Five Strikes, You're Drunk

Witness: visual proof of my buddy Todd starting out a bowling round/game/match with five straight strikes. We believed it an impressive enough feat to put into pictures. Sadly, Lady Luck swung her scales/sickle/green cape the opposite way over the final five frames, and Todd finished with something like a 186.

And, yes, you are reading that correctly. I'm not particularly adept in the dark art of knocking down those stupid pins.

Random sports stuff

First, let's all take a moment to bow our heads for Barbaro. Today is the saddest day for the horse community since "Sex and the City" aired it's last show in February of 2004. Or maybe since John Elway hung up his horseshoes in 1998.

Second, it's become clear that Eli Manning is not the only NFL quarterback who likes to show off his vocal skills. Here are a couple images (courtesy of PerezHilton.com) of Matt Leinart and Josh Hartnett belting out a tune in Park City, Utah. Why wouldn't Leinart be at Sundance, right?

It's pretty clear that Eli rocks a lot harder. And dresses better.

Don't bring that weak-ass, west coast karaoke this side of the Mississippi, Leinart!

What's an Amalfitini?

Welcome to the Amalfi Hotel. Located in Chicago's North River District, the Amalfi includes...free drinks! A handful of my people stayed at this establishment during this past weekend's trip to the Windy City, and on Friday and Saturday we spent 5:30-7:00 pm on the sixth floor. I have the picture to prove it. Right there. See? That's some of us. The yellow drink in the martini glass is called an "Amalfitini." Clever, huh? Who cares what the name is, though. It's free. As was the beer, the wine, the mixed drinks, and the modest spread of cheeses, meats, and breads.

Interestingly, not once did the bartenders or anyone else in the hotel ask to see our keycards before we headed up to the sixth floor and began boozin'. Heck, three of us who partook in the happiest hour-and-a-half weren't even staying there. Good times.

Fight Club

My brainy buddy Ben over at the Wav-Town Files recently stumbled over somebody's list of the best movie fight scenes of all time, and I couldn't let it pass without adding my two (or 10) cents. The poster added the following list of "rules" which I will try to adhere to.

"It has to be individuals or a group fighting in (reasonably) close quarters, so no vehicle combat (Mad Max 2), no space battles (Return of the Jedi), and no epic warfare or sieges (The Return of the King)."

Since I haven't seen every movie ever made and am moved deeply by personal sentiment, I won't bother to compile my own definitive top-10 list. Rather, here are some glaring omissions.

--Dumb and Dumber: Lloyd Christmas vs. the restaurant staff.
--Roadhouse: Dalton vs. Jimmy. (I know, it's not the right photo)
--Karate Kid: Danny vs. Johnny
--Rocky I: Rocky vs. Apollo
--Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Arthur vs. the Black Knight.
--Bruce Lee. He needs to make the list somewhere. Probably something from "Enter the Dragon"
--Jet Li. I'd need to do more digging. Off the top of my head, I like "Fist of Legend" when he fights the general dude and "Kiss of the Dragon" when he fights the twins in the office.
--Princess Bride: Do I need to say?
--Ong Bak: Ting vs. Mad Dog.
--Bloodsport: Frank Dux vs. Chong Li.
--O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Big Dan vs. Delmar and Everett.
--Matrix: Neo vs. Agent Smith in the subway. If only for Keanu's hilarious pose.
--Anaconda: J. Lo. and Ice Cube vs. Snake.
--Big Lebowski: Walter vs. the Nihilists
--Top Secret: Nick vs. Nigel (the underwater fight)
--When We Were Kings: Ali vs. Foreman

I could spend all week coming up with more for this list, but it's pretty apparent that the subject needs to be narrowed. The comedic pieces obviously shouldn't be mixed in with the serious fight scenes. Anyone want to add their opinions?

Windy City, Here I Come

I'm off to sunny, warm Chicago for the next four-plus days. It will be much more balmy than my native Minneapolis, right? I packed a speedo and tennis racket.

Actually, I'm only writing to avoid thinking about the next five hours of my life. Don't let those world maps fool you. Chicago looks close, but I'm betting it takes at least four and one-half hours in between leaving my place and arriving at my sister's apartment. I can't wait until the day when we can beam people from place to place.

That would make the troop movements so much easier, eh George?

Damn you, Troyis

Hi, my name is Mug93, and I'm addicted to Troyis. I play it twice per day, 15 minutes per play. But it doesn't end there. Sometimes, when my mind and eyes wander, I see little horses bouncing around the room - moving one square by two squares. Or two squares by one square.

My saving grace is that the free version cuts me off after 15 minutes. Otherwise my obsession would occupy more of my days and nights. I pray that one day I stop improving and will subsequently become to angry to continue playing. Lately, I've established a new high score in roughly 50 percent of my sessions. Currently I hold the 99th best score in the United States.

Yeah, I'm sweet.

Sing, Eli, Sing!

Why not open the blog with something that brings a smile to my face? No, this isn't me. This is Giants quarterback Eli Manning signing karaoke on December 24.

He is no more dorky than the average singing quarterback, and at least he stood tall and didn't throw the mike away too early. Let's see Daunte Culpepper do that.