Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"Even the smallest things ought to be directed toward a goal." - Marcus Aurelius

"If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's." - Carl Jung

"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." - Aristotle

"This is for all the Tostitos!" - Brent Musburger

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Heh heh (am I a bad person in that I want to use this line in real life?)

- Elon Musk takes down Tesla and SpaceX Facebook pages.

- You do have to read this in Brent Musberger's voice (though I can live without the "you are looking live!" visual it generated)

- The kind of data Facebook mines from your profile (including your doctors). People finally taking privacy seriously may be one of the great unintended consequences of electing Trump President.

- Fantastic real story of the "double life of 'marvelous Chinese conjurer'"

- Very cool!

- This is why every morning the first thing you should do is thank God you live in the USA

NFL Sunday - Week Seven

I agree with Matt Chatham that the Patriots should send out James White and Steven Gostkowski as captains for the coin toss for tonight's Super Bowl rematch between New England and Atlanta. Yes it would be a dick move by Bill Belichick but more importantly it would make me chuckle.

One piece of news that I heard this week that should really have the NFL worried is according to Brent Musburger last week Las Vegas had $100,000 more money bet on college football than on NFL football for the first time ever. If TV ratings are down, people boycotting the product because of the anthem protests, and people are getting their gambling jones satisfied elsewhere it could mean the NFL has truly peaked in popularity and is now on the way down.

What about fantasy? Surely those numbers are up - right? The answer is who cares. Most people who play fantasy football don't bother to watch the games. Just refresh the match-up page. How does that help TV ratings or revenue in any way? They say pride goeth before a fall and nobody has had more hubris than the NFL. Think of it as karma.

I'm 2-11 on picks made here so far this season so treat the following accordingly:

Buffalo -3 vs Tampa Bay - the Bills are better than people think or expected.

Carolina -3 at Chicago - don't like the idea on putting money on Cam Newton so I'm thinking I'm of it as putting money on the Panthers defense instead.

New Orleans -3.5 at Green Bay - the Saints are also better than people think or expected and the Packers will be without Aaron Rogers.

Good luck.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- People with Green Cards should not be prevented from re-entering the country. That said - I'm not worked up over the so-called "Muslim ban". Mostly because of this.

- The real reason Brent Musberger is retiring is because the body count from the Brent Musberger Drinking Game was getting too high.

- 9 facts about Charles Bronson. I love the anecdote about accepting the Death Wish role.

- The protesters are doing more harm than good to the Democrats. Listen to the people cheering the police in deep-blue Portland.

- Heh heh

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Was Vladimir Putin able to steal the Russian election because Jimmy Carter wasn't there to monitor the election? Yeah - that was a joke... Every spring I wonder if New York City icon was alive today - would he be a Mets fan or a Yankees fan? I'm guessing Yankees... Brent Musberger is always rumored to have money on a game and Saturday night's KU / Texas game may have been the ultimate proof... Too Big to Fail would be a good title for an Andre the Giant biography... I think in the end that Kevin Garnett will be remembered as a better player than Patrick Ewing for the simple fact that Garnett won a ring... Heh heh - the Red Sox JetBlue Park was supposed to be exactly like Fenway but someone made the Green Monster South too short... During his first full four seasons with the Indians - Grady Sizemore averaged almost 160 games and almost 27 home runs. Oh what could have been.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The Humanitarian Bowl has become "The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl." It saddens me that I'll no longer be amused by thoughts of the Human Fund sponsoring the Humanitarian Bowl but that is more than made up for by the hope that someday I'll get to hear Brent Musberger say, "This is for all the Potatoes!"... What were the biggest tactical mistakes that Stringer Bell made in Seasons 2 and 3 of The Wire? Why did he make these mistakes?... How is it possible that Adrian Gonzalez has a stolen base? I hope the catcher who gave that up never lives it down... Very interesting. You really can't argue with their logic. Why Van Halen had brown M&Ms contractually removed... Just occurred to me - if Every Flavor Beans include things like earwax, do you think they have a vagina flavored one?... 11 Bizarre or Shocking TV Deaths... I'm still ticked that Derek Jeter skipped All-Star Game. He could have gone and just tipped his cap (sarcasm)... Barack Obama is turning out to be as badly cast in the role as President as Robert DeNiro was in his role as Fearless Leader in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Would be great to have had those two flip flopped just so I can hear Obama say "Squirrel and moose!"