more march manglings, and an update.

Out of sheer boredom, and after a fellow blogger celebrated her 50,000th view in just under a year, and because I'm a stat freak, here's some totally meaningless numbers.



Early this year, I installed those groovy little cool/interesting/funny counters at the bottom of my posts. Thus far, My blog posts have recorded 15 interestings, 4 cools, and 2 funnys. TWO funnys?? WTF? I thought I was much funnier than that! Of course the fact that I got about 5 times as many interestings as I deserved somewhat balances it. Over this time period, I've collected 111 comments in around 70 posts. Considering that I only had 136 in the previous 240-odd posts since I started, not too shabby, you guys!

Also this year, I added a TAW facebook page. It has already garnered me another 2,742 viewings, with the highest (very surprisingly) belonging to the Feb. 3rd Eurohockey update. However, if comments were money, I'd be bankrupt. Oh, well, how many people do I need to tell me I have a screw loose?

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News begins to slow down in the Japan disaster as we settle into the "trench warfare" stage of the proceedings. I was not surprised to hear that the ultimate solution of sealing the reactors in concrete has at last come up. Here's another report from Rikuzen Takata from the Globe and Mail's Mark MacKinnon:

When the tsunami warning buzzer rang out over this sleepy port on Japan’s northeast coast, people knew what to do because they’d practised for the moment all their lives. They calmly left their homes and made their way to the gathering places designated by the municipal government: City Hall; a community centre; the local gymnasium.

For hundreds of people, if not more, the shelters they were ordered into proved to be deathtraps. Rikuzen-Takata’s disaster plan had been designed to deal with the three- and four-metre waves the city had seen in 1960 after an earthquake in faraway Chile. No one had anticipated the 15-metre tsunami that crashed through the city on Friday following a 9.0-magnitude earthquake just offshore, one that flung boats, shipping cranes and people inland, drowning those who had done as they were told and gathered in the low-lying shelters.
Of the estimated 1,000 people huddling in the three buildings, the only survivors were 100 people who made their way to the top floor of City Hall. The rest were swept away by a tide so high and fierce that it blew out the walls and windows on all three floors of the neighbouring shopping centre.
“People just relied on the bureaucracy. They became too obedient,” said Tsuyoshi Kinno, head of the neighbourhood committee in one of the districts of Rikuzen-Takata closest to the Pacific coast. “The administration made a mistake.”
Mr. Kinno was wandering through the silent remains of the city Tuesday, poking at the ground with a stick as Rikuzen-Takata continued its gruesome search for the thousands still missing and presumed dead beneath the rubble. In his other hand, he held a mud-covered photograph of a wedding he’d attended. The bride and groom were both among the missing, he said.
One week after Japan earthquake and tsunami, official toll stands at 6,911 dead,10,316 missing. It will continue to rise. Japan hit by record 262 aftershocks of 5.0 or greater since the big quake a week ago.As the full scale of the damage caused to Japan’s east coast gets clearer, it’s becoming plain that this town of 24,000 was among the hardest hit.
Once a pretty port set between the Yokote mountains and the Pacific Coast, Rikuzen-Takata effectively no longer exists. The town centre has been reduced to a vast field of flipped cars, mud-covered furniture and broken concrete. Only a few windowless buildings remain upright in the town centre, jutting up like tombstones from the field of death and destruction around them.
The death toll was still climbing Monday as rescue workers picked through the rubble with sticks, discovering new bodies so fast that they ran out of body bags and started carrying corpses on blankets taken from destroyed homes. Local officials estimated that between 20 and 40 per cent of the city’s predisaster population is dead.
“I think everybody in Takata town [the part of the city closest to the water] is dead,” said Matsumi Konno, a 54-year-old woman who was scanning a missing persons message board set up in a hilltop middle school that has been converted into a refuge for those who escaped the wreckage below. She was furious that her friends and neighbours had been herded into shelters so close to the coastline.
Mr. Kinno, the neighbourhood committee head, agreed that many had died because of poor preparation. Although he was outside Rikuzen-Takata when he felt the initial earthquake, he turned around and drove back into town when he heard the tsunami alarm.
When the 73-year-old arrived downtown, he was appalled to see so many people huddled inside the tiny community centre. “It was unintelligent,” he said, so he asked everyone to follow him to higher ground.
It was too late. As Mr. Kinno led a group of 60 people outside, he saw the wall of water coming for them. “It was black, black water. It was as if Godzilla had come and was trying to eat the people,” he recalled with awe in his voice.
Forty of those who followed Mr. Kinno into the streets were swept away in the rush of black. The rest scrambled into City Hall and raced the water up the stairs to the top floor, those moving too slowly drowning on their way up the stairs, Mr. Kinno said.
The water poured right through Rikuzen-Takata, and rushed past the mountains, filling the rice-growing valleys in between. The devastation carried five kilometres up the road into tiny mountain villages from where the ocean previously hadn’t been visible.
“We didn’t think this was possible,” said 52-year-old Iwako Onodera as she picked her way through the soggy and smashed remains of her family’s two-storey home, which now had a disconnected stretch of railway track and a flipped white Toyota van in the backyard. Though Ms. Onodera and her children were away when the wave struck, her parents died when water flooded the entire ground floor of the house.
Her brother Kaoru built the family home 10 years ago, but as he and Ms. Onodera salvaged whatever they could from the house, he said he didn’t expect to be back. “I don’t think people will want to move back here.”

