Catching Ducks

From her liveblog of the Seattle @ L.A. game:


During her warmup about two-hours before game-time on Tuesday, Emmy-award winning actress Jane Lynch waltzed in with her family. Jackson freaked and ran over to give her a big hug, totally blushing. Lynch was just as excited to get smothered by the 6-foot-6 center, posing for a photo with Jackson and some teammates. [Coach] Agler was the photographer.

So, Jackson was all groupie for Lynch, right? I asked her about it afterward, especially how she literally bolted over and hugged the woman, who she does not know. "She was so nice about it," said Jackson when I teased that she was lucky Lynch was surrounded by CIA or security. "If somebody tried to do that to me, I'd say 'What in the hell are you doing?' I don't have a nice bone in my body." Jackson is lying about the last part, but I guess C Ashley Robinson and I told the Australian the same thing after her reaction to Lynch -- Jackson should understand and be warm the next time a fan freaks out about seeing her. We'll see.

Labels: Seattle Storm

From "This Year's Model" (1.06):


[In English class...]

Mr. O'Neill: Is Mr. Thoreau really turning his back on the world by moving to Walden Pond, or is he, by his example, trying desperately to save the world after all? [Brittany]?

Brittany: He wasn't on Walden Pond because he hated the world. He was just mad at Jane Fonda. You know, he was her father in real life, too.

Labels: Daria

From her twitter, after last night's Seattle/LA game:


Sue Bird hooked up my iPod while I was in Seattle. I now have Kanye next to Kidz Bop and Kindermusik. Will be fun on "shuffle".

Labels: music, Seattle Storm

The game was way closer than it should have been. I blame Tulsa for beating L.A. (in L.A. -- ouch!). It made them mad. But the Storm prevailed, and won the game on two Sue Bird free throws.

I figured she'd make both. If she can hit a three-pointer over DeWanna Bonner, she can swish two free throws to win the game.


Funny tweet from Richard Cohen:

"Hee. It's kind of fun listening to the ESPN2 commentators dance around 'LA can't rebound, and their defense is abysmal' Call a pig a pig."


Jayda Evans says: "Seattle (17-12) is one within clinching an eighth consecutive playoff berth, which would match LA (12-17) for the WNBA's longest postseason streak (1999-2006).


ETA: Ped and I were wondering why Le'Coe Willingham played less than six minutes. This tumblr post suggests she's ill.

Labels: Seattle Storm

From The Same River Twice, because we were talking about this at the Storm game tonight:


[UConn Assistant Coach Chris "CD" Dailey] peruses The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, specifically a preview of tonight's Huskies versus Huskies matchup. [...] CD cites a quote by U-Dub senior Megan Franza, who has expressed a desire to score the first basket in her school's new arena [Bank of America Arena]. [...] Sue Bird -- not Megan Franza -- scores the first basket of the new arena...

Labels: Seattle Storm, UConn basketball

From "Louise Revisited" (2.04):


Natalie: Hello.

Jeremy: Aaah!

Natalie: Did I scare you?

Jeremy: No.

Natalie: Why did you yell?

Jeremy: I meant to say "hi."

Natalie: What happened?

Jeremy: I misspoke?

Labels: Sports Night

Now with more UConn Alumni quotes!

Labels: Seattle Storm

From "6 Bizarre Incidents that Prove God Hates Sports":


But both of these disasters pale in comparison to a 1998 soccer game between two Congolese teams. They were tied in a thrilling (well, as far as soccer goes) 1-1 game when a storm began to brew overhead. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning streaked out of the sky and hit the visiting team -- killing all 11 players instantly. The home team was left unharmed, leading to immediate suspicions of witchcraft.

We actually don't have a convincing argument to counter that claim.

Labels: random weirdness

Jayda Evans had an article about Swin Cash's offensive woes: "Injuries and personal matters have toyed with the Storm's lineup and just as Jackson neared her return and veteran Katie Smith found her shot, Cash lost hers."

In yesterday's WNBAlien post, Richard Cohen also discussing Swin's shooting: "Whoever stole Swin Cash’s offensive game needs to return it as soon as possible. I’m sure the Storm would happily offer a reward."

More generally, he said:

"For Seattle, this was a second game in a row that they’d managed to find a way to win own the stretch. Even if she fouled out of the last game and played under 25 minutes in this one, it can’t be a coincidence that the wins occurred just as Jackson returned. She shot 6-11 for 13 points and seven rebounds in this one, and you can see the extra confidence that just having her out there gives her teammates. Their turnovers will come down simply because 'throw it to Lauren' is now an option again."

