I was at the Polkaless Polka Happy Hour last night at the Happy Dog. But, as usual, the food was good. I opted for the pork chops and they are always quite tasty.

But today was chock full o'stuff to do. I started this morning by heading over to the Farmers Market at Crocker Park. Always a good way to finally say adios to winter. It's not very big, but they have some good things out there. And they moved it from the Trader Joe's lot closer to that parking garage. Some syrup purveyors, bread bakers, some pastry types and some potted plants, of course. Someone was selling mushrooms, and there were some meat sellers there, too. I picked up some breakfast sausages from Chef's Choice Meats. He had a nice selection of sausages, including andouille and chorizo, and brats. I got some raspberry squares from a woman who also had really good kolatchy that I sampled. I like those, except for the nut and prune. And I think I found a new cheese pusher, Ohio Farm Direct. I tried a cheddar that was awesome, and then sampled a sharp cheddar that knocked me out even more, so I grabbed that.

Meal of Links

Then it was back home to take in Game One of the Cavs-Wizards series. Just a few observations:

I hope Washington coach Eddie Jordan gets to say, "You gotta harvest your nuts right now, man."

Three words: "Towel waving. Ugh!" There is not a building big enough if they held Dollar Hot Dog Wrapped in Towel, Shooting Fireworks Night in this town.

Why do the Cavs always get that first Saturday game to kick off everything? I think this is three years running.

Were those "Rise Up" or Raisinets t-shirts that Key Bank sponsored? Looks the same to me.

















Wally Szczerbiak cannot defend anyone.

Hey, the WNBA tips off May 17th!

I'm a fanboy for LeBron, but that dunk he had in the second quarter on a toss from Daniel Gibson may have been his best one ever. Incredible display of flexibility and power. Awesome.

Nice scrap at the end of the first half. But if you're gonna get a technical, make it count on a hard foul or something, not bodies getting tangled up.

Can't say it enough, Varejao and Wallace should not be on the floor at the same time. Really limits your offensive options.

Day after the trade was made, some clown sat next to me at the Winking Lizard in Lakewood and we debated if it would work. This guy insisted the opponent would not get any layups against us, as I tried to gently indicate this is not the Ben Wallace of three years ago. I like a good debate as much as anyone, but that guy needs to check a shot chart.

Sharon Reed has nice seats behind the Cavs bench.

How can you not like Gilbert Arenas? The guy is funny ("chrome is the new white") and he can shoot. His long-range three at the end of the first quarter was only about a 40-footer.

Cavs are really shooting bad through three quarters, but are making hay at the line.

Antawn Jamison came to play for the Wizards. Very active on both ends. But had a disastrous stretch in the final five minutes where he missed four shots, keeping the Cavs in it, allowing LeBron to hit two shots to grab the lead.

As the Cavs made a slight run at the start of the fourth quarter, someone actually had a sign, "Zeveland 11". Bah!

I guess all of those 4th quarter comebacks helped the Cavs win today or perhaps, the Wizards are not that good. That was a winnable game for Washington and they didn't seal the deal.

At the end of the Cavs game., I hustled over to Cinemark to catch "Shine A Light". This is the Rolling Stones concert filmed by Martin Scorsese. Geez, for the first 10 minutes, I thought this movie was about Marty. This was filmed at a benefit that Michael Phillip Jagger and the boys did for the Clinton Foundation at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. I dunno, this was a pretty so-so effort. I thought the actual filming had way too many cuts between the participants. And not a lot of old interviews interspersed. Some, but not really too many. Jagger is OK these days (although he was great on "Knights of Prosperity"), but he does border on self-parody. But for some reason, I find Keith Richards very compelling.

He'll probably outlive us all, but as he mentions in the film, he really loves what he's doing. And no matter how many times he says, "It's good to see you tonight. Hey, it's good to see anybody." or whatever variation he does, it makes me smile. Keith gets to sing lead on a couple of tunes, the first being "You Got The Silver": "You got my heart, you got my soul. You got the silver, you got the gold. You got the diamonds from the mine. Well that's all right, it'll buy some time" and it's a nice little ditty. But when he finishes he gets a big grin on his face and says, "Cool, huh?". That about sums it up, he gets a kick out of being on stage. Still.

