inaugural "Connecticut Ice" (day 1 of 2) recap

This past weekend, I returned to Bridgeport, CT, via Manhattan, on what started as an ugly, wet Saturday, to take in the start of something that many people around here hope ends up becoming a "staple" of college hockey - the "Connecticut Ice" tournament, featuring many "youth" games, all leading up to, at least this year, Quinnipiac v. UConn, and Sacred Heart v. Yale; the biggest problem, though, was a lack of "neutral sites" for the tournament - Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, and UConn all have venues that are, certainly, big enough to host something on that level, but the Danbury Ice Arena, mostly a minor-league venue, is too small, and the Mohegan Sun Arena in the eastern part of the state has never hosted hockey, and I don't think was even built to accommodate the sport, so that left the Webster Bank Arena in the "Harbor Yard" section of Bridgeport, in which all four teams have at least built up a bit of "history" in terms of having played there previously, either as the "road" team against Fairfield (Fairfield, naturally/Shelton, CT) or Sacred Heart, when pretty much all teams there except Yale were at a more "minor" level within college hockey, or, especially for Yale, whenever they've reached a "regional" round hosted there...

The first game, again, featured Quinnipiac and UConn, and started out fairly evenly, and in a "physical" fashion that would remain the case throughout the game, with UConn opening the scoring courtesy of a rebound almost exactly five minutes into the game; it only took 18 seconds and the next face-off (excluding the ones immediately following goals, obviously) for Quinnipiac to answer, though, and Quinnipiac would take its first lead of the afternoon/evening a few minutes after that, when it managed to get a bit of a "breakaway" chance; the game would once again become tied late in the frame, however, as Quinnipiac's majority in the "puck possession" department suddenly betrayed it, specifically when the QU keeper misplayed a puck that he thought would be just far enough away to reach one of his defenders, only to instead have it reach somebody in "navy blue" (for UConn), to (eventually) end the period with a 2-2 scoreline!

The middle 20 minutes saw Quinnipiac pull back to about "even" in terms of shots on goal initially, and get rewarded with the lead slightly under halfway through, by which point in time the game had suddenly started turning into one "scrum" after another, one of the first of which would produce the next leading goal for Quinnipiac, which would remain the only goal through the rest of the period, albeit not before a rather ugly bit of high-sticking by somebody in yellow, which, after a rather lengthy video review, was determined to not have "drawn blood" and, thus, remain "minor", as hockey media/officials seemingly always refer to in such situations...

The final period saw no scoring, but made up for it in terms of "physicality" and "scrums" both ways, albeit with UConn suddenly "surging" by then in hopes of finding another "equalizer"; unfortunately for UConn, not even that, or the "extra-man" situation late would end up working, as Quinnipiac took its mid-second period goal the rest of the way, and ended up winning, 3-2, sending the UConn "student section" gathered in the bottom half or so of section 114 back home disappointed, while pleasing the skating Quinnipiac cheerleaders (albeit pregame only, at least this time around), and advancing to face the winner of the second game this past Saturday evening!

(box score;

highlights, this time, courtesy of SportsNet New York, or "SNY" for short, which had live broadcasts the entire weekend;

Quinnipiac recap;

UConn recap;

UConn Blog recap;

Hartford Courant recap;

Inside Hockey recap)

The hour or so between QU-UConn and SHU-Yale seemingly took forever, perhaps 'cause I spent it wandering the only concourse of a building that still feels "stuck" back around the time it opened (2001), although I'm afraid such a "cramped" arrangement was the best outcome a place as "maligned", to say the very least, as Bridgeport could produce with such a large venue...

The start of the second game of the day went entirely in Sacred Heart's favor, with not dozens, but, rather, hundreds, for once, of red-clad fans celebrating multiple goals by their team early on - the first came roughly three minutes in, after a very early Yale penalty, the second followed a little under a couple minutes later, as SHU took advantage of a shot that went noticeably wide of goal by somebody on Yale, to be able to take the puck back the other way, followed by a turnover at Yale's blue line, to double the lead; the scoring would only continue later, specifically shortly before the halfway point of the period, when SHU would convert on a breakaway opportunity while still, just barely, shorthanded, and finally end the "goalfest" that was the opening period on a brilliant little bit of "point-blank" passing from behind the net, to mercifully end another downright "living nightmare" of a period for Yale, after Harvard's "drubbing" of Yale at MSG earlier this month, as Sacred Heart would end the period up 4-0, "chase" Yale's starting keeper long before he even could get "punch-drunk" the way he did near the end of said MSG contest, and finally allow even its own band to "settle down" after all those goal celebrations then!