Labels: Seattle Storm

Especially in the push for playoffs.

The Storm struggled a bit against Tulsa for the first 2 1/2 quarter, but eventually they pulled ahead enough to keep Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson on the bench for the fourth quarter.

LJ picked up a technical at the end of the third, but the player she was tussling with also got T'ed up, so no one shot a free throw. Sue Bird tried to drag Lauren Jackson away from the officials, but apparently she wasn't fast enough!

Labels: Seattle Storm

From yesterday's post, about the Minnesota @ Tulsa game:


It was fun watching Taj McWilliams-Franklin [Minnesota Lynx] take on Liz Cambage [Tulsa Shock] in the post – Taj is literally old enough to be her mother, but still showed more agility and quickness than the big rookie in sliding past her for a couple of layups. Then Liz decided enough was enough, and just reached over and blocked a McWilliams-Franklin attempt from behind. Sometimes it’s good to be 6’8” tall.

Labels: WNBA

Swish Appeal ranks Sue Bird as 3rd in their MVP Rankings: "Bird's argument for the MVP award is pretty clear: it's hard to imagine the Storm being close to playoff contention without Sue Bird."


In the off-season, Katie Smith is going to head back to Ohio State (her alma mater) to study nutrition and learn about coaching.


The "Sue Bird 10th Anniversary video tribute":



(My favorite bit is at 2:24.)

Labels: Seattle Storm

From "The Rapes of Graff" (2.16):


[Veronica and Dean play two truths and a lie...]

Veronica: Okay, I'm Veronica. I'm from Neptune [California]. And I once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

Dean: Oh, how'd that go?

Veronica: It was a bit of a letdown.

Dean: Hmm. Well, uh, I don't believe that you're from Neptune.

Veronica: Wrong. Is that the end?

Dean: Um, okay. Well, my name is Dean, I'm from Wheaton, Illinois. My father owns a Ford dealership, and I also shot a man in Reno, but it wasn't to watch him die, it was for, other issues.

Veronica: Your father doesn't sell Fords.

Dean: That's right, Toyotas. How did you know?

Veronica: It's all in the eyes.

Labels: Veronica Mars

Occasionally Cracked.com does a "n Images You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped" post. They're all awesome.

They posted an eighth today, and #11 is definitely my favorite, both because it's beautiful and because it's so surreal.

Labels: random awesomeness, random weirdness

Not necessarily pretty, but good.

For the second game in a row (and only the second time this season), the Storm won a game after trailing entering the fourth quarter.

Lauren Jackson played about 25 minutes, didn't foul out, seemed to tire easily, but still kicked butt. Because she is awesome.

Swin Cash (apparently) decided that if her offense isn't working, she'll just pull down every rebound in the game. Hey, whatever works!

And, just for fun, a little "awwwww....."

Labels: Seattle Storm

From this Seattle Times chat:


Q: If you were on Twitter, would you follow @SueBirdsHair?

Bird: (Laughing) I've heard about this. I guess I'd have to, right? I mean, it is my hair. Technically, it's always following me anyway.

Labels: Seattle Storm

From this post about the after-the-credits "tags" in movies:


The purpose of [Rise of the Planet of the Apes] is to tell the story of how (1) apes got really smart, and (2) humans got wiped out. Those are its two table-setting stories. The first story makes up, oh, 98 percent of the movie.

[...]

And then at the end of the movie you get, in effect: "P.S. Also humanity is wiped out by a superbug."

There are certainly hints of trouble for humanity before this point, but maybe two minutes of screen time is spent on them, and as of the first appearance of the credits, I turned to my friend and said, "So the sick guy was in the movie for no reason whatsoever." And then after a few names had rolled by, the film returned with a sequence — a short scene, and then an animation — in which humanity was wiped out.

Let me repeat that. Humanity was wiped out after the credits. Humanity was wiped out in the tag. The end of humankind was considered the equivalent of a blooper reel. And while the end of humankind would certainly be a blooper, this seems like rather a lot to pack into a post-credits sequence that might be missed by people who, for instance, stop a DVD when the credits roll. I don't have problems with people who leave immediately missing a bonus sequence. I do have problems with them missing the apocalypse.

Labels: Linda Holmes, movies

Lauren Jackson goes fishing! There's video, too.

The Tulsa Shock broke a record that they didn't want to break: They have lost eighteen games in a row, the most in WNBA history. Poor Tulsa. I hope they win at least one more this season -- just not against the Storm!

