How I did.

Well, Dear Reader, I am long since returned from R&R and thought I'd provide you an update on how I did running down the things that I miss from the U.S. while I was home.  So here they are in order:

• A well poured pint of Guiness - I had a decent (but not great) pint at Champp's Sports Bar in Pentagon City.  What it may have lacked in quality, I absolutely made up for in quantity.  Thanks to all of YDS's friends who met for many pints and sports bar type food.  Well enjoyed.
• Sushi - YDS's brother in law took him to an excellent sushi bar in Virginia Beach and introduced him to white tuna.  Absolutely amazing, a great restaurant and great company.
• Good mexican food - Had a great meal and great fun with Skippy Jr. at Mexico Restaurant.  There was balloon sculpture and really good salsa, so everyone was happy.
• Good chinese food - Eat Rice carry out near my sister's house.  A nice meal with YDS's sister and her family.
• A nice restaurant (of any sort) - Satisfied this jones by drinking with a dear friend at the The Jefferson's recently renovated bar.
• A great Southern breakfast - McLean's with the author of Greg's Alien.  Salt herring and eggs.  Biscuits and gravy.  If it weren't for the fact that we talked for an hour afterward, I wouldn't have been able to move.
• Rain - It rained a lot while we were at Virginia Beach.  Lots of my favorite misty foggy type rain.  Check and checked well.
• Fall - It was late fall, with a lot of leaves already down, but still fall.  Check.
• A good orthoepaedic mattress - Not so much.  My parents have a decent bed in their guest bedroom, but not great.  I still miss my mattress.
• College football on at the right time of day - Oh yeah.  Although Skippy Jr. did not believe it was a good use of my time. 
• A massage - My parents had a therapist all lined up to greet me the first day I was home.  It really helped unkink after the long long trip.
• Sundays as part of the weekend - This was certainly true, but it wasn't a big deal, because I was on vacation the whole time.  Hee hee.
• A sports bar - The aforementioned Champp's where we happened on the replay of the UNC v. Stanford semi final in women's soccer, which I did not know the outcome of, so it was almost as good as watching live.

So there you have it, Dear Reader, an R&R full of checking off the list.  YDS was pretty successful and had a great R&R.

Life is good.

Harrison Barnes.  Number one recruit in the country.  Makes the only sane decision and signs with Carolina.

Now a prospect is a prospect and some work out and some don't.  So while having this amazing athlete attend my alma mater is a good thing, the more fun thing about this news might be that Coach Rat (Kryshewski or some other such spelling) recruited this kid hard.  Coach Williams only started recruiting him after the Final Four.

And where does he go?  Chapel Hill, baby.  Chapel Hill.

The payback for the Nineties and the early 2000s is on.  And even after two national titles and a 7-2 record over the last nine head-to-head meetings, it looks as though the waters might continue to flow Carolina Blue for a while.

Hark the Sound ...

The sweet sound of victory.

Any season where you beat Dook is a pretty good season.  Now let's see about taking care of BC and/or NCState (especially the Wolfies) and we can call it a good season.

Family Cookbook and a recipe for you, Dear Reader

YDS's mom is putting together a family cookbook.  There's going to be a lot of great recipes in it, so I'm very excited.  Even though I'm a pretty decent cook, YDS's main contribution to the book so far has been to suggest some of his favorite dishes from various and sundry family members, especially my grandfather and grandmother.  Many of my memories of my grandfather have to do with food, but perhaps that is a thought best left for another entry. 

My mother did ask me to include one recipe.  It is not the hardest thing I can make, and certainly not the most sophisticated.  But it is one of my favorites and I explained why in the "story" that went with my recipe.  I share it with you now, dear reader:

The Man Behind the Brats


Other than a secret party, my favorite party is a tailgate. I've been making brats this way for about twenty years - ever since I lived in the Midwest and realized it was brats, and not necessarily fried chicken, that was the absolute must have for any good tailgate. (Although I do love fried chicken and a screwdriver.) This recipe has served me well, from UNC football, to DC United, to Richmond Kickers, to US Men's National Team games. The key to their success is not overcooking them in the steaming, but leaving them to finish up on the grill having marinated overnight in a good hoppy beer.


