Ground Beef Sometimes Has That Effect

Here’s another in the series of posts that no one should read. I write it so it’s out of my head, allowing me to focus on other matters.

While investigating the capital structure of a European utility (my life is a thrill a minute) the name of an unfamiliar German bank caught my eye. I don’t know anything about Hamburger Sparkasse or the quality of its equity research, but when Bloomberg omits the final letter of the company name it conjures some amusing images.

Two Feet Nine Inches of Awesome

This does not come from the most reliable global news source so it may be fake. Even if the pictures are doctored there is some residual awesome in the fact that little muscle guy is wearing what appears to be 1970s children’s clothing and big muscle guy is wearing dark socks with his shorts.

Here is 2'9" Aditya Dev lifting weights at his gym in Phagwara, India. Dev reportedly weighs under twenty pounds and fancies himself as the world's smallest bodybuilder.

Ranjeet Pal, Dev's trainer, poses with him here.

The linked article notes that Dev dances both as part of his exercise regime and on television. I can't even handle the level of awesome that would be displayed by a dancing Dev.

Ending the Streak

A potentially record setting streak ended Sunday with the New York Giants’ Super Bowl victory. No, not that one....

While I enjoy watching big sporting events, I’m not much of a fan. I don’t closely follow teams and couldn’t care less about players’ statistics. Generally I get interested during the closing weeks of the regular season if the local team is in contention and pay increasing attention as the post season progresses. Basically I’m the kind of sports observer real fans mock.

Over the last decade I’ve noticed what seems like a disproportionate number of championship losses for teams I supported in my lackluster way. These are all games or series that occurred while we lived in the team’s area and followed their postseason fate.

1997 Utah Jazz
..........Lost NBA finals to Chicago Bulls

1998 Utah Jazz
..........Lost NBA finals to Chicago Bulls

1998 University of Utah men’s basketball
..........Lost NCAA championship game to Kentucky

2001 Philadelphia 76ers
..........Lost NBA finals to Los Angeles Lakers

2003 New York Yankees
..........Lost World Series to Florida Marlins

Going 0-5 in the big games seems noteworthy. Even the Denver Broncos of the 1980s didn’t have that many disappointments. I’m sure the New England Patriots will feel better about their failure to make sports history when they learn that my personal streak has ended thanks to them.