Joe Thiesman is the winner of this installment of the increasingly prestigous award for lambasting Ricky Williams all because he smoked pot. Honestly, how many skeletons do you think that Joe Thiesman has hiding in his closet?
"I don't ever want to be mentioned in the same breath as Ricky Williams as a football player. He's a disgrace to the game. The man doesn't deserve to play football. He should go on with his life and treat his drug addictions or go do whatever he wants to do. He's been suspended from the National Football League on multiple occasions. Doesn't anybody have any class anywhere? For gosh sakes, let the kid go do what he wants to do. He doesn't want to play football," Theismann, who is part of ESPN's Monday Night Football announcing crew, said.
I also like the usage of the phrase, "For gosh sakes."
5.30.2006
5.29.2006
Sports Post Trifecta
I am pleased to relay to you that Ricky Williams, of Miami Dolphins fame, has signed with the Canadian Footbal League's Toronto Argonauts. In Canada not only do we have an unlegislated but practical decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana we also take in any player who has been suspended for marijuana use as our own!
5.28.2006
Oil Slick!
Last night, Edmonton became the first number 8 seed ever to advance to the Stanley Cup finals. Nice.
5.27.2006
Excitement
Both the NBA and NHL playoffs have been very exciting this season although, I admit, that I just follow the NHL during the playoffs and even then I don't watch any games but read about them and look over the box scores.
But the Oilers of Edmonton, a true Cinderella team, has got the Might Ducks of Anaheim in a precarious position. The Oilers could have closed it out two days ago at home but failed, tonight they will have to try to get the job done on the road. Exciting.
On the other coast you have a lesser Cinderellala, the Sabers of Buffalo, in a tied series against the Hurricane of Carolina.
I admit that what I like is that none of the colossal hockey machines - NJ, Ottawa, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Colorado etc. - have made it into the playoffs and instead you have four small market teams fighting it out.
The NBA is equally exciting to the point that I can't decide who I should support. The Dallas - Phoenix series with its run and gun style of play is very attractive almost like going to a great action movie that doesn't require a lot of thought.
On the other coast, the Miami - Detroit series is equally attractive but more like a thought provoking drama.
June will be a good sports month!
But the Oilers of Edmonton, a true Cinderella team, has got the Might Ducks of Anaheim in a precarious position. The Oilers could have closed it out two days ago at home but failed, tonight they will have to try to get the job done on the road. Exciting.
On the other coast you have a lesser Cinderellala, the Sabers of Buffalo, in a tied series against the Hurricane of Carolina.
I admit that what I like is that none of the colossal hockey machines - NJ, Ottawa, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Colorado etc. - have made it into the playoffs and instead you have four small market teams fighting it out.
The NBA is equally exciting to the point that I can't decide who I should support. The Dallas - Phoenix series with its run and gun style of play is very attractive almost like going to a great action movie that doesn't require a lot of thought.
On the other coast, the Miami - Detroit series is equally attractive but more like a thought provoking drama.
June will be a good sports month!
5.26.2006
8. People and Places by Richard Cobb
It has been a prolific month of reading for me so far but I fear that things will slow down with my next book. Richard Cobb is my favorite author, so much so that my dog bears his last name. This book is a compilation of short biographies of important historians and descriptions of some of his favorite places. It is written in classic Richard Cobb style and is very well worth reading.
5.21.2006
7. JPod by Douglas Coupland
The only book that I have read that is only ever so slightly worse than this one is Confederacy of Dunces which I was forced to put down without reading the whole thing.
This edition of Coupland's Generation X franchise is about a group of people working at a sports game software developer in Vancouver, a thinly veiled reference to Electronic Arts. The reason it is called jPod is that the last name of all five of the employees sitting in this particular pod of desks begins with J.
The main character in the book is Ethan, a nerdy C++ programer, whose father has given up his real job in a futile effort to land a speaking role in a movie, whose mother has a surprisingly high tech and productive home based grow operation and whose brother is a highly paid realtor catering to the Asian community. His four other pod mates are also programers and suffer from similarly unbelievable families. And, coincidentally, all of the jPod-ers families have large grow ops. The story, if you can call it that, is about Ethan's life at work, his interaction with his parents and with an ironically friendly Asian criminal who smuggles people and drugs to and from Hong Kong and China.
Now let me tell you why this book is so bad:
1. The author incorporates himself into the book, at first by strange third person references to himself and then as a character in the book. He begins by inserting a paragraph claiming that the idea for the show Melrsoe Place was stolen from his book Generation X and suggesting that the producers of the show should pay him or that he should sue them. He then inserts a dialog about how Douglas Coupland is so cool and cutting edge. He moves on by inserting himself as a character that Ethan meets on a flight to Shanghai and re-inserts himself by bumping into Ethan in rural Guangxho Province.
