tuesday a.m. quarterback

unless you're a viking fan -- and i do know some -- how can you not be happy for aaron rodgers getting a win last night? the wife should be in a good mood this week.

keep tuned on this blog as the newton/finch family tracks the weeks that all 3 of our teams: redskins, packers, and wildcats post Ws. you'd be surprised (or maybe not) at how rare it is to pull that particular trifecta.

football is back

and all is right with the world -- of course the world would be a lot better with an opening day win. not impressed AT ALL with new coach, zorn's play book, play calling, and definitely not time management.  still its back.  two fantasy leagues and lots of smack talking.  life is good.

the weekend thus far

what can you say about a weekend with beautiful weather, the cubs winning and two of my favorite redskins inducted into the hall of fame. good times. i'm so happy for art monk & darrell green -- nice guys finish first.

fourth-western!

my alma mater making me proud. four years in a row national champs in women's lacrosse. congrats ladycats. maybe someday little zoe will join your ranks.

best week ever. . .

my life has been running crazy like crystal meth addict on a 100 mph treadmill. not a lot of time to post these days with work and the little person. but have to take time out to recognize one of the best weeks ever courtesy of "the internets".

first baseball. the baby bears aka the cubs are in first place with the best record in baseball. mad props. but the baseball play i'm still talking about with my co-workers is "manny being manny". i mean of course manny ramirez of the boston red sox. you will never see a play like this ever again.



the scene - camden yards in baltimore. the orioles kevin millar smacks are sure fire line drive over manny's head. he races it down to the warning track, and makes an incredible over the shoulder grab. his momentum allows him to him run up the outfield wall -- where he reaches up and high fives a red sox fan in the stands then turns around and fires a bullet to hit the cutoff man to double off aubrey huff on first base. unbelievable. i could watch this clip all day.

second clip. this week someone unearthed a clip of faux news blowhard bill o'reilly venting at a producer back on his inside edition days. hilarious. but even better are the remixes. this is my personal favorite. brilliant!



"you're like a baboon but less clever!"

but the clip that makes this the best week ever surprisingly comes from chris matthews and hardball. now i've long ago written off this show as part of the crossfire ilk that jon stewart accurately accused of "hurting america". but man on man, this just might make clip of the year.

the setup: george bush gives a speech to the israeli knesset which makes a thinly veiled comparison btw barack obama stated foreign policy, to talk to our enemies, and neville chamberlain's appeasement to adolf hitler. the president was rightly slammed for this allusion and comparison by joe biden, harry reid, nancy peolsi, and even hillary clinton.

enter right wing talk radio host kevin james -- a fool that doesn't know history but clearly has scanned the talking points sheet; i.e. keep repeating "appeasement = obama no matter what!!" with a simple question chris matthews exposes him and the rest of those ditto-head hacks for what they are: ignorant.

for those that haven't attended law school this is kinda what the socratic method looks like when a professor exposes one of your classmates that hasn't properly briefed a case.



"better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt"

no words

the super big 42 day recap blog update*

* youtubed up for extra blogging pleasure!

its been 1 month + 11 days since my last post. or a la rent 1008 hours, 60,480 minutes, 3,628,800 seconds -- did ya miss me? no apologies, i just have to face it that my summers are waaay to busy to be blogging. i'm out there doing it people! -- not sitting inside typing on a computer. here now is a brief recap of things on my brain and going on in my brain these days -- just the highlights.

(1) first off hat tip to my coworker kate mckay who first turned me on to new zealand's fourth most popular folk band. i'm speaking of course of flight of the conchords. hat tip also to our man in in la who blogged about them earlier. better than tenacious d and even spinal tap because let's face it, making fun of hair metal is like shooting fish in a barrel. this is coming from somewhere a little more original. here's a good background article on HBO's newest hit show. my two personal faves:

business time:


bowie in space:


(2) the sports summer of our discontent. a gambling nba ref; the tour de france becomes the tour de steroids. and speaking of roids barry bonds breaks hank aaron's home run record or as the onion accurately described it: "destruction of national pastime given two-minute standing ovation. and finally a man with $130 million contract decides instead of the usual vices of wine, women, and song, he'd like to brutalize dogs. bad newz, i mean bad news all around this summer in the world of sports.

my take because you didn't ask. . .

