When I was a kid out shopping with my mother at a store a toy section, I would always ask her for a Transformer. "No", she would always reply, followed by an excuse like "that's too expensive for a toy" or "I just got you a He-Man" or "I am philosophically opposed to toys that can change shape". Ok, I made that last one up, but after a few Christmases and birthdays of Go-Bot pacification, I promised myself that when I was old enough, I would buy all the Transformers I wanted to.
Well, with the super-CGI Transformers movie about to hit screens, Hasbro has released their new series of the popular toys....and I made good on my promise, as showcased below. I even got the Optimus Prime, Mom, and it cost me over $40. Ha.
Wait...is that too expensive for a toy (for a 31 year old man)?
When I get a call from my father saying to me "Are you watching the game? You should be WATCHING the GAME right now.", I know he can only mean one thing. Someone is throwing a possible no-no, but he can't mention it for superstitious fear of cosmic intervention. Such was the case yesterday when Curt Schilling took the mound yesterday in hopes of achieving a different but equally uncommon task (recently, at least): snapping a Red Sox losing streak.
Schilling won the game, and almost pitched his first career no-hitter as he went 2 outs into the 9th before Shannon Stewart smacked a first pitch fastball into right field for a single. There are lotsofarticles out there covering this in much more detail than I, complete with video highlights and play-by-play breakdowns and recaps of the game, so no more about that.
(Getty Images Photo / Jed Jacobsohn)
What I would like to note, however, is that with his performance yesterday, Schilling became the fourth Red Sox pitcher since 1900 to allow a hit for the first time in a game with 2 out in the 9th. According to "Lost in the Ninth" (a pretty impressive website about...wait for it...losing no hitters and perfect games in the ninth inning), the four instances are as follows, with date, pitcher, team, opposing team, and opposing player who got a hit (all singles except for Scott):
6/13/1933—Whit Wyatt, Boston vs. St. Louis, Tedd Gullic
4/14/1967—Billy Rohr, Boston at New York, Elston Howard
7/2/1975—Rick Wise, Boston at Milwaukee, George Scott (HR)
6/7/2007—Curt Schilling, Boston at Oakland, Shannon Stewart
The Billy Rohr game is an integral part of Red Sox lore these days, especially since this year marks the 40th anniversary of the "Impossible Dream" season of 1967. This was a game immortalized by Ken Coleman's call of a Carl Yastrzemski catch to preserve the no-hitter for Rohr in his first major league start...against the Yankees in Yankee Stadium, no less. I've included a segment of the famous "Impossible Dream" record below that talks about that game and includes the now infamous "he dives and makes a tre-MEN-dous catch". (For more clips from the album, check out fleetwoodsounds.com.)
Even our own beloved Jerry Remy once broke up a no-hitter with 2 outs in the 9th, though not with the Sox. On May 26, 1976, while playing for the then-California Angels, he came up to the plate in a scoreless game to face Ken Brett of the Chicago White Sox and smacked a single to break up the no-no. The Angels went on to lose a heartbreaker, 1-0 in 11 innings.
When thinking of no-hitters broken up with 2 outs in the 9th inning, one game sticks out in my mind even more strongly than the Billy Rohr game. That game took place on September 2, 2001, and it was Red Sox-Yankees at Fenway. I had gone out of my way to get some box seats for the game, as I wanted my girlfriend at the time to come to a game with me and she would settle for nothing less (she also pretended to be a Yankee fan to irk me, sign #1 she wasn't right for me).
Come time to leave, all of a sudden she doesn't want to go. I was beside myself, and though I tried all I could to get her to go, her resistance continued to equal the strength of my attempts. Eventually, she won and we both stayed at her place. After a couple of hours she was fast asleep (arg), I turned on the TV to check in on the game, only to see that it was the 9th inning and Mike Mussina was pitching a perfect game. A PERFECT GAME! Bearing witness to an event so rare in baseball would have superseded the fact that it was being done to the Red Sox, and for maybe the second time in my life, I was in a state of shock. All I could do was look at the TV, then over at the sleeping girlfriend, then back to the TV, over and over again, shaking my head back and forth. Ridiculous.
This story has a happy ending, though, as Crazy Carl Everett stepped up to pinch hit with one out to go, and with 2 strikes (1 strike away, Moose) got a single to break up the perfect game. The fans at Fenway became riotous, and I couldn't help but applaud and belt out my own shout of approval, waking up my girlfriend and anyone else in the immediate vicinity. Too bad...
In case you didn't know already, let this be even more evidence that TLM (who by the way shares Red Sox season tickets with me) is the best girlfriend ever.
