A rare snowfall blanketed south Louisiana and parts of Mississippi Thursday, closing schools, government offices and bridges, triggering crashes on major highways and leaving thousands of people without power.
Parts of Louisiana were expected to get up to four inches of snow. Snow also covered a broad swath of Mississippi, including the Jackson area, and closed schools in more than a dozen districts. The National Weather Service in Jackson said up to 8 inches was possible in the southern and eastern parts of the state.
A heavy band of snow coated windshields and grassy areas in New Orleans, where the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning.
Office workers stepped out of high-rises to catch a snowflake, snap pictures with cell-phone cameras and swap snow stories.
At a park in New Orleans' Uptown neighborhood, Sara Echaniz, 41, snapped photos and dodged snowballs thrown by her son, 3-year-old Sam. "He didn't believe it was snow until it started sticking to the ground," said Ecahniz, a native of Rochester, N.Y., who was pregnant with the child the last time it snowed in New Orleans, in December 2004.
In Alabama, heavy rains prompted forecasters to issue a flood watch for parts of the state. Wintry precipitation also was possible later Thursday as temperatures were expected to drop.
Flood watches were issued through Thursday night for much of North Carolina ahead of the storm system. Colder air behind the front could produce snow late Thursday and early Friday in the mountains.
In Louisiana, nearly 7,000 power outages were reported in south-central parishes as falling tree limbs snapped under the weight of ice and snow.
Some flights at Louis Armstrong International Airport outside New Orleans were delayed and canceled. Airport spokeswoman Michelle Wilcut said deicing equipment was being used on planes. Cleco Corp., one of the state's largest power providers, said the number of outages was expected to grow.
Forecasters said the mix of sleet and snow was expected to diminish later in the day as the weather system moved east.
In southeast Louisiana, temperatures were above freezing so accumulations were not expected to linger much beyond Thursday. An inch was forecast for New Orleans.
The wintry weather is rare in south Louisiana, though the state's northern parishes see it about once a year. New Orleans' last snowfall, in 2004, was a dusting that came nine months before Hurricane Katrina struck. The record snowfall for the city is about 5 inches, recorded Dec. 30, 1963.
The weather service said the previous earliest date for measurable snowfall in New Orleans was Dec. 22, 1989.
Nominations for the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards were announced this morning, with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt and Frost/Nixon scoring a leading five nominations apiece on the film side.
As for television, In Treatment and Recount led the way, also nabbing five nods each.
The awards will be handed out in Los Angeles Jan. 11.
When the next snowstorm blows through, wouldn't it be nice to get a beep on your cell phone and a text message when there's a two-hour delay or school closing?
A radio station figured it would be. Beacon's 100.7 WHUD and its sister station, K104.7, are providing free text messaging of delays and cancellations for numerous school districts and government offices and agencies around the region — including many in Ulster and Orange and a few as far-flung as Sullivan.
The service, offered by the stations' owner, Pamal Broadcasting, is free, although some cell phone providers might charge for the texting service.
To sign up, a user goes to the station's Web page, www.whud.com, fills out contact information, then checks a box for districts they want to receive notices from. It is available where school districts or agencies have signed up with the storm-report service.
"We just kicked it off," said WHUD's program director Steven Petrone, adding that the station has tested the text-messaging service and is confident it has worked out the bugs. "We'll see how it works when we get our first big snowstorm."
The station is also looking into adding notifications and instant weather reports by e-mail. Districts can sign up for the texting service at no charge.
The Fallsburg School District has been using WHUD's storm service for years. Otherwise, only Fallsburg, Monticello, the Hebrew Day School of Sullivan and Sullivan County Community College are signed up in Sullivan.
Fallsburg Superintendent Ivan Katz says it is a no-brainer for school districts to join. "This is just another vehicle," for communication, he said.
As the fan frenzy continues to surround the vampire romance 'Twilight,' its highly-anticipated sequel 'New Moon' may be hitting theaters sooner than you think!
Entertainment Weekly reports that Summit Entertainment has tentatively set Nov. 20, 2009, as the release date for the follow-up film to 'Twilight.' The magazine reports that production begins in mid-March.
Earlier this week, ET confirmed that 'Twilight' director Catherine Hardwicke would not be returning for the sequel. According to Entertainment Weekly, film maker Chris Weitz may be in talks to direct 'New Moon.'
As the holiday season rolls in, Jessica Biel is once again getting into the spirit of giving and she has some special helpers!
Along with her family's Make The Difference Network, and special guest, funny man Kevin James, the actress hosted a star-studded holiday party in Hollywood Wednesday night to raise money for Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and ET was there!
