That Three-Week Deadline is About to Pass

Onion: Donovan McNabb has perfect game, for a black quarterback

To Hell With Haggis

My Trend review of “In the Valley of Elah” is online here. I’m seeing a crazy amount of fall releases in the next two weeks, starting with “Michael Clayton” tonight, so I’ll review them as fast as I can.

Things We Learn From Wikipedia

From the entry on the awesome, Israeli/summer camp sport ga-ga, we learn this about Ali G/Borat:

The comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, despite his lanky frame, was noted for being a champion ga-ga player in his Habonim days. According to his official online biography, Cohen won the Habonim UK ga-ga championship on multiple occasions and in 1992 led his country to a silver medal in the world ga-ga ball championships eventually coming in second to the undefeated Australian Habonim team.

All the usual Wikipedia disclaimers apply, of course, but how cool is that? Especially since being a ga-ga player over six feet tall is about as much a handicap as being a basketball player under 5’5″.

The “Over/Under on the N-Word” at the Linc

The Philadelphia City Paper’s Ted Hesson was at the Eagles game Sunday, and counts the times he heard #5 called you-know-what-word by the drunken mouth-breathers in the stands. Of course, by the fourth quarter, I’d imagine it was more along the lines of “that [n-word] has four touchdowns!”
In the meantime, Howard Bryant- a great, great addition to ESPN.com- has a dynamite piece on the last few months of intersections between race and sports, interspersed with all the hate mail he’s gotten from all sides. Just as with McNabb, the reaction to the piece proves its author right.

Y Tu Mahmoud Tambien

Thanks to Brian Beutler, I’m no longer the only one who noticed the Iranian bastard’s notable resemblance to actor Gael Garcia Bernal.

Cornering the Market on Michael Lewis

The San Francisco 49ers on Wednesday signed Michael Lewis, formerly of the Saints, to be their new punt returner. Lewis is not be confused with the other Michael Lewis, the safety who used to be with the Eagles, who is also now a 49er; I’m curious as to how they’ll hand the names-on-the-back-of-the-uniforms issue.
The 49ers have not announced any plans to sign the Michael Lewis who wrote “Moneyball,” as he is not, to anyone’s knowledge, a professional football player. ESPN the Magazine last year, however, did give a byline to Michael Lewis the safety, leading to widespread confusion among just about everyone who read it.

I Was Hoping It Would Be Yahoo!, So We’d have a Corporation Called “Yahoo!/Sirius”

News Item: Google May Buy Sirius Satellite Radio

Music Critic Quote of the Day

This.

Mismanagement

ESPN.com’s Jonah Keri followed up his recent “100 Most Hated Players” list with a trio of newer lists, of the most hated owners, GMs, and coaches. And, big surprise, Minnesota is heavily represented.
On the owner list, the Twins’ only two owners- Clark Griffith and Carl Pohlad- are #11 and 12, respectively, while Norm “Sucks” Green is #17. Red McCombs, perhaps by virtue of owning the team for such a short time, was merely named “honorable mention.” Glen “illegal contract” Taylor is not on the list, and neither is Zygi Wilf- but it does include Bill Wirtz and Ted Stepien, both of whom died in the last week. (No Philly owners are listed except for Ed Snider, and that’s just for the Sixers half of his operation.)
As for GMs, Kevin McHale is #11, one ahead of Ed Wade, while no coaches or managers from Minny make the list. No, not even Mike Tice, who I would’ve put in the top ten.
Overall, Rick Pitino is most-hated coach, Matt Millen most-hated GM, while Art Modell leads the owners.

The SLUT Train

Funny developments in Seattle, where people are riding the SLUT, according to the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

There’s a story going around South Lake Union, but a spokeswoman for Vulcan, Paul Allen’s development company, says it’s just an urban legend.
That aside, the story that the neighborhood’s streetcar line now under construction was called the South Lake Union Trolley until the powers that be realized the unfortunate acronym — SLUT — seems here to stay.
Officially, it’s now the South Lake Union Streetcar. But the trolley name already has caught on, and in the old Cascade neighborhood in South Lake Union, they’re waiting for the SLUT.
At the Kapow! Coffee house on Harrison Street, they’re selling T-shirts that read “Ride the SLUT.”

If only they’d actually built Campbell Scott’s Seattle Supertrain, from “Singles,” none of this would’ve happened.