End of the year list time: Movies

It looks like it's time for end of the year lists, with a list of the year's best movies. It seems a bit early, but that might be because the end of the decade lists are coming up (yes, the decade is over already).

I have to admit, I have only seen one of the movies on the top ten list (Funny People) and about five movies total -- One of which was the most recent Fast and Furious movie and another of which was Terminator: Salvation. Neither will make anyone's top ten list -- not even mine and I didn't even see ten movies.

So what were your top movies of the year?

An unusual path to the NFL

I remember a running back for the Denver Broncos a few years back had a similarly strange path to being in the National Football League, but I can't remember his name.

But I'd say that is one of the only, if not the only, people with a similar story as Ahmard Hall, the fullback for the Tennessee Titans:

A fourth-year NFL veteran, Hall, 30, served four years in the Marines, with tours of duty as a sergeant in Kosovo and Afghanistan, before resuming his football career as a walk-on at Texas in 2004. He secured a spot on the Longhorns' roster by writing a letter to Mack Brown, and the Texas head coach was so impressed by the impassioned missive that he waived a school rule stipulating that walk-on candidates had to have played organized football within the past 24 months. Hall signed with the Titans as a free agent after no team selected him in the 2006 supplemental draft.

Afghanistan war veteran, turned Texas Longhorn, turned undrafted player, turned NFL regular. Not exactly the same career path as Peyton Manning.

The story of Todd Walker

I think that I have read at least fifty stories just like this one, and they never get old. Someone stepping up and doing something to selflessly help others through sports.

This time, it is 47-year old Todd Walker from Oakland, California. From ESPN:

He told Jaee Logan's family he was going to make a difference. He was going to use football as a teaching tool to save these kids. He started the Junior Bears program along with head coach Herbert Miller, and they set out to teach football and life.

And so, for the past several years, with the permission of the parents, Walker has taken his players on a field trip to the funeral home. He teaches the reality and finality of death to kids who are desensitized by television and video games and the streets outside their homes.

The Onion is awesome

Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be:

"Our very way of life is under siege," said Mortensen, whose understanding of the Constitution derives not from a close reading of the document but from talk-show pundits, books by television personalities, and the limitless expanse of his own colorful imagination. "It's time for true Americans to stand up and protect the values that make us who we are."

Oh, and it only gets better.

Manny Pacquiao's strange entourage

Manny Pacquiao is arguably the best boxer in the world, perhaps on his way to becoming one of the greatest of all time. If he wins in a welterweight title bout tonight against Miguel Cotto, he will be the first boxer to win championships in seven different weight classes.

Yet, the most interesting thing that I have read about him so far is this piece from the New York Times. It describes Pacquiao and his entourage. They have some... strange arrangements.

“They’re all competing to be golden boy for the day,” said Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer. “Clean his pool. Take his shoes off. They will do anything for Manny Pacquiao.”

Roach paused, unable to suppress his laughter.

“I’m telling you,” he continued, “the funniest thing is, whoever is on the best terms with Manny at that moment sleeps closest to him, at the foot of his bed.”

Tony Kornheiser, on Pardon the Interruption yesterday, said that Pacquiao's entourage makes Vinny Chase's entourage on the HBO show... um, Entourage, look like nothing.

People still think like this?

Ugh.

From The Guardian:

Dressed in full uniform, the explorer scouts, who were taking part in Remembrance Sunday service in Romford, Essex were heard to repeatedly shout "Let's kill the Jews" at Jewish second world war veterans.

It is hard to believe that not only are there still people out there who would do something like this but that they would do it in public.

"The dad comes to a devastating realization: If they remain together, they’ll drown together."

Wow, a powerful read from Men's Journal. I recommend reading it, solely based on the teaser paragraph:

Swept out to sea by a riptide, a father and his 12-year-old son struggle to stay alive miles from shore. As night falls, with no rescue imminent, the dad comes to a devastating realization: If they remain together, they’ll drown together.

"Where there's smoke, there's moonshine"

Just an awesome headline. From McClatchy:

Parker said he made undercover purchases of the illegal hooch in 2006 and 2007 but couldn't find the still. Parker, of Scotland Neck, has been with ALE four years.

Pretty interesting story actually.

Jemele Hill ignores that everyone hated Isiah Thomas

Jemele Hill, writing about Magic Johnson and Larry Bird's book, mentions that Johnson led the charge to keep Isiah Thomas off the 1992 Olympic basketball team (everyone knows them as the Dream Team). Yet, she ignores one salient fact in this: No one like Thomas.

Thomas played on one of the most unlikeable teams ever (the "Bad Boys") and almost no player on any other team liked him.

On the Amazon-Wal Mart price war

From The New Yorker:

The best way to win a price war, then, is not to play in the first place. Instead, you can compete in other areas: customer service or quality. Or you can collude with your putative competitors: that’s why cartels like OPEC exist. Or—since overt collusion is usually illegal—you can employ subtler tactics (which economists call “signalling”), like making public statements about the importance of “stable pricing.” The idea is to let your competitors know that you’re not eager to slash prices—but that, if a price war does start, you’ll fight to the bitter end. One way to establish that peace-preserving threat of mutual assured destruction is to commit yourself beforehand, which helps explain why so many retailers promise to match any competitor’s advertised price. Consumers view these guarantees as conducive to lower prices. But in fact offering a price-matching guarantee should make it less likely that competitors will slash prices, since they know that any cuts they make will immediately be matched. It’s the retail version of the doomsday machine.

Definitely a cool read (and don't worry, it's short).