The Pope, Hamburgers, Nucky Thompson and Other Items From a Mixed Bag

Some disparate thoughts....

• Like so many of you, I found the news of Pope Benedict XVI's decision to retire to be a stunner.  I also found it to be an incredible act of courage in the Pope recognizing and admitting that he no longer has the "physical and mental strength" to continue in the job.
• The specificity of the time of the Pontiff's abdication - February 28 at 8:00 PM - was curious.  Why eight o'clock at night?
• I am stunned by the International Olympic Committee's decision to drop wrestling from the Olympics beginning in 2020.  Not that I was a huge fan of the sport.  If I watched it at all, it was during the Olympics (if you could find it on TV during any of the recent Olympiads), but if there is truly a classic Olympic sport, it's got to be wrestling, right?  I don't think you'll find many ancient Grecian urns depicting rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming.
• I am too cheap to subscribe to HBO, but I think nothing of buying boxed DVD sets.  As such, we just finished watching Season Two of "Boardwalk Empire".  Great series, albeit  quite violent, with good acting and writing, compelling story lines, and, in true HBO fashion, a healthy dollop of gratuitous nudity.  Can't wait for the Season Three DVD set to be released, which will happen about the time that Season Four begins on HBO.  It is almost a full time job trying to avoid Spoilers.
• The Great Hamburger Quest of 2013 continued yesterday with a visit to Sunny Jim's on Camp Horne Road in Emsworth.  Sunny Jim's is known for it's terrific wings, so I figured the burgers had to be good, right?  Wrong.  The burger was large and filling, but my request for a "medium" burger came out resembling something the Penguins would use during their shoot-arounds.  I guess any kitchen can have an off day, and maybe that is what I encountered yesterday, but them's the breaks.  Until I am again inclined to order a burger there, Sunny Jim's burgers fall in the "Unranked" category.  To be fair, Marilyn's Cheese-steak hoagie was good, and SJ's wings ARE very good.
• Ash Wednesday today.  Lent is here, and The Grandstander will, for the next 40 days, be switching from the Hamburger Quest to Friday Fish Fries!  Who says that Lent is all about sacrifice?

The Pope, Nucky Thompson, and Sunny Jim's all in one post.  If that doesn't define "disparate", I don't know what does.