So we've had to move - the new address is simply joshedwards.com.

Last month Google announced they are dropping support for people who publish Blogger via FTP. (So much for that whole "Don't be evil" thing, eh?)

Anyway, I'm taking the lazy way out, I'm not migrating the site and going through any rigmarole, I'm just starting a new blog powered by WordPress.org.

See you over there!

Labels: Blogger fail

We went to the Portland Pirates last night and had a great time - the tickets (and beers) are inexpensive and hey, live sports are always fun.

Sure, I don't keep up on the team as well as I should, but I've gone twice so far this year, so I'm doing my part, right?

Now I read in the Albany Times Union that the Pirates are negotiating to move to the capital of New York: "Portland CEO won't discuss Albany move"?!

Huh, that would be a bummer.

Labels: Albany, hockey, Pirates, Portland

Aw, I've never been so mad at Hawaii in my life: "49 states dusted with snow; Hawaii's the holdout".

Wouldn't that have been cool, to have snow in all fifty states?

Although it probably would have screwed up filming on Lost - and we don't need that.

Labels: Hawaii, Lost, snow, weather

Time has an article (in the new issue, likely) about the Gulf: "The Lessons of Dubai".

Labels: Dubai, economy, Time

So by now have you heard of "PIGS" - as in (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain)?

Now Schott's Vocab tells us about a new acronym for the possible dominoes if Greece should fall - "STUPID" - as in (Spain, Turkey, UK, Portugal, Italy, Dubai).

Labels: Dubai, economy, NY Times, recession, wordplay

Proving that Boston Red Sox fans can make any day a baseball holiday, today is "Truck Day" - the day the Red Sox team equipment truck leaves Fenway Park in Boston to drive to Florida for spring training.

God I love this sport!

Labels: baseball, Boston, Fenway, MLB, Red Sox

A few weeks ago I was looking up something US history related on wikipedia and I found this entry: Robert Smalls.

I want to see a movie about this guy:

Robert Smalls (April 5, 1839–February 23, 1915) was a slave who, during and after the Civil War, became a ship's pilot, sea captain, and politician. He freed himself and his family from slavery on May 13, 1862, by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, the USS Planter, to freedom in Charleston harbor. He was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, and eventually became a politician—serving in both the South Carolina State legislature and the United States House of Representatives. During his political career, Smalls authored legislation that created the first free and compulsory public school system in America in South Carolina, founded the Republican Party of South Carolina, and successfully convinced President Lincoln to accept African American soldiers into the Union army. He is notable as the last Republican to represent South Carolina's 5th congressional district.

Labels: Black History, Civil War, history, Reconstruction

"Snowmenclature".

Fantastic!

Check out: A Daily Portmanteau.

Labels: snow, weather, wordplay

"Snowverkill".

Just read it in Foreign Policy: "Weather: the lowest form of news".

Genius.

Labels: Foreign Policy, snow, weather, wordplay

Have you seen this yet?

"Challenger space shuttle disaster amateur video discovered".

Weird.


Nowadays this would be commonplace, but not in 1986.

Labels: Challenger, NASA, video

Interesting article in the new Vanity Fair about Disney's old ink and paint department: "Coloring the Kingdom".

Labels: animation, Disney, Vanity Fair

So yesterday was the second Monday in February, that means Beanpot Championship!

Naturally Boston University (29 Beanpot wins) was playing Boston College (14 wins).

Unnaturally, BC won.

Check out the Boston Globe article: "Keeping the lid on".

Labels: beanpot, Boston Globe, Boston University, hockey

The New York Times on the Maine Winter Sports Center up to Fort Kent: "Biathlon Program Finds a Home in Northern Maine".

Labels: Fort Kent, Maine, NY Times, Olympics

From the father-in-law comes a story from the New Yorker about Dubai's Burj Khalifa: "Castle in the Air".

Labels: Burj Khalifa, Dubai, New Yorker

Man, what a bizarre Super Bowl. It's kind of nice not having a horse in the race, though, it's very freeing.

We pretty much spent the night mocking the entire event. The ads were pretty lame - that was the Tim Tebow spot? We had to go back to rewatch it because we were expecting, well, more Tim Tebow. The halftime show was fairly outdated, too - everyone born in the last 27 years must have asked "Who is The Who?" at the same time. And, as one of the other party-goers asked, if only Paul and Ringo played together, would they still call themselves "the Beatles"?

Do you think CBS picked The Who purely to help their CSI franchise?

And the stadium? All of a sudden last year it was "Land Shark" for the Marlin's MLB season, and now it's "Sun Life"? How are we supposed to keep track of these things ... I mean, I think about Miami very rarely, help me out people.

And the post-game show Undercover Boss was horrible. Really? That's what they picked? Give me a very special CSI or some other Bruckheimer-induced drama. Please. Anything but reality.

Sorry, getting kind of cynical. What would Conan do?

Oh, speaking of Conan ... what the hell was this ad all about:


Leno promoting Letterman?

Did we just have a flash sideways?

In the end the right team lost, and New Orleans won, now they can have Mardi Gras and a Super Bowl parade at the same time. Yikes.

Labels: CBS, Leno, Letterman, Super Bowl, The Who

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America. And while I could take this opportunity to point out some of the flaws in the organization (cough practicing unlawful religious discrimination in violation of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 cough) maybe I won't. Today.

But I will point out how it seems like it was just the 75th anniversary. Maybe that was in 1985:


My brother and I were just lowly Cub Scouts then, not unlike the Tracy Twins from Boys' Life magazine:

I wonder what ever happened to those two goofy bastards when they grew up?

