The Bishop in the West Wing

This is my first post here.

"The Bishop in the West Wing" is a book by Andrew Greeley This book isn't so much novel as it is a propaganda piece for the DNC (Democratic National Convention). The propaganda is mixed thoroughly into a story about the White House, and it's new President, a democrat of course. He's the most wonderful, intelligent, wise, caring president ever. Yes, ever. Oh, I should also mention he is an Irish Catholic Guy from Chicago. Somehow, we are suppose to think that he is not a crooked politician from Chicago. Now, I know people from Chicago. Bribes make Chicago work. You want your driver's license, you'd better hand the county employee administering the test a couple of saw bucks or you'll be back tomorrow testing again. Imagine writing a story about how fair and accurate the elections and judicial system in Cook County Ill is to the citizens of Chicago. Good grief. Aside from that, the book is filled with references to W stealing the election from Algore and the corruption of the courts in Florida. The author apparently completely forgot the election that Old Man Kennedy bought for JFK in Cook County. Nixon actually had a reason to sue and didn't, Algore sued and, well, now he's a Unibomber reject lecturing to colleges.

But I digress.

The book almost completely failed to hold my attention. Apart from the liberal silliness, the story was weak. I didn't really care why the poltergeist (oh yeah, the White House is haunted for a while when the President first takes office and a bishop from Chicago is staying in the West Wing to banish the poltergeist) was there, who it was, or when it would leave. The most entertaining part of the book was waiting to see what sort of DNS inspired nonsense the author could dream up and pass off as good story telling. And that was so unbelievable that it wasn't worth the wait.

Anyway, don't read this book. It is, in a word, ungood. Unless you are a long haired, maggot infested, dope smoking liberal type; then you'll love it.

Wait, I did learn one thing; poltergeist is from German and it means 'noisy ghost', or 'playful ghost'. But I like etymological nonsense like that.

Jason

PS - The book I'm in the middle of now is good, but I'll be darned if I can recall the name. I'll post when I'm done with it.

Apology

I have been way into the NCAA Hockey Tournament and have not been reviewing much. There is a two week break before the Frozen Four so now you have all my attention back (for the next two weeks anyway).

Frozen Four is Set

The Frozen Four in Milwaukee, WI is all set. North Dakota will meet BC and Wisconsin will meet Maine to decide who will play for the National Championship.

The WI/Cornell game was a great battle of defenses and goalies. The Cornell goalie stopped over 60 shots in their 1-0 loss to Wisconsin (3 OT and the second longest game in NCAA Tournament history). It is behind great goaltending (Elliot) that Wisconsin should prevail in the NCAA Tournament. Maine is a goal scoring machine though so the big test is coming. Can Elliot make the stops when it counts? He sure did against Cornell. Elliot went 11 periods without letting a goal past. Maine has scored 11 goals while allowing 5 goals against and WI has scored 5 and let 0 past.

North Dakota will also be counting on Parise to stop everything thrown at him. BC is also another scoring juggernaut having placed 10 goals neatly in the back of opposing nets in two games and keeping both Miami and BU scoreless. North Dakota has also scored 10 goals in the first two games but Parise let 3 goals past him. This is going to be fun to watch!

NCAA Regional Finals Day 1

Boston College met, slapped around and embarassed Boston University today 5-0 to move on to the Frozen Four.

North Dakota and Holy Cross also went at it this evening but Holy Cross could not be the giant killer two nights in a row. They played a good game but in the end, NoDak won the game 5-2.

Tomorrow Wisconsin meets Cornell and Maine plays MI State.

NCAA 1st Round - Day 2

Six games today with one already finished up, two more in progress and three more later on the afternoon and this evening.

At 11am this morning Michigan State took on New Hampshire in the East Regional. Michigan State tallied their one and only goal at 2:14 into the first period. MONEY BACK PLEASE! Yawn. No other goals were produced and the Spartans move on with a score of 1-0 over New Hampshire.

