Fries, ketchup, and bears.. oh my

This is our new weekly column that tries to catch up with some of the stories we missed over the past couple of days. It's our way of satiating your thirst for our thoughts on a myriad of sports news and other topics. I guess thirst would be a little strong, but here it is anyway.

I challenge you:
This week instead of just throwing up some random photo of fries and ketchup, I decided to make my own photo using gimp. Now the point of making my own photo was two-fold; first it gave me a time waster and secondly it gave me a chance to challenge our bevy of readers Teach and his mother. Now I figured the first challenge should be simple and we could build up from there. So here it is, tell me the one thing wrong with this photo (Yes, there is more than one, but I am looking for one particular error). Leave your answer in the comment section. (Hint: The bad photo shop job isn't it.)

Historic Home Run:
The other night Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies became the fastest to hit 200 hundred home runs in a career. His career has been one of many successes including; winning the MVP, leading the league in home runs, winning a World Series, being voted to the all-star game, and most importantly introducing us to $5 footlongs from Subway. I bring this up for two reasons; firstly because it is quite an acheivement. There have been so many legendary home run hitters, and he his hitting him them at a quicker pace than any of them, making him one of the best of all-time. Secondly, because the first question on ESPN resulting from this feat involved steroids. The positives have already been listed, but that is one huge negative.

Honestly what other sport does one reach a milestone that can instantly vault you into the questionable cheaters list? It doesn't even happen to pitchers, and they have been just as guilty. So I ask, does accomplishing this feat faster than anyone else in the history of the game (especially after such a dark era) provide more positives or negatives?

Lamar Odom and the Lakers:
A couple days ago the Los Angeles Lakers withdrew their offers to Lamar Odom, included in the withdrawn offers was deal for $9 million for four years and a deal for $10 million a season over three years. Odom and his agent Jeff Schwartz didn't sign as they were looking for $10 million a year over five seasons. Understandably Lamar and his agent want to make this a big pay day. In all likelihood this is Odom's last big deal and he is coming off a stellar postseason where helped vault the Lakers over the Magic en route to the NBA championship. However due to the financial constraints of the rest of the leagues teams, they have absolutely no bargaining power. Only the Blazers have the money available to sign Odom for more than the mid-level exception, and they haven't shown much interest. So that leaves only two possibilities in how this will end, and both involve the Lakers.

Either Odom signs with the Lakers or his agent finagles a sign-and-trade. That is unless he wants to walk away and sign for the MLE and that is highly unlikely since he already turned down deals worth almost double that from the Lakers. The possible destinations are rumored to be either Miami who would send Michael Beasley and some cash fillers for Odom, or Dallas who would send Josh Howard. Well the first trade is reasonable and would help out both teams. The Lakers would get some more talented youth on their roster to fill the void left by Trevor Ariza leaving for Houston. While Miami would give D. Wade a reason to stay in South Beach next summer. As for the Dallas trade, it's not going to happen. The Lakers will not help a conference foe become even better.

The Lakers are the best team in the league with Odom, without him the Lakers are left with a lot of question marks. Can Jordan and Sasha rebound from their inconsistent play of 2008 and give the team the same boost Ariza and Odom did? What happens when Bynum goes down with his annual injury? Will Artest even fit in with the rest of the offense? And that's just scratching the surface, so as a fan I hope they can get a deal done. But the NBA is a business and looking at it from the perspective of a businessman, I say let him go. Odom and agent have no bargaining power, so let him walk and sign for half the value originally offered. In turn you will be teaching him and the rest of the league a lesson in trying to hold a team ransom without any bullets, don't do it.

Listen Up:
Late last year I wrote a post thanking Teach for bringing me back to hip-hop, and this album is the one that made me the happiest to be reunited with the genre. Mos Def's "The Ecstatic is a trip around the World, following Mos as he plays an ambassador for hip-hop. From the get on "Supermagic" he busts through the door sampling from Turkish superstar Selda Bagcan's song "Ince Ince." As the album moves along he continues taking us on an expedition, using his captivating voice and intelligent lyricism to project his ideals. On "No hay nada mas" he shows off his skills, rhyming in Spanish as if it was his first language. However "Casa Bey" is where I get most excited when listening to the album. It seems like every time I hear it I think to myself "This is how hip-hop is supposed to sound." With this album Mos Def brought me back to a point when hip-hop was more about than just who balled the hardest, a point when hip-hop was actually changing the World. Mos Def is proving why he is the vanguard of the genre, and though Nas said hip-hop is dead, Mos is almost singlehandedly keeping it alive.