Friday fashion report

Friday at my school is Free Dress Day, and nothing says "Free Dress Day" like a Mesut Ozil Real Madrid jersey...

...unless it's a counterfeit Mesut Ozil Real Madrid jersey. 

For Mesut Ozil's official website, click here.

For an unofficial Mesut Ozil website that has actual photos and information, click here.

For highlights of Mesut Ozil's 2011-12 season, watch the video below.

Transfer rumor #1 - summer 2012 edition

For some reason, in the last one or two dozen hours, the internet has decided that AC Milan are selling Thiago Silva (pictured below) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (pictured further below) to the French club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). 

It is possible that the internet has decided to believe this ridiculous rumor because of the statement by AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi that the two players have, in fact, been sold. We will keep you posted.

What I think I know about this past weekend's Mariners-A's series

The Seattle Mariners were in Oakland this past weekend for a three-game series with the A's. I listened to the last half inning of Friday's game on the radio and saw the last few innings of Sunday's game on television. In addition, I skimmed a few articles on the internet and listened to a couple of minutes of sports talk radio at various points over the weekend. I don't normally follow either club all that closely (although I do live in the same city that the Mariners play in and do have a certain fondness for the A's) and probably could name less than a dozen players who play for the two teams combined. What follows is my report about what happened over the course of this weekend's series. Note-- the spelling of all names is merely an approximation.

• The A's won on Friday night in extra innings. Chris Carter, who I believe is a first baseman, hit a three-run walk-off home run to win the game 4-1. There is no reason to believe that Chris Carter is related to the former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver who has basically the same name. (See photo below)

• The Mariners won 7-1 on Saturday. Vargas pitched well for Seattle. I am pretty sure that his first name is Jason.
• The A's won on Sunday 2-1 in 13 innings (maybe it was 12) on a walk-off double or single (hit by some guy who might have had blond or light-brown hair) that scored Jemil Weeks all the way from first base. I am not actually sure about the spelling of Weeks's first name, but I do wonder if he is related to Ricky Weeks, who might still be playing for the Milwaukee Brewers.
• On Sunday, the starting pitchers were Bartolo Colon and Felix Hernandez. Bartolo Colon is pretty old and doesn't appear to be in the best physical shape, but he apparently still pitches well. Felix Hernandez does pitch well but will someday almost surely leave the Mariners for a far better, far wealthier club. (See photos below)

Above: Bartolo Colon 

Below: Felix Hernandez looking at his glove

• Sunday's game featured an appearance by Mariners reliever Oliver Perez. Some of you may remember Perez from his days as a New York Met, for whom he pitched in the 2006 playoffs.
• Sunday's game was also marked at the end by several visual distractions which made it difficult for the players to field fly balls and pop-ups-- a high sun and a swarm of seagulls flying over the diamond (probably more than a hundred).

Below: An example of seagulls-- not the actual ones from Sunday's game

• On Sunday, both teams wore uniforms different from the ones they normally wear. At first, I took them to be the uniforms of their minor league affiliates, but further research indicates that the teams were wearing throwback uniforms of the Seattle Rainiers and Oakland Oaks of the old Pacific Coast League.
• In each game, the losing team only scored one run.
• The two pitching staffs are ranked first and second in pitching in the American League, but I am not sure which team is first and which is second. I am also not sure what statistics were being used in these rankings. This information comes from the Mariners television announcers during Sunday's game. These announcers also claimed that today's baseball players rarely listen to "oldies music".
• The A's and the Mariners are in 3rd and 4th place respectively in the American League West; the A's are exactly at the .500 mark, and the Mariner's record is around 36-51.

Next up-- the All-Star Game!

For actual, more reliable information about these games, you could start by clicking here, here, or here.

What's wrong with this picture?

On the Sports Illustrated for kids website SIKids.com, there is a photo display of World Cup X Factors-- players who may make the difference for their team in the 2010 World Cup. The photo above is captioned "Kaka". Can you tell what is wrong with this picture?

Most interesting email subject line of the week

Classroom help for busy teachers - a new Drew Carey DVD

The video preview is below:

Click here.

What I have been reading lately #39

Blood, Sweat, and Tea: Real-Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulance-- by Tom Reynolds

Tom Reynolds (real name-- Brian Kellett) is an emergency medical technician in London. He writes a blog about his job. Some of the posts from the blog were collected and published in this book. The book was very entertaining.

The Class-- by Francois Begaudeau

Francois Begaudeau was a teacher in Paris who wrote a novel about his experiences. The novel was then turned into a movie. I liked both the book and the movie.