Wisconsin is beating up on the Beavers 3-0 and it is heading into the 3rd periond. Those Beavers better get busy.

Harvard and Maine are in the middle of a game but at this point I do not have a score. Cornell and CC will play at 4:30pm as well as the two Regional final games between NoDak and Holy Cross and BU and BC.

NCAA 1st Round - Day 1

Who showed up to play Holy Cross tonight? I think it was the small fries that play between periods at the Gopher games. If it is true about what the coaching staff said, that the team had put the WCHA playoffs behind them, then you sure would not know it tonight? The Gophers lost 4-3 in overtime to Holy Cross. Holy Cross played well and the Gophers did not. No more to say. The #1 rated team in the country gets shot out of the sky and is the first #1 seed in NCAA history to lose to the 4th seed. Of course it is the Gophers this happens too.


North Dakota looks like the team to beat. They were very strong riding on goals from TJ Oshie and Drew Stafford (left) tonight. They stomped Michigan handing them a large plate of loss with a side dish of ass whooping. 5-1 was the final score from Grand Forks tonight. Holy Cross will meet NoDak tomorrow (well, tonight now) night but I think the anomoly that is Holy Cross will meet their doom. NoDak is just too good.

Elsewhere tonight more serious spankings were handed out by the two Boston teams in the tourney. BC clobbered Miami-Ohio 5-0 (why were they in the top 3 in the nation for so long?) and BU knocked down, stepped on and then wiped the ice with Nebraska-Omaha (bottom left) with a final score of 9-2.

BC and BU will meet tomorrow night at 5pm for the final of the Northeast Regional.

Other games tomorrow are the start of the Midwest and East Regionals. Wisconsin plays Bemidi State (1:30pm), Cornell goes up against CC (4:30pm), Harvard plays Maine (2pm) and New Hampshire plays Michigan State (11am).

I am not going to win my work pool...damn.

NCAA Regionals

Let the games begin!!

Boston U has beat Nebraska-Omaha 9-2. Boston has set an NCAA record for most goals scored in a game.

U of M and Holy Cross are playing now.

NCAA Regionals

Here is the TV schedule for the West and MidWest Regional games this weekend.

Go Gophers!

NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament Television Broadcast Schedule

Friday, March 24
5 p.m. - FSN Live: NCAA Hockey Pregame (from Grand Forks, N.D.)
5:30 p.m. - Minnesota vs. Holy Cross (FSN)
8 p.m. - FSN Live: NCAA Hockey Post- and Pregame
8:30 p.m. - North Dakota vs. Michigan (live on FSN and ESPNU)
11 p.m. - FSN Live: NCAA Hockey Postgame
11 p.m. - Minnesota vs. Holy Cross (tape-delayed from 5:30 p.m. on ESPNU)

Saturday, March 25
1:30 p.m - Wisconsin vs. Bemidji State (FSN)
4:30 p.m. - Colorado College vs. Cornell (FSN)
7 p.m. - Minnesota Wild vs. San Jose Sharks (FSN)
8 p.m. - NCAA West Regional Final (ESPNU)
9:15 p.m. - FSN Live: Wild Postgame
9:30 p.m. - NCAA West Regional Final (tape-delayed from 8 p.m. on FSN)
12 p.m. - FSN Live: NCAA Hockey Postgame

Sunday, March 26
5:30 p.m. - NCAA Midwest Regional Final (tape-delayed from 4 p.m. on FSN)

WCHA Playoffs

The WCHA playoffs have come and gone. They were all great games and it was a fun weekend for hockey in St. Paul. I was lucky enough to attend 3 of the 5 games and I had a great time at all of them.

SCSU and Duluth started the weeked with the play in game on Thursday night. SCSU dominated the game from start to finish. Duluth never should have made it this far. SCSU won the game 5-1.

The Friday 2:30pm game was played between NoDak and Wisconsin. This was a fun game to watch (especially from center ice). This was anyones game to win at anytime. Goals were exchanged one for one and both teams played very well. I thought Wisconsin actually played a little bit better but they had a hard time keeping Earl off the ice. He even got a penalty for diving. Who gets that anymore? NoDak won the game 4-3 to propel them into the WCHA championship game.

