An accident waiting to happen

Fitness guru Jennifer Nicole Lee draped herself in a slinky white dress to go out and about the other day. Now of course, she can pull this dress off. But unless you've got shoulders like a linebacker, that thing is going to be a bit problematic:

Bonus points if you correctly predict what desperate celeb will be falling out of this outfit in public sometime soon. A few years ago, my money would have been on Tara Reid but she's keeping a low profile these days.

Linds? Kim K.? Leann Rimes? New party girl Amanda Bynes? Who knows.

Rule 5 Sunday -- lithe blonde edition

This week's Rule 5 posting is one of those ubiquitous internet models -- a lithe (never get to use that word enough) leggy blonde named Ella.

She's pretty, poses like crazy, and has really amazing eyes.

Nice

*click on the thumbnails for full-sized images*

Rule 5 Sunday suggested by this.

Hat tips:
Jake Finnegan
The Daley Gator
The Classic Liberal
Say Anything Blog
Proof Positive
Reaganite Republican

Sox back at .500

Boston beat the White Sox 1-0 last night to get back to .500 after a wretched 4-10 start.  The guys are on a six game win streak with the possibility of a sweep today with Josh Beckett on the mound for the final game of the series.

Red Sox ace Jon Lester threw seven innings of shutout ball against Chicago ace Jake Peavy who got the complete game loss.  Bobby Valentine's developing closer sequence of Padilla, Morales and Aceves got the job done again as Alfredo got a 1-2-3 ninth to seal the win.

A lot of trolls and whiners at the Red Sox website were calling for Valentine's head after the rough start, but Bobby V's been doing the job the right way.  Letting guys settle in and seeing what they are capable of before pulling the trigger on a move.  He got pummeled for leaving Daniel Bard in too long against the Rays after Bard walked in the Rays winning run.  But when is it better to find out if you can trust a pitcher late in a game?  Now, with a hundred some games to recover from a loss?  Or in September when you're fighting for a playoff spot?  It's Managing 101 and Bobby's spot on with this.

Other news has Aaron Cook coming out of rehab.  With no openings in the starting rotation, Cook might be just the guy to plug into Aceves vacated long relief / set-up role.  That would solidify the bullpen immensely.

Every team in the AL East is at or above .500 now, and though Boston is still in the cellar, they are only 2 1/2 games behind division leading Baltimore.  Like I said earlier, this could be a fun season and perhaps the most exciting division in baseball this year.

Also want to shout out to the Orioles under one of my favorite managers -- Buck Showalter.  Like Bobby V., I always thought Buck was out of baseball way too long.  Glad to see him getting that team back on track.  From the little kid who modeled himself after Brooks Robinson at third base -- way to go Buck!  :-)

New Avengers team image

Found a new Avengers team composite online. Pretty neat image with everyone looking a little battle weary . . . IronMan an little banged up, scars on Cap's shield, and so on. ScarJo's Black Widow is inexplicably wielding a tiny Glock . . . but hey, it's just a promo image.

The Hulk is looking a little old school, like the early comic book version. And I've noticed he's interacting more in a coherent fashion with other team members in the trailers and teasers, unlike the two previous movie versions where he was more smash and roar. No complaints there. I wondered how they were going to have him work as a team member given his behaviour in the two different movies already out.

Still looking forward to the May 4 opening.

Late night hotness . . .

Man, you go a smidge too far with the acid wash, and . . .

That rain out seemed to be just the ticket

Mercifully getting a rainout Sunday after two crushing losses to division rival New York, the Sox traveled to Minnesota for a three game series with the Twins.

Cody Ross powered Monday's 6-5 win with two homers and the game got some much needed levity in the ninth from manager Bobby Valentine.  After light hitting Trevor Plouffe hit a warning track fly ball that could have won the game for the Twins, Bobby walked out to the mound and asked Boston closer Alfredo Aceves if he was trying to kill him.  "I thought we were tight, man."  Valentine joked with Aceves.

