Cup of Coffee

May 2, 2013: Opening Round

85 Comments

By the end of the first round of the NBA and NHL playoffs, they start to feel like they've been going on for a while. These staggered schedules just grind things to a halt.

85 thoughts on “May 2, 2013: Opening Round”

  1. Reposted from late last night:
    I know no one's interested in reading anything new about Tim Tebow, but you really should read this: an excerpt from his 2024-published memoirs, about his first year in the CFL. Jon Bois must have a time machine and this is what he brought back.

    Up there with Bois's Mike Sweeney article in the highest level of things that people have ever written about sports. (If you haven't read that, get to it now. If you haven't read it lately, why not now?)

  2. Has anyone found video of Dazzle catching a (Arcia) foul ball in yesterday's game? He apparently showed good range, fielding it through Provus' window, and broke his watch on the play.

    1. I enjoy your writing on these, SoCal.
      You're measured, explaining both why things are likely the way they are and also going into whether those trends are likely to be sustainable.
      You're not over-confident that things will continue, but also not that they can't. If one of the local papers had your columns and I didn't know who you were, I'd be praising the hiring of someone taking this approach.

      Keep up the good work and please keep linking us to them.

      1. I enjoy these as well, but how do you insulate yourself from the comments section?

        1. I don't read them. In fact, we're told not to comment on our own articles.

          1. Sage advice. I've seen writers on professional sites defend themselves (and sometimes even go on the offensive) in the comments section and they always come off looking the worse for it.

              1. As usual, Neil Gaiman is the voice of reason:

                I agree with Neil Gaiman's point that the Sams affair is "a horrible car crash [and] if any of you are ever tempted to respond to bad reviews or internet trolls etc, it's a salutary reminder of why some things are better written in anger and deleted in the morning"

                I remember reading something similar, but perhaps less crazy, recently about an author who lashed out under a dopey internet name because he couldn't help himself. Michael Crichton, maybe? He did a lot of bizarre things to his perceived enemies - he once wrote someone who he didn't agree with politically into a short story and made the character a pedophile, which might be the most childish thing I've ever heard of a writer doing. I'm also remembering...Scott Adams of Dilbert? Maybe that's my memory playing with me.

                1. I think Crichton's been dead long enough that it probably wasn't him.

                  I remember hearing many years ago that Piers Anthony kept a list of everyone who wrote in to him that said anything derogatory about his work.

                  1. Crichton definitely did that thing that I mentioned. I just don't know if he also commented online about himself. He's only been dead for two years or so, right? Three?

                  1. Yup, he sure did. I'm sure he's not the only one, but his was pretty blatant, IIRC.

    2. sorry to ask a crass question, socal, but do you mind talking about what they pay? I noticed in their terms & conditions, Yahoo is careful to claim a lot for themselves but explicitly states that there is no guarantee of payment. I presume that just means they only pay if they publish, but....

      1. I get paid on these per page view, so it's all based on performance. So far, very little. They do give out monetary awards for things like article of the year and writer of the year, which can be significant. I can choose my topic and when I write it, but the article goes through an editor and needs to be approved, which hasn't proved difficult. There supposedly are occasionally prepaid articles in which you are given the topic for it and you get paid a set amount, but I haven't seen any yet and it sounds like they don't pay a whole lot, but it is guaranteed money, at least.

        1. INdependent page views (from different IP addresses)??? 😉

          keep linking.

  4. Miss SBG last night, through tears: We won't be able to have our fourth of July party because there will be snow!

    2. I was pleasantly surprised to not see any snow on the ground this morning.

          1. I saw your pic. Wowza.
            I think EAR would have driven to Arkansas or something if that had happened to us.
            Not sure if she would have brought the kids.

  6. RIP Chris Kelly, half of Kirss Kross.

    Hearing "Jump" on the radio this morning brought me right back to junior high. My question is: anyone here actually wear their clothes backward at the height of this trend?

    1. I had a juco basketball teammate who used to wear his shorts backwards in practice. I guess he thought he was cool. But that was a decade earlier.

    2. A picture accompanying the article shows that they apparently performed as recently as three months ago (with the backwards pants...I suppose they'd have to). That's surprising.

      I couldn't stand them at the time, though as insipid as their lyrics were, they could definitely rap. At this age I figured they'd be out of the woods as far as famous kids who grow up too soon and get into bad stuff, but the demons followed him. It's a shame...he was younger than I am.

