Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Let's Talk About Not Hockey

I never listen to the radio in the car. That's what God invented iPod car adapters for. But a few weeks ago I did start listening to Jerry Sullivan's appearances on Howard Simon and Schopp and the Bulldog from WGR's audio vault at some point during the week. I've gotten to the point where I really enjoy his cranky pessimism. (Shut up.)

Wow, today that was a HUGE mistake. Sully's most recent appearance on Schopp could've been entitled "Why It Really, Really Sucks to be a Buffalo Sports Fan." It was brutal. By the time it was over I wanted to leap from the roof of HSBC into oncoming traffic on the Skyway. Awful. Thanks for nothing, Sully. (For the record, pretty much everything that was said was true. Just super depressing.)

Here are five things that have absolutely nothing to do with hockey:

1. I'm finally about to start season 4 of The Wire. It is an amazing show. Really and truly one of the best things I've ever seen on TV. (And I'm not really a lover of HBO - I hate Sex in the City and The Sopranos - so I'm not biased in that regard.) It's pretty brutal sometimes though. Pookie and Schnookie got me started on it and at one point early in the first season I emailed them to tell them a certain character reminded me of one of my former students. "I love this kid!" I could practically hear the long pause via email because well, let's just say that kid did not meet the happiest of endings. I sobbed for days over this character and that's the kind of show it is. The Ookies warned me that season 4 might be a tough one because the main storyline involves a school but I think I'm prepared for it now. We'll see.

2. This weekend we ended up spending time with some of Mark's family. I hadn't seen this particular aunt in a while and when she asked me, "How's your grandmother in Pittsburgh?" I replied with, "Good, she died in October."

3. This joke has been a big hit with my kids the last week or so. I told it to them on Monday and they've told just about everyone in the building. Why is the math book so sad? Because it has so many problems. They're second and third graders, okay?

4. Here are the current top five most listened to songs in my iTunes library: Want To by Sugarland, Beautiful Day by U2, Alone by Heart, Wouldn't It Be Nice by the Beach Boys and S.O.S. by ABBA. Playing right this second is Beautiful Boy by John Lennon.

5. My puppy Marlowe is named after Rick's dog on the 80's show Simon & Simon. I clearly remember watching reruns of it with my mom and grandmother and I had a huge crush on Gerald McRaney who played Rick.


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I STILL have a huge crush on
GERALD MCRANEY! :)

Unknown said...

Awww, puppy pictures! I never had a crush on Gerald McRaney per se, I just thought he was great on Major Dad. He perfectly fit into his role as a Marine.

I giggled at the math book joke. Here's another bad one: A duck walks into a bar, says "gimme a drink and put it on my bill."

I'll show myself out now.

Schnookie said...

Season 4 of "The Wire" is JUST the cure for a depressed Sabres fan -- it's just about the only thing I can think of that'll make the Sabres look happy by comparison. :D

Erin said...

"Wouldn't It Be Nice" by the Beach Boys is the most underated song of all time. Truly, truly, truly a masterpiece of young love. If there were a cult that you could join to simply meditate on "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "Good Vibrations" I would sell all my worldly possesions and join it.

Anonymous said...

I keep meaning to rent The Wire, I keep hearing good things about it. I'm with you though, HBO sucks. Sopranos sucks, Sex in the City sucks, Entourage sucks, Oz sucks, Six Feet Under sucks and what I've seen of True Blood so far sucks. Oh wait, but they have sex and violence and swearing! They must be awesome!

My top 5 played songs on iTunes are "Leave" by Glen Hansard, "Vertigo" by U2 (hey, a U2 song! What do you know), "No Ordinary Love" by TobyMac, "That'll Be the Day" by Buddy Holly and "Robots" by Flight of the Conchords

AJ is better than Rick, Frank is better than Joe but I'll give you John over Ponch.

Mike said...

In the spirit of bad jokes:

Whenever I grill for a group of people (Frequently) I ask someone if they would like me to toast their buns, when they inevitably respond yes, I raise my glass and say "To your buns!" I really need a hobby.

The Top Five in my iPod (which is currently $*@%ING BROKEN!!!) are:
1.) Mack the Knife - Bobby Darin
2.) Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight and the Pips
3.) Talk Dirty to Me - Poison
4.) All Out of Love - Air Supply
5.) Express Yourself - N.W.A.

Heather B. said...

Amanda, oh, good! I'm not the only one!

Amy, that's a good one although it might be frowned upon for me to tell bar-related jokes at work. Still, I like it!

Season 4 of "The Wire" is JUST the cure for a depressed Sabres fan -- it's just about the only thing I can think of that'll make the Sabres look happy by comparison. :D

:^::::::::::::::::::: What perfect timing!

Erin, I feel like "God Only Knows," while a beautiful song, is slightly overrated while "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is more underrated. It's almost always in my top 20 and probably spends even more time in my top 10. Love it, love it, love it.

Lee, The Wire is definitely tough to watch but it's really, really well-done. I have a hard time seeing the actors in any other roles because they're all such perfect fits for their roles.

I'll give you Frank since Joe was always a bit of a dunderhead but anybody over Rick is asinine. (And it's JON, no "h" thank you very much.) I keep meaning to ask you if you ever rented "Once" but I'm guessing by the Glen Hansard that maybe you did?

Vanek's Hair that is a quite a wide variety of tastes in your top five. I love it. I'm pretty sure Air Supply is going to be in my head the rest of the night.

Mike said...

Multiply those five songs by whatever it takes to get 355(math isn't my strong suit) and you have a good idea of what else is on my iPod.

Best rendition of that Air Supply song was Van Wilder's drunken version to a pretty co-ed. Not that I would know anything about drunken singing to pretty co-eds.

Anonymous said...

I have never seen "Once". I got the songs off your computer and I've been meaning to rent that too. As you can see I've been a little behind in my renting. I only get one movie at a time because I'm cheap and currently I'm having a hard time getting through the movie I'm watching. It's a great movie (Twilight Samurai) but it's Japanese so I have to read the subtitles and I'm usually doing something else while I watch movies so it is hard to read the screen.

As soon as I sent publish on my last comment I thought to myself, "is his name spelled Jon" but there is no option to edit comments.

I had a lot to say about your baseball post so i forgot one thing. Jason Bay the only significant Pirate of the past 15 years?? Great! Now I'm going to have to talk Ollie down off the ledge. Come on Ollie! She didn't mean it!

Also, here is a fact for you. While in Pittsburgh Brian Giles' OPS was better than any Pirate in history. In his worst full year as a Pirate he had a higher OPS than Clemente's best year (and Andy too). Bonds only had one season better than Giles' worst season. That doesn't necessarily make him "significant" since he was there for such a short time, just though it was interest. At the very least he's in the legitimate All-Star category. So were Jason Kendall and Freddy Sanchez.

Then there was Mike Williams an ERA over 6.00 and an All-Star. LOL Mike's Wikipedia page has this fun fact, "His style for closing out games was unorthodox, as it involved him getting himself into a jam, but then getting out of it."

Patty (in Dallas) said...

Amy, that's a good one although it might be frowned upon for me to tell bar-related jokes at work. Still, I like it!

You could say a duck pulls up at the McDonald's drive-thru and says, "Gimme a Big Mac and put it on my bill."

Hm. That doesn't work as well. Who runs a tab at McDonald's?

Patty (in Dallas) said...

Oh, and Heather, that is a beautiful picture of adorable Marlowe!

(I got distracted by the comments and forgot to mention that.)

Anonymous said...

Grandma died in November, not October.