Hubie Brown resigns as Grizzlies' head coach mid-season, destroying any chance of the Grizz ever getting Phil Jackson

Thanks a lot, Hubie. Head Coach Hubie Brown has resigned from the Grizzlies for health reasons. That's all fine and dandy, but couldn't he have done it before the season started, which was only less than a month ago? I always knew that Hubie wouldn't last long with the Grizzlies since he was the OLDEST head coach in the four major professional sports in America. But I was hoping that when he resigned that the Grizz could sign Phil Jackson, the greatest coach in NBA history. And plus, Jerry West and Phil Jackson know each other after having worked together for the Lakers. So Hubie was supposed to have quit IN-BETWEEN seasons so that Jerry West could pursue Phil Jackson. But NO, Hubie had to quit in the middle of the season. So now West is going to have to hurry up and find a replacement. Jackson probably already has his mind set on taking this season off now that it's started, so he probably won't be available. Now, I wish that West would just hire some dumbo coach for the remainder of the season, or let the interim coach Lionel Hollins coach the rest of the season, but no, West is probably going to hire somebody and sign them to a mulit-year contract. Then, next year, if Jackson comes back to the NBA, he'll probably sign with some other team for years, and we'll NEVER get him. Oh well. The Grizzlies have been going down the tubes all season anyway. I think last year's good season was a friggin' FLUKE.

By the way, the only person the media is talking about that's in the running for the coaches job right now is Mike Fratello. The Czar??? Oh, Lord...

Van Halen Shafts Memphis: Part Four - Final Shaft?

Well, the last show on the Van Halen tour was last week (Friday, November 19), even though on their website it still says ADDITIONAL CONCERTS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY. Hmmmm...wonder if they just forgot to take that blurb off? Anyway, the last concert added to the list was posted on October 11. So, unless Van Halen really IS going to "announce more concerts shortly," this was the final FU from Van Halen to Memphis!! And if it is, then I can finally say FU to Van Halen, too!!!

Grizzlies suckin' big time, prove last year's success a fluke

The Grizzlies have sucked and disappointed big time this year. They started off 0-4 (which included a loss in their first game at the FedExForum, in which they lost a NINETEEN-point lead to the Wizards), bounced back to win two games in convincing fashion, but then losing the next two games...and in that last loss, which was to the SuperSonics, they were ahead at one time by TWENTY-ONE points!! Tonight they play at Portland...wonder how big their lead will be before they lose tonight? HA HA!!

Halloween not on Halloween here

I just read this week's Osceola Times and it says that the city council has adopted a resolution stating that Halloween will not be held on October 31st this year, but will instead be held on October 30th. It doesn't say why, but obviously it's because October 31st is on a Sunday this year. The last two times October 31st was on a Sunday here, Halloween was also held on October 30th. But mysteriously, the previous years that October 31st was on Sunday, it was held on Sunday!!

Anyway, what kind of message does not having Halloween on Sunday send to children? That Halloween is devilish or something? No, the true evil is the possibility of making kids believe that that's true!! There's nothing wrong with Halloween!! It's an awesome day!! This "Halloween not on Sunday" crap REALLY makes me mad. I'm religious and I'm telling you right now that saying that Halloween can't be held on Sunday is wrong. But you know what's funny? American Greetings, which has it's largest factory right here in Osceola, makes and sells advertisements for their Halloween greeting cards that clearly state, "Halloween - Sunday, October 31st." HAHAHAHA!!!! And hey, the Osceola CITY COUNCIL adopted a RESOLUTION for HALLOWEEN??? What are they going to adopt a resolution on next, how much money the Tooth Fairy can leave under your pillow??

P.S. For more on this igmo subject, check out the bottom of my "Halloween 1993 dressed as Kiss" webpage.

Van Halen Shafts Memphis: Part Three

New show added Monday: Tucson, AZ. Still no Memphis. Date website says show was added: October 11. Date website actually showed that the new show was added: October 12. Hey, waitaminit...Tucson, AZ??? Didn't they just add that show last week? Indeed they did...and now they're adding ANOTHER one!!! And at the same venue, too! The...Anselmo Valencia Amphitheater. Oooookay...

R.I.P. Christopher Reeve (and I'll actually report on his Smallville role, too!)

Christopher Reeve died Sunday. I was shocked when I found out about it on USA Today.com Monday morning when I woke up. But I've also been shocked to discover that the mass media people haven't mentioned the two appearances in Smallville he's made the last couple of years!! He finally got a chance to return to the Superman mythos, and they aren't even reporting on it!! He didn't play Superman, but he was on the dad-gum show because he USED to play Superman! I mean, Superman is the reason Reeve got famous, and so you would think that him being on a Superman-related TV show would be newsworthy for his obituary. All of the mass media places that I saw Monday that talked about Reeve didn't mention Smallville at all, like USA Today.com, NBC Nightly News, Entertainment Tonight, and 20/20. And 20/20 even ran an entire HOUR-LONG tribute to him and failed to mention it! (Oh wait, USA Today.com did mention it...in it's list of TV appearances he's made over the years. They really tried to bring attention to it, huh?) KryptonSite, which is the best Smallville website, even commented on the media not talking about Smallville with regards to Reeve. The first time he was on Smallville, he even said that it was nice to do something fun for a change. So anyway, yet another example of comic book super hero stuff getting the shaft. Oh well...the media can kiss it since there are all kinds of super hero TV shows and movies coming out now! Report on THOSE, media! And we can thank Reeve for blazing the trail for making serious and cool super hero shows!

Van Halen Shafts Memphis: Part Two

New show added yesterday: Tucson, AZ (which is neither the capital nor the largest city in Arizona.) Still no Memphis (and Memphis is the largest city in Tennessee).

By the way, every time I see on the Van Halen website that a new show has been added to the tour, it always gives the date the show was added as the day before the date it's posted on the website. For example, I checked the list yesterday and there was no new date, but I checked the list today and there was a new date, but it says that the show was added on October 4, which was yesterday!! So either it's always the next day after a new concert is announced before the website gets around to updating the tour list, or they can't keep track of what day it is.

Van Halen Shafts Memphis: Part One

Van Halen, which recently got Sammy Hagar to come back, is on tour. (Thank goodness they got him to come back and not David Lee Roth again...I liked Roth with Van Halen, and I like Roth as a solo artist, but Sammy with Van Halen is so much better.) They've been on tour for a while, and they have many more shows to go, and they are adding shows on a regular basis, but Memphis is NOT YET ON THE LIST. Memphis, of course, being one of the major cities in the country, and with a BRAND SPANKING NEW arena, is being given the shaft. Instead, they have dates on the tour at...Worcester, MA...Moline, IL...Fargo, ND...Rapid City, SD...I mean, WTF??? Who has even HEARD of these cities??? And just yesterday, they added some more dates, and here they are. Let's see if Memphis is on the list! Milwaukee, WI...Ames, IA(??????????)...Wichita, KS...Fort Wayne, IN...Montreal, QE...and Hamilton, ON. Man, what's going ON??? Anyway, from now on, every time Van Halen adds new dates to the tour, I'm going to report them here...and I want everyone to marvel at how Memphis is getting screwed once again for no reason!!!

Shaq doesn't want Jordan at Age 41 to show him up

I heard last week that Jordan was thinking about going to play for the Miami Heat, which, of course, has Shaq now. Shaq said that Jordan had left him many messages, and he thinks it's because Jordan wants to play with the Heat. But Shaq and the teammates he talked to about it say that they're not interested in Jordan.

Not interested in Jordan?

Jordan, at 41, is better than most players at 31. And probably 21. I always knew that Shaq was a big fat dumb ass, but this just takes the cake. And now I'm going to have to call the teammates he "consulted" with big fat dumb asses, too. And since I don't know which players they are, I'll just throw them all in as being dumb asses.

The Jordan camp is saying that those calls to Shaq are just to try to get Shaq to come to Jordan's basketball camp. Which seems more like the truth to me. I mean, why would Mike want to play on a team with a big fat dumb ass?

HMMMMMM!!!!!! The Verse and the Chain

I received the following chain e-mail yesterday from someone I know:

Subject: HMMMMMM!!!!!!

The Lord has a way of revealing those of us who really know him, and those that don't! Think about it! Kerry gave a big speech last week about how his faith is so "important" to him. In this attempt to convince the American people that we should consider him for president, he announced that his favorite Bible verse is John 16:3. Of course the speech writer meant John 3:16, but nobody in the Kerry camp was familiar enough with scripture to catch the error. And do you know what John 16:3 says?

John 16:3 says; "They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me."

The Spirit works in strange ways. Pass it on and VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!

It sounded awfully familar to me. So I thought, "Either Gore and Kerry have the same speechwriter, or this is bogus!" So I went back and checked, and sure enough, another friend of mine had sent me the exact same e-mail before the 2000 presidential election...but back then, the name "Kerry" was substituted for "Gore"!! That made me go "HMMMMMM!!!!!!", just like the e-mail's subject header said!! So then I found the following webpage on a site about urban legends: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_kerry_john_3_16.htm. Turns out that neither Gore nor Kerry had ever said it. As a matter of fact, President Bush has recently been accused of stating the exact same quote, but he didn't say it either. But do you know who REALLY said the quote? It was Bush's father, the FIRST President Bush, speaking at a religious broadcasters' conference in 1990!

So anyway, I made sure that everyone got filled in on the truth, including the dude who sent me the letter four years ago, the dude that sent me the letter yesterday, and all the other people the dude from yesterday sent the letter to. I mean, if people like one political party or the other, that's fine, but when they start making up bad stuff about the politicians from the other party using God's Name, and then forward chain e-mails that state those lies without checking their facts first, that's not very nice.

So, as the e-mail stated, the Spirit really DOES work in strange ways! ;-)

Super Hero Cavalcade

Just got finished watching last weekend's Justice League Unlimited. The new format for the show, showcasing MANY different super heroes and villians from the DC comics universe, is nothing short of brilliant! Since DC (and Marvel for that matter) has a gazillion different cool heroes and villians that have been created over the years, it's an awesome idea to showcase the lesser-known characters on television. I mean, just in this episode, they had the Phanton Stranger, the Red Tornado, Elongated Man, and...B'wanna Beast!! B'wanna Beast, for Pete's sake!! And being the big DC fan I am, I knew them all, and it was cool! I've always wondered why, when DC has had other TV shows and movies about their super heroes, when those shows would have super hero or villian guest stars, they would sometimes create brand-new ones, when the comics had a TON of ones to choose from! I mean, if you're making a movie or show on a previously existing super hero ANYWAY, then that means that it's ALREADY an adaptation, so just keep adapting! So anyway, Justice League Unlimited has it right. (Now, if they'd just start turning some of those characters into movies or live-action shows, like Marvel's been doing, everything will be fine. I heard the other day that Aquaman was being considered for a movie, which would be awesome, but...I'll believe it when I see it.)

LeBron wins bronze, so call him LeBronz

The United States basketball team, made up entirely of NBA players, won the bronze metal yesterday. Of course, if the BEST players in the NBA would have played on the team, instead of just these jokers, not only would they have won the gold, they would have slaughtered everyone else. So where was everybody? Where was Tracy McGrady? Vince Carter? Shaq-daddy? Jailbird Kobe? MVP Kevin Garnett? They all suck. Not enough money in it or something? Or were they just lazy asses like Craig Kilborn is for quitting his talk show?

Craigers Quits

Craig Kilborn quit his talk show Friday night. Lazy ass. I actually watched his show sometimes when I could. Now what's he going to do, go back to SportsCenter?