2009-2010 Serie A Update #2

Prior to today's matches, here is the Serie A table:

2009/2010 Italian Serie A
CLUB	P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
Internazionale	10	8	1	1	17	25
Juventus	10	6	3	1	10	21
Sampdoria	10	6	2	2	5	20
Parma	10	5	2	3	0	17
AC Milan	10	4	4	2	-1	16
Genoa	10	5	1	4	-2	16
Palermo	10	4	3	3	1	15
Fiorentina	10	4	3	3	1	15
Bari	10	3	5	2	3	14
Chievo Verona	10	4	2	4	2	14
Udinese	10	4	2	4	0	14
Napoli	10	4	2	4	-2	14
Cagliari	10	4	1	5	-1	13
AS Roma	10	3	2	5	-2	11
Lazio	10	2	4	4	-4	10
Atalanta	10	2	3	5	-3	9
Bologna	10	2	3	5	-6	9
Livorno	10	2	3	5	-6	9
Catania	10	1	4	5	-5	7
Siena	10	1	2	7	-7	5
· Complete Table

Notice that, if Milan had held on and won last Wednesday's game at Napoli, they would now be in fourth place.

As an added bonus, here are a couple of videos. The first one appears to be one of a series in which we get to watch a group of men watching Napoli games on television. In the second, we get to watch an announcer calling the same game. Again, there appears to be an entire series of these videos. The match is Napoli-Juventus from last season, I believe.

Photo I wished I could find #1

In a recent post, I stated that I wished I could find a photo of Bologna's Nicola Mingazzini playing with his head all bandaged up. This morning I searched Google Images again and found such a photo--

.

The search terms I used were Mingazzini and head.

Interesting junk e-mail #2

Once again, my cancelled subscription to a Brazilian petroleum industry on-line newsletter has generated an interesting junk e-mail.

Picture of the day: It is all coming together now

Here at Ape Canyon News Service, we have spent most of the summer worrying about unsigned NBA guard Allen Iverson and a little bit of the summer learning about former NFL quarterback Doug Williams. Then today we stumbled across this photograph (above) showing Allen Iverson wearing a Doug Williams Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey. We do not know when the photograph was taken, but it appears to be at some sort of 3-point shootout sponsored by the Foot Locker corporation.

More about what other people are doing with Lego

The Bible has now been translated into Lego. (Above: the animals enter Noah's Ark two by two)

In addition, the NBA has also been translated into Lego.

Above: Antoine Walker, Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, and friends playing basketball

Interesting junk e-mail #1

I once subscribed to a Brazilian petroleum industry on-line newsletter, and now I got unsolicited emails that have things like this in them:

Facts you might not know about Kevin Appier

Here are some facts you might not know about Kevin Appier:

• Kevin Appier was a right-handed pitcher for the Royals, Athletics, Mets, Angels, and Royals (again).
• Kevin Appier pitched in the major leagues from 1989 to 2004.
• Kevin Appier had a career record of 169-137 with an ERA of 3.74.
• Kevin Appier's best season was probably 1993, when he went 18-8 with a 2.56 ERA for the Royals.
• Kevin Appier made 5 postseason appearances with the Athletics and Angels, and his record was 0-2.
• Kevin Appier was once traded for Mo Vaughn (2001).
• Kevin Appier briefly attempted a comeback in 2006. He pitched for the Tacoma Rainiers, AAA affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. During that time, I went to a Rainiers game and got to see Kevin Appier hanging out in the bullpen. According to the journal entry I made at the time-- "Tacoma won 1-0 --We mostly watched Kevin Appier in the bullpen-- spewing out sunflower seed shells, spitting large amounts of a clear fluid, leaning back, and once stamping his feet." (See photos below, taken by Jeremy, a friend of my step-brother Justin).

• If you search on the internet, it is possible to find people who believe that Kevin Appier deserves to be in baseball's Hall of Fame.
• Kevin Appier was born on December 6, 1967, the exact same day I was.

Elsewhere on the internet

This summer Deadspin.com has been running a regular feature about major league baseball stadiums called Why Your Stadium Sucks. In honor of the All-Star Game, this week's column featured the new Busch Stadium, and it also included a contribution from one of the folks here at Ape Canyon News Service. (Keep reading - you will find it.)

Most of the installments in this series actually talk about the stadiums themselves, but this one focuses on the St. Louis fans, who are widely rumored to be the "Best Fans in Baseball."

For the record, here is my personal list of the most shameful moments in Cardinals fan history:

• Redbird fans boo Garry Templeton and Keith Hernandez on their returns to St. Louis after being traded;
• St. Louis welcomes and embraces slugger Mark McGwire;
• Fans throw cowbells and other objects at the San Francisco Giants outfielder Jeff Leonard during the 1987 National League Championship series.

Blogs we're watching

http://sticksylvania.blogspot.com/