak with an OT goal earlier today, instead, we'll bask in the soothing tones of Don Cherry.
"Basic Instict 2″ won the Razzies for Worst Film and Sharon Stone was recognized as Worst Actress yesterday. From the AP :
Razzies founder John Wilson said that while Stone (above) still looked good in her late 40s, the movie had no other reason to exist.
"Yes, she still has some excuse to drop her robe, but the dialogue, the story, the overall attitude of the character is cartoon-like," Wilson said. "You have to sort of wonder, is she vamping the movie or does she think she's giving a serious performance? Is she the lone person on the project who got the joke?"
No other reason to exist? Excuse me, Mr. Film Snob, but I will maintain (once again) that Sharon Stone is far too easy a target, but shouldn't "B.I. 2″ (as us hardcore fans like to call it) receive some credit for launching the cinematic career of noted dogging enthusiast / Ulrika-beater Stan Collymore?
Chelsea 2, Arsenal 1 (Carling Cup Final, F.T.)
Though I've have given this one a miss had Setanta U.S. charged $20 for the privilege, as it turned out, what might be the last
major cup final in Cardiff would've been more than worth such a tariff. Dieder Drogba (above) scored both goals for Chelsea, including an 85th minute header off a cross from Arjen Robben. Theo Walcott gave the Gunners an early lead with a terrific give-and-go collaboration with Justin Hoyte ; moments earlier, Petr Cech had prevented Arsenal from opening their account with a terrific save of shot by Julio Bapiste.
John Terry, made a surprise (for anyone who didn't read yesterday's papers, anyway) start after passing a late fitness test ; the Chelsea captain made an early exit after taking Abou Diaby's boot to the face in the 66th minute. It took about 5 minutes for Terry to be carried off, which partially accounts for the 11 minutes (!) of stoppage time.
The other delays can be blamed in part on a late brawl that ensued after a John Michel Obi challenge on Arsenal's Kolo Toure' (still doing excellent work long after his dismissal from "The Real World"). The pair were ejected and a red card was also shown to Emmanuel Adebayor, who seemed willing to take on anybody he could find, whether or not they were wearing a blue shirt. Brian Cox and Vernon Maxwell both agree — Manny's got to cool it in the future.
Though I hate to find myself parroting the Sky announcing team, it would be a shame it this match were remembered mostly for the ugly scenes in the final minutes (y'know, someone running a headline about Adebayor going nuclear) rather than fixating on one of the year's more exciting matches. Chelsea have shown that Abramovich's zillions were enough to guarantee at the very least, their bringing the 3rd most important domestic trophy back to Stamford Bridge. And for Henry-less Arsenal, this was nothing short of a coming out party for the club's teenagers. And if that conjures the uncomfortable image of Arsene Wegner double checking the catering plans on "My Super Sweet 16″, that's your problem, not mine.
Perhaps the camera loves The Sultan Of Sloth. If so, he most assuredly does not love it back, as told to the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo.
"Outside the ballpark, it was hard. You can't go anywhere, especially if you're not pitching well. You get the business from [fans]. You can't enjoy your family time. Your alone time is gone because you're subject to photographs nonstop. It was the worst. You go to a mall with your kids and you have people always wanting to take pictures. They should call it 'Picturetown' not 'Beantown.'
"Listen, I know the people are Red Sox-friendly. They love the Red Sox. I understand that. They have to understand that when we're not at the ballpark, we're not subject to autographs and pictures and we need to be able to enjoy ourselves. I don't think they see that and don't get it."
New York, where Wells spent four seasons, "is a cakewalk compared to Boston," he said. "But you know what? Boston is a great town. When I was playing against them, it was great coming in. Great stuff in that town. Great restaurants and nightlife. Historical stuff."
"But you have to be able to deal with it. That's why Manny [RamÃrez] is always a little loopy — because he can't do stuff. If you want to be subject to that kind of stuff, God bless you. But as you get older, you want to relax."
What particularly upset Wells in Boston was the obscenity-laced heckling he — and his family — would be subject to when leaving the park.
"Once I heard that, with my family there, I just shut everybody down," he said. "I ignored everybody. To me, fans aren't going to make or break me. If they overstep the boundaries, then we're going to have a situation. They can say all they want about me and it's not going to reflect on the field how I do. It never has."
The New York Times' Murray Chass has a peculiar take on the rationale behind the opt-out clause in A-Rod's monster deal.
As rich as the contract is, a record $252 million over all and salaries of $27 million in each of the final three years, there is no need for Rodriguez to walk away from the contract after its seventh season for economic reasons. But had Rodriguez stayed with Texas for the first seven years, the opt-out clause might have served as a way for him to go where he really wanted to go six years ago.
The Mets were Rodriguez™s first love, but Steve Phillips, then the Mets™ general manager, shattered that desire by recoiling at the initial asking price uttered by Scott Boras, Rodriguez™s agent, and running as fast as he could in the opposite direction.
By having the opt-out clause, Rodriguez, now 31, preserved his ability to go to the Mets while he was still young enough to make a difference and to give the Mets a chance to make up for the mistake they made in December 2000.
"Mistake they made"? The Rangers and Yankees have won as many World Series with Rodriguez on their payroll as the Mets have without him in the last 6 years. Given the emergence of David Wright and Jose Reyes, not to mention a Flushing clubhouse that seems the very picture of tranquility compared to that of their crosstown rivals, this "mistake" is surely a matter of Chass imagining Rodriguez and Boras' point of view.
Your Sunday morning dose of the (Bob) Klap(isch) in the Bergen Record concerns MLB & Rawlings' latest online poll to select the finest defensive players of all time. Klapisch regurgitates a debate that raged through many a NYC tavern a generation ago, "Just who was the area's best first baseman of the 1980s, Keith Hernandez or Don Mattingly?"
Yankee fans defend Mattingly to the (virtual) death, insisting he was the superior athlete, not to mention the more productive hitter. Met fans say no one could match Hernandez (above, left) for quick hands, his ability to field bunts and the gift for anticipating where the ball would be hit.
"Come on, you know I'm not going to touch that one," Joe Torre said with a laugh. "I've always hated Keith because he took my job [with the Cardinals in 1975]. But there's no way to choose between them."
Jason Giambi picked Mattingly for sentimental reasons " "Donnie was my favorite player" " while Alex Rodriguez was on the verge of choosing Hernandez because, as a die-hard Met fan growing up, "I watched every single Met on WOR for four straight years. I saw so much more of Mex than I did Donnie."
A-Rod didn't officially choose Mattingly, however, because as he said with a rueful smile, "Yankee fans already hate me."
Mattingly wasn't surprised to hear the vote was split even in his own clubhouse. This is, after all, a debate for the ages " one that Mattingly helped fuel in 1986 when he said he'd move to left field if Hernandez were ever traded to the Yankees.
But that's not to say Mattingly was conceding to his Mets counterpart. Quite the contrary. Donnie Baseball said, "I could pick it with anyone."
Yet, Mattingly had nothing but praise for Hernandez, standing by his assertion that if it would've meant becoming teammates with the Met first baseman, he would've vacated the position.
"I meant what I said, I would've moved to left for Keith," Mattingly said Saturday. "I would've done it because we would've been a better team with the two of us on the same field. I wouldn't have minded if he played first instead of me.
"Funny thing is, I didn't get to see him play that much, maybe once in a while on TV. But whenever I saw Keith field bunts up the first base line and make that throw to third, I'd say, 'Wow, that's incredible.' I remember thinking how great he was on plays like that."
Posting at Sons Of Sam Horn Friday, Boston's Curt Schilling (above) sought to assure his fans that his recent discussions with Red Sox brass were "comfortable" and that "we'll just have to let hacks and idiots like CHB stir up something that does not exist."
I'd love to tell you I look like Gabe Kapler with my shirt off, I don't. However I weigh 243 pounds right now, which is exactly 2 pounds under what I weighed in at at seasons end last year. The clothes make me look fat…….
I've forever needed baseball a whole hell of a lot more than it needs me, I've always known that. I have also always known that it is a business, even when you don't want it to be.
Please trust me when I say, and have said, this will have zero bearing on my preperation or performance this season. I don't pitch for contracts, never have. My three best years were in the first year of new contracts. I pitch to win, just like most of the other guys in this game do.
One of the lines CHB failed to put into the article he wrote a few weeks back was me, on the phone, calling him an asshole. He knows as sure as he's reading this right now that I think he's a giant sphincter.
At some point soon he'll realize that the dislike for him here is not because he's the guy always taking the 'other side' while trying to illicit opinions and responses from readers, but rather he's disliked because he treats people like shit.
YouTubage courtesy Sam Frank.
From the Denver Post's Bill Williamson.
Tragedy struck the Broncos for the second time in less than two months Saturday when backup running back Damien Nash died after a charity basketball game he was hosting in St. Louis, his agent, David Canter, said Saturday night.
Nash was 24. Officials at Christian Hospital said Nash was pronounced dead at the hospital at 6:41 p.m. local time. The St. Louis coroner's office confirmed the death but said they had no further details.
Signed as a free agent in August, Nash played in three games for the Broncos last season and finished with 18 carries for 66 yards. He started as a rookie in 2005 with Tennessee, which drafted him in the fifth round. He played in three games for the Titans.
Nash was hosting the game at Riverview Gardens High School to benefit the Darris Nash Find a Heart Foundation, a charity that raises funds for heart transplant research. Damien Nash recently founded the charity in honor of his older brother, Darris, who has had a heart transplant.
Tonight's news is as shocking as it is sad. When was the last time you saw the words "death" and "charity basketball" appear in a news item with no mention of Sean Combs?
No. 12 Georgetown's 61-53 defeat of No. 10 Pittsburgh yesterday moved the Hoyas into first place in the Big East and on the brink of their first regular season conference title in a decade. The revival of the once proud program that launched the careers of Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo and Allan Iverson amongst others is unquestionably one of the bigger stories of this college basketball season. Dwill of Sports On My Mind, however, contends "the NCAA™s biggest nightmare is a successful Georgetown Hoyas basketball team."
How can Georgetown a Jesuit Catholic school with a white student body rivaling those of Marquette and Notre Dame field and all-black team, save for the inter-racial guard Jeremiah Rivers, son of Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers?
Ahhh, it™s the coaches. John Thompson III is black – and the son of legendary Hoya head coach John Thompson. But JTIII came to Georgetown from Princeton where he fielded a predominantly white team, so what™s the deal at G-town?
The answer white people come up with which is often parroted by black people is Thompson III is surrounding himself with players with whom he is comfortable. Oh wait, that™s the answer these people come up with to excuse the whiteness surrounding their own white leaders; not true for black people. For schools like Marquette and Notre Dame and other schools like them, the excuse is high academic standards. Blacks just don™t have the SAT scores to enter schools with such high academic standards like Notre Dame, Marquette, Duke, Vanderbilt, Stanford, etc. They don™t have the ability to match the standards people like Irish alum Paul Hornung say should be lowered to allow black athletes in colleges and universities like Notre Dame.
The apologists for these schools, and they are legion, shrug and say, œIt™s unfortunate, but that™s the way it is. And for JTII and his father before him it is some sort of Underground Railroad and a secret test-lowering standard alliance with the Georgetown academic department that allows the Hoyas to put an all-black team on the court and the bench.
That™s the real reason Georgetown™s recent 11-game winning streak has barely caused a blip – if you discount the local Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area – on the national and Internet sports radar. And if you don™t think it is the reason, it certainly is the reason no one wants to hear or read. It™s the reason the Hoyas entered the week at only #12 in the country a scant one spot ahead of Air Force. To think of the national fervor such a streak would cause if it was happening on Tobacco Road and on the pristine floor of Coach K Court. We™re talkin™ about Air Force! Not North Carolina, not UCLA – Air Force!
Today there are no writings implying academic improprieties at Georgetown, no cries of thuggish, sullen athletes playing defense as if they were committing assault. Today there is no talk of the JTIII-led renaissance of the Hoyas™ program from its ebb time during the Craig Esherick, post œBig John era. And there is certainly little talk of how good a college coach JTIII is, no consideration for national coach of the year – or, for that matter, Big East coach of the year.
I don't think it would be unfair to say the Clippers have underachieved this year, and while LA's less glammy squad is engaged in a dogfight for the 8th spot out West with Golden State and New Orleans, Dunleavy Sr.'s charges put some distance between themselves and the former with today's 103-90 dispatch of the Warriors.
Elton Brand (above) tied his career high with 8 blocks, while scoring 31 points and hauling in 12 rebounds, showing signs of the dominance he displayed all too often last season. Von Wafer, who'd previously been tearing up the D-League, celebrated taking Doug Christie's spot on the Clippers roster with a DNP.
Though Vince Carter was on hand last night for Jason Kidd's 84th career triple double (22 points, 10 assists, 13 rebounds) in Jersey's 109-96 win over Sacramento, the New York Post's Marc Berman suggests a sign and trade resulting in Carter moving across the Hudson might be possible in the offseason.
It's clear Nets brass Rod Thorn and Ed Stefanski have the hots for Channing Frye, whom the Knicks deem expendable because of the emergence of David Lee. And there's been indications they also like rookie Renaldo Balkman, who was not available during their recent talks.
(There's a sense the Nets would rather let Carter go to Orlando for nothing than trade him across the river. The last Nets-Knicks deal was 25 years ago in the Len Elmore compensation package.)
Noting that traveling Manchester United supporters had to shell out £45 to see their club defeat Fulham at the aptly named Craven Cottage earlier today, the Observer's Paul Wilson opines "all-seat stadiums might have been an appropriate and necessary response to a dreadful tragedy, but they changed football in ways that few could have foreseen at the time."
Lord Justice Taylor tried his best, specifically recommending that clubs should not use seats as a means of ramping up prices, but his wishes were ignored and seats, wages, television deals and almost everything else have been ramped up to a level that everyone in Life on Mars except John Simm would find staggering.
Yet as events at Lens so vividly demonstrated, seats in themselves are no panacea. Not when fences still exist, Uefa stage games at unsatisfactory venues as if Heysel had never happened and the police default mode is to treat all fans as hooligans. Even in this country, where the high cost of seats is rather loftily held to have solved the hooliganism problem now plaguing Italy (by pricing out the young and the troublesome), being forced to sit down is proving divisive. Hardly a game goes by at Anfield or Old Trafford without repeated Tannoy requests for fans to show consideration for other supporters and sit down. There is nothing more annoying than paying a fortune for a seat then being forced to stand because people in front of you are standing, and this ongoing argument itself is likely to provoke a major disturbance before long.
So should we bring back standing areas, as more than 100 MPs have requested? I would say yes, because they improve atmosphere, allow easier and cheaper admission, are still enjoyed in Europe and in other sports, and need not be considered inherently dangerous in modern stadiums with CCTV and improved stewarding. But I was not at Hillsborough, nor did I lose a friend or relative in the crush, and I fully respect the view that even a slight risk of a repeat is too much of a risk to take.