That night the U of M Gophers matched up against SCSU to see who would meet NoDak in the final Saturday night. SCSU came out on a mission and scored like like there was no goaltender in the net. In fact, with 5 goals allowed in just over a period, we needed to check to see if Briggs was breathing. He was taken apart by the Huskies.

Goals were matched 2-2 in the first period and then SCSU broke it open in the 2nd with 4 goals. 5 minutes into the period, Briggs was replaced by Frazee. He did not do much better as SCSU scored 3 more goals on him.

The score was 6-5 going into the 3rd with the game going back and forth until Hooton (SCSU) beat Frazee and made the score 7-5. The crowd was bummed. Goldy Gopher fled to his hole and the cheerleaders left for a beer. As the last cheerleader left, Irmen came out of nowhere and scored goal number 6. Then with 14.6 seconds remaining in the game Potulny scored his 4th goal of the evening and the 7th goal of the night to tie it up.

When the next Hobey Baker winner (Ryan Potulny) scored his hat trick, the crowd went crazy. It took the Xcel staff 10 minutes to clean up the 150 hats and millions of Red Baron beads thrown on the ice. What nitwit gives Red Baron beads to a bunch of Gopher/SCSU fans at the second game of the day, at a venue that serves beer and on St. Patricks Day. Where did they think these beads would end up? Well, they ended up on the ice, on other peoples heads, and in the protective net that surrounds the ice.

After the 7th goals was scored you can imagine the uproar from the crowd. It was deafening. This is when Jen calls me. I am glad she called, I just could not talk to her for about 5 minutes. This is when the crowd calmed and we went into the break before overtime. She was very excited to talk to me about the game, only problem was, I was pretty much hoarse from screaming. It was a very in depth conversation, as I am sure you can imagine.

The overtime kicked off and the Gophers continued to buzz the SCSU net. Many scoring opportunities passed and the puck finally left the SCSU zone. It entered the Gopher zone, was picked up and a very soft goal (like a fluffy pillow, on a fluffy bed floating on the fluffiest cloud) was scored on Frazee to win the game. The previously filled, screaming lungs of the Gopher fans deflated so fast that oxygen masks fell from above to keep everyone from passing out. It was over, 8-7 and SCSU would go on to face NoDak in the final where they would eventually lose in a good effort, 5-3.

The Gophers then played Wisconsin in the 3rd place game. The Gophers didn't even show up. They lost the match 4-0 and it was actually the most boring game I believe I have ever witnessed. That is all I have to say.

WCHA First Round Playoffs

Sunday brings the final games of the WCHA first round. North Dakota finds its legs and beats an up and coming Mankato team 3-0 to advance to the Final Five.

UMD and DU are also playing and as of this post UMD is crawling all over DU with a score of 4-1. Denver is in deep trouble and looks like they may not make the Final Five and will also lose a bid for the NCAA's. USCHO already shows DU out of the NCAA's and this game is not even over yet. That cannot be good. Click here to see the new bracket as of now.

St Cloud and CC are also playing and probably are in the 3rd period by now. I have no score at this time. I am looking though!

Outside of the WCHA, Bemidji State comes up with a huge game over Niagra (4-2) to win the CHA tournament for the second year in a row. Minnesota will play (at this point) the Bemidji Beavers in the first round of the NCAA tourney. With this win the Beavers bounced Niagra out of the NCAA's. I think the headline should read "Niagra Falls to Beavers". Get it? Falls? Niagra Falls? Oh forget it...there is no humor in blogging.

Found the SCSU and CC game. SCSU just scored at 6:50 in the third to go up 2-1! Go SCSU! Yahoo Sports Radio is where I am listening to this. The Internet is the greatest.

SCSU wins 3-1 at CC! SCSU will play UMD in the Play-In game on Thursday 3/16 at the XCEL Energy Center. UMD beat Denver tonight 5-2. I am heading to the Thursday game and what a battle it will be.

