I Do Need Some New Kicks

I usually buy a pair of sneakers, wear them into submission and then get a new pair, just like the old pair. But now I am going to go out and buy something completely different, completely out of character, just because they are so damn cool. Introducing the Nike Weatherman.

Breaking Bad: "Confessions"

Finally, a real "Breaking Bad" type episode. If the first episode was a C+, and the previous one was a B+, this was definitely an A+.

Let's start at the end, with the most dramatic action yet this season. It was a little confusing and I needed a little refresher before I fully comprehended it, and even so it's a big leap of cognition for Jesse, but here's my understanding. Jesse had a joint in his cigarette pack and when it was missing he realized Saul had Huell (aka the huge black guy) picked his pocket. His mind immediately ran to the ricin which was in his cigarette pack and had been removed. If that was also done by Huell/Saul/Walt then it was done to frame Gus for poisoning Brock, which means it was actually done by Walt. Quite a revelation to make while standing on the street corner waiting to enter the Criminal Protection Program, but as best as I can figure, that's what happened.

After that Jessie barges into Walt's house with gasoline. Now the scene we've already seen, the flash-forward as it were, doesn't seem to show Walt's house being in charred ruins, so obviously something is going to happen before Jessie strikes the match. I have a hunch Walt will once again manipulate him. I don't think he will kill him with the frozen gun.

As for the other big twist in the episode, brilliant move by Walt making that DVD.

It does just enough to slow Hank down. Now if you really thought about it, there's too many holes in the story for people to seriously believe Hank was the mastermind. But, it's enough to give him pause. And the fact that Hank is and has already sat on evidence and not presented it, and that he (inadvertently) accepted drug money to pay his medical bills, would make him look even worse. This brings me back to my original suspicion that this season would be a cat-and-mouse game between Walt and Hank.

There's also this pesky storyline about Todd and Lydia that won't go away. Todd calls Walt to give him the latest. But he also speaks way too openly about the details and the real names of Walt and Jesse.

There was also a tarantula walking by at one point. What the hell could that mean? Another juvenile death?

Five episodes to go and I can't wait.

My Charmed Life Continues

Thanks to an amazing friend with great connections, I managed to have another awesome sports experience in the incredibly charmed life I am lucky enough to lead.
This time I found myself standing behind home plate at CitiField, just taking in the sights, for the hour or so before the August 25 game against the Tigers.

Instead of going through the regular gates, we went in a special gate, and walked under the stadium to the field entrance. And we ran into this lovely couple in the hallway.

We spent a lot of time talking to LaTroy Hawkins before the game.

Someone even snapped this picture and posted it on twitter.

I'm pretty sure that is my nose in the far right of that picture, but Mrs. Poop says it's not big enough to be mine.

LaTroy was a great guy (though not a great pitcher on this day) and had a lot of fun joking around with us. I asked him about getting hit in the nuts.



He said no one in the majors wears a cup. It's too uncomfortable to do the normal windup with a cup between your legs. He did admit though "my dick hurt. My right nut hurt for a week." At some point during this conversation a young girl sidled up near us, waiting for an autograph, I hope she didn't hear most of it.

We asked him about facing his best friend, Torii Hunter (they broke in together with the Twins in 1993), and he said he faced him twice and got him out both times.
The third time was a charm for Hunter whose hit was part of a 7-run 9th inning that game the Tigers an 11-3 win.

But I did get to see Travis D'Arnaud's first major league home run.

I stood a few feet from Jim Leyland.

I saw a weak swing from Ike Davis.

Here was the view from our seats a few rows back of the Tigers dugout. I was close enough to tell Miguel Cabrera that I still prefer Mike Trout.

Here's my view from home plate, unfortunately because it was a Sunday in August after an evening game, neither team took batting practice. The Tigers didn't even come out to warm up, most players didn't emerge from the clubhouse until 15 minutes before first pitch.

I am a little disappointed that when I was standing on the field there wasn't enough activity. An awesome experience would have been legend -- wait for it - dary! had it occurred on a day of normal on-field pregame activities.

How lucky am I that I can even say such a thing!

