Financing the Olympic Dream

Watching the Olympics these past two weeks has made me wonder how do these athletes do it? How do they afford to keep training and competing on basically no income.
Julia Mancuso, gold medalist in the giant slalom had help from her father.
"He came over when I was struggling a couple of years ago, arranged to get a car and a trainer in Austria, and also with an apartment," Mancuso said. "It's been really great to have that kind of support."
But that wasn't until he served five years in jail for what authorities said was his role in operating a $120 million marijuana distribution ring.
He was able to keep most of his assets in the plea bargain, and also has his hand in some real estate development business.
Maybe now those T-shirts and sweatshirts Mancuso brought to Italy will sell a little better. The 20 pair of "Super Jules" underwear she brought "might be the biggest sellers," she said.
In case you don't remember Mancuso, she skied some early races with no helmet just a tiara. Picabo Street ripped her, calling her immature and said "lose the tiara."
With her gold medal run, Mancuso said "up yours Picabo" and "thanks dad" and "thanks potheads, couldn't have done it without you."

Hey Ladies, He's Single

Apparently John Rocker is looking for love on the internet. The former redneck closer for the Atlanta Braves has a profile posted on match.com. There's no way to be certain that this is really him and not an impostor but we'll run with it nonetheless.
BullpenJohn is ready for a committed relationship and he wants kids, "definitely." He hopes to find someone who will is willing to focus on motherhood. He is more mature now than he used to be. He's trying to quit smoking; his interests include museums and art; his best feature is his calves and his turn-ons include erotica. I think that means porn.

Damn Vandals

NCAA INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS HONORED
The members of the 1985, 1996 and 2001 Ohio State NCCA Championship teams will be recognized for their contributions to the Ohio State men's gymnastics program at the meet against Penn State.
Daren Lynch won the national championship in Vault in 2001.
Pizza Parlor Derek says this became necessary after their trophies were vandalized.
Unfortunately Daren didn't give enough advance notice so a trip to Columbus for the occassion was not possible. There are still plans to visit Daren and the Waffle House in Columbus for a football game in the fall.

Now It Can Be Told

After several references to it in the past few weeks I think I should explain the incident between Pizza Parlor Derek's mother and me.
Back in 1998 we stopped at PP Derek's house on the way to Wrestlemania in Boston.
When we got there his mom was watching figure skating on TV. Rudy Galindo was skating to a medley of The Village People's greatest hits and mincing around like a nancy boy on the ice. I commented that it was funny that he was doing this because he is gay. Derek's mom said "no, they just showed his wife, he's not gay." I said "I just read an article about him and he's gay and he has a partner and a lot of his friends died of AIDS." She insisted one more time, and so did I.
Over the years the story became a microcosm of everything that's wrong with me (I'm obnoxious, I always have to be right, I insult people and I have no couth). That couth thing came right from Josh.
Years later the truth came out and Derek's mom admitted to having gotten Galindo confused with Paul Wylie. Ever since then I have brought this up during any discussion of homosexuality. And that went on to serve as a microcosm for how I never let jokes die and I like to beat dead horses. But that's another matter. I hope you enjoyed the story.

Billionth Download

Some kid downloaded "Speed of Sound" by Coldplay from iTunes.
He did not know it, but it was the billionth song the site had sold.
So at 12:45 a.m., his phone rang. It was an Apple employee, telling him that in addition to the song, Apple was giving him a 20-inch iMac, 10 iPods and a $10,000 gift card for the iTunes store. It is even establishing a scholarship at the Juilliard School in his name.

Tightass School Censors Student Newspaper

Some Noblesville (Indiana) High School students say they are being censored after the superintendent of Noblesville schools decided that the school paper will not be allowed to run a controversial article on oral sex.
"I think it's well written and in context, I don't think that this subject would offend people," said Jill Gingery, the paper's editor-in-chief.
"It's nothing that we're not going to learn anyway or nothing that we don't know," said student Yury Diaz.

That's a great defense. These sluts are going to blow us anyway, we should let them learn how to do it right.

Weir Going Shopping

Washington Post goes on a shopping spree with Johnny Weir.

