An Innovative/Geeky way to Propose !!!

Since my high school days, for about a decade now, I had been thinking about innovative ways to propose to a girl. Being an old-fashioned macho romantic, I totally detest SRK's stuttering, Salman et al. 's silly style of romance. Unfortunately, it works with most desi women of modern times. Can life be any more sad??? Some girl once told me that I can't be both macho and a die-hard romantic at the same time, as according to her, one conflicts the other. Thats one of the dumbest things I have ever heard, and I had to give her a load of my infamous lip service/trash talking. Whatever happened to the old-fashioned raw and primal romance???

My earliest impressions of classy romance goes back to my days as a kid, through various Hindu mythologies. I could name Kambar's Ramayana and Lord Krishna-Sathyabama episode as two of them that impressed me the most. While Lord Krishna seizing Sathyabama, from her swayamvara, was cool, very romantic and macho, all at the same time, Kambar's poetic version of Valmiki Ramayana is simply a lyrical beauty. Kambar, one of the greatest Tamizh poets of all time, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kambar%2C_Tamil , also left an indelible impression in the Tamizh film industry, as many 50s, 60s, 70s, and even 80s movies believed in such classy romance and used to invoke many lines from Kambar's poetry. Much later, quite a few movies in both Tamizh and English had interesting characterizatons of romance that appealed to me. Some of the Tamizh movies include Indru Poyi Naalai Vaa, Kaadhalika Neramillai, Mouna Raagam and Alaipayuthey, and the most notable among the Hollywood are North By North West and Natural Born Killers.

Originality and improvisations always appealed to me wrt romance. So when I came across this news article, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070924/ap_on_fe_st/odd_crossword_proposal , I can't help appreciating this creative guy, for being so original and for making the occasion quite memorable. Romance before marriage could be a great time for all the parties concerned, and I hope men come up with more stylish and innovative ways to propose... My best wishes to this couple from Boston/Cambridge.

Beli-genius and Beli-hating morons

In my previous post, I had referred players of Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers as sore losers, for questioning Patriots' superbowl victories. Their views can be found at http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-eagles-nflspying&prov=ap&type=lgns

To some extent players' comments are understandable given the amount of pain they go through trying to win a super-bowl ring. I don't know if footballers' IQ levels drop as a result of constant pounding and battering they are subjected to as part of the game, due to which they make extravagant extrapolations. But it is disgusting when people in the media try to drumbeat along those lines. Aren't journalists supposed to have higher IQ than players? As the above link shows, Philadelphia Daily News ran a headline on Thursday that reads as, "Counterfeit RING: Spy Scandal Helps Explain Birds' Super Bowl Loss." WTF !!! Seriously, WTF !!! Hows the f@#k does this spy scandal explain Eagles' loss ??? The purported crime under scanner is that Patriots had a member of their staff, dressed in Patriots' jersey, videotaping opposing team's signals from the sidelines. I mean this guy was physically present videotaping. If Patriots' did videotape Eagles at some point in time in the past, someone would have obviously seen it, as I guess it is impossible to miss a 20 something man wearing your opponents jersey and viedotaping you from the sidelines. If they did actually see someone, they would have caught him, and lodged a complaint with the NFL. To my knowledge, no case was ever registered against Patriots or Belichick by Eagles. So in all fairness, if there is no complaint or any evidence, then its highly probable that the crime didn't happen. So Patriots simply outplayed and out-thought Eagles. It is unbelievable that a newspaper will hire a moron journalist to write such articles.

Looks like there are a lot of jealous and stupid people in the media. Check this out http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AtVpX37gZp5OGsxtSLOrKgFDubYF?slug=belichickslackofarespons&prov=tsn&type=lgns

For starters, Belichick is not media savvy. He literally states the obvious in the most boring fashion possible in all his press conferences. He is known to be a man of few words, a very professor like. Obviously, he does his job of coaching Patriots extremely well, and thats what he gets paid for. So when Mike Nahrstedt is spitting venom on Belichick, he conveniently forgets that Patriots are having an extremely important game against fellow title contenders from San Diego, and that Belichich wants to focus on the game in front of him and not get distracted. Belichick admitted in the press conference that he made a mistake, and accepted punishment imposed by the NFL. He didn't cry like a petulant kid. So, I don't see anything wrong when he wants to focus his energy and attention on LT, Merriman, Gates and Co. instead.