And that is the saddest part. The home where I grew up was sold and remodeled; when I got the opportunity to return, some time after, it looked much the same on the outside. Standing inside, I did not recognize it. I stood stunned for minutes trying to get a sense of bearings I would never find. That is a fraction of what the survivors in dozens of Japanese cities and villages are going through. I wonder, if the government could wave a magic wand and remove the debris, rebuild the levees, the buildings, and the homes, how many would say, "This is no longer my home" and walk away as Kaoru Onodera plans.

My son KC notes that this disaster has brought out the "fire and brimstone" in many preachers.
I don't agree with either the "this is a judgement" or the "this is a sign of the end times" crowd. But what I will say is this. Being ready for the 8.2 quake (as the reactors were) but not the 9.0 that hit; being ready the ten-foot wave from 1960 and not the 50-foot one that came; the levee that could withstand the cat 3 hurricane and not the monster that was Katrina. New Orleans, Haiti, Chile, Pakistan, Christchurch, and now Sendai have shown us two things. Number one: safety measures on the cheap dictated by actuarial tables and short-term past history are no help when the planet itself is somehow becoming more violent. Number two: God's creation can break anything we build. If we follow the scientific data that protects us from the most disaster most economically, they fail and people die. If we build the safety measure to protect against a 10.0 earthquake and 100-foot tsunami, somehow we'll get hit with a meteorite which dwarfs our daydreams of destruction. The news media seems to think every disaster shows where we weren't prepared enough, we should have done more. At a certain point, we've got to just do the best we can and live with the consequences.

Frustrations and such

Wow, yesterday's post on the frustrations of being a blogger certainly got me the comments! I guess we all go through that, because we all go through it in life. It just seemed that at a point where I was getting mildly frustrated, everyone I follow was going through it much worse. I'd like to skim the top of a few of these subjects tonight- without naming names, but just kinda putting my take on a couple of the situations.

On one blog the discussion of emotional triggers has come up. For me, I had commented, triggers were like a depression cycle looking for a something to wrap itself around and thus gain legitimacy. I've dealt with that all this week, successfully thus far. And the major line of attack has been through memories and dreams involving my dad. This included a corner-of-the-eye moment that I saw someone else who seemed to be him. Neat trick as he's been dead since 1984. I am not trying to bad mouth my dad here; I stress this because I have two nephews who think the world of him and I don't want them mad at me. At the same time, I think they realize as adults that the grampa they knew as kids was only a part of the story. Perhaps some day I will go more in depth with that, but not tonight. Point being, I've gotten better over the years at recognizing the "depression looking for a cause" and cutting it off at the pass; but somedays, somebody notices me being extra quiet and wonders what's up. It becomes a catch 22- talking about it can become just the cause it wants to wrap around; silence leaves you on your own. No easy answers for that.

Another blog had as part of the theme getting off track of where you intend to be- emotionally and mentally as well as bloggily (?). I tend to do that when I get stressed- doing almost mechanical posts and forgetting that this is my sandbox to mess in. I've got someone who has reminded me of that at times, but prefers to do her commenting by e-mail instead of the comments section, which frustrates me though I have know idea why. Probably 40-60% of the things that frustrate me in life I have no idea why they do so. Anyone else with THAT problem?