In theory at least, standing areas offer the hope of turning back the clock to a time when the cost of admission to a football ground did not exclude anyone, when you could choose your immediate company, make as much noise as you wanted and feel part of a crowd rather than a member of an audience. All the things that used to distinguish football from a visit to the theatre, in other words. Clubs used to peddle the line that they were offering similar entertainment to the theatre and were entitled to charge similar prices to seat spectators in comfort, but this is clearly nonsense. Half the fans don't want to be seated, in any case who goes to the theatre every week, and how many theatre-goers make away trips to Sunderland and Wigan?
Though I've alluded to this story on two previous occassions, CSTB's Ombudsman (who may or may not look like this) has helpfully reminded me that not everyone might know what I'm talking about. From the AP :
Los Angeles Lakers forward Vladimir Radmanovic admitted Friday that he lied to the team about how he injured his shoulder during last week's All-Star break.
"The truth is that I hurt myself in a fall while snowboarding," Radmanovic said in a statement issued by the team.
He apologized for covering up what happened last Saturday in Park City, Utah . Initially, he told the Lakers he fell on a patch of ice while walking and separated his right shoulder. He is expected to be out two months.
"Being young and sometimes immature, I initially panicked and made up a false story about how I hurt myself," the 26-year-old forward said. "However, over the past few days my conscience has been bothering me terribly. I am not a dishonest person and could no longer live with this deception."
I don't know what's more amazing — that the Radster came clean, or that he was able to so easily rewrite Kwame Brown's apology for stealing a birthday cake.
While Texas is 20 minutes away from a season sweep of Oklahoma (the Longhorns are leading, 41-28 at intermission behind — surprise, surprise — 19 points from Kevin Durant), you might wanna keep an eye on LSU's budding upset of Florida. The Tigers hold a 34-21 advantage at the break, and I can't remember the last time Corey Brewer and Joakim Noah combined for less than 10 points in a half. Not that I'm willing to look it up, either. CSTB's bill with the Elias Koteas Sports Bureau is long overdue, and their skip tracers are even meaner than the company founder.
Once again, Kool Keith is totally ripped off.
No doubt wearing his HDTV hat, the Owner With A Boner calls online video "a snack", while television is "a meal." Clearly, Mark Cuban does not own a chain of movie theatres.
Amanda from You Go Live In Utah observered the Heat making a late run against Dallas Thursday night and concludes Miami is DOA. And not the good kind that wrote "Fucked Up Ronnie", either.
The Mavs should have won by 30 or more. Barea, Agar and Croshere really know how to squander a lead and I thought they should have been pulled WAY sooner than they were. But back to the Heat, with Shaq only able to play 30 minutes, getting stupid fouls and having a free throw shot that is somewhat akin to an epileptic fit I don't think they will survive without Wade. And of course, Dwyane Wade himself has told us what a fabulous leader he is.
Sammy Sosa made his return to the club that first drafted him in 1985 yesterday, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Jim Reeves suggests the Rangers' spring training invitee could use a hand dealing with the inevitable PED inquiries.
Sammy sounded positively Mark McGwire-like in insisting that he didn't want to talk about the past, becoming evasive and even slightly combative at times.
"Today it's about Sammy Sosa and Texas… I mean it's about the Texas Rangers and Sammy Sosa," Sammy stammered, remembering that it's supposed to be team first, then Sammy. "Today I don't want to talk about Joe Blow or anybody else because my life has been too busy lately and I don't want to go into other people's business.
"I don't have to convince nobody. I'm a baseball player. Whatever the individual person is thinking outside, whether it's good or bad, I don't have no control over that. You know what I mean?"
'd hoped and somehow expected Sosa to be better prepared to answer the steroids question after a year away from the game to think about it. I thought he would tell us that he understands why the questions have to be asked but that he didn't do steroids. Remind us that he's never failed a steroids test. Point out that he'll be tested just like every other player in the game now.
"I understand what you're saying and everybody knows that, but let's talk about baseball, let's talk about 2007 and the talent we have in Texas and what we can do this year," he said.
"All those things I want to accomplish, I want to talk about that. I don't want to talk about whatever happened in the Congress, or whatever. This is not my problem. I have to make the team."
Oh, but it is his problem and will be all season, assuming he makes the team. It's part of what he must deal with mentally in returning to baseball. Answer the questions as best he can and even reporters will understand and eventually let it alone. But to dance around them only leaves the questions hanging, unanswered.
Given the questionable status of Orlando Hernandez and the uncertainty surrounding Pedro Martinez' return, ESPN.com's Buster Olney delivers his best Paul Caporino impersonation and bemoans the lack of depth in the Mets' starting rotation.
The Mets don't need a No. 4- or No. 5-type starter; they've got plenty of candidates for those roles, from young prospects Mike Pelfrey and Philip Humber to veterans Aaron Sele and Chan Ho Park. What they need is someone who has a chance to be a frontline starter or at least a middling starter — someone who can eat innings and consistently contribute a solid six. It's unlikely that the only team with excess starting pitching — the Phillies, with Jon Lieber — would even consider making a trade with the Mets; if New York wanted Lieber, it would have to try to work through a third team, but you have to assume that Philadelphia GM Pat Gillick would be very careful to make sure that wouldn't happen.
So what's next? Well, the Mets may have to wait until some teams start to fall out of the race in late-May and June, and veteran starters become available. Depending on the standings in June, the Mets could take a look at Mark Buehrle of the White Sox, Jake Westbrook of the Indians, or the Astros' Jason Jennings, three pitchers who will be eligible for free agency after next season.
But wanting and getting are two different things, and even if the Mets were to target someone like the Marlins' Dontrelle Willis, they would have to bid against multiple teams to make a deal, and a lot of other organizations have better, deeper farm systems to trade from.
While hailing Tim Linecum's first workout of the spring, the SF Chronicle's Henry Schulman reports Barry Zito drilled the Sultan of Surly during BP yesterday. "Bonds had fun with it, feigning a charge to the mound," wrote Schulman, no doubt mindful that Zito is the one guy on the Giants roster the soon-to-be-HR king couldn't get away with beating to death.
Much as I'm enjoying the Knicks' improbable push for the no.8 spot (aided in no small part by the Heat losing D-Wade), in the event New York actually sneaks in, I'm starting the petition right here to give referee Courtney Kirkland a partial playoff share (at least as big as Jerome James') after he whistled Andrew Bogut for breathing on Channing Frye with 8 tenths of a second remaining last night at MSG. For the free-falling Bucks, losers of 7 straight, 11 in a row on the road, there might be some consolation in their odds improving a tad in the Greg Oden/Kevin Durant sweepstakes, but Milwaukee didn't play like a team tanking it on Friday.
David Lee left the game after landing on Bogut's foot in the third quarter. His status is unknown (by me, anyway), though New York is lucky they didn't lose Jamal Crawford (above) to a broken hip after yet another big-shot-celebration initiated by that most highly paid Knicks City Dancer, Nate Robinson.
After the T-Wolves stood pat at the trade deadline, would anyone blame Kevin Garnett (29 points and 19 boards in last night's 116-104 loss to Phoenix) for showing his frustration with the organization? The following is culled from Saturday's St. Paul Pioneer Press and Rick Alonzo.
Garnett wrapped up a two-minute interview after Friday morning's shootaround by saying, "Thank God for opt-outs."
The term opt-outs was a reference to opt-out clauses in some NBA player contracts. Garnett has one, and he can exercise it following the 2007-08 season, leaving the final year of his deal worth $24 million on the table to become a free agent.
Garnett made the comment after a question about whether the passing of the trade deadline might lift a cloud that had been hanging over the team.
Garnett said he didn't know, and then he dropped his opt-outs comment on reporters as a parting shot as he turned and walked away.
A few minutes later, Garnett emerged from the locker room and was asked if he wanted to clarify his comment about opt-outs.
"I didn't say that," Garnett said over his shoulder as he exited down a corridor. "I said 'opts.' I said 'outs.' "
Garnett's word games aside, it was interesting nonetheless.
The interview began with Garnett hinting he was disappointed the Wolves' front office didn't make a trade to improve the team.
"We're trying to get better, right?" Garnett said. "It is what it is."
(Rolen and La Genius in happier, if not damper days)
Though I'm sure Derek Jeter would've described the falling out as "no big deal." From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Joe Strauss.
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and third baseman Scott Rolen shared a firm handshake and a brief but congenial exchange outside La Russa's office Thursday. After talking past each other during the team's World Series run and literally walking past each other during last month's Winter Warm-up, the four-time manager of the year and his seven-time Gold Glove infielder agreed to "turn the page" on a disagreement that had turned ugly and public.
"It's not an issue. We've got other things to concern ourselves with now, like how to get ready to win ballgames," La Russa said Friday afternoon.
Asked if he believes he and La Russa should discuss the matter further, Rolen said, "I don't know if there's value in that. It's better to turn the page and move on. It's certainly a happier existence than digging it up and continuing to disagree."
La Russa, who makes a practice of phoning his players during the winter, did not contact Rolen, and the two failed to speak during a fundraiser in January.
Rolen said the lack of communication weighed on him as spring training approached. The matter became a source of concern to ownership and Jocketty.
"They knew it had to be resolved," Jocketty said. "It needed to be done."
"I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said it didn't cross my mind," Rolen said following Friday's workout. "The closer you get, the more you think about it. You're going to see each other and you haven't spoken about anything. You're going to be in the same place at the same time in a suit at the White House. Regardless of everything " who, what, when, where and why " it's unhealthy and there's no benefit."
The Baltimore Sun's Ray Frager reports the Orioles have a new policy prohibiting team officials (GM Jim Duquette, manager Sam Perlozzo, etc.) from taking calls from listeners when they appear on WBAL.
The Orioles say the policy is designed to enhance the programming for its radio rights-holder, CBS Radio. On flagship station WHFS (105.7 FM) and CBS' all-sports ESPN Radio 1300 (WJFK, 1300 AM), no such prohibition would apply, the Orioles say.
"The club has always had its policy," said Greg Bader, Orioles director of communications.
Not so, said Jeff Beauchamp, vice president and station manager of WBAL, which was the Orioles flagship for the previous 19 years.
"It's never been the case for the past 20 years," Beauchamp said.
Stan Charles, a regular sports talk host in Baltimore on five radio stations from 1981 to 2001 — with only four of those years on the Orioles flagship — said he never experienced such a restriction during his time on the air.
In fact, when Steve Davis spoke about the issue on his program tonight — after interviewing pitching coach Leo Mazzone but taking no calls — the host said the policy wasn't in place as recently as three weeks ago.
The last time I left Austin for NYC, the NBDL's Toros made headlines when their mascot kicked a member of the opposing team in the head. Yesterday, the Toros were part of a far bigger story with the sudden passing of head coach Dennis Johnson. Such was my own shock over the news of DJ's death, that I scarcely acknowledged his Hall Of Fame caliber playing career, (5-time NBA All-Star, 2 rings with the Celtics, one with Seattle), nor his cup of coffee coaching the Clippers.
That said, I wasn't alone in giving Johnson's pre-Toros history short shrift. As the Boston Phoenix's Adam Reily reveals, the following October 21, 1997 report from the Boston Globe escaped the notice of most media outlets yesterday.
According to the police report, which was obtained from Channel 4, Dwayne Johnson [Johnson's 17-year-old son] saw the argument as it escalated to the point that Dennis Johnson grabbed his wife in a choking manner with his left hand and held a knife in front of her face.
According to the report, Donna Johnson yelled, "What are you going to do, kill me? Go ahead." Dennis Johnson replied, "You don't think anybody will hit you?"
After a few moments, Johnson let his wife go but was still yelling and holding the knife, the report said. When Dwayne attempted to stop the argument, his father said, "Don't you even, or I'll knock you the [expletive] out." Donna Johnson replied, "No you won't. You won't touch him."
Dwayne Johnson told police he believed his father would hit him, so he ran to a neighbor's house and asked her to call 911. He then returned to the house, saw the argument had died down, and called 911 himself.
Writes Riley,
The Herald's Steve Bulpett doesn't mention the knife incident in his obit or "appreciation"–even though he covered it for the Globe at the time, and later chronicled its impact on Johnson's coaching career.
Over at the Globe, meanwhile, columnist Jackie MacMullan alludes to the incident but steers clear of ugly details: "DJ dreamed of being an NBA coach, but a messy domestic abuse incident involving his wife, Donna, hampered his efforts to earn a legitimate shot at such a job." Shira Springer ignores it completely. So does AP, so does Sports Illustrated's Jack McCallum, and so does ESPN's Bill Simmons in an otherwise fantastic homage.
Johnson was an amazing player, and he may have been a good man who just made a terrible mistake ten years ago. But pretending the events of that day never happened–or eliding them as "messy"–is awfully tough to justify.
The Big Lead provided PTI with some yuck-yuck fodder today concerning an alleged MLB ballplayer looking for tail via Craigslist. Said item proved so popular, TBL is temporarily down for the count, and I can only presume some sort of bandwidth explosion has occured.
Mused Josh Alper, "one thing you'd never think a major league baseball player would have to do to get laid is put up an ad on Craigslist." Yeah, well, you've obviously never spent a Friday night as Todd Jones' wingman.
Congrats to the folks at 2K7 Sports for finding a licensor that's really willing to play ball, in this case Colin Cowherd dream date, The Widow Cobain. From Chart Attack (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)
Game developer 2K Sports has included Nirvana's "Breed" on the soundtrack of its Major League Baseball 2K7 video game.
The Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 game, which hits stores on Feb. 27, will also feature cuts from The Stooges, The Pixies, Wolfmother, Death From Above 1979, Cities In Dust, Editors and others.
The company will also use "Breed" in a commercial for the game, making it the first-ever Nirvana track licensed for advertising purposes.
The jury's still out on Cobain's penchant for gaming and/or baseball, though a quick trip to Wikipedia reveals that he apparently hated "America's favourite pastime" as a kid.
I'm sure had Kurt lived long enough to see all the great things Bud Selig has done for the game (interleague play, an All-Star game that "counts", a drug program that's really working, etc.) the Bard Of Aberdeen would've changed his tune.
Still, I don't wanna sound too bitter at being jilted. If 2K7 needs any music for their upcoming Vladimir Radmanovic Snowboarding title, they know where they can find me.
And not that I have any right to tell someone else how to do their job, but where's the money-spinner for the El Duce estate? Surely there are some video-game friendly compositions waiting to be exploited.
Though Woody Paige's quiff was the subject of much mockery on today's episode of "Around The Horn", can anyone explain just what the devil is going on with Jay Mariotti's hair these days?
I've had some fiendishly bad haircuts in my time, but whoever told Mariotti (above, right) that emulating a young Macho Camacho was a good look for a middle-aged man has a really sick sense of humor.


