Happy Tuesday everyone. We're having a picture round of Trivia Tuesday today. Your challenge is to identify the ten movies based on the pictures below. Good luck!
It seems like only a week ago that Drake performed in Pittsburgh wearing both a Pens and Pirates jersey. Oh, it was only a week ago. Anyway, Ray Luzier is currently the drummer of the band Korn. On Thursday, the band performed at First Niagara Pavilion (it will always be Star Lake Amphitheater to me) outside Pittsburgh. Based on the title of this post you know what's going to happen next.
One of the great things about being a parent is that you can play with cool toys with your kids. Take the inflatables by Inflatable Zone for example. If I, as a grown adult, tried to go into one of these by myself, I would receive dirty looks, at best, or get forcibly removed from the premises. (Actually, if all I got were dirty looks by going on an inflatable, I think I would do it.)
Metro has had some problems lately. This August 6th Washington Post article sums it pretty well:
In the past five weeks — just as Metro has emphasized safety and taken drastic steps to warn employees about negligence — the problems have been stark and steady: red-light violations, derailments, a botched evacuation, a report about years of degraded track conditions, a transit police officer accused of attempting to aid the Islamic State.
However, let's focus on the positive today. At the Court House Metro station in Arlington, you can see an Aurora Borealis.
I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights. Who knew you could see it underground?
This calls for a celebration with my favorite song with Aurora Borealis in the lyrics!
We've seen Matisyahu wear a Pirates hat, Joey Fatone wear a Kennywood sweatshirt, Adam Levine in a Steelers T-shirt, and Fat Joe in a Pirates jersey. We've even seen Lady Gaga wave a Terrible Towel. So performing in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night, what would you expect Drake to wear?
The 1984 summer Olympics in Los Angeles were huge across this country. I remember there being red, white, and blue everywhere, and I was completely caught up in the Olympic spirit. For me, everything was a chance to win a gold medal. The first three members of our family that touched the car: gold, silver, bronze. First one to sit down for dinner: gold, silver, and bronze. Interestingly, I always got the gold with my younger brother regularly earning a silver. My mom seemed to constantly finish in fourth. Perhaps she wasn't as patriotic as the rest of us!
Even before the Rio Olympics, my five year old (The Moose) was already very competitive. He loves playing card games or basketball on our mini hoop. He always wins (though sometimes not fairly). He'll race me up the steps and always shares what place he's in. For example, on weekend mornings, he is so proud to announce that he was the last to wake up. (You have no idea how much I want to win this particular competition!) Naturally, The Moose enjoys all of the Olympic competitions. After watching some preliminary swimming events, he created his own "pool."
What does going on a hot air balloon ride, learning to skateboard, taking a jeep tour in the Arizona desert, going on a helicopter ride, and paddleboarding have in common? These are all things that I never did in college. However, according to the following video, if I join Arizona State University's Alpha Phi sorority, it seems like I could do this every day!
If you weren't entertained enough by the video, I encourage you to check out the article and especially the comments on Inside Higher Ed. And yes, I realize that I'm probably the only non-academic or educational blogger that occasionally uses Inside Higher Ed for content.
This Saturday (August 13th), Lorton, Virginia's Workhouse Arts Center hosts its inaugural Workhouse Brewfest. From the Workhouse website, "the event will feature nearly 100 craft brews by 30 breweries. We are excited to highlight many of our local brewers. The day will feature a dozen bands performing on three stages, numerous food trucks, lawn games, and of course, our artists will be in their galleries, which will be open for you to explore." Among the bands performing are personal favorites Dr. Fu and Herr Metal. This is going to be a lot of fun!
Breaking news: Michael Phelps is really good at swimming. But, how does the Olympic great match up against the Night's King from Game of Thrones?
I moved to Fairfax County, Virginia 15 years ago last week. Considering that I only thought I would be here a few years, it's a bit surreal that I've now lived here full time almost as long as I lived in Pittsburgh year-round. Located in Northern Virginia, Fairfax County's population in 2015 was estimated at 1,125,385,* making the county larger than 8 states (Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming) and the District of Columbia. You don't hear much about Fairfax County since most people consider it a DC suburb and Virginia's political capital is about two hours south in Richmond. However, in just the past few days, Fairfax County has made national and even international news multiple times.
