DBD 6/5-6/6/10 YouTubed!

Pretty ragged affair. Bad defense, bad offense, looks like two teams trying not to get injured.

LINK

Doubtful for World Cup.

We own your words.\

Shantanu Srivatsa and Anamika Veeramani sat nervously, side by side on stage.

Once again, an Indian-American was going to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. It was just a matter of what word and what time on Friday.

Shantanu, 13, an eighth-grader from West Fargo, N.D., stepped to the microphone first and couldn’t spell “ochidore.”

Anamika — showing the cool demeanor she kept throughout — kept her hands behind her back and rattled off the correct letters for the medical term “stromuhr.” She didn’t crack a smile until the trophy was presented.

“It was too surreal,” she said. “It was an amazing experience. I usually have a poker face, so that’s what that was.”

The 14-year-old girl from North Royalton, Ohio, won the 83rd bee, claiming the trophy and more than $40,000 in cash and prizes — some of which she says she intends to spend.

She also became the third consecutive Indian-American bee champion.

Or is this just cylical?

In an earlier post, I noted that beer consumption outside the craft sector was down significantly. It’s a point worth elaborating on, because there is solid evidence that a big change is afoot in American alcohol consumption.

According to a recent article in Ad Age, sales of Bud Light are down 5.3 percent in 2010, while Miller Lite is down 7.5 percent. In fact, only four of the top 30 brands saw sales increase. These are not slight changes. For an industry that relies on slow and steady annual growth, they represent a full-blown crisis.

Ad Age, and the brewing industry, pin the blame on the economy—the target audience, 21- to 35-year-olds, are being hit hardest by unemployment, they say, so they have less to spend on booze. To back that up, Ad Age points to increased sales of the cheap stuff, like PBR and Yuengling, and it explains away the craft numbers by arguing that buyers are “saving their consumption for a special occasion by splurging on craft-style beers.”

The Mos Eisley Cantina.

Go Bears-Crush the Irish! RT: @CalRugbyScoring Sat. at CCI 7s – Cal v ND 9 a.m. PT, then vs. Dartmouth LIVE ON NBC AT 2 PM PT.. Stay tuned!

Good luck LeonPowe. I expect a CGB debrief after drinks.

In a completely unexpected development, UC Davis starting quarterback Greg Denham is giving up his senior year, quitting football and leaving UC Davis, because he believes this is God’s plan for him. He plans to study for the ministry. Denham started every game for Davis the last two seasons. Last year he threw for 6,435 yards and 46 TDs, and was named to the second team of the All Great-West Conference.

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/05/2800280/quarterback-denham-says-path-is.html

Nice story about the A’s from Sacramento Bee columnist Paul Gutierrez.

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/05/2800191/gutierrez-y-rttrttytytyty-ryryryrryry.html

Although an official announcement will have to wait until after the NBA finals, Boston Celtics assistant coach Tom Thibodeau has accepted an offer to become the next head coach of the Chicago Bulls, a source told ESPNChicago.com on Saturday.

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nba/news/story?id=5254978

Terry Gannon is doing play by play. Since when did he start working for NBC?

So, according to Tim Kawakami of the Murky News (via an interesting short piece on si.com), Uncle Larry has teamed up with the minority owners of the Warriors for his bid, which probably puts him in super-duper first place to buy our beleaguered superheroes.

It was always presumed that Ellison would end up with the team if he actively pursued the Warriors, and that’s what he’s doing. But, as expected, he’s not doing it recklessly, and he’s not going to bid against himself. That’s where the 20-percenters are important. As a top-level source said a few days ago, “they’re in play.”

The minority investors bought their stake in July 2004 for about $60 million (based on a franchise valuation of slightly less than $300 million), have all attended scores of games and several of them have been spotted at practices in the Warriors facility.

They are: Jim Davidson, co-CEO of Silver Lake, an investment firm based in Menlo Park; Fred Harman, managing director of Oak Investment Partners, based in Palo Alto; Michael Marks, founding partner of Riverwood Capital, based in Menlo Park; and John Thompson, chairman of the board of Symantec Corp., based in Mountain View.

They’re key players in the sales process because they have so much institutional knowledge, because they have a relationship with Ellison, and because of the terms of their investment.

Any potential buyer must be prepared to buy 100 percent of the team. The bid must account for the minority stake, unless the 20-percenters cut a separate deal, which gives them their leverage. Let’s say that another finalist bidder—possibly 24-Hour Fitness founder Mark Mastrov — can come up with a competitive bid for 80 percent of the team, but not necessarily for 100 percent. If Ellison locks up the 20-percenters, he essentially forces Mastrov to go to a higher number than he wants (for the full 100 percent instead of 80) or drop out of the bidding.

Wonder if we’ll see that Raiderette on the dance team?!?

Chip Brown wrote a new article here:

http://texas.rivals.com/barrier_noentry.asp?ReturnTo=&sid=&script=content.asp&cid=1091406&fid=&tid=&mid=&rid=

Unfortunately, it is behind a paywall, and I don’t know specifically what it says. At burntorangenation and cornnation they said there are two key points:

1) Missouri and Nebraska have until Friday to let the Big-XII know if they are leaving (Missouri is pretty much out the door, while Nebraska is hesitant). Considering the Big-10 may not send out invites for several months, this would involve at least a minor gamble on the parts of Nebraska and Missouri.

2) A small sect of politicians in Texas are attempting to force Baylor into the Pac-16 at the expense of Colorado. Here is the quote from burntorangenation:

Already, the political forces in Texas are preparing to make demands that if six schools from the Big 12 are going to be invited to the Pac-10, Baylor should replace Colorado on that list, according to two sources close to the situation.

“If you’re going to have an exported commodity involved in this, do you think we’re going to allow a school from outside the state of Texas to replace one of our schools in the Big 12 South? I don’t think so. We’re already at work on this,” said a high-ranking member of the Texas Legislature who asked not to be identified.

I also enjoyed the commentary from bon:

Please, for the love of God, if any pro-Texas, pro-A&M and pro-Tech legislators happen to be reading this, if your combined weight in the Legislature can’t keep Baylor from mucking this up (and I’m pretty sure adding Baylor mucks this up), then each and every one of you needs a testicular transplant immediately. (Unless, of course, you are a female legislator. Then I don’t know what kind of surgery you’d need.)

From what I’ve gathered on other sites, 15 politicians are in the mix supporting Baylor. A quick wikipedia search reveals the Texas senate to have 31 members and the Texas house of representatives 150. I don’t know which the 15 Baylor supporters belong to. Also, of note politically, Ann Richards was the driving force behind Baylor’s inclusion in the Big-XII, at the time she was governor. The current Texas governor, Rick Perry, is an alumnus of Texas A&M, the Lt. Governor David Dewhurst is from Texas but is an alum and played basketball for Arizona.

Cal retreats to avoid scoring again at the end of the game. Final Score Cal 33-Arizona 0. The Championship game is live on NBC at 2PM PST