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Rachael Ray is known for her simple, easy and delicious recipes. Her recipe for Chicken Francese – a breaded, stovetop-prepared chicken breast – is absolutely wonderful! It combines parmesan and lemon with other ingredients to create moist and delicious chicken breasts and a wonderful sauce.
To shorten the cooking time for the chicken breasts, it's necessary to first pound them to no more than 1/2- inch in thickness. This is easy to do by putting the breasts in a plastic bag, then pounding them with a meat mallet or rolling pin. The pounding breaks down the fiber in the chicken so it is tenderized, as well.
Although the recipe calls for white wine, it's possible to increase the amount of chicken broth if wine is not available.
Rachael Ray's Chicken Francese Recipe
Ingredients for Rachael Ray's Chicken Francese:
- 3 large chicken breasts, skinless and boneless
- Salt and pepper
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 tsp. paprika
- 3 tablespoons butter, cut into 1-tablespoon slices
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
- 2 lemons, one juiced and one sliced
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup white wine
- 1 cup chicken broth
Directions for making Rachael Ray's Chicken Francese:
Cut the chicken breasts in half and pound each to ½-inch thickness. Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken and set aside.
In a small bowl, stir together the flour, garlic powder, and paprika. Roll the butter slices into the flour mixture and set aside.
In another small bowl, stir together the eggs, the parmesan and the juice of 1 lemon.
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat for 1 – 2 minutes. Dredge each chicken breast half thoroughly in the flour mixture, then the egg mixture. Cook only 3 chicken halves at a time -- cook on one side for 3 minutes, flip to the other side and cook for an additional three minutes. Remove to a plate, then repeat the process with the other 3 chicken breast halves. Remove them to a plate when finished.
Add the minced garlic and the lemon slices to the remaining oil in the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for about 3 minutes. Add the white wine (or ½ cup of the chicken broth) and stir together with the garlic and lemon. Add the remainder of the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add the flour-dredged butter cubes and stir until they are melted.
Return all the cooked chicken breast halves to the pan in a single layer and cook for 4 – 5 minutes more. Serve with rice, potatoes or pasta (orzo works well).
Other delicious chicken recipes:
Rachael Ray's chicken in red wine sauce – delicious
Chicken in orange sauce - easy and wonderful
Chicken casserole recipe – a classic that everyone loves
Click on "SUBSCRIBE" above!

