Ladies and gentlemen, just in time for Turkey Day I present my 5th annual "thanks/no thanks" list. Like the previous four editions of this list, I keep the context to a bare-bones minimum; it's merely an acknowledgment of all the things that have been in my peripheral in the past year. While I'm grateful for my friends and family, this list tends to focus on the intangibles in my life. It's my way to letting you know me better, one ambiguous morsel at a time.
THANKS: The stupifyingly easy Yahoo! daily crossword, the continued brilliance of The Onion, my DVR, NBC's Thursday night comedy lineup, the fact that I'm still employed, hockey's newfound relevance in Chicago, Zach Greinke, and all my new friends and classmates at Second City.
NO THANKS: Another Yankees World Championship, Glenn Beck, the coldest summer in recent memory, anything involving Nadya Suleman and the Gosselins, old friends that never check their e-mail, still living at home, writer's block, and the system errors and various other maladies that plague this otherwise wonderful web site.
Other notes:
+ NBC is about to be gobbled up by Comcast. Is this what broadcast television is being reduced to? This is almost as sad as it is symbolic of how much mass media has evolved (mutated?) in the past few decades.
+ Let me reemphasize the fact that the Bears' woes are not Jay Cutler's fault. The players won't listen to the coaches, the secondary is middling, there's no running game, and our defense is too small and too old. When I alluded to Jay's prima donna attitude before the season started, I was half-kidding. The best player on this team right now is Robbie Gould, can we all agree on that?
+ Detained terrorists in Illinois? The prospect of having them in my home state is a little off-putting, though tiny Thomson is inexplicably welcoming the idea with open arms. In all honestly, I'm on the fence; if it creates jobs for this dying Mississippi River town, so be it. Besides, isn't driving 150 miles on I-88 a punishment in itself?
+ Speaking of hockey, last night I met Dustin Byfuglien of the Chicago Blackhawks. What an incredibly nice guy.
Next week: the year in music, 1974.
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I'm with you on Cutler. And you forgot that the offensive line can't open holes for Forte or protect Cutler.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to wonder if the diabetes is affecting him, but I'm not blaming him completely for the bad games he's had recently.
The Royals have a new cap for their alternate uniform: http://royalsblog.kansascity.com/?q=node/478
ReplyDeleteThe design isn't bad (white with blue trim, my original wordscript concept idea) and it's nice to see a cap other than black, navy, royal, red & forest for a change. But they couldn't make it a solid light colored cap; MLB still too afraid of bright colors. How bold would it had been to add Old Athletic Gold to the Royal's scheme?
My list of thanks? Cheeseburger price wars. Taco Bell Lava Sauce. Cold summer. Lack of mosquitos. Nacho cheese. Reheated cold pizza in a covered frying pan. Strong digital TV signals. Blackhawks games on WGN. Conan on the Tonight Show. Ebay.
The Royals are promoting this new cap as a throwback, which doesn't make a lot of sense. I can't picture Dennis Leonard or Larry Gura wearing that lid. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the return of the powder blue design that they wore in the mid-to-late '90s.
ReplyDeleteYou mean the old gray road cap? The Royals, Pirates & Orioles all tried adding gray road caps, and they didn't sell very well at all.
ReplyDeleteFrom the comments I've seen regarding the Royals' powder blues, too many people are having trouble with the discrepancy that it's a powder blue alternate jersey & not a retro road-only top. People are complaining that it needs powder blue pants, which is so far from the truth. The Royals marketing department has a loose screw, it should be "cap has retro themed colors".
What they're doing in Toronto with their 1979-88 powder blues is just so wrong on so many levels. Their original 2004 revamp included a road uniform that was basically black (charcoal) and the league nixed it because it was too dark.
On an unrelated note, what can you tell me about Mark Teahen, and what will he bring to the Sox besides a shitload of strikeouts? Sox fans I know weren't in favor of trading Nix (Fields was moot) for Teahen & all at the cost of moving Beckham to 2nd & keeping Alexei at short, despite all logic and history. I don't understand this fascination Kenny Williams has with Royals players. Getting Rios was stupid and should had never been made, and that move cost the Sox to have any chance of Chone Figgins. I hope Kenny & Ozzie get fired soon.