Man Living in Cave Hit by Recession

Many people said that you had to be living in a cave not to be affected by the recession. Jon Stewart said on the September 23rd episode of "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" that: "For anybody out there who’s been living in a cave: congratulations. You’ve apparently made the soundest real estate investment possible."

Well it ends up that may not be entirely true. Word today from ABC News that a man who has lived in a cave is being forced out due to the recession. He's put the home up for auction on eBay because their five-year loan's balloon payment is coming due. If they can't come up with the money, their cave will be foreclosed. They can't refinance because banks aren't able to properly appraise the cave because they don't have any comparable properties.

Amazingly, this isn't the first people to inhabit this cave. From 1958 to 1985 it was used as a roller-skating rink that doubled as a concert venue hosting the likes of Bob Seger, Ted Nugent and Tina Turner. Now Curt Sleeper and his family are the residents. Oh...and the family just had a baby in the cave. Wow.

I can't make this stuff, people.

 

Mickey Mantle's F-Bomb Ball and Other Morning Links

Forgot to get out links yesterdays...so I'll try to make it up today (without any articles on PEDs!):

 

-There is a Mickey Mantle souvernier for sale...but you might not want to buy it for your kid.

-Google has had some bad luck lately. First the site sends out false error warnings to visitors to its search engine. And it seems that its e-mail service, Gmail, crashed for a while overnight. Not good news for two of its more well-functioning programs.

-I really should be a hockey commentator after my dead-on analysis of the Tom Renney firing yesterday on this blog. Scott Burnside agrees with me that if Renney's gone, Sather should be next. Pierre LeBrun also agrees with me that Tortorella will be a good coach to inject life into the Rangers, but what happens with Sean Avery comes back?

-I guess Brandeis isn't the only one selling its art

-The Yanks decided to take off from baseball yesterday to play pool. Seems like a good idea in my mind. For too long this team has seemed like a group of really good individuals or cliques rather than a team so anything to help them bond together is good. It ends up that Mariano Rivera does not only dominate on the field. And some cool pictures from the event here by Peter Abraham.
-Also word from Pete that Posada will receive a well-deserved award considering all that his charity does.

-PECOTA tries to predict if A-Rod will break the HR record (they say he won't...I disagree).

-Some very, very odd spring training injuries including an alligator attack

-Some very, very odd baseball names

-A really good signing for the Braves

-MannyBeingManny gets stimulus money. Nice work Scott Boras ;)

-Thankfully, Emmitt Smith will no longer be a football "commentator" (bring on Favre?). A good grasp of the English language should be a starting point.

-The New York Knicks Italian Heritage Night didn't go over so well in Italy

-Ohhhh...so that's what burning bridges is

-Kramer would be proud of this

-So I guess now is a good time to start up banks...but Bo Jackson and Ronnie Brown? I guess Bo Knows...

-It's really not a good time to have the last name Bowden and be in sports after this news about Jim Bowden. Now's a good time to get that GM resume in order.

-The Periodic Table of the Social Media Elements. And Facebook is worth $15 billion (inset Doctor Evil pinkie to the mouth)

-So if "Madea Goes To Jail" makes $41.1 Million in a weekend, does that mean (at an average cost of $10 a movie) we have 4,110,000 dumber people in America? Because I think that's what it means.

-This Google Maps shot is awesome.

-A sad sports story from college. A sad sports story from high school

-I'll take one of these

-I wish the iPod Touch/iPhone application management worked like this

-One person's way to be able to see all your favorite shows without cable. I don't recommend this. But it's an interesting idea.

-Lastly, an awesome Craigslist ad (H/T Wendy)

 

Al Trautwig Gives You His Thoughts On Lost

Is there anything this man won't commentate on? 

More Free Food!

Yesterday I brought you free Quiznos. Today I'll bring you a lot more free food (H/T to Slickdeals on all of these):

 

Arby's is offering a free Roast Burger with any drink purchase through March 9.

 

IHOP Restaurant [locator] is offering a free short stack (3 total) pancakes today between 7am and 10pm to celebrate National Pancake Day. 

 

Jack in the Box (store locator) is offering 2 free tacos today all day

 

I tried to do the IHOP free short stack one time and the line wrapped around the entire restaurant. NOT worth it. Though I may try today at lunch :)

This Can't Be Good For Business...

According to the AP, Microsoft is asking some laid-off employees for a portion of their severance back, blaming an administrative glitch...oops.

Could Anything Today Duplicate Miracle on Ice?

Yesterday was the 29th Anniversary of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" hockey game where a bunch of American college kids beat the heavily favored Soviet Union. The United States team would later move on to the gold, many people would claim they loved hockey, Disney would make a picture starring Kurt Russell, Al Michaels announcing career would be made...and, oh yeah, many Americans would use it as an uplifting moment with their country defeating the USSR during the middle of the Cold War.

