CONGRATULATIONS YANKS!!!
2009 WORLD SERIES CHAMPS!!!
Game 6: Back in the Bronx for more baseball. Bad AJ showed up in Game 5, and while the Yanks made an exciting late-inning bid to wipe out a six run deficit and end the series in Philly, they ultimately fell short.
Tonight, Andy Pettitte -- the old warhorse, the winningest pitcher in post-season history -- takes the mound to try to prevent this thing from going the distance. The Phillies send Pedro back out for what, this time, is almost assuredly his last start against the Yankees. Should be a great game.
If the Yanks can't get it done tonight, they still have to be considered favorites tomorrow with CC on deck against any of a bunch of bad options for Charlie Manuel. That said, I'd much rather be watching Survivor and Supernatural tomorrow night than gritting my teeth through a Game 7.
C'mon, Andy. Can you think of a better way to ride off into the sunset than by putting #27 in the Yankees trophy case? Let's wrap it up.
Game 5: Man, I hope the Yanks put this thing away tonight. I really, really miss our normal 10:00 PM bed time. I am not built to function on less than six hours of sleep. Is a series-clinching victory in the cards tonight? Perhaps. Let's review:
Why the Yankees will lose tonight: Because Cliff Lee is a bad hombre and AJ probably doesn't have back-to-back lock-down games in him. Because it's tough to beat a team as good as the Phillies three straight. Because Ryan Howard is due. Because FOX has it in their contract with MLB that this series must go at least six games. Because Joe Girardi wants to win it back in the Bronx in front of the home crowd. Because the Toast Curse still has some life in it.
Why the Yankees will win tonight: Because the Baseball Gods will punish Cliff Lee for the casual flip catch followed by the behind-the-back grab. Because AJ has found his groove. Because Kate Hudson's vagina will not be denied. Because Cole Hamels would rather be golfing and can't this season just end guys I mean come on. Because the Ghosts are back and they know how to book a seat on Amtrak. Because there's an entire Nation waiting to start pissing and moaning about the Yankees "buying" a championship. (And you know which "Nation" of which I speak.) Because Barack Obama knows that the amount of money I'm planning to drop on "New York Yankees: 2009 World Series CHAMPIONS" paraphernalia will provide so much economic stimulus that the recession could be over by tomorrow afternoon. Because it's friggin' time.
There you go. It's like one of those "pick your own ending" books. Choose well.
Game 4: Carsten Charles Sabathia (3-1, 1.52 ERA, 26/6 K/BB) for the Yanks. Joe Blanton (0-0, 4.66 ERA, 3/2 K/BB) for the Phillies. Three words for the Yankees: Jug. U. Lar.
Grab it, crush it, take the life out of 'em. What Manuel is thinking down a game and not matching Girardi's move by going back to his ace is a mystery to me. But there's nothing to be gained looking that gift horse in the mouth. The Yankee bats need to beat Blanton like a rented stepchild. We've got an opportunity to take a commanding lead here. Don't squander it.
Game 3: It's windy, wet and warm here in the Shire on this Halloween night and from what I'm seeing on Weather Underground those conditions appear to prevail all the way down to Phil I. Delphia. Assuming the game gets underway on time, I'd be shocked if they didn't have at least one rain delay. That would make tonight's game more of a crap shoot than I'm hoping for. Under ideal conditions, I'd be pretty confident in a game three win. Andy Pettitte has been lights-out this postseason, and Cole Hamels has been anything but, continuing his shaky 2009 regular-season ways. It's an opportunity for the Yanks to shake the rust of their bats and take back control of this series. But if weather intervenes and we lose the starters early, who the hell knows what will happen? C'mon, Weather Gods, give me a Halloween miracle for my birthday and create a dome of dryness over Citizens Bank Park.
I cannot say enough about AJ's performance in Game Two. Talk about picking a good time to come up huge. Burnett looked like a man on a mission out there: No hesitation, no doubt, attacking every batter, ton of first-pitch strikes. His count rose fast at the start but he got more efficient as the game went on, more confident as the innings ticked off and he went toe-to-toe with a seemingly rejuvenated Pedro Martinez. Given the must-win-ish nature of the game plus the fact that our offense had only been able to muster a two-run lead, Girardi made the smart decision by having AJ hand the ball straight to Mo for the two-inning save. (Not that he should get in the habit, of course, especially with three straight days of baseball in Philly now.)
The series is back to even now, and I'm back to feeling pretty confident that the Yanks can win it. A "W" tonight for the series lead would make a very nice birthday present.
Game 2: OK, look, last night's game was brutal. Cliff Lee dominated the Yankees in a way that, frankly, in my admittedly short span as a baseball fan, I've never seen a pitcher dominate a team. It was just sick. By the time we got to the late innings and he was making the casual flip catch of Damon's popup and then the behind-the-back grab on that grounder, it felt like we weren't watching a baseball game anymore, but rather a Disney movie about a baseball game. And honestly, I'm not sure Disney wouldn't have turned down that script as too far-fetched. The shame of it is that the Yanks wasted a solid performance from Carsten Charles. Yeah, the big man had to scrap, but in the end all he gave the Phillies were those two solo dingers by Utley. Against any other starter on their team that's probably a 'W'.
Of course, Lee's dominance shouldn't obscure the fact that the Yankees have other issues to address, specifically their bullpen. Going into the postseason everyone assumed this would be a strength, but with the exception of the Immortal One they've been anything but. Our relievers - two of them in particular - appear to have undergone an interdimensional swap with their counterparts in Bizarro Yankee Universe. Damaso Marte, whose very presence in the pen elicited groans from New York fans during the regular season, is now sure and steady, while Phil Hughes, who put together three months of 2007-Joba-like dominance in the eighth this summer, now looks like a terrified child every time he takes the mound. Meanwhile, Brian Bruney - last seen sucking ass some time around June - was added to the World Series roster. Based on last night's performance I think Girardi would love a mulligan on that call. Going forward, the bridge to Mo should be made up of, in descending order of reliability, Robertson, Coke, Marte, Joba, Nick Swisher, Hughes, any available bat-boy, Bruney. So let it be written.
