World Cup Predictions (updated)

All right, group round finished, how were my predictions?

Group
A Uruguay, Mexico
B Argentina, Greece
C England, USA
D Germany, Serbia
E Netherlands, Denmark
F Paraguay, Slovakia
G Brazil, Portugal
H Chile, Spain

Well, honestly, I did pretty good. Of my 16 picks only 3 failed to move on. In groups C & H, I picked the top two teams in the wrong order, but that don't really matter.

Frankly, I thought Greece was one of the worst teams I saw in the group stage, Serbia was seriously disappointing after coming in with some 'dark horse' hype, and Denmark was middle of the road Europe.

I underestimated Japan and South Korea, both of whom look like fine disciplined squads. And I'm still surprised by Ghana: of all the pre-tourney injuries that went around, I thought Michael Essian was the biggest loss, the one most likely to have a star-making Cup, so that Ghana managed to soldier on without him is impressive.

To recap my second round predictions:
Round of 16
49 Uruguay
50 Serbia
51 Germany
52 Argentina
53 Netherlands
54 Brazil
55 Paraguay
56 Chile

Lets tweak those a bit:
49 Uruguay
50 USA
51 England
52 Argentina
53 Netherlands
54 Brazil
55 Paraguay
56 Portugal

Not a lot of changes, really, though I will take USA and England to move on past their respective opponents and meet again in the Quarters. (God! I hope so! That would fuckin' rule!)

Clockhammer

Neko Case

Dr. Korchek's Love Letter (from 'Schizopolis')

Dempsey v. Dempsey

No wonder the Brits love this guy!

From 'The Designated Mourner' by Wallace Shawn (don't recall where the pic came from)

Judy (to the audience):
Then one day there was a funny postcard with a picture of an outdoor restaurant--no salutation, no signature. (She reads) "In a very pretty garden, I ate lunch without you today. At a wobbly table with a thin rose crawling bent and unbalanced out of a tiny vase, I ate an egg and didn't think about you."

Shuggie Otis

Whew! This is classic!

(Hat tip: C Townie)

Franz Beckenbauer

World Cup Predictions

Group
A Uruguay, Mexico
B Argentina, Greece
C England, USA
D Germany, Serbia
E Netherlands, Denmark
F Paraguay, Slovakia
G Brazil, Portugal
H Chile, Spain

Round of 16
49 Uruguay
50 Serbia
51 Germany
52 Argentina
53 Netherlands
54 Brazil
55 Paraguay
56 Chile

Quarterfinals
57 Netherlands
58 Serbia
59 Germany
60 Chile

Semi-Finals
61 Netherlands
62 Germany

Third Place
63 Chile 5-3 Serbia

Finals
64 Netherlands 2-1 Germany

Okay, there you go. I like the Dutch. Call the bookie, ye punters, and have steak and kidney pie dinner come July.

Taj Mahal

John Wooden

NBA Finals

Okay, so I was completely wrong about Magic-Celtics and kinda close on Lakers-Suns.

The Magic this year had plenty of strengths but it wasn't the same team as last year. I thought adding Vince Carter and Jameer Nelson (absent in last year's playoffs), would be enough to compensate for losing Hedo Turkoglu (who was actually pretty awful in Toronto this year). But that just was not the case. As it turns out, Turkoglu made the most of Rashard Lewis, who completely disappeared this year, and Dwight Howard. You know after all this time in the league and all the accolades, Howard is still a bit of a project offensively and Turkoglu, a soccer player in his youth, understands the concept of 'service': you got to get the ball to the guy in a place where he can do something with it. Nelson just dumps the ball down to Howard or else ignores him completely, whereas Turkoglu did a better job of triangulating Lewis and Howard to make the most of each of them. To me the key matchup in the conference finals was the Carter-Pierce match and, well, Pierce came to play; look, Vince Carter is a great regular season player, he can pile up numbers with the best of 'em night in, night out; but he's not a 'winner', a guy you just give the ball to when the game's on the line. Orlando has enough offense that over the course of 82 games, Vince is a fine first option. But at crunch time, he's not as good as Paul Pierce. In basketball, that's what it comes down to. Also, the Magic breezed through the easy side of the playoff bracket and looked more dominant than they actually were, while the Celtics had to claw their way in. The Celtics were hungrier, they were more prepared and they had Paul Pierce.

I thought the Lakers and Suns would split each home game and the Lakers would win in 7. But, when the Celtics went ahead and put themselves in the Finals, it gave the Lakers a bit more urgency and they finished the Suns in 6. Good for them, it shows strength of character and skill that they could will themselves to victory out there in the desert. The Suns are not a great team but they've got Steve Nash so they can hang with anyone. The Lakers just had too much size in the middle and Kobe is still untouchable, so there you have it. The Suns just didn't have enough offense to counter the Laker onslaught over the course of 7 games (or 6).

I'm looking forward to this series. These two teams are relatively even I think, though it feels like the Lakers should have enough offense to win it. Rondo has a good shot at obliterating Derek Fisher, which gives the Celtics a good start and Boston's bench is much deeper and more effective than LA's. So at the top and on the bottom, I give the Celtics the advantage. But, in between, I like the Lakers in all other matchups. I'll take Kobe-Artest-Gasol-Bynum over Allen-Pierce-Garnett-Perkins. And since I think that is the meat of the scoring, I'll take the Lakers. It'll go 7 games because both of these teams understand drama (and paychecks), and each match should be tightly contested. Lakers in 7.

Michael Hedges -- 'Because It's There'

Monarch & Dr. Girlfriend spotting celebrities

I have a huge crush on Dr. Girlfriend. (sigh)