Special guests include Jack White (billed as Jack White III), Buddy Guy and Christina Aguilera. Jack performs "Loving Cup" with acoustic guitars everywhere. He has this grin that appears to be, "Gee, I'm singin' next to Mick Jagger." The great Buddy Guy plays on "Champagne and Reefer". Keith gives him his guitar after this effort and tells him to keep it, it's his. Mick refers to him as "Buddy Mother Fuckin' Guy", but the F-word is bleeped out in this movie. Very strange. Aguilera performs on "Live With Me", which is part of the encore and she can sing, even with Mick grinding on her.

Setlist:

"Jumpin' Jack Flash"
"Shattered"-Virtually unrecognizable, an awful version.
"She Was Hot"
"All Down the Line"
"Loving Cup"(with Jack White)
"As Tears Go By"-Richards beautifully on acoustic.
"Some Girls"
"Just My Imagination"
"Far Away Eyes"
"Champagne & Reefer"(with Buddy Guy)-Buddy kicks major ass on this one.
"Tumbling Dice"
"You Got the Silver"-Lead vocal by Richards, my personal highlight.
"Connection"-Lead vocal by Keith Richards
"Sympathy for the Devil"-Boy, this was a tired version.
"Live with Me"(with Christina Aguilera)
"Start Me Up"
"Brown Sugar"
"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"-I kept thinking of Devo's version.

I'd wait for cable on this one and probably skip the soundtrack, too.

I was mentioning food earlier. I don't eat a lot of microwave popcorn, but have you tried Cousin Willie's Popcorn? Marc's has this and I don't know who Cousin Willie is, but the man makes pretty strong popcorn. I opted for the Theater Butter kind and I liked it and it's got a good price.

Good Presidents hang out with the Rolling Stones. Dumb ones go on "Deal or No Deal" on Monday.

The Top Deserted Beaches in the world. Sorry, Mentor Headlands didn't make it.

HBO needs a new hit. Badly.

Exercise Yard

I finally closed the day with some boxing on HBO. The highly anticipated Joe Calzaghe-Bernard Hopkins fight at Light Heavyweight. This actually brought out celebrities. I spotted Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Simon Cowell, Jeremy Piven and Jim Belushi. Hell, even Tom Jones sang the Welsh national anthem. Someone named Ray J. did the honors for America. But it would be a clash of styles and potentially, heads. Calzaghe comes in, Hopkins is the best counterpuncher ever. Both guys getting up there in years. Joe is 36, the Executioner is (gulp!) 43.

Early on, the clash of styles made it difficult to score. Hopkins got lucky and put an off-balance Calzaghe down in Round 1 to get a quick 10-8 round. But after the third round, it was clearly Calzaghe's bout. Not a lot of power, but he was the busier of the two fighters, as Hopkins was throwing a measly amount of counterpunches.

Calzaghe hit Hopkins low twice. Once early and once in the 10th, where it looked like a tap, but Hopkins took almost the entire five minutes to recover. It may have been a cagey move, because he did looked fired up for the rest of the round, but maybe an indicator the gas tank was on E. Hopkins tried it again in the 11th, but no one actually saw it and the ref urged Hopkins to continue, he wasn't buying it.

This led to one of the best trainer/boxer exchanges I've heard in a while. Joe's trainer is his Dad, Enzo, whose language might be considered a bit salty. Joe decided to duke it out with Hopkins after the faux low blow. After the round:

Enzo: "Why the fuck did you do that?"
Joe:' "Cause he cheated me!"
Enzo: "Fuck, he cheated! My ass! Don' worry about cheatin', what he's doin', what the fuck are you doin'? You should have done that a long time ago. That's all you gotta do. Why wait til Round 11?"

Well, it went to the cards and surprisingly it was a split decision to Calzaghe. Not bad for his first trip to fight in the States.

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62 Across: Edmund Randolph was the first in 1789 (15 letters) Answer: Attorney General