At last night's New York/Seattle game, New York players and coaches were screaming for a foul at the end of the game, but Sue Bird is confident she didn't foul Essence Carson when she stripped the ball from her.

Speaking of the New York/Seattle game, here's the WNBA's official game highlights video:

Labels: Seattle Storm, WNBA

From "Shot in the Dark" (3.07):


Michael: I told the kid I would help. If you want to sit this one out, you can.

Sam: No, no. I get it. Little kid, abusive dad, it kind of hits home, so I'll give you that one. But when the time comes to rescue a bunch of rich women trapped in a brewery, you better step up.

Labels: Burn Notice

After Lauren Jackson's surgery in late June, they said she would be out for 8-12 weeks. As Richard Cohen wrote yesterday:

"Lauren Jackson was medically cleared today to return to action for the Seattle Storm. Brian Agler is being coy on whether she’ll actually play in tomorrow’s game against New York, but given that this is LJ it’d hardly be a surprise to see her out there. She must be absolutely itching to play by now. For those interested in the maths, this is a little earlier than even the most optimistic end of the timescale offered when Jackson had surgery on her hip. The statement back then said 8-12 weeks, and we’ve barely reached seven. Good news for the Storm; bad news for the rest of the Western Conference."

He continued, "Jackson wasn’t playing all that well before her surgery, but presumably that was at least in part because she was fighting through pain. There might well be a period of recovery time while she works her way back to full fitness, but the Storm should benefit from her presence immediately. If nothing else, she adds someone with true size to their diminutive front line, and an elite interior defender even if her shot takes its time coming back. It’ll be interesting to see how fit she is and how long it takes for her to reacclimate."

The answer? About fifteen seconds. That's when she put up a shot on a feed from Sue Bird, got fouled, and made both of her free throws. Forty seconds later she sunk a three-pointer. A minute later she got a block, and two seconds later she grabbed a rebound. Twenty seconds later she grabbed another rebound. She came out of the game a minute later with five points (1-1 from the three-point line, 2-2 from the free throw line), two rebounds, and one block. Welcome back, LJ!!

She only played 22 minutes, but she was the game-leading scorer with 20 points, 7 rebounds, a steal, and a block. She fouled out of the game, unfortunately, but still -- wow!

Tanisha Wright just got back into town this morning, so Katie Smith started again. Swin Cash is still struggling a bit. Sue Bird was her normal self.

The Storm won -- barely -- with a great first quarter, and crappy to mediocre second, third, and fourth quarters. Came through in the end, though!

Did I mention it's good to have Lauren Jackson back?

Labels: Seattle Storm

From "Basic Genealogy" (1.18):


Abed: I hope they're not twins. Twins freak me out. They always know what the other one is—

Troy: —Thinking?

Abed: Yeah. And they're always finishing each other's—

Troy: —Pie?

Abed: Exactly. It's creepy.

Labels: Community

Quick, what is "taser" an acronym for?

According to io9, it's "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle".

Labels: random weirdness

From her twitter, in response to this official Seattle Storm tweet:


"[Lauren Jackson] cleared to play. [Coach] Agler unsure if versus [New York on Saturaday], but we're talkin' about LJ."

Labels: Seattle Storm

Lauren Jackson is veeerrrryyyy close to being ready to play.

One of the tumblr's I've been following dug up a picture of Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi goofing around during their UConn days. Those crazy kids!

Apparently Rebecca Lobo's daughter is vaguely aware that at some point, Mommy might have played some basketball.

Labels: Seattle Storm, UConn basketball

Today over at WNBAlien, Richard Cohen reviewed some of the things people entered into their search engines to arrive at his site. Here's one of my favorites:


why doesn’t brian agler play belinda snell

Because Brian Agler hates bench players. I think a bench may have fallen on him as a small child.

Labels: Seattle Storm

From Swin Cash's twitter:

"Well I guess this lady looked suspicious. The security patted down her ponytail LMBO!"

(I love the pic of the "suspicious lady"!)

Labels: Seattle Storm

From "Lucky Strike" (5.06):


Daria: Okay. We know Mr. O'Neill assigned a play, and you're pretty sure the title didn't contain the word "alien." Do you remember anything else?

Joey: Uh, I think the guy on the cover was wearing tights.

Daria: Hmm. Since there are no wrestling dramas on the syllabus, I'm guessing Shakespeare.

Jeffy: Wait, I remember now. He's a stalker. He follows girls home from parties and peeks in their windows.

Daria: Romeo and Juliet.

