Diagnosis: Contender

Illinois 66 @Wisconsin 51

For an Illinois fan, this season has been a tough one to figure. Last year's team dismantled opponents with ease and style. This year's team has been winning, but with neither ease nor style. Still, bracketologists - at espn (explanation here) and bracketboard - have Illinois as a #1 seed, if the season ended today.

Tonight's game was the first one that I have seen that truly justifies such rankings. This win at Wisconsin was the first time all year that the Illini - all of them, not just Dee Brown and James Augustine - looked good. Granted, it's tough to tell how good Wisconsin is - they did lose to North Dakota State after all - and I don't think Illinois can run with Duke or UConn. But with Rich McBride hooked up to the juvenation machine, Brian Randle looking like a real player, and bench contributions from Jamar Smith and Chester Frazier, this team might be going places.

Holy Sh** - Again!

Check out comment #3 from Chapin's last post. A true blast from the past. Welcome, Sunil! Though I thought Ria was the coolest Indian we knew.

Ha, ha. Just kidding! Please don't hurt me.

Anyway, bouyed by the appearance of Sunil and Caton on our blog (although it is disturbing that people are finding this site, and I'm really not sure how Sunil did, but with our readership up to 10, might the reach of Malt Shop Logic be limitless?) and the fact that the blog has not imploded from inactivity, I feel compelled to note/ask the following:

• Interesting item on aueagles.com about the AU wrestling team. Turns out they are ranked #21 in the nation now. Pretty good, I think. Then I remember when the AU field hockey team first got ranked in the field hockey top 20 in 1995 or 1996 and one of my fellow athletes telling me that it wasn't that big a deal considering there were only 30 field hockey teams anyway (he exaggerated, I'm sure, but not by much). Well, according to my count, there are only 87 Division 1 wrestling teams. So, 21 out of 87 - not bad, but not all that good.
• Did Big Momma's House - the original - really merit Big Momma's House 2?
• Heard at work today by me - a dot matrix printer. Beyond what it says about fibbee technology, I did have a nightmare flashback to T-51, being awakened at 4 am as Laura whatshername in T-52 decided to print out her 25 page papers on her dot matrix printer. Bad times.
• I guess it's time for me to weigh in on the big House Republican leadership race for Majority Leader. The way I see it, thzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

P.S. F Blogger for the hassle it gave me in trying to post this.

Winter's Return...and Caton's

This weekend, I drove up to Connecticut for the umpteenth time since October to visit Cherie. I actually had a wonderful time -- I'm just tired of the drive.

Anyway, on Saturday, her sister and brother-in-law came from Boston to visit, and we went to dinner at the Melting Pot in Darien, CT. As an aside, the Melting Pot is possibly the world's most over-priced restaurant. The base "per couple" price for our meal was $96, and that was before substitutions, drinks, etc. And this for a restaurant where the patrons do their own cooking using fondue. Ridonkulous.

Anwyay...when we left the restaurant, it was 50 deg. F and pouring rain. 45 minutes later, when we arrived home, it was 34 deg. F and freezing rain was coating everything in sight. One hour later, the temp had dropped another 10 deg., and it was snowing hard. By the next morning, 8 inches of snow covered the ground in Danbury. Last night, it was 9 deg. F. I hate winter.

The good news is that Mr. Caton confirmed his emergence from seclusion on our blog this week. Tim -- you should post an actual article. Contact Close for particulars. And how the hell are you?

Holy sh**...

...did the real Minister of Tolerance, aka one Tim Caton, just make a commenting appearance on our blog? The 1 comment on Josh's post is attributed to the "Minister of Tolerance", and clicking on his profile reveals he's only been online since Jan 06 and lists "The Toy Fair" as his blog (though it doesn't appear to be up and running). Tim, are you out there?

180 Degrees

Now this is quite a turn. 60 years later, I get to read this line in my local newspaper:

About 200 Japanese troops are in San Diego County to practice beach landings in what could be a show of force in the country's growing rivalry with China.

Japanese officials approached the Marines, who have a long history of beach landings, for help last summer, Robbins said. Amphibious landings are among the U.S. military's more demanding maneuvers.

I'm horribly curious if there's any sort of ceremony being performed to commemorate this event. There's nothing in the news, but I don't see this passing with little more than a "Welcome to America!"

Chris' Tenleytown Adventure

Observations from time spent in Tenleytown - daylight time, that is - today:

1. Remember at Camillo's when we first started going there - Camillo at the first chair, Joseph (RIP) at the second chair, an extremely tall Hispanic guy in chair three, Diane at the next chair, and Dante in the corner? Well, a few years back, the Hispanic guy just disappeared. I thought he must have opened his own place or something. He was back today - and they stuck him in the room that used to be used by the old lady who would dye another old lady's hair.

