Saturday, February 26, 2011

More P.K.

With 2:00 to go in tonight's game against Carolina (Montreal looked shaky but a very satisfying win), P.K. Subban picked the puck up as Mtl were clearing the zone. Everyone on both teams went to change, and so Subban didn't just dump it out. He ragged the puck, for about 25 seconds he ragged it around his own defensive zone as the Hurricanes chased after him in ones and twos like Keystone Kops. And you could hear everyone sort of not breathing, as he turned around and around, behind the net, faking a breakout, turning back, in, out, behind the net again, and finally pinged a perfect pass to a wide open forward at the red line. And the crowd just roared, a deep and satisfied and delighted release of pent-up breath.

L'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Charlie Keller to Charlemagne

Charlie Keller coached for Casey Stengel with the Yankees.

Stengel played with Fred Merkle. (Brooklyn Robins, 1917)

Merkle played with Babe Ruth. (Yankees, 1925)

Ruth was portrayed by William Bendix. (The Babe Ruth Story)

Bendix was descended from Felix Mendelssohn.

Mendelssohn was a friend of Goethe’s and set some of Goethe’s poetry to music. (e.g. Die erste Walpurgisnacht)

Goethe was descended on his mother’s side from Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, was a patron of Cranach.

Frederick the Wise was linked through prophecies of the Sibylline Oracles (including by Luther) with the “Last Emperor”; that he was the “Third Frederick” who would succeed to the throne of Frederick Barbarossa and reform the Holy Roman Empire and the Church before the Apocalypse.

Frederick Barbarossa was a patron and protector of the antipope Paschal III.

Paschal III canonized Charlemagne.