Highlights:
He calls the Louis Vuitton store Louie, and he's been there six or seven times in two weeks.
He spend $1330 in two hours on Monday.
He buys children's sizes at Lacoste.
While in Italy he bought: five pairs of shoes, a pair of rabbit fur hand warmers, a Dolce and Gabana sweatshirt (Sex trainer: best to practive seven days a week) and a $715 sable scarf (he got it for $415).
His favorite item of clothing is a Roberto Cavalli beaver-and-python coat.
He loves US Weekly and is reading Nicole Richie's book.
He is "a little Jewish" because in a past life he was a little Jewish girl in Poland during WWII.
He has 103 pairs of sunglasses, 45 by Dior. He polishes them.
His closet is organized by designer then color.

Do You Believe in Miracles?

Thanks to a great draw to the button by skip Pete Fenson in the 10th end, the U.S. Curling team took the bronze medal with an 8-6 victory over Great Britain. A great tournament for them. I hope this serves to bring the great sport of curling to the American sporting public.

Poor Ben Agosto

It has long been my contention that Ben Agosto kept Tanith Belbin has his ice dancing partner even at the risk of his Olympic dream (she was not an American citizen) because he wanted to get in her pants. I felt it was one of those deals where he's in love with her but they're just friends. She complains to him about her boyfriend and it eats him up inside. What a kick in the pants it was when she referred to him as her best friend on national TV. Turns out Tanith has been in a long term relationship with Canadian figure skater Fedor Andreev (the son of one of Belbin and Agosto’s coaches, Marina Zoueva).

J-Mac is Better Than G-Mac

It was the stuff of Hollywood, but it was real.
Senior Jason McElwain had been the manager of the varsity basketball team of Greece Athena High School in Rochester, N.Y.
McElwain, who's autistic, was added to the roster by coach Jim Johnson so he could be given a jersey and get to sit on the bench in the team's last game of the year.
Johnson hoped the situation would even enable him to get McElwain onto the floor a little playing time.
He got the chance, with Greece Athena up by double-digits with four minutes go to.
And, in his first action of the year, McElwain missed his first two shots, but then sank six three-pointers and another shot, for a total of 20 points in three minutes.
"My first shot was an air ball, by a lot, then I missed a lay-up," McElwain recalls. "As the first shot went in, and then the second shot, as soon as that went in, I just started to catch fire."
"I've had a lot of thrills in coaching," Johnson says. "I've coached a lot of wonderful kids. But I've never experienced such a thrill."
The crowd went wild, and his teammates carried the excited McElwain off the court.
"I felt like a celebrity!" he beamed.
McElwain's mother sees it as a milestone for her son.
"This is the first moment Jason has ever succeeded (and could be) proud of himself," reflects Debbie McElwain. "I look at autism as the Berlin Wall, and he cracked it."
His teammates couldn't be happier.
"He's a cool kid," says guard Levar Goff. "You just get to know him, get used to being around him. A couple of weeks ago, he missed practice because he was sick. You feel different when he's not around. He brings humor and life to the team."
Jason's next goal: to graduate.

Hottest American Idol Contestant Ever

Becky O'Donohue has my vote for American Idol. I hope Kate and I get her in the pool. Her and her hot twin sister, Jessie (who couldn't audition due to throat surgery) once posed in Maxim, as models for a baseball story. They've also been on Fear Factor. Usually, prepubescent girls find some dorky guy (justin, clay, constantine) to vote for. Do you think dorky pimply faced boys will spend their time texting in votes for this hottie? Good thing this wasn't too embarrassing for them. But remember when someone takes photos of you for a magazine, they own those pictures, forever. So if Justin every becomes famous those pictures he took for "Hairy Chests" will surely get published.

Olympic Lookalikes

Face of a Choker?

Sasha Cohen (no relation to Brian) skates for Olympic gold tonight. But I have a bad feeling she is going to choke. In her career she has never been able to be at her best when the pressure was at its highest. And I know she is technically in the lead right now but the difference is so miniscule she's going to need to win the long program in order to even finish in the top 2. I bet she screws up and takes home bronze. Some athletes summon their best under pressure, others consistently fail. I hope we don't see Sasha making the Peyton Manning face tonight.