Even more funny is this article, http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AlDYfimbKINS0pvVPSjXvElDubYF?slug=belichickscheatingtarnis&prov=tsn&type=lgns

Patriots are one of the three teams that is heavly favored to win this year's super bowl. The author claims that "Belichick has sullied his team's season. Even if the Patriots hoist the Lombardi Trophy after Super Bowl 42 in Glendale, Ariz., the trophy should feel tarnished in Belichick's hands." Lets take a step back, and look at this statement assuming Patriots do win this year's superbowl. Patriots were caught videotaping in the 1st game against Jets. NFL commissioner agrees with the view that the tape didn't play any role in Patriot's resounding win over New York Jets. Since Patriots, now, don't have the tape, it is not going to help them beat Jets if they meet again this year. And its unlikely that Patriots have tapes of other teams' signals, as I said before, it is impossible to miss a stranger from opposing team videotaping on the sidelines. Someone is going to catch him for sure in a stadium that houses 100,000 people. And Patriots are unlikely to repeat this viedotaping stunt again. So if Patriots do win super bowl this year, it is unlikely that this "spy-gate" scandal would have played any role in it. Patriots would have won due to their well-documented teamwork, mental toughness and meticulous planning. Its as simple as that. So to all those morons trying to come up various theories to discredit Patriots, stop whining and assess situations objectively, and not subjectively.

Beli-genius, San Diego, and a bunch of sore losers

A day earlier Bill Belichick and my beloved New England Patriots were fined by NFL for the "spy-gate" scandal. Belichick is widely considered as one of the greatest defensive coaches over the last 30 years, and has made New England the dynasty as it stands right now. He made a mistake, got caught ( its appropriate to remember that Patriots were caught last year against Green Bay too) and paid for it, and now its time to move on and focus on the mouthwatering clash between New England Patriots and San Diego Chargers on Sunday. When current and former players of Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers start questioning about Patriots' super bowl victories, they are just being sore losers. Its disgraceful when they attempt to discredit Belichick for his hours and hours of hardwork and Tom Brady for all his brilliant screening passes in the faces of multiple blitzes. Patriots' were never caught videotaping Eagles nor Steelers, and in the absence of any evidence, it is jealousy that is driving them to besmirch lofty reputations of Belichick, Brady and Patriots.

Thankfully Belichick is an extremely driven and focussed guy, and we Bostonians love him every bit for his intensity. Hope we have a wonderful game against San Diego tomorrow. Meanwhile, Belichick press conference is as humorous as it can get...He quotes "San Diego" 11 times, "Chargers" 12 times, and "moving on" or "moving forward" 12 times, and refuses stubbornly to be flustered by the intense grilling by the media...Only Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy in the movie Anchorman would have said "San Diego" more number of times...:-)

Way to go Bill, and good luck...

Bill's transcript, for funny reading, could be found at
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=ArUg7JhnNrv2Rl8v0NZCUZIdsLYF?slug=ap-nflspying-belichicktranscript&prov=ap&type=lgns

After 147 games this year, Boston Red Sox is in that familiar final stretch of the marathon, towards playoffs, facing arch-rival Newyork Yankees for the last time in the regular season. This three game series, one of the most awaited clashes all year long, kicking off at Boston's Fenway Park on Friday, has everything that embodies bitter rivalry between Boston and New York in sports. Starting pitchers indulging in war of words, relief pitchers intentionally harming opposing team's batters, key Boston players joining the evil empire ( read J. Damon and R. Clemens), Alex Rodriguez and a lot of bad blood from decades and decades of rivalry. It also features one of the most outstanding pitching lineups ever in the history between the two teams, atleast on paper, with Boston's Dice K starting against New York's Andy Pettitte on Friday night.

Even though Dice K's dream start has turned sour over the last few weeks, his high ERA against Yankees is not exactly a great stat, there is a strong belief that he is about to turn that corner sooner. With Manny returning to the lineup friday night, this could be the extra confidence that Dice K needs to outperform Pettitte. This series closes with two marquee pitching matchups as 18-game winners Chien-Ming Wang and Josh Beckett meet Saturday, and Roger Clemens will return from elbow problems to face Curt Schilling on Sunday night.

This series will also be eagerly watched in Detroit. A Yankee series loss will certainly help Detroit in its playoff chances. A sweep will help Boston gain that extra mental advantage if Yankees do manage to stave off challenge from Detroit for the playoffs. Nevertheless, there is a lot at stake for both Boston and New York, and this series is as exciting as one can hope for.