Labels: Daria

Well, technically they're the same team: the Seattle Storm. But the Storm that lost 92-63 to Atlanta didn't look anything like the team that lost 81-79 to Phoenix.

The Storm dominated early, but Phoenix kept at it, and pulled out the win in the last couple of minutes. To be fair, Seattle was hampered not just by the now-normal-but-hopefully-over-soon loss of Lauren Jackson, but also the loss (due to a death in the family) of their top defender, Tanisha Wright. Considering they were down two starters, I think a two-point loss on the road isn't embarrassing.

The first quarter was an insane Sue Bird vs. Diana Taurasi battle. A few minutes into the game (when the score was 9-5 Seattle), Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi were the only players that had scored. By the end of the first quarter, Bird had 13 of Seattle's 21 points and Taurasi had 9 of Phoenix's 13. (Their final totals were closer than the final score: Bird 23, Taursai 24.)


A couple notes:

-Lauren Jackson suited up and warmed up, but did not play. There's talk she might play on Saturday against New York. Much earlier than the 8-12 weeks she was expected to miss!

-I love Swin Cash, I really do, but... She is not clutch. She's just not. She has proved in the last couple of close games (New York, Phoenix) that she struggles to hit the game-winning shot -- even when they're relatively easy lay-ups. Dear Coach Agler: give the ball to Sue Bird or Katie Smith or Tanisha Wright or even Camille Little. But not Swin Cash.

-Jayda Evans has an article about the struggles to repeat a championship.

Labels: Seattle Storm

From "Game Changer" (1.19):


[Gloria helps Manny with his homework...]

Gloria: Are you sure there's not an "E-I" in the middle?

Manny: No its "I-E".

Gloria: Good, Papi. If I can't fool you, then your teachers can't fool you either.

Manny: I don't think they're trying to fool me.

Labels: Modern Family

Writing about that awful (for us) Atlanta @ Seattle game:


"The game didn’t last long as a contest in the second half. Five straight buckets – all jump shots – rained in for Atlanta to start the half, while Seattle had a couple of misses and four consecutive turnovers. The Storm fans really must’ve felt like they were sitting at home in front of their computers – they usually only see performances like this from their team on LiveAccess and NBA TV."

Labels: Seattle Storm

Before last night's game I was chatting with my friends that came, and I mentioned that my mom was a jock when she was in high school. I explained how she had played every intermural sport she could, and that she lettered in mixed doubles tennis (right, Mom?) because that was the only sport she could letter in, pre-Title IX.

My friends, aged 21 and 22, were shocked at the idea that mixed doubles tennis was the only varsity sport available to girls back then.

Today I came across (well, "came across" in the sense that Women's Hoops Blog linked to it) this article about a 92-year-old woman who was a sports sensation in 1930's Kansas. Here's her take on modern women's basketball:



Since Fairbank quit bowling three years ago, sports is limited to her cable feed.

What she sees is something quite different from what she played. Gender equity contributed to the vast changes.

And [Ruth] Fairbank, a high school All-American before girls ever played for her high school, occasionally wishes she could have played the full length of the court rather than be restricted by a half-court game reduced to three players on each end.

"I should have been born a little later. I like how fast the game is today," she said.

"I’d love to play basketball the way they do now, but I enjoyed it when I was playing. I didn’t know any better then."

Labels: family, sports

From "The Big Bang" (5.13), River perfects the art of being enigmatic:


The Doctor: Are you married, River?

River Song: Are you asking?

The Doctor: Yes.

River Song: ...Yes.

The Doctor: No, hang on, did you think I was asking you to marry me, or, or, or asking if you were married?

River Song: Yes.

The Doctor: No, but was that yes, or...yes.

River Song: ...Yes.

Labels: Doctor Who

A Storm fan turned this list of Sue Bird's Top 10 Shots into a video (h/t WNBAlien):

Labels: Seattle Storm

I had three goals tonight:

#1 Surprise my mom by getting a Sue Bird bobblehead for her.

#2 See the Storm win.

#3 Introduce another friend to the awesomeness of Storm basketball games.


The results were disappointing...

I got the bobblehead, but she got one herself and didn't need it.

The Storm lost. Badly.

According to Jayda Evans' liveblog, "The team missed shots and Bird became so frustrated [with her teammates not running plays], at points she stopped running her team."

The only good news is that my friend really enjoyed the game (!) and wants to come to another. Yay!

But: ugh.

Labels: Seattle Storm

From her Twitter:


I like listening to Seattle Storm play-by-play guy Dick Fain say "nifty". There's simply not enough use of the word "nifty".

