The Steelers and Cardinals have to be the two worst "Championship teams" in the history of the NFL and MLB (I guess that 1988 Dodgers were pretty bad and the 2001 Pats weren't that good). The Steelers were the 6 seed in the NFL and the fucking Cards were the 13th best team in the majors this year over 162 games. And this probably isn’t a good time to mention that the Phillies, the fucking Phillies, had a better record than the Cardinals.
I could go on about how the Tigers were the luckiest team of all time (until last Saturday at least), but whatever… they’ll win about 85 games next year and finish in third place in the AL Central (unless the Tribe fix their bullpen, if that happens then you won’t see the Indians blowing 5 games in the 9th inning over a 8 game stretch).
Actually, let’s talk about the Tigers and how lucky they were. They ran away with the AL though the first 100 games or so then… The Tigers choke started. They were saved by the Sox never getting hot, the Yankees playing like shit, and the A's doing their annual choke job a week later than normal. They were lucky to make the playoffs and then lucky to make the World Series.
Of course, if the Tigers pitchers don’t throw five balls away, they’re probably playing baseball today. I’ve never seen a team beat itself the same way over the course of a series. But the Tigers did… amazing how those pitchers kept throwing those balls away. That’s why the Cards won.
But that also raises the point that this was a pretty poorly played World Series. Only Game One did you see on team ‘beat’ the other team. Games Two and Three weren’t as poorly played as Games Four and Five, but it’s not like those were games that had you on the edge of your seat. Overall, a very disappointing World Series and October in general… you best series was the NLCS and that wasn’t that great (Endy Chavez’s catch aside).
Meanwhile, the Cards raise to the top in an absolute shit NL thanks in part to the Mets arms all falling off.
Then they come out, beat the shit out of the Tigers in Game One. Lose Game Two. Game Three Carp pitches well, but the Tigers sort of blow it no matter. Game Four the Tigers give to the Cards thanks to the crap field, and Game Five Verlander raps in a bow for the Cards. They win.
And this Heat team wasn't that 'great' either (unless Wade becomes one of the ten greatest players of all time). Just a weird year in sports (though I should say, both that Gator b-ball team and the Texas football team were pretty good).
Pam Ward just called the Illini running back "Beastly". I am strangely aroused.
I promised Watford updates and here is update #1… they’re fighting. After ten games, Watford has yet to win in league, but they have six draws and find themselves just outside the regulation zone at the moment (they have 6 points and a goal differential of -6 which isn’t half bad). The good news is that they aren’t losing, the bad news… the season can go either way at the moment. A few losses and they’ll be in a big trouble. A few wins and it looks like they’ll be one of those teams no one wants to play. If anything interesting starts happening, we’ll let you know.
Okay that’s all… sorry, this sucks. Midterms are over tomorrow.
29.10.06
28.10.06
Picks... For the Moment
Just to make it offical:
WISCONSIN (-22) over Illinios
NAVY (+14) over Notre Dame
Penn State (+3) over PURDUE
Georgia (-1) over Florida – Classic somebody knows something that I don’t know game.
OHIO STATE (-28) over Minnesota
MARYLAND (+3.5) over Florida State
SOUTH CAROLINA (+3.5) over Tennessee
Last Week - 5-2
For the Season - 30-9-2
WISCONSIN (-22) over Illinios
NAVY (+14) over Notre Dame
Penn State (+3) over PURDUE
Georgia (-1) over Florida – Classic somebody knows something that I don’t know game.
OHIO STATE (-28) over Minnesota
MARYLAND (+3.5) over Florida State
SOUTH CAROLINA (+3.5) over Tennessee
Last Week - 5-2
For the Season - 30-9-2
21.10.06
Game One and other Thoughts While drinking the Rat
There really is something magical about October baseball. I forgot this last year as I followed the White Sox through every twist and turn; up and down. (Granted it was mostly ups and ups). But when you’re following a team that’s THAT CLOSE, all that matters is getting the win. You forget about the magic of it all since your so caught up in the team. (Sort of like when you fall for a girl… it’s nice to fall for a girl (provided you land her)… but looking back it’s sort of more fun to chase a girl and slowly let the relationship build with each flirting moment. I will now go hand my Man-Card).
But watching the Mets/Cards game on Thursday, it hit me once again, at how special and amazing playoff baseball is. Endy Chavez’s catch was… well what else is there to say? It was the greatest catch I’ve ever seen in my life… and to top it off it actually meant a whole lot more than a bunch of those Web Gems. The only problem with the catch, and this is a major bummer, is that the Mets didn’t win the game. You hate to say that it took away from the catch a bit, but it’s a shame that it didn’t win the Mets the game.
I still can’t get over it.
And to make it all the better, I was in a bar… I’m sure you can imgine the reaction of the palce when we all noticed what happened. That’s the beauty of it all, five guys shooting the shit, one of ‘em with his eyes glued. He see’s Rolan’s cut and realizes that it’s been nailed, he makes a noise, the other four (who are half watching) either hear the sound or catch the cut out the corner of their eye. They all look up, they all start going, “ohhhh…” and then you start following Chavez, and you wonder “shit, I thought that was out does he have a chance… no that’s gone…” then all at once “OH MY GOD!” “HOLY SHIT!” and all those other sounds that come from a bar that eventually become “haohhaohhhh”.
And that’s when you realize how special playoff baseball is. Even though everyone’s shooting the shit, we’ve all got an eye on the game. And when Rolan kills one, we all know where to look and what to think and how to react when Chavez pulls that snowcone out of no where.
But here I am, watching the Cards and Tigers in the World Series and it’s just comforting knowing that it’s on.
(And BTW, the World Series has to be the most bittersweet moment in sports. You play 162 games though the spring and summer only to reach the pinnacle of the season in the fall. The end of the baseball season means that winter is coming and you’ve got four or five months of shit weather. All of it without baseball. The other factor is that you start to realize that you’re going to really, really miss baseball come January. Unlike the other sports, you actually get sick of baseball in the middle of the season, usually in August, only to fall for the damn game again in late September and October. In the NFL, the melodrama that surrounds the last few weeks of the season and then the over glorification of the NFL playoffs ends up being a buzz kill. By the time the Super Bowl rolls around you can’t wait for it to end just so you don’t have to read any more stories about some random guy who grew up in Fargo who isn’t that interesting and are probably injecting himself with HGH as it is).
Anyway, the Tigers are crapping the bed, something that I didn’t see coming. It’s as if they didn’t realize there was a game today. Maybe the week off hurt them. But every time I look up, the Cards are at the plate with a runner on. What happened to that Tiger team that caught every break in the book (seriously, the 2006 Tigers had a 1920-2000 like New York Yankee season. You know how if the Yankees need a two run home run they would get a grand slam? Well that was the Tigers this year. It was freakish. And if I was a Tiger fan, I’d pray to the Baseball Gods for the World Series win, because they used up a good twenty years of luck this year. The Baseball Gods will make them pay next year (and if you don’t believe me see the 2006 Chicago White Sox who couldn’t catch a cold when it came to getting a break.))
And what really pisses me off is that it only took them an extra 11 games in a crappy National League for the Cardinals to reach the same exact number of wins as the Chicago White Sox. Damn the National League. And damn the Cardinals… they can’t really win this World Series can they?
Well the game’s over… that was fun. The Cards beat the crap out the Tigers I should add. Tigers looked rusty and over matched by some guy who was in AAA five months ago. Meanwhile, Verlander was lit up again - a trend that started in the middle of August… but I’ll be big and stick to my Tigers in Five prediction. But you’ve got to wonder… if Jeff Weaver pitches a revenge game tomorrow, the Cards have Carpenter going in Game Three… they can’t actually do this? In other words, Kenny Rogers better be on tomorrow.
PAGING CURTIS GRANDERSON.
And should we call Game One: “The Revenge of Scott Rolan on Philly and Tony La Russa”? Did he win that game out of spite of Tony or out of spite of everyone from Philly calling him a “pussy” the last week or so?
Oh and is it me, or is “Jessica” by the Almond Brothers like the greatest baseball song of all time? Is that because of my never ending love for “Field of Dreams” or something else?
This has been bothering me, but why don’t girls shave their arms? Seriously? They shave their legs. They shave their armpits… why stop at the arms? I want an answer. Just like I want someone, anyone, to come up for the word of what to call the lunch after a funeral. It’s not a party. But it’s not a luncheon (since luncheons only consist of really rich and snobbish white women; and funerals feature men thus they can’t be luncheons. Though, and don’t kill me for saying this, but I guess a lunch attended by only gay men would be call a luncheon since they’d probably call it a luncheon anyway and they’d drink martinis and Seven-in-Sevens like really rich white women).
Having Pete Gammons back in my life is a great thing. Sort of like, oh I don’t know, finding out that Jenny Lewis was coming over for a drink or two.
This Pat Tillman stuff gets more and more sad/interesting by the week. As I said before, get your hands on the SI article on Tillman from about a month ago. Seriously. It’s amazing. That issue has found it’s way to the top of my “Do not throw away” pile of magazines (which I should add consists of Beckett Monthlies from 9 years ago, a random SI story on Teemu Selanne, a few Newsweeks from the years, and the last two years of the Economist). Anyway, Tillman’s brother broke his silence today… here it is if you haven’t seen it yet.
Did I mention that I saw Obama on the corner of 57th and Kimbark on Tuesday? Well I did. He’s sort of tall and pretty lanky. And dope as shit. He gets a WORD UP THOME.
The Best Part about living in Hyde Park: Dunkin Donuts is back in my life. It’s beyond great, it’s hochuli.
(Where does bring back a trend that was never a trend rank on the Lame Scale?)
For the record, Notre Dame and Wisconsin both have one loss. That loss for both teams was to Michigan. Notre Dame got run over at home by the Wolverines. The Badgers gave Blue a fight in the Big House. The Badgers are averaging 33.9 points per game, the Irish 30.3. And the Badgers looked much more impressive in their win over Purdue than the Irish.
Look, I know that the Badgers have played an easier schedule than the Irish, but I’m just saying. I think Wisconsin would beat Notre Dame. PJ Hill would run wild on the Irish, and Stocco would do what would be needed to be done to win the game. Plus the Badger D is pretty friggin’ good. I say Badgers win 31-20.
Oh, and Madison is 9 million times more fun that South Bend.
And with that, I’m going to Jimmy’s. The getting way to popular Jimmy’s. So maybe I’ll go to the Pub.
But watching the Mets/Cards game on Thursday, it hit me once again, at how special and amazing playoff baseball is. Endy Chavez’s catch was… well what else is there to say? It was the greatest catch I’ve ever seen in my life… and to top it off it actually meant a whole lot more than a bunch of those Web Gems. The only problem with the catch, and this is a major bummer, is that the Mets didn’t win the game. You hate to say that it took away from the catch a bit, but it’s a shame that it didn’t win the Mets the game.
I still can’t get over it.
And to make it all the better, I was in a bar… I’m sure you can imgine the reaction of the palce when we all noticed what happened. That’s the beauty of it all, five guys shooting the shit, one of ‘em with his eyes glued. He see’s Rolan’s cut and realizes that it’s been nailed, he makes a noise, the other four (who are half watching) either hear the sound or catch the cut out the corner of their eye. They all look up, they all start going, “ohhhh…” and then you start following Chavez, and you wonder “shit, I thought that was out does he have a chance… no that’s gone…” then all at once “OH MY GOD!” “HOLY SHIT!” and all those other sounds that come from a bar that eventually become “haohhaohhhh”.
And that’s when you realize how special playoff baseball is. Even though everyone’s shooting the shit, we’ve all got an eye on the game. And when Rolan kills one, we all know where to look and what to think and how to react when Chavez pulls that snowcone out of no where.
But here I am, watching the Cards and Tigers in the World Series and it’s just comforting knowing that it’s on.
(And BTW, the World Series has to be the most bittersweet moment in sports. You play 162 games though the spring and summer only to reach the pinnacle of the season in the fall. The end of the baseball season means that winter is coming and you’ve got four or five months of shit weather. All of it without baseball. The other factor is that you start to realize that you’re going to really, really miss baseball come January. Unlike the other sports, you actually get sick of baseball in the middle of the season, usually in August, only to fall for the damn game again in late September and October. In the NFL, the melodrama that surrounds the last few weeks of the season and then the over glorification of the NFL playoffs ends up being a buzz kill. By the time the Super Bowl rolls around you can’t wait for it to end just so you don’t have to read any more stories about some random guy who grew up in Fargo who isn’t that interesting and are probably injecting himself with HGH as it is).
Anyway, the Tigers are crapping the bed, something that I didn’t see coming. It’s as if they didn’t realize there was a game today. Maybe the week off hurt them. But every time I look up, the Cards are at the plate with a runner on. What happened to that Tiger team that caught every break in the book (seriously, the 2006 Tigers had a 1920-2000 like New York Yankee season. You know how if the Yankees need a two run home run they would get a grand slam? Well that was the Tigers this year. It was freakish. And if I was a Tiger fan, I’d pray to the Baseball Gods for the World Series win, because they used up a good twenty years of luck this year. The Baseball Gods will make them pay next year (and if you don’t believe me see the 2006 Chicago White Sox who couldn’t catch a cold when it came to getting a break.))
And what really pisses me off is that it only took them an extra 11 games in a crappy National League for the Cardinals to reach the same exact number of wins as the Chicago White Sox. Damn the National League. And damn the Cardinals… they can’t really win this World Series can they?
Well the game’s over… that was fun. The Cards beat the crap out the Tigers I should add. Tigers looked rusty and over matched by some guy who was in AAA five months ago. Meanwhile, Verlander was lit up again - a trend that started in the middle of August… but I’ll be big and stick to my Tigers in Five prediction. But you’ve got to wonder… if Jeff Weaver pitches a revenge game tomorrow, the Cards have Carpenter going in Game Three… they can’t actually do this? In other words, Kenny Rogers better be on tomorrow.
PAGING CURTIS GRANDERSON.
And should we call Game One: “The Revenge of Scott Rolan on Philly and Tony La Russa”? Did he win that game out of spite of Tony or out of spite of everyone from Philly calling him a “pussy” the last week or so?
Oh and is it me, or is “Jessica” by the Almond Brothers like the greatest baseball song of all time? Is that because of my never ending love for “Field of Dreams” or something else?
This has been bothering me, but why don’t girls shave their arms? Seriously? They shave their legs. They shave their armpits… why stop at the arms? I want an answer. Just like I want someone, anyone, to come up for the word of what to call the lunch after a funeral. It’s not a party. But it’s not a luncheon (since luncheons only consist of really rich and snobbish white women; and funerals feature men thus they can’t be luncheons. Though, and don’t kill me for saying this, but I guess a lunch attended by only gay men would be call a luncheon since they’d probably call it a luncheon anyway and they’d drink martinis and Seven-in-Sevens like really rich white women).
Having Pete Gammons back in my life is a great thing. Sort of like, oh I don’t know, finding out that Jenny Lewis was coming over for a drink or two.
This Pat Tillman stuff gets more and more sad/interesting by the week. As I said before, get your hands on the SI article on Tillman from about a month ago. Seriously. It’s amazing. That issue has found it’s way to the top of my “Do not throw away” pile of magazines (which I should add consists of Beckett Monthlies from 9 years ago, a random SI story on Teemu Selanne, a few Newsweeks from the years, and the last two years of the Economist). Anyway, Tillman’s brother broke his silence today… here it is if you haven’t seen it yet.
Did I mention that I saw Obama on the corner of 57th and Kimbark on Tuesday? Well I did. He’s sort of tall and pretty lanky. And dope as shit. He gets a WORD UP THOME.
The Best Part about living in Hyde Park: Dunkin Donuts is back in my life. It’s beyond great, it’s hochuli.
(Where does bring back a trend that was never a trend rank on the Lame Scale?)
For the record, Notre Dame and Wisconsin both have one loss. That loss for both teams was to Michigan. Notre Dame got run over at home by the Wolverines. The Badgers gave Blue a fight in the Big House. The Badgers are averaging 33.9 points per game, the Irish 30.3. And the Badgers looked much more impressive in their win over Purdue than the Irish.
Look, I know that the Badgers have played an easier schedule than the Irish, but I’m just saying. I think Wisconsin would beat Notre Dame. PJ Hill would run wild on the Irish, and Stocco would do what would be needed to be done to win the game. Plus the Badger D is pretty friggin’ good. I say Badgers win 31-20.
Oh, and Madison is 9 million times more fun that South Bend.
And with that, I’m going to Jimmy’s. The getting way to popular Jimmy’s. So maybe I’ll go to the Pub.
Quick Picks
Really quickly to make this official:
PENN STATE (-18) over Illinois
NORTHWESTERN (+8) over Michigan State – I’ll be at this game… and honestly, MSU should kill them. I hate this game.
NEBRASKA (+5) over Texas – This is the first meaningful game in Lincoln in about five years… or it seems that way.
Wisconsin (-7) over PURDUE – The Badgers get better and better each week.
NOTRE DAME (-13) over UCLA
Alabama (+11) over TENNESSEE
MICHIGAN (-13) over Iowa
SEASON - 25-7-2
PENN STATE (-18) over Illinois
NORTHWESTERN (+8) over Michigan State – I’ll be at this game… and honestly, MSU should kill them. I hate this game.
NEBRASKA (+5) over Texas – This is the first meaningful game in Lincoln in about five years… or it seems that way.
Wisconsin (-7) over PURDUE – The Badgers get better and better each week.
NOTRE DAME (-13) over UCLA
Alabama (+11) over TENNESSEE
MICHIGAN (-13) over Iowa
SEASON - 25-7-2
18.10.06
Rod For Illinois!