Someone once told me that there is no such thing as a cooking wine; if you want a dish to taste good with wine in it, use a good wine. The same is true for beer. Don't skimp on the beer in this recipe.


YDS

YDS's Tailgate Brats

One package Wisconsin-style brats (Johnsonville or similar)
One very large onion
Two bottles of a good hoppy beer (like a microbrew IPA)
At least two cloves of chopped garlic


1. Coarsely chop the onion and two cloves of garlic.
2. Place one half of the onion and all of the garlic in a the bottom of a large pot fitted with a steamer.
3. Arrange the brats in the steamer. Try to minimize the brats touching each other, so that they will steam evenly.
4. Pour one of the beers over the brats and turn on a high heat.
5. Bring the beer with the onions and garlic to a boil and steam the brats until they turn grayish on the outside, but retain some pink on the inside about ten minutes. Again, take care not to overcook. You want plenty of the fat in the sausage to remain in brats.
6. Once they reach their partially cooked stage (grayish on the outside with a little pink remaining in the middle; about ten minutes) remove from the heat and allow to cool.
7. Place the brats in a large Tupperware or similar container with the remaining onion and as much of the second beer as will fit. If the entire beer won't fit in the container, the leftover will almost certainly fit in you.
8. Marinate overnight. It isn't a tragedy if you are doing this the morning of your event, because you can probably get some decent marinating time in on the way to the stadium.
9. Cook over a good hot charcoal fire on a crisp fall day with the anticipation of a great sporting event. Turn frequently. They are done when they are golden brown and the fat bubbles out clear when you poke them. But only poke one when you are pretty sure that they are done.
10. Serve on a good roll with a robust mustard and sauerkraut.


Usually serves 4 Persons at two brats each
 
So there it is.  I hadn't written much lately until I had a whack at this and I was sort of pleased with how it turned out, so I decided to share it with you.

He did pretty well with the Sweet Sixteen...

So let's hope the Bard can keep up his prognostication...

And here are Shakespeare's picks for the Final Four:

Connecticut Huskies vs. the Michigan State Spartans: Will's tip: “the Dog will have his day” (Hamlet, 5.1)......
CONNECTICUT to the Finals

North Carolina Tarheels vs. the Villanova Wildcats: Will's tip: “the Cat must stay at home” (Henry V, 5.1) and the “Heels will kick at heaven” (Hamlet, 3.3)....
NORTH CAROLINA to the Finals

And in the Championship game:
North Carolina Tarheels versus Connecticut Huskies: Shakespeare agrees that this year the Big East has been stronger top to bottom, but says, “I’ll take my Heels” (Comedy of Errors 1.1) and “darkness breaks within the East” (Richard III, 5.3).

2009 NCAA Men's Champion
NORTH CAROLINA TARHEELS

http://www.americanshakespearecenter.com/v.php?pg=397

Have I mentioned that I'm proud of my alma mater?

As reported by ESPN.com:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney09/news/story?id=3987923

North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Louisville and Connecticut share a No. 1 seeding in the NCAA tournament. Their graduation rates have less in common.

The numbers ranged from 86 percent at North Carolina to 33 percent at UConn, according to a report released Monday by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida.

Louisville was at 42 percent and Pitt at 69 percent.

They play hoops AND they go to class. What a concept!!!

The Bard has a go at Predicting NCAA Hoops

Courtesy of the American Shakespeare Center:

http://www.americanshakespearecenter.com/v.php?pg=397

An American Shakespeare Center Exclusive

People can debate the identity of William Shakespeare, but the one thing we know for certain is that Will Shakespeare was a huge fan of March Madness and famously admonishes basketball fans to "remember March, the ides of March remember!" Now that the Ides of March is past, we have our basketball Sweet Sixteen, and Shakespeare through his friends at the American Shakespeare Center is weighing in on the Bracket to the Final Four and the 2009 national championship.

