Non-baseball items, part II Showing 1,401-1,428 of 1,428

[C. John]

Brina wrote: "Interesting discussion with my students today. Across the board my students love soccer. Football. Whatever you want to call it. The boys know all the men’s players and ask me am I team Ronaldo or ..."

What is coverage of women's football like down there. If there is not a lot of coverage, and by that I mean actually being able to watch the games that might account for it.

[Brina]

Well all US national games are televised on a major network. The NWSL final was on CBS. I noticed the NWSL playoffs on networks as well. Regular league games are sometimes on Amazon Prime, ESPN, or NWSL + which is probably part of ESPN +. But I’m wondering is if the national team games are always on and marketed why girls who play soccer aren’t watching them.

[C. John]

Could be any number of reasons. One interesting one that crops up is that sports are being shown on television at the same time as people are playing that sport. Also many people that actively play a sport find watching the sport on television to be boring.

[C. John]

Apparently today is Human Rights Day. It was on this day in 1948 that the UN adopted the Declaration of Human Rights. I can think of a few people that won't be celebrating (one has the initials N.F.). Any way Happy Human Rights Day everyone.

[C. John]

In regards Whamageddon, apparently if you hear Last Christmas by anyone other than Wham it doesn't count, so I am still in the competition.

[C. John]

Oops. Yesterday was actually Human Rights Day. Change my calendar, which is getting difficult to do, and discover that it was on this day in 1936 that Edward VIII abdicated so he could marry Wallis Simpson, that American woman as she is sometimes referred to.

[C. John]

Okay I have never ever heard of this happening before. On Wednesday an MP named Michael Ma attended the Conservative Party Christmas celebration. No surprise there as he was a member of that party. On Thursday he attended the Liberal Party Christmas Celebrations. He wasn't there as a guest but because he was now a member of the Liberal Party. He crossed the floor that day. Interestingly that now brings the Liberals to 171 seats in the Commons. A majority is 172.

[C. John]

My apologies. Went to do a song for tomorrow and discovered I have missed yesterday and today. Not sure how that one happened. I will do three tomorrow.

[C. John]

Okay we have to play catch-up on the musical Advent calendar so here goes

Dec. 11th Pentatonix: Mary Did You Know?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifCWN...

Dec. 12th Batson Haines: Santa's Having a Tailgate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HW42...

Dec. 13th:Barbie: Deck the Halls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HW42...

This last one is from the video release Barbie A Perfect Christmas. This isn't a bad movie actually and if you have daughters or granddaughters of the right age they may enjoy it. As you can tell from this clip there is no Ken. We are now caught up and hopefully this does not happen again.

[C. John]

Here is a bonus video for you. The song is Snowlight Over the Highlands. It is supposedly a Celtic Christmas Carol. Be warned when I watched it they stuck a commercial in the middle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLEja...

[C. John]

Apparently Twisted Sister (remember them) released a Christmas Album at one time. Must see if it is on Spotify and give it a listen. Should be good.

[Lance]

Been watching more hockey lately- both the college hockey I love and the NHL. Very excited that the Wild acquired Quinn Hughes from the Canucks. Won the Norris Trophy two years ago and now joins one of the most exciting players in Kaprizov and the rock solid goaltending tandem of Gustafson and Wallenbach. The Wild are going for it al this year and I love it.

[C. John]

And now for today's selection. This one probably falls under the category "where he hell did he find this one".

Palmyra Delran: Coal in My Fishnet Stocking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8YV4...

[Lance]

C. John wrote: "Apparently Twisted Sister (remember them) released a Christmas Album at one time. Must see if it is on Spotify and give it a listen. Should be good."

I wish I didn’t remember them - one of the worst concerts I ever attended

[C. John]

Grand Slam Track, the athletic league founded by Olympic sprint legend Michael Johnson filed for bankruptcy on Thursday. Apparently athletes and vendors have not been paid. They cancelled their final event.

[C. John]

I have mentioned that the Guardian has taken to calling the upcoming World Cup the Geopolitics World Cup. I have now come across a reference to it as the Trade War World Cup. Given who the hosts are not a bad name really.

[C. John]

Director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle were found in their home stabbed to death. No other details known at this point.

[C. John]

Rene Simard: Sainte Nuit

Actually this is supposed to be Rene and Natalie Simard and the Little Singers of Granby, at least according to the credits on Spotify, and it is from the Simard's Christmas album. However it sounds to me like only the Little Singers on this track. Ah well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb1ur...

[C. John]

If you go to The Brown Jug, a restaurant in Ann Arbor, you can order the following two items: Sherrone Moore's Sampler Basket or Paige
Shiver's Gluten Free Cauliflower Pizza.

[C. John]

My Morning Brew newsletter informs me that Wham's Last Christmas is on Spotify's Global Top 50 (at number 2). Haven't heard it so far.

[C. John]

Here is an item on Christmas music. Some stuff in here I didn't know. I know one thing, if you stopped in the Zeller's store I worked at you wouldn't hear any Christmas music over the PA system until after Remembrance Day. That was the choice of our store manager and remained store policy even when he got transferred. Although the article is from the Wall Street Journal I managed to read it with no problem.

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/musi...

[C. John]

My 15-year old daughter just came up to me and asked me who Robin Hood was.

[C. John]

The next selection for the Advent Calendar is by a Canadian singer.
Marie-Lynn Hammond: Christmas in Barbados

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDu_D...

[C. John]

Okay, a question for people. Listening to Christmas music on Spotify there is a reference in one song to a 'dreidel'. What is a dreidel? I gather it is Jewish in origin and probably connected to Hanukkah but that is all I know. By the way, I trust all my Jewish friend on this site are enjoying Hanukkah, though I won't be surprised if Brina is being run off her feet cooking.

[C. John]

Just listened to a Christmas song by Robert Goulet. I had to look him on on Wikipedia. Ed Sullivan always referred to him as Canadian but I understood he was from the States. Turns out he was born in the US (his parents were French Canadian) but he moved to Canada at age 13 and spent his formative years here.

[C. John]

As you are probably aware Trump is suing the BBC. What I found amusing is that the American news reports I read said he is suing for 10 billion dollars while the British repots say it is 10 billion pounds. There is a difference there.

[C. John]

The BBC has turned it Sports Team of the Year over to a public vote. The shortlist includes The Lionesses (women's soccer), the Red Roses (women's rugby) the European Ryder Cup team. I would vote but there is no link to the site for that in the article I was reading.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/202...

[C. John]

At a Rugby Champions Cup match on Saturday Toulouse were leading Glasgow Warriors 21-0. It should be noted too that Toulouse are described as the most illustrious club in Europe. At the end of the match it was Glasgow Warriors 28 - Toulouse 21.