You find yourself walking around on a nice day in some European city and realize you have to go to the bathroom. One's initial reaction might be to look around for a gas station or restaurant....but wait, what's this? A shiny, mirrored rectangular oasis right in the middle of town square. That's right, pictured above is the most stylish public bathroom in the world.
Ok, maybe that's a bit of a bold statement, I grant you. But if it isn't the most stylish public bathroom, it is cetainly one of the most original, and not just for its external presentation. Once inside, as you can see below, one realizes that the mirrors are only half of the novelty and, in a way, only half mirrors. Building a public bathroom whose walls are one-way mirrors is not only creative, but also an interesting experiment in psychology. Would you be able to go when you can see everyone, even though you know they can't see you?
Looks like the cleanest publc bathroom I've ever seen, too.
While browsing through a bookstore the other day, I found myself flipping through a book about easter eggs. No, not the type you always wanted to make with those fancy looking PAAS kits when you were a kid, but rather those little images, messages, games or features that programmers leave in their programs, hidden, of course, for others to find (thus the easter egg analogy).
There are lots of these eggs out there. Try clicking on Yahoo!'s exclamation point and see what happens. Or go to Google maps and try getting directions from, say, Boston to Prague. Now THAT'S a long swim...
I came across some sites that have pretty good listing of eggs in not only software but also DVDs and music, etc. The Easter Egg Archive claims to have about 10.5 thousand indexed. Egg Heaven also has a good listing.
The Easter Egg Archive had an egg for OS X Tiger I found novel. If you go to the dashboard widget and apple-option-click the weather symbol at the top, the city changes to "Nowhere". If you keep doing it, the widget will cycle through all the available weather symbols it can show. According to the image below, it looks like Nowhere is in for a pretty bad hailstorm...
So last night was the return of yet another member of the 2004 World Series club to Fenway, and unsurprisingly another standing ovation as he came to the plate for the first time (see what happens when you don't go to the Yankees, Johnny?). This return was extra special, however, as the player making his debut in a new uniform was none other than fan favorite Trot Nixon, who played no less than 8 years as a starter for the Red Sox. Even when he singled in that first plate appearance, the crowd continued to cheer (I think it helped that the hit wasn't damaging at all). Curt Schilling said it best in his post game interview when he said he'd "rather Trot didn't reach 1st" but it was a nice showing by the Fenway faithful, once again, to show that much appreciation and "taking care of their own".
Yanker fans, please take note.
The general sentiment in the section TLM and I were in last night was essentially "ok, that was nice but no more", which I think is the correct response. As the game went on, however, and Nixon found himself coming to the plate in a position to tie the game with the bases loaded and 1 out in the 8th, several fans felt that it was still time to cheer Trot on. Trot eventually did sacrifice fly in a run, which was minimal damage, but the time to cheer him on was definitely over after the 1st inning, without a doubt. Red Sox come first, end of story.
Outside of the Nixon hubbub, the game had its other exciting moments as well. There was a near triple play in the 3rd (which many fans were aware of as it was happening, to my amazement), an inside-the-park home run by Kevin Youkilis in the 7th, and something I rarely get excited about: a great decision by the Manager when Francona took out JC Romero after he walked the first 2 batters of the 8th. Go Tito!
So as much as Trot and his fans may have wanted otherwise, the Red Sox picked up their 35th win of the season, bringing their season record to 35-15 (.700 winning percentage). This is great, no question, but the icing on the cake came when we found out that the Devil Rays came back to win in the 9th, and the Yankees lost yet again. Why icing? This means that the 200 million dollar team from the Bronx is now in a tie for...wait for it....LAST PLACE.
It's a clock ticking backwards, Cashman. You too, Torre.
I've seen this one a few times, the novelty hasn't worn off yet, and it still makes me laugh. Ortiz's performance is not as award winning as in the "Wall-ee, wall-ee" commercial, but it's still funny.
Happy Towel Day! Oh, and if you are more of a Star Wars head, I suppose I should wish you a happy Universal Day of the Jedi, though Towel Day is much cooler.
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Towel Day is a day to celebrate Mr. Adams and his works, and to celebrate all you need to do is carry around a towel all day. You never know, you may need it at some point...
In light of my last post and the release of the 3rd installment of Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, I came to the unfortunate realization that, yes, pirates are played out.
Mark Burnett, the creator of such all-time reality shows such as "Survivor", "The Apprentice" (both Trump and Martha), "Eco-Challenge", "The Contender", and the underrated "Combat Missions" (RIP Helvenston), looks to be doing it again, and no, I'm not talking about "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?". He is not only teaming up with Spielberg to produce the new movie-maker show "On the Lot", but is coming out with another new show that I think can only be either an uproarious success or a complete and laughable failure. Yes, I'm talking about the now-highly publicized new FOX show making its debut May 31st, "Pirate Master".