subset: commoncrawl


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- Currently Unavailable
Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez is already regarded as one of the best Mexican players of his generation. The player they affectionately call "the little pea" has had great success as star striker for Manchester United. Chicharito displays a level of skill beyond his years with impeccable finishing combined with exhilarating speed.
Worn for the first time during the vital FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Panama. This is the jersey you should be wearing when you cheer El Tri on.
Show your support for El Tri in 2014 with this official home jersey from adidas.
Traditional green shirt for Mexico with lightning bolt design sublimated on the front with official Mexico team badge and adidas logo. Mexico is screened at the back collar.
Official replica jersey in Mexico's signature colors, with bold, sublimated graphics that evoke a throwback feel. Screen printed Mexico federation crest and adidas logo on the front.
100% polyester.
NOTE: This product is the official replica jersey of Mexico. It does not feature technologically advanced materials on the authentic jersey.
Due to national team selection process, we cannot guarantee that this player is going to wear this number, or that he will play in Brazil until the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ squads are confirmed later this year.
Lamentamos que todavia no hay descripción en español para este producto.


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Day 21 – Cyber Bullies!
[box type="shadow"]Question 21 of the BlissMB 30 Day Meme: Do you think cyber bullying is getting worst or better? And why? What are some examples of cyber bullying that you have witnessed? What can the victims of cyber bullying do? [/box]
Cyber bullying is when the internet, cell phones, or other electronic devices are used to send or post text or images that are intended to hurt or embarrass another person. It can be something as simple as continued contact with someone who has shown no interest in the sender or it can become serious and include threats, sexual remarks, hate speech, or other forms of humiliation.
Cyber bullying is horrible and I think it only gets worse as our technology continues to improve. There are more and more venues for cyber bullying to take place and as more and more people learn how to use the internet and become more versed in technology and its intricacies, it becomes easier for cyber bullying to occur. Every time I turn around there is another story in the news about cyber bullying whether it is actually called cyber bullying or not – that's what it is.
I think that one thing that should be done is that people should be taught how to use the internet more safely. There are so many people who don't know internet safety or what to do if they are targeted by someone who wants to harm them through some form of cyber bullying. I think that it is hard for a lot of parents because there is such a gap in their knowledge of technology. As much as they want to teach their kids how to be safe on the internet, they actually do not know how themselves. I think that schools should do more to teach kids about internet safety and there should be more ways to educate people in general about general internet safety.