Tonight? Oh, tonight should be special. Tonight should be something else. It's pretty much a must-win game -- gods it hurts to type that -- for the men in pinstripes. You've got Pedrolicio Fuckface de la Beanball going for the bad guys and bringing all his cargo containers of history with the Yanks along with him. Then you've got AJ Laloosh Burnett, our lovable but oh-so-volatile flamethrower, taking the mound for the good guys. I have no idea what's going to happen. None. Could be a blowout either way or it could be a 20-19 extra-innings thriller. I don't see a pitcher's duel in the cards. (In fact, I'm headed to BetUS.com when I'm done writing this to place $20 on the over.) Whatever the hell happens, I expect it to be entertaining. I just hope it's not horror-show or black comedy entertaining.
Game 1: As of 4:45 PM radar is showing the skies over the Bronx rain free with no more on the way. We are GO for World Series baseball. Let the final push for Title #27 begin!
This should be a hell of an entertaining series. You've got former teammates CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee - the 2007 and 2008 Cy Young winners, respectively - going at it tonight. You've got a pair of über sluggers in A-Rod and Ryan Howard each leading powerful lineups. You've got Pedro pitching game two tomorrow night at the new Yankee Stadium (if you listen hard enough you can hear the "Who's Your Daddy?" chants already echoing backwards in time). You've got Phillies manager Charlie Manuel looking calm and confident as he helps his club defend their title while sophomore manager Joe Girardi - fighting off second-guessing and criticisms of "overmanaging" - looks to take his club from outside-looking-in last year to the top of the baseball mountain this season.
So yeah, this should be a great series. And all I've got to do is squelch my obsessive worry and doubting and just sit back and enjoy it.
Rrrrrright.
Prediction? Yankees in six, just like the last round. Same basic sequence of events, too. I think the Yanks win the first two, steal one in Philly, then seal the deal at home in the sixth game. Our starting rotation is stronger 1 through 3 and our pen is better (especially with the Greatest Closer of All Time looking as sharp as ever). Their big hitters - especially Howard - scare me a bit, but I think at the end of the day we have the ability to match them bomb for bomb. And we may not even have to. Everyone seems to be predicting a Home Run Derby, given two power lineups and two hitter's parks. Well, just a gut feeling here - I don't know why; maybe the Angels conditioned me or something - but I wouldn't be shocked to see some more hard-fought, moderate-scoring, late-inning nailbiters. We'll see.
All that said...
GO YANKEES!!!
Tags: baseball, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies
So the Shame of Connecticut has decided that the longstanding Democratic goal of fixing the healthcare system should be the next sacrifice on the altar of his ego; the next act in the long-running one-man show called "Joe Throws a Temper Tantrum". At this point in the arc of Joe Lieberman's career, is there any point in analyzing the man's actions? I submit there is not. All I can do is hold out hope that some day he will suffer a spectacular and multifaceted downfall - something truly worthy of the crimes he has committed against his (former) party and his country - and that I'll be around to bear witness to it.
Tags: Joe Lieberman
5:15 PM: Holy crap! The J-E-T-S are playin' some football out there in the black hole. Shonn Greene!
8:00 AM: Tracy and I need to hit the road shortly -- we're heading up to Massachusetts for a memorial service for my sister-in-law's dad -- so I'm tossing the couch out here now. Long story short? I expect the Jets to lose today. They're without Cotchery yet again on offense and they're still missing Sheppard in the secondary and, oh yeah, the cornerstone of their defense, Kris Jenkins, is done for the year. At this point, I'm penciling in every game as a loss. See you all late tonight for ALCS game 6.
Tags: NFL
Public Option: Build a big, strong, wide bridge across the river using the best materials available.
Public Option w/State Opt-Out: Build a big, strong, wide bridge across the river using the best materials available, then build an off ramp that allows stupid red states to continue using the rickety old wooden bridge that's in danger of falling into the river.
Public Option w/Trigger: Reinforce rickety old wooden bridge with improved truss-work and reinforcements along main span. If bridge still collapses, come back and build a big, strong, wide bridge across the river using the best materials available.
Update: Democrats being Democrats, this could still all go to Hell in a handbasket, but that said, things really do seem to be looking up.
Tags: healthcare reform
"I cannot think of the last time two such terrifying cult figures came lipstick-to-lipstick on the small screen." -- Michelle Cottle, on Sarah Palin's upcoming appearance on Oprah.
Tags: Oprah Winfrey, Sarah Palin
Ugh. I am beat right now. That was a loooooooooooooooong baseball game last night. My brain and my liver are both spent. Good day to curl up on the couch and zone out watching football.
The Jets aren't on TV today, as once again the dumbass Patriots are playing opposite them. Normally this would mean we'd go out somewhere to see the game, but Gang Green is coming off two losses and they're playing the hapless Bills, so my excitement level isn't where it ought to be. We'll keep an eye on the score and flip over to the Red Zone channel when they threaten to put up points.
Without further ado, today's lineup:
CBS: Ravens @ Vikings (1:00 PM) and Titans @ Patriots (4:00 PM)
FOX: Giants @ Saints (1:00 PM)
Sunday night features Bears @ Falcons and Monday night gives us Broncos @ Chargers.
Enjoy the games.
Tags: NFL
For all the (justifiable) worrying about weather conditions these last few days, things don't appear too bad on the radar in NYC at the moment, and it appears that playoff baseball will finally -- FINALLY! -- resume in the Bronx this evening. This has been a loooooooooong week of waiting.
I've read, watched, and listened to quite a few previews of this ALCS matchup during the hiatus. The predictions I've run across run the gamut from "Yankees sweep" to "Yankees in seven games". I haven't seen anyone pick the Halos yet. That worries me a bit.