So almost three decades later, could this happen again? Could any game in sports be so important/uplifting that it could lift a nation and inspire a people? I know that some felt that the tremendous Yankees 2001 World Series wins in New York had some of the same effect with the backdrop of 9/11 fresh in everyone's memory and the Ground Zero cleanup still ongoing (HBO did a wonderful documentary called "9 Innings From Ground Zero" that I highly, highly recommend picking up). But I'm not sure that anything in the near future would come close to either of those.

Do you think that there is anything going forward that would be this inspiring? Interested to hear some thoughts from readers... 

 

New York Rangers Fire Head Coach Tom Renney

It wasn't like we saw this coming. But this more of a case that you can't fire the players and the GM won't fire himself. So they went after the coach. Not that it wasn't actionable after the Rangers took TWO "Too Many Men On the Ice" penalties last night and lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs yesterday on Harry Howell and Andy Bathgate Night at Madison Square Garden. That penalty (a theme all season) is a bench minor and really summed up Renney's faults: can't get the troops to work together this year.

In some ways, Renney was hurt by his own success. He wasn't the first choice for this job, but when he took over following the NHL lockout, he helped to guide the Rangers back to the playoffs, despite an underwhelming lineup. This year, they team got off to a blazing hot start but have faded completely with 10 losses in 12 games. Despite the fact the Rangers gained a point by virtue of that game being lost in overtime, they need two because they're treading water at this point. One of the problems with the Rangers season has been a God-awful power play unit and the architect for that, Perry Pearn, also went with Renney today.

Jim Schoenfeld and John Tortorella are two candidates being mentioned to replace Renney. It looks like Tortorella, who I like much better, will take over. And here's why: even on his way out, Tortorella's own GM, Jay Feaster, described him in a light that should make Ranger fans excited for the fire he may light under some asses: "This was a country club, a retirement home. It was a place players came to retire, they just forgot to tell us they were doing it," Feaster added. "John came in and changed the culture, changed the way we do business, and the attitude. And in so doing, he raised expectations." 

Whoever takes over will have to deal with is a salary cap mess left by their GM, Glen Sather, and a group of underachievers who look lifeless at times. They stupidly signed Scott Gomez and Chris Drury to large, long-term deals despite the fact neither one is a #1 and/or scoring center. They stupidly gave big money in the off-season to Wade Redden and Rozsival despite the fact both looked finished at the end of last year. And they stupidly decided to not sign any scorer and hope they could get by with what they had in house. Now they're going to stupidly hope that whoever comes in as a new coach can deal with Sean Avery's antics the way that Tom Renney could. Stupidity all around and for what Renney brought back to this organization--playoffs, respectability, leadership, fan base post-lockout--he shouldn't have been so callously let go despite their recent troubles.

The sad thing about this whole process is that Cablevision, which owns the Rangers and Knicks, couldn't bring themselves to fire Isaiah Thomas after he Madoffed them (yes, I said it), but Renney gets shown the door despite leading this team to four playoffs in four seasons and being in position for another spot this year. Now THAT is rough.

 

 

MmmMmm...Toasty!

It ain't "5 dolla footlong", but it'll do...(H/T to Slickdeals on this):

 

Quizno's is giving away One Million Free Subs. To get your Free Small SIgnature Sub or Small Everyday Value Sub, Click Here and register your name, email address, and birthdate. A link to a Printable Coupon will be emailed to you.
Note: Entrants will be added to their Q-Club Mailing List. To opt out of the mailing list in the future, click here.

 

Enjoy!

 

Whoa...What An Episode Of Big Love

Ausiello didn't lie. Tonight's Big Love episode definitely lived up to all the hype. The episode ended with me in the fetal position (no pun intended there). All that happened this season and in the first two seasons has led up to this night. Sarah's pregnancy, Bill's Viagra, Nicki's birth control pills, Nicki's boss, Ben's love for Margene (in a very odd sort of Oedipus Complex), Margene's issues with her mother, even Margene's hair...it all came to the forefront this episode in a ridiculously amazing way.

I got into Big Love recently and tonight was a good validation of my decision. Really good writing, great characters, and although the premise of the show is a little out there, the conflicts between and within the characters are quite real and true to real life.

What happens going forward? I have no clue. Obviously we go back to Utah and all the issues there. In some ways, this episode put all those issues where they belong: second. The family was always first in this show and it was nice to see an episode where they dealt with them. I can't wait to see what's in store for the rest of the season.

So Rozsival Is Still Here?

I was hoping that the retiring of #3 tonight by the New York Rangers would mean that Rozsival had been traded. Instead, they just gave him number 33. Damn...

Another lackluster effort tonight by the Rangers...it's like watching this past year's Yankees: not a lot of offense, not a lot of energy, and moving towards a lack of playoffs as well.

Hopefully they'll turn it around very soon...