Jessica tells ET what the event means to her, and the important role her family plays in her life.
"It's so nice to be able to work with your family," Jessica says. "For me it's wonderful and something we can do together that makes us feel really good. It's part of our lives, and we hope that everyone's inspired to make some type of giving back or volunteering part of their life."
Celeb do-gooders who came out to the benefit bash included actor Jesse Metcalfe, pro dancers Karina Smirnoff and Maksim Chmerkovskiy of "Dancing with the Stars," plus some other big names!
Make The Difference Network was started by Jessica and her family to connect non-profit organizations with potential donors. Children's Hospital Los Angeles treats ill and injured children in Los Angeles.
A Man Called Horse was originally published as a short story in Collier's magazine, Jan. 7, 1950, and was reprinted in 1968 as a short story in a book called Indian Country by Dorothy M. Johnson. It was later made into a film in 1970 with Richard Harris in the lead role.
Initially enslaved, he comes to respect his captors' culture and gains their respect. He joins the tribe by showing his bravery and, later, gets back his dignity by marrying his owner's daughter, killing rival Indians and taking their horses. Taking the native name "Horse" (he was treated as a horse), he becomes a respected member of the tribe.
ET has an exclusive first look at 'Knocked Up' star Katherine Heigl and '300' hunk Gerard Butler in the deliciously dirty comedy 'The Ugly Truth'! Watch the preview trailer now!
In 'The Ugly Truth,' out April 3, Katherine plays Abby, a romantically challenged morning show producer whose search for Mr. Perfect has left her hopelessly single. Abby is in for a rude awakening when hardcore TV personality Mike Chadway (Butler) enters the picture and pulls no punches -- on air and off -- about the ugly truth on what makes men and women tick. Will their immediate friction create sparks? Or will someone go down in flames?
Tonight in Britain, Sky Real Lives viewers will watch as Craig Ewert, 59, dies from an assisted suicide in a Swiss clinic. Ewert had degenerative motor neuron disease and died at a clinic in Zurich run by the group Dignitas.
Gordon Brown said today of assisted death: “I believe that it is necessary to ensure that there is never a case in this country where a sick or elderly person feels under pressure to agree to an assisted death or somehow feels it is the expected thing to do. That is why I have always opposed legislation for assisted deaths. I think it is very important that these issues are dealt with sensitively and without sensationalism and I hope broadcasters remember that they have a wider responsibility to the general public.”
But unfortunately, there are many cases of people wanting to die - this week there were two reports of assisted suicide in the Times, UK. I don’t think that these patients were pressurised to do so, or that it was the expected thing to do. Craig Ewert and Daniel James both wanted to die, and chose euthanasia, mostly to avoid further suffering for themselves.
It is dedicated to the memory of Stephen L. Price, an ILM visual effects supervisor who was involved with the film.
Plot
In 1869, two brothers, Caleb and Benjamin, go into the woods, start digging, and bury a box. Benjamin asks what would happen if someone found it. Caleb replies, "May God have mercy on his soul."
100 years later, 12-year-old Alan Parrish, a member of a wealthy and respectable upper-class family in Brantford, New Hampshire, is escaping bullies on his bike. He flees to his father's shoe factory where he meets his friend Carl, who works for his father. Carl has designed a trainer that he hopes will be successful; however, Alan accidentally damages it and costs Carl his job.
After being ambushed by the bullies outside the factory and having his bike stolen, Alan is drawn to a strange sound of drumbeats in a nearby construction site, which leads him to a locked trunk containing a mysterious board game within, called "Jumanji". He takes it home and later has an argument with his father Samuel, who, very proud of the way Alan took on Billy Jessup and the other bullies, is proposing to send him to a boarding school that other Parrishes, such as himself, have also attended.
Alan prepares to run away after his parents go out for the night; however, before he can leave, his friend Sarah Whittle arrives, having brought back his bike. They play the game, the instructions of which read:
"A game for those who seek to find
a way to leave their world behind.
You roll the dice to move your token,
doubles get another turn
and the first player to reach the end wins."
The tokens move by themselves and writing appears in the black sphere in the game's center. Sarah reads the riddle ("At night they fly, you'd better run. These winged things are not much fun") and strange squeaking comes from the fireplace. In an attempt to put the game away, Alan accidentally drops the dice on the board, and his piece moves. Alan's riddle reads: "In the jungle you must wait until the dice read five or eight". Before Sarah's eyes, Alan is sucked into the game and she is chased out of the house by a flock of bats that fly out of the fireplace.