CC and AJ were lights out in their ALDS starts, but now they've got to keep it rolling against a team with a better offense and far better starting pitching than the Twinkies brought to the table. Our bats, aside from Jeter and A-Rod (!), were pretty quiet in the first round. That's going to have to change if we're going to get by a feisty Angels team.
Wait, did I call Anaheim "feisty"? Shame on me. That label - along with "scrappy", "pesky" and all the other adjectives that allude to their supposed small-ball, speed-kills style - is no longer operative. This team is just plain good. They're rock solid in every department except their bullpen. Sure, they steal plenty of bases (so do the Yankees, by the way) and they can manufacture runs. But they can mash the ball too. Oh, and did I mention their starting pitching? The only thing that would improve their rotation is if they could start John Lackey in game one and John Lackey's Scary Upper Lip in game two.
Bottom line? I think this series takes a while. Maybe all seven games. Definitely six. I'd be tickled to be proven wrong, but I just think the folks penciling New York in for a sweep are not giving the Angels the credit they deserve.
Anyhow, in two hours It. Is. ON.
May the best team that wears pinstripes and plays in New York win.
Tags: baseball
I am going to take issue with an assertion Joe Klein makes in his brief comment on the Rush Limbaugh as potential Rams co-owner contretemps:
There's nothing more mainstream conservative American, more red state than blue, than professional football and the news that Rush Limbaugh is too controversial, too much of an extremist to be considered as a potential owner of the St. Louis Rams should be carefully digested by Republicans, especially those elected officials who heed his every call. This should be a reality check for the fevered wingers, as well.
While I believe it to be more an artifact of regional population density and the attending economic reality than anything of particular cultural significance, I will concede that college football is more of a red state thing than a blue state thing. Professional football, however, is another matter. There is nothing -- not the distribution of franchises, nor, certainly, the length of tenure of said franchises nor the relative rabidity of their fans -- that would convincingly suggest that Red America "owns" pro football any more than Blue America does.
Perhaps Klein missed it, but one of the strongest threads in the argument against allowing Limbaugh to go in on an NFL team - second only to the man's history of vile racism - was the notion that football (and sports generally) are something that bring us all together - regardless of race, creed, ideology, or electoral hue - and that is why it would be a horrible mistake to let a man who is the poster child for divisiveness and discord put his name behind an NFL team.
Tags: football
Up until about five minutes ago I was kind of curious to find out what Google Wave was all about. That was before I read this critique of the highly-anticipated new supertool which focuses on Wave's "live typing" feature: Unlike conventional IM, each keystroke you enter in a conversation in Google Wave is immediately visible to the person you're communicating with. So they see your partially-formed ideas, your struggles to put something the right way, and your heated, pre-self-censored missives; they see your thoughts during gestation, as it were.
There are still a few months left in 2009, but I'm ready to call this the Dumbest Idea of the Year.
Think about it. Ever been IM'ing and you see that "[so-and-so] is typing a message" at the bottom of the window and it seems to blink on and off and then back on and this goes on for a really long time and then you see some terse response like "OK, fine" pop up? Do you really want or need to know what that was all about? I don't. I'm actually grateful for the not knowing. Because I've been on the typing end of those situations many times. I've rambled off in unfruitful conversational directions and then thought, no, I don't feel like having that discussion. I've been ready to fire off a counter-argument only to Google some key fact and find out I was milliseconds away from making an ass of myself. I've been ready to flame the living hell out of someone and thought better of it.*
It's an oft-observed phenomenon that email, blogs, comment threads, and IM have had the effect of lowering our inhibitions and creating an environment where we say things to people that we would never say in a face-to-face situation. In this golden era of near-instantaneous textual communication, the "Submit" button is the last failsafe we have on the path from brain -> fingers -> keyboard -> FAIL. If Google wanted to design a next-generation chat platform that really added value to our lives they wouldn't take that button away, they'd add an "Are you sure?" prompt after the click event.
Tags: instant messaging
Erick Erickson apparently thinks he's being very clever by urging his flying monkeys to send rock salt to the offices of Senator Olympia Snowe in protest of her support for the Senate finance committee's healthcare reform bill. (Get it? Because rock salt can be used to melt snow! Oh, you cheeky winger!) If Snowe wants to play this right, she should redirect any rock salt deliveries she receives to her home state of Maine - where the winters can get a tad nasty - thus making Erickson the unwitting orchestrator of what might be considered the first-ever act of red-state-to-blue-state welfare.
Tags: Erick Erickson, Olympia Snowe
Tue - 6:15 AM: Well, that was a depressing loss. Offense looked pretty good tonight, but what in the hell happened to the defense we saw over the first four weeks? Absolutely humiliating performance. Ugh. Time to throttle back on the expectations.
11:28 PM: Touchdown! Thomas Jones! J! E! T! S! Jets! Jets! Jets!
10:58 PM: Haha! That's better. Touchdown! Thomas Jones! J! E! T! S! Jets! Jets! Jets!
11:01 PM: Or not.
10:58 PM: Touchdown! Sanchez to Edwards! J! E! T! S! Jets! Jets! Jets!
9:07 PM: Touchdown! Sanchez to Edwards! J! E! T! S! Jets! Jets! Jets!
Mon - 7:45 PM: What? A prediction? You want a prediction? Fine. I predict the Jets are going to hand the Dolphins their asses.
Sun - 10:30 AM: The good part about the Jets playing Monday night is that, unlike most weeks, I definitely know I'll be able to see the game. The bad part is, well, they're playing Monday night. I have to wait through an entire Sunday of football and then a work day before getting to see them play. And then I'll have to stay up late on a work night. And it's even worse because, coming off a loss, I'm especially eager to see them get back out there and right the ship. (Which I think they will, btw.)
