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Today’s movie quote: “Don’t be such an old poop!”
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Schizo
“On Golden Pond”?
On Golden Pond?
Wow- Kathy scoots in under the wire to beat Musing to the punch! (I think I just mixed metaphors. It’s early. Forgive me.)
Another geography game, though not as cool as last week’s, is at lizardpoint dot com.
Good Monday all!
Here is the winner of the final “College Football Saturday” Contest:
Deb!
She won over all the guys by picking 3 of the 5 games correctly. Way to go Deb!
So here is your hot-off-the-campfire, warm, gooey *digital* S’more
Enjoy!
Well, folks that’s it for this year for college football, though I may do something special for the bowl games and the Super Bowl.
Look for a new contest in January, and new prize (suggestions welcome) for the college basketball season (mens and womens).
I just wanted to mention that, in skimming the weekend’s “liar, lunatic…” thread, I saw Random refer to “Victoria, the Bold” and I laughed out loud. Good one, RN.
Great job, Deb! :-)-{8
And a good morning to you too Lynn!
Is there a reason you are rushin around?
Paula,
When I retyped the link, I got a consulting site…
After several months of thought, I have decided to go forward with the First Annual “Wabby” Awards here on WorldMag.
What’s a “Wabby” you ask? Why it’s a 24-K *digital* Golden Carrot given out for Excellence in Blogging.
Most of the “Wabby” Awards will be selected by the “Society of Wascally Wabbits”. However, we’ve decided to have a couple of “people’s choice” awards, that you will get to vote on:
Best Blogger - Christian
Nominees should be someone who sets a good example of the Christian faith and a WorldMag regular who upholds the standards of good conduct on here.
Best Blogger - Non-Christian
Nominees should be someone who represents the non-Christian minority well on here and a WorldMag regular who upholds the standards of good conduct on here.
Nominations for both categories will be accepted starting today. I will repeat this on each day’s “Whirled” views blog for the next two weeks (except for the weekends). You may also submit your nominations directly to me via my e-mail at: [email protected]. You may nominate up to 3 people in each category, but please do so only one time.
After two weeks, the top 3 nominees in each category will be presented to you for final voting over a week’s period.
The final results, along with the winners in the other categories (coming from the Society of Wascally Wabbits) will be announced in early January at the First Annual “Wabby” Awards” Ceremony on here.
The other categories for a Golden Wabby will remain secret until the Awards ceremony, so as to not unduly influence judges.
Let the nominations begin!
We take it that the Wabbit doesn’t count? A shame, but that’s what you get for being a leader.
The Wabbit doesn’t count.
Anlir - old (and not so interesting, imho, idea). Random beat you to it.
YES!! I finally won something! Wonder if I can wait till tomorrow to enjoy my digital smore? We might see a snow flurry or two then. Thanks, Anlir for hosting the competition. Too bad about the Vols . At least we made it interesting.
…and Kathy edges Musing out by a single minute! On Golden Pond is correct. Kathy, I believe this is the first digital cappucino I’ve served you…
~~@)
Enjoy!
I certainly hope there’s a category for Best Blogger Named After An Inexpensive Fortified Wine.
Deb,
Yes, it was disappointing about the Vols. But I was prepared for the result. I had long predicted they would end the season with 4 losses, which is exactly what they had.
I’m happy that LSU and Ohio State made it to the National Championship game. I think they are the best two teams, even with their losses. I’ve become a little favorable toward LSU since my home office is out of Baton Rouge now. But I will never desert the Vols! I’m just glad Georgia didn’t make it to the National Championship.
I’m sorry about Missouri. I really wanted them to win and go to the National Championship. They’ve had a story-book season and a great quarterback. I’m also happy for Illinois.
Speaking of National Championships, we have tickets to this year’s 1-AA (Football Championship Subdivision) up in Chattanooga, TN. We went last year and it was fun. So we’re going again. Got tickets early for only $17 for a 40 yard-line seats on the 4th row back. Not bad! Look for me on ESPN on Friday, Dec. 14th
Don Imus is back. Whoop dee doo. Incredible as it may sound, he’s even more boring than he was before. To atone for his sins, he’s hired a black female “comedian”, Karith Foster, as his sidekick. Go to her website and check out a few of her jokes. She’s about as funny as a Jew at a bar mitzvah. She’s one of these “message” comedians who prides herself on helping her audience “learn something” and “grow”. As opposed to laughing.
