If you like cranberry, and you like horseradish, then you have a moral obligation to get this stuff. If your store doesn’t carry it, then you can either talk them into doing so (acceptable) or move to Buffalo so you can buy it from The Store (preferred). Or you can order it direct from here. But that would mark you as an overly-technologically dependent geek, and you wouldn’t want to be one of those, right?
I’m gonna get me some drywall and three cans of Spackle!
The “Triple Pundit” has mentioned a blog called “Manpower” a couple of times — most recently here — but she never provides a link, so I had to go a-Googling. And here it is. A representative quote from a sidebar chat thingy:
Thanks feminism for making men indifferent and turning women into whores who sell their sexuality instead of maintaining normal relationships with men. Well done.
This gives me pause. I married a woman and I work with a whole bunch of women, and unless I’m one of the most spectacularly bad judges of character in history, not one of the women around me on a nearly daily basis is a whore who’s out selling her sexuality. So where are these whores? I’m just curious. Is Buffalo a whore-free zone or something? Because of the snow, maybe?
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Wait ’til next year!
The 2004 season ended for the Buffalo Bills about three hours ago, and just a few minutes ago the final playoff spot appeared to have been sewn up, so time for a bit of retrospective….
:: My original prediction for the Bills was that they would struggle a lot on offense, field a decent defense, and likely pull together enough for a respectable 8-8 season. They opened up 0-4, sending many Bills fans — including myself — into a tailspin of horror and despair (because we NFL fans are an overly emotional lot), even to such a degree as bemoaning the fact that the Bills traded their 2005 first round draft pick away (to Dallas) so they could take J.P. Losman in the first round last year.
And after a bit more staggering about, the Bills reached a 3-6 record — whereupon they embarked on a remarkable six-game winning streak to head into the final week with a 9-6 record and a shot at the playoffs. All they had to do was hope for either the Jets or the Broncos to lose, and to win against a Pittsburgh Steelers team. The good news on the latter front was that the Steelers already had home field advantage in the AFC locked up. The bad news was that the Steelers are still a very formidable team.
The Bills lost, 29-24, in a game which wasn’t that close. The playoff dream is now deferred for another year as the team finished 9-7, one game better than I had predicted. And had the Bills played in the NFC, they likely would have won a division or two.
So what do the Bills need for next year? They need at least one new offensive lineman, and I think they need a defensive lineman as well — someone who can provide a bit of pass-rush from the end position. They also need to continue developing J.P. Losman for his inevitable 2006 takeover at quarterback (I strongly suspect that Drew Bledsoe posted a good enough performance in 2004 to remain the starter at least at the outset of 2005). But I don’t think that the Bills really need a whole lot of tweaking. This year they became the team that nobody wants to play, and that’s often the last step before becoming one of the really good teams in the NFL. Here’s hoping.
At least Dallas’s extra first-round pick this year will be something like 19th or 20th, as opposed to what looked like a top-five pick just three months ago.
:: OK, now that the final standings are in (for the most part), time to look at my predictions versus the reality. Here, again, are my predicted division and wildcard winners, with the actual winners in parentheses:
AFC East: New England Stupid Patriots (New England)
AFC North: Cincinnati (Pittsburgh)
AFC South: Tennessee (Indianapolis)
AFC West: Denver (San Diego)
AFC wildcards: Indianapolis, Baltimore (NY Jets, Denver)
NFC East: Philadelphia (Philadelphia)
NFC North: Minnesota (Green Bay)
NFC South: Carolina (Atlanta)
NFC West: Seattle (Seattle)
NFC wildcards: Dallas, Washington (Minnesota, St. Louis)
Super Bowl prediction: New England Stupid Patriots defeat Philadelphia Eagles.
So, it turns out that I picked only three of eight divisions correctly. However, looking at the total group of teams that made the playoffs, either by winning their division or securing a wildcard berth, I picked six of the eventual twelve playoff teams, and two more of those very nearly made it in (Baltimore and Carolina). I suspect that most observers are surprised that Cincinnati and Dallas didn’t have better years than they did, and I don’t recall anybody picking San Diego to win much of anything. (I have no idea what I was thinking about Washington, though. No idea at all. They stank, stunk, and stink’d.)
