KRAC Blog

I am filled with respect for someone who would pay £32,000 for a rare Dalmore 62 Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky and then drink it on the spot-- I just wish I'd been on the premises and had been offered a snort.

Given the choice, I'd have kept Bernie Williams. I see the Johnny Damon thing as a mistake for all concerned, motivated by George's desire to screw the Sox. Damon isn't going to like it in New York, and if he'd stayed in Boston he'd have had an ugly statue errected in his honor. Now he's just another guy who came through town, another Clemens, which is even worse.

"You can call us Aaron Burr from the way we're dropping Hamilton". Hilarious. I'd pay .99¢ to download it-- it's better than real rap.

Via Buffalo Runners.com, some upcoming events:

Mr. Ed's Super Bowl Warm Up is February 5th and will feature ChampionChip Timing this year. I don't know why, exactly, but I know that this improvement will make Tom Happy.

I thought about running the Lockport Y-10 last year, and didn't. I probably won't this year, either, but it's Saturday, February 11, 2006, and is also will be ChampionChip timed.

The 10th Polar Bear 5k will be held on Sunday, February 26, 2006 in Olcott. Beat the bear and your t-shirt says, "I beat the bear." If he beats you your shirt will read, "I can't believe the bear beat me." This sounds hilarious.

Out of context quote of the week, from "Judge Parker", via The Comics Curmudgeon: "Work them like a claw... and call me Randy." 

I for one cannot wait for the Super Bowl half time show. Any guesses on a set list? 

I'm still nursing my tibial tendionitis along-- every now and then I'll stumble over a curb, or turn funny in bed, and be treated to searing pain, but it's mostly okay when I run. I got fitted with new orthotics for it, but every time I run in them I end up blistered and bleeding, which obliges me to back off for a few days. Perhaps this is the healing secret of the orthotics-- they force me to rest. Whatever, it's getting old, and I'm getting restless.

Everybody likes to whine about their World Cup draw, but the way I see it, the Group of Death this year has to be Group E. The US is eighth ranked in the world and ends up playing #2 Czech Republic, Italy and Ghana.

Oh yeah, I forgot. No Soccer.

March 26, 2006. It's a Sunday, which is too bad, but still.

Supreme Court Injustice:
A Post-Withdrawal iTunes Playlist I Made
Mix and Liner Notes by Harriet Miers
October 27, 2005

01 Freedy Johnston: "Trying To Tell You I Don't Know"

I didn't! But now I do know: I never, ever should have bet my Supreme Court nomination on the goddamn Astros. Seriously, what the f*** was I thinking.

Prospect Park Turkey Trot results here. I felt strong at the last mile, so I left EGA to turn in a 49:49.68. She finished a minute behind.

Scientists in the UK have quantified the beer goggle effect. I love the idea of conducting a study along these lines, but wouldn't you hate to have been in the control group? (Via kottke.)

What I saw today that made me unreasonably happy: a black guy on the JFK monorail wearing a big ol' knit rasta cap, you know, red yellow green black-- and a Hartford Whalers jacket. I wanted to hug him like a brother.

Some NFL notes. Like any conversion experience there have been signpost moments along the way for me. Perhaps the first time I realized that I had abandoned the pain of rooting for the Jets was driving around somewhere in the Fall of 1989 listening to the Bills-Oilers game. The House of Pain had been a tough place to visit, and all of a sudden I realized that I really cared about the result. That sick, sour taste that I used to get listening to the Jets wasn't there, but my driving suffered-- I was speeding up and slowing down in a random seeming way that was actually tied to what Van was relating from second to second. If there'd been anyone else out driving, they'd have noticed, I guess, or maybe we all would have been synchronized.

I suppose I really knew in 1990, when I realized that I was completely rooting against my hometown Giants-- and feeling doomed as I did it.

But what really established me, I think, was that during the lean years that have followed I have been able to take solace in some otherwise miserable seasons when the Bills sweep Miami. Some years just beating Miami once is enough, but not this year-- there is no excuse for doing what they did to my Sunday afternoon today. Damn.

I think a lot of Bills fans are hoping the Colts go undefeated: anti-Dolphin schadenfreude extends backwards in time, across generations. I wonder though, if a Colts Super Bowl win would be as meaningful in a year where the Patriots are not likely to really be a factor. The way it looks today, the Lucky Charms will face either Denver (Jake Plummer-- deal with the Devil, or just waiting until the right moment to blow up?), Cincinnati (who wouldn't be pulling for the Bengals? Anyone who isn't colorblind, that's who) or whoever emerges from the AFC East. Oh yeah, Jacksonville is probably in the mix, too. There's a reason they play the games, but as good as Carolina looks, or Seattle, I suppose, without Bill Belichick will it really feel as though they have beaten the best?