2. Walked around AU today for the first time in ages. Was pleased with what I saw. First of all, the Kogod and Batelle buildings look very impressive. Nice, even. Second, they did a very nice job with the intramural field - seems like they redid the baseball diamond too. I think they tore down one of the buildings overlooking the field, but I can't be sure. Overall, campus looked better than it ever did when we were there - and it wasn't even after a clean-up day before prospective freshmen arrived for a visit.

3. Watched AU play Lehigh with the Bad Lieutenant. Don't worry about taking a Friday off to watch AU in the Patriot League championship game this year. AU only excels at one thing on the basketball court - turning the ball over.

Another Tough PR Day for the FBI...

...eh, Chris?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/06/AR2006010601077.html

"County Appoints King Following Pope Resignation"

nt

Goodbye Boring Earth Chicks, Hello Sweet Alien Poontang!

http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=16902006

Hyperspace drive, bitches.

I know...

...that the callowness (and callousness) of the media should not be a surprise. And I know that it should not anger me. But damn, occasionally it really does. Case in point: I've been working from home today, sitting with the laptop on my lap and the TV in front of me, tuned to CNN. All damn day long, CNN has exploited the tragic mine explosion situation in West Virginia to flog its "new" technology, "Pipeline". Now, as an aside, it appears that Pipeline is hardly new. It appears to just be live, unedited video streaming from a remote CNN camera truck. Josh can tell you that this has probably been available as a technology for years now.

But what really, really gets me, is the way CNN has jumped on the mine situation as an opportunity to publicize their "new" tool. Daryn Kagan hasn't been able to go 30 seconds without mentioning it again. And damn, I want to kick her in the belly. By the way, could she look more leathery, anorexic, and fake? Ugh.

More Sites to visit...

www.break.com (some downright funny videos; also some "not safe for work" videos -- so be careful)

http://www.innbook.com/ -- Home to the Select Registry, a directory of great bed and breakfasts -- for finding good places to take Susan on a relaxing mini-vacation

www.aintitcool.com/ or www.chud.com or www.digitalbits.com-- for the latest on movies and tv and DVD

www.vault.com -- want the latest gossip about a particular corporation? Here it is....

www.realbeer.com -- links to breweries that sell direct, links to beer of the month clubs, links to cigar shops, etc.

www.sudsgear.com -- beer-related merchandise -- from Coors Light to Blue Moon

http://www.samssteins.com/ -- more beer merchandise, including the "Rusty Wallace Last Call" Mug and Simpsons beer steins

Websites for Christopher...

www.reason.com

www.space.com

www.homestarrunner.com

www.newsoftheweird.com

Opinion Journal

Opinion Journal is the free version of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page. The "Best of the Web Today" is always good.

Sites

BoingBoing. Use a good advertising filter (I recommend Adblock in Firefox -- let me know if you want a pre-populated Adblock filter) and you've got a wide collection of fun stuff each day.

Also, I'm half of the mind to say let's kill this site. Or, at least, rename it. I mean, honestly. The logic in the Malt Shop is that there is no Malt Shop. (And I want to see what, if any, of our art is still there.)

I Need Your Help

My predicament: sometimes at work I get all my assignments done too quickly leaving me with plenty of time on my hands. The only problem is that I have reached the limits of the Internet for me.

What I need from you: Suggestions for new and interesting web sites I can visit so as to entertain and educate me. Let's all bear in mind that suggesting porn sites is not going to help me - you know who I'm talking to.

Here's what I read regularly now:
washingtonpost.com
chicagotribune.com
suntimes.com
nationalreview.com
bigtenwonk.blogspot.com
illinitalk.blogspot.com
illiniwonk.blogspot.com
Mark Tupper's Illinois Fighting Illini blog
yocohoops.com
patriotleaguehoops.com
weeklystandard.com
my e-mail
my fantasy football website

Add it up, that still leaves lots of free time. So, I ask you, what keeps you occupied, but not fired, on the Internet?

Thank you for your assistance.

Another Birthday Haiku for Brian

Randi and Michelle
Silicone dreams 10 years hence
Lesbian despair

Haiku #2

I'm 31 now
I even have gray nose hairs
Getting older blows

Haiku

This blog has gone cold
not enough updates to read
Losing to Chris sucks

despair not

Piss and rage can fix it.

A Note on the Site

You may have noticed that the sidebar stuff had been at the bottom of the page for the last couple days. When I added in the ability to see the number of comments, something got f-ed up. It appears to have been fixed.

So, not only can you post comments, you'll now know if people have posted them. Post away.

That is all for this administrative crap.