Football picks and naughty bits

Yeah, that's her.

I watch the first hour of the Today show almost religiously, although my eyes and ears are tired at the time and I'm only paying attention in the most elemental ways (ie- my eyes are open and there is noise in the background). So, I heard this story yesterday and have my own prudish take on this former Duke U. student's "thesis." You can read the thing for yourself here.

Not a nice gal, not someone you take home to mom. Ever. There's an amusing comment someone posted after the text of the thesis that the guy who jumped off the GW Bridge was her father.

I can just imagine folks from other countries seeing this story and/or reading this "thesis" and looking for their guns and bombs. This is as good a reason as any to hate America.

Duke's not a cheap school to attend, and it has an excellent academic standing. But, like any college, I guess sowing one's wild oats is weaved into campus life. That's unsurprising. I have no way to relate to this sort of behavior. The college bar hookup was not part of my life, I've simply got no experience with it. Some of my friends did it, most did not. Typically, the people at school who made hooking up a regular practice became well known for their promiscuity and were avoided.

I guess Duke's athletes didn't care. Ewww.

There's some kind of feminist argument they're spewing over this, saying it's empowering to women who embrace their sexuality and "my, look how far we've come." I can acknowledge that our "cultural" embrace of this sort of behavior is preferable to arranged marriages and stoning people to death....but still......

Here's my take: you're given your gender roles at conception. And using them is great, one of the best things about being alive. But, with all of that comes the responsibility to recognize that: 1) you can hurt other people with them; and 2) you can hurt yourself as well. Both are important. Hypothetically speaking, sure - she might have been OK with the casualness of these sexual encounters...but the "Johns" might not (yes people, jocks have feelings too). And, while everyone can understand that a gal short-sightedly jumping into bed with every guy she takes a shine to is not necessarily a good thing....I think it should be noted that the behavior damages more than just her reputation. How will she learn to commit to a marriage (if she ever chooses to)? Or children? Or anything?

The answer, I guess, is that all of that comes with maturity. But inter-personal relationships are much more thorny and bad experiences can damage people for the rest of their lives. Some wounds you never really heal from. I think this gal's going to have some big scars. Maybe those fellas will, too.

Again, returning briefly to the terrorists, the idea that college is a playground for the upper-class who are groomed to be the next generation of American leaders is kinda awful. A 4-year extension of childhood whilst kids drink and screw to their fill. Once that ride's over, they're supposed to get a job, grow up....etc etc. Our educational system has failed them all if it accepts a "thesis" like this as a scholarly endeavor. IT'S NOT ENOUGH TO SIMPLY TELL KIDS TO "BE CAREFUL" AND "USE PROTECTION." There's a very human element to sexual behavior that transcends mere technicalities, it can be emotional and spiritual....and therein lies the problem. Good luck.

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FOOTBALL, briefly, as I'm sweating from all that preaching. I'm 23-23 for the season and want to get over that .500 mark.....

Jax at Buffalo: you think the Bills can win a home game? I do. BILLS

Tampa at Cincinnati: BENGALS, but a close game.

Atlanta at Cleveland: Cleveland has "shown life" as they say. But Atlanta is a good team this year. FALCONS

St Louis at Detroit: DETROIT. Team of destiny

KC at Indy: COLTS

Green Bay at Washington: Boy, I could see a Redskins win this week.....but probably not. PACKERS

Chicago at Carolina: BEARS

Denver at Baltimore: RAVENS

NY Giants at Houston: TEXANS

New Orleans at Arizona: SAINTS

San Diego at Oakland: CHARGERS

Tennessee at Dallas: hmm......not feeling a road team here. COWBOYS

Philly at San Fran: another desperate team....49ERS to upset

Minnesota at NY Jets: JETS, but I hate myself for the pick

Time to crow

9-5 this week, which makes me 23-23 for the season so far. After the disastrous week 3, this is welcome news. See? Aint that hard at all. And the 'Skins and Pats both won.

