Michael Phelps in England 2012

20 Medals, 16 Gold.
Snagged by Pat Darnell  |  Aug 2, 2012  |  Bryan TX

Michael Phelps is back on top. In winning the 200m IM in London over fellow American Ryan Lochte Thursday, Phelps captured his 20th Olympic medal and became the first male swimmer to ever win the same event in three consecutive Games

Read more: http://nbcnews.to/NOjeoJ

Photo: Tim Wimborne / Reuters

He [Michael Phelps] knew then that if he wanted to be serious about swimming, serious about this grueling and demanding event in particular, he had to get his backside into the cold pool early in the morning and re-dedicate himself to being the champion he was and could yet be again.

"... He [Phelps] went out hard and fast from the get-go, flirted with world-record pace and won in 1:54.27. It was his 20th career Olympic medal; 16 are gold. Say that out loud and let the thought linger: 20 medals, 16 gold. ... "

Sidebar
The OTHER American Swimmer, Ryan Lochte's, meet is over. He won five medals. That is, and let's be plain, big. Moreover, Lochte now has 11 for his career. Among all male American Olympians, only Phelps has more.

In London, Lochte, who turns 28 on Friday, won individual gold in the 400 IM and relay gold, a brilliant swim, in the 4x200 free.
________________Reference
http://nbcnews.to/NOjeoJ

Blogging for GOLD ??

Blogging is self-defeating, here's why:

by Pat Darnell
If you are a blogger, one who has a propensity to excel with your writing and appeal to readers, then eventually you will attract attention. What is frightening is being put in categories: Retired or Retiring, Conservative, Baby Boomer, Eat up with a dumbass, Money Grubber, ... now, apparently with a Gold Fetish Jones. Here is the letter of late burning my brain -- Now I am not a stand out, but an Insider... YIKES!!

"Patrick, We Miss You
You've probably heard the buzz about investing in gold. Learn why it's gaining in popularity—and why skeptics compare it to burying money in your backyard!"

-- AND --

"...Manage My E–mail Subscriptions

You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to the AARP Webletter. If you would like to cancel your subscription, please click here. We welcome your feedback about the newsletter, but please use our contact AARP link if you have questions about AARP or your membership."

What’s Behind the Recent Gold Rush?
Shaky financial institutions and fears of inflation make a risky investment hot again

By: Michael Zielenziger | Source: AARP Bulletin Today | March 31, 2010

"What is it about gold that fascinates people?

You can’t eat it. It doesn’t pay interest. It costs money to store, and it’s heavy to carry around.

Yet its price has risen like a rocket over the past 18 months. The cost of a troy ounce jumped more than 70 percent between October 2008 and December 2009, when it topped out at $1,214.80, and this year it has hovered near $1,100. ... On March 30 it traded for $1,103.60.

“You couldn’t give it away at $700 an ounce, but at $1,200, everybody wants some gold,” said Michael J. Wright II, whose family has operated Fort Knox dealership of Alameda, a suburb of Oakland, Calif. for more than 30 years.

“When the horse is winning, people just want to climb on that horse,” adds his wife, Linda, after weighing a small nugget of dental gold and paying a customer $34 in cash. “It’s psychology and the media,” she adds. “When people get nervous about the economy, or about the future of the banks, they buy gold. They want to have something tangible they can hold on to.”

A popular investment in conservative circles

In the 24-hour universe of cable television and radio, the pitch seems almost ubiquitous. Tune in to conservative talk-show hosts Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham, or to Fox News commentators Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck, and you are likely to be bombarded with pitches about the safety of owning gold, usually in the form of bullion coins.

Ads pushing gold point to the shrinking value of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies, rising budget deficits and massive government spending as sure signs that gold remains the best investment money can buy.

“When the system eventually collapses, and the government comes with guns and confiscates, you know, everything in your home and all your possessions, and then you fight off the raving mad cannibalistic crowds that Ted Turner talked about, don’t come crying to me,” Beck has said. “I told you: Get gold.”

Critics note that Beck and other gold bugs also appear as paid spokesmen in gold dealers’ ads.

A shield against inflation?

