HAPPY B-DAY (on Friday) STEFY!

Love,
Zacky

I'm going to be a nerd on this one, but it's my site so I can do what I want. Here are my top five favorite democratic politicians (who were alive and served during my lifetime):

1. Bill Clinton (triangulation blows, but he's still the man)
2. Al Gore (ever since I saw him at my high school, he's been a fav)
3. Jennifer Granholm (the first major candidate I ever voted for)
4. John Edwards (a rarity: a pol who really fights for the poor)
5. Carl Levin (one of the most important Michigan pols of all-time)

I could probably fill a huge list with all my favs, but I would say this top five is pretty accurate for me. So... who are your favorite politicians (republican or democrat)?

The Onion: Nation Sickened By Sight Of Happy Young Couple

OAK PARK, IL—Though sharply divided on the war on terror and domestic controversies such as abortion, drugs, and gay marriage, Americans are in almost unanimous agreement over one issue: that Oak Park, IL couple Dave Petrun and Julie DeSimone are totally sickening.

"It's like they think they're the first couple to ever fall in love in the history of space and time," said Boston resident Allison Clark, one of millions of people who say they want to shoot themselves in the face after observing the tender relationship between Petrun, 28, and DeSimone, 25, evolve over the last four months.

According to an ABC News–Washington Post poll released Monday, a significant majority of Americans believe the couple's persistent displays of affection, which include almost constant hand-holding, mutual giggling, and insufferably coy little kisses, were "fucking ridiculous." An overwhelming eight out of 10 polled said they wished the couple would die, preferably in a fiery automobile accident.

My schmoopy and I apologize for being so cute.

I'm meeting dad and Stefy at the new Potbelly Sandwich joint in E.L. for lunch. Hope it's good! I'ms hungry!

VERDICT: Tasty and cheeeeeap. $3.75 for a toasted sandwich? Yes, please. I miss Jersey Giant on Grand River, but this might be a nice alternative from now on. Check it out.

I honestly can't wait to see this movie.

Here iiiis clip from Kazakhstan!



"She is my sister. She is number four prostitute in whole of Kazakhstan."

University's image at stake; Smith's time is up
"But the only thing shown at Spartan Stadium was that our young kids played too hard for a coach who exemplifies the word coward." Ouch.

Get rid of Smith, bring in Mariucci to end agony
I'm with ya on the fire John L. front, buddy. But Mooch? Puh-lease. Man, this guy really must be a Spartan fan if he's thinking that Mariucci would be an improvement. Talk about low expectations.

Even with the soul-crushing MSU loss to Notre Dame and the Lions' bagillionth loss to Green Bay this weekend, I'm in a sporty mood for some reason this week.

Anyway, here they are, my top five favorite sports movies:

1. A League of Their Own (There's no crying in baseball!)
2. The Mighty Ducks (Quack. Quack. QUACK!)
3. The Sandlot (She even signed her name on it... Ruth. Baby Ruth.)
4. The Natural (Pick me out a winner, Bobby)
5. Cool Runnings (Sanka, you dead?)

So what are your favs?

Vegas, baby. Vegas.

Two days.

I'm in a sporty mood this morning. Here are some links:

Freep: Tigers' ascension a lesson for Lions
Drew Sharp rips the Fords (another) new one. Will they listen? Nope.

Freep: Yzerman becomes a Red Wings VP
Very cool. But have they started building the statue yet?

Freep: MSU isn't in a slaphappy mood
We did some dumb things on Saturday, but slapping Charlie Weis wasn't one of them. But even if one of our guys had slapped that massive mellon of his... would he even feel it?

Let me tell you, Spartan fans, this guy is a legend in the making. Here's John L. Smith in today's State News discussing Jehuu Caulcrick:

"Should we probably have used Jehuu more? Yeah," Smith said. "But at that point in time, there's nine (Notre Dame defenders) in there, and they're coming with pressure, and we're not totally convinced we're going to run the ball downhill."

Once Notre Dame brought more defenders to the line, Smith said the team opted to run the ball more on the outside, where the quicker Ringer is preferred.

They couldn't stop Caulcrick in the first three quarters -- so DUH -- John L. made the brilliant call to stop utilizing his most effective running back at the most critical point of the game. It makes perfect sense, if you ask me.

Can we have our national championship now, please?

BTW: The fire John L. letters have started. Here's one and here's another.

Here is one of my favs from the Stephen Colbert Green Screen Challenge... which is not a contest, where there will be a winner. Enjoy!

Tom Toles this morning (gracias, dad):

Hopefully you won't even notice, but I made some minor changes to the site today. The file I use to make iBZP was getting a little bloated after posting 942 entries since January 1, so I decided to give it gastric bypass and start from scratch. You shouldn't notice any differences, other than (1) shuffling the order of links in the header and (2) shifting the blog archives for 2006 down in the sidebar.

The goal is to make things a little easier on me when it comes to making updates to the website. It was getting to the point where it took about 30 minutes to upload any changes, which was more than a little ridiculous. I think everything should be smoothed over for now, but please pardon the dust as I begin this transition.

Okay, I'm going to assign blame for MSU's heartbreaking loss to Notre Dame on Saturday night in the following order: John L. Smith, Dick DeVos, Mike Rogers, Saul Anuzis, Mike Bouchard. Here's how I justify it...

