unclevlad

AP calls Georgia...Warnock. YAY!!!!! EDIT: this calls for a splash of cognac later on, to celebrate.

Elsewhere, the carousel never stops. Tennessee fires their GM today...a curious move, as they have a dominating position in their division. That said, they got *smacked* by Philly, including getting torched by the WR that got away. Titans have wins over Raiders, Colts twice, Commanders, Texans, Broncos and Packers. Commanders are middling. The rest are horrible. Losses to Giants, Bills, Chiefs, Bengals and Eagles, and boatraced by the Bills and Eagles. So playoffs by default; winning a WC round game, tho, not great. Winning a division round? Nope. This could be on top of losing in the WC round the last 2 years, despite 11-5 and 12-5 seasons.

Where would he try to flee to? There are numerous countries with which the US does not have an extradition treaty, but most are not places he'd flee to. The number isn't zero, tho. Among the Arab states: Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It's possible the wouldn't want the political hassles. And the irony of ironies would, of course, be Russia, but if his wealth is blocked...they may not want *him*. I'm assuming that the bank freeze and most of the sanctions from the Ukraine attack, have been lifted, because if they're in place, I don't see Trump going there. Too much risk that any remaining assets become locked up. Dunno. Not sure I buy he'd suicide before going to prison because I am not sure he'll believe it could possibly happen until he's actually at the prison and being processed. There also seems NO!!!! chance he'd be in among anything like a normal prison population...even a white-collar prison. I also agree that there's not much chance he'll ever see jail time.

How NOT to run a college basketball tournament. https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/basketball/coach-says-vegas-tourney-set-back-womens-basketball-2683189/ I think I remember shots of the "court". Ridiculous. The fallout this week: 3 teams contracted to play in the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Shootout, have withdrawn. Those teams were signed by the organizers of the Vegas Invitational. 5 others signed through a different agency are still planning on going, and that agency has said they will not use Destination Basketball in the future, based on their horrific, utterly unacceptable management of the LVI.

As Mike said, every fan base in the country would take being in this position...worst record by a SB champ... IF!!! he can be ready, might as well. What's more interesting is...the Raiders are 5-7. The Jets are #7 at only 7-5, with games against Buffalo, Miami, and Seattle...plus 2 likely wins, Jacksonville and Detroit. But hey, Detroit isn't a gimme. Raiders win this, they're up to 6-7 with Pats, Steelers, and Niners all winnable. Week 18 is the Chiefs, tho. But 9-8 could be there...10-7 is a big stretch. NE and the Chargers are sitting at 6-6. Could come down to tiebreakers. Oh, and the Raiders are listed as -6, so...fairly solid favorite.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/06/politics/trump-organization-fraud-trial-verdict/index.html This doesn't include Trump per se, but still, it continues to undermine his position among the Republican movers and shakers. He'll try to blow it off, it's New York, it's Democrats out to get him...but it's just continuing the narrative that he's a loser.

How much masa were you using? The recipe there was using 4 cups. It's a very good video IMO, but she was cooking in a very nicely equipped kitchen. BIG Insta-Pot and stand mixer both, and the stock pot she used for the double boiler setup was also rather large. They all kinda have to be, cuz that recipe probably serves, what, 6-8?

Good question. My feeling is, at least for the next couple years, it won't. Bowl gift packages are getting too close, IMO, to pay-to-play, and that's the line in the sand, I think. NIL can't be run by the school. Bowl gift packages aren't run by the school either but it's directly connected with being on the team. It feels like hairsplitting...but that's nothing new. Also note that quite often, it's...pretty trashy. Bowl-branded stuff? Ugh. OK, fine, it's "something to remember the experience by!!!" Not something you want. Last week, a watch auction finished up...for charity, with a tie-in to football. 3-4 of the watches were swag...and just awful. This is a list of the swag from each game last year: https://www.masslive.com/sports/2021/12/college-football-bowl-game-player-gifts-heres-the-swag-players-staff-get-for-each-bowl-game.html Many of these include a gift suite...I presume this is "open up a presentation room, fill it with a bunch of stuff, let the players pick". Hard to gauge. You can expect that the bigger games have better gift suites, of course. Other than that, commemorative football...? Ehhh. OTOH...nice noise-cancelling headphones can be good...but lots of players will have something like that. Me, I'd just prefer the Cheez-It Bowl's $400 Amazon gift cert.

