Mostly Good News...Especially On the Hockey Front!

Justice prevails…according to Eric Duhatschek at The Toronto Globe and Mail:

SAN JOSE — Sometimes, justice can prevail, even in the fickle and occasionally unfair world of professional sport.

The Detroit Red Wings were 34 seconds away from falling into a 3-1 series hole to the San Jose Sharks Wednesday night. Despite dominating the play virtually all night, the Red Wings couldn't find an answer to Sharks' goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, who stopped 35 of the first 36 shots he faced in regulation and had his team seconds away from victory.

But a breakdown in defensive coverage in the final minute, with Red Wings' goaltender Dominik Hasek on the bench for an extra attacker, led to Robert Lang's tying goal on their 37th shot. Lang's shot squeezed under Nabokov's arm after defenceman Craig Rivet permitted him to close to within 20 feet of the net.

In overtime, Mathieu Schneider then capped the rally, scoring his first of the series on a power play to give the Red Wings a 3-2 come-from-behind victory. That win squared the series at two games apiece, with Game 5 scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Detroit.

It’s a standard hockey tactic…you’re down by a goal (or two) in the last minute of the game, your goalie skates to the bench and you add an extra attacker. Your six skaters then assault the opponent’s net in frantic desperation, shooting the puck at every opportunity. More often than not, this tactic usually results in your opponent either beating back your attack, or worse, scoring into your open net and winning the game. But last night? Justice!! Robert Lang, as noted above, ties the game in the final seconds and Mathieu Schneider gets the winner at 16:04 in the overtime period.

So. It’s another best two-out-of-three series. Let’s hope this one turns out the same as the last…

(photo credit: AP)

Daniel Henninger has a great rant in the WSJ today about my absolute favorite bugaboo: Political Correctness:

Don Imus, Bernard McGuirk, Trent Lott, Larry Summers, the Duke lacrosse team, Jimmy the Greek, the kid who yelled "water buffalo" at Penn, Howard Cosell, Jon Stewart, Chief Illiniwek, Jackie Mason and "South Park" all have in common only one thing: They have not been Politically Correct.

Some were brought down by it, and some have made a living from it. Today, there are people who even say that the satire on shows such as "South Park" or the "Daily Show" have made political correctness a harmless amusement. We have become so cool that we can simultaneously abide PC's merciless strictures against saying the wrong things about the right people even as we laugh at our subjugation to PC.

Despite the ironic mockery, political correctness still packs a punch. Say the wrong thing today and you can be gone tomorrow, your status as a top broadcaster, university president or politician obliterated. It happens in the small space of a sentence--defrocked, banished, gonzo. Outside a courtroom, I'm not aware of many other forces in American life that can do that.

“…still packs a punch” has got to be the understatement of the day. I’m of the opinion that Political Correctness is perhaps the biggest of the “little threats” we face as a culture. Political Correctness is insidious because it instructs us in “pure thought” and exacts harsh penalties should we not comply with the prescribed positions of “right-thinking” people. The phenomenon, while bad enough for us plodders at the bottom layers of the food chain, gets unbearably worse the higher up the ladder one climbs, in any endeavor. The end result is our leaders in government and business, as well as our cultural movers and shakers, are effectively—oh-so-effectively!—muzzled. It’s a rare, rare thing to hear someone in a position of power actually “speak his mind” these days; Group Think rules the roost. The PC phenomenon has cost us a lot…and yet I cannot see what benefits actually accrue from being PC, other than approving nods from our friends on the Left and a general dumbing-down of the culture.

Can anyone show me something—anything—good about Political Correctness? I’m all ears…enlighten me!

Ahhh..so this is why I felt compelled to post pictures of my scratched fairing…

Professor Crozier defines embarrassment as when we accidentally "contradict the identity we want to project, leaving a quite disabling sense of being exposed".

And the car-crash moment when it happens is like a "little death" - everything seems to stop, time seems to stand still and we talk about being "frozen" or "dying of embarrassment" or being "mortified".

But what do we do when it happens, and how best to recover?

"The best way to deal with embarrassment is to talk about it," says workplace psychologist Gary Fitzgibbon. "If you skulk off, you're left with it. You mustn't let the embarrassment dominate."

Once you admit to what's happened and talk about it, everyone will feel much more relaxed and they'll be laughing with you rather than at you.

I just wanted all y’all to laugh with me, rather than at me. Even though you would have never known about my pratfall had I not posted. Unless you were one of those 15 people in that San Jon parking lot when I “contradict(ed) the identity we (I) want to project.” Fat chance, that. But go ahead…you can laugh. It’s OK.

Our weather certainly was miserable yesterday, but not catastrophic as Spring weather can be. No, it was just gray, dull, and rainy for nearly the entire day. A perfect sort of day to “take it easy,” which I did…in spades. And, digressing as is my habit, I apparently did myself some good, too, as my back pain has greatly diminished this morning. I’m “cautiously optimistic,” as they say. This thing is beginning to resemble a strained muscle much more than a herniated disk. Thank You, Lord!!

But back to the weather…clear blue skies, light winds, and a temp of 64…on its way to a forecasted 86 wonderful degrees. Perfect you-know-what weather. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll give my back one more day or if I’ll go out and swing a leg over the bike. Too soon to tell.

Today’s Pic: While yesterday’s weather sucked, the day before was absolutely brilliant even if I wasn’t feeling quite that way myself. Every so often I take an “inventory” shot of El Casa Móvil De Pennington in its natural surroundings, and today’s pic is one such shot. If you look closely you can see the neck of a Fat Tire bottle sticking up out of the cup holder on my chair. That was strictly “for medicinal purposes only,” Gentle Reader, and it helped. Oh, yes. It did.

May Day afternoon. On the outskirts of P-Town.