John L. Smith is clearly a bad coach. How else can you explain blowing a 17 point lead heading into the second half of the most important home game of the year? Jehuu Caulcrick ran for over 100 yards and was a huge part of how we got that lead in the first place, yet the kid never touched the football in the fourth quarter. John L. just got his ass out-coached, plain and simple. At the beginning of the year I joked that he would either be fired midseason or after another year of just missing a bowl game. Right now I think the latter is more likely, but if he finds new and creative ways to lose winnable games between now and the end of the year, it's possible that his fate could be sealed at about the three-quarter mark of this season.

One can only hope.

Now, as for the other four bozos, the republican dream team decided to have a big rally -- where they paid "volunteers" twenty dollars an hour to walk around Spartan Stadium with their DeVos/Rogers/Bouchard shirts and stickers on -- before the game on Saturday. As my fellow lefty blogger Christine Barry correctly pointed out last Wednesday, this rally signaled certain doom for the Spartans. You see, Dick DeVos paid a visit to Comerica Park on August 8, and in the three weeks that followed the Tigers' win-loss average dropped from .619 to .318. Sure, they managed to recover and still made the playoffs, but I think it's pretty clear that Dick's little visit single-handedly jinxed the Tigers for a while there.

So, on top of John L. Smith being a shitty coach, we had the bad karma of DeVos/Rogers/Anuzis (a U of M Dearborn grad, no less!)/Bouchard (the only Spartan alum) to contend with.

Hey, I'm sorry Spartan fans, but this is just one more reason to vote against the republicans in November.

P.S. More on this over at MichLib.

LOL: Lions lose to terrible Packers, 31-24



For those keeping track, that makes us 0-3.

A movie with a creative concept and talented actors that isn't a sequel or a rehashed storyline? Get outta town!

Yep, The Illusionist is probably the best movie of the late summer/early fall season so far, and if you haven't seen it yet, go now before it's out of the theaters.

I would try to explain the plot here, but I don't really know where to begin. Ed Norton is this badass magician who hatches a crazy scheme to steal his childhood sweetheart away from this douchebag prince. There's obviously a lot more to it than that, but you get the gist.

Look, I know it's not Jackass: Number Two, but do yourself a favor and go see The Illusionist before all the schlocky Oscar Bait starts rolling down from Hollywood, come November.

It was another busy weekend, but I feel like we managed to cram a lot in there. Here's the rundown...

I worked until noon on Friday, and then Stef and I hit the road for her house. That afternoon we ran out to the mall for a bit to buy a birthday present for Stefy's friend Sayee, whose birthday party was that night. Afterwards we came back to the house to relax for a little while, and eventually went to the Outback for dinner with Stef's folks. It was nice getting to see them, and our dinner was really good, per usual.

The weather turned a little nasty while we were at the restaurant, but it managed to clear up a bit by the time we made it back home to change for the party. Sayee's birthday soiree was at the Blue Martini in Birmingham, which is basically this grownup cocktail lounge (as the name suggests). We made it to the club by about 9:30, so it was still a little dead when we first got there.

Sayee had invited about six or eight of us, and we had this nice little booth in the back corner. We sat and chatted for while, since we were all kind of waiting for this salsa lesson that they were doing on the main dance floor to be over. I don't know why, but for some silly reason I think we all thought the regular dance music would kick in once this salsa lesson was over, but that wasn't the case. It was basically an all-salsa evening at the Blue Martini, and none of us were too wild about it. Still, there were a handful of songs that we could get out there and dance halfway respectably to, so it was still a really fun time. I managed to hang in there until about 12:30 or so, but I think just about everyone in our little group started hitting the wall at about the same time. Stef and I made it back to her place by 1, and I pretty much went straight to bed. It was a really fun night though, and I'm really grateful to Sayee for including me.

Stef and I both slept in pretty late on Saturday morning, and didn't get up until about 10:30 or so. We lounged around for a couple hours before finally getting our act together and hitting the road for Lansing. It was a little after 2 by the time I made it back to my apartment, and since Stef was going to the MSU/Notre Dame football game that night and I was scheduled to babysit my little sisters, we split off for the rest of the day.

Dad and Sherry had tickets to see Eric Clapton at the Palace, and since they wanted to have a nice dinner before the concert they took off by about 3:30 or so. I had a fun time with the girls in the afternoon. We watched Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Evens on DVD, played hide-and-go-seek, and just goofed around most of the time I was there.

The phone rang between 5 and 6 and it was my dad on the other end. Apparently the Clapton concert was cancelled because Eric had a sore throat (or something) and couldn't sing. So, my poor dad and Sherry drove all that way for nothing. They decided to stay near the Palace and still go out for dinner since they were already there though, so it really didn't change anything for me and the girls. We just finished out movie and watched some Sponge Bob before I put them to bed at 8.

The timing was perfect, because I was able to catch the MSU/Notre Dame game on TV. Of course, only about the first 3/4 of the game were fun to watch, since MSU collapsed in the 4th quarter and blew a 17 point lead. Sigh. Oh, the life of a Spartan. Anyway, dad and Sherry made it home and watched the end of the game with me, and I made it back to my place by midnight.

Sunday was pretty lazy, but I think I earned it. Stef and I watched some TV in the late morning before taking off to see The Illusionist in the afternoon. After that we just kind of let the rest of the day evaporate, but it was nice not having to worry about going anywhere or do anything productive.

So yeah, that was it for the weekend. I hope everyone had a good one.