SI's power rankings gave a shoutout to this video review of the Broncos and Wilson during the Carolina game. Worth your time. Note, the occasional obscenity or f-bomb does slide through from time to time so perhaps NSFW. But very interesting.

It's actually eerie that this was the cause. I put the basic, free Pandora on as I read late at night. That has occasional ads. For the last couple weeks, one of em was from Glaxo, the pharma company. About? RSV. First I'd actually ever heard about it. Then.......... Like I say, kinda eerie....

You're up in Rainland. It's understandable. Me? I haven't either...and the Hatch Valley is like 20 miles from me. This IS the land of chiles, and tamales are central to Christmas cooking. By the same token, tamales are apparently best prepared by a group, as much a family bonding moment as anything. So that rather leaves me out.....

Well. This turned into the prototypical NFL game of the current era. Team A crushes Team B for 55 minutes, then plays soft and CHOKES. All due respect to Tom, but come on, Saints. Some questionable playcalling, egregiously bad defensive tactics, and you squander a 13 point lead in the last 5 bloody minutes.

Well, if Kap isn't the answer, perhaps Mayfield is? Naaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'll grant, someone's probably gonna sign him; it might even be the Niners cuz they are totally desperate, and all he'll cost is money. But if he can't cut it in Carolina, with their shockingly poor options, it's completely unreasonable to believe he can manage a playoff push. Niners are between a rock and a hard place overall, as they still don't know anything about Trey Lance. Jimmy G is going to be a free agent; it's very difficult to gauge the level of interest, given his injury history.

If we start from the fanaticism motivation per those comments from Rainey...then, true enough. Not even a feature, it was the goal. If someone dies as a result? Well, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs perhaps? If it's really based on that motivation then it's a sociopath hiding under a mask of quasi-religious fervor. Now, absolutely, I don't want to assume it was the case, so that's purely speculative.

If they catch the guy, and try him in local or state court...there's nooooo wayyyy the trial can be held in that area. NO chance of seating an unbiased jury. And as we've noted before, jackasses like this can't think about potential consequences. They lack the capability.

I'm reminded of the promo for the Macron interview on 60 Minutes. Q: "so you think attacking civilian infrastructure constitutes a war crime?" A: "yes." IF they can find the <insert 5 minute long expletive string here> whackjobs that did this...I honestly don't know what charges could be filed, but far as I'm concerned, a life sentence would be Just Fine. Hmm... https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title18/part1/chapter65&edition=prelim Go down to section 1366, which is energy facilities. Blackout of 40,000 people is significant to me. Also, there's a separate provision: if anyone died as a result of the power outage, the max sentence is life.

Take care of yourself in this time, sir. And those around you as you can.

Well, the charges aren't exactly typical...but skipping the bowl games is. And to a lesser extent, so is having players get suspended for being idiots...not to the level of felony charges...on the road, semi-bored, fancy setting. It's one of the two reasons why betting...at least outside the CFP games...on bowl games is IMO nothing more than a crapshoot. The other big reason is, who wants to be there, and who doesn't? UCLA is stuck with the Sun Bowl. El Paso...? Y'all ever been there? BLEAH! NOT on my list of 1000 Best Destination Vacations. The payout is actually better than I thought...$4.5M puts it 11th among the 'regular' bowls, which is still fairly good. But Washington got the Alamo Bowl, and Oregon got the Holiday Bowl. (USC and Utah were going to get the top 2 spots...Rose and Cotton.) And if we drop down to the mini-bowls...especially those well before Christmas (Bahamas, Cure, Frisco Idaho Potato)...one might also throw in issues with trying to get through finals, to remain eligible.