So, the great recap:

Eagles lost to the Redskins: whoops. Didn't believe in my team. I figure if you're betting, you shouldn't bet with your heart. Glad I was wrong. Oh, and an editor's note: apparently the Eagle's receiver is named JASON Avant and not - as your nitwit blogger wrote "Brian." Duh.

SF lost to Atlanta: close call here. Wow, what a finish. Falcons made me sweat.

Jets killed Buffalo: oliterated them. Is there even a team in Buffalo anymore?

Cincinnati lost to Cleveland: yup, called it. Seneca Wallace can play football, and that Hillis guy can run like Riggo.

Detroit lost to Packers: just barely. My Team of Destiny is 0-4. Hmmm..

Denver beats Titans: didn't see this one coming. As my geometry teacher, Brother Barry, would say....Wrong. Sad.

Seattle lost to St. Louis: seriously? Why are the Rams in St. Louis and not LA? How the f&*k did they beat Seattle?

Carolina lost to New Orleans: Saints are looking very very beatable but have won more than they've lost. Long season in......oh, you've heard that before.

Ravens beat Steelers: and The Rapist is back under center soon. Are you like me? Would you be nervous if you were his center?

Houston beats Oakland: well, of course.

Indy lost in Jacksonville: how does "LA Jaguars" grab you? Indianapolis has apparently called Don Rumsfeld....they need a defense... annnnnnd rimshot!

Arizona lost to Chargers: yeah, Rivers can throw. But Norv's still the coach.

Chicago lost to NY Giants: badly missed this one. But the Giants were looking poor.

Pats drop Miami: what'd I say? # 12? Well, I should've also said #25 in your playbook and #1 in your hearts, Patrick Chung. An amazing display of special teams prowess (or is it LUCK?) last night. Patriots looked pretty good. Miami? Not as good.

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You might have noticed that the MLB season came to an end last Sunday. Or, better yet, you might've been too busy to notice because this NFL season is really compelling so far. Well, my Red Sox hung tough but injuries killed them down the stretch. The Dodgers? Their season was over in July. Locally, the Nats and Birds didn't do anything amazing to get themselves in the playoffs, either. Still, there was the encouraging sign of a late-season Oriole surge and the hopes that the Bosox will be more competitive next year. Dodgers and Nats, errr.....

Enough about my teams. Baseball's playoffs are almost as compelling as hockey's, especially in the LCS games. The possibility of a 7-game set really stokes the animosity, and if we're lucky enough to get a game 7 this season it's almost better than any NFL game.

This year's AL matchups are Texas-Tampa and NY-Minnesota. The HATED Yankees missed out on drawing a Ranger team that beat them plenty this season, but NY's September swoon should not fool anyone - they're more than capable of repeating as World Series champs this year. I think the AL will see yet another all-AL East ALCS, with Tampa and the Yankees going head-to-head. So, Minnesota and Texas? Not this year.

The NL features the upstart Cincinnati Reds against the Phillies, and Atlanta vs SF Giants. I want to see Cincy and Atlanta play in the NLCS, but most likely we'll see Philadelphia's superior bats against Frisco's superior pitching.

It wouldn't shock me to see another Yankee-Phillies series this October, or a repeat of the Tampa-Phillies Series from two seasons back. Hard to pick against the AL, but that-they say- is why the games are played.

Y'know what sucks? All these games are played LATE. If I try to watch them all, as I did in 2004 and 2007, I'm an October ZOMBIE. Perhaps it's a good thing all my teams lost, I'm sure my wife likes me better after a good night's sleep.

Farewell for now. Enjoy the beer nuts

Spinning on the defense

Thanks to the Today show, I was reminded of the above-pictured Mr. James Jones. Instead of babbling excitedly about yesterday's Redskins win, I wanted to give his 15 minutes a few words.

I'm pretty sure everyone's heard or read the story about this guy, he walked onto his daughter's school bus and confronted the driver and the mean kids bullying her (she has cerebral palsy, I think). Went on a bit of a tirade and, I think, made a few threats but never assaulted anyone.

