Crazy Pita Commercial

Yup, Crazy Pita now has a commercial. Check it out and let me know what you think.

NCAA Punishes Kindness, Turns Blind Eye to Criminals

For all of my sports watching life I've heard of the ridiculous rules the National Collegiate Athletic Association imposes upon its players and member schools. Some of the rules are necessary, some necessary evils, and others are just plain idiotic. Their most recent enforcement of the rules is simply a punitive move against citizenship and kindness, and their lack of punishment of arrested athletes has me scratching my head.

I am not a fan of Alabama Crimson Tide athletics, but I may become one. Any athletic program where 201 student-athletes give free textbooks to others is okay by me. Yes, Alabama is being punished for having a couple hundred young people who think getting free textbooks for others who can't afford it is worth the risk of NCAA punishment. Even if half of the athletes sold the books at discounted rates to non athletes, they were still doing something which helped another save a little (hard to come by as a student) cash. The program as a whole is on probation for three years, and all wins with identified players participating will be vacated. There has also been a $43,900 fine levied against the Crimson Tide (roughly the price of all the books "illegally" given away).

On the flip side of the NCAA rules coin, getting arrested doesn't put you or your school in any trouble with the powers that be. I heard today that, since 2005, 24 Florida Gator football players have been arrested. On this subject the NCAA has nothing to say. In fairness, eight of the arrests have lead to the charges being dropped, but that means 16 players likely did something that lead to a conviction in criminal court.

How can any governing body take themselves seriously given the interesting dichotomy revealed today: Do something good for others and you may be punished, do something illegal and no adverse action will be taken. This should be their slogan. What a great message they have sent today to high school and collegiate athletes all over the country.

Brian William Waddell is a foodie, beer geek, and author. His numerous blog posts range from food to politics. He also has a book of poetry, Fractured Prose, available here, and is ready to publish his second poetic endeavor.

Remember Creepy Crawlers?

I do.  They were little molds that made spiders and scorpions and other little rubbery toys for little boys to play with.  I didn't have one.  I hate spiders.  Until tonight I thought scorpions were interesting and much less of a fright than spiders.  Now I'm not so sure.

I was downstairs watching a replay of tonight's Mets/Phillies game while deciding whether to play video games or check email, facebook, etc.  Kim, my girlfriend, had gone upstairs to go to bed, and Grace, our dog, had followed.  I was interrupted in my contemplation by Kim hollering, "Brian!" I responded with a prompt, "Yeah?"  Which she countered with a strained, "Can you come help me with this."  Now, you must understand, I can't remember the last time Kim asked me for help.  With anything.  So, wanting to be her hero, as all men do with all women, I hurried upstairs to assist with whatever it was she needed.

I arrived at the door to our room and there stood Kim, just inside.  She stood with one arm at her side and the other holding a glass to the door, at about the height I would need to try to listen in on a conversation on the other side.  Then I saw the problem.  Inside the glass was about two inches of fury.  Yellow and thin, the stinger was extended straight and it was hard to identify without the signature curved tail, but after just a second, and Kim saying, "I think it's a scorpion," I thought so too.  Grace had spotted it on the door and watched it as it ascended, alerting Kim to its location.

Turns out, all she needed me to do was find a thick piece of paper to put between the door and the beast.  Not exactly a knight in shining armor, but I was happy to oblige.  I watched while she slid the paper masterfully under the legs of the arachnid, then moved the whole package to the edge of the door, and finally turned the glass to its natural, upright position with some struggling to get the scorpion off the paper and down into the bottom of the glass.  I read later that scorpions can't climb glass, but I'm not sure how much comfort that would have offered Kim as she walked the creature to the middle of our street and tossed it out of the glass.

In an effort to assuage both of our fears, I looked up scorpions on Wikipedia.  The idea was to find out that the species we had just encountered, and Kim had bravely vanquished, was completely harmless to humans.  As I read I found that only about 25 of the nearly 2,000 species of scorpions can kill with their sting.  Good.  Reading further I found that a couple of those species live in the Southwestern United States.  Not as good, but still not bad odds.  I then found the name of the most venomous scorpion in the area, the Arizona Bark Scorpion.  Ok, we're close to Arizona.  So I clicked on the link and found pictures of a yellow scorpion with a skinny tail.  Damn.  Even more comforting was a tiny part of the article that said that an antivenin was once available specifically for the bark scorpion but was taken out of production by the FDA due to problematic side-effects.  Great.  Mission accomplished.  Kim should have no trouble sleeping now.  Further research revealed that less than 1% of those stung ever reach a point that could end in a fatality, and thousands are stung each year.  Some relief, but certainly not comforting.