At the bookstore the other day I read Steve Martin’s new book about his career in comedy. He was the funniest guy ever. He became a national sensation, selling out 30,000 seat coliseums. No comedian before or since has done anything like that. They haven’t even come close. Steve had a surreal sense of humor, and he wasn’t afraid of looking like an idiot. In short, he was nuts, and that was a large part of his appeal. But another part was his calculated decision to completely eschew politics in his act. He figured America was getting sick of every comedian harping on Nixon and Viet Nam, and the bottom would fall out of the market for that kind of “comedy”, and that Americans would be perfectly primed for a comedian who would make then laugh and feel good, instead of “raising their consciousness.” And boy was he right.
There are very few comedian who are really funny. And Karith Foster is not one of them. Not even close. And Imus knows it. He’s got to be mentally rolling his eyes constantly. I imagine that the decision to hire her wasn’t his. It was probably a stipulated precondition from the company that put him back on the radio.
May I suggest that the relative strength of posting on:
Creationism …
Are Evangelicals too committed to the Bible
Hitchens-Romney Mormonism …
Lunatic, Liars ..
that there is a great deal of interest in discussion regarding how to think about the validity of the scriptures. It might be appropriate to consider expanding this part of the blog’s offerrings.
And before everyone gets their panties in a bunch and starts emailing Lynn, the “she’s about as funny as a Jew at a bar mitzvah” isn’t a knock against Jewish people. It’s a play on the old saw about a a bad comedian, “he’s about as funny as a pork chop at a bar mitzvah.” Well, some folks would find that funny, in a sick way. So I changed it to “Jew at a bar mitzvah” to make it clear that there’s nothing whatsoever funny about her.
Does that help, Outkast and VS?
OSU? A fraud. LSU should manhandle them. USC/LSU would be much more entertaining.
Georgia and its fans should stop whining. Hawaii could, and should, really put a beating on them.
The bowl system is awful and I can only hope they decide on a 16-team, or 8-team at least, playoff format in the future.
Andrew Sullivan, “conservative” homosexual pundit, says Mike Huckabee might be going all the way.
http://tinyurl.com/2a9yzd
And, maybe I missed it, but I don’t recall any WoW regulars or writers discussing Tony Blair’s recent admission that he’s a Christian, but kept it on the QT while in office for fear of being thought “a nutter.”.
First snow of the year here in Maine, with 12-18 inches predicted in my part of the state — time for the snowshoes to come out of storage.
Please note, the snowshoes are for recreation, not transportation!
Hubbie and I spent an hour this morning walking through the thick clay mud in the neighbor’s field looking for a pair of glasses lost while sledding yesterday. The kids were sledding in thirty to fifty mile per hour winds and snow but overnight the wind had warmed, snow turned to rain, and all that is left of the snow is in drifts. No glasses. I brought back the snowshoes the fourteen year old had borrowed.
Anlir, have fun at the 1-AA Championship Game. I used to go when my alma mater, Georgia Southern, was a regular in the playoffs. I even worked as an usher during on of the championship games held in Statesboro, back in ‘89. If you go, see if they still are having the chili cook-off in the pavilion (maybe outside the stadium); it’s free and worth it!
As far as those accusing Georgia of whinning: how can you blame them? They were #4 in the BCS going into Saturday, the top two teams lost, and they DROP a spot? Surely you don’t think that would sit well with a team, do you?
I was slightly disappointed by the BCS title game selections. As a Georgia fan, I obviously would have liked to have seen them in the title game, but I also think that conference champs should get an extra nudge. Of course, that’s kind of what happens anyway, even though it’s not a “rule” of any sort. The team that got really shafted was Missouri. And Illinois does not deserve to be in a BCS game. Seriously, the Big 10 is the real culprit in this whole mix. They don’t play a championship game (I remember reading an article a while back that insisted that there will never be a playoff system as long as Big 10 schools have a say in the matter, since a Big 10 team can run the table and wind up in the championship game each season without actually being tested like many of the other conferences), they had an incredibly weak schedule, and one could easily argue that they didn’t really have a single “quality win” this season. An LSU v. OSU (Oklahoma State, in this case!) might be a better game, although I suspect Ohio State will put up a better fight this year than they did against Florida last year (once again, evidence of an overrated team in an overrated conference).
I don’t understand the love affair with Hawaii. It’s a great story, they have a good coach and a great quarterback, and they certainly deserve a shot at the BCS. But come on, does anything think that 11-0 record means they are some unstoppable team? They were down by 21 points to Washington, for crying out loud! To their credit, they came back, but what would they do against better teams (is Washington even going to a bowl game?)? A few years ago, Boise State was everyone’s darling, and they stopped by Athens, GA the season after their BCS birth and were completely destroyed. Dominating a weak conference does not mean you are a great team (and that brings us back to Ohio State once again
).
