By David K.

With less than 12 hours to go before the dawn of the Pac-12, ESPN Pac-10/Pac-12 blogger Ted Miller’s latest post ranks the best teams of the Pac-10 era. Who’s number one? I’ll give you a hint: Woof woof woof.

By Brendan Loy

I guess this trailer came out about two weeks ago, but I hadn’t seen it until now:

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG !!!

Clearly, they’ve taken some major liberties with the Battle of Hogwarts. And you know what? I’m fine with that. As long as the on-screen version stays true to the very broad outlines of the meta-plot, and is awesome, that’s all that really matters. And it looks like it will, indeed, be awesome.

Also, note the fleeting glimpse of Molly Weasley casting a spell producing a jet of green light (Avada Kedavra??) at the 2:11 mark. That is totally a deliberate visual cue to those Potter fans who, like me, are looking forward above all — even moreso than the final climax of Voldemort’s death — to her “NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!” moment.

17 days!!! WOO!!!

P.S. This interview with the actor who plays Neville Longbottom is pretty great too. Go Neville! Kill the snake!

P.P.S. Off the top of my head, things I’m looking forward to most about the movie (subject to change as I think of more things):

1) “NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!”
2) Neville killing Nagini
3) McGonagall as war general
4) Voldemort & the Death Eaters doing lots of cool evil sh*t
5) Harry killing Voldemort
6) The Hogwarts suits of armor, etc. come to life!
7) Neville as Dumbledore’s Army leader
8) The dragon in Gringotts
9) Snape’s true colors revealed
10) Aberforth!
…
843) Daniel Radcliffe attempting to act

Sorry, was that mean? Okay, okay, he’s gotten a lot better. But still. The scenes where he has to do heavy emotional lifting are never my favorites.

By Brendan Loy

All-time March Madness hero Lorenzo Charles, of “They won it! On the dunk!” fame, has died in a bus accident at age 47.

Charles’s signature basket was memorialized, among countless other places, in the third verse of my Battle Hymn of the Underdog:

Glory, glory, Cinderella!
Glory, glory, Cinderella!
Glory, glory, Cinderella!
The Madness marches on!

I have read the breathless headlines scream, “It’s late, it’s Tate, it’s great!”
I have witnessed the impossible, watched plays that cheated fate
Like the airball that became a winning dunk for N.C. State
The Madness marches on!

Here’s a better, longer YouTube clip with two minutes of highlights from the whole game. (YouTube wouldn’t let me embed it.) Or, you can watch the entire game here

By Brendan Loy

The polls are closed in the Third Biennial (!) Loy Baby Pool. The most popular birth date predictions are: July 4 (6), July 7 (6), July 1 (5), July 3 (5) and July 12 (4). Only 2 people picked the actual due date, July 8. Also, although July 1, 3 and 4 were all very popular predictions, nobody picked July 2. Interesting. Median predicted weight and height for Loyabelle: 8 pounds, 1 ounce, 20.25 inches.

After the jump, everyone’s predictions, whether submitted via blog comments, Facebook, Twitter or e-mail. (If you made a prediction, please double-check that it’s on the list, and that I transcribed it correctly into my spreadsheet!)

P.S. Here’s an editable Google Spreadsheet that allows you to tinker with the “actual” date & time, weight, and height, and find out who would win the pools in any scenario.

Continue reading »

By Brendan Loy

And not in the courts. In the legislature. The Republican-controlled legislature. 33-29. All 29 Democrats, plus 4 Republicans, voted “yes.”

In a word: YAY!!!

In two words: Know Hope.

Speaking of which, Andrew Sullivan is sobbing tears of joy.

By Brendan Loy

“The only problem with this God-damned Union
is its God-damned members.”
–a long-ago Connecticut union leader who shall remain nameless

Thanks to byzantine voting rules and petulant prison guards, Connecticut’s public sector unions have rejected the contract deal cut between their leaders and Democratic Governor Daniel Malloy, setting the stage for massive layoffs and a possible economic “lost decade” for the already struggling state of my birth.

