Pondering a few cool thoughts as today’s temperature hit the 100-degree mark for the first time this year. It won’t be the last…

* Is there a team hotter in Major League Baseball the Red Sox right now? They not only swept the three-game series from the Toronto Blue Jays, but dismantled them with a barrage of solid starting pitching, timely hitting, a gaggle of home runs, and aggressive baserunning. Combine that with the news that Blue Jays closer BJ Ryan is done for the year (after “Tommy John” surgery), and the news that GM J.P. Ricciardi deliberately misled the media and the Blue Jays fans on the seriousness of Ryan’s condition during the spring, well, it wouldn’t surprise me if jobs are in danger up in The Great White North in the not-too-distant future. I never bought into the Blue Jays mystique others did prior to the season, but it sure looks like Blue Jays fans are in for a long, tough season…

* While not always agreeing with him (especially when it comes to his views on Christianity), I’ve always enjoyed Christopher Hitchens‘ appearances on the cable news channels and on radio talk shows like Hugh Hewitt‘s. Courtesy of Little Green Footballs, here’s a must-read about how things have changed in London’s Finsbury Park neighborhood since Hitchens’ youth, and its transformation into a hot-bed of radical Islam. Those who think it can’t happen here are deluding themselves…

* While the Griffith Park fire in the Hollywood Hills has gotten alot of attention, Dave at Fish Fear Me is keeping watch over the Ham Lake Fire in northeast Minnesota. With this weekend being Mother’s Day, you might want to keep Dave’s mom in your thoughts and prayers for her continued recovery after her knee replacement.

* Excuse me if I refuse to be party to all the excitement over the massive new 77,000 sq. foot clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass, site of this weekend’s Players Championship (now called simply, “The Players”). To hear the announcers and commentators on The Golf Channel gush over its awesome extravagance is both annoying and, frankly, sickening. What it is, is a perfect symbol for a sport whose participants – incredibly talented though they might be – are both spoiled and pampered beyond belief; in that way, the clubhouse stands as the ultimate testament to the greed and excess that is the PGA Tour and professional golf today.

* And while I’m at it, am I the only one turned off by the “Eagles for St. Jude’s” promotion co-sponsored by Stanford Financial and the PGA Tour? A commercial shows hospitalized children breathlessly watching a golf tournament on TV, hoping that Vijay Singh sinks a putt for an eagle, since that would evidently mean a few more sheckels coming St. Jude’s way. The announcer then says – in all seriousness – something to the effect that, “these guys [Singh and his peers] aren’t just good, they’re heroes.” Total bullshit. It’s people like the young men and women fighting for our country’s security and the freedom of Iraqis thousands of miles away from who are heroes. Consider the fact that players like Singh make millions on the tour every year as they jet around in luxury from one golf event to another. Seems to me they don’t need to make more birdies to help the poor kids at St. Jude’s out – they just need to open their wallets a little wider.

* Silly me. I always thought that, if you wanted to see a good fight in Boston, you’d have to buy tickets to a Bruins game. Turns out you can also find similar forms of entertainment at the symphony. Cool!