"When You're Rich You Don't Write Checks"

Fear the random topics because that is what you’re about to get. I’ll touch all bases in this one, so hopefully there is something that everyone will like. I’m now on a 3-day weekend, well make that 4 days. I didn’t work today and have Monday off to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Since there are just so many thugs in Shinnston, they give us the day off. That one always puzzled me, but I won’t complain with a day off. I could see if we were in Compton or something. More on Compton later, so hold that thought if you will. Or as the great Dusty Rhodes would say, “If you wiiiiilllll!”



Real World was back again on Tuesday night. There was only one thing revolving around this episode and that was dealing with Mel’s rash. Last week they hyped it up to get us thinking what she had. Was it herpes? Syphilis? Gonorrhea? Nope, none of that stuff. What it ended up being was scabies. This freaked Mel out and everyone else in the mansion. Apparently it has little bugs just jumping all over her body and they can get the other people infested. I know nothing about that, so I won’t say much on that topic. They bring in a doctor to check everyone and make sure the house was clean enough. Some of the people said that it was a good thing Mel had this since it gave them an excuse to clean up their dump. Blah. Give me some drama instead of this mess. Last week I thought they turned the corner when Landon was Abdullah The Butcher and slicing heads off Mafia style with his knives. This week we had an annoying chick with scabies. Joy. Next week’s preview has them partying like they won the Super Bowl when they find out their vacation is going to be in Fiji. You had to see the scene when they found this out and they were jumping around like little middle school cheerleaders. Too funny.



I have a TV dilemma right now. Two of my favorite nightly shows to watch are Around The Horn on ESPN and I, Max on Fox Sports. Around The Horn is on at 5:00 and Max used to be on at 6:00. Well, lo and behold, we have a conflict. For some reason, Fox moves Max to 5:00 to battle head-to-head with Around The Horn, ironically the show that Max used to host. No! It’s not fun flipping back and forth between these two shows now. I thought they took Max off the air until ManDingo let me know of the time change. 5:30 wouldn’t be as bad. Most people gear up for Pardon The Interruption at 5:30, which I watch, but I like these other two shows a lot better personally. At least Max has reruns going at 10:30, so I’m saved for a bit.

In one of the classes I sub for a lot, the kids just got done reading the book A Walk To Remember. Every chick out there is infatuated with this movie. I have to come clean on this one too. As you all know, I’m into chick flicks as far as being a guy goes. I’m not afraid to admit it. Does that make me less masculine? Who knows. Anyways, I’ve seen this movie before and since the kids were done with their book the previous day, they watched the movie in class yesterday. Here’s the situation I had. I had a half day of work, which meant I got to sleep in till around 10:00 or so. Thumbs up so far. I had to be at work at 11:15, which isn’t bad at all. Then, to top that off, I didn’t have a class till 1:20 since I got there during my lunch and planning period of this teacher. In that last class, I had a total of 5 kids. Yes, you read that right, a whole 5 of em. So basically I got paid to do fantasy NBA stats during my planning period and then watch a movie with the kids. I stole that money! Not Mark Blount style for the NBA fans, but still it was easy money that day. Anyways, you can laugh all you want for me liking A Walk To Remember, but it’s good stuff, one of my favorites. I had a few thug boys in the class and they actually paid attention to this thing. Go pick it up. To answer questions to whether I own this movie or not, I’ll admit that I do. You just can’t go wrong with long haired Mandy Moore. Not a lot is much better than that.



On the book front, I just finished reading Let Me Tell You A Story. This is the one with Red Auerbach and John Feinstein. Simply a fascinating read. Even if you’re not a Celtics fan, I think you’d like reading this book. There are stories till no end with this thing. At 87 years old, Red is still just as knowledgeable as he ever has been about basketball. He tells it how it is too, as there’s no pushing Red’s buttons. The Celtics stories are good enough for me, but he talks about every level of basketball and knows just about everyone related in sports or entertainment. There’s a chapter in there just about Michael Jordan. First, Red has always given Jordan major props for being a great player. He does that in the book, but the interesting part is about Jordan’s days in management with the Washington Wizards. He tears Jordan a whole new one in that and leaves nothing behind. I could give quotes on just about every page in this book, but I’ll spare you guys with just one part. It was from Rob Ades, who represented Coach Mike Jarvis when he was negotiating with Jordan about trying to become head coach of the Wiz. Ades goes to talk to Jordan and this ensues:

“I was stunned,” Ades said. “He was asking Mike (Jarvis) to take no more money and less years than he had on his contract at St. John’s to take over what had been a bad team for a long time. So I told Michael that we wanted seven years at four million a year. He looked at me and said, ‘What’re you, nuts?’ I told him yes, I was nuts; that we had now both thrown out numbers that were ridiculous on both sides and could we now maybe get down to business.”

“He was pissed. Really pissed. We started talking about what some other coaches were making. I mentioned the deal Jeff Van Gundy [another client] had just been given by the Knicks to make the point that I didn’t expect that kind of money because Van Gundy had taken the Knicks to the Finals. This time he really blew up: ‘Don’t you ever mention that fucking name in my office!’ Now, I’m in shock. I knew he didn’t like Van Gundy, fine, but you can’t respect an opponent? You can’t concede he’s a pretty good coach? I guess not.”

