the 4th star

In honour of our neighbours to the south, I’m taking a break to celebrate some independence of my own. Good-bye, relatively big city. Hello, Western Manitoba. That means no posting over here for the next couple days, which means every time you pay a visit you will be greeted by this image of Jessica Simpson — an American beauty who certainly has settled into a nice bit of body confidence. Seeing this makes me hate Tony Romo even more.

Coming up on the 4th Star this week:

• More fallout from the Derick Armstrong/Mike Kelly screwupapalooza in Blue Bomberland. I understand this romantic comedy has reached dramatic action-adventure levels in the last 24 hours. Certainly doesn’t make Armstrong or Kelly look too good. Oh well, at least everyone is working hard.
• Holy crap. The MLB All-Star Game is just 10 days away. What better time to introduce the world to my new favourite baseball team? Here’s a clue: It’s a team in either the American League or the National League.
• An Elvis Costello review. He’s at Bird’s Hill Park Wednesday. Hipsters and mosquitoes under the Big Sky Manitoba. All bets are off if it’s raining.
• Probably some NHL stuff. What, we don’t like hockey anymore?
• The usual (and totally awesome) weekly features of CSSC Update, Hump Day and Friday Wrap Jam.

And possibly some other stuff, too. Who knows? There really is no set schedule for this thing so I don’t know why I’m writing one here. Boredom, perhaps. Whatevs. Later skaters.

Coach tells a player he’s going in a rotation. Player pulls a Scottie Pippen and tells the coach he’s not going in at all. Don’t know who this Derick Armstrong fella thinks he is, but if he’s going to throw beauty quotes like this around all season then the Winnipeg Blue Bombers should think twice about moving him.

“It was selfish of me but I think I owe it to myself to be selfish.”

Oh, that is just selfishly wonderful. Bulletin board material. MY bulletin board. And it leads to so many questions regarding the situation. With loose lips on both head coach Mike Kelly and Armstrong, why do I get the feeling this thing is not going to go away anytime soon? Will they kiss and make up, or duke it out like real men? Will everyone continue to pat each other on the back for ‘working hard?’ Will Kelly instruct Stefan LeFors to not bounce balls throw to Armstrong? Are we getting into a Dallas Cowboys situation where there are locker room snitches and accusations of locker room snitches?

Let me tell you what I find interesting about Man Sandwich nominee Andy Roddick. It’s not that he’s somehow finagled his way into the Wimbledon final against Roger Federer tomorrow or that he’s managed to maintain an impressive level of hype attention despite only winning ONE Grand Slam title (US Open, 2003). No, what really stands out for me is the arrogance. How can you ever forget the classic line he uttered to umpire Emmanuel Joseph in the 2008 Australian Open:

“You’re an idiot! Stay in school kids, or you’ll end up being an umpire.”

That’s not bad — especially when you consider that tennis players yelling at umpires has been going on since the sport was invented and coming up with something fresh is next to impossible.

But the arrogance I’m talking about isn’t reserved for the court. No, not many guys would call up their agent and have him track down this girl after seeing her model pieces of swimsuits in an issue of Sports Illustrated. And then manage to pull it off once the meeting was agreed to. Nice return, Mr. Roddick.