Breaking News: Fish is now Dish

Thanks so much, readers, for supporting this space. I've loved every bit of it.

For now, however, I can't justify the time spent. I'm afraid I've had to choose too many times between posting here, and doing what I should to move my career along.

The good news is, though, that I'll be researching and writing an article about once weekly for The Daily Dish, found at LoveOfTheGameProductions.com. It's in connection with the radio pregame show I produce, meaning it will be about baseball, and I can't say 'fuck.'

Short of that, though, I have full creative control, and if you care to join me, you'll get access to a few of baseball's most interesting honchos and back stories. Meanwhile, I hope you've enjoyed this be-finned flight of fancy.

Stay in touch.

-Zed

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“I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge?”
-Douglas Adams

You dirty Jew! You big chicken!

Okay, Red Herring to a dinosaur? He was just discovered in the Gobi, his name means "Egg-Stealer," and he's been called a sixteen foot chicken.

So why not.


Meanwhile, here in the City, there's a dirty City Supervisor named Ed Jew (a Chinese guy, and no, not a Jew.) What he's done is pretty unreal; that is, he's gone to great lengths to defraud everyone, and it seems so unnecessary. Love them politix.

-Zed

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"If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
-Albert Einstein

Top what?

The worst thing I've ever seen? How about this list of novels -- whose Top Ten feature no less than seven books by either Ayn Rand or L. Ron Hubbard.

Super Red Herring to these paste-eaters.

I've got a lot of work to do for school today, so I'll leave you with that.

-Zed

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"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes."
-Marcel Proust

All the medical news

Little shout-out, and a fresh, crisp Red Herring today to NewsoftheWeird.com, source for all your important medical news.

From today's edition:

A woman in Columbia University's hospital had her gallbladder removed in March not by traditional abdominal surgery but by running instruments through her vagina, according to an April New York Times report. Doctors said that abdominal-muscle cuts are painful and slow to heal, and that surgeons are considering using the body's other natural openings, also, for some procedures. (In a landmark 2004 operation, doctors in India removed a patient's appendix through the mouth.) Still, a female New York University surgeon said the idea of gallbladder surgery through the vagina is "repulsive." [New York Times, 4-20-07]

In May, doctors at Schneider Children's Hospital in New York, operating on a 3-year-old girl, removed a brain tumor that had made her one of only a tiny number of people in the world to suffer from a syndrome that caused her to laugh uncontrollably when experiencing a seizure. Her mother described the girl's facial expression before the corrective surgery as similar to that of the Batman character the Joker. [Tampa Tribune-AP, 5-4-07]

Can you make this stuff up? I think you cannot.

-Zed

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"It is a wise man's part, rather to avoid sickness, than to wish for medicines."
-Thomas More

London 2012 logo II

...Just to give you a better idea of how the London 2012 Olympic logo is meant to Move And Shake Its Thing.

Red Herring today goes to... who[m]ever thinks "its," above, should get an apostrophe.

London 2012 promo vid:



...And, just for fun, a little Presidential music video. Because you've earned it:



-Zed

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"I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here."
-George W. Bush

MLB draft hits the air

...And you know? It's not bad t.v. If you're into that kind of thing, of course. (And yes, you can actually watch live online.)

Peter Gammons, Steve Phillips, and Keith Law are sure a lot better than Mel Kiper, Jr. and whatever unfortunate mook gets to sit next to him.

And did you know? This is actually the first time the draft has been held anywhere. (It has customarily been conducted by conference call.)

As for the Giants pick: well, the draftniks love it -- you've got to like a big-bodied, projectable high school lefty nobody thought would go this high -- and Madison Bumgarner (pictured; surf's up!) is hands down the best name in the draft thus far.

As the first round winds down, the analysts have been extremely complimentary of the Giants three first-round picks. Stay tuned to ESPN2 for more.

Meanwhile: four of the A's starting pitchers are in the top 20 in the American League in ERA.

I'll give you a dollar if you can name them.

-Zed

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"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
-Groucho Marx

The day's look at sports

In the NFL, the 49ers' Mike Nolan continues to lobby Reebok for the "right" to wear a suit on the sidelines, like his dad, former Niners head coach Dick Nolan.

