Josh Hancock, relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, was killed in a car accident early Sunday morning. Reports say that Hancock's Ford Explorer drove into the back of a parked tow truck, which was assisting a disabled car in the left lane.

Tonight's game against the Cubs has been postponed. A few seasons ago, the Cardinals lost Darryl Kile to a drug overdose the night before a Cubs game (though in Chicago).

According to WSCR-AM out of Chicago, the Cardinals had a scare with Hancock earlier in the week. He overslept, and didn't wake up until the 20th call to his house. With the death of Kile, the Cards are justifiably twitchy to players falling off the face of the earth, so...

I'm a Cubs fan, and I hate the Cardinals Team intensely. I do not hate their players, though, and I offer my condolences to his family, friends, and fans.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is dedicated to the Duck U. student that didn't believe me when I told her.

Katie Casey was baseball mad,
Had the fever and had it bad.
Just to root for the home town crew,
Ev'ry sou
Katie blew.
On a Saturday her young beau
Called to see if she'd like to go
To see a show
But Miss Kate said "No,
I'll tell you what you can do:" more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 04:23 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Momzerduck deserves all the praise, I deserve all the blame. Momzerduck also deserves pity: I was a month late and nearly 10 lbs.

UPDATE: Thank you, Brickmuppet!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:06 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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1 Congrats!

Given the timezone difference, you would have been born on the exact same day as my younger brother. We went out to celebrate his last-one-before-40 on Sunday

Posted by: Pixy Misa at April 23, 2007 03:16 AM (LcMoG)

2 Thanks, Pixy! And pass best wishes to your brother for me.

You're older than 39? Good heavens, Pixy, I never would have guessed!

Posted by: Wonderduck at April 23, 2007 03:18 AM (2nDll)

3 One of the best days of my life! Lilacs were in full bloom and you were almost named Patrick.
I am honored to be your momduck.

Posted by: Momzerduck at April 23, 2007 04:06 AM (h/YdH)

4 So I've known you for almost three quarters of your life so far. When I first met you, you were proud that most of your shirts had pizza stains on them. You've cleaned up a bit since then.... Many happy returns, etc. We've still got a long way to go!

Posted by: Vaucanson's Duck at April 23, 2007 06:18 AM (oplPK)

5 Happy Hatching Day!

Posted by: Will at April 23, 2007 08:42 AM (SOx9v)

6 お誕生日おめでとう！

Posted by: Andrew F. at April 23, 2007 02:10 PM (A5mLC)

7 Uh... t'anks, Andrew! I think.

And Will, Astro, even Vauc (did you have to mention that?), thank you all.

Silly hats and cake for all!

Posted by: Wonderduck at April 23, 2007 04:34 PM (h/YdH)

8 Ack! I missed this!

Happy belated birthday!

Posted by: Nick at April 24, 2007 05:40 AM (lFlQd)

9 Andrew's comment reads

Otanjoubiomedetou.

It's possible he just cursed you and all your family for life, but I'm pretty sure it's just happy birthday.

Posted by: Will at April 24, 2007 08:00 AM (SOx9v)

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Aw, hell.

The news is still breaking, so hopefully the one dead is a mistake, and everybody is okay. Hopefully. Knock on wood. Please?

The Blue Angels were scheduled to be the headliners at this summer's Duckford Air Show, after the USAF Thunderbirds were here last summer.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, there wasn't a mistake. The plane crashed into a residental area, damaging houses and cars, and killing the pilot. It appears, though, that nobody on the ground was badly hurt.

Obviously it's way too early to tell what happened, but one thought from the scene is that there may have been a bird ingested into an engine (according to the article I was reading, birdstrike is not uncommon in the area). Conflicting with that, though, is the report from a man who was mowing his lawn a short distance away from the crash site and saw it happen; he said he didn't hear anything obviously wrong with the plane. Not sure if you could tell that an engine was out just by listening, but.... More as warranted.

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Duck Amuck, 1953

Completely unrelated, happy birthday to occasional commentor Vaucaunson's Duck! What's it like on the far side of 39?

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:08 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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No thappy at all.

Instead of spending the evening working on The Kanon Project, I was forced to spend it stomping on a couple of pieces of scumware that got into Chiyo-chan.

Even after repeated virus scans, spyware cleanings, and regedits, the damn things kept coming back, apparantly digging themselves deeper into Chiyo-chan's brain than I was willing to go. I was forced to use the Tactical Nuclear Option of Windows System Restore (as opposed to the Strategic Nuclear Option of a full wipe), and reset back to 10pm Friday night.

That appears to have worked; I've had no reoccurance of the various nasties. Fortunately, I know where it came from (an allegedly amusing e-mail that someone in my fantasy baseball league sent me), so it's not a site I visit or anything like that. Knock on wood.

On the plus side, nothing important disappeared in the restore, as I've not managed to accomplish anything of value because of this. Except for one thing...

...I finally preordered the Haruhi Special Edition, from (as Steven calls it) "Brand X". They've a 40% off special going, including pre-orders; while their price was originally higher, with the discount it wound up being about $10 less than my usual place of anime shopping.

And, to be fair, I've never had anything close to the problems that SDB has reported with "Brand X". That's probably because I've only ordered one or two things at a time, where he ordered 10 or 15, but I calls 'em likes I sees 'em.

I still prefer Robert's Anime Corner Store, though. Any company that manages to ship boxes of Pocky without a single stick breaking (and doing it quickly!) is Number One in my book!

*The meaning of the title of this post is below... more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 04:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Sad news from the world of baseball today, as Herb Carneal, the Hall of Fame radio voice of the Minnesota Twins, passed away at the age of 84. He was about to enter his 48th season of broadcasting for the Twins, though for the past few years he'd been working a shortened schedule.

Now, I'm a Cubs fan, and nothing is ever going to change that. However, when I attended graduate school in Minnesota, I was there in 1991... the World Series year. With no TV, I had to listen to the games on the radio. Back at The Pond, I could always turn on WGN TV and catch the game... and with Harry Caray and Steve Stone as the on-air team, why would I listen to the radio?

It was Herb Carneal that taught me the beauty of baseball on WCCO radio. These days, I only rarely watch the games, and if I do, it's with the radio on. Otherwise, it's radio only, and it's great.

So, Herb Carneal, who was the first to show me the grandeur and majesty of baseball without using my eyes, thank you.

And "It's back, waaaaaay back, it's ... gone, touch 'em all".

(UPDATE: Here's a better article on his passing.)

(ANOTHER UPDATE: I submitted the WCCO link to Fark. It got greenlighted... my first. Wish it wasn't for this reason, though.)

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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