In probably the first and last major political announcement ever made in an interview with Ryan Seacrest, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg just stated unequivocally on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve that he will not run for president.

Not that he couldn’t change his mind, of course, but it was surprising to hear a straight answer — no — instead of a non-denial denial.

(Becky and I are watching the countdown to the ball drop on ABC from our hospital room, which also has Wi-Fi.)

Our bundle of joy is here!! She was born at 2:13 PM, weighing 7 pounds, 14 ounces, and she's 21 inches long. She's got a full head of brown hair, and she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. :)
:)

UPDATE: Here’s a photo of me with Loyette:

P.S. For anyone who may have missed my earlier posts on the topic, “Loyette” is the baby’s blog nickname. She has a real name, obviously, but we’re not revealing it on the blog because we don’t want her to be easily and instantly Google-able from birth.

With the arrival of Loyette at 2:13 PM on December 31, 2007, I can now proclaim the winner of the first ever Irish Trojan Baby Pool to be…

me.

All of you people who scoffed at picking Loyette’s actual due date must feel pretty silly right now.

After the jump are the predictions, which show me to be the winner; the prediction was today at 11:59 PM, a difference of 9 hours and 46 minutes.  In second place was Mike’s brother Matt with a prediction of 12:11 AM tomorrow; he missed the actual mark of 2:13 PM by just under 10 hours.

So, congratulations to our winner, but bigger congratulations to Becky (& Brendan, I suppose) for the birth of their little girl.  From the Jewish contingent of the Loyosphere, I wish you a hearty Mazel Tov, and wish you all the best in the coming years.

And if I may editorialize briefly, that baby has got to be one of the cutest things I have seen in a long time (I’m actually writing this post later than the time stamp, so that Brendan’s announcement stays on top of this post).  But brown hair?  C’mon, Becky, you can’t let your kid have the same color hair as her daddy?  Seriously, though, she’s absolutely precious.

(more…)

Heh.

That’s USC alum Michael Walsh, a.k.a. lex icon, at left, and UCLA alum Mike Tran at right, looking pretty sanguine under the circumstances.

(This is all because I won a bet, in case you forgot.)

In accordance with the terms of the bet, Tran’s ride will be flag-adorned all day today and tomorrow. So there will be one extra Trojan car driving around the streets of L.A. (or Orange County, whatever) during the Rose Bowl.

Hopefully Mike will manage to contain his self-loathing enough not to drive across the center line or anything. ;)

Here’s another shot of just the car with the flag:

Fight on Trojans, Beat the Illini!!!