26 years later, a pair of siblings, Judy and Peter Shepherd (Kirsten Dunst and Bradley Pierce), move into the old Parrish estate with their aunt, Nora. Judy and Peter's parents died in a car crash in Canada the previous winter. Ever since, Judy has become a pathological liar and Peter refuses to speak except when he and Judy are alone. While moving their stuff in, Peter enters the attic and discovers a lone African bat that has been living up there. The two children start to hear drum beats from upstairs, which their Aunt Nora cannot hear and one morning they go up to investigate. They discover Jumanji, which still has Alan and Sarah's tokens stuck to their current positions on the board and curious about the game, they set it up and read the rules. Peter is about to place two tokens on the board when they unexpectedly leap from his hand and fuse themselves onto the game. Peter allows Judy to go first.
The two watch in amazement as her token moves by itself and green writing appears in the center of the game. After she reads the riddle, ("A tiny bite can make you itch, make you sneeze, make you twitch") three giant mosquitoes fly in and Judy scares them off with a tennis racket. Peter rolls the dice, rolling a 1 on each die. After reading the riddle ("This will not be an easy mission, monkeys slow the expedition"), loud noises come from downstairs and they find a group of menacing monkeys in the kitchen, which then run out into the neighborhood. Judy then spots another notice written on the side of the game board reading:
"Adventurers beware.
Do not begin unless you intend to finish.
For the existing consequences of the game will vanish only
when a player has reached Jumanji and called out its name."
Judy reminds Peter that he rolled doubles, so he must roll again. Peter rolls a five, and a lion ("His fangs are sharp, he likes your taste. Your party better move, post haste") emerges from the shadows. It chases the two downstairs, where they are saved by the sudden appearance of a bearded man dressed in leaves (Robin Williams) who traps the lion in Aunt Nora's bedroom.
Finding the man in a locked room, the children realize that he is 38-year old Alan Parrish: Peter's roll of the dice has finally freed him from the game after two and a half decades. He runs out after learning his house has been abandoned for years. He runs out into the street and is nearly run over by a police car, driven by none other than Carl. Though Alan recognizes him from his nametag, Carl does not recognize Alan, and is puzzled by Alan's appearance and behavior. A couple of the monkeys sneak into Carl's car, blow a hole through the roof with a shotgun, and steal it, with Carl in pursuit on foot.
Alan runs to his father's abandoned factory (passing by some very shabby and run-down neighborhoods, hinting that the factory's shutdown greatly impacted the community) and learns that his father spent all his fortune trying to find Alan and gave up on life and his business when he gave up. He is directed to the Parrish gravestone where he learns they died just four years before. Judy tells Alan that their parents died as well, however she also immediately begins to make up another story, prompting Peter to break his silence in front of Alan. Judy asks if Alan can help them finish the game, but he refuses. The trio then witness a car crash and discover that the driver of the car was bitten by one of the giant mosquitoes. As a pair of paramedics load her into the ambulance, Alan, Peter and Judy get into the car where they are attacked by another mosquito. Alan starts up the car and drives the car back to his house.
Alan locks himself in the bathroom to sort himself out and he emerges with cut hair, clean shaven, and dressed in new clothes. He initially refuses to help them with the game, instead wishing to start his life again where he left off. Peter uses Reverse psychology on Alan by accusing him of being afraid of the game, but Alan, clearly affected by his years in the jungle, speaks to him coldly about what dangers lie within the game. He then reluctantly agrees to watch them play. However, Judy cannot take her turn and Alan realizes he must play, but it is not his turn; it is Sarah Whittle's turn.
They find Sarah (Bonnie Hunt) at her old house and she faints in shock when Alan reveals who he is. They take her back to the Parrish estate where they learn that she has been in therapy for years, trying to get over her experience of witnessing Alan being sucked into Jumanji as well as the resulting social isolation of being known as "the person who saw Alan Parrish murdered." Sarah is extremely frightened when she sees Jumanji and Alan tries to reassure her that nothing will go wrong. He tricks a terrified Sarah into taking her turn and the next riddle appears ("They grow much faster than bamboo. Take care, or they'll come after you"). The lounge is suddenly overgrown with vines and plants from the game. A giant yellow plant known as a "pod" rips its way through the fireplace and tries to eat Peter. Alan saves Peter using a sword on display above the mantle. Carl, meanwhile, finds his car crashed into a tree. He then heads off to arrest Alan.
Back at the house, Alan traps the plants in the lounge and guides a frightened Sarah into the library. Alan and Sarah have a heart-to-heart moment about how the game ruined their lives. The four reluctantly agree to finish the game. Alan rolls, but leaps up in fright when he reads the inscription: "A hunter from the darkest wild, makes you feel just like a child".
