Monthly Archives: January 2017
The Club Should Have Recruited a 14th Member
Fortunately, the superstitious occurrence known as “Friday the 13th” has nothing to do with preventing people from reading awesome blogs.
And that’s a good thing because, courtesy of the YouTube channel Life Noggin, we’re going to get a fresh perspective for attempting to interpret the most frightful of days connected to an unlucky number. There are many superstitions attached to “Friday the 13th,” which include black cats, mirrors breaking and the dreaded number 66 – I’ll spare us all by not typing that last number that falls between 5 and 7.
Time to look at this day with some fascinating historical perspective.
The worst part about today was that there was a bag filled with one million dollars on the ground, but I would’ve had to walk under a ladder to grab the cool million.
Oh well, hopefully the money will still be there tomorrow on Saturday the 14th.
Fun Fact: The 13 Club that was founded in New York with members who dared to walk under ladders and break mirrors (as seen in the video). This group eventually became known as the New York Mets.
(Not true, but how perfect would that have been!)
Using a Crane (or 2) to Grab a Song from the Must See Past
It’s blog posts like this one that solidify the excitement and necessity for “Throwback Thursday.”
Frasier is one of the best sitcoms in television history. The writing, characters, acting, settings, cleverness and overall tone of the show were absolutely top drawer. This series began with very real emotions and situations that were relatable to a broad audience, whilst adding just the right amount of suspended belief to make its stories greatly entertaining with notes of appreciated realism throughout the show’s illustrious 11 seasons.
Please enjoy one of these very scenes that captures the love (and laugh-out-loud comedic timing) of the Crane men. Martin Crane (the father) discovers a newfound connection with his sons who aptly remind him of their likeness, well, just watch.
It’s a must see clip.
#Family.
That short scene demonstrates why Frasier was so masterful.
Happy “Throwback Thursday.”
P.S. Actually, a tossed salad and scrambled eggs sound pretty good right now…
The Stellar Sound of the Space Around Us
They say that “tails never fails.” Except for, you know, roughly 50% of the time. Anyways, how about this:
The ear can hear what we fear, and cheer.
Be kind, it’s a first draft with rough edges galore.
This blog has made the case that orchestral numbers can strike something profoundly powerful inside us that doesn’t necessarily offer confirmations to our myriad of questions, but stirs a wonderful mixture of mystery, caution and, incredibly, an unyielding pursuit of discovery. Once again, Christopher Nolan’s space operatic epic Interstellar is the focus of yet another blog post. This time, the form is the music from the film’s long past third trailer from late 2014 (with admittedly the faintest hint of audible lyrics at the end).
To quote a line from a fellow Nolan cinematic achievement, “And here we go.”
So, where will that music take you?
Wherever it leads you, just know that attempting to save the human race is always a crowd-pleaser. However, I myself may start with something slightly less grand…for the moment anyways.
FIFA: What is Your Malfunction?
As my old club soccer coach famously yelled to me across the indoor pitch after I made my very first mistake with my new team, “Boy, what is your malfunction?”
Read the quote below and you’ll understand why I opened with that priceless soccer memory.
“An initial stage of 16 groups of three teams will precede a knockout stage for the remaining 32 when the change is made for the 2026 tournament.
The sport’s world governing body voted unanimously in favour of the change at a meeting in Zurich on Tuesday.”
–BBC Football Online
Shocking? No. Sad? Yes.
Most importantly: Will the World Cup evolve into a better tournament through this expansion effort in 2026? No.
As has been recently discussed in more depth on Jimmy’s Daily Planet back on December 28th (Participation Trophies…for Adults?), the competitiveness of the World Cup will suffer with this expansion. Additionally, FIFA, which is governed by the new president Gianni Infantino, has voluntarily prolonged the embarrassing era with its overarching reputation of bribery and corruption.
To Mr. Infantino and the soccer federations, however, perhaps the influx of money will (again) be enough to quell legitimate concerns of dedicated fans around the world of lessening the competitiveness and difficulty of simply qualifying for the golden opportunity of competing on soccer’s grandest stage.
The future of 48 teams in a World Cup is set to become reality. It’s happening (insert groans here). And those who will argue that this addition of a dozen teams will be superior to the current model with 32 teams were also likely arguing for the Microsoft Zune over the Apple iPod way back when…
On that note: Do you own a Zune? Just because something is new doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better. There can be unforeseen (and very easily seen) malfunctions that occur with its users.
Lucky for me, my aforementioned malfunction was a solitary bad pass. FIFA’s malfunctions will have much more serious, enduring consequences.
Jimmy's Daily Planet 