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Let’s keep Chipper playing!!

Posted on October 5, 2012 by admin

The Braves and the Cardinals meet today at 5:07 pm in Atlanta for the National League Wild Card playoff game. Kris Medlin is pitching for Atlanta and that means good things (23-0 with him as starter!). Here’s hoping Atlanta and Chipper can stay alive!

The American League Wildcard Playoff Game will feature Baltimore at Texas and will begin at approximately 8:37 pm this evening.

Again, GO BRAVES!

Last nights results: After a sketchy start, USC poured it on and beat Utah 38-28. In NFL action, St. Louis knocked Arizona quarterback Kevin Kolb all over the place and in a bit of an upset, won 17-3.

Huge College Football weekend in store for us tomorrow!!

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It’s a scary world after all…

Posted on October 4, 2012 by susan

SI.com (Sports Illustrated) is reporting that death threats were made against Roger Federer. Roger is in China with his wife and two twin daughters preparing to play in the Shanghai Master Tournament next week. The threat was reportedly made by an anonymous blogger. There was a picture of a decapitated Federer depicted by the blogger, with Federer on his knees on a tennis court with a black clad hooded figure with an ax pictured beside him. Security has been increased and the police have been notified so apparently the threat is being taken seriously and extra precautions are being taken to protect him as well as the other tennis players who are there to participate in the tournament.

Are there enough adjectives to describe this?? Beyond shocking, gross, disgusting, pathetic, horrifying, absurd, where do you stop. Hopefully, the tournament will go off next week with no problems. Still, just the fact that something like this appears to be true is quite troubling, what a world, huh????

Posted in Human Interest, rumors, Tennis | Comments Off

A Triple Crown Winner and bye bye Valentine!

Posted on October 4, 2012 by admin

For the first time in forty five years, we have a Triple Crown Winner in MLB (no, not horse racing!) Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera has achieved this distinction and joins the ranks of other notables such as Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle and Frank Robinson. Some pretty lofty company he is keeping now! Congratulations to him!

Breaking MLB news earlier today: The Boston Red Sox have fired manager Bobby Valentine after one year. Is this any surprise. No! There was such a huge disconnect between him and the players, had he stayed, the players would have been jumping ship like it was the Titanic! Still, hard to feel Valentine is the ONLY reason for the Red Sox disappointing season.

College Football news: UGA receiver Micheal Bennett is out for the season. Big loss for them (although they are so deep everywhere) as he was their leading receiver. He tore an ACL in practice this past Tuesday so they will head to Columbia, SC this weekend to face the Gamecocks without him.

College Football game tonight features 13 USC (that would be the real USC, the one in Southern California) vs. Utah.

NFL Thursday night game is Arizona vs. St. Louis. Interesting flip flop between these two teams. Years ago, the Cardinals were in St. Louis, and the Rams, were out on the west coast, formerly the LA Rams. Just a little tid-bit from NFL years past!

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Half The Sky part 2

Posted on October 3, 2012 by admin

I have not had the opportunity to watch this important documentary in detail yet. That being said, some interesting observations from part 2 are as follows;

Diane Lane spent time in Somaliland where 1 in 12 women die giving birth! Moreover, and more horrifying, a lot of time was devoted to detailing the horrifying genital mutilation of young girls in this part of world.

America Ferrera traveled throughout India and observes and meets with a woman (Urmi Basu) who attempts to encounter young girls in dangerous alleyways and discourage them from heading down the road of prostitution. She is devoted to breaking the caste system that currently exists there.

Lighter TV update: On Parenthood, another Friday Night Lights alum appears as a guest star, the cute Luke who plays a confused and struggling veteran returning from several tours of duty in Afghanistan.

Posted in Human Interest, tv shows | Comments Off

No More Flopping…

Posted on October 3, 2012 by admin

The NBA has announced an anti-flopping rule for the upcoming season. They plan to enforce this through replay video review. Here’s to hoping that works out…

The preseason College Basketball poll is out today…the dubious honor of the number ranking goes to…Indiana. Good luck with that!

It is Baseball Time, or better yet, time for the Boys of October! Likely American League contenders will be as follows: Oakland A’s (shout out to Billy Bean and Moneyball and Brat Pitt!), Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, and Baltimore Orioles. The division winners and the wild card teams not yet determined, going down to the wire.

