Freak Scene

Normally, I'd be coaching Lily's kindergarten soccer team right now, but it was postponed because of the rain we're getting deluged with today. I'm glad, because it's hard enough to get 5-year-olds to pay attention when they're dry and comfortable. They haven't cancelled Hannah's game at noon yet, but that may well happen.

Tonight, I'm heading into Cambridge to meet up with OJ to do some podcast recording for a few hours before we go to the Dinosaur Jr. show at the Middle East. It's going to be for my series on the Best of the Aughts; we're going to be discussing the decade in music. Should be a blast.

It was a tough week for the girls. After having Monday off for Yom Kippur, Hannah came down with strep and was home Tuesday and Wednesday. Then just as she's feeling better Thursday, Lily wakes up that morning and starts puking up bile. So I ended up working from home in the afternoon to stay with her; all the hurling took place in the a.m., but she was pretty lethargic after that. Deb guessed she may have ingested too much pool water at her swimming lesson the night before. She was fine by the end of the day and they both went to school yesterday.

Played hockey this week for the first time in three weeks and actually felt pretty good out there, popping in a couple of goals. Not sure when I'm going to get a long run in this weekend, probably sometime tomorrow after Deb does hers. She's gearing up for the Nike Women's Half Marathon in two weeks out in San Francisco.

It looked like the Jays were going to go out on a positive note, as they put together a six-game winning streak and pounded the crap out of the Red Sox at Fenway. Way too little, way too late, as usual, but at least it was something. And then the story broke that the players were staging a mutiny against manager Cito Gaston, claiming that he didn't communicate well and demanding that he be replaced in the offseason. As much as I love what Cito did with the team in the early
'90s when they won back-to-back World Series, the game has changed and it's clear he relates better to veterans than young players. He made strange decisions all year long (I have no idea why he keeps putting that has-been Kevin Millar out there), but the problem extends way beyond him. After this shitshow of a season, I can't see how Jays ownership keeps either Gaston or GM JP Ricciardi around. Clean house and get a fresh start. [UPDATE: And only a few hours after I posted this, the Jays shitcanned Ricciardi. Good riddance.]

Hope springs eternal with the Leafs this year. Game one of the year was Thursday night against Montreal and it was fun until the end, when Montreal scored in the waning seconds of overtime to win 4-3. The Leafs played well and young forwards like rookie Viktor Stalberg looked great, but the familiar problems from last year plagued the team: Stupid penalties, sloppy defense and soft goals allowed. Tonight they play Alex Ovechkin and the Caps, who humiliated the Bruins on opening night, so hopefully they can step it up. Speaking of that Bruins-Caps game, I couldn't watch it because it's on Versus and that Comcast-owned channel is currently not being carried by DirecTV because of a contract dispute. Fortunately I have the Center Ice package and can watch most games, but not the exclusive ones carried by Vs. Hopefully they can work something out, but Vs. was quick to trumpet that it had its best opening-night ratings ever despite the lack of a DirecTV presence.

Even more bizarre this week was the story that came out about David Letterman, an extortion plot and his own admission that he has slept with many female staffers over the years. As has been noted repeatedly, Letterman has made a career of skewering politicians and celebrities who screw around, so this puts him in a pretty awkward position, so to speak. What, if anything, will CBS do about all these revelations? Letterman was smart to get ahead of the story and just reveal everything in the middle of his show Thursday night. He beat the tabloids to the punch and just put it all out there. Even stranger is the fact that the guy who was trying to extort $2 million from Letterman is a respected producer for CBS' "48 Hours" who allegedly has done his own fair share of sleeping with colleagues. Including Stephanie Birkitt, the former Letterman assistant who made plenty of appearances on the show; she also allegedly was one of Letterman's dalliances. All this comes as Letterman was dominating the late-night ratings. Somewhere, Jay Leno is snickering.