ddain's Blog

When you have a toddler at home, you often find yourself not watching the mature, adult-oriented programming you enjoyed when there were no kids around. Instead, you watch the Disney Channel a lot and plenty of Nickelodeon. I consider myself lucky that my daughter isn't interested in Hannah Montana yet, since I can't afford tickets to her shows. But there are other programs that I watch with her and after a while, you start to find some redeeming qualities in this kiddie programming.

Lisa J. Lennox can easily be considered one of Canada's finest babes of the small screen, dazzling us daily with her singing and dancing. She is clearly the cream of the Canadian crop when it comes to kid shows from the Great White North, eh? You can see her on "The Doodlebops" where she plays Deedee Doodle. She looks much better without the pink makeup and unflattering purple dress. If she ever came to this country, she could be the most popular Canadian export since hockey.

But let's shift our attention to another part of the world, and another TV show that I now watch on a nearly daily basis thanks to my  daughter.


Meet Caterina Mete!!!

This little Aussie pocket rocket is one of the world famous Wiggly Dancers on the show, "The Wiggles." Always smiling and shaking her short frame, 27-year-old Caterina not only shows off her boundless energy as a highly-trained dancer, but she has an occasional speaking role at the end of the program, often telling us that she hopes we enjoyed the show.

Yes Caterina...we did.

She has her own appreciation web page on MSN, which is a little odd but still, it's a testament to her rising popularity.

I think she's on tour now with the Wiggles, shaking her toned butt and legs all over the world. So Caterina if you read this,  please let me know if you can make a house call to my living room. It pays well....but lose the red coat.

Thumbs up Caterina...and a g'day to the rest of you.

Let's  talk about one of the greatest characters in the history of American television, and why he should be revered, respected, and emulated by people worldwide in order to make the Earth a better place to live.

James "Sonny" Crockett was an undercover vice cop, patrolling the streets of Miami with his loyal partner in search of drug traffickers and hookers whose only goals were to make money and make our society a worse place to live in. Sonny was an all-American wide receiver for the University of Florida where he ran a 92-yard TD in the final seconds of a game before transferring to what he called the "Southeast Asia Conference." Yep, Sonny was a war hero (he served two tours) as well as superior athlete. Combine that with a cool name, James Crockett with a nickname of "Sonny" and you have a guy who immediately makes you think of the word, "cool."


Sonny had a fashion sense that defined a generation. Sporting a t-shirt, Italian sport jacket, white linen pants, and sock-less loafers, this became the look to have. Combine a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses and a hot Ferrari with a shiny gold badge, and yeah, you have a true American hero, who defined the word "bad-ass."

With a great man comes great friends, and in this case that man was Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, who patrolled Miami with Sonny in a pair of Ferraris, one a Daytona Spider and later a Testarossa. Crockett and Tubbs teamed up in the pilot episode to chase down Calderone who had killed Rico's brother. At the conclusion of the show, Crockett asked Tubbs if he had ever considered a career in "Southern law enforcement." A great partnership was born.

Obviously a guy with these credentials had no troubles getting laid. The show started with Sonny banging fellow cop Gina Calabrese (played by Saundra Santiago) before he moved on to other conquests. Most notably, he was married to Sheena Easton before she was gunned down in the show, Julia Roberts was his main squeeze in the final season, and he was with Helena Bonham Carter for quite some time until she turned to drugs (which led her into the arms of Tim Burton). Sonny lived on a big boat in the marina with his pet alligator Elvis. Could you ask for better home protection than that?

How did it all end? Sonny walked away from his low-paying, non-appreciated job when politics yet again interfered with his ability to get the job done (wouldn't we all want to do this?). He took the car and moved down to the Florida Keys where he could spend the remainder of his days drinking "black jack," fishing, and banging hot women. What a gig.

And he had his own theme song...check it out below.

I recall several years ago when I worked at Fox Sports when a former New York Met legend was on Jim Rome's TV show. Unlike most sports celebrities who walked in and out of the building, this guy had no entourage and when he stood outside of the building waiting for his limo to pick him up, nobody was standing with him. Armed with a pen and paper and a desire to get his autograph, I strolled outside and approached this man, who was crouching down out of the wind, lighting a cigarette.

"Hey Nails! How about an autograph? "

This World Series champion looked up at me, blew out some smoke and said, "Sure."

That was my only experience interacting with Leonard Kyle Dykstra, known as "Lenny" to many. But for those who know him, calling him by his nicknames of "Nails" or "The Dude" is acceptable. Check out his baseball stats here to refresh your memory of his late 80's, early 90's, steroid-enhanced numbers. As you can see, Lenny loved to chew, in fact, Pittsburgh Pirates center-fielder Andy Van Slyke often called the outfield a "toxic waste dump" when he played against Dykstra's teams.

