Welcome to February. And that means tomorrow, Feb. 2, is Groundhog Day, that quaint celebration where thousands of underemployed people flock to the tiny town of Punxatawny, Pennsylvania, where they have a good excuse to get drunk at 5 am while awaiting the appearance of Punxatawny Phil. When the resident groundhog is dragged out of his burrow, his shadow, or lack of one, will tell us how long until the winter is finished. We’ll be watching the sunrise ceremony and keep you updated.
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Last night I briefly saw part of a tv show where Pat Boone was a guest and he then sang a song. How sad. Like anybody else who has reached his age, he really doesn’t “have it” anymore and it hurts me to watch something like that. It reminded me that just a couple of months ago I saw something similar when George Jones made a promotional appearance to plug his upcoming tour with Willie Nelson. That was excruciating to watch listen to. Here was a man who was a real giant on the music scene at one time, and now he literally croaks as he tries to reprise his hit songs.
I can understand that fans of these entertainers like to see them in person just to enjoy one last moment with them, but I sure wish that they’d just talk about their experiences and not try to sing.
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You may have heard or seen the recent news report that ten Americans have been detained in Haiti on charges that they were trying to smuggle 33 orphans out of the ravaged country. It turns out that one of the detainees is a firefighter from Topeka, Kansas. Drew Culberth, 34, has 4 children at home who are going to suffer from his misguided attempt to do something good. Anybody knows that you can’t do something like that. He’ll be burning up more leave than he had planned, I expect. It’s likely that the group will be held for a week or two to send the message, then be set free to go back home. Sheesh.
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No sooner had I told about the screwed-up hockey league schedule and how the Olympics will be altering the trading activity, than yesterday a big 3-way trade between Toronto, Anaheim, and Phoenix involving 7 players was completed. If you follow the sport closely enough that you want to learn the details, CLICK HERE to read the report. The NY Rangers and Calgary Flames are reportedly completing a deal this morning, too.
I checked and as I suspected, the league will have a roster freeze in place during the Olympics. That means that after the Winter Games conclude there will be only 2-½ days to make any trades before the deadline. And there are 13 days left before the roster freeze kicks in, so let’s see what happens next. The big spotlight is on Atlanta where their leading scorer, and team captain, is very likely to be traded because of a contract impasse with the team. But his price is so high that it won’t be a smooth deal.
Now let’s make a smooth move over to the apparatus and get the equipment checked out. I need to get some more coffee going. See you back in the day room.
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