Sick Day

PFOS called in sick today, with a sore throat and a cold. 

Don't know what the big deal is.  It's just banging out a few hundred words, not like it's some big physical challenge. 

Woos...

Nicked Up

Last week we had the new Dr. Nic story.  This week, a tale of three unrelated Nicks.

I am rather jaded when it comes to my appraisal of the character of many athletes.  My low expectations are seldom incorrect, as the actions of these chaps generally confirms my non-expectations.  You may correctly infer that I could have been KO'd by a feather when I read the story about Carl Nicks (click to original story) and what he did last week.  Good for you, Carl Nicks.

From Carl Nicks story I went on to see what Stevie Nicks is doing that is newsworthy.  The answer is "nothing".  She will turn 62 years of age in May, by the way, another rocker heading for a rocker.

Next Nicks is Hakeem Nicks, who is a receiver for the NY Giants.  He had a screw inserted to fix a broken toe.  That sounds creepy, so I'm not investing any time getting details.

Over and out.

Dr. Nic, Random Walk and Library Police

Congratulations to the new Dr. Nic (Two Gun's daughter) who is a brand spanking new PhD.  Dr. Nic successfully defended her thesis to the assembled brain trust at the U and has become a woman of letters.  Wonderful!

Next:  Random walk is a finance term used for market behaviors.  Here it is used to describe "I don't have one topic of interest because it's the tundra of football season". 

Spring football practice is not interesting.  The Ducks are in jail, Lane Kiffin isn't worth researching, there's no SEC scandals to keep my interest and it's not yet time to see who drafts whom to play in the NFL.  So here's the random walk of short topics.

Eastern Washington is putting down red turf on its football field.  As did the Boise State blue a few years back, EWashington has chosen to distinguish itself with an unusual turf color.  It is red, as red as red can be.  I saw a rendering (click) and I think it's hideous.  Click the link, then watch and listen to the totally dopey video.  Next.

I am so saddened by the passing of the boy from Cincinnatti who fell from his spring break hotel balcony to his death at the age of 17.  Drunk and belligerent are the words that were repeated over and over to describe his condition at the time.  At 6"6' and 290 pounds, a drunk and belligerent man-child cannot be easily subdued. The police talked about finding out who supplied the alchohol. Big deal. He would have gotten it somewhere.  To his parents, my heart aches for you.  To Notre Dame, where he was headed, that's unfortunate for you.  To everyone, when did it become de rigeur for high school children to run off to Florida (or some other beach locale) for spring break bacchanale?  Isn't that supposed to be the world of college students?  A year or two older makes a big difference in learning lessons from others' mistakes.  Mom and Dad, a lesson too late from Nancy Reagan: just say no. Don't care how big he is, he's still your child.

Finally, on a matter of considerably less gravity, to my respected friend and wagering partner, Two Gun Pete:  you cannot keep my autographed hardcover copy of Playing With the Enemy.  I'll get you a paperback, but I want that one back.

To clarify, I am not an Indian giver, I am a persistent lender.  To offset your angst, I will offer to share with you a new word that I learned just today: refulgent.

refulgent\rih-FUL-juhnt\ , adjective;

1.Shining brightly; radiant; brilliant; resplendent.
Usage example:  Despite having exploited his refulgent demeanor, Two Gun was crestfallen that his ploy had been negated.

Blame it on Nancy Reagan.

Vegas Vacation

We went to Mecca for college football wagering last week: Las Vegas.  It was, as Vegas always is, an experience, a whole lot of sights and sounds that you just don't get anywhere else.  Here's the short form:

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City Center and Aria, the newest Las Vegas Boulevard real estate project, is simply magnificent.  The magnitude of the project is enormous, and the architecture is stunning.  It is a visual symphony, a collection of shapes, colors and textures, weaving together ultra modern materials, shapes and colors and seasoning the mix with natural and organic finishes.   I was overwhelmed, finding myself walking around gawking and smiling at the sensory experience.

Mimsy, on the other hand, had a bit of a different interpretation: "A cacaphony of crap... straight out of The Jetsons."

I guess it's not for everyone.

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Hotel room telephones ring with the loudest, shrillest, most piercing tone imaginable, as discomforting as a smoke alarm. 

We stayed for the first time at the Flamingo, the antithesis of The City Center.  Flamingo is an old-style Vegas hotel.  It could use a little freshening here and there, but it's very nice, with its own unique charm. 

When visiting Vegas, we don't try to reset our body clocks, staying on Central time.  Vegas runs 24/7, so it works out ok.  On the second night of our stay, the folks next door checked in around midnight, which for us is 2 AM. We were in a deep, deep sleep after a long, long day of gaming.  The new neighbors came in banging doors, slamming them a couple times ( I assume to prove that the doors really locked ), thumping the locked adjoining room door (the presence of that door being why we heard everything from next door with such alarming clarity), slapping the brass safety locks off and on a few times and yacking to each other in really loud for 2 AM voices.  As you might imagine, I was most unappreciative of the manner in which they announced their arrival.
 
We rose early the following morning, as is our habit, and headed out.  Remembering the kindness that we had been paid a few hours earlier, I stopped along the way to avail myself of the utility of the house phones located in the long, long hallway to call our room a couple of times, letting it ring-ring-ring until the voice mail picked up, then hanging up to call again. We were able to clearly hear the shrill shrieking of the phone from way down the hall.

I imagine that the next door neighbors heard it, too, bright and early, loud and clear. 

The one raging complaint that I have about Las Vegas is difficult to convey politely. There are countless numbers of what I perceive to be recently arrived ersatz Americans standing on the sidewalks shoving handbills at you, advertising escort services, night clubs, etc.  They snap the cards in one hand against the cards in the other hand and then shove one at you as you walk by.  I don't like who they are and I despise what they're doing.  Las Vegas would be a much nicer place without them.

Their counterparts are the hundreds of timeshare hawkers who assault you inside the hotel lobbies.  "Hi, folks, how about some free show tickets?"  This pitch started ON THE AIRPORT SHUTTLE BUS!  Some guy who introduced himself as a "Las Vegas Ambassador" was shlepping show tix for timeshare presentations on the damned shuttle bus!

It takes a little conditioning, but we found that the best response (for us) was to act as if they didn't exist, both those in the street and those in the hotels.  It seemed to annoy them.

Mission accomplished.

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The last observation, people-wise, is a sad one. 

Simply put, America has become incredibly fat.  I was absolutely amazed at the number of leviathans that were lumbering about, everywhere we went.  I'm relating an observation;  I have no proposed solution.  Some people are bigger than others, that's no revelation.  The number of people that are bigger than two or more others, that's what I'm talking about here. 

Just sayin'.

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Can't wait to go back.