Saturday, Wait

It's Saturday and first half exams finished up this morning. I just banged off 10k upstairs on the treadmill in a semi-respectable 47 minutes, replacing the restless, spastic feeling in my legs I've had all week with that good, tired feeling. Now it is time to watch some football. I'm joined here today by a fridge full of Carlsberg, a bag of microwave popcorn and the sofa. The Steelers are giving only 10 points to a thoroughly stinky Giants team and I'm all over that action. The Giants have lost 6 straight, and the Steelers have won 11 in a row. There's nothing to do now until the Rotman year-end party tonight at Lounge 88 but chill out, watch the game and write in my blog for the first time in ages.

For anyone who's interested, I've recently switched my sports betting account from Sportsinteraction to Pinnacle Sports. Pinnacle's lines are -105 vs. Sportsinteraction's -110. That means your paying $10.50 to win $10 on an even money bet instead of $11 - big difference.

Speaking of betting on sports, I see Mark Cuban is starting a hedge fund based on sports gambling. This sounds like a good idea, sports gambling is an inefficient market, and therefore somewhere you can make money and Mark is certainly a bright guy. But I don't understand how he will get around the problem of the casinos kicking his people out once they figure out what they're up to. To the casinos that would be akin to counting cards, and they won't let anyone bet if they think they have an edge over the house.

Other things I've noticed recently, the Economist is calling the folks in Private Equity the New Kings of Capitalism. They say Private Equity players are the new junk bond traders and investment bankers of this decade (whatever this decade is called). This is a very good introduction to Private Equity, what they do and how they do it, even if I don't quite agree with the premise.

On a lighter note, probably my most-linked blogger Tony Pierce, busts out with more on what's wrong with music today. The money quote:

and i thought about the punk scene, which there isnt one, and i started to see that without strong metal and punk influences, rock just winds up being everything that isnt slutpop or rap.

As promised, here are the nominees for the first annual TAML awards for 2004.

Best Band: Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, The Killers, The Walkmen, Wilco
Best Movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Garden State, Kill Bill 2, Return of the King (ok, maybe ROTK wasn't technically released in 2004, but the DVD just came out with 40 minutes of new footage)
Best TV Show: The Apprentice, Kenny vs Spenny, Lost, The Sopranos
(notably absent - The Trailer Park Boys)
Best Canadian Athlete: Steve Nash, Brad Richards, Peter Ried (triathlete), Adam Van Koeverden (olympic rower)
Best Pop Culture Happening: Janet Jackson Super Bowl Wardrobe Malfunction, Red Sox beat Yankees & Win World Series, Tara Reid Exposes Breast by Mistake, Ron Artest Looses it in Detroit

If you want to vote, or have an idea for a nominee or a new category, leave a comment.

Finally, in deference to my trip home to Vancouver on Tuesday morning, I'm posting the lyrics to what is possibly the greatest drinking song ever conceived of by men, "The Crawl" by Spirit of the West. It's about a pub crawl that goes from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove on Vancouver's North Shore:

Well, we're good ol boys We come from the north shore. Drinkers and carousers, the likes you've never seen. And this night, by God, we drank til there was no more. From The Troller, to The Raven... with all stops in between.

Well it all began one afternoon on the shores of Ambleside. We were sitting there quite peacefully, with the risin' of the tide. When an idea(r) it came for-to mind to usher in the fall. And we all agreed next friday night, we'd go out on the crawl.

Well we planned to have a gay ol' time, the cash we did not spare, We left all the cars at home and paid the taxi fare. I got out to Horseshoe Bay a little after five from a table in the corner, I heard familiar voices rise.

The spirits, they ran high that night, old stories we did share. of the days when we were younger men, and never had a care. The beer flowed like a river and we drank the keg near dry. So we drank down all our glasses, and were thirsty by-and-by!

Park Royal Hotel, The Rusty Gull, Square-Rigger, and Queen's Cross. We started off with eight good boys, but half had gotten lost. And you'll never keep the lads together, when there eyes began to rove. And there were just the three of us that made it to Deep Cove.

We arrived out at the Raven, just in time for the last call.The final destination of this, the first annual crawl. We dug deep into our pockets, there was no money to be found. Nine miles home and for walkin' we are bound.

And we're good ol boys We come from the north shore.Drinkers and carousers, the likes you've never seen. And this night, by God, we drank til there was no more. From The Troller, to The Raven with all stops in between.

Update: Stupid Steelers!