I have seen the future!

Way back in mid April, my baby blog It's News 2 Them had a single day when viewership surpassed this blog's viewership. While some people visited the front page, a lot of people came looking for news while googling "Paula Deen Divorce".

It was one of those lying headlines the tabloids love so much. Paula and her latest husband's adult daughter didn't get along, but that's been sorted out.

This week for the first time, the viewership for the entire week at the baby blog will surpass the viewership here. The viewership is doing about as well as it ever has, but the other blog just done blowed up.

What did people want?

Glad you asked, hypothetical question asker.

Or maybe I'm not glad you asked. People wanted pictures of Mariah Carey's very fat butt.

I like odd stuff, so I'm not in a position to judge.

Okay, I lied. I may not be in a position, but I judge anyway.

Yeesh.

But that was earlier in the week. Now people are flocking to the other blog for pictures of Cybill Shepherd when she was young and oh so supa foine.

Yes, I judge, and this I judge to be understandable.

I have seen the future, and the day will come when The Other Blog will be The Big Blog and this will only be My First Blog.

I'll make it up to you with Téa Leoni

First, I apologize for being neglectful of you, dear readers, and to this special virtual space where we celebrate the lesbians. Please don't stray. I promise never again to have a prolonged absence. To make it up to you, today we will discuss Téa Leoni. Why do we not think of this handsome specimen as often as we should? To be clear, she is by all accounts a heterosexual female. But, ahh, a handsome one with a boyish gait and husky voice. Quite honestly, the golfing, surfing, and overall tomboy quality she exudes does get a read on the gaydar. And she's got some brains, if her preppie pedigree is any indication. Brearley, Putney, Sarah Lawrence. She is often the best part of otherwise disappointing films (i.e.: Spanglish), and she deserves so much better than a cheating husband. But that's really none of my business.
So what brings Téa Leoni to mind? I was not feeling well one recent late afternoon—I blame a meeting earlier that day with the director of assessment during which we were to begin analyzing my outcomes data (hold on, I feel the migraine returning...)—and stumbled upon the Woody Allen film Hollywood Ending. I have seen most of Woody's films more than once, but this one had escaped me. It was actually good, for a late-era Woody Allen film. You know, I like his earlier, funny films (that's from Stardust Memories, just to demonstrate my Woody Allen cred). (And I hope you know I'm kidding. Some of his recent films have been very, very good. Vicky Cristina Barcelona.) In any case, the film healed me in no small part because of Téa Leoni striding around in her butch pantsuits and beautiful shirts. The woman has the stature of an athlete. She's just gorgeous. I confess, she reminded me of my beloved. And come to think of it, Woody Allen is fairly reliable with beautiful women who have lesbian appeal. Meryl Streep as his fierce lesbian ex-wife in Manhattan ("You knew my history when you married me.") Dianne Wiest as angry Holly in Hannah and Her Sisters. Diane Keaton in general.

Wednesday Math, Vol. 129: The trouble with trigonometry

Here's the thing about trig. With a tiny amount of information, you can figure out a whole passel of stuff. Let's assume that this is the unit circle, which means it all the points where
x² + y² = 1. The x coordinate is the cosine of the angle and the y coordinate is the sine. There are four other trig functions, but once you've got sine and cosine, they can be derived as follows.

tangent = sine/cosine
cotangent = cosine/sine
secant = 1/cosine
cosecant = 1/sine.

If I give you anyone of these values and I tell you what quadrant the angle is in, you can find all the rest of the values. That means two pieces of information gives you five more.

Except, not really. Two pieces of information gives you forty seven more. Here's why.

I've marked eight angles in the picture, a and seven more that have some symmetrical relation to a. If we say the values at angle a are (x, y), then we also know the values at the other seven points.

a °-> (x, y)
(90 - a)°-> (y, x)
(90 + a)°-> (-y, x)
(180 - a)°-> (-x, y)
(180 + a)°-> (-x, -y)
(270 - a)°-> (-y, -x)
(270 + a)°-> (y, -x)
(360 - a)°-> (x, -y)

Confused yet? So are my students. It's a lot of stuff to grasp, but it's that first glimpse into symmetry, the most important concept in mathematics. Just a little information and the assumption of symmetry can unlock so many tricky puzzles if your mind works that way.