Final Five:

Play-In Game (3/16 @ 7:30 pm): SCSU and UMD

Friday (3/17 @ 2:30 pm): Wisconsin and NoDak

Friday (3/17 @ 7:30 pm): Minnesota and SCSU/UMD

Go Gophers!!

Dining at Osteria i nonni

On Saturday night #1 wife and I decided to take a 2nd mortgage on the house and dine at i nonni. It had recieved near rave reviews in the Mpls St Paul Magazine and being partial to good food we decided to give it a go. It is a very nice establishment with fine ambiance and a great wine list. At $12 a glass for a mediocre Barbera that barely covered the bottom of the glass the breadth of the wine list was sort of moot since I was reluctant to take out a 3rd for a second glass. A young lady named Nicole was our server and we never lacked for anything. The term jonny-on-the-spot was coined for this server. The olives and bread came standard and heavenly would be an appropriate term for both. The olives (done by them) are the closest thing to wedding nights for sheer pleasure and I had a bunch. The big greeks are the best but all were wonderful. #1 wife had an evening special salad of veggies with toasted pine nuts and goat cheese. I can't say she liked it but it is the first time she has ever licked a plate in a first class restaurant, and growled at me when I asked to taste it. Count 1 fan for the salad. She then had the spinach risoto w/shrimp and artichoke hearts which was met with considerably less enthusiasim, basically a thumbs down and the offer that I could taste all I wanted. That is always a telling sign. In my particular case I had the old Italian favorite, a pork shank with an unidentified side of something which I couldn't make out in the dark. The side of garlic potatos and mushrooms was acceptable but not for $6 bucks. Oh did I say it was all ala-cart. Yup the bill went up farther than a than a teeny boppers skirt, and faster too.

Overall though the experience was very nice and the food very good. We would not hesitate to go back especially with a little more experience with the menu.
6 stars out of 10

What a night in WCHA Hockey Playoffs

Final Scores from Game 1 of the WCHA Playoffs



Duluth upsets Denver in OT 3-2!! Huge Upset!!

Mankato upsets North Dakota in OT 3-2!! Another upset but the way Mankato is rolling it is not a suprise. North Dakota has lost its edge and maybe peaked to early in the season.

St. Cloud State upsets CC 2-1. Wow...another shocker! All three of these losses were against the home team.

Minnesota upends Alaska-Anchorage 7-4. This was a lopsided score but the game was not. AK really played well and the Gophers came out flat. Potulny gains his third hat trick of the season and fourth of his career. Gordon also had two goals on the night. They meet at Mariucci again tonight at 7pm CST.

Wisconsin rolled over Michigan Tech 4-1.

Outside of the WCHA a HUGE upset was Alaska-Fairbanks shocking Michigan State 2-1 in the begining of the CCHA tourney.

What a great night in Hockey! You can see the USCHO projected NCAA bracket for March 10th here.

WCHA Tournament Round 1:

Samsung SCH-a950 VCast Phone

Ok, imagine you are stuck on a deserted island with nothing but one palm tree, a monkey with a cold and your VCast phone. Now pull your head out of the gutter...

This is a nice phone. It has some weight to it and feels solid. The price is a little much ($79.99 with a 2 year contract and $129 with a one year contract) but still competitive. It has standard cell phone functionality but it really has a nice screen. Bright and clear (which it needs for the video) and the sound from the external speaker is not to bad.

This is a great phone if you are into watching re-runs of late night TV shows and cartoons (Bugs Bunny) from the early 80's. Gnarly. I am not sure if the phone actually streams video. It does buffer but...I don't know. Seems like it takes too long. It acts more like it is downloading vs. streaming. Once the video gets to the phone it is crystal clear. I was very impressed. The sound again was ok but plugged into the headphone jack it sounds much better.

