The View From Wisconsin
Just a random set of rants from a Sports Fan from Wisconsin.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
War, Windows and Who Knows
Get ready to span the globe:
- The Michelin refund offer may help soothe some ruffled feathers among those who were in attendance at the U.S. Grand Prix at Indy, but I openly wonder if the problem with Formula 1 is elsewhere. Namely, the man at the controls, one Bernie Ecclestone. Honestly, he is so incredibly out of touch with the people who actually follow open wheel racing, it's ridiculous. I've already said that F-1 is more or less like watching the royals play polo; perhaps His Royal Bernieness needs to get out of the castle and down with the commoners in the paddocks to find out why people watch racing. Either that or go to a NASCAR Nextel Cup race or two.
- Okay, for the last time - Iraq is NOT another Viet Nam. There isn't a Ho Chi Minh out there who's leading the resistance. It isn't a case of communism vs. capitalism. It's completely different. And, there's less humidity. Should we be trying to get out of there? Yes. Is it likely we'll be getting out of there anytime soon? No. Is that frustrating? Damn right. Will the Democrats try to make hay out of that frustration? Well, is the Pope Catholic?
- Victor Santos should sue his teammates in Milwaukee for lack of support. He's 2-9, and if the Brewers would have given him support like they would have the other pitchers in the rotation, he should have a 6-5 record at least. A sad fact, actually.
- Okay, what exactly does Larry Brooks of the New York Post know? He asked a cryptic question in his recent column over the weekend: "Which individual with the initials DKK is about to learn that anonymity does not last forever?" Sounds like a warning shot over the bow to a gentleman whose blog is followed regularly in these parts...
- Right now, I'm really not sure who's going to host the 2012 Olympics, but I do still think that NYC's bid blew it with the West Side Stadium project's demise. It will be intriguing to see how the politics fall between France and England - since it's likely London and Paris will be the finalists in the voting. There's benefits and problems with both bids.
- I am really starting to hate Office 2003. The State upgraded from Office 97 to '03 last month, and I've been having headaches trying to keep up with the differences. Two big issues: apparently, Office '03 puts overhead on your documents (information, date saved, etc.) that actually bloats the document size by a few Kb. I've saved a doc in Word 'o3, come home and saved it in Word 2k - and it drops by about 20-40 Kb in size. The other issue? Because of how the State implements its "policies" (what can be changed, what can't by users), the Recently Used Documents list in Word is permanently stuck at the last 8 documents viewed. You can turn it off in options, but it turns around the next time you open Word and re-builds the list.
- Has anyone in the NHL front office realized that they're going to need to pry the CBA away from the lawyers eventually? I know, I know - they want to make sure everything's kosher, but come on, it's a holiday weekend (on both sides of the border). Give us hockey fans something to celebrate.
- Card update: The dealer from out in Las Vegas didn't have the 1991 Topps Harold Baines card, so I had to go back on Beckett to buy it. I also still have two Topps cards from the 1950's coming from a dealer in Janesville. Other than that, I'm probably going to be sitting tight on cards for a while, due to the money situation. My new "raise" is going to get wiped off the map because of the increase in health insurance premiums, once our new contract (which will expire about two-three weeks after we ratify it) is settled.
- The Predators re-signed their entire coaching staff. Good thing; can't get enough of seeing Barry and the Boys behind the bench. Wish I knew who was going to be in front of the bench for him this season, though.
Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, Joseph Houk. All rights reserved.
