A Large Regular

I love beer and I make no bones about it. As old Ben Franklin put it, "Beer is proof that God loves us." That's why I don't understand people who would waste beer.

Let me tell a story that illustrates where I'm coming from.

When I went to college one of the first side-jobs I took was working at a package store (that's what we call liquor stores in new England). My job was to stock cases and handle kegs - incoming and outgoing. On my first day someone brought back a keg and I tried to refuse it - because it wasn't empty! How could you return a keg if it still had beer in it? In my mind that was just wrong on so many levels. That was the day I learned that not everyone shared my beliefs about wasting beer.

One of the biggest ways beer gets wasted is when you are at a bar or a party and you put your beer down - you go to pick your beer back up but suddenly there's more than one. Which one is yours? You don't want to grab someone else's beer - so you just go get another while your old beer sits there wasted. That doesn't happen to me because when I open a can of beer (or a can of anything else for that matter) I automatically turn the tab to the left. More than one can sitting on the table? Mine's the one with the tab turned to the side. [If it's a bottle then it's always in front of me or in my hand.]

What got me thinking is that it is almost October and that means Oktoberfest. Hmmmm... Oktoberfest.

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

In 1984 George Orwell had his 2 minutes of hate. On modern US social media the hate can last much, much longer.. A Series of Unfortunate Abortions? Sad... Reminder - just 169 days till Saint Patrick's Day... Very cool - 3-D printed cars making 3-D printed shelters... Do you have a resigned Boehner? Ask your doctor about Cialis... Just so we are clear - Comedy Central is OK with a cartoon Donald Trump getting raped and killed on South Park but not OK with a cartoon Muhammad doing nothing... Interesting - players backing Papelbon over Harper...

Very cool!

Learn more about the video here.

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

- Remember how Obama promised Obamacare would cut a family's healthcare cost by $2500? Yeah - not so much. "Broken promises with no repercussions" should be the new motto of the Democratic Party.

- The producers of True Detective are bringing Catch-22 to TV

- Interesting - Mike Tyson helps launch 100 Bitcoin ATM's in Las Vegas. My first reaction was "good for him!" Then I started to wonder if this makes laundering money so much easier.

- Cool - the USS Milwaukee. Can't help but wonder how this ship is going to get from Lake Michigan to the Atlantic Ocean. It's way too big for the Erie Canal - right?

- After reading this I'll never kill another centipede I find in my home again.

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thoughts I'd share.

- Very true

- Also very true

- The NFL isn't going to give Tom Brady or the Patriots a thing if they can avoid it.

- Proof that Bob Kravitz has always been wrong about Tom Brady and the Patriots

- Great Yogi Berra story. Great illustration of the essence of the man.

Sad to wake up to the news that baseball icon Yogi Berra has passed away. 

Berra made 14 consecutive All-Star teams and finished in the top 4 for MVP voting seven straight seasons (winning the award three times). Berra is arguably the greatest catcher to play the game (although I would understand if your choice was Johnny Bench instead). Yogi had incredible bat control and never struck out more than 38 times in a season. Johnny Bench had at least double Yogi's career high in strikeouts in every season Bench finished in the top 20 in MVP voting.  

What puts Berra ahead of Bench in my mind is the two year head start Bench had over Berra. Bench joined the big leagues at age 19. Berra didn't make it to the big leagues until age 21. It wasn't that Berra wasn't good enough to play earlier than that. It was just that Berra was busy fighting WWII - serving in the Navy until 1946.

It boggles the mind that baseball writers did not consider Yogi Berra a first ballot Hall of Fame player. Berra received just 67% of the votes in his first year of eligibility before being elected in 1972 with 85.6% of the vote (the same year that 13% of the baseball writers didn't think Sandy Koufax was good enough for induction).

The world is a poorer place this morning with Yogi's passing.

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Ever notice that in that "skinny legs" Peyton Manning commercial the "regular" legs Peyton Manning is wearing pants throughout? Is that because regular Peyton Manning's legs aren't much bigger?... Rex Ryan checking out Bill Belichick's coaching record... I keep saying it - doesn't Jay Cutler seem like this generation's Jeff George? Are the two guys related?... Cool - a dramatic reading of the Joker's monologue from The Killing Joke... Despite the success last year - things aren't all that rosy in Baltimore this year for the Orioles. Could Dan Duquette be on his way out? If so would Dave Dombrowski consider him for a return engagement at the Red Sox GM?... So true!... I think if you are willing to bet on the WNBA - you would also be willing to gamble on the Special Olympics... Cool site. I'm going have to bookmark it and do a deep dive...

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Who knew? A banana is actually a berry.

- A Medal of Honor Story. Roger that!

- As a reminder it was ABC News that actually started the rumors about Barack Obama's parentage

- Did an Ebola outbreak ravage Ancient Athens?

- Wildlife photographer of the year - some of these photos are beyond amazing!

- Why do we admire mobsters?

