January 30, 2016
This week: NFL season comes to a close, UFC news, Parenting Story, and more...
Manning rides his battered Bronco into the Bay Area - The NFL Conference Title games went in opposite directions from each other and certainly didn't fit the expectations of most prognosticators. Denver defended home-field with a tenacious, pressuring assault on Tom Brady and still had to sweat it out at the end of a 20-18 battle. Meanwhile Carolina totally torched a Cardinals team that looked horribly outmatched in every phase of the game. Heading into to Super Bowl week its fairly obvious that most of America is preparing for a Panther rout. The extra week of preparation is the X-factor when it comes to the Super Bowl as both teams can iron out any gameplan tendencies that their opponent can exploit. The chess match began Monday morning this week and while I still expect the Panthers to throttle Denver to a tune of 45-10, I'm really hoping for a 24-21 nailbiter. Either way I'll be watching the commercials. For fun, here's one of my faves. It really struck a chord with me in that "American Spirit" kinda way. Plus, who doesn't love Paul Harvey?
Newton haters?? - A frequent talking point this week was "Cam Newton is disrespected because he's (insert negative term here)". Loud, irreverent, unsportsmanlike, selfish, arrogant, immature, depending on who you were listening to. What bugged me about all this coverage was the fact that I never saw anyone actually report that, or write that, or assert the first-person position that Cam Newton is a loud-mouthed bum who doesn't deserve to play in the NFL or anyone go that extra step and vilify him because of his race. I heard people talking about people who felt that way, but I never saw a specific example of that negative posturing. It feels like a bunch of bluster over nothing. Or worse, veiled negative commentary presented from a second-person POV. For the record, I have no issues with Cam as a player (and have no opinion on him as a person, but he seems like a swell guy). He's big, athletic, and committed to winning while honing his craft. I have zero opinion on his race since I believe race is only an issue because people make it an issue. Lots of intolerance based on race goes away when we ignore race altogether and assess character instead. He's a great quarterback having an MVP campaign this season; just tip your cap to the man and wish him good health. And I'm a Falcons fan :) Btw, if you have some hard evidence of someone taking an assertive stance on "Cam sucks and here's why", then I'd like to examine it.
UFC took it on the chin this week - UFC 196 was slated as the marquee Super Bowl weekend PPV featuring the granddaddy of 'em all, a heavyweight title fight. Unfortunately both the champ Fabricio Werdum and the challenger (and former champ) Cain Velasquez suffered injuries which forced the UFC to make a bold, unprecedented move and scrap the main event altogether, elevate the co-main event and strip the PPV status from this card. Now, everyone will get another free card on FS1. Mark it on your calendar!! Saturday February 6, 10pm EST.
And now you know... - The term "bury the hatchet" traces back to Native American culture when warring tribes would settle their differences peacefully and as a symbolic show of good faith they would bury a hatchet. The inverse is true, too. If either side wanted to express an end to peace time, they would dig up the hatchet, tap gloves, and wait for Big John McCarthy to scream "LET'S GET IT ON!!". And now you know.*
I still have no game, but neither does Russell Wilson - I stumbled across this little tidbit and laughed out loud for several minutes, and I couldn't exactly pinpoint why it was so funny to me. I guess I just identified with that juvenile practice of feigning being suave and debonair like some corny rom-com where the nerd makes all the right moves despite the supreme embarrassment. That, and Russell Wilson getting burned on Twitter just seemed really hilarious at the time.
I'm pro-vaccination and not afraid to toss this out there
- I fall squarely in the pro-vaccination camp, but don't really enjoy the social awkwardness that comes with discussing this with friends. So, I'll let my new favorite
snarky YouTube sensation ZDogg MD express my sentiments for me.
Parenting Storytime - Last weekend the weatherman dumped about 4 inches of snow and sleet in our area. 24 hours after it began things had settled down and I began the arduous shoveling process that never plagued me in my four years living in Florida (I'd still take shoveling snow over anything in Gainesville....except Tijuana Flats, I love me some Tijuana Flats). H1 joined me outside as I started to dig out a path for my Swagger Wagon to safely exit our driveway. I quickly became equal parts exhausted and self-conscious that my busybody neighbor and the snot-nosed punks down the street were watching me wondering how many times I was gonna fake talking to my son when, in fact, I was taking a breather between every third shovel hoist. "Honey, come watch the big guy across the street act like he's chatting with his two year old". I was able to slice a path in the meager icepack and had discarded the chunks of mini-icebergs in my yard with each shovel toss. I then moved to the windshield of the van, opposite of my driveway swath, and started sweeping off the powder and ice. Meanwhile, H1 is meandering around playing with his cars and scooter and what-not.....I thought. I spent about ten minutes hyperfocused on achieving clear driving visibility and returned to the rear of the van only to find that my son had moved more than 25 mini-icebergs "back where they go". Yep, he'd spent ten minutes walking back-and-forth putting the snow back behind the van because he likes for things to be where they belong. And that is where they stayed, no more shoveling for this walrus.
*courtesy of The Book of Useless Knowledge by Dan Voorhees