I am completely convinced not every mind works that way, and to have a mind that works that way and thinks this is kind of cool... an even smaller set.

The struggle continues.

Something Special

All season, two teams have been on a collision course. Assuming they take care of business this week, Saturday morning's match in Morgantown will be the most anticipated (and may be the most watched, inside the state and out) girls' high school soccer game of this and perhaps any season in West Virginia.

University High School is the defending Class AAA Champion in the State. The Hawks return most of their starters from a team that went through the 2009 season without a loss. Their coach is undoubtedly the most accomplished high school soccer coach currently leading a team in West Virginia, having won two boys' state championships at Morgantown High before moving across both town and the gender line to coach at University. The school has 1250 students and the city has a strong youth and travel soccer pool from which to draw players.

Charleston Catholic High School is the defending Class AA-A Champion. The Irish return nine starters from a team that lost one game in 2009 and won its second straight state championship. Their coach is a part-timer who never played the game and started coaching at the high school level largely by chance. The school has 250 students and benefits from having seven seniors who comprise the best single class of soccer players in the history of the institution.

Both teams are undefeated so far this season, with the only blemish on either side being Catholic's tie against the Morgantown girls' team. They are ranked first and second in the state according to the state's mathematical rankings, The National Soccer Coaches Association of America (a name which calls to mind the American Dodgeball Association of America) poll, and ESPN's RISE poll.

Obviously, the ultimate goal in this or any season is to win a state championship. But this game is a little different -- in some ways it's for the championship of the whole state, not just a class. And it's an opportunity for at least one school to gain recognition outside of the state, something that's hard to come by, for girls' high school soccer particularly.

This is what you play for.

George Blanda, 1927-2010

George Blanda has died at the age of 83. He was a quarterback and kicker. When he retired after 26 seasons of football in the 1970s, he held many records, including most points scored and most interceptions thrown. The only record that is still his is most seasons played.

All the stats pale in comparison to what he did in 1970 at the age of 43, coming off the bench in mid-season when Oakland Raiders starting QB Daryle LaMonica was injured. Blanda lead his team to win five games in a row, several in such heroic fashion an author would be considered a hack to invent the tales.

He wasn't written off at the age of 43. He was written off at the age of 33. In 1960, when he left the NFL to join the fledgling AFL, he was considered a has-been. He lead the Houston Oilers to the first two championships in the new league, but in the mid 1960s, they gave up on him and the Raiders picked up his contract for the waiver price of $100. Everybody agreed he was still a reliable place-kicker, but his arm wasn't as strong and he had slowed down considerably. In 1970 when the call came, Blanda wasn't just older than everyone on the team, he was nine years older than head coach John Madden and two years older than the owner Al Davis.

He won games with his arm. He won them as a kicker. LaMonica returned from his injury, but Madden put Blanda in the game late to run the two minute offense. This is nearly unprecedented in football. When a QB is replaced late in a game, it is a strong vote of no confidence and the man replaced might as well asked to be traded. It wasn't lack of faith in LaMonica, but a crazy faith that gripped the entire Bay Area sports scene that we were seeing something no one had seen before and no one might ever see again. My dad is not a sports watcher, but he told me to tell him when Blanda entered the game. For those five weeks, Blanda never disappointed. He was a miracle worker.

The story does not end with final glory. On January 3, 1971, the Bay Area fans who had seen such promise in the entire 1970 season were hit with the Raiders losing to the Colts and the 49ers losing to the Cowboys. Neither team played for the Super Bowl that year, but that in no way diminishes what George Blanda's name means in the pantheon of Bay Area sports heroes.

A lot of great players have been quarterback for the Raiders and 49ers. Frankie Albert, Y.A. Tittle, Daryle LaMonica, John Brodie, Ken Stabler, Jim Plunkett, Joe Montana, Steve Young. Some held the Super Bowl trophy over their heads, Montana four times. But there's a special place for George Blanda in our hearts that is about so much more than just championships. We saw something when he was on the field that no one had seen before or since. We will likely never see his kind again.

Best wishes to the family and friends of George Blanda, from a fan.

The Sad Buffalo Bills Fan Face, Revisited

The Buffalo Bills have built a tradition of stinkitude in the last decade or so, building on the already established tradition of torturing their fanbase, as one after another in a series of obtuse, abstruse decisions are made, regarding players, regarding coaches, regarding the depth chart. It seems that everybody in that organization, from the owner on down, is living in a world of delusion.

Their continued insistence on recycling old, mediocre coaches in search of the "next Marv Levy" leaps to mind one of their more obvious foibles.


Then there are the player personnel decisions. In the last ten years, the New England Patriots have won three Super Bowls and been to one other. In that time, they have started three quarterbacks and one head coach. The Pittsburgh Steelers have won two Super Bowls. They have started six quarterbacks (half of those, due to injury) and had two head coaches. The Indianapolis Colts have won one Super Bowl, played in another and are always in the hunt for a trip to the big game. They have started one quarterback and had two head coaches.

In that time same time, the Bills have had five head coaches and started nine quarterbacks, a number that is compounded by the fact that in every one of those years (except 2002, 2003 and 2004 when Drew Bledsoe started) no starting qb lasted the season. Every time, near the midway point of every year, the starter was benched in favor of the back up. All chosen from a series of has beens and never weres like Rob Johnson (Johnson the Lesser), Alex Van Pelt, Kelly Holcomb, J.P. Losman, Trent Edwards and Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Clearly, this is a franchise that cannot make any of the right moves.

They are not alone of course. Professional sports are rife with bad decisions and even good franchises make decisions that don't pass the stink test from time to time. But the Bills have excelled in making such inane moves that even domesticated large farm animals are left to scratch their heads.

So what I'm proposing is to create a new office within NFL offices -- the Ministry of Bullcrap -- and the Bills can be on the cutting edge, leading the way to a brave, new world of common sense and simplicity. In fashion and in food, simpler is often better. Why not football?

The qualifications are straightforward, just a person with basic understanding of football. Not somebody who fashions herself to be capable of taking over as defensive coordinator if only she'd get the chance, not some guy who thinks he understands player personnel moves better than Scott Pioli, just a casual fan with a good, old-fashioned bullshit detector. The kind who knows that Peyton Manning is really good and Derek Anderson is stinky bad. The kind who knows the simply taking a mediocre quarterback off of one mediocre team and moving him across the country to a worse team will not make that worse team a championship caliber team. (Yes, I am looking at you Zombie Al Davis.)

Just a basic grasp on talent and horse sense is required. Naturally, participation in a fantasy football league of any kind immediately disqualifies the applicant.) Basically, you want somebody who looks like one of these guys.

So when Bills GM Buddy Nix settled on Chan Gailey as the new head coach, tacitly proclaiming to the fanbase, "We're going to hire Chan Gailey. He's the guy to take us to the promised land."
The Minister of Bullcrap would simply tell him, "At's bullcrap!" and back to the drawing board they would go.

Heading into the draft and free agency, as it became apparent that the team was thinking they need not address the quarterback position because they had Trent Edwards: "At's bullcrap!"

When Chan Gailey said, "Why, Ryan Fitzpatrick really showed me something on Sunday. Let's cut Trent Edwards," the M.O.B. would be there to straighten him out: "At's bullcrap!"

It would work for so many other teams, too. Like, say, the Cleveland Browns.

Mike Holmgren: "Hey, we can get both Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace to play quarterback next year. Book your tickets to Dallas kids!"
M.O.B.: "At's bullcrap!"

Or the San Francisco 49ers.

Jed York: "Clearly, the problem is the offensive coordinator, not Mike Singletary."
M.O.B.: "At's Bullcrap."

Come on, Bills. Lead the way towards a new era of clarity, of simple elegance. Establish a new office. It can be done.

Virgil once wrote, "Fortune favors the bold." Or maybe that was this kid.

This is how the Internets work.

The Internets work like this. Some big shot like Paul Krugman finds something cute on a well-attended website like Kung Fu Monkey.

Someone e-mails it to me and I decide to quote it as well on my nowhere near as popular website. This is known as "going viral".