In summation, scorpions are interesting creatures, Kim is going to be up all night, and I know why she doesn't ask me to do much.  I did learn that if you want to find scorpions easily, you need a blacklight, they glow under the UV.  Mine are in the garage.  Don't think I'll be digging them out tonight.  

Brian William Waddell is a foodie, beer geek, and author. His numerous blog posts range from food to politics. He also has a book of poetry, Fractured Prose, available here, and is ready to publish his second poetic endeavor.

Who's Watching the Watchmen?

I'm no movie critic, and I'm no literary critic, but I certainly have an opinion about everything (surprised?). I went out and bought the Watchmen graphic novel due to an overwhelming buzz that said the movie followed the book amazingly well. I read the book then watched the movie and found that sometimes the buzz simply precedes the sting.

The book is spectacular. A brilliantly written piece of literature which had me ignoring two thirds of the artwork as I couldn't wait to get to the next frame, page, or chapter to see how each individual (sometimes not so) heroic life would unfold. The fate of the world seemed secondary to the fate of each individual character for much of the story while nuclear war waited ominously in the wings. The book has more depth than I can even attempt to tackle without giving the bulk of the plot away.

The movie is said to be very similar to the book. This may be true if you didn't read the book and just looked at the beautifully drawn frames. The movie copies much of the dialogue verbatim, the actors were well suited visually to their roles, and many of the shots are near direct copies of the frames in the book. This is the deepest the movie is able to reach in expressing the genius of the book. There is never that underlying ominous feeling that has you racing to see how the book ends. There is never a point where you become fully attached to any of the characters as you do with each one (even, to a point, the detached Dr. Manhattan) in the book. The action sequences are certainly over done and often overtly graphic in comparison to the graphic novel. The movie misses out on the beautiful subtlety of the novel and instead hits you in the face with an action flick for the masses.

The dumbing down of this book can be summed up by examining the origin of the title in the two different media. In the book, the title is taken from an old latin phrase meaning, "Who watches the watchman?" A decidedly deep reason for this books moniker, and one that plays very nicely with the climax. In the movie, each of the main characters was a part of a group of masked adventurers called The Watchmen. I suppose a twelve year old would find the latter more stimulating, but this wasn't a book for a twelve year old, and it certainly isn't a movie for one either.

Brian William Waddell is a foodie, beer geek, and author. His numerous blog posts range from food to politics. He also has a book of poetry, Fractured Prose, available here, and is ready to publish his second poetic endeavor.

Three-legged Chihuahua

I think chihuahuas are fairly sad animals to begin with. Take a leg off of one of these small statured, small voiced, widely silly looking "dogs" and it'll just look downright worthless. I saw one just yesterday outside of work. It was brown, older and very comfortable moving about with the handicap. Still, it made me think of what would happen to it if it needed to get away from danger or, worse yet, fight for its life. Forget the proverbial "one-legged man in an ass kicking contest," this is a three-legged chihuahua in a dog fight. The mental picture just makes me laugh. A stalky, hungry 50 pound Pit Bull with a spiked collar and mean disposition standing in front of a proud three-legged chihuahua.* Hell, put the fourth leg back on and the fight is a joke. The three-legged version is just insult to, well, massive injuries. So, next time you see an intact chihuahua and you think it is the lowest creature on earth, remember, it could be a three-legged chihuahua.

*Note: I despise dog fighting and any other animal torture, and would actually hate to even hear of such a matchup in real life.

Brian William Waddell is a foodie, beer geek, and author. His numerous blog posts range from food to politics. He also has a book of poetry, Fractured Prose, available here, and is ready to publish his second poetic endeavor.

Christmas at the W's place

Hope you had a Merry Christmas, I know I did. Parts of it are featured below.

I think...

I might start Video Blogging on here. Maybe not though. We'll see. Sounds fun. For me, not for you cause then you have to see my face in addition to knowing my views on random things.