It would be a play somewhat similar to the one that ended the scoring for Sacred Heart back near the end of the first period to finally give the "navy blue" men from Yale just about the only bit of "hope" they would have the entire night early in the second period, as Yale capitalized on a "man advantage", but, after that, the momentum returned to Sacred Heart, which, despite having had a goal disallowed due to the puck having been kicked into the net, still regained its four-goal advantage late in the period, finding just enough room between many skates and into the net near the end of a major penalty against Yale; the period would end at that margin on the scoreboard, as Sacred Heart would lead 5-1 after 40!

Goals would come for both teams in the last of six total periods of hockey in Bridgeport, CT, this past Saturday, with Sacred Heart notching its last goal of the night on the heels of a play similar to the 4-0 goal, albeit entirely in front of the net this time, to make it 6-1, and Yale would get a "fluky" goal very late in the game to end it by a final scoreline of 6-2 for Sacred Heart!

(box score;

SNY highlights;

Sacred Heart recap;

Yale recap;

Hartford Courant recap;

Inside Hockey recap;

images; obligatory "shoutout", also, to P.C. Richard & Son, the consumer appliance/electronics store chain which (A) sponsored the games this past weekend, and (B) had its "whistle" sound played after the announcements recapping most of the goals, so there was, indeed, quite a bit of "whistling" in Bridgeport, CT, this past weekend;

Sacred Heart is, apparently, finally, building its own arena on-campus by fall '22, in an announcement made just prior to the game, truly making the Webster Bank Arena the "neutral site" it wasn't quite this time around, considering Sacred Heart has easily become the "home" team there, with UConn having played a few games there, and Yale having put together a few "regionals" while Quinnipiac has largely yet to play "home" games there; as mentioned, the Sacred Heart band made the trip over from Fairfield, CT, to Bridgeport, and Sacred Heart had its usual public address announcer, on top of, obviously, playing in its usual home rink, at least for now, so that part seemed a little unfair to both Yale (Saturday night) and Quinnipiac (Sunday night)...)

(SUNDAY FINAL SCORES: Yale 3, UConn 2; Sacred Heart 4, Quinnipiac 1)

Personally, I enjoyed this inaugural "doubleheader" on its own, but I'd still suggest some changes, mostly having to do with the timing - namely, that the "semifinal" and "championship/consolation" rounds take place on back-to-back days, and that each "doubleheader" takes place back-to-back, leading to "tedious" waits for those attending each game in each round - the Beanpot in Boston, on the other hand, takes place on back-to-back Mondays, making things much easier on all involved with said games; Bridgeport is set to once again host a "regional" tournament round in March of next year, so, surely, this weekend's games, along with next year's tournament, will be more than enough "practice" in terms of organizing "neutral sites"!

In other hockey-related topics, there's this blog post I literally just found yesterday about how such environments can easily result in "sensory overload", like in this case here (UPCOMING: Colgate (Hamilton, NY) @ Princeton, Fri., 1/31)...

(In retail news now, Target is set to take over at least one Kmart location soon; specifically, in this case, Raleigh, North Carolina...)

recapping our week-long trip to Costa Rica; etc.

Well, I ended up changing my mind about Costa Rica this week, mostly 'cause I ended up feeling deceived by the place, still feeling “spoiled” simply by living close to N.Y.C. - for starters, we ended up getting our departing flight changed again last Sunday, in spite of us getting to the airport during the overnight hours, followed by getting bumped to a direct flight to San José, Costa Rica on United Airlines, leaving Newark that afternoon, arriving at night; on top of that, I legitimately ended up feeling dizzy and lightheaded near the end of said flight, and then, the airport shuttle we ordered ended up leaving us behind there, forcing us to take a taxi that ended up leaving us at a completely dark and desolate hotel until the overnight hours of Monday morning!

