100 Greatest Characters of Last 20 Years

Entertainment Weekly came out with their 100 greatest characters of the last 20 years. As usual with any list, especially EW lists, there are a couple of choices that made me do a double take. Here is their top 10:


1) Homer Simpson
2) Harry Potter
3) Buffy
4) Tony Soprano
5) The Joker
6) Rachel Green
7) Edward Scissorhands
8) Hannibal Lecter
9) Carrie Bradshaw
10) Spongebob Squarepants

I don't think Edward Scissorhands belongs near the top 10. Rachel Green should also be a lot lower on this list. Not only has Friends not aged particularly that well, but there wasn't much about her to stand out as an individual. I could at least understand putting "Ross and Rachel" on the list instead. That would've been a copout, but the list DOES include some other pairings. Of course, the best thing about seeing a list like this is creating your own counter list. Here's my top 10 based on not just personal preference but also their place in pop culture:

The Final Episode of Lost

"And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after.  But for them it was only the beginning of the real story.  All their life in this world and all their adventures [on the island] had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read:  which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before." ~ C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

“And love is not an easy thing, the only baggage you can bring, it’s all that you can’t leave behind.”  ~U2, “Walk On”

Yesterday we said farewell (or Namaste) to one of the greatest (and my favorite) television shows ever created.  There was much debate before the finale on whether it would live up to fan expectations.  Would the Lost writers be able to give the viewers a finale we were happy with?  Would “The End” be true to everything that has made this show remarkable?  Would it take the place among some of the most talked about endings in television history?  My opinion:  it certainly did.  “The End” was a wonderful, beautiful, moving tribute to characters that we have grown to love over the past six years.  It was a fitting end to the central themes of this show and while fans might not have received all the answers they wanted, we got moments between characters that beat any satisfaction those answers could have given.

Softball/MLB Averages- The Mystery Is Solved

Whenever I explained how batting under .500 in slow pitch softball isn't completely embarrassing, I told people how batting .500 is like batting .300 in the major leagues. I never knew if this was really true or not, but it seemed right. I was bored at work one day, so I decided to actually figure out how softball averages equate to MLB averages. I decided to create a chart of batting average conversions using last year’s softball statistics and the last 10 years of major league baseball averages. Here’s how it works:



Step One:

There are 208 players in the Marlboro Mens’ Softball league. We only have statistics on the 180 returning players. Since the 28 non returning players are considered unknown variables(since we don’t know if they overall had high averages or low averages), we’ll just assume that their data falls in line with the 180 players returning this year. Out of these 180 players:

73 batted .450
61 batted .475
30 batted .500
16 batted .525
8 batted .550
4 batted .575
2 batted .600

I turned each of these numbers into a ratio. For instance, since 30 out of 180 players batted .500, that’s 1 in 6. 16 out of 180 players batting .525 means that one in 11.25 players batted .525

American Idol Contest- Week 9 Standings

 If I analyzed the picks correctly, the only person who has a chance to beat Libre is Liz. Although Matt is in second place, the most he can outgain Libre by is 10 points. Since Liz predicted Casey to win, she pull off the upset. Will it happen? Stay tuned!


1. Libre Pollock- 95 points
2. Matt Pollock- 80 points
3. Sheila Pollock- 65 points
3. Liz Kaplan- 65 points
5. Ross Pollock- 55 points
6. Diana Lorenzo- 50 points
7. Ricarda Pollock- 45 points
7. Mike Podhorzer- 45 points
9. Justine Barbato- 40 points
9. Konstantina Barkas- 40 points
9. Mitch Pollock- 40 points
12. Kathy Dragonetti- 35 points
13. Christina Maffa- 30 points

American Idol Contest- Week 7 Results

1. Libre Pollock- 80 points
2. Matt Pollock- 70 points
3. Sheila Pollock- 60 points
4. Liz Kaplan- 50 points
5. Ross Pollock- 45 points
6. Diana Lorenzo- 40 points
6. Ricarda Pollock- 40 points
8. Justine Barbato- 35 points
8. Mike Podhorzer- 35 points
8. Konstantina Barkas- 35 points
11. Mitch Pollock- 30 points
11. Kathy Dragonetti- 30 points
13. Christina Maffa- 25 points