It's all about the Benjamins
 

Your post-splitsville date was with hockey's version of The Eggshell Plaintiff? Color me impressed. I once overheard a puck bunny in the Aud tell her seat neighbor that Lindros was a hottie, but only when he has his helmet on (which is probably a good thing for him to remember, given his apparent lack of any bones between his brain and scalp).

And, yes, the players are greedy enough to take all that they can get. Can you blame them, greedy associates? The owners, on the other hand, have apparently just discovered that someone has been forging their signatures on million dollar cheques to people like Bobby Holik.

Their position on forcing a salary cap reminds me of the classic definition of "chutzpah" -- the kid who kills both of his parents, and then tells the judge he should stay out of jail because he's an orphan. Essentially, they are saying "please, keep the demon who has possessed my right hand from signing Alexi Kovalev to a $100 million contract!" Idiots.

The Sporting News
 

According to ESPN.com, Notre Dame fires Tyrone Willingham.

What a crock. I'm not at all a Notre Dame fan, and I think the racial angle will be tremendously overblown, but this still sucks. The guy comes across as a class act, his team plays hard, and he only gets three seasons? And the first season he didn't have much of a recruiting class because of the timing of his hiring.

If I'm a Division I athletic director or a pro team, I put this guy on speed dial and call him the minute it's official.

It's all about the Benjamins
 

The date was with a good friend of hockey's version of The Eggshell Plaintiff. We have another one coming up, so maybe he will morph into Lindros on it, but I doubt it. So the news was horse's mouth once-removed. Sorry to be misleading.

The Sporting News
 

He deserved one more year. Although it's notable that his best coaching year was with Bob Davie's players.

Nevertheless, I like the guy. A lot. He's stoic. In a good way. I would have liked to see him have one more chance.

The Sporting News
 

I hear Stanfurd's looking for a guy. Oh yeah, he's already done that.

And, college to pro doesn't work. See Erickson, Spurrier et al.

The Sporting News
 

Sincerely,

Marcus Allen*

*the only funny joke that ever came from Jim Rome.

Social questions
 

So, I've got a dinner engagement with a couple the Mr. and I met 3-4 years ago. (A mutual friend is in town and we are all getting together.) In an attempt to remember what we should remember about these people, I googled them.

In addition to reminding us that they are not in fact the couple we initially thought they were (thanks, Google!), I discovered that the husband of the couple was proposed for a fairly prominent job with a state government in the last year, and he withdrew his name after a fairly nasty set of public attacks on his candidacy (mostly of the "cronyism" and "old-boys network" variety, but also including some unkind comments on his qualifications). There was some press coverage, but all of it local (i.e.: not in any news organ I would have any reason to ever read, hear or see). I will of course pretend I don't know this.

If, for some reason it comes up:

(i) I don't plan to inform the Mr. of the public appointment mess, because I don't quite believe he could make it through the night without making a comment, particularly since the evening will probably involve huge quantities of alcohol. If it comes up at all, the Mr. will probably know I knew about it (because he knows I googled them) but didn't tell him. Anyone (TM?) have a good cover story I can use with the Mr. to avoid admitting "I knew but I didn't tell you 'cause I thought you'd tease him and I want to try to develop his wife as a client?"

(ii) Any admission of pre-knowledge of this is tantamount to admitting I googled them (it's really the only way I'd have found out about it). How socially acceptable is googling people now?

It's all about the Benjamins
 

No problemo. If you learn any good Not Bobby Clarke stories, please pass them along.

It's all about the Benjamins
 

So we can safely assume it wasn't Rod Brind'amour

It's all about the Benjamins
 

Man, that's some good cheese.

Social questions
 

Don't worry -- I'm so over not getting the much-coveted and potentially lucrative Road Commissioner appointment that Big Earl (Big Ed's brother -- he's a local political boss) tried to push through the Podunkville City Council last year.

I just wish that the Poduknville Picayune-Post reporter didn't hear that "what do I know about roads? Well, I drive every day" comment I whispered to Big Ed's aide on the podium in council chambers -- it made a nice headline. Live and learn.

Social questions
 

If you are sincere about trying to get work out of the wife you shouldn't admit the "google" as it would seem crass, when you already have the potential in. You want the evening to be purely social, then the pitch would come a week later. If she knows you googled, she might not see it that way.

No advice on 1

Social questions
 

Pretend you thought it was the other couple, or did you tell the Mr. about this already?

I google people all the time, it's a great way to break the ice at parties. I even google myself to see what parts of my life are public knowledge (nothing other than pathetic road race times). I have discovered that there are more of me than I thought. There's only one I think I want to trade places with (need to do more research).

Social questions
 

Why is it an admission? You could have come across the coverage a thousand different ways. You're a lawyer; you do random research all the time. Say an article popped up at random in a Lexis search and you remembered his name. Or you were travelling through South Bandersnatch on business last year and happened to catch an article in the South Bandersnatch Picayune & Globe/Gazette that mentioned it. Of course, you didn't really think of it until the conversation just now brought it back to top of mind: how did all that work out, anyhow?

That's if Googling is not socially acceptable, which I think it is, as long as it isn't creepy. I recently confessed to another board regular that I had Googled ems real-world identity out of curiosity; perhaps em will pipe in with how creepy that was. (Note: em is the only person on the board whose real name I actually know, so if you haven't met me in person, I haven't Googled you.)

Social questions
 

On 2., don't say anything. Googling people is probably not fully acceptable. Unless you are looking for photos of them to see if they are hot, and/or naked.

On 1., if the husband discovers just say that you were a little embarassed at the situation -- having Googled them and finding something that might have been uncomfortable -- and you didn't want to talk about it. Because of the shame, the shame.