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1 May 12:01 2012
Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 2200c
Gasko, Peter <gaskopeter0808 <at> postafiok.hu>
As described here: http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/36894/hewlett-packard-scanjet-2200c-on-scientific-linux-6-1-64bit I have a Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 2200c scanner connected via USB to my notebook that has Scientific Linux 6.1 64bit OS with the rpmforge repo. Bus 006 Device 002: ID 03f0:0605 Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 2200c Scanner plugged in via USB to my notebook. When I launch this command (no matter that I use it with a normal user or root, does the same): scanimage --format=tiff --resolution=150 --mode=color > a.tiff The scanner just waits for ~30 sec then starts actually scanning, but it stops after going about ~8cm's.. (so it's scanning just the ~1/3 part of an A/4 paper..) but the scanned part looks good. So the problem is that why doesn't this scanner scans a full A4 paper size? I can't find relevant logs.. I wanted to try out the scanner on a Win7Pro64bit machine.. I didn't found any drivers to it :D(Continue reading)


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Gardening Articles: Care :: Pests & Problems
Hitchhiking Garden Pests (page 2 of 3)
by Howard Waterworth
How to Import Plants and Foods
Always comply with U.S. Customs and APHIS regulations. Discourage friends and family from mailing foods from overseas unless the foods are properly inspected first. Don't smuggle foods or plants from other countries, and don't order or accept plants shipped directly from overseas. Obtain foreign material plants, fruitcakes, meats, dried flowers, and wreaths-only from domestic suppliers that have already taken the appropriate precautions.
Know Before You Go
Gardeners are especially likely to snatch a plant part and smuggle it home for propagation. To import plants, you can download an permit application from the APHIS Web site: www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/permits/. Submit your request at least two months prior to travel.
Provide essential information about the plant species, whether the material includes plants or seeds, amounts, your destination, your return date, the port of entry, and your flight number. APHIS will determine whether you can bring in the items and, if you can, will provide you with an information packet that includes the conditions under which you may grow the plants in your garden. For example, some items may be subject to further inspection or quarantine for two years.
Several factors determine whether or not you can import plant material. These include crop species, country of origin, and prior import permission. The United States generally allows in seeds of many vegetable and ornamental crops without a permit.
APHIS won't issue a permit to bring in noxious weeds (all are listed in published regulations). Likewise, the agency usually won't allow you to return with cuttings of certain plants. These include fruit crops, grasses, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, some woody ornamental shrubs, and shade trees. Many of these plants are restricted because of latent disease-bearing organisms or because of their country of origin.
Home gardeners cannot easily purchase seeds directly from foreign seed suppliers because they may not have met American regulatory requirements. Soil and some live materials-plants, cuttings, tubers, and bulbs-are also prohibited. Endangered species of cacti and orchids are subject to additional import requirements.
If you have access to the World Wide Web, you can find more information about pest exclusions at www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/pestlist/.
For more about U.S. Customs regulations, see www.customs.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/questions/.
Howard Waterworth is a plant pathologist with the U.S. Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland. For their help with this article, he thanks Robert Trumbell, Maryland Department of Agriculture, and Victor Harabin, APHIS.
Photography by Agricultural Research Service, USDA


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More than 100 antique cars will be on display at the Annual Edison Ford Antique Car Show on February 1, 2014. The show takes place at the Estates from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Owners will be on hand to visit with guests and answer questions. Admission to the Car Show is free for Edison Ford Members, $15 for adults, and $5 for children, and includes admission to the homes, gardens, lab and museum. Site Historian Tours cost $25 for adults and $15 for children and includes admission to the Car Show, homes, gardens, lab and museum. Audio/Self Guided Tours cost $20 for adults and $11 for children and includes an audio wand, admission to the Car Show, homes, gardens, lab and museum.
In addition to the car show, other special programs during the day include:
- Model T Tour and Lecture with Edison Ford staff and car owners at 11 a.m.;
- Henry and Clara Ford leading informal tours throughout the event;
- Food available for purchase by Texas Tony's BBQ, served on the Ford Cottage Terrace; and
- Live Music.
A portion of the proceeds from the Edison Ford Antique Car Show will benefit the restoration of the antique car collection of the Edison & Ford Winter Estates.
The Edison Ford is open daily from 9:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. The Edison Ford is the winner of the 2009 National Stewardship Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is an official project of "Save America's Treasures" at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Florida Historic Landmark and a National Register Historic Site. For additional information, please call 239-334-7419 or visit www.edisonfordwinterestates.org.


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Apr 3, 2013 10:00 AM
Sometimes, if you're having trouble with an outfit, an extra pair of eyes helps. By that logic, three and a half extra pairs of eyes will solve everything! The All Seeing Necklace ($18) adds mystery and geometry to your look, and it'll impress your Illuminati friends.
If you've got a product or service that you'd like to promote on Outblush, click here to find out about our advertising opportunities.
Outblush is a blog for girls who love to shop. Our staff digs up the best clothes, home stuff, beauty items, and more. New items are posted every day — bookmark us and check out:


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Martha Pitkin Chapter, Sandusky, Ohio
Daughters of the American Revolution
Founded May 7, 1897
Martha Pitkin was called the Grandmother of the Revolution. She came to the colonies from England and reared a large family, all of whom became men and women of prominence in our early history. One of her grandsons, Oliver Wolcott, was a member of the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Mrs. J. Osborne Moss, the organizer of the chapter, was a direct descendent of Martha Pitkin.
Our Location
The Martha Pitkin Chapter meets at various restaurants, country clubs and homes in Erie and Ottawa Counties where most of the membership resides. Meeting locations are announced in the local newspapers and on the radio.
Our Meetings
Meetings are the first Friday of the month, September through June.
Contact Us
Interested in membership in the DAR? Please feel free to contact us via e-mail.
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution
Last Updated: April 2008 Webmaster


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Peer Review
Benefitting from your peers' review of your teaching and instructional materials; being a good peer reviewer.
By following the links to any of the sites listed within this page, you will exit the OFFICIAL UCO WEBSITE and be directed to the respective resource which is not a part of the www.uco.edu domain.
- Role of Peer Review in Improving College Teaching
- Peer Review of Teaching Resources Page (Iowa State)
- How Do I Conduct a Peer Review? (suggestions given at U Wisconsin-Madison)


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Ralph Lauren
The Big Pony Fragrance Collection Launch Materials
A woman's opportunity to express her character is critical in today's emerging social values. So, when Ralph Lauren and L'Oreal launched a collection of four new fragrances that "motivate women to play, and express different aspects of femininity," they called on Project 13 to ensure their message was fun, vibrant and crystal clear.
While adhering to the strict Ralph Lauren brand guidelines, Project 13 designed and oversaw production of the brand's new media "gift box," intentionally crafted to present the complete repertoire of scents in a unique and engaging way. The result was an elegant, texture-friendly structure infused with lush ultra-feminine colors and constructed to reveal the iconic new line in its entirety – with every bottle easily taken out with the delicate lift of custom crafted ribbons. A large format brochure, tipped into the lid, outlines fragrance characteristics, personality profiles and iconic Ralph Lauren lifestyle imagery through a series of tabbed pages that correspond with each fragrance "number."
Project 13 also oversaw production of the media kits, translated for Spanish, German and Italian, and used at large-scale global events. The kits proved highly successful, even surpassing market engagement of the well-known and iconic men's fragrance line.


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The Kayak Folding Anchor Kit 1.5 lbs. contains all the necessary equipment you need to help you keep your kayak or canoe anchored in position. The Kayak Folding Anchor Kit 1.5 lbs. comes in a mesh storage bag to help keep everything together and makes storing your anchor a breeze without all of your anchoring equipment cluttering up your deck. The folding anchor that comes in this kit is perfect for all types of bottom structure from mud, sand, or even gravel bottoms. Included in the Kayak Folding Anchor Kit 1.5 lbs. is a rigging kit that contains a caribiner, 3 cable zip ties, and instructions on how to properly rig your anchor.
|Item #:
|Part Number
Works great. Wish there was something to wind the rope around because it's always gets tangled after use.
The product is as advertised. It works fine holding my Kayak in place. Sometimes the locking nut gets a little loose, but, that is nit picking.
Great anchor. The bag is nice however i use it for my scupper plugs instead of the anchor.
Great anchor. I do a lot of river fishing and largely rely on this to slow me down. Likely works better in still water but I love how light, compact and rust resistant it is.