Song of the Week

"Got to Give It Up" - Marvin Gaye
This song was clearly the inspiration to Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines." I didn't think anyone disputed that. I also didn't think anything of it because as long as you don't copy an original work, or blatantly use part of it, you're ok on copyright grounds. And it doesn't sound that much like it. But apparently Thicke was worried because he went to court to preemptively strike at potential lawsuits. Which supposedly pissed off Marvin Gaye's family, which may now sue Thicke.

What Do You Give Me For? Prince Fielder and This Prince Fielder Fan

When I was at the Mets-Tigers game I saw a guy who clearly likes Prince Fielder a little too much. Obviously this guy was trying for this look and I think he would have to score pretty high on this scale.

Note: I know PTI did this, but I swear I had spotted this guy, pointed him out, took his picture with my blackberry and planned this post in my mind before I saw, or anyone saw, PTI.

Send Him To Belize

The opportunists at the Belize tourism board took advantage of a clever euphemism in "Breaking Bad" ("send him to Belize" means kill him) and turned it into a funny promotion for their cause. The author of this ad's copy seems to be a shrewd and observant fan of the best show ever, making sly references to Marie's purple predilection and Flynn's love of real pork bacon.

Why We Watch "Hard Knocks"

In the summer of 2001, a brand new show debuted on HBO, "Hard Knocks", taking us inside training camp with the Baltimore Ravens. In that episode Todd Heap swept his new bride Ashley Heap off her feet. And she did the same to us.

The show is now in its 8th season and we've seen plenty of other hot WAGs like Kelli Croyle, Lauren Tannehill (and the chick sitting to next to her) and October Gonzalez.

But we have never seen anything like Chloe Call, Giovani Bernard's girlfriend. She was referenced by name in the first episode when it was revealed that Bernard was driving her mom's minivan. But it wasn't until the third episode that we actually saw her, and twitter went crazy. Beyond the obvious "wow" and "hottttt" there were also tweets to the effect of "who cares if he gets cut, Giovani Bernard won at life."

You can see why.

Another Ancient Artifact Uncovered

Thanks to Billy I searched the Daily Orange archives for my famous letter to the editor about Greek life. I read the DO religiously during my four years, and every semester around rush time there would be a cartoon that was some variation on this theme: fraternities and sororities only want good-looking members.
For example: one year the cartoon showed three sorority houses, the first two had signs saying "Rush [greek letters]" and the sign on the third house said "No Fat Chicks!"
In response some uptight sorority member would write a letter saying how sororities and fraternities are concerned with their pledges' personalities and generous spirits, and a reminding us how charitable the Greek community is.
And it would go back and forth and on and on. Until one day, a lone voiced silenced that debate forever:

Ready for the World

Chase turns 6 today. This has been a monumental year for him. He has learned how to read, how to ride a bike (that technically came when he was still 4) and how to swim. He played soccer (and scored a goal) and t-ball. He went to his first (and second) Mets game, and his first Knicks game. He went to kindergarten and in just a couple weeks he'll start first grade.
Every day he goes over to his friend's house to play. He gets himself dressed in the morning, he feeds himself dinner and he wipes his own ass.
He's becoming independent, which is great for him, but he still needs his mommy and daddy, which is great for us.
At the NJ State Fair earlier this year we bought both kids an unlimited ride bracelet and let them just go nuts. At a certain point we split up so Chase could go on some rides that Julian wasn't big enough to ride yet. One of them was a roller coaster that most adults would consider tame, but it was definitely daunting to a 5-year old. Chase was a little nervous but begged to go on it, loved it and rode it again, and again and again.
They had one of those cameras to take your picture on the coaster, but we never buy them because they're never any good. But this one we bought.
If a picture is meant to be a moment in time captured, to help you remember what you were doing, how you felt and who you were in that instant, then this one was certainly worth $10.
There's Chase at the front of the roller coaster, hands up, bravely ready to grab what comes next. There's Chase, eyes closed, a little afraid of what he might see when he gets there.

Song of the Week

"Landslide" - Fleetwood Mac
"Well, I've been afraid of changing
Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
I'm getting older too"

Breaking Bad: "Buried"

So now we have a little more to sink our teeth into. Skylar stands by her man and Marie stands by hers.

