I'm still very upset about the Carter-McDaniel snub. It is clear that the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee is political and has taken on what has shamed the film academy for so long: That being to recognize people it had previously overlooked. In 2006 Martin Scorsese won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed, which also won Best Picture. It was thought to be long overdue, and some entertainment critics subsequently referred to it as Scorsese's "Lifetime Achievement" Oscar, or the "Taxi Driver/Raging Bull/Goodfellas" Oscar.

Carter was snubbed for Art Monk. McDaniel for Gary Zimmerman. I do not begrudge the fact that either Monk or Zimmerman got selected. Both are deserving and were over-due. What is an issue with me is that two more deserving players were left out in the cold because of previous over-sights made by the selection committee. It ain't right, no matter how it is painted.

Enough. Time to move on.

This past weekend my son and I were able to attend the Plymouth Fire and Ice Festival. Being that my wife was in charge of the volunteers staffing the event, I could say we were obliged to attend.....but we enjoyed ourselves and would have gone anyway.

One thing that my son and I did was to try our hand at the Viking Kick Sleds. Yeah, the name alone drew us to the exhibition area.....but we had a blast with them.

Google Viking Kick Sled and the description you get is:

Take a funny, wooden chair and place a crossbar handle on the top. Attach this contraption to two metal runners. Voila, you have one of the most versatile means of transportation on snow there is, a kick sled or what the Norwegians call a spark or sparkstøtting.

Much like a scooter, you hold on to the crossbar handle, place one foot on a metal runner, then kick with the other. Hence the name spark, which means kick in Norwegian. But why the seat if you stand on one of the runners?

Whole families have been know to travel on one spark, one adult on the runners, the other on the seat with the children. The crossbar handle doubles as hooks for shopping bags, and a backpack can rest on the seat if the straps are secured around the handlebar.

The origins of the spark is somewhat unclear, but it's related to the sledge which predated skis by several thousand years. The oldest known sledge, found in Heinola, Finland, dates from 6500 B.C. The spark is much younger since steel runners couldn't be manufactured until the mid 19th century.

The modern version of the spark first appeared in a Swedish newspaper back in 1872 near Pitea on the Gulf of Bothnia. It is believed to have entered Norway about 1885 from Norrland near Tarna in Swedish Lappland. When the spark crossed the Atlantic is unknown, but chances are it was brought here by Scandinavian immigrants.

Go Vikes...literally! See you on the ice!

Posted by briankeithmaas@msn.com at February 5, 2008 01:15 AM