Wednesday, April 4, 2007

FANTASY BASEBALL!

Yes, I am one of those people who plays fantasy baseball. And yes, I am not afraid to talk about it on here (though I will attempt to keep it to about once a week, because I am sure there will be plenty of baseball talk daily here, especially the Red Sox.) I play in three leagues right now, but the one with the most interests to me is a league that I play in with several friends, many from Stogie Chat, and a couple from my days at Ohio State. Its a pretty competitive league that I have played in every year since I joined the forum. I also have to say that to this point I have been quite successful, as seen in the graphic below (alas, 2006 was an off year for me):
In a change, this year I get to be league commish. I know it is early but I wanted to post the standing because, as it should be, MY TEAM (the OSU Dawgies) is on top of the league standings. So to heck with the rest of you.


w00t!

TomC

Ironic Twist: Lemmings arent "Lemmings" After All!


One myth deeply entrenched in our language is that of the "Lemming Suicide Plunge" - where lemmings, apparently overcome by deep-rooted impulses, deliberately run over a cliff in their millions, to be dashed to their deaths on the rocks below, or to drown in the raging ocean. Indeed, this myth is now a metaphor for the behaviour of crowds of people who foolishly follow each other, lemming-like, regardless of the consequences. This particular myth began with a Disney movie.

Lemming suicide is fiction. Contrary to popular belief, lemmings do not periodically hurl themselves off of cliffs and into the sea. Cyclical explosions in population do occasionally induce lemmings to attempt to migrate to areas of lesser population density. When such a migration occurs, some lemmings die by falling over cliffs or drowning in lakes or rivers. These deaths are not deliberate "suicide" attempts, however, but accidental deaths resulting from the lemmings' venturing into unfamiliar territories and being crowded and pushed over dangerous ledges. In fact, when the competition for food, space, or mates becomes too intense, lemmings are much more likely to kill each other than to kill themselves.

The myth of mass lemming suicide began when the Walt Disney movie, Wild Wilderness was released in 1958. It was filmed in Alberta, Canada, far from the sea and not a native home to lemmings. So the filmmakers imported lemmings, by buying them from Inuit children. The migration sequence was filmed by placing the lemmings on a spinning turntable that was covered with snow, and then shooting it from many different angles. The cliff-death-plunge sequence was done by herding the lemmings over a small cliff into a river. It's easy to understand why the filmmakers did this - wild animals are notoriously uncooperative, and a migration-of-doom followed by a cliff-of-death sequence is far more dramatic to show than the lemmings' self-implemented population-density management plan.

So lemmings do not commit mass suicide. Indeed, animals live to thrive and survive. Consider a company like Disney, where one rodent, namely Mickey Mouse, was Royalty. It's rather odd to think that Disney could be so unkind to another rodent, the lemming...


Weird as Hell,

TomC

Arturo Fuente Hemingway Untold Story Maduro


7 ½" x 53, Maduro

There is a little back story to this one. My buddy Mike D
(Also a member of the great discussion board known as StogieChat) from Brooklyn gave me this cigar, and its kind of special. Here is what's up, in his words:

"
The Hemingway is an Untold Story Maduro from 2002 (the very one I would brag to you about having, and the only reason I have had that cigar since 2002 is because I rarely smoke cigars that large), and now it has been passed on to you from the goodness of my ass."

Needless to say after my experiences with Hemingway Maduros in the past, I was excited to get the opportunity to try one with 5 years of age on it. Well today was the day I got that chance.

Appearance: This is one large cigar. At seven and one half inches long and fifty three sixty fourths of an inch in diameter, it is an almost imposing sight. This cigar is also quite firmly packed, and so for the first time in my smoking experience I can honestly say a cigar was HEAVY! This cigar was flawless looking, wrapped in a rich dark vein less maduro leaf. As one would come to expect from a Hemingway cigar, construction is no issue other than to say it is a superlative example on how to construct a perfecto cigar.

Prelight: Clip was a breeze. Prelight draw was a bit tight, but that is just the nature of the beast with a perfecto. It should come to surprise many that a cigar that tapers to a tip would probably not open up until a little bit of the way in to the smoke. Prelight notes were of sweet chocolate and cinnamon.

Burn/Draw: The bur and draw on this cigar were impeccable. Razor straight was the burn for the entire TWO HOUR AND TEN MINUTE duration of this smoke. The draw was open after the brief restriction of the little nib, and produce a plentiful volume of fragrant and flavorful blue white smoke. As I have mentioned before, impeccable construction will do nothing but enhance the smoking experience, and this cigar proves that point yet again.

Flavor: This cigar is delicious. As I leisurely made my way through this stoige, a myriad of flavor notes passed through my palate. Early on this cigar was rather mild. this is not to say that it was in any way flavorless, as puffs produced notes of milk chocolate hot cocoa. About a third of the way in the flavors gathered more depth, with the milk chocolate deepening into a more semi sweet note, with flavors of cinnamon, sweet brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice adding themselves to the party. This first half of this cigar was like smoking a delicious desert. At about the halfway point the flavors noticeably deepened and became more robust again, with a lot of the notes you would expect in a Hemingway maduro becoming present. Coffee and Dark Chocolate, a sweeter woody note and a touch of leather (reminded me of chewing on my baseball glove in HS) became more apparent, and this trend followed through toward the last third of the cigar, with a bit of peppery spice becoming apparent toward the very end. A sumptuous experience, to say the least. You can clearly see what the aging did to this cigar, it was one rich, refined experience.


I do not think I could possibly understate what an experience it was to get to smoke this cigar. It was utterly amazing, one of the top 10 singular stogie related experiences I have had the joy to experience to this point. With that said I want to reiterate my thanks to my boy, MikeD, for bestowing this upon me. It is truly, TRULY, appreciated.

TomC

Mila Kunis

Milena Markovna Kunis (Милена Маркoвна Кунис), born August 14, 1983), better known as Mila Kunis, is an American actress. She is best known for playing Jackie Burkhart on That '70s Show, and also performs the voice of the character Meg Griffin on the popular animated series, Family Guy. Kunis was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), to a Jewish family, with whom she moved to Los Angeles, California, in the United States, when she was 7. Kunis has stated many times that she is nothing like Jackie, her character on the show, insisting that she is really more of the cute girl-next-door type with a dash of tomboy thrown in for good measure. Despite this docile description, she has shown a different attitude by her sultry appearance on the cover of the men's magazine Stuff in December of 2005. Maxim magazine named her #47 on its 2006 Hot 100 list.

Kunis' inimitable, instantly recognizable voice has earned her several other notable roles, including starring in the Aerosmith music video "Jaded", The Strokes music video "The End Has No End", as well as several movies, such as Piranha (1995), Santa with Muscles (1996), Krippendorf's Tribe (1998), Gia (1998), Get Over It (2001), American Psycho II: All American Girl (2002), and Tony n' Tina's Wedding (2004). She is starring with Jon Heder in the upcoming film Moving McAllister.

Kunis is the voice of Meg Griffin in the animated TV show Family Guy, and of several characters on the Adult Swim show Robot Chicken. She has acted as the voice of Tanya Winters in the video game Saints Row. She is filming a movie in Fiji called Boot Camp.


TomC