Sunday Potpourri: Is Everything Just Politics?

Shyiak's tirade against over-calling some penalties seems to have borne fruit this weekend. Wisconsin's John Mitchell was booted for what was intially called "excessive roughness" on a hit which the WCHA notified them after the game carries the dreaded game DQ. Then later they changed the call to a double minor and a game misconduct which would allow Mitchell to play next Friday. Then when Wisconsin called back to complain that their guy sat for 5 minutes instead of the 4 now on the books, so the WCHA re-recalled the penalty; this time to "roughing contact to the head" for 5 minutes with a game misconduct. Viola ... John Mitchell doesn't have to sit out Friday's game. Nice to see that former Badger Coach Jeff Sauer is running the WCHA in Denver eh? Nice for John Mitchell and Wisconsin anyway: Send Shyiak a thank you note.

Hey Sarah ... if you've got an ounce of integrity to go along with your kooky beliefs then you sure better turn down the Federal stimulus money. Seriously, show some balls and say that "Thanks, but no thanks" which you never said before. Enough of the demogougery. Live up to your alleged ethos and turn it down!

Ok ... enough fantasy-land stuff. We all know you have zero integrity and that you're going to snatch up all the free money you can get. It would be exceptionally stupid to not take the money since it will just go back into the pot for some shithole state like Florida instead of Alaska. So yeah ... grab it as fast as you can and get as much as you can. Then announce 90 million for a new on-campus hockey arena at UAA. A new arena is the exact sort of infrastructure project this stimulus effort is meant to kick-start. More construction jobs. More long term facility jobs. I know Sarah is a useless git but maybe she can do something right ... once? Please ... oh please you dumb bimbo pull your head out and do something positive for UAA. I sure know how to ask nice ... huh? I bet Steve Cobb cringes everytime I dis Sarah.

Wow ... whats up over at KTUU? Maria Downey doing the 10pm news on a Saturday? Steve McDonald fired and rehired but not on TV? I've been monitoring the change in tone and yesterday I saw the classic example. Maria's lead for a story about Abu Ghraib re-opening went something like this, "Saddam Husseins former torture prison reopens". OMG. I laughed my ass off. A joint made famous by low rent Army grunts torturing Bahgdad cabbies is "Saddam Hussein's"? What a brutally disingenous spin that is. That TV station was always a friend to the power structure with John Tracy's well known sycophant tendencies. But this new ownership is obviously out to promote their agenda. They look to be trying to align themselves with Fox News. Just ... Wow.

Effective drunk dialing cannot be accomplished from a room with non-drunk folks in the room where the call originates. The non-drunks simply cannot understand the need of drunk people to share and spread their delight to the far corners of civilization. They think that somehow their sleep is more important than the glad-tidings being expressed by the drunk dialers. Shame on non-drunk people for wanting to sleep. You wussies. Time enough for sleep when you're in the ground. However, drunk-dialers need to be aware of the 3 or 4 hour time difference that comes into play negatively when someone (er .. me) way out west drunk dials them in 'retaliation'. My 3am is your 7am. Hehe.

I was glad this weekend to get a chance to meet several sets of parents/families that I'd never met before. To those I met; it was a pleasure. I now know that Tommy Grant got his height honestly. The Parkinson's sure seemed like the epitome of a happy well-adjusted family. The Robinson's were gracious. And of course, it was nice to see parents/families that I've met before. Your kids all are where they are because of your excellent parenting and support. I know there were a couple of other folks that expressed interest in putting a face on what they read here and I'm sorry I didn't find more time to make that happen. It isn't that I don't like hearing compliments (and thank you all again for the nice words) ... just that searching through a thick booster room crowd to find someone I don't know isn't a personal strength. Did anyone else think it was mean of Paul Crowder to trip his Mom during the red-carpet intros?

The Friday game this week in Fairbanks starts at 6pm? What's up with that? Do we get to listen to Bruce Cech? Is Fairbanks really better than Grand Forks with the exception that you can drive out of Grand Forks to somewhere in any of 4 directions? Is a compost heap and a battery-backup system really higher quality infrastructure than the Ralph?