The younger Nolan, by the way, is probably more popular around here than un-defeatable Mayor Gavin Newsom. The 49ers, on the other hand, continue to be an organization of jokers off the field. A colleague in the business recently told me her struggles to get important phone calls returned are par for the course.

In the NBA, much is being made of Lebron James' dunk over Tim Duncan. But Warriors fans know, it doesn't even compare to Baron Davis' de-pantsing of Andrei Kirilenko earlier in the playoffs. Hell, Duncan didn't even jump. Red Herring today to those media boofs -- represented today, because he's a good sport, by Charles Barkley.

(I'm obliged to say that Barkley, though a knee-jerk loudmouth, is not exactly a hardened criminal like some athletes you may hear about.)

Okay, take care of those tootsies.

-Zed

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"The NFL, like life, is full of idiots."
-Randy Cross

London 2012: in the pink

The London 2012 Olympics has a new logo.


Revealed on the web today, the logo itself is, of course, perfectly hideous. But the idea is good: a logo that keeps moving (see YouTube for the introductory press conference) and can be used on mobile phones and whatever other multimedia we'll be toting around in '12.

Let us know what you think.

-Zed

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“In silence and movement you can show the reflection of people.”
-Marcel Marceau

Don't blame the Messenger

Okay, yes I do have to weigh in on the Giants' recent message, bringing in Randy Messenger, and literally sending Armando Benitez back where he came from.

The G-men were victimized by their own lousy timing -- they pulled Ourmando off the trade table in spring training, when he was pitching well, and GM Brian Sabean either felt he wasn't being offered enough, or changed his mind on the big Dominican. Sabean also wasn't able to hold out until anywhere near the July 31 trade deadline, despite a market desperate for relief pitchers.

The Giants got a bargain: a nobody long-reliever, plus they're paying only $4.7 million of his $5 million salary. Which means, additionally, that if Armando ever does anything good in Florida -- seeing as the Marlins are paying him less than the Major League minimum -- the Giants were screwed there, too.

What's interesting is Sabean's mea no culpa. Apparently, he feels that the fans are now running his office.

Said Sabean:

Right now, as we speak, we're heading closer to last place than first place. I don't know that that was Armando Benitez's fault... We are at a crossroads in my mind, and apparently the fans, the press and some people in the clubhouse felt he needed to go.

And just like President Bush, or your high school gym teacher, the Giants' General Manager is obligated to do whatever you want him to do.

So, since Benitez already has more than enough Fish up on his wall (and now, 24 more in his clubhouse) a large, slappy-sounding Red Herring to Mr. Sabean, who bought high, sold low, and blamed the fans. (What you're watching is a formerly brilliant General Manager, slinking out the door.)

If any of this sounds familiar -- painting themselves into a corner, then getting the worst deal available out of desperation -- just think to yourself, $126 million, backloaded.

You know what? We're still better off.

-Zed

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"A hot dog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz."
-Humphrey Bogart

As the checked ball bounces

Nice: FIFA doesn't consult Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, or Mexico before banning higher-altitude sites for FIFA qualifiers. No word about them banning heat, or cold, or bad refereeing for that matter.

These are sites that have held such matches since time out of mind. On the other hand, their GDP are fractions, respectively, of Germany or South Africa (sites of the last and the next World Cup.)

In Tech, authorities say that their arrest of one man may produce noticibly less Spam in your inbox. Red Herring to one Robert Alan Soloway, since it's too late to get Karl Rove for his direct mail fodder.

Politics, politics, and soccer. Where's an Italian man crying for his mama when you need one?

The thing about Michael Vick and dog fighting is, the NFL recruits brutes, and turns them into animals. Ray Lewis? Pacman Jones? Bill Romanowski?

Bruce Jenkins suggests that these guys play together on the Bad News Bearz. I just hope Papa Sheffield can keep them away from Elijah Dukes.

And Mark Cuban and a Google exec want to challenge the NFL's supremacy? Iiinteresting...

-Zed

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"No thought, no idea, can possibly be conveyed as an idea from one person to another."
-John Dewey