The Proprietor was in North Dakota last weekend, donchaknow, so you’re getting two weeks’ worth of links this time around. Frankly, it’s a great day for football / hockey / really anything - so why wouldn’t you want to sit inside and catch up on some internet reading!

*We start this week with Michael Bertin talking about soccer on Deadspin. Before you hang up the phone, proverbially speaking, the reason I’m linking here isn’t because of the soccer content. It’s because of this thesis statement: “If the current global economic collapse teaches us anything, it’s that people have a right, if not a duty, to boo.” If you’re not saying to yourself right now, “Your ideas intrigue me, Michael Bertin, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter” — well, you should be.

*TV Ratings news: The NHL’s ratings are up. Meanwhile, fewer people watched the World Series on Thursday night than watched any other televised World Series game in history, or something like that. Granted, when you take into account the relative audience sizes for the two, this is comparing apples to the Polyphonic Spree, but still.

Meanwhile, the local ratings for Gopher hockey came in at a 1.83, which sounds awful until you remember that the Timberwolves averaged 0.9 last year. Yes, Virginia — there is a major media market outside of Canada where college hockey beats the NBA in the ratings.

*Twins blog Over the Baggy has a nice retrospective on the strange saga of Matt Garza. Try to remember, when you see him pitching in the World Series — the guy’s a little bit of a head case.

*The Atlantic writer Andrew Sullivan has about 40,000 words on “Why I Blog”. (Proprietor note: For us it’s 90 percent mental and 10 percent dental). It’s a good read, if you enjoy three-dollar words and convoluted sentences, but here’s the summary: “It happens fast, and keeps everybody — writers, readers, fellow commentators — on his or her toes.”

*Finally, Michael Russo had quotes from Marian Gaborik’s agent the other day, ridiculing some of the reported contract offers that Gaby supposedly turned down. Let’s be clear, here — the only reason figures like this are out there is because the Wild wants them to be. The team feels handcuffed by this Gaborik situation, where they can’t trade him without angering the fan base but don’t want to risk drastically overpaying for a fragile, streaky goalscorer — and thus they’re shooting the last bullet in the gun, by trying to make the guy look like a greedy, callous, loyalty-free jerk. If you’re a Twins fan, you’re familiar with this tactic — they use it any time they have a major free agent out there, most recently with Torii Hunter.

I guess we should all look on the bright side; sure, the favorite player of half the state is on his way out, but we’ve still got Derek Boogaard, and he’s the other half’s favorite. Forget goal scoring — hooray knuckle sandwiches!

That’ll (finally) do it for me - we’ve got college football, prep football, pro hockey, and college hockey today. Set your phasers on “fun!” (Sorry about that.)

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