Seeing Red...Part 1 - by Apollo

The difference between having a thought, and actually taking that thought and expressing it to the world is just a matter of a few keystrokes and mouse clicks in the information age. That can sometimes be a good thing and many times it can be a bad thing, but in the case of the 2 Wise Men, it means consecutive posts in rapid succession by me, which can do nothing but good...

First off, a word of support for the artist formerly known as Funktastic, a good friend of the 2 Wise Men, who is in a bit of a frustrating situation right now. Hang in there man...now you know what kind of system I have to deal with on a daily basis. We're there for you.

I have to say that finding out the latest gossip that 42 year-old actor Tom Cruise has been dating 26 year-old (and hot) actress Katie Holmes was pretty shocking. I've got nothing against an older guy dating a younger woman, particularly considering it's Tom Cruise we're talking about here, the guy who is so rich that even Katie Holmes, who I'm sure is quite well off herself, would be overwhelmed. But, is it really that healthy for Holmes, who just broke off her engagement, and Cruise, who recently broke up both his marriage and a subsequent rebound relationship, to be seeing each other? This is probably just my jealousy talking (and in fact, it almost 100% for sure is just that), but does anyone else see anything at least slightly wrong about this? Would the sight of Denzel Washington and Christina Milian or Ken Watanabe and Zhang Ziyi seem strange? I would say that it would garner more outrage, but that's just me.

Back to more important matters, this past week, English Premiership side Liverpool used an outstanding defensive effort to hold favourites Chelsea to a scoreless draw in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final. Now, the Reds head back home for the second leg, knowing that a win at home will put them in the final of Europe's most presitgious club tournament, likely to face Italian power AC Milan, who defeated PSV Eindhoven 2-0 in their first leg. Now, I'm quite a fan of Liverpool, and quite not a fan of Chelsea, but do we really want to see a team that isn't even in the top 4 in its own league advance to the Champions League final? Does it make any sense that a team that could not even beat middle of the pack Birmingham City, and lost to last place Southampton could compete for the trophy which signifies the best club in European football? The Champions League, like any best-of-the-best tournament, is always going to be full of bizarre instances such as this because of the fact that the matches are randomnly drawn at every round and since it's impossible to objectively rank teams from different domestic leagues. Further, if the Reds somehow vanquish both Chelsea and AC Milan, in addition to their quarterfinal win over Juventus, they will have beaten three of the top teams in all of Europe, and truly be deserving title holders. But any sports fan, regardless of how much one loves a Cinderella story, would like to see some logic to any team's pedigree I would hope. It could be boring if the top teams won all the time, but it would at least be justifiable. The worst thing about the odd win by a team like Liverpool, is that if it isn't sustained, it becomes just a fluke victory, rather than a glowing memory of a deserving champion. In any event, we shall see just how worthy the two finalists end up being, and what impact their domestic seasons have on their potential legacy.