Ah, well. Plenty of other shiny sports baubles to distract myself with. Here's what we're looking at this week:
CBS: Raiders @ Giants (1:00 PM) and Patriots @ Broncos (4:00 PM)
FOX: Cowboys @ Chiefs (1:00 PM)
Sunday night features Colts @ Titans and Monday night gives us Jets @ Dolphins.
We've also got the resumption of both ALDS series today, with the Sox looking to avoid a sweep in Fenway starting at noon and the Yanks looking to complete a sweep in Minnesota at 6:00 PM. And if I need a break from watching grown men run around on fields doing things I myself am utterly incapable of doing, hey, it's a gorgeous fall day in the Shire. Maybe I'll surprise everyone and go for a walk.
Tags: NFL
Good AJ or Bad AJ? That is the question. Which version of the excitable Mr. Burnett will take the mound at the Stadium tonight? The flame-throwing assassin or the real-world Nuke Laloosh? On Wednesday, CC Sabathia quieted the critics who had questioned his post-season poise. Can Burnett, making his playoff debut, follow up that performance with a gem of his own? We shall see.
Manager Joe Girardi took some serious heat this week for his decision to bench Yankee stalwart Jorge Posada tonight in order to pair AJ with his personal catcher/psychologist Jose Molina. Personally, I think it's a smart move. The numbers bear it out: Burnett's batting average against is 49 points higher when he works with Jorge than it is with Molina. But you don't need to look a the numbers to figure out AJ and Jorge have a chemistry problem. Burnett has a tendency to get worked up when things aren't working for him, and when that happens Posada's edgy, domineering style seems to make it worse. Molina might not have much pop in his bat, but he seems to have the ability to talk Burnett in off the ledge, and that could be the difference in tonight's game, in this series, and in the Yankees drive for title number 27.
The Yanks take the field in a cool, rainy Bronx at 6:00 PM. Later tonight, the Sox, smothered by John Lackey last night in a 5-0 Angels victory, try to come back and even their series out at Rally Monkey Stadium. That's at least six hours (probably much more) of what should be very entertaining baseball. Hope you'll join us in the comments to partake of the games.
Tags: baseball
I've been pleased, on the whole, with Obama's performance on the international stage thus far, but a Nobel Peace Prize seems just a tad premature, don't you think?
Tags: Obama, Nobel Peace Prize
Joe Lieberman: Despicable Scumbag? Or The Most Despicable Scumbag? Never once used his gavel to investigate the Bush administration's actual high crimes, but this 100%-fabricated "Czar" controversy? He's all over it.
Antonin Scalia: "The cross is the most common symbol of the resting place of the dead." OK, one of two things are true: Either all the stories we've heard about Scalia's brilliance over the years are vastly overstated, or the man is simply an amoral, unprincipled fuckhead.
My primary reason for opposing the death penalty has always been the fact that, in an imperfect system, it is a certainty that innocent people would be executed. I've always wondered why that argument wasn't a game breaker for death penalty supporters. I never suspected that it was because some people are totally cool with executing the innocent.
Windows 7 sounds like it's going to kick a bunch of ass. The best part? "Vista owners can upgrade to the exactly comparable edition of Windows 7 while keeping all files, settings and programs in place." As for XP owners, hate to break it to you, but you've got a system rebuild in your future.
"First, they came for the smokers, but I remained silent because I was not (really) a smoker..." A few years back my company introduced a sliding scale for health insurance payroll deductions where smokers paid more. This decision immediately got me thinking "slippery slope". Sure enough, this year they're introducing a similar measure for people who are above their "ideal" weight. Practical difficulties aside, I'm curious what people think of this? Personally, I'd like to see a provision added to whatever healthcare reform bill Congress finally settles that bans this intrusive, nanny-corporation bullshit.
Speaking of healthcare reform, this opt-out public option compromise that's getting buzz today strikes me as a pretty ingenious idea. I had the same thought Ezra did: It's a perfect way to do a side-by-side comparison and see which approach (and by proxy which ideology) fares better in the real world.
Rounding out the healthcare trifecta, I want to get something off my chest: There is a legitimate case to be made that private, for-profit companies have no place in health insurance (or healthcare generally). There are real questions about skewed incentives, the wastefulness of heterogeneous administrative systems, risk pooling, etc.. But cherry-picking outlandish stories that are in no way representative of the overwhelming majority of interactions between insurer and insuree is not the way to make that case. It's just slimy demagoguery. (Note: For pretty obvious reasons, that's all I've got to say about that, although you are of course free to debate amongst yourselves.)
Tags: Joe Lieberman, Antonin Scalia, capital punishment, Windows 7, healthcare reform
"Eric Mangini always said he wanted to win a championship for the Jets. He's doing a better job now that he's the Browns' coach." -- Rich Cimini, noting the ex Jets coach's prominent role in yet another big move to improve Gang Green.
Tags: Eric Mangini, New York Jets
Wed - 6:00 PM: Woot! After an interminable one-season layoff, the New York Yankees return to the postseason in about a quarter of an hour. Here at Casa de Toast we are fired up and ready to go.
If you missed last night's 12-inning play-in game between the Twinks and Tigres, you missed a gem of a baseball game. To play 162 games and wind up tied, then take the tiebreaker to OT? That's some drama right there. In the end, I got my wish and Minnesota prevailed. Despite their hot streak, I'm firmly in the "Pitching wins in the playoffs" camp, and not having to face Verlander and company is definitely a relief. Bring on that soft, chewy Twins pitching staff, baby!
Another reason I'm happy Detroit went home is that we don't have to listen to all the human-interest crap highlighting what a "great story" it would be if the Tigers won for the downtrodden city of Detroit. Shit, there's enough anti-Yankee sentiment out there already; we didn't need that working against us.
