Hey Gabbers, hope everyone’s been enjoying our rapidly ending summer. I’m on the last week of my vacation/road trip. We’re just outside of KC, Missouri right now. We took an 8 hour drive from Memphis to get here. I got a nice plate of fried catfish in Memphis at the Memphis Barbeque Co. Great stuff. Still, you can’t help but worry about the kind of road food you get. What I think annoys me most is how much pop I’ve had. It’s a bit hard though, since pop is everywhere, cheap, and easy to grab.

I haven’t been catching much baseball, but it appears to be a pretty active trade deadline. Jeff did a great job of running through the deals on page 1. The Tigers have done well on the trade front, but the White Sox keep battling. I have to admit I’m a little bummed the Indians have faded, though I have to imagine Cleveland fans have to be figuring “here we go again”. Still, it’s been an interesting trade deadline and I figure the extra wild card might deserve some credit for that.

I have been watching a good amount of Olympic games. I generally don’t watch much more than basketball (though I’ve soured on that lately), but my girlfriend is pretty big on the whole thing and loves swimming events. The first event I caught was the cycling road race. Watching the road race was kinda like a Tour de France redux without all the damned goofy Frenchmen clogging the road way and creating mischief. Honestly, the Tour de France needs to get some better security as it seems like there is always some damned lunatic getting on the course. Kazakhstan won the race, which is good because I like to see different teams get medals. Still, as BOB alluded to, the medal ceremony was disappointing at best… It could’ve used some zazz.

The nice thing about the Olympics is that you get to see all of these sports that you normally wouldn’t see. It makes you miss the Wide World of Sports. Still, no one can catch it all and most wouldn’t want to. That idea has led me to take a middle school or drunken conversational approach to the Olympics: marry, fuck, kill. Well, you can’t really try that, so maybe watch, play, cut. Here’s a look at what I’d want to watch, play, or cut from the games.

Watch:

Track and field: Partly because I hate running, but also because it’s always fun to watch close races. You also have some of the biggest names in this even like Bolt, Lolo Jones, and Gay.

Beach volleyball: It’s an entertaining back and forth. The guys just kill the ball. Some of the girls don’t look bad out there athletically or physically.

Boxing: I’ve only got to see a little of this. I watched part of a match between Angola and someone else before the three women I was in the room with changed it back to swimming…

Canoeing: Has anyone seen the slalom out there? It’s nuts. They go through whitewater and have to make it through downstream and upstream gates. As for sprints, well, races are just fun to see.

Cycling (track and road): Cycling is a pretty neat event when not spread out over weeks. The track stuff just has an old-school feel.

Soccer: A little won’t kill me.  It is a bit more gripping in a for country scenario. I also couldn’t believe that Columbian went after Abby Wombach so blatantly and wouldn’t admit she punched her. Really?

Triathlong/pentathlon: Couldn’t watch the whole thing, but I’d like to check in.

Diving, fencing, judo, rowing, shooting, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, water polo, wrestling, archery

Play:

Basketball: The Dream Team mantle needs to be retired. It hasn’t been deserved since 1996. I don’t think today’s NBA players have enough humility to come together like the first group could.

Gymnastics rhythmic: It would be far funnier if you replaced those runts with dudes my size. Beer and alcohol would help.

Handball, field hockey, sailing, trampoline, volleyball, weightlifting

Cut:

Table tennis: I watched a 16 year old take on her grandmother from Lithuania. They we’re both Chinese in origin. If we have this event, why not other wreck room sports? Where’s shuffleboard, darts, and billiards? Heck, the Brits might get a gold if they had darts.

Synchronized swimming: It’s always freaked me out. If I was trying to keep up with someone, I’d drown.

Gymnastics artistic: Not a big event for guys. I’d just pick either rhythmic or artistic and go with it, but not both.

Equestrian: The horse does the work.

Cycling- BMX and mountain: Those strike me as x-games events. Why do we need two showcases for these? Let the X Games have them.

Badminton: Bunch of cheaters. I’d swap it out for cornhole.

Well, that’s it for me this week. Hope everyone has a great week and is ready for some football. Thanks for stopping by and reading my thoughts here. I leave you with your word of the week.

kinderstruck