Labels: Seattle Storm

Lauren Jackson on playing with Sue Bird for ten years. "She's very level-headed and calm. I know that when I get flustered or upset about something on the court or off the court, she calms me down. I do the same for her. It's nice that I have that sort of relationship with her and trust her."


A rare non-Jayda Evans Storm article from the Seattle Times: Storm's Sue Bird is among Seattle's Legendary Point Guards.

Labels: Seattle Storm

The Tulsa center was asked after yesterday's game about not facing fellow-Aussie Lauren Jackson:


"No, it’s not a bad thing not seeing her on the court … she’s just the world’s best player! But it sucks seeing her on the sideline injured. I love Lauren."

Labels: Seattle Storm, WNBA

Poor Tulsa. They're always good for a mood-buoying win.

Or, as Jayda Evans put it, Storm pummels league's doormat in 77-63 win. "The Storm returned to its cocoon on Thursday, where turnovers seemingly don't exist, shots always find the hoop and wins appear easily. If only KeyArena were a mobile home."


In more general news, the Storm website posted Top 10 Pictures for Sue Bird, as well as an article from Kevin Pelton, who I think of as "the Storm's web dude". Check out the picture from the second article -- Svetlana Abrosimova in a Lynx uniform!

In addition to the Sue Bird Top 10's, the Storm have also been tweeting some cool Sue Bird stats. Today's: "Sue Stat: Rookie year, led Storm in assists, steals, mins played, starts and free throw percent."

Labels: Seattle Storm

From today's column, about games from two days ago. Specifically, the Seattle @ New York game:


"Just to maintain a theme, Seattle had four turnovers in the first 136 seconds. A little bit of maths tells us that at that pace, they were on schedule to commit 71 in the game, which would’ve been high even for the Storm."

Labels: Seattle Storm

This year is Sue Bird's 10th with the Storm. Like last year's 10th anniversary for Lauren Jackson, the Storm website is doing some cool stuff. The main page is here, and so far they've got lists for her Top 10 Shots and Top 10 Games. There's also a nice interview with her here.

The Seattle Times also did a cool interview with her. When asked when she will re-sign, she said, "There are some rules where it benefits everybody if I sign during the season. If I wait, then I become an unrestricted free agent and then ... there are all these rules! Too many! Assuming Seattle is the place I want to be, she says with an eye roll, it would benefit everybody for me to sign within the season. So I don't know why that wouldn't happen."

AfterEllen had a nice little article about point guards, so -- of course! -- Sue Bird got a mention.

Slightly off-topic.... In that list of Top 10 Shots, one of them was from the Connecticut game on August 5th. (In fact, the dude who compiled the list even tweeted a mock-complaint about the late notice.) Anyway, Swish Appeal had a post about that game, and how the Storm's turnovers nearly cost them the game. "Nearly" being the operative word: "So although the Sun walked away from this game thinking they let one slip away, in essence it was the Storm that gave this one away with their turnovers. It's just that once the Sun accepted the gift, Bird decided to take it back at the last second."

Labels: Seattle Storm

But that's not saying much.

I actually don't know what the first half looked like (except that Swin Cash didn't score a single point -- never a good sign) because ESPN2 was airing a Little League game (!) and put the first half of the Storm/Liberty game on ESPN-Classics (a channel I don't get, even if I had been home to change the channel). Yesterday was busy for me, so I didn't watch the (second half of the) game until late in the evening. Unfortunately I already knew that the Storm had lost. (Sorry, Mom, but I know you too well! Your tone of voice gave the result away.)

Even if they played better for most of the game, staying with 10 the whole game, the last 30 seconds of the game were very depressing. They had ample opportunities to win the game, and just couldn't get it done. Sigh.

Far more entertaining is Swish Appeal's Queenie's account of the game. (She's a Liberty fan, and her game posts are a lot of fun.):

"I'm a little worried about this three-point halftime lead. We've given Seattle too many chances and developed too much of a habit of leaving Sue Bird open. You cannot leave Sue Bird open. I didn't think it was rocket science, but apparently it is."

"Seattle has their players well-trained. You don't even have to ask for an autograph; if they see you, they'll come over. I'm not sure if it's because they're such a veteran team, or because they have such a veteran coaching staff with experience in the earliest days of both the WNBA ([Nancy] Darsch with the Liberty, [Jenny] Boucek with the Rockers) and the ABL ([Brian] Agler with the Quest). Though Allie Quigley also mentioned that she got yelled at for missing someone once, so maybe they also have especially intense training."