There is comedy, there’s high comedy, and then there is this: Rod for Illinois. What’s great is that it isn’t a porno site. So it’s totally safe to open at work (unless, of course, you work for that clown Judy Barr Topeka).
Take that Cubbies… Sox TV ratings were higher than the Cubs this year. That may sound logical, but trust me, in the city of Chicago that’s a huge upset.
On both WGN and WCIU, the Sox's ratings for the season rose 21% over last year, to a 5.1, while the Cubs' fell 22% to a 4.5. One rating point equals 34,550 area households.
The Sox scored a 3.1 rating on Comcast SportsNet, up 19% from the previous season. The Cubs slipped 25% to a 2.9.
Ummm, Juan, what’s going on man?
Sadly, it seems like our favorite White Sox, Juan Uribe, is in a bit of trouble down in the DR (RD if you speak Spanish). Apparently he and a bodyguard were arrested for shooting two men (one of which was an Italian sailor, which makes this story even more bizarre).
Uribe’s denying any involvement according to ESPN.com, even going as far to say that they know that he plays in the majors and just want his money:
"I'm completely innocent," Uribe told ESPNdeportes.com. "They're trying to extort me because they know I play in the major leagues. They sent word to me that if I give them 1,000,000 pesos [about 33,000 U.S. dollars], all of this will go away."
Personally, we think the Dugout’s take on the entire situation might be the closest thing to the truth… it’s a Jeep Thing… Word Up, Thome.
But no matter, we hope that justice is served. So if Uribe is innocent, hopefully he can move on with his life and play winter ball down in the Dominican. If he is guilty, then may due process take place (or whatever they call it in the DR).
Uribe had a down year for the Sox hitting only .235 and making some boneheaded mistakes. But he’s a hellova defensive player… and who can forget his magic in Game Four of the 2005 World Series?
(This is when we show the YouTube clip of Uribe’s great plays, but of course MLB, being MLB, yanked all those off youtube because you know, promotion is a bad thing after all. If it worked for the Blackhawks… eh?)
And you thought Deadspin wasn’t intellectual enough? Well Will Leitch, aka the editor of Deadspin, wrote an op-ed in today’s New York Times. It’s about the St. Louie Cards, but hey, it made the back page. So word up Thome to him.
We’ve been a little disappointed with the Guardian the last few weeks… nothing really to note that we’ve noticed. But this is an interesting and at times chilling photo essay.
Finally, here’s an op-ed piece from today’s Washington Post on the detainee legislation that Bush signed into law yesterday. While we have full faith in the checks and balances in our system (in other words, that the Supreme Court will rule that this law is unconstitutional), it’s still extremely worrisome that Congress has pretty much failed to do it’s job for almost five years now.
We’ve touched on this before, about the break down in Congress to stem the power that the President is grabbing, which is a historical first. Congress usually acts tough with Presidents that attempt to increase their power at the expensive of Congress (well, maybe not FDR). Why this is happening is the big question, and we could probably go on and on attempting to find some reason somewhere of why this is happening (money?). But right now, we’re more at a loss for the failure of Congress. At some point they have to step up to Bush and his tendency to take on more and more power (which btw, isn’t unique to Bush, pretty much every president has attempted to expand their power within the government).
Hopefully Congress will eventually begin to reel the power that they’ve given Bush. But until that day, Congress is just as much to blame, if not more so, as Bush. They’ve allowed him to do what he has pleased and get us into this mess that we’re in.
Oh well right? Who knows. Whatever… nevermind.
Take that Cubbies… Sox TV ratings were higher than the Cubs this year. That may sound logical, but trust me, in the city of Chicago that’s a huge upset.
On both WGN and WCIU, the Sox's ratings for the season rose 21% over last year, to a 5.1, while the Cubs' fell 22% to a 4.5. One rating point equals 34,550 area households.
The Sox scored a 3.1 rating on Comcast SportsNet, up 19% from the previous season. The Cubs slipped 25% to a 2.9.
Ummm, Juan, what’s going on man?
Sadly, it seems like our favorite White Sox, Juan Uribe, is in a bit of trouble down in the DR (RD if you speak Spanish). Apparently he and a bodyguard were arrested for shooting two men (one of which was an Italian sailor, which makes this story even more bizarre).
Uribe’s denying any involvement according to ESPN.com, even going as far to say that they know that he plays in the majors and just want his money:
"I'm completely innocent," Uribe told ESPNdeportes.com. "They're trying to extort me because they know I play in the major leagues. They sent word to me that if I give them 1,000,000 pesos [about 33,000 U.S. dollars], all of this will go away."
Personally, we think the Dugout’s take on the entire situation might be the closest thing to the truth… it’s a Jeep Thing… Word Up, Thome.
But no matter, we hope that justice is served. So if Uribe is innocent, hopefully he can move on with his life and play winter ball down in the Dominican. If he is guilty, then may due process take place (or whatever they call it in the DR).
Uribe had a down year for the Sox hitting only .235 and making some boneheaded mistakes. But he’s a hellova defensive player… and who can forget his magic in Game Four of the 2005 World Series?
(This is when we show the YouTube clip of Uribe’s great plays, but of course MLB, being MLB, yanked all those off youtube because you know, promotion is a bad thing after all. If it worked for the Blackhawks… eh?)
And you thought Deadspin wasn’t intellectual enough? Well Will Leitch, aka the editor of Deadspin, wrote an op-ed in today’s New York Times. It’s about the St. Louie Cards, but hey, it made the back page. So word up Thome to him.
We’ve been a little disappointed with the Guardian the last few weeks… nothing really to note that we’ve noticed. But this is an interesting and at times chilling photo essay.
Finally, here’s an op-ed piece from today’s Washington Post on the detainee legislation that Bush signed into law yesterday. While we have full faith in the checks and balances in our system (in other words, that the Supreme Court will rule that this law is unconstitutional), it’s still extremely worrisome that Congress has pretty much failed to do it’s job for almost five years now.
We’ve touched on this before, about the break down in Congress to stem the power that the President is grabbing, which is a historical first. Congress usually acts tough with Presidents that attempt to increase their power at the expensive of Congress (well, maybe not FDR). Why this is happening is the big question, and we could probably go on and on attempting to find some reason somewhere of why this is happening (money?). But right now, we’re more at a loss for the failure of Congress. At some point they have to step up to Bush and his tendency to take on more and more power (which btw, isn’t unique to Bush, pretty much every president has attempted to expand their power within the government).
Hopefully Congress will eventually begin to reel the power that they’ve given Bush. But until that day, Congress is just as much to blame, if not more so, as Bush. They’ve allowed him to do what he has pleased and get us into this mess that we’re in.
Oh well right? Who knows. Whatever… nevermind.
17.10.06
A Look Back at That "Axis Of Evil"
Thoughts while wondering if there was ever a performance quite like Urlacher’s 4th quarter performance last night…
First and foremost… RIP Chicago Board of Trade, we’re going to miss you. If you haven’t heard the Merc snapped up the CBOT today for a cool $8 billion bucks. While operations will continue on as is (yay bonds and soybeans and corn trading!) the name of the CBOT will change to CME Group Inc. First Marshall Field’s becomes Macy’s and now the Chicago Board of Trade becomes the CME Group. In Chicago, nothing is sacred, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has spent any time here.
We’ve always had a very close and very personal relationship seeing that our father has worked there our entire life. We even spent a summer down there (looking back the summer of 1998 was the biggest ‘fraud’ summer/year of my life. Not only was I 16 years-old, a fraud age if there ever was one, it was also the summer of Mac and Sammy and all those ‘roids).
So we’re a bit bummed out, why were not sure, but it just doesn’t seem right that one of the best-looking buildings in the world (look to your left!) isn’t what it was. Sure it’s all symbolism and we shouldn’t be upset about it. But that’s Chicago. The bottom line is the almighty dollar, where the hustler and the square ride the El to work, for keeps and a single day.
What happened to JACKED UP!!!!? It stinks now. What a disappointment. (btw, nothing was better than the all white JACKED UP!!! of last season around week 12, that was awesome for all the wrong reasons).
If the Bush Administration were like the Star Wars trilogy, we’d be nearing the end of “Empire Strikes Back”. Can things be any worse for these guys? But here’s the kicker, I can’t really see a “Return of the Jedi” in the future (unless of course, that Jedi is John McCain but considering he’s about as old as Yoda, looks like Yoda, and redefines the term flip-flopper… I don’t think that’s happening).
On top of that, the “Axis of Evil” is looking like some cross between the Ginger Bread Man (North Korea), Anna Nicole Smith (Iraq), and Terrell Owens (Iran). Let’s break this down:
Ginger Bread Man/North Korea – We’re going to look back on the “Axis Of Evil” speech the same way we look back at “Peace in our Time”. At the time it seemed like a good thing to say*, but it was far too short sighted in the long run. Anyway, it’s hard to blame the White House about the Kim Jong Il’s testing of a nuke last week, but KJI did say that it was the GWB’s threats that made him move ahead with his nuclear program. (Note: While there is truth to what KJI says, the North Koreans had been trying to build a bomb prior to the “Axis of Evil” speech).
