OT:Back in the Saddle Again

For the past few years, the Bruins have been increasingly relying on young talent to rebuild their team after many abysmal seasons. Arguably one of the best set of blades on the team belongs to Patrice Bergeron. When Patrice Bergeron was drafted by the Bruins back in 2003, I immediately took notice, not because I thought he was a great pick , but mainly because he has the best birthday (July 24th which coincidentally enough, is the same as mine) and his name was Patrice, which I found very amusing at the time. However, he soon earned my respect in the 2003-2004 season as he led the Bruins with 31 goals and was second on the team with number of assists. He continued to build and craft his talent. A year this past Monday, Bergeron was forced to sit out for the season after Randy Jones of the Flyers slammed him into the boards deep in the corner while Bergeron attempted to retrieve a puck, resulting in a GradeIII concussion. He was due to come back in time for the playoffs in April, but the damn Habs knocked the Bruins out one game before Bergeron was due back.

Many people, myself included, wondered if he would ever really recover from the concussion. Not only did he have a severe head injury, but he missed an entire season of games which could result in a loss of skill on the ice. His first few games of the season seemed to support the theory that it would take him a long time, if ever, to come back after such a severe injury. But luckily, the naysayers seem to be wrong - Patrice is back and as good as ever. With Bergeron back, the Bruins stand a better chance this year. Contributing at least 30 goals for the three years before his injury, it was a major setback to have him out for last season. Just three days before the one year anniversary of his injury, Bergeron scored in the first period against the Maple Leafs. They went on to lose 4-2, but Bergeron did what he did best - gave the team an early advantage. Last night against the flames, he once again gave the Bruins an early advantage, scoring in the first period to put the Bruins up 1-0. However, due to shotty puck handling in their defensive zone and refs who were calling every minor infraction, the Bruins continuously turned over the puck to the Flames, the Bruins gave the Flames several Power plays , allowing them to score 3 goals.

I'm looking forward to watching him this season. Hopefully his teammates can get their head in the game

Favorite Thing #21: The New Guitar Hero commercial

I saw this commercial last night while at Amy and Noe's for a fantastic pumpkin carving party (It's great to meet people who love to carve pumpkins as much as me!) and immediately started choking due to my fit of laughter. It combines many of my favorite things: Guitar Hero, Michael Phelps, white people dancing and the Yankees (although A-Rod is not one of my favorites). There's not much more I can say besides that. Check it out below:

Favorite Thing #20: Milan Lucic

Lucic gets the crowd going after a fight in a manner reminiscent of the last great Bruins Bruiser and my personal favorite, PJ Stock

In general, I make it a rule not to watch sports besides my token 3-4 Yankees games per year. The one exception to this rule is hockey. Back in college, I was obsessive. I played Fantasy Hockey, read NHL.com every morning before class and didn't miss a single Bruins, Hurricanes (Let's Go Whalers!) or Colorado Avalanche game unless they happened to conflict with each other. Some friends even had NHL Center Ice which really enabled my obsession. However, after college, I found I just didn't have time to follow three or even one teams obsessively. Recently, I have made some good friends who also share my love of hockey, which has re-sparked the flame of love I feel for this sport. However, when I looked at the Bruins roster, all the familiar faces I loved had moved on (Joe Thorton, PJ Stock, Hal Gill, Glen Murray) with the unfortunate exception of Tim Thomas. (Why the Bruins can never invest in a decent goalie is beyond me. I'm not asking for a Roy or Brodeur, just someone who is reliable rather than hot and cold. But I digress...) These guys were replaced with names such as Kessler, Savard, Wideman, and Lucic. I remember seeing the buzz last year surrounding a rookie by the name of Lucic but didn't really pay attention. However, while watching the season opener at home vs. the Penguins, I really started to take notice of him. He plays vintage style hockey. Hard body checks, fights - basically he's the enforcer - the replacement for the sorely missed crowd favorite PJ Stock. In his rookie year last season, he started his Bruins career off with a fight, followed the next week with a Gordie Howe hat trick (goal, assist, fight). Interestingly enough, my least favorite player in the NHL, Brendan Shanahan apparently holds the record for the most number of Gordie Howes according to Wikipedia. Lucic managed to land 181 hits in his rookie season, placing him second behind Chara for most hits by a Bruin last season. I also believe he holds the record for second place in number of hits by a rookie (behind some guy from the Rangers who I can't remember).