“People seem very, very fearful of inflation, even though there are no signs of it yet,” Potts said. “Our customers are saying that when you do $3 trillion a year of government spending, inflation has got to be lurking just around the corner. And what’s unusual this time is that people seem less worried about a return on their investment. They just seem to be looking for financial insurance—protection.”

... December 2008, ... the metal was selling for $749 an ounce,... Even though prices have declined from their peak, they’re still around $1,100 per ounce.

To skeptics, buying gold seems the equivalent of burying money in your backyard. It doesn’t provide dividends or help create new jobs like investing in a company’s common stock.

And they point out that gold can be a bad bet—especially after a batch of good economic news. On just a single Friday, last Dec. 4, gold fell a stunning $48.60 an ounce after a surprisingly good report on jobs in the U.S. Old-time traders recall the early 1980s, when the price fell from about $850 an ounce to below $300 in the space of 2 1/2 years. (Zielenziger, M; 03.31.2010; retrieved HERE today)"

Michael Zielenziger writes about business and the economy. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area (Gold and precious metals are measured by the “troy ounce,” which is slightly more than an ounce at the grocery store.)

GET OFF YOUR Ass... you Arse

CALL YOUR MOTHER...!!!





Can't make time, Cannot decide when, where, how, why...? Then go to this page you hard-luck case, and ask: "Should I call me Mother?"


Click the Magic Eight Ball, ask a Question: HERE Magic Eight Ball CGI --

Happy Mothers' Day all ya's !!

Golfman, a Gentleman's Hero

But No One Said it was going to be Easy
Stories Retrieved by Pat Darnell

March 12, 2008
I'm Here to Help That Loose Swing [SOURCE]

Noted swing coach Butch Harmon announced he's quit working with John Daly because the golfer is more interested in drinking than practicing.

"The most important thing in his life is getting drunk," Harmon told Doug Ferguson, the great golf writer for the Associated Press.

What? John Daly likes to drink? Next you'll tell me that he's been divorced three times, he said his latest wife tried to stab him last year, he said he's lost between $50 to $60 million in gambling, cigarettes are a permanent appendage linked to his lips, his gut is the size of Rhode Island, he's often quit playing during rounds, and he once said, "I believe nicotine plus caffeine equals protein."

Oh, that's actually all true, too. (Todd Jones on March 12, 2008)

John Daly: The golfer was taken into custody in October by Winston-Salem, N.C., police after he was reportedly found drunk outside a Hooters restaurant. Officers said Daly "appeared extremely intoxicated and uncooperative." As a result of this and other transgressions, Daly says he's been suspended for six months from the PGA Tour. [SOURCE]

Daly said he hopes to play well enough to earn sponsor exemptions on the PGA Tour when the suspension is lifted.

"John's New Year's resolution is do everything he can to make positive things happen on the golf course," Martin said. "I hope he can walk the walk. The talk sounds great. But it's going to be him working hard and staying out of trouble, and having success on the golf course."

Daly became an overnight sensation when he won the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick as the ninth alternate, introducing his powerful "grip it and rip it" style to golf. Four years later, he won the British Open at St. Andrews. But his career has been dragged down by two trips to alcohol rehab, four marriages, gambling losses and other off-course episodes that have made him an attraction beyond his prodigious length off the tee.

Asked why he was suspended, Daly pointed to four incidents during the year.

After a rain delay at Innisbrook during the Florida swing, he emerged from a Hooters hospitality tent with Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden as his caddie for the final seven holes of the round, prompting a split with swing coach Butch Harmon.

While promoting a golf course in Missouri, Daly did a regional television interview wearing only blue jeans — no shirt, no shoes — while showing how to play one of the holes. Then at the Buick Open, during a pro-am that featured Kid Rock in overalls, Daly revved up the fans by hitting one drive off the top of a beer can.

He drew the most attention from the night in jail. Daly told the AP that his friends called police when they feared he had passed out, unaware he sleeps with his eyes open when he's had too much to drink. Daly was not charged, rather put in jail under a state law called "Assistance to Intoxicated Persons." But his jail photo was an Internet sensation.

"The picture didn't help," Daly said. "People think I got arrested when I didn't get arrested. It is what it is. I've got to deal with it and go on. Whatever reason the tour has, maybe a positive will come out of this."