"Katie Smith got the bulk of the rest of the [bench] minutes, and I don't care how old she is, you don't leave Katherine May Smith open for a jump shot. She's been hitting those since the Paleozoic Era, you might want to guard her."

"And while the topic of guarding people who are good at hitting jump shots is in the general vicinity of discussion, who in their right mind leaves Sue Bird open? Don't you know what her nickname is? [...] This goes double for point guards who grew up in Washington State during Bird's career, Leilani Mitchell. And for Big East players who might have heard of this UConn chick, Essence Carson and Cappie Pondexter."

[By the way, the nickname she's referring to is "Die Bitches".]

"Someone please get Kara Braxton a decent sports bra. Please. I cannot take a month of her running up and down the floor with those things flying loose. Part of Breast Health Awareness should be awareness of how to keep them from bruising oneself or other people. Save the ta-tas, my fellow fans. Save the ta-tas."

[I couldn't agree more. I've been saying the same thing since I first saw her play for Phoenix last year.]

Labels: Seattle Storm, WNBA

Remember this song? Well, here's a video of an Air Force band doing the same song:



[h/t Jezebel]

Labels: music, random awesomeness

From today's column, about yesterday's games. Specifically the Minnesota @ Phoenix game:


"The second half was a little different. They were still going head-to-head, firing away at each other, but whaddaya know? The Mercury decided to play a little defense. Shows you just how desperate they were for a win – they were willing to break the habit of a lifetime. Of course, they didn’t go overboard. After threes from Penny Taylor and Marie Ferdinand-Harris put the Mercury in front by four late in the third quarter, they were still happy to leave [Maya] Moore wandering around outside the three-point line without anyone paying much attention to her. She sank two triples in the closing minutes, took her personal tally to 20 for the day, and took the Lynx into the fourth quarter up 64-62."

Labels: WNBA

From my twitter:


Just put an offer down on a home.... #scary #exciting

Labels: random awesomeness

Mechelle Voepel wrote a great article about Sue Bird (Bird in Seattle) and quoted Indiana coach Lin Dunn (who was the Storm coach 2000 - 2002) about drafting Sue Bird:


"Detroit offered three starters for her. New York offered practically the whole team. But the more people offered, the more determined I was to hang on to her."

Labels: Seattle Storm

I'd say it was early-2011 Storm, but Katie Smith had far too good of a shooting night for that to be true (4-8 FG, 2-5 3-pointers).

My theory is that Atlanta went into the game with something to prove. And they did.

Hopefully next Saturday (when Atlanta comes to Seattle) things will go better.

Actually, they couldn't go much worse...

As Richard Cohen said, "Are Seattle donating money to the [Breast Health Awareness] Week cause for every turnover, and really committed to the cause?"

Labels: Seattle Storm

"Papa's Cabin" (3.15):


[Veronica catches Tim breaking into Mars Investigations.]

Veronica: What the hell are you doing?

Tim: I...uh...I'm...

Veronica: Formulating a lie, realizing it's futile, [and then] begrudgingly telling the truth?

Tim: I'm trying to help Landry, okay? He gave your father the bug that someone planted in his phone. I'm hoping it will lead to Mindy.

Veronica: How is it going to lead to Mindy?

Tim: I don't know. Serial numbers?

Veronica: They don't have serial numbers.

Tim: Well, I didn't know. There's got to be a way. How would you do it?

Veronica: [annoyed] Hmmm...well, first, I'd break into someone's office, act really weasly, and then ask their advice.

Labels: Veronica Mars

The Tumblr "i bleed white & blue" had some great stuff from last night's Connecticut game:

Post-Game Tweets My favorite is Liz Cambage's: "WOW SUE BIRD WITH THE GAME WINNER WOWWAWEEEEWA!!!" She's as adorable as Sue Bird is awesome!

Sue's checklist Time to cross off Connecticut!


My favorite WNBA commentator (Richard Cohen, in case you couldn't tell from the huge number of times I quote him) spent most of today's column (which discusses yesterday's games) talking about the Seattle/Connecticut game: "This was an intriguing encounter even for those who aren’t fans of the University of Connecticut, who seem to provide most of the players on display."


Pictures from last night's game, courtesy of the Storm website.


The Connecticut coach claimed Sue Bird got free for her last shot because of a moving screen. Swish Appeal posted the video so we can judge. And by "we", I mean someone's who's not me, because I don't know these sorts of things! For what it's worth, someone commented, "They hadn’t called a moving screen the whole game. Why would they start with that one?"