This presents a very interesting conflict, because I kind of think this takes killing Hank off the table. It will be harder to get away with killing Hank if Walt would have to kill Marie too, and Skyler would have to go along with it.

I don't want to spend every second of every episode, and all the seconds in between obsessing about how it's going to end, especially because I have a strong suspicion that everything leading up to the finale will make us believe one thing, and the ending will be something completely different.

But I am speculating about what will happen to Jesse. Despite being two pivotal scenes, Jesse did not have a speaking part in this week's episode. I think all this boredom, apathy, and perhaps loss of millions will lead Jesse to start cooking again with Lydia.

Otherwise that scene with Todd doesn't make sense. Why would there even be a storyline involving Lydia and Todd if it didn't eventually bring back Walt and or Jesse?

I loved her red-soled shoes though. Was it foreshaowing the bloodshed? Were they trying to depict how much money she's making? Did the gay costume designers just want to buy fancy shoes?

Lots of unanswered questions remain. Like, in what lottery can you play number 106?

I read that those coordinates are the exact coordinates of the studio where the show is filmed. And apparently the spot where he buried the money is the original cooksite from episode 1 of the series.

And if he buried 6 huge barrels in the hole, wouldn't there be 6 barrelfuls of extra dirt to disperse somewhere?

I'm pretty sure these aren't the important questions, but I really have no idea when or how Walt is going to get outed as Heisenberg, or what he is going to do with that ricin, so I'll ponder these trivialities until next Sunday.

I Wrote This Post on August 17, 2012

Today is Yu Darvish's birthday. I wish I were at his party to sing to him:

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to Yu,
Happy birthday to you.

Breaking Bad: "Blood Money"

Since this is the final season of Breaking Bad and I love it so much, and after the episodes are over I’m still thinking about them, I will try to write a brief synopsis of each. I won’t post them right away, hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday each week, but if you’re a slowpoke, or haven’t started watching at all, but plan to catch up, please skip these posts.

This episode was like a first round draft pick, you can’t just judge it based on what it is, you have to wait until to see what it becomes. If we were just looking at it and judging it based on the entertainment value during those 60 minutes, it would grade poorly. It was slow and boring and only in the last 5 minutes did we get any serious action.

BUT…we have to wait to see what happens for the rest of the season to see what kind of groundwork was laid in this episode.

For instance, the opening scene where the neighbor sees him and drops the groceries (juxtaposed with the later/earlier scene when she says hi) foreshadows that the whole world knows about him, and he’s obviously on the lam (building on what we learned last year).

Also, the inane conversation between Badger and Skinny Pete about Star Trek might pay off, if it was meant to show Jesse’s boredom with his “good” life; and to portend him “breaking bad” again.

I clearly think that is what was going on with Walt. There is no way he can get the kind of rush and feeling of power from rearranging the air fresheners (how could pine be the best seller?), that he gets from cooking meth. And that is why Lydia came to the car wash, to appeal to the same side of Walt that had to speak up when Hank thought Gale was Heisenberg.

As for the dramatic final scene, I have long thought that the final season would be a cat and mouse game between Hank and Walt. Because it now seems so obvious, I’m starting to rethink it. I think Walt may kill Hank, and go back to cooking meth, before he has to go on the run.

But then who is the ricin for?

6 million people watched this episode, which I think is pretty great considering Big Brother on CBS is only doing slightly better than that. But then I see that Rizzoli & Isles on TNT was viewed by 5.5 million, so I don’t understand anything at all.

Have an A-1 day!

Song of the Week

"Closer" - Tegan & Sara
Tegan and Sara are my favorite identical twin lesbians since Mary Kate and Ashley.

Ancient Artifact Found

While cleaning out my drawer I discovered this picture, drawn by AK, 17 years ago, as BC, TON and I were about to go off to college.

Click here for Vin Juice bonus

Poppy's Favorite Team

Poppy has been known to frequent New Britain Rock Cats game, but unfortunately he wasn't there Friday night to witness this between innings marriage proposal.



