Seasons Change With the Scenery

I could not find a decent version of the S&G version
Union Hockey
Yes, Union lost to Ferris State last night. Yes, it was disappointing. Yes, it was our game to win or lose and we lost.

I would like to thank the Union College Skating Dutchmen for a great season.

I am proud of my membership in the Union Community. Many of the people I love were met there and the my strongest relationships were formed there. A large part of the man that I am today (for good and for bad) owes genesis from the Brook the Bounds.

This Union Hockey team, as FAU mentioned last night, made the alumni jealous of those who were still on campus because they were experiencing something that we never were able to.

Way to Go Union!

And now from winners to...The Mets
Yay! Baseball is back! The Mets won, beating the Braves 1-0, and Johan pitched as if he were back to form. I know that it is wrong, and with this team...stupid, to extrapolate an entire season from one game but...I hope that R.A. Dickey will be able to continue the good vibes and great start to the season.

Continuing with Baseball

Remember the New Era commercials from last year with the estimable Alec Baldwin and some goofy looking guy (John Krasinski, or something like that. He was in that whale movie.) talking about their love of their teams.

New Era has a new commercial out, highlighting what it means to be a fan: irrational love of a team and irrational hatred of another.

Chicago vs. Chicago: Round 1 from Nick Offerman

Olbermann
Two things that have popped up. Keith may have been let go because of an onset tantrum/meltdown. Time Warner Cable may drop Current because of low ratings.

The Daily News offers their opinion about where Keith should end up.

The Weekend
It is Passover. It is Easter Weekend. For me, it is another weekend. My hope is that those of you that are choosing to spend time with loved ones on this weekend get the most out of it and that you appreciate the people that you are with.

This could be an amazing day!

Union Hockey

Thanks, Doug!
Union plays Ferris at 4:30 today. (See you local provider for television details.)

There has been some interesting press on this, including this piece in the WSJ, Dear Alma Mater: I'm Sorry.

To say that I am excited about this would be an understatement. To say that I am proud of my alma mater would be a gross oversimplification.

From the Concordiensis: Hockey History: Dutchmen skates to success on and off the ice

Go U!

And for those of you who do not care about hockey...
Baseball is back and the Mets are back this afternoon!

Oh, by the way, the guy who wrote and directed Field of Dreams...Union alum. Ayup.

The Mets play at one and then the Dutchmen play at 4:30. This is a great sports day.

Presented without comment
I saw this image floating around yesterday and I felt the need to share it.

Thanks
Thank you to All Over Albany for including me in the What's Up in the Neighborhood post for this week.

What is Facebook was invented in 1994?

Via Nerd With Swag

Edit:

Things that I forgot to add earlier.

Another E-Card That I Love


Overheard
Guy to Woman: Well, I just finished that Ron Paul book if you want to come over and borrow it.
Woman: **starry eyed**

After I recounted this to my assembled friends: "Only a RPI Girl"

Saturday Shenanigans

TEA and I eat ribs and fries
Yes, TEA and I had a good night enjoying ribs and fries. (Thanks @FoFacy for the extra sauce.)

Yes, it was yummy.

Goodbye, Keith
I have made no attempt to hide that I am on Team Olbo, but I have not been watching Countdown on Current largely because my cable provider does not have a HD feed of Current and secondly because Michael Moore makes too many appearances. Well, Keith was fired yesterday. (The NY Times has more info here.) Yes, I like the humor of Rachel more at this point and Keith (along with Ed Shultz and Larry) has let his anger and rage obscure his message. I wish him luck and hopefully he will be able to find a baseball related position.

April Fools' Day and the Mets
For most fans, the annual listing of the roster is the April Fools' Joke of merit, but once, there was a great one. The Curious Case of Sidd Finch was a long form prank that was in SI. Splitsider has a good piece on it and it makes me long for the days before a certain level of snark and irony pervaded everything that way written. Sorry. Strike that. I would prefer the snark and ironic detachment to the cloyingly happy prose of most people, given the choice.

