The real loser in the NBA trades

Some guy thought it was a good idea to purchase the domain heylarryhughespleasestoptakingsomanybadshots.com, and now he's stuck. Sometimes life can be so unfair.

Death Star Radio

Kissing Suzy Kolber, probably the most significant sports blog on blogspot, has a mildly amusing mock segment on the Tony Kornheiser Show. My favorite part is their Feinstein interview.

Tony: Who do we have on the phone next. Is it you, Junior?

John Feinstein: Hey, Tony. Hey, do you know if I left a pair of brown suede gloves at your house the other night?

Tony: Hmm. I don’t recall seeing them.

John Feinstein: I think I left them on the table in entranceway. They were very simple brown suede gloves. Did you see them?

Tony: Oh, I think I may have! How do you want (clears throat) to arrange for picking them up?

John Feinstein: Well, if you could simply leave them by the door, somewhat off to the side, perhaps obscured by a bush, that would be fabulous. Oh, and did your wife get the cassoulet recipe from my wife?

Tony: I believe she did.

John Feinstein: Great, great. Did you still need help moving that desk at your house?

Tony: Well, let me explain what happened with the desk. I, (clears throat) as you know, CANNOT fix anything.

(everyone in the studio laughs for no reason)

Tony: Can’t fix anything at all. Anyway, (clears throat) we have this lovely desk that my wife found at a consignment shop. Very gorgeous, hand-crafted. Anyway, we had to move it (clears throat) so that the contractors could install the toilet. So anyway…

(cut to 90 minutes later)

Tony: …so the desk can’t be moved. Are we still on the air? You know, (clears throat) I completely forgot we were talking to some sort of audience. Anything else you want to add, Junior?

John Feinstein: Buy my new book, “Living on the Black”. I know Coach K. George Bush is a prick. I have several extremely liberal viewpoints. Army-Navy is an unmatched tradition in sports. Random golf anecdote. I wish Georgetown would play in my charity basketball tourney, but John Thompson is a dick. Bob Knight is an asshole. We need to get rid of guns in this country. Did you know I write books for children too? I think Gary Williams is exasperated about something.

Tony: Okay, thank you, Junior!

John Feinstein: I really wish you’d stop calling me that. It’s fucking annoying.

Why so serious?

Great homemade Lego video from Youtube. I just hope Warner doesn't make them take it down.

From Russia with love

I first heard reports of this over the weekend, but didn't completely believe it until I saw Alexander Ovechkin and his girlfriend at the Wizards game last night. Apparently, Ovy met this girl at a Russian dating site (Odnoklassniki), and the Capitals put her on the fast track for a Visa. They first started talking online in November, and they met face to face for the first time February 7. Since then the Caps are 2-1-2, and Ovy's 2-3-5.

Forget all the eHarmony commercials - this is the biggest endorsement for a dating website ever. Sign up now and maybe you'll meet a superstar athlete! I imagine getting a date with a professional athlete making eight figures on a Russian dating site would be the equivalent of me getting matched up with Scarlett Johansson on JDate.

200 times a day, 39000 times a year

Nine government employees were fired from visiting porn sites more than 19,000 times in 2007. Three of them more than 39,000 times. While at work. Wow that's a lot. Thirty-two others hit those sites more than 2,000 times. And that's just the ones they caught. I work at a government computer and all sites that I visit with questionable content are blocked. For example, I often check out DVDTalk.com for updates on deals, discussion on movies and the writers' strike, etc. There's a portion of the site that had reviews and discussion of adult DVDs, so I could no longer check out the site last year. Within a few months, the adult content was given a new url, not containing DVDTalk, so the site was no longer blocked.

If you work 52 weeks, 40 hours a week, 39,000 hits works out to once every three minutes twelve seconds. These guys definitely don't know how to use pornography.

Why are you still following baseball?

One common theme in my blog is the evilness of Major League Baseball and the MLBPA. So when I saw this story on Deadspin, I couldn't wait to blog about it. Apparently, MLB.com used to sell downloads of classic games for $3.95. You burned the games onto CDs, and then could watch them on your computer. But before they'd play, they would check for your license on MLB.com. So MLB.com changed their servers, and now if you try to play a game that you purchased the it can't find the license. You can buy the games again for $1.99, but if you do so you're a complete moron because they can change servers whenever they can find a cheaper supplier. Honestly, at no point in the last 15 years have I seen one piece of evidence that Major League Baseball cares one iota about their fans.