As for Costa Rica itself, everywhere except for San Jose ended up being even smaller than thought, but, anyway, we started last Monday morning, having essentially "lost" Sunday to all the screw-ups happening between the airlines, hotel, and shuttle service, having a hotel breakfast that seemed more like a "make-up" than anything for the unexpected power outage, then heading from a supermarket relatively within "walking distance" of our hotel to San José via a bus, exploring the downtown, particularly the "central market" there that opened back in 1880, followed by finding the Hard Rock Café and Harley-Davidson shops outside the downtown - would you believe there exists a Hard Rock Cafe location without the restaurant/shop chain's famous "pins"? Also, we got into a Walmart location fairly close by that actually sold event tickets; as such, I ended up getting a ticket for Costa Rica v. Uruguay this past Friday night (8 P.M. local time, which is in the same time zone as places like Denver)!

On Tuesday, we headed off on a long drive to the natural hot springs near Lake Arenal National Park, which also contains a volcano  that actually forced the town of Arenal to move to higher ground way back when to avoid getting wiped out by the volcano , and there was also some wildlife there, albeit near the top of the cable car  leading to the top of the volcano ; we mostly just hung out in this resort complex nearby for the day, though, in these hot tubs and spas scattered around the property, before eating  at the restaurant also located on the property and repeating the same long drive back to our hotel at night !

Last Wednesday, meanwhile, came and went with us visiting Bay Island, along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, and also a long distance from our hotel - once we got to the nearby port town of Puntarenas, a "catamaran/yacht", I guess you could call it, ended up taking a few dozen people over to the island in the early afternoon hours; from there, the few dozen of us part of that whole tour group had the island all to ourselves, along with some tour company staffers, and, as such, we ended up snorkeling, riding in a "banana boat", and taking this very deceivingly steep hike up this trail right behind the beach, along with seeing some more "wildlife", especially this huge "pot-bellied" pig apparently belonging to a single farmer there; once again, the evening brought about the trip back to the hotel, which ended up taking place in stormy weather, with thunderstorms raging throughout all parts of the Nicoya Peninsula, which houses the aforementioned island, along with quite a few others, and the town of Puntarenas; thankfully, the thunderstorms pretty much stayed well away from the hotel!

Last Thursday, meanwhile, we went to three places, the first of which was Atlantic Park, one of the filming  locations in 1993’s Jurassic Park, along with many other places in the Caribbean and Central America (FULL DISCLOSURE: this isn’t the last time here you’ll see me referencing something made by Spielberg), taking a cable car  ride above the rainforest there, finding out why those places are called “rainforests” in the process, followed by a boat ‍♀️ trip along a river in the nearby town of Sarapiqui, and, lastly, walking  along a trail in the “Selva Verde”, or “Green Jungle”, national park /nature preserve; after a late-afternoon buffet lunch , we headed to the artisanal marketplace back in San José before returning once again to the hotel !

The very last night of the trip, though, brought about the aforementioned Uruguay @ Costa Rica game in San José, and, as is natural with "national team" events hosted by one team or the other the world over, the majority of the crowd was wearing the blue/red/white of Costa Rica, with only about a handful of people wearing the Uruguayan blue/white!

The first 10 minutes or so definitely belonged to Costa Rica, but, afterward, Uruguay maintained more possession, and Costa Rica suddenly kept making one too many passes, without shooting on the Uruguayan keeper at all; a few foul calls, and missed foul calls, however, only increased the frustration inside the Estadio Nacional, leading to what appeared to be a Costa Rican goal called back for being offside in the 25th minute, and a penalty being awarded to Uruguay right before the halftime break, which ended up getting converted to give the visitors the lead and silence the crowd that had been trying to distract the Uruguayan PK taker right up until the moment of the kick, through the last few minutes of the half and up through the halftime break!