1. Last Thursday, Scott Silverthorne, mayor the city of Fairfax was arrested in your typical meth for sex bust. (I don't believe Fairfax City is technically part of Fairfax County but students living in Fairfax attend Fairfax County Public Schools. Plus, Fairfax City is completely surrounded by Fairfax County. Fairfax City is basically the Lesotho of Fairfax County!) It seems like Silverthorne was having some financial problems, so perhaps he would have been better off simply selling meth rather than trading meth for sex.
2. How do you get a Mercedes on top of Ferrari? Once you hear the first sound/crash, don't continue to back into and then on the car.
Oh, this happened in Great Falls, Virginia located in, you guessed it, Fairfax County!
3. This is an absolutely tragic story. On Saturday a dispute over chairs at a wedding led to a caterer being stabbed to death. Basically, a Fairfax County park employee thought the caterer was stealing chairs, so after an argument, he stabbed her. Tyonne Johns later died at the hospital.
4. Let's finish with some good news. Congrats to Ginny Thrasher of Springfield, Virginia (of Fairfax County) for winning the first gold medal of the Rio Olympics. The 19 year-old Thrasher won gold in the 10m Air Rifle Women's event.
Pittsburgh Pirates fans are unhappy. Over the past few days, the team traded away All-Star closer Mark Melancon, pitcher Francisco Liriano (who struggled this season but has been great for the team the past few years) and the disappointing pitcher Jon Niese. The team reduced payroll significantly and also traded away several prospects for seemingly little in return. While I'll let others debate the pros and cons of the trades, I'm taking you back to a simpler time. A happier time. Let's go back to June 1992.
Jonah Keri, formerly of Grantland and currently a baseball writer for Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports, hosts The Jonah Keri Podcast and recently welcomed ESPN's Tim Kurkjian. I really enjoyed the two sharing stories, but as a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, there was one that stood out. Kurkjian described a cow milking contest between Jay Bell and Mike Lavailliere around the 31:45 mark. Well, I needed to know more about this. This is the text from Kurkjian's Is This a Great Game, Or What?: From A-Rod's Heart to Zim's Head--My 25 Years in Baseball
They don't have cow-milking contests in the NHL, but Pirates Jay Bell and Stan Belinda, who grew up on a farm, engaged in one. "Jay lost by a quart," teammate Andy Van Slyke said. "It wouldn't have been close except Jay was pumping skim milk and Stan was doing whole milk.
Two Pittsburgh Pirates, Jay Bell and Stan Belinda, will be the featured attraction at the Sixth Annual Dairy Day in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, June 4, 1991, at Market Square. The two ballplayers will square off in a milking contest at 11 a.m. and attempt to show visitors just how to milk a cow. Bell, the Pirate's Shortstop, is also the dairy industry's spokesperson on behalf of the Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion Program. He was recently featured on a growth chart that was distributed by the Pirates and the Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion Program in early May. Belinda, the Pirate's Relief Pitcher, is a farm boy himself and hails from a dairy farm in central Pennsylvania
The cow involved will be provided by Marburger Farm Dairy of Evans City, Butler County. Following the milking contest, promotion visitors can treat themselves to milk and ice cream by participating in several activities. These include Bossey Toss, Pudding Making, and a Dairy "Wheel of Fortune." In addition to these activities, county Dairy Princesses will be entertaining the crowd with several skits and Woodsmoke, a country western band, will provide musical entertainment.
Ron Lippock runs the PGH Sports Daily website and also sends out Pittsburgh Sports Daily Bulletin e-mails with links to blogs and articles about, you guessed it, Pittsburgh sports. Ron has been nice enough to include some of my blog posts in his daily e-mail, and we got together to watch a Steelers game at a Washington DC restaurant last season. Through his website, Ron has interviewed hundreds of Pittsburgh Steelers players from over the years and recently (actually today!) released Steelers Takeaways: Players Memories Through the Decades available now at Barnes & Noble and Amazon among other places. Ron's a cool guy (it turns out that we grew up about a mile away from each other) and was nice enough to answer some questions about his book.
Before we get to the Friday video, a few site updates. Early next week, I'm excited to share an interview I conducted with a brand new author and someone I met to watch a Steelers game last fall. It turns out that we grew up about a mile away from each other, so there's some fun anecdotes about Pittsburgh's eastern suburbs. I've also been away for much of July, so I'll have a blog post or two about traveling with kids.
