Monday morning: Getting the week started . . .

1. I am absolutely tickled by the results from King's and Queen's Bardic. Both champions are from Concordia and are good friends.

dulcinbradbury is the King's Champion, and hotspurre is Queen's Champion. What I find really cool is that she is apprenticed to tokiredbeard, and the Queen's Champion was one of Toki's before he becpome a Laurel himself.

Another cool item: I am really impressed by the fact that the King's Heavy Weapons champion, Lord Oscad, was among the 12 competitors in King's and Queen's Bardic champions. I love that kind of thing!

2. For all the Blood Guard fans out there, THL Torsten of Blood Guard is on vigil for the Order of the Chivalry out in Northshield. He is squired to Sir Alaric, and his grand-knight is Duke Lars.

3. The story out of Washington state that involves a school not allowing a student to wear a "God is Dead" t-shirt in a yearbook picture. I heard echoes of the Rhode Island case three years ago when a kid who is in the SCA wanted his senior picture to be of him in chainmail and his sword. Personally, I think the school has the right to act as the publisher of there year book and keep such photos out (Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier), but in the Rhode Island case, the school backed down after a suit by the ACLU and a decision by the state school board.

It will be interesting to see what happens here.

From the Seattle PI website

ARLINGTON, Wash. -- As debate club president and a top student, Arlington High School senior Justin Surber has studied the constitutional rights of free speech. Surber, 18, recently took a stand that will keep him from appearing in his club's yearbook photo. Once a week, Surber wears a black T-shirt featuring the 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's take on religion. In block letters, the shirt reads "GOD IS DEAD."

Nobody has told him he can't wear the shirt to school. He wears it to provoke debate, he says, and that's why he wore the shirt the day the debate club photo was taken for the yearbook. Now Surber believes his T-shirt prompted the school's yearbook adviser to ask for a retake of the photo, without the T-shirt. "I feel I am a victim of censorship," Surber said.

4. Dear US Hockey fans; Beating Canada in the round-robin part of the hockey tournament means almost very little. Nice win, fellas, but I'll take the Canadians in the final. 

5.  One of the small joys of working from home (job-hunting and writing) is that I have been able to listen to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s live broadcasts from Vancouver in the morning.

6. So last night, I re-watched "Diehard." (Hockey was not on and ice dancing is right there with Yarr Pirates). This morning, xkcd did a riff on the movie.

7. I love Dork Tower!

Monday evening: "Do you believe in miracles?"

1. No shit, there I was, in the sports department at the Woonsocket Call, Feb. 22, 1980, watching on a black-and-white television as the U.S. Olympic hockey team beat the Soviets, 4-3.

It remains, in my mind, the most iconic sporting event of my generation. I can remember only two other sports television moments that clearly -- Game 6 of the 1986 World Series and Game 7 in 2004.

Of course, I am seen the movie "Miracle" over and over, and I usually cry at some point.

As a sports fan, I think this was one of the single most important events ever. It was the pure underdog, unexpected story.

And it happened 30 years ago today, about 90 minutes north of here.

2. On Valentine's Day weekend, theresat and l3arcelona joined me for a trip to Lake Placid. We went to the Olympic Museum, and the tape of the entire US-Soviet game that is running on a loop, was on the last five minutes. It so rocked. (We got to see the Stanley Cup, which was there on tour.) I also peered into the Herb Brooks Arena, but there was nothing going on in it, and it was locked.

I need to get up there more often.

3. Joe Posnanski of Sports Illustrated did a very cool retrospective here.

4. You gotta love the wisdom of Herb Brooks, as delivered by Kurt Russell in "Miracle."

Everybody knows the money quote:

"Great moments are born from great opportunity. And that's what you have here, tonight, boys. That's what you've earned here tonight. One game. If we played 'em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can! Tonight, WE are the greatest hockey team in the world. You were born to be hockey players. Every one of you. And you were meant to be here tonight. This is your time. Their time is done. It's over. I'm sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviets have. Screw 'em. This is your time. Now go out there and take it. "

5. But like "Bull Durham," this is a movie you can mine for great quotes.

All from Brooks:

A.  That look like hockey to you? . . . To me it looks like two monkeys trying to hump a football."

B. "When you pull on that jersey, you represent yourself and your teammates. And the name on the front is a hell of alot more important than the one on the back! Get that through your head!"