Daly has not had full status on the PGA Tour the last two years. He finished No. 232 on the money list this year with $56,017 in 17 events, missing the cut 10 times and withdrawing twice. (By DOUG FERGUSON | AP Golf Writer; 12.31.2008. Calling it his lowest point, John Daly says PGA Tour has suspended him for 6 months )

Shawna Johnson Wins Gold at Beam

Little Girls Grow up in the Most Mysterious Ways




Beam Routine of Nastia Liukin

Gymnasts Liukin, Johnson end with eight medals 01:19 AM CDT on Wednesday, August 20, 2008
by Kate Hairpoulos

BEIJING – Olympic competition ended appropriately Tuesday for Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson – on the medal stand, together, one last time.

Johnson, finally, took her first gold of the Games – to go with her three silvers – in the balance beam final at National Indoor Stadium. Liukin earned silver, raising her medal count to five and tying her with Shannon Miller and Mary Lou Retton as the most decorated American gymnasts in a single Olympics.

"I think Nastia is gorgeous," said Martha Karolyi, the U.S. national team coordinator. "She's probably one of the greatest gymnasts [ever] for USA."

Johnson scored 16.225 on the beam, the class of the field. Liukin, from Parker, scored 16.025 and China's Cheng Fei took bronze at 15.950.

Liukin and Johnson – rivals, roommates and friends – came to Beijing with grand expectations and lived up to them. Their order of finish in the all-around, Liukin No. 1 and Johnson No. 2, surprised some, but they made history. For the first time, the U.S. placed more than one gymnast in the all-around and on balance beam.

Opposites in style but equally stunning, Liukin and Johnson accounted for eight of USA Gymnastics' 10 medals, the most for the U.S. in a non-boycotted Olympics.

Not bad at all, especially considering the American women's rocky start, when mistakes helped give China – despite questions regarding the eligibility of half of its team – the team gold. On the men's side, the Chinese flat-out dominated, winning every gold but one.

Liukin said Monday night she and Johnson crossed off another day of the calendar they keep in their Olympic Village room, intent on finishing strong.

"We thought, 'Wow, this is the last day, so let's really try to enjoy it and have the time of our life,' " said Liukin, 18. "And I think we did."

Liukin's fifth medal meant she topped her father and coach Valeri's four medals from the Seoul Games in 1988.

"I'm glad she did," Valeri said.

Liukin, artistic and clean on the beam as usual Tuesday, finished with one gold, three silvers and a bronze. She tied for first in the uneven bars final Monday, but took silver because of the the International Gymnastics Federation's tiebreaker.

"It was really great to be able to spend it with my dad," Liukin said of her Olympic experience. "This whole trip has been harder and longer than any other trip we've been on, but it's also been so much better.

"It's definitely been more than a dream come true. ... To say we have nine medals combined – Olympic medals, not just any medals – it's amazing."

Johnson, the world all-around champion, was thrilled to win gold in her last opportunity. Especially after a shaky day in which Johnson, 16, dealt with a headache and wasn't her normal self in warmups.

But Johnson hit each of her difficult tumbling passes on the four-inch wide beam. As Karolyi said, Johnson tumbles on the beam like other gymnasts do on the floor.

"For the first time, I really just let everything go," said Johnson, who bit her lip to fight back tears and then beamed her trademark smile on the medal podium. "I didn't think about what other girls had gotten or what the judges were going to give me. It's the Olympics. I wanted to finish up the best I can."

Johnson came to Beijing as the favorite to win all-around gold. And she admitted Tuesday being bothered by not receiving scores as high as she'd become accustomed to. But with a gold finally around her neck, she said she is at peace with the outcome.

"At first it did upset me a little, and I thought about it, and I didn't care," Johnson said. "I was at the Olympics, having the time of my life."Coming out here today, whether [I won], I didn't care. I knew in my heart what I deserved."

Top honors

There are three American gymnasts who have won five medals in an Olympic Games:

Nastia Liukin: 2008 (1 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze)

Shannon Miller: 1992 (2 silver, 3 bronze)

Mary Lou Retton: 1984 (1 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze)