Down goes Tyson!

Iron Mike floored by Williams in Louisville
Mike Tyson was knocked out Friday night in the fourth round of his match with a British fighter named Danny Williams.

At 38 years old, this will likely be the end of Iron Mike's career. Let's hope this psycho quietly slips away so we don't have to hear from him again.

Giambi has benign tumor

Giambi has been undergoing tests
Jason Giambi has been diagnosed with a benign tumor. What does that mean? Darned if I -- or anyone else -- knows.

"The evaluation is not complete," general manager Brian Cashman said before New York played Baltimore on Thursday.

Anyway, he's going on the 15 day DL.

Way to go Niskayuna Baseball!

Ripken 04 Regional Tournament
Let's hear it for Niskayuna's 12-year-old Cal Ripken All-Stars. They won the state title for the third year in a row and are now 2-0 in the Mid-Atlantic regionals.

My nephew Louis was named defensive player of the game for his work at third base in today's win against Monroe County.

Big Unit could still wind up in Dodger blue

Johnson may consider deal to L.A.
Apparently the D-Backs tried pushing a trade to the Dodgers on Randy Johnson again. This time he said he'd sleep on it.

He better not sleep in. The trade deadline is noon tomorrow!

Herbie returns!

Keaton Steers Herbie
Michael Keaton is going to step into Dean Jones' shoes for a Herbie the Love Bug movie, called "Herbie: Fully Loaded." Disney-favorite Lindsay Lohan will co-star.

The very first movie I ever saw in the theater was "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo" in 1977. I must have been five years old. My brother Tim took me to see it at the old Mohawk Mall theaters (the old, old theaters before they remodeled in 1985).

I remember when "Herbie Goes Bananas" came out a few years later, I really wanted to see it, but never got to. However, I seem to remember cutting out and putting together a cardboard model of Herbie cut out from a Cheerios box.

It's funny. I only saw "Monte Carlo" the one time. While I will never forget that was my fist movie, I can't remember a single thing about the movie itself! I've seen the original "Herbie the Love Bug" a few times on TV and I remember more from that.

Either way, Herbie is still special to me -- so I hope this new movie doesn't stink!

(And how about that Michael Keaton -- getting to go from driving the Batmobile to driving Herbie?!?)

'Batman Begins' trailer arrives

BATMAN BEGINS

Even though Batman only appears in this teaser trailer for a few frames, it still looks like it will be good enough to wipe away memory of the "Batman & Robin" disaster.

The trailer actually appeared online yesterday, but I didn't get around to posting about it until today.

Rain record correction

I stand corrected. Lee Copson at WNYT just said that this has been the sixth wettest July on record.

We have company coming over for dinner on Sunday, and guess what - there is rain in the forecast!

From the home office in Chappaqua

Phone the neighbors, wake the kids! David Letterman just announced that he's going to have Bill Clinton on his show Aug. 3. As Johnny Carson used to say, "Fire up the Betamax!"

A-Rod, Varitek to sit 4 games

Eight players disciplined for roles in melee
So A-Rod and Jason Varitek both get the same suspension for their roles in the Big Boston Brawl on Saturday. Four games each.

Does this make since to anyone besides Boston fans? Watch the tape! Varitek clearly started it. It just a shouting match until he fired the first shot.

Let me get this straight -- a guy with a catcher's mask on shoves A-Rod in the face, and he's not allowed to fight back? I'm not saying A-Rod doesn't deserve some kind of punishment, but clearly Varitek deserves a harsher punishment than the guy he went after.

Don't worry...I'm sure A-Rod will appeal and I'll be shocked if he doesn't get a day or two shaved off his suspension.

Meanwhile, Sturtze Kapler and Nixon all got three games. I have no problem with that -- they all equally faught dirty. Although I'm surprised Ortiz got away with only a fine.

Report: Yanks want $750M park

Complex would be across from Stadium
Say it ain't so. I don't care if it is only across the street in the Bronx. How can you leave the House That Ruth Built?

At the laundromat -- yawn!

