Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

- The Leonys Martin kidnapping story would make a great book.

- Eddie Vedder and Jean Tripplehorn (as Julie Andrews) sing the Stones Shattered. Very cool!

- Save the Elves! Save the Elves?

- Michael Gee with good perspective about what make a good sports columnist.

- A scientific look at James Bond's alcohol problem. I can believe him saving the world several times a month but never having whiskey dick after all those martinis? That's stretching it too far.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Michael Gee makes a good point regarding the Sarah Palin getting booed by Flyers' fans incident. "Pols always get booed, and always pretend not to notice." I am reminded of John Kerry throwing out the first pitch at a Red Sox game in 2004 right before the DNC in Boston. Kerry was booed. He threw from the front of the mound, it was a lousy throw and he was booed. The difference here is that the media completely ignored the fact that Kerry was booed (by his "hometown" fans no less) but Sara Palin being booed gets to be a story.... Steve Silver points out something that has been bugging me subconsciously. Those Brooke Shields commercials for Volkswagon are creepy and it wasn't until Silver pointed out the strangeness of combining the words "German engineering" and "babies" did the "Master Race" angle fully hit me... John L. Sullivan would have been 150 year's old today. He is often forgotten when the names of great Boston athletes are mentioned but once he was the most famous athlete in the world and probably the toughest man in America. Sullivan used to walk into a bar and claim to be able to "lick any man" in the place. If someone made such a claim today it would come off sounding a bit gay...

Draft Day

Are you excited that its NFL Draft Day? Will you be watching it all on TV? If you said yes - I say get a life. Sure I may check to see who the Pats take at #7 or check to see where Matt Ryan ends up but I'll do that periodically. It won't be the focus of my day.

Michael Gee sums up my feelings for the day pretty well.

My one fear about today is the Pats trading down for extra picks and the player taken at #7 becoming the next Junior Seau with the Pats ending up with Ray Agnew.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Jay Gibbons was released by the Orioles even though he was still owed $11.9 million. My initial though was "I guess the Orioles thought he was worth the money when he was on the juice but now that he's off it - not so much." Most times you should go with your first gut feeling. I would have to do the math but I think that the Orioles may actually end up paying as much to players who won't suit up for Baltimore this season than Tampa Bay will pay in total payroll... Remember yesterday how I said John Edwards may be angling for the VP slot with his 26 committed delegates as bait? Well read this article and tell me you don't come away thinking the same thing... Michael Gee has an excellent look at Bill Belichick's relationship to the Boston media. Well worth the read.... I haven't seen the History Channel's new show Ax Men but every time I see a commercial for the show I think of John Steinbeck's quote about lumberjacks: "Years ago when I used to work in the woods it was said of lumber men that they did their logging in the whore house and their sex in the woods." That quote has always just stuck with me.

Ron Borges

Michael Gee has some good observations on the Ron Borges situation. I like his analogy of the Internet to a power tool that is dangerous to those who don't know how to use it.

Meanwhile Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald details another instance where Borges was fast and loose with the words already in print by another writer. It should be pointed out that chances are that by the time Ron Borges' two month suspension is up - that there will be a number of instances where the case for plagiarism probably can be made. The Globe will probably have no option but to fire Borges when all is said and done.

Along the same lines - someone on a message board I frequent made the claim that Borges was fired in the 1990's from The Ring Magazine family of publications because he was turning in his Globe boxing columns verbatim for publication to his boxing editors at the magazines. My guess is that Borges has left a trail of ethically challenged shortcuts along the way and that will be his undoing.