Like most of the entertainment industry, my blog has been on hiatus for the second half of the summer. I wish I could tell you that this was intentional, but sadly, it was down to pure laziness.
A lot has happened and since my audience this summer has been limited thus far to go-go dancers in sultry lingerie Mrs. V, it’s time to catch you all up.
In honor of my lifelong mentor and former boss Stan Fischler, here are my “impertinent thoughts on pertinent subjects”:
-- Sreesha
A lot has happened and since my audience this summer has been limited thus far to go-go dancers in sultry lingerie Mrs. V, it’s time to catch you all up.
In honor of my lifelong mentor and former boss Stan Fischler, here are my “impertinent thoughts on pertinent subjects”:
- DirecTV is offering a promotion where new customers get five months off of service if they sign up for the NFL package -- essentially a 100% discount; customers like me who signed up for DirecTV over the past few months get a 0% discount. Any wonder why DirecTV has to give away rich promotions to get more subscribers?
- Last year, prior to the start of training camp, I predicted that the run to the Stanley Cup goes through Philadelphia. Sure enough, the Flyers were the last team to be eliminated. These aren’t my official predictions (yet), but my early thoughts are that the LA Kings will represent the West.
When healthy, Willie Mitchell is a better, younger version of Sean O’Donnell. Though Alexei Ponikarovsky has more baggage than Heathrow, he’s still an upgrade over Alex Frolov and Fredrik Modin. I’d be surprised if the Kings didn’t re-sign Potomac native Jeff Halpern.
Meanwhile, the rest of the West has gotten worse. Chicago has lost a lot of critical depth. Detroit has lost a lot of scarce youth. Evgeni Nabokov’s departure is meant to be an addition by subtraction in San Jose. And with Phoenix’s off-ice troubles...
- My football teams are at a crossroads. Given Ben Roethlisberger’s suspension and the dire need of reinforcements in a variety of places, I’d be happy with a 2-14 season, a high first-round draft pick, and writing this season off.
Slightly different story at O.T.
The Premiership is wide open this year, to the point where United could win it or finish as low as seventh. Neither extreme seems likely, but we’re relying on a lot of young players stepping up to retain our automatic birth for the Champions League.
We’re especially struggling with depth - it wasn’t that long ago that the second-best team in English football was our reserve squad; now, our next-best options at forward after Rooney are either Macheda or Chicharito depending on Berbatov’s mood. I’m still predicting we finish second but the race will be a lot closer.
- Speaking of lack of depth, I’m unimpressed with the course offerings in this quarter. There are some great professors teaching this quarter, but the overall docket is very thin. I realize that us second-years are tied up with the field study project (AMR), and about a third of us are abroad. But that should have provided us here in LA with a better chance to get some depth in our coursework, rather than giving the university an excuse to reduce the offerings.
-- Sreesha
