Here's a fun article from ESPN.com about the latest PAPA. Kieran Darcy talks to Bowen Kerins, obviously a great player, and Kevin Martin, who must throw a ton of his own money into putting on the competition every year. The winner was Keith Elwin, who also won the Seattle tournament earlier this summer.
There's also a cool sidebar interview with Todd MacCulloch, the former Philadelphia 76er who now lives outside Seattle and has a big pinball collection of his own (45 games).
Two notes from this week:
First off, I was thrilled to see our side actually play one right, for once. McCain, asked how many houses he owns, muttered that he'd have to consult his assistants; they came back with "at least four", which is of course technically true. Obama smelled blood in the water and struck; McCain's people came back with a weak-ass -- dare I say it, Democrat Party Style response: "...sure, Obama only has one house, but it was financed by money from a guy who blah BLAH BLAH BORING BORING ZZZZZZZZZ." So for the first time in recorded history, the Democrats have the interesting, concise storyline and the Republicans have the long-winded counter that nobody understands. Let's see how we screw this one up.
In other news this week, Obama selected Joe Biden as his VP, presumably because Biden helpfully pointed out that Obama is "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy" who doesn't shout "motherfucker, I want more iced tea!" (Oh wait, that last one was someone else.)
So I've had a lack of output lately, partly due to creative laziness and mostly due to being beyond swamped at work this month. Argh.
But how could I not share with you, dear reader, my vitriol for our "presumptive" presidential nominees as they attend an all-important Pandering Forum -- no, I'm sorry, I meant Faith Forum -- no, that's not right either, I meant the "Let's Pretend We Believe in Invisible Ghosts Who Love Us Forever" Forum, held in some church somewhere.
Both candidates exceeded my usually high expectations for mind-numbing stupidity. On the one hand you've got John McCain, who seems to be absolutely sure beyond any shadow of a doubt that the microscopic clump of cells you conceived a few seconds ago has an immortal soul. Specifically he said that every American's rights begin at conception. Sure, it doesn't have any organs, or like thoughts or feelings or anything...but preventing its growth is murder. Murder most foul!
Of course both candidates agreed that equal marriage rights is an insult to the good American people. McCain went so far as to say that the California Supreme Court made a mistake. No big shocks there, but this is the topic where Obama let me down. When asked why he opposes a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, Obama gave a milquetoast response about how the constitution has never weighed in on marriage before. Sorry Senator, the correct response was "because the constitution is about granting rights, not limiting them, moron." (A lot of political pundits will tell you that it's bad form to call a debate moderator "moron," but those pundits are douchebags.)
I will give him this, though: Obama is at least thoughtful enough to realize that religion is the reason he supports social discrimination.
.Mr Obama called marriage "a sacred union", drawing applause when he added: "God is in the mix."
There you have it: the senator from Illinois totally agrees with me that marriage is an intrinsically religious institution. He just doesn't take my side that this can and should be reformed in our government, because, you know, he's in love with a 2000-year-old Arab who might not have existed.
And that's the guy I'm excited to vote for.
Bask in the vitriol, dear reader. Bask I tell you!!!
Before we left for Montana last week, I did manage to finish the Seafair Torchlight Run 8K.
The course takes runners along the Alaskan Way Viaduct, through the Battery Street Tunnel, and down Fourth Avenue along the Torchlight Parade route before finishing at Qwest Field. I high-fived about 100 cute kids lined up along Fourth Ave during the stretch run.
Running along those streets was a lot of fun... I love downtown Seattle, and this was a unique opportunity to experience it in a different way. I finished the race in 0:49:45.9, only 99th out of 109th in my age group, because I'm tremendously slow. But hey, not bad for a first try!
Season 39 (!) starts Monday. Here's a preview:
