Awesome Old Song of the Week: "Lightning Crashes" by Live

In 1994 the band Live released and album called "Throwing Copper."  It was one of the cooler CD's to come out during my junior year of high school; and it was something you had to own in order to have any chance of being cool yourself.  Even though it was a little bit loud and angry for my tastes, I still listened to it a ton anyways.

My favorite song from the disc was one of the calmer ones, called Lightning Crashes.  It's lyrics can be a little creepy though, particularly when the word "placenta" jumps right out at you in the second line.





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I'm skeptical about this New Jersey/TGI Fridays liquor scam story

Yesterday a couple of people told me about this news story from New Jersey that's being referred to as "Operation Swill."  Apparently 29 bars (13 of them TGI Fridays) in the Garden State have recently been discovered to be replacing the liquor in their bottles with something other than the proper booze.  This NY Times article says the state ABC (Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control) collected 150 samples from 63 bars suspected of scamming people, 30 of which were not what they were supposed to be.

I have worked in a lot of bars in my day, and as far as I know, none of them have ever put anything else in the bottles.  But that isn't the part of the story that's hard for me to believe.  The thing I'm skeptical about is that all the reports I've read covering this have led with the fact that one bar supposedly sold a scotch that was actually just "rubbing alcohol and food coloring."

I need hear more about this; I want to know what bar it was, and how they pulled it off.  I'd like to see all the details of the ABC's report, and I want an interview with the perpetrators.  Because getting away with selling rubbing alcohol as scotch just seems impossible.

I'm not a scotch guy.  It's one of my least favorite types of liquor.  But I can still say with 100% certainty that there is absolutely no way anyone could put a glass of rubbing alcohol in front of me and sell it as scotch.  Logic would dictate that those who do like scotch should be even less inclined to be duped.  On the other hand, I can't say I really know anything about people who would order a "well" scotch at a TGI Fridays in Jersey...

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Wrestling may not be dead after all

Should a wrestler fight a wushu-er for inclusion in the Olympics?

I'm not talking about the theater involving 'roided up guys in speedos yelling into cameras and hitting each other with folding chairs.  I'm referring to the actual sport of wrestling that goes back to the ancient Greeks and the very first Olympic Games.  In February the IOC (International Olympic Committee) announced that they would be eliminating wrestling from the games in 2020.

I'm not a wrestling fan.  I couldn't care less about it.  But I thought it was a terrible decision by the IOC to drop it, because an Olympic gold medal is the greatest possible achievement in that sport.  In some Olympic events the athletes competing have greater goals in mind, and those sports are less deserving.

Today IOC President Jacques Rogge said that wrestling's governing body has "made the necessary changes" to potentially save it's place in the Olympics.  Wrestling is now competing with squash, baseball/softball, "roller sports," karate, wushu (another martial art), and wakeboarding for a spot in the games in 2020 and going forward.  This should be a tough battle; to me nothing says "Olympics" like wushu and wakeboarding.

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Why don't all motorcycles have mufflers?

I just don't get it.  It's illegal for cars to drive around without mufflers, so why don't the same laws apply to motorcycles?  And while I'm on the subject, I don't understand why anyone who owns motorcycles would chose to go without them.  The same painfully loud noises that irritate everyone else within a hundred yards have got to also be pretty annoying to the driver too, right?

And philosophically speaking, it blows my mind that any human being can think it's reasonable to make a choice for their own pleasure (especially something like this with no measurable gain) that is so clearly detrimental to everyone else around them.  It's like being the "loud cell phone talker" on the bus to the power of ten.

Related: It should cost $1 every time you honk your car horn

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It's time for the Super Bowl to ditch the Roman numerals already

The big news of the day is that the NFL has just decided to play the 50th Super Bowl in the San Francisco Bay area in 2016.  But the stupid thing about it is the fact that it is referred to as "Super Bowl L."  And even stupider is "Super Bowl LI," chosen to take place in Houston in 2017.  Nice job NFL opening the door to a bunch of idiotic Chinese jokes.

Back when I was 9 years old I had an awesome Patriots vs. Bears Super Bowl XX shirt (very similar to the one pictured).  And ten years later when the Cowboys and Steelers met in Super Bowl XXX, the Roman numerals were still pretty cool.  But you know what isn't cool?  Trying to figure of what next year's Super Bowl XLVIII is.  The numbers are just too big now, and nobody knows what they are anymore.  Get over yourself NFL.

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The 18 greatest Boston Celtics of all-time

People love lists.  As far as I know I've never done a list post before.  It's about time.  So without further ado, here are the top 18 Boston Celtics in franchise history:

18.  Danny Ainge

18, 2, 16, 8, and 9

17.  Frank Ramsey
16.  Dennis Johnson
15.  Kevin Garnett
14.  Cedric Maxwell
13.  Bill Sharman
12.  K.C. Jones
11.  Jo-Jo White
10.  Paul Pierce
  9.  Robert Parrish
  8.  Kevin McHale
  7.  Tommy Heinsohn
  6.  Sam Jones
  5.  Dave Cowens
  4.  Bob Cousy
  3.  John Havlicek
  2.  Larry Bird
  1.  Bill Russell

Obviously this list is extremely subjective and up for immense debate.  It's hard to factor the value of longevity for a guy like Pierce, who has 10 All-Star appearances and is the second leading scorer in club history (behind Havlicek), but won just a single title and was often the best player on bad teams.  And how do you rate someone such as Garnett (also just one title in only 6 seasons in Boston, but he changed the entire culture of the franchise at the time and was the driving force for that single championship) compared to Frank Ramsey; who won 7 titles but always as a complimentary player?

If you're wondering why I chose to list the top 18, I could be witty and say it represents the elusive championship banner #18 we're hoping to hang in the rafters.  But it actually comes from an article I wrote yesterday for Celtics Life: "Where do Paul Pierce & Kevin Garnett rank on the list of all-time Celtics?"  Eighteen just happened to be as far back as I thought it was worth discussing to find out where KG fit.  Take a look at that piece in order to get some insight as to how this list turned out the way it did.

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Do you know what this is?

No, I don't have magical and/or supernatural powers.  And it's not a giant alien spaceship getting ready to attack either.  It was a circular shaped rainbow around the sun that was visible on Martha's Vineyard for the past two days.  Apparently it's called a "sun halo," and it's something that happens on occasion when sunlight reflects at a certain angle through ice crystals that are present in very high thin clouds.


So there's my 9th grade Earth Science update for the day.  I remember seeing this once before several years ago, oddly enough also while I was on the Vineyard.  It feels kind of lame that I've written about weather related things 2 of the last 3 days; but they also both seemed worthwhile.  I'll get back to sports tomorrow.  Also I can't believe Independence Day came out 17 years ago.



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