Word Choice
I caught up with some internet things this morning and I looked at a friend's LiveJournal (I know. The best platform of 1999!) and she mentioned that I had referred to her as being persnickety as of late (which is an accurate observation) and she remarked that she liked the word. I love the word persnickety. It evokes a very specific feeling of grumpiness.

per·snick·et·y/pərˈsnikətē/
Adjective:
Placing too much emphasis on trivial or minor details; fussy.
Requiring a particularly precise or careful approach.

Such a great work, but here is the best part. There is a synonym of persnickety; pernickety.

Oh, I love this and I am going to try to use it every chance I get.

Do you have a favorite word?

(I will admit that I have a love for the word sundries as well. JMFJT made fun of me for it. I mean actively mocked me. (Apparently, she is no longer blogging. That is a pity. I could have linked to the post.))

College Hockey
UConn is being considered for membership in Hockey East. This amuses me for a number of reasons but largely because is shows that Hockey East does not care about making their conference stronger in terms of both hockey and academics. So very sad, UConn.

10/25/86

Game 6, Shea Stadium, Queens, New York

Notes from a Friday Afternoon

1) Tim Wakefield has retired.



I love this clip, even though it is from the Onion.

But look at him warming up, that movement is...weird.



Yet another reason for me to only pay attention to the Red Sox this year in order to knowledgeably mock their fans.

2) Speaking of baseball, I have been falling asleep to Ken Burns' Baseball. This has created interesting dreams including dreams where a friend is talking as if she were Doris Kearns Goodwin. This is interesting for a couple of reasons. Largely, it is interesting because I love this friend and I loathe DKG. (Allowing for my soft spot for Wait Till Next Year which as a memoir and not a piece of scholarship stands up to scrutiny.)

3) Still on baseball, I realized that I had never read The Bad Guys Won fully. I had read excerpts and did own a paper copy of it but that was given to someone. When Gary Carter passed yesterday after a long battle with cancer, I thought back to '86 and the Mets and when my love of baseball was cemented. One of my brother's childhood friends had an autographed photo of Roger Clemens and Gary Carter standing together from the '86 series and I still covet it. Reading this book, and the often boorish behavior of these players that I looked up to is a compelling read for any baseball fan.

4) I have heard Whitney Houston's rendition of The Star Spangled Banner often over the past week and while I do admit that it was a supremely good performance, the patriotic song that makes me the most...proud to be an American while being stunned by the beauty of the performance, I choose this one.



5) Troy's reputation for crassness and down market lifestyle was fully cemented in my mind last night. If you are an adult female, and you say that you are "madddd angry" after you get bounced from a bar for starting a fight, then complaining about losing the money you spent on your drink, you have an interesting priority set.

Thank you, Kid, and keep fighting!

I know that the baseball fans among my readers are familiar with Gary Carter, and that some of you are aware that he had been experiencing medical issues.

The Palm Beach Post reported last night that his tumors are inoperable.

When I was young, there was one thing that I really coveted and that belonged to my brother's best friend. It was an autographed picture of Kid Carter and Rocket Clemens from the '86 World Series. The two of them standing together. I wanted that picture. I was (and remain) a Mets fan. Gary Carter was never my favorite but he was always the one I wanted to see bat. (For those of you wondering, it was Dwight "Doc" Gooden.)

Gary Carter was a ball player. He is also, reportedly, a very good man.

I wish you the best of luck, Kid, and I hope that you will be ready for Spring Training.

Oh, being a Mets fan #2

It feels good, Mets fans, doesn't it?

I mean, you know that something is going to happen, and they are going to break your heart, but you still have some hope now, and look at this.

We are in first place. It may change tonight, but for now, we are leading the Division, and that does not suck.

Lets! Go! Mets!

Oh, being a Mets fan

I thought I posted it when it popped up last fall (but apparently I did not)



Anyway...it gets better.

In fact, the only thing that might be worse is if that baby's take was aired on the team's official broadcast after an opening day loss.
Because it's the Mets, both things actually happened.
Of course they did.

Apparently the folks in Mets Country are pissed.

You can read it at Yahoo!Sports.

H/T to John M for this!

And I have a Happy Heart

Because here is the good news...

There are 34 days left until pitchers and catchers report!



While I will be rooting for the Mets, their season will be over by...I am thinking...May 24.

So...should I root for the Royals?