A majority of union members actually supported the deal, but because of the bizarre voting rules of the 15-union State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) — which is sort of like a modified supermajority Electoral College — the deal’s rejection by a single (large) union, AFSCME, dooms it to failure, even if the other 14 unions all vote “Yes.”

So now, barring some sort of unexpected last-minute heroics, Governor Malloy will need to lay off 7,500 state workers in order to close the state’s budget gap. Meanwhile, the sensible long-term reforms embodied in the rejected deal won’t go into effect. And of course, public hostility toward the public sector unions will only increase, making future deals more difficult to strike. All in all, this is a disaster. #PANIC!

Although the rejected agreement was not, from what I can tell, the “sweetheart deal” that has been portrayed by conservatives and some in the state media, it did seem to be, on balance, a pretty good deal for the unions, as well as for the state’s long-term fiscal health. But now it’s been scuttled by a powerful minority of state workers, who were tricked by propaganda and demagoguery into believing…

…into believing what? I’m not sure exactly. That the state’s fiscal crisis is fake, manufactured by evil Republicans? That all the problems can be solved by soaking the rich somehow? That there could somehow be a better deal waiting around the corner? I don’t know exactly what (the hell) they were thinking, but I’m not surprised, and I fear we’re going to see a lot more of this in the coming years, in various facets of our national life, as vocal reactionaries and vested interests of all sorts resist the hard choices that we’ll face when we finally begin to grapple with reality of living beyond our means. You threaten to move people’s cheese, and this is what happens. In a democracy, especially one that strongly values minority rights, it can lead very quickly to paralysis.

And if you doubt how far this sort of thing is capable of going, you need only look at Greece, which is so deep in the hole that it’s literally a completely insolvent country, incapable of paying its bills without the repeated charity of its neighboring nations — a national deadbeat on the world stage — and yet people are still taking to the streets in protest of mathematically necessary austerity measures, demanding “their” piece of a fiscal pie that’s simply way too small to give them what they insist is rightfully theirs.

Everybody thinks they’re a victim, and nobody wants to make the sacrifices necessary to right the ship. Tea Partiers aren’t the only puerile, petulant ones, nor are public-sector unions (or unions generally). This is not so much as political problem as a human nature problem, which is why I worry that the event horizon is inching closer and closer…

By Brendan Loy

The debt ceiling talks have collapsed.

I have little to add, really, to what I’ve already said about this. The political point-scoring brinksmanship on this issue is appalling. The Republicans’ position is logically indefensible, wholly and completely. The Tea Party’s ongoing temper tantrum about the mathematically necessary expedient of raising the debt ceiling — as I’ve said before, this is a math problem, not a policy decision — proves, if further proof was necessary, that the Tea Party is not a serious force for policy reform, but a puerile farce of a political movement. The reality-denying belief that “raising the debt ceiling isn’t necessary” or “default isn’t that big a deal” is just another example, perhaps the most egregious yet, of how far we’ve come as a body politic from making decisions based on actual facts, as opposed to emotion, demagoguery and sheer nonsense. This whole thing — the entire debate — is based purely on shockingly transparent bulls**t.

At its core, this isn’t a negotiation, but rather a hostage situation, and whatever negative consequences the nation suffers as a result of a default (or a “technical default” or whatever the hell you want to call it), if such a thing occurs, will be entirely the fault of the hostage-takers, not the ones being held hostage by their illegitimate demands. F*** ‘em, all of ‘em, these feckless, irresponsible, know-nothing morons who are willing to take unknowable risks with our nation’s future — the future of my daughters’ country — to make a political point by refusing to pay the bill for expenses that have already been incurred — and in the name of fiscal responsibility, no less. “Be Fiscally Responsible: Default On Your Obligations!” What a concept. Yeah. F*** ‘em.

Also, this.

Also, #PANIC.

