2011 archive
Super Bull VII: A Celebration of the NFL 0
A. J. Daulaerio in Playboy (Warning: Yes, that Playboy, the one with the big articles) illustrates how, indeed, winning is the only thing:
Super Bull VI: A Celebration of the NFL 0
In weight training, there is a lift called the “clean and jerk.”
I’ve found the jerk, but not the clean.
Joan Vennochi writes in the Boston Globe:
“It is like a football game,’’ he said. “You throw an interception and you bounce back from your mistake.’’
That may be true for him, but what about the woman who suffered from his “mistake’’? His behavior was ugly enough to merit the league suspension and this admonition from the DA who declined to press charges against him: “We are not condoning Mr. Roethlisberger’s actions that night. . . . If he were my son, I would say, ‘Ben, grow up.’ ’’
Afterthought
I am not a fan of Michael Vick.
Nevertheless, I am struck that Vick got jail for mistreating dogs, whereas Roethlisberger got suspended for a short time for treating a woman like a dog.
This communicates a distressing dissonance between our concern for dogs and our concern for women that I care not to contemplate.
Aside:
Jesus should charge royalties for being used as a PR tool by folks who discover him just as their public careers are in jeopardy. Not that I would question anyone’s sinceri oh, never mind.
Super Bull IV: A Celebration of the NFL 0
Derrick Z. Jackson, admitted Packers fan, writes:
Super Bull III: A Celebration of the NFL 0
NFL team owners, another group for whom too much is never enough.
Phil Sheridan at Philly dot com:
In their posturing, the two sides have created at least one interesting conundrum. Goodell and the owners have pushed hard for expanding the regular season from 16 games to 18. Part of their campaign is to trash the value of preseason games, which would be cut from four to two. These are the same games NFL owners have forced season-ticket holders to pay full price for over the last 20 years or so.
So what happens if the union holds the line and refuses to accept the 18-game season? It is going to be impossible for the league to go back to pretending the preseason games are anything more than consumer fraud, but they’ll have to. They’re not going to give up the revenue.
Super Bull: A Celebration of the NFL 0
The San Jose Mercury-News lists why the Super Bowl is special. A nugget:
Reason No. 1: It’s not soccer.
American exceptionalism is alive and thriving on Super Bowl Sunday. National Football League franchises are overwhelmingly owned, managed and manned by American citizens. Even as other major sports have growing numbers of Latin American, Asian and Eastern European players, professional football remains ours alone. Neither immigration nor foreign capital has made a perceptible dent in the game.
And you and I have proudly subsidized all this. American taxpayers have built many NFL stadiums, and American universities, with their government grants, have shaped the sport. Multimillion-dollar college football programs (which, despite claims to the contrary, are rarely profitable) train the players, and sports management departments train the front-office personnel.
Calvacade of Crazy 0
Dennis G. on sacrifice.
Nothing Beats Ignorance as a Job Qualification 0
Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.
Workforce Optimization 0
Bill Shein looks at the Republican Party’s plan to decrease unemployment by decreasing the workforce through eliminating “job-killing regulations.”
(In Wingnut World, everything not sufficiently wingnuttificacious is ipso facto “job-killing.”)
Ya gotta read it.
A nugget:
Currently, the national unemployment rate is exactly nine percent.
“Can This Marriage Be Saved?” 0
No.
When she went to the airport to get her return flight back, officials told her she could not board the plane and did not explain why.
She called her husband for help, and he buried the request in his in-box. For three years, until his bosses caught him out.
Via Wait Wait.
Snake on a Train, Reprise 0
In a follow up to this post, Penelope is home safe.
Penelope the pet snake’s long journey on the MBTA came to a happy end yesterday.
The Dumeril’s boa had slithered away from its owner, Melissa Moorhouse of Allston, while she was riding on the Red Line nearly a month ago. Moorhouse said she first noticed the snake missing as she headed outbound on the Red Line in the late morning of Jan. 6.
Penelope’s portrait graces the link.
Dusbiters 0
The FDIC is honoring responsible fiscals once more. Early start this week.
Disappearance at Roswell–Georgia, that is. Among the missing:
Updates throughout the evening.
Also disappeared:
That seems to be the crop so far.
One of these days, they will run out of banks to fail.
Exporting Culture 0
Britain should consider this a hostile act:
Facebook Frolics 0
Words have consequences.*
The students–three 14-year-olds and a 13-year-old–were arrested yesterday at school and charged with aggravated stalking, a felony.
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*Unless you are Republican or Fox News “personality.”