This season is so far shaping up to be another banner year for Lucic who thus far leads the league in hits for the 2008-2009 season with 18 hits as of Wednesday. He banked a couple more at last nights game versus the Maple Leafs, but none as impressive as the hit against Van Ryn of the Maple Leafs that started the second period and resulted in a complete shattering of a piece of glass. The hit had so much force behind it that Van Ryn is probably still picking glass out of his back. It was probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen in a game of hockey, and one that the commentators are sure to be talking of for the rest of the season.

I'm definitely going to keep my eye on Lucic this season. He'll never replace PJ Stock as as my favorite enforcer (back in the day, I had a shirt that I bought on the street in Boston that said "PJ stock, Official Ass Kicker), but he just might come close.

Favorite Thing #19: The Historian

Although it was published in 2005, I just recently read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova at the recommendation of both my sister and the D-Train. Since they both recommended it within the span of two days and both mentioned the word Vampire when describing the book, I figured I would give it a try.

The novel is narrated by a female character whom the reader never really gets to know. But through her, we learn about her father's quest for the real truth behind the Dracula legend. Dracula in this book was theorized to have been a real person, Vlad the Impaler. The book is told through a series of letters written by the narrator's father and her father's mentor Professor Rossi as they attempted to learn about the significance behind a book containing only a dragon and the word Drakulya. I would consider the book Historical Fiction as a lot of the research that the narrator's father and Professor Rossi unearth about Vlad the Impaler is historically accurate or could be historically accurate. In ways, it reminds me of the Da Vinci Code as it attempts to fictionally explain a common myth through actual historical facts and artifacts.

The book was not only an interesting read but it kept me on the edge of my seat. (It even caused me to have a nightmare that Dracula was in my spare bedroom coming for me when I fell asleep reading it in a sick stupor). Its also a nice departure from the normal vampire=tortured romantic hero books. I highly recommend the book to anyone who wants to be on the edge of their seat, and learn a little in the process. Obsession with all things vampires not required

Favorite Thing #18: The Amelia Peabody Series by Elizabeth Peters

After reading A Wiseman Once Said’s blog on her “literary crack” books, I thought about what my literary crack books are. If I were to pick, I would have to go with the Amelia Peabody Series by Elizabeth Peters. If I were to be a crackhead, which I am not, I would imagine that the feeling I would get would be similar to the feeling I get reading these books. The first time/book, you don’t know what to expect, but you are pleasantly surprised. After that first one, you find yourself re-arranging your schedule so you can get to Borders/the street corner to pick up the next installment, which doesn’t satisfy your thirst and results in you going back and stocking up with the remaining 17 installments so that you don’t have to anxiously await your next fix anymore should you finish the previous one after hours.

The Amelia Peabody series follows Amelia, an amateur archeologist,, her curmudgeonly archaeologist husband Emerson and their family in what is, in my opinion, the golden age of Archaeology in Egypt - the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. This is the time of the greatest and/or most famous names of Egyptian archaeology. I say and/or because some historical figures of this time (*cough, cough* Wallis Budge *cough cough*) are famous but not necessarily “great” because they spent most of their career smuggling antiquities out of Egypt and writing horrible textbooks on hieroglyphs and the Egyptian Book of the Dead which are still inexplicably in print today. Some of the greatest finds also took place during this time period: Belzoni entered the second pyramid of Giza and found Seti I tomb in the Valley of the Kings, numerous cache’s of royal mummies, the discovery of Tell El Amarna, and perhaps the most famous of them all, the discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb by Howard Carter. Each book focuses on a different expedition as Amelia solves a new mystery, whether it be a mummy that has seemingly come to life and is haunting the dig, the disappearance of an archaeologist or the theft of a certain antiquity. The books are light reads, but they are all page turners. Part of the reason I love these books is that Peters (a pen name – the author is really Barbara Mertz, an Egyptologist holding a Ph.D from the famed University of Chicago), fills each book with accurate historical events and descriptions of the time period. Also, since a pet peeve of mine is when random people with no educational background in a subject write a historical fiction book, I enjoy the fact that Peters is an actual practicing archaeologist who has excavated in Egypt. In all honesty, half of the things I know about ancient Egypt, I have read in one of these books and then have either done research on or obtained additional non-fiction books about.

If you have a lot of time to spare, I suggest you check these books out. (you need a lot of time since there are 19 books in the series and if you are anything like me, you will be hooked and do nothing but read this series for about 3 weeks straight) The first book in the series is The Crocodile on the Sandbank, and as I have already completed my yearly reading of the first few books in the series, I’m willing to lend it out to anyone interested. However, be prepared for me to then force the remaining 18 books as well as my slowly growing library of non-fiction books concerning ancient Egypt upon you.