Evil Doers Beware! You Face...The Tick!

Probably the best animated cartoon show I've ever seen (not my favorite-that would be He-Man) is The Tick. Ever since the first time I realised that they could actually release animated TV shows on DVD, I've wanted this series. And now, thanks to Amazon's graciousness, it has shipped to me. I will receive it on Dec 21, 2014, because I chose the free super-saver shipping. What a moron I am.

Of course, someone is a bigger moron, because this is not the entire first season. For some god-unknown reason, one of the episodes is not in this collection. The Tick vs The Mole Men, I believe. Supposedly it's by far the weakest episode of the bunch, but still. I swear, Marvel, if you're holding this up over the damn Mole Man rights I will kick you in the nuts.

I can't say I'm surprised

Forbes.com appearently doesn't have a whole lot of demands on their time, so they went around ranking the Drunkest Cities in America. Not surprisingly, Milwaukee came in at number one with a bullet. This comes on the heels of Futurama's distinction of Milwaukee as The Most Romantic Place on Earth, for its creation of the "beer goggles".

What is surprising about the Forbes.com study is that the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul came in second. Wow. I had no idea we were so high on that list. Just one more reason why the midwest kicks the coasts' collective ass. Trailing us in the top 10 are Columbus, Ohio, Boston, Austin, Chicago, Cleavland, Pittsburgh, Philly and Providence.

Read the StarTrib article here and Forbes.com here.

Garza watch

Francisco Liriano has been the Twins' most ridiculous pitcher since he joined the starting rotation sometime in late May. But he's done something to his forearm, which caused him to skip his last start and get pulled from his start today after only 4 innings. This is bad news, because he's been as close to unhittable as you get in the majors. However, this may help to clarify the situation of the Twins' other most unhittable pitcher this year, Matt Garza. Garza was taken in the first round of the draft last year, meaning he's spent about 14 months or so in the Twins' minor leagues. After tearing through the three levels of the farm system as if they were a sub-par little league, Terry Ryan (the Twins' GM) is running out of reasons not to put Garza into the Twins' starting rotation.

My prediction: if Liriano goes on the DL (meaning a roster spot is freed up) or Mike Smith bombs his second shot as the 5th starter in the rotation, Garza will be in the majors and hopefully treating it like just another level of the minors.

A call for support

There are many idiots in the world. One of them is running this country. Others are in charge of various groups around the world. Your boss may be an idiot. Some bosses are. Some bosses are bigger idiots than others.

I have know Mr. Erik Hanberg since the fall of 2000, when we met as roommates while abroad for Carleton's London program. We bonded when we discovered we both disliked our third roommate. In all the time I've known him, I have found him to be someone who is passionate about his interests, which include truth in all its forms, movies and Lauren Bacall. He is also someone who works hard on anything he wants to accomplish, and all the more so when those goals happen to coincide with his passions. He has a signed picture of Lauren Bacall, he once went on a verbal tirade because a statistic someone had written in chalk outside of our dorm was a gross distortion of what the numbers actually meant, and of course for the last couple of years he has fully committed himself to running his local arthouse movie theater in Tacoma. He is one of the finest men I know, and I am glad to count him as a friend.

I have a link to Erik's blog over on the right, because I frequently find his comments and insights amusing and/or thoughtful. I strongly suggest it.

I say all this because, for reasons I won't go into here, Erik is leaving his job of Grand Pooh-Bah of The Grand. For those of you who also count him as a friend, drop him a line, either via phone or email. I'm sure it will be appreciated.