I was talking to an old friend from school today, and the conversation inevitably led back to our time in college together. We started reminiscing about one of the dumbest things we ever did together, which was the time we decided to take a year off and just bum around. Of course, we didn’t want to do that in Chicago (our hometown), so we figured we’d get an apartment. In Boston. With $800 between us, and no leads for any kind of Boston jobs at all.

As you can imagine, that episode didn’t exactly turn out very well. We made it to Boston safely enough, and crashed with a mutual friend for a couple of days. Then, we decided that it was more fun spending time sightseeing and sunning on the beach in Cohasset, so we didn’t bother looking for apartments or jobs after that. We burned through our funds in two weeks, and then had to call my parents to beg them to wire us gas money to get back home.

Oh, and needless to say, we sheepishly returned to school that fall, since we had no other prospects to look forward to!

Luc Bourdon, who appeared in some 27 games for the Vancouver Canucks this season, died earlier today after crashing his motorcycle near Shippagan, New Brunswick, Canada. Bourdon was just 21 years old.

I don’t know anything about him as a player, but I guess he was considered one of the top prospects in the Vancouver system. He was drafted in the first round (10th overall) in 2005 as an 18-year-old, and had very high expectations surrounding him.

It’s too bad that so many young pro athletes decide to spend their money on motorcycles — particularly when they have zero experience riding the things. Remember how Kellen Winslow Jr. tore his ACL in 2005 after crashing his bike? Or how about Ben Roethlisberger’s accident in 2006? I’m sure there have been several others that I just can’t think of right now.

At any rate, my condolences go out to Bourdon’s family. It’s always a tragedy when someone this young loses their life.

Those of you who watch Grey’s Anatomy have probably heard that there’s a sex tape circulating online that allegedly stars Chyler Leigh, who plays Lexie Grey on the hit ABC series. Unfortunately for all you would-be pervs out there, the chick in the flick is not Chyler. Various sources have debunked the video by showing various differences between the real Chyler and the lookalike in the film. For instance, the real Chyler Leigh has a huge tattoo on her lower back, while the woman in the sex tape doesn’t. Also, the woman in the tape has a tongue ring, but Chyler doesn’t.

And no, I don’t have the full Chyler Leigh sex tape video download available here, so please stop with all the emails asking for it!

Anyway, what is up with all of these celebrity sex tape scandals? Why do people even care about this stuff? Am I the only one who thinks it’s incredibly disgusting to watch two random strangers having sex? Why would anyone want to do that???

I’m closing comments for this post because god only knows what kinds of trolls and spam I would end up getting here….

Last night I read a Forbes piece about the 20 most expensive celebrity weddings, and was simply amazed by how much these people shelled out for their big day. The tabs ranged from $250,000 at No. 20 (Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban) to a whopping $3.5 million at No. 1 (Liza Minelli and David Gest).

The million-dollar weddings started at No. 15 with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, and included other such notable couples as Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, David Beckham and Victoria Adams (Posh Spice), and Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren.

When I read things like this, I really have to wonder where all the money goes? I mean, just how expensive can the food, band, venue, flowers, gowns, tuxes, and bridesmaid gifts be? Sure, I could see costs climbing into the low six figures, but millions? I don’t get it!

It seems like such a waste to me, particularly since many of these high profile weddings end in divorce anyway.

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I’m hosting yet another giveaway over at Reviews and More. This one is for a prize pack from a brand-new USA Network TV series called In Plain Sight, starring Mary McCormack (who used to be on the West Wing), Frederick Weller, and Cristian de la Fuente. McCormack and Weller play U.S. Marshalls who help put federal witnesses in the Witness Protection Program. It’s a summer series that begins on June 1, and it actually sounds pretty interesting. I’ll tune in to the premiere for sure!

Anyway, as I said, I’m giving away a prize pack (pictured above) that contains a tee shirt, tank top, TSA-approved travel kit (with plastic toiletry bottles), and a luggage tag.

All you have to do to enter is drop an email with In Plain Sight Giveaway in the subject line to contest[at]reviewsandmore[dot]net between now and June 9. Here’s the direct link to my contest page, so go check it out now!

I was doing some reading about coin collecting last night, and I came across several interesting facts. For instance, I learned that the most valuable coin in the world is a $20 double eagle gold coin that was minted by the U.S. Treasury in 1933. The coin is so valuable because it is the ONLY one of its kind in the world, and has never been in circulation. It was sold to an anonymous bidder at a 2002 auction for a whopping $7,590,020. Wow!

Obviously, the average person would never get his or her hands on such a coin. Even so, there are still plenty of good reasons to start a gold or silver coin collection of your own. The best reason, of course, is that your collection can actually increase in value.

For example, U.S. coins minted before 1965 contained up to 90% silver, making them worth more than their face value today. So if you purchased a bag of 1965 U.S. coins with a legal tender value of $1,000, the collection would actually be worth far more than that based on the silver content.

That’s certainly something to think about if you’re looking to invest in something relatively stable right now!

What’s wrong with the Seattle Mariners this season? Many analysts predicted that the team would have a pretty solid year since they added ace Erik Bedard to their pitching staff and all of their younger players would have some more experience under their belt.

But that hasn’t been the case at all. The M’s are tied with the Padres for the worst record in baseball (18-32), and are currently mired in a 5-game losing streak. Nothing is working for the team, not the pitching, hitting or coaching, and there doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel. They’re not waiting for a superstar to get off the DL or anything like that; they just suck.

In fact, since winning the AL West with a 116-46 record in 2001, the team has pretty much been in a tailspin. The closest they’ve come to winning the division again was in 2003 when they finished 3 games out of first. After that, they ended up 29 games out in 2004, 26 behind in 2005, 15 behind in 2006, and a more respectable 6 out last year.

The Mariners are already looking at a double-digit deficit this season, and it’s still just May!! No one on the team is doing well, not even the usually reliable Ichiro Suzuki, who’s batting .286 (low for him).

I’m all that upset about the Mariners since the Cubs and Sox are both doing so well, but their poor play is truly baffling. They’re much better than their record indicates, so what’s going on over there???