A gun goes off and Hunter Van Pelt, a hunter armed with a rifle, appears and chases Alan out of the house. Carl appears and tries to arrest Van Pelt, only to have his car shot at multiple times. Alan gets away and returns to the house, while Van Pelt runs out of ammunition and goes in search of a new supply of bullets. Back at the house, Sarah and Alan get into a heated argument, but they stop when Judy's turn causes the walls and floor to shake. Realising it is a wild stampede of animals, ("Don't be fooled, it isn't thunder. Staying put would be a blunder") the group flees with the game as a stampede of rhinoceroses, elephants, zebras, and pelicans charges through the house. One pelican lands and steals the game. The group gives chase, oblivious that the plants are spreading further throughout — and out of — the house.
Van Pelt goes into a gun shop and is able to replace his elephant gun with a modern automatic rifle. Peter saves the game from the pelican when it accidentally drops it in a river. Carl finds the group soon after and arrests Alan. Realizing that Van Pelt is hidden somewhere nearby and looking for an opening to shoot him, Alan lets Carl drive him away from the others. After this, Judy and Sarah discover that Peter has tried to cheat the game. He was only ten spaces away, so he tried to drop the dice accordingly, but he only got a six. As punishment for cheating ("A law of Jumanji having been broken, you will slip back even more than your token"), the game transforms him into part monkey.
Alan reveals to Carl who he is and apologizes for ruining his career in the shoe industry. Meanwhile, Jumanji has had several effects on the town. The mosquitoes have hospitalized nearly 100 people, the monkeys have hijacked several cars and caused storefront damage, and the stampede has plowed its way through town. All of this has led to widespread looting. Van Pelt steals Jumanji and Peter is nearly crushed by the raging stampede of animals while hiding in a car after he regains the game, but Van Pelt manages to find him and take it back. After Sarah and Judy free Peter, they follow Van Pelt to a discount store and battle breaks out as both sides fight to claim the game.
Carl releases Alan, but Alan handcuffs him to the car door to keep him away from the danger. After hearing of Sarah's predicament, Alan and Carl drive off to save her, Alan driving badly. They smash their way through the shop, causing a stand of paint cans to collapse on Van Pelt. Meanwhile, Aunt Nora is returning home in her car. She hears news of the mosquito bites' effects on people and sees the stampede go by. A monkey attacks her in her car, causing her to crash it.
On the way back to the house, Alan scolds Peter, but he then apologizes when he sees the young child-monkey cry as it reminds him of his own row with his father. When they arrive at the house, they discover that the plants in the lounge have freed themselves, turning the place into a jungle. Carl finds Nora on the road, but before he can drive her home, a plant attacks and devours his car.
At the house, Sarah rolls and creates a monsoon ("Every month at the quarter moon, there will be a monsoon in your lagoon"). Things take a turn for the worse when the lower areas of the house are flooded, and a crocodile attempts to eat the group. Sarah is nearly caught in the crocodile's jaws, forcing Alan to pounce and wrestle the crocodile to save her. Outside, Carl and Nora arrive, and Carl kicks the doors in, causing all the water to blast out of the house and to sweep him and Nora away, taking the crocodile with them.
The group goes to finish the game in the attic. Alan rolls, but the riddle summons quicksand("Beware the ground on which you stand. The floor is quicker than the sand") and he begins quickly sinking into the floor. While Judy rolls the dice, Sarah puts her arms into the sand to try and save Alan, but Judy's turn freezes the floor ("There is a lesson you will learn; sometimes you must go back a turn"), trapping most of Alan's body and Sarah's arms. Peter rolls the dice and the group is surrounded by giant spiders ("Need a hand, while you just wait, we'll help you out, we each have eight.") and while fighting them, Judy collapses after being poisoned by a jungle plant.
Sarah rolls using her mouth and an earthquake occurs ("You're almost there with much at stake, but now the ground begins to quake"), freeing Alan, but causing both him and the game to fall through the house. After landing safely and finding the game, he notices that he can finish if he rolls a three. Before he can do so, Van Pelt appears, covered in paint. He prepares to shoot Alan and tells him to stand up and to drop the dice he is holding and asks why isn't he running. Alan says that he's terrified, but that his father told him to face his fears (suggesting that Alan had an encounter with Van Pelt before in the jungle). The dice roll and give a three and noticing his counter moving to the center of the game, Alan says "Jumanji" out loud. Before Van Pelt can shoot him, Sarah runs in front of Alan to save him, but now that the game is finished, everything that came from it is sucked back inside the center in a giant tornado of colors while Alan and Sarah hold each other tightly.