Georgia, of course, has no one to blame but themselves. A dropped pass in the end zone against South Carolina probably cost them a shot at #1. They didn’t show up at all against Tennessee, and Tennessee therefore deserved the SEC East title (and from what I saw, they could have easily beaten LSU — Ainge gave the game away with two bad passes late). LSU was very banged up and I think Georgia could have beaten them in the title game (people keep forgetting that Georgia has manhandled LSU the last two times the teams have faced one another). Tennessee would have lost the SEC East title if not for three FG attempts that all went in their favor in three different games (the “second chance” FG against SC, the narrow miss by Vandy, and the blocked FG in overtime against KY). That’s how close Georgia was to winning the SEC East crown (they did “tie” for the title, which people are also not mentioning, though TN won the tie-breaker). Of course, close doesn’t cut it, and Tenn went to the title game fair and square.
One more thing about the BCS teams that all finished ahead of Georgia (Ohio State, LSU, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech). What do all of those teams have in common? They all LOST at least one game (LSU lost two) after Georgia’s last loss to Tennessee. Here’s an article stating Georgia’s case: http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/7511182
Navy spanked Army 38 to 3 in the Annual Army Navy Game. And Navy took the commander in chief trophy. Isn’t it funny that Navy was not invited to a bowl game this year. Guess political correctness has finally entered college football. Sad indeed.
Navy wasn’t invited to a bowl game? That is a travesty (though I don’t think it to be b/c of political correctness). Perhaps it is because of their independent status (in past years, I believe they received invites when certain conferences did not have enough bowl eligible teams to fill the invite spots). I’m sure that if Notre Dame had finished with an 8-4 record, they would have gotten an invite (heck, they probably would have gotten a BCS selection!).
Of course, I am assuming that Notre Dame did not get a bowl selection. I’m sure there’s some obscure NCAA rule that will permit certainly universities with the name “Notre Dame” to become bowl eligible as long as they can simply field 11 players…
Apparently TJ doesn’t understand the strength of the Big 10 in terms of their internal scheduling. It is similar to being a part of the NFC Central. The rivalries are so strong that on any given Saturday any team, regardless of ranking, can beat or be beaten by another conference team.
Players play up to their opposition. A weak Northwestern, or Indiana team can give a strong Michigan or Ohio State fits. It is one of those intangibles that can’t be crunched into a computer.
Again, the NFC Central as an illustration. Up until last Thursday the only blemish on the Packers record was a loss to the mediocre, injury ridden Chicago Bears, and that in Lambeau Field. Their next game against the Bears is in Chicago and you can bet that home field advantage has no benefit in that league.
I called it LSU and Ohio State early last week if Missouri and West Virgina both lost. It’s the only matchup that makes sense to me based on the intangibles. While there are other teams that may seem worthy of a BCA matchup, LSU and OSU should prove to be an intersting game.
TJ. Navy Beat Notre Dame this year.
TJ,
Good points. I just don’t see how one could move Georgia higher than LSU in the final poll, when LSU won the SEC west and the conference championship game. Georgia didn’t win their division even. Yes, Georgia has been on fire of late. But the BCS is very complicated with lots of factors.
Missouri did get the shaft. Unfortunately, a late loss like that is always more punishing than an early season loss.
Notre Dame is a special case when it comes to football. Few schools play the national schedule like they do, against so many powerful teams. They are not going bowling as they did not win 6 games this year. Navy is finding out that being an independent can hurt when it comes to bowl games. That’s unfortunate. Also, having a large fan base is important when it comes to bowl games.
Hawaii will be a good school for Georgia to play. Hawaii does have the difficulty of playing more games away from home, and further away than any other school. It will be a good match-up.
I too look forward to the day when they have a play-off, using the bowl games. With the bowl season stretched out so far now, it’s only a matter of waiting one additional week to play for the National Championship.
How about the big event coming up April 5-13 at the Ralph Engelstad Arena, eh? Now those will be exciting times..
A Monday morning quarterback quiz:
BCS=
A) Because Commerce is Supreme
B) Bad Choosing System
C) Biased Computer Solution
D) Beleaguered Colleges Slammed
E) All of the above
The following would appear to be germane to some of the discussions on this blog regarding Iran:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/03/iran.nuclear/index.html
Joe, I was being sarcastic! I root for Navy (Paul Johnson was formerly at Georgia Southern, so I will always root for the Master of the Triple Option/Flex-bone Offense!). I especially enjoined them upsetting ND.
