Slightly Off-Topic: Nine Fun Blog Reads
May 11, 2007 by Geoff Young
Filed under Odds and Ends
Yeah, the focus here is almost exclusively on baseball, but I recently participated in the latest Problogger Group Writing Project and one of the recommendations is to read through other entries and link out to the best. Aside from being a recommendation, it also happens to be a lot of fun. To keep in the baseball spirit, I’ve identified my nine favorite (nine being the magic number in the world’s most glorious sport) entries. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have:
- Top 5 italian words you really don’t want to mispronounce (Bleeding Espresso). Not sure the difference between “scappare” and “scopare”? Might want to check that:
Well, the other meaning for scopare is a slang term for, um, making love, and may not be something you’d like to share with, say, your mother-in-law.
Good advice, but I still want to know what Simontacchi means.
- Top 5 Hollywood actors of the last 30 years (The Kerala Articles). Everyone’s favorite former Bosom Buddy (sorry, Peter Scolari) checks in at #4. Tom Hanks, you may recall, starred in 1992’s A League of Their Own, which despite featuring both Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell, was a pretty good baseball movie. Hey, if nothing else, it gave us, “There’s no crying in baseball.”
- Top 5 Blogs by Musicians (Separate Sound). I’ve been a quasi-professional musician at various points in my life, so I find these interesting. Sorry, can’t think of a baseball tie-in for this one.
- Top 5 Worst Jobs I Have Ever Had (Boston Brat). Heh. My first job involved cleaning up after rabbits and children who were in various stages of potty training. My second was keeping score at rec league softball games. Guess which one I liked better.
- Five Favorite Comic Strip Characters (Toon Brew). No doubt, gotta love the garbage dude from Dilbert. Let’s not forget the world’s unluckiest pitcher, Charlie Brown.
- Top 5 Fantasy Baseball Minor League Prospects (Crooked Pitch). Hey, look: an actual baseball post. I don’t have to come up with some contrived justification for this one. Knox has some good names here; I might push Reid Brignac or Jose Tabata ahead of one of the pitchers, but that’s just me. Nice list.
- The Top 5 Supporting Characters on NBC’s ‘The Office’ (Cultural Learnings). I never expected the U.S. version to live up to the standard set by Ricky Gervais’ brilliant show, but it has — and then some. If there is meaning in life beyond baseball, it might be The Office. Or Battlestar Galactica, but that’s a whole other story.
- Get Fit & Sexy While Blogging - the Top 5 Unusual Things to do at Your Computer… (Real Muscle Online). Fellow b5 blogger Ramsay provides some excellent tips for avoiding injury at the keyboard. The focus is on bloggers, but really, these will help anyone.
- Top 5 reasons to avoid Omaha, Nebraska (About Omaha). Minor nitpick: The Omaha Royals are a professional sports team. Players get paid, ergo they are pros. Still, the threat of tornado is enough for me.
Happy Friday, folks; we’ll get back to the baseball real soon…
Battlestar Galactica is the real meaning of life, with all apologies to my beloved Office and to the great sport of Baseball. I’m definitely writing my thesis on it, and keep finding it popping up everywhere from discussions of nuclear missiles to 19th century literature.
I’d comment further on the baseball side of things, but as of now my knowledge is limited to what I get on the Northeast U.S. network feeds. According to NBC in Boston, Dice-K is making people eat Sushi. I find this claim to be very tenuous.
Thanks for stopping by! I’m enjoying reading through these Top 5 lists, too.
Since you are a music fan, maybe you’d like to submit a playlist for my weekly Friday Playlist feature. If you want to, just email me.
Hey now, just because someone is getting paid to do something doesn’t mean they’re a professional.
I’ve paid my kids to go outside and play. Does that mean they’re a professional “go outside and leave me alone”-er?
If I pay someone’s teenage daughter to babysit, does that mean they’re a professional child care provider?
Of course Wikipedia says that “Minor league baseball refers to professional baseball leagues in North America that compete at a level below that of Major League Baseball”
So you might be TECHNICALLY right.
Thanks for reading.
Geoff,
Thanks for stopping by my blog and for dropping the names of Reid Brignac and Jose Tabata. Both are great ball-players and rank high on Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects (Brignac is #17 and Tabata is #27). However, neither player is expected to break into the big leagues in 2007. Brignac is slated for 2008 and Tabata is slated for 2009. They are both surely worthy of keeping an eye on, just in case that expected date of arrival changes.
Thanks, Myles, for the comment. I actually like to think of BG as the baseball of SciFi — lots to think about, many difficult decisions.
Sushi? Did someone say sushi? Ah, that reminds me; I’d better eat lunch.
Knox, good point on Brignac and Tabata. I tend to focus a lot on long-term value and am somewhat risk averse when it comes to young pitchers. Your list is excellent, though, and my nitpicking is really just a matter of personal preference.
Emma, thanks for the heads-up. I will be submitting a playlist shortly!
Nitpick away. I welcome it and enjoy it.
I think the baseball world would be hard pressed to come up with a top 5 list on any baseball topic where there wasn’t some good hearted disagreement.
That’s the great thing about baseball. Millions of people love it, and nobody can agree on anything.
Well said, Knox. Hey wait, did we just agree?
Thanks for stopping by and including me here! I have to say that baseball is one of the things I miss most about living in Italy. In fact, baseball-related anything saddens me a bit, but you’ve inspired me to have a look see around Knuckle Curve.
Signed,
Someone who used to spend an inordinate amount of disposable income on Phillies games
Thanks, Jeff. I guess I could have saved you a trip to Wikipedia if I hadn’t been trying (and failing) to be funny. Oh well…
Sognatrice, thanks for saying hi! I cannot read this site, but it looks like there is some baseball being played in Italy:
http://www.fibs.it/
Might be worth checking out?
Thanks for the link! Glad you liked it
It’s ok if you fail an attempt at being funny.
*I* will carry you through man.
We’ll get through it together.
That said, I’m a soccer fan.
Hi, everybody!
I think, that this is a great forum. Very intresting and useful.
But I can’t find the search function, cause I want faster find the topics that could be intresting for me to express my opinion…
Please help me with search function on this forum!
Stupid people say stupid things, why can’t they get along with each other?
MicheleN