There’s a saying in the SEC: “Basketball? Everyone knows basketball starts in January.” The truth of this cannot be understated as the conference is in no hurry to start playing one of its worst sports. That said, its marquee team is finally back.
An NIT-invitee last season, Kentucky is a consensus top-5 team right now, coming into the season with a new coach, a top-ranked recruiting class and quite possibly the next big thing in freshman John Wall. It was a roundabout trip to UK for Wall, who was originally committed to Memphis, where John Calipari once was, but then followed his coach to his new school. Yes, it all looks shady. No, that won’t matter this year.
Unfortunately for the league, this is the biggest two team league out there. Outside of Kentucky and Tennessee, its hard to see another team really coming out of this conference, except maybe Mississippi State. Last season only three SEC teams were invited to the big dance, with MSU sneaking in after a run to the conference championship. Could be the same again.
Predicted order of finish:
Tennessee is the most consistent SEC team right now.
We travel northward again to learn about Polish screenwriter and director, Joanna Kos-Krauze:
Polish delegate: Joanna Kos-Krauze
Anthony “Rumble” Johnson with KNOXX Video Host Meredith Divita
Part 1: KNOXX Video with Meredith Divita talks to Anthony “Rumble” Johnson about his upcoming fight against Josh Koscheck, weight cutting, not getting knock out of the night and Pat Barry.
Part 2: KNOXX Video with Meredith Divita talks to Anthony “Rumble” Johnson about all the Haters, Josh Thomson being in his corner, TUF 10, being a coach on TUF, not making weight for Yoshida and being a good citizen by helping others in need of help.
Much has been made of the fact that there’s not a lot of hype going into this fight.
Typically, the UFC chooses coaches on the Ultimate Fighter to build up a main event title fight between two fighters at the conclusion of the show. In most cases, there’s a long-standing issue between the two coaches that plays out over the course of a season, thus building up the fight. Put simply, it’s classic pro-wrestling booking at its finest in that two men have an issue with each other, the issue comes to light and tensions rise, and then the two men finally meet in the ring to determine who the better man is. People pay to see this stuff.
This season of the Ultimate Fighter just felt different. There’s obviously no animosity between Forrest and Rampage. In fact, I’d wager that they’re probably very good friends. Despite Dana White’s attempts to magnify small issues between the two, it’s still apparent that there is absolutely no grudge between these two men. A lot of people are disappointed that there’s no Serra/Hughes or Ortiz/Shamrock-style feud here, and quite a few MMA journalists believe it will hurt the buyrate.
You know what? The hype doesn’t matter to me. I wanted to see this fight from the moment Forrest beat Shogun Rua last year. Shogun was considered the best light heavyweight fighter in the world, and Griffin dominated him for 3 rounds before submitting him. Rampage is the UFC title holder. It’s a natural fit.
I like to see fighters fight each other. It doesn’t matter one iota if there’s an issue between Forrest Griffin and Rampage Jackson, because they are two of the highest-ranked light heavyweight fighters in the world and they’re going to fight each other.
That’s all the reason I need to order this show.
I’ll be back later in the week with my preview and predictions for UFC 87.
Between right this very minute and Saturday night (08/09/08), buy the I Gave Back button online to support our breast cancer fund raising efforts and you’ll also be entered into a raffle. You could win one of many fabulous prizes!!
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Sean Penn is taking a break from his movie career – the Oscar winner has pulled out of his next two film projects.
The star has quit his upcoming role in action picture Cartel and scrapped plans to work alongside Benicio Del Toro and Jim Carrey in The Three Stooges.
Penn, who recently reconciled with wife Robin Wright Penn after their second split in 18 months, is rumoured to be taking time out to spend more time with his partner and their two teenage children.
The actor’s publicist Mara Buxbaum confirmed the news to E! Online, “We indeed informed both productions that Sean was not available now. If for whatever reason the start dates on these productions were to be postponed, Sean would happily remain involved.”
“In the brief second of warning, the truck almost seemed to leap toward the water. Nancy and her father, hemmed in by the concrete piers had no way to escape being run down. … Without hesitation, he and Nancy made running flat dives into the water, and with arms flailing and legs kicking, swam furiously out of harm’s way” (18). From Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene.
The second installment of the Nancy Drew series The Hidden Staircase makes The Secret of the Old Clock look like a walk through the park. Nancy is recruited to solve a mystery of a “haunted” house while her father simultaneously receives threats from a man trying to leach money from the railroad company.
I have to admit that book two was fairly disappointing. While The Secret of the Old Clock may not have had the most unpredictable plot line, The Hidden Staircase is soon solved within the first few chapters. The reader then spends the remaining chapters dully flipping through pages as Nancy and her friend Helen run up and down stairs and tap on walls trying to find a secret room.
During this process Nancy’s father is kidnapped and rather than contact the FBI the local police rely on Nancy to help with the case. It’s a fun story but a stretch at nearly 200 pages. Some of the perks of The Hidden Staircase is further character development with Nancy through exploring more of her non-sleuth life than The Secret of the Old Clock dips into and her relationships with other people. Nancy kicks off the book with a date and the reader becomes acquainted with her friend Helen.
The Hidden Staircase has less “objectionable” material than the previous novel in the series but still develops a sense of good values. A fun read, but my fingers are crossed that the Nancy Drew series doesn’t continue in this downward process.
Biggest Loser contestant Rebecca Meyer appeared on The Jay Leno Show Tuesday and dropped a bombshell. Meyer may have lost a lot of weight on The Biggest Loser before she was voted off, but she gained a boyfriend!
>> Read more at SnarkFood.com now…
It is widely accepted that no single English word is a true rhyme for orange, though there are half rhymes such as hinge, lozenge, syringe, flange, Stonehenge, or porridge. A commonly referred to word on this subject, however controversial, is “door hinge”. Although sporange, a variant of sporangium, is an eye rhyme for orange, it is not a true rhyme as its second syllable is pronounced with an unreduced vowel [-\xE6nd?], and often with stress.
However, there are proper nouns which are almost true rhymes, including Blorenge, a hill in Wales, and Gorringe, a surname. US Naval Commander Henry Honychurch Gorringe, the captain of the USS Gettysburg who discovered Gorringe Ridge in 1875, led Arthur Guiterman to quip in “Local Note”:
In Sparkill buried lies that man of mark
Who brought the Obelisk to Central Park,
Redoubtable Commander H.H. Gorringe,
Whose name supplies the long-sought rhyme for “orange.”
Compounds or sequences of words may give true or near rhymes in some accents. Examples include door-hinge, torn hinge, or inch, a wrench.
Enjambment can also provide for rhymes. One example is Willard Espy’s poem, “The Unrhymable Word: Orange”:
The four eng-
ineers
Wore orange
brassieres.
An even more strained example by Tom Lehrer relies on the New York-New Jersey accent’s way of pronouncing orange as “ar-ange”:
Eating an orange
While making love
Makes for bizarre enj-
oyment thereof.
Composers Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel contrived a rhyme in the song “Oranges Poranges”. It was sung by the Witchiepoo character (played by Billie Hayes) on the show H.R. Pufnstuf.
Oranges poranges, who says,
oranges poranges, who says,
oranges poranges, who says?
there ain’t no rhyme for oranges!