Sixteen people will dress up in pirate garb, compete weekly for money in the form of doubloons, organize mutinies, and try their haaaaaaar-dest not to start talking with the stereotypical piratey accents (TLM hopes the same will be true for me).
Parts of a dinner conversation TLM and I had with A and K (from TMT) the other night revolved around television, or, more specifically, how sites like YouTube and Google Video can essentially act as TV for someone these days. No conversation about such sites would be complete without a series of "have you seen this one"'s. So, in light of some of the topics I'd heard about that night, I went to go and look up some of these clips to see them for myself.
I watched a sort of lengthy (by YouTube standards) but interesting clip on a pod of Orca hunting gray whales, and a funny clip of myotonic goats, or as they are commonly and appropriately called, fainting goats. My favorite of the day though is shown below. Yuko Ogura, a Japanese model and evidently part-time reporter, decided it would be a fun idea to wear a baby seal hat just outside the polar bear tank. Talk about entertaining television....the full clip is even funnier (someday I should learn some Japanese).
What is one of the busiest work weeks I've had this year sure to bring? A time waster of course, and in our internet-laced society (or, more specifically, on this blog) that means a web page with some Flash-y cartoon or game, ripe for hours and hours of procrastination goodness.
This time it's a game featured on the Adult Swim site called "Bible Fight". It's a standard one on one fighting game, except instead of Ryu, Guile or Zangief you choose from biblical characters such as Noah, Moses, and Jesus. You have your kicks, your punches, and of course your divine intervention.
If you're Christian and a little worried that this is on the blasphemous side of things, you might be right, but at least you can play Jesus and pound the crap out of Satan...
Cinco de Mayo! Ah, that fabulous 5th of May (I speak Spanish), a day where many people from all walks of life fill up on Mexican food and, thanks to heavy international advertising and subsequent reasons to drink, Corona. But what is Cinco de Mayo anyway?
As opposed to popular belief, the holiday is not Mexico's Independence Day, though I'm sure you all (who remotely care) have learned that by now. The holiday actually commemorates the Battle of Puebla where Mexican forces beat the snot out of the occupying French.
Lying in bed last night, drifting off into sleep, I found myself thinking not of all the wonderful Mexican-type stuff I'd be doing, eating and drinking today, but rather of that battle that occurred 145 years ago today, except for one small and entertaining difference. For whatever reason, as I slipped into unconsciousness I imagined the French getting their butts kicked not by Mexican people but rather by...
...wait for it...
...Mexican Robots! Ah, how creative and amusing one's subconscious can be. (maybe it's just the meds)
In light of the Tom Brady / Yankee Hat ordeal, I was reminded of this disturbing commercial, in which I think Wally's initial reaction of shock and subsequent walk-away of disappointment are spot-on. As far as I'm concerned, no Red Sox should ever be allowed to wear a Yankee hat OR talk to a Yankee, never mind Posada of all people. What's Posada doing, anyway? Paperwork? This commercial touches on a taboo idea, and Brady's wearing of a Yankee hat in real life is an extension of it and makes us Sox/Pats fans cringe. I don't hear Tom Terrific saying "Pats fans...Pats fans...it's not what you think...".
At times I enjoy being entertained by mind-numbing television, and no channel does it better these days than VH1 (remember when they were just the "MTV for old people"?). After two seasons of "Flavor of Love" and it's first spinoff "I Love New York" (each series getting progressively worse than the last), the celeb-reality show braintrust at VH1 decided to go back to the basics. They took the 13 most controversial, outspoken, loud, skanky, or pissed off women from the first two seasons of "Flavor of Love", dressed them up in private school uniforms and stuck them in a house for their new reality show, "Charm School". There they will taught manners and etiquette by Mo'Nique, the host and President of Charm School, and her "Ten Commandments", around which the challenges revolve each week. My favorite so far: "Thou shalt work with what thou art working with". How can anyone say that with a straight face?
Helping Mo'Nique decide the fates of the girls each week are a couple of "Deans"; one is an editor at Essence and the other is the resident Simon Cowell nasty nay-sayer type (who is, by the way, a beauty pageant coordinator!). Every week after a challenge, the group gets together and someone is sent home, symbolized by handing in their Charm School pledge pin.
Both TLM and I knew this would make our TiVo lineup the moment we saw the preview. Will there be any fistfights? Will there be any spitting? Will there be any chicken in the microwave?
Content found on The Neoteric is of no particular genre, topic, or focus, other than it was all at some point, in some way, interesting enough to me to write about.