Expensive Air Jordans

Michael Jordan is trying to raise money from Hurricane Katrina victims. He is selling all 21 Air Jordans, autographed with a starting bid of $425,000.
There's also a couple other cool things.

1836 86ed

The idiots at MLS have decided the nickname 1836 for the new Houston franchise (formerly the San Jose Earthquakes) isn't such a great idea after all. Not becausae the name is downright ridiculous, but because the Mexican-Americans were upset. Apparently that year brings to mind some bad memories of war, and the killing of Mexicans at the Alamo.

Larry Doesn't Look Pleased

Don't Fuck With Tiger

The golf match play championship tournament is going on right now. In case you don't understand match play scoring in golf here's how it works. Instead of competing against everyone, you go against one guy, and you only count which guy gets a better score on each hole. Total strokes don't matter, and there are usually a lot of halved holes.
So Tiger is playing some joker named Stephen Ames. Before the match, Ames says: "Anything can happen. Especially where he's hitting the ball."
Bad idea.
Tiger birdied the first 6 holes, he won the first 9 holes, then halved the 10th to clinch the victory at the earliest possible time.
The post match press conference:
He was asked he had seen what Ames said.
"Yes."
Did it motivate him?
"Yes."
Asked if he cared to elaborate, Woods smiled.
"No."
Asked about his reaction to Ames' comments in a press conference, Woods said, "Nine and eight."
Meaning, 9 holes up with 8 to go, eliminating him the fastest way possible, which is exactly what he did.

Is This Real? If so, Are They Real?

This picture has been making its way around the blogs and message boards. An Iowa student posing for a picture with ESPN hottie sideline reporter Erin Andrews. I suppose it could be a photoshop job but it looks pretty damn good to me. Will effort confirmation. And we'll await Justin's comments on its authenticity.




While we're talking about Erin Andrews we should mention her interview with G-Mac before Saturday's game against Louisville. She's sitting on a couch, one leg tucked under leaning towards him. Gerry (clearly terrified that his girlfriend will see this) is sitting as far away as possible. She asks Gerry what's in his iPod and then in her best sorority girl whine says "I want you to sing it." Then she said she loved the Pussycat Dolls and started singing "doncha wish your girlfriend was hot like me. doncha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me."
"Ok, so that part I made up but she did ask him which he prefers, The OC or Laguna Beach (he said OC). Then he couldn't think of his favorite episode of Saved By The Bell so she threw out the Jesse pills episode. But they didn't say "there's no time, there's never any time" or "i'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so...scared."

Devastating Loss

Horrible loss for Pete Fenson and the U.S. Curling team. After a great run the team choked under the pressure against Canada in the semifinal. Shawn Rojeski had been the top-ranked third throughout the tournament. He literally missed half his shots in this match. While Canada's third was on fire. The U.S. couldn't get the early lead and spent the rest of the match playing catch-up. The final score (11-5) was not indicative of how close a game it really was. The U.S. went for broke in the 9th end and gave up 5 points. But even had they given up 1, a loss is a loss. Fenson played a great game early, keeping the team in it with some incredible draws. He was like a pitcher who three innings in a row is faced with the bases loaded and none out due to bad defense. But each time he emerged unscathed. But eventually Rojeski wasted a couple rocks and they couldn't mount the offense to come back. Unfortunate also because Rojeski had been so great the whole time and Friday is the second anniversary of his mother's death (he was looking forward to comemorating it with a gold medal. Instead they'll have to pick up the pieces and try to be Great Britain (again) for the bronze. It would be horribly disappointing if they lost again, they played so great against such minimal expectations that I really hope they can come away with a medal.

Another Horrible Knicks Trade

Knicks get Steve Francis from Orlando for Trevor Ariza and Penny Hardaway. Why? I can't envision any circumstance in which Francis will help this team to the playoffs. Or that any team will ever want him from us. This is just horrible. Couldn't we have done something better with the valuable expiring contracts of Antonio Davis and Steve Francis? Marbury, Crawford, Francis, Rose -- shooting guards who don't play defense. This team is going to be horrible forever. Or for at least 5 years after they finally wise up and fire Isiah.