The Adventures of Steely McBeam and Friends

I'm in a sports kind of mood today (and mad that I'm going to miss the Panthers' first two preseason games because of the cruise), so my apologies if you've seen these stories. Here are a few I wanted to share wit da blogosphere anyway. If you don't like sports I don't care read about them anyway!

Steely McBeam--that's the name of the Pittsburgh Steelers new mascot. The Steelers are perhaps the most traditional team in the NFL; as far as I know, they still don't even have cheerleaders, and I can't quite figure out what made them decide to go for a mascot first. Especially when the mascot in question looks like this:

Bill Cowher wouldn't have stood for this. That beam isn't even made of steel.

Also, I personally hate when any character, mascot or otherwise, is named after their job or job-related accessory they carry around. As such, "Steely McBeam" is probably the worst name since Arnold Schwarzenegger's pretzel-vending little buddy uttered the immortal line "Call me Pretzie!" in Hercules in New York. You know, because he sells pretzels. Yeah, it's awful.

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Marvin Austin, UNC's new defensive tackle mega-recruit, apparently hates pants. From the Charlotte Observer:

He was the last one in line to run through many of the defensive line drills, and position coach John Blake had to tell him to put his shorts back on after he took them off. Moments later, Blake had to tell Austin to tie the drawstring in his shorts because they were falling off his rear end.

Dude's taking his shorts off at practice for no good reason at all. I could make a UNC joke here but I'm going to take the moral highground and assume you already did that yourself.

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I still don't know what to think of the whole scandal with NBA ref Tim Donaghy betting on games in which he was the referee. On one hand, it's terrible for the NBA and that sucks. On the other hand, I don't really watch the NBA so I don't really care. If anything I'm going to call it a good omen, because now maybe somebody will take the time to investigate ACC refs Karl Hess and Ted Valentine. When those two get brought down for rigging games, you can tell everybody you heard it here first.

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Barry Bonds has a fat head and I don't really know anything else about him.

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LUNCH REPORT: Got hibachi steak on the company dime at some little Japanese place in Sanford called Yamamoto. It was 7 bucks and better than the steak I got at Kanki last weekend. We also had a tempura vegetables appetizer which mysteriously featured a giant rectangle of carrot (at least I think it was carrot).

The table also got some sushi, and I had an Alaskan roll in preparation for all the salmon I may or may not have to eat in the week ahead. It's one of the few fish I can stand, raw or not, and I mean, it was okay. Mainly just tasted like soy sauce and wasabi. I still don't get the cultural fascination with sushi, all of it I've tried has been really plain.

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WERE YOU PRIVY TO THIS INFORMATION??: It's very hot outside and I think my windshield is going to explode. NOW YOU ARE PRIVY TO IT!

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Less than two weeks til new Trapped in the Closet, and from the clip I saw on Best Week Ever it looks like these new chapters are gonna be HOT FIYAH. Get ready, world.