And you thought your Super Bowl bet was bad...

Professional poker player Phil Ivey reportedly lost $800,000 during the first half of the Super Bowl when James Harrison intercepted Kurt Warner's pass on the goal-line with under 30 seconds to go and took it 100 yards to the house for a score.

The score before this happened was 10-7 Steelers and Ivey had bet on the Cards +3.5 in the first half. Being down by three, all the cards needed to do was NOT LET SOMEONE RUN THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE FIELD ON THE FINAL PLAY FOR A TOUCHDOWN...but of course, that is exactly what happened and Ivey lost the bet and the cash.

He reportedly gained most if not all of that money back on bets he made in the second half and may have even ended the game in the positive...but still, that's $800,000 he won't forget about for a looong looong time.

So..about those 2010 NBA free agents

Just came across this cool article from the New York Times talking about how few superstar players actually leave their current team to sign elsewhere via free-agency.

Here's a snipit:
"Since the summer of (Shaq) O’Neal’s defection, 58 players have been named to an all-N.B.A. first, second or third team. Of that group, only 12 changed teams as free agents while in their prime. That amounts to 20 percent, which sounds significant. But the list is filled with asterisks that further diminishes any notion of superstar free agency in the N.B.A....
...The bottom line is that an N.B.A. franchise almost never loses a star that it wants to keep. And championships are more often the product of great draft picks and great trades than of cap space."


Gives some hope to the lonely fans in Cleveland, Miami and Toronto.
Especially Miami, god knows there's not much else to do there if your bball team sucks right...?

Breaking News: Pot smoker supports Michael Phelps

What does one pot-smoking Olympian say to the other pot-smoking Olympian...?

Well...I can't really think of a clever punch line to that, but it's a good intro either way.

I suppose we really shouldn't be surprised that Ross Rebagliati's name has finally been dragged into this whole Michael Phelps situation.

In case you forget, or are American I suppose, Ross Rebagliati is a former Canadian Olympian who won the first ever gold medal in snowboarding at the 1998 Olympics. He was subsequently stripped of his medal when he tested positive for...marijuana...gasp!

Ultimately though he got his hunk of gold on a string back when the IOC realized that, oh by the way, weed isn't actually a banned performance-enhancing substance...oops.

Rebagliati's claim was that he would never ever do such a terrible and irresponsible thing and he must have unintentionally inhaled someone else's pot-smoke at a party before the games. The reputation of the snowboarding community has never really recovered from this shocking and indecent incident.

Anyway, Rebagliati has now come to the defense of Phelps saying the whole shindig has been, "an invasion of his privacy" and that, "Phelps was at a private party...celebrities are human too and deserve a private life. There should be a line drawn between when an athlete is out in a public forum and when he is in a private setting."

So there you have it. A former Olympic gold medal winning pot-addict...excuse me...second-hand pot addict, thinks another 14-time Olympic gold medal winning pot addict should be off the hook.
Well Lou, Seems like an open and shut case to me...

The Knicks get torched...the right way

So in response to my post a few days ago about how Kobe's 61 point, 0 rebound, 3 assist night in New York was impressive, but also very telling of the kind of person and player that he is, Lebron took it upon himself to prove me right.

He followed up Kobe's performance with his own dazzling show last night, scoring 52 points, but also adding 11 assists, 10 rebounds and two blocked shots.
To be fair, I kinda called this one waaay before anyone else. This is a direct quote from my post about Kobe. "While a stat line of 61-3-0 is nice, 50-8-6 would've looked much better."

Ok...so I was off by a few digits, point is I was right on the money in the theory.

Lebron has, in my opinion, always been a better player than Kobe and there is not a single NBA player I would rather have on my team than King James. He pretty much single-handedly carried the Cavs out of the basement of the NBA (they were awwwwful before he arrived, remember that whole first overall pick thing?) and to the NBA Final two years ago. He is the epitome of the kind of player who not only can take over and dominate a game at will, but can also make players around him elevate their games as well.

I can't see any way that Lebron won't win at least a few NBA titles in his career and be in the discussion for all-time greatest player. But let's not get too ahead of ourselves.

Some fun facts about the game last night making LBJ's effort all the more impressive:
Lebron and Michael Jordan are the only players to score 50 points at MSG twice...52 points are the most scored in a triple double since the NBA/ABA merger in 1976 and second-most all time to Wilt Chamberlain's 53 in 1968...The Knicks are only the second team in history to give up 50+ points to a single player in consecutive games. The only other time that's happened, the San Francisco Warriors in 1962...Lebron James has never been on trial for rape

What do you call a tuna-melt with no tuna?

The answer: The most ridiculous lunch experience ever...

Yes, another lunch-related post (hey, I told you I like lunch)

I just sent the following letter to the fine people at Quiznos:

"To whom it may concern,
I am writing this afternoon in regards to your new "Everyday Value" menu which includes several foot-long subs for five dollars.
I was very excited to see this promotion as I do agree that 'toasted tastes better', but have constantly been deterred by the high price point on most of your sandwiches.

However, once getting to the ordering counter I became very disappointed to see that 'veggie' or 'double cheese melt' was not one of your everyday value subs and instead was listed at it's regular large price of $7.49.

After pointing this out to the lady taking my order, I was told there was nothing she could do about it and I would have to pay the full price.
I asked how some of the other options such as 'Five Meat Stack' and 'Tuna Melt' could be priced so reasonably and yet a simple veggie with cheese was so much more expensive.

After another round of "there's nothing I can do", I then asked if I could order a large Tuna Melt with no tuna. Feeling utterly ridiculous doing this, I then told her what veggies I wanted, to which her response was that they could not customize my veggies because of the price.

I ask you this, how can mushrooms and guacamole be more expensive than three scoops of tuna, or FIVE DIFFERENT KINDS OF MEAT!

Eventually, she gave in and gave me my guacamole, but not mushrooms. I was so exhausted and frustrated at this point that I did not argue and simply paid and left.

Please tell me why a veggie or double cheese sub cannot be placed on the 'Everyday Value' menu and why I and at least one other co-worker like myself, must be subjected to such absurdity in ordering just to get a vegetarian sandwich.

Thank you very much,

Sincerely,
xxxxxxx" (LSB)

I will post the response when it comes.