Not a great time to be a Pittsburgh sports fan. The Penguins lost on Jaromir Jagr's number retirement night and are looking to miss the playoffs for the second straight season. The Steelers appear to be an above average team. Good enough to make the playoffs but not good enough to compete for a Super Bowl. That would be a dream for many teams, but this is unacceptable for many Steelers fans. While the Pirates have some potentially excellent young players, even the most optimistic fans acknowledge that reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2015 is doubtful. Any hope right now is with the University of Pittsburgh's men's basketball team. Under head coach Jeff Capel, the team reached the round of 32 in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. After a slow start this season including losing 5 of its first 6 ACC games, Pitt is now 8-6 in conference play with wins at Duke and at Virginia. The team is definitely in the mix for a NCAA tournament spot. This has not gone unnoticed by some major players in the hip-hop world.
In Pittsburgh last week, J Cole visited Pitt's basketball facilities.
In addition, after rocking a Penguins jersey at a 2016 concert (resulting in me getting a cease-and-desist email), Drake sported a Panthers football jersey.
Steelers' Cam Heyward also got to meet J. Cole
Hail to Pitt!
J. Cole's picture at Pitt is from Pitt's men's basketball team's Twitter account.
The photo of Drake with Fridayy is from DJ Akademiks on Instagram.
The Cam-J. Cole picture is from Heyward's Instagram page.
I strongly considered having "Sean Does Dallas" as the title of this blog post, but I went with the less controversial title instead. Over the weekend, I visited Dallas as part of my annual hockey road trip. Here are some pictures:
When I checked into my flight, I realized that I purchased a "Basic Economy" ticket. This means that I got to take one personal item on the flight or pay $25 or $30 each way for a bag, even if it's a carry-on bag. Yes, I managed to fit everything I needed for the weekend and the flights into a backpack.
I'm going out of order, but besides the hockey game, the one thing that I had to do in Dallas was see The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. The trees are much taller now, but this picture is from the sixth floor of the building formerly know as the Texas School Book Depository, just several feet away from where Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John F. Kennedy. Despite the assassination occurring 55 years ago, this museum seems to be the top tourist attraction in Dallas. I'm sure that city and corporate officials want the focus to be on arts, sports, and other things, but I get a sense that the assassination is always going to be a significant part of Dallas. (As an anecdote, I asked the waitress and hostess at a restaurant what's one thing we had to see in Dallas, and they both replied, separately, the JFK Museum.) Anyway, I highly recommend visiting the museum.
Oh, I didn't expect to see the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette available at the gift shop.
I also didn't expect to see this T-shirt available a few blocks away from the museum. I noticed the don't take pictures sign about a minute after taking this picture.
The reason for going to Dallas during a cold January weekend was to see the Dallas Stars, making it the 24th game/arena my friend and I have seen together over the past decade.
I really like the Dallas Stars green and even the giant star that comes down onto the ice during the pregame ceremonies. It's not as good as the sabretooth Nashville Predator, but it's a close second (until I see the San Jose Shark in person).
I couldn't get a great picture, but it's nice to see someone appreciate Dallas Stars legend Jaromir Jagr.
One neat feature of the American Airlines Arena is that there is no room for the visiting back-up goalie on the bench. Therefore, he needs to sit way over here.
There's no reason why the North Stars moved to Dallas and why they keep the retired numbers of the Minnesota players.
You'll notice that this was not my picture. I really, really, really, really wanted to take a picture of and with the Stars' mascot Victor E. Green (better known as Texas Youppi!), but it didn't happen. Maybe if I got a picture with Victor, the Stars would have won. Instead, the St. Louis Blues won 3-1 with Vladimir Tarasenko scoring two goals. In the two Blues games we've attended, Tarasenko scored 5 goals. Coincidence?
For breakfast at the hotel, a Texas waffle! (Not pictured: This waffle covered with chocolate chips, whipped cream, and syrup. I make sure to eat healthy on vacations!)
We also saw the Allen Americans face off against the Wichita Thunder in an ECHL minor league hockey game. If you're holding a baby in a front row seat and feel the need to bang on the glass, you got to do what you got to do.
Even though the team is called the Americans, this seems like some Communist propaganda celebration after goals. By the way, I hope that Zachary Pochiro makes it to the NHL, so I can say that I saw him score 4 goals in a game for the Americans! I also feel like the Americans should have pictures of Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys throughout the arena.