P.S. Also, this:

Increasingly, Americans and the markets have every reason to feel scared s**tless. The controlling faction in the Republican House is a faction that is not so much anti-debt as anti-government. If they have to choose between tackling the debt and raising even some revenues (while cutting spending dramtically), they will choose to push the US into default. Such a default would risk destroying the savings of Americans, make the debt far far worse, spark a double-dip recession, and throw countless people out of work and make those in work radically less financially secure. Even those of us who have saved for retirement by buying unglamorous bonds could see our financial future wiped out by these maniacs on a mission. That is the kind of small-c conservatism these Savonarolans want to penalize. …

This is brinksmanship with all of our lives, our money, our core financial stability and future growth. It is an outrageously reckless way to run a government. And Cantor’s refusal to take any personal responsibility for the result of these talks is of a piece with the record of this shallow, callow fanatic who has the gall to call himself a conservative, even as he launches a wrecking ball at the very fabric of the American and global economy.

These current Republicans would rather destroy the US economy than sacrifice one scintilla of ideological purity. They are an imminent threat to the stability of this country’s economy and the world’s. And they must be stopped before the damage is irreversible.

I had to look up “Savonarolans.” I found Girolamo Savonarola, a 15th-century Italian politico “known for his book burning [and] destruction of what he considered immoral art.” Um, okay. Not sure the relevance of that. But otherwise: spot on.

You know who needs to weigh in against this madness? Mitch Daniels. His debt-reduction credentials are impeccable, unquestionable, beyond dispute. He passionately argues, and I fervently agree, that going forward, we must tackle our long-term structural deficit and prevent the “red menace” of debt from destroying us. And yet surely, being an adult and a sensible, rational leader, he recognizes this feckless, know-nothing position of not raising the debt limit, despite the mathematical necessity of doing so in order to pay for obligations already incurred, for what it is: fiscally irresponsible, reckless insanity. And what was it he said about radicalism? Ah yes:

Purity in martyrdom is for suicide bombers. King Pyrrhus is remembered, but his nation disappeared. Winston Churchill set aside his lifetime loathing of Communism in order to fight World War II. Challenged as a hypocrite, he said that when the safety of Britain was at stake, his “conscience became a good girl.” We are at such a moment. I for one have no interest in standing in the wreckage of our Republic saying “I told you so” or “You should’ve done it my way.”

The House Republicans and the Tea Partiers are perfectly happy to do exactly that — stand amid the wreckage saying “I told you so” — and snap up the electoral benefit when the voters reflexively blame the president for the double-dip recession that they caused. If not Daniels, what figure of unquestioned fiscal conservative credentials will call them out on this terrifying, dangerous nonsense? And will they listen, or add the objector to their ever-growing list of apostates?

If it weren’t informed by such abject ignorance, I’d say the don’t-raise-the-debt-limit position comes as close to outright treason as anything I’ve ever seen in domestic political discourse. I don’t use the word “treason” lightly, but these people are literally willing to destroy the country’s economy to prove a point, even though the risk of destruction if universally acknowledged by everyone except, well, them. However, the reason it’s ultimately not treasonous is because I believe that they, like all those here who will wrong-headedly defend them, believe their own lies. Just as they don’t “believe in climate change,” just as they think “death panels” are real, just as they insist that modest government regulation is “socialism,” just as they deny or ignore empirical facts regarding everything from historical tax rates and revenues to comparative health-care costs and outcomes, likewise in this case, they simply do not recognize or accept the fact — universally and uncontroversially acknowledged by “experts,” and therefore by definition wrong, in their warped worldview — that their position on the debt limit is one of complete reality-denial and total economic nihilism. This earnestness, thus unwavering belief in their own righteousness, makes them less morally nefarious, but infinitely more dangerous. When fanatics honestly believe their own lies — when they truly think they’re doing the right thing, even though they indisputably are not — there’s no telling the damage they can do.

P.P.S. Anyone inclined to respond by blasting my position, I would ask that you first read what I wrote in the above-linked earlier post, if you haven’t already. That’s where I actually spell out my substantive position on the debt limit. This is just a follow-up rant.

By Brendan Loy

Let’s review. USC’s football program allegedly allowed agents, proto-agents and/or runners to run rampant (I’ll ignore for the moment that this was not actually proven), and failed to monitor the activities of one “high-profile athlete” (two athletes counting O.J. Mayo, who played basketball, not football), or rather said athlete’s family. An assistant coach supposedly knew about the athlete’s family’s activities (again, we’ll ignore that this was not actually proven). For these crimes against amateurism, USC was hit with the “lack of institutional control” hammer, and suffered the most serious penalties in years, which were not reduced on appeal even after arguably more serious violations subsequently emerged at Ohio State and Auburn.