Your Friday video is The Sound by The 1975. I'm all for a band named in honor of my birth year. Anyway, I was actually awake on a spring Saturday evening and saw the band perform this song on Saturday Night Live. I enjoyed it, and then I didn't hear the song again until the last week or two.
By the way, what's wrong with Huey Lewis? I like his work with The News.
When I first heard Disturbed's cover of Simon and Garfunkel's classic song "The Sound of Silence," my initial reaction was what the heck* is this? Now that I've heard it a few more times, it's really grown on me. This version is a bit haunting but with the same outstanding lyrics from 50 years ago. So now, here's Disturbed with my all-time favorite 2016 cover of a song from 1964.
* I used a word other than heck.
On Sunday, I took The Moose to his second professional baseball game to see the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Washington Nationals. The Moose witnessed a no-hitter and near perfect game in his first game last year, so there was no way that this game could match its significance, right? Please note that this post mixes a recap of the game with my own thoughts and quotes from my five year old. For example, upon seeing Pirates first basemen John Jaso, The Moose said, "He has girl hair." Back to the game.
All-Star and former Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer, the pitcher who threw the no-hitter last season, matched up against Pirates rookie Chad Kuhl. Not an ideal match-up for the Bucs. As I know now though, DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE CHAD KUHL. All Kuhl did was throw 6 scoreless innings of one-hit baseball. More on Kuhl later. With the Pirates leading 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth, the Nationals played AC/DC's Thunderstruck as Pirates pitcher Mark Melancon warmed up. The Nats probably thought they were pumping up the crowd, but this is also Melancon's entrance music. Arguably the best closer in baseball over the past 3-4 seasons, Melancon retired the first two Nationals before All-Star and this season's best hitter, Daniel Murphy pinch hit. With a 2-2 count, Murphy did this.
And this was The Moose's reaction.
I am a terrible cook. If there was a television show called "Bottom Chef," I think I could be a contestant. Yet, as a father, there are times when I have to make edible food for my kids. I make an excellent Mac and cheese (out of a box, but it's still really good) and can warm up fish sticks and chicken nuggets on par with any Food Network chef. However, I don't have much of a repertoire. Oh, I can also make pizza bagels WITHOUT ketchup.
On Tuesday, it was breakfast for dinner night so I attempted to make pancakes. I probably put in too pancake mix, and despite the instructions putting DO NOT OVERMIX in all caps, I probably overmixed. With all of that written, I think the pancakes came out okay.
I understand that this title is automatically going to cause people to skip right past this post and watch the Milli Vanilli video from yesterday's post again. I don't blame you. Blame It On The Rain is a good song! Plus, "Vocabulary "and "Test" in the same sentence? No thanks. (Well, size is there too, so that's got to be worth something.) However, a few of my friends posted results of this "Online English Vocabulary Size Test" on Facebook, so I thought I would try it. Here's the description:
Ever wonder about your vocabulary size? Even you are a daily English speaker or a native English speaker, you still might find this test challenging!
We conducted academic research and looked at online resources to design the model of this quiz. We believe we've prepared the best quiz for you!
So now is your chance to see how many words you know. Your challenge is to type every word that you know in the comments section without repeating a word. Actually, please don't do that. Really. Bad joke. Instead, click on this link and share your results in the comments section. Here's how I did on the quiz:
On Sunday, Portugal defeated France to win the 2016 European Championship. This was Portugal's first major soccer championship in arguably the sport's second biggest event following the World Cup. So to celebrate, let's listen to some Milli Vanilli!
You're probably wondering, um, Sean, what does Milli Vanilli have to do with Portugal? Fab Morvan was born in France and the late Rob Pilatus was German. Well, allow me to explain. There are times, particularly in my younger days, where I made up lyrics to songs. I don't remember most of them, but Blame It On The Rain is one that has stayed with me for about 25 years. Actually, I only remember (or made up) a few lines. Here's the Milli Vanilli version:
Blame it on the rain yeah yeah.
Blame it on the stars
That did shine that night
Whatever you do, don't put the blame on you
Blame it on the rain yeah yeah.
And my version:
Blame it on Spain yeah, yeah
Blame it on the stars, the big shots at night. (I actually thought this was the lyric.)
