I like Twitter better. It's more like reading headlines at The Onion. The headlines are the funniest part. The stories are good, but a quick, brief, totally ridiculous line or two at the beginning totally make The Onion go. That's what I like about Twitter. That, and the phony Michael Bay posting over there.
Fantasy Football
Tobias Is Queen Mary lost the championship game, so my four teams this year produced two first place finishes, a second place and a third place. That, my friends, is one successful season of fake football.
New Bed
I just finished putting it all together and tonight will be my first night in new Queen-sized comfort.
54 Year Olds
I know one! Tomorrow is the old man's b-day. Him and Howard Stern. Dad's alright, but I'd rather be the son of Howard Stern I think.
St. Louis Rams Head Coach Search
Jim Haslett is a finalist. Leslie Frazier, Vikings secondary coach, is a finalist. Josh McDaniels did alright. Jim Fassel was impressive, according to his agent, but what else would his agent say? Packers linebackers coach Winston Moss is an impressive man, but supposedly the Rams don't think he's ready to be a HC. Rex Ryan was getting interviewed this morning. And Steve Spagnolo (sp?) is a part of the "good-ole boy" network of new G.M. Billy Delvaney, so word is the job is his if the new Rams owners offer him a contract. Now that the Eagles K.O.'ed the G-Men, Spagnuolo (sp?) can officially be interviewed.
Here's the candidates in the order of my (mostly uninformed) preference:
- Steve Spagnolo - he's in that right age where he seems ready for a HC gig. He's worked his way up quick - but not too quick - the last few years. He's hard, demanding, but has the respect of his players. Oh, and he's been pretty good with the defenses he's worked with.
- Rex Ryan - I like Ryan over Spagnolo in terms of X's and O's, and he's been doing it longer, so there's a bigger body of evidence. The problem is that, I don't get the vibe that he'd be a great head coach. His guys play their butts off for him, but given his age and that classic Ryan demeanor, I get the vibe that he's one of those guys like Monte Kiffen and Jim Johnson, that are just better coordinators than head coaches.
- Jim Fassel - He's got experience, he's won before and I'm confident he can manage all the coaches and personnel. But he's sort of a 'tweener - not quite a players coach, not such a hardass that guys will at least respect the hell out of him. His time with the Giants comes into question as he inherited a pretty good Parcells squad, and concluded his time there with a good John Fox defense. When Fox left, the defense went to hell and he got the boot. Sounds like an experienced Scott Linehan. No thanks.
- Leslie Frazier - Supposedly, he's a fast-riser, ready for a HC gig and everyone loves him. I'm not familiar with his whole history, but I'm skeptical to heap on too much credit for his work with the Vikings defense. They basically forced other teams to be one dimensional because they had the Williams brothers forming a human wall of blubber up front. You could pass on that Vikings defense though, they were nothing too special.
- Winston Moss - a no-nonsense, football lifer, hardass who's very good with linebackers. A lot of things the Rams need this man has, but if there's skepticism about his readiness to take on the big job, then there's usually fire where there's smoke. But I like his work with Barry Popinga, AJ Hawk and Nick Barnett the last few years.
- Josh McDaniels - Sure he's part of the Bill Belicheck coaching tree, and, as Bryan Burwell put it, "the prized young Jedi Knight" Belicheck is currently training. And sure, he's been awfully good with X's and O's the last three years. But he's 32 and Belicheck is the unquestioned leader of the Patricheats. I'm highly skeptical of his ability to be a leader of men, many of whom would be older and more experienced than he is. I don't think a team trying to change the culture of losing is the best place for him to start.
St. Louis Blues
The Blues season is going to end one of two ways. The kids are going to burn out from the longer, tougher NHL schedule and the Blues fizzle down the stretch (and get great draft position, again), or they gradually turn the reigns completely over to the kids and they really start to "get" what it is to be star NHL players and the Blues play well enough to end the season on an upward swing, but play themselves out of the Johnathan Tavares sweepstakes.
Weather
It still sucks.
Travel
I'm normally against it. But when the weather is like this and my hot water pipes are freezing, it's time to book a flight to Scottsdale to see the brother. Thank goodness for Southwest's "Wanna Get Away" rates to keep from breaking a brotha's budget.
Gas Prices
I let the Red Dragon get pretty low the other day, and I went to fill up and was pissed that two days earlier gas was $1.39, but now it was $1.61. As I'm pumping 36 gallons into The Dragon, I realized I should shut the hell up, because a fill-up now is like $45, tops, when just a few months ago it was over $100.
Artie Lange's "Rehab"
It's the best joke I've heard in some time. For starters, it's not rehab, it's a health spa. His stay went from 21 days planned, to 17, to 12 actual days. And after seven days he decided the bed was hard and water pressure wasn't up to snuff, so he drove over an hour down the coast to Miami to stay in a hotel and eat at Nobu and, alledgedly, party on a boat.
So while everyone else was back at work this past Monday, Artie was, for all intents and purposes, just still on vacation for an extra two days.
The Italian Job
I watched the Mark Wahlberg/Edward Norton/Charlize Theron remake yesterday. Pretty solid flick, in many ways your typical heist movie with some neat chases, shiny material possessions and a hearty dose of double-crossing and tech gizmos. Let's say 7.0 out of 10.