Meanwhile, in Chapel Hill… North Carolina’s football program allegedly allowed agents, proto-agents and/or runners to run rampant, and failed to monitor the activities of numerous rule-breaking players and of an assistant coach who was working for an agent… AND had massive academic fraud to boot, involving university employees and like a dozen players (all of whom played football, not basketball). Yet according to the NCAA, North Carolina did not lack institutional control, and is guilty only of the lesser charge of “failure to monitor.”

Is there any possible rationale for this, other than “it’s North Carolina football, who cares?” or “we’re the NCAA, we don’t heed no stinkin’ precedent!”? Can anyone come up with something else plausible, or even something implausible, that would even begin to rationally explain this unbelievable case of indefensibly disparate and discriminatory treatment? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

I’m not at all inclined to be a conspiracy theorist, like some of my fellow Trojans who think the NCAA is specifically out to get USC because — what? they’re jealous of us? why on earth would they hate USC?!? it makes no sense! — but this is pretty f***ing ridiculous. In fact, it’s gone beyond ridiculous. Auburn was ridiculous. Ohio State was ridiculous. This is criminal!

If North Carolina gets anything less than a two-year postseason ban and a 30-scholarship reduction (i.e., what USC got for indisputably less serious charges, which were only partially proven), USC should drop its post-Garrett nice-guy act and, as dcl keeps saying, sue the bastards… or set up a secret meeting with Texas, Notre Dame and a handful of other high-profile programs, to discuss secession from the corrupt, incompetent, hypocritical, unaccountable overlords of college sports otherwise known as the NCAA.

(Not that I actually want the secession scenario to happen; it would be terrible for the mid-majors, obviously, in both football and basketball. But for heaven’s sake, this is utterly absurd. Has any organization ever sacrificed as much credibility, through a series of unforced errors and nonsensical decisions, as the NCAA has in the last year or so? It’s beyond infuriating — and remember, I started out as a lone Trojan voice in the wilderness last summer, defending the NCAA’s penalties and saying we should take our medicine and stop whining. But subsequent events have proven that the NCAA’s critics were right, and I was wrong. The NCAA, or at least its enforcement arm, appears to be irredeemable — rotten to its core, incapable of doing its job in a reasonable or remotely fair fashion. So, what do we do? How do we blow up the NCAA without blowing up college sports?)

P.S. Upon reflection, I suppose my Grand Unified Theory of NCAA Inconsistency would go something like this:

1) The NCAA brought the hammer down on USC because the bureaucrats in power felt public pressure to “do something” and “show they were serious,” and they were all-too-happy to do so in USC’s case not because they’re OMG EAST COAST BIASED PAC-10 HATERZ, but because USC was perceived as thumbing its nose at the NCAA (even while formally cooperating in the investigation) by virtue of retaining Mike Garrett, hiring Lane Kiffin, etc. Basically, the NCAA — like all unaccountable bureaucratic entities tend to do — acted largely out of pique, with the “judge and jury” focused more on the notion that USC was not properly respecting their authoritah than on the actual facts of the case.

2) As subsequent cases (Auburn, Ohio State, North Carolina) emerged, the public pressure equation subtly changed. Pundits and casual observers started panicking — We can’t have all these major programs suffering USC-style sanctions or worse! We can’t have death penalties! — so the “do something” and “show seriousness” rationale faded somewhat, replaced by the notion that perhaps the NCAA’s amateurism rules themselves are the problem. Also, in the case of UNC, because the football program is so low-profile, nobody cared all that much.

3) Logically, the transition from #1 to #2 should have led to USC winning its appeal. But remember, these are unaccountable, and therefore (by virtue of human nature) corrupt, bureaucrats! They can’t admit they were wrong! That’s Rule #1 in the Unaccountable Corrupt Bureaucrat Handbook! So they stuck by their guns in the USC case, even while unilaterally disarming in the various other cases on their docket. And they defend this by saying, literally, that precedent doesn’t matter, because every case is unique. Did I mention they’re unaccountable and corrupt?

