- Thank you very much, Brett Favre. Was that really so difficult, to make a damn decision about whether to retire or return next season and announce it before you’d held the football world and your team hostage for the entire f’ing offseason? For once, Favre has spared us all the horr-a of having to listen to months of “will he, won’t he” debates on every sports network in existence as he sits on his butt at his Mississippi farm and lets us twist in the wind. Yesterday, Favre announced that he was retiring after 17 NFL seasons, ending his streak of 253 great games started and capping a career where he set most of the prominent records for quarterbacks in the NFL. I don’t dispute his credentials, but last year’s brief resurgence aside, Favre hasn’t been relevant in a long time. Aside from this past season, when his team capitalized on an über-weak NFC to go 13-3 and reach the NFC Championship Game, the Packers have been either mediocre or bad for most of this decade. Favre has had a lot of erratic, turnover-plagued years before 2007, taking him from one of the top quarterbacks in the game to just a guy who’s good, not great. Hearing experts debate all offseason long about what would factor into his decision to return, can he be an elite quarterback again….gag me. Favre ended that speculation yesterday, saying in part that, “I know I can still play, but like I told my wife, I’m just mentally tired. I’m just tired.” Whatever your reason, Brett, I thank you for going away and doing so in (relatively) expedient fashion. Now let’s move on an enjoy NFL players who are actually still relevant and an offseason that has been fast-paced and frenzied already. The NFL Draft comes up next month as well, good times…..
- If nothing else, this week’s One Tree Hill fulfilled a lot of dudes’ naughty nanny fantasy. The episode began with a bang when Nathan and Hayley’s now-former nanny Carrie decided to reinsert herself into their lives - well, specifically Nathan’s - by sneaking into their house and jumping into the shower with an unsuspecting Nathan. He threw her out immediately and told her to leave, but of course Hayley walked in at just the wrong moment and saw them getting out of the shower. She assumed the worst and tossed them both out of the house, sending Nathan to seek a place to sleep with half-brother and fellow Tree Hill basketball coach Lucas. The news greeting Nathan there wasn’t any better, because no sooner had the door opened than Lucas showed him a letter informing him of their father, convicted murderer Dan Scott, having a parole hearing coming up. Another unwelcome arrival came when Peyton’s former boss John from the “major label” she worked for in L.A. before returning to Tree Hill, showed up in town to try to poach Peyton’s one and only artist on her new record label, Mia. John first met with Mia behind Peyton’s back, then showed up in Peyton’s office and told her she should let Mia go to a major label because Peyton didn’t have what it took to launch Mia’s career. About the same time as this showdown was happening, crazy nanny Carrie made another appearance, this one at the school where Nathan and Hayley’s son Jamie is a student. She told him that his mom was making her go away and basically lied to the kid about why, adding once again that she wished he were her son. When Hayley picked Jamie up from school, he called her on making Carrie leave and….I don’t have a clue what happened from here on out. My power died at this point and until the f’ing CW puts this week’s episode up on their site so I can watch the rest, I’m in the dark. I’ll post the rest of the recap when I watch it, but until then…..
- Hugo Chavez is a despotic whack job, but I still didn’t have any inclination that he was a war-starter. The Venezuelan president is clearly prepping for a war with neighboring Colombia after a Colombian air strike into Ecuador killed a rebel commander and apparently pissed off the ever-irritable Chavez. “This could be the beginning of a war,” he ominously stated on a public TV broadcast in Venezuela. He followed those comments by ordering the closing of his country’s embassy in Colombia and moved thousands of Venezuelan troops near the border with Colombia. Honestly, it looks a lot like Chavez was simply looking for an excuse to launch a war and this incident was his reason to do so. It’s a stretch at best, but to a maniacal dictator like my boy Hugo, any excuse to go off is a good one. The irony is that in starting a war for little or no reason at all, Chavez is acting exactly like the man he so despises and once compared to the devil, W. So good job Hugo, you’ve forced me into comparing you with the worst president in the history of the world, I hope you’re happy.
- What a thrill it is when kids step up and become the next generation of social dissidents. Adults can’t do all of the protesting and rioting, and the sooner kids learn the value of rebelling against The Man, the better. I salute a group of about two dozen Miami high school students who took the initiative to stage a demonstration the day after one of their classmates was arrested under what they felt were unjust circumstances. Those students were subsequently jailed and released, but the fallout from this incident isn’t over yet. Seven police officers were injured in the melee, meaning that Judge Barbara Areces will have more to deal with in the days ahead. However, for the time being all of the students are free after Areces ruled that there was insufficient evidence to hold two of the students arrested in the incident and gave home detention to the remaining teens until the next hearing in the case takes place. All in all, a very solid effort from these kids, a nice mini-riot and one showing that they just might have what it takes to become the next great American social dissidents. Taking a stand against authority figures when they’ve hassled and harassed one of your peers is always a solid move, so keep it up and you all have a bright future of rebellion ahead of you….
- Critical slams aside, it was a solid opening weekend for Will Ferrell’s new comedy Semi-Pro. The flick about the old American Basketball Association garnered a haul of $15.3 million to lead the box office, outdistancing last week’s top film Vantage Point, which brought in about $13 million for the weekend. The R rating that Semi=Pro was slapped with definitely hindered its success and as a result, it earned less than half of what Ferrell’s two previous sports movies took in on their respective opening weekends, $47 million for Talladega Nights and $33 million for Blades of Glory, but in my opinion, this new movie is funnier than either of them. Coming in third for the weekend was The Spiderwick Chronicles, a movie so stellar that I’d venture a guess that most of you have never heard of it, but a film that still grossed $8.7 million this past weekend. Just holding on in the fifth spot was the latest bomb of a Matt McCaughnahey film, Fool’s Gold. Of the top five, three of them are actually good movies (the top three, actually), so for once America, you’ve actually gone to see movies that are decent, well done.
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