Author: King Tom

Nothing much exciting happens in downtown Columbus, especially during the work week.

A few years ago, we got buzzed by an Air Force jet, but other than that, there’s rarely anything to make you bug one of your co-workers and say “Hey! What was/Look at that!”

Until today. Sometime early this morning, I looked up from my computer, glanced out the window, and saw a gigantic plume of smoke emitting from a parking garage across the street. I watched for a few seconds, then alerted my co-workers. They all watched for a moment or two. As I watched, I did what anyone would do in this day and age, I whipped out my camera phone and started snapping away.

After a while, I got back to work, even though it looked as if the smoke was headed right for us. Eventually, the smoke died down.

Later on, I read the fire was caused by an SUV in the garage which caught fire, which then spread the flames to two other cars.

Overall, it was a lot of excitement for a Monday morning. Only time will tell if this displaces the low-flying fighter jet as the “hey remember when…” conversation starter in downtown Columbus.

By the way, I must acknowledge the fact that were it not for the pictures, you’d still be seeing the latest entry on the blog be a story about last week’s Monday night Raw. Gee, if it wasn’t for my new phone, which is also a camera, I don’t know what I’d write about.

As I mentioned earlier this week, this year’s WrestleMania was kind of weird. One of my biggest problems with the show was the way the Ric Flair career-ending match ended.

Well, thanks to the miracle of DVR, I finally got around to watching Monday night’s Raw. I actually fast-forwarded through most of it. The show ended with a tribute to Flair, including the Four Horsemen, many of Flair’s past opponents and the whole WWE roster. There was only one person whose absence was somewhat conspicious:

Vince, the last thing you need is someone who idolizes me marrying your daughter.

So I caught WrestleMania 24 tonight, and while I can’t say it was a great WrestleMania, I can’t say it was bad, either. It was just weird.

The show started off interesting, with a fun geriatric hardcore match, and an entertaining Money In The Bank Ladder Match. The MITB match was fun, had some insane spots and told a great story, with the right guy, CM Punk, snatching the briefcase dangling over the ring while Chris Jericho dangled upside-down from another ladder while Punk celebrated.

The Ric Flair-Shawn Michaels foregone conclusion match was also a great bout. Michaels seemingly impaled himself with a moonsault on the Raw announce table, but kept fighting. Michaels and Flair pulled out all the stops, with Michaels hitting three or four superkicks (all from different angles/locations) before getting the pin and ending Flair’s career.

And then it got weird.

Flair waved to the fans, hugged his family and walked up the (extraordinarily long) ramp. He waved once again and walked behind the video screen. That was it. No mic time for the Nature Boy to say goodbye (even after his induction into the HOF last night, some extra mic time might have been nice).

Following that was the ladies match, which was more annoying than anything. In the middle of that match, the lights went out. That was pretty much the most exciting thing to happen in that 15-minute span.

The weirdness continued, with the Orton/Cena/Triple H title match following that one. The match was a real good one for a triple threat match, but it was bizarre that it wasn’t the last match. The ending was abrubt though, which Triple H getting Orton in some bizarre figure-three leglock, then giving a pedigree to Cena, then Orton ruining the pin and covering Cena himself. I was a bit surprised Orton won, and even more surprised at the finish.

Even though it was the most hyped match of the night, the Big Show-Floyd Mayweather bout didn’t interest me much. Still, Mayweather played up to the crowd and it wasn’t a surprise he won (even if he did have to use a foreign object to do so). It was fun, however, to see him and his entourage get beaten up.

Finally, the Undertaker won the championship (one of them) from Edge, in a dramatic match. It was a good solid match, which saw Undertaker win with some type of choke-submission. But it wasn’t the kind of match to blow you away.

So there you have it. No blood. No Austin. No Rock. A lot of weirdness and a few things to laugh about. That was WrestleMania 24.

Today = WrestleMania

Tomorrow = Opening Day

For a few years in a row now, it’s been like this. WrestleMania on a Sunday, Opening Day (for the Yankees at least) a few days later. Winter is over, the days are longer, and baseball is indeed back. The world needs a name for when this confluence of awesomeness occurs. I suggest The Days of Greatness.

Now if only the weather in central Ohio would be a little more spring-like, we’d be in great shape. Happy Days of Greatness everybody!

Yesterday, I had this great idea for a blog post. Only thing was, my Web host was experiencing problems, so I couldn’t post this. So do me a favor, as you read this, pretend its yesterday, and this might be entertaining after all.

On a daily basis, I check dictionary.com’s Word of the Day. Today’s word was plethora, a word I’m familiar with, but I wasn’t so familiar with plethora’s primary meaning;

plethora \PLETH-uh-ruh\, noun:
1. An abnormal bodily condition characterized by an excessive amount of blood in the system.
2. Excess; superabundance.

dictionary.com Word of the Day, March 24, 2008

Plethora is a fun word to use. One of the reasons is because of an exchange from the film ¡Three Amigos! between the infamous El Guapo and Jefe;

Jefe: We have many beautiful piñatas for your birthday celebration, each one filled with little surprises!
El Guapo: How many piñatas?
Jefe: Many piñatas, many!
El Guapo: Jefe, would you say I have a plethora of piñatas?
Jefe: A what?
El Guapo: A plethora.
Jefe: Oh yes, El Guapo. You have a plethora.
El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora?
Jefe: Why, El Guapo?
El Guapo: Well, you just told me that I had a plethora, and I would just like to know if you know what it means to have a plethora. I would not like to think that someone would tell someone else he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has no idea what it means to have a plethora.
Jefe: El Guapo, I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education, but could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?

Turns out, all this time, the joke was on me because I didn’t know the true meaning of plethora.

By the way, the Three Amigos had me quite frustrated at the Internet Movie Database. I spent a plethora (def. #2) of time searching the IMDB for “The Three Amigos” only to come up with something else.

The other day, I was reading through the New York newspapers online, checking up on Yankees news. I was going through the Newsday Web site, when an ad they were running caught my eye. The page looked like this:

In case you can’t see it from there, let me zoom in for you:

First question: How do they know?

Second question: The federal government is spending our money on your mom jokes?

I have to admit, while I ignore most ads on the Web, I actually looked at this one.