Lions, Huskies And Debates

The freedom of Wikipedia and the persistence of cached material in Google's search results are two things that can bring a smile to my beautiful face. When someone with a sense of humor revises a Wikipedia entry--in this case, for the Detroit Lions football team--they can be removed immediately from their site. But Google's bots (or whatever the technical term is) pull a cached snapshot of those changes and displays them as a search result. Here is a screen grab of the gem:


Note the first entry, which refers to the Lions as "a cheerleading squad aspiring to become an American football team." Somewhere, James Lipton is giving his long-winded approval.

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UConn @ Louisville 2nite On ESPN2: The Huskies look to get their fifth win during their Big East opener.

Get your UConn football fix here please. I work hard to make these things look nice.

Look for a decent game from this Donald Brown character. He's supposedly the nation's leading rusher, but since he plays in the Big East, the ESPN guys couldn't care less.

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I'll keep the remote handy in order to maintain vigilance on the game and the DEBATE between the old guy and the idealistic guy.

I'm sure nobody will pick on John McC for attending the debate while the bailout boondoggle continues, despite suspending his campaign two days earlier.

And you will want to check this site, naturally, for anything debate-related: the print jockeys picked a bunch of smart people to give their two cents on the verbal fisticuffs (including the Hon. Richard Hanley from Quinnipiac, whose proudest accomplishments include being my adviser and grading my papers).

And On The Seventh Day ...

God said to Belichick ...

"Hey, I'm taking the afternoon off. Can you hold down the fort for me?"

Patriots 19, Jets 10

Cassel: Radiant, 0 INT
Favre: Redneck-ish, 1 INT

And as the classless Jets fans -- who had cheered Tom Brady's season-ending injury days before -- shouted their displeasure from the rafters, Belichick gave Mangini a quick handshake and said ...

"It is good."


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I can't believe I'm saying this, but Keyshawn Johnson was the smartest analyst on television today. Only in America.

The Finger

I spent last night at Grillo South (Beacon Falls) to watch and clean up after the two cats while my parents vacationed at Grillo North (Plymouth, N.H.). It was a nice break from a hectic week of 5 a.m. shifts and schoolwork. But the extra effort is worth it: I'm only 15 weeks and a thesis away from adding "M.S." at the end of my name in my email signatures (e.g. Michael L. Grillo, M.S.).

On my way back to Grillo East (my apartment in Middletown), a silver Scion sped by me as the rain fell and pulled in front of me. At the next light, I moved into the passing lane and pulled in front of the Scion after passing it at a reasonable speed.

The Scion then sped around me, and a minute later, a child wearing some sort of bandana around his head leaned out the passenger-side window, shouted at me and extended his middle finger in my direction. The child, no older than 16, had a menacing look on his face, and I flashed the highbeams to acknowledge his presence.

I normally have no hope for most teenage males because this is the way they generally act. Though I wasn't the most polite 16-year-old myself, I had enough manners to not act like such a clown in front of strangers.

This led me to think: why does anybody use their middle finger as an initial reaction to strangers? There's so much unjustified hate in the world, and it isn't right. What we need is...

Justified hate. If I hate someone because they hate me enough to flip me the bird for no reason, then that is perfectly alright. At least Jesus would say that, if he's as human as I believe him to be. So, with this logic, it will only be ok to attack Iran if they do something stupid to us first.

Just wait President Obama/McCain/Barr/Nader/Grillo: like Joe Biden, Iran can't keep its mouth shut forever.

Checking In

I assume somebody must read this blog without my coercion, since I'm linked up and have a super-easy URL to remember.

It's September, and that means one more semester in the classroom, then a master's thesis?!? project?!?!?!? and I'm done with school forever, until someone pays me to go, but why start now cheapskates? My two closest friends and I had a sendoff to end all sendoffs a few weeks ago, as the images below will illustrate. One will be a yuppie elitist doctor of some sort, and the other is a brother (no rhyme intended) in Brooklyn with some Catholic dudes who seem very nice.



I've been at the Courant for almost six months now, and my cohorts are still impressed that I love my job. I do. It doesn't feel like work because I enjoy it so much, even the 5am shifts. Being surrounded by news makes me feel smarter, and the convention season has been nothing short of thrilling.



One of the most interesting parts of my job is monitoring the online discussions on our articles. I pray, and assume, that these people who post on our site are only a slim fraction of the general public because many of them are filled with so much blind hatred and inflated confidence from their anonymity. Witnessing their political discussions is like trying to push together two magnets that have conflicting poles.

Go ahead and grab a few magnets. Give it a shot and tell me I don't make sense.



I'm also on some sort of a health kick. This means I count calories religiously and make sure I consume a consistent amount in 4 or 5 smaller daily meals instead of 2 or 3 large ones. The best part about this plan is that if I fall short of the minimum caloric intake for the day, I can easily compensate by cracking open a Newcastle or two. I think I've lost about 7 pounds over the last eight days, so hopefully I'll be decent in a few more months.

You know, for the ladies. They deserve me.


Good night,

MLG