The crowd that had been silenced late in the first half suddenly had reason to burst early in the second half, though, as Costa Rica converted a free kick opportunity that looked very close to a penalty kick opportunity that way - for a while after that, the game seemed even, only to revert later to the way most of the opening half had gone, with Costa Rica once again not shooting on net, and also seeing the Uruguayan keeper suddenly "crumple" to the grass around the 70th minute, looking like he had pulled something after a rare shot on goal for Costa Rica, despite the fans protesting that he was "faking" the injury; Uruguay kept most of the possession through the 90th minute, and, indeed, would end up getting rewarded with a goal deep inside the Costa Rican box, officially sending most of the home fans heading for the exit gates, and allowing Uruguay to hang on for the sudden 2-1 win!

As for the stadium itself, it was clean and all (albeit slippery with all the rain throughout the week), but the PA announcer seemed to barely be present, basically only announcing the goals and substitutions, while the replays kept malfunctioning (at least the "live" shots kept working), at least up through late in the second half, and there are old "trough"-style toilets in the restrooms there, despite the stadium being a reconstruction (2011) of the old national stadium in San José, which opened almost a century ago (1924); also, the fans were certainly "animated", but surprisingly quiet, given your "typical" Central/Latin American sports crowds ("exhibit A": the Peruvian fans in Russia for the most recent FIFA World Cup), and also somewhat critical of their team late in the game, once Uruguay got the very late goal, never mind that just moments earlier, some had left, while the rest of them remaining by the time the 90+ minute period stayed "slumped" in their seats!

(...as always, highlights; recap)

(...speaking of sports, the "NFL 100" season opener was honestly dull - certainly not the way the league wanted to showcase its "oldest rivalry", while, as the NFL celebrates its centennial this season, Flushing, Queens has suddenly been getting "taken over" by young people, specifically at the annual U.S. Open; that reminds me, lacrosse and tennis are the two (somewhat) "major" sports, at least here, that I've seen possibly hundreds of times by now, yet never actually "in-person", although I have wandered around Flushing, home of the 1939 and 1964/'65 U.S. World's Fair(s), and its "Chinatown" a few times on other occasions in the past, so at least I'd be able to figure out where to go to find the U.S. Open action every August/September - this time next year, though, will be especially tough on those competitors, given that they'll have to head to London (Wimbledon), Paris (French Open), and Tokyo (2020 Summer Olympics host), along with other tournaments, before returning to the N.Y.C. region; that summer, though, should be epic, overall, in sports, between the UEFA Champions/Europa League finals in late May, the NBA Finals/Stanley Cup Final, and CONCACAF Nations League soccer tournament/Gold Cup qualifier final game over here in June, the aforementioned tennis tournaments/Olympics, in which baseball will return to the "slate" of competitions for the first time since 2008 in Beijing, China, and the Argentina/Colombia co-hosted Copa América, 60th anniversary UEFA Euro soccer tournaments co-hosted by many European cities, and the winners of each of the aforementioned Champions/Europa League final games facing each other that August in the UEFA Super Cup championship game!)

In retail news now, Fry's Electronics, the longtime CA-based consumer electronics retailer, is closing its Palo Alto, CA location now, right in the "Silicon Valley" of northern CA, and reportedly hasn't received stock at any of its locations in weeks now, suddenly putting it in the same "boat" as JCPenney, Kmart, Sears, and other "troubled" retailers nationwide!

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/67472/frys-electronics-store-closings-begin-closure-palo-alto/index.html

...meanwhile, back over here, the "American Dream" entertainment complex/"mega-mall" that's been under construction since basically the beginning of this "millennium" looks like it'll finally open sometime soon, given that the lighting system at the complex just got activated:

https://www.northjersey.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2019/09/05/lights-american-dream/2216960001/

...also, adding to the woes of Kmart/Sears, even more closures of even more locations recently got announced:

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/business/2019/08/30/kmart-closing-four-nj-locations-wayne-trenton-wall-somers-point/2166673001/?fbclid=IwAR1_-bak3k0kSCG4E-8Rx3NSOwIRzTqZzoneRJYDAtCLe9zEJSxYb36mpmo

https://news.yahoo.com/kmart-sears-closing-additional-stores-040526976.html;_ylt=AwrC1TE4BGpdWkMAKwLQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTEyODAwZXF2BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjc1MDZfMQRzZWMDc3I-

