Will they shut up now?

I lived in Boston for about 7 years, so I know the constant rumble of "curse" and whining about failure as September and October roll around. But, now that the Red Sox have won the World Series for the first time in 86 years, will those fans finally shut up? Will they just invent new outside influences to explain failure if there is no victory repeat next year? Or will they finally fess up to the fact that the Red Sox have always had good players, but has rarely been a good *team*.

Even this World Series, what I had time to see of it anyway, was a symphony of "which team can screw up less each game?"

Regardless: celebrate, Boston. You deserve it.

Boston.com: Victory transforms a region's identity

I have to wonder, though: what the hell is the deal with Red Sox flags in graveyards?

The truth hurts

The Ozy and Millie comic Hits the Nail on the head again...

Rocky Horror-a-thon

While attempting to gauge who in LA that I know will care that the Red Sox are in the World Series, so I can also appear enthusiastic as needed (not really plugged into this since I'm up to my eyeballs in school, and they have too large a history of choking anyway...), I found some other Massachusetts information worth posting.

AIDS Action Committee: Rocky Horror Benefit to Attempt Guinesss Record Friday, October 22 at Midnight to Sunday, October 24 at 2AM.

Thirteen performances in a row. Go team!

I feel 5 years old again...

Humor the old geek reminiscing about seeing the original Superman in 1978 (RIP big guy).

Bryan Singer feeds rumors into the mill on the new Superman movie

Granted, Ain't It Cool News is a fun site that is often filled with unsubstantiated movie production stories, but this is the director spilling the beans twice.

• Tim Burton would have given us an excellent dark twist on the Superman mythology, and Kevin Smith supposedly wrote a pretty darn tootin' good script once upon a time, but then there was talk of casting Nicolas Frickin' Cage as the lead, and well... I'm glad this went back to the drawing board.
• Byran Singer has recently given us the X-Men movies, so he can do decent comic book movies
• They appear to have cast an unknown actor as the lead
• Alas, scheduled for 2006, but I waited four years for Return of the King
• Alas², IMDB's plot summary mentions an oogy twist to the origin story, but I can't expect as clean a retelling as we got in Spiderman every time

Me like.

Tv-B-Gone

I'm thinking this would make a nice birthday gift *hint*hint*

Wired News: Inventor Rejoices as TVs Go Dark

(via BoingBoing)

Fly On, Superman

CNN.com - Christopher Reeve dies at 52 - Oct 11, 2004

A telling quote from the article, given the re-emergence of stem cell research as a campaign issue:

The actor went through months of therapy to train himself to breathe without the continuous aid of a respirator. He then became an advocate for the disabled, lobbying Congress, appearing at the Academy Awards and returning to acting and directing. His name was mentioned by Sen. John Kerry during Friday's presidential debate when the talk turned to stem cell research.

Reeve himself was vocal on the subject. In 2001, while President Bush considered a decision on stem cell research -- he eventually allowed federal funding of research using existing stem cell lines -- Reeve spoke to CNN's John King about the impact of delaying study.

"That would be a big mistake because you could spend the next five years doing research on the adult stem cells and find that they are not capable of doing what we know that embryonic cells can do now," he said. "And five years of unnecessary research to try to create something that we already have would cause -- well, a lot of people are going to die while we wait."

Now, if only we could get Kerry to point out that embryonic stem cells do not come from fully-formed fetuses...

Caffeinated Beer

I'm all for new products and a little innovation in the beverage category, even if Pitch Black ended up being really horrible, but this is just plain wrong. Stupid name aside, this is going to suck purely because it's from the makers of Budweiser. Bleh!

CNN: Sweet! Caffeinated, ginseng beer
Anheuser-Busch's new brew created to compete with drinks popular in clubs.
October 5, 2004: 11:14 AM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Brewer Anheuser-Busch says it will introduce a caffeinated, sweet-flavored beer for twentysomething club goers to compete with the flavored rums and vodkas gaining ground on the dance floor.

The new beer B(E) -- read as "B to the E power" -- will roll out in several phases starting in November.

(as /.ed)

Tidbits

I'm teaching this quarter (TA for what is essentially an intro genetics course), so I'm already over-extended and sleep-deprived six days into the quarter. Here's some stuff I've been meaning to post about.

• GOOD STUFF CATEGORY: SpaceShipOne captures X Prize
• BAD STUFF CATEGORY: Rhino hunting approved by wildlife delegates