Apparently, people actually believed that was an authentic, genuine marriage proposal and it went viral on the internet. Now the team is confirming what all people with functioning bullshit detectors, immediately knew, the proposal was a fake. It was completely staged by the team's marketing department. And they are not apologizing for it, they're saying it worked great.

Song of the Week

"Same Love" - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Mary Lambert
What can I say, I like hip-hop with a positive message.
This song about gay rights was actually released last year but only got significant publicity after the duo's singles "Thrift Shop" and "Can't Hold Us" made it big.
I don't like the political finger-pointing but everything else is pretty much on point.

Eating Your Own Cooking

Beofre the 2008 season, the Yankees signed Alex Rodriguez to a 10-year, $275M contract. After this season the Yankees will still owe A-Rod $86M over 4 years, with the (increasingly unlikely) potential for another $30M in performance bonuses for hitting certain historical Home Run milestones. But the Yankees may be thrown a lifeline by Major League Baseball which wanted to ban A-Rod for life for his involvement in the BioGenesis scandal. But now MLB wants him to accept a ban for the rest of this season and all of next. We don't know exactly what evidence MLB has against A-Rod, but no matter what it is, a lifetime ban would be so far above the punishment for other recidivists (Braun, Colon, Manny Ramirez) there seems to be more at play here than just wanting to punish a cheater. If the Yankees are freed from the liability of paying A-Rod, not only would it clear up $86M on their books it would get them under a certain luxury tax threshold which would prevent them from paying an extra 40% on the overage. That would be a huge advantage for the Yankees and the worst bailout since the financial crisis. If the league does decide to take this extraordinary step of banning A-Rod, and the Yankees don't have to pay his contract, his salary should still count against their luxury tax number. I can't believe the clubs' revenue sharing agreement doesn't include a stipulation to this regard. It seems like the mostly likely outcome here is for A-Rod to miss the rest of this year and all of 2014, which would still keep the final four years of his contract on the Yankees books, which I'm ok with, though I still thing salaries of suspended players should count against their teams for revenue sharing purposes. If not, it's almost an incentive to sign cheaters, because if they get caught you don't have to suffer any consequences. With these new suspensions and new enforcement methods, I think this is something MLB definitely needs to consider.

Near-Death Experiences

Most of my posts about the Universe involve insignificant incidents like the Universe bringing me the Mr. Belvedere theme, or a silly hat or candy or Mark Feinsand, but this is a little more serious.
On Monday I was completely unharmed by two experiences that could have ended really badly.
On the way to work a slow car was holding up traffic in the left lane. I later passed this car and saw the driver to be an Asian woman (double whammy). It is always my contention that slow drivers cause more accidents than fast ones. This driver was going so slowly in the left lane that the center lane was full of people zipping past (though not at an excessive rate of speed). This left me and the two drivers in front of me frustrated, because we were essentially trapped behind Yoko Ono is a Prius. Eventually we came up on accident scene where traffic was slowed. The unsure, nervous driver in the Prius must have jammed on her brakes, and the two frustrated drivers in front of me jammed theirs as well. But they were driving too close and collided with each other (though not with the Prius). I jammed my brakes as hard as I ever have. Tires squealed, everything on the seats went flying off, kids books and stuff from the back came to the front, I was shot forward too, until my seatbelt locked. But luckily, and very narrowly, I avoided being part of the accident. I noticed a piece of someone's bumper in the road, and the two cars pulling off to the shoulder. Later that day, while doing my late night Paul-ates, the walking cool-down lap, I heard a crack and a crash. It wasn't windy at all, but it sounded like a tree branch being broken. I stopped and looked around but it was too dark to see. Then I walked about 5 more feet and saw this.

Had I been walking just a little bit faster I might have been under that branch when it fell.

This is what it looked like the next morning:

I'm not saying it would have crushed my skull or that I would have died in the car accident had there been one, but no one wants to be whacked in the head by a falling branch or involved in even a minor fender-bender.

And I'm perfectly happy to give the credit for these near-misses to the mysterious power that watches over me.

Song of the Week

"Like Glue" - Sean Paul
This is my pick for 2003 because Sean Paul was the first reggaeton artist to bring the genre to major popularity in the U.S. Also, a couple of other great choices from this year have already been SOTW.