...in still other recent news involving Kmart/Sears, 250 employees reportedly just got laid off by the company:

https://www.wftv.com/news/trending-now/more-sears-kmart-locations-slated-for-closure/983991832?fbclid=IwAR0ezTK7svQ-9UO_2oGhr_Jq_1xKp2hMmnvSfQRsenUuBXlTZ2Tu-FcZN_Y

...also, something else I meant to mention to you here, now that I've told you about the latest round of Kmart/Sears closures, is that I'm also planning - like, truly this time around - on re-visiting my "old stomping grounds" in the high school and a few other places around here, now that I've "made it" completely through my undergraduate years, and finally "catching up with" the people and places I knew prior to then!

Also, there was lots of "filming" around here this summer, between DC Films/Warner Brothers Pictures bringing the start of its planned future Joker series of action movies to Newark, following in the footsteps of those studios setting The Dark Knight Rises there, along with the Sopranos HBO TV series (1999-2007) essentially getting a big-screen "prequel" set in the immediate aftermath of the infamous late 1960s nationwide riots, courtesy of quite a few of the people originally involved with the aforementioned series, and the aforementioned Steven Spielberg basically helming what amounts to "Jets v. Sharks 2.0" (incidentally, since I referenced those two NHL teams, I should also mention that, on the ice, those teams actually faced each other during two different eras, as the San Jose (CA) Sharks started in 1992, while the original Winnipeg Jets left for Arizona in 1996; the Atlanta Thrashers left that city in the midst of "infighting" among the ownership there back in 2011, returning the NHL to Winnipeg the following season, once the following off-season came and went!) locally this summer, actually giving a few people from right here their "shots" at that whole "saga" in the process, which I'd say "we", locally, in the general sense, should acknowledge at some point within these next few months; unfortunately, none of those crews went to the landmark stadium in the article linked below - all three of those films should hit the "big screen" sometime next year, so along with the insane amount of domestic/international sporting competitions then, there'll be remakes of "show business" classics battling it out at the "box office" sometime then, also!

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/paterson-press/2019/09/04/hinchliffe-stadium-paterson-nj-76-million-restoration-moves-forward/2208694001/

...back to football now, that group of "Jets" dominated the Buffalo Bills early, only to entirely blow a 16-0 lead just in the fourth quarter of their game this afternoon, while the Giants let the Dallas Cowboys pull away early in that game, and couldn't even come close to "rebounding" later...

...also, the Montauk Theater in Passaic, which lasted for over a century between circa-1900 and 2005, joined the old Capitol and Central Theatres there, and the Fabian Cinemas in downtown Paterson, in terms of being "gutted" and/or replaced by other types of establishments in recent years; also, the Capitol has a tribute website dedicated to its historical performers:

https://www.northjersey.com/picture-gallery/news/passaic/2019/09/05/passaic-school-opens-site-former-montauk-theater/2221007001/

http://www.capitoltheatrepassaic.com/home.html

Overall, after this past week, I'd say we should've just stuck to Panama City, and maybe the border region with Costa Rica - first off, Panama City reminds me somewhat of places like Miami, with the skyscrapers and people from just about all parts of "the Americas", instead of dealing with the surprisingly "sheltered" Costa Rican population, its reckless drivers, and a strange lack of "national media" there, and also considering U.S. travelers to Panama City/etc. don't even have to change currencies, considering Panama uses the U.S. dollar alongside the "balboa", the country's "own" currency! (I'll say, though, that Costa Rica was surprisingly accepting of the dollar, even more than some places in Canada!)

Well, I know I already told you this around this time last year, when we returned from Europe, but I'd say that now, I truly don't know what the future has "in store", having been "officially" graduated from college for this past entire summer; what I do know, though, is that whatever does end up happening anytime soon, I'll remain here to tell you all about it!

2019 International Champions Cup recaps: Benfica v Fiorentina (Red Bull Arena, Harrison, N.J., 7/24); Atlético de Madrid v Real Madrid (MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J., 7/26); etc.

