you can't count on much. but you can count on the red wings to be in the nhl playoffs every season. every season that there is a season anyhow. since 1991 anyhow. it certainly didn't feel certain this april though. since the red wings waited until the very last day of the regular season to secure their spot (they couldn't afford to lose saturday's game). but secure it they did, and even avoided playing this year's fearsome blackhawks by earning the 7th seed instead of the 8th.

so the red wings are in their 22nd straight playoffs. and speaking of 22, this year was the very first season as a red wing for a player by the name of jordin tootoo, the first inuit player in the nhl. and get this! this man, whose last name is tootoo, just like his mother and older brother, was born on february the 2nd. on 2-2. you can't tell me, cannot tell me, i will not listen if you try tell me, this cannot be "just a coincidence." who made it happen, i do not know.

so i went looking on youtube for the introductory clip from magnolia which speaks about such things (it was there once, infringing upon rights) and could only locate a portion, but wouldn't you know that the very first related video listed next to the very first clip i examined was roger ebert's review of magnolia (a review i appear to have previously overlooked). for some reason he's holding a discussion with some woman named joyce.

roger: what it transforms at the end is our expectation that every movie has to be dead in the water and be predictable and be formulaic and end the way we expect it to. this movie is alive and free to surprise us.

joyce: it. makes. no. sense.

just so, joyce, just so.