Whatever you do, don't put the blame on Portugal
Blame it on Spain yeah yeah.
So in honor of not blaming Portugal all these years, I'm happy for the country which will probably celebrate winning Euro 2016 for a long time.
Season 69 of the Learned League ended last week, and I dominated questions related to television where I got 9 of 10 correct. Unfortunately, I went 0 for 17 on science questions, 1 for 13 in world history questions, and 3 of 12 in geography questions. With the season over, I thought I would share some of the television questions for a rare edition of Trivia Tuesday.
1. Sasha Alexander has appeared in regular roles on the television series Shameless, NCIS, and most prominently as one-half (with Angie Harmon) of the titular crime-solving duo on what show?
2. A current unconventional television sitcom's optimistic title character, rescued after fifteen years of captivity under Indiana cult leader Richard Wayne Gary Wayne, moves into a basement apartment in NYC with an outlandish roommate and a nutty landlady to start a new life. What is the name of this character?
3. While New Jersey was the iconic setting for The Sopranos, what other HBO TV series, which ran from 2010 to 2014, was also set in the state?
4. In October 1986, the nascent Fox Broadcasting Company network broadcast its first television series, The Late Show, which was hosted by what former "permanent guest host" of NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson?
5. Psych, Monk, Suits, Dig, and Smush are all television series that were first broadcast on what network?
6. What was the name of the artificially intelligent computer module, featured throughout a popular TV series of the 1980s, which was conceived and designed by fictional eccentric billionaire genius Wilton Knight to control his super high-tech Knight 2000 automobile? (Note: name the computer, not the show.)
7. The two-hour syndicated primetime television special The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults was broadcast live on April 21, 1986, in hopes of finding the gangster's guns, money, or dead bodies, but it resulted in the discovery of nothing but debris (and huge television ratings). Who hosted this special?
8. What three-word phrase (which is the same word uttered three times) forms part of the chorus of the Sesame Street tune "Monster in the Mirror" and was also the catchphrase of Club MTV host Downtown Julie Brown?
9. Name the actress who has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in nine of the last ten years, after being nominated in the Supporting category for seven straight years from 1992 to 1998.
10. Although Arnold Schwarzenegger is slated to take over the franchise in the 2016—17 television season, to date, every season of all American versions of the NBC reality series The Apprentice (including spinoffs/variations) was hosted by Donald Trump, with one exception. Who hosted this non-Trump Apprentice, which aired in the fall of 2005?
Please leave your answers in the comments section below and don't cheat. Good luck!
Questions courtesy of the Learned League.
Although I've written Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers draft recaps in the past, last June was the first time I wrote about the Penguins draft. Nearly a year later, the team won the Stanley Cup. Coincidence? I'll let you be the judge.
While this isn't a true recap of the Penguins draft, I want to focus on the team's second selection: Kasper Bjorkvist. Here's his basic information:
Born: July 10, 1997
Selection: 2nd round (61st overall)
Position: RW
Height: 6-1
Weight: 198
Amateur Team: Blues Jr. (Finland Jr.) -- He plays for the awesomely named Espoo Blues!
So what do we really know about Kasper? Well, he's obviously friendly. I mean, I don't know him personally, but Kasper has to be a friendly teenager.
More importantly, you may be amazed to know that his Finnish Wikipedia page does not identify Bjorkvist's parents. There's a good reason for this. Bjorkvist and his family do not want his true identity revealed. Well, I'm here to provide some mind-blowing news. Kasper Bjorkvist's biological parents are none other than music superstar Bjork and a member of the Penguins Stanley Cup Championship team, right winger Patric Hornqvist. I know what you're thinking. Bjork is from Iceland and Hornqvist is from Sweden while Bjorkist is from Finland. That's just to get you off the scent. It's sort of like the story of Moses except Bjork and Hornqvist didn't put Kasper in a basket in the Kemi River. (Yes, I looked up the name of longest river in Finland.) Or maybe a better comparison is Superman's parents sending him to Earth.
You're probably also questioning how Hornqvist could be the father considering he was born in 1987. Have you seen Hornqvist or Bjorkvist's birth certificates? Exactly. We don't truly know their exact ages.
Still not convinced? Let's take a look at some pictures. Here is Hornqvist.
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