Super Terrific Happy Hour!

I'm honestly so pumped for all the true Bruins fans out there.  I'm not one, but can absolutely understand how they feel.  I remember how it felt when the Sox won in '04, making all the crap that fans had put up with for so long a distant memory.  Thankfully, for me, it didn't have to go seven games, but it didn't really matter.  I watched the game with my Dad and even though they were up 3-0 in the ninth, he started to lose it when the Cardinals got one guy on in the ninth.  He didn't want any craziness, just an end to the game and an end to the "1918" chants.  A majority of Bruins fans either weren't alive the last time the Bruins won the cup, were very young, or lived through it and deserve another chance to see it and live through the excitement.

So, for all the true Bruins fans out there, enjoy it, embrace it, and I really hope they bring the cup back to Boston for you.

-Big Ran

Fox News, I Mean German Newspaper, May Want a New Headline

Nowitzki besiegt den Ghetto-Basketball

Die Zeit der individuell begabten, aber schwer sozialisierbaren Ghetto-Basketballer ist vorbei. Am Ende dieser Ära hat Dirk Nowitzki einen nicht unerheblichen Anteil.

Nowitzki defeated the Ghetto Basketball

The era of individually talented but difficult sozialisierbaren ghetto basketball is over. At the end of this era Dirk Nowitzki has a significant share.

Well, they may want to rethink most of the article.  If your country was most well known for its ethnic cleansing, wouldn't you go out of your way to avoid comments like this?  Like, totally overcompensate.  I mean I think LeBron is a stooge, but this may be a bit excessive (read: super terrificly racist).

"Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks will be included in an illustrious list of winners and NBA most valuable player "of the Final Series (Most Valuable Player) of the past 25 years. He is the first white MVP since Larry Bird."

"That street ball, threaten Rap and ghetto chic and the commercial success of the sport, has recognized the league itself years ago. At that time the players were still dressed with gold chains and hung in the gangsta look: baseball caps, schlabberige pants, long T-shirts and sneakers were open standard.

The wide - white in the majority - aware American public takes this shoddy outfit but with street gangs and the mainly black rappers scene here. The organization wants the NBA, the basketball bothered as a family sports marketing for all. Therefore, a dress code was enforced. The players must now appear in a suit and tie the game."

Woof.

-Big Ran

Mark It Down!

Seguin with a late goal to win it for the Bs.

-Big Ran

Carpe diem, DeShawn Stevenson!

From the tats, to the multiple times he has called out Bron Bron, you've got to love DeShawn Stevenson.  Well, since the Mavs won the NBA Championship, DeShawn has clearly been having a good time.  Well, he was having a good time until about 10:30 PM last night when he was arrested for public intoxication.  The police received a call that there was a drunk man walking around, and later found Stevenson who ALLEGEDLY didn't really know where he was.  If being a millionaire and winning a championship is good for only one thing, it should be the chance to get off of being arrested for public intoxication.  He wasn't driving, didn't seem to be bothering anyone, couldn't the PoPo just have taken him home and told him to sleep it off?  

I don't care, I'll roll with this dude any day.  FREE DESHAWN STEVENSON!  FREE DESHAWN STEVENSON!

-Big Ran

   

Bruins Fan Songs

A few fan-created Bruins tunes to get you fired up.  Some are better than others, but we'll try to get a slow burn going today.















-Big Ran

Public Service Announcement - GET TO THE BARS EARLY!

Apparently, the city of Boston is not only putting the kibosh on a Bruins viewing party at The Garden tonight, but also putting in some last minute rules for the bars tonight.  Bars have to black out their windows so no one watches from the streets and they can't let anyone into the bar after the second period.  

So, go out early, drink often, don't riot, and get the MOJO GOING!

-Big Ran  

Humpday Holla-back

The other day at work we were talking about the NKOTBSB concert at Fenway over the weekend and how a ton of people went to it.  Then we transitioned to the Donnie Wahlberg, then Mark Wahlberg, then obviously to his career in music as Marky Mark.  It took us a few minutes to remember the title of his jam, "Good Vibrations," so we obviously had to watch the video.  Wow.  Damn, they knew how to make a video in 1991.

As you can see, its about four and a half minutes of choreographed dance, and a shirtless Marky Mark alternating between working out and banging chicks.  So, this video was probably a pretty accurate portrayal of his life in the early 90s.  Plus, its good to have a little local talent on a day our home town Bruins play game seven for the cup.

-Big Ran

Tuesday Trivia...

