Turns out the chupacabra that was shot in Kentucky last week was nothing but a raccoon with some sort of disease that rendered it hairless. Incidentally, that’s also pretty scary. Not goatsucker scary, but scary.
I’m sitting at my desk laughing like a crazy person at some of SB Nation’s Top 40 animated GIFs of 2010. It’s No. 3 that gets me every time.
As Steve Tisch and John Mara point out in the article, it’s not like 7-9 teams make the playoffs often. But I’m all for a blanket rule in all major sports that no team under .500 ever makes the playoffs.
A mesmerizing photo gallery of laughing women with salads.
James Gorman at the Times introduces readers to a nascent movement to eat invasive species into submission. I’m all for it, but first I have to move someplace where the pig has no natural predators, then set a bunch of pigs free. It’s something of a long-term plan.
Apropos of almost nothing, this seems like as good a place as any to mention that my sister and brother-in-law gave me an assortment of exotic meats and african mango for Christmas. So expect some write-ups about said meats in the coming weeks, once I eat my way through all the leftovers from the past few days. And if anyone has a good antelope recipe, send it along.
Chris Jaffe details his method for predicting Hall of Fame votes and concludes that Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven will earn the nod this year. Good; they both deserve it.
I’ll reiterate, though, that if the BBWAA keeps steroids users — and worse, merely suspected steroids users — out of the Hall, then entry to Cooperstown will ultimately be rendered meaningless. Barry Bonds helped his teams win many, many games. He probably used illegal drugs to do so, but no one tried to stop him at the time. Players — Hall of Famers included — found ways to cheat long before the 1990s and will continue to do ad infinitum.
I’m just sayin’s all. Logically I recognize that, given all the recent and historical medical issues for the Mets’ three starting outfielders, they’d be better off pursuing a more proven commodity like Fred Lewis. But Lewis, at least to my knowledge, never high-fived fans after hitting a game-tying home run off Armando Benitez, so Milledge has him in that department. It’s not going to happen and it probably shouldn’t, but I remain a Milledge fan.
A good compendium of notable area burgers from the folks at Grub Street. Since my wife and I (back when she was my girlfriend) spent a lot of time in search of the city’s best burger, I’m happy to say I’ve eaten a lot of these — 19, to be exact.
Said wife used to judge the hell out of me for frequently ordering burgers in relatively upscale (by our standards) restaurants. But I’ve always held that, since I have high standards and a distinguishing palate for burgers, the burger is like my litmus test for a restaurant. If it’s awesome, I’ll probably go back and try something else. Or maybe just eat the awesome burger again.
Hat tip to Brad for the link.
Students of Portland State University create an important first step toward a Super Mario Brothers theme park, where you get to be Mario and play the game in a real-life representation of the Super Mario world. It’s a great idea, I promise. Only problem is when you lose, you die. High-stakes theme park.
Also of note: Today’s college students are probably to young to have really played Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo in earnest. It is probably only today’s 27-35 year-olds who know exactly where and when to jump to get the free life on level 1-1.
The Yanks are reportedly on the verge of signing Pedro Feliciano to a two-year, $8 million deal. Feliciano’s a Type B free agent, so he’ll net the Mets a delicious sandwich-round pick in the June draft.
Tedquarters 