First, an R.I.P. for my brother’s friend Bonnie Ho, who died after being hit by a car on the 8th trying to catch a bus. Even more tragic, she was getting married in October.
Non-TV related ramblings
Are you ready for some football?
As all two of my regular readers will recall, I went to Ohio to do some legacy league drafts. I call them “legacy” leagues instead of keeper leagues because of the sheer number of players you’re allowed to keep. For instance, my team started with a core of Drew Brees, Brandon Stokley, Tiki Barber, Warrick Dunn, Brian kWestbrook and Nate Kaeding. By the end of it, I’d added the likes of Byron Leftwich, Lee Evans, Laverenous Coles, Troy Williamson and Cedric Benson. Not an instant contender, to be sure, but the upside is huge.
Of course, this only took up Sunday. The first draft, on Saturday, went quickly, and we ended up taking in some AAA ball in Toledo, who may just have the best minor-league park in the US.
And what trip to the Windsor-Detroit area would be complete without a visit to one of the four casinos there? My venue of choice this time was Casino Windsor, which offered plenty of $10 Blackjack tables. Overall: 2 sessions, 2.5 hours total, up $50. Not too shabby, although I was up more at one point. Didn’t get to the craps table. I wanted to play Sunday night, but I don’t really like playing $10 minimum when rolling dice.
Skip this if you hate the Leafs or don’t care about hockey
You’ll notice that Brendan holds out hope for the Buds and their signing of concussion-friendly Eric Lindros and injury-prone Jason Allison, where I’m more of a pessimist. It comes with living through the Ian Turnbull era, I think. Anyways, neither signing is as bad as bringing back Dummy Domi, but I guess they had some extra cash lying around after failing to resign Gary Roberts.
TV-related stuff
The Weekly Singing Competition Commentary
Well, the bottom three this week shows that I continue to have no idea what Canadian voters are doing. Rex made his first trip to the bottom 3, meaning that all the Idols have been there. Suzi was bottom 2 for the second time, and that has got to worry her fans. For those of you that want a quick breakdown, here it is:
Aaron Walpole – Bottom Three: 1; Bottom Two: 1
Casey LeBlanc – Bottom Three: 1; Bottom Two: 0
Melissa O’Neil – Bottom Three: 2; Bottom Two: 1
Rex Goudie – Bottom Three: 1; Bottom Two: 0
Suzi Rawn – Bottom Three: 2; Bottom Two: 2
If you can make anything out of that, I’d like to hear from you. Melissa’s been safe for the past few weeks, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see her Bottom Two next week because her fans got complacent. Suzi is harder to peg. Was she Bottom Two because casual fans don’t really like her? Did Aaron and Casey’s fans try harder because they were Bottom Three the week before? Will Josh’s fans throw their support behind her, or will they simply stop voting? Lots of questions, and probably more to come after next week.
Next Tuesday, they’re singing The Guess Who, or “yet another week where we try to have you not vote for Casey”. Expect Jon Dore to wear a fat suit in an attempt to look like Burton Cummings.
Over on Rock Star: INXS, well, everyone sucked except Mig, Jordis and Deanna (on Wednesday, that is). The acoustic songs were a good in theory, but I really wasn’t feeling it. And the most challenging thing on Wednesday was figuring out which song would be done besides the obvious “By My Side” and “Never Tear Us Apart”. And when Jessica got “Mystify”, I thought “duh, that was obvious too”.
Anyways, this week really wasn’t very interesting, other than J.D. acting like a dick. Jessica’s gone, no big loss.
How this qualifies as “Outdoor Life” is beyond me
The NHL is back on TV in the US… on OLN. I dunno, to me this is the equivalent of Champ Car on Spike TV last year – it’s nice to have the revenue but I don’t think you’ll get great ratings. We’ll see though.
Oh, and if you like guys on skates beating the crap out of each other
The Ultimate Fighter 2 debuts on Spike right after Raw. For my money, it’s the best sports-related reality show out there. I know that’s saying much, but it’s still good viewing. Unfortunately, you’ll probably have to sit through a couple of “exciting” coaches cuts before getting to the meat of the elimination process – elimination through real fights. And no quick edits like The Contender, either – if it’s 30 seconds or 10 minutes, you’ll get to see the fight in it’s entirely. Give it a try – after all, it can’t be any worse than Raw’s been the last few weeks.
And that’s it for this week.
