Monday marks precisely one year since the All Blacks staged another ignominious World Cup exit with their 20-18 loss to the (insert stereotype here: plucky, unpredictable) French at the Millennium Stadium.
One whole year.
Twelve months of soul-searching over how the nation's beloved team could have got it so wrong again.
It was a strange night.
Cardiff's a strange city at the best of times, with its drab centre surrounding the extraordinary roofed stadium, which was a stage that night for a great upset and another sorry chapter in the All Blacks' World Cup story.
Still don't know how they lost.
Can't blame Wayne Barnes, can't simply say they should have dropped a goal.
It happened, they lost, four more years.
Some folks are already buoyant about their chances in 2011, given New Zealand is hosting the tournament. I'm not.
The pressure of winning at home will be intolerable, and this generation of players will be on the downslide.
The year that saved baseball
With the Major League play-offs starting in the United States - go Red Sox - it's timely to look back a decade on the epic 1998 season.
That was the year Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa staged their extraordinary chase of Roger Maris' home run record.
Maris had slugged 61 homers in the 1961 season to beat Babe Ruth's record of 60.
Baseball had been through tough times in the 1990s with a long labour strike turning the public off America's pastime.
In 1998, the big bats of McGwire and Sosa breathed life back into the sport.
McGwire was all biceps and brawn; Sosa was the sweet-smiling native of the Dominican Republic who blew kisses to his mother.
McGwire set the early pace but the pair were neck and neck through the latter weeks of the season.
Both sailed past 61, with McGwire finishing on 70 and Sosa 66.
Both men later encountered controversy.
McGwire was linked to the steroid scandal that cast a cloud over baseball, and Sosa was found to have used an illegally corked bat in a game.
But 1998 will always stand as a great year for a great sport.
Forty years of memories
It might not quite have the history of the Ryder Cup but the annual clash between the St Clair and Templeton golf clubs has its own special place.
The clubs have been exchanging visits yearly for 40 years and were in action at the Dunedin club's course last weekend.
St Clair won the Saturday matches and the Sunday competition ended in a tie.
The question for today
Which is the bigger flip-flop? The New Zealand Rugby Union going back on its vow to contract the financial basket case that is the Air New Zealand Cup? Or the change in positions of Otago rugby and Otago cricket? Dunedin used to be rugby city.
Now it's a cricket town.
One team is awful and the other is awesome. Crazy.
Pride of the south, in Newcastle
This story has yet to be verified but it sounds about right.
Remember Carl Hayman, Otago's massive and supremely talented rugby player? He's plugging away in Newcastle now, being well paid for his ability to destroy opposing scrums.
Hayman obviously hasn't developed a taste for Newcastle Brown Ale.
We hear he's had a pallet of Speight's shipped over and is slowly working his way through Otago's favourite drop.
It's not about the numbers, Newbs
Craig Newby spoke from the heart earlier this week when he revealed his frustration at Otago's dismal season and his thoughts on modern rugby.
He's a likeable man and his service to the Highlanders and Otago has been unquestioned.
But I will take issue with his comments about the high numbers of support staff in professional rugby.
He said rugby had gone too professional with extra like physios and nutritionists on board.
Which is just rubbish, I'm afraid.
It's too easy to drag out the "too much training" and "too many coaches" argument when a team is losing.
You don't hear top sides like Wellington or Canterbury fretting about such things.
Two examples from two of the world's elite leagues are the Liverpool football team and the Dallas Mavericks NBA team.
Liverpool has 21 staff, including three fitness coaches, four physiotherapists and two kit men.
The Mavericks have 32, including four assistant coaches, three video analysts and two trainers.
My point is Otago is not struggling because it has too many people directing the team.
And from its performances on the field, it certainly doesn't appear to be training too hard.
Time for Smith to put a sock in it
It's a shame the build-up to what could be one of the great NRL finals has been overshadowed by the endless bleatings of Melbourne Storm hooker Cameron Smith.
I've got no sympathy for Smith, who copped a two-week suspension for his nasty "tackle" on Broncos forward Sam Thaiday.
It was a hideous attempt at defence.
Smith grabbed Thaiday's HEAD, with both hands, and wrenched it.
Two weeks for trying to rip somebody's head off seems rather light to me.