Top 100 sports blogs

Juiced Sports Blog ranked the top 100 most influential sports blogs, which of course I'm not on. A huge omission if Profootballtalk, which should be number one, as they are one of the largest news sources for the NFL in any media. Young, Black, and Fabulous is another omission, but they're not as centered around sports.

In a related note, I considered starting a second blog which would be more focused on Washington, DC area sports, but I was heartbroken to find out that crabcakesandfootball.blogspot.com was taken. And they've never made a single post.

At least, I hope he's giving him the finger

Enterprising Batman fans tracked down all the locations from WhySoSerious.com, to reveal a ransom note style message saying "The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules." If you click on that message, the note burns up to show this picture of the Joker apparently giving his driver the finger. And if you click on the picture, it takes you to RorysDeathKiss.com, where the Joker asks for fans to send in pictures of themselves in Joker makeup around famous landmarks. "Do this for me... and I'll do something for you." The website's name is a reference to Rory's First Kiss, the fake title of The Dark Knight script. One of these days we're getting a legitimate trailer.

So now a new trivia is born into this world

In order to solve one of life's great mysteries, some Japanese show has samurais chase a champion power walker to see if he will run or power walk away.

How does he escape? You'll have to watch the video. From TV in Japan via With Leather.

More menacing than Goodell

Bungie Studios, developers of the Halo series, is threatening to drop the hammer on Gilbert Arenas (italics were on the press release):

There are those of you doing things you shouldn’t be in Halo 3. Some of you have gotten a little too famous for your own good. This ain’t a church and there is no redemption or salvation once you have been judged. Apologies are now officially too late to save you.

The storm approaches.

Love, Bungie

That has to be intended for Arenas, right? I had heard that Arenas was going to avoid sanctions, but now it's anyone's guess.

The funniest thing I've ever heard Steven Colbert say

Flash back to July 31, 2002. The figure skating world was rocked by the pairs figure skating scandal.

thedailyshow.com just launched and it is outstanding. It seems like they've got the show's entire catalogue on demand.

Has eBay been hacked?

Huge breaking news on the internet: eBay may have been hacked because personal information such as contact and credit card information is being posted on the "Trust & Safety" eBay message board! Yesterday at around 9 AM EST account information of approximately 1200 eBay users was posted on the message board with the subject "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" followed by a six digit number. It's not clear what percentage of the data was accurate but I'm hearing mostly accurate with some credit card numbers being off.

One possibility is that the information that has been posted was compiled by phishing. But a Youtube video (since removed) was posted with the title "ebaY Major Hack AttacK! User's Data Posted On Ebay T&S Bd" under the username cappnonymous. Here is a list of usernames for eBay accounts whose data has been compromised. This is honestly one of the most devastating things that could possibly happen on the internet. As many people have credit card or PayPal accounts linked to eBay as any other site on the web. Change the passwords to your eBay and PayPal accounts immediately.

As featured on SI.com...

A huge week for The Skinny Post. First, on Thursday, I got a mention from The Big Lead, one of the top sports blogs on the web. And now, on September 25, 2007, I get a mention from SI.com's Extra Mustard, where they show much love to blogs.

What are the 25 most memorable games since 1990? The Skinny Post offers a very thorough list. (Thanks to Ryan Cleaver of Rockville, Md., for the link)

Also, my preseason prediction of New England over Dallas in the Super Bowl with Tom Brady as MVP looks pretty on the money right now.

Yet another reason to hate Notre Dame

As Notre Dame looks forward to playing Duke the week before Thanksgiving for their probable first win, they look for new and exciting ways to turn off blue chippers from considering making their way to the horrible weather of South Bend. Irish QB Demetrius Jones wants to transfer to Northern Illinois and told reporters he enrolled there last week, but Notre Dame isn't releasing him from his scholarship. They apparently aren't happy with the way it transpired; he practiced with the Irish the day after he enrolled at Northern Illinois without telling coaches his plans. The fallout is that he'll probably have to pay his way this year. On the bright side, Charlie Weis is locked up for a decade and only 58 days until they play Duke!

Definitely check out ESPN's new college football page, completely dedicated to Notre Dame.