Chuck Klosterman is blogging from Atlanta, site of the NCAA Final Four, for ESPN.com. As usual, it's filled with hysterical (if unrelated) observations.

Labels: Atlanta, Chuck Klosterman, NCAA basketball

From the AP story about the Knicks game last night:

" ... Randolph Morris, who signed with the Knicks last week just days after playing for Kentucky in the NCAA tournament, made his NBA debut with 3:27 left in first quarter. He fit right in with the Knicks, going 1-for-4 from the free throw line. ..."

I love that the guy who wrote this wire story slipped that comment in.

And while we're talking about the Knicks, Michael Ray Richardson: drug user, anti-Semite, homophobe, all-around good guy.

It's funny, because I generally laugh off this kind of flippant anti-Semitism, because I mostly feel like it isn't willful; it just comes from a casual ignorance. And since I truly believe that the kind of lines that we draw are largely social constucts, it just seems counter productive to pay them any attention. It only lends the people that say them an air of seriousness that they don't deserve. But these kinds of comments seem to be surfacing all over the place with all different races, ethnicities and religions. Whether it's Michael Richards striking back at some black hecklers or Tim Hardaway going off on gay people or now Richardson talking about Jews.

When are we going to go after the true enemy? The Danes.

Labels: basketball, Knicks, Michael Ray Richardson

I can't be the only one who watches the RGX Body Spray commercials on repeat.

I've never seen the girl that stars in the commercials. It took fifteen seconds of my time on Google, but her name is Rachel Specter and here's her IMDb profile.

I don't know how she's not more famous, but if she needs a fan club president, I'm available on Wednesday nights.

Labels: Rachel Specter, RGX Body Spray, Wednesday

Last night, a significant portion (read: all) of my friends on the InterWeb were in town for a Junkiness summit. Matt and Darci, as classically trained song-and-dance people, put together a little number for the monthly Ritalin Reading series that took place last night at Mo Pitkin's House of Class. I had heard rumblings that this guy would be postponing his commute back to hell (i.e. Long Island) until much later in the evening and that this guy would be in the area as well. I had also heard a rumor that this guy would be around as well. Wayne and Dennis were there, but apparently Zuniga was too busy hanging out across town and couldn't deign to make it over to hang with us. When I see him later in the week, I'm going to give him a metaphoric kick in the johnson.

Anyway, here are some choice tidbits that came out (no pun intended in one instance) last night:

-- Katz's Deli is still the best place to get a sandwich

-- Joan Jett and Carmen Electra have been seen "hanging out" together quite a bit lately. The going rumor is that they are set to come out as a couple at the Dinah Shore LPGA event later this month. You can't make this stuff up. Well, you can, but it's nowhere near as entertaining.

-- Ben Greenman has punked both Johnny Carson and Jimmy Connors.

-- Matt equates seeing Victor Garber to getting head from Jennifer Garner

Labels: Johnny Carson, Katz's Deli, women's golf

If you don't like Thin Mints, you should go live in the woods.

Labels: Thin Mints

This 75 degree day in late-March has reminded me that the baseball season is nearly upon us. It doesn't seem time, especially since my Rangers are surging and sitting tenuously in 6th place at the moment. However, I am powerless to argue against Commissioner Bud and the powers that be, who allow pitchers an catchers to report in mid-February.

I should mention that the only reasons that I'm paying even moderate attention at this early point in the year is a) the Yankees are in my face on TV right now and b) I had to draft my fantasy baseball team already. One of these teams will finish in first place this year and one of them will not. I'll leave it to you to figure out which team will finish where.

In any event, baseball is a sport that I used to love to attend in person. But now, between the $40 upper deck seats, the $7 beers, the $5 hot dogs and the sweaty subway ride to the Bronx, it's so much more enjoyable to sit and watch the game on TV. And if the insufferable John Sterling/Suzyn Waldman duo didn't broadcast on the radio, I'd probably do what I did as a kid and listen to the games on the radio

Anyway, this is all a long prelude to why I wrote this email. Rob Neyer of ESPN.com has started a blog on that very same website, and like everything else that he does, it's great. It's exactly what I'd always hoped he get, which is a forum to post his quick thoughts on baseball.

Labels: baseball, fantasy baseball, New York Rangers, New York Yankees, Rob Neyer

And feeling completely refreshed after some much needed time off.

I went golfing with some buddies in Tampa, which you may know as the armpit of Florida. My understanding is that St. Pete and Clearwater are both nice places to live and visit (i.e. warm and by the beach), but the city of Tampa is one of the more ghetto medium-sized cities that I've visited, if by "ghetto" you mean "absolutely terrifying to drive through parts of." Actually, ghetto probably implies that.

We got in 5 rounds of golf, which was good times, because I enjoy the golfing. The weather was ridiculously hot and now my arms and legs are sunburned because I'm intelligent enough to put sunblock on my face, but not my legs and arms, which I use to walk and elbow people. So now, it hurts to walk a little and I can't elbow anyone.

On the flight on the way back, I sat in front of a screaming child who I'm positive will have a great career doing voice over work someday. Three rows in front of me, there was a child that projectile vomited all over the wall of the airplane. The fat guy sitting in front of me said it best when he said, "God, it fucking stinks." That about summed it up.

Labels: air travel, golf, Tampa

Some quick thoughts:

- If you're not watching The Winner yet, I hope you have a damn good reason (like being arrested for mail fraud).

