The Trolley Dodger

Congratulations once again to the Los Angeles Lakers of Los Angeles for an awesome Game 7 victory over the hated Celtics.

A most excellent win.

Mexican Wave by wonker, on Flickr

A short article in the science section of The Guardian, “Nature’s own Mexican wave”, makes connections between The Wave (as often performed in Dodger Stadium) and giant Asian honeybees, then continues with studies looking at the minimum number of people you need to start a Wave, its speed, and whether clockwise or counterclockwise movement was more prevalent.

No word on how to stop one once it’s gotten started, however. ;)

I ran across a phrase in an article on a member of the soccer club I’ve adopted as favorite, Bohemian FC of Dublin:

It may have taken some time for the 21-year-old [Conor Powell] to break his duct, but he has become such a notable regular in the starting eleven that supporters would be forgiven for thinking that he already had a few goals under his belt.

From a quick Google, it looks to be a typo for “break his duck,” as in duck’s egg, as in nought or zero — what we’d refer to as a goose egg.

It’s originally a 19th-century cricket term, e.g. “break his duck’s egg” meaning to score at last. Michael Quinion says:

It’s not as cruel as it sounds. It’s not the duck that’s being broken, but a duck’s egg. These days the expression can be used in almost any game that involves a score of some sort but originally — back in Victorian times — it related solely to cricket. It seems to have been English public-school slang of the 1850s to call a score of nought against a player’s name a duck’s egg — presumably a duck rather than a chicken because a duck’s egg is bigger and more prominent.

A player who had scored, who had moved off that accusing zero on the scoreboard, was said to have broken his duck’s egg. It began to appear in print in the early 1860s and soon people shortened it just to duck. The first known example of that form appeared in the Daily News in August 1868: “You see … that his fear of a ‘duck’ — as by a pardonable contraction from duck-egg a nought is called in cricket-play — outweighs all other earthly considerations.” A batsman who was dismissed without scoring was said to be out for a duck.

I’m on the 15-day blogger DL: right knee has small tear in the medial meniscus, MCL sprain, and femoral bone bruise.

More details and pics.

Congratulations to Los Angeles Kings legend Luc Robitaille, who was selected today to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He will enter along with Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, and Brian Leetch. The ceremony will be in Toronto on November 9th.

Announcement tribute video from the Kings:

From LAKings.com:

“What I am feeling right now is very difficult to explain,” said Robitaille. “I never set out to accomplish anything like this. When I was a kid, I dreamed of playing in the National Hockey League, and to now be alongside greats like Rocket Richard, Guy Lafleur and Wayne Gretzky is not only indescribable, it is beyond anything I ever dreamed of.

“I also want to congratulate Steve, Brett and Brian, three players I was fortunate to have played with during my career.”