Centerfield

OK, just because my "home team" won their conference in hoops for the first time in decades. The Big Ten it ain't, but still....

Centrist restaurant

I got a chance to catch most of "Grizzly Man" over the weekend. My expectations, based on very casual reading of general descriptions of the film, were far from what I ultimately saw. For some reason, I thought the guy was going to be more of a credentialed naturalist and that he was only a bit off in his estimation of the dispositions of the bears. That guy was a friggin' Whacko (capital "W"), all the way around and top to bottom. It's a miracle he lasted as long as he did. But, to his credit, he did get some really excellent photos.

Yup, definitely a few sandwiches short of a full picnic, complete with a jesus complex. And ultimately a much more interesting story because of that. Like I said before, it's not really even about the bears, is it?

Is Moby Dick about whales? Nope, it's about obsession and the descent into madness. There is really nothing else like Grizzly man in film, to my knowledge. It's as though Moby Dick were a true story, Ahab had converted to PETA, and shot us 13 years of video footage.

ROFL. Great analogy, Brian! I only watched a bit of that show myself, as I know enough insane people in real life. I don't need to watch TV to see one of them.

I thought that only baseball was played in Wichita.

We are looking forward to an interesting political year in Minnesota. Mike Hatch (the Eliot Spitzer wanna be Attorney General) is running for Governor against the incumbent, Republican Tim Pawlenty (who is frequently mentioned as a VP possibility in 08), and Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar (D) will face Rep. Mark Kennedy (R) for the Senate seat being vacated by Mark Dayton. To make things even better, Al Franken is gearing up to run against Sen. Coleman in 08. How fun is that going to be?

Mark Kennedy is one of the most talented politicians I have ever seen. I expect a Coleman like victory, a close election with the Republican pulling away in the end, for the Congressman.

If Pawlenty wins re-election and the Republicans are smart enough to nominate a McCain/Pawleny or Guiliani/Pawlenty type ticket, the race would be over before it started because of the battleground status of Minnesota, IMO. I don't know much about the man, but when I have seen him on television he has been impressive... Really down to earth, the sort of conservative that doesn't seem so, well, conservative.

My Washington Huskeis are number fourteen after a tough mid-season stretch and the return of some injured starters. Brandon Roy is the most versatile player in the country... He is in the top ten of more statistical categories than Reddick or Morrison. Look for a Pac-10 Conference tournament victory, a three or four seed, and a surprising deep run in the tourney. I love the month of March!

As one sport heads into playoff tourneys, the other gets rolling. The #24 WSU baseball team (9-2) travels to Norman, Oklahoma today to face #25 Oklahoma (9-3).

WSU basketball team is ranked #32 nationally going into the MO Valley tourney as top seed. Not shabby--their best showing in a long time. But heck, we haven't had a football team for 20 years, so we gotta be good at something, eh?

Al Franken running for office will likely be the best comedy he's done in years.

Each polls uses different wording, which can impact the results that they get. And that all polls have margins of error. We all know this. Nevertheless . . . .

Today's SF Chronicle reports a Field poll showing that only 36% of Californians approve of Bush's performance as President:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/28/BAGM5HFU501.DTL

And today's report of the latest CBS News poll shows that nation-wide only 34% approve of Bush's performance as President:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/opinion/polls/main1350874.shtml

Let's run that by again. A BIGGER percentage of Californians approve of Bush than of the nation as a whole? Left Coast, true blue state, California - a state which keeps re-electing Barbara Boxer to the Senate (admittedly she keeps getting lucky on her opponents)? What is wrong with this picture?

Perhaps Hell really is freezing over.

The CBS poll was incredibly poorly done, with really bad sampling and no weighting adjustments to compensate. Why that might be is your own mileage.

For much better methodology, try the Rasmussen daily tracking poll.

Yes, congratulations are in order for the Shockers. The MVC is a really tough conference this year. Perhaps as many as 5 teams will make it to the Big Dance. That would be a tremendous accomplishment for a mid-major league.

The thing that I found most interesting, was the pre-season favorite, Northern Iowa, and the eventual champ Wichita St. both lost to Creighton TWICE, yet Creighton didn't win the league. That shows how tough the league is. N. Iowa lost at Indiana St. and at home to Bradley in the last week, before losing on a last second shot at S. Illinois last Saturday. Drake had a losing record, but lost about 10 games in the conference by less than 4 points. Tough, tough league. WSU is a real survivor.

Heads up: Chance that FSU beats Duke in Tallahassee on Wednesday. FSU has been just coming up short on a signature win. If they hadn't played them to OT in Cameron earlier, I would be flat out calling out. As it is, I expect either a FSU win in a close match or Duke will kill FSU by at least 20. No center ground on that one.

Yeah, the MO Valley was a VERY tough conference this year. Of the ten teams in the conference, SIX turned in win/loss records at 2 to 1 or better ratios, and all of them had some really tough opponents outside of the conference games. Of the Shockers' seven season losses, three were to top 25 teams, and only the Creighton loss was to a team not in the AP top 40 this morning. And Creighton finished 19-8 in regular season. Not exactly slackers.

But I do beg to note that WSU split their two games with Creighton, losing the first but squeeking out the second one at the buzzer, 61-60.

Oops, make that WSU 62-61. They lost the first one with Creighton 57-55.

That Grizzly Man was certainly one of a kind. I haven't seen the film yet but will soon. I have a bear story. I camped out in the Big Bend National Park in Texas a few years back with my girlfriend in the mountain basin. All day we got anti-bear lectures from the Park Rangers. "Lock your food up at night in the steel bear boxes. Shampoo's, toothpaste. The bear is attracted to many scents." The lecture outdoors at night under a big spooky full moon just reinforced our bear angst. We went to sleep in our tent after locking our gear up. Around 3 AM she wakes me up and says, "There's a bear outside our tent." Talk about a wakeup call. I shussed her and listened to the bear move around right outside. It took me about 15 minutes to muster up enough courage to peek thru the tent door. It was a skunk licking a cookie wrapper. Of course I didn't sleep a wink all night after that. Does a bear poop in the woods? I don't know but I did that night.

Shockers rolled right over OU yesterday, in Norman, 12-2. Looking like a good year to spend those spring afternoons on the outfield hill.

OK, Buster, this time it's coming out of your allowance.

That's a good one, Jean. I like the school's and parents' reaction, though. They've both disciplined him. I loved the closing quote:

"Even though we give very strict guidelines on proper behavior and we hold students to high standards, he is only 12 and I don't think he understood the ramifications of what he did before it happened, but he certainly understands the severity of it now," said Kildee.

Well, dang. I got some thing right for once. FSU over Duke. I am happy.

Thanks, Pat! Yeah, I loved the closing paragraph too. "He didn't understand the consequences before, but he certainly does now." Now, that sounds ominous.

Me, I'm wondering how his parents and school "disciplined" him. Grounded him? Gave him detention? Made him write "I will not stick a wad of my gum on a million dollar painting." a thousand times, a la Bart Simpson?

It's an abstract--I'm surprised anyone noticed! :-)

Well, the school suspended him. As for the parents, call me old fashioned, but I'm thinking that's one 12 year old standing in the corner frantically rubbing his rear end to take the sting off.... Any parents who care enough to send their kids to this school and make the time commitments it obviously requires, are parents who are serious about modifying inappropriate behavior.

Hey, is this one of those things that has to go on the kid's PERMANENT RECORD?

Potted meat product removed.