Hey hey! I’m back after an extended break. I’m sure you missed me as much I as missed you. No, I love you more. No, I love you more. No, I *smack*…
Anyway, my new favorite news story can be found here.
That’s right, as a way to punish Kim Jong-Il personally, the US is banning certain luxury items from being sent to North Korea. No iPods, HDTVs, cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, art, sports cars, Harley Davidsons, or Jet Skis.
Let’s have a little story time. I’d say it was two years ago, more or less. A co-worker was telling us over lunch about how he’d bought something called high-definition television, and how amazing it was, and how we were all welcome to stop by his place sometime and check it out. I have to admit, I thought to myself at the time really, how amazing could it possibly be?
In hindsight, I was wrong. Flat wrong. It’s amazing. And you really do have to see it in someone’s home to believe it. Just going to Best Buy and looking at a wall of tvs doesn’t do it justice.
There isn’t a lot of HD content at the moment, which is probably why Comcast offers most of what’s out there for free, and the rest for a small $6 a month fee. What is out there, though, is almost addictive. Last night I watched a hockey game, and it was spectacular. Then I started browsing channels, and that’s when the danger started. I watched a half hour of nothing but movie trailers, simply because it was on. I watched a full hour of golf, not because I like watching golf, but simply because the tournament was in Hawaii, and the scenery was amazing. I fell asleep watching an NBA game, not because I like watching a meaningless November Clippers game, but because I couldn’t get over how damn good it looked.
I don’t know what else I can tell y’all… except that any time you want to watch a game that’s on in HD, give me a call. I’ll be watching. Heh.
And after that, we’ll hook up the Wii. More on that later. 
in case you haven’t heard of the latest airline / muslim kerfuffle, go here. (Then come back.)
oy.
well, i guess it depends on what version of the story you believe. if you believe this one:
Shahin said Tuesday that three members of the group prayed in the terminal before the six boarded the plane on Monday. “We did nothing” on the plane, Shahin said.
then the USAir passenger (margaret lou from sioux falls, SD, no doubt) apparently watches Fox News too much and handed a note to the flight attendant simply because the imams looked suspicious.
if you believe this one:
Pat Hogan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, said that witnesses to Monday’s events told police that before the flight that besides praying, the imams were spouting anti-American rhetoric, talking about the war in Iraq and Saddam Hussein.
One of the imams was heard saying that he would do whatever is necessary to fulfill his commitment to the Qur’an, witnesses told police, Hogan said. Other witnesses said some of the imams were repeating “Allah, Allah,” he said.
then i suppose that’s a different story.
Item of interest number one:
On Versus tonight they unveiled something called ‘rail cam’. Frankly, it’s brilliant. You’ve perhaps seen the camera at football games that floats over the field? Well this is similar. They mounted a moving camera on the glass, and it can move back and forth with the action. Give the truck a couple games to figure out how best to use it (they seemed to lose sight of the puck a bit too often for me), and you’ll never want to see another game without it. One of the Dallas goals featured Modano bringing the puck up the wing and throwing a perfect cross-ice pass to Lindross for the chippy. Viewers saw it live from what appeared to be just behind the action. Basically, it feels like you’re on the ice. High praise here to the Versus crew for coming up with this one.
Item number two:
The announcers during the Wild game were talking about the physical nature of the game’s play, and one of them jokingly inquired whether or not ‘injurious’ was a word. The other one assured him that it wasn’t, and much joking ensued.
But the Ole in me was saying: hold on a minute!
As we all know, injurious is in fact a word, and is used in the immortal St Olaf fight song, Um Ya Ya. And it really does mean something as simple as ‘causing or likely to cause damage or harm’. So take that, hockey announcer, you’re more literate than you know.
I’ve tackled this topic before. But an article by my favorite Strib columnist Katherine Kersten discusses the University of North Dakota’s mascot, The Fighting Sioux.
See, I told you that Kersten is slippery. Every time you think she’s a right wing wack job, she pushes out an article like this that I agree with 99.44%.