Because apparently EVERY story is ideological these days (recall, if you will, the congressmen apologizing to BP execs this Spring) Fox's so-called news programming, displayed him as some kind of folk hero taking on the faceless bureaucratic education system. I think CNN played it straight, I can't recall because I saw most of the coverage on the gym's TV and they had 2 tuned to Fox. Anyway, the gist of Fox's spin on the story was that he was a heroic parent who confronted the "system," and that he'd done nothing wrong.

James Jones took a couple days and did something Fox didn't expect. He found some TV cameras and publicly apologized to the driver and the kids who were on the bus. He admitted that he'd behaved improperly and should've handled the situation better.

As with the initial story, I saw this on Fox. The angry white gal anchor, her lip in a sneer, and Bill the walking Ken doll, asked why in the world he felt the need to apologize for anything. The self-righteous spin on the story was that his kid was being bullied and that he was in the right. Mr. Jones saw it differently.

Who wouldn't want to protect their own babies when they're being bullied or humiliated? Mr. Jones' actions are, to me, completely understandable and I sympathize. I've had my kids picked on and I've had to talk to teachers or other parents to try and get mean kids off my kids' backs. It's not fun, indeed it's very awkward. And every time I've had to do it I've felt like I was walking the line between meddling too much and not doing enough.

However, I'm in the fortunate position of not having a disabled child. I remember how disabled kids were treated when I was in school, so- again- I sympathize with Mr. Jones' plight and that of his daughter.

He was wrong to act in the way he did. Yelling at a bunch of kids, even mean kids, isn't an appropriate response. Yelling at a bus driver, again, not appropriate. Talking? Yes. Yelling? No. I realize that the school system is probably not perfectly responsive to this kind of behavior, but it's the best place to start. We can't be adults and act like cowboys. The real world aint "Rambo" or "Die Hard." Even when we'd like it to be.

He was wrong in his actions, and apparently upon reflection he admitted as much. Good for him. I particularly enjoy the fact that he made a point of making his apology very public (he didn't need to do so). There's a "narrative" being pushed by Fox News that "we the people" can act like ridiculous cowboys when dealing with any situation that arises. It's like the folks at Fox are dumbing Americans down to these caricatures of the Ugly American that some Europeans believe we are.

Nope. We are not all cowboys, or Rambo. We're grown-ups, too, and can behave that way. Yes, we all have our flaws. But the true test of one's mettle is NOT in "sticking to your guns" and childishly refusing to admit (to yourself and the world) that you behaved wrongly. When the rubber meets the road, the stronger man (if, as in this case, he was in the wrong) admits he was.

Alrighty, enough of that.

Ah, my first wife pulled through with pretty good color yesterday. I fully expected Vick and his dogpack to destroy the Redskin defense, boy was I surprised. An out-of-nowhere running game, a guy named Haynesworth actually playing football, and a great non-catch by Philly's Brian Avant. Thanks, Brian, you could've won the game but....didn't.

This is gonna be the way this season goes I think. One week UP, the next DOWN. Stephon Heyer couldn't block a 5-year old, and he'd false start anyway...or hold the kid. Sheesh. He's fine for a backup but I hope Trent Williams gets well soon. Where's Devin Thomas?! Who cares. Carlos Rogers....pick up Tony Kornheiser's white courtesy phone .. and TRY NOT TO DROP IT!!!

Whaddya hear on sports talk in DC? "A win's a win!" "I'll take it." Blah blah blah. We've got a flawed team here, Redskins fans, that is being coached well enough to compete week to week. It's more fun that Coach Z...so be happy nonetheless.

So strike up the band, "Hail to the Redskins", and next week we'll see if they've got yet another horseshoe up their butts.

Songs in the Key of.....

