A picture is worth a thousand words… but this animated GIF of Tony Romo on the ground during last night’s embarrassment in Philadelphia is priceless:
And so, the heads start to roll…
No big surprises here, but the Cleveland Browns have fired head coach Romeo Crennel, the Detroit Lions have fired Rod Marinelli, and the New York Jets have fired Eric Mangini. OK, the last one is a bit of a surprise… the coach they once called “Mangenius” had a bad year (he was 23-26 overall with the Jets). I just didn’t expect the firing to come so soon.
In other news, the tests on Big Ben’s noggin came back negative, so you can expect to see him play against either the Ravens or Dolphins in two weeks.
Fixing ESPN’s Site
ESPN’s website has an annoying “feature”: a video player that starts playing the latest sports highlights as soon as you load the ESPN.com page. This makes it difficult to stealthily check scores at work, it makes the page load slowly… and it’s just all around annoying.
You can stop the video player from appearing by creating an ESPN.com account and disabling the player in the user preferences. But that’s a pain, especially if you don’t want to give ESPN your information. If you use Firefox and have AdBlock Plus installed, you can easily disable the player by opening the AdBlock preferences and adding the following to a new filter:
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/mpf/players/*
Thanks to this site for the tip!
The Obligatory Christmas Post
Have a safe and lovely Christmas, everyone!
And now, the only Christmas song worth a damn:
Some random trivia about “Fairytale of New York”:
– Kirsty MacColl was not supposed to sing on the track. She was dating Pogues’ producer Steve Lillywhite at the time, and was asked to fill in at the recording sessions until the final vocal track could be laid down by Pogues’ bassist Cait O’Riordan. Everyone liked Kirsty’s vocals so much that her version was kept.
– “Fairytale of New York” is (supposedly) the favorite Christmas song of Cliff Richard, Matt Dillon, Dermot O’Leary, Karen Osborne, Pete Doherty, Peter Zimmerman, Ricky Olarenshaw, Carl Barat, Bob Geldof, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Chris Moyles, Tim Hames, Sue Johnstone, Chris Martin, and The Office creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.
– Speaking of Matt Dillion, he plays the arresting officer in the video.
– Shane McGowan cannot play piano, so band member James Fearnley (reluctantly) put on McGowan’s rings and jacket for the close-ups of the hands laying piano.
– The New York Police Department does not have a choir; they do, however, have a Pipes and Drums unit. They are featured in the video.
– Not every member of the Pipes and Drums band knew “Galway Bay”, so the song they’re actually singing is the “Mickey Mouse Club Theme”.
– Record labels in the UK have a tradition of releasing “Christmas singles”, and they compete amongst themselves for the #1 spot at Christmas. The year “Fairytale” was released, the single was kept out of the #1 spot by the Pet Shop Boys’ cover of “Always on My Mind”, which led MacGowan to comment that “[w]e were beaten by two queens and a drum machine.”
Two More Sports Items
Confused by the ever-increasing numbers of rules in the NFL? So is everyone else. And by “everyone else”, I mean coaches, players… even the referees themselves. Check out this article that talks about some of the more obscure rules that have come to light this season.
But at least the NFL is in good financial shape… ‘cos you can’t say the same about many NHL franchises. I don’t have an NHL team near me, so I had no idea it had come to this:
The deepest discounts are offered by the Atlanta Thrashers, Florida Panthers and New York Islanders. The Islanders’ $99 family fun pack for a game on Dec. 31 includes four tickets regularly priced at $80 each. In addition, the Isles throw in four hot dogs and soft drinks, two children’s watches, a $40 Dave & Busters voucher and a coupon for 10 per cent off at a children’s-wear store.
The Panthers are similarly generous, offering a regularly priced $42 ticket for $17. Fans also receive free parking, a combo meal and a $5 gasoline card. Parking is usually $10 at the Panthers’ arena, which means that if the other amenities are subtracted from the ticket price, you could make a case that the club is actually paying the fan to attend the game. Happy holidays!
In Atlanta, Thrasher fans can buy a family pack of four tickets and four chicken-sandwich combo meals at various prices. The most expensive package is $149, which breaks down to $37.45 a ticket, and that’s if the meal is not counted. The regular price on those seats is $300, making for a discount of 87.5 per cent.
Wow! But things are fine, right Gary?
R.I.P. VHS
Earlier this year, Japanese electronics giant JVC announced that it would cease production of standalone VHS video cassette recorders. While a few companies continue to produce VHS-DVD combo machines, JVC was the last company that made standalone boxes.
So it was only a matter of time before companies stopped selling pre-recorded VHS tapes, too. And that happened this week. Distribution Video Audio (DVA), the last major distributor of pre-recorded VHS cassettes, announced that it will stop shipping tapes by the end of the year, and that any stock left over after January 1, 2009 will either be given away or tossed in the dumpster.
The last major Hollywood film to be distributed on VHS came out in 2006. Since then, DVA has distributed previously-viewed, overstock, and public domain VHS tapes to libraries, dollar stores, military bases and cruise ships. But now this will cease, and Luddities everywhere will be forced to upgrade to DVRs or recordable DVD decks.
Read more about it here.
Peter Griffin as Che
I don’t have a lot of time to post today (what, with the holiday coming up and all), so I’ll just post this nifty wallpaper I made of Family Guy’s Peter Griffin as Che Guevara. Well, I didn’t make the image: I found a small version of it online (thanks, 4chan!) and converted it to an EPS file via Vector Magic so I could enlarge it in Photoshop.
The fullsize version is 1680×1050.
Those Punk Kids!
This is hilarious! Guess what bored teenagers in Maryland are doing?
They’re using templates found on the Internet to create fake license plates, which they then print up on glossy paper with a color inkjet printer. The fake plate is then taped over the pranksters’ genuine plate. They then run a red light or speed in an area known to have traffic cameras, just to get their friends or teachers in trouble with the law!
It seems the cameras Maryland uses for speeding and red light enforcement aren’t smart enough to figure out that the plate is either a copy, or that the fake plate is on the wrong make and model car. So angry teens can easily get back at the bully that threw them into the lockers, or the teacher that assigned too much homework one weekend.
OK, I guess it wouldn’t be that funny if it were you that got punk’d in this way… but as a non-involved observer, I still find it quite amusing.
Read more about it here.
SONGS I LOVE: “St. Paul’s Cathedral at Night”
Well, there’s no long story or anything here. Trembling Blue Stars is a band from London, and this song is from their 2001 album Alive To Every Smile. I just like the song, and thought I’d share. Here are the lyrics:
Got a postcard from her:
“St. Paul’s Cathedral At Night”.
Spent a couple of days
Trying to read between the lines:
Now I don’t have to read between the lines.
Talking in an empty cinema,
Walking back through Parliament Square.
St. James’ Park at Christmas-time:
Glimpsing the lake through the evening lights.
I didn’t want want there to come an end to our time.
I know I’m in no position to miss her,
Shouldn’t hold her so close when she goes;
Still I wonder what she was thinking
As she traveled home.
Sad, but a great pop tune. Have a listen:
[audio:tremblingblue.mp3]
ADV Wins!
Sorry, I don’t have the time to post more, but:
FAIRFAX, Va. (December 19, 2008) – The judge presiding in the church property trial between the Episcopal Church and eleven former congregations, now affiliated with the Anglican District of Virginia (ADV), ruled in the congregations’ favor today. The final rulings in this case concerned whether four parcels of property owned by the Anglican congregations were covered by the congregations’ Division petitions.
Hooray! There were, what… seven, eight different rulings in this case, and the Episcopal Church lost them all! What a great way to spend $5 million, 815!
Read more about it here.