- When he’s not taking a hard line in negotiations with Derek Jeter or taking heat from Hal Steinbrenner about not winning the World Series this year, New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman is apparently something of a daredevil. Cashman, who is widely considered one of the best general managers in baseball, is using part of his offseason to go full-on thrill seeker…..for a good cause. Cashman is scheduled to rappel from the 350-foot Landmark Building in Stamford, Conn., Friday and Sunday as part of the Stamford's Heights and Lights event as a celebrity guest elf. Cashman will don a full harness and rock an elf costume, then humiliate himself by posing as one of Santa's elves. Stamford Downtown president Sandy Goldstein painted a mildly terrifying portrat of Cashman’s stunt, saying the GM will jump off the 22-floor building with no protective netting. This past week, Goldstein asked Cashman if he was scared and Cashman reportedly replied, “Sandy, nothing is scarier than general managing the Yankees.” And lest you think Cashman was guilted into this endeavor, he actually volunteered to take part after witnessing the event last year and lives in nearby Darien. "He indicated he would be really interested doing it so we followed up," Goldstein said. But any member of the Yankees engaging in a stunt like this is bound to draw attention and sure enough, Cashman’s practice leap on Friday morning will be aired on Fox 5 in New York. On Sunday, Cashman will jump off the ledge at 4:30 p.m. ET in the actual event and something tells me that given the Yankees’ loss to Texas in the American League Championship Series, some Yankees fans may silently be praying that the harness malfunctions……just kidding, Yankee fans, I know you all aren’t that crazy and sadistic…..just a few of you. But how stressful must life be, trying to reign Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and ink free agent Cliff Lee, if jumping off a 350-foot-tall building is a release? If nothing else, the leap will give Cashman a fun story to share with all of his general manager pals as he heads to baseball’s winter meetings, which start Monday in Orlando…………
- Now that people are hooked on their PlayStation3, Xbox 360 or Wii, what’s the next step? Coming up with new accessories to squeeze even more money out of their pockets without having to convince them to buy a whole new video game system, of course! Microsoft appears to have struck gold in that endeavor with the Kinect, the $150 device that allows Xbox users to play video games without a controller. Microsoft announced this week that it has sold more than 2.5 million Kinect devices for the Xbox 360 in its first month on sale. As shoppers were brawling, trading elbows to the kidney and shin kicks in the fight over the hottest items on Black Friday, the Kinect was one of the hottest-selling items at many retailers on the day. The hope for Microsoft was that the Kinect would draw more casual gamers to its video game platform and so far, so good. Whether the Kinect can keep up its success with competition from Sony’s Move gadget for PlayStation, also introduced just in time for the holiday season, is another matter. The big advantage for the Kinect is that unlike Move and the Nintendo Wii, it doesn’t require a controller for game play. Considering the cost of a new video game system and the fact that the Kinect essentially turns an existing system into a whole new gadget, $150 isn’t a bad price. "We are thrilled about the consumer response to Kinect, and are working hard with our retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments of Kinect to restock shelves as fast as possible to keep up with demand," said Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business, in a statement. Based on current sales, Microsoft predicted that it would sell 5 million Kinects during the holiday season. Nothing screams spirit of the holidays quite like striking it rich………
- Looking forward to The Dark Knight Rises, the upcoming third Batman film from director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale? Enjoy it because if the star and the director have their way, it will be the last in the series - at least that they will be a part of. In a recent interview, Nolan called The Dark Knight Rises “the last chapter of our Batman saga.” Bale backed those comments by stating recently that he’s approaching his third Batman film as if it will be his last time playing the caped crusader on the big screen. Nolan was also asked if he would rather be working on an original script instead of a Batman sequel, he was quick to go to the Public Relations for Films 101 handbook, shooting down that suggestion as foolishness. “No, it’s exactly the opposite. I feel very glad that I’m doing another Batman film. I think it would have been daunting to sit down and write an original script after Inception. I love working within the realm and rules of our Batman world. It’s kind of nice to have someplace to go that I’m super-excited about,” Nolan explained. All sarcasm aside, Nolan’s take on the Batman franchise has been infinitely better and superior in cinematic quality to the previous Batman movies, which all look incredibly cheesy and tacky by comparison. Oddly enough, Nolan credited the massive success of his most recent blockbuster, Inception, as being a huge asset in tackling the third Batman movie. “I must say that I’m glad — I’m very, very glad — to be embarking on the last chapter of our Batman saga without any sense of obligation or duty to the studio. They did very well with Inception. So I’m able to go into finishing our story in a very enthusiastic way.” If the first two Batman movies he has directed are any indication, the third installment will be raw, gritty, jarring and extremely entertaining………
