Jerry Glanville: Your New Portland State Viking Head Football Coach

A good hire for Division 1-AA Portland State in getting former NFL head coach Jerry Glanville to hold that position for the foreseeable future (low guess at this point is a minimum of two years, though in the KATU clips aired locally, Jerry said that his wife Brenda loved the area so who knows at this point). No official contract has been signed, but Portland State and Glanville had an official press conference earlier today, so I would guess that's a pretty good sign that something written in concrete (err, make that tearable papaer) will be arriving soon. Best of luck to you Jerry, it's good for the Vikings football program.


RELEASE

Shaun Livingston

I'd started yesterday's John Terry post with a phrase about the "most frightening thing I'd seen in quite awhile" for something that happened on Sunday. Unfortunate to report that something has surpassed that, at least from what I've heard. (count me as one who doesn't watch SportsCenter, or any of the highlight/report shows more than once). It was my work buddies who told me about the Los Angeles Clippers Shaun Livingston and what happened after he dunked the ball and landed on the ground, dislocating his knee in the process.


The Sports Frog has a story and link to videos about the incident, if you care to view such things.



SPORTS FROG

John Terry's Kick In The Head

One of the most frightening things I've seen in quite awhile, Terry was knocked out cold before he hit the ground, and also swallowed his tongue in the process. Action is from Sunday's Carling Cup final at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff, which Chelsea won 2-1 over Arsenal, no great disappointment here that the Gooners didn't get any more silverware. Nope, none at all.

Wendy's Original Store To Close

Dunno why I'm partial to Wendy's over the other fast-food burger joints, oh wait, maybe I do. Living next door to a McDonald's and having some litter in my yard a lot of the time is no fun, and I'm not much of a fan of the food at Burger King. For the record, I bought something at a Carl's Jr. the other day, first time ever, and was not impressed with what I purchased: a buffalo chicken sandwich that had been drowned in that Frank's Red Hot sauce. The french fry sauce at Arctic Circle is good, but the only ones in this area are at least a 40 minute drive. Plus, there are no Fatburgers round here either. That leaves Wendy's, and there is nothing better to warm up to after a morning in the freezers like a Spicy Chicken Sandwich. About the only downside to Wendy's is that they increased the straw size last year whenever I opt for a "value meal"; I don't really wanna drink that much soda that quickly.


At any rate, the original Wendy's in Columbus, Ohio will close this coming Friday due to losing money related to a number of factors. From the articles, not entirely unexpected, but as the franchise that I spend the most money at, we still have to note the passing of the flagship store for the chain.




USA TODAY




COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Spurs 4 Bolton 1

A lovely offensive blitz from Spurs at the start of the match, spearheaded by two Robbie Keane goals sandwiching one from Jermaine Jenas in the first 22 minutes, led Tottenham to a decisive 4-1 victory over the Wanderers at White Hart Lane today.


Keane was sent off with a red card in the 36th minute for a handball, and Gary Speed drove the ball past goalie Paul Robinson with no problem to give the Wanderers some life being down 3-1 facing a 10 man Spurs lineup for the rest of the way, but some good defense and some outstanding work by Robinson never really gave the visitors much of a chance to claw their way back into the game, and in fact, the Spurs were quite unlucky not to have the final score standing at 7-1 or something similar.



A loud boisterous atmosphere at the Lane, lots of singing the whole match through, and it was nice to see Spurs respond to that, seeing that they've faltered a bit at home recently with losses to Newcastle, Manchester United and Liverpool on the books. Dimitar Berbatov continued to impress, he was feeding the ball to teammates in better position to score with some lovely passes. About the only moment of concern from me came in the first half, when Spurs defender Young-Pyo Lee missed a header in a clearance attempt close to the box, which led to a quick header from Bolton's Stelios Giannakopoulos, but Robinson had quick reflexes on that shot and swatted the ball away just off of the line.









BBC

What's In A Good Business Name? One That They'll Remember

I think that this business, dealing with dogs and expensive care products for them, in the Wallingford district of Seattle certainly falls under that banner. If one of the co-founders, a female, has no problem with the sign, then neither do I.




FULL STORY

Church + Porno Sounds: Hilarity Does Not Ensue.

