Ramble On ...

I have been holding on to some real human emotion and a few notes and quotes from the past week, so here they are for Sunday:

First, I was deeply disturbed by a murder-suicide on Boston I495 this past week. A young woman and her young nephew and niece, aged four and five, died. I can't even bear to type the details, so I will just leave it at that. My prayers and thoughts go out to the family members who will have to make their way through this terrible, terrible ordeal. (Click on Ramble On, if you must.. but I recommend you just read on to the rest of the blog below).

On to other news ...

Did you see this?

The Chinese government said Friday its Internet population has soared to 210 million people, putting it on track to surpass the U.S. online community this year to become the world's largest.

The official China Internet Network Information Center, also known as CNNIC, said the online population grew 53 percent, from 137 million reported at the same time last year. According to the government's Xinhua News Agency, China is only 5 million behind the United States online, a figure consistent with some American estimates.

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In a sports business daily and journal poll, Bobby Orr was named the 74th most powerful and influential person in current day hockey. Sidney Crosby was #1 and Gary Bettman was #2.

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It took me a while to figure it out as the Boston Sports Guy, the Sugar Hill Gang of all bloggers, used the following acronym; ATPEWTSB.

Assuming the Patriots eventually win the Super Bowl.

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According to the Wall St. Journal...

Michael Golden, publisher of the New York Times Co.'s International Herald Tribune for the past four years, is leaving that post to concentrate on his role as vice chairman of the company. Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, executive vice president of the International Herald Tribune since 2006, will succeed Mr. Golden. Mr. Dunbar-Johnson, who has worked at the International Herald Tribune for 10 years, will report to Mr. Golden and Scott Heekin-Canedy, president and general manager of the New York Times.

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Also according to the Journal ...

On Thursday, the PGA of America, in concert with a number of other major golf organizations (including the PGA Tour), announced the results of a new golf economic-impact study. Unlike previous studies, this one calculated both the direct and indirect impact of golf: what players and courses spend on clubs, balls, fees, mowers, fertilizer, golf travel and the like, but also the number of indirect dollars and jobs required to support the people who work directly in the game.

WSJ goes on to say: The two numbers that jump out are the total economic value of golf in the economy -- $195 billion in 2005 -- and the number of jobs that the game generates: about two million.

By the way- I just love the Weekend Journal.

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Fresh Direct frozen pizza's not so bad either! I'm gonna miss that when we head to Boston.

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Don't know if you saw this item, reported in the East Valley Trib, near Phoenix:

by JERRY BROWN, TRIBUNE
By the end of the day, Leandro Barbosa was laughing about a practical joke that had him scurrying around the team’s Beverly Hills hotel Thursday. But for a while, a phone hoax that had Barbosa believing he was traded to the New York Knicks was no laughing matter.

Barbosa, who made the mistake of registering under his own name, was in his room when he received an anonymous phone call “informing him” of a trade, and telling him he needed to meet Suns general manager Steve Kerr in the hotel lobby.

“My heart was hurting,” Barbosa said. “Every time I hear the word ‘trade.' It’s just not a comfortable word for me, at all. This is my team. I went a little crazy.”

Frantic and near tears, Barbosa rushed to the lobby in search of coaches or team personnel for answers before he was finally assured it was all a hoax.

“I said, ‘L.B., use your head. Don’t you think I would have told you if something like that was even possible?” said Suns assistant and Barbosa confidant Dan D’Antoni, who was able to put his fears to rest. “I told him, ‘You’ve got to use someone else’s name when you check into a hotel. If someone told me to come down to the front desk and pick up a million dollars, do you think I’d start running for the elevator?”

Even hours later, it was no joking matter for Barbosa. “That was a terrible thing,” he said.

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