Hal blogs at:
http://www.snowmanonfire.com/
The Life and Times of Ryan Carter’s Moustache
May 01 2013
About 11 months ago, giddy after the Devils OT win over the Rangers to move on to the Stanley Cup Finals, I decided that Ryan Carter’s moustache needed its own web site. The turning point for me was in Game 5, which I was forced to watch at the Sports…
read moreFrom (Former) Russia, With Love
April 25 2013
Toby and I have participated in the Jewish Federation’s Peoplehood Project for most of the past two years, knowing it would culminate in a trip to Ukraine and Israel, tracing our family’s lives from the very first roots of persecution in the pale of Jewish settlement to celebrating Israel Independence…
read moreA Point on the Number Line
March 24 2013
With apologies to Trey Anastasio and Phish, today was a trip up and down the number line. It was the last day of Mites hockey, completing my first year as coach. It’s been deeply satisfying watching these young players progress through the year as players and teammates. I got to…
read moreHands On A Hardbody: A Real American Musical
March 04 2013
“Hands On A Hardbody” opened last week on Broadway after a run at the LaJolla Playhouse, bringing some of the west coast cast with it. I grabbed tickets on the pre-sale because the last tow musicals that looked appealing during previews (Once and Book of Mormon) took home wheelbarrows full…
read moreA Ken-A-Hora
March 01 2013
I did it. I gave the Devils a ken-a-hora (an early blessing) as my grandmother would say; I invited the evil eye by speaking a hoped-for truth before events had fully transpired. Or else the Devils are finally showing their age, their intensity, their capabilities, and their motivation. At 2-5…
read moreBuying into the System
February 17 2013
Commentators love to talk about players buying into a team system. This is especially true in hockey, where an individual player may lift the overall quality of a team but won’t single-handedly win games night after night. Having players that can be coached and instructed, and are willing to work,…
read moreDoctorow’s “Homeland” Hits The NY Times Bestseller List
February 15 2013
Cory Docotorow’s newest YA novel, “Homeland”, hits the NY Times YA bestseller list in week one. Called it. It’s a superb followup to “Little Brother,” and Cory’s found a good balance between technical exposition and moving the story along, with decidedly less snogging and more insight into the root causes…
read moreFriday Roundup
February 15 2013
The more things change, the more they look familiar. Alexi Ponikarovksy, known around here as “My Little Poni”, is a Devil again. We missed him. And he only helps with the surname scoring for “The Scrabble Line,” as I’ve started to call the various combinations of Zubrus, Zajac, Kovulchuk and…
read moreSplitting An iTunes Library
February 10 2013
I hit the point a few weeks ago where my collection of Phish shows (all downloaded legally, paid for happily and listened to frequently) was consuming a double-digit integer percent of my desktop’s hard drive. My $100 solution: buy another external hard drive (the area under my desk looks like…
read more