If you remember your “Axis of Evil” speech, you’ll recall that Bush was would stop those three countries from acquiring nuclear weapons. Well North Korea just tested a nuke, and pretty much no one is doing anything about it right now. Of course it’s a little more complicated it appears on paper since the US pretty much as to defer to China and needs China to step to the plate right now. But it goes to show how foolish the “Axis of Evil” talk was… if the White House didn’t have the Chinese support concerning North Korea, why even call North Korea out since without China’s support/backing THE US CAN DO NEXT TO NOTHING!?!? You don’t pick on someone if you’re not able to back up your talk, most people learn this in first grade, second grade at the latest. If you’re going to speak loudly, then you’ve got to carry the big stick.
Of course as Teddy Roosevelt helped teach this country 100 years ago, it’s better to speak softly and carry the big stick. Less egg ends up on the face that way.
So North Korea runs around like the Ginger Bread Man, no one can catch him because no one wants to catch him… “run run as fast as you can…”
*(Any time I hear or think “at the time it seemed like a good thing to do/say” it’s usually a story that involves way too much beer. Now, of course the Axis of Evil speech didn’t involve any beer, but it’s one of the few time I can think of a story that has “it seemed like a good idea at the time” and everyone was totally sober while the story takes place).
Anna Nicole Smith/Iraq – Oh Lord where to even start? It’s a friggin’ mess. Seriously. Let’s just move on. At this point it’s just flat out sad, a tragedy in fact. I don’t even want to think about it.
On the bight side, we certainly showed Saddam who’s the boss. Boy oh boy… good thing we got rid of the least threatening of the two dictators (I’m not sure what to call Iran since they do have elections but they’re rigged, but not completely rigged elections). Good thing he’s gone, yep, I mean he had all those WMDs and nukes. THANK GOD he’s gone. Seriously. Phew. I feel so safe.
Terrell Owens/Iran – The only question is who’s more insane. I’m going with TO, but jeeze, it’s not like Iran’s got its head on straight. Can anyone figure those guys out? In fact are they openly mocking Bush at this point? It sure seems that way at times.
Honestly, I’m not sure I can add anything on Iran right now… so I’ll just move on.
I’ve listened to so much shit music today… it’s hard looking for good songs from 2006.
Hey Look! Pete Townshend on Pitchfork!
We need a little youtube don't we? Okay... this is for you Lee Elia... just for you. Dennis Green wants to be you. Gosh this is great... he hates his team right now.
First and foremost… RIP Chicago Board of Trade, we’re going to miss you. If you haven’t heard the Merc snapped up the CBOT today for a cool $8 billion bucks. While operations will continue on as is (yay bonds and soybeans and corn trading!) the name of the CBOT will change to CME Group Inc. First Marshall Field’s becomes Macy’s and now the Chicago Board of Trade becomes the CME Group. In Chicago, nothing is sacred, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has spent any time here.
We’ve always had a very close and very personal relationship seeing that our father has worked there our entire life. We even spent a summer down there (looking back the summer of 1998 was the biggest ‘fraud’ summer/year of my life. Not only was I 16 years-old, a fraud age if there ever was one, it was also the summer of Mac and Sammy and all those ‘roids).
So we’re a bit bummed out, why were not sure, but it just doesn’t seem right that one of the best-looking buildings in the world (look to your left!) isn’t what it was. Sure it’s all symbolism and we shouldn’t be upset about it. But that’s Chicago. The bottom line is the almighty dollar, where the hustler and the square ride the El to work, for keeps and a single day.What happened to JACKED UP!!!!? It stinks now. What a disappointment. (btw, nothing was better than the all white JACKED UP!!! of last season around week 12, that was awesome for all the wrong reasons).
If the Bush Administration were like the Star Wars trilogy, we’d be nearing the end of “Empire Strikes Back”. Can things be any worse for these guys? But here’s the kicker, I can’t really see a “Return of the Jedi” in the future (unless of course, that Jedi is John McCain but considering he’s about as old as Yoda, looks like Yoda, and redefines the term flip-flopper… I don’t think that’s happening).
On top of that, the “Axis of Evil” is looking like some cross between the Ginger Bread Man (North Korea), Anna Nicole Smith (Iraq), and Terrell Owens (Iran). Let’s break this down:
Ginger Bread Man/North Korea – We’re going to look back on the “Axis Of Evil” speech the same way we look back at “Peace in our Time”. At the time it seemed like a good thing to say*, but it was far too short sighted in the long run. Anyway, it’s hard to blame the White House about the Kim Jong Il’s testing of a nuke last week, but KJI did say that it was the GWB’s threats that made him move ahead with his nuclear program. (Note: While there is truth to what KJI says, the North Koreans had been trying to build a bomb prior to the “Axis of Evil” speech).
If you remember your “Axis of Evil” speech, you’ll recall that Bush was would stop those three countries from acquiring nuclear weapons. Well North Korea just tested a nuke, and pretty much no one is doing anything about it right now. Of course it’s a little more complicated it appears on paper since the US pretty much as to defer to China and needs China to step to the plate right now. But it goes to show how foolish the “Axis of Evil” talk was… if the White House didn’t have the Chinese support concerning North Korea, why even call North Korea out since without China’s support/backing THE US CAN DO NEXT TO NOTHING!?!? You don’t pick on someone if you’re not able to back up your talk, most people learn this in first grade, second grade at the latest. If you’re going to speak loudly, then you’ve got to carry the big stick.
Of course as Teddy Roosevelt helped teach this country 100 years ago, it’s better to speak softly and carry the big stick. Less egg ends up on the face that way.
So North Korea runs around like the Ginger Bread Man, no one can catch him because no one wants to catch him… “run run as fast as you can…”
*(Any time I hear or think “at the time it seemed like a good thing to do/say” it’s usually a story that involves way too much beer. Now, of course the Axis of Evil speech didn’t involve any beer, but it’s one of the few time I can think of a story that has “it seemed like a good idea at the time” and everyone was totally sober while the story takes place).
Anna Nicole Smith/Iraq – Oh Lord where to even start? It’s a friggin’ mess. Seriously. Let’s just move on. At this point it’s just flat out sad, a tragedy in fact. I don’t even want to think about it.
On the bight side, we certainly showed Saddam who’s the boss. Boy oh boy… good thing we got rid of the least threatening of the two dictators (I’m not sure what to call Iran since they do have elections but they’re rigged, but not completely rigged elections). Good thing he’s gone, yep, I mean he had all those WMDs and nukes. THANK GOD he’s gone. Seriously. Phew. I feel so safe.
Terrell Owens/Iran – The only question is who’s more insane. I’m going with TO, but jeeze, it’s not like Iran’s got its head on straight. Can anyone figure those guys out? In fact are they openly mocking Bush at this point? It sure seems that way at times.
Honestly, I’m not sure I can add anything on Iran right now… so I’ll just move on.
I’ve listened to so much shit music today… it’s hard looking for good songs from 2006.
Hey Look! Pete Townshend on Pitchfork!
We need a little youtube don't we? Okay... this is for you Lee Elia... just for you. Dennis Green wants to be you. Gosh this is great... he hates his team right now.
14.10.06
Back for more College Picks
We got about half way though our picks last week when out trip to Madison got in the way from finishing up our picks. So we did make picks, we just didn’t post them. But you don’t care about that do you?
But we’re back this week, we’ll make our picks, but going back to that trip to Madison, it did give us the unique opportunity of seeing a NFL and NCAA Div-I football game within the same week. And let me tell you right now… the Wisconsin Badger game was 100 times more fun than the Bears game.
Both games were blowouts, the Bears and Badgers blew out the Seahawks and Northwestern respectively. And with VFLOAB being fans of both winning teams, the quality and out come of the game is moot. So why was the college game so much better than the NFL game? BULLET POINTS!!!!
- The Wisconsin game has an actual band that plays actual songs during the game. The Bears game had like five guys playing drums at random points then bad top-40 music… just brutal. I’m not a big fan of the band playing at half time, but the fact that the band will go to random places throughout the stadium and play the fight song is just fantastic. Hearing four trumpet players blast out “On Wisconsin” ten sections over is great.
- The fans at the Wisconsin game were more diverse in terms of age (and probably social class too). The student second at any college game is pretty much guaranteed to blow any group of ‘fans’ at a NFL game out of the water. They bring more energy, excitement, passion, and insanity than any collective group of NFL fans in one section. Plus students bring various random cheers, jeers, and traditions that pretty much rock the socks off of any NFL tradition. For instance, at a Bears game about the only two traditions/quirky things that happen during a game are the signing of “Bear Down, Chicago Bears” after ever Bears score and when the PA announcer announces (I’m pretty sure that’s redundant in three ways, but whatever) “There’s a time out…” Crowd: “Where?” Pause… PA: “On the field.” Crowd: “Oh!...” Meanwhile in Madison, “Jump Around” is cooler than everything the Bears do combined and them some.