I’m sticking with my Super Bowl prediction. The Steelers became the fourth NFL team to post a 15-1 record, and also the first AFC team to ever do it. But they’re still starting a rookie at QB, and the Steelers’ recent record of success at converting home field advantage into a Super Bowl appearance (they’re 1-3 in AFC Championship Games they’ve hosted since Bill Cowher took over, and in 1992 they were the top seed in the AFC but lost a divisional playoff game at home to none other than the Bills) isn’t exactly encouraging. The StuPats have the experience, I’m sad to say.
As for the Eagles, I have no idea what to expect. The injury to Terrell Owens — who will be lucky to return by the time of the Super Bowl, if the Eagles get that far — rewrote that book, and I’m not encouraged by the way the Eagles have basically played dead in their last two games. No, I’m not in principle against the idea of a team that has playoff position sewn up resting the starters in their last game or two, but that doesn’t mean they have to completely roll over. Somehow Bill Cowher managed to rest his starters and still have all of his backups ready to play a fired-up Bills team, on the road, when that team was still playing for its playoff life. And they won. The last two Eagles games do not, in my opinion, speak all that well of Andy Reid’s motivational skills, and the Falcons and Packers could very well be a serious test for them in an NFC title game.
So the board is set, and the pieces are moving. We come to it at last. All is in readiness for another year of StuPat ascendence, and another year of Shadow in the NFL.
Tom Brady to rule them all, Tom Brady to find them….ugh!
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Where did I put that blog? It was just here two minutes ago….
Terminus has himself a makeover, right down to a new URL and everything. Go have a look. Even if you hate his politics (which are fine with me, but not with everybody), his movie reviews are always entertaining (even if he seems to have an unhealthy devotion to David Lean, the most overrated maker of overlong faux-epics in cinema history).
(That David Lean crack is a joke. The guy made magnificent films.)
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You can lead a blogger to a meme, but you can’t….
I’m stealing this quiz-meme thing from In Java, Literally (a WNY blog I just discovered last week).
Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t recall if I made any resolutions. If I did, they were to read more and write more, and I think I actually did less of both, depressingly enough. I never make resolutions of the “Lose Fifty Pounds” variety, since when I decide that I need to do something like that, an arbitrary turning of the calendar page doesn’t strike me as a motivating tool.
Did anyone close to you give birth?
Heh! (And another is due in March. No, not to us. To someone close. We’re not that crazy.)
Did anyone close to you die?
The Wife’s grandmother passed away. I wasn’t close to her, but that probably counts.
What countries did you visit?
Canada, Gondor, Rohan, the Shire, Mordor, Coruscant, Naboo, Tatooine, Geonosis, Yavin, Hoth, Endor, Kamino. Tried to visit Alderaan, but there must have been some kind of error in the navigational computer, because it wasn’t there and we ended up near this small moon….
What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
Things that are possible? A new Star Wars movie. Things that aren’t possible? A new Lord of the Rings movie.
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Becoming a father again, with getting a job at The Store running a close second.
What was your biggest failure?
Not finishing The Promised King, Book Two.
What was the best thing you bought?
A digital camera.
Whose behavior merited celebration?
The Daughter, who has been an amazingly kind and curious big sister to her baby brother.
Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I’m not sure I’d say “appalled” or “depressed”, but I definitely don’t approve of much of what the President of the United States has done.
Where did most of your money go?
Food, coffee, diapers, books, DVDs, CDs.
What did you get really excited about?
Starting my job. (Becoming a father again, to be honest, scared rather than excited me.)
What song will always remind you of 2004?
“The Mighty Quinn”
Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?
I’m happier, I think. It’s hard to tell, because I can summon up a stiff bout of melancholy on command. Want to see me do it? Here goes….
Thinner or fatter?
I haven’t officially weighed myself in quite some time, but none of my clothes fit any differently than they did a year ago, so I’ll assume I’m the same (within, say, ten pounds either way).
Richer or poorer?
I’m not sure. I have a job now, whereas I was unemployed one year ago. But Little Quinn has been even more of an expense than are most newborns, so I’m not sure how to measure this. (And, more importantly, I don’t much care.)
What do you wish you’d done more of?
Reading and writing.
What do you wish you’d done less of?
Well, I spent the month after Little Quinn’s birth depressing the hell out of everybody who would talk to me at The Store, so I wish I could have done less of that. (In retrospect, I’m not sure that was really within my power to do less of that.)
How will you be spending Christmas?