This is the problem. The cheapest plan I could find on Verizons site was 1350 minutes for $79.99 a month. Add the VCast (which they push HUGE on their commercials) and you add $15 a month. Calculator says...$95 a month. Now add text messaging. The lowest plan is $10 per month and the highest is $20 a month. Calculator says...$105 to $115 a month. Ack!

You think that is the worst? Say you hear a really cool song on the radio and you want to download the music video to your VCast phone. $3.99 per song! Double ACK!! I don't think I am going to pay hip hop stars to jump around on my VCast phone for $3.99 a piece. Thy should pay me for the suffering I endure when listening to that garbage. Oh ya, that goes for country too. Blech!


On the outside of the phone is another color screen and a control panel so you can play, pause and skip forward or backward through your playlists. You can also connect headphones and it incorporates a set of stereo speakers.

The phone also has MicroSD (up to 1GB of data), Bluetooth and a Hi Res camera (1.3 Megapixel).

The SCH-a950 is available now and retails for $250.

NCAA Bracket as of March 5th

See it here.

Gophers and Bulldogs, Game 2

That is all she wrote, the fat lady has sung, the cow has left the barn, and Elvis, has indeed, left the building. He followed the Bulldogs out as they went back to Duluth with a 2-0 loss in Saturdays game against the Gophers. I do not envy the Bulldogs because now they start the WCHA playoffs in Denver and the Gophers host Alaska Anchorage.

Potulny got another 2 points tonight. He scored the game winning goal and an open net goal at the end of the game. He ended up 7 points shy of NCAA leader Scott Parse of UNO with 54 points on the season. The only difference is that 31 of those points...are goals. 23 are assists. Parse had 20 goals 41 assists. So Potulny does lead the NCAA's in goals over Brett Sterling from CC. Can you say Hobey Baker? I knew you could. I hope he wins it. He is having a great season.

Next Friday night it is the Sea Wolves and the Gophers at Mariucci. I am not going (so far) but I will be watching. This is the best of 3 but I don't think MN will need more than 2 to put the Sea Wolves away!

Go Gophers!!

Gophers and Bulldogs...It Wasn't Pretty

Oh those lowly Bulldogs. After the Gophers handed them their fifth straight loss tonight with a 7-0 romp, they tucked their tales and headed for the locker room. The Gophers dominated this game allowing only 1 shot on goal in the first period, 10 in the second and 10 in the third. One positive for the Bulldogs was the fact they outshot the Gophers in the 3rd period 10-7. That is definitely the only positive though.

The Gophers scored the first goal on a Ryan Potulny feed to Ryan Stoa at 9:31 of the first. This was the game winner. The second period had goals from Evan Kaufmann (2), Mike Vanelli and Ben Gordon. The third period brought another goal from Ryan Stoa and the final goal of the evening was scored by Danny Irmen. Overall, 11 Gophers had points on the night.

My lucky, unlucky, lucky and unlucky streak at this game. I was lucky enough to enjoy this evening with my wife and some of our friends. My wife and I were in the third row while our friends were another section over and up a few more rows. I was unlucky because the Gophers spent almost the entire 1st period shooting on the Bulldog goal on the other side of the rink from me. I was lucky when, in the 1st period, a puck came hauling over the glass and I actually caught it. My first official WCHA Golden Gopher puck! I was so excited! I was unlucky in the fact that I did not notice it bounced off the 20 year old girls melon in front of me. Once she was done wiping the tears, I handed her the puck. She was very thankful. I would not feel right keeping it. Heck, I only caught it because her head added some backspin to the puck, slowing it down and allowing me to hang on to it. It was the noble thing to do (damn it).

When it was all said and done, it was a fun evening. The Gophers won the game, a fight broke out at the end of the game, the MacNaughton Trophey was handed out, we sat in traffic, picked up the boy and went home. What more could you ask for?
Ladies and germs, this Gopher Hockey Team is the real deal. I honestly think this is a better team by far than the 2002 and 2003 NCAA champion teams. All I can say is...WOW. It is all theirs to win!

Go Gophers and good night from The Crustacean Nation!