Down two-zip in its series I’m started to worry a bit about my hometown NHL team (that would be the Washington Capitals). I guess that’s what to expect when going up against the best team in hockey. That would be the New York Rangers.
The Rangers also happen to be the team of my youth, the team who brought me great joy when hoisting Lord Stanley’s cup in 1994. This was 54 years after their previous trophy–a little before my time.
One championship banner in 80-plus years?
I think they’re due.
This past weekend I was in the old country: Binghamton, New York.
You’ll hear more on the podcast Friday, of course, but for now I’ll just say wow, Binghamton is a lot nicer when it’s not your real life. See some friends, go to a couple restaurants… not go to work.
I imagine anywhere in the world is nice if you go there on vacation.
Binghamton is proof of that.
Today on Math and Musings it’s the tale of two anniversaries, one well-known (but could be more well-known) and one hardly known at all.
One is happy and one is sad, one worth repeating and one we hope is never repeated again.
They both get their dues on the podcast today, but you’ll have to tune in to find out more.
In baseball the saying is, “It’ll look like a liner in the box score.”
That’s how I’m seeing my local NHL team (that would be the Washington Capitals) and its sneaky entrance into this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Caps won their last three games of the season, and I’m happy to say it wasn’t their last three games.
Just as important, these were regulation wins. Yeah, the old RW column. Who’da thunk this meaningless stat would actually play into whether or not the Caps made the playoffs? They forgot that one in Moneyball… on-base percentage, OPS+, and regulation wins.
Remember to put that one in Moneyball 2.
It’s been a minute since I’ve had a Sunday night with no episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm to look forward to.
Last night was one of those nights, and yeah, it just felt wrong.
Then again, for a little perspective (and a little math lesson), Curb Your Enthusiasm was on the air for 24 years. That’s about 1,250 Sundays.
Twelve seasons, 10 episodes each, a total of 120 episodes.
Less than 10 percent of Sundays the past 24 years have had a new episode of Curb.
Kinda puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?
Like I’m going to take a professional food critic to Disney World and not have him on the podcast talking about the delicious fare offered at the tastiest place on Earth.
Today on Math and Musings my son muses about all things edible at Walt Disney World.
In the final episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, cantankerous everyman Larry David admits that he “is 76 years old and has never learned in my entire life.”
That line, echoing the episode’s title (“No Lessons Learned”), was everyone’s takeaway Monday morning, and damn it was spot on for everything Larry, and Curb, have put forth for 25 years.
(This is Larry David, much-maligned writer of the Seinfeld finale a quarter century ago.)
I’ve been a Seinfeld finale apologist since 1998, so I don’t think Larry had any reason to say he was sorry.
And he didn’t. Because that’s Larry David.
Doubling down on the Seinfeld closer was just one more stick in the eye to world that Larry (at least the character he plays on TV) no doubt views with contempt and derision.
Watch me do this one more time.
Viewers apparently loved it, though admittedly Curb has more of a niche audience than did Seinfeld. (Let’s face it, all of TV is just more fragmented these days.)
Why did we (that is, everyone else) hate the Seinfeld finale but love Curb? Have we all become more jaded and cynical over the past quarter century?
Admittedly I have.
And Larry?
He’s exactly the same.
Amen.
We’ve waited and waited, but now it’s here.
It’s time for One Shining Moment.
At approximately 3:15 p.m. today (in Northern Virginia, anyway), the celestial body we refer to as “the moon” will cross in front of the celestial body we call “the Sun” (known elsewhere as Sol), creating a shadow on Earth’s surface, simultaneously altering temperature, wind speed, humidity, etc.
Oh, did you think I was talking about basketball?
Yeah, that’s today too.
That’ll be more like midnight, when it will also be dark outside.
But in either Storrs, Connecticut, or West Lafeyette, Indiana…
Sol gonna be shinin’ bright.
Today on Math and Musings Franklin and I discuss our recent trip to the happiest place on Earth.
It’s Walt Disney World, and I can vouch for that tagline.
Need proof? Check out the aforementioned podcast.
There has been only one school in NCAA history to win both the men’s and women’s basketball championships in the same season.
The University of Connecticut has done it twice. Once in 2004 and once in 2014.
I’d say they’re due for a double, no?