This Is How We 'Duz It, 'Duz It - Weekly Trivia!

It was another geography crowd-displeaser this week, this time involving European capitals. We did have one winner! The country in the list that doesn't have a capital beginning with "L" is Liechtenstein (capital: Vaduz). Congrats to the brilliant mind with too much free time.

The red arrow indicates "this place exists."

Evidently a new Blackberry came out sans keypad recently, just under 6 years after Apple released their first iPhone. In today's business world, that's practically an eternity, but somehow Research in Motion hasn't quite faded into obsolescence. You know what has? Planking, thankfully.

Which of the following things did NOT happen in the last 6 years (2007-2013)?

• The NFL plays its first ever regular season game outside of the United States (Mexico City).
• The Mitchell Report is released, implicating 89 MLB players in the use of PEDs.
• The Republic of Kosovo becomes an independent state.
• SpaceX launches the first ever private spacecraft.
• Bernard Madoff is arrested and charged with securities fraud.

This one's a bit of a toughie, I bet - good luck!

New Orleans Pelicans Logo Battle Royale

In an ironically unironic move, New Orleans's NBA team has settled on a new name for the future: the New Orleans Pelicans. Possessing all the intimidation of a bunny and none of the mythology of a stork, this new mascot will quickly become a fan non-favorite for years to come.

The fun doesn't stop there, though. With the new name comes a new logo! And there was a contest held by a Canadian design website to create the crest for this new team name which has torn up the internet world among only the smallest niche of logo-philes. Click below to see some of the efforts, as well as the winner.

Before Oh-Four - Red Sox Fun Fact

I learned something new today about the Red Sox which makes their 86 year World Series drought even more heart-rending. In every World Series that the Red Sox reached between 1918 and 2004 ('46, '67, '75, '86), the Red Sox took the opponent to a full seven games and lost in the final game.

There was color TV back in 1986. The world just turned grey for these few seconds.

So close, yet so far, every time. And that really sums up the Red Sox fan experience: the team makes us dare to dream, and then dashes those hopes in the most heartbreaking way possible. To quote Prof. Todd Crosset. "Sports can't help but disappoint." I'm glad I lived to see 2004.

Better Than Nothin' - Fantasy Hockey 2K13

Oh, you didn't think I'd miss out on a season of fantasy hockey just because it's a shortened year, did you? The puck dropped on January 19, and you better believe that TDZ is going to be one Serious Cat to contend with in his rando auction league.

Serious Cat = hax

Click below for a breakdown of all the Mike Ricci-hot bargains and Patrik Stefan-hilarious busts in this truncated fantasy season.

I'm Not Dead Yet! - The NHL Lockout Comes to a Close, Probably

With the 2012-2013 season on the line, the players and owners came together and finally reached a tentative agreement on a Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The result? It looks like a win for the players, though both sides got some things they wanted. Here's how it all shook out:

• Cap of $64.3 million (up from $60 million originally proposed by league, down from $67 million proposed by players)
• Salary floor of $44 million (a mere $8.3 million in 2011-2012)
• Limits on contract lengths
• 8 years if re-signing, 7 years if signing a free agent that switches teams
• Salary variance maxed at 35% from one year to the next, as well as no year being more than 50% lower than the highest annual salary in the deal
• E.g. anyone with a salary of $10 million for one year within the contract can't have a salary lower than $5 million for another year in that contract.
• This should help avoid wildly long deals that circumvented the cap, but it's still a pretty good deal for the players. The NHL was asking for 5% variance at one point.
• Revenue sharing of $200 million, with a $60 million "growth fund." Not sure exactly what that is yet.
• Neutral third party will make decisions on appeals for suspensions of 6 games or more.

Now with a little luck, the puck will drop in a few weeks, but part of me is still hoping this framework for a deal breaks down and we see the rise of the WHA.

Dreamin' of a White Christmas - Weekly Trivia!

Christmas has come and gone, but a TDZ trivia win is for eternity. One person guessed the correct answer this week, which was Fargo. This movie did not have a scene depicting Christmas, though it was set in a scenic winter backdrop with lots of white snow. Let your trivia mastery be heard in the comments - unless it was my Dad, who took like 3 guesses to get the right answer offline.

Don't mistake any red in the snow with candy cane color coordination.

This week, I challenge you with the first TDZ trivia question of 2013, and to celebrate I'm going to go back to the world of geography.

Which of the following countries does NOT have a capital starting with the letter L?

• The United Kingdom
• Portugal
• Slovenia
• Luxembourg
• Liechtenstein

 Have a good weekend, Acolytes.

WHA, Part Deux - Postbecoming the Greatness It Never Wasn't

As a sports fan and former sports academic (technically speaking), there's nothing that intrigues me more than the possibility of an upstart rival league challenging the monopoly of the incumbent. With the money involved in today's sports industry, it's hard to imagine conditions being just right to create an opportunity with a reasonable chance of success. The existing league would have to be poorly run, have an even poorer relationship with its labor force, regularly test the loyalty of the fans, and if it wasn't even operating, that would be even better. I figured I'd never see such an opportunity within my lifetime. How could any league let things get so bad?

But this is exactly what we're seeing with today's NHL. Now on its second lockout in 8 years, the question we should be asking isn't whether there should be a rival league. The question is, why isn't there a rival league?