It would be possible for me to care less about LeBron James in general, and last night’s fiasco in particular. But I would have to work really, really hard at caring less than I do now.
However, some of the quotes in Richard Deitsch’s SI article made me giggle:
…
Department of “The Jokes, They Just Write Themselves”:
Today’s NYT has a followup article on the Ronell Wilson case, going into more detail on the legal issues. Basically, the death penalty sentence was overturned because prosecutors hammered that Wilson had not pled guilty, had refused to testify, but was claiming remorse. Several people in the article are quoted as wondering how the prosecution could have made “such a simple procedural mistake”. But I’m actually a little bit sympathetic to the prosecution: before the prosecution made their statements, Wilson was allowed to read a “statement of remorse” to the jury, without being cross-examined by the prosecution.
Loser update: Astros still hanging on to fifth place. Baltimore at 24-54, for a .308 (God’s caliber) winning percentage, projected to win 49.896 games over the 162 game season. Put another way, roughly 112 losses. Remember, though: we’re closing out the first half of the season. Things can change for the better (worse?) during the second half.
…the Astros are holding on to 5th place.
Baltimore is at 20-52, .278 winning percentage, on track to win 45.036 games this season. That’s only about 117 losses, but stay tuned; there’s still a chance they can hit the 120 loss mark.
The Florida Marlins (34-36, .473 winning percentage, 4th in the division standings) have fired their manager, Fredi Gonzalez, and two of his assistant coaches.
Our long national nightmare is over. At least, for the next couple of months.
Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed early this morning in Utah. By firing squad.
Friday loser update: Baltimore is now 18-48, for a .273 winning percentage. That works out to a projected 44.246 wins over the 162 game season.
Edited to add: I wanted to link to this gun blogger glossary the other day, but lost the link. Thanks to Snowflakes in Hell for the repost. And I was previously unfamiliar with the Zoot Shooters: darn, that sounds like fun, especially if you throw back a bottle of beer after the match is over and the guns are put away. It turns out the Green Mountain Regulators are up in Marble Falls, which isn’t that far away…
The Astros are no longer in last place in the division? What the heck!
Baltimore is now at 17-46, for a .270 winning percentage. That’s a projected 43.74 wins over the 162 game season; or, to put it another way, they’re on a pace to lose roughly 118 games.
Lawrence is fond of pointing out that the Astros are not the worst team in baseball (at the moment). That honor goes to the Baltimore Orioles, who are 15-39.
And they just fired their manager, in what I believe is the first firing of the baseball season. (I welcome correction if I am wrong about that.)
(So why the Astros obsession? They’re the closest thing I have to a home team, to the extent that I follow baseball. Plus, I want to see how far off the HouChron prediction ends up being.)
20-34, .370 winning percentage, estimated 60.588 wins over the 162 game season.
This will probably be the last update I post, now that I’ve added the MLB standings widget to the sidebar for the duration of the baseball season.
16-31, .340 winning percentage, on track to win 55.08 games.
For everyone who picked the Dallas Mavericks in the “next to file for Chapter 11” pool, you were…half right.
You may be asking yourself, “Gee, I wonder who the Texas Rangers owe money to?”
(Hattip: Lawrence.)
15-29, .341 winning percentage, on track to win 55.242 games.
So when Gourmet folded, lots of other magazines apparently thought, “Great! We’ll pick up their subscribers and advertisers!” Yeah, about that: not so much.
Half a year after Gourmet’s final issue, in November, the Gourmet readership and ad base seem to have largely vanished.
I didn’t get a chance to blog this on Friday, as I was distracted by other things, but: the City of Austin released the full, unredacted report on the Quintana shooting incident, blogged here previously. Link goes to a PDF version of the report on the Statesman website.
Edited to add: Also forgot to give the Houston Astros update on Friday, so let’s take care of that now: 13-24, .351 winning percentage, projected 56.862 wins over the 162 game season.
I generally avoid linking to stuff that’s already on FARK, but this is too good and too relevant not to note here.
Ross Perot, Jr., who owns 5% of the Dallas Mavericks, is suing Mark Cuban, the majority owner of the team. Perot Jr. claims that the team is “insolvent and/or in imminent danger of insolvency”. Cuban states “The Mavs operations and debt are guaranteed by me. There is no risk of insolvency. Everyone always has been and will be paid on time.”
Cuban has a blog, and blogs about the Mavericks from time to time, but there’s nothing there yet about this case. I’ll try to update if he does make a statement, though I suspect his lawyers are advising him to play it close to the vest.
9-19, .321 winning percentage, 52.002 projected wins for the season.
One of my favorite books (for reasons that should be obvious if you’ve been reading this blog for a while) is Ken Mandelbaum’s Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops
It looks like we have a new “Carrie”.
(NYT review.)
Setting aside my personal opinion of the Enron debacle, I find myself asking, “Who thought this was a good idea?” Enron’s bankruptcy was in 2001. It has been nine years, people. Move on!
As the NYT points out, though, that question actually has a good answer:
First produced at the Chichester Festival Theater in England, “Enron” transferred almost immediately to the Royal Court Theater in London and subsequently settled into what looks to be a long and comfortable run in the West End, where I first saw it. British reviewers have piled on the superlatives, admiring the show’s thematic audacity, moral severity and all-out razzmatazz.
On the other hand, “Carrie” was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, which I guess just goes to show that neither the British nor Americans know everything.
I hadn’t really thought about blogging the announcement that Newsweek is for sale, but as the day wore on, the discussion at Jimbo’s site just got more and more amusing.
For example, Jon Meacham:
The Saturday Evening Post was an institution at one time, too.
“I decline to accept that Newsweek in some form does not have a role to play going forward.”
There may have been a point in time, in the 1970’s and 1980’s, when a weekly magazine that provided a summary of the news, with analysis, played a useful role. With all due respect to Mr. Meacham and the folks at Newsweek who may lose their jobs, I just don’t see that kind of publication being needed in the Internet age, where everyone has instant access to all the news and analysis they want. What does Newsweek have to offer? What can they offer?
“Here Are Five People We Think Should Consider Buying Newsweek“. Nick Denton? Seriously? “Yeah, let me take my profits from my Internet empire and throw them down the drain on a money losing print publication that nobody reads unless they’re stuck in a doctor’s office.” Good plan! Glen Beck? If you don’t think Denton has the money to buy Newsweek, what makes you think Beck does? Arianna Huffington? Don’t think so; to start with, she’d actually have to pay writers.
Edited to add: Lawrence reminds me that he has a poll up on his Battleswarm site related to the Newsweek fiasco. That had completely slipped my mind; I was off the clock when I was writing this post, and was in a hurry to finish before I left work.