The Whole Delivery

As they rocked it for Good Morning America (which embarrassed the Today Show once again), in honor of their reunion, here is the first of several Backstreet Boys songs for The Flashback Fridays today on the final day of August 2012.

Damn, last day in August already? Anyway, I guess this is their new voting block. More when the Friday 1st Thread continues in a bit.

If Machine Gun Kelly can produce stuff like this on a regular, then he will be major. And Ester Dean is brilliant here too:

Sloane Stephens smiles after winning her first round match  Ana Ivanovic is on upset alert here today. Sofia Ardvisson is rising and can win this match. Meanwhile, Serena Williams takes on one of the few players she truly does hate, in the cheater and newly married Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez .  More on Day 4/9 of the US Open, Day Session Thread, in a short while. 

Carly Rae Jespen, with the song for the first half of 2012 and a key reason for the song that is the clear pop hit of late summer and early fall. The US Open and ESPN have certainly facilitated in that department. The 1st Thread and Your Music Wakeup Call for August 30, 2012.  

The only "house music" I can tolerate.........somewhat, from the legend Fatboy Slim.

"Tonight, I want to talk to you about love," or "Tonight, we're going to do what my mother taught me, we're going to chose respect over love." Which one is it Nutty Party?  Fascinating discussion on the worst Brazil national soccer/football/futebol side ever. I thought as a team, 2010 was bad, though 2006 wasn't all that impressive as the final results showed. Nice stuff from Andrea Hlavackova .  Oh look, what a surprise, some Republicans are really racist!  Ann CNN is really corporate heartless too!  And in the best campaign ad of the season, the heartless Koch brothers are ripped to pieces for their avarice.  The 1st Thread for August 29, 2012. 

We have reached the first week of the tournament officially, and here's the key matches to focus on today, as rain is pending again (though the rain is gone.) WOMEN- The "Key Match" for the whole tourney, and the others to "Focus ON": Stephens-Schiavone : The former Italian #1 is on her last limbs, as her energy level continues to fade as the grind of the tour wears down her 32-year-old diminutive self. It will be another long day for Francesca, as Sloane is primed for the victory despite her tendencies to regress back to her old, petulant mental instability. Errani-Muguruza: While one short Italian forces fades, another continues to rise, as Errani will take on another promising, hard-hitting teenager in Spanish rising star Muguruza. Errani's experience and David Ferrer-ness will see her through this talented force, despite her lack of serving power. King-Shvedova : Doubles buddies and friends for life face off here, and it's more difficul...

Okay, Caroline is Danish, but she has Polish blood of course. Either way, thanks to her and New Haven Tennis for this , since Aga barely uses Twitter anymore. More to come in today's 1st Thread here at TWD.

May your day/evening have a sound start (unless you are in Europe, where this may have you already looking forward to tomorrow).

Before the two thug girls started throwing chicken bones at Naturi, here is the first single that sent them all blazing to the top, before an epic crash.

Crucial Day 3 of qualifying, the penultimate round of the tournament to get into the tournament. For today, all courts including show court 17 are in live action starting at 11AM. On the women's side, Citi Bank winner Maggie Rybarikova has another tough test against Serbian teenager Aleksandra Krunic, with Anastasia Rodionova takes on Caroline Garcia in another marquee match. Plenty of close 50/50 contests on the women's side, so here's the rest of them. De Brito/Svitolina, Glushko/Davis, Ormachea/Keys, Cepelova/Tanasugarn, Chan/Fischman, Castano/Pegula, and the Pliskova twins, both their matches. On the men's side, so many intriguing matches, from Dustin Brown vs Tim Smyczek to Aljaz Bedene/Daniel Kosakowski. Here are a few of the others: Klahn/Trungelliti, Rosol/Gonzalez, Seifert/Bubka, Mello/Ganessi. Full schedule is here. And as you see in the highlighted photo, the main draw comes out in approximately over an hour's time at the timing of this ...

Do to time permitting, the author of this site will get right into the highlight matches of Day 2 of the US Open, as first round qualifying continues. Shock US Open junior champion Grace Min will look to see if she can qualify for the Open directly in a tough first round against another young teenager with promise in Slovakia's Jana Cepelova. Also in more promising young Americans on this day, Madison Keys will face off against Madison Brengle in the interesting all-Madison encounter. The opposite of those two is Jill Craybas, who at 37 looks to see if she can be in another US Open main draw against the talented but always erratic Russian Alla Kudryavtseva. On the men's side, 18-year-old American Mitchell Krueger looks to show everybody what he is made of against Argentine journeyman Martin Alund. UCLA star Dan Kosakowski also hopes to impress against Jesse Huta Galung of Holland. From Michelle De Brito to Frank Dancevic with Federer boogey man and friend Marco Chiud...

I cheerish this song so much.

The United States Open for the top tennis players of the world doesn't begin next Monday on August 27. Rather, it starts today, as the mentally grueling and challenging drama that is the qualifying rounds begin. Marquee matches to watch on Day 1 of the 19-day journey that is the toughest Grand Slam in tennis include Ryan Harrison's brother Christian Harrison taking on Grega Zemija, as well as Alison Riske taking on Lauren Davis. Also, two women's intriguing matches at the Open today to look at involve a once mercurial French star in Aravene Rezai slowly playing better again (who faces a difficult match against Chinese 18-year-old hope Saisai Zheng) and the current mercurial but struggling adolescent talent that is Caroline Garcia (who has a tough 1st Round match too against Alberta Brianti).   It should be a fascinating first day at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center. The schedule is here . 

The Missouri nutcase offers an apology late last night: And as the great Slim Slim brought to my attention, the Missouri nutcase didn't even show up on Piers Morgan's show last night, resulting in this: And the winner of the day is the terrific Goldie Taylor . Your 1st Thread from The Whole Delivery on August 21, 2012. 

And it will always be a staple:

And the comments from Claire McCaskill, Akin's opponent. Unsurprisingly, Karl Rove was gutless and did not slam the nutcase. I really do love gutless Karl Rove . I wonder if Todd Akin has any daughters, a question whose answer I will get immediately on the birdie social protocol.

The greatest league ever has its 21st season premiere ever finally here. The greatest season ever of 2011-12 will be eclipsed by what will be the greatest, most competitive season ever in 2012-13. All 20 teams will be great to watch, even defense Reading or when Sam Allardyce gets back to his archaic ways and begins playing his long ball monstrosity (to the benefit of Carlton Cole). I see Reading, Norwich, and West Brom be relegated, as they will play well, but this league is so hard and unforgiving. For the Top 7, I favor from 7 to 1: 7) Newcastle 6) Arsenal 5) Spurs 4) Liverpool 3) Chelsea 2) Man City 1) Man United 

TWD Fridays will continue hopefully all day, schedule permitting.

The Williams sisters, the Radwanska sisters, and three of the big four on the men's side highlight middle Thursday at the biggest tournament of the summer outside the US Open, the Western & Southern Open. Speaking of the Radwanska, after her struggle yesterday with Sofia Ardivsson, Aga kept it real in only her bubbly and vibrant personality can. When asked about her sister Ula's fine rise up the rankings this year, Aga made sure to say that she wants #1 over her taller little sister with a funny laugh.

If you haven't seen this yet, the euphorically named conservative group Americans for Prosperity has another animated ad attacking President Obama. On the best social protocol earlier , I hinted at how this ad gives me great gaiety for how incredibly fake and desperate it is. It would be hilarious to do research on these people and actually see if they did in fact vote for Obama four years ago. Because if they did not, then Americans for Prosperity should be laughed off the face of California's shores and be sent to that evil foreign land that is Hawaii and recover the mysterious birth certificate. 

Photo from Another amazing and weird day in store in Mason, the proud suburb of Cincinnati. Radwanska the elder opens her campaign and her quest for #1 in the world today, and she should get through Sofia Arvidsson easily. The match most intriguing to me is a battle between current upstarts and future WTA stars Sloane Stephens and the energetic Italian Camila Giorgi, which is on the top non-TV court at Cincy, Court 9.  In fact, Court 9 arguably has the best matches of the day, with Hantuchova/Errani and Blake/Nishikori to follow the Stephens/Giorgi underrated contest.

More on this later, but if you have never seen it yet, here is the classic late night interview of Madonna on Arsenio Hall's show back over a score ago. Imagine television having world record categories like athletics (track & field) and swimming. This interview would clearly be a late night world record that will stand for the rest of time.

Mr. Fiasco has really brought it for Food and Liquor 2. Hopefully Atlantic doesn't screw up like last time and ruin great ideas and flow choice.

Enjoy the classic from Reggie Noble.

More on The Today Show's latest desperate act to be cool .......and actually being funny again despite the desperation. Because this show's anchors feel they are celebrities themselves, they will continue to do the most absolutely inane things like this. No matter how hard they tried, Al Roker will never get vitiligo and look like Ringo Starr. At least they admitted that candidly in the video. (Full disclosure: I thought they would actually have the video of that segment on their site. For some strange reason, they apparently don't. Maybe they were too embarrassed to even put it on their page.)

Unlike the National Broadcasting Company To Tevin......Later:

Incredible stuff, via the folks at Eurosport Live . 

This next sentence may make your eyes bleed, unless you have already seen it: US world class gymnast and mean, intense face star McKayla Maroney was teaching Jenna Bush "How To Dougie" on the Today Show.  Le Sigh.  My off the field lowlight of these Olympic games. And that is your 1st Thread for today.

Me on Russia Today segment about the Olympics, with special thanks to Megan Carpentier for making this happen (I'm at the 2:10 mark for a few seconds talking about how the great marathon race was introduced to the Olympics in 1896). I wasn't a nervous wreck like the clip of me that was selected may give off on first glance. Rather, I was very excited and enthralled by my first official TV stuff, even if it was for online media.

The classic, inspiring track co-produced by Kanye West and Israeli's violinist sensation. It's once again here at The Whole Delivery, the brilliant "Sunshine to the Rain" from Miri Ben Ari,  Anthony Hamilton and Scarface. It's your music kickstart or boost for your day at TWD. 

Ragu, no matter how peculiar this one was, and it was HIGHLY peculiar, it was nevertheless, awesome. The music here is what standouts the most. The Updated Links: TP's Morning Briefing includes a link about how  civilian casualties are down in Afghanistan for the first time in five long , painful years in that nation. TP also has a post on the insane Todd Akin . From Raw, Hilary's epic break dancing . Broke Olympic families are just going to be more and more prevalent over the years. And that's before giving you this from The Daily Beast . In contrary to a nutty right-wing email she received , the always benevolent Irin Carmon has a fair and nice take on Ann Romney . Full disclosure: Ann Romney is a nice, very weird old school lady with extremely bizarre views. And in Session one of today's athletics, the great story of Sarah Attar . And a picture of her after the race, thanks to the wonderful person that is Mona Eltahawy. Your 1st Thread from ...