Bees Knees

If you ever find yourself having to fight a giant, go for his knees. Knees are the weak spots for giants - for everyone, really, but especially for giants.

Fun fact! Here's Andre with noted Washington QB Joe Theisman - who knows about the weakness of knees - and this meeting happened in part because the Washington Football Concern was curious if Andre the giant could play football. He could not - KNEES - but it's an intriguing idea. Imagine that posse as nosetackle!

Also, some hockey team needs to get a sumo goalie.

Connecticut, O Connecticut

For shame, Connecticut. For shame. Are you not of New England? Do you not understand our allegiance?

W is for victory! An amazing 21st century turnaround for the Boston Red Sox. 86 years of frustration wiped clean by 12 years of Championships. The Curse has become the douchebag fan that everyone hates.

Sully! Murph! We rule!

Praise The Feathered Raptor Lord!

Raptor Lord is a harsh God, but fair. He only eats when He's hungry. Which, admittedly, is often. But running the Universe  - including monitoring and influencing every single sporting event in the Universe in case one player/side is more fawning over Raptor Lord - is hard work!

Praise be unto Him. ROAR!

CHILDREN, HEAH!

"CHILDREN for sale! Get your fresh CHILDREN, HEAH!"

"Hey! Dude! 4 CHILDREN UP HEAH!"

"4 CHILDREN coming up!"

"42.50 buddy!"

The Power of Minstrels

A powerful lineup, and influential. Each of these men had a not insignificant role in shaping the flavor of race relations in America today.

I wonder what the real effect of entertainers, sports figures, and other celebrities is on race issues. I assume it's significant over time in terms of cultural awareness. Whether that translates tangibly to non-celebrities, I don't know.

Anyone got a study?

Also too, and said before: If you've not watched Sanford and Son in some time, or ever, please do. It's amazing.

Pain for Sport

I'm not sure this awesome statement by the man, MT, is completely true. Other animals play with creatures before killing them - is that sport? Yeah, kinda. Regardless, this statement is true enough to tell the tale - we are Gods upon this Earth and we kill and torture for sport.

Cruel Gods.

And yet a bull fighter recants, and so proves maybe we can be more than the ultimate killing machines.

Twain loved kitties, and so further cements his Internet God-dom.

Super hunk Mark Twain, writer of words, lover of kitties. A meme machine for mankind for the next 1 to 2 hundred years.

Come Together

It's heartening to see people come together in times of tragedy and loss.

It's sad that it takes such tragedies to bring people together in such visible ways. Shouldn't we be together - all of us, all people - all the time?

Maybe sometime in the future.

After the War

The Sarajevo Winter Olympics awards platform. In 1984 it was the scene of triumph. A few years later, target practice. Such is the way of war, swiftly ripping away hard fought gains in culture.

Like ski jumping. Seriously, think how luxurious it is to live in a time when we build huge structures so people can ski jump off them, and we do so at an intense level of competition.

Now see them as you stumble out of the woods chasing a rabbit for dinner (in the far future), and you come across these two stone "bridges?" to nowhere. What strange magic men of old once practiced!

Aye, magic. Look around! But war can take it all away, and not just bombs and guns and tanks and such, but economic and cultural war can be equally destructive. Once you lose a certain level of civilization, for whatever reason, there's no guarantee it will come back. There's only so much any society can take before it breaks. Such has been the fall of all great empires, all nations, all peoples, sooner or later.

It can be delayed, with wisdom. But all things fade in time.

Redshirt's Lament 2013 Top 11 Predictions!

Manhattanhenge - a twice yearly event in NYC around May 28th and July 12. On these two days the sun rises and sets aligned with the East-West streets, causing many hands to be raised to eyes those days, I assure you. Manhattenhenge can be predicted - thousands of years into the future, if you wanted to - because of science! We've observed patterns in nature then expanding these observations with theories tested through experiments producing something closer to Truth.  And so with those lofty thoughts, here are my completely unscientific predictions for 2013. In no particular order:

1. US government shutdown in March, Republicans hold country hostage
2. Worldwide economic stagnation, marginal US growth
3. More mass shootings! Still not the right time to talk about gun control
4. Western retreat from Afghanistan accelerates with many European countries departing, in addition to large US troop withdrawals.
5. Comet Ison in November brings out the freaks - it's going to be epically bright.
6. On Mars, Curiosity discovers strong evidence for past life on the once wet planet.
7. More and even cooler Exoplanets. Note that as each year passes and Kepler watches the same stars, unceasingly, we'll find better and better planets, since it takes time for planets with bigger orbits to be discovered. These first 800 are just the appetizers.
8. More crazy weather! Monster Tornadoes! Epic Hurricanes! Crushing Droughts! Massive Floods! I've been reading some scary doom and 'n gloom predictions, so batten down and review your insurance now.
9. US Sports Winners: Patriots/Oklahoma City/Anaheim Angels of the City of Los Angeles/Hockey? LOL.  Women's MMA becomes ironically popular.
10. Django Unchained wins all the Academy Awards
11. Redshirt comes across a black bear in the woods - it has to happen one day, I reckon.

Tune in next year at this time to see how I did. Till then, here's MIThenge: