#not me worrying about Dali might be an enemy

[mobiusnote]

Umm... So... Who is this person in the middle panel from the end of the Music festival arc (Chapter 174?)

At first I though he was Dali-sensei since he wear a teacher's coat and was followed by Kallego and Balam as fellow teachers. But his horn is dark, while Dali-sensei's is white.

I'm pretty sure it was not Uetoto either because he was already outside with Amduscias and Amy. Plus Uetoto was disguising himself as a student before, not a teacher.

I never see any teacher that looks like him. Or did I missed it?

[booksbeyondimagining]

Magic Dark and Strange, by Kelly Powell

Publish Date:  October 27, 2020  Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books Audiobook Narrated by: Karissa Vacker Length: 9 hrs (336 pages) Genre: YA Fiction/Mystery My Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (1.5 out of 5 stars)

Synopsis:

Catherine Daly has an unusual talent. By day she works for a printer. But by night, she awakens the dead for a few precious moments with loved ones seeking a final goodbye. But this magic comes with a price: for every hour that a ghost is brought back, Catherine loses an hour from her own life. When Catherine is given the unusual task of collecting a timepiece from an old grave, she is sure that the mysterious item must contain some kind of enchantment. So she enlists Guy Nolan, the watchmaker’s son, to help her dig it up. But instead of a timepiece, they find a surprise: the body of a teenage boy. And as they watch, he comes back to life—not as the pale imitation that Catherine can conjure, but as a living, breathing boy. A boy with no memory of his past. This magic is more powerful than any Catherine has ever encountered, and revealing it brings dangerous enemies. Catherine and Guy must race to unravel the connection between the missing timepiece and the undead boy. For this mysterious magic could mean the difference between life and death—for all of them.

My Review:

I initially began listening to this book with some high hopes. From its description, it sounded like it had a lot of the things I enjoy in a book - magic, mystery, and a world reminiscent of our own, at a time not unlike our near past. However, with lackluster characters and an investigation that took much longer than it should have, I found myself quickly growing disappointed with the book and waiting eagerly for it to end.

Catherine, the main character, has little to no personality. Her entire purpose in the novel is triggered by her employer’s demands, and for some time it barely feels like she is doing anything of her own conviction. Even when it felt like she should be feeling something - frustration, fear, worry - there was nothing. Her reactions were a slight blip and then she moved quickly on to the next task. Normally I would not consider the part of the audiobook narrator in a review, but this one affected the enjoyment of listening greatly. She was unfortunately extremely breathy while speaking, and kept whispering whenever she spoke Catherine’s dialogue. This placed this strange countenance on Catherine that gave the impression that she was soft-spoken and timid, which, considering her lack of personality, might actually be true, but I couldn’t know for sure. Now, usually I am here for some soft boys - it often makes a nice change from all the dark/broody alpha males that seem to exist in YA. But these two were...cry babies. Owen seemed constantly on the verge of tears and Guy only slightly better. I understand the circumstances but still, it was not flattering. Annoying at times, actually. And in comparison, Catherine's reactions were nothing. She just spouted platitudes and patted them on the arm. The mystery was aggravatingly slow. It took them THREE times going into the church to actually put an effort into searching it. Sorry, but just staring at the place isn’t going to make a timepiece magically appear. You have to physically move things. Whoever hid it wasn’t just going to set it down on the floor for you - they would have actually buried it or something. [SPOILER] Guy literally stopped time for 3 hours and all they did was go into the tower, glance around, and then leave. It took them 3 hours to do this? [END SPOILER] I just felt like it was a poor way of forcing the plot to take longer than it should have. [SPOILER] And it took Catherine nearly to the end of the book to even think about asking the person who had given Ainsworth the information about where the timepiece was in the first place. I know that these characters aren’t actual detectives, but that was actually close to being pathetic. It was obvious that it was left to the end because if they had followed that lead in the first place, the book would have been a lot shorter. Instead the dilly-dallied around staring at ruined churches and hoping for the timepiece to jump out at them. [END SPOILER] The motive itself was disappointing and standard. There was no real twist to it, honestly. It made for an unsatisfactory ending. And there was also some sort of semblance of romance between Catherine and Guy that I honestly did not care one wit about. It was all light touches and blushing cheeks. It felt...expected. Just because they are the two leads of the story does not mean they actually need to fall in love. Unfortunately, this book just did not work for me. Poor plot work, bland characters, too much description of the weather, and a mystery that was not handled well or left with a satisfying conclusion.

[diveronarpg]

In fair Verona, our tale begins with FARON VASILIEV, who is THIRTY-FIVE years old. He is often called FORTINBRAS by the MONTAGUES and works as their EMISSARY. He uses HE/HIM pronouns.

Kings are born in one of TWO ways: the excess of money and the arrogance that inevitably comes of it, or the lack of money and the desperation it inexplicably cultivates. Faron Vasiliev was bred of the LATTER, of the worry lines and sleepless nights that come from not knowing if your next meal will be your last, though the way he was taught to carry himself often led his peers to believe otherwise. His mother and father wanted better for their son, wanted more for him than a dead-end job and the hopeless snare of barely comfortable mediocrity, and rationed paycheck by rationed paycheck, they bought it for him. He was enrolled in the best all-boys preparatory school they could afford, was brought up and educated alongside merchants’ sons and lawyers-to-be. A pauper among princes in all but his INTELLECT, he matched his fellow students stride for stride—both in the classroom and on the track—in hand-me-down ties and shoes that had seen better days and richer owners, fooling many and hanging his head before none. The pampered boys of the fashionable part of town couldn’t bear the thought of a rat two steps from the slums calling their alma mater his, so they sought first to run him out and then to make him one of their own when he didn’t budge.

But a boy raised to never forget where he came from so that he might better remember where he’s trying to go bought into none of their antics. Instead, in the months following graduation and his father’s untimely death, he put his meager inheritance into stocks, LEARNING—through trial and error and countless nights spent poring over records and borrowed journals—how to play the market like a fiddle. It was slow-going at first, as most great endeavors are, but within a few short years, the lone Vasiliev heir had increased his inheritance tenfold, a rags to riches story no one ever imagined they’d read but weren’t particularly surprised when they did. He became a force to be reckoned with, a man to seek out for a taste of prosperity, a bit of help—with a PRICE. It is the nature of man to want more, to reach for it until his arms tire and then reach further still, and even the best among men bow to one sovereign and one sovereign alone: GREED. It’s the flicker in the dark, the ember in the ashes, the force that drives a man to walk through a fire of his own making; it’s an emperor’s coronation—it’s HIS. He learned how to make greed his weapon instead of becoming a weapon of greed, and thus began his ascent to a throne lusted after by many but sat by none.

He built his empire on the one thing so many others crumbled beneath: DEBTS. Careful enough to get most of his money back but bold enough to lend to men he knew could never repay him in order to buy their loyalty, Faron became something akin to a king on the streets of St. Petersburg, ruling with an iron fist and a silver tongue. A HADES of the new age, he drew disciples in with promises of greatness and wealth and bid them stay by tasting the pomegranate seeds of unrivaled ambition, and his circle—once small—grew bigger still. He’d learned something at that academy, you see, something politicians so love to teach their sons: how to make believers of men who worship no gods but themselves. And WORSHIP him they did, in their own crude way—with sweat and blood and fear-soaked devotion; hailing his name and hollering it until its echoes traveled all the way to Verona, Italy. Through their established connections in Russia, the Montagues were the first to appraise Faron’s encroaching influence. After all, it’s easy for a king to recognize one in the making and it was with that keen intuition that Damiano seeked to recruit the Vasiliev man. He had even gone as far as travel to Moscow and offer the proposition personally. Faron was reluctant to abandon his dominion and serve under another’s, but tempted though he was to try his hand at an even bigger crown. And so, he led his pride to the west—to Verona, the land of gods and fools.  

When the new age dawns, they’ll write in their books that time felled the kings with reigns that grew too heavy to carry, that man can only rule so long before he breaks, but the truth of it all is damnably SIMPLE. The conquerors of old did greed’s bidding—let themselves become slaves to the will of avarice—but the world has learned from its mistakes, and the product of this rather tiring lesson is him: half a man, half a mystery. Few can fathom how a man who’s climbed so high can see as clearly as he did when he had next to nothing, but the glory of it all is that they don’t need to. They need only to watch—as he lays waste to their kingdoms, as he makes them HIS OWN.

CALINA SOKOLOVA: Adviser. He’s told her on many an occasion that she’s the best investment he’s ever made—money well-spent, but she’s more than that, far more, a rich sort of knowledge imparted in the way he looks at her, the way he listens to her. He makes it no secret that he values her and her opinions, that if he thinks to crown himself king, she’ll surely sit the throne at his right, and it’s an odd sort of clarity, a transparency unexpected from a man like him, but genuine nonetheless. She’s the closest thing to an equal he’s ever had, this woman who came from even less than him, and for that reason, he’ll share the empire they’ve built together, if she’ll have it. This is their rags to riches story, written in blood—that of their enemies and their own.

BORIS KOVROV: Distrust. Every great king needs his general, his right hand, and he’s certainly found that and more in Kovrov—a snake of a man who’d had his fill of Verona and found his way into the lion’s den. Faron saw something in his eyes—a lust for power not unlike his own and the willingness to get it through any means, a quality as admirable as it is damning. He’s already forsaken one sovereign in the name of his own desires, and his new sovereign isn’t foolish or merciful enough to think he won’t do it again. Let him be Judas; let him preach in the name of his lord and do his lord’s bidding, and let him kiss the cheek of his king when the traitorous hour comes—let him pay homage to the last.

GRACE DALY & TRINITY ZAKARIAN: Knights. His crimson angels, his soldiers that are anything but—where one has been by his side for as long as he can remember, the other is a quiet new addition to his ranks. He might not be a captain among the Montague’s ranks, but he was aking in St. Petersburg, and like chess pieces plucked from obscurity, Trinity Cruyssen and Grace Daly are his knights, with teeth bared like sharpened blades. Trinity is his livewire, his lioness that no one would ever dare cage; she is built from violence, with chaos in her bones and blood in her mouth, a hunger singing so loudly in her veins Faron wonders how she doesn’t crack apart from it. The day that she pledged herself into his service was one for the history books, the day violence incarnate came to its knees and exalted his cause, vowed to deliver him a kingdom on a silver platter. Grace though, there are very few people in Verona that would dare to call Grace Daly a blessing, but he can’t think of her any other way. He was enraptured by her the moment he met her; a turncoat that wore her red jacket with pride, he wanted her in his ranks as soon as he saw the way she bowed violence to her will. The pair of his knights are chaos incarnate, and the more he has a monopoly on violence, the more power he knows he has. Grace doesn’t know yet about his grander plans, the future for himself he’s determined history will look back on with awe, but soon enough he’ll bring her under his wing completely. After all, once a turncoat, always a turncoat. He doesn’t think it will take much to convince her to stand behind him when the time comes for Verona to fall to a new king.

ROMAN MONTAGUE & LAWRENCE VERNON: Resentments. Faron has always been a self-made man, but these boys were handed godhood on a silver platter, were born with gold in their blood and crowns on their heads, and every time that they exercise their so called ‘right’ to rule it makes Faron’s blood boil. It was Lawrence Vernon who first brought up the idea of joining the Montague ranks to him, he who happened to be in Russia and caught wind of the man who had turned the streets of St. Petersburg into a kingdom and flew Damiano out to convince Faron into joining their own ranks. It was one thing to bend his knee to one of the kings of Verona, but it was another thing entirely to bend his knee to the man’s son, to a man who hadn’t had to fight for his crown with tooth and blood the way that Faron himself had. But then the Vernon boy went and got himself into a bit of Russian trouble, and it had been his own adviser that saved him from a fate worse than death: being caged. He looks forward to seeing one of the undeserving gods bend before him in thanks.

