Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who we prefer to think of as The Armed Clown, has a famously high opinion of his own athletic prowess. Today that hubris led him to make a proposition that I hope he will live to regret, as he wrote a check with his mouth that his body surely cannot cash. […]
Tags:Alexander Lukashenko·Belarus·dictatorship·hockey·sports
Your daily reminder of why Belarus shouldn’t be hosting the 2014 World Hockey Championship: A Belarusian opposition activist has been sentenced to 15 days in jail for using a sign to mock a plainclothes security officer. In the April incident, Ivan Amelchanka was photographed standing next to a man who was using a hand-held camera […]
Tags:Belarus·censorship·dictatorship·hockey·Ivan Amelchanka·protest
I’m currently up to my eyeballs in research on a piece about Soviet athletic excellence, which was a more enigmatic phenomenon than most folks realize. There really isn’t one definitive explanation for the nation’s sporting success throughout its last three decades of existence, though there are certainly plenty of theories. As I’ve become immersed in […]
We were elated to arise this morning and discover that the Stanley Cup finals are headed toward a seventh and deciding game. This isnt because we’re huge hockey fans—in fact, we must confess general ignorance when it comes to the fastest game on ice. Having decided to go whole hog in support of Premiership laggard […]
Tags:barbarians·facial hair·hockey·playoff beards·Roman Empire·sports
Looks like it’s curtains for the Richmond Renegades, of the scrappy-yet-venerable Southern Professional Hockey League. The team will call it quits after this season, having fallen victim to Depression v2.0. According to Renegades owner Allen Harvie, one of the big problems is Richmond’s parochialism: The Wiley Bridge and Route 288 and the new malls at […]