Last night's game was a much more straight forward affair.  Josh Beckett had six solid innings, allowing two runs while striking out five.  And the guys swung the bats well en route to a 11-2 win.  Beckett had some words with the home plate ump after one inning, complaining about being squeezed on the zone, something that may be a trend this year after Daniel Bard got similar treatment in his game against the Rays.

The Sox are a better team than their 6-10 record would suggest, with good production from the hitters and pretty solid starting pitching save Clay Buccholz who has struggled to find his groove.  The killer has been the pen, which has been horrible.  With no one immediately available to plug in, I don't know what Boston is going to do to fix this situation.  My initial thoughts were to plug Bard into the closer roll and drop some coin to bring in Roy Oswalt for Bard's slot in the rotation.  But Bard has already failed while being groomed to step in for Papelbon, so I don't know if he'd do better now.  Plus he's already whining in the press about wanting to stay a starter.

Hopefully the guys can get a sweep against the Twins to get some good momentum on this road trip and shut the yaps of some of these writers and fans that have so quickly given up on the team.

You been away too long, girl

Mischa Barton dials the sessy up to 11 for a . . . music video? A photoshoot . . . something?  I mean, I hope she isn't just walking around the streets like this:

Woof!  Been missin' your sloppy goodness girl.  Aww yeah . . .

Game of Thrones, season two -- a ponderation

So season two of Game of Thrones is now three episodes old. What do I think? Glad you asked.

Just to let you know, I have read the first three books of Martin's Song of Fire and Ice epic, so this is where I'm coming from here:

First off, I do not recall Stannis Baratheon having sex with the sorceress Melisandre. I don't recall even a hint of such a thing. I've seen on a couple fanboy sites some heated debate about this, with some posters swearing that relations between the two were plainly implied or even outright mentioned. I'm calling b.s. on that.

While Stannis is single-minded about his quest for the Iron Throne, to the point of abandoning the gods of his youth and accepting Melisandre's new god of fire, he is honorable almost to a fault in the books. Davos Seaworth, a smuggler, saved Stannis in the last war by smuggling in food to the besieged ruler. For saving Stannis, the lord has him knighted (hence the quasi mocking title of Onion Knight given Davos), but cuts off the tips of Davos' fingers for smuggling. Not exactly the actions of a king who'd bang a red-haired witch.

In tonight's episode we see Renly Baratheon having sex, or rather trying to get started, with the brother of his queen and then being impotent with the queen herself. Again, I don't recall that from the book. Nor do I remember any hint of Renly being gay. He is portrayed as a sort of dandy who plays at being "The Beautiful King," but homosexual? Can't believe I missed that major plot point.

I'm chalking this up to HBO's attempt to really sex up the series. Not sure why they're doing that. The books have plenty of sex and killing and such in them already, so why kick it up a notch? Ratings? I thought this was already a hit series.

Oh well . . .

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am pleased with the casting for the most part. Tonight's episode also introduced us to Brienne of Tarth, played by Gwendoline Christie.

woof! What an amazon!

In the books, Brienne is homely to the point of being mannish in appearance. Don't know if Gwendoline fits that bill perfectly, but they've toned down her looks to make her suitable for the role, imho.

All in all, I'm still pleased with the series and cannot wait to get on to the fourth book -- A Feast for Crows. And if you haven't seen the series yet, check it out. It's way better than HBO's political garbage :-)

Sox feast on home cooking -- Rays pitching

The Rays are in town for a four game series against Boston. The Sox have broken out the whuppin' sticks the first two games and reeled off wins 12-2 and 13-5.

In game one, Josh Beckett got his Curt Schilling on and instead of powering 99 mph fastballs at the Rays batters, relied on finesse to shut down the Tampa Bay hitters. The Sox hitters exploded in the 8th inning, pounding the Ray's relief pitchers (one of whom is now banished to the minors) for 8 runs.

