Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Chicago, 9/18/04

Obama for Senate

Taken on Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 9/18/04

Classy, Not

San Jose Sharks fans showed little class when they booed O Canada before a playoff game against the Edmonton Oilers. Before I go on, props to the Sharks fans who tried to drown out the booers by singing along.

This isn't the first time a country's national anthem was booed at a sporting event. A quick Google search turned up instances such as Montreal Candiens fans booing the Star Spangled Banner, Detroit Pistons fans booing O Canada, Bastia fans booing the French national anthem, Mexican soccer fans booing the Star Spangled Banner, as well as other instances. One instance I did not see was when a crowd at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto booed the Star Spangled Banner the day after the US national junior team beat the Canadian team in the World Junior Championships. I was at that game, and it was the first time I had ever heard an anthem booed. There was a team of youth players from Sweden sitting behind us, and they looked shocked. They must have never experienced that, either.

This is something that makes big news now. When did this start happening? Here is a note to sports fans everywhere: It is not cool to boo another country's national anthem.

I wish Jed Bartlett were real

The series finale of "The West Wing" will air on Sunday. I'm very sad to see it go, especially since the show seemed to be back to form this season after a couple of subpar years.

This is one of a cluster of events this weekend that leads to a celebration at my mom's house on Sunday. Not only will we be having dinner and watching the series finale together, but we will be celebrating mother's day as well as my birthday (which is on Saturday). It will be quite the evening.

I heard that originally there was to be some sort of retrospective of "The West Wing" airing the same night, but that didn't work out. Instead NBC will show the pilot episode, then the series finale. It's fitting in a way, the beginning and the end of the series in two hours.

I am going to miss "The West Wing", even though I have most of the series on DVD and there are reruns on Bravo, and I think Frazier Moore of the Associated Press will miss the show as well.

A fond farewell to 'The West Wing'

Chalky Goodness

Taken across the street from the Milwaukee Art Museum, 4/22/06