Faron is portrayed by DAVID GANDY and was written by BREE. He is DECEASED.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 139: Deku and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Hallway

Previously on BnHA: The cops and Nighteye’s pro hero group took about nine pages to approach Overhaul’s house, only to be stopped by some massive troll of a man before they could ring the bell at the front gate. Everyone was all, “HOW DID THEY KNOW WE WERE COMING?” while ignoring the fact that there were like 70 guys all conspicuously gathered outside this place for like an hour prior to them getting started. Ryuukyuu turned into a dragon and I wanted it to be like this, but so far all she really did was hold the guy down with one of her big dragon claws. Which to be fair was still pretty cool. So she and her group are staying outside to deal with the cave troll while the rest of the heroes head on in. Meanwhile in the secret underground labyrinth beneath the house, Overhaul plotted to have his underlings stall the heroes while he made his getaway. And this is why you don’t ring the fucking doorbell before invading a mafia capo’s house. Just FYI.

Today on BnHA: The heroes finally make it inside the house! So thrilling. Nighteye uncovers a secret passage, and the heroes proceed down below. After smashing their way through a blocked wall, they discover a hallway doing its best impression of that Salvador Dali clock painting. This apparently is the work of one of Overhaul’s henchmen, Mimic, whose quirk allows him to enter objects and control them. Apparently he shot himself up with some Trigger and became a “living labyrinth.” Since Mirio is the only one not physically deterred by this, he activates his quirk and runs ahead before the others can stop him. The rest of the group suddenly falls into a big hole that opens up beneath their feet, landing in a room with three more henchmen. The pros get ready to fight, but Amajiki holds out a hand to stop them, saying he’ll be the one to take them down.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 171 now, so any ETAs will reflect that. My son the musical prodigy.) 

okay, time to get back on this. some holdover thoughts from the previous chapter since I’ve had a couple days to reflect on it:

why the hell didn’t everyone wear kevlar or some shit. you know you’re going up against enemies that will be shooting at you, and if they hit you you’ll lose your quirk. it blows my mind that the pros didn’t suit up with extra body armor knowing this

even worse, because of the way the house is designed, they’re basically going to be sitting ducks. they only know one way in and out of the lower levels of the house. seeing as it’s underground, that means lots of long, narrow tunnels and hallways. they’re in just about the worst strategic position they could be for a raid like this: the enemy knows they’re here, and unlike Nighteye’s team, they actually know their way around the hideout. meanwhile the raid team is inevitably going to either have to split up and get themselves lost, or stick to this stupid plan of taking the most direct route possible to get to Eri, and meanwhile have bad guys shooting quirk-destroying bullets at them the entire way

that being said, they should stick Kirishima out in front and use him as a human shield lol

(ETA: to be fair, the only one that actually ends up getting hit is another one who is normally for all intents and purposes bulletproof. and in his case kevlar wouldn’t have done jack shit because he would have ended up shedding the vest anyway due to his quirk. so fair enough, but the others should have still geared up. no one cares about safety huh)

all right. so let’s see just how screwed these guys actually are

okay so we’re opening with the mafia dudes demanding to know what’s going on, and the cops explaining that this is a raid suckas

the lower level pros are holding the mob guys back while the cooler pros go on ahead

FG’s apologizing for not stopping to take off his shoes since this is an urgent situation. how fucking rude. tracking in all that dirt

oh my god

fucking kidding me with this shit. Bubble Girl in the lead? she barely even has a shirt, let alone any type of armor? is her quirk defensive in any way? let’s hope so

is Nighteye’s quirk even active again yet? right now he’s just a guy in a suit, isn’t he? although he did work with All Might for years, so he probably does have wicked combat skills that we just haven’t seen yet. hopefully

(ETA: wicked combat skills and a six-pack)

I can’t even see Kirishima in this shot. jeez. ridiculous

so as they run, they’re all discussing how the bad guys seem to have known they were coming, and that this is Not Good

I don’t really care about what Aizawa is saying in this panel, but I like that he’s right next to Deku

taking that promise very seriously. well good, since we all know that literally the instant Aizawa lets him out of his sight, Deku is somehow going to end up facing the final boss or something

(ETA: fucking uncanny, though. every fucking time, Deku)

anyway, so they’re logically concluding that Overhaul and the top brass must already be in the basement either hiding all their shit or getting ready to escape

this makes Kirishima very angry

well yeah, Kiri. but bad guys gonna bad guy

still, if it gets you fired up, you go ahead and feel that righteous anger boy

and now Nighteye’s stopping at a random panel in the wall and says this is it

oh, cool

please be a secret door please be a secret door please be a secret dooooor...

yay!

oh shit lol

never mind. close it

ughhhhhhh the centipede guy is using his quirk nooo whyyyy

he’s picking up two of the guys with his centipede arms

to me this is a fate worse than death

WHYYYYY

now Bubble Girl’s using her bubble quirk!

she’s... making bubbles. from her body

they’re floating over to the last bad guy

and they popped in his eyes and he’s screaming “my eyes!!!”

are these... are these just normal bubbles

I don’t really get it but hey! at least it’s not centipede arms!

so she’s restraining the dude and telling the others to go on ahead

and down they go. off to the garden of madness

except that almost immediately they’ve come to a dead end??

this doesn’t look like a normal quirk though. maybe someone has a wall-building quirk? similar to what Cementoss has?

(ETA: this is most definitely Overhaul’s reassembly quirk)

anyway, Mirio says he’ll take a look

oh my god. I finally get to see just how Mirio deals with immediately shedding his elaborate costume and then having to put the whole thing back on again later

oh snap

WELL ISN’T THAT FUCKING CONVENIENT. OKAY THEN

so if Mirio can have a costume that phases with his quirk, why can’t Hagakure have one woven out of her hair that turns invisible along with her? is it just because Horikoshi is a pervert. okay then

(ETA: I’m not even gonna bother getting into this anymore, but just know that I am rolling my eyes at this obnoxious fucking mangaka so damn hard)

anyway, so Mirio’s taking a peek and then reporting back that the path up ahead is exactly like Nighteye described. he says the wall is very thick though

oh, riiiiight

I keep forgetting about the “reassemble” part of Overhaul’s quirk

oh well. time to bust a wall

lol, FG and Static are like, “whoa”

I think this is the first nice thing Static has said about any of the kids

oh shit. now there’s something else happening

the floor is getting all weird and uneven? like it’s getting all warped somehow

um

well this is. annoying

(ETA: actually, “annoying” is the mildest, nicest, most undeservedly polite way possible to put it)

my god I hope none of them is claustrophobic. or ends up being claustrophobic after this, because I sure wouldn’t blame them

the head police guy says this has to be Irinaka’s quirk. that’s the HQ chief

so wait, is that the little guy from chapter 132 who made an arm grow out of his head??

and it doesn’t even sound like they’re sure it’s him

although FG points out that if he got all doped up on quirk enhancers, this isn’t outside the realm of possibility

oh snap! it is him!

oh my god. “I’m not on the ship. I’m in the ship. I am the ship”

LMAO at Fat Gum though

what kind of pathetic excuse for a pro hero can’t even predict that a guy is going to turn into a basement

he’s asking Aizawa if he can erase the quirk, but Aizawa says he can’t without being able to see the quirk users’s body

hold up, does this mean illusionists would be immune to Aizawa’s quirk?? because that is some bullshit. (which I now really want to see)

Amajiki seems like he’s starting to psych himself out here. he’s muttering out loud that if the path keeps changing, they’ll never reach their goal, and the enemy can easily get away

oh shit, it seems like he’s starting to get overwhelmed...?

hey, hey. easy there bud. you guys got this

OH SNAP MIRIO TO THE RESCUE

what a manly dude coming to the rescue of his bro who was starting to freak out. I love Mirio so much

ahhhhhhh he says he can still go on ahead as long as he knows the right direction

ahhhhhhhh I’m suddenly so fucking worried?!?! HE’S SO BRAVE AND I’M TERRIFIED FOR HIM

SON OF A BITCH HE JUST TOOK OFF JUST LIKE THAT BEFORE THEY COULD STOP HIM

oh my god. in the first place, isn’t he blind whenever he uses his quirk? don’t all of his senses disappear? so he can keep pressing forward, but like what happens if he turns the quirk off because he thinks he’s made it through, only he hasn’t made it through? because this isn’t an illusion, as far as I understand it; the Mimic guy is actually warping the passageway

oh my god. forget just the characters; I’m going to end up becoming claustrophobic at this rate

(ETA: yeah this still nopes me out thinking about it. Mirio’s definitely braver than I am, that’s for sure)

but at the very least, Mirio bravely pressing forward seems to have snapped Amajiki out of it

hey guys, guess who ships the shit out of these two now btw. yeah that’s right. me that’s who

so Mimic is thinking that he can’t stop Mirio, but that even if he does make it through, “he won’t be able to do a thing by himself”

idk about that. you should’ve seen what this freak of nature did to almost the entirety of class 1-A in a matter of seconds. while naked no less

wait. this is starting to sound a bit eyebrow-raising. I promise you it was a g-rated beatdown though

oh snap, Mimic is warping the ground and dumping all of the important characters deeper into the basement while closing up the path back up

well that’s nice. so now they’re all sealed up in this death chamber. cool. that’s cool

not that I want it to happen, but a part of me is wondering why Mimic hasn’t just crushed them all yet if he has control over this entire basement

so are they purposely trying to keep them alive? is it to avoid as much legal trouble as possible? are they hoping that if they just incapacitate them, Overhaul can later use his quirk to wipe their memories like he did with that Tarantino gang?

incidentally, every now and then I wonder to myself why someone as intensely rational as Aizawa would keep his hair so long and not just cut it short or tie it back to keep it out of his way. and then panels like this come along and it’s just, “oh yeah, because it’s hot”

(ETA: but ain’t it the truth)

so yeah, they’ve landed in this pit and now here’s some more bad guys!

literally all they have to do is have Aizawa incapacitate them with his quirk one by one and have Deku or Kiri punch them. the rest can sit back and take it easy

(ETA: the fact that they refuse to follow this most sensible of plans throughout the entire arc is one of the more frustrating things about it)

oh snap, but it looks like someone else is finally ready to jump into action after seeing his boyfriend disappear down the enchanted hallway of doom

WELL SHIT, LET’S FUCKING DO THIS THEN. TIME TO EAT SOME SUNS

also. that flashback panel though. that was a middle school uniform. these two have known each other since childhood just like Kacchan and Deku. omggggg

AND MIRIO USED TO HAVE A FUCKING PONYTAIL. TALK ABOUT A 180 DEGREE STYLE CHANGE. NIGHTEYE THIS IS YOUR DOING, DON’T LIE

BONUS:

glad to see the minds that brought us the yaoyorictionary and ochachakaleg are back at it again

so what exactly is the point of the lemilliohelm. I don’t get it. “it was designed so he could put it on quickly and then inevitably have it fall off again almost immediately”

consider my interest piqued at the mention of him being rescued by a hero in the past, though! I went back just now and looked at his flashback in chapter 152, and yeah! now that you mention it!

also! BnHA kids really need to be more careful on flashback bridges because those things are slippery as fuck

so can we get a name for this guy who saved him and inspired him to become a hero, then? I’m super curious about him now

[unixcommerce]

Creativity Quotes to Inspire You

Everyone has the power to increase their creativity skills. Whether you are a high tech entrepreneur or a barista, you can boost your creativity more than you might think. Like sharpening a saw, you can hone creativity into a razor-like edge.

Whatever your goal is — to uncover startup opportunities, create innovative products or boost sales — the more you work at being creative, the more creative you get.

