- Legitimate complaints or the bitter whining of a loser who can't accept being defeated by a superior opponent? Indiana Pacers forward Danny Granger sounded more like the latter than the former in the aftermath of a 116-89 loss to the Chicago Bulls Tuesday night that eliminated the Pacers from the playoffs. The Bulls won the series 4-1 with a largely unimpressive performance, but as they throttled the Pacers in Game 5, not only were stars Derrick Rose and Luol Deng at their best, so was divisive center Joakim Noah, a man known as much for getting under opponents’ skin as much as he is for his defense and rebounding. Noah irritates nearly every opponent he plays against and he definitely hooked Pacers forward Josh McRoberts who was ejected after a skirmish with Noah on Tuesday. McRoberts seemed to catch an elbow to the neck when he and Noah tangled near the lane, but when McRoberts tried to return fire, he was assessed a flagrant 2 foul and ejected. McRoberts didn’t have a problem with the exchange and wasn’t outwardly upset with Noah after the game. "I'm not mad about it," McRoberts said. "He got a good hit on me. They caught me trying to hit him back. "It's part of the game. I'm not going to say it's dirty.” Granger was not nearly as diplomatic and said Noah played "cowardly" at times Tuesday, cheap-shotting his Indiana teammates. "He pulled a cowardly move," Granger said. "He cheap-shotted a couple of my teammates, and one gets thrown out. The refs never catch what he did ... it's cowardly. And I'm going to say something about it. I wanted to say something about it all the way to the game was over. I just don't think the game should be played that way. You can play hard and fight and battle, but when you start cheap-shotting people it gets out of hand." Normally, a player making those comments would be best to go directly to the guy they have a problem with and resolve matters. Granger claimed he was going to talk to Noah after the game, but Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau intervened. "It's just heat of the battle stuff," Thibodeau said. Noah, who has heard this sort of criticism literally dozens of times during his career, laughed off Granger’s comments. "I played dirty? OK. I'm just trying to win basketball games, man," Noah said. "It's the name of the game. "I'm just out there trying to do what I gotta do. Like I said, I give a lot of credit to their team. They play hard as hell. They were competitive. I don't have anything bad to say about them. Everybody saw what happened out there. Now you want to call me a dirty player? I don't think I've ever been a dirty player. It is what it is. It's OK." Ironically, Pacers center Jeff Foster picked up two flagrant fouls early in the series and was himself accused of dirty play by several Bulls. Yet there’s Granger, exercising classic selective memory in deciding who is in fact dirty and who’s not…………
- Calling someone you have never met a loser is typically a bad idea. Unless you truly know a person, declaring them to be a loser is casting mighty severe condemnation on them without having all of the facts. Having said all of that, George Vlosich III is a loser and it’s possible to say that without ever meeting him. You may not know Vlosich, but all you need to know about him is this: He is still not only playing with, but devoting insane amounts of time to a toy most of us stopped using right around the age of 10. See, Vlosich is perhaps the world's best-known Etch-A-Sketch artist. And yes, there are Etch-A-Sketch artists. This knob has appeared on dozens of shows, including Oprah and Jimmy Kimmel Live and has met a long list of celebrities such as Cal Ripken Jr., Garth Brooks, LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Will Smith, all because of his proficiency with that small plastic rectangle and those little granules of sand that make the lines on an Etch-A-Sketch. What possesses a person to make likenesses of famous athletes, entertainers and political figures - other than a lack of friends, non-loser hobbies or an IQ above 55 - may be a mystery, but there was no mystery for Vlosich when it came to who he should sketch for his next “work of art.” With the über-covered wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton coming up this weekend, Vlosich decided that much like Dunkin’ Donuts, Baskin Robbins and the hoards of other companies and individuals around the world with no ties to the wedding or England whatsoever, he would try to gravy train some publicity and coverage from the event. In other words, he decided to pay tribute to Prince William and Kate Middleton with a special Etch-A-Sketch. Once the sketch was done, he removed the sand from the back of the toy to preserve the image. Making matters worse, media outlets are treating him like he’s something other than the ginormous loser he is. Publications and media outlets in London have contacted him for interviews and this kook is actually dreaming of a day when he will have the opportunity to present his sketch to Prince William and Middleton. Why? So they can stand there awkwardly, wondering what to say to a man with so little of a life that he spends hours doodling in sand on a children’s toy? Sounds like a barrel of fun to me……….
