I’m sure the front office of the NHL is excited about their 2004 Stanley Cup Finals – Calgary vs. Tampa Bay. While it may be a great series featuring two exciting teams, the NHL is in real trouble right now and it’s a shame. The beginning of the end came back in the early 1990’s when they brought hockey to San Jose and Florida, frachises #22 and #23. Not only did they allow a team to wear teal, but for some reason there was reason to believe that a) fans down there would really respond and b) the assumption that there were enough NHL quality hockey players to fill an extra 42 jobs proved wrong. But wait – that’s not the point (see: $$$$). Ten years and seven additional teams later, the quality of the product has suffered so badly that each NHL team is lucky to have ten NHL quality players, the rest are guys who hang onto opponents jerseys and say “wheee” as they get dragged around the ice. It’s really a sad state of affairs. Let’s throw some more rum into the drink: they may not even have a season next year because, much like many other sports, the owners and the players are a bunch of babies. You can’t even take sides – they’re both ridiculous. They have no idea that not many people will even notice if there’s a lockout. A crappy, overextended product, greed and low attendance already are wreaking havoc – wait ’till you see what a lockout will do.

In much more encouraging news, I defied even my own self-perceived limitation and successfully, without error, assembled a grill this weekend. And used it. And it worked.

This whole DNC convention business here in Boston is getting nasty. I can’t really fault Mumbles-Menino for being upset. The city is already taking a bath on the whole thing, they’re closing down like 40 miles of highway each day around the FleetBankOfAmericaCenter and now Kerry’s saying he might not even accept the nomination there, which really means the whole thing is a farce – it’ll be a bunch of Dems in nice hotel rooms going to parties while the rest of us are utterly handcuffed by the sacrificies we, Joe Public, will have to make. Ah whatever. I’ll be out of the town the whole week, myself.

Song now playing: The Cult – “Wild Flower”