But where do you start? You start by taking action. Break up your routine. Brainstorm with your team. Change a process without overthinking it. Don’t try to be perfect – just act! Use one of these creativity quotes to inspire you:

If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got. ~ Albert Einstein, Genius

Let’s go invent tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday. ~ Steve Jobs, Co-Founder Apple

If you know too much before the start, then you will get overwhelmed. Come up with an original idea, and don’t copy because there will be no passion. You need that otherworldly passion. Just start. ~ Jeni Britton Bauer, Founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams

If you tune it so that you have zero chance of failure, you usually also have zero chance of success. The key is to look at ways for when you get to your failure checkpoint, you know to stop. ~ Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn

There is something artificial when everyone is agreeing with each other. It’s useful to indulge people who don’t agree, and see their viewpoint or force yourself to explain things better. ~ David Sack, Founder of Yammer

Being a woman in business doesn’t come without challenges. My advice? Surround yourself with other supportive women that encourage you, share ideas, and get you motivated. ~ Jessica Alba, Founder of The Honest Company

It’s very important for entrepreneurs to look for people in the company who are not afraid of failures, for example, ‘intrapreneurs’. They make a business more successful by thinking like an entrepreneur, but within a company. ~ Chirag Kulkarni, Founder of Taco

Creativity gives you a competitive advantage by adding value to your service or product, and differentiating your business from the competition. ~ Linda Naiman, Founder of Creativity at Work

Each of you, curious about creativity, want to make contact with that thing in yourself that is truly original. You want fame and fortune, yes, but only as rewards for work well and truly done. Notoriety and a fat bank balance must come after everything else is finished and done. That means that they cannot even be considered while you are at the typewriter. ~ Ray Bradbury, Science Fiction Author

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants. ~ Roger von Oech, Creative Toy-Maker and Author

Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it. ~ Salvador Dali

Creativity Quotes About Fun and Passion

Successful entrepreneurs see the connection between fun and creativity. Creativity explodes when you encourage others to be happily passionate about their jobs. Something about positive emotions gets our creative juices flowing in business and in life.

Play music. Draw on a whiteboard like an artist. Bring your child to the office. Say something funny in a meeting. In the words of singer Marija, dance like nobody’s watching! Pick a creativity quote to free yourself to have fun:

Creativity is intelligence having fun! ~ Albert Einstein, Genius

A business has to be evolving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative interests. ~ Richard Branson, Entrepreneur and Business Magnate

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play. ~ John Cleese, Co-Founder of Monty Python

Creative ideas flourish best in a shop which preserves some spirit of fun. Nobody is in business for fun, but that does not mean there cannot be fun in business. ~ Leo Burnett, The Leo Burnett Company

Play widens the halls. Work will always be with us, and many works are worthy. But the worthiest works of all often reflect an artful creativity that looks more like play than work. ~ James Ogilvy, British Landscape Designer

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better. ~ John Updike , Novelist

Business isn’t some disembodied bloodless enterprise. Profit is fine, a sign that the customer honors the value of what we do. But ‘enterprise’ (a lovely word) is about heart. About beauty. It’s about art. About people throwing themselves on the line. It’s about passion and the selfless pursuit of an ideal. ~ Tom Peters, Business Management Author

Passion, creativity, and resilience are the most crucial skills in business. If you’ve got those, you’re ready to embark on the journey. ~ Jo Malone, Founder of Jo Malone Perfume and Scented Candles

Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity. ~ Charles Mingus, Jazz Composer and Musician

Great is the human who has not lost his child-like heart. ~ Mencius, Chinese Philosopher

Be a Rule Breaker for Creativity

Years ago, Apple created a famous advertisement called “Think Different” reinforcing the concept of creativity by being unique. The narrator started out “Here’s to the crazy ones, the rebels, the troublemakers.” The ad is an ode to creative people who work and live differently. So get started breaking rules with one of these creativity quotes for inspiration:

Learn the rules like a pro, break them like an artist. ~ Pablo Picasso, World Famous Artist

Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. ~ Steve Jobs

Creativity takes courage. ~ Henri Matisse, Artist

Discoveries are often made by not following instructions, by going off the main road, by trying the untried. ~ Frank Tyger, Editorial Cartoonist and Humorist

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. ~ Oscar Wilde, Author

All human development, no matter what form it takes, must be outside the rules; otherwise we would never have anything new. ~ Charles Kettering, Inventor and Co-Founder of Delco

The achievement of excellence can only occur if the organization promotes a culture of creative dissatisfaction. ~ Lawrence Miller, Management and Leadership Writer

It’s better to be a pirate than join the navy. ~ Steve Jobs

Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye. ~ Dorothy Parker, Author

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. ~ Wayne Walter Dyer, Self-Help Author and Motivational Speaker

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. ~ Steve Jobs

The chief enemy of creativity is ‘good’ sense. ~ Pablo Picasso

That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time. ~ John Stuart Mill, British Philosopher

Creativity Quotes for Problem Solving

Every business encounters problems along the road to success. Which businesses continue on down the road or get waylaid is determined by whether the people in them are good problem solvers. The following creativity quotes suggest that instead of striving for creativity, we should try to solve problems:

If we tried to think of a good idea, we wouldn’t have been able to think of a good idea. You just have to find the solution for a problem in your own life. ~ Brian Chesky, Co-Founder of Airbnb

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science. ~ Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist

Do not focus on numbers. Focus on doing what you do best. It’s about building a community who want to visit your site every day because you create value and offer expertise. ~ Cassey Ho, Founder of Blogilates

If we are going to be part of the solution, we have to engage the problems. ~ Majora Carter, Urban Revitalization Strategist

Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. ~ George Lois, Art Director and Designer

Innovation – any new idea – by definition will not be accepted at first. It takes repeated attempts, endless demonstrations, monotonous rehearsals before innovation can be accepted and internalized by an organization. This requires courageous patience. ~ Warren Bennis, Scholar and Organizational Consultant

The innovation point is the pivotal moment when talented and motivated people seek the opportunity to act on their ideas and dreams. ~ W. Arthur Porter, Teacher and Businessman

Companies that recognize the need to be creative about their businesses are going to pursue this creative thinking with us or without us. It’s our collective responsibility, our collective future to make sure they choose to do it with us. ~ Bob Schmetterer, Business Executive and Former Chairman and CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide

Creativity and innovation are about finding unexpected solutions to obvious problems, or finding obvious solutions to unexpected problems. We should use our creativity to provide better businesses and solutions rather than constantly trying to disrupt what people are doing. ~ Rei Inamoto, Chief Creative Officer of AKQA

Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity. ~ Chuck Jones, Warner Brothers Animator

The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones. ~ John Maynard Keynes, British Economist

Prematurely settle on an idea because of work overload or deadline pressure, and it is likely to resemble what already exists. ~ Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor of Business at Harvard Business School

Creativity is an Attitude

How many times has someone said, “I’m not very creative”? You may have played that line in your own head countless times. In fact, something like that may be true only because you told yourself it is true. In the words of renowned poet Sylvia Plath, “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

Replace doubts with a positive attitude that being creative is good and you have untapped creativity. When you need to give your creativity a little inspiration, read or share these motivational and creative quotes:

Many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not – because the thing they were good at at school wasn’t valued, or was actually stigmatized. ~ Ken Robinson, Educator

The thing we fear most in organizations – fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances – are the primary sources of creativity. ~ Meg Wheatley, Management Consultant and Writer

The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions. ~ Anthony Jay, English Writer, Broadcaster and Director

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. ~ Albert Einstein

The inner fire is the most important thing mankind possesses. ~ Edith Södergran, Finnish Poet

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. ~ Elbert Hubbard, Salesman, Publisher and Founder of Roycroft Arts and Crafts Community

One of the things I tend to do is open myself up to a variety of voices. I try to expose myself to the kind of culture shock that occurs when you talk to people who speak a different language. ~ Pierre Omidyar, Billionaire Entrepreneur and Founder of eBay

Ideas and creativity still matter a lot, but they need to be connected to technology, consumer insights, and analytics. ~ Christopher Vollmer, Managing Director of Medialink

Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found. ~ James Russell Lowell, Poet and Diplomat

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. ~ Jim Jarmusch, Film Director

There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns. ~ Edward de Bono, Maltese Business Consultant, Physician and Inventor

The Best Way to Have a Good Idea is…

Last but not least, brilliant minds and entrepreneurs often agree. People get more creative by exercising their creativity, as these creativity quotes highlight:

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas. ~ Dr. Linus Pauling, Chemist and Educator

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. ~ Maya Angelou, Poet

You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?” ~George Bernard Shaw, Playwright

Want more good quotes and sayings? Read: 

Hard Work Quotes

Success Quotes

Sales Quotes

All Motivational Quotes for Business

This article, “Creativity Quotes to Inspire You” was first published on Small Business Trends

https://smallbiztrends.com/

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Creativity Quotes to Inspire You

Everyone has the power to increase their creativity skills. Whether you are a high tech entrepreneur or a barista, you can boost your creativity more than you might think. Like sharpening a saw, you can hone creativity into a razor-like edge.

Whatever your goal is — to uncover startup opportunities, create innovative products or boost sales — the more you work at being creative, the more creative you get.

But where do you start? You start by taking action. Break up your routine. Brainstorm with your team. Change a process without overthinking it. Don’t try to be perfect – just act! Use one of these creativity quotes to inspire you:

If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got. ~ Albert Einstein, Genius

Let’s go invent tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday. ~ Steve Jobs, Co-Founder Apple

If you know too much before the start, then you will get overwhelmed. Come up with an original idea, and don’t copy because there will be no passion. You need that otherworldly passion. Just start. ~ Jeni Britton Bauer, Founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams

If you tune it so that you have zero chance of failure, you usually also have zero chance of success. The key is to look at ways for when you get to your failure checkpoint, you know to stop. ~ Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn

There is something artificial when everyone is agreeing with each other. It’s useful to indulge people who don’t agree, and see their viewpoint or force yourself to explain things better. ~ David Sack, Founder of Yammer

Being a woman in business doesn’t come without challenges. My advice? Surround yourself with other supportive women that encourage you, share ideas, and get you motivated. ~ Jessica Alba, Founder of The Honest Company

It’s very important for entrepreneurs to look for people in the company who are not afraid of failures, for example, ‘intrapreneurs’. They make a business more successful by thinking like an entrepreneur, but within a company. ~ Chirag Kulkarni, Founder of Taco

Creativity gives you a competitive advantage by adding value to your service or product, and differentiating your business from the competition. ~ Linda Naiman, Founder of Creativity at Work

Each of you, curious about creativity, want to make contact with that thing in yourself that is truly original. You want fame and fortune, yes, but only as rewards for work well and truly done. Notoriety and a fat bank balance must come after everything else is finished and done. That means that they cannot even be considered while you are at the typewriter. ~ Ray Bradbury, Science Fiction Author

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants. ~ Roger von Oech, Creative Toy-Maker and Author

Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it. ~ Salvador Dali

Creativity Quotes About Fun and Passion

Successful entrepreneurs see the connection between fun and creativity. Creativity explodes when you encourage others to be happily passionate about their jobs. Something about positive emotions gets our creative juices flowing in business and in life.

Play music. Draw on a whiteboard like an artist. Bring your child to the office. Say something funny in a meeting. In the words of singer Marija, dance like nobody’s watching! Pick a creativity quote to free yourself to have fun:

Creativity is intelligence having fun! ~ Albert Einstein, Genius

A business has to be evolving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative interests. ~ Richard Branson, Entrepreneur and Business Magnate

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play. ~ John Cleese, Co-Founder of Monty Python

Creative ideas flourish best in a shop which preserves some spirit of fun. Nobody is in business for fun, but that does not mean there cannot be fun in business. ~ Leo Burnett, The Leo Burnett Company

Play widens the halls. Work will always be with us, and many works are worthy. But the worthiest works of all often reflect an artful creativity that looks more like play than work. ~ James Ogilvy, British Landscape Designer

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better. ~ John Updike , Novelist

Business isn’t some disembodied bloodless enterprise. Profit is fine, a sign that the customer honors the value of what we do. But ‘enterprise’ (a lovely word) is about heart. About beauty. It’s about art. About people throwing themselves on the line. It’s about passion and the selfless pursuit of an ideal. ~ Tom Peters, Business Management Author

Passion, creativity, and resilience are the most crucial skills in business. If you’ve got those, you’re ready to embark on the journey. ~ Jo Malone, Founder of Jo Malone Perfume and Scented Candles

Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity. ~ Charles Mingus, Jazz Composer and Musician

Great is the human who has not lost his child-like heart. ~ Mencius, Chinese Philosopher

Be a Rule Breaker for Creativity

Years ago, Apple created a famous advertisement called “Think Different” reinforcing the concept of creativity by being unique. The narrator started out “Here’s to the crazy ones, the rebels, the troublemakers.” The ad is an ode to creative people who work and live differently. So get started breaking rules with one of these creativity quotes for inspiration:

Learn the rules like a pro, break them like an artist. ~ Pablo Picasso, World Famous Artist

Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. ~ Steve Jobs

Creativity takes courage. ~ Henri Matisse, Artist

Discoveries are often made by not following instructions, by going off the main road, by trying the untried. ~ Frank Tyger, Editorial Cartoonist and Humorist

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. ~ Oscar Wilde, Author

All human development, no matter what form it takes, must be outside the rules; otherwise we would never have anything new. ~ Charles Kettering, Inventor and Co-Founder of Delco

The achievement of excellence can only occur if the organization promotes a culture of creative dissatisfaction. ~ Lawrence Miller, Management and Leadership Writer

It’s better to be a pirate than join the navy. ~ Steve Jobs

Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye. ~ Dorothy Parker, Author

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. ~ Wayne Walter Dyer, Self-Help Author and Motivational Speaker

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. ~ Steve Jobs

The chief enemy of creativity is ‘good’ sense. ~ Pablo Picasso

That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time. ~ John Stuart Mill, British Philosopher

Creativity Quotes for Problem Solving

Every business encounters problems along the road to success. Which businesses continue on down the road or get waylaid is determined by whether the people in them are good problem solvers. The following creativity quotes suggest that instead of striving for creativity, we should try to solve problems:

If we tried to think of a good idea, we wouldn’t have been able to think of a good idea. You just have to find the solution for a problem in your own life. ~ Brian Chesky, Co-Founder of Airbnb

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science. ~ Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist

Do not focus on numbers. Focus on doing what you do best. It’s about building a community who want to visit your site every day because you create value and offer expertise. ~ Cassey Ho, Founder of Blogilates

If we are going to be part of the solution, we have to engage the problems. ~ Majora Carter, Urban Revitalization Strategist

Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. ~ George Lois, Art Director and Designer

Innovation – any new idea – by definition will not be accepted at first. It takes repeated attempts, endless demonstrations, monotonous rehearsals before innovation can be accepted and internalized by an organization. This requires courageous patience. ~ Warren Bennis, Scholar and Organizational Consultant

The innovation point is the pivotal moment when talented and motivated people seek the opportunity to act on their ideas and dreams. ~ W. Arthur Porter, Teacher and Businessman

Companies that recognize the need to be creative about their businesses are going to pursue this creative thinking with us or without us. It’s our collective responsibility, our collective future to make sure they choose to do it with us. ~ Bob Schmetterer, Business Executive and Former Chairman and CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide

Creativity and innovation are about finding unexpected solutions to obvious problems, or finding obvious solutions to unexpected problems. We should use our creativity to provide better businesses and solutions rather than constantly trying to disrupt what people are doing. ~ Rei Inamoto, Chief Creative Officer of AKQA

Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity. ~ Chuck Jones, Warner Brothers Animator

The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones. ~ John Maynard Keynes, British Economist

Prematurely settle on an idea because of work overload or deadline pressure, and it is likely to resemble what already exists. ~ Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor of Business at Harvard Business School

Creativity is an Attitude

How many times has someone said, “I’m not very creative”? You may have played that line in your own head countless times. In fact, something like that may be true only because you told yourself it is true. In the words of renowned poet Sylvia Plath, “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

Replace doubts with a positive attitude that being creative is good and you have untapped creativity. When you need to give your creativity a little inspiration, read or share these motivational and creative quotes:

Many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not – because the thing they were good at at school wasn’t valued, or was actually stigmatized. ~ Ken Robinson, Educator

The thing we fear most in organizations – fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances – are the primary sources of creativity. ~ Meg Wheatley, Management Consultant and Writer

The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions. ~ Anthony Jay, English Writer, Broadcaster and Director

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. ~ Albert Einstein

The inner fire is the most important thing mankind possesses. ~ Edith Södergran, Finnish Poet

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. ~ Elbert Hubbard, Salesman, Publisher and Founder of Roycroft Arts and Crafts Community

One of the things I tend to do is open myself up to a variety of voices. I try to expose myself to the kind of culture shock that occurs when you talk to people who speak a different language. ~ Pierre Omidyar, Billionaire Entrepreneur and Founder of eBay

Ideas and creativity still matter a lot, but they need to be connected to technology, consumer insights, and analytics. ~ Christopher Vollmer, Managing Director of Medialink

Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found. ~ James Russell Lowell, Poet and Diplomat

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. ~ Jim Jarmusch, Film Director

There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns. ~ Edward de Bono, Maltese Business Consultant, Physician and Inventor

The Best Way to Have a Good Idea is…

Last but not least, brilliant minds and entrepreneurs often agree. People get more creative by exercising their creativity, as these creativity quotes highlight:

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas. ~ Dr. Linus Pauling, Chemist and Educator

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. ~ Maya Angelou, Poet

You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?” ~George Bernard Shaw, Playwright

Want more good quotes and sayings? Read: 

Hard Work Quotes

Success Quotes

Sales Quotes

All Motivational Quotes for Business

This article, “Creativity Quotes to Inspire You” was first published on Small Business Trends

source https://smallbiztrends.com/2020/04/creativity-quotes.html

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California Hospitals Face Surge With Proven Fixes And Some Hail Marys

California’s hospitals thought they were ready for the next big disaster.

They’ve retrofitted their buildings to withstand a major earthquake and  whisked patients out of danger during deadly wildfires. They’ve kept patients alive with backup generators amid sweeping power shutoffs and trained their staff to thwart would-be shooters.

But nothing has prepared them for a crisis of the magnitude facing hospitals today.

“We’re in a battle with an unseen enemy, and we have to be fully mobilized in a way that’s never been seen in our careers,” said Dr. Stephen Parodi, an infectious disease expert for Kaiser Permanente in California. (Kaiser Health News, which produces California Healthline, is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.)

As California enters the most critical period in the state’s battle against COVID-19, the state’s 416 hospitals — big and small, public and private — are scrambling to build the capacity needed for an onslaught of critically ill patients.

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Hospitals from Los Angeles to San Jose are already seeing a steady increase in patients infected by the virus, and so far, hospital officials say they have enough space to treat them. But they also issued a dire warning: What happens over the next four to six weeks will determine whether the experience of California overall looks more like that of New York, which has seen an explosion of hospitalizations and deaths, or like that of the San Francisco Bay Area, which has so far managed to prevent a major spike in new infections, hospitalizations and death.

Some of their preparations share common themes: Postpone elective surgeries. Make greater use of telemedicine to limit face-to-face contact. Erect tents outside to care for less critical patients. Add beds — hospital by hospital, a few dozen at a time — to spaces like cafeterias, operating rooms and decommissioned wings.

But by necessity — because of shortages of testing, ventilators, personal protective equipment and even doctors and nurses — they’re also trying creative and sometimes untried strategies to bolster their readiness and increase their capacity.

In San Diego, hospitals may use college dormitories as alternative care sites. A large public hospital in Los Angeles is turning to 3D printing to manufacture ventilator parts. And in hard-hit Santa Clara County, with a population of nearly 2 million, public and private hospitals have joined forces to alleviate pressure on local hospitals by caring for patients at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Yet some hospitals acknowledge that, despite their efforts, they may end up having to park patients in hallways.

“The need in this pandemic is so different and so extraordinary and so big that a hospital’s typical surge plan will be insufficient for what we’re dealing with in this state and across the nation,” said Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association.

Across the U.S., more than 213,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, and at least 4,750 people have died. California accounts for more than 9,400 cases and at least 199 deaths.

Health officials and hospital administrators are singling out April as the most consequential month in California’s effort to combat a steep increase in new infections. State Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly said Wednesday that the number of hospitalizations is expected to peak in mid-May.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said there were 1,855 COVID-19 cases in hospitals Wednesday, a number that had tripled in six days, and 774 patients in critical care. By mid-May, the number of critical care patients is expected to climb to 27,000, he said.

Newsom said the state needs nearly 70,000 more hospital beds, bringing its overall capacity to more than 140,000 — both inside hospitals and also at alternative care sites like convention centers. The state also needs 10,000 more ventilators than it normally has to aid the crush of patients needing help to breathe, he said, and so far has acquired fewer than half.

Newsom and state health officials worked with the Trump administration to bring a naval hospital ship to the Port of Los Angeles, where it is already treating patients not infected with the novel coronavirus. The state is working with the Army Corps of Engineers to deploy eight mobile field hospitals, including one in Santa Clara County. And it is bringing hospitals back online that were shuttered or slated to close, including one each in Daly City, Los Angeles, Long Beach and Costa Mesa.

The governor is also drafting a plan to make greater use of hotels and motels and nursing homes to house patients, if needed.

But the size of the surge that hits hospitals depends on how well the public follows social distancing and stay-at-home orders, said Newsom and hospital administrators. “This is not just about health care providers caring for the sick,” said Dr. Steve Lockhart, the chief medical officer of Sutter Health, which has 22 hospitals across Northern California.

While hospitals welcomed the state assistance, they’re also undertaking dramatic measures to prepare on their own.

“I’m genuinely very worried, and it scares me that so many people are still out there doing business as usual,” said Chris Van Gorder, CEO of Scripps Health, a system with five major hospitals in San Diego County. “It wouldn’t take a lot to overwhelm us.”

Internal projections show the hospital system could need 8,000 beds by June, he said. It has 1,200.

In addition to taking precautions to protect its health care workers — such as using baby monitors to observe patients without risking infection — it is working with area colleges to use dorm rooms as hospital rooms for patients with mild cases of COVID-19, among other efforts, he said.

“Honestly, I think we should have been better prepared than we are,” Van Gorder said. “But hospitals cannot take on this burden themselves.”

Van Gorder and other hospital administrators say a continued shortage of COVID-19 tests has hampered their response — because they still don’t know exactly which patients have the virus — as has the chronic underfunding of public health infrastructure.

Kaiser Permanente wants to double the capacity of its 36 California hospitals, Parodi said. It is also working with the garment industry to manufacture face masks, and eyeing hotel rooms for less critical patients.

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a 425-bed safety-net hospital in Los Angeles, is working to increase its capacity by 200%, said Dr. Anish Mahajan, the hospital’s chief medical officer.

Harbor-UCLA is using 3D printers to produce ventilator piping equipped to serve two patients per machine. And in March it transformed a new emergency wing into an intensive care unit for COVID-19 patients.

“This was a shocking thing to do,” Mahajan said of the unprecedented move to create extra space.

He said some measures are untested, but hospitals across the state are facing extreme pressure to do whatever they can to meet their greatest needs.

In March, Stanford Hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area launched a massive telemedicine overhaul of its emergency department to reduce the number of employees who interact with patients in person. This is the first time the hospital has used telemedicine like this, said Dr. Ryan Ribeira, an emergency physician who spearheaded the project.

Stanford also did some soul-searching, thinking about which of its staff might be at highest risk if they catch COVID-19, and has assigned them to parts of the hospital with no coronavirus patients or areas dedicated to telemedicine. “These are people that we might have otherwise had to drop off the schedule,” Ribeira said.

Nearby, several San Francisco hospitals that were previously competitors have joined forces to create a dedicated COVID-19 floor at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital with four dozen critical care beds.

The city currently has 1,300 beds, including 200 ICU beds. If the number of patients surges as it has in New York, officials anticipate needing 5,000 additional beds.

But the San Francisco Bay Area hasn’t yet seen the expected surge. UCSF Health had 15 inpatients with COVID-19 Tuesday. Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center had 18 inpatients with the disease Wednesday.

While hospital officials are cautiously optimistic that local and state stay-at-home orders have worked to slow the spread of the virus, they are still preparing for what could be a major increase in admissions.

“The next two weeks is when we’re really going to see the surge,” said San Francisco General CEO Susan Ehrlich. “We’re preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.”

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.

California Hospitals Face Surge With Proven Fixes And Some Hail Marys published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[stephenmccull]

California Hospitals Face Surge With Proven Fixes And Some Hail Marys

California’s hospitals thought they were ready for the next big disaster.

They’ve retrofitted their buildings to withstand a major earthquake and  whisked patients out of danger during deadly wildfires. They’ve kept patients alive with backup generators amid sweeping power shutoffs and trained their staff to thwart would-be shooters.

But nothing has prepared them for a crisis of the magnitude facing hospitals today.

“We’re in a battle with an unseen enemy, and we have to be fully mobilized in a way that’s never been seen in our careers,” said Dr. Stephen Parodi, an infectious disease expert for Kaiser Permanente in California. (Kaiser Health News, which produces California Healthline, is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.)

As California enters the most critical period in the state’s battle against COVID-19, the state’s 416 hospitals — big and small, public and private — are scrambling to build the capacity needed for an onslaught of critically ill patients.

Email Sign-Up

Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.

Sign Up

Please confirm your email address below:

Sign Up

Hospitals from Los Angeles to San Jose are already seeing a steady increase in patients infected by the virus, and so far, hospital officials say they have enough space to treat them. But they also issued a dire warning: What happens over the next four to six weeks will determine whether the experience of California overall looks more like that of New York, which has seen an explosion of hospitalizations and deaths, or like that of the San Francisco Bay Area, which has so far managed to prevent a major spike in new infections, hospitalizations and death.

Some of their preparations share common themes: Postpone elective surgeries. Make greater use of telemedicine to limit face-to-face contact. Erect tents outside to care for less critical patients. Add beds — hospital by hospital, a few dozen at a time — to spaces like cafeterias, operating rooms and decommissioned wings.

But by necessity — because of shortages of testing, ventilators, personal protective equipment and even doctors and nurses — they’re also trying creative and sometimes untried strategies to bolster their readiness and increase their capacity.

In San Diego, hospitals may use college dormitories as alternative care sites. A large public hospital in Los Angeles is turning to 3D printing to manufacture ventilator parts. And in hard-hit Santa Clara County, with a population of nearly 2 million, public and private hospitals have joined forces to alleviate pressure on local hospitals by caring for patients at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Yet some hospitals acknowledge that, despite their efforts, they may end up having to park patients in hallways.

“The need in this pandemic is so different and so extraordinary and so big that a hospital’s typical surge plan will be insufficient for what we’re dealing with in this state and across the nation,” said Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association.

Across the U.S., more than 213,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, and at least 4,750 people have died. California accounts for more than 9,400 cases and at least 199 deaths.

Health officials and hospital administrators are singling out April as the most consequential month in California’s effort to combat a steep increase in new infections. State Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly said Wednesday that the number of hospitalizations is expected to peak in mid-May.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said there were 1,855 COVID-19 cases in hospitals Wednesday, a number that had tripled in six days, and 774 patients in critical care. By mid-May, the number of critical care patients is expected to climb to 27,000, he said.

Newsom said the state needs nearly 70,000 more hospital beds, bringing its overall capacity to more than 140,000 — both inside hospitals and also at alternative care sites like convention centers. The state also needs 10,000 more ventilators than it normally has to aid the crush of patients needing help to breathe, he said, and so far has acquired fewer than half.

Newsom and state health officials worked with the Trump administration to bring a naval hospital ship to the Port of Los Angeles, where it is already treating patients not infected with the novel coronavirus. The state is working with the Army Corps of Engineers to deploy eight mobile field hospitals, including one in Santa Clara County. And it is bringing hospitals back online that were shuttered or slated to close, including one each in Daly City, Los Angeles, Long Beach and Costa Mesa.

The governor is also drafting a plan to make greater use of hotels and motels and nursing homes to house patients, if needed.

But the size of the surge that hits hospitals depends on how well the public follows social distancing and stay-at-home orders, said Newsom and hospital administrators. “This is not just about health care providers caring for the sick,” said Dr. Steve Lockhart, the chief medical officer of Sutter Health, which has 22 hospitals across Northern California.

While hospitals welcomed the state assistance, they’re also undertaking dramatic measures to prepare on their own.

“I’m genuinely very worried, and it scares me that so many people are still out there doing business as usual,” said Chris Van Gorder, CEO of Scripps Health, a system with five major hospitals in San Diego County. “It wouldn’t take a lot to overwhelm us.”

Internal projections show the hospital system could need 8,000 beds by June, he said. It has 1,200.

In addition to taking precautions to protect its health care workers — such as using baby monitors to observe patients without risking infection — it is working with area colleges to use dorm rooms as hospital rooms for patients with mild cases of COVID-19, among other efforts, he said.

“Honestly, I think we should have been better prepared than we are,” Van Gorder said. “But hospitals cannot take on this burden themselves.”

Van Gorder and other hospital administrators say a continued shortage of COVID-19 tests has hampered their response — because they still don’t know exactly which patients have the virus — as has the chronic underfunding of public health infrastructure.

Kaiser Permanente wants to double the capacity of its 36 California hospitals, Parodi said. It is also working with the garment industry to manufacture face masks, and eyeing hotel rooms for less critical patients.

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a 425-bed safety-net hospital in Los Angeles, is working to increase its capacity by 200%, said Dr. Anish Mahajan, the hospital’s chief medical officer.

Harbor-UCLA is using 3D printers to produce ventilator piping equipped to serve two patients per machine. And in March it transformed a new emergency wing into an intensive care unit for COVID-19 patients.

“This was a shocking thing to do,” Mahajan said of the unprecedented move to create extra space.

He said some measures are untested, but hospitals across the state are facing extreme pressure to do whatever they can to meet their greatest needs.

In March, Stanford Hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area launched a massive telemedicine overhaul of its emergency department to reduce the number of employees who interact with patients in person. This is the first time the hospital has used telemedicine like this, said Dr. Ryan Ribeira, an emergency physician who spearheaded the project.

Stanford also did some soul-searching, thinking about which of its staff might be at highest risk if they catch COVID-19, and has assigned them to parts of the hospital with no coronavirus patients or areas dedicated to telemedicine. “These are people that we might have otherwise had to drop off the schedule,” Ribeira said.

Nearby, several San Francisco hospitals that were previously competitors have joined forces to create a dedicated COVID-19 floor at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital with four dozen critical care beds.

The city currently has 1,300 beds, including 200 ICU beds. If the number of patients surges as it has in New York, officials anticipate needing 5,000 additional beds.

But the San Francisco Bay Area hasn’t yet seen the expected surge. UCSF Health had 15 inpatients with COVID-19 Tuesday. Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center had 18 inpatients with the disease Wednesday.

While hospital officials are cautiously optimistic that local and state stay-at-home orders have worked to slow the spread of the virus, they are still preparing for what could be a major increase in admissions.

“The next two weeks is when we’re really going to see the surge,” said San Francisco General CEO Susan Ehrlich. “We’re preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.”

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.

California Hospitals Face Surge With Proven Fixes And Some Hail Marys published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[dinafbrownil]

California Hospitals Face Surge With Proven Fixes And Some Hail Marys

California’s hospitals thought they were ready for the next big disaster.

They’ve retrofitted their buildings to withstand a major earthquake and  whisked patients out of danger during deadly wildfires. They’ve kept patients alive with backup generators amid sweeping power shutoffs and trained their staff to thwart would-be shooters.

But nothing has prepared them for a crisis of the magnitude facing hospitals today.

“We’re in a battle with an unseen enemy, and we have to be fully mobilized in a way that’s never been seen in our careers,” said Dr. Stephen Parodi, an infectious disease expert for Kaiser Permanente in California. (Kaiser Health News, which produces California Healthline, is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.)

As California enters the most critical period in the state’s battle against COVID-19, the state’s 416 hospitals — big and small, public and private — are scrambling to build the capacity needed for an onslaught of critically ill patients.

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Hospitals from Los Angeles to San Jose are already seeing a steady increase in patients infected by the virus, and so far, hospital officials say they have enough space to treat them. But they also issued a dire warning: What happens over the next four to six weeks will determine whether the experience of California overall looks more like that of New York, which has seen an explosion of hospitalizations and deaths, or like that of the San Francisco Bay Area, which has so far managed to prevent a major spike in new infections, hospitalizations and death.

Some of their preparations share common themes: Postpone elective surgeries. Make greater use of telemedicine to limit face-to-face contact. Erect tents outside to care for less critical patients. Add beds — hospital by hospital, a few dozen at a time — to spaces like cafeterias, operating rooms and decommissioned wings.

But by necessity — because of shortages of testing, ventilators, personal protective equipment and even doctors and nurses — they’re also trying creative and sometimes untried strategies to bolster their readiness and increase their capacity.

In San Diego, hospitals may use college dormitories as alternative care sites. A large public hospital in Los Angeles is turning to 3D printing to manufacture ventilator parts. And in hard-hit Santa Clara County, with a population of nearly 2 million, public and private hospitals have joined forces to alleviate pressure on local hospitals by caring for patients at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Yet some hospitals acknowledge that, despite their efforts, they may end up having to park patients in hallways.

“The need in this pandemic is so different and so extraordinary and so big that a hospital’s typical surge plan will be insufficient for what we’re dealing with in this state and across the nation,” said Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association.

Across the U.S., more than 213,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, and at least 4,750 people have died. California accounts for more than 9,400 cases and at least 199 deaths.

Health officials and hospital administrators are singling out April as the most consequential month in California’s effort to combat a steep increase in new infections. State Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly said Wednesday that the number of hospitalizations is expected to peak in mid-May.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said there were 1,855 COVID-19 cases in hospitals Wednesday, a number that had tripled in six days, and 774 patients in critical care. By mid-May, the number of critical care patients is expected to climb to 27,000, he said.

Newsom said the state needs nearly 70,000 more hospital beds, bringing its overall capacity to more than 140,000 — both inside hospitals and also at alternative care sites like convention centers. The state also needs 10,000 more ventilators than it normally has to aid the crush of patients needing help to breathe, he said, and so far has acquired fewer than half.

Newsom and state health officials worked with the Trump administration to bring a naval hospital ship to the Port of Los Angeles, where it is already treating patients not infected with the novel coronavirus. The state is working with the Army Corps of Engineers to deploy eight mobile field hospitals, including one in Santa Clara County. And it is bringing hospitals back online that were shuttered or slated to close, including one each in Daly City, Los Angeles, Long Beach and Costa Mesa.

The governor is also drafting a plan to make greater use of hotels and motels and nursing homes to house patients, if needed.

But the size of the surge that hits hospitals depends on how well the public follows social distancing and stay-at-home orders, said Newsom and hospital administrators. “This is not just about health care providers caring for the sick,” said Dr. Steve Lockhart, the chief medical officer of Sutter Health, which has 22 hospitals across Northern California.

While hospitals welcomed the state assistance, they’re also undertaking dramatic measures to prepare on their own.

“I’m genuinely very worried, and it scares me that so many people are still out there doing business as usual,” said Chris Van Gorder, CEO of Scripps Health, a system with five major hospitals in San Diego County. “It wouldn’t take a lot to overwhelm us.”

Internal projections show the hospital system could need 8,000 beds by June, he said. It has 1,200.

In addition to taking precautions to protect its health care workers — such as using baby monitors to observe patients without risking infection — it is working with area colleges to use dorm rooms as hospital rooms for patients with mild cases of COVID-19, among other efforts, he said.

“Honestly, I think we should have been better prepared than we are,” Van Gorder said. “But hospitals cannot take on this burden themselves.”

Van Gorder and other hospital administrators say a continued shortage of COVID-19 tests has hampered their response — because they still don’t know exactly which patients have the virus — as has the chronic underfunding of public health infrastructure.

