Quick Hits

--You know what? Welcome back, Pat Summerall. Sportscasting needs you. Call the play, offer insights when you can, and otherwise keep it understated. And yet Paul Maguire is still employed. No justice.


--I had to make my first purchase of a protective cup since an ill-fated experiment at catcher in Little League, after receiving a brutal nutmegging in my game on Friday night. I was pleased to note that my local sporting goods store of choice does not offer returns or exchanges on such products.

And a couple of quick reviews for your trouble:

GM Proving Grounds (Milford, MI): Once every decade or so GM opens up its main testing facility in an open house for employees and friends/family of employees. Econ Lady knows a girl who works there as an engineer, so I was able to go. It was interesting, but it also underlined some problems with the General. Why are there like 10 different badges? And if they're supposed to appeal to different demographics, why does Buick offer an SUV? Why do Pontiac and Saturn both sell coupes aimed at around 20k? It's incoherent. I came away with a more favorable impression of the company as a whole, but at the same time they still don't sell a car in my prospective market that doesn't look like ass (Pontiac GTO, I'm looking at you.) . I was also fairly hung-over, which wouldn't have been that bad except you had to drive around a 20 deg bank on their superoval track to get to one of the tour areas, and that's a bad combination. B

Puma V-Kat RC: After a lot more effort than I care to go into, I finally got a hold of an expensive pair of keeper gloves. Only one use so far; on the positive side, they have a great grip and nice firm palm to them. On the other, they definitely run large and I'm left with a bit more room than I need. God help me if the finger protection ever breaks on me, because there's no way to remove them without removing stitching. B+

This Big Gay Soccer Ball: Oh yes. This is pretty sweet. I have not doctored this picture. A+++