Prediction? Yankees in four. I think they take the first two at home pretty easily. Then I see the Twins getting amped up and pulling out a win for the home crowd in game three (probably a 4-3 or 5-4 victory). After that, the Yanks ice it in the Metrodome in game four, allowing them to rest up for the Sox in the ALCS. (There's another prediction for you right there.)
Anyhow, here we go!
Tags: baseball
Howdy, football fans. Welcome to week four of what has, thus far, been a kick-ass NFL season (your mileage may vary, of course) and to the TwoGlasses Virtual Couch™. Fair warning: It could be a quiet afternoon on the Couch from our end. As soon as we finish breakfast Tracy and I are heading to Crate & Barrel to pick up a corner entertainment stand for our new television. I'll be putting that together during the early games, and then we've got to head out a bar to see the Jets take on the Saints in the late round of games. I'm looking to you -- all of you -- to keep this place loud and keep it jumping. Come on, you can do this. Let's see some hands! "Couch!" on three! Onetwothree...
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
Here's the local lineup:
CBS: Ravens @ Patriots (1:00 PM)
FOX: Giants @ Chiefs (1:00 PM) and Cowboys @ Broncos (4:00 PM)
Sunday night features Chargers @ Steelers and Monday night gives us Packers @ Vikings (aka Brett Bowl I).
Enjoy the games and may all your teams* enjoy the thrill of victory.
(*"Thrill of Victory" offer not valid this week for fans of New Orleans or any week for fans of New England. Other restrictions may apply.)
Tags: NFL
Sitting here in the home offices of the TwoGlasses Media Empire on a rainy Saturday morning, sipping my third cup of coffee, listening to a melange of Pink Floyd, Farkle, and parakeet speak, I am happy to report that my Four-Day Weekend is going absolutely splendiferously. This is exactly what I needed. After returning from Italy we had a few days of spool-down time, but it wasn't nearly enough. My head was not in the right place to dive back into my project at work, and as such my first few weeks back at the office have been a major suck-fest. (There are other reasons for said suckitude as well, but I'll spare you the details.) I needed to hit the reset button, and this little mini-vacation is doing the trick.
Tracy and I went to the Big E on Thursday. Ate ourselves silly, drank a bunch of beer, and had the usual grand old time. Wandering about the Big E is great way to spend a day. If you're ever in the area around the end of September, I'd highly recommend it.
On the way home we stopped at Costco and bought ourselves a new television - a Samsung 46" LCD HDTV (1080p - 120MHz). After finally getting it set up -- I had to run back out to Best Buy to get HDMI cables (holy shit are they expensive) -- we settled in to watch Survivor. I was promptly blown straight the fuck away. The sharpness and brightness of the LCD picture are just astonishing. I expected a somewhat better picture than what we'd had with our old projection HDTV. I did not expect a quantum jump in quality. But that's what this is. I cannot wait to watch our first BluRay movie in full 1080p glory. Should be incredible.
Yesterday I kind of kicked it around the house, doing chores, running errands, and goofing around. Played a little Mario Kart and some Rock Band to see how good the Wii looked on the new set. (Answer: Pretty freakin' good.) Then, last night, we headed into Hartford to meet Sue -- aka Susan; occasional TwoGlasses commenter and long-time stalwart of the old-school Phi Sig gang -- for beers and to escort her back to Casa de Toast B&B for the night. Ended up staying up until after 1:00 AM shooting the shit and catching up on things. First time I've been up that late in a long while. Good times.
Fridge is coming up today around 2:00 PM. After I press him into service to help move the old behemoth of a TV down to the basement, the three of us are going to grab an early dinner at Opa Opa Brewing in Southampton, then we're off to see Ben Folds at the Calvin Theater in Northampton. We've got front row seats in the balcony, and Tracy has had nothing but great things to say about the Calvin. I can't wait to see Mr. Ben up close and personal in such a cool venue. It's our second time seeing him (first for Fridge). First time was at the Orpheum in Boston for the Songs for Silverman tour. This time around he's touring in support of Way to Normal - a vastly superior album in my opinion. I'm amped up for what should be an outstanding show.
And, of course, tomorrow we wrap things up with Football Sunday. In an egregious oversight the NFL decided not to give CBS the double-header for our first weekend with the new television, so Tracy and I are faced with the prospect of having to head out to a bar if we want to see the undefeated Jets take on the undefeated Saints. Not an ideal situation, but I guess we'll have to make do. Probably head over to Cambridge House Brewing in Granby. They're closer and a little more cozy than Buffalo Wild Wings.
Not a bad weekend, si?
And now, as I've got several hours to kill before we head out, I'm going to pour myself a Bloody Mary and brown up a few Slices of Toast!
I confess, if you'd confronted me last week and said "Roman Polanski: Go!" I would have been pretty flummoxed trying to generate a response. I don't think I could have told you with any confidence whether he was alive or dead, and I don't think I could have named any of the movies he directed on a bet. I knew virtually nothing about the man.
Pressed on the matter, I certainly would not have guessed "Spent the last three decades as a fugitive in Europe after being convicted in the U.S. of raping a 13-year-old girl."
That's just... weird.
Can someone explain how this was allowed to happen? Why wasn't Polanski arrested decades ago, the moment he set foot in England? And how did he manage to continue his career for thirty years before someone finally did stop and say "Hey, you know, this guy's a fugitive. What say we arrest him and send him back to the States?" Really, I don't understand any of this.
And, of course, what makes the whole thing odder still is the spectacle of his fans and friends in the entertainment industry rallying to his defense, laughably seeking to minimize the gravity of the crime he committed. Because, you know, rape isn't very nice, but this guy supposedly made some really good movies. Or something. Not one of Hollywood's proudest moments, that's for sure.
What a bizarre and troubling story.
This is a bit of a retrospective hunch, so make of it what you will, but I'm pretty sure that if George Bush had gone to the IOC early on in his first term as president and tried to get the 2008 Summer games for Houston that Democrats and liberals, despite being justifiably outraged at the time over the Supreme Court's election theft, would not have been rooting for him to fail in his bid. We're just not scummy in that oh-so-juvenile way that the right wing specializes in being.