Happy Fri-dee! My wife is now returned from a jaunt to L.A. and I'm not a travel widower or single parent anymore. 48 hours of single-parenthood is tough but not insurmountable, you suck it up and survive it. So, too, do the kids.

While she was away giving a speech on behalf of Your Socialist Government Who Wants to Enslave Us All, she had a "field assignment" to taste-test which fast-food burger is better: 5 Guys or In-N-Out Burger. According to her scientific one-person study, and after exhaustive laboratory testing.... she says 5 Guys is better.

(I can't recall. I last had an In-N-Out cheeseburger [and shake] in Vegas 10 years ago). So that settles that.

Stephen King wrote a piece in a recent Entertainment Weekly about songs he liked, and I thought I'd take a spin through the iPod and - before picking NFL games- display my intellectual laziness (and continue my Quest to Fill Up the World Wide Web) with a friggin' list Lists suck, and this will no doubt prove that....

Lake, Christmas Island : it's the sweet little song that plays at the end of episodes of my older son's favorite show, "Adventure Time." I "get" the show now, it's about a boy and his weird best-pal dog with stretchy legs. A little absurdist, yes. But the song captures the essence of what I think the show's about.

Pearljam, In My Tree and The End : Eddie Vedder has penned some beautiful songs, and these are two examples (I'm partial to "Parachutes" as well). "Tree" borrows it's theme from the Beatles classic "Strawberry Fields" and is plaintively sung. The End is another sweet song, Vedder's vocals sound world-weary and, well, like a guy who's ready for the end but doesn't wanna die alone or without taking his last few moments to express his love.

Liz Phair, Supernova: Lordy, I had the big old Liz Phair crush with this song. Wish she'd written it about me...

Social D, cover of Under My Thumb: the Stones classic, sped up. This song rocks.

Lady Gaga, Bad Romance: shut up, I'm not gay. Great song, I'm waiting for the metal re-mix

Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Television the Drug of the Nation: oldie but a goodie. "Race baiting is the way to get selected, Willie Horton or will he not get elected"

Abba, Dancing Queen: oh, hold up....some songs are great because - when you're a parent - your kids love 'em too.

Against Me!, Ache With Me, White Crosses, Lehigh Acres: AM! pumps out pop-punk with some folkie songs tossed in. Good songs, not necessarily deep-thinking stuff but good stuff. "...easy money in the sunshine state..."

The Prodigy, Stand Up: pretty cool song, I'm not a big electronica fan. This song's prominently featured in the movie "Kick Ass" (a good comic book movie that suffers only because there are so many comic-book movies being cranked out). Song puts a smile on me, and I have no idea why - and that may be the highest praise I could offer any song.

Morrissey, The World is Full of Crashing Bores: like the guy writing this blog. The Bard of Manchester's voice is getting older but his songwriting skill is undiminished. Funny and poignant.

Black Francis, Threshold Apprehension: another older song. The Pixies made great music, then their "leader" went solo. I loved most of his songs, this one's really good, "Grand Marnier and a pocketful of speed/ we did it all day till we started to bleed..."

Beatles, Help!, I am the Walrus, and Strawberry Fields: Only got "into" the Fab Four a few years ago, and I have no idea why. My mom is a big fan, and I grew up hearing the stuff. I guess I thought I was too cool for it. Of course, they put out tons a great songs, and these are two of my favorites. You've heard 'em.

Steve Earle, I Can Wait, Rake: Steve Earle puts out great music no one hears. I Can Wait is about 10 years old now, but it's a beautiful song. Rake is a Townes Van Zandt cover that Earle's voice and spare instrumentation conveys tremendous sorrow and defiance all at once. Days Aren't Long Enough is likewise a beautiful song, a duet with his current wife, I think.

Pete Yorn, Burrito: I dig this song. Simple but fun.

Rolling Stones, Rocks Off: a truly great Stones song. They put out a bunch, and Exile on Main Street is a tremendous example of what they used to be. Rebellious, dangerous, and they could rock.

Oh, I think that's quite enough of that. Thanks for the induglence...or is that crickets I hear??

