Elementary school is a wonderful place, full of rich life lessons learned from being exposed to the real world for the first time. But while discovering where glue lies on the food pyramid makes for an easy lesson, not every message is as fun to learn. School is the first time kids aren't hugged non-stop, and it is the first place they will discover that they won't win at everything in life.
MAR. 1, WHITMAN- The Blazers entered the second round of the playoffs in high spirits after a resounding victory over twelfth-seeded Quince Orchard, but four seed Whitman proved to be much stiffer opposition and after a fierce back-and-forth contest the Vikings ended up 45-38 victors.
FEB. 26, SPRINGBROOK The Blazers put up a hardy opposition to the ferocious Blue Devils for much of the game tonight, but a flurry of Springbrook scoring coupled with the ejection of coach Orlando Larracuente took the wind out of Blair's sails and let the Blue Devils run away with the first-round playoff match, 64-45.
FEB. 18, NELSON H. KOBREN MEMORIAL GYMNASIUM- After a resounding victory over Gaithersburg and a near win on the road at Wootton, Blair fell into their old habits on Senior Night tonight against Whitman, falling 59-45 to the Vikings. The Blazers' (2-17) ineffectual offense, including three points total in the second quarter, and frequent turnovers led to a blowout loss against a team that was far from Blair's toughest competition this season.
Feb. 11, Nelson H. Kobren Memorial Gymnasium" The Blazers took the momentum going into the half tonight and never looked back, playing rock-solid offense to beat Gaithersburg 63-56. Smart, error-free shooting and speedy passing was the foundation of Blair's second victory of the season.
FEB. 2, NELSON H. KOBREN MEMORIAL GYMNASIUM-
The Blake Bengals are one of Montgomery County's hottest teams this year and tonight they showed it, overpowering Blair in a 92-69 victory. The Blazers caught the Bengals off-guard with a second quarter full of solid team passing and Blair scoring, but it did not take the Bengals long to buckle down and regain control of the game on both ends of the court.
JAN. 27, SPRINGBROOK With the thrilling Jan. 4 Blair-Springbrook match-up at Blair coming down to the wire, tonight's contest at Springbrook looked to be a hotly-contested rematch, with the struggling Blazers eager to prove themselves against their division rivals. Results, however, did not meet expectations as the Blazers consistently failed to find the net and were trounced by a skilled Blue Devils squad, 66-43.
JAN. 21, NELSON H. KOBREN MEMORIAL GYMASIUM- Blair played scrappy defense and a solid game overall to keep up with the Damascus Hornets (8-2) for most of the night; but as the clock wound down, Blair's inability to convert held them back from their second win. The game heated up in the second half, turning into a closely fought, back-and-forth contest, but too many missed opportunities kept the Blazers (1-10) from overcoming the heavily-favored Hornets, who walked out of Blair 57-53 winners.
JAN. 14, NELSON H. KOBREN MEMORIAL GYMNASIUM Richard Montgomery started out on fire tonight and never looked back, the Rockets' three-point shooting put Blair in an early hole that they were never able to recover from, ending the game at 70-58 Richard Montgomery. Where the Blazers have one or two sharpshooters that can occasionally chip in from long range, the whole Rockets squad seemed to be sinking threes all night. Even when Blair was able to get the lead down to as little as three, the Blazers could not seem to get enough momentum to wrest control of the match from the Rockets, who would shut down any potential comeback with a flurry of long-range points.
Player participation in video games of late has started to go a step up from the 'up-down-left-left-punch' days. Sweaty competitions of Dance Dance Revolution draw crowds into mall arcades while the Playstation 2 EyeToy has had people leaping around in their basements for months. The latest entry in this nontraditional field is Nintendo's "Donkey Konga" for the Gamecube. This simple, addictive rhythm game isn't extensive or totally polished by any means; but make no mistake - there is more uncomplicated, straight-to-your-brain's-pleasure-center fun to be had here than in most videogames.
JAN. 4, NELSON H. KOBREN MEMORIAL GYMNASIUM-
The Springbrook Blue Devils came in ready to dominate tonight and for the first half they did not meet much resistance, but a reinvigorated Blair squad stormed back in the second with their best half of basketball this year. The Blazers (1-6) were on fire with 15 unanswered points and kept the Blue Devils from scoring a single field goal in the fourth quarter but were unable to convert in the final seconds and fell 47-51 to their regional-powerhouse opponents.
Vampires have worked out pretty well in American cinema for the last hundred years or so. Wesley Snipes is a solid action anti-hero-in a gruff, you-wouldn't-want-to-meet-him-in-a-dark-alley kind of way. I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit of a Jessica Biel fan, and I even saw that Van Wilder movie with Ryan Reynolds and laughed a couple of times.
DEC. 14, NELSON H. KOBREN MEMORIAL GYMNASIUM
The Blazers (1-2) kept it exciting for much of the match but ending up dropping their second game of the season 60-52 to a Walter Johnson (1-2) team that had been winless. The team managed to find its touch and tempo in snatches but for the most part was outplayed by a Walter Johnson squad that consistently shot better from outside and dictated the flow of the game.