The game has ended, but Alan and Sarah are now children again, back in 1969, with the knowledge that they did grow up. Judy and Peter aren't born yet. Alan and Samuel make up and Alan confesses for damaging the shoe; his father is proud that he told the truth. Alan and Sarah decide to dump Jumanji in the nearby river, free of it at last. Sarah kisses Alan and the two walk off.
Twenty six years on, at the Parrish home, the two are now adults and are married with Sarah pregnant. They are celebrating Christmas with family and friends (including Carl, who was presumably promoted in the ranks of the Parrish industry) with Alan being Santa Claus. Alan is speaking to his dad on the phone, but he and Sarah have to dash off to meet some new friends: Jim (who has been hired by Alan and Sarah to work on the advertising for Parrish shoes) and Martha. The two are in fact Judy and Peter's parents. The two meet a happy Judy and Peter (again) and offer them presents. Jim informs the two that they might be going on a skiing trip to Canada, but Alan and Sarah, knowing that they would die in the car crash there, save them from their fate by asking Jim to start on his work as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, on a beach in France, a pair of children walk along, hearing some strange drums beating. Not far from them, almost fully buried in the sand, is Jumanji...
There was an animated series based on the movie that ran from 1996-1999. In 1996 it was carried by the UPN network, but later seasons were syndicated by BKN. While it followed the movie's plot, there were a few changes such as the exclusion of Bonnie Hunt's character, and the age and relationship of the David Alan Grier character was changed somewhat. Each turn the player was given a "game clue" and then sucked into the jungle until they solved their clue. Robin Williams' character had missed his clue and was continually searching for it in order to escape the board game.
Milton Bradley released a board game that was equipped with not only the game clues from the movie, but also some new ones. The elephant, zebras, pelican, crocodile, man-eating plants, and barb-shooting plants have their own clues. The board game has a doomsday grid where a card would go if the other players don't roll the required rescue item in time. If the grid fills up, the game will end if a card lands on this space: "A card placed here brings dreadful news: The game is done, all players lose."
Tags: Jumanji, Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Hyde, David Alan Grier, Kirsten Dunst, Bradley Pierce, Bebe Neuwirth, Adam Hann-Byrd, Laura Bell Bundy
Reed is developing a history of injury. On March 24, 2006, Reed injured his wrist when he ran into the padding in the outfield attempting to make a catch. [1] Reed injured his right thumb on July 2, 2006, trying to make a diving catch in the 11th inning, [2] and he was placed on the 15-day disabled list the next day.[3] On July 7, his thumb was identified as being broken; he was moved to the 60-day DL[4]; and scheduled for surgery. He started his rehabilitation in early August, but missed the remainder of the MLB season.[5]
In 2008, his number was changed to 8 because Manager John McLaren took 7, his number during his playing days. On May 20, 2008, Reed was recalled from Triple-A Tacoma and joined the Mariners for their game against the Detroit Tigers.
On December 10, 2008, he was traded to the New York Mets in a three-team trade.[3]
Reed married Samantha Garrison in late 2007, in Maui.
Cuttino Mobley, a Philadelphian who has played 11 seasons in the NBA, is expected to formally announce his retirement at a New York news conference today.
Speculation about Mobley's future has been swirling since he was traded from the Los Angeles Clippers to New York last month. Tests performed by the Knicks uncovered signs of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a source said.
That's the heart disorder that killed fellow Philadelphian Hank Gathers in 1990, the Celtics' Reggie Lewis three years later, and Atlanta's Jason Collier in 2005.
According to the source, Mobley's previous four teams knew the guard had a heart condition, but may have been unaware of its exact nature. He reportedly signed a waiver that freed each club from liability.
A graduate of Cardinal Dougherty High School and the University of Rhode Island, Mobley, 33, also played with Houston, Sacramento and Orlando.
He has not been on the court since being dealt to the Knicks in a Nov. 21 trade that included three players with Philadelphia connections. Mobley and ex-Villanova star Tim Thomas were sent to New York in exchange for Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins, a Temple product.
Despite their concerns about Mobley's health, the Knicks eventually approved the deal, making it easier for them to clear salary-cap space for an anticipated run at a 2010 free-agent class that is expected to include LeBron James.
Mobley has averaged 16 points a game in a 747-game career.
Former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner has been found dead in the Palo Verde mountain area of the southern California desert. The news was confirmed with Tanner's manager, John Hayner, who said he learned just an hour ago that the body found was indeed Tanner. He was thirty-seven years old.
"He was in a real positive state of mind, he wasn't having any drinking problems or any of those types of problems. He was really feeling good about his life," Hayner told CagePotato.com.