This past Wednesday night, Benfica, from the top Portuguese soccer league, ended up facing Fiorentina, from the Italian "top flight", inside Red Bull Arena as part of the 2019 International Champions Cup European "pre-season" exhibition international soccer series, and, even though it was "mid-week", the turnout still seemed a tad disappointing overall, honestly, given the massive Portuguese population literally right next door to Harrison, and the many "enclaves" of Italian immigrant communities in this country generally, let alone locally - attendance ended up being announced as about 12,000 out of the 25,000+ seats there, but, thankfully, those who did show up wearing both purple and red ended up making their presence felt inside the Arena, and they got quite the game considering the "exhibition" nature, as Benfica ended up dominating the initial few minutes of the game possession-wise, yet ended up getting absolutely nothing to actually show for it on the scoreboard until the 9th minute, turning a turnover into an eventual short cross and point-blank shot to open the scoring, although Benfica honestly kept dominating through about the first 20+ minutes of the game, by which time Fiorentina finally seemed to keep possession for longer stretches, and ended up tying the game in the 29th minute courtesy of a long cross, turned into a couple of shorter ones, that ended up eventually producing the shot that would tie the game, although there honestly wasn't much more action in the rest of the first half, as the score ended up remaining 1-1 at halftime, with both teams having pretty much "coasted" through the last few minutes, along with the "added time", of the opening half!

The second half, however, saw substitutions (and yellow cards) galore, and it would be some of those substitutes who would end up missing a glorious opportunity for Fiorentina, as the purple-clad forwards broke through a massive logjam of Benfica defenders, only to have the initial shot hit the post, and have the rebound end up getting put over the top of the net, somehow keeping the score tied, 1-1, but certainly awakening the teams nonetheless, as the yellow cards suddenly stopped (although that seemed to be quite a bit due to the officials basically "pocketing" their whistles by then), and the shot totals ended up increasing, although, again, with almost nothing except for more substitutions the rest of the way, at least up until the "added time" part of the second half, as Benfica actually ended up "backtracking" just enough by then for one of the forwards to get wide open and just unleash an absolute blast of a shot with very little time remaining before there would have been a penalty kick shootout, giving Benfica the very last-minute 2-1 win in its latest "exhibition" matchup here!

(more general highlights of the game; recap)

(also, in the aforementioned game at Yankee Stadium, Liverpool and Sporting Club de Portugal ended up finishing tied, 2-2, in their exhibition matchup; highlights here)

Meanwhile, this past Friday night, it was Atlético de Madrid against Real Madrid in the first-ever "Madrid derby" outside Europe, attracting an announced crowd of 57K+ (albeit with at least half of the 300-level seats closed off to fans) to MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands, and, unlike Benfica v Fiorentina, this game was all Atlético, as it took advantage of a Real Madrid turnover right after the opening kickoff to open the scoring, and that would pretty much end up being all Atlético would need in the entire game, as Real Madrid only ended up continuing to commit the same mistakes and turnovers as it did right at the beginning of the game throughout the first half in particular, as Atlético would end up scoring in the 1st, 8th, 19th, and 28th minutes in the "run of play", while adding a penalty kick in the 45th+ minute, to already end up taking a commanding 5-0 lead into the halftime break, sending a massive "chorus of boos" from the almost entirely-Real Madrid-supporting crowd inside MetLife Stadium; it would take Real Madrid through over the first ten minutes into the second half to finally get on the scoreboard, by which time Atlético had added yet another goal, only for a fight to almost end up breaking out a few minutes later; once cards, including a few reds, rightfully got issued to the players most involved in that whole "fracas", Atlético would add yet another goal, and Real would claw back just a little bit, albeit late in the game, making the final score 7-3!

(More on the subject of "game/venue presentation" now, but I'm just glad that MetLife Stadium and Red Bull Arena, among others, have kept one of the most familiar "voices" in local sports media in his usual PA announcing position in recent years, even as seemingly just about everything else in the local sports landscape has changed massively!)