Deep Ellum appears to be the cool, trendy area. We drove through on Sunday morning, and I felt the need to take a picture of this odd robot statue dude who likes to hold pigeons.
Finally, I arrived back to Dulles Airport to this. Actually, Dulles was closed, so we got diverted to Philadelphia and sat on the plane, refueled, and were able to fly back when Dulles reopened. I got home about 3.5 hours later than expected, but at least I made it home on the same day.
And this was Monday morning back in Virginia. Time to shovel.
Victor E. Green picture courtesy of Getty Images. (Not pictured or mentioned was a visit to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. If you're in Dallas for an extended period of time, check it out.)
You've seen matryoshka dolls (I looked up the name), or Russian nesting dolls, where there are dolls of decreasing size placed inside other dolls. Personally, I think these are really cool. I have no idea where my aunt found this but she gave me one of former Pittsburgh Penguin great Jaromir Jagr.
Inside Jagr are a collection of Penguins from the late 1990s all from the USSR (Darius Kasparaitis, Alex Kovalev, Aleksey Morozov) or Czechoslovakia (Jagr & Martin Straka)
I feel like Robert Lang or Jan Hrdina were probably upset that they weren't included. Oh, this doll is out of my basement and into the living room.
A trip from Jacksonville to Northern Virginia should take about 4-5 hours door to door including time spent at the airport going through security and waiting to board the flight. So why did my trip Tuesday take 10 hours? Let’s take a look.
7:30 AM: Wake up with a dog sleeping next to me.
7:50 AM: Check flight status and see that my 11:00 AM flight is delayed an hour and a half. Look through other flight options and click “select” showing another flight going from Jacksonville to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Washington National.
8:00 AM: Realize that clicking select actually changed my flight. Then realize that I cannot change back to my original flight. Good news: Based on the delay on my original flight, the new flight gets in about 30 minutes earlier. Bad news: Need to leave for the airport immediately even though I’m not close to being ready.
9:05 AM: Arrive at Jacksonville Airport
9:35 AM: Arrive at gate only to see that the flight to Atlanta is delayed meaning that I would likely miss my connection. Change back to original flight. Delta staff member tells me that it’s always better to go direct and avoid Atlanta. I should know about avoiding Atlanta.
10:10 AM Discover that Delta moved the gate of my flight. Then, I see that my flight is delayed another half hour.
10:15 AM: According to a travel guy on CNN, he predicts that airfare will either go up or down in 2012. Extremely bold prediction!
10:15 AM - 12:45 PM: Am extremely happy that I have an iPad and that Jacksonville has free wireless. Spend too much time on Twitter and playing Angry Birds. I also ate lunch at Chili’s. They have yummy fries.
1:15 PM: Finally leave Jacksonville 2+ hours after the originally scheduled flight time.
3:00ish: Circle Richmond due to heavy traffic around National.
3:20 PM: Go over Georgetown University and see the Kennedy Center, Watergate, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial & Jefferson Memorial, but we’re way too high to land. Apparently, there is a plane on the runway. Circle National.
3:30 PM: Told that we can’t land at National due to weather. Heading to Philadelphia to see Jaromir Jagr. (They didn’t actually say this.)
4:00 PM: Land in Philadelphia. Not allowed to leave aircraft, but have a jolly good time waiting in line for the one restroom on the back of the plane. They ran out of paper towels, so I had to use Kleenex to wipe my hands.
5:30 PM: Depart Philadelphia
5:40 PM: Delta announces that they thank their SkyMiles passengers for flying Delta. Sure, I realize that you have to say that we can use approved electronic devices, but was it really necessary to include the SkyMiles passengers announcement again?
6:10 PM: Arrive at National airport.
7:00 PM: Finally arrive home to a purring and meowing cat extremely happy to see me.
7:10 PM: Clogged toilet
In case you’re curious, according to Google Maps, the trip would have take 11 hours & 44 minutes if I drove. I also read 200 pages of Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr. and the International Hunt For His Assassin. Great book. Oh, Ziggy has been sitting on my lap the entire time I typed this post.
