Jim Roepcke's weblog have browser, will travel (est. 1999)

Mike Gravel on the Pentagon Papers

YouTube: Mike Gravel - The Pentagon Papers

A very interesting (and quite humourous!) first-hand account of how the Pentagon Papers came to be published.

My First Hat Trick

I played Hockey on Thursday night, and man, what a night. My skating and stickhandling skills have improved so much in the last couple of months.

Unfortunately due to travel and due to ice being unavailable for a week after I got back, my stamina took a hit, so I haven't had the energy I had when I was playing 4 times a week in April and May. Regardless, when I have some energy out there, I'm having a lot of fun and doing more than I've ever been able to.

Thursday night was insane. I scored three goals, all of them nice. The first one was a quick one-timer wrist shot in the slot that went in five-hole.

The second goal, I swear I have never scored a nicer goal in my life and if I ever score one nicer I will have to pinch myself. I got the puck near centre-ice, picked the right defenseman (the one to my left, a very good player I might add), skated around him hard on the outside, cut hard right towards the net at the goal line, on my backhand (I shoot right), faked that I was going to go around the back of the net with the puck and then as I'm going behind the net I tuck the puck into the net just inside the post. I honestly could not believe what I had just done. My goalie at the other end of the ice was standing with his arms raised yelling, and the best player on our team (a younger guy with energy to burn and moves galore who played competitive hockey at a high level) had a huge smile on his face and said "man, that was beautiful!".

I didn't know where to go or what to say, I was speechless. So I went to the bench and sat down.

Later I scored a nice goal on a semi-breakaway, moved left but snapped the puck top-shelf right into the top-right corner of the net.

Three goals. I can still hardly believe that it happened. The real shame is that Cheryl and the kids weren't there to see it, and there's no video, so I'll just have to keep the memory alive in my head.

I love playing hockey.