- And some of you still wonder why the ugly American stereotype still exists. Not that I didn’t see plenty of evidence as to why that’s the case as I traveled around Europe this summer, but California resident Rick Ehlert has stepped up to provide even more data to support the stereotype while on a Holland America cruise ship recently. The cruise was temporarily disrupted early Saturday morning by an intoxicated Ehlert, who released the ship's anchor and a life buoy between 5:25 a.m. and 5:55 a.m., according to an affidavit. Thankfully, no one was injured and no damage was done to the MS Ryndam because of this drunken jackass, even though the release of the anchor could have caused "significant damage to the ship's rudder or propeller, which could disable the ship's ability to maneuver, or puncturing of the ship, which could result in sinking or severe flooding," according to the affidavit. I’m certain that everyone looking for an uneventful, midnight-buffet-fueled trip from Costa Maya, Mexico, to Tampa, Florida was thrilled to have their trip waylaid by some liquored-up ass hat who got hammered and went looking for mischief. There’s no mistaking Ehlert’s culpability in the case, as a surveillance video shows him taking multiple steps to deploy the anchor while the ship was in motion. The ship was traveling as less than its maximum speed, which is approximately 25 mph, at the time of the anchor drop. Ehlert found himself having a friendly chat with special agents from the FBI after the incident and confessed to dropping the ship's anchor and being intoxicated at the time. He also copped to including entering an area marked as off-limits to passengers in order to deploy the anchor. "There is probable cause to believe on November 27 that Rick Ehlert did attempt to damage, destroy, disable, or wreck a vessel," FBI agent John Manning stated in the affidavit. Ford the record, Ehlert received exactly what he deserved for his hijinks, as he was arrested Sunday on a felony charge and taken into custody. Drunk, felonious and ruining other people’s vacations…..ugly Americans live………
- Would you like to a) visit one of the world’s coolest cities, b) be part of a museum exhibit and c) sleep with 24 golden canaries and a dozen reindeer? If so, hitch a ride to Berlin and get in on the fun at the Hamburger Bahnhof museum, where you’ll find an incredibly popular, one-of-a-kind exhibit that allows visitors to nap with canaries and reindeer as part of an effort to acquaint the public with spiritual Hinduism. Of course, museum officials realize that the combination of reindeer and the approaching holidays has many visitors thinking just one thing: Christmas. Oddly enough, the apparent misperception and tendency to use one's own culture to interpret the customs of others is part of what artist Carsten Hoeller wants to highlight. "That irony has to do with our need for fixed points of reference," curator Dorothee Brill said. The exhibition, called "Soma" — also includes a patch of giant mushroom sculptures (not that kind of ‘shrooms, stoners) — is named for the legend of a hallucinogenic drink Hindi religious leaders supposedly used 5,000 years ago in their religious ceremonies. Soma is believed to be the magical elixir of the gods within the Hindi religion and as early as the 1960s, anthropologists began drawing comparisons between the Soma ritual and similar religious practices of ancient Siberian nomads. The story goes that both the Siberians and ancient Soma drinkers used the hallucinogenic fly agaric mushroom. "Carsten plays out this fantasy using reindeer who eat wild mushrooms," Brill said. As for the interactive part of the exhibit, guests can rent a single revolving bed in the middle of the reindeer herd for 1,000 euros ($1,363) per night. Visitors who have plunked down the high price for one night of sleep have raved about the experience, even if sleeping is difficult with noisy reindeer milling around. The exhibit is set up with the bed at the end of a long room on a raised circular platform that overlooks the reindeer enclosure. Tall white railings keep the reindeer and guests separated at all times, so no worries there. So popular is the exhibit that all available dates through the end of the exhibit in February, six nights a week, are booked up. Brill said the exhibit has been one of the museum's most popular ever, with more than 20,000 visitors passing through in the past month. Many more will have the same chance, as the exhibit runs through February, after which the reindeer will be returned to their owner in Sweden. In other words, get to Berlin soon, see an amazing city full of history and culture and then spend the rest of your trip budget sleeping in a museum surrounded by reindeer……..
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