Assorted Friday Ramblings

I have an assortment of things to discuss this morning. So here we go; please keep your hands and feet in the car at all times and keep the restraining harness on.

1) St. Louis Billikens Set a New Low

Last night the George Washington University Colonials helped the St. Louis University Billikens set a new record in men’s college basketball. SLU scored a new low in points during the “shot-clock” era with 20. That’s not 20 in a half, that’s 20 in the game. The final was 49-20 in favor of GW. The bulk of the story is here on ESPN, but what I want to point out is not that the Billikens couldn’t shoot or that GW’s defense was that strong (although they did record 11 blocked shots); rather that GW only scored 49 points. St. Louis had to be getting discouraged by their lack of production and I have to think that GW could have taken better advantage of that on their offensive end. Yet they only scored 49 points. Perhaps GW’s coach, Karl Hobbs, told his guys “to take it easy” on offense, but that doesn’t sound like Hobbs, who could power a small city when running up and down the sidelines. GW is having a really poor season and while they are on the good side of history here, they should have more to show then just 49 measly points.

2) The Meeting Room is Locked

Today I tried something new. I’m trying to get back to running with the group from Pacers that I’ve been with since they started a few years back. Since going on the diet I’ve been weighing in on Saturday morning and thus couldn’t join them for their runs. It’s something I’ve missed terribly and want to start again. So today I figured I go to a weigh in here in DC in the morning before work. The meeting I was supposed to go to started at 730am and should run until 830am, anytime in between I should be able to weigh in. However when I showed up today at 820am the doors were closed and locked and there was a sign on the door saying that this was “an Express Meeting” and ended promptly at 8am. I knocked when I heard voices on the other side of the door and the woman said, “Sorry we’ve locked everything up.” This sucks, I just want to get on a freaking scale and see if I had as good of a week as I think I did. I’m awaiting a call from the company’s customer service department and I want nothing less then one month free for my “mental suffering.”

3) Metro is Considering New Hi-Tech Cars for the Rail System

Of course they a) can’t get the cars for another 5 years and b) the ones they have now can’t run in any semblance of an on-time schedule. But this is not the most disturbing part of the article I read today in the Washington Post. Our friend councilman Jim Graham (see the previous rant on this bow-tie wearing, wussy-dog holding, sissy boy), actually had this to say regarding making a suggested small change to the Metro logo, "…that's weeks of discussion…" Wait a minute; you want weeks of discussion for a simple logo change? Maybe that’s why we needed such a large rate increase (that just went into effect), all the energy that is used during these meetings of Graham talking about the Logo change. Maybe (and this is only a suggestion) we could discuss how to better improve the trains and busses and to teach our employees how to properly interact with the customers they encounter daily. But then again a logo is really important too.

4) A quick note to Washington Capital Fans

Be very thankful for your owner, Ted Leonsis, and his genuine care for the team and the community. Yesterday he signed a 13-year agreement with star forward Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin is a 22-year old Russian superstar and is even more remarkable because he negotiated the contract with the team by himself. Yes, he DIDN’T use an agent and not only saved commission but also cut out all the BS that comes along with tense negotiating talks those agents usually cause to occur. Leonsis didn’t try to screw him and Ovechkin didn’t try to screw the team. His deal is worth $9M per year for the first 6 years of the deal and $10M per year for the remaining 7 years. This means that even now he represents a smaller portion of the teams salary cap then the 20% maximum allowed for one player by the NHL. This gives the team the money to be flexible in free agency and sign strong players around Ovechkin. This is the kind of move that a savvy veteran makes to help his team win championships, not a 22-year old kid. Kudos to you Alex and you will always have a fan on this blog. PS: Can I get a loan?