Svetlana Abrosimova tweeted her excitement about receiving her championship ring last night. If you put the first one through Google Translate and paraphrase a bit to clean it up, you get this: "It is difficult to explain [how I felt] when I was handed a championship ring and received a standing ovation from the 6000 Americans watching." Awww!!!

Also, the twitter account "SueBirdsHair" had a chat with Svetlana!

Svetlana Abrosimova: Sue Bird is amazing!!! She did it again!! Can't wait to have her as my teammate next winter season in Russia.

SueBirdsHair: And I'll be there!

Svetlana Abrosimova: :) just don't forget to bring extra detergent with you

SueBirdsHair: Don't worry, I'll be sure to let Sue know!



Tomorrow the Storm play Atlanta, in Atlanta. It's the first match-up since the Storm won the championship there last summer. Jayda Evans has a preview, and Nate Parham includes it in his list of "2011 WNBA Watchability Scale: The Top Five Remaining Seattle Storm Games To Watch".


p.s. Swish Appeal changes their sub-heading regularly. Today it reads: Swish Appeal -- Where "clutch" is spelled S-U-E-B-I-R-D.

Labels: Seattle Storm

From the audio interview after last night's game, posted on the Storm website:


reporter: What was going through your mind when Tina [Charles] got the rebound, and they scored with only three seconds left?

Swin Cash: I was like "ugh!" But then I looked up and saw that we got three seconds, and that's a lot of time. So, it was like, "What play you have, Brian? Let's draw it up. Let's go."

reporter: [chuckling in disbelief] Did you really? You looked up and said, "Three seconds: That will do it."

Swin Cash: Yeah! I was mad. I was like "ugh!" I looked up -- three seconds -- all right, let's go back to the huddle. What you got Brian? Let's go. I mean, I thought that was enough time. If it had been, you know, one-point-something... But Sue had enough time to catch the ball, dribble, square up, [and] pop it. So, for me, three seconds is a lot of time.

Labels: Seattle Storm

From Swin Cash's twitter:

"Wow... My sista from another mother does it again!!!!! Not surprised been seeing that since UCONN.. Whew.."

Labels: random awesomeness, Seattle Storm

Jayda Evans had a couple of nice Storm articles this week:

Aggressive Tanisha Wright fills gap for Storm "When the Storm has offensive lulls, it's often Wright charging to the hoop to snap the dry spell. In three-guard lineups with veterans Sue Bird and Katie Smith on the court, Wright can dish to both for three-pointers."

Catching up with Svetlana Abrosimova "This is my team. I feel like I belong here. I don't want to be on another team, I want to be here. Next year is a tough year, so I don't know. If they want me back, I would love to come back."

Tucked at the end of the Tanisha Wright article is this tidbit: "Bird's contract expires at the end of the season, and she's told the organization she'd like to sign an extension soon."

One last thing...

Labels: Seattle Storm

Wow! And also: WOW!!!

In the first half, it really felt like Seattle was going to run away with this one, but Connecticut made a push, and it came down to the wire.

Sue Bird made one of her insanely-clutch shots, and won the game with 0.4 seconds left. Wow.


ETA:

Labels: Seattle Storm

A while ago, Richard Cohen wrote a haiku poem for each WNBA team. Here's Seattle's:


Remove the heart, the
body still beats. Finds itself.
When rejoined, beware.

Labels: poetry, Seattle Storm

When my DVR freaks out, I re-boot it.

When I lose my internet connection, I re-boot my modem.

Today, when they both went out at the same time, and the modem re-boot didn't work, I called Comcast. I assumed there was an outage of some kind.

The Comcast service dude said there wasn't, and suggested I check the splitter. Still no connection. He scheduled me for a service appointment tomorrow. We hung up.

I discovered my cable had returned. I proceeded to fiddle around with my modem -- switching coaxial cables, re-connecting them, re-booting the modem -- and after an hour or so, I had internet again.

So, thanks for nothing Comcast. Calling you was a monumental waste of time. I've already learned not to call you with DVR problems (the solution is always the same: unplug the DVR), and now I know not to bother calling you for anything.

Labels: computers, TV

This WNBA season is very different than last year. (Although 2011 Minnesota is doing a good impersonation of 2010 Seattle -- they're on an eight-game win streak and they've won two recent games that came down to the wire.)

Last year, Seattle spent the entire year on top of the "WNBA Power Rankings". This year, I was (pleasantly) surprised to see them ranked at number three this week. I think that's the highest they've been all season!