Assuming this refers to Christmas 2004, I spent it with my immediate family. And I had a headache the whole day, which might have been Care Bear-induced.
Did you fall in love in 2004?
Assuming a non-traditional definition of “fall in love”, I did this several times in 2004. If I’d been single, I might well have executed the traditional definition; but I’m not single and I have no desire to be.
How many one-night stands?
Now, aren’t all stands “one-night” stands? I mean, the only way you could have a two-night stand is to never leave the person’s bed for thirty-six hours straight, right?
Anyway, I’m in the seventh year of marriage, so no “one night stands” here.
What was your favorite TV program?
Scrubs.
Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don’t like to hate people. That said, there’s the Objectivist weirdo on the FSM message boards, but he doesn’t even count for this year, so there it is.
What was the best book you read?
The Lord of the Rings.
What was your greatest musical discovery?
As usual, I shall cheat and name several: Madeleine Peyroux, Hilary Hahn, Curtis Mayfield (why did nobody ever tell me he was that good?!), and that Pan-Siberian Philharmonic thing that suddenly everybody at The Store told me about in the course of three weeks.
What did you want and get?
A digital camera.
What did you want and not get?
Of the Lord of the Rings films, currently the only one I have on DVD in the Extended Edition is The Two Towers. Rectifying this is a high priority for 2005. (I have the theatrical cuts of all three films, and the EE of Fellowship on VHS.)
What were your favorite films of this year?
I didn’t get to see very many films in 2004, sadly enough. I liked Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow a lot. And even though it came out (I think) in 2003, I didn’t see Love, Actually until 2004.
What did you do on your birthday?
Saw Sky Captain; ate at Quiznos for the first time; watched parts of the Star Wars Original Trilogy DVDs. The night before, we had dinner with my parents at a bar/restaurant in a tiny town outside of East Aurora, NY.
How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
I guess I’d call it “workwear chic”, although PZ Myers calls it “axe murderer chic”. And I don’t even own an axe.
What kept you sane?
My wife; working at The Store; listening to music.
Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Miranda Otto, maybe.
What political issue stirred you the most?
Even in the face of a Presidential election, the political thing that made me angriest was Erie County Executive Joel Giambra’s “Give me a raise of the sales tax or I’ll close everything with the County’s name on it (but don’t ask me to fire the buddies in my office)” crapfest. (And we re-elected this turkey just a year ago. When did we abandon the idea that when things go to pot, we vote in new people to fix them? Did I miss a memo or something?)
Who did you miss?
I have very good friends who live beyond the “800-miles from Buffalo” line. I also got to see my sister for a day. And I miss Jerry Goldsmith.
Who was the best new person you met?
Wow. I genuinely can’t say, because I met more fine people in 2004 than in any year since 1989, when I went off to college. Actually, I probably could come up with a name here if I really had to do so, but even then it would feel like a small slight to the people I don’t name, if that makes any sense. Suffice it to say that I was extraordinarily blessed with new friends this year, some of whom have become very dear to me indeed.
Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004:
Don’t worry about whether you’ll be a good parent before the kid is even born, because there’s no guarantee at all that you’ll even get to be a parent at all.
Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
“People get ready, there’s a train a-comin’.
You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board.
All you need is faith to hear the deisels hummin’.
Don’t need no ticket; you just get on board.”
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New Month, New Masthead, New Links, New Novel….
Sharp-eyed readers will notice the new masthead image. Last year’s theme of mastheads taken from artworks depicting Arthurian scenes has now ended; this year’s theme is Victorian-Era Paintings of Beautiful Women.
Sharper-eyed viewers will notice a new link in the first parts of the sidebar, to the novel that I’ve decided to serialize on another blog. So it is that with great pride I unveil The Promised King. Available now is the first chapter (which appeared in this blog a few weeks ago, but hey, you gotta start at the beginning) and an Introductory essay in which I outline my intentions and some of the boring genesis-stuff behind the book. The current plan is to post new chapters on the first and third Sundays of each month, so look for Chapter Two in, well, two weeks. Feel free to spread the word (unless you hate the book, in which case I’d rather you didn’t mention it at all).
And super-sharp-eyed readers will note that the blogroll has undergone some tinkering. A few blogs that have either been supplanted or just plain disappeared have been relocated, while others have been added. Be sure to check out the newcomers, because I don’t link crappy blogs. (Bad enough that I write one, har har!)