- Timeouts/breaks… my Lord, I was expecting it to be worse, but there is a lot of time to shoot the shit at an NFL game. How this is enjoyable in December or January is beyond me. Seriously, most of the time you’re watching the big screen checking out whatever they’re showing up there during the 23 time out of the quarter. I know the NFL is a tough, physical game but that’s only in terms of the beating those guys take, but seriously, do NFL players even break a sweat in a game? They stand around for three hours, run back and forth from the sideline to the huddle for five minutes, and play for like 10 minutes. (I should note, the college game isn’t that much better, but it’s better).
- Have I mentioned how much better the fans are? I’m not a fan of the wave, in fact, I hate the wave, but I LOVE the wave at a Badger game. It’s got to be seen to be believed… it’s a normal wave that eventually goes around the stadium, then when it gets back to the beginning they start a slow-motion wave (probably the coolest thing I’ve seen a group of people do in my life). After the near painfully slow, but awesome looking, wave circles the stadium, it’s time to speed it up, and that’s when they pull out the super fast wave, which circles the stadium in about 20 seconds, gets to the beginning only to be reversed… this takes coordination and actual critical thinking skills to pull of a wave as complicated as this, yet 70,000 fans can do it with ease. Meanwhile our government… oh fuck it, you know where I’m going with that.
- Back to the fans, college fans are just better fans, more enjoyable, more fun, more interesting, more entertaining, and louder.
- Also the college game doesn’t appear to be a complete and utter joke. When the Bears came out of the tunnel on Sunday night, about twenty or so players ran full speed 100 yards, got to the corner of the end zone, and then started jumping around and waving their arms to the crowd. It wasn’t weird it was flat out bizarre. It was as if the players were just as what we should think of them… entertainers. They were no different than say those hosts on a kids TV show who come out of the green room jumping around and going crazy for all the little kids who cheer like their pants are on fire. I don’t know, it just sort of ruined it all for me, it was as if the players transcended being actual people and athletes and became… entertainers. They’re out there only to put on a show. And I hate it when sport shows it’s true colors of being pure entertainment. It loses it’s bizarre cultural and social meaning as a uniting force between people of various backgrounds coming together as a single identity in the name of the city they live.
Okay, let me just move and go to the picks…
WISCONSIN (-8.5) over Minnesota – Wisconsin’s the better team and at home. And it’s homecoming in Madison.
Iowa (-20) over INDIANA – Why ask why, try Bud Dry.
TEXAS A&M (+2) over Missouri – I’m taking the Aggies at home if for no other reason that Missouri is probably reading their clippings. Never a good thing when you go on the road to a tough environment.
Ohio State (-14) over MICHIGAN STATE – Ohio State is focused and really good.
AUBURN (+2) over Florida – There’s no way that Florida goes though this brutal stretch unbeaten. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say Tebow blows the game.
PENN STATE (+5) over Michigan – Michigan is going to win, but Penn State is going to be ready to play some football today.
Okay that’s it, peace.
But we’re back this week, we’ll make our picks, but going back to that trip to Madison, it did give us the unique opportunity of seeing a NFL and NCAA Div-I football game within the same week. And let me tell you right now… the Wisconsin Badger game was 100 times more fun than the Bears game.
Both games were blowouts, the Bears and Badgers blew out the Seahawks and Northwestern respectively. And with VFLOAB being fans of both winning teams, the quality and out come of the game is moot. So why was the college game so much better than the NFL game? BULLET POINTS!!!!
- The Wisconsin game has an actual band that plays actual songs during the game. The Bears game had like five guys playing drums at random points then bad top-40 music… just brutal. I’m not a big fan of the band playing at half time, but the fact that the band will go to random places throughout the stadium and play the fight song is just fantastic. Hearing four trumpet players blast out “On Wisconsin” ten sections over is great.
- The fans at the Wisconsin game were more diverse in terms of age (and probably social class too). The student second at any college game is pretty much guaranteed to blow any group of ‘fans’ at a NFL game out of the water. They bring more energy, excitement, passion, and insanity than any collective group of NFL fans in one section. Plus students bring various random cheers, jeers, and traditions that pretty much rock the socks off of any NFL tradition. For instance, at a Bears game about the only two traditions/quirky things that happen during a game are the signing of “Bear Down, Chicago Bears” after ever Bears score and when the PA announcer announces (I’m pretty sure that’s redundant in three ways, but whatever) “There’s a time out…” Crowd: “Where?” Pause… PA: “On the field.” Crowd: “Oh!...” Meanwhile in Madison, “Jump Around” is cooler than everything the Bears do combined and them some.
- Timeouts/breaks… my Lord, I was expecting it to be worse, but there is a lot of time to shoot the shit at an NFL game. How this is enjoyable in December or January is beyond me. Seriously, most of the time you’re watching the big screen checking out whatever they’re showing up there during the 23 time out of the quarter. I know the NFL is a tough, physical game but that’s only in terms of the beating those guys take, but seriously, do NFL players even break a sweat in a game? They stand around for three hours, run back and forth from the sideline to the huddle for five minutes, and play for like 10 minutes. (I should note, the college game isn’t that much better, but it’s better).
- Have I mentioned how much better the fans are? I’m not a fan of the wave, in fact, I hate the wave, but I LOVE the wave at a Badger game. It’s got to be seen to be believed… it’s a normal wave that eventually goes around the stadium, then when it gets back to the beginning they start a slow-motion wave (probably the coolest thing I’ve seen a group of people do in my life). After the near painfully slow, but awesome looking, wave circles the stadium, it’s time to speed it up, and that’s when they pull out the super fast wave, which circles the stadium in about 20 seconds, gets to the beginning only to be reversed… this takes coordination and actual critical thinking skills to pull of a wave as complicated as this, yet 70,000 fans can do it with ease. Meanwhile our government… oh fuck it, you know where I’m going with that.
- Back to the fans, college fans are just better fans, more enjoyable, more fun, more interesting, more entertaining, and louder.
- Also the college game doesn’t appear to be a complete and utter joke. When the Bears came out of the tunnel on Sunday night, about twenty or so players ran full speed 100 yards, got to the corner of the end zone, and then started jumping around and waving their arms to the crowd. It wasn’t weird it was flat out bizarre. It was as if the players were just as what we should think of them… entertainers. They were no different than say those hosts on a kids TV show who come out of the green room jumping around and going crazy for all the little kids who cheer like their pants are on fire. I don’t know, it just sort of ruined it all for me, it was as if the players transcended being actual people and athletes and became… entertainers. They’re out there only to put on a show. And I hate it when sport shows it’s true colors of being pure entertainment. It loses it’s bizarre cultural and social meaning as a uniting force between people of various backgrounds coming together as a single identity in the name of the city they live.
Okay, let me just move and go to the picks…
WISCONSIN (-8.5) over Minnesota – Wisconsin’s the better team and at home. And it’s homecoming in Madison.
Iowa (-20) over INDIANA – Why ask why, try Bud Dry.
TEXAS A&M (+2) over Missouri – I’m taking the Aggies at home if for no other reason that Missouri is probably reading their clippings. Never a good thing when you go on the road to a tough environment.
Ohio State (-14) over MICHIGAN STATE – Ohio State is focused and really good.
AUBURN (+2) over Florida – There’s no way that Florida goes though this brutal stretch unbeaten. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say Tebow blows the game.
PENN STATE (+5) over Michigan – Michigan is going to win, but Penn State is going to be ready to play some football today.
Okay that’s it, peace.
11.10.06
The Wire is taking over my life, an example of Game Theory
I should write something shouldn’t I? A story? Something… anything? Well I’ve got nothing.
I’m boring. Sorry.
Unless of course you want to hear me talk about Game Theory.
Or better yet, I’ll bitch about microeconomics.
“But VFLOAB, that’s not fun!” you say. And I agree. But welcome to our new life. Views from life in the back of a lecture hall (VFLITBOALH, hey that looks like the last name of the first round pick of the Detroit Red Wings! Slava Vflitboalh!) But we seriously won’t bother you with Game Theory or budget constraints, utility functions, and Cobb-Douglas. Well not now at least.
I did have a sort of cool thought the other day… Pad-Thai is the pizza of the 21st century. Seriously, we’re about a year away from people just cold calling Thai places and ordering a “Large Pad-Thai, extra peanuts, easy on the onions” for like four friends.
Of course, pad-thai doesn’t go nearly as well as well with beer as pizza goes. So pizza has that going for it.
Wolfmother rocks. Seriously. From now on, I’m just going to say WOLFMOTHER!!!! And life will be good.
Just cus I care, I went though a bunch of different venues here in Chicago and wrote down shows we’d be interested in going to, here’s the list:
Oct. 26 (Thursday) – The Hold Steady @ Metro
Nov. 10 (Friday) – Shy Child (and others) @ Metro
Nov. 11 (Saturday) – The Decemberists @ Park West
Nov. 24 and 25 (Friday/Saturday) – Wilco @ the Auditorium
Nov. 24 and 25 (Friday/Saturday) – Andrew Bird @ the Logan Theatre
Nov. 26 (Saturday) – WOLFMOTHER!!!! @ the Riviera
Nov. 30 (Thursday) – Public Four @ Double Door
(I saw Shy Child at the Black Cat in DC about six months ago, they were opening for Annie, and they just flat out rocked. I've never seen an opening band get attention of the crowd like they did. It was something else. Their EP I picked up was aiight, but they were flat out amazing life. Big word up, Thomes to them). And who isn't excited by Wilco and Andrew Bird on the same freakin' weekend? How great is that? And Public Four, gots to give them a shout out. They rock too.
One of my minor goals in life is to never eat at Arby's. I can only accomplish this by dying and not ever eating at Arby's. I'm calling it my "Royal Tenenbaum Goal in Life". If for no other reason than I think it’s something Royal would put on his tombstone if he got another one. Or something like that.
Besides watching “Lost” (thought it was okay), a few baseball and football games, about all I’ve been doing (besides homework) is watching the First Season of the Wire. I know Simmons has been pimping it for a month or so now, but he isn’t the reason. Gosh that’s some shit writing, let’s just start over.
About two months ago after Entourage (or before Entourage, I forget) I saw a few minutes of The Wire for a few weeks. Since they were replaying all of season three, a lot of the plot was over my head, but I could tell from the pace of the show and the acting, that this was something to get into. Plus I knew a few people who only had good things to say about it.
Then Simmons started writing about it.
And I bought season one of The Wire… and let me tell you, it’s the best TV show I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m not kidding, it’s the greatest show I’ve ever seen. I could go on and on, but I’m not going to. It’s too complicated and I’d be doing the show injustice. I’m just telling you, it’s the best show I’ve ever seen. It’s up there with “The Wonder Years”, “Freaks and Geeks” and a few other shows that I can’t think of right now. And it’s about 100,292,492 billion trillion million times better than CSI. Just an amazing show. Go and rent it or buy the DVDs, you won’t be sorry.
I’m boring. Sorry.
Unless of course you want to hear me talk about Game Theory.
Or better yet, I’ll bitch about microeconomics.
“But VFLOAB, that’s not fun!” you say. And I agree. But welcome to our new life. Views from life in the back of a lecture hall (VFLITBOALH, hey that looks like the last name of the first round pick of the Detroit Red Wings! Slava Vflitboalh!) But we seriously won’t bother you with Game Theory or budget constraints, utility functions, and Cobb-Douglas. Well not now at least.
I did have a sort of cool thought the other day… Pad-Thai is the pizza of the 21st century. Seriously, we’re about a year away from people just cold calling Thai places and ordering a “Large Pad-Thai, extra peanuts, easy on the onions” for like four friends.
Of course, pad-thai doesn’t go nearly as well as well with beer as pizza goes. So pizza has that going for it.
Wolfmother rocks. Seriously. From now on, I’m just going to say WOLFMOTHER!!!! And life will be good.
Just cus I care, I went though a bunch of different venues here in Chicago and wrote down shows we’d be interested in going to, here’s the list:
Oct. 26 (Thursday) – The Hold Steady @ Metro
Nov. 10 (Friday) – Shy Child (and others) @ Metro
Nov. 11 (Saturday) – The Decemberists @ Park West
Nov. 24 and 25 (Friday/Saturday) – Wilco @ the Auditorium
Nov. 24 and 25 (Friday/Saturday) – Andrew Bird @ the Logan Theatre
Nov. 26 (Saturday) – WOLFMOTHER!!!! @ the Riviera
Nov. 30 (Thursday) – Public Four @ Double Door
(I saw Shy Child at the Black Cat in DC about six months ago, they were opening for Annie, and they just flat out rocked. I've never seen an opening band get attention of the crowd like they did. It was something else. Their EP I picked up was aiight, but they were flat out amazing life. Big word up, Thomes to them). And who isn't excited by Wilco and Andrew Bird on the same freakin' weekend? How great is that? And Public Four, gots to give them a shout out. They rock too.
One of my minor goals in life is to never eat at Arby's. I can only accomplish this by dying and not ever eating at Arby's. I'm calling it my "Royal Tenenbaum Goal in Life". If for no other reason than I think it’s something Royal would put on his tombstone if he got another one. Or something like that.
Besides watching “Lost” (thought it was okay), a few baseball and football games, about all I’ve been doing (besides homework) is watching the First Season of the Wire. I know Simmons has been pimping it for a month or so now, but he isn’t the reason. Gosh that’s some shit writing, let’s just start over.
About two months ago after Entourage (or before Entourage, I forget) I saw a few minutes of The Wire for a few weeks. Since they were replaying all of season three, a lot of the plot was over my head, but I could tell from the pace of the show and the acting, that this was something to get into. Plus I knew a few people who only had good things to say about it.
Then Simmons started writing about it.
And I bought season one of The Wire… and let me tell you, it’s the best TV show I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m not kidding, it’s the greatest show I’ve ever seen. I could go on and on, but I’m not going to. It’s too complicated and I’d be doing the show injustice. I’m just telling you, it’s the best show I’ve ever seen. It’s up there with “The Wonder Years”, “Freaks and Geeks” and a few other shows that I can’t think of right now. And it’s about 100,292,492 billion trillion million times better than CSI. Just an amazing show. Go and rent it or buy the DVDs, you won’t be sorry.
4.10.06
Bad Times for the GOP, but there is a Silver Lining!
For reasons we don’t even know, we’re going to try and work as much hockey slang and clichés into our speech over the next five months as we possibility can. Why? As we said… we don’t know. But it seems like the right thing to do. Last year hockey was back and then we all forgot about it. But this year? This year hockey is AROUND and that’s a good thing. Plus I’m back in Chicago, an actual hockey city, and you can feel the hockey in the air (well sort of - though hockey is all but dead here, people WANT IT to be alive; of course for hockey to live the Writz family can’t, so it’s sort of a Catch-22 for us). So we’re going to take it upon ourselves to drop lines like “wrister”, “kick save”, “butterfly”, and “high to the glove side!” as often as possible. And the NHL HAS to get Ovechkin out of DC ASAP. He can not be wasted in a city like DC for the next five years. He is positively the most exciting hockey player I’ve ever seen.
(And yes, that’s our hockey preview!)
Well, well well, what do we have here… oh look! It’s an IM chat between one of those Hill people who gets elected to represent an area of the country and a 16 year old who’s taking him for a piss!
No we aren’t sure if we’re allowed to laugh at this whole Foley mess, well the IM chats to be specific, but talk about a story. And we’re enjoying it a “oh my gawd!” with a dash of twisted, burn the guy at the stake kind of way. Okay maybe we got a little carried away, but this is a hell of a lot more interesting than another corruption case.
Besides the IM conversations, the best part of this story is how Foley is slowly trying to blame everyone but himself… first he blames booze… next up is the priest who abused him as a kid… who’s next, The Clinton’s? bin Laden? Pro-Lifers? Me? You? And by blaming others, Foley keeps brining the story back to him and the sick little F-er that he is. Why not drop it, disappear for a month, and then slip away to southeast Asia so he can go crazy in the sex trade over there? Better yet, keep making those excuses Foley, because every time you do, you remind us of this:
Maf54 (8:03:47 PM): what you wearing
[redacted screenname] (8:04:04 PM): normal clothes
[redacted screenname] (8:04:09 PM): tshirt and shorts
Maf54 (8:04:17 PM): um so a big buldge
[redacted screenname] (8:04:35 PM): ya
Maf54 (8:04:45 PM): um
Maf54 (8:04:58 PM): love to slip them off of you
[redacted screenname] (8:05:08 PM): haha
Maf54 (8:05:53 PM): and gram the one eyed snake
Maf54 (8:06:13 PM): grab
[redacted screenname] (8:06:53 PM): not tonight...dont get to excited
Maf54 (8:07:12 PM): well your hard
[redacted screenname] (8:07:45 PM): that is true
Maf54 (8:08:03 PM): and a little horny
I would venture that it’s pretty common knowledge that the US is the world’s biggest economy followed by Japan and Germany. I don’t think it’s common knowledge that General Motors is the 23rd largest economy in the world in-between Denmark and Turkey. Crazy huh? Anyway, check out the 100 largest economies in the world… 49 of them are private companies. Amazing.
The good news about this story is that the case was dropped. The bad news? It’s the beginning of the peeling away of our First Amendment right here in the United States. According to the article, a man walked by Cheney this summer, told him his Iraq policies sucked, then got arrested. The case was dismissed, and now the guy is going after the Secrete Service guys that arrested him. And good for him. And oh yeah, this White House Administration can’t leave office soon enough. The amount of damage they’ve done to this country across the board is amazing.
And speaking of the White House and GeorgieW, what up with this crap about the National Intelligence Estimate being incorrect? How is that possible? Don’t they work for you? Aren’t they part of the executive branch? So if 16 various intelligence agencies are saying that the Iraq War has made the US unsafe (or more unsafe) then how can you say they’re wrong? Unless of course, Bush is telling us that we should believe anything that his government produces. Which would be totally IRONIC because see Bush’s people are saying one thing, Bush is saying you can’t believe his people, who just said that we can’t believe him… so who do you believe? Oh that’s right, no one!
But there are a few important points to all this:
1) W is messing up this whole fight against terrorism thing. The Iraq War has been a major screw up, to the point where it’s near impossible to see how this is going to end anything but badly. The invasion has caused a civil war in the country and thrown off stability in the entire Middle East. On top of that us Americans look bad.
2) This report was leaked, which means there are a lot of people in the CIA, FBI, State Department, the armed forces, and other intelligence agencies that don’t like W and the White House. Odds are they’re sick of being treated like dimwits and being told the wrong way to work their job. I don’t think we’ll ever reach a point where we would have to fear a coup, but that’s how coups come about. There are a lot of people in the government, working for Bush, who don’t like him and his policies. This is never a good thing.
3) The White House is lying, has been ling, and continues to lie to us. But rather than riot in the street about the lying like they did in Budapest, Americans seem far too complacent about all this. Why is this? No I’m not calling for rioting or violence, but it is strange that there is next to no out rage over all this. Are we that partisan in this country? Are we at the point where GOPers aren’t going to back away from Bush and Dems are so unsurprised by the latest story of Bush messing everything up that we just don’t care? Just something to ponder.
I was thinking about this the other day… would you want to work for this White House at this point? I mean, if you’re a 28-year-old kid, isn’t that one of the last jobs you want? You’re basically killing your career... if you put it on a CV everyone is going to see it for the next ten years and go, “oh, so you’re the asshole that helped fuck this country up… NEXT” or you don’t put it on a CV and people wonder what you did for two years. In other words, while it sounds nice now, trust me, you do not want to jump on this bandwagon at this point. It’s not a good career move. It’s one thing to do it two years ago, but at this point? What’s the point? Or I guess you could go pray to St. Jude.
It’s just a crappy time to be a GOPer in DC. Between Foley, Cheney taking away the 1st Amendment, and Bush’s making this country UNSAFE (and don’t forget about the corruption charges)… just not fun. But the GOP does have one thing going for them… the Democratic party. Because of that, we’re not ruling out the GOP here at VFLOAB.
More importantly, is this the bleakest time in American politics since the end of Reconstruction?
But before we get all tired, sad, and angry... how about Last Nite? It's been five years since we heard this song... and btw, if there are two songs that 'changed' our lives (in terms of our listening habits, it'd be this song at the age of 20 trying to figure out this post-9/11 world (not as interesting as it sounds) and the Beatles "Help!" when I was 7.
(And yes, that’s our hockey preview!)
Well, well well, what do we have here… oh look! It’s an IM chat between one of those Hill people who gets elected to represent an area of the country and a 16 year old who’s taking him for a piss!
No we aren’t sure if we’re allowed to laugh at this whole Foley mess, well the IM chats to be specific, but talk about a story. And we’re enjoying it a “oh my gawd!” with a dash of twisted, burn the guy at the stake kind of way. Okay maybe we got a little carried away, but this is a hell of a lot more interesting than another corruption case.
Besides the IM conversations, the best part of this story is how Foley is slowly trying to blame everyone but himself… first he blames booze… next up is the priest who abused him as a kid… who’s next, The Clinton’s? bin Laden? Pro-Lifers? Me? You? And by blaming others, Foley keeps brining the story back to him and the sick little F-er that he is. Why not drop it, disappear for a month, and then slip away to southeast Asia so he can go crazy in the sex trade over there? Better yet, keep making those excuses Foley, because every time you do, you remind us of this:
Maf54 (8:03:47 PM): what you wearing
[redacted screenname] (8:04:04 PM): normal clothes
[redacted screenname] (8:04:09 PM): tshirt and shorts
Maf54 (8:04:17 PM): um so a big buldge
[redacted screenname] (8:04:35 PM): ya
Maf54 (8:04:45 PM): um
Maf54 (8:04:58 PM): love to slip them off of you
[redacted screenname] (8:05:08 PM): haha
Maf54 (8:05:53 PM): and gram the one eyed snake
Maf54 (8:06:13 PM): grab
[redacted screenname] (8:06:53 PM): not tonight...dont get to excited
Maf54 (8:07:12 PM): well your hard
[redacted screenname] (8:07:45 PM): that is true
Maf54 (8:08:03 PM): and a little horny
I would venture that it’s pretty common knowledge that the US is the world’s biggest economy followed by Japan and Germany. I don’t think it’s common knowledge that General Motors is the 23rd largest economy in the world in-between Denmark and Turkey. Crazy huh? Anyway, check out the 100 largest economies in the world… 49 of them are private companies. Amazing.
The good news about this story is that the case was dropped. The bad news? It’s the beginning of the peeling away of our First Amendment right here in the United States. According to the article, a man walked by Cheney this summer, told him his Iraq policies sucked, then got arrested. The case was dismissed, and now the guy is going after the Secrete Service guys that arrested him. And good for him. And oh yeah, this White House Administration can’t leave office soon enough. The amount of damage they’ve done to this country across the board is amazing.
And speaking of the White House and GeorgieW, what up with this crap about the National Intelligence Estimate being incorrect? How is that possible? Don’t they work for you? Aren’t they part of the executive branch? So if 16 various intelligence agencies are saying that the Iraq War has made the US unsafe (or more unsafe) then how can you say they’re wrong? Unless of course, Bush is telling us that we should believe anything that his government produces. Which would be totally IRONIC because see Bush’s people are saying one thing, Bush is saying you can’t believe his people, who just said that we can’t believe him… so who do you believe? Oh that’s right, no one!
But there are a few important points to all this:
1) W is messing up this whole fight against terrorism thing. The Iraq War has been a major screw up, to the point where it’s near impossible to see how this is going to end anything but badly. The invasion has caused a civil war in the country and thrown off stability in the entire Middle East. On top of that us Americans look bad.
2) This report was leaked, which means there are a lot of people in the CIA, FBI, State Department, the armed forces, and other intelligence agencies that don’t like W and the White House. Odds are they’re sick of being treated like dimwits and being told the wrong way to work their job. I don’t think we’ll ever reach a point where we would have to fear a coup, but that’s how coups come about. There are a lot of people in the government, working for Bush, who don’t like him and his policies. This is never a good thing.
3) The White House is lying, has been ling, and continues to lie to us. But rather than riot in the street about the lying like they did in Budapest, Americans seem far too complacent about all this. Why is this? No I’m not calling for rioting or violence, but it is strange that there is next to no out rage over all this. Are we that partisan in this country? Are we at the point where GOPers aren’t going to back away from Bush and Dems are so unsurprised by the latest story of Bush messing everything up that we just don’t care? Just something to ponder.
I was thinking about this the other day… would you want to work for this White House at this point? I mean, if you’re a 28-year-old kid, isn’t that one of the last jobs you want? You’re basically killing your career... if you put it on a CV everyone is going to see it for the next ten years and go, “oh, so you’re the asshole that helped fuck this country up… NEXT” or you don’t put it on a CV and people wonder what you did for two years. In other words, while it sounds nice now, trust me, you do not want to jump on this bandwagon at this point. It’s not a good career move. It’s one thing to do it two years ago, but at this point? What’s the point? Or I guess you could go pray to St. Jude.
It’s just a crappy time to be a GOPer in DC. Between Foley, Cheney taking away the 1st Amendment, and Bush’s making this country UNSAFE (and don’t forget about the corruption charges)… just not fun. But the GOP does have one thing going for them… the Democratic party. Because of that, we’re not ruling out the GOP here at VFLOAB.
More importantly, is this the bleakest time in American politics since the end of Reconstruction?
But before we get all tired, sad, and angry... how about Last Nite? It's been five years since we heard this song... and btw, if there are two songs that 'changed' our lives (in terms of our listening habits, it'd be this song at the age of 20 trying to figure out this post-9/11 world (not as interesting as it sounds) and the Beatles "Help!" when I was 7.
3.10.06
Division Series and a look back at our predictions
Okay, I know this will be posted after the games actually start, but better late than never (and for the record, I’ve already made my predictions so even if I do check the score of the Twins/A’s game, it isn’t effect/changing my predictions).
But before we get to those playoffs, let’s take a quick look at how we did in our preseason predictions.
AL East – Well look at here… we nailed every team’s final position and were damn close with the win ranges too (Yanks did one game better than we thought; Rays a few games worse than we thought). We look smart! But it doesn’t last long.