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Skydiving.com now has a network skydiving location serving Macon and Warren County in North Carolina. Call Skydiving.com at 1-800-617-7948 for details, free information and specials on skydiving in Macon, NC today!
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Archive for June, 2008
Is it just me or has the age of RTFM, labs and testing passed away? This is perhaps one of the areas myself and another very well respected leader in the SMB IT space (not Susan) disagree the most – I feel that feeding morons little bite sized portions of clue is actually a disservice to them, to their customers and everyone unfortunately impacted by the fool who has only gotten his skills to being able to lie about their competence enough to sell themselves in a situation where they will irreparably destroy someone's IT infrastructure.
But then I look at the types of conversations I have throughout the day and I just shake my head in shame:
Vlad Mazek: yes? ____: So how do we roll out Exchange 2007 on Windows 2008?Vlad Mazek: We don't, it's not supported. Need SP1.____: We don't have media for that, where do I get it?Vlad Mazek: Free from microsoft.com/exchange____: They only have evals.Vlad Mazek: Download standalone SP1, not eval. Our SPLA key will work on it.____: Ok, fails right away. I have all the pre req's out the way.Vlad Mazek: Doubt that, even RSAT? via servermanagercmd?____: What?Vlad Mazek: servermanagercmd -i RSAT-ADDS____: Thanks!____: Ok, now it's saying Service "MSExchangeTransport" failed to reach status "Running" on this server.Vlad Mazek: Networking… forgot enable IPv6?____: This is starting to reflect poorly on me Vlad Mazek: In so many ways ____: You need to blog more of this stuff!!!
Vlad Mazek: yes? ____: So how do we roll out Exchange 2007 on Windows 2008?Vlad Mazek: We don't, it's not supported. Need SP1.____: We don't have media for that, where do I get it?Vlad Mazek: Free from microsoft.com/exchange____: They only have evals.Vlad Mazek: Download standalone SP1, not eval. Our SPLA key will work on it.____: Ok, fails right away. I have all the pre req's out the way.Vlad Mazek: Doubt that, even RSAT? via servermanagercmd?____: What?Vlad Mazek: servermanagercmd -i RSAT-ADDS____: Thanks!____: Ok, now it's saying Service "MSExchangeTransport" failed to reach status "Running" on this server.Vlad Mazek: Networking… forgot enable IPv6?____: This is starting to reflect poorly on me Vlad Mazek: In so many ways ____: You need to blog more of this stuff!!!
Now, granted, I don't expect anyone to be able to recall these details about deployment, requirements or gotchas on demand. I just happen to be a UC freak. But for the love of god, if this is your job strap yourself into the damn chair and start friggin reading. Exchange 2007 is about the simplest rollout/configuration experience it has ever been in the entire history of the product, the documentation is the best it's ever been.. and if you can't use Google to connect the dots then it's time to look for a new career.
I can respect that this may be a little too tough to swallow for people in the SMB IT field, fine enough you just want to be a technology business consultant. Well, kiss that six figure salary goodbye because "business consulting" in my book is what CDW phone reps do and thats worth $35K a year plus commissions.
I can also respect people who want a broad technology focus and don't want to mess with the intricate details of a particular solution. That is fine too, prepare to cut a check to Microsoft when you hit a wall and prepare to sit with a bucket of Indians until they rescue you for $250.
But what I can't respect is trying to sit on multiple chairs all while blaming others for your inability to do the work you are hired to do. It's not Microsoft's fault that you can't keep up with the product you're supporting, it's not Microsoft's fault you aren't reading the documentation, it's not Microsoft's fault that the pile of idiots at the gate has climbed through the sky so they have to convert third world countries into script readers for technically challenged, it's not Microsoft's fault that the software doesn't autoprovision itself while you sit back and munch on a hot pocket.
At some point you have to come to terms with the fact that while this stuff appears to be easy on the surface, the reason you aren't working for Geek Squad is that you're expected to actually understand the technology and capable of fixing it. If you just want to bitch, point fingers, blame PSS, blame docs and blame Vladville perhaps you need to get used to wearing a white shirt with a skinny black tie because GeekSquad is about the only place you're qualified for.
On a side note, this is indicative of the greater SMB segment and the reason it's ultimately going to be decimated by Microsoft and Dell. Guys whose job it is to make sure these solutions run smoothly go to their customers and tell them its all someone elses fault, then tell Microsoft to fix it. Microsoft fixes it, Dell pushes it, people put process and marketing on the table for the customer and then everyone bitches again about how they are being competed with and run out of business.
What did you expect them to do, fix it all and hide it so you can do nothing while raising your fees because you're on advisory councils explaining to the companies how to faster obsolete you?
Come on! Grow some balls and take some pride in what you do.
I thought long and hard whether to post this or not. It's not for the faint of heart, even compared to the usual fun and gun quality of 3rd grade abomination of the English language you find on Vladville. Proceed with caution..
I should learn not to talk smack about people when I live in Florida. I think even Chris Rue can make fun of Florida over this one. Not really a surprise that Florida doesn't outlaw beastiality, considering how many people Mickey Mouse has grabbed by the ears and rode them like a $3 ho on the corner of Main St. all the way to the empty wallet
Come to Florida and go to Disney World. Meet Mickey Mouse!!!
Oh, don't creep up behind Goofy or Pluto, they are still a little sore.
Come to Florida and go to Disney World. Meet Mickey Mouse!!!
Oh, don't creep up behind Goofy or Pluto, they are still a little sore.
Classy, eh? Now to the fun that FSU people have in Tallahassee:
The Sunshine Beastiality State
A blind Tallahassee man has been accused of having sex with his guide dog. Florida, like many other states, has no bestiality statute – that is, a law specifically prohibiting sexual contact between humans and animals.
Alan Yoder, 29, originally was charged with felony animal cruelty, but court records show that charge was dropped on July 8 and replaced with a misdemeanor – disorderly conduct.
Yoder now is charged with a "breach of the peace, by engaging in sexual activity with a guide dog," according to a court document.
Assistant State Attorney Stephanie Usina, said she could not answer specific questions, including explaining why the charge was lowered to a misdemeanor.
James D. Varnado, Yoder's attorney, said he has filed a not-guilty plea on his client's behalf but declined to discuss details of the case.
"However lurid the allegations may be, we should resist a rush to judgment," he said.
Here's what happened, according to Tallahassee police reports:
Yoder, who lives in a local apartment complex, in June asked a female acquaintance to join him in a sex act with the dog, a male yellow Labrador named "Lucky."
She demurred, but later told a friend about it. That person called a social worker, who called police.
Investigators spoke to Yoder on June 16, who admitted performing certain sex acts with the dog, even going into detail with them, but denied doing others. He was arrested and booked June 22, charged with animal cruelty.
An animal-control officer took the dog to Dr. Sondra Brown, a veterinarian at Northwood Animal Hospital, who could not determine whether the dog had been sexually abused.
Florida prosecutors have increased the charges against a blind man who is accused of raping his own guide dog. The change from misdemeanor to felony status came after animal welfare groups urged state officials to use a more serious rule, even though the Sunshine State has no law prohibiting sex with animals.
Alan Yoder, 29, was originally charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct, specifically a "breach of the peace, by engaging in sexual activity with a guide dog."
But Assistant State Attorney Phil Smith said new witnesses have come forward, justifying felony charges of animal cruelty and injuring a guide dog, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
"Enhancing the charges does not change the fact that Mr. Yoder is innocent," James Varnado, Yoder's attorney, told the paper.
Tallahassee police report Yoder admitted to performing sex acts on the animal and willingly gave up the animal before charges were adjudicated
Damn CPA's getting pwn3d all over the place. For the billionth time, when working with someone in the Accounting industry remind them:
"password" is not a good password. It doesn't matter that you have an antivirus installed.
"password" is not a good password. It doesn't matter that you have an antivirus installed.
Now back to the grave dancing thing I do so well Poor Susan, serves her right for shipping me a flaming piss yellow hard drive.
It's so scary when I'm in a good mood. It's Friday, had like 8 support requests all day, our container just landed in Australia and the one for UK goes online Tuesday. 'tis good to be the king.
Once upon a time my greatest joy in Own Web Now was being able to pick up a paper and start pointing at businesses that are our clients. "We got their money, their money, oh their money, too." There is something about community participation/involvement that is very fulfilling. For me at least.
Then little own grew up into a big global OWN and now we watch TV and call out companies we get money from. Still a lot of fun, but doing business around the world does come with a few jabs that tend to be pretty hard to swallow.
You see, most of the world happens to hate America. What did we ever do to them? Oh, that. Woops.
One thing that I could always fall back on is making fun of their currency. So whenever I cut a check to a foreign company, I always make sure to note that it's the AMERICAN dollars that you're getting!
This used to be pretty funny when you could buy 3/4 of Toronto for $20 bucks, or when we bought 1/4 of USA for $23 million.
Today, not so much. Canadian dollar is $0.9975 USD, Euro is actually $1.5534 and Australian dollar is $0.9477.
Just stings a little, thats all.
Reprinted without permission from The Icahn Report, it's that important that you read it as big or as small as you are as a CEO. The truth of the matter is, once you go public it's no longer your company, it's not your customers company – you now have a boss. If you are any good there will be thousands of them:
Corporate Democracy is a Myth
Recently, there has been a great deal of outrage concerning the huge pay and severance packages awarded to a number of CEOs. There has been much criticism of the fact that CEOs earn 520 times that of the average worker. A great deal has been made of the scandalous actions of a number of CEOs and boards concerning the backdating of options. Sadly, a much deeper, more pernicious, more threatening problem of the future of our economy exists at today's corporations: many corporate boards and managers are doing an abysmal job. The lack of competent leadership makes our companies less competitive day by day, causing an upward spiraling trade and current account deficit, as well as a near meltdown of the financial sector. The buildup of incompetent boards and managers is the result of poor corporate governance. Poor corporate governance now threatens more than just potential shareholder value; it threatens this country's very economic survival.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "democracy might not be the greatest system there is but it is the greatest system mankind has invented so far." Many American corporations are dysfunctional because corporate democracy is a myth in the United States. They run like a decaying socialistic state. Our boards and CEOs exist in a symbiotic relationship where the boards nourish the CEO with massive stock options that are re-priced downward if the companies stock declines – making them forever valuable. They reward the CEO with pay packages and bonuses when the stock is floundering or the CEO is leaving the company. Corporate performance and the shareholders welfare seldom enter the picture. What kind of democracy is this? There is no accountability.
The inherent quid pro quo is to pay the board huge retainers for attending several meetings per year and rubber stamp ill conceived CEO proposals. In turn, a CEO can fly around the world on the company's private jet on the "business" of visiting all the world's greatest golf courses while he runs the company – and the value of your stock – into the ground. The average shareholder can do nothing about it. A great example is the subprime mortgage mess that has cost our economy and the populace untold billions of dollars and personal hardship. These losses did not stop boards from awarding huge severance packages to the CEOs most responsible for the current carnage.
It is the board's responsibility to hold a CEO accountable, and remove the CEO if he or she is not producing results. But exacting such a measure requires effort and strategic consideration, and boards are often too lazy and/or passive to rock the boat, especially since the company will continue to pay and pamper and even indemnify them under almost any circumstances. Board members receive expensive tickets to important sporting events, the theatre, and are also treated to use of the company's fleet. Worst of all, the board itself is not made accountable because corporate board elections are generally a joke.
Board meetings are often a complete travesty. I know because I have sat and do sit on a number of boards where I am in the minority. Because of this, today our economy is in a major crisis. Many of our companies are incapable of competing. Additionally our banking system has issued mortgages that cannot and will not be paid back. We are in this situation because there is no leadership in the executive suite. Why did we get here? Because in corporate America there are no true elections. It is tyranny parading as democracy. It's a poison running through the blood of corporate America. Perhaps, with enough public support, the lawmakers and regulators will take note.
When you rid a company of a fruitless board, the rewards are often enormous because the underlying company and its employees can be excellent. It is the top level management that hangs like an albatross around the company's neck. Years from now historians will marvel why we the shareholders – the legitimate owners of companies – did not do something effective about removing terrible managements. We can do something about the current situation. I will discuss in future entries how simple it can be and what has constrained us from taking action.
For quite some time we in the IT industry have enjoyed a great reputation as problem solvers, designers, creators, architects of peoples IT dreams, if you will. It's not an easy job, it's not a low skills job and you get to work around some very smart people.
That backfires horribly when you do something wrong because your coworkers will stand over your shoulder and make fun of you as you try to figure out if your boss was joking about you being fired if the email isn't back in 10 minutes.
Ah, the joy of work in IT. Earlier today I got an IM telling me that our corporate email was down. One of the tasks for the week was to have Office Communications Server 2007 up and running. Yup, you've guessed it, they got bit by the Howard problem!