C. " I'm not looking for the best players, Craig. I'm looking for the right ones. "

D. Then there's him feeding Eruzione for the classic line:

"Mike Eruzione! Winthrop, Massachusettes!"

Brooks: "Who do you play for?"

"I play for the United States of America!"

E. "Two days later the miracle was made complete. My boys defeated Finland to win the gold medal, coming from behind once again. As I watched them out there, celebrating on the ice, I realized that Patti had been right. It was a lot more than a hockey game, not only for those who watched it, but for those who played in it. I've often been asked in the years since Lake Placid what was the best moment for me. Well, it was here - the sight of 20 young men of such differing backgrounds now standing as one. Young men willing to sacrifice so much of themselves all for an unknown. A few years later, the U.S. began using professional athletes at the Games - Dream Teams. I always found that term ironic because now that we have Dream Teams, we seldom ever get to dream. But on one weekend, as America and the world watched, a group of remarkable young men gave the nation what it needed most - a chance, for one night, not only to dream, but a chance, once again, to believe."

6. I just had to stop and watch the speech, then I needed to watch this version. (You knew this two links were going to show up.)

7. The Sports Illustrated cover:

Monday evening: The non-miracle post . . .

1. Back in the SCA saddle this weekend! Headed up to Winter War in Potsdam. Excited to meet more Ealdormereans, including the 19-year-old prince. Unsure on the March events at this point. There are hockey games or high school basketball tournament games, and there's money to be made. I will be at Coronation.

Addendum: I have games for tomorrow and Wednesday and most likely Friday. I will be very happy if things get busy.

2. This is huge news for beer geeks, especially in New York City.

Batali, top brewers have plans

3. The New York Post had a story on "secret" items on restaurant menus.

Imagine my fascination when I saw this:

6) The Bacalhau a Bras at Aldea
31 W. 17th St.; 212-675-7223
Chef George Mendes admits that as a kid, he “couldn’t stand the smell” of this traditional Portuguese dish that features scrambled eggs with salt cod, crispy potatoes and black olives. “Then when I started cooking, it grew on me, and now it’s one of my favorite ingredients to work with,” he says. In fact, it was once on Aldea’s special chef’s tasting menu, which is most likely how diners know to order the dish, which costs $19 a la carte.

4. Brief excerpt from the New York Times article on the U.S. beating Canada, 5-3, in men's hockey.

I love reading stories by reporters who really know the game they are covering:

The Canadians have real problems. One may be the age-old North American belief that to win at hockey you must go around hitting people whenever and wherever you can. This belief persists despite longstanding statistical evidence showing that teams that hit a lot lose as often as they win.

“Finishing your check” is the technical term for this. It is what fueled Ryan Getzlaf, Rick Nash and several other Canadians to run at American players after those players had passed the puck elsewhere. They hit the Americans hard, for sure, but by finishing their checks, they put themselves out of the play as well. That form of physicality, so full of sound and fury, signified nothing.

Of course after I read this story, which talks about the Europeans not playing this way, I saw the clip of Alexander Ovechkin burying some guy near center ice yesterday.

5. If you miss a letter typing "Lake Placid," you get "Lake Plaid," and the spell-check ain't gonna catch it?

6. Interesting question elsewhere here from nicolaa. If the U.S. hockey players had 1960 throwback jerseys for Sunday's game against Canada, do they have 1980 jerseys for Sunday.

Which brought me to the epiphany that the gold medal game could be against the Russians. (I hope it's against the Canadians, though).

7. You know how there are some things that irk me?

Don't start worrying about the "Oh My God, Snow!!!!!!" until the National Weather Service issues a warning. Someone says "Snow," and people start getting the supplies for French Toast.

The sky ain't falling.