Sea-Monkey murderer

The Sea-Monkeys that I birthed July 1 (as detailed in my July 1 column) are all visiting Davy Jones's locker. And I did the deed! Y'see, when I had Sea-Monkeys before, I put them in my window. Well, in the instructions I got with this batch, it said to put them in a room where there is indirect light, but not in direct sunlight. But I said, "Phooey! I put them in direct sunlight before, and I'm doing it again! Cause I'm having to keep them in my showcase now to keep my cat from knocking them over, and they probably aren't getting much light or air!" So, I put them in my window. The next day...they were all dead! Maybe the other Sea-Monkeys I had weren't put in a window in the summertime like these were, or maybe these new Sea-Monkeys are just wussies! So anyway, I still put some Plasma III in it, cause that's supposed to make more eggs survive or something, and voila! A few days later there were more Monkeys! Then they died, too! Anyway, this all happened a while back, but I just today got around to cleaning out the tank. Guess I thought some more would pop up. Oh, well...the next time I get some Monkeys, maybe I'll get one of those two space-related containers. And this time, I'll follow directions!

Cool Adaptation

This weekend's episode of Justice League Unlimited, "For the Man Who Has Everything," was a direct adaptation of Superman Annual #11 from 1985, a story by the same name. I remember reading it when it first came out and it was always one of my favorites.

Revenge of the Sith

I found out today that the name of the new Star Wars movie that's coming out next year will be "Revenge of the Sith"...just like I predicted years ago!  I always thought that that name would be a nice parallel to the OTHER third movie in the OTHER Star Wars trilogy, "Return of the Jedi."  Not long ago, there was a rumor that "Revenge of the Sith" would be the name of the new movie, but I had already thought of the name years ago.  And to prove it, check out my second post on the following thread at TheForce.net, which was posted two years ago:  http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=7591808&start=7597051.  (My user name is penzargrat.)  I'm not sure when I thought of the title, but it was even before that thread.

When I was kid, I remember writing down on a sheet of paper the names of all six Star Wars movies...of course, I had to leave the names of one through three blank.  But now, twenty or so years later, if I still had that sheet of paper, I could finally fill in all six blanks!

Big Money!!

I cashed my check today that I received from the Florida Lottery Monday!!  And it was for a whopping ONE DOLLAR!!  WOOOO WEE!!!!  To find out why I got a check for a whole dollar from the Florida Lottery, check out my June 29th entry!

Splitsville for the Lake Show

Shaq's probably going to Miami? I don't even care if Kobe goes or stays, now, the Lake Show is FINISHED. And Phil Jackson isn't going to take that job that the Lakers offered him, either. Turns out Buss offered him a position as a vice president. I'm glad that Jackson isn't going to have ANYTHING to do with the Lakers any more.

The REAL Lord of the Rings

Cassini entered orbit around Saturn last night and has been sending back cool pictures of the planet's rings! And when they colorize the pictures they'll be even cooler!

Sea-Monkey Business

I just birthed me some Sea-Monkeys! I've had Sea-Monkeys a lot of different times before, but this is the first time I've had any in a while. I got these Saturday while I was at Ripley's Believe It or Not. I would have gotten them a long time ago, but I was waiting until I found the "Plasma II" packet included with them, cause it's supposed to help them grow bigger, or have more of the eggs hatch, or something. But this set had "Plasma III," so I said, "Even better!" So anyway, I just dumped the "Instant Live Eggs" pack in the tank, and voila: itty-bitty baby Sea-Monkeys squiggling around!

Included in the box is a little catalog that shows two cool Sea-Monkey tanks that are available: "Space Shuttle Expedition," shaped like the Discovery, and "On Mars," which has a Martiany landscape in it. I wish I had known about those before I bought my tank, cause I would've gotten one of those two instead. But I got the "Ghostly Galleon," which has a sunken ship in it. Oh well, it still looks pretty cool.