Flip Flop

Funny how the LeBron James era is over just as it was declared open. On June 2, 2007, Sam Smith, NBA writer for the Chicago Sun-Times wrote an article asserting that LeBron James could lead his Cleveland Cavaliers to title runs for years to come. After James' monumental performance in Game 5 of the Eastern Championships Smith wrote "The rest of the NBA now is worried. Did Thursday mark the start of the next great era?"

How quickly things have changed. Now down 3-0 to the San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland and King James have been deposed. Not only from the Championship this year but also for the future. Fast forward today and now Smith writes that you can't expect the Cavaliers to return to the Finals any time soon. What has changed in the Eastern Conference since June 2? Nothing. Except Smith's need to write a new article about something.

No one really expected the Eastern Conference Champion to win this year. Didn't expect it last year either but these things can happen. Just two weeks ago, James was the superstar who can carry a team of nobodies to destiny. Now, they won't be able to take on the misfits and also-rans in the weak East.

You can get whiplash watching sportswriters like Sam Smith pull columns out of their butts to make deadline.

Yecch!

Well, my softball career may be over. Sunday, I pulled something in my right calf scoring from third on a pop up to the shortstop. Then when I was lying on the bench, some Asian guy came up with some oriental ointment that smelled much like Icy Hot. He said it would loosen up the muscle. Well, it did a whole heck of a lot more than that.

Well he slathered it on and it was tingly like Icy Hot. I took a shower when I got home and thought it washed off. I then applied an Icy Hot Patch which fell off after a couple of hours.

Monday, I went to work wrapped an ice pack around my calf all day. When I got home, I popped some Advil.

Tuesday, I got up early for an arbitration hearing in Joliet, Illinois and saw that a blister had formed on the back of my calf. Big but not full. Just kind of half empty. By the time my arbitration was done, I got home and changed for my doctor's appointment. I noticed that the blister had filled with pus or juice of some sort. And it had grown some smaller friends.

At the doctor's office, my doctor didn't really do much. He never does. He's a general practitioner and probably is too afraid to actually do anything that might get him sued. Damn personal injury lawyers. So he looked at my calf, poked at it a couple of times and diagnosed me with a partial muscle tear. He suggested that I not mess with the blisters and just let them run their course and reabsorb into my leg. He thought they may have been caused by an allegic reaction of the ointment and the Icy Hot combination. And may have been aggravated by the ice and wrap. He also recommended that I get a follow up with an orthopedic specialist.

Wednesday, I went to work as usual and went to court. Unfortunately, my briefcase banged against one of my blisters and popped it. Icky. I could feel the juice run down the back of my leg. Fortunately, it didn't stain through my pants.

So, today I went to the specialist and he pretty much said the same thing. Did more intricate orthopedic tests confirming (to a reasonable degree of orthopedic certainty), that there was no ligament or tendon involvement. He game me some heel lifts to take pressure off the muscles and which make me seem taller I think. He said we'll wait to see how it heals in the next week. If it goes well, great. If not, then I may need a course of therapy.

So, we'll see.

Dracula's Castle Returned to Heirs

The Romanian government has returned Castle Bran to the decendents of the Romanian royal family who lost the castle to Communist rule. Castle Bran is associated with Romanian Prince, Vlad Tepes, also known as "Vlad the Impaler". It was based on the history of the Impaler's bloody defense of Romania against the Ottoman Empire that Bram Stoker developed the legend of Dracula.

Of course, while Castle Bran was one of Vlad's important outposts during the 1400s, it is less clear that he actually spent any significant time there. Even less evidence supports any actual vampiric action happening there. But it's old, imposing and against a dark Transylvanian skyline, quite spooky.

For more on the return of Castle Bran to the Romanian royal family, click here.

Ha Ha

I generally don't loathe Paris Hilton and her ilk, but something about seeing her bawling on her way back to jail does my heart good. Does that make me a bad person? Oh, well. Letting her out after three days was ridiculous. Now if they can just get Nicole to join her. For more on the incarceration of the drunken heiress, click here. For more on celebrity justice, click here.

The Romanian Front

Looks like the Romanians are still fighting the war against Islamic Jihad even if they're denying it. Like Prince Vlad "the Impaler" Tepes (the man behind the Dracula legend) of the 1400s before them, today's Romanians stand on the front lines of the war on terror. With reports from alleged ex-CIA agents claiming that the governments in Romania and Poland allowed the CIA unfettered access to prison facilities to detain terrorism suspects.

And now the lily-livered Swiss and others in the E.U. are whining and accusing the Romanians and Poles of impropriety. Wah wah. They're lucky the Romanians don't start racking jihadists up on pikes like in the olden days. That seems like it would be an effective technique of keeping the terrorists at bay even today.

For more on Romania's history of fighting against the Jihad, click here.

Anniversary of Unknown Heroes

The Unknown Rebel - This famous photo, taken on 5 June 1989 by photographer Jeff Widener, depicts a lone protester who tried to stop four advancing tanks until he was pulled into the crowd by several onlookers.

Winky

A man with a winking problem is applying for a position as a sales representative for a large firm. The interviewer looks over his papers and says, "This is phenomenal. You've graduated from the best schools; your recommendations are wonderful, and your experience is unparalleled. Normally, we'd hire you without a second thought. However, a sales representative has a highly visible position, and we're afraid that your constant winking will scare off potential customers. I'm sorry.... we can't hire you."

"But wait," he said. "If I take two aspirin, I'll stop winking!"

"Really? Great! Show me!"

So the applicant reaches into his jacket pocket and begins pulling out all sorts of condoms: red condoms, blue condoms, ribbed condoms, flavored condoms; finally, at the bottom, he finds a packet of aspirin. He tears it open, swallows the pills, and stops winking.

"Well," said the interviewer,"that's all well and good, but this is a respectable company, and we will not have our employee womanizing all over the country!"

"Womanizing? What do you mean? I'm a happily married man!"

"Well then, how do you explain all these condoms?"

"Oh, that," he sighed. "Have you ever walked into a pharmacy, winking, and asked for aspirin?"