Not that this is jamiegainesproblems.com and I know that you don’t come here to read about my issues, but I thought I’d at least explain why I haven’t posted much this week or last. One, the pneumonia I got last week couldn’t have come at a worse time. I’m doing a lot of projects right now and my illness put me behind on work that I was already slightly behind on, so I’ve been playing a lot of catch-up.
The second, more serious, problem this week has been the illness of my homey Frosty the Guinea Pig. Those of you that read the old jg.com might remember pictures of him in his Ice Cube attire when we first found him outside back in 2000. He got very sick last Friday night into Saturday morning and we thought we were going to lose him. We took him to a vet here in Greensboro on Monday and then took him to some specialists in Raleigh where he stayed for most of this week.
He had lost a ton of weight in the last month and wasn’t eating as much. It turns out that his teeth were overgrown to the point that he was tearing up his tongue everytime he was trying to eat. So he had his teeth filed back and is now recovering from what I’m sure is a pretty painful ordeal. He’s very weak right now and not eating much on his own. I’m having to handfeed him 3 times a day which can take over a half hour at a time. I think he’s going to get better but it’s still very touch and go right now.
On the heels of losing our other guinea pig Squeak a few months ago I find it very unfair that we are being put through the ringer again, but I guess you have to deal with it. I’ve been back and forth to Raleigh three times this week all while trying to get caught up on all the work that I’ve missed being sick. It sucks.
So sorry for the boo-hoo fest and no new content recently, but it’s been a trying couple weeks. The good news is that the basketball season is starting up, I’m on the mend and I’m praying that Frosty has his rally cap on. I have a bunch of takes that I’ve been saving up, so hopefully we’ll get the good times rolling again here real soon.
Have a great Halloween and weekend!
Love,
The Crybaby 
From the WTF Department: The September issue of “Inside Carolina” reports that this past year (former Tar Heel men’s basketball player) Kris Lang led the Polish team of WTK Anwil Wloclawek to its first-ever Polish championship and earned second-team all-league status. It also mentions that Lang ranks right behind Michael Jordan in popularity and recognition in Poland.
Thanks to Jennifer (aka Mrs. Jigga) for sending this to me. I’m not sure quite what to say about this one. Where does one put one’s Polish championship anyway?
The blizzog is sad to report that we will now only be able to see Fred “Rerun” Berry in reruns.
Happy Birthday to my man Jeff Turner of the Internet’s jeffturner.net. Hopefully someone well get you a new web server administrator as a present. The blizzog would like to take this occassion to implore you to stop putting up this facade and admit to all of us what we already know. That you are indeed former Nirvana drummer and now vaunted fighter of Foo Dave Grohl.
I’ve had a little cough since this weekend but I didn’t really think much of it. I had a lousy workout yesterday because my breathing was kinda tight. Around 10 or so this morning I went into full-on cough mode and started feeling gross. So finally I decided to bite the bullet and go to the doctor.
It turns out I have what the kids these days call pneumonia. The doctor called it a low-grade version, which I guess is a good thing. He put me on meds and rest and said I should rally here in a few days. Pisser.
There’s a part of me that doesn’t feel sorry at all for Guilford College student Nathaniel Heatwole, who was charged in federal court today for smuggling box cutters and other items aboard Southwest Airlines jetliners. After all, it was a stupid thing to do and he should’ve known that he’d get the book thrown at him if he was caught.
But that’s just it. He didn’t get caught. He turned himself in. He walked past the crack Transportation Security Administration staff onto two jets in mid September, left box cutters, bleach, strike-anywhere matches and modeling clay resembling plastic explosives in both planes, and nobody found them until he e-mailed the TSA last week and told them where they were. Mid September? It’s the 20th of October!
That stuff was on those planes for over a month and no one was the wiser. He had done the same thing back in April. Thanks, TSA! Everyone’s waiting in long lines and dealing with more airport BS than usual, all in the name of security, and this is our reward for our collective inconvenience? I think the saddest part of this is that the only people that seem to be genuinely surprised by this is the TSA itself.
This is just yet another reminder to me that I don’t feel any safer from the bad guys than I did on 9/11, and I don’t like it. I know that I read that there are more things being done. And I’m sure that there are tons of well-meaning government employees that make themselves sick at night worrying about how to best keep us all safe. I really appreciate those people.
The problem is, I still don’t really feel any safer. I don’t know that any of us do. And I’m not sure that we ever will. I’m not sure what magic event or day will finally pass when I will feel that I can let my guard down. But until that day comes, I’m glad that there are people like Nate Heatwole - stupid as it was - to take one for the team and show our government that they can be doing a lot more for us than they’re doing right now.
Thanks, Nate. I’ll be sure to send you some smokes in the Big House.
How’s this for a rock block? Some David Lee Roth “Crazy From The Heat”, and then Asia’s “Heat of The Moment” followed by MC Hammer’s “2 Legit 2 Quit”, all topped off with a little AC/DC “Back in Black”. I am willing to bet that no radio station in the history of mankind has ever played those four songs in succession. Good times.
The blizzog is saddened to report the passing of Tar Heel football legend Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice, who died at his home in Cherryville, NC today. He was 79. In my mind the greatest Tar Heel football player of all time, Justice gained 4,883 yards passing and running for Carolina from 1946-49, a record that stood until 1994.
The Tar Heels were 32-7-2 in Justice’s four seasons, going to 3 major bowls during the period. Justice led the Heels to a #1 ranking for a week and a #3 finish in the national polls in 1948, still a school record. He was the Heisman runner-up that year to SMU’s Doak Walker, one of the greatest college running backs of all time.
After his days as a Tar Heel, Justice had a successful career with the Washington Redskins. He is listed among their 70 greatest players of all time. Charlie Justice was also the first person inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
Beyond his accomplishments on the field, Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice was a class act, a folk hero to many, and a staunch supporter of the university that he loved. He embodied everything that we would want in a Tar Heel athlete. His loss will be felt deeply by those of us who were inspired by his dedication on the field, his humility off of it, and his love for Carolina in both.
Rest in peace, Choo Choo. The Carolina family will miss you.
I was getting ready to write this explanation of how Grady Little blew it for the Boston Red Sox last night when I came across this article by ESPN.com’s Jim Caple that says it better than I could.
I’m not really a huge fan of any of the teams in the playoffs this year, but I really wanted to see a Chicago - Boston World Series. That would’ve been the icing on the cake to a great week of LCS games. After that, I just wanted not-the-Yankees to be in the World Series. It would appear that I’m not going to get my wish on either count.
With apologies to my New York friends, hopefully the Marlins can keep their mojo working so we don’t have to suffer through yet another year of listening to Yankee Fan gloating over the best World Series trophy that $185 million can buy. Go Marlins!
The FCC has ruled that Bono did not violate indecency rules by uttering the phrase “this is really, really, f-ing brilliant” on the air at the Golden Globes earlier this year. We still have no word on his haircut or glasses.
Explaining the commission’s decision, an FCC spokesperson said that Bono used the vulgarity as an adjective or to emphasize an exclamation and that “the use of specific words, including expletives or other ‘four-letter words’ does not render material obscene.”
Great. Hear that sound? It’s the clacking that 10,000 iMacs make when lame-ass TV writers in Hollywood jockey to see who will be the first to get the f-bomb uttered on a network TV show. My money is on NBC doing it in a last ditch attempt to put lacquer on the comedic turd that is Coupling. Or it could be the new Fox reality show, F-ing Brilliant. Of course the blizzog would cover that show religiously. 
Whoever does it - and it will happen sooner or later - we can be sure that the f-ing meecrob will hit the fan.