AL Central – Ugh, we got the Royals right but missed everywhere else. We did have the Twins in the playoffs, but we nabbed the Sox to win the division. We were right about the Indians not being as good this year, but we didn’t think they’re bullpen would cost them ten games in the end. And the Tigers… well we had them at ALMOST .500. Of course, if you factor out the Royals and National League, the Tigers only went 65-60. Oh well.
(BTW, you know how we were hopeing that the Royals would give up 1,000 runs? Well they came up a little short. They only gave up 971 runs this year, which works out to be 5.99 a game. Oh well, maybe next year, but I sort of doubt it. In fact if we were to make a prediction for the team most likely to give up 1,000 runs next year, we'd take the Indians bullpen on it's own. Worst bullpen I've ever seen. They just sucked. I'm not kidding, they lost like 875 games in the 9th inning this year. It was amazing (capped off by the week were Ortiz beat them twice and for good measure then blew two to the Tigers and one to the Angels. That's right in a span of eight games they're bullpen blew FIVE GAMES!!!)
NL East – We didn’t want to pick the Braves, but we also didn’t want to be the guy who picked against the Braves for the fourth stright year only to see them win the division again… well they didn’t win the division and we should have gone with our gut. We had the Mets in 3rd place (ouch) and the Marlins winning under 60 games. At least we were right about the Phillies and Nats records… but about that Phillies Wild Card, damn it.
NL Central – Can we have this one back? We way overrated both the Cubs and Pirates, though we did predict that the Cubs wouldn’t be as good as everyone thought. Then again if the Cubs had Lee all year they wouldn’t have finished as the worst team in the National League. We were way off on the Reds, who we had in last. We at least got the Cardinals right… sort of. The Brewers disappointed us, just wanted to add that.
NL and AL West – I thought we did these but I guess we didn’t. I know I picked the A’s to win the World Series this year… and I think I had the Dodgers winning the NL West. At least both are in the playoffs.
Now… what you’ve ALL been waiting for, my ALDS and NLDS predictions!!!!!
Twins in four over the A’s – Two teams that have a nasty habit of underachieving in the playoffs face off. This is probably the most interesting match up in the first round, and it’s a shame one of them has to go home considering that they’re both better then all four NL teams. I think in the end the Twins have more magic. Between home field and a more balanced line up, I say Twins. But if Frank Thomas continues this “It’s 1994 all over again!” tears he’s on, then all bets are off. But Twins in four.
Yankees in five over the Tigers – We usually see at least one upset in the playoffs, and this would be the most obvious upset since the other three series are pretty even if you ask us (then again I think everyone picked the Padres over the Cards so maybe not). I know the Tigers come in limping (swept by the Royals who they were 15-1 against this year before this weekend) but they can pitch. And the other thing they can do is score a run. The Yankees rely on their power bats too much to create a run (part of the reason why they’ve lost the last five years) and because of this the Tigers should steal a game. Factor in the Tigers advantage in pitching, it’s hard to really like the Yankees all that much. But I think A-Rod wins them Game Five with a big 7th inning hit (or something like that) and we can all finally move on with our lives.
Dodgers in four over the Mets – The Mets are a mess. If this Mets team had played in the NL in pretty much any other year EVER, they would have choked away their lead and maybe even lost a chance to make the playoffs. But considering that the NL is absolutely brutal (the Cubs, Pirates, and Nats all would have lost at least 100 games in the AL this year; only the Rockies and Giants had a winning record in Inter League Play) the Mets cruised to 97 wins (probably about 87 in the AL). The Dodgers… I don’t know, they’re playing well and seem to be getting breaks. They also are the streakiest team to make the playoffs as far as I can remember. Interesting series for no other reason than it’s NY vs LA (btw, what do you think FOX execs did when they heard that it was going to be an NY vs LA match up? Talk about happy campers… I’m sure they’re praying for a Yankees/Dodgers World Series… but I sort of hope it ends up being San Diego/Oakland… would anyone watch?)
Cardinals in five over the Padres – Ugh… worst playoff match up in years. Carpenter is the difference. (BTW, this is easily the most uninteresting matchup in my baseball life... it's sort of like a NFL playoff matchup in fact. Two teams that are just boring and uninteresting facting off for the right to play a team that is only a tad more exciting. The fun.)
World Series… ugh, I’ll do it just to do it… Twins/Dodgers. But get back to me after the Division Series.
But before we get to those playoffs, let’s take a quick look at how we did in our preseason predictions.
AL East – Well look at here… we nailed every team’s final position and were damn close with the win ranges too (Yanks did one game better than we thought; Rays a few games worse than we thought). We look smart! But it doesn’t last long.
AL Central – Ugh, we got the Royals right but missed everywhere else. We did have the Twins in the playoffs, but we nabbed the Sox to win the division. We were right about the Indians not being as good this year, but we didn’t think they’re bullpen would cost them ten games in the end. And the Tigers… well we had them at ALMOST .500. Of course, if you factor out the Royals and National League, the Tigers only went 65-60. Oh well.
(BTW, you know how we were hopeing that the Royals would give up 1,000 runs? Well they came up a little short. They only gave up 971 runs this year, which works out to be 5.99 a game. Oh well, maybe next year, but I sort of doubt it. In fact if we were to make a prediction for the team most likely to give up 1,000 runs next year, we'd take the Indians bullpen on it's own. Worst bullpen I've ever seen. They just sucked. I'm not kidding, they lost like 875 games in the 9th inning this year. It was amazing (capped off by the week were Ortiz beat them twice and for good measure then blew two to the Tigers and one to the Angels. That's right in a span of eight games they're bullpen blew FIVE GAMES!!!)
NL East – We didn’t want to pick the Braves, but we also didn’t want to be the guy who picked against the Braves for the fourth stright year only to see them win the division again… well they didn’t win the division and we should have gone with our gut. We had the Mets in 3rd place (ouch) and the Marlins winning under 60 games. At least we were right about the Phillies and Nats records… but about that Phillies Wild Card, damn it.
NL Central – Can we have this one back? We way overrated both the Cubs and Pirates, though we did predict that the Cubs wouldn’t be as good as everyone thought. Then again if the Cubs had Lee all year they wouldn’t have finished as the worst team in the National League. We were way off on the Reds, who we had in last. We at least got the Cardinals right… sort of. The Brewers disappointed us, just wanted to add that.
NL and AL West – I thought we did these but I guess we didn’t. I know I picked the A’s to win the World Series this year… and I think I had the Dodgers winning the NL West. At least both are in the playoffs.
Now… what you’ve ALL been waiting for, my ALDS and NLDS predictions!!!!!
Twins in four over the A’s – Two teams that have a nasty habit of underachieving in the playoffs face off. This is probably the most interesting match up in the first round, and it’s a shame one of them has to go home considering that they’re both better then all four NL teams. I think in the end the Twins have more magic. Between home field and a more balanced line up, I say Twins. But if Frank Thomas continues this “It’s 1994 all over again!” tears he’s on, then all bets are off. But Twins in four.
Yankees in five over the Tigers – We usually see at least one upset in the playoffs, and this would be the most obvious upset since the other three series are pretty even if you ask us (then again I think everyone picked the Padres over the Cards so maybe not). I know the Tigers come in limping (swept by the Royals who they were 15-1 against this year before this weekend) but they can pitch. And the other thing they can do is score a run. The Yankees rely on their power bats too much to create a run (part of the reason why they’ve lost the last five years) and because of this the Tigers should steal a game. Factor in the Tigers advantage in pitching, it’s hard to really like the Yankees all that much. But I think A-Rod wins them Game Five with a big 7th inning hit (or something like that) and we can all finally move on with our lives.
Dodgers in four over the Mets – The Mets are a mess. If this Mets team had played in the NL in pretty much any other year EVER, they would have choked away their lead and maybe even lost a chance to make the playoffs. But considering that the NL is absolutely brutal (the Cubs, Pirates, and Nats all would have lost at least 100 games in the AL this year; only the Rockies and Giants had a winning record in Inter League Play) the Mets cruised to 97 wins (probably about 87 in the AL). The Dodgers… I don’t know, they’re playing well and seem to be getting breaks. They also are the streakiest team to make the playoffs as far as I can remember. Interesting series for no other reason than it’s NY vs LA (btw, what do you think FOX execs did when they heard that it was going to be an NY vs LA match up? Talk about happy campers… I’m sure they’re praying for a Yankees/Dodgers World Series… but I sort of hope it ends up being San Diego/Oakland… would anyone watch?)
Cardinals in five over the Padres – Ugh… worst playoff match up in years. Carpenter is the difference. (BTW, this is easily the most uninteresting matchup in my baseball life... it's sort of like a NFL playoff matchup in fact. Two teams that are just boring and uninteresting facting off for the right to play a team that is only a tad more exciting. The fun.)
World Series… ugh, I’ll do it just to do it… Twins/Dodgers. But get back to me after the Division Series.
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