(highlights/recap; images)

...while I'm on the subject of "international soccer", have I mentioned to you yet at all that I actually graduated high school alongside a guy who's happened to be just one of the many members of the U.S. national team these past few years, who, at least back then, had nothing but complimentary things to say about other students (personally, the only thing I kept thinking back then was "well, you're the only one out of all of us who'll likely end up achieving international 'fame' anytime soon...", and, even now, I still consider things like those to be the ultimate "compliments" one could receive...)? I obviously can't "speak" for other people, but that seemed to have "tempered" my criticism, at least, of the U.S. team not even qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup over in Russia; that may or may not be, however, 'cause I've always kept a bit of a "grudge" (which I'm sure is another thing you might think I should quit doing in the future...) against one of the previous "national team" talents to emerge from this general area of the country for bypassing his spot on team U.S.A. in favor of playing for team Italy in a few of the FIFA World Cup tournaments of the 2000s...

...also, a little under a month ago, I believe I mentioned this to you:

"There was also a celebration put on by a local "non-profit" Peruvian group at a local restaurant (that was once celebrated in the local Peruvian consulate) to celebrate those of us local graduates within the past year, and the only thing I could think after that was that something like that, a "mini-ceremony", if you will...(etc.)"

...well, it turned out that said group also ended up taking part in the parade commemorating 196th anniversary of Peruvian independence from Spain, except that it was boiling hot around here last weekend, so I, personally, along with, surely, many others, ended up passing on attending that whole commemoration, lest we end up practically melting in said heat!

(also, I'm not sure about how people handled last weekend's triple-digit heat in your neighborhood, but at least around here, and even in returning here once again for a bit last Saturday night specifically, things seemed practically "dead", especially in terms of people simply "hanging out" in their backyards and whatnot...)

...also, if you needed any more evidence that social media, in particular, is (apparently) full of "slowpokes" who end up catching on to "trends" way behind the rest of us in society, look no further than this recent Reddit comment (...exactly where were you around this time last summer, random Reddit user?), among many other bits of evidence all over the Internet...speaking of which, is the phrase "everything old is new again" everywhere now?? I mean, I know pretty much all the "remakes", "returns", "sequels", etc. seemingly emerging in recent years have been known more by generations preceding mine, but the whole trend there just seems like an enormous amount of "nostalgia overload"!

...also, there were recently "shades" of 1965 (Northeastern U.S.)/'71 (N.J./N.Y.C.)/'77 (N.Y.C.)/'03 (Northeast)/'06 (Queens, N.Y.C.) all over again in N.Y.C., it seemed, as a blackout crippled the island of Manhattan one recent Saturday night; also, this weekend's blackout in Manhattan comes almost immediately on the heels of the blackouts in the Dallas "metroplex" region of Texas, along with blackouts hitting the entirety of each of the Latin American countries of Argentina/Paraguay/Uruguay...

https://www.nj.com/news/2019/07/blackout-nyc-2019-scenes-from-power-outage-on-anniversary-of-1977-blackout.html

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/13/manhattan-power-outage-widespread-power-outages-new-york-city/1726521001/

...meanwhile, in non-"blackout"-related N.Y.C. news:

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2019/07/02/bravo-is-reviving-the-popular-emmy-award-winning-gameshow-cash-cab-from-lion-television-213110/20190702bravo01/

Lastly, as previously mentioned, I'll be visiting Washington, D.C. next weekend, so, as always, "stay tuned" for my thoughts on our "nation's capital"!

recapping *this* year's NBA/NHL championships; etc.

On the hardwood, the Toronto Raptors ruined the final season of the building originally known as the Oakland Arena back in 1966, and, in doing so, won all three games they played in the building that had served as the home of the Golden State Warriors since then, and also ruined what many people considered the latest "dynasty" in the NBA; also, they technically brought the NBA championship to its "ancestral" home for the very first time, as Almonte, Ontario-born James Naismith went to Springfield, MA, to create something that could satisfy his early-1890s YMCA students through the harsh winters in that part of the country; returning to the present, though, the Raptors held off what seemed like a million comebacks, and comeback attempts, throughout the entire series by the Warriors in order to clinch the title; personally, I'd once again still put 2013 ahead of this series, since, at least back then, the Miami Heat did to the San Antonio Spurs what the Golden State Warriors couldn't do to the Toronto Raptors, with the crazy ending to that game 6, followed by the incredibly tight game 7 afterward!

