As a huge White Sox fan and a big Batgirl fan, I probably should have mentioned to you, so you could tell the Twins, that the Indians are kinda, um, jerks. They're like good, but they don't want anyone to know they're good, so they lie low for five years. Just when we're good and lulled, Omar Vizquel jumps out, screaming in broken English with an Austrian accent "VEE ARE BACK!" He couldn't get Manny, Roberto, Thome, and crew, so he recruited a new Cleveland League of Terror with Martinez, Broussard, Belliard, Hafner, and Coco Crispies.

And much like the overconfident T-1000, the White Sox were sent reeling back into the molten pit of failure against the onslaught of the newly-hatably-good Indians. And much like the young and lovable Ed Furlong, the Twins were likewise blown apart by the endless bloodlust of the ravenous Tribe. (Concession: That never actually happened in the movie.)

In short, the Tribe are back. And we, the Sox and the Twins, must defeat this threat, or face a repeat of the mid-late nineties. See, this is where I often get confused as a Sox/Batgirl fan. I appreciate all the qualities of both clubs, but cannot understand the hate of the Twins towards the Sox. My hate as a Sox fan is directed towards the Indians for ruining the last half of the nineties, and the Tigers for the numerous bench-clearing brawls we had with them (primarily caused by Bobby Baby Thugginson) in 2000. But why the hate for the Sox? We only had the one year to savor relative victory...it is the Tribe that must be surpressed! You must act decisevely, send forth your legions to smash the clan of Vizquel!

Or lose...I guess it's no skin of my bones since you're both ahead of us. But winning is more satisfying. I've far less a desire to see the Indians win the Central than the Twins.

Dear Batgirl -
Katie Couric MUCH - MUCH - MUCH worse than the Twins game tonight - I could stomach all of 5 minute of the Olympics - then stayed with my beloved Twins.
Tomorrow is another day - we'll get thru it!
Have a FABULOUS EVENING!!

Well Wishes
Wonder Woman

Matthew swear?! never!! ;-)

I, too, had planned to switch back and forth between the Twins and the Olympics, but the Twins made it very, very easy to forget to switch forth. Or back. Whichever. Plus, I must point out that while Katie is irritating, her companion was not Matt Lauer, but my much-beloved Bob Costas, who is one of sports broadcasting's greats, in my book... Plus, he's way cuter than Matt.

Dearest Ms. 99,

You are right. Batgirl deeply regrets the error, especially as she has kind of a crush on Bob Costas.

Sincerely,
Batgirl

i liked bob costas for a long time. then i heard or read someplace -- or perhaps it even occurred to my mind as an original thought (!) -- that he's smug, self-satisfied, overrated. since then i've never quite gotten rid of those seeds of doubt in my mind.

i can say this for him though: he seems to never age.

Bob Costas needs to stick to baseball.

As for Katie Couric....

"This is my favorite part!" *giggle*

I can't listen to her for very long, my brains start escaping through my ears, and I start saying "like" and "totally" with great freequency.

What's wrong with Chipotle?

did you mean googol?
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=googol

see also http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html

Dear Mr. Boy,

Batgirl found her burrito unsatisfactory. She arrived from California, craved a burrito, went to Chipotle, and was displeased. Plus it's hard to spell.

Sincerely,
Batgirl

Dear Mr. Hart,

Batgirl regrets that error as well. Thank you. She's had a hard night.

Sincerely,
Batgirl

Hey everybody,

We just went out for some more beer, but we're back. What did we miss?

Cheerfully,
Cleveland

Next time, go to the Baja Tortilla Grill instead. But not for the fish taco; that's just wrong.

There was no Twins game on TV here in the Blylevenlands, just the Olympic ceremony on Dutch TV and the BBC. My favorite moment came near the end, when the stadium announcer said that the Olympic flame had travelled across "all five continents" this year. All five? I can understand skipping Antarctica - wait a minute, no I can't; Australia's Mawson Station is right on the coast, and surely the good people and penguins of Antarctica should share in the spirit of the Olympics too - but that leaves six continents. Do the Olympics treat Australia as an island or Europe as a western peninsula of Asia?

It was fun to see the countries march in alphabetical order according to the Greek alphabet. Between the three Americans, three Canadians, two South Africans, one Brit, and five Nederlanders at an Olympics party last night, we did pretty well guessing where countries would appear. The best was the pretty name the Greeks have for the Blylevenlands: "Orlandia." Beats the pants off of Nederland, Holland, or Pays-Bas, as it's more locally known.

Least favorite moment: When the USA team marched out wearing those abominable short-sleeve sailor shirties with the fleece berets. It was like some kind of bizarre tribute to the childhood films of Shirley Temple. "USA: 24 gold medals, and animal crackers in our soup."

Truly Homeric, Batgirl! Would that your words could launch a thousand homers for our side. But then we would still have to confront the reality that, as pitching is now our Achilles heel, the Trojans might launch a thousand and one in response. As Thucydides often said, you can't expect to win the Peloponnesian Wars with arms like that.

RoyHobbs

While all of the major players from the "south" prove mediocre, a long-forgotten northern-land forged a leader who would bring them to new heights. Under the leadership of a 23year-old Alexander of Macedonia, the Greek empire expanded greatly in a very short period of time.

It is time for the Twins' young 23 year-old from the a long-forgotten northern-land to rise to power and bring the Twins to new heights. It is time for Justin Morneau the Great.

As an update, Carlos made my choice very easy last night as the game was over before Katie graced my TV screen.
Irregardless, the unintenional comedy was off the charts watching the opening ceremonies with the girlfriend.

Some highlights:

"My favorite part of watching the opening ceremonies is looking at the different out-fits all the countries wear"

When the Venezuelans marched in,
"Those outfits are so 70's".
Thanks Venzuela, Carlos lays an egg and your outfits are so 70's.

Some kid is marching around doing something,
"Oh he'll never forget this."
Yeah me neither.

After the flame gets lit,
"The flame is lit, that deserves a bump." (Bump follows)

This is going to be a long two weeks.

Paddy

Forgive me Batgirl. I must admit to turning off the Twins at the end of the first inning. I guess the next thing I know I will stop slowing down to look at traffic accidents. Fortunately I live far enough north to watch the CBC coverage of the Olympics, where they actually show all 202 teams entering and have minimal commercial interupts (oh, and no Katie!!) but since I had watched the opening ceremonies live (yet another CBC perk)I ended up talking to the husband and stuff. Gee, I miss the Twins when they win.

This has nothing to do with the Olympics nor the Twins, but I've been wondering about this for awhile: where did the chipotle spice/flavoring suddenly come from?

All my life, I never heard of such a thing. We had tacos, burritos, and enchiladas--and until somebody introduced fajitas in the '80s, that seemed to be enough. Then Taco Bell made up some foods they called gorditos and chalupas... but whatever. That's just marketing for you.

Still, you had your red picante and taco sauce, maybe green sauce if you thought you were different from the rest of us. You had your rice and refried beans (organic black beans if you're outside a Dead show). You had your cheese, maybe you dared add some jalapenos or chiles. And then you might add some chicken or beef; fish, if you're in California. Wrap it in a corn or flour tortilla, and that's Mexican food, right? Was anyone unhappy with this? We didn't need no stinkin' chipotle. We never even thought about it.

So where did chipotle suddenly come from, and why did everyone suddenly have to bottle & sell it, and add it to all our Mexican foods?

When I'm not so concerned about the state of the Twins offense or the back end of the pitching rotation, this is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night.

A few days late, but for the record I shunned both the game and the daft o-ceremony and played Minesweeper.