The National League will offer: Washington Nationals, San Francisco Giants (shout out to my buddy from Surviving Paradise, Paul Turk!), Cincinnati, Atlanta Braves (YES!), and St. Louis Cardinals. The Braves and the Cardinals will meet this Friday to determine who advances to the NLDS. The Braves will be starting Kris Medlin. The Braves are 23-0 with Kris Medlin starting, a National League record!!! Let’s go Braves!

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Matt Ryan for MVP!!

Posted on October 2, 2012 by admin

Mike and Mike on ESPN show are calling Matt Ryan, QB for the Atlanta Falcons the top candidate for NFL MVP this year. They call it the year of “Matty Ice”! I like it!! Go Falcons!

More NFL news: Old friends will be reuniting this weekend as Peyton Manning and the Broncos visit Tom Brady and the New England Patriots this weekend. Should be a good one, I am pulling for Peyton!

Early College Football preview for this weekend: 2 Oregon vs. 23 Washington, 4 LSU vs. 10 Florida, 5 UGA vs. 6 South Carolina, 8 West Virginia vs. 11 Texas, Miami vs. 9 Notre Dame (relevant again?), 21 Nebraska vs. 12 Ohio State and finally, Georgia Tech vs. 15 Clemson (HELP US please!!). Is Geno Smith of WVU the frontrunner for the Heisman? As of right now, probably so!! Early prediction: South Carolina will beat UGA in Columbia, SC. We shall see…

More tennis news: Roger Federer confirms he will indeed play the Shanghai Rolex Masters event next week. Clearly Roger is gunning for the number one ranking at year end. He intends to give Djokovic a race to the finish at the ATP World Finals in London and h0pefully retain his number 1 ranking. Here ‘s to hoping he succeeds!!! GO ROGER!!

Posted in ESPN, football, Mike and Mike, sports figures | Comments Off

Honey Boo Boo et al is getting a raise?

Posted on October 2, 2012 by admin

Some TV news ranging from perhaps the absurd to the relevant?? It seems TLC is so pleased with the success of their show featuring Honey Boo Boo and her family that they are giving them a huge raise! Really??

On a more serious and purposeful note, after watching some of Half The Sky last night I have to say it was moving and traumatizing. One segment which featured Meg Ryan focused on the human trafficking of young girls into prostitution in southeast Asia. This was horribly sad yet to see the hope that these young girls had after being rescued and placed in a safe house to be educated and cared for was humbling and amazing. Some of these girls are given/sold by their families into these brothels. There was one that had been raped and taken there by her family at age 3 (horrific!) The local police are of no help, if they are called in to shut down a brothel, they often take these young girls and give/sell them back to that brothel or another one.

Another feature was on educating young girls in southeast Asia, primarily Cambodia. Gabrielle Union was a part of this segment and revealed that she herself had been raped at age 19 while working an off campus job while attending UCLA (she is an honor graduate of UCLA). One young girl rode her bike 17 miles to attend school and then would return home to help the family and tend to her younger siblings. Another girl had to sell lottery tickets and give almost all of the money to her father to support the family. He had beaten her mother who had left her with the father. The father had remarried and had another child (a boy) and then that wife left him as well after numerous beatings. This young girl was a star student and determined to excel and make a life for herself in spite of her hardship, it was clear she was beaten on occasion by the father. This portion showcased the importance of educating girls in developing countries, “educate a girl and you educate a village”. A noteworthy quote was: “It is a moral failure that 200 million girls in developing countries do not go to school”. Part 2 airs tonight on PBS at 10:00 pm EST.

In tennis news, Rafael Nadal has announced he will return to action after recovering from a serious knee injury in December, playing an exhibition match in Abu Dhabi. It seems he will indeed miss the remainder of competitive tennis this year, including the WTA Year End Final in London.

Posted in Blog, Human Interest, Tennis, tv shows | Comments Off

One more slam on the ACC…

Posted on October 1, 2012 by admin

Sunday Night Football: Eagles win close one over Eli Manning and the Giants who missed a game winning field goal as time was running out.

Monday Night Football features Chicago Bears vs. Dallas Cowboys. Bears are up 24-10 in the third quarter. Final score Bears 34 – Dallas 18. Romo throws five, that would be FIVE interceptions.