If you think about the NCAA more as a third-world kleptocracy than as a sports governing body, their decisions actually make a fair amount of sense.

By Brendan Loy

We’ve got 26 entries in the Third Loy Baby Pool, with the earliest prediction — Chris “Doc” Evans, who predicted a birth this Saturday at 9:45 PM — approaching fast.

I can’t help but notice, however, a surprising dearth of entries on either the baby’s actual due date (July 8) or the day after (July 9). Between AMLTrojan’s entry (7/7/11, 11:23 pm) and Roger Mendieta’s (7/10/11, 12:00 noon), there’s a shocking gap of more than 60 hours with no entries! Need I remind y’all that Loyette was born on her due date, and Josh Rubin won that Baby Pool because he was the only contestant to predict such a thing?

Anyway, in hopes of encouraging a few more contestants to enter (we had 56 contestants for Baby Pool #1 and 70 contestants for Baby Pool #2), I’m re-opening the Baby Pool entry window until 8:00 PM Mountain Time this Friday, or until Becky goes into labor — whichever happens first. Contestants who have already entered the pool are also welcome to change their entries during this time, if they so desire. Other than the new entry deadline, the rules remain the same. Just leave a comment with the following stats:

• DATE of birth: _________________
• TIME of birth: _________________ (Mountain Time)
• WEIGHT: _____________ (in pounds & ounces, rounded to nearest ounce)
• LENGTH:_____________ (in inches, rounded to nearest quarter-inch)

Again, the due date is July 8, and a birth date after July 12 (or, at the extremity, early on July 13) is, ahem, unlikely.

If you can’t leave a comment for some reason, just e-mail me your prediction at irishtrojan [at] gmail.com.

Current entries are after the jump, in chronological order by predicted birth date & time. I encourage all current contestants to double-check their own entry against the original, as I entered them into a spreadsheet by hand, so human error is certainly possible.

P.S. I think I’ve narrowed the list of “blog nicknames” down to: Loyitchka (Becky’s suggestion, a reference to “the multitude of pirogi I’ve eaten this year”); Loyina or Loyarina (like Loyitchka, sort of an Eastern European feel); Loybella, Loyabelle, or Loyarella (Disney princess-esque names, a reference to the current obsession in our household); or Loyola (I just kind of like that one; #midswin?).

I think I lean toward Loyabelle, but I am open to persuasion. :)

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By Brendan Loy

Sorry the blog has been so epically dead in the last few days and weeks. I’ve just been really busy. But hey, here’s some news! Thanks to the tireless efforts of Becky’s friend Sundari at Sustainable Food Denver, our trio of chickens now has a path to citizenship!

Monday night, the Denver City Council passed a proposal that will allow residents to have up to six food-producing animals on their property.

More specifically, the permitting process for chickens, ducks and goats is vastly simplified and streamlined, and the expense is reduced to a one-time $20 fee for up to sixanimals, as opposed to $150 and a confusing, multi-agency permitting process that many chicken owners just ignored altogether (or, *cough*, ahem, so I’ve heard).

Becky is happy. So is Sundari. Flora, Fauna, Merryweather and Little Chicken Foo-Foo are happy too, though that may have more to do with the banana peels I tossed into their run this morning.

Michelle Malkin, meanwhile, could not be reached for comment on this chicken shamnesty. :)

UPDATE: More on the chicken vote from the Denver Post…

By a vote of 7-3, the Denver City Council on Monday approved an ordinance change that eases restrictions and eliminates some of the paperwork now faced by would-be urban homesteaders.

Denver residents can already legally keep chickens, ducks and goats. The vote Monday changes the permitting process and makes it easier — and cheaper — to own the animals.

Currently, Denver residents have to complete a permit process that requires them to notify their neighbors of their intention to own the animals and to pay a one-time, $100 permit fee and $50 a year for chickens and $100 a year for livestock, such as goats.

Monday’s vote means that after the ordinance change takes effect, residents will pay only a one-time $20 license fee.