Hayner said that Tanner had gone into the desert on a motorcycle expedition and had run out of gas. Tanner was attempting to walk out of the desert, Hayner said, but apparently didn't realize how far away from civilization he was and died of exposure in the triple-digit heat. Tanner's empty campsite was spotted Sunday, and an aerial search located his body earlier this afternoon.
A post written by Tanner on his Spike TV blog told of his planning for the trip, and emphasized his desire to bring only essentials in his escape to the solitude of the desert:
I've been gathering my gear for this adventure for over a month, not a long time by most standards, but far too long for my impatient nature. Being a minimalist by nature, wanting to carry only the essentials, and being extremely particular, it has been a little difficult to find just the right equipment. I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment, could cost me my life. I've been doing a great deal of research and study. I want to know all I can about where I'm going, and I want to make sure I have the best equipment.
Hayner told of a man who "marched to a beat only he could hear," but maintained a positive outlook on life.
"Here was a famous UFC fighter who didn't have enough food to eat at times. I'd call him just to make sure he had food in his fridge, but he never let it get him down. Starting over was kind of a theme in his life. He hardly ever lived in the same place more than six months," Hayner said. "He moved out to Vegas and then found it too shallow for him, so he moved out to Oceanside and had a great place, he was learning to surf, and he was really enjoying his day-to-day life."
The Fabulous Forum and Ken Rosenthal report that Seattle has traded for Cleveland reserve center fielder Franklin Gutierrez, sending closer J.J. Putz to the Mets in a wacky, three-team, 12-player extravaganza. The whole deal looks like this:
* Mariners get: Reliever Aaron Heilman, outfielder Endy Chavez, first baseman Mike Carp, and minor leaguers Maikel Cleto, Jason Vargas and Ezequiel Carrera from the Mets, and Franklin Gutierrez from the Indians. * Indians get: Joe Smith from the Mets and infielder Luis Valbuena from Seattle. * Mets get: Putz and Smith.
I like this deal from the Mariners' perspective; they needed to get younger, and moving Putz now amounts to a maximizing of value from a player who seems to be declining at a rather precipitous rate. Gutierrez makes up — sort of, but not really — for the unloading of Adam Jones last offseason, a point U.S.S. Mariner makes when analyzing the trade:
1. The +2 win player the M’s are getting back is much younger than the +2 win player they’re giving up, and they have him under team control for a lot longer. For where this team is, Gutierrez is more valuable than Putz.
2. One of Valbuena or Lopez had to go, because there was no way for them to coexist at full value. In that sense, the M’s swapped a prospect at a position of depth for a prospect at a position where they have a gaping hole. I like Valbuena better than Carp, but Carp has a much clearer road to a job in Seattle.
3. By acquiring Gutierrez and Chavez, the M’s just have given themselves the ability to run out one of the best outfield defenses in baseball on days where they send a contact pitcher to the hill. A Chavez/Gutierrez/Ichiro outfield will make Silva and Washburn look significantly better than they really are, and by investing in the defense, the M’s have made it possible that they could salvage some value from a pair of bad contracts.
I'm not so sure I like this deal from the Mets end of it; they needed a bullpen revamp, true, but Putz was a pretty clear case of buying high, though given the alternatives, there may not have been a lot of better alternatives open in the trade market.
Heritage Hall senior linebacker Banning Fudge looks forward to just about everything when it comes to practice and games. The one thing he doesn’t look forward to: facing off with running back Barry Sanders.
"You can see his dad in him. He’s already a pretty scary athlete,” Fudge said.
Sanders, a freshman, is the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders. But the younger Sanders knows nobody will respect him based on his last name. He needed to earn it. He found out early that it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.
"Those first couple of days during the summer were rough. The conditioning was something I had never seen before,” Sanders said. "But it’s definitely made me better for it.”
While Heritage Hall’s motto for the season has been "finish,” Sanders is just getting started.
His first career carry, against Casady, lost 4 yards — not the way he wanted to start his high school career. But his last carry, a 64-yard touchdown run last week against Lincoln Christian, showed why the coaching staff and his teammates are so high on him.
Sanders broke a couple of tackles and hurdled another in earning his ninth touchdown of the season.
Sanders hasn’t started at running back but has become the main runner in the second half. He has 637 rushing yards, nearly 8.0 yards per attempt.
"The defense gets tired as the game keeps going, and I’ve found a role. It’s been a lot of fun,” Sanders said.
Sanders said he doesn’t mind people automatically compare him to his father, the former Oklahoma State and Detroit Lions star. He said he talked to his father Monday and said Sanders Sr. hopes to be at Putnam City Stadium on Saturday night, when Heritage Hall plays Chandler for the Class 2A state championship.