- God help me but I can't stop laughing at the Special Olympics one. I am an awful person.

Here's what I consider the top 5 Schoolhouse Rock Songs

1. I'm Just a Bill
2. Conjunction Junction
3. My Hero, Zero
4. No More Kings
5. Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here

Just a random list for a Saturday morning.

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

For those of you wondering after watching the first half of last night's game - Brock Osweiler is Peyton Manning's backup in Denver... Can't believe this is the guy who has been leading the polls for the GOP... According to sources Chris Mortensen's Tweet that 11 of 12 of Jason Pierre-Paul's fingers being badly damaged has been deleted... Am I a bad person that I laughed at this?... College football announcers who say "true freshman" should be forced to say "true sophomore", "true junior" and "true senior" as well...  Never knew there was such a deep connection between Irish heritage and Fenway Park... With the Pope's upcoming visit to the US - I began wondering who is America's most prominent Catholic? Joe Biden? Stephen Colbert? Jim Gaffigan? Tom Brady?... I can't stand PK Subban on the ice but off the ice it's hard not to like him when he does things like this...

I agree with Rodney Harrison that the Bills most likely will double Rob Gronkowski this Sunday. Rex Ryan took some shots at Mike Tomlin for how the Steelers covered Gronk and Rex will be sure not to make the same mistakes.

Doubling Gronk should free up other Patriot receivers and I'm thinking this strategy in particular should free up Scott Chandler against DB's or a safety in red zone situations. Chandler is making a homecoming to Buffalo and don't think that hasn't escaped Bill Belichick's attention. Don't be surprised to see Chandler catch at least one TD on Sunday.

Interesting take on what Tesla's endgame business strategy might be. I especially like the HP parallel. HP's interface bus design becoming the standard allowed it to sell a lot of printers (and print cartridges). Likewise Tesla's battery patents open to competition will allow it to sell a lot of batteries.

The great cars they produce might just be window dressing.

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Rex Ryan then and now

- Heh heh - how to handle cold callers

- The 10x15 foot wooden shed where the Harley-Davidson Motor Company started. I keep wondering if today's regulations would allow a similar company to grow and thrive.

- Harry Potter's resume

- JRR Tolkien and beer!

- The violent history of nutmeg

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I know it's only one week but Peyton Manning looks cooked... 60 Minutes piece on Deflategate all but says the NFL was setting up the Patriots... David Ortiz is now just one of 4 men with 500 HR and 3 World Series rings - the others are Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson. That's some good company... I think history will say that Hillary Clinton's big mistake was not running against President Obama in 2012. Her husband Bill urged her to do it. Now I think she has too much baggage to be elected... David Ortiz needs just 22 more doubles to have 600 for his career. There are currently only 2 players in MLB history to have 500 HR and 600 doubles - Henry Aaron and Barry Bonds... Not usually an Alex Jones fan but this is interesting... If any President had handled Iraq and Afghanistan the way President Obama has - the MSM would be using the word "quagmire" 10,000 times a day... Can't watch those new Steve Jobs movie commercials without remembering Bill Burr's bit on Steve Jobs...

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Good morning America!

- Don't be a do nothing bitch

- Cool - how Steely Dan created the song Deacon Blues

- HeadsetGate.com - hats off to what ever Patriots fan created that

- Tom E Curran gives the best explanation about what's happening in Foxboro right now

I'll have some additional comment on this video at a later date.

Yesterday the football world was abuzz due to pretty much simultaneous smear jobs rehashing "Spygate" from sports powerhouses ESPN and Sports Illustrated. Two articles about something that happened 8-years ago coming out at the same time? Coincidence? Really?

Luckily both articles also perfectly coincided with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell making his first public interview since a Federal judge smacked down his tyrant-like form of justice against Saint Tom. Goodell said that Spygate and DeflateGate had nothing to do with each other. Really?

Yesterday Goodell also said that he and the NFL offices had nothing to do with John Jastremski and Jim McNally being suspended by the Patriots. If that is the case then why do the Patriots have to seek league approval to have them reinstated? Why the need for the two orders Colonel?

What I would LOVE to see happen is for the Patriots to keep mum and do their jobs by thrashing the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night but then on Sunday see Robert Kraft drop a bombshell. I would love for Kraft to issue a press release on 10:00 am Sunday saying since Roger Goodell said the decision to reinstate Jastremski and McNally was up to the team that the Patriots were reinstating the pair effective immediately with apologies for everything they and their families had been through. It would be great if Kraft included any correspondence from league officials like Jeff Pash or Troy Vincent saying the team needed league approval first or saying they had to suspend the pair in the first place.

Why 10:00 am EST? Because then all the morning NFL shows would be forced to cover the issue of whether Goodell lied or not. Have fun squirming in Chicago answering those questions Roger.

Here are my Top 5 NFL Predictions for this season.

1. The New England Patriots will make Super Bowl 50 as the AFC Champions. No idea who they will face but the Pats are almost a lock to be in the game (assuming Tom Brady remains healthy).