Another blog had as the subject fear that her ranting about her job might be found out by someone at her job and used against her. Now me, I'm far too lippy to worry about that. To wit: We are currently in that part of the year that our main focus (patio cushions through the dot-com area) is not surprisingly dead, so we've picked up some of the far more massive retail end of things- which is not a great fit for the size of building we inhabit. Retail customers tend to like their shipments in big waves. We are just about at one of those big waves right now, which means over the last week we have been trying to build up stock sufficient to fill 57, count 'em, 57 trailers. We have packed cushions crammed into every orifice a building can have. So while the sewers and cutters (who mainly work the dot-com stuff) have little to do, and some are getting sent home early, and others (like me) get farmed out to other departments, the stuffers, closers, and packers as well as the warehouse people (who are working with already sewn material from China and Vietnam which we stuff, close, and pack) are not only inundated, but buried. Hope came with the scheduling of 3 trucks for today and more on Friday, which is our OT (10 hr days M-TH). But space was already a problem, so Wednesday the told several stuffers and closers not to come in again till Monday when the space problem would be somewhat alleviated.

Here, anyone who has had to deal with trucking companies in the past can guess the story. For the rest of you, the trucks cancelled. All of today's and all of Fridays. Which of course leads us to OT being cancelled tomorrow. Good for knees, bad for wallet. And just to add insult to injury, Some trucking company called back to shipping at 1:30 after the final buzzer to- you guessed it - schedule a pickup. How much you wanna bet they wanted to pick up tomorrow? Tough break, Nick.

On the bright side, that means I'll be getting Time Machine out tomorrow, where we'll talk about the responses I got on the "theme song" challenge; I may get brave enough to let you all in on what I picked for my aforementioned friend who claims she has no such song, and I will do my own big reveal.

More February Flotsam

As I have spread my blog-following wings the last couple weeks, I had come upon a lot of basically smiling happy people, as REM might say. And it has been nice to be part of a "crowd" at some level. But somehow it can become a bit overwhelming, and you wonder why you ever got out of your small pond. I had been debating that when suddenly, the world began to fray a bit. Without going into other people's details (other than the occasional asking for prayer for them), it seems that many people that I'm following are either going through illness related stuff in their families, dealing with regret or emotional stress, or even just questioning that same overwhelm threshhold that I was questioning.

One thing that gets mentioned is the quantity or quality of responses. Is anyone listening? Why are their no repsonses? Why is it that I put the website on Facebook, it averages 15-50 look-ats a post, and there has been ONE comment made? (Yeah, why is that?) I was recently the only person who took the time to guess at a truth-or-lie quiz on one lady's site (and got them all right BTW). And why is it that NOBODY has stepped up to tell me what is the fascination in Germany over Silver Convention????

Okay, when it gets like this, it's time to take a time out. As I recall, about 13 1/2 months ago, I started a blog under the understanding that this was my place to vent, WHETHER ANYONE LISTENS OR NOT. I've been fortunate in that many wonderful and fun people Do listen- at least at times. And I want to thank all of you who have, WHETHER YOU COMMENT OR NOT. And I thank those I follow for letting me share a piece of their lives, and remind me that there are still a lot of good people out there. And I thank google, who for whatever reason pushed my picture of Silver Convention (from the legendary November 19th Time Machine) to the first row of images for SC, which at least explains why Germans come nosing around my site for the picture if not why they like the picture so much.

And, I have had 4 responses to the TM call for everybody's theme song. Which ain't too bad, I guess. And for those of you who haven't gave me a song, >:P (lol).

And I guess talking about scam e-mails has netted me some responses. Since I did the post on Mary Ozasuma (who is a real person and has nothing apparently to do with scam e-mails) and the dying Mrs. whatshername, I've had:

1. An urgent money gram from Michael Collins who says he wants me to have this $2.5 million he has lying around;
2. A notice from Thelma Davis (who at least is the name of someone I knew like 20 years ago) who works as an auditor at the Oceanic Bank of Nigeria who says that I have either a "contract/Lotto/inheritance" that will pay me a "partial payment" this year of $8.3 million;
3. Some dude from City Capital Bank of Clap-Ham, London, who is holding my $5.5 million inheritance;
4. IMF investigator Frank Nichols, who doesn't give me an amount but informs me that Janet Williams has told him I'm dead so that she can have it;
5. 2 e-mails from my Blue Cross account that... oh, wait, that's not TECHNICALLY a scam.