Sarah Wendell runs the extremely popular blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and recently released her second book Everything I Know about Love, I Learned from Romance Novels available now in bookstores and online including at Amazon.com where the novel reached #2 in Movements & Periods. Yes, you can read the end of that last sentence again and pretend like you’re 12.
Anyway, Sarah has been making the rounds promoting her book by appearing on the Gayle King Show, in USA Today and at numerous book signings. Sarah is also a friend who was nice enough to take time out of her extremely busy schedule to answer some silly (or perhaps brilliant!) questions. Seriously, did Gayle King ask Sarah about Jaromir Jagr's mullet? I think not!
Is the title of your new book, Everything I Know about Love I Learned from Romance Novels, a critique or criticism of the American educational system? (I'm kidding unless you'd like to answer it.)
You know, I hadn't thought of it that way, but romance novels would be a solid addition to any high school curriculum. For one thing, there's a much more accurate portrayal of human sexuality. Plus it would make those with mullets feel like heroes, and everyone deserves to feel like a hero. Especially with a mullet.
So give us an overview of your new book.
Everything I Know About Love, I Learned from Romance reveals the secrets romance readers and writers have known for awhile: that happy endings are possible, and that everyone deserves to be the hero or heroine of their own life. Romance novels, far from being monotonous expressions of love, passion, and questionable weather patterns, are actually a sort of road map of what to do and what not to do in real life relationships.
An excerpt of your book states that “there is a 95 percent chance that a romance novel cover will feature a mullet.” Are mullets still prevalent in today’s romance novels? Is Jaromir Jagr somehow involved in this?
Mullets are indeed still part of romance culture, particularly in the historical cover art. I do not understand this, but I have accepted it. I think Jagr might indeed be involved, though now that I'm attempting to have moves like him (That IS what the song is about, right?) I can't be sure.
As a fairly new parent, I’ve found that I don’t have nearly as much time as I’d like to write my blog. How are you able to maintain an extremely success blog and write a book all while being a mother?
I don't sleep a lot. I also make sure to pre-schedule content to go live on days where I am busy. And most importantly: the entries you spend the most amount of time on seem to gather the least commentary, while the ones you wrote quickly and posted will ignite a fascinating discussion. That takes a little pressure off me, when I feel overwhelmed.
You are a graduate of the high school that now boasts two of the biggest stars currently in hip-hop (Wiz Khalifa & Mac Miller). How did you contribute to this success?
I thought it was you who snuck in and left the magical funky dust in the hallways. Despite going to a different high school, clearly they were influenced by your proximity. You have way better moves like Jagr than I do!
I apologize for asking this question since I’m sure that you’re tired of constantly answering this throughout all of the interviews for your new book. Is 2012 the year the Pirates finally reach .500?
You mean they didn't? I maintain an elaborate fantasy that they're in the World Series this year. And when that grows too much to sustain on a functional level, I absolutely believe that 2012 will be the year they reach .500, and get to the NLCS.
Thanks again to Sarah for agreeing to answer these questions and for putting up with me referring to her as a mullet aficionado! I definitely encourage you to check out her new book and/or consider buying a copy as a holiday gift.
I had a very cool Bar Mitzvah reception at my synagogue. It was baseball-themed with each table having its own colors to represent major league baseball teams. Naturally, I sat at the Pittsburgh Pirates table with black and gold napkins and tablecloths. I remember there being tiny chocolates wrapped in a baseball wrappers and a magician who ended his performance with a banner by presenting a banner that stated "Congragulations Sean!" I guess they didn't have Spell Check that many years ago.
Anyway, meet David Cohen. Based on the video below and this story from Yahoo's Puck Daddy, it looks like he also had a cool Bar Mitzvah. I'm not sure that he has the moves like Jagr though. (Seriously, the song Moves Like Jagger is so much better if you think Adam Levine of Maroon 5 sings Moves Like Jagr.)
Judging by this headline, it sounds like Jaromir Jagr's biggest fan (likely his mother) pleaded guilty to being Jagr's biggest fan. However, that's not the case. Here's the story from WTOP:
A suspect charged with spray painting the number "68" on more than 50 vehicles in Loudoun County has been indicted and plans to plead guilty, WTOP has learned.
Court records show Christopher Bolt is set to enter a guilty plea Friday to felony destruction of property as part of a plea deal.
The judge will determine the sentence for Bolt.
It is still not certain why Bolt sprayed "68" on the vehicles. However, the Loudoun County Sheriff says Bolt told detectives he tried to spray paint the number "69," but he crossed it out when it didn't look right and painted "68" instead.
Spray-painting vehicles with Jagr's 68 is much better than spray-painting the number 69 for former Washington Redskin & Denver Bronco (and current ESPN guy) Mark Schlereth.
There’s a lot of pressure in choosing your child’s name. Your kid is going to be stuck with this name for his entire life. Even if he wants to go by a nickname when he gets older, the given name will still be on his driver’s license, tax returns and all other official documents. Fortunately, I’ve enlisted the help of Lisa Shaw’s “The Everything Baby Names Book” featuring over 25,000 names for assistance. Although the book’s copyright is 1997, surely it can help me find the perfect name for my pending child, right? Well, let’s see what I’ve found thus far.
Bronson certainly seems like a candidate for an increase in usage. Actor Bronson Pinchot may help further the cause. Wow, putting the future of the name Bronson in the hands of Mr. Pinchot looks to have been a bad call.
Did you know that Calvin means bald? Do you know any Calvins? If so, do they have hair? Cal Ripken definitely fits this defintion.
Carroll – Famous Carrolls include actors Carroll O’Connor and Carroll Spinney, who plays Big Bird on Sesame Street. Is the actor that plays Big Bird famous? Is Carroll Spinney truly well-known?
Dean was wildly popular back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, probably because of actor Dean Martin, but today no such actor carries the torch for the name. Oooooo, snap Dean Cain.
Egan (or the variation Egon) – How can there be no mention of Dr. Egon Spengler? Carroll Spinney makes this book but not one of the famous Ghost Busters?
Garth – Sure, Ms. Shaw you mention Garth Brooks, but no Garth from Wayne’s World! For shame, Ms. Shaw. For shame!
Grover - Grovers who have been famous include the Sesame Street Muppet and Grover Cleveland. I love the fact that the Sesame Street character gets top billing over an American President.
Hatchootucknee - Although the book indicates that this name is of Native American origin meaning snapping turtle, I believe that this is what you say to a sneezing gymnast or figure skater.
Hines – Not in the book? Hines is not in the book! BOOOOOOOO.
Jaromir – Great spring. In 169 post-season games, Jaromir Jagr scored 181 points (77 goals & 104 assists). Those are many great springs.
Lombard – Latin for long beard. Perhaps we should have nicknamed Brett Keisel, Lombard (or Lombardi).
Luther – The visibility of singer Luther van Dross, however, may make this name more popular as a first name in the next few years. I’m pretty sure that Luther’s last name was one word, not two. I call shenanigans.
Mark – In 1976, of course, Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz and his victories set off a whole new wave of babies named Mark, but it didn’t seem to last as long as the first wave. Um, Spitz’s historic Olympics took place in 1972, not 1976. Did you stop fact-checking sometime after K, Ms. Shaw?
Ninian – Unknown definition. Is the definition of Ninian unknown or does Ninian mean unknown definition?
Oh-oh-e-so-to-who – Native American (Osage tribe) for seven bulls. It may also mean five hyphens.
Radcliff – Mothers who might choose Radcliff may be thinking about their alma mater, Radcliffe. Really? You don’t think they were thinking about Vassar?
Here is your opportunity to relive game six of the 1991 Stanley Cup Finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Minnesota North Stars. While you hear the commentary by Mike Lange and Paul Steigerwald, the "video" itself is directly from the NHL '94 video game. While I'm sure that every Pittsburgh Penguins fan has already seen this, it's new to me. Incredible!
My personal highlight: Paul Steigerwald talking about how he went shopping with Jaromir Jagr when he first arrived in Pittsburgh. Jagr bought jeans and jean jackets to send back to Czechoslovakia (yes it was Czechoslovakia back then).
Bryan Trottier celebrating with the Stanley Cup is also cool. Plus, Joey Mullen had a huge game.
Welcome to Sean's Ramblings! If you're looking for thoughts on pop culture, music, fun and informative links, random DC and Pittsburgh info, sports (particularly Pittsburgh sports), and just what's going on in my life, then you're come to the right place.
Any questions, comments or links? Contact me at seanramblings[at]yahoo[dot]com.
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