USA Men’s Hockey Squeezes Past Switzerland – On To The Semis

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Posted on 24th February 2010 by Ben Krasner in Uncategorized

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Jonas Hiller put on an inspired performance and got some help from the goal posts as he stymied the USA Men’s Hockey Team through two periods to give his Switzerland squad a chance at an upset in the first elimination round of the 2010 Olympic Men’s Hockey Tournament, Wednesday.  But Zach Parise scored on a deflection 2 minutes into the third period and added an empty netter just before the end of regulation to beat the Swiss and send USA into the semifinal round.

The USA men will face the winner of Wednesday night’s game between the Czech Republic and Finland for the right to head to the gold medal match.

Links to stories:

ESPN.com – Switzerland vs. United States

CNNSI.com – Zach Parise Powers Team USA Into Olympic Semifinals

NBColympics.com – Americans Edge Swiss 2-0 To Advance To Semifinal

Hummer Deal Falls Through, GM To Shut Down Brand

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Posted on 24th February 2010 by Ben Krasner in In The News

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General Motors to shut down hummer after potential deal with Chinese manufacturing company falls through

Hummer's trademark grill fascia - soon to be no more.We love our Hummer H3 but this one’s all about brand perception and high gas prices, folks.  Hardly a day goes by where we don’t have to correct someone about the gas mileage of our H3.  People automatically assume that it has gas mileage numbers hovering around 8 or 9 miles per gallon when it actually has better gas mileage than the Jeep Liberty that Natalie drove for years – a vehicle that people assumed got significantly better gas mileage than it actually did.  My how timing really is everything.

With the switch to more fuel-efficient utility vehicles built on car chassis (read STATION WAGONS) rather than those which trucks are based on, it may have only been a matter of time before this was going to happen anyway.  It just seems to me that GM could produce a niche level of the H2 and/or H3 to harness the still present off-roading consumers who are going to be quickly running out of options when it comes to buying something new.  It looks to me that GM is surrendering that completely to Jeep and, if so, Jeep brand managers should be sending GM gift baskets and thank you notes as it may be THE niche that keeps that entire Chrysler affair alive.

Or… does GM have a play up its sleeve for later?  What if GM lets the hummer brand disappear for a while until they can get righted (assuming they can) and eventually buys Jeep (or the government rolls Jeep into GM, however you would want to look at that) which is the only seemingly viable part of the Chrysler group?  I don’t know but I just have a hard time coming to grips with a total lack of off-road capable vehicles with the exception of trucks.

For what it’s worth, again, The H3 has been a great ride for us – it gave us the space we were after while staying reasonable in size and a small boost to fuel economy over our Jeep Liberty.  Our lease is almost up so we’re going to have to figure out what to do with our vehicles promptly.  I suppose we could buy the thing, but that might be difficult to justify financially.  Oh well, all things change.  If they didn’t they would just stay the same.

Joannie Rochette Skates Like A Champion After Her Mother’s Death

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Posted on 24th February 2010 by Ben Krasner in In The News | Sports Commentary

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If you were watching the Olympics, last night, I hope you caught the skate of Joannie Rochette’s life (see also CNN’s Rochette article, here) … and if you watched her skate I hope that her effort and her emotion tugged at your heart strings because I know she sure did for me.  I’m not a fan of ice skating so much as I am a fan of athletic achievement and last night’s performances on the ice were pretty special – none, though, were more special that Joannie Rochette’s.

Joannie Rochette Emotional After Her Nearly Flawless Short Program SkateImagine that just two days before the event of your life – in this case her home country staging the Winter Olympics in which she is a participating athlete – your mother of father dies suddenly, at an age far too early and without warning or signs.  Position yourself on a map so that you are far away from home – in this case completely across the country from where she calls home in Quebec.  You have no time to mourn, barely enough time to make plans, and probably no way to even get your parent’s body sent back home (I don’t even know how you would accomplish that task, anyway).  Imagine the swing of emotion from absolute excitement and pressure to being crushed with sadness, loss and depression.  Now… go out and perform like an Olympic champion on the world’s biggest stage and do it all on ice, while balancing, jumping, spinning and dancing on two 1/8″ pieces of steel strapped to the bottom of your feet.  Are you kidding me?  Maybe the fact that I can barely stand upright on skates of any kind is influencing my opinion, here, but I think that’s flat out amazing.

I honestly don’t know what I was feeling the most during her skate.  Was it hoping that she did well because of all the hard work and time she had put into getting to this stage?  Was it simply hoping that she would not fall on any of her jumps or have any problems during her skate because of the seemingly strong likelihood of that happening?  Was it hoping she would do well to honor her mother’s life?  Was it actual excitement for the quality of her skate?  All I know is I was on the edge of my seat … for the first time during Olympic women’s figure skating … and I could not blink.

You could hear the crowd suffering the same fate.  At times they were simply holding their breath.  At times they were likely choked up.  At times they were into the music, clapping, rhythmically into the performance.  At times they were excited, then hopeful, then back to worried.  I know, even without being there, because that’s what I was going through thousands of miles away in my own home.

Somehow she pulled herself together and competed – so well that she earned her personal best score for her efforts.  When she finished she was immediately overtaken with emotion, as anyone should have expected.  By the looks of things she was teetering on that edge just BEFORE she took to the ice so I can only imagine the rush that came over here at the end, after performing so well – a performance her mother would never physically see.  Immediately, I welled up inside and out as if somehow I completely understood what she was going through when there’s just no way that I could.

What a champion.  In a world looking for heroes searching for individual efforts that inspire – here we were provided with a tremendous example in the form of a French speaking Canadian figure skater.  Absolutely one of the most amazing Olympic stories/moments I’ve ever heard of and I will never forget it.