May 7, 2023 News and Notes

• With maybe about a day and a half of the 2023 Fantasy Faire for Second Life left (There is rumored to be a 12-hour music event on the last day of public access, but it is an "event which is not supposed to be known about".), a 12:20 PM Eastern (9:20 AM SL) look at the toteboard shows the pre-huge-auction total at about $84,000.
• The auction is the final official event -- they will keep the regions open until 12 midnight SL Time Monday night.
• At the beginning of the auction, the head of the Faire, Elizabeth Tinsley, dropped in $4,000 from various randomization vendors (they can't call them "gatchas", so they're something else to conform to Linden Lab rules.
• Then the auction itself raised about $12,000...
• ... after which Tinsley announced she had "forgotten" to put in another $12,800 in store fees, etc. (over 300 stores were created to raise money with various fantasy wares for the Faire) to smash the old Faire record and send the current total, with over a day left, to over $112,000.
• We lost Vida Blue Sunday morning.  The former MLB pitcher was 71.
• Glen Kuiper suspended pending further review of the racial slur he invoked on the air.  He's fired.  Just trying to find a delicate way to do it.   
• Two in a row for the A's, and now both they and Kansas City have eight wins, almost 5 1/2 weeks into the season.
• Gerald Gallant, fired as coach of the Rangers.  Making the playoffs was not good enough.  It also appears exit interviews with the team were a factor in the firing.
• Wigan Athletic have been demoted as the last-place team in the Championship.  They will return to League One next year.
• Joining them will be Reading and Blackpool.
• Burnley are champions.  They and Sheffield United return to the EPL next year.
• Luton Town and Middlesborough will have advantage in the first round of the promotion playoffs for the third spot.  Still five teams with a mathematical shot at the playoff:
• Coventry City only needs a draw at Middlesborough, or small wins by Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion.
• Milwall needs a win.  A draw could send them out if Sunderland or West Brom Albion get large wins.
• The other three teams (Sunderland, West Brom Albion, and Blackburn Rovers) need a win and help.
• Boreham Wood and Bromley won the single-leg National League playoffs.  The former faces runaway top-seed Notts County in one semifinal today.  Bromley goes to Chesterfield in the other.  The winners play for one spot in League Two next year, along with Wrexham, league champions and promoted.
• Bronny James, son of LeBron, will play his one year at USC.
• Nick Gilbert, the son of the owner of Cleveland Cavaliers, passed away at only 26.  Genetic condition, causing noncancerous tumors to form on his nerve pathways.  Had it his entire life.