That is one magic loogie.

Read it, don’t read it, I don’t care…just needed to get some things off my chest.

In no particular order of chronology or importance…

Sort of on the clock.  It is an evening rant, but I still have things to do.

Let’s turn and burn.

1)       First of all, my thoughts go out to my brother, who is waiting out the hurricane in South Jersey.  He is 6’8”, so there would have to be a good amount of flooding to bother him, but here is hoping his property and vehicle end up ok after this.

2)      The NHL will cancel the Winter Classic Thursday if nothing is figured out in talks.   Notice they give a couple days notice to the one game that a cancellation will signify that this thing probably is NOT happening…at all.  If I was hearing about daily meetings, then I MIGHT think there is a chance, but I don’t hear much about any meetings or anything.  Sad that it might happen at all and even more sad that the two sides are both so far apart that they have nothing to discuss.

3)      Geez.  What IF USC hadn’t lost this past weekend?  Not only does it hurt Notre Dame’s championship chances and their strength of schedule, but we would have TWO incredibly hyped games this weekend.  Oregon-USC, and Bama-LSU.  Still both great games, but USC’s season has taken some of the luster off the first game.

4)      The Jets got pummeled by the Dolphins yesterday.  Dolphins fans are just confused these days, and I don’t even think that THEY could tell you how they have a winning record.  Jets fans?  They are watching Rex Ryan copy and paste “Mark Sanchez is still my starter” this week again, and wondering where exactly any firepower might come from.

5)      I hear that Tiger lost to Rory in some extra event.  This would be more fun I think if Tiger was winning anything.  Maybe you set this event up a while back with plans of being in the mix, but maybe hitting the practice range would be better for you, El Tigre.

6)      I hear that Joe Girardi and A-Rod “spoke on the phone.”  Are we going to freaking track EVERY conversation that occurs this offseason?  Unless there is trade talk, can we have have a moratorium on A-Rod/ Girardi chatter?  I am already over it.  Brett Favre must be contemplating a comeback too.

7)      The Giants swept the Tigers.  I thought this series was going to be ALL Tigers, I admit it.  Not only did the Giants prove me wrong, but they made the Tigers LOOK like they didn’t even show up.  Since this is the last time I can use this one this year, watching the Giants’ pitching was like watching a hot goalie in the NHL playoffs.  They were just simply making exceptional athletes and players look pretty layman like on the other side.  Congrats on making my blog prediction a while back look pretty damn close, but I can’t believe you actually closed the deal in the WAY that you did.  Pretty freaking impressive.

8)      Speaking of being impressed, and this is going to kill me to say, but I am truly impressed by the Denver Broncos.  You can say the Saints are really just Drew Brees and a very pathetic defense.  You can say that it was all Peyton.  This is not why I am impressed.  I am impressed because without a good defense, the Broncos can beat some people.  WITH a good defense, which is what that looked like last night, and playing SIXTY minutes of football as opposed to 30…and this team is pretty damn good and fans SHOULD be thinking about a possible run (yes.  YOU, Vince).  In addition, they play in a division that they will most likely have locked up pretty much about 4 weeks from now.  AND, after a BRUTAL scheduling start, the opponents level out a bit and are all winnable games.

9)      I saw my first, I believe, “Safari Snorkle” today.  Have you seen these things?  Apparently it directs your exhaust through this cool contraption above the car roof.  The entire bottom of the car is waterproof.  Pretty cool.  This, I imagine, would be pretty cool in 4 wheeling in the mountains, or also anywhere in the northeast right about now.

10)   The preseason All-American team was announced for college bball today.  It is basically Cody Zeller, Doug McDermott, and some wildcards.  I like Trey Burke to be on that squad and Isaiah Canaan, guards who are going to make that next step this season.  Deshaun Thomas was picked because we are assuming that it will now be HIS team at Ohio State, so a big jump is to be expected.  Overall, I think this team is pretty weak.  The overall state of college bball is strong, but the true superstars are less easily picked out.  More “in the middle” superstars.

11)   James Harden is traded to the Rockets.  I have changed my tune on this trade since I first heard about it Saturday night.  I initially said it was idiotic, but that was a non analytical way of viewing it.  Then, I thought about it.  The new CBA makes it impossible for the Thunder to keep all three of their young superstars happy.  Sure, I bet you Harden would have liked to stay.  Sure, maybe he would have taken less money.  But, doubtful that this would happen, and why shouldn’t he want to get paid?  It is what it is.  They almost drafted TOO good over the last few years.  Anyway, considering what some of these trades net you, I think that OKC did pretty well.  A lot of non basketball  followers out there don’t know who Kevin Martin is.  Well, they will at some point.  The kid brings them a scoring compromise to what they lose in Harden.  OKC loses three players that really didn’t get a lot of time last year.  OKC ALSO gets a few draft picks so they can reload their talent, and Jeremy Lamb.  Lamb is a guy who has that capability to blow up at anytime.  He has all the tools.  Take OUT Lamb, and I don’t think it is a bad trade.  WITH Lamb?  I think it is solid.  Well done, OKC.  You don’t have to worry about what happens at the end of the year anymore, you don’t skip a beat and reload on the run, and now can concentrate on the season at hand.

12)   When I was sitting at the Pub Sunday watching the stats fly by on the bottom of the screen, I kept raising my eyebrows every time I saw “Titus Young 100 yds receiving.”  It just looked weird.

13)   I LOVE the Volkswagen commercial with the guy air drumming Rush’s Neil Peart.  One, great song.  Two, best drummer ever.  Three, that reminded me of me sometimes in my car.  Four, I think the guy was right on with the beats and I laugh out loud when he throws his pretend drum stick.

14)   The other Volkswagen commercial bothers me.  It is a funny commercial, but I would HATE it if every time my car was low in the tires, it made that sound.  Can’t they just put a little button to light up in the car’s cabin?

15)   It was kind of a weird Sunday for me and Lindsey.  She was coming back from a demoralizing loss after being IN Norman for the Notre Dame game.  I was a happy camper as I am always happy when the Steelers win.  I tried my best to conceal my happiness.  I probably didn’t such a great job.  Sorry, Lindsey.

16)   The Steelers defense scores very little points in fantasy and the team has only done well in the last two games.  But, they are ACTUALLY still #2 in yards allowed all season.  Odd that they are quietly where they usually are.  AND, they get healthy coming up, so look out.  Mendenhall is coming back.  Troy is coming back.  Redman is coming back.  Pouncey is back.  Watch out, people.

17)   The Panther report.  Too much football to finish the book over the weekend.  Plus, it has 640 pages.  So, only about half way through, it is incredible as I expected, and I have a nice plane trip to Iowa City this week to finish off the book.

18)   The Boyfriend episode was on tonight for Seinfeld.  One, Keith Hernandez puts up one of the best athlete performances for a show.  Two, if you saw JFK, and don’t laugh out loud at Jerry’s breakdown parody of a spitting incident in correlation with Costner’s court room scene, then you are just missing out.

Here it is if you have missed out in life:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEzBeP6pRoY

19)   Got to knock out some work.  Hope you enjoyed.  Will I blog tomorrow?  That is a CLOWN question, bro.  Peace.