The license will allow them to keep up to eight chickens or ducks — but not roosters or drakes — and up to two dwarf goats without having to get a zoning permit or notify the public.

…and more from Sundari:

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By Brendan Loy

Possibly the greatest audiobook ever.

[Cross-posted from Pioneer Pulse.]

By Brendan Loy DU

When we last left the #ZombieWAC, it was on life support after the near-death experience of almost losing Utah State and San Jose State to the Mountain West. That followed on the heels of seemingly getting a new lease on life that would allow it limp forward for some time as an Island of Misfit Mascots Division I Programs From West of the Mississippi.

That was January. Since then, things have been relatively quiet on the WAC expansion/defection front. But today, news! The University of Denver has a new non-football partner in the otherwise football-focused league: the University of Seattle.

The Western Athletic Conference today announced that an invitation for membership has been issued to and accepted by Seattle University to join the conference effective July 1, 2012. … With the addition, the WAC will consist of nine full-time members for the 2012-13 season; Denver (non-football), Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Seattle (non-football), Texas State, UTSA and Utah State.

For those keeping score at home, that’s nine schools total, but only seven football schools. So, for the moment at least, my Twitter sub-genre of jokes about invitations to “join the WAC as its eighth football school” remains intact. Huzzah! Anyway…

“We are pleased to announce that Seattle University is joining the WAC,” said Commissioner Karl Benson. “Seattle’s tradition and history along with a strong commitment to academics, its athletics program and their facilities make the university and its top-15 media market a great fit for the WAC. We look forward to a beneficial and successful relationship.”

Not invited to join the WAC? Utah Valley University, which had made a pitch to get in, but was smacked down today. That’s right: UVU was just rejected by a league that was itself rejected by North Texas and Montana, and that reportedly covets such powerhouses as Sam Houston State, Sacramento State and Cal Poly. Someone put that school’s athletic department on suicide watch, because man, that’s depressing.

Meanwhile, a blog post last week by the Mercury-News’s Jon Wilner suggests the WAC isn’t done yet:

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By Brendan Loy

The bridesmaid jinx is over! For the first time since 1994 — when I was in seventh grade — a Newington High School athletic team is the Connecticut state champion. And for the first time since 1980 — before I was born — it happened in a CIAC-sponsored sport, breaking a streak of twelve consecutive CIAC title-game losses in my lifetime in football, baseball, girls basketball, ice hockey, boys soccer, and boys volleyball. The streak-breaker? The baseball team, which beat Southington — Newington’s traditional archrival in everything — in a 10-inning thriller. How perfect! More here and here and here.

In a wet and wild CIAC Class LL state final, the No. 17 Newington baseball team outlasted seventh-ranked Southington 3-2 in 10 innings Saturday night.

Both Newington pitcher Cole Bryant (8-2) and Southington starter Sal Romano (10-2) pitched brilliant 10-inning games, but it was the Indians who exited Muzzy Field with the 3-2 win and the championship trophy.

Down 2-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, Southington rallied for a run to tie the score 2-2. It appeared as if the Blue Knights had the game won 3-2 in their eighth, but the run was negated on an appeal play at home plate.

Newington scored an unearned run in the top of the 10th to go up 3-2. Southington loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the frame, but Bryant got a strikeout to give Newington its first state title.

I had no idea the Indians had even reached the title game; unlike in some past years that blog readers will remember, I wasn’t paying attention. Newington was 12-8 in the regular season, and seeded #17 in Class LL, so this team didn’t seem like a candidate to break the school’s long streak of finishing as runners-up. (If you include second-place finishes by the golf team, NHS had had fourteen second-place finishes in CIAC sports since its last CIAC championship, the year before I was born.) But they knocked off #16 Windsor, #1 Glastonbury, #8 Danbury and #4 Amity en route to the title game.

Friend of the blog Dan Dinunzio has much more about the game, including a firsthand account of the eighth-inning craziness (remember, high-school games are 7 innings long, so the 8th is already “extra innings,” and a go-ahead run in the bottom of the 8th would win the game):

Middle infielder Armando Soler dropped a lazy fly ball to put Matt Spruill on 1st base. Then, following a pop out, Southington star Sal Romano laced a double down the left-field line. It looked as if the game was over.