It was not always pretty. It was not always polished. But the Blazers (1-1) played some exciting, if frantic, basketball to get their first win of the season, 66-58, in their home opener against the Bethesda Chevy Chase (B-CC) Barons (1-1).
The Blazers' last season ended with a disappointing 7-13 record and a heartbreaking first-round playoff loss to Gaithersburg, leaving the boys hungry to prove themselves this year. With a confident new coach and a revamped game plan, the Blazers are looking to return the program to the prime years of Blair basketball, when they dominated the region.
Spirits were high this afternoon as the Blair girls' volleyball team kicked off their last game of the season against the Paint Branch Panthers. Blair opened strong in its first game but fizzled as the match went on. The tired Blazers put their season to rest this afternoon, losing their final game to the Panthers 20-25, 9-25 and 16-25
Baseball wrapped up in grand form (SOX RULE!), the rousing NFL season promises more surprises for armchair QBs and the NBA just rolled back into the spotlight in a big way. Sorry, NHL fans; enjoy the lockout!
We live in a nation where everyone else's football is our soccer, our football is no one else's game, our national pastime is baseball and our basketball team can't even hold its own anymore (thanks a lot, Argentina and France). At the Olympics, our men's soccer team didn't medal at the Olympics, football isn't an event and our baseball team didn't even qualify.
Look! There's little Randall in his Batman outfit! And Katy is just adorable as Sleeping Beauty. But what's Jimmy's outfit? That's a nifty cane; he sure looks...fly. And cute, little Janice looks just like...oh no.
It's ok, you can sit down now. And you there, stop clapping already. We all know that baseball was officially sent Washington's way a week ago after Selig, Angelos and the Expos family finally came to an agreement after long months—well, some of the faithful have been waiting years—of hand-wringing and wheedling.
SEP 21, BLAZER COURTSBlair's girls' tennis squad won a crucial divisional match today against the Magruder Colonels 6-1, improving their record to 3-1 on the year. The convincing win broke a three year losing streak against Magruder and greatly increased the Blazers chances of remaining in Division I next year.
There will probably be two reactions to this advice from the teenage crowd. On one hand there will be the calm, collected girls who will read it and say, "Oh gee whiz, guys are dumb; I've had my dress for a month, I'm so calm and collected.”
Make no mistake about it; Troy is a big movie. Everything about this Greek action-epic is huge: the action, the egos of the walking legends involved and the body count at the end of Troy's long, bloody battles. The only thing you'll find undersized in the midst of this larger-than-life drama might be Achilles' (Brad Pitt) tight-fitting body armor and battle-ready mini skirt, which may or may not be your thing.
But fortunately for the MLS, American soccer and young Mr. Freddy Adu himself, he seems to be handling the stress of soccer, spectators, and speculation remarkably well. The young phenom, who the nine year-old MLS has wagered a $500,000 annual salary on, has most certainly come to play. Adu has arrived as a professional soccer player, and it looks like, even after the unprecedented hype, that he is the Real Deal.
They're coming for me. Millions and millions of them, enough to block out the sun or at least blanket my azaleas. The 17-year cicadas will be here in a month, in all their noisy glory. And may their insect god, whom I'm sure we'll all be worshipping soon, have mercy on us all.
Broken Lizard's Club Dread is drenched in pretty much everything you would expect an R-rated, slasher-spoof to be drenched in: blood (and various other bodily fluids), alcohol, drugs and, if you can really be drenched in it, gratuitous frontal nudity.
Poking through the gift choices in Hallmark, I was shocked to find the barbaric and morally bankrupt Valentine's gifts people are willing to spend real American dollars on. This needn't be you my friends! You don't need to waste your hard whined-for allowances and burger-flipping bucks on atrocious gifts, all in the name of this emotion you humans call "love.”
It's a Friday night, and as usual I'm all dressed up, and I have someplace to go. I could really go for a movie right about now. But something's not quite right. Of course! I have no way to get there. The bus is slow and occasionally odorous, the subway is too much of a hike, and the parents are nodding off, leaving me twiddling my thumbs. Unfortunately, I have not yet perfected thumb twiddling as an effective mode of transport, which leaves me with no choice: I have to bum a ride.
There's something fundamentally wrong in seeing a man in a cheery Santa suit, even if it is Billy Bob Thornton, stumble drunkenly to his seat in the mall or beat up a bunch of middle school skater kids. It seems like a perversion of everything good and clean in the world. "Why is Santa doing that?” you might, understandably, ask.
Maybe it's peer pressure, seeing as 2003 is certainly the year of the trilogy blockbusters, including The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings. Maybe horror movie spoof Scary Movie 3 was trying desperately to live up to its three-part brethren, both of which will no doubt be massively successful. Perhaps that's why minds behind Scary Movie 3 attempted to pump as much humor into the film as possible.