Tags: long weekends rock, Roman Polanski, Olympic Fail
"[I]t is not time for the administration to reexamine the issue; rather, it is time for the administration to examine how to implement the repeal of the ban." -- Colonel Om Prakash, author of an article in Joint Force Quarterly urging an end to the U.S. military's stupid and indefensible "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
Tags: DADT
4:10 PM: Jets hold on for the win. After almost two full quarters of letting Collins have his way with them, the pass defense flipped a switch and shut him down, holding him without a completion on his last thirteen attempts. That's pretty crazy. A few possible ways to look at this game, I suppose, but here's how I'm spinning it: Last week, the Jets took a couple of punches from the Patriots on their first two offensive series. Then they shook off the dizziness and played tough the rest of the way. This week, the Jets got the crap kicked out of them for most of the middle part of the game. They didn't just take a punch, they got knocked down. And guess what? They climbed back off the mat, got a turnover, got some points, and stifled the Titans for the final ten minutes. This team's got talent, and they've got character, and I'm starting to think they could make a little noise this year.
3:10 PM: Touchdown! Sanchez to Cotchery! J! E! T! S! Jets! Jets! Jets!
2:35 PM: Wow, what a roller coaster. That second quarter was as putrid and deflating as the first quarter was amazing and exhilarating. Negative three yards total offense, no first downs, and the defense gives back ten points off our fourteen point lead. Brutal. Safe to say it's gut check time in the Meadowlands.
1:19 PM: Touchdown! Sanchez to... Hartsock?! J! E! T! S! Jets! Jets! Jets! You have to be kidding me.
1:10 PM: Touchdown! Mark Sanchez takes it in himself! J! E! T! S! Jets! Jets! Jets! This kid is something else.
12:15 PM: I don't know about you, but I love a rainy Sunday during NFL season. Beyond the fact that it gives one a convenient excuse to blow off any fall yard work that might be waiting to be done, it just feels right. Cooler temps, the leaves turning, gray skies and drizzle alternating with downpours? Take the field, boys! I'll be sitting here in my warm, cozy living room watching you in glorious HD, sucking down some superior brews and munching out on snackies while you brave the elements. For those about to get smacked around, We Salute You!
So how 'bout them J-E-T-S? As I'm sure you can guess, the Toast household is riding pretty high heading into the third week of the season. But there's a tiny edge of trepidation in the air. See, after the Jets euphoric win over the hated Patriots last week, Gang Green faces a challenge of an entirely different sort today when they take the field as favorites against the Tennessee Titans.
That challenge, in a word? Don't Farkle.
The Jets are 2-0, one of the big stories in the NFL, and they're feeling pretty good about themselves. The Titans are 0-2, coming off tough losses to a good Texans team and a great Steelers team. Can you say "letdown"? Can you say "trap game"? I thought you could. At least one Jets beat reporter claimed that the vibe around practice this week was a lot more low-key than it was leading up to the showdown with the Pats. Granted, you can't expect to keep the team at the red line all year, but the key for the Jets - aside from continuing to execute at a high level on both sides of the ball - is going to be maintaining the "Fuck You" edge that Ryan has given them and that was so evident in their first two games. It's the difference between being a good team and being a team that's feared, and it's going to be harder to do with each win. So raise a hand, gentlemen, extend a middle finger, then go out there and give those Thumbtacks a big, green kick in the ass.
On tap for today:
CBS: Titans @ Jets (1:00 PM) and Dolphins @ Chargers (4:00 PM)
FOX: Giants @ Bucs (1:00 PM)
Best of luck to all your teams today. See you on the Couch™.
Tags: NFL
The Greatest Rivalry in Sports™ resumes tonight as the Yankees welcome the Boston Red Sox to the Bronx for their final regular-season series. New York has a 5-1/2 game lead over Boston for both the AL East title and the best record in baseball. A sweep would seal the deal, but while it would be sweet to pop the champagne corks while the Sox watch from the visiting dugout, such an outcome is unlikely with Joba Chamberlain taking the mound tonight against Jon Lester. After briefly flashing the kind of dominance Yankees fans have been dreaming about for a short stretch after the All-Star break, Chamberlain has been a mess for the last two months, nibbling at the corners, second-guessing calls from the catcher, and handing out runs in bunches. Part of this is probably just youth, but part of it is pig-headedness too, and both parts have been exacerbated by a series of screwy moves the team has made to limit his innings.
In any case, while I don't like their chances tonight, I think the Yanks should take game two (CC vs. Dicey) and three (Pettitte vs. Byrd Poop). Should that happy outcome come to pass, they'd be one win or Boston loss away from being in the catbird seat for the playoffs.
After a couple of weeks of sputtering, the team appears to be righting itself. Earlier this week they took two of three from the Anaheim Angels at Rally Monkey Stadium, the first time they'd won a series in that chamber of horrors since 2004. This augurs well for October, as there's a very good chance the two teams could meet in the ALCS. Speaking of which, I'm torn as to which outcome I'd prefer to see in a first-round matchup between the Sox and Angels. If the Angels emerge to play in the ALCS, it means the Sox lost in the first round (HAR HAR!), but it also means the Yanks face a team they've struggled mightily with for most of this decade, and it means they don't get a chance to directly avenge the Greatest Collapse in Post-Season Sports History™. On the other hand, if Boston emerges to face the Yanks in the ALCS, I'm going to need to lay in sedatives by the truckload. So, you know, I'm ambivalent. I have more than one valence. My feelings, they are many. That's all I'm sayin'.
OK, one hour 'til first pitch. GO YANKEES!!!
