Daily archives: October 17th, 2009

Penguins Strike Lightning, Improve to 7-1

It’s way too early in the hockey season, but the Pittsburgh Penguins are off to an incredible start. And I liked the headline from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette so much, I adapted it for Turning Left.

From the Post-Gazette:

The Penguins improved their record to 7-1 with a 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight at Mellon Arena.

That matches the club’s second-best record through eight games. The Penguins started 7-0-1 in 1995-96 and were 7-1 in 1986-87.

It was their first game after a 4-0 road trip.

The win gave coach Dan Bylsma his 25th regular-season win as an NHL head coach. He is 25-4-4 since taking over Feb. 15. That doesn’t include the Penguins’ run to the Stanley Cup last spring.

The Penguins opened a 1-0 lead at 4:57 of the first period when Bill Guerin, from below the left circle, swept in a rebound of a shot by Evgeni Malkin for a power-play goal. Malkin was playing in his 250th regular-season game.

A faceoff win by Sidney Crosby — who entered the game among the top 10 in the league by winning 62 percent of his draws — led to the Penguins’ second goal. He got the puck back to Brooks Orpik, who sent it across to Sergei Gonchar. Gonchar one-timed the puck from the right point past Lightning goaltender Antero Niittymaki at 17:10 of the first period.

Please read more here.


Charges Pending in ‘Balloon Boy’ Case; Research Assistant to Richard Heene Breaks Silence

Multiple media sources are reporting that charges are pending in the case of Richard and Mayumi Heene, whose son Falcon was the so-called ‘balloon boy’ who millions believed was aboard a helium balloon that reportedly had taken off with the boy inside.

From WTAE Pittsburgh:

A Colorado sheriff said he was pursuing criminal charges in the case of a 6-year-old boy who vanished into the rafters of his garage while the world thought he was zooming through the sky in a flying saucer-like helium balloon.

The boy’s parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, met with Larimer County investigators for much of the afternoon, but Sheriff Jim Alderden didn’t say who would be charged or what the charges would be.

Alderden didn’t call Thursday’s hours-long drama a hoax, but he expressed disappointment that he couldn’t level more serious charges in the incident, which sent police and the military scrambling to save young Falcon Heene as millions of worried television viewers watched.

“We were looking at Class 3 misdemeanor, which hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances,” Alderden said. “We are talking to the district attorney, federal officials to see if perhaps there aren’t additional federal charges that are appropriate in this circumstance.”

He said deputies were seeking a search warrant for the family’s home, and there would be more information at a news conference Sunday.

Other media sources are essentially running the same article from the Associated Press.

And then there’s this “exclusive” from Gawker: Exclusive: I Helped Richard Heene Plan a Balloon Hoax. In the article, 25-year-old researcher Robert Thomas reveals to Gawker how earlier this year he and Richard Heene drew up a master plan to generate a massive media controversy using a weather balloon. From the article:

One night, when Richard and I were sitting and talking, he brought up Wife Swap, and specifically a confrontation he had with a woman on the show who claimed to be a psychic. They very much disliked one other. Richard said, “Well, think about it. We were the 100th episode of Wife Swap. And why are we the most recognized Wife Swap family and episode? It’s because of the controversy. I don’t care what people say about me as a person, but the fact of the matter is that they know who I am.”

And then we delved into the area of UFOs. I was reading a book on witness reports of Roswell at the time, just out of curiousity — I’ve never concluded whether it really took place or was an elaborate hoax. And Richard said, “how much do you want to bet we could facilitate some sort of a media stunt that would be equally profound as Roswell, and we could do so with nothing more than a weather balloon and some controversy?”

Read more here, or you can get a bullet-point summary of Robert Thomas’ accusations here.


Roseanne Rosanadana on Smoking and The Hasty Heart

A little blast from the past. I always liked Gilda Radner.

I actually dropped over at the SNL site because I was looking for, "If it isn’t Scottish, it’s crap!" But I couldn’t find it there. I just came from an awesome performance of The Hasty Heart at Marian Catholic High School. Honestly, these kids were awesome. I was expecting over-acting or melodrama. Sorry, call that my prejudice with high school performances.

Instead, I found acting.

This performance was particularly awesome. Really gripping. And, if you see it at the Sunday matinee, you’ll understand my very weak allusion to that old SNL skit.

The kids are going to compete with this performance, and I look forward to hearing good things.

I was particularly impressed.

At any rate, enjoy Gilda. I really loved Gilda.