Ah, no doubt they spent time in a paramilitary militia movement in the 1990s, and now they're devoted Fox News watchers. Likely spent last weekend in Nashville, teabagging it up at last week's Tea Party Convention, too ...

Labels: 100 Years, Boy Scouts of America, the Tracy Twins

Just read this article from Ta-Nehisi Coates: "The Big Machine".

Labels: Black History, slavery, The Atlantic

Bill Watterson wrote and drew the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes from 1985 to 1995 (minus two almost year-long sabbaticals in 1991 and 1994) and then Salingered out - virtually unheard from in 15 years.


And now there's a short interview with him at Cleveland.com: "Bill Watterson, creator of beloved 'Calvin and Hobbes' comic strip looks back with no regrets".

On a personal note, I always thought the comic strip had a profound role in my development. Think about it - I was 9 years old when it started and 19 when it ended. Those are the key years of learning comedy.

That's why I personally think the best years on SNL were the early 1990s - Carvey, Farley, Hartman, Myers, Rock and the best seasons of The Simpsons are 3 (1991-1992) through 8 (1996-1997).

Labels: Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes, interview

A bit of local news, the jackass who killed two people on Long Lake back in 2007 wants out of jail early: "Man jailed in boating deaths seeks early release".

Apparently, though, he would be allowed to get a job and to live in Bridgton.

Not sure how people in town are going to take to the Massachusetts boat murderer.

Labels: Long Lake, murder, Robert LaPointe

Excuse my for being churlish so early in the morning, but this cracks me up: "Pakistani ambassador rejected because his name is NSFW in Arabic".

UPDATE: It's fake: "The Akbar Zeb story: too good to be true".

Labels: KSA, Pakistan

I think I have the Apple iPad on the brain.

Just read this article in Time: "Industrial-Strength Fungus" and specifically this quote about fungus packing material:

"The company's first product, a green alternative to Styrofoam, is taking on the packaging industry. Called Ecocradle, it is set to be shipped around a yet-to-be-disclosed consumer item this spring."

And I thought - "yet-to-be-disclosed consumer item"?

"This spring"?!

"It's the iPad!!"

Labels: Apple, iPad, Time

Just read a sad story about an Army soldier from Waterville Valley, NH who was killed in the war last week. He was 19 years old.

"NH soldier killed in Afghanistan".

Graduated high school in 2008.

I assume he was born in 1990, maybe even 1991.

Tragic.

Labels: Afghanistan, death, War on Terror

Last week I mentioned that CBS is going to run an ad for Focus on the Family during the Super Bowl (see Focus On The Family Ad).

Here's an article about the star of that ad, Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. You know it's going to be good when the subheader is "The grisly truth about the Super Bowl abortion ad": "The Invisible Dead".

The worst part is that if CBS pulls out know, Focus on the Family can complain that they were aborted.

Labels: CBS, Focus on the Family, Super Bowl

One of those stories that makes you feel old - remember when the first McDonald's opened in Russia? People lined up for hours to get a Big Mac?

Yeah, that was 20 years ago - January 31, 1990.

"McDonald's Celebrates 20 Years With 45 New Outlets".

Oddly the first Russian Burger King opened two weeks ago.

Seriously.

Labels: 1990, mcdonalds, Russia, Westernization

I meant to mention this yesterday, what with it being Black History Month and all, but I forgot. Apparently the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City is having financial trouble.

I've never been to KC, but I would love to see this museum. Moving it to the Baseball Hall of Fame is probably a good idea, as this blog suggests: "It's time for the Negro Leagues Museum to move to Cooperstown".

Labels: baseball, Black History, MLB, Negro Leagues

Reminder, the first last Lost is on tonight! Nobody call me between 8 pm and 11 pm!

Labels: ABC, Lost

This is creepy. Apparently in 2008 Russia was trying to get China to sell off their stakes in our country's Government-Sponsored Enterprises.

It's like declaring economic war: "Paulson Says Russia Urged China to Dump Fannie, Freddie Bonds".

Labels: China, economy, Russia

Genius! Disney's making a little kid show about pirates, Jake and the Never Land Pirates, for their Playhouse Disney channel.

Fantastic idea. Everyone loves pirates!!


Check out: "Playhouse Disney sails with 'Jake'".

Labels: Disney, Pirates, Playhouse Disney

Oh this is bad-ass: "A Recluse? Well, Not to His Neighbors".

I love small town New England.

"The code of the hills".

Brilliant.

Forget the Catcher in the Rye movie, I want to see a movie about his life in the last few decades.

Labels: Cornish, New England, Salinger

I love reading Dubai's Gulf News when they talk about abandoned cars. The story is never about Dubai, you see, it's always about Abu Dhabi - even though Dubai was hit harder by the recession than Abu Dhabi was. It's almost as if Dubai cracks down on journalists more ...

Look, here's another article: "Abandoned cars waste parking space".

I like how it's not "how sad, I wonder where all the people went" and it's more "those cars are taking up parking spots that I need."

So Dubai.

Er, I mean, Abu Dhabi.

Labels: abandoned cars, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Gulf News

So did you see this one the other day? "Hamas Official Murdered in Dubai Hotel".

Yeah, apparently the Israeli Mossad assassinated Mahmoud al Madbouh, a leader and founder of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades - the military wing of Hamas.

It looks like the dude was electrocuted with household objects in his hotel room, and the perps were out of the country before his body was even discovered.

Crazy, crazy story if it's true - that's fairly risky for Mossad to kill someone in an Arab country.

Labels: assassination, Dubai, Hamas