In today's game, Clay Buchholz hung on through a horrible first inning, giving up four runs, to allow only one more run and stay in until the 7th for a quality start and the win. Once again, the Boston hitters brought the bash to the game, cranking out 5 home runs to put an exclamation point on the win.

The Rays have dropped to 4-4 after starting the season quite well. And Boston has rebounded to 3-5 with Doubront and Bard hoping to get the guys back to .500 with a sweep of the suddenly staggering Rays.

In the media, the Boston players have continued to be only respectful and professional towards a Tampa Bay team that has an unhealthy rivalry turned up to eleven. The Rays, however, are already in mid-season whine form after only one game with Boston (haven't seen the reports from today's game yet).

Joe Maddon implied that Kelly Shoppach stepped into the pitch that got him on base against David Price yesterday. Price couldn't find home plate with a seeing eye dog and a team of cub scouts, so is it any surprise he drilled his former teammate? Tampa players also blamed Jacoby Ellsbury for his own injury, suggesting he should not have tried to break up the double play at second base. That's Baseball 101 fellas! Since when do you just allow yourself to be thrown out?

Expect to see something about the pitch Hellickson thought should have been a called third strike against Ortiz. Papi jacked a monster double the next pitch and Hellickson was furious.

I've said it before, the JV attitude of the Rays just puts me off. I don't want to hate on my hometown team. I just wish they would play the game and not be so whiny about stuff. Stuff that always and only seems to be about Boston.

*groan*

Late night hotness . . .

Tryin' to come up with something clever here . . .

Bolts are goalie shopping. What a shock!

After their disappointing third place finish in the division, the Lightning are looking to pick up a number one goalie in the off season.

The Bolts had the league's worst goals-against and save percentages, and you're not going anywhere like that, as I said repeatedly on this blog. It's looking like Steve Yzerman has his eye on Vancouver's Cory Schneider.

Schneider is a restricted free agent, so it will take a big trade to get him. But Stevie Y has got a ton of draft picks stocked up - 2 first rounders (10th and 23rd) and 4 second rounders, that would make any team salivate.

Schneider has a lot of upsides to him being only 26 years old and through 68 games in the NHL, has a 38-17-4 record, with a 2.24 goals against average and a .928 save percentage.

This is probably the best deal out there for the Bolts who desperately need to upgrade their net. Stars like Martin St. Louis have said the only thing keeping him on this team is his belief that they can get things turned around next season.

Here's hoping.

---

Though the Sox lost last night 7-3 to the Blue Jays, Daniel Bard's first outing as a starter wasn't nearly as bad as the score might indicate.

The converted closer gave up 7 hits, all singles and actually exited the game with only a 3-1 deficit in the sixth. Some better work from the bullpen, and the Sox might have had a win.

The bats have been strangely ineffective for Boston so far this season, which I'm sure will change. But Bobby V's gonna have to get this bullpen to get it together quickly or they're going to get in a hole real early.

Valentine's taking the heat for the loss, saying he should have pulled the one reliever a bit earlier. So there's that. But the responsibility is on the players to perform as well.

Sox get off the schneid

Boston beat Toronto tonight 4-2 on a ninth inning rally to finally get in the win column this year.

Felix Doubront pitched a decent game, allowing 2 runs and striking out 6 through five innings. While technically not a "quality" start, he didn't put the team in the same hole as Beckett or Buchholz did the last two games.

Scott Atchison pitched three scoreless innings to keep the guys in it. And then Alfredo Aceves managed a 1-2-3 ninth to get the win after laboring his last two appearances without recording an out.

I'm still not convinced of this rotation or bullpen, but I'm happy with the win tonight. My prediction is that they're going to move Bard to closer and drop some coin to bring in Roy Oswalt (I think he's still unemployed at the moment) and perhaps bring this kid Cook up from the minors and platoon him with some of the other guys while they figure out if Beckett's going on the d/l and for how long.