East Regional
In the East the Pitt Panthers are up against the Xavier Muskteers and Shakespeare says of the Muskets that they are "leaden messengers" (All's Well, 3.2) and thinks the game will "rouse the proudest Panther in the chase" (Titus, 2.2).

As to the other game, where the Duke Blue Devils take on the Villanova Wildcats, Shakespeare tells Coach K that in "despite of the Devils and hell," (2 Henry VI, 4.8), there will be "Wildcats in your kitchen" (Othello, 2.1).

Elite Eight Picks: Villanova Wildcats will play the Pitt Panthers.

Midwest Regional
In the Midwest, the Louisville Cardinals take on the other Wildcats, and though Shakespeare thinks that out west Arizona is "the king of Cats" (Romeo and Juliet, 3.1), he says quite clearly that in choosing between the two teams he "would the college of Cardinals" (Henry VIII, 3.2).

In the second game, the Michigan State Spartans battle the Kansas Jayhawks, and in this one Shakespeare says his favorites are "bred out of the Spartan kind" (Dream, 4.1) and are "of more delight than Hawks" (Sonnets: XCI).

Elite Eight Picks: Louisville Cardinals meet the Michigan State Spartans.

South Regional
The Oklahoma Sooners meet the Syracuse Orange, and despite Syracuse's valiant six-overtime win against Connecticut, Shakespeare is emphatic: "Give not this rotten Orange to your friends," (Much Ado, 4.1) and urges bracketeers to choose Oklahoma with this advice: "Sooner, Sweet, for you." (Othello, 3.2).

In game two between the North Carolina Tarheels and the Gonzaga Bulldogs, Will has no patience with the underdogs from the Northwest - "Down, down, dogs!" (1 Henry IV, 2.4) - and that for those of us who love the ACC "our grace is only in the Heels" (Henry V, 3.2).

Elite Eight Picks: The North Carolina Tarheels will meet the Oklahoma Sooners.

West Regional
In the West, the Connecticut Huskies go against the Purdue Boilermakers, and here Shakespeare gets downright nasty in with Purdue - "You shames! you herd of Boils" (Coriolanus, 1.4) - and predicts that "what's to come is strew'd with Husks" (Troilus and Cressida, 4.4).

In the second game, where the Memphis Tiger plays the Missouri Tigers, Shakespeare predicts unhelpfully that "Tigers must prey" (Titus Andronicus, 3.1), but tells us later that Memphis will "triumph upon my Missouri" (Shrew 4.3).

Elite Eight Picks: The Memphis Tigers to play Connecticut.

And here are Shakespeare's picks for the Final Four:
Villanova Wildcats versus Pitt Panthers - Will's Tip: "Deep Pitt" (Titus, 2.3) ...
PITTSBURG

Louisville Cardinals versus Michigan State Spartans -- Will's Tip: "The Cardinal's not my better in the field." (2 Henry VI, 1.3) ... MICHIGAN SATE

UNC Tarheels versus Oklahoma Sooners -- Will's Tip: "the Heels of worth" (All's Well, 3.4) ... CAROLINA

Memphis Tigers versus Connecticut - Will's Tip: "The empty Tigers" (Romeo and Juliet, 5.3) ... CONNECTICUT

NEXT WEEK: Check the ASC's site for Shakespeare's prediction of the national champion.

I like the way ole Will thinks!

One more dig ...

And then I'll quit, I promise.

But Adam Lucas of TarHeelBlue.com nails it:

The biggest fallacy about this whole Carolina-Duke rivalry is the 8-mile thing, as if proximity somehow indicates similarity. It's like assuming East and West Germany must be comparable since they were close to each other.

Duke fans believe spending 196 hours in a tent indicates passion and devotion. Carolina fans believe 196 hours in a tent indicates a telling lack of other social engagements.