Onwards, ever forward:

It's week 4 of your fantanbulous NFL season and I'm awful at picking games so far. There's always this week and it's a bye week for some teams so I might have a better record....

Washington at Philly: who knows what to expect? A football game? A Haynesworth all-you-can-eat smorgasbord?(perhaps he'll use his $21 million to feed Sudan?). Dogfighting. Hey...are you like me? Rooting for Vick and McNabb to have 1,000 passing yards between them so some dumb color analyst can call the game a "dogfight." I'm here all week! It pains me to have to choose, EAGLES.

SF at Atlanta : FALCONS

NY Jets at Buffalo: Bills have to win sometime. Not this week. JETS

Cincy at Cleveland: Cleveland showed life on Sunday vs. Ravens. BROWNS at home.

Detroit at GB: PACKERS at home. My Team of Destiny has to lose sometime.

Denver at Tennessee: TITANS at home

Seattle at St. Louis: tricky game to call. A shaky vote for SEATTLE

Carolina at NO: long season for Panthers. SAINTS

Baltimore at Pitt: I just nabbed Charlie Batch to spot-start on my last-place fantasy team. This is the dreaded KISS OF DEATH. Therefore, RAVENS

Houston at Oakland: TEXANS

Indy at Jax: COLTS

Arizona at San Diego: CHARGERS at home, though Cards could easily win this one because Norv Turner coaches San Diego

Chicago at NY Giants: oof. BEARS

NE Patriots at Miami: another tough call. Patriot defense is really poor right now and Miami's D is pretty good. I can see Miami winning this one with great defense and a steady offense. A shaky vote for my PATRIOTS here, all because of #12.

Adieu, adieu. Love to y'all. Thank you both for reading.

Well, that worked out great

In a blog without any real purpose or mission-statement I'm free to write whatever I want. Today, I've decided to write more words than I need to in order to help fill up the Internet. They tell us that the Internet has a finite amount of space, and my new mission in life is to fill it with as much stupid prattling as I can.

It's been about two years since the last election....guess it's time for another one. Groan. It's a rainy September 30th here in the Baltimore-DC area but it may as well be November 5th. The airwaves are inundated with political ad after political ad after political ad. Here in Maryland, the two past and present Governors are airing spots that each accuse the other of being pedophiles or puppy-killers or God knows what. I imagine it's the same all over the country.

Anyone else sick of it, already?

It would be one thing if these differences were truly substantive, but here in Maryland it's not. Gov. O' Malley (D) and Mr. Ehrlich (R) are really not all that far apart on the BIG issues. This is mostly because Mr. Ehrlich is a reasonable, rational former Congressman who is not a yelling screaming slavering tea-party type. In fact, the esteemed and/or derided Mrs. Palin endorsed some guy who can't get his ads on TV at all. The big bitch here in Maryland? Ehrlich was governor when our energy company (BGE) hiked up our electric rates..... which is an unfair criticism of his governorship since the rate hikes were a legislative mechanism and had nothing to do with the governor's office.

Still, I guess he's a Republican and it helps the O'Malley folks tar him as in bed with big business - the great Democratic bugaboo.

In reply, Ehrlich tags O'Malley as a "tax-and-spend" liberal. Again, same old bugaboo. The true believers are breathlessly awaiting Election Day....but for me it's a choice between 1(a) and 1(b) - I don't see a whole hell of alot of difference.

Do you identify as a Democrat, or Republican? I registered Democrat so I could vote in the primary (I'm well aware I'm repeating myself), but have no strong ties to the PARTY. I can't imagine why anyone would. There's been much written and said about the partisanship and anger we've seen since the Inauguration in January 2009 (and before that, obviously), but I truly do not understand it.

Why the bitter divisions? Why does one man look across the aisle at his counterpart and see it as a battle of "us and them," of "good guys and bad guys?" I've heard it said far far too much, that we're Americans first and Democrats and Republicans second...but why does no one act like it...no one walks that walk?