Tags: baseball, Yankees, Red Sox
"In one policy area after another, from transportation to science, urban policy to auto policy, Obama's formulation is virtually identical: Selfishness or ideological rigidity has led us to look at the problem in isolated pieces ...; we must put aside parochialism to take the long systemic view; and when we finally formulate a uniform national policy supported by empirical and objective data rather than shallow, insular opinion, we will arrive at solutions that are not only more effective but less costly as well. This is the mantra of the policy presidency." -- Conservative scholar William Schambra. Astonishingly, this quite accurate description of Obama's approach to governing (and the liberal/progressive approach generally) was intended as a criticism.
Tags: conservatives are just weird
"Jobless Recovery" is an oxymoron.
Tags: economy, recession
This genuinely sounds like really good news for the future of the intertubes. It was hard to spend too much time worrying about net neutrality when the issue first surfaced a few years ago -- you know, what with the whole world seemingly circling the shitter at the time -- but in the absence of positive regulatory action like this it probably would be only a matter of time before private enterprise figured out a way to cripple the 'net in the name of profits. Nice to see the Big, Bad Gubmint step in and prevent that sorry state of affairs.
Tags: net neutrality
7:00 PM: Sitting here watching the end of Bears vs. Steelers, a subtle aroma of roast wafting into the living room. Some post-game thoughts. Going into this season, I hoped that the Jets defense would be improved and that Sanchez would be good enough as a rookie to manage games and keep us in things. To say that my expectations have been exceeded after two weeks would be a wee understatement. The defense has been absolutely extraordinary. They completely locked down the Texans last week, embarassing Schaub, negating Johnson, and holding Slaton to under twenty yards. Then, this week, they held the mighty Patriots passing game in check, keeping Brady under constant pressure and denying the Pats a TD -- the first time anyone's done that to them since 2006. Meanwhile, Sanchez has shown that he is anything but a mere game manager. When the coaching staff has played it ultra-conservative and asked him to just hand it off, the offense has stagnated. When they've allowed him to be a quarterback and throw the ball, it's opened things up and they've moved the ball with relative ease. And that was against two better-than-average defenses. I can't wait to see Sanchez and this Jets offense go up against a weak defensive team. Pass the popcorn.
I'm still not ready to look at this season as anything more than practice for the glory years to come. But... well, hey, I took a peek at the schedule. 12-4 is not out of the question. Green dreams, baby. Green dreams...
4:08 PM: J! E! T! S! Jets! Jets! Jets!
2:40 PM: Moral of the story? Let Sanchez play. The offense - especially the running game - didn't get rolling in Houston last week until they let Sanchez start slinging it. The kid can play football. Let him.
2:38 PM: Touchdown! Sanchez to Keller! J! E! T! S! Jets! Jets! Jets!
12:15 PM: Beautiful, crisp, early-fall day here in the Shire. The wife and I went out for an early morning jog to get our blood pumping and now we're home, refreshed, and ready to rock out to the sound of pads cracking, whistles blowing, and crowds cheering. It's week two of the 2009 NFL season. Draw a beverage of your choice from the bar, fluff up a cushion, grab your foam finger, and sit your ass down on the Virtual Couch™.
Big game in the Meadowlands today as the Dark Lord Belichick and his horde invade to take on the Jets. Gang Green looked awfully sharp (it felt funny, typing that, to add the "ly" to "awful") last week. The swarming defense rocked Texans QB Matt Schaub with ever-mutating schemes and on offense our highly-touted rookie QB played almost mistake-free football, with that one pick marring a game where he converted 12-of-15 pass attempts on third down. And, of course, if you watched the early game last Monday night, you know that the Pats have issues. Brady looked rusty as hell for the first 55 minutes or so, and the Bills, hardly a team anyone predicted would have a stellar offense, moved the ball pretty easily against a Patriots defense that's still figuring out who they are after a bevy of personnel changes.
So am I confident of a Jets victory?
Hell no. HELL no.
No. I'm hoping for a good game, and that's about it. Whenever Bill Fucking Belichick and Tom Brady are involved, I brace for the worst. Those bastards may not have completed their perfect season two years ago, but I'll believe they're firmly on the decline when I see them start losing games in bunches. Until then, Coach Fuckface and Baby Daddy remain the favorites every time they take the field. Oh, and note to Kerry Rhodes: It's OK to want to humiliate the Patriots -- who doesn't? -- but I'd recommend you go out and actually do it first, then run your mouth about it.
Our slate of games for the day:
CBS: Patriots @ Jets (1:00 PM) and Steelers @ Bears (4:00 PM - nap time)
FOX: Saints @ Eagles (1:00 PM)
Sunday Night Football features Giants @ Cowboys in the debut of the House that Jerry's Ego Built. (Over/Under on punts that bounce off the scoreboard: 2-1/2.) Monday Night Football gives us Colts @ Dolphins, a game which will in all likelihood be over by halftime so Tracy and I can get our beauty sleep.
Forty-five minutes to kickoff! See you in the tubes.
Tags: NFL
"[T]he things that scare the teabaggers -- the renewed sense of public purpose and government activism, the burgeoning racial diversity, urbanity and cosmopolitanism -- are among the things I find most precious and exhilarating about this country. And even though the teabaggers' pinched, paranoid sensibilities are now being stoked by Boss Rush and the leaders of the Republican party, I take comfort in this: the racists and nativists have always been with us, and they have always lost. They will lose this time, too." -- Joe Klein
Tags: Joe Klein
The last day of a long vacation is always a bitter pill to swallow, but I can think of few more potent sweeteners than the happy coincidence of said day also being the first day of the NFL season. For Hope not only springs eternal, it falls eternal as well, at least in these great United States, where "football" is played with an oblate spheroid and the players, bedecked in body armor better than some of our troops get, joyously crash into each other at highway speeds. Truly, we may count ourselves blessed by the Sports Gods to bear witness to such a spectacle.
Welcome, friends and readers, to Week 1 of the 2009 NFL season, and to the TwoGlasses Virtual Couch™.