At the laundromat -- yawn! Cleaning a sleeping bag caught in the flood. What fun!

Gone fishin'

Fishermen rescued from Cohoes Falls
Remeber all that rain I was talking about? Check out this video from WNYT of a couple of guys who went fishing at the Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk River only to find themselves trapped on a rock when the water level suddenly rose way too fast.

Latest from the Randy Johnson Watch

The Seattle Times: Sports: NL notebook: Marlins might be in middle of three-team deal
The latest scuttle-butt suggests a three-team trade that would send some Marlins prospects Arizona, Jose Contreras to Florida and the Big Unit to New York.

Sounds intriguing, but for some reason I'm not holding my breath.

Start popping the corn!

Quint chats with Brad Bird about Pixar, INCREDIBLES and even Sam Jackson!!!:
Here's more from Brad Bird on "The Incredibles:...
"Well, the movie, I think... The IRON GIANT was kind of a quieter, smaller piece. While there's emotions in this (THE INCREDIBLES), I would say this is to IRON GIANT what RAIDERS was to E.T. This is more of a popcorn rollercoaster ride. It has a lot of humor in it, a lot of action in it. It's the kind of movie I would want to see. But we had a blast making it. Everybody at Pixar worked their asses off to make it as good as we possibly could before the clock ran out. I just think people will have a blast watching it. Large amounts of popcorn should be consumed. "

From AICN

Rain, rain go away

It's been raining a lot lately.  Actually, that's an understatement.  I heard one of the meteorologists on TV say this has been the wettest July on record since the late 1800s.

Last night, the ground said, "That's enough - I'm not soaking up anymore of this stuff!"  I went down into our basement around 8 p.m. to get some laundry and everything was nice and dry.  Around that time it started pouring four about two hours.  We watched a movie until about 10 p.m.  That's when I let Chester out and noticed that our pump was running.  So we checked the basement, and sure enough - there was about five inches of water down there!

We've lived in our house for seven years (almost to the day) and this has never happened before.  We were up until about 2 a.m. cleaning up the mess.  A lot of stuff got soaked.  Probably worst of all was our camping gear, which was sitting on the floor.  We didn't bother putting any of it away after our last trip because we have another one coming up soon.  That stuff can be dried out and cleaned, but I think I'm going to have to toss Mike's old car stereo.  I had pulled out of his Saturn when I traded it in.  I haven't been using it, so it was sitting in its box in cabinet in the basement - on the bottom shelf of the cabinet!  It was partially submerged, so it's probably useless now.

We got most of the water out last night.  I went to work late today because there is still a lot to do.  I had to replace the dryer hose because it filled up with water from the outside and broke.  Kris is busy right now trying to figure out how to dry everything out with her two "helpers."

It could have been worse.  Our neighbors across the street had water half-way up their basement - two or three-feet deep.  I heard about another house down the street from us that had water all the way up to their basement door!  I spoke to a firefighter last night and found out that there were flood basements all over town.

I always love a good thunderstorm, but enough is enough.  Let's hope for a dry August.

Lots of Yankee news

Fred McGriff worked out with the Yankees today, three days after Tampa Bay released him.  The Crime Dog is seven homers shy of 500, and the Yanks might give him a chance to hit that mark depending on Jason Giambi's test results.

Meanwhile, the Randy Johnson watch continues.  Apparently, the Big Unit nixed a trade to the Dodgers and said it's the Yankees or nothing.

Cell phone user gets pepper srayed

Movie drama starts with phone
A woman answers her cell phone while watching a movie in Florida. The next thing she knows, she and her boyfriend are being dragged out of the theater and getting sprayed with pepper spray!

They're first mistake was going to see "Catwoman."

The birthday boy

Sharon Reed sent us some pictures from Nolan's birthday party earlier this month. As you can tell from the ogre ears, the party had a "Shrek" theme.


Here's an action shot of Nolan, Simon and Danny in the bouncy-bounce.

To Bond or not to Bond

Sorting Out Those James Bond Rumors...
First he is coming back. Then he isn't coming back. The he is coming back. Now Pierce Brosnan is telling Entertainment Weekly he will not return as James Bond.

