Thursday, April 29, 2010

Guinea Pig Wins $10,000

Buttons

Showing either that no skill is involved in picking a winning NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament bracket, or that he's one smart guinea pig, Buttons won $10,000 from this year's Yahoo! bracket contest, picking Duke over Butler in the final.

Congratulations you smelly, smelly furball.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Pettitte Threw A Knuckleball?

Andy Is Dandy

In an interview with Yahoo!'s Tim Brown, Jorge Posada reveals that Andy Pettitte was quite the accomplished knuckleballer:
"Andy Pettitte had a knuckleball when he started in the minor leagues. Nasty, too. That was his two-strike pitch in the minor leagues."

(Yes, Pettitte threw a knuckleball for one professional summer – 1991 – in rookie ball and Class-A Oneonta. Posada caught Pettitte in Oneonta. Or, tried. “When I got to two strikes, I was going to throw a knuckler as hard as I could,” Pettitte said. “I struck everybody out with it.” His coaches ordered him to scrap it. One of the coaches was Hoyt Wilhelm, a Hall of Fame knuckleballer. They promised him when he was in the major leagues for 10 years, he could start throwing it again. So? “I can’t,” Pettitte said. “I lost it.” As he recalled, he threw two to Posada. One hit him in the shin, the next in the foot. Posada took off his mitt and warned, “I’m not catching you again if you throw it.” Pettitte: “My nickname was ‘Knucksie.’ I’m not kidding.”)
Knucksie! They do say if it ain't broke, don't fix it, but who wouldn't want to see Pettitte go a little Wakefield on someone's ass? That would be sweet.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Thoughts On Last Night's Lost

Note: only for those who follow the best show in history, Lost.


-So Smokey was ghost Christian Shepherd on the island. Fake Locke/MIB helpfully reminds Jack that, posing as Christian, he led Jack to water back in Season 1. However, he kind of neglects to mention that time when, you know, he tried to lead Jack off a cliff to his death:

Locke, Real Locke, Saves Jack.
Locke, Real Locke, Saved Jack From Falling.

This is in keeping with what the MIB usually does. He saves your life and all, but not before endangering it in the first place. He's all like, "Remember that time I saved your life?" while at the same time he's all, "Hey, lets go look at this really cool well I found."

Clearly, the MIB/Smokey/Fake Locke only saves people when he needs them to do something for him. The question is... why does he save Jack from Widmore's missiles? Wouldn't he rather have Jack dead? Or is the MIB not being completely honest about everybody needing to leave the island? Maybe... he needs a replacement just like Jacob does.

One thing though. We saw ghost Christian off the island in Jack's flash forward. So... was that Smokey? How'd he get off the island? Or are there multiple entities capable of appearing as anyone?

-If Widmore can't kill Fake Locke, he's content with killing everybody else. My hunch is that Widmore knows Fake Locke can't be killed with conventional weapons. The missiles aimed at Fake Locke aren't designed to kill him. They're designed to kill his followers, who are necessary for him to leave the island. This could be why Widmore is so quick to order the executions of the Losties. If he can't kill the MIB, he can at least destroy his means of escape.

Of course, if Widmore was really concerned about only keeping Smokey on the island, he wouldn't have brought a submarine that could potentially be used as Smokey's escape, and he would have destroyed the Ajira jet episodes ago. Clearly, he has an interest in the island that is being thwarted by Smokey's presence. What could that interest be?

Remember, the first time we heard of the smoke monster, he was referred to as "the security system" for the island (by Rousseau and others). Perhaps Smokey is security of sorts, a being that will prevent Widmore from exploiting the island for its special properties.

-Desmond knows everything. This was clear in his ultra-creepy stalking of Claire. He brought her exactly where she needed to be in the sideways world, the law offices of Ilana Radzinsky, otherwise known as "Blown To Pieces By Dynamite Last Episode". There she met Jack, her half brother. It got me thinking about the connections in Lost that we all found so important in the first few seasons. We now know for sure that it wasn't a coincidence that Sawyer met Jack's father, or that Jack's father met Ana Lucia, or that Sayid was on the TV when Kate visited her father, etc, etc. This was the island's doing. Perhaps the "reality" we saw for the first few seasons of Lost was really the sideways world, a world messed up by Widmore, by the Dharma Initiative, by whoever else. Maybe Jacob's touches, or pushes, were attempts early on to correct the timeline. Maybe Desmond, who seems to have taken over Jacob's role, is trying to do the same.

And who thinks Sayid didn't kill Desmond? Hopefully everybody. You should know Lost by now. No dead body = not dead.

That's all I got, for now. I thought it was a pretty awesome episode. Really fast paced, a lot happened, and I didn't feel cheated when the episode was over.

I am however, irate that next week is a repeat. I need more, NOW.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Ok, Now Even Cats Are Getting Into The iPad

This is getting serious. The iPad, which I officially was not thrilled by when Steve Jobs first announced it, is quickly becoming beloved by its users. Apple looks to have another hit on its hands. Why, even cats can't wait to get their paws on it:



That is just cute.

This kind of stuff is winning me over a lot more than those awkward sitting-with-it-on-your-lap advertisements. Who reclines in that manner, legs up? Just uncomfortable.
Jon Stewart Calls Out Fox News

He's done this before, but this really made me laugh. Wake me when Fox news actually breaks a legitimate story.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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