Anywho, nice win guys :-)

A Blue Lagoon remake? Why?

Some movies simply don't need or deserve remaking. Showgirls comes to mind immediately. And The Blue Lagoon isn't far behind. It was a silly movie to begin with and had no great narrative to hang your hat on.

Of course, this new version is getting a lot of hype online, mainly because of the casting. In 21 year old Indiana Evans, producers have found an actress who's got the face of a 13 year old and the body of a stripper:

The original had a 15 year old Brooke Shields, well on her way to cementing her status as world's oldest virgin, as the film's drawing point:

My main rememberance of the first film, other than the seaweed bikinis, which from the promo pics, appear to not be making a reprise in the remake, was an interview with the director -- Randal Kleiser.

As Shields was still a virginal young lady, Kleiser had to hide off camera and pinch her big toe to help Brooke find her "O face" for the love scenes.

That's directing, baby!

It appears there's some kitsch factor at work in the remake (no duh!) as I see they've also got Christopher Atkins making a cameo and Denise Richards has a part as well.

?!?

Oh well, perhaps someone saw her old Playboy shoot and thought she was perfect for the flick:

Weekend sports recap

Well sadly, what I feared about the Red Sox has been proven out in the first three games of the season. With no true closer on the team, the "committee" blew two leads yesterday to allow the Tigers to come back and win 13-12 to sweep the Boston into the division cellar with an 0-3 record to start the season.

Team officials are still saying that nothing is wrong with Josh Beckett's thumb, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the d/l sometime soon. And the guys put up a ton of runs yesterday and still could not win because they can't close the other team down in the ninth. This isn't going to get better with time. The Sox have the payroll to find a closer, the GM's got to get out there and start looking now or it will be an ugly season.

---

The Rays, meanwhile, shutout the Jankees yesterday 3-0 to sweep them into the winless cellar next to the Sox.

The team has someone filling in for Kyle Farnsworth who seems to be doing a capable job closing, so good for them. The AL East is topsy turvy at the start of the season. Could be a fun year if things keep jumbling around like this. I prefer a year long dogfight to those years when New York is up by 20 games at the All-Star Break.

---

And Bubba Watson won the Masters yesterday in a playoff.

Did you watch it live? If not, you missed one of the greatest golf shots I've ever seen. With Watson and Oosthuizen (sp?) playing in the same group and tied for the last couple of holes in regulation, both players hit badly off the tee on 17.

Oosthuizen gets a lucky break and has his ball stay in the fairway, but Watson's ends up way off to the right in the pine straw. Instead of chipping out to the fairway safely, Bubba cranks a hook nearly 90 degrees and lands his shot on the green to save par!

I had thought that the rain-making pitch Mickleson had hit the day before was going to be the shot of the tournament, but that blast yesterday had me laughing and clapping on my sofa.

Congrats Bubba Watson! You definitely earned that green jacket!

Happy Easter

I'd like to wish my one or two loyal readers and anyone who stumbles across this silly blog a Happy Easter.

I freely admit I'm not one of those Christians who can spout scripture at the drop of the hat. I don't go to church regularly. But that doesn't make me any less of a believer.

I have a young friend, she rails against Christianity and those who practice it, with quite a fury. She's had family and friends that have been the usual pious, self-important types who embody the hypocritical stereotype of believers that are routinely bashed by pious, self-important atheists and lefties.

When my friend and I talk about her feelings about the Bible and God and such, my answer to her, and in fact, anyone who loves to bash Christianity or those who believe is this -- The Word is pure, it is always man who perverts it for his own use.

Rays open the season with a win

Over the hated Yankees, no less!

Tampa beat New York 7-6 to open their season on a high note. With the Rays bats taking spring training off, the team known for shut out pitching ended up out-slugging the vaunted Yankees.