So I guess as long as the Great Stupidity continues to seek me out, I'm not being totally ignored. And if the point of a blog is glorified talking to oneself, I suppose I'm coming out pretty good.

February Flotsam

Just some odds and ends to put on the air.


First, for those who read the "In support... "blog a few days back, Average Girl decided that the support of her followers was greater than the disgust of the few, and resumed the contest. However, just minutes ago, she posted this:


My unbelievably beautiful, wonderful and incredibly kind sister-in-law had something horrific happen to her and she almost lost her life yesterday. She is currently in the intensive care unit, and as such, I will be delaying the Battle of the Blogs for a day or two or longer while our family deals with this.



I hope to join with all of you in praying for Tracy's SIL and their entire family. Some things really do take a back seat.





Two days ago, Scrappy and I bundled up, taking the mighty camera with us on a quest to see what the world under 16 inches of snow looked like. It quickly became more of a "if we get home alive" sorta ordeal whose exertion made several layers of bundling unnecessary.

That is Stony Run Creek.

As you can see, the aminals haven't kept up with local trail-shoveling laws.

They hardly touched what in warmer days was their main track into the woods, but did stamp down this one nearer the north entrance.

And this is where some unfortunate decided to wipe out across from our parking lot.

Once we hit California road, I said enough is enough and decided we'd follow the plex road back home. However, the Plex had only plowed from building to road, which meant half of our remaining journey would be just as bad as what had went before. When you go out in 20 degree weather and come home soaked in sweat, it's time to revise your hiking plan- which we did on Saturday and Sunday.

I wanted to touch on a couple of celebrity deaths. Chuck Tanner, manager of the mid 70s Pirate "fam-i-lee" died this week. Chuck also managed my A's in 1976,

and we TRADED him the next year for catcher Manny Sanguillen.

The other is Betty Garrett, an actress known for many things; but for me she was Archie Bunker's nemesis Irene Lorenzo on All In The Family.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the hockey game that broke out in the midst of the brawls between my New York Islanders and my son's Pittsburgh Penguins Friday night. This nastiness, wrapped around a 9-3 Islander rout of the Pens, was brought on after the events of a few games past when their goaltender broke our goaltender's face with one punch. The Isles were bent on all sorts of revenge, and seem to have gotten it; 346 penalty minutes were mostly concentrated in 3 big brawls, and included 15 fighting majors, 10 10-minute misconducts, a 5 -minute elbowing with intent to injure, and 11 game misconducts, 2 of them on Eric Godard of the Pens. One guy for the Isles racked up 32 minutes worth in the one big fight, and a teammate got 29 in the same melee. One Islander found himself with a ten game suspension (Trevor Gilles) as did one Pen who came off the bench when his goalie and an Islander went at it. The Isles also got another suspension, and were fined $100,000, a big deal for the cash-poor wreck that the once proud 4-time cup champs have become. Not being afraid of violence for the greater principle in sports, I'm of mixed opinions on the incident; but, I will say, EVERYONE KNEW something like this would happen at this game. The fact that it happened to such a degree shows that nobody really cared until it got out of hand. If I were king of the NHL, and disposed to end such shenanigans, I would have also fined the refereeing crew- because this crap never, I repeat NEVER happens if the crew does a competent job of handling it. And I would have suspended BOTH coaches and fined BOTH teams. Although he can hardly be considered a neutral party, Pens owner Mario Lemieux seemed to agree:

"The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed," the Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner said in a statement released on Sunday. "We, as a league, must do a better job of protecting the integrity of the game and the safety of our players. We must make it clear that those kinds of actions will not be tolerated and will be met with meaningful disciplinary action."

The NHL announced just before midnight on Saturday suspensions for Islanders forwards Trevor Gillies (nine games) and Matt Martin (four games), and Pittsburgh's Eric Godard (automatic 10-game ban for leaving the bench).Lemieux, however, said Campbell didn't go nearly far enough and the Hall of Famer who won two Stanley Cup titles as a Pens player questioned whether he still wants to be involved with such an outfit.

"If the events relating to Friday night reflect the state of the league, I need to re-think whether I want to be a part of it," he said. These remarks will surely irk NHL's front office, and Lemieux could soon be the target of his own disciplinary action in the form of a fine.
(Courtesy Fanhouse Sports)

One thing the league should look at is the fact that Godard got 10 games off for going to the aid of his goalie while all on-ice personnel were busy waltzing at the other end, while 2 Islanders drew instigator penalties, which cost just 2 minutes in the penalty box. Once upon a time, the man off the bench penalty was hailed as the cure all for bench clearing brawls, and it by and large works. If the league really wants to eliminate these ballroom events, then those who get hit with instigator and third-man-in penalties need to be similarly disciplined. Though not impartial, Lemieux was right about the league not going far enough. If they would have suspended goalie Brent Johnson for injuring Rick DiPietro in the FIRST PLACE, none of this would have happened. Once again, the NHL has tripped over that fine line they try to walk between what "puts fans in seats" and what "is an embarrassment".

Neighborhood crime meeting.

Tonight was the promised meeting at the clubhouse, and if the fire marshall had showed up, we'd likely have all been in jail. I'm sure that by the time everyone filtered in, we topped 100 residents. I was surprised that no TV cameras were there, but at the very end, there was a young man (who wasn't too far off the perp's description, but in dress shirt and tie) from Indianasnewscenter.

John from management emceed, introducing us all to our courtesy officer Chad Thurston, who is actually the third shift FWPD supervisor for our quadrant. After explaining to us when to call him (After calling 911 first for even a suspicious person report, and after the fact discoveries or reflections) and when not to (for broken furnaces- ya had ta be there), he in turn introduced Mike Joyner from crime prevention.

Mike carried most of the meeting. His main task was to remind us that we are "2,000 sets of eyes" to assist the FWPD in their job, and to go over the things we can do:

1. Be observant- what is odd, strange, out of place?
2. Be a good witness- get details as much as you can.
3. Stand tall- the more confident we seem the better the chance he won't have the guts to strike.
4. Make NOISE- he doesn't want to be noticed. One girl in q&a suggested keeping a rape whistle handy, which Mike said was an excellent idea.
5. Get to know your neighbors; be prepared to help out.
6. Porch lights on at all times; blinds open when you're home, so he knows there's the potential to be seen.
7. Know your surroundings, since he obviously does.

Among the things discussed about the perp:
1. This last attack, he was wearing a ball cap and a "military style black flak jacket that came to his waist" according to the victim, who was there. This is somewhat different that the long black jacket and stocking cap that was described in the first three attacks.

2. He did get the gun wrestled away from him this time, and it had rounds in the thing. Joyner is hopeful that that means we will get prints.

3. They are convinced he has a getaway driver, because of after the fact witnesses and the fact that the dogs tracked him to a spot and lost him.

4. They profile him to be a north-side resident (sorry, Bob, not one of yours), possibly a former resident.

5. I asked about the possibility of a connection with the guy they got on picture at the gas station on Coliseum last night. The vic said it wasn't the same guy, to which I suggested that maybe the driver handled that one. Mike said in response to all speculation that A) they're analyzing all leads and B) needless to say, there were some things that the cops would not release.

Q&A included a lot of what should we do to defend ourselves. Some suggested arming oneself with Mace, pepper spray, guns, and tasers. (One woman said she heard that you should arm yourself with wasp spray, since it shoots so far. Mike questioned the efficacy of carrying around such a big can, and suggested that pepper spray shoots pretty far, too.) Mike's response was, if you do, you'd better A) know what you're doing with it ( lest you get caught, as often happens, in pepper overspray, or get your weapon taken from you, or, my personal probability, end up injuring yourself with whatever it might be. He suggested that you are better off A) letting him know you know he's there (IOW pay attention to people behind you), B) Draw attention, i.e. the rape whistle, C) do the things to make yourself less of a target (i.e. don't park in the darkest of corners, have someone to call that can come out when you arrive (my suggestion), don't carry a purse where it can be seen, avoid having both arms full with bundles, and D), give him what he wants- personal property can be replaced.

As the night wore on, the questions became more of a mild bitch session, and the crowd began to disperse. Mike took his last question, thanked everyone, and we were all basically escorted home by several lights-on cruisers who were doing a drive-around a la two nights ago. (Mike said this "wasn't staged, it's what we're doing", but I kinda wonder.

Anyway, that's the story. Tune in for more next time.