Kaiser Permanente wants to double the capacity of its 36 California hospitals, Parodi said. It is also working with the garment industry to manufacture face masks, and eyeing hotel rooms for less critical patients.

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a 425-bed safety-net hospital in Los Angeles, is working to increase its capacity by 200%, said Dr. Anish Mahajan, the hospital’s chief medical officer.

Harbor-UCLA is using 3D printers to produce ventilator piping equipped to serve two patients per machine. And in March it transformed a new emergency wing into an intensive care unit for COVID-19 patients.

“This was a shocking thing to do,” Mahajan said of the unprecedented move to create extra space.

He said some measures are untested, but hospitals across the state are facing extreme pressure to do whatever they can to meet their greatest needs.

In March, Stanford Hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area launched a massive telemedicine overhaul of its emergency department to reduce the number of employees who interact with patients in person. This is the first time the hospital has used telemedicine like this, said Dr. Ryan Ribeira, an emergency physician who spearheaded the project.

Stanford also did some soul-searching, thinking about which of its staff might be at highest risk if they catch COVID-19, and has assigned them to parts of the hospital with no coronavirus patients or areas dedicated to telemedicine. “These are people that we might have otherwise had to drop off the schedule,” Ribeira said.

Nearby, several San Francisco hospitals that were previously competitors have joined forces to create a dedicated COVID-19 floor at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital with four dozen critical care beds.

The city currently has 1,300 beds, including 200 ICU beds. If the number of patients surges as it has in New York, officials anticipate needing 5,000 additional beds.

But the San Francisco Bay Area hasn’t yet seen the expected surge. UCSF Health had 15 inpatients with COVID-19 Tuesday. Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center had 18 inpatients with the disease Wednesday.

While hospital officials are cautiously optimistic that local and state stay-at-home orders have worked to slow the spread of the virus, they are still preparing for what could be a major increase in admissions.

“The next two weeks is when we’re really going to see the surge,” said San Francisco General CEO Susan Ehrlich. “We’re preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.”

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/california-hospitals-face-surge-with-proven-fixes-and-some-hail-marys/

[gossipnetwork-blog]

Real Housewives of Atlanta's Kenya Moore Has Not Been Fired, Despite What You May Have Heard

New Post has been published on http://gossip.network/real-housewives-of-atlantas-kenya-moore-has-not-been-fired-despite-what-you-may-have-heard/

Real Housewives of Atlanta's Kenya Moore Has Not Been Fired, Despite What You May Have Heard

To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of Kenya Moore‘s firing from The Real Housewives of Atlanta have been greatly exaggerated. 

At least, according to her.

A month before season 10 of the Bravo series even premiered, rumors began circulating that Moore had either been fired from the series or was close to it over her refusal to film scenes with her new husband, businessman Marc Daly, who has no interest in appearing on the show. But in a new interview with E! News, she’s assuring fans that those rumors couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“Oh, absolutely,” she told us when asked if it was safe to assume her job was safe. “I think my storyline speaks for itself, the fact that I’m one of the most Google’d people on the show and, one might say, one of the most relevant. I don’t think that anyone would rush to a judgement to say I wouldn’t be a Housewife. I have the top storyline of the entire season, so that wouldn’t even really make good business sense.”

As for what might cause her to one day give up her peach, Moore had this to say: “In life, you have to make choices based on where you are and what makes you happy. I think that everything comes to an end at some point…In the real world, things evolve and change and I think that I have to just constantly make decisions based on my happiness and my family’s.”

Bravo

Turning to the events of last night’s episode, which saw Kenya enter into an explosive argument with enemy Kim Zolciak-Biermann at NeNe Leakes‘ party after the Don’t Be Tardy star proclaimed that Kenya’s husband was fictional, she admitted that watching the scene back some four months later made her angry all over again. “It’s never good to see yourself being attacked and being ridiculed or something that’s important to you being made a mockery of. And that’s what happened last night. Kim Zolciak, for whatever reason, has really an axe to grind with me and I have no idea why,” she said. “Seeing the episode now…yes, it makes you angry all over again because I was minding my own business. I don’t have anything to say about Kim Zolciak and to be attacked in that way and to have my family be attacked and to have my integrity be attacked, it’s not fair to me. It’s not fair at all.”

Of course, Kenya did strike back, bringing up an old tweet of Kim’s from May of this year wherein she made a crass joke about her daughter Brielle involving oral sex. The comment sent Kim into a rage spiral, forcing her husband Kroy to escort her out of the party. However, as Kenya sees it, she didn’t cross a line because she was simply repeating something Kim already said on her own. “I didn’t talk about Brielle, let’s be clear about that,” she said. “I repeated something that Kim had already stated to the world. So I didn’t talk about her, I reminded her that she said those things on a worldwide platform. Just repeated it remind her: Don’t talk about my family. You need to worry about your own.”

For more from Kenya, including her thoughts on BFF Cynthia Bailey being the only Housewife to come to her defense after the blowout, be sure to check out both videos above!

The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Bravo.

(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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DGB Grab Bag: Letang vs. T.O., Offer Sheet Nonsense, and More Hockey Bloopers

Three stars of comedy

The third star: Kris Letang vs. Terrell Owens. I wonder how this hockey player can do on turf against an NFL great? Yeah, it goes about as well as you might expect.

(It didn't go any better for Lars Eller, either.)

The second star: Darnell Nurse vs. Eric Gryba. Look, neither one of these are especially good roasts. I just like the idea that even NHL players fall back on the whole "your vs. you're" thing when they don't have a good comeback on Twitter.

Now I want to see Nurse move on to the next round to face Owens, just for the moment when his uncle shows up with a folding chair.

The first star: Kris Letang vs. Montreal. Hey, look at Letang grabbing two spots on this week's list. This time, he comes away with a clear win.

Normally we'd subtract points for sucker-punching a fan base that's already down, but… it's Montreal.

Outrage of the week

The issue: Once again, we're headed to an off-season where nobody signs an offer sheet, even though there appear to be obvious cases where one would make sense.

The outrage: This is stupid. If NHL teams were really trying to win, they'd be using this tool to improve instead of worrying about hurt feelings or whatever other excuses they come up with.

Is it justified: Yes, but only for Leon Draisaitl.

Settle down, Oiler fans. I'll explain.

It's true that the lack of offer sheets sure feels like a case of collusion, with everyone agreeing to leave one another's players alone. That doesn't actually do anything to keep salaries low—players get 50 percent of hockey revenues no matter what, remember—but it does make life marginally easier for GMs around the league who have to deal with unsigned players.

On the flip side, signing a player to an offer sheet is almost always futile, because they're basically always matched. In the last 20 off-seasons, there's been one unmatched offer sheet (Dustin Penner in 2007). That's it. Matching offer sheets is so automatic these days that teams make a public promise to do so in advance.

So even if you can get a player to agree to sign one—people seem to forget that part—you're basically going to make an enemy of another GM, temporarily tie up your own cap space, and create the small but non-zero possibility that your own RFAs become a target for retaliation. And all for a player that you won't end up getting, because again, the other team is going to match every time. You lose something, and gain nothing.

So what's the point?

Well, as many have argued, teams do benefit by creating cap headaches for each other. This is supposed to be a competition, after all, and making things tougher on an opponent should be fair game. But that's more of a theoretical gain than anything. Sure, the team you target might end up with a cap crunch that forces them to part with some other player at a discount, but who's going to get that player? Probably not you, and maybe a team you're fighting for a playoff spot.

So in a world where matching is automatic, signing an offer sheet is basically a waste of time. There's no point.

Except for Draisaistl and the Oilers. They're the one case where using an offer sheet to screw over another team really would make sense, and the reason is simple. The Oilers are really good.

They have the best player in the league in Connor McDavid. History tells us that means they're probably going to win a Cup, and probably soon. They already made big strides last year. Their championship window is open right now, and it's going to stay that way for at least a decade.

This was a rare chance for other teams to throw a wrench into the title-winning machine the Oilers are steadily building. Throw a $9 million offer at Draisaitl, force the Oilers to match it, and then let Peter Chiarelli deal with the roughly $3 million salary cap headache you've just given him.

I don't want to sound defeatist here, Western Conference teams, but there's a good chance that the salary cap is pretty much all that's going to keep the Oilers from running over you for years to come. The Draisaitl contract is a rare chance for you to step in and tighten its grip on them. Some Western team with cap space and hopes of winning a Cup themselves someday—like, say, the Flames or the Sharks or the Wild—should be looking for any opportunity to derail the inevitable. (Nashville, too, but David Poile has the other top RFA in Ryan Johansen to worry about, so we'll give him a pass.)

We've seen this before. Do you think anyone wishes they'd made life harder on the Crosby/Malkin Penguins back in 2007 or so? Think anyone would like to go back and launch a preemptive strike at the Kane/Toews Blackhawks in 2009?

It won't happen—again, these GMs are all pals and don't want to make life difficult for one another—but for once, it should. When the Oilers are skating around with the Cup in a year or two, don't say you weren't warned, or that you didn't have a chance to make it harder for them.

Obscure former player of the week

It now seems all but official: NHL players won't be going to the 2018 Olympics. Even though the league made that announcement months ago, many fans were still holding out hope, especially after it emerged that the 2017-18 schedule seemed to have been designed with some wiggle room in mind.

But alas, no such luck. Bill Daly shot down the schedule talk, and with Canada finally announcing a non-NHL coach and GM this week, it appears that everyone is moving on.

That means we'll be back to the old way of filling out a national roster: with a mix of amateurs, minor leaguers, and NHL players who aren't in the NHL that year for whatever reason. ( Cough, Iggy.) So today, let's bestow Obscure Player honors on a guy who didn't have much of an NHL career, but got to represent Canada at the Olympics three times: Wally Schreiber.

Schreiber, a winger, had a big year in the WHL in 1981-82. The Caps took him in the eighth round of that year's draft, a few picks ahead of Obscure Player alumni Todd Okerlund. Schreiber never made it to the Capitals, but had some success (including a 50-goal season) in the IHL. He joined the Canadian national team in 1986, and in 1987 he signed as a free agent with the North Stars.

Schreiber played in his first Olympics in 1988, scoring once in eight games. Canada had home ice that year but failed to medal, instead finishing fourth. Schreiber would make his NHL debut a month later, scoring in his first game for the North Stars and going on to score six goals in 16 games. He'd get part-time duty the next season, but managed just two goals in 25 games. That would turn out to be the last action of his NHL career.

He headed to Germany in 1989, where he'd play professionally for another decade, but he returned to the Canadian national team for the 1992 Olympics, scoring twice to help Canada win silver. And he was back again in 1994, earning silver again as Team Canada lost to Sweden in the infamous Peter Forsberg shootout.

All in all, Schreiber played 24 Olympic games for Team Canada—still among the nation's all-time leaders—scoring four times and earning two medals in the process. At press time, there was no word on whether a 55-year-old Schreiber was prepping for a comeback in 2018.

Trivial annoyance of the week

This week's trivial annoyance has been bugging me for years. It's going to bug you, too, so consider this fair warning: Feel free to skip this section. Seriously, I need to get this off my chest but you'll be happier if you go through life without having this question shoved into your brain. No hard feelings. Just head down and meet the rest of us in the YouTube section.

No? Fine, you had your chance. Here we go.

Why do we have two separate penalties for "holding" and "holding the stick", but slashing and slashing the stick are both just "slashing"?

Look, I warned you.

It's weird, right? There's no good reason I can come up with to have separate categories for one type of foul but not the other. You can't hold. You can't slash. You can't do either to an opponent's stick. So why treat them differently?

For what it's worth, the two types of holding are technically violations of the same rule, 54.2, but that rules specifies that holding the stick should be announced as such, and gives it a separate hand signal (it's actually the only penalty in the rulebook that has a two-part signal.) So this isn't just something that referees started doing on their own. Somebody felt the need to write it down.