The undergrads inhabiting Tent 1 in Krzyzewskiville staked their claim on Dec. 26, 47 days ago. Added over four years of college life, that's 188 days--over half a year--in a tent to watch four losses. The good news is that all that time in a tent did enable them to have a great view of history: Carolina's 101-87 victory was the first time an opponent surpassed 100 points in a regulation game at Cameron since the Tar Heels did it in 1983.

Duke has 6,340 undergrads. Assuming a fourth of them are seniors, that makes a class of 1,585 that will graduate in May without ever seeing a home victory over Carolina.

The rest of the article (http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/021209aaa.html) is good too. Now I'll go back to leaving Dookies alone.

Too good not to share ...

Thanks to TarHeelFanblog reader: “Yo mama sleeps with Teague” for this.

Oh and thanks to 101-87.

When is breaking the rules cheating?

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3712372

This was oh, so much more timely a week ago, but I've been dealing with life and Thanksgiving a lot over the last couple of weeks and so didn't get a chance to write intelligently about this until now.

In case you missed it, this professional golfer was all the rage on talk sports radio because he turned himself in for using an unapproved ball on one hole in a qualifying tournament. That was important for a couple of reasons. First, the PGA, under its ridiculously draconian rules, disqualified him from the whole tournament. Second, and perhaps more importantly, because it was a qualifying tournament, it cost him his chance to get a tour exemption, that would have allowed him to play in all of the PGA tournaments this season without having to qualify. So, we are talking a pretty serious penalty for a pretty minor offense.

Because of all of this, he's being held out as a paragon of purity and a symbol for all that should be right in sports. "What a sacrifice he has made!" they all cry. "What a great guy, that he would take bread off of his family's table because he couldn't live with himself by cheating." "Would you do the same?" they ask. "Would you turn yourself in, knowing that you would lose your livelihood?"

OK. Wait just a second. Hayes didn't have a qualifier's card last year either and according to ESPN.com, he did okay. "He earned $312,152 this season, making just seven cuts in 26 events. He was 176th on the money list -- the worst showing of his career." Um, what "sacrifice" exactly was he making then? A pro golfer, even in his worst year, makes a LOT of money. Turning himself in didn't exactly mean that his family doesn't pay the mortgage this year. Did he give up more money? Yeah, probably, but I'm not ready to pass the hat for the guy. That's a heck of a safety net to fall into after "sacrificing" yourself to your high moral standards.

Look, he did an impressive thing. He did make a sacrifice and he deserves recognition. But he ain't exactly a Greek tragic hero, undone by his own character.

Anyway, I'm not so sure he isn't a little stupid. He turned himself in not once, but twice. "I realized there was a penalty and I called an official over," Hayes said, according to the newspaper. "He said the penalty was two shots and that I had to finish the hole with that ball and then change back to the original ball." For most competitors that would be the end of the story. He showed the ball to the official and they said the penalty was two strokes. But Hayes felt compelled to go beyond what the official had said and prove that the guy had made a mistake. When he got home, he looked up the list of approved balls, and found that his wasn't on it. So he says "Oooh, ooooh, PGA, you didn't punish me enough, even though I gave you the appropriate opportunity to do so and your official completely botched it."

No wonder they disqualified him.... He was making everyone else in the world look bad.

But if you feel sorry for him, it was because of his Titleist prototype ball that he got disqualified. He was doing them a favor by practicing with it and it screwed him. Apparently, there are sponsor and manufacturer exemptions at tournaments that would allow Hayes to make more money. If you think he deserves it for being such a stand up guy, write to ole Wally Uihlein at Titleist and tell him they should "Let Hayes Play!"


Mr. Wally Uihlein
Chief Executive Officer
Titleist/Acushnet
Worldwide Distribution Center
333 Bridge Street
Fairhaven, MA 02719

Wither the Wizards?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3722783

Holy smokes. Just in case anyone is wondering: It ain't Jordan that's the problem here. No Agent Zero and no Brendan Haywood and rotating dings among the starters has lead to the 1 and 10.
.
I'm shocked though, I thought Eddie was one of the good guys and could get the 'Zards there. Maybe not now ....
.
I guess you can't fire the injuries.

