Last night kicked off this year’s Summerlicious fun. For the third time in as many years we went to Bymark, accompanied by T-Bone and #4 (as I believe he’s known). Let’s face it, we were there solely for the burger; it was as good this time as it had been in years past (I didn’t miss the foie gras). It normally costs $37, so you’d expect it to kick ass…and it does. Every time. The only bad part was that, due to our late reservation, we didn’t get to the burger until about 10:30 at night, so this morning when I woke up I could still feel the burger’s in my stomach.

We also got to try some Francis Coppola wine, followed by a bottle of Pacina. If a bottle had come out labelled “Brandino” or something it might’ve freaked me out.

.:.

Any plans I had of sleeping in a bit late this morning came crashing to a halt at exactly 7 AM when some yahoos started running jackhammers across the street. It was so loud the cats freaked out and hid in the den, and even closing the double windows couldn’t drown out the sound. I could even hear some guy out his balcony yelling, “Hey, shut the fuck up!!!!” at the jackhammering dudes, but to no avail. If anybody couldn’t hear, it was them. Anyway…it seemed a little early for such nonsense. Surely there’s a bylaw I could reference if I weren’t too lazy to complain…

.:.

After staying pretty much quiet for the whole offseason, the Canadiens have finally made a move or two: they dumped Richard Zednik before signing Mike Johnson and Sergei Samsonov. Zednik-for-Johnson is a good equation; adding Samsonov gives them more depth at centre, but it sure as shit doesn’t give them more size. They might be going for some sort of record; has any team ever started the year with 4 centres under 6 feet? If they dump Radek Bonk I believe they’ll manage it (’cause no way on God’s green earth is Mike Ribeiro 6 feet tall).

The Raptors have made some minor moves as well, adding two European players (Jorge Garbajosa and Anthony Parker) and signing John Salmons this afternoon. And, of course, there was the trade for T.J. Ford a while back.

.:.

If you watched The Daily Show last night you saw Ted Stevens, the Senator from Alaska, make a fool of himself trying to explain net neutrality to Congress. As this ABC article says, “It’s too obvious that this man has no idea what the Internet is exactly and no idea about the issues behind Net neutrality. It seems like a miracle that he can even find the crapper.”

You can hear the pitiful shilling here. By the way, dig how he pronounces “Deutsche”.

.:.

Also on The Daily Show last night: Shawn Wayans, star of the upcoming Little Man, which appears to be a right piece of shit. It has a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes right now, just slightly worse than the 22% sported by You, Me and Dupree.

.:.

Finally, and obviously most troubling, is what’s happening in the middle east. Israel didn’t want their soldiers to be kidnapped, but they’ll certainly sieze the opportunity to go on the offensive. The US will obviously back Israel should anything escalate, just as Syria and Iran will back Hezbollah activity in Lebanon. The question, in my mind, is whether Saudi Arabia and/or Egypt would intervene if Israel moves more aggressively into Lebanon, or even against Syria. If the US found itself trying to decide between Israel and Saudi, all while fighting a war in Iraq and rattling sabres at Iran…it could get even messier (if that’s possible).

[tags]summerlicious, bymark, francis coppola, pacina, canadiens, richard zednik, mike johnson, sergei samsonov, anthony parker, john salmons, daily show, ted stevens, net neutrality, little man, dupree, israel, lebanon[/tags]