Meanwhile, the rulebook just defines slashing as hitting an opponent's body or stick. That's it. One call, one signal, and we're done with it. The way the rule is actually called is kind of dumb, but that's beside the point. It's one call, end of story.

Anyway, this is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night when it's almost August, and now it can do the same for you. Enjoy eventually forgetting all about it, having it nestle into your subconscious for a few months, and then suddenly having it burst out the first time you see a "holding the stick" penalty get called in October and it makes you irrationally angry.

Classic YouTube clip breakdown

Much like pop music, the NHL sounded a lot better in 1990 than it does today. For proof, let's blow the dust off of the old VHS collection.

This segment comes to us from the immortal Super Dooper Hockey Bloopers, which every kid got for Christmas in 1990 if your parents loved you. We've featured it in this space before, including its John Davidson-hosted musical interlude.

Look, I don't say this lightly: Super Dooper Hockey Bloopers is one of the five best hockey films of all time. I don't even think that's up for debate. I have the rankings as: 1. Slapshot 2. Super Dooper Hockey Bloopers on VHS 3. Youngblood 4. Hockey: The Lighter Side on VHS 5. Any footage of copies of The Love Guru being fed into a bonfire.

This bit is fairly simple. They're going to take a handful of highlights and slap some funny sound effects on them. But it was made with footage from the late 80s, so you can pretty much guess what we're going to get: dirty hits, ridiculous clutch-and-grab, and somebody getting a concussion that we all make fun of. Roll the tape.

We get a quick intro, highlighted by an "Oh yeah, Scott Stevens used to play for the Capitals" moment in which he sends Ken Daneyko airborne with a hip check. I'm going to go ahead and assume that this moment was extremely conflicting for this guy.

Next, we get an extended look at the Bruins doing, well, something. I'm not actually sure what's going on here, but Bob Sweeney is cranking his stick into something or other. Our funny sound effect is wood cracking and… wait, is that a baby crying? What are they implying here? This is disturbing, let's keep moving.

By the way, nine-year-old me will never stop thinking that having a guy named Asselstine is hilarious.

Hey, it's an Allan Bester sighting! Bester was fantastic. He was listed as 5'7" and 155 pounds, and I think that was overselling it. He also played for the terrible Ballard-era Maple Leafs, which led to Don Cherry's immortal line: "Allan Bester sees more rubber than a dead skunk on the Trans-Canada Highway."

Next comes my favorite moment of the entire clip: somebody playing "defense" against Wayne Gretzky. This being the late 80s, defense means just grabbing him and hanging on while he drags you around the ice, in this case accompanied by horsey sounds. We all laughed and then forgot about it, because that's just how teams like the Nordiques played defense in those days.

Seriously, that may not have even been a penalty back then. This is your periodic reminder that anyone who tries to tell you there's too much clutching and grabbing in today's NHL has only been watching hockey for a few years.

We get the requisite car crash effect for a pileup, a shot of Lou Franceschetti hitting himself in the head for some reason, and Derek King playing with his stick. Then comes what looks like it's going to be a standard Cam Neely body check, until—wait for it—yep, solid work by the rink crew in Buffalo as always. Bonus points to the cameraman for immediately panning down for the closeup of Neely's remains.

We get another hit, this one sending Benoit Hogue airborne, and I'm honestly not sure if the sound effect at 0:58 is supposed to be what I think it is. If it's a commentary on the late-80s Sabres playoff record, it might be a little too on the nose.

Huh, guess I was wrong. With only a few seconds left, we made it all the way through the clip without making fun of anyone suffering a head injury and… Nope, there it is. Pete Peeters take a shot right on the button, and he's down for the count. It goes without saying that we get some cuckoo-clock sound effects to accompany the moment, because we were all terrible people back then.

And that does it for our clip. Again, the entire production is a masterpiece, from the truly weird opening sequence to the various bits like the Dubious Distinction Awards. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you'd like to see included in this column? Email Sean at nhlgrabbag@gmail.com . DGB Grab Bag: Letang vs. T.O., Offer Sheet Nonsense, and More Hockey Bloopers published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[unixcommerce]

Creativity Quotes to Inspire You

Everyone has the power to increase their creativity skills. Whether you are a high tech entrepreneur or a barista, you can boost your creativity more than you might think. Like sharpening a saw, you can hone creativity into a razor-like edge.

Whatever your goal is — to uncover startup opportunities, create innovative products or boost sales — the more you work at being creative, the more creative you get.

But where do you start? You start by taking action. Break up your routine. Brainstorm with your team. Change a process without overthinking it. Don’t try to be perfect – just act! Use one of these creativity quotes to inspire you:

If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got. ~ Albert Einstein, Genius

Let’s go invent tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday. ~ Steve Jobs, Co-Founder Apple

If you know too much before the start, then you will get overwhelmed. Come up with an original idea, and don’t copy because there will be no passion. You need that otherworldly passion. Just start. ~ Jeni Britton Bauer, Founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams

If you tune it so that you have zero chance of failure, you usually also have zero chance of success. The key is to look at ways for when you get to your failure checkpoint, you know to stop. ~ Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn

There is something artificial when everyone is agreeing with each other. It’s useful to indulge people who don’t agree, and see their viewpoint or force yourself to explain things better. ~ David Sack, Founder of Yammer

Being a woman in business doesn’t come without challenges. My advice? Surround yourself with other supportive women that encourage you, share ideas, and get you motivated. ~ Jessica Alba, Founder of The Honest Company

It’s very important for entrepreneurs to look for people in the company who are not afraid of failures, for example, ‘intrapreneurs’. They make a business more successful by thinking like an entrepreneur, but within a company. ~ Chirag Kulkarni, Founder of Taco

Creativity gives you a competitive advantage by adding value to your service or product, and differentiating your business from the competition. ~ Linda Naiman, Founder of Creativity at Work

Each of you, curious about creativity, want to make contact with that thing in yourself that is truly original. You want fame and fortune, yes, but only as rewards for work well and truly done. Notoriety and a fat bank balance must come after everything else is finished and done. That means that they cannot even be considered while you are at the typewriter. ~ Ray Bradbury, Science Fiction Author

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants. ~ Roger von Oech, Creative Toy-Maker and Author

Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it. ~ Salvador Dali

Creativity Quotes About Fun and Passion

Successful entrepreneurs see the connection between fun and creativity. Creativity explodes when you encourage others to be happily passionate about their jobs. Something about positive emotions gets our creative juices flowing in business and in life.

Play music. Draw on a whiteboard like an artist. Bring your child to the office. Say something funny in a meeting. In the words of singer Marija, dance like nobody’s watching! Pick a creativity quote to free yourself to have fun:

Creativity is intelligence having fun! ~ Albert Einstein, Genius

A business has to be evolving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative interests. ~ Richard Branson, Entrepreneur and Business Magnate

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play. ~ John Cleese, Co-Founder of Monty Python

Creative ideas flourish best in a shop which preserves some spirit of fun. Nobody is in business for fun, but that does not mean there cannot be fun in business. ~ Leo Burnett, The Leo Burnett Company

Play widens the halls. Work will always be with us, and many works are worthy. But the worthiest works of all often reflect an artful creativity that looks more like play than work. ~ James Ogilvy, British Landscape Designer

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better. ~ John Updike , Novelist

Business isn’t some disembodied bloodless enterprise. Profit is fine, a sign that the customer honors the value of what we do. But ‘enterprise’ (a lovely word) is about heart. About beauty. It’s about art. About people throwing themselves on the line. It’s about passion and the selfless pursuit of an ideal. ~ Tom Peters, Business Management Author

Passion, creativity, and resilience are the most crucial skills in business. If you’ve got those, you’re ready to embark on the journey. ~ Jo Malone, Founder of Jo Malone Perfume and Scented Candles

Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity. ~ Charles Mingus, Jazz Composer and Musician

Great is the human who has not lost his child-like heart. ~ Mencius, Chinese Philosopher

Be a Rule Breaker for Creativity

Years ago, Apple created a famous advertisement called “Think Different” reinforcing the concept of creativity by being unique. The narrator started out “Here’s to the crazy ones, the rebels, the troublemakers.” The ad is an ode to creative people who work and live differently. So get started breaking rules with one of these creativity quotes for inspiration:

Learn the rules like a pro, break them like an artist. ~ Pablo Picasso, World Famous Artist

Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. ~ Steve Jobs

Creativity takes courage. ~ Henri Matisse, Artist

Discoveries are often made by not following instructions, by going off the main road, by trying the untried. ~ Frank Tyger, Editorial Cartoonist and Humorist

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. ~ Oscar Wilde, Author

All human development, no matter what form it takes, must be outside the rules; otherwise we would never have anything new. ~ Charles Kettering, Inventor and Co-Founder of Delco

The achievement of excellence can only occur if the organization promotes a culture of creative dissatisfaction. ~ Lawrence Miller, Management and Leadership Writer

It’s better to be a pirate than join the navy. ~ Steve Jobs

Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye. ~ Dorothy Parker, Author

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. ~ Wayne Walter Dyer, Self-Help Author and Motivational Speaker

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. ~ Steve Jobs

The chief enemy of creativity is ‘good’ sense. ~ Pablo Picasso

That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time. ~ John Stuart Mill, British Philosopher

Creativity Quotes for Problem Solving

Every business encounters problems along the road to success. Which businesses continue on down the road or get waylaid is determined by whether the people in them are good problem solvers. The following creativity quotes suggest that instead of striving for creativity, we should try to solve problems:

If we tried to think of a good idea, we wouldn’t have been able to think of a good idea. You just have to find the solution for a problem in your own life. ~ Brian Chesky, Co-Founder of Airbnb

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science. ~ Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist

Do not focus on numbers. Focus on doing what you do best. It’s about building a community who want to visit your site every day because you create value and offer expertise. ~ Cassey Ho, Founder of Blogilates

If we are going to be part of the solution, we have to engage the problems. ~ Majora Carter, Urban Revitalization Strategist

Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. ~ George Lois, Art Director and Designer

Innovation – any new idea – by definition will not be accepted at first. It takes repeated attempts, endless demonstrations, monotonous rehearsals before innovation can be accepted and internalized by an organization. This requires courageous patience. ~ Warren Bennis, Scholar and Organizational Consultant

The innovation point is the pivotal moment when talented and motivated people seek the opportunity to act on their ideas and dreams. ~ W. Arthur Porter, Teacher and Businessman

Companies that recognize the need to be creative about their businesses are going to pursue this creative thinking with us or without us. It’s our collective responsibility, our collective future to make sure they choose to do it with us. ~ Bob Schmetterer, Business Executive and Former Chairman and CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide

Creativity and innovation are about finding unexpected solutions to obvious problems, or finding obvious solutions to unexpected problems. We should use our creativity to provide better businesses and solutions rather than constantly trying to disrupt what people are doing. ~ Rei Inamoto, Chief Creative Officer of AKQA

Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity. ~ Chuck Jones, Warner Brothers Animator

The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones. ~ John Maynard Keynes, British Economist

Prematurely settle on an idea because of work overload or deadline pressure, and it is likely to resemble what already exists. ~ Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor of Business at Harvard Business School

Creativity is an Attitude

How many times has someone said, “I’m not very creative”? You may have played that line in your own head countless times. In fact, something like that may be true only because you told yourself it is true. In the words of renowned poet Sylvia Plath, “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

Replace doubts with a positive attitude that being creative is good and you have untapped creativity. When you need to give your creativity a little inspiration, read or share these motivational and creative quotes:

Many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not – because the thing they were good at at school wasn’t valued, or was actually stigmatized. ~ Ken Robinson, Educator

The thing we fear most in organizations – fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances – are the primary sources of creativity. ~ Meg Wheatley, Management Consultant and Writer

The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions. ~ Anthony Jay, English Writer, Broadcaster and Director

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. ~ Albert Einstein

The inner fire is the most important thing mankind possesses. ~ Edith Södergran, Finnish Poet

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. ~ Elbert Hubbard, Salesman, Publisher and Founder of Roycroft Arts and Crafts Community

One of the things I tend to do is open myself up to a variety of voices. I try to expose myself to the kind of culture shock that occurs when you talk to people who speak a different language. ~ Pierre Omidyar, Billionaire Entrepreneur and Founder of eBay

Ideas and creativity still matter a lot, but they need to be connected to technology, consumer insights, and analytics. ~ Christopher Vollmer, Managing Director of Medialink

Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found. ~ James Russell Lowell, Poet and Diplomat

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. ~ Jim Jarmusch, Film Director

There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns. ~ Edward de Bono, Maltese Business Consultant, Physician and Inventor

The Best Way to Have a Good Idea is…

Last but not least, brilliant minds and entrepreneurs often agree. People get more creative by exercising their creativity, as these creativity quotes highlight:

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas. ~ Dr. Linus Pauling, Chemist and Educator

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. ~ Maya Angelou, Poet

You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?” ~George Bernard Shaw, Playwright

Want more good quotes and sayings? Read: 

Hard Work Quotes

Success Quotes

Sales Quotes

All Motivational Quotes for Business

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DGB Grab Bag: Letang vs. T.O., Offer Sheet Nonsense, and More Hockey Bloopers

Three stars of comedy

The third star: Kris Letang vs. Terrell Owens. I wonder how this hockey player can do on turf against an NFL great? Yeah, it goes about as well as you might expect.

