Tomorrow night I get to go to an 80s party to celebrate my friend’s 40^th birthday. I will be donning the Miami Vice look of a white suit, salmon sleeveless and collarless shirt, and wayfarers, which is sure to be awesome and horrifying at the same time. Earlier in the week, however, the costume of choice was going to be a tweed jacket and my Hart for President t-shirt, which my wife reminded me that I had safely tucked away in my closet.

Yes, I have a Hart for president shirt, authentic, from 1987.

To the younger viewers, Gary Hart was the Democratic frontrunner in the 1988 presidential race. The Democrats had just been routed in 1984 by Reagan, and Hart was viewed as the sort of charismatic leader who could restore hope to their party, and early polls indicated such was a reality. However, Mr. Hart couldn’t seem to be faithful to his wife, and in their most glorious moment the National Enquirer (the TMZ of the pre-internet day) broke the news of his longstanding affair with a former Miss South Carolina (who appeared in an episode of Miami Vice), Donna Rice. Back in the puritanical good ol’ days of 1987, such a scandal killed a politician’s career, and when this news broke, Gary Hart dropped out of the race.

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Online gambling, which predominantly consists of poker and sports betting, has long been a grey area in legal terms. As a result of some cloudy language and uncertainty from bettors, some are scared away from depositing money into an offshore account or using a local bookie to make bets, deciding only to play around with sports betting when on vacation in Las Vegas.

Online poker has seen some tough times ever since the Texas Hold ‘Em craze that spawned in the early 2000s. A lot of people became “professional” poker players, playing several tables at a time for several hours a day, making their living off of playing cards. Any legislation that mentions online gambling has been vague. Technically, because nearly all online gambling websites are based outside of the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice does not possess the ability to punish these sites that accept U.S. players.

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The National Hockey League is starting to feel the pressure. With its players playing in games in all parts of the globe, Commissioner Gary Bettman, his staff, and the owners have put together a new proposal for the NHL Players Association to chew on. The goal for the NHL is to find a way to reach a resolution in time to cram all 82 games of the schedule into the 2012-2013 calendar year, which was expected to run from October 11 to April 13.

The latest proposal features a 50/50 split in revenue sharing between the players and the league. The league originally wanted a 57/43 split in their favor. Contracts would be capped at five years. Players would reach free agency at 28 years old or eight years of service time. The salary cap for the 2012-13 season would be $59.9 million, which, 16 of the league’s 30 teams are currently exceeding that number. Teams would be allowed to exceed the cap for this season.

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Monday morning, I get up at 4 AM to get on my plane. As if my week wasn’t starting out crappy enough, when I get to my connection city, I have that all-too-familiar feeling come over me: I am sick. Fantastic.

Sickness hits me in the same way opening the Ark of the Covenant hits Nazi leaders. My entire face starts to melt, I overheat, and I turn into a puddle of worthless protoplasm. This is an especially convenient effect when I have another flight ahead of me, followed by a full day of meetings, followed by one of the most important meetings of my life (this week version) the next day followed by another full day of work and more travel. Somehow I need to figure out a way to make it happen.

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