2. The book is 500 pages long but could easily be 300 pages long because the author has inserted about 200 pages of useless information into the book. For example, the jPod-ers are discussing Scrabble, one of them comes up with a list of the 900 possible three letter words that one can use in Scrabble and Coupland then spends the next 40 pages listing out the words. Or, the jPod-ers are having a conversation when one of them says that he has found a web site that shows pi to the millionth decimal place. Coupland spends the next 90 pages showing pi to the millionth digit.
3. It is a fundamentally badly researched and poorly put together book. There is no depth to the characters or their lives and what depth there is, is absolutely unbelievable.
All copies of this book should be incinerated and the author should be exiled from Vancouver, he gives the place a bad name.
This edition of Coupland's Generation X franchise is about a group of people working at a sports game software developer in Vancouver, a thinly veiled reference to Electronic Arts. The reason it is called jPod is that the last name of all five of the employees sitting in this particular pod of desks begins with J.
The main character in the book is Ethan, a nerdy C++ programer, whose father has given up his real job in a futile effort to land a speaking role in a movie, whose mother has a surprisingly high tech and productive home based grow operation and whose brother is a highly paid realtor catering to the Asian community. His four other pod mates are also programers and suffer from similarly unbelievable families. And, coincidentally, all of the jPod-ers families have large grow ops. The story, if you can call it that, is about Ethan's life at work, his interaction with his parents and with an ironically friendly Asian criminal who smuggles people and drugs to and from Hong Kong and China.
Now let me tell you why this book is so bad:
1. The author incorporates himself into the book, at first by strange third person references to himself and then as a character in the book. He begins by inserting a paragraph claiming that the idea for the show Melrsoe Place was stolen from his book Generation X and suggesting that the producers of the show should pay him or that he should sue them. He then inserts a dialog about how Douglas Coupland is so cool and cutting edge. He moves on by inserting himself as a character that Ethan meets on a flight to Shanghai and re-inserts himself by bumping into Ethan in rural Guangxho Province.
2. The book is 500 pages long but could easily be 300 pages long because the author has inserted about 200 pages of useless information into the book. For example, the jPod-ers are discussing Scrabble, one of them comes up with a list of the 900 possible three letter words that one can use in Scrabble and Coupland then spends the next 40 pages listing out the words. Or, the jPod-ers are having a conversation when one of them says that he has found a web site that shows pi to the millionth decimal place. Coupland spends the next 90 pages showing pi to the millionth digit.
3. It is a fundamentally badly researched and poorly put together book. There is no depth to the characters or their lives and what depth there is, is absolutely unbelievable.
All copies of this book should be incinerated and the author should be exiled from Vancouver, he gives the place a bad name.
5.15.2006
6. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
I had forgotten how cool Orwell's writing was. This is an excellent book that should be on everyone's must read list.
5. Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin
I got to this book because of a book review in the G&M and because of a post on the famous Mount Benson Report.
Ian Rankin tells the story of several race based crimes in Edinburgh through the eyes of DI Rebus and his colleagues. The story begins with four seemingly unrelated crimes whose arcs become intertwined because of the common people working on them and some of the common protagonists in the crimes.
It is a good detective story although I found that it could have been more suspensful.
Ian Rankin tells the story of several race based crimes in Edinburgh through the eyes of DI Rebus and his colleagues. The story begins with four seemingly unrelated crimes whose arcs become intertwined because of the common people working on them and some of the common protagonists in the crimes.
It is a good detective story although I found that it could have been more suspensful.
5.03.2006
4. State and Society in Iran by Homa Katouzian
This book presents a fascinating account of the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 and the coup d'etat of 1921 that brought the Pahlavi dynasty (subsequently deposed in 1979) to power.
The authour begins by making a compelling argument that to date Iranian history, politics and, most importantly, revolutions have been studied using western revolutionary models when in reality none of the models are truly applicable to Iran. He argues that Iranian society has long been based on arbitrary power which is a concept that has not applied to western states for at least two centuries. The author then describes a theory that is more applicable to the particular style of Iranian arbirary power.
The theory forms the basis of the rest of his analysis of the events between 1906 and 1921, although he focuses more on the period from 1991 to 1921. I found it to be a very interesting book but definitely not for the casual reader.
The authour begins by making a compelling argument that to date Iranian history, politics and, most importantly, revolutions have been studied using western revolutionary models when in reality none of the models are truly applicable to Iran. He argues that Iranian society has long been based on arbitrary power which is a concept that has not applied to western states for at least two centuries. The author then describes a theory that is more applicable to the particular style of Iranian arbirary power.
The theory forms the basis of the rest of his analysis of the events between 1906 and 1921, although he focuses more on the period from 1991 to 1921. I found it to be a very interesting book but definitely not for the casual reader.
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