Carlos Pena broke the first inning open with a grand slam off CC Sabathia and eventually won the game with a walk off fly against the suddenly not-so-ageless Mariano Rivera.

James "Big Game" Shields didn't have one, getting pounded for six runs through five innings before giving way to pretty much every relief pitcher in the Rays bullpen as the team tried to hold on for a comeback.

Evan Langoria also jacked a home run in the game. With any hope, maybe these hitters are going to be a bit more productive this season.

As with Boston, one game does not a season make. But it is always nice to see someone take down the Jankees :-)

Frisk me, officer . . .

. . . I might have something on me!

Grace Park on the set of Hawaii Five O.

Yowzers! I may have to start tuning in to this show. Or move to Hawaii if that's how the cops dress out there. *checks bank account* Nevermind, think I'll just watch it on tv.

Boston opens the season with a loss

The Red Sox opened the 2012 season with a 3-2 loss to the Tigers today.

Going against AL MVP Justin Verlander, the Sox were shut out until the ninth when they rallied for two runs in the losing effort. Boston starter Jon Lester did his part, holding the potent Tigers to 1 run over 7 innings. But a loss is a loss and not how this team needed to get the season going.

Boston's designated closer, Andrew Bailey, is lost for the season with a thumb injury that requires surgery. Don't believe the rose-tinted glasses stuff coming from the team, Bailey may be able to throw again by mid season, but he won't be an effective closer this season. Period.

With Daniel Bard, originally slated to be Papelbon's replacement, moved into the starting rotation, there is no true closer on the team. So it looks like the Sox are going to close by committee this year. 'Cause that's worked so well for other teams in the past. ugh

Josh Beckett also has a thumb injury, which the team says is a non-factor. But anyone familiar with Beckett's career knows he's an every-other-year kind of pitcher. And with his strong season last year, I'd hate to think this is a portent of an off year when the team needs him desperately.

I know, it's only one game, against the league's best pitcher. But these guys need a HUGE rebound next game, or everyone's going to start giving this team the side-eye. And it will be deserved.

So is everybody going to pilates class these days?

Or are yoga pants this decade's bike shorts?

I mean seriously, you can't hit a celeb site without seeing someone parading around in yoga pants anymore. No complaints, these gals look good in them, but if I may paraphrase one of my favorite movies, Hackers:

Yoga pants -- they're a privilege, not a right.

Will PolitiFact make Obama's enemies list?

Last year, the liberal leaning PolitiFact slammed the Democrats assertion that the Republican's economic bill would "end Medicare as we know it" a statement the President continues to spout on the campaign stump even now. PolitiFact called it the "Lie of the Year."

Within the last day or two, PolitiFact has come out again and rated False the President's (our constitutional scholar President, btw) assertion that the Supreme Court, in deeming ObamaCare as unconstitutional, would be overturning a law passed by wide margins and unprecedented.

For their part, PolitiFact tried to give the President cover by allowing him some nuance in later framing ObamaCare as an economic issue rather than policy issue, but they flat out rated his claim as false and false.

Given the petulant, childish nature of this President and those around him, I wouldn't be surprised to start hearing very vocal complaints about PolitiFact come out of the Oval Office and pretty much everyone else in the water carrying media.

Late night hotness . . .

. . . she loves me not . . . wait, don't stop now

Always fun to watch the master at work

Paris Hilton is in Australia for the opening of a casino. And despite the fact that she, personally, is obscenely wealthy, someone is putting her up on a luxury yacht while she's there.

Knowing full well she's being papped every moment of the day, the PhD of fame-whoring, backs up to the boat's railing and spends about five minutes working her wedgie out:

Mission accomplished, as Paris gets her ass on every celeb blog and in every scandal rag in the world. I mean seriously, she plays the media better than pretty much anyone else in the famous-for-being-famous category.

And when it comes to dropping some skin on a yacht, Paris has shown before that she has no peer:

And they say this chick has no talent. Pfftt . . .