- Remember that talk we’ve been having in this very space for months now about Hollywood giving a giant middle finger to originality and creativity when it comes to ideas for new movies? The quest to remake or push through a sequel for every film that has already been made has reached ridiculous proportions and in what might be the perfect storm of film recycle-o-mania, the man behind an absolutely ideal movie to coax an unnecessary sequel from is free and clear of obligations that have taken him away from the industry for seven years or so. That man is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who spent the past seven years (poorly) running the state of California as its governor. Schwarzenegger, who earned and embraced the nickname “The Governator” during his time in office, hinted even before leaving office that he was planning a return to acting. He informed his representatives to begin screening potential scripts and those scripts have come rushing in, but of course the one movie that is a guarantee is yet another sequel to the franchise that has come to define Schwarzenegger’s career, The Terminator. He first played the role in 1984 and it gave him the signature catchphrase that has come to define his career along with being recited by millions of people in millions of ridiculous situations over the past two-plus decades. No script exists for a new Terminator film, but Justin Lin, who is best known for his work on The Fast and the Furious franchise, has been lined up to direct. Schwarzenegger himself suggested during an interview last month that he would be open to the project. "I can step very comfortably into the entertainment world and do an action movie with the same violence that I've always done," he said. Even though a script has not been written, a bidding war is expected among major studios when the project moves closer to filming. Why is anyone excited for a ridiculous remake of a 27-year-old action film starring a 63 year-old dude who hasn’t acted in nearly a decade? Because this is Hollywood and originality, creativity and unique thought are not required to get a movie made…………
- Israel vs. passing flotilla, Part 2. Last year, a flotilla attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea was stopped by Israel and Israeli commandos clashed with activists on one of the vessels. Nine Turkish activists were killed and seven Israeli commandos were wounded in the incident and relations between the two nations have been even more strained than usual ever since. Turkish officials maintained that the flotilla was merely aid destined for the Gaza Strip, but Israeli officials claimed it was a stash of weapons intended for Hamas. Nearly a year has passed since the incident and Turkey has decided it’s time to send another flotilla along the same route in the hopes of provoking another international incident. On Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned Israel not to attempt to stop the upcoming supply flotilla and said the Israelis should not repeat “the same mistake” they made last May. That message was either lost in translation or Israel simply doesn’t give a f*ck, because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he has instructed his security forces to continue to enforce a naval blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The flotilla, which is expected to set sail from Turkey as early as May, would be covered by that blockade and although Netanyahu explained that he is also pursuing diplomatic efforts to prevent the flotilla from setting, the odds of stopping the voyage are low. Once again, the Israelis are concerned that the ships could deliver weapons to militants. So far, the flotilla has been delayed as organizers weigh the value of postponing it until after Turkish elections in mid-June. The Turkish government confirmed it received a request from Israel to stop the flotilla, but the effort is not affiliated with the government in any way and as such, they cannot stop it. Add all of the pieces of this equation together and very clearly, it’s a combustible situation that will inevitably explode and end badly for all involved…………
- The results have been tabulated, the numbers have been crunched and now, it’s time to hand out the honor of the city with the dirtiest, filthiest and unhealthiest air in all of the United States. It was an especially hard-fought battle this year, but one city clearly stood above the rest when it comes to providing potentially toxic and harmful air for its citizens to inhale: freaking Bakersfield, Calif. Bakersfield, step up and claim your prize. You have officially ripped the "dirtiest U.S. air" title from Los Angeles, the American Lung Association (ALA) found in its annual ranking of U.S. areas with the most and least air pollution. The study ranks cities in three categories: most bouts of short-term particle pollution, most year-round particle pollution and ozone pollution. To win the title for dirtiest air, Bakersfield had to beat out rugged competition, something the city was able to do by placing first on both the short- and long-term particle pollution lists. Give Los Angeles credit because Angelinos did enough to keep their city as the top dog for ruining their slice of the ozone layer. On the positive side Honolulu and Santa Fe, N.M., were the only two U.S. cities to rank among the top 10 cleanest cities on all three lists. Also, all cities ranked as most polluted by ozone improved their rankings from last year, as did all but two of the 25 cities with the worst all-year particle pollution. With two of its cities snagging all of the top spots on the lists, it’s not surprising that the ALA report notes that an estimated 9,200 Californians die annually from breathing particle pollution. "Deaths can occur on the very day that particle levels are high, or within one to two months afterward," the report states. "These are deaths that would not have occurred if the air were cleaner." If Californians actually had an interest in putting down the Botox needle, foregoing another tummy tuck and doing something to fix their crappy air quality, they too could enjoy the benefits of the nation’s improved air quality, which the ALA says has added five months to U.S. life expectancy over the past three decades. Still, there is reason for concern, says Normal H. Edelman, MD, the ALA's chief medical officer. "Vast portions of our population are at risk of bad health or even death from unhealthy air," Edelman said at a news conference. "Over half of Americans continue to live in areas with bad air pollution -- in air dirty enough to shorten their lives." Much of that damage is done by particle pollution, which damages the lungs of healthy people, an effect that may be worse in the growing lungs of children, the fragile lungs of the elderly, and the already weakened lungs of people with asthma and COPD. Breathing toxic air also causes heart damage and to combat the problem, the ALA strongly supports toughening the Clean Air Act. But in the event our government does what it does best - nothing - the organization has suggestions for how people can protect themselves against dirty air; paying attention to forecasts for high-pollution days and taking precautions; avoiding exercise near high-traffic areas, outdoor exercise when pollution levels are high and areas allowing indoor smoking and reducing the use of fireplaces and wood-burning stoves. None are complicated to execute, but America doesn’t always have the firmest grasp on what should be simple tasks………
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