I wasn’t watching home plate, because I figured, “wow, the curse lives on and Newington has come in second again!” But in a matter of seconds, it all changed when Spruill forgot to touch home plate. Are you serious? On the biggest stage of any high school athlete’s career, he forgot to do what seems so natural.

A celebration ensued for Southington on the pitcher’s mound while Newington coaches screamed for an appeal. Newington appealed, and it was clear the umpire had seen exactly what unfolded. A nightmare for any Southington fan, and a miracle for all of those in the stands cheering for Newington. Spruill was ruled out while Romano returned to second base with his head in his jersey, in a state of shock.

And then, after Newington took at 3-2 lead in the top of the 10th, the game’s final out, in the bottom of the 10th:

Southington loaded the bases with two outs and reached a full count. Cole Bryant had thrown 175 pitches on the night. At that pitch count, I can’t even imagine what his arm felt like.

Cole dialed up a two-seam fastball and struck out Tyler Burns looking. It was his 16th strikeout of the game. Bryant called it “the greatest feeling in the world,” and the Newington celebration began. A mob-pile began on the field full of joyous embraces, hugs, and jubilation between the coaches and players.

A thirty-year streak weighed heavy on the right arm of Cole Bryant. His 176th pitch of the night ended that drought and crowned the Newington Indians baseball team State Champions for the first time ever.

Photo by John Brunetti, father of JV coach and my Class of 1999 classmate Jeff Brunetti.

By David K.

Apple products often look like they are from the future, and Steve Jobs is going to take that same design approach to the design of Apple’s new campus in Cupertino.

The massive new building (roughly as large as the pentagon, although only consisting of a single ring) would house up to 13,000 employees in a four story structure featuring curved glass windows around the entire building. Existing surface parking would be moved underground allowing for an increase the amount of green space on the 150 acre plot of land from 20% to 80%. Thats one way to think different.

If approved by the City of Cupertino (and it looks like it will be) they would break ground next year with completion scheduled for 2015.

By Brendan Loy

Moments ago, almost immediately after the polls closed at 7pm, the Denver Post projected the City Council president, Michael Hancock, as the winner over the former state senator and political scion, the ex-Governor’s son, Chris Romer, in the Denver mayoral runoff.

Here’s a pretty picture I took earlier today that has nothing to do with that:

UPDATE: Hancock’s “feel-good story” is being credited with helping lift him to victory. But the “feel-good” moment of Election Night came courtesy of the loser, Romer, who showed up at Hancock’s victory party, hugged his opponent, and had a public kumbaya:

Just before 10 p.m. following Hancock’s speech, Romer and his wife, Laurie, arrived at Hancock’s watch party and the two rivals appeared together and hugged on stage.

“Congratulations to all of you,” Romer said to Hancock’s supporters. “I’m ready to help. I love [Michael] and I love this city.”

In that moment, Romer showed a magnanimity that he seemed to be missing throughout the campaign. His descent from presumptive front-runner to landslide loser (58% to 42%) is being blamed in part on negative campaigning:

Political analyst Eric Sondermann viewed Hancock’s overwhelming victory as evidence that the race broke based on the opposite tones of the candidates’ campaigns.

“When it broke away from Chris Romer and toward Michael Hancock over the last few weeks, it broke bigger than anyone expected,” Sondermann said. “I think the town just made a group decision that was a rejection of what was seen as unseemly, unfair, overly negative, non-Denver campaign.”

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By Brendan Loy

The wild and deadly tornado season of 2011 rolls on, with Southern New England — my old stomping grounds — the latest target. Check out this incredible video of a tornado crossing the Connecticut River in Springfield, Massachusetts:

At least four people are dead in Massachusetts, in what’s being called the state’s worst tornado outbreak in a century. And the damage is massive. It’s not Joplin-style devastation — houses stripped to their foundations, whole neighborhood leveled — but by New England standards, it’s very bad. Lots of major structural damage, many injuries, and undoubtedly a big economic toll.

P.S. Here’s a look at the tornado’s “debris ball” on radar. Again, very impressive for Massachusetts.