The Olympics Are Coming!

In honor of the fact that the Olympics are 63 days away (milestone, right?), I give you this:



Agree?  Disagree?  I'm thinkin' maybe cricket and polo don't belong on the list, but...equestrian high jump?  Equestrian long jump?  Motor boating?!  PETA would have a cow over the live pigeon thing.  But they should *totally* bring back tug-of-war.  Brilliant!

Ponder the Vikes Vote (and closer to opening game day this fall, the QB)

Very interesting (and pretty accurate) take on the Vikings stadium vote (pardon the language): here.  (And there are plenty of other stories, including this one and this one, and about a 975 million dollars, er...others.)

How to Write: Really, please don't leave me guessing

Dear Internet,

Have you ever noticed how people are so frequently signing their valedictions with "best"?  "Best" what?  This really annoys me.  Best regards?  Best hatred?  Best love?  Best sincerity? Best in show?  Out with it already!  It's completely passive-agressive because it shows an inherent laziness, disrespect, or lack of mental decisiveness on the part of the author, and it can then be interpreted by the reader any way the reader so desires, which may or may not be what the author intended.

Well, from here on out, I am declaring that I will be reading a closing comment of the milquetoast "Best" to mean "Best of luck figuring out the tone of what I've just written to you, but you may feel free to read into my words an incompetent malaise or a sneeringly obscene gesture or somesuch nonsense."

With utmost sincerity,
Minny LinnEy

I may need to rethink my during-Session entertainment: too much of a good thing? Nah.

Dear Vince Flynn,

I love your writing - I always have.  For example, I just finished reading Kill Shot and enjoyed it a great deal.  You have great characters, gripping (and believable) story lines, and a most excellent sense of pacing.

But, really?  What do you have against rowers?  Also, I would've believed it more had you said an "eight-man crew" or a "four-man crew" instead of a "six-man crew" in chapter 27.  All the parts about single sculls were believable, though it still begs the question of why you don't like rowers to so woefully characterize one in a way such as you did.

Don't worry, though: I will still read every book you write, and will continue to enjoy all of the non-rowing parts of them (which thankfully, is more than 99 percent of the writing).

xoxo,

A Minnesota Rower

_____

Dear Howard E. Wasdin,

Now that I have finished reading Vince Flynn's latest work today, I am moving on to your memoirs, Seal Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper.  I have been looking forward to reading it for a while, and finally have some free time this afternoon.  However, I will be the first to admit that reading both Vince Flynn and your books in the same day may be akin to last year's watch-the-entire-Band of Brothers-series-in-one-day-in-the-middle-of-a-Legislative-session idea, or reading Russian literature in the middle of January snow storms: I might regret it.   But I doubt it.  (Obviously.  I keep doing it.)  

With great expectation and anticipation of your penned words,

Minny LinnEy