One of my favorite NHL playoff traditions is that players don't shave until they are knocked out. Usually whole teams don't participate anymore, but there are always 5-10 guys, who look completely like mountain men by the time the Stanley Cup rolls around.

Really, hockey is the only sport where this is possible. Baseball and basketball players would just look silly, and you couldn't see football players' faces.

It's basically how Dorothea Lange would render a family at the ol' ballyard.

Rest assured it will be vandalized. Only then will it attain artistic merit. And maybe, just maybe, depending on the vandal (I mean artist!) it will add "color" to Portland's Anglo All-American.

Are one of the best things about playoff hockey, but they're not for everyone. Two words- Jeff Freisen.

Baseball and precipitation don't mix. Don't tweak the schdules for futuresnow. I'm surprised Bud Selig didn't throw his hands up and declare a tie. I listened to Bud on the radio last night, he was in Arizona for the Reds Red Snakes game, and don't worry, he is still the dweebiest man alive.

Didn't see the picture at your link.

If it can snow in early April, it can snow in late April. Nothing is guaranteed.

What bothers me about the Imus controversy is those who say such language should never be used anywhere. That kneejerk reaction inevitably passes the buck to the rap singers and whoever else used such language first. The problem isn't that such language is used, or even about who uses it, but the context. Here, it was used to disparage young women at the height of individual achievement. A gross error of judgement. Imus should be fired.

As a minor official in a very small Maine town, I followed with some interest the Portland art dustup. As a minor official who participated in a committee that commissioned some public art that was hugely criticized by elements of the public, I found it especially fascinating.

As an aesthetic critic, I think King has it completely right: that statue is comically awful. The public art I ended up being partially responsible for was an abstract metal piece, coils of metal that theoretically reflect the whirlpools and tides. Very different than Portland's poorly executed cartoon, indeed, and kind of nifty in my eyes. However, those who don't care for it have seen something different than whirlpools and tides, and have dubbed its location "Fruit Rollup Park."

And hence to my point--no matter how ugly or misbegotten or even just misunderstood, I think public art is a great thing. I get to two or three Sea Dogs games a year, and now I can't wait to go just to make fun of the statue with my boys. As irritating as I may find the appelation "Fruit Rollup Park", I have to admit it's a funny name. Those who came up with it even created a float in the Fourth of July parade to mock it. As the float turned the corner where Fruit Rollup Park is, all the people lounging around the sculpture laughed -- just as they were resting on it for a good view. It was a beautiful moment.

Let's face it, 90% of everything is crap, and almost by definition public art will not especially good art. But the mere fact that it is there gives us something to talk about, something that tickles our critical responses and gives character to the place. I say -- more ugly art, in more public places!

I looked at the picture of the sculpture and I'm not sure I "get it." King's interpretation of the "Unknown Unhappy Family" seems to be right on, but what is the rationale for a statue like that? It's Norman Rockwell meets any of the dozens of bad, cookie-cutter family sitcoms. All they need is a crazy neighbor standing behind the boy offering money for the tickets, and a continuously looping laugh track.

As far as I see it, this is where Cleveland turns its season around. The last time they played in Milwaukee for home games, Jake Taylor called his shot, but instead laid down a surprise bunt that the grizzly old vet beat out, allowing Willie Mays Hayes to score from second, thus sealing the pennant for the Tribe, and throwing Bob Uecker into a tizzy. There's good karma for the Indians when they play their home games in Milwaukee.

(the movie Major League used Milwaukee's old County Stadium as the home field for the Indians).

I bet Pedro Cerrano launches one through the retractable dome.

Chicago won't present such a conundrum in about five years. I'm sadly confident that the new owner of the Cubs will want a domed or semi-domed replacement for Wrigley almost as soon as they start paying for the maintenance on that old gem.

Makes much more sense if you fix the prep, as in: The Indians lost a four-game home series against the Mariners over the weekend, a feat even rarer than losing a four-game home series to the Mariners, a trick last pulled...

In Buffalo, in all social circles, playoff beards are perfectly acceptable. Half the male population put away their razors on Easter Sunday and now don't have to shave again until the Sabres either win the Cup or are eliminated. Your boss can't complain, because, c'mon man, it's a playoff beard! And he probably has one as well.

Last year, by the time they were eliminated, it was incredible to see the preponderance of beards at the supermarket or gas station and of course even more so at the arena or in a bar.

There's been an ongoing debate about what women could do to join the movement. On the one hand, there are women who want to show their support for the team but are divided about how to do it; pigtails for two months? Sabres colors at all times? On the other hand, there are the refusniks: wives/girlfriends who are anti-beard and who vow to grow their leg/underarm hair out in protest until their husbands/boyfriends shave and stop rubbing their faces raw.

Go Sabres.