Is it simply the easier thing to do? Instead of seeking to understand "the other" it's easier to simply lock horns and try to shove the other out of our way or shout them down? Is it easier for Christians to simply see all Muslims as "bad" and all Christians as "good" - even when we know that to be an impossibly simplistic belief?

Yeah, that's probably some of it.

Or this:

Where did our corporate leaders go? Sure, name a few...Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, the Ford family....the Hersheys in Pennsylvania, or Carnegie. VERY FEW Where have their ilk gone? America, built on private enterprise in tandem with good governance, seriously lacks men (or women) who are willing to use their wealth to lead. Philanthropy by the truly wealthy, always lacking in tough times, can shine a light that government operations cannot. Governments don't inspire, people do. Our larger corporations continue the practice of outsourcing, essentially telling Americans who used to look to those businesses for jobs that they're worthless, used up. Replaceable.

I think one other reason, amongst many, is that these divisions are profitable. Thanks to our Supreme Court's ruling this year, money can be funnelled into our political system unfettered by disclosures and limitations. John McCain and Russ Feingold's system (that resulted in McCain's defeat, I'll point out) was destroyed in favor of....well, we'll see...who knows what our "system" of politics will look like in a few years.

That aside, "news" organizations like Fox and MSNBC make cash on the influence-peddling of talking heads who - while they polarize some - attract viewers like flies to sh*t. You watch to see what outrage is being perpetrated by "them" against "us."

There are good ones. I happen to like reading EJ Dionne, Kathleen Parker (I might have a crush on her), and Michael Gerson. Yes, they have their POV, but they also think and express themselves as thoughtful. Not in extremes, or in vitriol, but through the exercise of their reason. I might agree or disagree, depending on what they're writing about. But at least I can disagree thoughtfully.

In its' final analysis, I suppose it's simply all about gaining or re-gaining power - and the players will use any means at their disposal to get it.

And, well, I just can't take the anger anymore. Makes me want to put my forehead down on the table and breathe very slowly. I don't understand it. I can freely admit that I'm no paragon of virtue: I've shouted people down and name-called before. I can regret my behavior and apologize, and try to live better as I walk on. I'm no preacher, I won't convert anyone to seeing things my way. No one listens anyway.

But if I could impart anything it'd be this: love everybody; listen to their voices and understand the words and thoughts behind them, whether you agree or not; vote your conscience; and - above all - God gave you gray matter for a purpose - THINK.

Displaying one's ignorance all over a page

6-10 last weekend on the NFL picks. Sh*t. Perhaps I should start handicapping baseball games. Thank God I don't have the money or inclination to gamble.

The awful recap:

Lions lost to Vikings: oops. Favre didn't play great, but there's this guy Peterson who's pretty good. Lions are fooling all of you but me....Team of Destiny

Pats dump Bills: of course they did. But Buffalo didn't go quietly because my 2nd wife's defense can't play.

Falcons beat Saints: yup, I called it. Saints haven't looked Super. Let me crow, it gets worse for me.

Titants beat Giants: something wrong with Big Blue

KC beats San Francisco: this just in, KC might have a team. I thought the 49ers played well in defeat Monday night, so I figured that momentum would carry. Nope.

Tampa lost to Steelers: missed BADLY. Pittsburgh has one more game till El Rapist returns, and I'm wondering if they even need him. They look just fine to me.

Bengals drop Panthers: heh. Long season in Carolina.

Ravens defeat Browns: but it was close, and the Cleveland offense racked up some yards on that Baltimore D. That Cleveland kid, Hillis, looked like Riggo out there.

Texans lose to Dallas: not like Dallas was going to go 0-16 this year. I stuck my neck out on this one and got bit.

Jags fall to Eagles: another BAD miss. Vick (woof woof) can apparently do little wrong this season, and will be an Alpo spokesperson by Thanksgiving.

