Thursday

Weather still a bit of a story here.  Another below-zero morning and a forecasted single-digit high for the day.  Winter has definitely been Winter this year.

So the Olympics start today (or sometime in the next 36 hours) in Russia.  There's a 9-hour time difference with NYC...12 hours for you folks on the Left Coast...so the, "Is it real or is it Memorex?" question is always relevant.  If you're watching in the USA in prime time...it's Memorex!!...for those of you challenged by time-difference mathematics.

I have no problem with NBC's handling of the programming.  I mean, if you're really that interested in the results in real time, you can go online and get the scores.  But, people.  This is the Winter Olympics!  Curling.  Half-pipe.  Biathlon.  Cross-country skiing.  Paint-drying!  It'll be okay if you watch it on re-runs this Summer!

Moving on...

The European peloton is in Dubai this week.  I knew that you would want to know.  Actually, an American, Taylor Phinney, won the opening stage, a short time trial, yesterday.  (Again, we have that time difference, so yesterday is a relative term.)  They've had this race in the desert the last few years, a testament to the modern axiom of "follow the money".  The sheiks really want to take a place in the hierarchy of Western culture.  Further evidence of the money trail is that FIFA has given the emirate of Qatar the World Cup (soccer) for 2022.


If I'm a successful cyclist, a place on the podium is always good  But I think the Italians have a better reception committee.

Speaking of cycling, I'm still without a bike.  Supposedly, the warranty frame was shipped a couple of weeks ago.  No word from the bike shop yet.  The again, my bike shop guy has a side-business of snow plowing.  My guess is that he hasn't spent much time at the bike shop recently.

They had a pic of Peyton Manning on the course yesterday at Pebble Beach.  If you need to assuage the pain of a SB disaster, Pebble might be a place to go.  (My pal Ron took a pass on playing there the week after 07282012 due to monetary considerations...green fees of $500...times two as wife Jane was to play as well.  Ouch.  He has since said that he wished he had paid the freight.)

Peyton was at Pebble to participate in the National Pro-Am that the course hosts this week as the stop on the PGA tour.  They always bring in sports and entertainment celebrities to juice the field for TV purposes.  IF you can get in the Pro-Am, I'm guessing the fee for the layman is $20-25K.  (You can get into the John Deere Pro-Am here in July for $5K with no problem.)  I've always been turned-off by the obsession of the TV broadcasts' focus on such non-notables (in my book) as Bill Murray, Ray Romano and George Lopez.  Like I care about watching those tools swing a club!

2 and I did wine at Crust again last night. Half-Price bottles on Wednesday is a good draw.  But for the second week in a row, the shelf was empty for the Jack London Cab.  The barkeep had his cell phone out before I could sit down to show me an email from his wine supplier that the scheduled delivery was weather-delayed.  Whatever.  We drank some good wine in the alternative, but it wasn't the cheap date that was anticipated.  Then again, the side bonus?  Three clients, including my pal Cal, made appearances.  That spells t-a-x-d-e-d-u-c-t-i-o-n.  Suite!

Finally, there were two small, sidebar stories in the sports pages today/last night about two professional teams announcing naming-rights deals for their respective home venues:  the Texas Rangers will now play at Globe Life Park, and the New Orleans Pelicans will tip off home games in the Smoothie King Center.  Okay.  Never heard of either company.  Repeat of axiom above...FTM.  (Quick test:  did you even know that the name of the New Orleans NBA team was the Pelicans?  Bonus points if you could name one player on their roster.  1.1 not eligible for that bet!)

All for now.  Make it a good day in your neighborhood.

BCOT