A pretty dumb stunt that would be funny only to a very small number of people, and hopefully then not for very long. A Catholic Church and some alarm clock/CD players playing some discs with pornographic sounds set to sound off during a service on Ash Wednesday. How very............. obvious and unimaginative. I like what the police captain said in the article investigators haven't ruled out any motives, including politics, terrorism or obnoxiousness.. I think this case certainly qualifies as that.



STORY

I Get It; You Pray After You Eat It.

....cause it's from KFC, right? (and this is nothing to do with the notorious story out of NYC about the RATS either). No, it's just that KFC has asked The Pope to bless its offering of a new Fish Snacker sandwich to its menu.



STORY


Oh, and the fish itself is the trusty ol' Alaskan pollack (who knows what the price of the sandwich would've been if they'd used halibut).




LOUISVILLE STORY

Dennis Johnson R.I.P.

So very sad to hear of the very sudden passing of former NBA player Dennis Johnson at the age of 52 earlier this afternoon. Okay, I'll admit that I wasn't that fond of him at the beginning of his career, when he played for the hated Seattle SuperSonics, nor later on, when he was a key component on those Larry Bird-led Boston Celtics championship teams, but it was impossible to deny him his effort and brilliance on the court, doing things to help his team win that often weren't charted by statistics.




D.J.

Everton 1 Spurs 2

Good news all the way round from Goodison Park: a very good away performance on the offensive end and some good saves from goalie Paul Robinson led to the wonderful 2-1 victory over Everton. Jermaine Jenas blasted the winning goal from at least 20 yards out in the 89th minute, when it looked as though the match would end up in a draw, to give Spurs their first EPL road victory, and second all of the year, since the Boxing Day win over Manchester City.



Good offensive movement in the first half for Spurs, and they were the better team on the pitch for that time. Dimitar Berbatov opened the scoring in the 35rd minute on an excellent feed from Aaron Lennon to give the visitors the lead. A very questionable call led to an Everton free kick just before the half, on which Mikel Arteta delivered a beautiful ball into the corner of the net, for which Robinson could do little but leap at and claw at the air.


Everton picked up their game in the second half, but Spurs had some great chances that they failed to convert (I'm thinking of one shot by Berbatov and a one on one with Robbie Keane on the goalie that Keane unbelievably sent into the side of the net). I personally can't disagree with Martin Jol's assessment that Spurs, overall, slightly deserved the three points on the day, but it was much to the disgruntlement of the Evertonians, who were booing when a defensive substitute was made in the 86th minute, which had absolutely no effect on the play of Jenas just a couple of minutes later. Yes, at the end of the match, there were loud boos quite audible to the home viewer, presumably at Everton coach David Moyes for his puzzling substitution patterns. Oh well, Spurs have often lost points on these kinds of games, and this also avenges the early season loss to Everton at White Hart Lane. It also continues Spurs nearly inexplicable run of good away form at Goodison. come on you spurs.





SPURS REPORT




SOCCERNET

Chelsea v. Spurs In Sixth Round FA Cup Draw

FA Cup sixth round draw (ties played over weekend of March 10 and 11):



Middlesbrough or West Brom v Manchester United or Reading

Arsenal or Blackburn v Manchester City

Chelsea v Tottenham

Plymouth v Watford




Could've been better, I suppose, but to get the FA Cup title, one is gonna have to beat one of the big guns sooner of later. Undoubtedly Chelsea will be out for a bit of revenge over last November's loss to Spurs, their first to their London rivals in nearly a lifetime it seems. Here's hoping that Sunday's victory over Fulham is the start of a nice run of form by Tottenham, but there is still a nagging feeling that a lot of what happened at Craven Cottage had to do with some lousy defending by Chris Coleman's club.




STORY

The Jam To Reform (Minus Weller)

This is on a par, obviously, of Creedence Clearwater Revival minus John Fogerty or The Kinks minus Ray Davies; in other words, very very hard to imagine, as drummer Rick Buckler and bassist Bruce Foxton


Other 80's groups, such as the Police, have reformed recently, but I honestly can't see anything good coming out of this, a lot of the material is dated toward the teenage/alienation from the modern world themse prevalent among many of the punk rock acts back in the day of the movement's formation. There are some great tunes in their catalog that still sound good over twenty years later, but the big problem, of course, is that the man who wrote those songs, Paul Weller, wants nothing to do with this reunion, and also has reportedly not spoken to the other two since the band's breakup in 1982.


