Friday, February 08, 2008

friday varia

Psalter Mappamundi, 1225.

Lent: ChurchYear.net has a reading plan, with texts, of Church Fathers for Lent. There's a longer version and a shorter version.

Sports: The Mets have signed Johan Santana. The Utah Jazz beat their division rival Denver in overtime, and have now won ten in a row. Hope springs eternal.

Politics: John McCain appears to have the GOP nomination in his pocket. He is not an ideal candidate. A Time poll show him losing to Obama, but by a thin margin, and tied with Hillary. I still think Obama is the stronger candidate against McCain, but it's very early to see how the general election will play out. Conservatives have a huge problem with him even though he has been sucking up to him. Many of them are so intransigent that they may not vote for him, even against Hillary. Democrats should remind the independents who apparently still see him as a "maverick" that he has flip-flopped tremendously in order to get his party's nomination. They should ask him which John McCain he is: the liberal (!) that the right sees, or the man who is trying to appeal to people so ideologically blinded that they cheer when Bush tells them, now that the country is slipping into recession and mired down in two badly-managed wars, that they must vote Republican because "Prosperity and peace are in the balance."

Wise Guys: For those nostalgic for the Sopranos, read about the huge Cosa Nostra bust in New York and Sicily. The best part? The nicknames:
They included the Gambino family’s acting boss, John D’Amico, 73, who is known as Jackie the Nose, and underboss, Domenico Cefalu, 61, who is known as Greaseball, and the consigliere, Joseph Corozzo, who is known as JoJo, the officials said.
This is the internet age , so you can get your own Mafia nickname. Mine is "The Blossom."

Of course, a picture is worth a thousand words:














Bada bing, indeed.

13 comments:

Garpu said...

Putting his best side forward? ;)

cowboyangel said...

Billy "The Blossom" Moore, who beat a man to death with The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara. ;-)

Mine was : Del Murder. What I want to know is how they figured out I was part Mexican. Scary.

So the Mets signed Santana? What - is he going to sing the national anthem each game with some lame ass group like Matchbox 20? The Mets need pitching, not some washed-up, guitar-playing pop star! Oye, Como Va los Mets?

No insights on the Shaq Factor?

Is Shaq pulling for Obama? I know Kareem is pulling for Obama, while Magic is going for Hillary.

Liam said...

Barkley is pulling for Obama, I don't know about Shaq.

Shaq to the Suns is a weird trade. They're all about speed and he's all about being really big and just standing there. I think the more interesting trade has been Pau Gasol to the Lakers.

crystal said...

I'm "The Jury-Tamperer" .... now I'll have to rent that movie with Alec Baldwin and Demi Moore.

Liam said...

Wasn't there a movie with John Cuzack and Rachel Weiz like that?

None of these names are as cool as "Jackie the Nose."

Anonymous said...

I was already an Obama supporter, but Charles "Round Mound of Rebound" Barkley's endorsement clinches it!

Good points all about McCain and the GOP base. Wasn't the CPAC crowd utterly delusional? Even the little news coverage I saw of it reminded me of a meeting of the old Soviet Communist Party: On the surface, everyone's towing the party line, pushing back against the forces of counter-revolution (only this time it's the GOP claiming to be the vanguard of the "Reagan Revolution"), while the real action is going on behind the scenes and just under the surface of all of the code-words.

My only hope is that the majority of the country has figured out just how tired and blinkered that ideology has become.

Jeff said...

Thanks for the reading plan link!

Old Jimmy "Sweet-Cheeks" there better cut back on the pasta and the cannolis... Maron!

Nickname? I got your f'ing nickname right here. I got a better f'ing nickname than BOTH your nicknames...

"Thinks-he's-so-smart"

That link is unbelievable. Amazing. It has me completely sussed out. Not the first time I've heard that of course, I guess the word really has been spread all over the web.

Jeff said...

If I put in 'Jeffrey' instead of 'Jeff', it comes up with: The Venetian. I'm liking that better. The Doge, in fact...

Liam said...

Brian,

More impressive than the Barkley endorsement is the Hulk Hogan endorsement.

Liam said...

Jeff -- "The Venetian"... Probably not as accurately descriptive of you as the other one, but very cool.

cowboyangel said...

I'm glad you brought up the Hulk Hogan endorsement. The mainstream media has really fallen down on the job in reporting that. The Kennedys, yadda-yadda-yadda.

Hulk Hogan.

La Reina actually had a great idea that Obama should get Santo, the great Mexican wrestler-super hero to endorse him, to pull away some of the Latino vote from Hillary. Alas, Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, who played Santo, has been dead for 23 years. I was heart-broken to discover that.

Liam said...

Yes, but that is thinking in the right direction.

cowboyangel said...

The Santo endorsement may or may not be forthcoming, but I did find this.

We're having a blizzard here!

And breaking news:
Maine 44% reporting

Obama: 962 57%
Clinton: 702 42%
Uncommitted: 15 1%