the pod bay door

Marvelous, totally brilliant. The curse is over, the 86-year drought is finished, and the Yankee fans can no longer scream, “1918”. Instead, they can put a sock in it. Johnny Pesky, Bill Buckner, Bob Stanley, Calvin Schiraldi – all is forgiven.

Sweet.

:: Man, what a fall classic we have on our hands. With the Red Sox Nation ahead 3-0 in the World Series, everyone, and I mean everyone knows better than to assume the Sox will win it all tomorrow, or on Thursday, or on the weekend, breaking their 86-year drought. We’ve seen it not happen too many times before. But migod – you could taste it tonight. You could taste it in the late innings of the game, when it became apparent St Louis wouldn’t mount a comeback, and you knew the Sox would win Game 3. The Cardinals are almost an afterthought tonight. I want the Sox to win, badly. Do I think they’ll do it? Maybe. Y’see, when you pull for the Sox, or the Cubs, or White Sox for that matter, you assume nothing, and follow the Berra rule: it ain’t over ’till it’s over.

The sheer, crystalline beauty of what the Sox accomplished against the Yankees last week can’t be celebrated and savored enough. Yes, the Yankees have 26 WS titles, and no other MLB team has more than 9 – St Louis, oddly enough, is that team. If the Red Sox win, they will move into third place, with 6 WS titles. In 1986, the Sox were within one strike of the title, with a 2-run lead, and found ways to lose. It wasn’t Buckner’s fault, his was the last in a series of mistakes made by the team. In the ALCS last week, the Sox turned the tables on themselves – down to three outs away from being swept, they tied the game against arguably the best relief pitcher in baseball, clawing back in extra innings to win Games 4 and 5 at home, anchored by their own version of flawless relief pitching. Game 6 saw Schilling’s miraculous turn, and in Game 7, the icing on the cake: a 6-0 lead after two innings, allowing baseball fans across Planet Earth to watch both teams set records: one for the greatest comeback, and one for the greatest choke in 100 years of baseball playoffs. The overpriced Yankees were absolutely humiliated in their home park while hundreds of millions of fans watched worldwide. It was a stunner.

The first WS was held in 1903. Boston beat Pittsburgh. There was no WS in 1904, and in 1994, it was cancelled. Thus, 2004 is the 100th WS. How fitting it would be for the Sox to bookend 100 years of World Series play with victories at both ends of the playoff century.

Hell hasn’t frozen over yet, but the temperature is approaching sub-zero.

Also posted to Blogcritics.

:: And God smiled on Boston. Yeehaw!

:: It started snowing on Friday night in Edmonton, and continued throughout Saturday. When it snows this early, not even one month into autumn, the only word that comes to mind for me is: offensive. It’s too early!! All we can do is hope that it melts before it gets too cold for that to happen.

:: Jon Stewart, currently the co-author of the #1 best selling non-fiction book in the USA, was on Crossfire last week, and was brutal in his assault on the show itself. Rather than appear on the show in his role as a comedian, as Tucker Carlson apparently expected, he tore into both Carlson and co-host Paul Begala for the show’s lack of journalism ethics. The video of the segment is available on iFilm – if you are running Norton Internet Security 2003, you’ll need to disable it in order to get the film to play.

Read “Jon Stewart Bitchslaps CNN’s ‘Crossfire’ Show“, on the MTV web site. Stewart leveled into Crossfire, accusing the co-hosts of being “partisan hacks”. But Stewart saved the best for last, when Carlson said to him: “I do think you’re more fun on your show“, to which Stewart replied, “You know what’s interesting, though: you’re as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.” From the MTV article:

“What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery,” Stewart said. “You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.

“I watch your show every day, and it kills me. It’s so painful to watch,” Stewart added as it became apparent that the comedian was not joking. He went on to hammer the network, and the media in general, for its coverage of the presidential debates. Stewart said it was a disservice to viewers to immediately seek reaction from campaign insiders and presidential cheerleaders following the debates, noting that the debates’ famed “Spin Alley” should be called “Deception Lane.”

“The thing is, we need your help,” Stewart said. “Right now, you’re helping the politicians and the corporations and we’re left out there to mow our lawns.”

While the audience seemed to be behind Stewart, Begala and Carlson were both taken aback. The hosts tried to feed Stewart set-up lines hoping to draw him into a more light-hearted shtick, but Stewart stayed on point and hammered away at the show, the hosts, and the state of political journalism. Carlson grew increasingly frustrated, at first noting that the segment wasn’t “funny,” and later verbally sparring with the comedian.

“You’re not very much fun,” Carlson said. “Do you like lecture people like this, or do you come over to their house and sit and lecture them; they’re not doing the right thing, that they’re missing their opportunities, evading their responsibilities?”

“If I think they are,” Stewart retorted.

The conversation reached its most heated moment when Carlson said to Stewart, “I do think you’re more fun on your show,” to which Stewart replied, “You’re as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.”

The transcript of the show is available, as is Carlson’s reaction.

God bless Jon Stewart and The Daily Show. It is simultaneously funny and sad that at least 21% of people under 30 in the USA consider The Daily Show and SNL as sources for presidential campaign news.

:: I’ve been volunteering at the EIFF since Wednesday, working in the “Industry Centre”, and picking up a few delegates at the airport. I’ve seen two pictures so far, P.S. and Primer.

:: Commenting on the last post, Derryl suggested that I take one for the team, and try to see a movie tonight or tomorrow, to keep “the streak” alive. Tonight didn’t happen, but I’m planning to see Shaun of the Dead tomorrow night. I’ll be in pain, however.

:: You see, last night, in the midst of another coughing fit, I felt a sharp, stinging pain in the front of my left rib cage, in the region the last rib. The pain was incredible, and it hurt every time I coughed after that, or anytime I had to do anything involving the muscles in that area. This morning, I had four x-rays, which revealed clear lungs, and no evidence of rib problems. However, a radiologist needs to study the x-rays closely to determine if I cracked a rib. If not, then the pain is due to cartilege damage from that one particular cough.

I’m on a steriod inhaler to try to quiet the cough, which the physician said is residual from whatever virus I had, and is taking a long time to leave my lungs. No anti-inflammatories yet. And of course, no workouts, now for over five weeks.

All of this is really making the fall suck badly. As Dr Smith would say, “Oh the pain, the pain…”

:: And we wonder why we get so much spam. I hope they nail this guy’s butt to the wall.

AOL EMPLOYEE BUSTED FOR STEALING E-MAIL ADDRESSES

Jason Smathers, a 24-year-old employee of America Online, has been charged with stealing the e-mail addresses of 92 million AOL customers and selling them to spammers. Under a new federal anti-spam law, he faces the prospect of as many as five years in prison plus a fine of $250,000. The stolen information includes not only e-mail addresses but also telephone numbers, ZIP codes and the type of credit card the customers use (though not the actual credit card numbers, which are kept by AOL in a separate database). The company says: “We deeply regret what has taken place and are thoroughly reviewing and strengthening our internal procedures as a result of this investigation and arrest.”(New York Times 24 Jun 2004) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/technology/24spam.html

From: Newscan Daily, 24 June 2004.