Fun thing I didn’t know about my own website. If you let your mouse hover over a notification in the ‘new comments’ section, it’ll tell you who left the latest comment!
Co-worker Aaron: You know, I thought we spent our years in college so that we wouldn’t have to be out in the field turning wrenches on a Sunday afternoon.
Notes from a talk given by Astronaut Captain Dan Burbank.
Space travel occasionally seems taken for granted. This was not the case during the Apollo missions. The mission of Apollo 8 was to go around the moon; do a drive-by so to speak. There was a lot of concern about the missions back then. During one of regularly scheduled meetings with the spouses, one spouse spoke up… she nervously asked what the percentage chance was there that her husband would return to Earth safely. The NASA employee responded, “about 50/50.” She breathed a sigh of relief. 50% survival rate was far better than she had imagined.
Interestingly, Astronauts have no place giving a thumbs up or thumbs down on a mission. It’s really mission control’s call. For this reason, sometimes the spouses are a better metric in showing how nervous the astronauts are for their mission.
Connecticut stormed into Holyoke, Massachusetts on Saturday to fiercely battle the Pioneer Vally Roller Derby (PVRD) teams. The Connecticut Roller Girls (CTRG) would face the Western Mass Destruction and CT’s men, the Death Quads, would face the Dirty Dozen. This particular bout was organized so that the men’s and women’s teams would alternate playing each period.
The men stepped up to the line first.
CT’s Johnny Holeshot (#30 in red&yellow) at the line against PVRD’s Dr. Spankenstein (#113v in green)
Photo by Dead End Allie
Right from the start, our Death Quads felt the heat and speed of Massachusetts’ jammers. Dr. Spankenstein, Jurasskick Park, and Davy Jones were the first three jammers for the Dirty Dozen. Their speed was absurd. Death Quads Johnny Holeshot, Cirkle Jerk, and A Boy named Rob, were doing whatever they could to keep up, but the team was still vastly overpowered by the speed and agility of the Dirty Dozen.
CT’s Jacques Strap works to try and catch up to Western Mass’s Jurasskick Park.
Photo by Dead End Allie
The Dirty Dozen were hitting hard and skating fast, and their points soared. When the buzzer blared, the men of Massachusetts had a powerful lead with a score of 47 to Connecticut’s 11.
The Roller Girls were up.
The Connecticut Roller Girls came out in new uniforms: Predominantly black outfits with purple helmets. C. Mya Rage (#86′d), Paula G. Imnaughty (#913), and Ramona Rotten (#1977) were the newest recruits skating (for the first time!) on Saturday for CTRG. As the team took their warm-up laps, the girls practiced whipping their teammates forward and putting on the pressure around the turns.
Black Cherry started the show for CTRG against Western Mass Destruction’s Nora Morse - a pairing that was repeated throughout the night.
Black Cherry and Nora Morse at the jammer starting line
Black Cherry pulled lead jammer status and started the team off with a great momentum. She was followed by Pam Terror, Violet Riot, Nelly Knuckles, Pearl Jammer, and Girl Fawkes all who helped pull Connecticut into a 10 to 2 lead half way early in the first period. Especially noteworthy was a clutch block by C. Mya Rage who barreled forward in the 5th jam to knock down a Pioneer Valley Roller Girl and clear the way for Pearl Jammer to sneak through the pack. The team was really skating well, but Western Mass Destruction wasn’t going to let this one come easy; PVRD’s Big Vinny’s Kid, Pixie Scabs, and Chickadee Struction, were fighting back - and they were fighting hard.
The match was intensely defensive. Check out this video showing just one moment of the defensive power. Brutal!
Yes, the girls were hitting very hard Saturday night.
By the end of the first half, Western Mass Destruction had narrowed the gap in points to 4. The score stood at CTRG 20 - Mass Destruction 16.
Meanwhile… the men returned.
When we last left the Death Quads, they were struggling 36 points behind the home team in Holyoke. Sadly, the second half saw no mercy from the Pioneer Valley Team. They fought aggressively to keep the points rolling. Jurasskick Park, Davy Jones, and Dr. Spankenstein continued to wreak havoc on our CT heroes.
Dr. Spankenstein races towards Cirkle Jerk.
Photo by Dead End Allie
At one point Jurasskick Park was jamming against Cirkle Jerk. I have never seen such speed from a jammer as I did from #1993. Jurasskick Park soared around the ring weaving through the Death Quad blockers. While it was a bummer to see CT falling further behind, it was impressive to see the skating prowess of the Dirty Dozen.
As the men’s bout came to a close the score put the Dirty Dozen on top 123 to 35.
The Roller Girls’ Return
The girls came back and started right in where they had left off. But this time Western Mass Destruction’s Ballistic Miss L, Pittstop, and Nora Morse were ready. They skated hard, and despite the hits from Miz Con SepJen and Victoria Deck’em, they pulled off 10 quick points to steal the lead away from the CTRG. At this point, each team’s strategy became paramount. The teams were trading the lead back and forth. The blockers were fighting to control the front of the pack and the jammers were fighting to break through.
CT’s Pam Terror slows slightly to try and prevent MA’s Blood Bath and Beyond from hitting Black Cherry
At one point the CTRG were down nine. Girl Fawkes came up to face Pittstop as jammer. The whistle blew and the girls were off! Girl Fawkes broke through first and snagged lead jammer status. As she flew around the ring, she lapped Pittstop… but not before pulling off a sick tactical take down and knocking Pittstop to the floor. The hit gave Fawkes enough time to break through the pack again… pulling in nine points and tying the score.
There were only a few minutes left.
The girls signal one another to help make the team aware of advancing jammers.
The last few minutes were extremely intense. Unfortunately the Connecticut girls suffered a serious set back as jamming Nelly Knuckles was sent out on a penalty. This gave Western Mass Destruction a key chance to try and take the lead. They capitalized on the opportunity and grabbed a critical few points. As the time ticked down, all the while the crowd roaring with excitement, the CTRG fell behind 43 to 47.
It was a great night for roller derby. Great job to all the players!
Statistics!
Top Scoring Dudes
The Death Quads
10 - Circkle Jerk
9 — Johnny Holeshot
9 — A Boy Named Rob
The Dirty Dozen
42 - Jurasskick Park
38 - Davy Jones
27 - Dr. Spankenstein
Top Scoring Ladies
CTRG
15 - Black Cherry
11 - Girl Fawkes
Western Mass Destruction
14 - Nora Morse
12 - Kookie Kutteroff
What’s next?
I had an opportunity to chat with Pam Terror before the bout started up. Apparently the girls did really well at the East Coast Derby Extravaganza in Philadelphia last month. This particular bout was the last one for this season so they will be going on break for the duration of the summer, returning to the rink in the fall. Until then, feel free to check the CT roller girl website for additional information on upcoming events.
Why do we call it the Czech Republic? Every other country* out there just goes by its name without any other word after it. It seems like the Czechs have it too formal…
Exceptions: Democratic Republic of the Congo (not to be confused with the Congo– two different countries), Central African Republic, which I suppose could […]
Why do we call it the Czech Republic? Every other country* out there just goes by its name without any other word after it. It seems like the Czechs have it too formal…
Exceptions: Democratic Republic of the Congo (not to be confused with the Congo– two different countries), Central African Republic, which I suppose could go by just Central Africa, and Domincan Republic (not to be confused with Dominica– two different countries).