But this blog isn't about his numbers, but more about his fighting attitude. It seems that when Lenny hung up his cleats in 1998 his investment adviser didn't do right by him, and so Nails lost a ton of dough in the stock market. And that's where this story gets interesting.

Lenny rebuilt his fortune by purchasing car washes and is now an astute investor in the stock market. You seek advice? Find it here on this website where you can ask him a question. I just sent him one about whether it's a good idea to invest in China.

Today, Dykstra is a columnist for TheStreet.com, manages his own stock portfolio, and serves as president of several of his privately held companies, including car washes; a partnership with Castrol in "Team Dykstra" Quick Lube Centers; a real estate development company; and a new venture to develop several "I Sold It on eBay" stores throughout Southern California. Dykstra has helped bring to the forefront an investment strategy called "Deep in the Money Calls". He has also appeared on Fox News Channel's "The Cost of Freedom" business show. And he is publishing a financial magazine to help ballplayers invest their money better.

But this pales in comparison with his interview on HBO's "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel." The idea that Dykstra is so wealthy, and can clean up to look somewhat business-like in a suit is contrasted with his grungy look he had as a player, and his liberal use of foul language. You can take the man out of the locker room, but you can't take the locker room out of the man.

I don't know about all of you, but I'm having a hard time figuring out who I'm going to vote for in November, as none of the candidates really excite me. None represent the majority of ideas I have, and all have seriously flawed policies on a myriad of things.

But after listening to what Barack Obama said Tuesday in regards to the inflammatory remarks made by his pastor, Jeremiah White, I can safely eliminate him as a choice.

It's not that I think he's naive when it comes to his Iraq policy, or that he has no interest in addressing the immigration issue, or that most of what he "stands" for is change for the sake of change. But what he didn't say Tuesday is bothersome.

Here is a passage from a sermon given by White regarding how blacks in America have been treated:

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

Here is one excerpt of what Jeremiah Wright has stated about 9/11:

“White America got their wake-up call after 9-11. White America and the Western world came to realize people of color had not gone away, faded in the woodwork, or just disappeared as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.”

Obama chose not to disavow or denounce Wright, his pastor and mentor for over 20 years. He will not distance himself from a man who feels that US deserved to get hit by terrorists on 9/11. And Obama didn't really put a lot of distance between himself and Louis Farrakahn, a racist, anti-Jewish person who does nothing but harm tot his country when Farrakhan endorsed him.

I didn't like how Obama made excuses for White, saying that his words are often out of frustration and a feeling of disenfranchisement shared by many American blacks. Honestly, I don't understand how an educated black person in this country can still play the "victim" card anymore. Don't you think that Martin Luther King, Jr. would be thrilled to know how close we are to electing a black president? Don't you think he would be happy to know that a black man is a Supreme Court Justice, and that a black woman is the Secretary of State? And if you think about all of the blacks who own their own homes and businesses forty years after he was assassinated, I think King would appreciate the strides that have been taken in this country.

So when Barack is talking about victims of what he implied was white majority who has kept everyone down, I think he has missed the point. The problem with blacks today isn't about being kept down by "the man" as Obama, and many other Democrats would like you to believe, it's about the lack of father figures in many black families. It's about children born out of wedlock. You can't blame whitey for that.

I'm not telling you to not vote for Obama based on what he said, nor should anyone vote for him simply because he's black. And you shouldn't vote for John McCain simply because he's not a Democrat or for Hillary because she's a woman. But I think Obama, but not saying what he should have, hurt his chances to garner the votes of white people Tuesday.
At least he did with this white person. I'm very nervous voting for a guy who won't distance himself from anti-Semitic, American-hating people who only spread ugliness through their words.

So Frank McCourt promised to spend some dough after the Dodgers fell apart in September last year and put their season in the toilet. So did he bring in the right guys?

McCourt opened up the checkbook and brought in Joe Torre since it was apparent Grady Little lost control over the clubhouse and couldn't get the veterans and rookies to like one another. Torre should keep that from happening.

He signed Andruw Jones after he had the worst year of his career to a two-year contract. Let's hope Andruw uses the next two seasons to redeem himself at the plate and hit 40 homers and knock in 100+ runs. Ironically, as bad as his season was last year, he would have led the Dodgers in homers and RBI. That's how bad the Dodgers offense was.

And McCourt went to Japan to sign a starting pitcher named Hiroki Kuroda. Not much is known about him, but if he can be somewhat successful this year in the 4th spot in their rotation, that would be fine. Let's hope he's about as good as Daisuke was for Boston last year.