Another slam for the ACC. SportsNation did a feature on the top 5 plays in college football this past weekend. One was the game winning reception for a TD that gave Cincinnati the “upset” victory over Virginia Tech. The other one (ranked number 2) was a one handed catch in the back of the end zone made by a Middle Tennessee State receiver in the humiliating defeat of Georgia Tech. (Shame, Shame and more Shame!!)

Speaking of SportsNation, Colin Cowherd said he thinks the best college football in the country is being played in the SEC and the Pac-12. The SEC features the best defense and the Pac-12 feature the most exciting offense. Will be interesting to see if a team from each of these conferences ends up in the BCS title game. It is still early…

DVR is on to record Half the Sky airing on PBS. Will also be recording part two tomorrow evening. I want to watch it uninterrupted!

Confession: Watching Castle and the tension between Espisito and Ryan is pretty hysterical.

Drew Barrymore had a baby girl last week (9/26/12) with her husband Will Kopelman. They named her Olive Barrymore Kopelman. Love the use of family names. I think Drew will be a great mom. She radiates happiness!!

Posted in celebrities, football, gossip, PBS, pop culture, sports figures, SportsNation | Comments Off

Half The Sky

Posted on October 1, 2012 by admin

The PBS documentary Half The Sky airs tonight at 10:00 pm EST. Part 1 is on tonight and Part 2 will follow tomorrow night at the same time. This important show features Meg Ryan (love her), Eve Mendes, Oliva Wilde, Gabrielle Union (girlfriend of Miami Heat star Duane Wade), America Ferrera and Diane Lane along with two reporters as they travel through Cambodia, Sierra Leone and other Southeast Asian countries and parts of Africa focusing on the oppression of women. One extremely horrifying component of this story focuses on the human trafficking of young girls into prostitution. The entire cast will also be on Anderson Live today.

Looking forward to this show, a different version of “must see” TV!

(Note: This documentary is based on the bestselling novel by Nicholas Krisof , Half The Sky)

Posted in Human Interest, PBS, tv shows | Comments Off

Oh, the disappointment…

Posted on September 30, 2012 by admin

The European Ryder Cup team matched the largest comeback in history, coming back from yesterday’s deficit of 10-6 to win the Cup today 14 1/2 to 13 1/2. What a huge disappointment for USA!! The day started out with the bizarre twist of Rory Mcilroy almost missing his tee time. He was due to tee off at 12.25 EST and arrived at 12:14. He jokingly blamed it on the Golf Channel, indicating he had been watching TV all night and was confused by the difference between EST and Central Time in Chicago. Never the less, he made it in time to tee off and managed to win his match round. Poulter was one of the huge stars for the European team, going 4-0 in his matches, the first player to do so in Ryder Cup history. The US sent out the young guns early hoping they could continue to play as well as they had done on Days 1 and 2. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Europe ended up taking 7 of the first 9 out. Luke Donald, the hometown Chicago boy but playing for Europe was one of the big stars. Michelson and Bradley who had been huge for USA during earlier play both faltered. Bubba Watson could not sustain his earlier success either. Zach Johnson managed a win for team USA but Kuchar faltered. Duffner was the third to last and did manage to win out. Stricker and Woods (win less throughout the entire Cup as it turns out) were to bring up the rear in case a final win was needed. Stricker could not get it done against Kaymer and the Woods match ended being moot (he did in fact halve his match with Molinari). What a big disappointment for USA. Huge come from behind victory for Team Europe and once again the USA is without the Cup (have not won since 2008)!! It was a very fun watch, oh, the drama, right up until the Cup was decided around 6:15 EST. The crowd and the excitement were intoxicating.

Yes, the NFL was in action today. The Falcons had a great come from behind victory over the Panthers and improved to 4-0 and have a comfortable lead in the NFL South. The Saints lost to Green Bay and are on an apparent polar opposite path at 0-4. Peyton looked great this afternoon in the Broncos’ decisive victory over Oakland. Sunday Night Football will feature “little brother” Eli and the Giants against Micheal Vick and the Eagles.

College Football polls are out and LSU dropped another spot in the USA poll. FSU pulled up to number three in that poll but remained at number 4 in the AP. Bama and Oregon continue in the top two positions in both polls.

The Good Wife season premiere is tonight. Here’s to hoping this smart and interesting drama can continue its success for this season.

Again, oh, the disappointment for Team USA in the Ryder Cup today!!

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Surviving "Paradise"