All right, the Colts are running out the clock... The Broncos score 35 points in the last 14 quarters, plus an OT period. The Cowboys score 33 in the 4th quarter.

Well...the Colts managed to implode in a most dramatic fashion, didn't they? Saw the 'Boys get it back to a 2 score game, figured, ok, that was probably it. Time to change the sheets and do some related stuff. When I look up, they've got 1 more TD in the bag. Look up again, and they've got another. 4 minutes for 3 TDs. I'm having a hard time figuring how the Colts have 4 wins.

Yeah, it went as expected, pretty much. TCU stayed 3, OSU rose to 4. USC dropped to 10 (!). EARLY!!! lines, Georgia -6.5 vs. OSU, Michigan -9.5 vs. TCU. And of course the Miss Congeniality bowl games start on the 16th this year. What I like is, many weekdays have late morning or afternoon games to put on, for background noise if nothing else. Oh, and somehow the NMSU Aggies got into a bowl game. They were 5-6 (the game Saturday against FCS Valpo didn't count for this), but they cancelled the one game because a San Jose State player was killed in a freaking scooter crash. That game couldn't be rescheduled. Plus: there weren't enough 6-6 teams to fill out the bowl roster. There's 131 teams...and 41 bowls counting the 2 CFP games. That's 82 out of 131, so it's not hard to understand that finding that much mediocrity...can be difficult. So the NCAA put them ahead of the 5-7 teams, and it turned out...they got one of the spots. One of the really mediocre spots, mind...Arizona Bowl, the day after Christmas. Arguably the least desirable slot in the entire schedule.

Dinner salad. Trimmed/cubed chicken thigh meat, tossed with a bit of olive oil and soy sauce, seasoned in this case with sweet paprika, Chinese 5 spice, granulated garlic, and a few drops of sesame oil. Sauted in a fry pan; a little additional soy added late, to help glaze the chicken. A good spring mix salad, a couple heirloom tomatoes, diced up. Throw the chicken on top, add dressing. More of a summer dish, but it's so little work that it's still a nice choice this time of year.

No clinches yet of any type, be it division title (Minnesota has clinched a tie, tho) or playoff berth. Commanders are first team out at 7-5-1, so a Philly clinches a playoff berth with a win or Washington loss. Houston and Chicago were the first 2 eliminated. Chicago did it artfully...blowing a 10 point lead only to get steamrolled after that. Houston is just...Houston. Denver and the Rams are probably next up but the plank's getting retracted on quite a few NFC teams. And of course, the only question with the Broncos is whether they set the record for scoring futility or not. A point...since giving the play calling to Klint Kubiak, the QB coach....scoring has gone DOWN. Mind, this might be due to several factors, like maybe defenses not fearing the Bronco wideouts at all. Force the dink and dunk, and the Broncos will consistently fail to convert 3rd downs.

Cincy-KC on the TV, wondering if there's gonna be another Mahomes magic trick... Chargers-Raiders, watching the gamecast, wondering if there's gonna be another Raider train wreck....and it's getting closer.... EDIT: and within moments of each other...NOPE, and NOPE. Cincy converts a long 3rd down to ice the game; Raiders force a stop on 4th and 9. 2:40 left, Chargers have timeouts and the 2 minute warning, but barring a Raideresque mistake, the Chargers will need to go 80-odd yards in less than 2 minutes, with no TOs.

NY and Washington can't move the ball in OT...4 punts, a last-ditch 58 yard FG that falls short as the clock expires. The interesting aspect is, this may well eliminate any chance of a 9-8 WC team. Giants are 7-4-1, Commanders 7-5-1. Even stranger? Washington has a bye...but then they play again, this time in Washington. Winner of that game gets a huge leg up, but Washington's problem is their other games...Browns is winnable, but 49ers and Cowboys. So Commanders pretty much have to win that, or they have little chance to pass the Giants. That narrows their playoff window to the last spot only.