The question marks are at 3rd base (although Nomar seems to have the job for the next couple of months because Andy LaRoche tore a ligament in his thumb. They also have three outfielders for two spots (Matt Kemp, Juan Pierre, and Andre Ethier). Who starts, and who sits?

So? What do you think of this team? Are they good enough to beat the Padres, Diamondbacks, and Rockies, all of whom finished higher in the standings than the Dodgers did last year?

For those of you out there who are wondering...what is going to happen to Silda Spitzer, the wife of the philandering NY Governor Eliot Spitzer, I have one idea of what could happen to her in the future.



She could be running for President in about eight years. I mean, that's why Hillary stayed with Bill all of those years he was having sex with everyone BUT his wife right? She wanted the power to be President, and so she stuck it out with Bill even though he repeatedly humiliated her and embarrassed their family by banging other women.

So Silda...take heart. You could have a future in politics!

Oh, and let it be known that Spitzer IS A DEMOCRAT!!! If you read the article in the LA Times today, you have to read onto the 2nd page of the article to even see the "D" word mentioned. Of course, if Spitzer was a Republican, it would be a different story. So don't kid yourselves if you think that the media doesn't have a left-wing bias.

...I picked up the collector's edition of AC/DC's "Plug Me In" recently and I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys the band's music. It has 3 DVD's (the other edition has two I believe) of live performances and videos from both the Bon Scott and Brian Johnson eras.   

Not only do you get tons of stuff to watch, but it comes with old concert posters and backstage passes that date throughout their careers. It's not horribly expensive so check it out on Amazon.com.

Honestly...is Kanye West the only man in the world whose mother has died? Enough already! We all have mothers, some are here and some have passed on, but do we all dwell on it for months and months? No. Do we, at every turn, try to shove it down other people's throats? No.

So shut it Kanye...and find some other idiot rapper to "dis" or whatever it is that you do.

Good to see the karma gods show up on time, right? You can't get away with taping other teams' practices and get away with it forever, could you New England? Not only did you score fewer points than what Plaxico Burress predicted, but you lost you chance to be the best team in league history. No, you're not the 1972 Dolphins (the best team ever) and you're not a champion. You're a runner-up, and an afterthought in history.

I think this Sports Illustrated cover with Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick sums it up best. Larry shows who really is #1.

There's plenty of discussion on this site about who you want to vote for. But is there anyone whom you would not, under any circumstances, vote for?

Weigh in here.

Well here we go again. Yet another actress got arrested for driving while under the influence. This time...we got...



Mischa Barton!!!

Nothing like ending the year with a bang, and by shelling out bail money.

I guess Ryan Atwood wasn't there to call her a damn cab. What a dope.

Is there anyone out there, other than Roger Clemens' family, that think he's innocent, then please don't vote or drive a car because it's apparent you're out of touch with reality.

I love how Clemens is denying this until he's blue in the face, and now his attorneys are hiring private investigators to determine Roger's innocence. Is Thomas Magnum available? In his day, he was a good private investigator. I guess this trainer injected somebody else's ass with steroids and not Roger's.

Of course Roger's pal Andy Pettitte has already admitted that he took them, but he of course did it to help the team. Like most of these guys, they all did it to help their team because these chemicals were supposed to help them come back from injuries faster.

Funny how Roger's career numbers made a major upward turn in 1997 when he arrived in Toronto and allegedly starting taking the juice. If you don't believe me, here's his stats page.

Don't you find it odd how his 1996 season, and his 1997 season are so different? He won more Cy Young Awards after he began juicing than he did before.

It would be better if these athletes simply fessed up to what they did, said it wasn't illegal at the time but did it to either get or maintain an edge, and apologized for doing it. It's constantly denying it, or passing off these contrite apologies that pisses off fans.

I'll tell you who, probably the greatest guitarist to pick up an
 instrument.

I took in the December 14th concert at the Staples Center, and I was amazed. I waited a long time to see Van Halen with original front man David Lee Roth, and it was well worth the wait, and the dough I spent on tickets (never really was a fan of Van Hagar).

There was was a video screen over the stage so you could see the guys up close, and when Eddie did his "Eruption" solo, it focused on his hands so you can watch him shred. Amazing stuff.

I've seen my share of concerts over the years, but these guys were unreal. And I have to give props to Wolfie, he did tons of background vocals and played a mean bass.


Dave sounded good, you could really hear him belting out the songs to try and keep up with Ed's guitar. They led off the show with "You Really Got Me" and it just took off from there.

Has anyone else seen their show?