I mean, honestly, Foxton's London Traffic, from the This Is The Modern World album, is a bad song on a bad album, and his song that became a single when Weller's creativity dried up between that album and its followup album, All Mod Cons , titled News Of The World is a very mediocre song about an obvious subject (i.e. the daily press). Gotta give credit where it's due though, Foxton's song Smithers-Jones is an excellent track, I just don't know if I wanna hear the balance of a "New Jam" set of Weller songs sung by a ringer. Very good luck to you Rick and Bruce.




BBC STORY

Fulham 0 Spurs 4

Fifth round FA Cup action from Craven Cottage just over. Spurs erase some of their bad road memories with a lovely performance which featured a brace of goals from Robbie Keane (finally!) and Dimitar Berbatov. Keane scored in the sixth minute of the first half, and then followed up that with another strike in the 68th minute to double the lead. Berbatov buried the Cottagers with the final two goals in the last 13 minutes.



No doubt Chris Coleman will be stewing after this one as his team fell apart in the second half, as his side had the better stats for possession, shots on goal, corner kicks, and saves from goal.


Very nice feeling to have brushed off the lethargic road performances which have dodged Spurs all season though, no doubt about it, let's keep it up for the league and UEFA Cups now...come on you Spurs.





BIG SOCCER THREAD

Won't Somebody Think Of The Children? Parents Gone Wild (Again)

Ultra-competitive dad a little bit too overly concerned about what was happening to his son. You can guess the rest.....the man says he's embarrassed about what he did, which I can believe. Kinda sucks that one really bad decision can haunt you for a very long time after you've made it.







STORY AND VIDEO

Oh! To Be An Audience Member Of A Televised Comedy Show

Well, that's what I used to think as a kid watching things like Saturday Night Live, to see all of the great comics and wonderful musicians, or now, to see things live David Letterman or the Daily Show, with the chance I might get to see something like the Crispin Glover meltdown in person.


Ben Sisario, in today's New York Times, has suffered through some cold weather in the effort to get a seat at one of the tapings of the aforementioned shows, and then was kind enough to write a great article about the experience. Doesn't really make me wanna make me trek across the country from what he's written, but hey, if I ever find myself in New York looking to kill a fair amount of time.........this may be just the ticket.



LIVE FROM NEW YORK.....

(Insert Your Own "One Way To Heat Up A Cold Winter" Joke Here)

For the few of us who forgot what today was about............the new Sports Illustrated 2007 Swimsuit calendar, obviously one of the greatest marketing achievements ever. Yamila is in it, which is a very very good thing, and I guess Beyonce is on the cover, (quite hot, according to Dan Patrick) though I haven't ventured out to a newstand yet today to see the magazine itself. Gotta save something for tomorrow, obviously.


IN CASE THE PAGE WASN'T BOOKMARKED ALREADY

Neko Case Live In Eugene

The talented and lovely Neko Case live in Eugene this Thursday at the historic McDonald Theatre. Absolutely one of my current fave modern singers, all of her solo albums are highly recommended, as are her side projects that include records with the New Pornographers, Kelly Hogan, the Sadies, the Mekons, etc. She also has a new live CD and DVD just out now from a recent liver performance on the venerable Austin City Limits. Haven't got it just yet, but her version of Catherine Irwin's Hex always makes me stop what I'm doing to listen to the very lovely vocals.

Got The "Can't Throw Anything Away" Blues?

A Massachusetts woman certainly does, and the accumulation leads to an auto accident. I will say that the car looks to be in a lot better shape than the cars I see filled with trash around here do (speaking about the outside of course).





CAR

MSN Says IE One Of The Three Biggest Internet Threats For 2007

Came across this link via StumbleUpon, a story on the MSN site about how Microsoft's Internet Explorer is one of the biggest threats to safely surfing the Internet. No, Alanis, I don't think this constitutes "irony" either.



MSN STORY



STUMBLEUPON THREAD

Comcast

A couple of threads with links to some sites about specific ideas by people about the definition of terms of service with Comcast, and how the two are not in sync at this point.



THREAD 1



THREAD 2