Just because his father is famous doesn’t mean Sanders isn’t like a normal freshman.
"I have a lot of nerves right now. This is what you dream about. We’ve put the time in, now it’s time to finish,” he said.
Sanders is a part of what Heritage Hall coach Andy Bogert has called the best freshman class he’s ever had. With Sanders at running back, Cale Courtney at quarterback and Marc Robinson at linebacker, the Chargers have a healthy future to build on.
"There is just a lot of dedication and drive,” said Sanders. "But for us young guys, we want to win this one for the seniors, because they’ve taught us so much.”
There was a time when Josh Koscheck was considered a top-notch wrestler and not much else. With a vicious knockout of Yoshiyuki Yoshida on Wednesday night, Koscheck reminded everyone that he has greatly expanded his arsenal of MMA skills.
Only six weeks removed from a loss to Thiago Alves, Koscheck got back in the win column with a pair of right hands that knocked Yoshida out cold in the main event of UFC Fight Night 16 in Fort Bragg, N.C.
The UFC gave away tickets to members of the United States military for the show -- subtitled "Fight for the Troops" -- and spent a large portion of the live TV broadcast soliciting donations for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, a charity that supports the families of soldiers killed in battle, as well as severely wounded soldiers and veterans.
"What an honor to fight in front of all you guys out there," Koscheck (12-3-0, 10-3-0 UFC) said of the servicemen and women in the audience.
Both fighters seemed content to bang it out, with Yoshida (10-3-0, 1-1-0 UFC) keeping his left hand up in anticipation of Koscheck's old standby, the looping right hand. Koscheck managed to connect on several shots anyway, including a straight right that put Yoshida on rubber legs.
Out on his feet, Yoshida dropped his hands long enough for Koscheck to measure up with another crushing right, putting his opponent's lights out for good at 2:15 of the first round.
"I knew he was looking for the overhand right a lot, so I just kind of focused on throwing straight punches," Koscheck said.
Between the Alves and Yoshida fights, Koscheck's UFC future was left in doubt after a major blowup between UFC president Dana White and Koscheck's manager Dewayne Zinkin and Koscheck's fight camp, American Kickboxing Academy. Leading up to his win on Wednesday, there were still whispers than Koscheck's time in the UFC could be drawing to a close regardless of whether he won or lost, due to his closeness with Zinkin.
The fight marked Koscheck's 10th UFC win in 13 fights with the organization. It also put an end to Yoshida's nine-fight win streak that began nearly three years ago, and marked the first time Yoshida had ever been knocked out.
Mike "Quick" Swick lived up to his nickname, overwhelming Jonathan Goulet with punches to earn a knockout victory just 33 seconds into the first round.
Swick (13-2-0, 8-1-0 UFC) blasted Goulet repeatedly with both fists until a right hand crumbled Goulet to his knees. Goulet (22-10-1, 4-4-0 UFC) clung to Swick's leg, but was unable to do much else as Swick kept hammering on his head and face, forcing referee Dan Miragliotta to stop the bout.
The victory was Swick's third in a row since cutting to 170 pounds after a middleweight loss to Yushin Okami in April 2007. Swick attributed the convincing win to the fact that he's finally back at 100 percent following surgery to correct a nagging elbow injury.
"I'm healthy, I'm in great shape, and I feel really confident right now," he said.
Is it just me, or could Elizabeth Hendrickson and Mary Stuart Masterson be long lost cousins? They look very alike to me for some reason even though the structure of their faces are completely different.
Hmm, something about their faces... maybe it's the facial expression. But yeah, I was watching old AMC reruns (viva la BAM!) and was convinced they shared genes.
Seriously though, how hot was mary as a tomboy drummer chasing after that homely guy in some kind of wonderful?
She's pretty much hot in everything she does.. except for law and order, wayy too conservative looking and i'm waay too hung up on Cabot.
After serving as correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show for two years, Rob Riggle is ready move on with other projects. The 38-year-old actor will be leaving the satirical talk show on tomorrow's episode, in his words "to go fight crime." In reality, however, he'll be heading to primetime as he has already signed a talent holding contract, including a development deal with CBS and CBS Paramount Network TV to create and star in a half-hour comedy series.
Describing itself as a fake news program, The Daily Show draws its comedy from recent news stories, satirizing political figures, media organizations, and often, aspects of the show itself. Some of Riggle's most memorable work on The Daily Show included a segment where he went to Iraq to serve as a correspondent as well as entertain the troops under the purview of the United Service Organization. During the 2008 Olympics, Riggle also traveled to China to tape sketches for the The Daily Show, producing a four-part special feature titled Rob Riggle: Chasing the Dragon.