Now, its easy to point at people and make fun after the issue has been addressed. But seriously, at which point do you just break out the beatdown machine and let it loose on the people that have been responsible for hundreds of Exchange 2007 64bit boxes for well over a year? Even if I forgive that, at which point would it have been obvious that rolling out OCS on a 64bit server was going to fail? Would it have been during the documentation which should have been read? How about the lab deployment before going into production?
Still a no? How about some common damn sense, if you're about to try to install a 32bit package and it prompts you for web components you should KNOW it's about to roll up ASP.NET 32bit assemblies into IIS and blow it sky high.
The ultimate bringdown? How was the problem solved? Googled and found the Vladville blog post. Ooooooooffff. First, till the day I die or all these folks move on I get to hold it over their heads that "without me this global ISP won't even be able to check email" and of course there is now a mandatory tshirt printing "I fail so hard at life that I use Vladville as a technical resource."
Let the shaming begin..
Speaking of shaming, OCS 2007. Very cool, I'm a pretty big fan to be honest and they have even brought it down into the SMB land now, you can get a server license for about $600. And as impressive as that may sound, as I mentioned to Handy Andy earlier tonight, it doesn't quite hold a candle to Messenger:
"its like taking what you and I are chatting on right now, throwing it into stone age, and asking for $10k in licensing and 3 dedicated servers."
"its like taking what you and I are chatting on right now, throwing it into stone age, and asking for $10k in licensing and 3 dedicated servers."
Got the little Communicator on my desk right now. It's no MSN Messenger but comes close and beats MSN in the enterprise integration parts.
Firefox 3.0 is being released today and the folks over at Mozilla want to set a Guinness Book World Record for most downloads! So aside from being a fantastic browser you also get to be a part of history!
Check it out: http://www.spreadfirefox.com
This week, I will be eating lunch alone at Annies down the street. I intend to sit there by myself with a little paper notebook and brainstorm all the ways in which we suck as far as our organization is concerned. Basically, I want to try to take myself out of the OWN space and see what would piss me off about working with OWN.
Then I intend to take those items back, meet at 4PM and find a way to fix them before Jul 1. We're coming up to a major rebranding (marketing) point and I want to make sure not to leave any stone unturned. We've received a ton of feedback since September of last year, we have stepped up the documentation and communication efforts which have been very well received, we've fixed tech support by getting rid of the top offenders and have been seriously working on addressing the issues with billing, portal, software and even licensing.
The key point being totally disconnected from it and forcing myself to lay it out without ability to actually do anything about it. No laptop, no cell, no PDA, just pen paper and some grilled chicken. The frequent downside to "fixing" things is that you focus on the solution and not the 18,000 other problems that are going to be caused by the change you're about to make.
As always, will keep you up with how it changes / evolves.
P.S. On a flip side, another killer month on the books. We're seeing a pickup of people going out of business and we're seeing a tremendous pickup on the side of the people that have been reselling services across the board – Exchange, mail, web hosting, ExchangeDefender, offsite backup… While I will never wish any ill will towards anyone that disagrees with me, I have to say I find it rather amusing that the people that argued with me over the years over not wanting to resell hosting services as a part of a business model and instead focused on MSP & hours and projects and are now closing doors. "Vlad, what's a few bucks here and there going to do for my bottom line? Nothing!!!!" Turns out people will stop funding projects, drop patching managed services but they won't swallow thousands of messages piling up in their inbox or getting rid of their email or backups, who would have figured there would be a sustainable business model behind that. Keep on fighting the future and saying "My clients would never go for that"..
I'm fairly proud of this weekend mostly because I got a lot of things done. It really goes back to Friday when I didn't take my usual DFWVF and instead worked with one of the new guys on some new exciting things we're trying to do to make us suck less as a company. Even though it's 1 AM after Fathers Day most of which I spent with the laptop on my legs and a little monkey on my shoulder, I feel very fulfilled in how it went and not stressed out at all.
Which brings me to a point – your job (business / company / vocation) should be fulfilling and motivating to the point that you love going to it and enjoy working in it. You shouldn't be stressed out of your mind, working half to death just to drag your beaten carcass back home where you can have quick access to a firearm. You need to work on finding ways not to be stressed out at work.
The best way to do so is great planning. If you can pull that off my hat is off to you, you're a better man than I am.
For me it's all about stacking the deck of disappointment so high that it doesn't matter on which miserable task I work on, it's really not going to get any worse with time because as the pile of shit grows it solidifies the building of shame I have in our shortcomings so that I can really get in the gear to fix them and not run around like a chicken without a head trying to plug holes on the floor of a sinking ship. So I take them one by one in nearly random order and get them done and I find that way things get done much faster.
For me it's all about stacking the deck of disappointment so high that it doesn't matter on which miserable task I work on, it's really not going to get any worse with time because as the pile of shit grows it solidifies the building of shame I have in our shortcomings so that I can really get in the gear to fix them and not run around like a chicken without a head trying to plug holes on the floor of a sinking ship. So I take them one by one in nearly random order and get them done and I find that way things get done much faster.
Now that's perhaps a little dark to the casual observer but really, who motivates me? Money? Nope. Boss? Don't have one. Partners? Sometimes. My only driving force is to keep on improving the business by being a part of it and constantly moving it forward and fixing what appears to be broken.
I've been at this for a long time and I love it more now than I ever have before. Most people in my role or at my skill set are giving up on what they do, they look for distractions or other projects they would rather be on. They want something new, something fresh, a challenge! (Note to self: offer a gig the next time, if they have figured it all out maybe we can use them); I just can't understand at all why anyone would try to work so hard for something just to be able to go and work on something else outside of the company..
I for one am going nowhere. I love what I do, I love what we do, and I love being a part of evolving what this company can do as its resource scope grows. That to me is exciting, motivating and more than enough to let me look around the pile of things that I don't like about what we do. But you know what, I am still in it and I am still competing and don't think I could just quit on that and move to something else……
Unless someone came by with a large, large, large, large, large sum of money of course Then it's whoring all the way in as shameless of a way as possibly imaginable!
Hope you enjoyed this exhausted mental thought-stream. This is why I usually write an outline of what I'm going to say before I do
Every now and then I get that tap on the shoulder, someone wants to chat with me in a dark corner and ask if I am about to offend people with what I say, think, believe and do.
You see, it is incomprehensible to some that a person will speak honestly and firmly about a sensitive subject that all traditional marketing and PR training has told you to avoid. In every organization there exists a list of items that are not for discussion, not for disclosure, that should never be admitted or commented on. Customer facing staffers are trained to avoid discussion of those items, to manage the conversation, to steer it in a way and whenever something potentially sensitive comes up to just nod and "thank you for your feedback, I will escalate it to the person in charge which just so happens to live in the castle with the Lochness monster."
This is the norm of the services industry, professional as well as vocational. Your cell phone company will give you the same runaround that your office cleaning crew supervisor will.
Somewhere along the way people just chose to make "courteous" a synonym for patronizing and deceitful. For the dictionary experts out there – it's not.
So why do folks in this business find it so important to base their approach on the exact same path of least resistance? Because all their gurus are doing it, and all their suppliers are doing it too.
"Oh, you just started your business and don't have any customers and you're at this conference instead of back at home working? Oh, right, because you wanted to get some fresh air and exchange ideas instead of trying to build business.
Well, that is fantastic. That's a GREAT idea. You know what else is a great idea? This $20,000 management tool. Listen, as you grow you need a solid management foundation and this will save you money!"
"Oh, you just started your business and don't have any customers and you're at this conference instead of back at home working? Oh, right, because you wanted to get some fresh air and exchange ideas instead of trying to build business.
Well, that is fantastic. That's a GREAT idea. You know what else is a great idea? This $20,000 management tool. Listen, as you grow you need a solid management foundation and this will save you money!"
Substitute any product, service, solution up there, it's always the same. Four step process to closing business with IT professionals:
1. Listen to the war story at full attention.2. Congratulate them on their opinion, even reinforce.3. Ask about their problems.4. Explain how your product will solve all their problems, close.
1. Listen to the war story at full attention.2. Congratulate them on their opinion, even reinforce.3. Ask about their problems.4. Explain how your product will solve all their problems, close.
The faster you can get them into the debt up to their eyeballs you can't really be held accountable for your solution sucking and not living up to the promise because they owe you money.
This, believe it or not is the standard operating procedure that is actually very well received and respected!
So suffice to say I get a little miffed when someone wants to discuss my approach of not lying straight into peoples faces and instead telling them what they don't want to hear.
It's not my fault that you're an SPF, it's your problem that you aren't building a business.
It's not my fault that you're an SPF, it's your problem that you aren't building a business.
I have absolutely no problem saying that. I base it on working with thousands of IT solution providers and hearing every sob story and every wild IT solution dream scheme ever imagined. I work with some damn successful people too, and I try to offer some of that wisdom on this blog. It may not be a pleasant reading material for 99 out of 100 people, but that 1 guy may still have a shot.
I'm all about that 1%. Let's be honest, business is tough. Management is tough. Marketing is tough, even when you have a ton of money. Business is not easy. You have to surround yourself with the people that will keep you on your toes and keep on adjusting you as you go along.
And now we come to the actual jist of this blog post: when you can talk openly you will from time to time get smacked back in your mouth and people will have no fear to reach out and talk to you. You get to learn, you get to grow, you get to see things coming from a mile away instead of waking up from your dream one day in the middle of the sea of reality. Is being brutally honest bad for business because it will discourage people from working with the crazy man or woman? No. Because you may turn off some, but you will open up discussions with thousands more and actually stand out in a sea of drones that do the exact same thing you do. Call it leadership, call it insanity, but give it a shot. If you keep on going to networking events and never make a buck from anything or anyone you meet there it's a good indication that the best practices drivel you read isn't paying off for you.
Maybe I'm all wrong on all of this, but least you'll be able to sleep at night.
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World-renowned horse trainer and Cowboy Dressage founder Eitan Beth-Halachmy gallops into the 2014 Midwest Horse Fair in Madison in April.
Based at Wolf Creek Ranch, in Grass Valley, California, the Israeli-born Eitan Beth-Halachmy is well-known for merging Classical and Western equestrian training. He has performed around the globe in such prestigious events as the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany (in 2006), and in Lexington, Kentucky (in 2010).
Eitan Beth-Halachmy has earned numerous international titles in the Show Horse industry, including World Champion Western Pleasure Horse in 1993 and 1996 with his Morgan stallion, Holiday Compadre. In 2002, 2003, and 2005, Santa Fe Renegade (another of Eitan Beth-Halachmy's Morgan stallions) was named World Champion Western Pleasure Horse of the Year.
The 2014 Midwest Horse Fair, themed "Horse Tales," takes place April 11 to 13 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin.
Now retired from active public equestrian training, Eitan Beth-Halachmy has led many junior and adult clients to national and world titles.
Eitan Beth-Halachmy will also teach a Cowboy Dressage Clinic at Dan Lynch Farms, in Cross Plains, Wisconsin, from April 15 to 18.
The popular Cowboy Dressage clinician returns to the Midwest in the fall to present an "Experience Cowboy Dressage" clinic at Country View Equestrian Estate, in West Bend, Wisconsin. This event, presented by the Wisconsin Western Dressage Club, is scheduled for September 27-28.
You can find lots more regional equestrian event listings at Mane Dates: Horsing Around in the Upper Midwest.)
Please note: Thank you for reading and for sharing the link to this article with others. Feel free to +1, Digg, Facebook, Pin, Stumble, Tweet, or otherwise pass the http link along. However, this content is copyrighted, so the actual article (or images) may not be copied and reposted on blogs, social networking sites, websites, or elsewhere.
Readers: You are invited to subscribe (confidentially and free) to receive e-mail updates whenever this columnist publishes a new article. Feel free to follow on Google Plus and Twitter. You are also invited to join this writer's fan page and the Equestrian Examiner – Madison and More page on Facebook.
Equestrian event managers and hosts: Do you have upcoming shows, clinics, or other highlights to share? Email the Madison Equestrian Examiner with flyers and details. Or join ("like") the Mane Dates page on Facebook, and post key details there.
Writers: Want to learn how you can join Examiner as a columnist in your choice of cities and topics? Email me for details.
Suggested Links
- WEG performer Eitan Beth-Halachmy remains critical at U of K hospital
- Midwest Horse Fair PRCA rodeo tickets go on sale January 6
- MW Horse Fair calls vendors and models for Equine Fashion Show 2014
- Raffle winner to leave Midwest Horse Fair with new trailer in tow
- MW Horse Fair Shortest Horse Tale contest entries due January 31