Looking at today's slate of games, we have:
CBS: Jets @ Texans (1:00 PM)
FOX: Eagles @ Panthers (1:00 PM - blech) and Redskins @ Giants (4:00 PM)
Tonight we all get Bears @ Packers, and tomorrow we get a Monday night double-header (man I wish they'd do that all season long) of Bills @ Patriots followed by Chargers @ Raiders.
As a Jets fan, I am looking forward to today's game with the sort of hopeful anticipation that always attends a new coaching regime. This will be my fourth such regime as a fan of the club, not counting the weird Al Groh year that was precipitated by Bill Belichick's betrayal. Rex Ryan, a happy blowhard, has already been a breath of fresh air after three seasons of the blank-faced, uncommunicative Mangini-Droid. If he can bring a reasonable facsimile of the Ravens defense he commanded for years in Baltimore to the Meadowlands then we will already be in a happier place than we were last year. Add to that the excitement of having a highly-touted rookie QB at the helm -- always a risk, to be sure, but in this case a choice that offers far more upside than washed-up Brett Favre or washed-out Kellen Clemens -- and the recipe is there for an altogether giddy Jet Nation.
Which is not to say I'm harboring unrealistic expectations. For the record, I see the Jets finishing either 8-8 or 9-7, second in the division behind the Patriots, and missing the playoffs due to a bevy of proven contenders in the AFC fight for the wildcard. It will be a fun season to watch, but it will be a warmup for the years to come, not an unchecked charge to postseason glory. Given what I've had to endure the last two years, that should be more than enough.
As to the rest of the league, here's how I see things shaking out:
AFC
East: Patriots
North: Ravens
South: Colts
West: Chargers
WC1: Titans
WC2: Steelers |
NFC
East: Giants
North: Packers
South: Falcons
West: Cardinals
WC1: Saints
WC2: Bears |
Superbowl will be Steelers vs. Packers. The reason I have Pittsburgh in the WC spot instead of winning the division is that I anticipate some early season hiccups as their defense struggles without Polamalu for the next six weeks. Nevertheless, if they get into the postseason I see them making a repeat appearance in the title game. As for the outcome of said game, my heart desperately wants to give it to the Packers, but my brain isn't willing to go that far with the popular Cinderella pick.
That's all for now. Time to go watch ESPN NFL Countdown! See you in the comments.
Tags: NFL
Check out this piece by Newsweek's Daniel Gross on the early returns on TARP. All the hullabaloo and hand-wringing last year on the left? You remember: We're flushing all that money straight down the Fat Cats' toilets! It's a financial holocaust! We'll never get a dime of it back! It's an outrage! An OUTRAGE! Yeah. Turns out maybe TARP wasn't the end of the world after all. Go figure.
Tags: financial bailout
You know, I didn't read a single goddamned thing about American politics the whole time we were in Italy, and I have to tell you I didn't miss it a bit. Come back home and what do I find? The teabag brigade is back. They invaded D.C. today to protest about... well, whatever the fuck it is that they've been worked up about since last year's election. The fact that they lost? The fact that more Americans thought it would be a good idea to give a Democratic president a shot? The fact that nobody but them really wanted to belly up to the bar for another four years of failed right wing policies? Who knows.
Benen, as usual, had a great take on their confused and hollow antics:
We learned today that right-wing activists don't like government spending (except when Bush and Republican lawmakers spent freely), don't like the size of government (except when Bush and Republican lawmakers increased the size of government), don't like deficits and debt (except when Bush and Republican lawmakers added trillions to the nation's tab), and don't like czars (except when Bush used dozens of them to implement his agenda).
They don't like health-care reform, though it's not clear why. They don't like gun control, though it's not clear why they think anyone's coming for their firearms. They also don't like taxes, immigration, abortion, Muslims, the U.N., and the idea of "socialism," though their understanding of the word is tenuous at best.
In other words, the point of today's rally was to let the country know there are a lot of right-wing activists with right-wing beliefs. We knew that before today, but I guess they wanted to remind us.
Right. Considering the evidence that confronts us every day -- namely the ample mess that's left to clean up in every conceivable policy arena -- I don't think anyone really needed to be reminded that the U.S. is infested with Wingers, but whatever.
Oh, and take a look at the picture in this post at Drum's place. Note the guy carrying the sign that reads "Trade freedom for security... You will have neither." I want so badly to shove that sign up that moron's ass. Funny how no one on the right expressed that all-too-accurate sentiment when we were having actual freedoms stripped from us in the name of protecting the nation from the big, bad terrorists, but now that a Democratic administration and a Democratic Congress are trying to get healthcare reform passed you see lunatics like this shrieking about how their freedoms are being violated. Don't worry guys, the freedom that is the most vital to your day-to-day existence is still in effect: The freedom to be a fucking idiot.
Tags: right-wing idiots
Annnnnnnnnnnnnd... we're back.
Sitting here catching up on everything. Three hundred emails. Sixty or so Mafia Wars gifts to accept. Updated Quicken with all our AmEx and checking account transactions from the trip. Got all the clothes unpacked and the first load in the wash. Feeling mighty jet-lagged at the moment. Not tired, per se, but just out-of-whack. Planning a nice long nap for later in the day so we can stay up for all of the NFL's season opener. Started drinking wine at 10:30 AM on account of we're still on Italy time internally. (Oh yes, we'll be milking that excuse until we have to go back to work on Monday.)
Italy was everything we imagined and then some. Just incredible. The pace at which we took the country on - four cities in ten days - has created a whirlwind of novelty in my brain that will take some time to settle down and sort out. I plan on doing quite a bit of writing, obviously, although perhaps not on the order of magnitude of my Ireland posts, which took three months to complete. For now, though, it's time to unwind and readjust. We are both mighty pleased that we've got four full days to relax and get ourselves back to normal. It's "vacation from vacation" time.
Tags: home sweet home
