Wow, not a good day in the business world. This country is in some serious trouble. What would Sarah Palin do? Probably phone a friend. (screen grab from NYT)

This is so absolutely cool. A guy traveled across the English Channel in a jet pack.

I’ve heard he wants to do the same across the Grand Canyon next.

Pixar will be releasing Cars 2 in 2011. Just what my house needs, more Cars toys strewn across the floor. The plot of the animated sequel:

[John] Lasseter mentioned that he came up with the idea for the sequel while traveling around the world doing publicity for the first film. He wondered how the characters would react in various locations all over the world. Cars 2 will follow Tow Mater getting his passport and traveling to Europe with Lightning McQueen.

From Jason Stark at ESPN, here are his highlights, lowlights, and year end awards from the past year in baseball. Some of the funnier items:

With the bases loaded in the ninth, a four-run lead and Mr. Home Run Derby himself, Josh Hamilton, heading for home plate, Maddon knew exactly what had to be done — even if no American League manager had done it in over a century.

He intentionally walked Hamilton — with the bases loaded. And lived to tell about it. The next hitter, Marlon Byrd, whiffed for the final out. And we’d just witnessed another great moment in managerial genius.

“No, not really,” Maddon told Year in Review. “Just managerial imagination.”

The Tigers whiffed Angels rookie Sean Rodriguez on Sept. 4 — on a 4-and-2 pitch — when everybody lost track of the count, including the umpires and Rodriguez. “That’s a new trick of ours,” manager Jim Leyland said.

One of the Craziest Games of the Year: Don’t Walk This Way — Sept. 5: A’s 11, Orioles 2. Last year, on the day the Orioles announced they were bringing back interim manager Dave Trembley, they lost a 30-3 game. This year, the day they announced they were extending Trembley’s contract, they allowed an eight-run inning — on one hit. How’d that happen? How ’bout six walks, including four with the bases loaded, plus a hit batter and a grand slam — by a guy (Rajai Davis) who had entered the game as a pinch runner. So the Orioles became the first team since the 1959 A’s to give up eight runs in an inning on one lousy hit, and the first since the 2004 Dodgers to issue four bases-loaded walks in an inning. And loyal reader Eric Orns reports that Davis was the first guy to hit a slam in an inning he started as a pinch runner since Gene Stephens did it for the Red Sox on July 13, 1959 (after running for Ted Williams). “I’ve never seen an inning like that,” Trembley told the Baltimore Sun’s Dan Connolly. “Ever.”

Here’s to a great October and November playoff season!!

Why does this answer…

remind me of this answer?

We could be in a heap of trouble. Wait, we already are in a heap of trouble.

As I’m watching the last game at Yankee Stadium on ESPN (Disclosure: I’m a life long Red Sox fan), you can’t help but get a little tingle watching Mo Rivera leave the bullpen to Enter Sandman. Its just an awesome and, if I was a player, pretty intimidating spectacle.

I’ve never been too fond of the Yankees, but I’ve been to the old Stadium in the Bronx enough to appreciate the history and importance of the building. From a baseball history perspective, I’m sorry to see it go. From a competitive perspective, I can’t wait for them to tear the place down. Too many bad memories (but one spectacular one – Game 7, 2004 ALCS) I just don’t look forward to the extra cash that the Yanks will rake in with the new stadium and how they will use it for their team.

The NYTimes posted a pretty cool panoramic of Yankee Stadium from last night. If you have a wide computer screen, be sure to enlarge the photo to full screen.

So tonight is the Yankees night. Enjoy the off season, watching the Red Sox in the playoffs.

I’m happy to share the launch of www.bookcontracts.com. My wife’s uncle wrote a book on how to effectively negotiate a book contract. Recently, he updated the book and I helped him build out the website to sell a PDF version of the book. So if you are in the middle of writing a book, and need to figure out how to how to negotiate any contracts with publishers, you should consider picking the book/PDF up.