2. Darrelle Revis will not make either first team NFL All Pro or second team All Pro. If he makes it on the Pro Bowl team it will because of his past performance. Revis was beat often in the playoffs last season (Steve Smith Sr. abused him) something not lost on the Patriots or more important on the rest of the NFL (except the Jets).

3. Both Rob Gronkowski and Scott Chandler of the Patriots will finish in the Top 10 for TD's by tight ends in the NFL.

4. Within 2 months either NFL front office honchos Mike Kensil or Jeff Pash (or both) will be fired or forced to resign for the bungling DeflateGate fiasco.

5. The Houston Texans will not only make the playoffs - running back Arian Foster will finish in the Top 5 in the NFL in rushing yards.

Warren Zevon passed away 12-years ago yesterday. If you have a sandwich today - make sure you really enjoy it.

Most people have heard the compliment of saying that a person is "well rounded". What does that actually mean? If you took away the "well" and just called someone "rounded" - that doesn't seem like much of a compliment at all does it? If you said "Joe is a rounded guy" I would assume you were either calling him fat or dull in a polite way.

To round some thing out usually means to either grind down the sharp edges or filling in the gaps between those edges. Neither "grinding down" nor "filler" seem like positives when it comes to personality traits. Wouldn't it be better to keep some sharp edges? Sharp is almost always a positive. He's a sharp thinker or he's a sharp dresser. Much better than being a rounded thinker or a rounded dresser - don't you agree?

Who would you rather handle your money - a sharp business man or a rounded business man?

I for one think it best to follow the path of the roundless way.

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Brady is free yes but there's another point being overlooked by most regarding DeflateGate

- Important thing to know about Devon Still being cut by the Bengals

- Damon Wayans might want to rethink his position (or at least rethink the idea of voicing it out loud)

- Philosophy explained with donuts

- Heh heh - epilepsy my cock

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Is it cruel to ask an acoustic guitar player at a bar (trying his best) to play Free Bird?... Heh heh - good point... Now that Mount McKinley has been changed back to Denali - can we also get Istanbul changed back to Constantinople?... Heh heh - another good point... Who knew? The word "fad" is actually an acronym for "for a day"... Heh heh - a third good point... I initially thought the Internet was saying that Idris Elba was "too sweet" to play James Bond - a point I could see. Then I learned it was actually "too street" which is crap... Good interview with comedy iconoclast Norm MacDonald... Once it is pointed out to you that if Hillary Clinton was a Harry Potter character she would be Dolores Umbridge - you'll never see her the same again... Actually this could explain a whole lot...

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations on Deflategate.

When thinking back on the past 7 months of Deflategate perhaps the most surprising thing to me is that nobody at the upper levels of the NFL's offices in New York knew that things expand when hot and contract when cold. This level of just plain ignorance is disturbing... This piece by Dan Wetzel on the arrogance of Roger Goodell is perhaps the best synopsis of Deflategate I've read... I firmly believe that the NFL would have been much better off if instead of hiring Roger Goodell all those years ago they got a mannequin in a suit and piped in H. Jon Benjamin's voice whenever the "Commissioner" needed to speak... Lester Munson is a complete blowhard and as wrong as he was on DeflateGate he was even more wrong when it came to the Duke lacrosse "rape" case...  Lester Munson seems like the type of person who would argue in favor of pay toilets... Heh heh... Just as a reminder - when Deflategate first became a big deal I said that this act of hubris will end up costing Roger Goodell his job. Seems like a lot of people are coming around to my way of thinking on the matter...

Here's are some of the best reactions I've seen to Tom Brady being vindicated in court today.

- The Peanuts angle

- Not just one but two courtroom sketch drawings

- The "How do you like them apples" angle

And the very best from a Dunkin Donuts in Maine.

Fantastic story.

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

GMC should have a special edition Denali that would only be available in Ohio but which would be called the McKinley....Who knew?... Maybe the NFL is going so hard after the Patriots this off-season because the Colts want people to forget about their stupid 9-point play proposal... Not kidding - I really want that Roger Goodell T-shirt... Heh heh - well this explains a lot; "A bow tie announces to the world that you can no longer get an erection" - David Sedaris... To help avoid intentional tanking - the NBA should force the team that finishes with the worst record to wear white yoga pants as part of their home uniform the following year. Problem solved... Holy crap - the new Tesla Model S is so good it broke Consumer Reports rating system... Metabolic Cascades of Dysfunction would be a good name for a fantasy football team. It is also a fancy way of saying "concussions"...

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Tom Brady helped bring Jim Harbaugh back to Michigan

- Rise of sea levels "greatest lie ever told". But remember the science is settled.

- Heh heh

- Mysterious Russian wooden statue is 11,000 years old - twice as old as the pyramids.

- Nice profile of Notre Dame great Tom Zbikowski. Well worth the read.

- Mythbusters on Walter White's machine gun ending of Breaking Bad

- I want one of these