Game of Thrones -- finally!

Finally, our long national nightmare is over and the new season of Game of Thrones premiered tonight.

I'm not going to rehash the episode, but will mention that after reading the first two books in George R.R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice epic, that I'm fairly impressed with how well the show's creators hew to the source material.

I am pleased with some of the casting of the new characters, particularly Liam Cunningham as Davos, the Onion Knight and Carice van Houten as Melisandre, the sorceress who bewitches Stannis Baratheon.

Cunningham's a sturdy character actor who's been in tons of stuff, most recently the Clash of the Titans remake. And I just saw van Houten in the unknown and underrated Black Death. She played a witch in that as well and that movie starred Sean Bean, so there's tons of synchronicity at work here. Surely unintentional, but amusing to me none the less.

---

One downer for the night was a couple of previews that came on right before the show. HBO has two new series coming up -- one about an apparently conservative newsman who has a meltdown and begins speaking truth to power via liberal talking points, of course. I'm guessing this is their sort of Bill O'Reilly becomes Joe Scarborough show.

The other is about a ditzy Vice President who doesn't know what the acronym NASA stands for and is a complete incompetent diva. Clearly another knock at Sarah Palin.

*sigh*

After the laughable mess of Recount and the critically panned in-kind political contribution Game Change, you would think the honchos at HBO would get off it for a bit. But I guess not.

Well, they've got me for one show. But I wouldn't watch the rest of their liberal b.s. line-up if you put a gun to my head.

Ryan Newman wins at Martinsville

Ryan Newman won the Goodies Fast Relief 500 today at Martinsville.

Teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson dominated the short track race, and with Dale Earnhardt Jr. lurking in the top five, team owner Rick Hendrick was looking at a possible sweep of the top three finishing positions. Unfortunately, a late race caution gave other drivers a chance to get gas and fresh tires, leaving Gordon and Johnson vulnerable on a restart.

Unable to get away clean on old tires, both Gordon and Johnson got collected in a restart wreck and the in the ensuing restart, Newman held off A.J. Allmendinger and Jr. for the win.

Tony Stewart finished 7th, which moves him to third in the points standings. Stewart-Haas racing now has 3 victories in the 6 Cup races this season. Pretty impressive for the little team. And as always, seeing Tony beat the Hendrick juggernaut with it's own equipment always puts a smile on my face.

Shout out sympathy for David Reutimann who caused the late race caution. Trying desperately to keep his dying car in the top 35 in owner points, Reuty limped around the track trying to stay out of everyone's way until a timing chain broke and his engine shut down completely. Other drivers over the radio could be heard slamming Reutimann for not parking his car, but as Michael Waltrip said in the booth, no one knew exactly what was going on inside the car and it wasn't until after the race that Reutimann's motivations came out.

Congrats again to Ryan for the win.

Rule 5 Sunday -- Girls behaving badly edition

Or perhaps it should be photographers behaving badly. heh heh

If you're one of the two or three folks that have followed me online, you know I'm liking the vintage stuff, black & white photography, and the like. So I'm always trolling around looking for that type of thing online. I had always known of Bettie Page and her fetish work. I just never imagined it was so prevalent back in the day.

Photogs like Irving Klaw, Bunnie Yeager, Theo Ehret, and others were getting their freak on back when Lucy and Desi were sleeping in seperate beds on television. Scandalous! And apparently this stuff continues today with the wondrous world of internet access, there are other photogs carrying on the kinky work of these vintage photographers.

Not that I, personally, am interested in this stuff. Not at all, it is presented merely in an academic light. Because . . . well, you know . . . uhmmm . . . *closes door to computer room*

*click on thumbnails for full-sized images*

Rule 5 Sunday suggested by this.

Hat tips:
Jake Finnegan
The Daley Gator
The Classic Liberal
Say Anything Blog
Proof Positive
Reaganite Republican