Monday morning: Not the beginning of the week

1. <tr class="odd"><th class="date"></th> Welcome to theboomboom </td><td>and syaldia.

2. We had an absolute blast at Melee Madness in the Barony of the Endless Hills in Aethelmearc Saturday.

One of the best feasts I have ever had. alethea_eastrid had insisted we stay for feast.

The 15-minute downpour before court didn't *have* to happen. ;)

The Mongol king rides into court.



Melee Madness pictures are here.

Can my Aethelmearc friends pass the link around, maybe post it on the mailing list. Folks can use the photos for anything they would like, so long as they credit me with the photo.

More on this event later.</td></tr>

3. I asked for a personal day today, and I got it. I have a ton of stuff to get done, and I am stilled pretty wiped out from the weekend. I started the day with physical therapy on my left knee. Fun, fun, fun.

4. Can you say spiffy?

This is the work of Baron Conal, posted on Armor Archive.



5. Beat L.A. Beat L.A. Beat L.A. Beat L.A. Beat L.A. Beat L.A.Beat L.A. Beat L.A. Beat L.A.

I am a touch worried about this series. Since the Patriots lost, if the Celtics lose, that sets up the Red Sox to lose.

Monday afternoon: Links and pics edition

I am doing work, really. Getting this off my to-do list.

I am also floating around the InterTubez.

Now I will share.

1. I found this one myself, and it made me cry.

Cinderella Ball

2. I cannot remember where I got this link, but it is a spiffy interview with Max Brooks, the author of War World Z.

3. One of my politically-minded friends points out this article about popular votes and delegate counts.


This graphic is the best part:



4. From brian_berlin, we get the state flag of Louisiana.



5. muskrat_john has been reading too much Beckett.






6. I met paquerette this weekend, after being LiveJournal friends for a bit.

And I liked her a lot even before she posted this:

Monday evening: Busy, busy day . . .

1. I may well have worked harder today than I would have if I had been at work. I started with a 47-item to-do list. It probably swelled to 49 to 50, and now it's in the teens, I think.

2. Spellcheckers do not like the SCA. ;)

In recent posts, I have had offers to change:

Hoisin to Noisiness

Major Domo to Major Doom

And  . . .  Maunche to either Munched or Launched.

3. From Michael Wulflauer, the EK Historian and one of the most under-appreciated folks in the East.

From the "The History of the West Kingdom, Volume 1":

First Event of the East Coast Chapter, Whitsuntide Sunday June 2, 1968 AS III

Held at the Cloisters, New York City, New York. A tourney was planned but it was rained out. Elfrida and Walter of Greenwalls were the seneschals and the autocrats. Koppel funem Lachfalk was the Herald.

Elfrida appointed Maragon the Artificer to sit as King and Adrienne of Toldedo to sit as Queen, to preside over the first tourney and the first crown lists, whereupon the first true king would be chosen by combat.

When the tourney was rained out the group wandered through the Cloisters looking at the Unicorn Tapestries and freaking out the museum guards.

Present were Elfrida and Walter of Greenwalls, Adrienne of Toledo, Maragon the Artificer, Alfgar the Sententious, El of the Two Knives, Rakurai of Kamakura, Eleolf Erickson, Robert the Puppeteer, and Cynthia Ornam.

That's just too cool for words.

4. Dan Kennedy, on his Media Nation blog, was chastising Celtics' fans who thought "Beat LA" chant originated when the two teams played in the 1980s.

A lot of people are bellowing "Beat LA!" this week who don't have a clue about where it came from. Even the Outraged Liberal, who knows better (I suspect), invokes not its original meaning, but its obnoxious, chest-thumping reincarnation.

Quick history lesson. In 1982 the Celtics met the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals.

The series came down to a seventh game at the Boston Garden. And as it became clear that the Celtics were going to lose, the classy Boston fans started chanting: "Beat LA!" as a way of showing their respect and appreciation for the Sixers.

A reader added:

The Phoenix, in their report on this game and the series, mentioned the reaction to the crowd's chant by 76er forward/center/force of humanity Darryl "Chocolate Thunder" Dawkins:

"When I heard ['Beat LA']," said Dawkins, "my dick got stiff."

5. From The Christian Science Montior:

Thousands of men who live in the mother's basements are all cheering at once. (That's my take on it)

WASHINGTON - A company that offers fantasy baseball games on the Internet has won its battle to use the names and performance statistics of Major League Baseball players without permission and without paying licensing fees.

The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a case examining whether fantasy sports leagues are shielded from such requirements by the First Amendment.

Although the Supreme Court did not consider the merits of the case, by refusing to hear the appeal the high court leaves in place an earlier appeals court decision in St. Louis allowing the company to operate without the permission of the players and the league.

So-called fantasy sports leagues have proliferated over the past 15 years, growing from a weekend hobby for die-hard fans into a $1.5 billion industry with more than 15 million paying participants.

Football and baseball are the most popular. There are roughly 11 million fantasy football enthusiasts and 3 million fantasy baseball participants.

Fantasy sports competitions are also offered for basketball, hockey, soccer, golf, lacrosse, stock car racing, track and field, and even bowling.