Summer preview?

Memorial Day weekend is supposed to be the unofficial beginning of summer here in New England. Let's hope the weather improves because the last week or so has suck-diddly-ucked. Rainy and temps in the 50s. Went for a run today at lunch and got soaked. Forecasts call for a sunny weekend in the 70s, but they also say this crappy weather is coming back next week. Maybe it's just getting me ready for my trip to Phoenix next Sunday. Phoenix in June; it'll be 110, but it'll be a dry 110.

The Stanley Cup finals are here and it looks like a good series. Calgary and Tampa Bay are tied 1-1 going into tomorrow night's game 3. I'm rooting for the Flames, but I like TB as well. They're an exciting team. It's nice to see Calgary's Jarome Iginla finally get some ink. He's probably the best all-around player in the league right now (Peter Forsberg is better, but he's hurt too often) and he reminds me of a young Mark Messier. The fact that he's black is cool because hopefully he'll inspire more minorities to play, although in Canada, you're already starting to see the melting pot atmospheres in cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver resulting in more players of color ending up in the pros. Case in point: my Indian homey, Manny Malhotra, who was a high pick of the Rangers six years ago and hasn't yet reached his potential. But he's now on Columbus and got more playing time and had a decent season. He's also from Mississauga, Ontario, where my uncle and his family live. Anyway, Iginla's the man and I hope the Flames win the Cup and he gets the Conn Smythe as MVP.

I was doing a little research on Malhotra and discovered that he wasn't the first player of (East) Indian descent to play in the NHL. Robin Bawa played for a bunch of teams in the early '90s and he was a goon, no less. I had heard the name, but never saw a picture of the guy or had any inkling he was Indian until now. He only scored six goals and was mainly a minor league player, but still, he made it to the NHL. Learn something new every day, I guess.

Every week there are more photos of prisoner abuse making their way out of Iraq. I prefer this take on the controversy by some funny bastids in NYC.