Now I’m onto my next book. By the way, sports books are all I read, sorry. I’ve talked about this before and it’s Me And My Dad with Paul O’Neill actually writing it, helped by Burton Rocks. Burton Rocks sounds like a good porn name. Anyways, in two days, I’m over halfway through this beast. It’s that good of a read that I can barely put it down. It teaches a lot of lessons about life and family, not just baseball. I know most reading this hate the Yankees, but that’s not a reason to stay away from this book. The baseball info so far is worth it and right now I’m at the beginning of the 1995 season. O’Neill is truly a class act and he played with as much intensity as just about anyone I can think of. Here’s a quote I love about my favorite baseball player of all time, Don Mattingly. He dedicates about a half chapter to Mattingly alone and he goes as following:

“From that day to this, I can say that I have more respect for Don Mattingly than for anyone else I have ever played alongside in my entire career. Before games, as other players went through every kind of conceivable preparation and ritual to get mentally and physically ready to play, Don’s strategy, which he articulated many times to me was simply this: ‘I’m just going to go out there and be myself today.’ Simple as it sounds, it worked, and it was so true of him. He never tried to be anything less than genuine, and he never tried to make himself another type of hitter besides the type he was.”

I strolled to GameStop today and figured I’d check out some used GameCube titles. I had money to burn (a mistake) so I went in there and picked up Animal Crossing. Just like Paper Mario, the first impression you get is that it’s a kiddie game. It may very well be, but once you start playing, you’re hooked and it sucks you in. I’ve heard a lot of rave reviews on this one for the past few years, but never checked it out. eBay had the prices for it way up there for a while, but GameStop had it for $15, so I hopped on that like it was gold. My cousin Zack kept telling me to get this one, so I did what any video game fan would do, went out and took care of business. I almost bought a few 2003 NHL games for $10 a piece, but I’ll save that for another rainy day. Anyways, in Animal Crossing you are pretty much in charge of your own little house and town. Think of it being Sim City that is more hands-on. Shinnston wouldn’t fit for the naming of my city, so I now reside in Compton. Funny seeing these little cartoon dudes all happy talking about Compton. Animal Crossing is only for straight gangstas. Yes, I'm almost 30 years old playing this game, so what. :)

ESPN ran the feature episode of Tilt last night. This is the poker series that is shown on Thursday nights. After the first show, I’m into it. It’s not awesome yet, but I feel that it could be. The storyline you ask? Three poker fiends are together as a team. They are Eddie, Miami (a chick), and Clark. Their goal is to strike down The Matador (the series’ bad guy, but best poker player out there). The trick is that The Matador has a team ring of his own that he uses illegal tactics to win these games. Then they pull a swerve on us and have a cop and his boys trying to take down The Matador as well. So basically we have some teams going at it each other sneakily and it should be good drama. I’m sure that sounded confusing, but we’ll get through it.

Last night and today I loaded up somewhat on some new CDs. I won’t give huge details here, but this is what I went with, so I’ll just give a small list:

Do Or Die: Greatest Hits. Some very underrated Chicago rap here. Pimpin’ rap if you will. If you haven’t heard these guys before, you need to get with the game, because you’re so far behind.

Bizzy Bone: The Beginning And The End. Bizzy also has an album called the Alpha & Omega, literally the same meaning as The Beginning And The End. Weird.

TRU: True. TRU is the trio of Master P, C-Murder, and Silkk The Shocker together on one album. They have a few albums out there, but this is the first one I’ve gotten.

Jay-Z: Fade To Black Mixtape. I’m not a Jay-Z guy, but since it’s rap and it’s free, I’ll get it. I was talking to my girl Manda and she was asking about the new Jay-Z DVD and if I could find it online. I was searching around and found the mixtape, so I figured I’d go for it. 37 tracks on this one. You can’t go wrong with a girl who likes rap and downloads a ton of CDs like I do.

Murda Mook: The Untouchable. No idea on this guy, but the name sounded mean, so we’ll give it a whirl.

I did the CD section quick this time because I wanted to touch on Randy Moss before I end. I’m loving this stuff so much. Moss is a punk, granted, but he’s pure entertainment. I don’t like the fact that he doesn’t try hard on every single play, but if he puts his head to it, he can’t be stopped by anyone on the field. Nobody. Anyways, he got fined $10,000 for motioning a moon to the crowd after a TD last weekend. That’s not the funny part. Yesterday he was getting in his ride and a reporter asked him about the fine. I’m literally laughing out loud at what Randy says. Way to represent West Virginia, hah. Anyways, here we go:

Reporter: Write the check yet, Randy?”

Moss: When you’re rich you don’t write checks.”

Reporter: If you don’t write checks, how do you pay these guys?”

Moss: Straight cash, homey.”

Reporter: Randy, are you upset about the fine?”

Moss: No, cause it ain’t shit. Ain’t nothing but 10 grand. What’s 10 grand to me? Ain’t shit. Next time I might shake my dick.”

Hah hah hah! That’s one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time. I think it’s best that I end with that.