I don't have a specific question today, such as KC's last week (What the f*ck is a canuck?), but a more general one:  Where do superstitions come from?  Like knocking on wood, keeping your fingers crossed, etc.  I ran across a great slideshow on life.com (has that sentence ever been uttered before?) that goes through some of the most common ones.

Here's a few of the more everyday superstitions (all from life.com):

Hanging a Horseshoe for good luck:

Horseshoes have been around for centuries as a method of protecting horse's feet, but the tradition of hanging a horseshoe for good luck (usually with the open side up, to "hold in" good fortune) started with the legend of the popular 10th-century English St. Dunstan, at least according to one account. St. Dunstan tricked the Devil into letting him nail a horseshoe onto the Infernal One's goat-like hoof, and only removed the painfully offending shoe if the Devil swore to never enter a place that had a horseshoe over it.

Crossing your fingers:

Though some believe that crossing your fingers originated as a sign early Christians used to identify each other, it really started much earlier. Before Christ, the cross was a sign of unity in Europe, and it was traditional for two people to make a wish by forming a cross with their index fingers -- one person made the wish, and the other added his mojo. The ritual eventually evolved into a do-it-yourself motion. 

Friday the 13th:

There are several explanations for why the number 13 -- and Friday the 13th in particular -- are considered unlucky in the West. One says that there were 13 who sat down to the Last Supper, the final guest being Jesus, who was betrayed. (A variation of the unlucky-13 superstition is that if 13 people sit down to a meal, one of them will die within the year.) Another is that King Philip IV of France ordered the Knights Templar imprisoned on a Friday the 13th. Yet another is that the lunar calendar has 12 full months and a runt 13th month that gave early scholars and timekeepers no end of headaches. Regardless, it's worth noting that in Spanish-speaking countries, it's Tuesday the 13th that's unlucky, and that the number 13 is a lucky number in Sikh culture. And in 2002, a Dutch study found that there were actually fewer traffic accidents, fire accidents, and thefts on Friday the 13ths than on other Fridays.

Broken mirrors:

With mirrors' uncanny ability to create another you, it's not surprising that breaking something that creates a perfect, if two-dimensional, simulacrum would be considered bad luck. The seven years part come from an ancient belief that that's how long it takes for the body and soul to fully regenerate in humans. Here: Actress Carole Lombard risks bad luck with cracked mirrors in 1935. She died in a Nevada plane crash at age 33 in 1942 -- seven years after this photo was taken.

Knocking on wood:

Knocking on wood (or touching wood) is a superstition in which one performs the act in order to forestall bad luck. It traces its roots to paganism, when it was believed that spirits dwelt in trees, and that knocking on a tree trunk was way to invoke their benevolent powers.

Opening an umbrella inside:

The warning against opening umbrellas indoors may hearken back to ancient Egypt when they were used not to protect against the rain but against the sun. Using them indoors, where there was already shade, could be interpreted as an insult against the sun god.

This was the one that really blew me away about the superstition surrounding stepping on a gypsy's secret talis:

-Big Ran

Bonus Superstition video:

Lunchtime Look-a-Like

I couldn't think of anyone who looked like Bron Bron, so I will go with our current favorite whipping boy, Roberto "The Roofie" Luongo.  Not only does hew look like Sacha Baron Cohen, but I imagine him to be a really smarmy Frenchman, like Cohen's character in "Talladega Nights," Jean Girard.

vs.

vs.

vs.




Uncanny, right?  I actually saw this after I wrote most of this post:

I think the big difference is that Cohen is funny while Luongo is pitiful. Cohen is wildly successful and Luongo roofies chicks at techno clubs.  One game for the Stanley Cup.  PLEEEEEEEAAAAAAASE let Luongo lose his sh!t like last night.

-Big Ran

Looking Good Roberto! Feeling good Alain!

I don't remember, in my lifetime of watching sports, someone who talked this much trash and not only didn't back it up, but looked SO bad that he had to get yanked from a game.  I mean, this was unreal!  Three goals on eight shots, with the first two shots being must stops.  I wonder if those would have been easy saves for Thomas?  Just sayin'.  Have their been two more hateable characters than LeBron James and Roberto Luongo so close together and performing so inconsistently on the big stage?

Anyway, now it's a one game playoff for the Stanley Cup.  The Bruins have scored two goals in three games against Luongo in Vancouver, so they have to prove they can take one on the road.  This is going to be the first game seven for the Bruins in the Stanley Cup.  Considering they are an original six team, that's saying something.  I honestly have no idea what to expect, but they need to be aggressive from the drop and man, if they could ever score first, I may have Bruins Perma Wood.



-Big Ran