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Oh, and just for the record vis-a-vis my last post, Average Girl was inundated by the ferociousness of her followers' support, and has returned to the blogging world, including the "he said-she said" contest. Any of you that like good poetry should check out yesterday's battle where the contestant of each gender was to write a poem about the beauty or attributes of the other gender. They weren't funny; they were fantastically good. Do yourself a flavor and check 'em out.

In support of a fellow blogger...

Recently I got turned onto a blogger calling herself Average Girl, who blogs at http://goodgirlgoneaverage.blogspot.com . She has a really cool way of dealing with a life confounded by fibromyalgia, and a unique way of looking at life. Recently, she's held a couple of "audience participation" events on her blog: a get to know each other "party" in which we were encouraged to put our stage names and blog names, read each others' blogs, and generally make merry in her comments section; the other was a "He said-she said"game in which participants would be assigned a topic (anything from wine tasting to nose hair) to which they would have to present either the pro or con argument (she assigning your side of the topic). Today was the second day of what was to be a month-long fun-fest.

But it ended today. Why?

Because there were apparently some people, presumably who'd come to be followers for the more serious topics of her blog, who have un-followed her because they were offended by the more risque aspects of the posts and the comments. She also received complaints. She decided that it wasn't worth it, cancelled the rest of the contest, and is taking some time off.

I have a message for the complainers and un-followers: HAVE YOU EVER HAD FUN A DAY IN YOUR LIFE???

I mean, really. I know that my blog doesn't always cover subjects everyone likes. But I would assume that since this is America, THE LAND OF FREE SPEECH, you just stop reading, move on, and come back when I'm talking about something that's more your cup of tea.

At least, that's what an ADULT would do.

I think it's awful that we as a nation have gotten to a point that we cannot just walk away from something we don't agree with. MY GOD, DO WE HAVE TO AGREE ON EVERYTHING? HELL NO!! God knows it's in my nature to rail against the powers that be (hence my blog's title), but if I bitched about every little thing, Jim and Carrie on Oldies 101.7 would be getting an earful over something that hacked me off this morning. Sometimes that is appropriate, other times you should just lay back and let it roll off. But to hurt someone who is just trying to bring a little fun into people's lives is just plain asinine. I hope you are happy, another ray of sunshine blotted out.

I would like it if those of you who stop by TAW would click on the above link and check Average Girl out. If for no other reason, to show you believe that America should stand for free speech. Average Girl had, I believe 2 followers drop her in the aftermath of the party and three more because of the contest. I'd like to see her gain ten times that back. If you believe in free speech, if you like to have fun, if you're just tired of the BS of idiots, or if you just wonder what the hell set him off, check out http://goodgirlgoneaverage.blogspot.com/. Thank you for your attention.

Bits and Pisses, chapter 3

I've been playing around with the new features e-mail blogger sent me this morning, and I love that new stat thing! Imagine, my humble blog has been read in Denmark, Germany, Canada, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, Czech Republic, Russia, and the UK! Not often, mind you, but still kinda cool!

I've also been turning in my points for surveys and cashing them in on Amazon. Right now I'm on Toluna and Opinion Outpost, as well as a couple others that I basically ignore. This was the first time I turned in on Toluna, and it netted me the second and third volumes of Neil Gaiman's Sandman (which is a very cool comic book) along with a cd of "The Good Life" by Firetown (whose claim to fame is that they eventually hired Shirley Manson to sing and became alternative rockers Garbage). Then I saw I had enough to turn in on O.O. for a second time (I'd already gotten a 50 check from tem last year) and translated it into a Four Seasons greatest hits box set, Kiss' Smashes Thrashes and Hits, and Days of Future Past by the Moody Blues. Two books, five cds, a $65 value on Amazon, mine for $5 shipping. Cool, eh?

Also again, with a little help from our printer, I've brought Laurie into the world of registered voters. Too bad we can't vote in Nevada and California and help them rid us of Reid and Pelosi.

And the KHL has finally solved its 24th team problem. HC Lev, which was going to play out of the Czech city of Karlove until the Czech federation threw a hissy fit and wouldn't allow it even for a hefty bribe, picked up its marbles and moved to Poprad in Slovakia, where they will become HC Lev Poprad and play in the same divsion as the the 3 (basically ) Moscow teams, St. Pete, and Riga.

Well right now I'm having a spot of trouble with one of these lovely new features, so I shall post this, before I have to retype it all.