by John Walters

A little self-promotion….

Starting Five

Ovi And Out

There will be a new Stanley Cup champion this spring as the Carolina Hurricanes ousted Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals in Game 7, in overtime, in D.C.

Yes, but will there also be a new NBA champion? The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Golden State Warriors, in Oakland, for the second time in their best-of-seven series. Related: Yes, we’d like to see NBA and NHL first-round series be five games. Also related: $$$$.

https://twitter.com/WorldWideWob/status/1121262642021244928?s=20

If they return for a Game 7, Lou Williams and the Clips won’t be intimidated. Curious thought: between the years 1956 and 2010 there were only two NBA franchises that won an NBA championship in their first and only trip to the NBA Finals. One of them was the 1975 Warriors (okay, you can go with Philly Warriors if you’d like, but we’re counting same team/same city) and the other was the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers.

Wait a minute: Wasn’t this supposed to be a hockey item?

Jacobs, And We Ain’t Josh’ing

We already know Kyler Murray will be the top pick in tonight’s NFL draft. We are hoping Denver will trade Arizona for the pick, henceforth the state could be known as Kylerado. We realize that may be too much to ask.

Kyler Murray, top pick. In our minds, Alabama DT Quinnen Williams is the best player regardless of position (and, like Quenton Nelson last spring, the safest pick).

But if you ask us who from this class will be the NFL Rookie of the Year in 2019, we’re going with Williams’ Crimson Tide teammate, running back Josh Jacobs. He’s a latest model Marshawn Lynch.

Your World Turned Upside Down

We were always amused by The West Wing episode that introduced us to Cartographers For Social Equality, a group that literally endeavored to turn the world upside down. See, their argument was, and it’s not crazy, is that there is no scientific reason that our planet needs to be seen as is, top to bottom. That is, there is no frame of reference in outer space that makes it incumbent upon us to designate north as the top of the world. It’s more of a political construct.

Anyway, something to mull over (or under?) today. Also, in this world, the sun would rise in the west and set in the east. Also, Canada and Russia, look how big you are!

Pony Up

We saw the headline for this story in The New York Times last weekend: “Finland’s Hobbyhorse Girls, Once A Secret Society, Now Prance In Public.” Honestly, we did not click, so sure were we that this is an elaborate sting set up to catch pedophiles. So you tell us if this is a good story if you dare.

Tragic Starlet

So we’re watching Random Harvest on the TCM (of course) the other night, a 1942 film that has remarkably little to do with farming. Ronald Colman plays a middle-aged World War I vet, British, who cannot recall the last three years of his life, but it turns out that Greer Garson and he had been in love and were married.

This is what’s known as escapist fantasy: Wouldn’t it have been nice for every young man attending the movies in 1942 to think that Greer Garson was madly in love with him, it’s just that he couldn’t remember it.

Again, because it’s the Forties and it’s Hollywood, Colman comes to his sense and learns that he’s actually the heir to a magnificent estate. And, of course, there’s a young beauty, played by Susan Peters, who is madly in love with him. In real life Colman was 51 and Peters was 21. What a time to be alive. (both were nominated for Oscars for these roles; neither won; Peters was definitely the one doing a better acting job, if you know what I mean)..

We did some research on Peters, because we’d never heard of her. Turns out the Spokane-born actress was an up-and-comer. Then on New Year’s Day, 1945, she was paralyzed below the waist in a gun-related accident (we need more details on this). Peters continued to work, however, finding a few stage roles for wheelchair-bound characters.

Eventually, sadly, depression overtook her. She began starving herself, wanting to die. Eventually she caught pneumonia and left the world at the age of 31. I can’t believe Hilary Swank hasn’t already turned this into a third Oscar-winning role. There’s a biopic waiting to be made.