- My cousin told me over the weekend that Howard Stern is imploring his listeners to ruin American Idol by voting for the worst singer on the program over and over. Now I suppose legions of retarded 22-year olds are calling to vote for Sanjaya, who gets eviscerated by the judges weekly. Has Stern completely lost his edge or what? He hasn't been listenable in like 7 years (and that's being generous), and he's nowhere near the genius that he was when I was listening to him on the local drive time on 660/WNBC all those years ago. Radio's been somewhat homogenized by a lot of things, but proliferation of syndicated radio programming has taken away all the local flavor, to the point now where Jack FM doesn't even have DJs. I'm going to start a bring back WDRE/WLIR website.

- New York Rangers. Playoffs. That is all.

- I had to miss the Shins concert this week, due to a death in my wife's family, which was a bummer on both counts. My brother and sister were there and said that the show was OK, but also a largely uninspired performance by the band. This information was disappointing. I'm going to have to find a boot of this concert online, so I can listen and review.

- The golf season begins this week. I'm flying down to Tampa to play a few rounds with some buddies. Mons Venus, here I come!

Labels: American Idol, golf, Mons Venus, New York Rangers, The Shins, The Winner

Richard Jeni shot himself in the face last night.

In other news, Margaret Cho is still performing.

Labels: Richard Jeni, stand-up comedy

Who doesn't love The Daily Show? I think one of the true marks of the show's brilliance is how successful its supporting cast has become based off of their work as "Senior Correspondents" on the show.

Steve Carell's got The Office, which remains one of the top two or three shows on television right now, and a ton of big screen roles to his credit as well.

Stephen Colbert hosts The Colbert Report every night right after TDS.

Let's add Rob Corddry to this list. His new Fox show, The Winner, is absolutely hysterical. The plot is ridiculous. It's about Glen Abbott, the richest guy in Buffalo, who was a late bloomer, not really coming out of his shell until 1994, when he was 32. His growth is spurred on by the return of his high school crush (the only girl he's ever kissed). He becomes best friends with her 11-year old son, Josh, who resides at the same emotional maturity level. The show's driving theme is Josh and Glen's attempts to grow up, which is almsot solely defined by their quest to score chicks.

It's got a great supporting cast, including Lenny Clarke as his father, the stripper from Tin Cup as his mother, and the neighbor's son is brilliant. This has made its way to my DVR.

Labels: Rob Corddry, The Winner, TV

First things first, Ryan Hollweg is lucky to be alive.

When Chris Simon took his stick and swung it like a baseball bat at Ryan Hollweg and Hollweg hit the ice, I was pretty sure his career was over, or at the very least his seasoin. He lay there motionless for a couple of minutes, while the Rangers trainer Jim "Rammer" Ramsey attended to him. But he was fine. A couple of stitches to the chin and he's probably ready to go for Saturday's game in Pittsburgh.

But if he got hit a couple of inches lower and the stick broke his windpipe, he'd be dead. And if it was a little higher, he'd have lost an eye or had serious head damage. As it turns out, Hollweg lost all of his 2002-3 season in juniors because of a head injury (something I didn't know until I read E.J. Hradek's column on ESPN.com today [Insider access required]), and this really could have cost him his career, but also the quality of the rest of his life.

The hit was bad. If you haven't seen it, click this link. Simon's been a goon his entire career, so it's not surprising that he'd follow Hollweg's clean check with a stick chop to Hollweg's face. Simon's been suspended five times before, four time for excessive violence and once for allegedly calling a half black player a "nigger." He's a class act.

But I think the classiest part of the whole thing is the Nassau Coliseum's reaction to the hit as Simon was being escorted off the ice. They were applauding! Cheering Simon for his vicious, dirty attack. Islanders fans have always been a pretty classless group, but this was a new low. To see people cheering the injury of a fellow person just because they wear another sweater. It's horrible and by far the worst part of the whole incident.

Labels: hockey, Long Island, New York Rangers

I hate to keep dropping video clips in here, but it's important that everyone watches this.

Labels: Fred "Rerun" Berry, Scrubs, TV

If you grew up watching Family Ties as I did, you were probably as exicted as I was that Season 1 finally came out on DVD after almost two years of delays. By the way, it's as good as I remembered. Campy, yes, but it really scratches your nostalgia bone where it itches. I'd make another joke here, but I'm way too tired.

Also, if you're a hard leaning leftie, as I am, you'll also be interested to read this article from Slate today entitled, "Reagan's Favorite Sitcom: How Family Ties Spawned A Conservative Movement." It's an interesting piece about MIchael J. Fox's recent role as stem cell research savior vs. his former role as Alex P. Keaton, icon of the Young Republican movement. I won't spoil the article, but it's reasonably clear to anyone that watched the show that APK was no run of the mill Conservative.

Labels: Family Ties, TV

I was never that into Futurama when it was first on the air, but the two repeats a night on Adult Swim has really turned me into a big fan of the show. Just ask my wife, who is subjected to my horrible impression of Dr. Zoidberg from 10:30pm until we go to sleep.

Anyway, everyone who would care probably knows this already, but new episodes will be airing on Comedy Central in 2008. You should watch them, if only because the show deserves to keep running and Bender will make you wet yourself with delight.

Labels: Futurama, TV