(It didn't go any better for Lars Eller, either.)

The second star: Darnell Nurse vs. Eric Gryba. Look, neither one of these are especially good roasts. I just like the idea that even NHL players fall back on the whole "your vs. you're" thing when they don't have a good comeback on Twitter.

Now I want to see Nurse move on to the next round to face Owens, just for the moment when his uncle shows up with a folding chair.

The first star: Kris Letang vs. Montreal. Hey, look at Letang grabbing two spots on this week's list. This time, he comes away with a clear win.

Normally we'd subtract points for sucker-punching a fan base that's already down, but… it's Montreal.

Outrage of the week

The issue: Once again, we're headed to an off-season where nobody signs an offer sheet, even though there appear to be obvious cases where one would make sense.

The outrage: This is stupid. If NHL teams were really trying to win, they'd be using this tool to improve instead of worrying about hurt feelings or whatever other excuses they come up with.

Is it justified: Yes, but only for Leon Draisaitl.

Settle down, Oiler fans. I'll explain.

It's true that the lack of offer sheets sure feels like a case of collusion, with everyone agreeing to leave one another's players alone. That doesn't actually do anything to keep salaries low—players get 50 percent of hockey revenues no matter what, remember—but it does make life marginally easier for GMs around the league who have to deal with unsigned players.

On the flip side, signing a player to an offer sheet is almost always futile, because they're basically always matched. In the last 20 off-seasons, there's been one unmatched offer sheet (Dustin Penner in 2007). That's it. Matching offer sheets is so automatic these days that teams make a public promise to do so in advance.

So even if you can get a player to agree to sign one—people seem to forget that part—you're basically going to make an enemy of another GM, temporarily tie up your own cap space, and create the small but non-zero possibility that your own RFAs become a target for retaliation. And all for a player that you won't end up getting, because again, the other team is going to match every time. You lose something, and gain nothing.

So what's the point?

Well, as many have argued, teams do benefit by creating cap headaches for each other. This is supposed to be a competition, after all, and making things tougher on an opponent should be fair game. But that's more of a theoretical gain than anything. Sure, the team you target might end up with a cap crunch that forces them to part with some other player at a discount, but who's going to get that player? Probably not you, and maybe a team you're fighting for a playoff spot.

So in a world where matching is automatic, signing an offer sheet is basically a waste of time. There's no point.

Except for Draisaistl and the Oilers. They're the one case where using an offer sheet to screw over another team really would make sense, and the reason is simple. The Oilers are really good.

They have the best player in the league in Connor McDavid. History tells us that means they're probably going to win a Cup, and probably soon. They already made big strides last year. Their championship window is open right now, and it's going to stay that way for at least a decade.

This was a rare chance for other teams to throw a wrench into the title-winning machine the Oilers are steadily building. Throw a $9 million offer at Draisaitl, force the Oilers to match it, and then let Peter Chiarelli deal with the roughly $3 million salary cap headache you've just given him.

I don't want to sound defeatist here, Western Conference teams, but there's a good chance that the salary cap is pretty much all that's going to keep the Oilers from running over you for years to come. The Draisaitl contract is a rare chance for you to step in and tighten its grip on them. Some Western team with cap space and hopes of winning a Cup themselves someday—like, say, the Flames or the Sharks or the Wild—should be looking for any opportunity to derail the inevitable. (Nashville, too, but David Poile has the other top RFA in Ryan Johansen to worry about, so we'll give him a pass.)

We've seen this before. Do you think anyone wishes they'd made life harder on the Crosby/Malkin Penguins back in 2007 or so? Think anyone would like to go back and launch a preemptive strike at the Kane/Toews Blackhawks in 2009?

It won't happen—again, these GMs are all pals and don't want to make life difficult for one another—but for once, it should. When the Oilers are skating around with the Cup in a year or two, don't say you weren't warned, or that you didn't have a chance to make it harder for them.

Obscure former player of the week

It now seems all but official: NHL players won't be going to the 2018 Olympics. Even though the league made that announcement months ago, many fans were still holding out hope, especially after it emerged that the 2017-18 schedule seemed to have been designed with some wiggle room in mind.

But alas, no such luck. Bill Daly shot down the schedule talk, and with Canada finally announcing a non-NHL coach and GM this week, it appears that everyone is moving on.

That means we'll be back to the old way of filling out a national roster: with a mix of amateurs, minor leaguers, and NHL players who aren't in the NHL that year for whatever reason. ( Cough, Iggy.) So today, let's bestow Obscure Player honors on a guy who didn't have much of an NHL career, but got to represent Canada at the Olympics three times: Wally Schreiber.

Schreiber, a winger, had a big year in the WHL in 1981-82. The Caps took him in the eighth round of that year's draft, a few picks ahead of Obscure Player alumni Todd Okerlund. Schreiber never made it to the Capitals, but had some success (including a 50-goal season) in the IHL. He joined the Canadian national team in 1986, and in 1987 he signed as a free agent with the North Stars.

Schreiber played in his first Olympics in 1988, scoring once in eight games. Canada had home ice that year but failed to medal, instead finishing fourth. Schreiber would make his NHL debut a month later, scoring in his first game for the North Stars and going on to score six goals in 16 games. He'd get part-time duty the next season, but managed just two goals in 25 games. That would turn out to be the last action of his NHL career.

He headed to Germany in 1989, where he'd play professionally for another decade, but he returned to the Canadian national team for the 1992 Olympics, scoring twice to help Canada win silver. And he was back again in 1994, earning silver again as Team Canada lost to Sweden in the infamous Peter Forsberg shootout.

All in all, Schreiber played 24 Olympic games for Team Canada—still among the nation's all-time leaders—scoring four times and earning two medals in the process. At press time, there was no word on whether a 55-year-old Schreiber was prepping for a comeback in 2018.

Trivial annoyance of the week

This week's trivial annoyance has been bugging me for years. It's going to bug you, too, so consider this fair warning: Feel free to skip this section. Seriously, I need to get this off my chest but you'll be happier if you go through life without having this question shoved into your brain. No hard feelings. Just head down and meet the rest of us in the YouTube section.

No? Fine, you had your chance. Here we go.

Why do we have two separate penalties for "holding" and "holding the stick", but slashing and slashing the stick are both just "slashing"?

Look, I warned you.

It's weird, right? There's no good reason I can come up with to have separate categories for one type of foul but not the other. You can't hold. You can't slash. You can't do either to an opponent's stick. So why treat them differently?

For what it's worth, the two types of holding are technically violations of the same rule, 54.2, but that rules specifies that holding the stick should be announced as such, and gives it a separate hand signal (it's actually the only penalty in the rulebook that has a two-part signal.) So this isn't just something that referees started doing on their own. Somebody felt the need to write it down.

Meanwhile, the rulebook just defines slashing as hitting an opponent's body or stick. That's it. One call, one signal, and we're done with it. The way the rule is actually called is kind of dumb, but that's beside the point. It's one call, end of story.

Anyway, this is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night when it's almost August, and now it can do the same for you. Enjoy eventually forgetting all about it, having it nestle into your subconscious for a few months, and then suddenly having it burst out the first time you see a "holding the stick" penalty get called in October and it makes you irrationally angry.

Classic YouTube clip breakdown

Much like pop music, the NHL sounded a lot better in 1990 than it does today. For proof, let's blow the dust off of the old VHS collection.

This segment comes to us from the immortal Super Dooper Hockey Bloopers, which every kid got for Christmas in 1990 if your parents loved you. We've featured it in this space before, including its John Davidson-hosted musical interlude.

Look, I don't say this lightly: Super Dooper Hockey Bloopers is one of the five best hockey films of all time. I don't even think that's up for debate. I have the rankings as: 1. Slapshot 2. Super Dooper Hockey Bloopers on VHS 3. Youngblood 4. Hockey: The Lighter Side on VHS 5. Any footage of copies of The Love Guru being fed into a bonfire.

This bit is fairly simple. They're going to take a handful of highlights and slap some funny sound effects on them. But it was made with footage from the late 80s, so you can pretty much guess what we're going to get: dirty hits, ridiculous clutch-and-grab, and somebody getting a concussion that we all make fun of. Roll the tape.

We get a quick intro, highlighted by an "Oh yeah, Scott Stevens used to play for the Capitals" moment in which he sends Ken Daneyko airborne with a hip check. I'm going to go ahead and assume that this moment was extremely conflicting for this guy.

Next, we get an extended look at the Bruins doing, well, something. I'm not actually sure what's going on here, but Bob Sweeney is cranking his stick into something or other. Our funny sound effect is wood cracking and… wait, is that a baby crying? What are they implying here? This is disturbing, let's keep moving.

By the way, nine-year-old me will never stop thinking that having a guy named Asselstine is hilarious.

Hey, it's an Allan Bester sighting! Bester was fantastic. He was listed as 5'7" and 155 pounds, and I think that was overselling it. He also played for the terrible Ballard-era Maple Leafs, which led to Don Cherry's immortal line: "Allan Bester sees more rubber than a dead skunk on the Trans-Canada Highway."

Next comes my favorite moment of the entire clip: somebody playing "defense" against Wayne Gretzky. This being the late 80s, defense means just grabbing him and hanging on while he drags you around the ice, in this case accompanied by horsey sounds. We all laughed and then forgot about it, because that's just how teams like the Nordiques played defense in those days.

Seriously, that may not have even been a penalty back then. This is your periodic reminder that anyone who tries to tell you there's too much clutching and grabbing in today's NHL has only been watching hockey for a few years.

We get the requisite car crash effect for a pileup, a shot of Lou Franceschetti hitting himself in the head for some reason, and Derek King playing with his stick. Then comes what looks like it's going to be a standard Cam Neely body check, until—wait for it—yep, solid work by the rink crew in Buffalo as always. Bonus points to the cameraman for immediately panning down for the closeup of Neely's remains.

We get another hit, this one sending Benoit Hogue airborne, and I'm honestly not sure if the sound effect at 0:58 is supposed to be what I think it is. If it's a commentary on the late-80s Sabres playoff record, it might be a little too on the nose.

Huh, guess I was wrong. With only a few seconds left, we made it all the way through the clip without making fun of anyone suffering a head injury and… Nope, there it is. Pete Peeters take a shot right on the button, and he's down for the count. It goes without saying that we get some cuckoo-clock sound effects to accompany the moment, because we were all terrible people back then.

And that does it for our clip. Again, the entire production is a masterpiece, from the truly weird opening sequence to the various bits like the Dubious Distinction Awards. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you'd like to see included in this column? Email Sean at nhlgrabbag@gmail.com . DGB Grab Bag: Letang vs. T.O., Offer Sheet Nonsense, and More Hockey Bloopers published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv