Signs and portents

1. I don’t know if I mentioned this here yet, but the Salem News article I posted earlier came complete with two pictures of me -- one in color on the front page and one with the jump.

2. Some of you know I am laying off beer for a while for health and weight reasons. Of course, I am dreaming about beer. But I am dreaming about drinking Budweiser. Ick!

3. I found myself yelling at the radio again. Not at sportscasters but at some idiot from somewhere who was trying to list reasons the Sox shouldn’t sign Roger Clemens. Shut up, you get-a-lifer. Sign Roger.

4. As you have doubtlessly heard from the other geeks on your Friends’ Lists, Andreas Katsulas, who played G’Kar on Babylon 5 yesterday.

My friend darkeros, listed a number of quotes from him, including this one:

"The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements. Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest."

I kinda like this one:

"Every space faring race has two things in common. First, they all have food identical to what humans call sweetish meatballs. Don't ask, I don't understand, it's just there. And they all share a myth about a time, when ancient dark forces prowled the universe, only to be cast down by or cast away by an even greater force, a force of light."

Sometimes, I hear the timbre of new_man's voice when I listen to G'Kar.

5. I love my new friends, including atomicsappertom, who referenced this non-work safe link A new "holiday". A sense of humor is needed.

6. I had never seen the whole quote:

"That's Britain for you. Tea solves everything. You're a bit cold? Tea. Your boyfriend has just left you? Tea. You've just been told you've got cancer? Tea. Coordinated terrorist attack on the transport network bringing the city to a grinding halt? TEA DAMMIT! And if it's really serious, they may bring out the coffee. The Americans have their alert raised to red, we break out the coffee. That's for situations more serious than this of course. Like another England penalty shoot-out."

7. Music tonight started with "The Hard and the Easy," by Great Big Sea, followed by "Call The Names" by Heather Dale. and then "within a mile of home," by Flogging Molly. Going to see Flogging Molly Saturday night with the ever-lovely alathea_eastrid.

More randomness

1. You know you're reading a NASCAR blog when the writer begins, "Acting on a suggestion on got from a guy I met at Hooters. . . ." In the Washington Post no less.

2. OK, on the list of "Things That Piss Me Off," this is from a newspaper in Idaho:

Pushed not by the NCAA, but by its own conscience and a thoughtful appraisal of its current appropriateness, Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa is considering changing its mascot.

The Crusaders, as the NNU athletic teams have been known since at least the 1940s, could meet their end as soon as March, when the school's Board of Trustees meet. Mascot change, tabled by the board in the fall, is again on the agenda.

Given the university's global missionary and outreach programs, the board should do away with the Crusaders.

The Crusades, European Christian military expeditions in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries to recover the Holy Land from Muslims, carry -- fairly or unfairly -- a negative connotation throughout much of the world. Though many argue that the aim and ambitions of the crusaders were noble, no one denies that atrocities took place during the effort.

3. Just as I am starting to get excited about the Bruins, the Olympics show up.

4. For the record, evilnicola may be "away" at college, but she's just 10 miles away.

5. Oh, for the Boston folks. I was thinking that the directions to the Barnes & Noble at BU should be: "Look up. Find the Citgo sign. Go to that building.