According to Riggle, he decided to make the move to CBS because he felt the network, which is home to such sitcoms like Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother, “is making a real commitment to comedy.”
"They've got some good sensibilities over there," he said.
At the moment, Rob Riggle is pondering on several ideas, one of which may tap his background as a major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.
"I've got a notebook full of ideas that I've been keeping for many years," said Riggle, who is also credited for his roles on The Office, Arrested Development, Saturday Night Live and Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story.
For the upcoming Rob Riggle project, Peter Principato and Paul Young have been attached as executive producers with Riggle as producer as well.
Have the New York Yankees gone back to being . . . you know, the Evil Empire New York Yankees?
They are the richest, most powerful entity in sports. They have built a $1.3 billion stadium with all the bells and whistles. Good economy, bad economy. No matter. CC Sabathia, Derek Lowe, A.J. Burnett, Manny Ramírez, and/or Mark Teixeira.
The Yankees, who agreed to terms with Sabathia on a seven-year, $161 million deal yesterday, can and may sign more than a couple of the other prominent free agents.
They have always been on an island by themselves in terms of what they can afford. They have tried to scale back that approach, trying to go the farm system route, but at the end of the day they revert to what they do best - they buy the best available players, partly because some of their homegrown players (Melky Cabrera, Phil Hughes, and Ian Kennedy, to name a few) haven't made the splash they'd hoped.
So it came as no surprise to Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein that the Yankees opened the vault, and they may open it once or twice more for Lowe and/or Burnett and perhaps Ramírez when all is said and done.
"Nothing surprises me anymore," said Epstein. "[Sabathia is] clearly the top pitcher on the market. He pitched great and he deserves to be rewarded. What he did down the stretch with Milwaukee was really admirable and great for baseball. He pitched his team to the playoffs. He took the ball on three days' rest and that was fun to watch. I have a lot of respect for what he did."
In the end the Yankees gave Sabathia $61 million more - and two more years - than the Brewers offered. It was the only other offer on the table. The Giants had decided Sabathia was too rich for them despite his hometown interest. The Red Sox met with him Monday and came away impressed, but an offer was never made, according to major league sources. Epstein said that even before the winter meetings here, he felt Sabathia would be a Yankee.
"Yeah, any time a team offers, which at the time was more than $40 million more and could go up to more than $60 million more than anyone else, there's a pretty good chance he's going to sign," said Epstein. "It was a strong signing by the Yankees."
Has it always worked out? No. Take the years 2001-08, for example, when the Yankees were shut out of the world championship. And last season marked the first time in 14 years they didn't make the playoffs. When that happens, you know the Yankees are going to spend money. Sabathia's deal is downright crazy for a guy whose weight was listed by the Brewers as 311 pounds. Continued...
The former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari, has received this year's Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in the Norwegian capital Oslo.
Mr Ahtisaari won the prestigious award for more than 30 years of diplomacy in trying to resolve conflicts in places like Namibia, the Balkans and Indonesia.
He says he is proud to receive the honour.
"It is the greatest recognition anybody working in this field can be given," he said.
"What I'm feeling now can only be compared with the joy I have felt when seeing the faces that peace has brought to the lives of the people."
As the most prestigious Nobel, the Peace Prize, is the only one of the awards presented in Oslo, in line with prize founder Alfred Nobel's wishes.
The 2008 Nobel laureates in literature, economy, medicine, physics and chemistry received their prizes from the hands of Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm.
The lush event, held as tradition dictates on the anniversary of the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel in 1896, took place at Stockholm's Concert Hall which was decked out in festive red and green flowers for the occasion.
This year's literature prize went to French author Jean-Marie Le Clezio.
Two other French scientists, Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, were honoured with the medicine prize for their research into HIV/AIDS along with Harald zur Hausen of Germany who discovered the virus that causes cervical cancer.
Celebrated New York Times columnist and Princeton University professor Paul Krugman received the economics prize for his work on the impact of free trade and globalisation.
The only absentee at Wednesday's ceremony was American physics laureate Yoichiro Nambu, who at age 87 was not able to make the trip due to weak health.
His two Japanese co-laureates, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa, were however on hand to receive their prizes for their revolutionary work on the nature of subatomic particles and how they move.
The chemistry prize went to US researchers Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien and Osamu Shimomura of Japan for work with fluorescent protein from jellyfish, which is now a widely used research tool.
The Nobel prize consists of a gold medal, a diploma, and 10 million kronor ($1.9 million) per discipline, to be shared if there is more than one recipient.
Tags: human-interest, awards-and-prizes, science-and-technology, scitech-awards, finland, norway, sweden
