Questions that need Asked 2-15-07

What happens to a team when they run back the opening kickoff in a championship game?  Or didn’t anyone notice that was pretty much the end of  both Ohio State and the Chicago Bears? 

Why didn’t they just unlock the other door at the American Idol Auditions?

 

One of the local radio stations refuses to pay the Dixie Chicks because they "started making political statements."  When did that become a criteria and aren't you making one yourself if you refuse to play someone's music?

 

Does everyone realize how interesting the 2008 election could be?

Here's why:  Senators can't win the Presidency.  Best I can tell we've only elected one Senator (Kennedy) to the Presidency in over 100 years.

 

If  the 2008 Presidential election turns out to be McCain vs.Obama or Clinton it will be 2 sitting senators opposing each other. A Senator’s votes are on record, making them an easy target.  Ask John Kerry, Al Gore, Bob Dole, Walter Mondale, George McGovern, Hubert Humphrey, Barry Goldwater.  The list is long of losing former senators.  A governor or mayor must be much harder to assail.  Bodes well for Gulianni.   

 

Fantastic web site for this is www.uselectionsatlas.org.  Here’s something truly amazing:

 

In 1904 7.6 Million people voted for the winner Theodore Roosevelt.  In 2004 62 million voted for George Bush.  Which leads me to my next question.

 

Where are we going to put everybody?

Total votes: 122,293,548 were cast in 2004.  In 1904 the total was 13,525,095.  Of course women couldn’t vote then and we had fewer states, but it lead me to do a little population research.  The 1900 census had the U.S. at  76 million.  The 2000 census had us at  273 million.

I’m not that good at math, but I figure at that rate the 2100 U.S. population will be over 1 billion people.  The current estimate is that births plus immigrants less deaths equals a net gain of 1 person every 12 seconds in the US.  Current population is 301 million. If the population quadruples in the next 100 years as it did in the last 100, where are we going to put everybody?  Those high rise condos may stretch from the coast to Memphis in 100 years.

The 2006 Ozzies

There are so many year-end movie awards I thought I'd develop my list and wait for a TV contract.  During the show I would give out the following awards for the Best of 2006:   

Top Ten Movies

1. Little Miss Sunshine
2. United 93
3. Pan’s Labyrinth
4. The Departed
5. V for Vendetta
6. The Queen
7. Dixie Chicks:  Shut Up & Sing
8. Casino Royale
9. An Inconvenient Truth
10. The Devil Wears Prada

Best Actor:  Leonardo DiCaprio – The Departed

Best Actress:  Helen Mirren – The Queen
Best Supporting Actor:  Mark Wahlberg

Best Supporting Actress:  Abigail Breslin

Best Director:  Martin Scorcese, The Departed

Worst Movie of the Year:  The Black Dahlia, and nothing else is even close, not even Basic Instinct 2

 

Acclaimed movies I haven't seen:  Borat, Children of Men, The Eastwood War movies, Half Nelson.  (Sorry - maybe they would have gotten the prestigous Ozzie)

Had to go out of state to see the Democratic documentaries.  If you're waiting for them to come to Mississippi, you'll have to wait at Blockbuster.

My 2007 Super Bowl Take

 

Saintsations,

 

Not that anyone cares - most Saints fans certainly don't after two weeks of cold turkey withdrawal - but here's my Super Bowl prediction.

 

For many years the Super Bowl was easy to pick. 

 

In the years where there was only a one week break between the Championship games and the Super Bowl, the games were closer.  An upset was more likely, or the game closer than everyone thought it would be, when the teams had to go play right away.  The team that got better coaching seemed to do better - the premium was on coaching, and I found the team with the better offensive line advantage did better than expected. Both teams had momentum and came into the game on a high.

 

The incredible media hyper hype saps the spontaneity and momentum out of it and seems to transform it into the Belmont Stakes - never quite the exciting event you were hoping for.

 

I think the last time there was only a one week break was the game where the Titans came within 2 yards of pulling the upset over the Rams.  Great game.

 

I've always theorized that the two week break gave the team that was favored a better chance to pull away and widen the gap.  With so much time for both teams to prepare, the better team usually wins.

I've always felt that the 2 week gap was the main reason the Super Bowl is usually a dud.  That, along with the fact that the tedious, lengthy nipple revealing half time show, essentially adds another week of preparation to the event. 

 

Imagine that you're an executive making the biggest presentation of your life and we stop in the middle to take a 2 hour lunch.  "Come back at nap time and finish this for us, Biff, willya?"  Talk about a momentum killer.

 

Given that reasoning it would seem that The Colts should pull away from the Bears about 30 minutes after Prince has pulled his Little Red Corvette off the 50 yard line.

 

Not so fast Mr. Timberlake.  The recent games have been better.  Maybe I'm too close to it because I watched the Bears dismantle my team, but I think the Bears are going to keep it close. Can they do to the Colts on a clean field what they did to the Saints on the sliding toupee?  I think they can.  They'll run the ball, stop the run, pressure the Quarterback (I forget his name) and capitalize on their edge on special teams and turnover creation. 

 

So here's my prediction, which I hope you'll forget quickly if it doesn't come to pass.

The Bears lead by a safety late in the game and Vinatieri, in the irony of ironies, misses a medium range field goal, giving the Bears the Lombardi trophy. 

Headlines:  A Money Miss and we Miss Our Liquored up Kicker.

 

Stranger things have happened.  Like Clay Aiken being famous.

 

 

(Thus this morning's exchange upon seeing him on Good Morning America:

Rick:  "Isn't his 15 minutes up yet?"

Liz: (referring to his charitable work):  "He's doing good things."

Rick:  "I don't think you can consider muzzling Kelly Ripa enough to justify it.")

 

Ah, the wit and wisdom that gets bantered about in our household. 

This comes at a time when I'm watching the American Idol tryouts (this week featuring the Goddess Olivia Newton-John as a guest judge) and the televised tryouts for Grease (this week featuring the Goddess Olivia Newton-John as a guest judge) because this is the time of my life that I certainly want to spend 10 hours of my week watching bad singers sing badly to a happy guy using hip language, a woman in the middle, and an English guy on a game-show visa. And this week the Goddess Olivia who has been a revelation in how to say something nice to almost everyone even if they sucked.  Did I mention she was a goddess?  Even if she appears to have had "some work done."  Still a goddess.

 

I'm starting my Super Bowl spaghetti sauce Friday night if you'd like to join us for Sunday dinner.

Last party for awhile, although Donnie has petitioned us to have occasional video concert nights.

RSVP if you're coming.

 

If you'd like to read an article by someone who actually knows something about football, and is thus making a much better informed prediction, try this one:

 

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/16599158.htm

 

Enjoy the game.