  7. John Beard, the news anchor on "Arrested Development", has a show here in Buffalo now. I just saw the commercial and was like "Huh? The AD dude?" Turns out he's a real news anchor.

    1. I thought he came off as one, and I've never seen him in anything else, so I suppose I'm not surprised. I greatly enjoyed his casual delivery.

      1. Right. Just close your eyes and listen to every one of his AD lines and you could be convinced pretty easily it was actually Jeff Passolt.

    2. The guy who played one of the news anchors in "Volcano" is an actual L.A. news anchor.

    2. It really bums me out that the guy plays for the Tigers, destroys the Twins, and is signed for another 7 years. I want to like him, but I just can't. I detest that team with a capital Olde English D.

      1. It's one thing to not like him, it's another to not hate him. With ii on the Tigers, they're reaching B!tch Sox depths, but at least Verlander hasn't been a douche. Just really d@mn good*

        *I'd like to think Johan was like this to other teams during his halcyon years

        1. He's one of the only players I don't hate on the team. I kind of really liked Prince Fielder before I had to watch him swing off his heels 75 times a year against the Twins. I'm torn how I feel about him now. But ii, Jhonny Peralta, Victor Martinez, Douchey McDancealot, and king scumbag Miguel Cabrera make the team so detestable it sort of rubs off on Prince.

          2. I still like Fielder just fine and I rather like Verlander, which wasn't always true. The Tigers are...hard for me to deal with, emotionally.

  11. A question for the musically inclined:

    Was sheet music originally made for piano or some other instrument? Because I find it troubling that "middle C" is important, but then the middle line is "B" on the trebel clef.

    1. I don't know for what instrument sheet music was first made, but it actually makes perfect sense for the piano. Because middle C is exactly between the treble clef and the bass clef (one line below the bottom line of the treble clef and one line above the top line of the bass clef), just as it's in the middle of the keyboard.

    2. Ummmm, I think you're missing the point here. Middle C is right in the middle between the bass clef and the treble clef. None of the actual lines on the staff is more important than any of the others, certainly not the middle one. I'm sure there are other reasons for it, but Middle C is a fairly convenient dividing line between male voices and female voices as well.

      1. I know that no one line is more important than the other. It's just when I see a note on the middle line, my mind jumps to C because of the "middle" connection. But now that I know the reason middle C is called middle C, I should be able to work this out.

        It's not enough for me to know "what", I need to know "why". Sort of like me and cooking. I need a piano Alton Brown. So thank you both for your enlightening info.

        1. I should add that while I know the middle line isn't more important in a musical sense, I'm still using it as a reference for the A and C spaces. I'm not to the point where I see the gap and say "A" or "C", it's still (Middle line -/+ one note). Once I don't have to think in such a convoluted way, that should help to.

  14. AP Sources: Glen Taylor is not picking up David Kahn's option and is finalizing a deal to make Flip Saunders #TWolves new president.— Jon Krawczynski (@APkrawczynski) May 2, 2013

    1. Since the Wolves are bringing back a former coach in a new capacity, might I suggest they hire Rambis to clean up the stands after home games.

      1. As little relevant experience as Bill Simmons has, his resume was just as good as Kahn's.

        I actually think it would be interesting to see what he could do as a GM. The problem is that he has already insulted all the bad GMs so he would have trouble making any trades.

        1. I would expect Rubio and Love to be traded to the Celtics for KG and Rondo within hours of Simmons becoming the Wolves' GM.

    1. I do not like the opposition's all-white kits with blue socks. Something looks very wrong about it.

    2. Assuming Chelsea wins the Europa title (they will be favored but don't put anything past this team) they would hold both the Europa Title and the Champions League Title together for 10 days.

  16. Make sure to back up the bus to run them over again, David.

    2. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

  17. Who has two thumbs and free tickets Trombone Shorty's show tonight This guy.

  18. anyone watching the St Louis-LA Kings hockey game? Dustin Brown is a punk. Skating across the middle, he stuck his leg out (which landed) AND threw a flying elbow (which missed the Blues player head by inches) and only got a 2 min penalty.
    If you remember, Brown is the one who elbowed Pominville and he has (what I assume is) a concussion since he didnt fly to CHicago.

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