Day: January 14, 2004

Fitting the weather, I make some references to that particular cold weather/climate sport on ice…

NY Times’ Sports section is sort of underestimated; once in awhile, it gets a weird story that’s quite something. Consider the quotation of the day and the link to the corresponding article, wherein one learns that NHL players aren’t into playing the stereotype of toothless hocky players (at least, not these days):

“When I would walk on the street, people would say to me, ‘You’ve got teeth!’”
– KEN DANEYKO, retired hockey player (NJ Devils)

Ah, yes, technology has made it possible to encourage hockey players to go for better tooth replacements; today’s ad world encourages them to want to preserve their handsome mugs for bigger bucks (not to mention avoid unnecessary pain).

The commercials for the movie “Miracle” – starring Kurt Russell as the coach of the Miracle on Ice USA Team of the Lake Placid Olympics – are fun looking. How does one make a disparate bunch of teenagers who play hockey in their various colleges and states and make them realize they are Team USA? Well, put them on ice and see what happens. Wonder if the movie is as good as its commercials.

This is a beautiful story. History and learning from its unforgiving mistakes is all too lacking in today’s society. See Fighting Hate, Across Cultures and Generations

Woo wee! This is cold stuff eh? NYC Weather report

Hurray, hurrah! About time some one important went to jail. Former Enron executives agree to plead guilty I think Elliott Spitzer is my Man of the Year. Spitzer’s the guy who’s looking out for the little guy cleaning up all the corporate disgrace. Corporate misdeeds run amok, just like our “MBA President”. Birds of a feather, flock together.

Marriage is good but uhhh … Bush Plans $1.5 Billion Drive for Promotion of Marriage ? According to the article, aimed to promote marriage in low-income couples? I don’t think that’s the problem here. How about using some of that money to invest into the US economy and education? Or, if truly targeted “to help couples develop interpersonal skills that sustain “healthy marriages.”, then make mandatory counseling. That will cut down on divorces. You get a lot more divorces when you get power couples like Howard Dean and Dr. Steinberg. Each one its own captain. Eventually, the partnership will be split in two and the kids get screwed. Everyone thinks that divorces can fix your mistakes and everything will go fine. No, it just makes it worse. If divorce is an option, then don’t get married. Period. There was a pointed satirical article about conservatives and marriage a couple of months ago. I am sorry I didn’t save it.

#Rant off

=YC

Andrea Strong, Food Critic

I don’t really know her, but she went to my law school, she writes well, and she loves food. What more needs to be said?

Soundtrack: Take Me Away (Wendy Ip, MP3 ). [Reviewers say Ip’s like Gwen Stefani singing Elvis Costello, and they’re right. She does everything: writes, composes, plays piano/keyboards and guitar. Bought her self-produced CD from the Union Square Virgin Megastore.]

Take me away from this small tired place
Take me away cause I need it
Show me the way, how can I find more space
How can I try to beat it

P– has spent several sessions over my apartment doing more than a gang of Queer Eyes could. She’s been doing her best to turn a pig’s sty into something resembling a liveable space: new tiles and shower curtains in the bathroom, a revamped kitchen, tons of stuff thrown out. Apparently, it’s too little, too late. The City of New York has come down like a stack of bricks on my (lack of) interior design.

There was a letter posted next to the mailboxes in the lobby. One of my neighbors was staring at it totally befuddled. “… This would allow the City to acquire the captioned property through a condemnation proceeding”. I know that is legal-ese for “the government is going to knock down the building and give it to some real estate developer”. Apparently, the entire block received the notice stating that it was in the path of the “Brooklyn Center Revitalization Plan”.

My landlord actually was kind of non-plussed about it. “Well, it will take years and dozens of hearings before that happens. Look at what they have been trying to do with the Brooklyn Bridge Park. It’s been 15 years and nothing’s happened. Besides, the person that wrote the letter just quit.” Actually, I’m putting my money on 12-15 months.

It’s probably a blessing in disguise: I’ve been thinking about buying property, but this is probably going to be the thing that gets me over my inertia. Maybe it’s borrowed time, but I’m still going to miss this place, though.