Metanoia, internal scheduling is irrelevant if the conference is overall a weak one. As long as the Big Ten can put forth one or two teams a season that are pretty decent, then (especially if, like OSU, they schedule very weak out of conference teams to fill out the schedule), then they can pretty much run the table every season and wind up in the BCS hunt year after year. And any college football analyst I’ve listened to has stated that the Big Ten is very much down this season.
Anlir, I would not have had any problem with Missouri dropping in the polls IF they had gotten a BCS selection over Kansas. They beat them just two weeks go, and Kansas also finished the season with a loss. Other than that (considering that Illinois is pretty much a necessary evil because of the way the Rose Bowl works with OSU in the title game), I don’t really have any problem with the BCS selections.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that Hawaii (at least this used to be the case) plays the majority of their games at home. It seems many teams (and who can blame them!) don’t mind traveling to Hawaii once a season for games. That might have changed in recent years, though. I certainly don’t think Hawaii is a push-over, as they can certainly score (although Georgia has silenced some pretty good offenses in recent weeks). It will be a good test for Georgia. I just hope that they don’t show up unprepared, wishing they were in a different game. They showed up slow against West Virginia a couple of years ago (falling behind 28-0) before rallying only to fall short, 38-35. They played terrible in the first half against Va Tech in the Chick-fil-a Bowl last year (21-3 at half time) before dominating the second half and winning. If they fall behind early against an explosive offense like Hawaii, it could be a long night in New Orleans. And Georgia may have one of the toughest jobs in the BCS bowls, and they are “expected” to win, whereas Hawaii really has nothing to lose and everything to gain by a win (indeed, that BCS paycheck is already a pretty good start!).
TJ,
I think Georgia will show up to play. The Sugar Bowl is a fine bowl game and Mark Richt will have them ready to go.
Tennessee on the other hand, has not done well in bowl games of late. Ever since they won the National Championship in January of ‘99 they have been disappointed by their bowl selections. They players seem to give up, and Fulmer doesn’t seem to be able to motivate them for that one last game. Tennessee should beat Wisconsin, but it all depends on whether the players and coach really care or not. At least, that’s the perception of the average Tennessee fan anyway.
That’s a shame about Tennessee, Anlir. Any January 1 bowl game is an honor, really. If they play like their capable, they should put a hurting on Wisconsin. If they don’t show up, well…
Truth be known, I was thrilled when the talk began to turn to LSU going to the championship game, since they put Georgia in line for the Sugar Bowl. Would I have liked them to be in the title game? Of course, but they really don’t deserve it, I admit, except on a mathematical technicality because of the polls the week before. But given that Georgia was 4-2 midway through the season, the Sugar Bowl is quite an achievement. No Georgia fan should complain about being there.
I am also glad that the original prediction of Georgia going to the Orange Bowl (versus Va Tech) did not happen. It would just be a rematch of last year’s Chick-fil-A Bowl, and I don’t much care for retreads of the previous year’s game (albeit in a different setting). Didn’t SC play Ohio State two years in a row in the Outback Bowl a few years ago. That’s just boring, imho. One of the things I like about bowl games is unique matchups. I wish that there would be more SEC v. Big 12 or Pac-10 matchups in bowl games. Having most years of SEC v. ACC or Big 10 doesn’t quite do it for me, either.
Whoops, “they’re”, not “their”. Preview button, where are you?!?
Cameron- Try this lizardpoint dot com/fun/geoquiz/index.html
Sorry TJ.
Musing writes: <>Is there a reason you are rushin around?
Har-har! Just trying to inject a little international flair in our morning routine
No problems, Joe B. Go Navy!
I am debating whether or not I should leave wmb earlier than my announced departure date of Jan 1.
On the one hand, my presence and continued comments are causing at least one person considerable pain, anguish, irritation, aggravation, frustration, indignation, ire, resentment, and a painful itch.
(All those words pulled off the top of my head without even using a thesaurus, though perhaps in this case it should be called a thesoreus).
On the other hand, to follow up comments by several people, one wonders why the distressed person does not communicate with Lynn Vincent and other members of the World management and editorial team and ask them to change the public invitation to participate at the site?
Or for that matter, why the distressed person does not simply post at the Cranach blog for example is not clear to me.
http://cranach.worldmagblog.com/cranach/archives/2007/05/the_reagan_diar.html
Of course, I suppose I could start posting at the Cranach blog during my sabbatical. (I will not. I will not “cheat” on my friends of wmb at another religious web site.)
Speaking of what I will do during my break, there has been a little discussion of whether I will “cheat” or “fall off the wagon” by succumbing to the temptation of posting here. His prediction is that I will. Whether this means he is accusing me of being a liar or not, I am not sure.
In any case, I will make a couple of predictions.
1. I will not post at worldmagblog for at least six months.
2. The distressed person will not acknowledge this in any way, much less say, “I was wrong in what I said about Random Name.”
3. By the time three days have passed, he will find something new to get his knackers in a twist.
On another thought, I once mentioned that some people here use the word “atheist” in a way similar to the way some people use the “ni**er” word. A gentleman using the screen name “Fyne, Jr” became quite irritated with me over that. I don’t know if he participate in “new wmb.”
In any case, I am entertained to see that “radical agnostic” has become a new term of opprobrium which seems to be almost equal to “atheist.”
I will have to start calling myself a patriot or something.
утро! looks like a typo.
Good news! Hugo Chavez lost his attempted revisions to the Venezuelan constitution.
Interesting article here:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hIOqgCFtEdL4_snI91LZDWjuwY1QD8TA452G0
NEW YORK (AP) — Think you’re smarter than a fifth-grader? How about a 5-year-old chimp? Japanese researchers pitted young chimps against human adults in tests of short-term memory, and overall, the chimps won.
That challenges the belief of many people, including many scientists, that “humans are superior to chimpanzees in all cognitive functions,” said researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University.
“No one can imagine that chimpanzees — young chimpanzees at the age of 5 — have a better performance in a memory task than humans,” he said in a statement.
That is good news, Anlir. I hope we will be as fortunate.
Musing,
I saw that yesterday and wondered if it would make the cut here. I suspect we will still be hearing loudly from the war profiteers and their supporters that we need a war with Iran.
Night Train - I agree with you on Don Imus. What an absolutely unfunny bore, not to mention self-centered and rude.
Since most comedians on this planet are Jews, your attempt at politically incorrect humor didn’t make sense. I would go with something more like this, “…about as funny as a Bin Laden at a Bar Mitzvah.” Now that’s funny! Kind of …
Here is a little Hebrew trivia — did you know that “Bar Mitzvah” is actually Aramaic? Hebrew would be “Ben Mitzvah”.
Musing in #33,
It appears the administration may already be at work trying to deal with the disappointing news about Iran’s nuke program.
Don’t ever say the Bush administration doesn’t take care of its own. Nearly three years after Paul Wolfowitz resigned as deputy Defense secretary and six months after his stormy departure as president of the World Bank—amid allegations that he improperly awarded a raise to his girlfriend—he’s in line to return to public service. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has offered Wolfowitz, a prime architect of the Iraq War, a position as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board, a prestigious State Department panel, according to two department sources who declined to be identified discussing personnel matters. The 18-member panel, which has access to highly classified intelligence, advises Rice on disarmament, nuclear proliferation, WMD issues and other matters. “We think he is well suited and will do an excellent job,” said one senior official.
Wolfowitz, now a visiting scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, will replace former senator Fred Thompson, who quit over the summer to run for president.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/69552/
“Fool me once…shame on you…fool me twice…uhhh….we won’t get fooled again.” Yeah, right George.
There’s another line from On Golden Pond, that I have said to my husband - “You are my knight in shining armor.” (Katharine Hepburn to Henry Fonda)
It’s been more than two days since I tried to fix my gravatar & it’s still wrong. I’m about ready to delete the whole thing, cause I dislike that sideways G that keeps showing up. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
Kayvee,
I can’t remember which thread it was where you told me you had used IrfanView to fix the image and try again. As I remember you only mentioned fixing one thing, I forget if it was the pixel size or resolution. Did you fix both?
#48
Never mind, Xion.
random name post 42,
I sem to remember a discussion topic on WMB about, as I recall, the definition of civilization being being able to tolerate irritating people or something to that effect.
In any event you are a fixture here.
And I will be wondering just how strong your will power truly is. I am starting a pool and I have my money on your lasting at most one week.
Pauline,
I fixed both the pixel size & the resolution, but I notice that the pixel size automatically changes from 80×80 to 69×80 [on my hard drive, but it’s still 80×80 on the gravatar site] every time I correct it. I tried changing it from a jpeg to a gif version, but it came out very blurry, so I deleted that version & went back to the jpeg version.
I think this is why I didn’t do a gravatar before now, it’s more trouble than it’s worth