for years folks have said the nba itself fixes games to get marquee matchups for higher tv ratings. every nba conspiracy theorist has gristle to chew on from now until the end of the time. oh and that talk about an nba team in vegas during this past year's all star game? just fuggehtaboutit.

tour de france/roids? we're americans so who gives a damn? but can you say preview to the '08 olympics in china. why not just have an all pharmaceutical games? let the best doctors/labs win!

moving on to steroids we do care about, of course i'm talking baseball and barry bonds. on the one hand let's first off state for the record that taking steroids will in no way help you hit a curve ball. if so bodybuilders would just dominate every sport -- they can't and they don't. secondly, barry's accomplishments before he took steroids we're worthy of the hall of fame. thirdly, who knows how many pitchers bonds faced that were on the juice too.

i considered those three things, but now the flip side. firstly, the people that say there is no proof that barry bonds ever took steroids are the same people that think oj simpson didn't kill two people, because he wasn't convicted by a jury. i can't argue with the facts but i can argue with the truth. they're both guilty as hell. (hey barry that's a good excuse. "at least i didn't kill anybody!")

in taking steroids bonds robbed the integrity of the game, because now we'll never know if he could have broken the record on his own amazing god-given ability by playing clean. bonds was averaging about 30-35 homers a year pre-steroid. he chose to take a short cut and jumped late in his career to an astounding 60+ homer years, right around the time every other slugger in recorded history at his age has hit fewer home runs. the fountain of youth has been discovered in the form of a syringe.

in addition to the jump in power came multiple injuries that directly correlate with steroid use. which is an even sadder ironic result of this phony boost in hitting power has actually cut short the length of career bonds could have had without steroids. like the record itself we'll never know. i do know -- and many others still feel -- that the true home run king is henry aaron. by his actions barry bonds like (the hitting king) pete rose before him has forfeited his right to be selected into the hall of fame. eventually like rose he belongs in on his records alone divorced from the man but not while he's alive.

and finally michael vick and the bad newz kennels. what more can be said that hasn't been said already? $130 million dollars and this is the best you can come up with mike? cue the gladiator scene, "are you not entertained?" my opinion mirrors that of msnbc's bryan burwell's article, on the larger issue of black athletes "keepin' it real". but to end this sports rant on a somewhat humorous note, i give you octogenarian bobby byrd on the senate floor. a dog lover, byrd gets a little emotional and although i agree in principle with him, i can't help but laugh everytime i see this video clip. (for you simpsons fans it's sort of like sideshow bob and the rakes. just when you think its over. whammo!)

barbaric!!!


(3) politics. albert gonzales is lying -- must be a day ending in "y". iraq goes on and on and on. think progress does an excellent job breaking down the evolving definition of our goals and mission there. and karl rove leaves behind a lame duck president with the lowest popularity ratings in history. although he's not leaving the way i envisioned:



we can only hope indictments will follow him back home to texas.

that's it for the big ol' update for now. more to come on the personal stuff going as the big ol' long overdue summer update continues.

wild finish last night

"Just when you think you've seen everything, you haven't seen everything."
-Col Rockies Manager, Clint Hurdle

i was at the game last night with my buddy chris glynn. and its still difficult to describe the electricity in the air even after it was over. probably the most exciting game i've been to @ wrigley field. certainly up there with the opening day in 2000, when shane andrews smacked a walk off to win against the braves.

but back to last night, fans were chanting, clapping, high fives, all up and down clark and addison. we went from the lowest of the lows (the bullpen giving up an 8-3 lead in the ninth inning) to the most improbable of elating highs -- soriano smacking an rbi single with two outs the cubbies took us on an emotional rollercoaster.

after sweeping the sox a game like this one -- if you win it -- can really define a season.

read all about it here and here.

UPDATE - added a youtube link to the game highlights

getting old. . .

is not any fun. so i've been playing in this 12-inch slow pitch softball league on tuesday's nights. the average age of our team is probably forty-three, which puts me in the younger age bracket.

so it is with some irony that i'm the team's first sports injury victim of the year. last night in the first inning i made a sudden move to run down a foul ball and i felt this 'pop' sensation in my lower left calf muscle. i thought it was just a cramp the way it knotted up so fast, but i couldn't stretch or move it without pain the rest of the night. diagnosis - calf strain.

i'm on the DL for a week (per doctor sarah's orders) to get some ice, elevation, and rest. with my two knee surgeries at the rate i'm going by the time i'm forty i'll be playing shuffleboard.