Last year, Storm center Ashley Robinson consistently drove me absolutely crazy. I would groan and roll my eyes when she would check into games. At the beginning of this season, Storm coach Brian Agler claimed that she would win the league's Most Improved Player award. I was, needless to say, quite skeptical. But he was right -- she's having a break-out year, her play doesn't make me want to bang my head on the wall, and she's a front-runner for MIP.


Some things, however, stay the same.

Labels: Seattle Storm, weather

From "Haven" (1.15):


[Max and Sketchy are in line for gas.]

Sketchy: It's gonna run out before they get to us.

Max: Will you stop [worrying]?

Sketchy: I really need new shoes, man.

Max: Uh, Sketchy, this line's for gas.

Sketchy: I know. Sky said if I score him a couple gallons of premium, he'd give me a pair of bike tires.

Max: I thought you wanted shoes.

Sketchy: Sky doesn't have shoes. Herbal has shoes.

Max: So you're gonna trade him the tires for the shoes.

Sketchy: Herbal doesn't need tires. He needs a waffle iron for his lady. Original Cindy needs tires.

Max: And Original Cindy has a waffle iron.

Sketchy: No, Normal has a waffle iron. He's gonna swap Original Cindy for some lingerie so she can give it to Herbal for the tires Sky's giving me for the gas, which is how I'm getting my shoes.

Max: Nice. What does Normal want with lingerie?

Sketchy: I'm a businessman. I don't ask questions.

Labels: Dark Angel

Mila Kunis (That 70's Show, Family Guy) is in Russia with Justin Timberlake to promote their new movie Friends with Benefits.

Mila Kunis was actually born in the USSR, and moved to America when she was a little girl. Hence, she is fluent in Russian. Hence, in their press conference, she didn't need the translator. Hence, when a reporter asked a question she didn't like, she went off on said reporter. In Russian.

Russian is a really excellent language to yell at someone in!


ETA: The first comment on this site has a translation of the Russian.

Labels: movies, random awesomeness

From Rebecca Lobo's Twitter:


Rebecca Lobo: Is the baby still sleeping?

her husband: I don't know. Where is she?

Rebecca Lobo: In your office with you. She's been in there for ten minutes.

Labels: random silliness

This time against San Antonio.


More good news: Lauren Jackson signed a multi-year contract extension!

She also says she's doing well in her recovery.

Labels: Seattle Storm

From this post:


I have been informed that, although I was under the impression she was British, Sophie Monk here is actually Australian:

The feedback from our British readers was somewhere along the lines of, "We're already got Jordan, please don't make us take her too," and the feedback from the Australians was something like, "We hate to claim her, but claim her we must." So I welcome the occasion to correct the record. I also welcome the occasion to tell Sophie that if your cutoffs look like diapers, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.

Labels: The Fug Girls

NBA stars: We might go play overseas!
WNBA stars: Welcome to our life!


The Storm dropped rookie Krystal Thomas and signed Allie Quigley. Quigley's a guard (whereas Thomas was a post player), so I'm guessing they're comfortable with Ewalina Kobryn being their back-up post player.


Courtney Vandersloot was invited to train with Team USA back in May, and now she's officially been added to the player pool.


Remember SueBirdsHair? (And its distressing lack of an apostrophe?) Apparently the Storm players who Tweet are playing along. Katie Smith (who wore a bun in a recent game, instead of her usual ponytail) asked SueBirdsHair "bun or ponytail?" and SBH replied "You're definitely on Team Ponytail." SBH has also heard from Lauren Jackson (!) that its been a topic of conversation in the Storm locker room (!).

Labels: Seattle Storm, WNBA

From "The L.A." (1.22):


Seth: Listen, man, this is a good time for you, Ryan Atwood. This is clean-slate Ryan. Finally you have no women to protect from violent goateed factory workers or pill-popping manic depressives.

Ryan: I guess you're right, I guess I really do have a clean slate.

Seth: You do! Dude, since day one of you getting here it has been nothing but lady drama with you: Marissa, Theresa, Luke, Oliver, Eddie... dude, I'm getting exhausted just thinking about it.

Ryan: I am kinda tired.

Seth: You should be! And you know what, you're gonna get a break, 'cause you deserve it. I think I'm going to declare this month... "Angst-Free Ryan Month".

Ryan: Month? You think it's going to last a month?

Seth: "Angst-Free Ryan Week". With an option for an additional week if you like it.

Labels: The O.C.