On the ice, meanwhile, in the NHL, the St. Louis Blues made history, at least for them, and, in doing so, once again made the Boston Bruins lose at home, after the Chicago Blackhawks, as I initially mentioned about a couple of weeks ago, scored twice within the final minute of game 6 in that series (2013); as with the NBA, personally, I'd still put that series ahead of this one, if only 'cause it seemed like multiple of the games this year were blowouts, which end up getting "anticlimactic" after a while, you know? In contrast to that, 2013 was an epically back-and-forth series, again, coming off the lockout the previous fall (2012) that cut that season short (48 games), and, at least for me, personally, was when what the Devils had done just before then (22-3-2 throughout the early months of 2011; reaching the SCF the following year), so there was still a "buzz" around here back then, followed by that ending to the 2013 season, following the shortened (regular) season!

(also, some "opposing perspectives" on the most recent game 7)

Also, there's been a change in the Wednesday night, 7/24 (Red Bull Arena, Harrison, N.J.) game part of the International Champions Cup European international exhibition soccer series, as AS Roma backed out of that night's game after reaching the 2019-20 UEFA Europa League qualifiers, leaving Benfica, from the Portuguese Primeira Liga, facing Fiorentina, which, just like Roma, is also from the Italian Serie A, so there'll be a different professional Italian soccer team around here, specifically inside Red Bull Arena, this summer!

...speaking of Europe, DYK there's a Spanish quiz show that's been on for so long now (1997-present, and showing no signs of stopping anytime soon) that it pre-dated the Euro currency? We actually got the "international" channel operated by Television Española, the Spanish public broadcaster, for a few years here, but have since lost it to the various "machinations" of cable/satellite TV operators, as Optimum restricted that and many other "international" channels to that specific "extra" level of its cable offerings a few years ago; as such, unfortunately, the only time I've seen that show, at least in recent years, was actually in the Dominican Republic, of all places, one afternoon that whole week back in 2016, and I'm more than willing to admit that I'm honestly too lazy to keep checking out the show's website often for different episodes, although, back over here, ABC returned a couple of '80s game shows to the air this week, and, from the looks of it, every week this summer, so there'll be that to go along with the MLB/MLS regular seasons, along with all the various soccer tournaments in various parts of the world these next few weeks!

Also, there's been quite the "uproar" in video gaming circles the past few days, specifically regarding the two newest editions of the Pokémon game series - you know, the Japanese "creature catching + raising" RPG series; personally, I've been with each "generation" of that particular series of games from the very beginning, back in the late '90s, but, with the recent announcement by developer Game Freak that the two newest games will not allow those of us who've been around for previous "generations" of that series to "transfer" older team members forward - to make a sports analogy, which you know by now that I like, it would basically be like the leagues basically getting rid of things like free agency and/or trades, which were, ironically, introduced because players, specifically within Major League Baseball, were fighting with, and/or suing, their leagues/teams, in order to be able to no longer make their original teams "exclusive" - suffice it to say, Game Freak, and possibly Nintendo, basically did the opposite of what the pro sports leagues did decades ago, and essentially made the newest games in that series "exclusive" in ways that none of the previous "generations" had been; combine that with the games pretty much all being incredibly similar, with very few changes, since the ones that released during my initial undergraduate semester, and it seems as if this has suddenly become the beginning of the end for those games, at least in my opinion!

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/you-cant-bring-all-your-old-pokemon-to-sword-and-s/1100-6467720/

https://www.polygon.com/e3/2019/6/11/18661587/pokemon-sword-shield-home-e3-2019-galar-pokedex-home-bank

https://www.polygon.com/e3/2019/6/13/18677717/pokemon-sword-shield-national-dex-pokedex-galar-e3-2019

On a more personal note now, the physical therapy and podiatry appointments are done now, at least in terms of the surgery I had back at the beginning of February, so let's just hope now that nothing else suddenly emerges in the future that would require another such process!