So much for MMA?

I don’t know exactly. I haven’t watched it again since blogging about it before. I’m not sure that it is because I’m not interested, or because I just haven’t run across it in my minimal TV watching. I see that the next “big” fight is coming up between two guys that I’ve heard of, but probably couldn’t pick them out of a line up (police or otherwise). This one is NOT on network TV but on pay per view.
.
And at $45.95 per view, I don’t think I’ll be paying.

Wait ... Did I Just LIKE That?

Once upon a time, I enjoyed watching a boxing match to some extent. For one, I used to spend a lot of time watching sports, any sport, on television. With my marriage, the birth of my son, and my eventual divorce, rearranged priorities meant that there was much less time to sit and watch sports on TV, and boxing was one of the first to go. But when I watched it, I enjoyed it. Part of it had to do with the fact that my grandfather boxed when he was young (and was Golden Gloves at Notre Dame). Part of it had to do with the fact that I enjoyed the “sweet science” aspect of the sport. Boxing is very much a technique driven sport (watch Million Dollar Baby again if you don’t agree) and I enjoyed watching fighters with good technique. For that reason, I preferred the lighter weight classes and amateur to pro boxing.

But anyway, as I said, I pretty much stopped watching it. I’m sure there is no causal relationship, but the sport seems to be pretty much dieing. If you need evidence, Evander Holyfield is fighting for the heavyweight championship. AT 47!!!

I had heard of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting, but hadn’t been interested. It seemed too close to pro wrestling. Too close to being a blood sport. And the guys that were fans of the sport (including Jim Rome) didn’t seem like the kinds of guys that I wanted to have something in common with. So I never watched it.

Until Friday night. I was channel flipping a little because my son was with his mom for the weekend and noticed EliteXC fighting on CBS. I was intrigued because Kimbo Slice was scheduled at the top of the card, and I had heard him interviewed on ESPNRadio earlier. So I decided to check it out. Now I didn’t watch it start to finish--I kept channel flipping--but … wait for it … I sort of liked it. The production values were strong. The athletes were interesting. And the fights were … exciting. I was flabbergasted. Oh, and it helped that they spent a significant time with Gina Carano, the “Face of Women’s MMA” and that she has a really pretty face, a rock solid figure, and just the cutest personality. And she could totally kick my ass. mmmRowrrrr.

Anyway, not sure why I felt compelled to confess this here. AFAIK, no one reads this blog (except for my sweet ViePrivee. We will chat one day!!!), but I wanted to write about this weird experience just a little.

Last night, I heard there was some controversy as to whether EliteXC tried to orchestrate the fight with Kimbo Slice. I hope that’s not true. I don’t know how often I would really watch anyway, but I can tell you that if the fights are orchestrated the way professional wrestling “fights” are …

The answer is not at all.

Olympics

Is it me, or is the fact that the Olympics are in China sucking the interest out of the whole thing? Not only will all the events be on at ODark30 in the morning, but I've got this moral ambivalence about the whole fact that they will be in China. I guess I'll still Tivo the men's and women's soccer and basketball and probably check in to see if Phelps beats Spitz's record (Mark Spitz inspired my own considerably less stellar swimming career). But I think I'll feel a little dirty about it.

Who's House? Heels' House!

I promise not to blog to much about sports, but my Tar Heels are 17 and 0, baby, and for all the things going poorly in my life at the moment, sometimes you got to just enjoy a sports team that you care about whomping up on everyone else. Especially NC State. LOL.

My Redskins are out (remind me to tell you why I am still a Redskins fan). But the Packers are playing well and the Plowboys are done as well. I'm ambivalent about the Patriots going all the way. It would be interesting to watch but folks from Boston are hard enough to take without 19 and 0 to brag about. JK Uncle Lance and Aunt Lolly!!