AICN claims the new 007 will be "Hulk" star Eric Bana.

Is this the new Batman?

The BATMAN BEGINS Batsuit leaked?
What could be the first clear image of Christian Bale as the Dark Knight in "Batman Begins" has leaked out on the Internet -- assuming it isn't a fanboy-inspired hoax.

MSNBC.com testing Newsbot

MSNBC.com has begun testing a new online news aggregation service called MSNBC Newsbot. The Newsbot uses MSN technology to search for news from more than 4,800 sources. The company said the service offers a variety of ways for users to customize their preferences. "People have more control over how and where they get their news, which we're confident will convince people to return every day, much as they would to a neighborhood newsstand," said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate VP of MSN Information Services and Merchant Platform.

From The Magid Morning Facts

'Excellent, Smithers!'

'The Simpsons' to host Homer-sexual wedding
The producers of "The Simpsons," Matt Groening and Al Jean, have announced that this year a longtime character will come out of the closet after gay marriage is legalized in Springfield. They aren't saying who it will be, but c'mon...I think we've all had our suspicions about a certain assistant to Mr. Burns for long time now!

'I ain't fallin' for no banana in my tailpipe!'

I’m watching “Beverly Hills Cop” on AMC right now. I forgot just how good this movie is! Although it is a little silly watching it with edited dialogue.

You've got to love the synthesizer-heavy Harold Faltermyer music. Remember how cool you thought the "Axel F" theme was in 1984?

What did they expect?

anncoulter.com

USA Today thought it would be clever to hire Ann Coulter to cover the Democratic National Convention and Michael Moore to cover the Republican National Convention.

Then the they actually read her first column and declared it "unusable" and "not funny" (you can read the column on her site). Granted, the column is pretty inflamatory and unfunny. But you have to wonder, what were they expecting from Coulter?

It will be interesting to see if they go ahead with Michael Moore's column from the RNC.

Read more at The Drudge Report.

A clear security threat

They just reported on MSNBC that Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was booted from the Democratic National Convention for not having the proper credentials.

The 'real' Thing

Chiklis Suits Up For Four
Good news fellow comic book geeks. Michael Chiklis, who will play Ben Grimm (aka the Thing) in the upcoming "Fantastic Four" movie, says the ever-lovin' blue eyed Thing will NOT be a CGI character.

"If he was going to be done in the way that the Hulk was done, then I felt that I would be wasted. And I was assured from the get-go that that wasn’t going to be the case. And I was thrilled," the actor said at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Personally, I didn't mind the CGI Hulk that much, although I know I'm in the minority there. I don't know if the Hulk could have been done any other way. However, if you can do something well without resorting the CGI, then all the better.

It seems like ever since Jar Jar Binks walked on the screen, there has been a backlash against unnecessary CGI.

Thanks Paul DeGeorgio

Reality TV...Iraqi style

Reality TV hits home in Baghdad csmonitor.com

Iraq has its first reality TV show. It's called "Labor and Materials" and it's Iraq's answer to ABC's "Extreme Home Makeover." Watch as bombed out Baghdad homes are rebuilt!

Next, Saddam and bin Laden will star in a new show called "Trading Spider Holes."

Bush vs. Kerry on 'Fear Factor'

To Kerry: Smart money on 'Fear Factor'

It seems "Fear Factor" is the number one reality show among undecided voters.

I say the heck with debates this year. Bring on Joe Rogan and lets see which candidate can eat the most bugs, walk a high wire and jump out of a helicopter!

"My Wife and Kids" is the top sitcom for udecided voters and "CSI: Miami" is the top drama.

Brad Bird talks about 'The Incredibles'

COMIC-CON: Previewing THE INCREDIBLES This movie sounds like it's going to be great. I've loved everything Pixar has done. And now "The Incredibles" sounds like a comic book geek's dream come true.

Welcome to the world of blogging

So I've started my own blog. I'm not sure why. I guess simply because I can. It seemed like the thing to do. After all, all the cool kids have a blog!