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Behind the Scenes at a CSA
Since we're talking a lot about organic produce and farming today, check out this cool video I found. This lady tells us all about her community supported agriculture. Take a look:
I think it takes guts to be a small farmer nowadays, but clearly it can be done—turn a buck and eat great. Hard to beat that!


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Back to Recommendations for Commercial Services and TV and Cable
Can anyone recommend a particular Tivo system and/or the best/cheapest place to buy a Tivo? Thanks. SMB
1) a stand-alone box which will work with any TV and any kind of TV source (antenna, cable, satelite or a combination). These have been made by Philips, SONY, and there is now a TiVo branded one. They all work exactly the same, the only difference being the style of the SONY remote and the styling of the boxes. Inside they're essentially identical. They can be found at Best Buy, Circuit City, etc, but are sometimes a bit hard to find as they sell out quickly. There is a $50 rebate deal going on now; information and also ordering directly on-line is at: http://www.tivo.com/2.0.asp
2) a DirecTV-TiVo combo box. This will ONLY work with the DirecTV service (and any TV), but it has some cool additional features, especially being able to record two shows simultaneously. There are some pretty cheap deals for new DirecTV customers including free satelite dish & wiring installation. Also, apparently very soon (mid-November is the rumour) a new version of the combo box will be released which is a little faster and has potential future expansion possibilities. These combo boxes are made by Hughes, Philips & SONY, and can be found as the same stores and URL as above.
All TiVo's require a subscription for $12.95/mo or $249 for the life of the unit. The DirecTV combo boxes are going have a repriced service that is billed directly through DirecTV for only $5 a month (currently they are $10/month but that apparently will drop to $5 when the new units are out).
As you can see, I'm a TiVo enthusiast! I really can't imagine watching TV the regular way again ... especially with kids. We now watch the shows we want without caring about the TV schedule, and we always have a couple eppisodes of Sesame Street, etc, ready for our kids.
If you have any further questions I'd be happy to answer them via e-mail. Mike
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