Redskins lose to Rams: blllaaarghghghgh

Raiders lose to Cardinals: what happened to Jason Campbell?

Chargers get beaten in Seattle: See? I picked against too many home teams this week. Didn't see the Chargers playing badly against a young Seattle team

Colts drop Denver: well, picked against THIS home team. No-brainer

Miami beats NY Jets: almost got this one. Tight game. I didn't hear any Collinsworth-isms this Sunday night. No odes to a man's lower body strength. No "he ran up the A hole." Depressing. Miami's orange jerseys are an affront to Dreamsicles everywhere

Packers over Bears: Again, almost. Aaron Rodgers played really well but Pack couldn't run. Is there any player on the field that Jon Gruden DOESN'T like?? Seriously, every guy: "I love to watch him play ball...." Getting close to coining the term "Grudenism" very, very soon.

Soooo.....that's 14-18 for the season. Great start. Not even .500. The worst part of yesterday, as I mourned yet another Redskin loss, was hearing the DC sports guys start "weaving the narrative" that Mike Shanahan is not a good coach...that "this is the kind of thing that got him run out of Denver" and how he needs to do......something - they weren't very specific. Play Devin Thomas. Trade Fat Albert.

Oh wait, how about this??? Have a real draft in 2011. And, wowie zowie - another good draft in 2012. Build a team?

The single best part of writing down all of this silliness is to see, over time, how I do at something I have no expertise on whatsoever. I get to display my ignorance all over the place and then forget how dumb I really am by the next time I start typing.

St. Louis? Meet me in hell

Really? A friggin' 30-16 loss after leading one of the worst teams in professional football that - oh by the way- starts a rookie QB. That Redskin defense is aces, I tell ya.

I only saw the second half, as I was "skating" in a hockey game. It appeared that I was skating, but I was also digesting an enormous amount of food I'd eaten at my nephews' birthday party only 45 minutes or so prior to game time. Note to self: do not attempt to digest and skate at the same time. I was a pylon out there, pathetic.

Which, come to think of it, was what the Redskins looked like in yesterday's game. Maybe they were collectively celebrating (unbeknownst to us) my twin nephews' party also - they're really cool little kids - I'd completely understand. They can count to 10 in English, Spanish, and Japanese - and just turned three. They seem to like me, and that's a plus.

Who dropped a banana peel on the field late in the 4th quarter??? D'Angelo Hall raised some hackles last week claiming that he wanted to cover the other team's best receiver (does St. Louis even HAVE receivers??) and then......whoopsies! Fell right on his ass. We've all had bad days at the office, they're just not nationally televised. That play's gonna be on "football follies" someday, coupled with his prior statement.

Remember last week? I was down about the close loss to Houston but encouraged that my team had done a good job hanging in there with a superior opponent. This week, I'm fuming. Apparently, Portis played a good 1st half and then.....crickets. McNabb nails Moss with the deep ball and a penalty gets 'em to the 10....drive ends with another field goal. Crickets. This week sucked!!

Hey! Did you read that the Redskins are one of a group of teams that has voted unanimously to decertify the NFLPA? Great news, right?? This means they can sue the NFL ownership if they're locked out after this season. Awesomer. Why can't they vote not to suck?

Much is being made in the paper this morning about how, this time last year, the 'Skins dropped a similar game to a similar Detroit team on Week 3....and it began the downward spiral (or flush cycle, choose your metaphor) that ended with Zorn's departure etc etc. I hope, obviously, that's not the case with this season. I'm confident in the coach and QB, but realistic -- this team isn't that good yet. Trading away years of draft picks and handing out too much money has caught up with 'em, they're older and less-talented top-to-bottom than other teams. No depth. Blah blah blah - all the sports talk babble will tell you this.

And, of course, it's Monday and raining at my house. Screw you, Redskins. I'm all about my new team, the 3-0 Kansas City Chiefs.

Oh yeah, the Patriots won. Yay, Pats. See? No real sincerity in it. Second-wife status must suck.