Kanka's Sports Page: Ramble OnAnd now's the time, the time is now

Speaking of Slovakia, after watching the Opening Ceremonies, I went online to see if I could find one of the hats the Slovak Olympic Team was wearing. I couldn't, but I did find this masterpiece. Further searching turned up your basic I Heart Slovakia shirt, and this beauty that I may have to get for my grandpa. If I choose to celebrate my own heritage on St. Patrick's day, I could wear this shirt. Or, if I'm feeling brave, I could go with one of these three choices.

So, there's this new song out: "I'm in Love With a Stripper." If my ear serves me, the song samples Barry Manilow's "Mandy." Now, could you imagine the conversation that led to Barry agreeing to let his song be sampled in this way?
Random rappers: "Excuse me, Mr. Manilow. Do you mind if we sample your song 'Mandy' for our new track?"
Barry Manilow: "Why sure. What's the name of your song?"
Random rappers: "'I'm in Love With a Stripper.'"
Barry: "Great! I love strippers, too!"

One of my new favorite TV shows has to be MTV's "Wild and Out," starring Nick Cannon. He's hilarious.

For a period of several years during grade school, our english textbooks would devote entire chapters to the difference between fact and opinion. Apparently, the textbooks in Bristol didn't. I know that hatred of ESPN is well documented in the blogging community, but this really got to me. The Worldwide Leader is starting to pass opinion off as fact, and that's just dumb. The "Cold Hard Facts" segment is always analyst opinion, and usually nearsighted opinion at that. Then there was the ND-Rutgers game the other night on ESPN Classic. The ticker at the bottom of the screen was showing facts about both of the schools, which I thought was very cool. Until it mentioned retired numbers. "Notre Dame does not retire numbers, but if they did, the number 34 worn by Austin Carr would be the first risen into the rafters." Really? All the greats from the pre-cable era like Mr. Notre Dame, Moose Krause (who earned ND a national championship in basketball) wouldn't be first? Or is that just your opinion?

Not gonna lie: 10 Things I Hate About You is just a good movie. But did you realize how may people in this movie had successful post-10 Things careers? There's Heath and Julia, of course. But there's also those two from 3rd Rock. And the best friend is that guy from Numb3rs! (Just found that out today.) You probably know that the principal is also the press secretary from West Wing, but did you realize that the english teacher went on to play Eli on Ed? Oh, and I could have sworn I saw the red-haired girl from Clueless during the party scene.

KankaNation consensus best Super Bowl commercials: MacGyver (video), Magic Fridge, the American Insurance commercial where the fly is killed with a defibrillator, and the Nextel commercial about getting sports scores on your cell phone. "Whatever happenede to getting scores the old fashioned way - on the Internet? By the way, what's the Browns' score?" Isn't that me?

ND Women's Basketball alumni update: Niele Ivey, still a member of the Phoenix Mercury, is an administrative assistant for Xavier's women's team during the offseason. Alicia Ratay appears to still be with Saarlouis of the German league. Kelley Siemon Deyo is still an assistant for Liberty College's women's team. Minnesota's Jackie Batteast is playing with Esperides of the Greek league during the WNBA offseason. Ruth Riley broke her right thumb while playing with her offseason team, the Colorado Chill. Oh, and Ruth also has a very nice website. (Thanks to reader Tara for her help compiling this information.)

For those who haven't heard yet, Darrell Campbell signed with the Cleveland Browns as a free agent.

Public Service Announcement #1: For those of you playing KankaMatic Baseball, start thinking about who on your team you'd like to keep. I'm going to ask that you cut your rosters down to 10 keepers by the end of this month. We'll start the draft in March. If anyone would like to join KankaMatic Fantasy Baseball, please let me know.

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