I spent today attempting and failing mightily to install crown moulding in my house. Basically, it kicked my ass. There is no other way to describe it. I definitely need to get a professional in here. To think that I could install it in my dining room, living room is nothing short of hilarious. Oh well, at least I can say I tried.

---

So I’ve been in a state of denial since Week 1 of the NFL season. I’ve just not accepted that Tom Brady got his knee ruined 8 minutes into the 2008-09 NFL season and is out for the year. It took watching Matt Cassell QB the Pats to a victory of the Jets this past weekend to have it fully sink in. When you compound this with the painful loss to the Giants last season, you just realize that you should take full advantage of every opportunity. Maybe Rodney Harrison should have tried just that much harder to get the ball off of David Tyree’s helmet. Or maybe Asante Samuel (who probably does not care since he’s playing in Philly these days) should have tried that much harder to catch that ball that Eli threw. As has been said so many times in so many media outlets, the Pats have quite a season in front of them. It will test Coach Belichick and the rest of the team. Thankfully, we have a pretty easy schedule. I’ll consider making the playoffs a success this year. Anything else is gravy.

This is pure comedy.

A football player from the Washington Redskins, Chris Cooley, trying to be all hip and cool with his own blog, posted a photo of a quiz (NSFW) he was taking on the New Orleans Saints defense, because he wanted to try out posting to his blog on his own. He did this while he was naked. And you can see everything. And he didn’t realize it. And it was on his blog for a full day, Sunday, while he was playing the game against the Saints.

Then, he posted an apology that is funnier than the offending post itself.

Don’t mix technology and football players.

Yesterday Don Haskins passed on. “The Bear”, as he was known, was the long time coach of the University of Texas – El Paso or UTEP…the ultimate acronym team you did not your team to face in the NCAA Tournament. Back in the 1960’s, UTEP was known as Texas Western, and in 1966. “The Bear” coached Texas Western to an improbable run to the National Championship against Adolph Rupp and the University of Kentucky. What was significant about this game was that Haskins started five African-American players against the all white UK team. Similar to the day Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in MLB, this championship by Texas Western was another monumental event in the history of our country during one of the most fractured times in our history. Yet, its a milestone that is not given the recognition it should receive. Haskins himself said it best:

“I just played my five best players,” Haskins once said in recalling Texas Western’s stunning 72-65 triumph over Kentucky. “In my mind, kids were kids, and I had some that could play. But Haskins pointed to more than the national implications of that victory. When he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 1997, he said: “Ten of the 12 players on the team got their degrees. And every one of the players have made successes of their lives.”

He didn’t care what color their skin was. He cared about who gave his team the best chance to win. Haskins coached TW/UTEP for 39 years and had a winning record 32 of those years. He sent several players to the NBA including Tim Hardaway and Antonio Davis. But what was more important was how he molded his players.

If you get the chance, rent Gloryroad, the 2006 movie starring Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, and Jon Voight. It isn’t the best sports movie you will see, but it does a nice job of documenting the significance of that victory.

Even if this was not my son, I just love this photo. He seems so serene in the middle of all the activity surrounding him.

The Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld ad from Microsoft is just terrible. I’ve read that it was developed “to make people talk” and start the conversation. Well, people are talking and I think the word of the day is confusion and a yawn. This is such a typical Microsoft-like response to Apple’s innovation. Two years late and not nearly as good.

Recently it was announced that the Seattle Supersonics have moved to, of all places, Oklahoma City. (I won’t even go into the shock that Keven Durant must be having, going from an energetic city like Seattle to, with all due respect, a sleepy plains city like OKC.) But come on, could they not have done a little bit of a better job with the new team name and logo? The Oklahoma City Thunder? Thunder? What Thunder?. The logo is terrible. The team name…eh…its up there with the Magic, Wild, and Thrashers as inanimate objects masquerading to be sports mascots. Come on folks of OKC, could you not have gone with Cowboys? Yes, its boring, but OKC is a cowboy town.