And now that I have 'splained the process, here is the quote.

-- There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

I love this joke structure, even though I've seen it a jillion times.

You learn something new every day, if you aren't careful.

I can't say I learn much doing the research for the other blog, It's News 2 Them, since I don't believe most of what I read. When a good chunk of the stories in the supermarket rags are denied by all parties involved, I don't have the resources to find out who is telling the truth and who is just making stuff up.

But the usually unreliable Globe told a story this week, and it had several facts I was not aware of, as well as several I already did know. Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine were sisters, and both were Oscar winners. Their feud back in the day was well documented.

That's the stuff I knew.

Did you know both of them are still alive? Yes, Olivia just turned 94 and Joan is 92 and THEY STILL HATE EACH OTHER'S GUTS!

I checked all this stuff. Still alive and the feud is still on as of two years ago, reported by an honest to Lenny real newspaper in the U.K., the Independent.


While it doesn't show all the maturity in the world, you have to give them points for perseverance.

Hellllloooooo Offense! Steelers Upend Bucs in Tampa

By now, just two games into the season, SteelersNation has come to expect great, punishing, dominant, flip you on your ear, knock you silly, make you pray that the scoreboard will show 00:00 to end the suffering kind of defense. And I expect that most of us thought we'd see another performance like that this week, too. We get used to things fast around here.

The Steelers defense did not disappoint, mind you, but the big news is that the offense came to the party. And they even brought party favors.

Old Man Charlie finished the day with a QB rating of 106.5. Not bad for a guy who was fourth on the depth chart going into training camp and one gimpy knee away from the waiver wire.

Oh, it was so easy to write off Charlie. Too old. Washed up. Too fragile. (I myself was guilty of cracking a lot of osteoporis/broken hip/bursitis and/or any other variety of injuries that beset the elderly jokes at Charlie's expense.) Then he threw a homely interception to start the game and, even worse, he looked upset on the sidelines. "Shake it off, Charlie," I said to nobody in particular.

Next drive, Mewelde Moore dropped a nice little pass that probably could have picked up a first down I know I was not alone in thinking the defense would have to do all the actual scoring on the day. [They did, but it was nice that they didn't have to.]

Hitting Mike (Santonio Who?) Wallace for a 46 yard touchdown strike seemed to get Steel Valley Chaz' mojo going. It looked easy for a while after that. See Charlie throw deep. See Charlie run. See Charlie slide around the pocket to create more time for his receivers. See Charlie hit a wide open Hines Ward in the back of the endzone. Speaking of old. Old or not, how do you let the Steelers all-time leading receiver (in catches, in yard, in touchdowns, in games played) get so freaking open in the back of the endzone? Just wondering. Raheem Morris is probably wondering the same thing right about now.

All that, plus a great day for Rashard Mendenhall.

And a great day for another guy, one who I had written off completely: William Gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Gay was gap sound and he made great tackles in space. He didn't try to do too much. Knowing that Josh Freeman is probably twice his weight, he took Freeman down by grabbing him around the ankles. The Steelers list Gay at 5' 10" and 190 pounds. I doubt he's that big, even. So it's a pretty smart play to not try to take on all 6' 5" of Josh Freeman, facemask to facemask. Perhaps young William has learned a thing or two since last year. He made a number of great tackles.

The rest of the Steelers defense looked like the Steelers defense.

James Harrison scared Bucs wideout Sammie Stroughter so much that he coughed the ball up into the waiting hands of Brett Keisel, who rumbled down the field, Andy Russell-like, for a touchdown. Nice beard, Brett. Nick Eason contributed a sack. Lawrence Timmons had a sack. Ryan Clark scooped up another fumble.

Freeman completed 20 of 31 passes, but averaged only about six yards per completion. My god. That's a Kent Graham-like stat. Cadillac Williams was held to just 15 yards. Cadillac? Sounds more like a Dodge Dart.

Now seems like an appropriate time to point out that the Steelers have allowed 58 yard rushing, 46 yards rushing, and 75 yards rushing to the Falcons, the Titans and the Buccaneers, respectively.

All you bastards in the AFC North who wrote the Steelers off and thought this was a two team race, not so fast. Yeah, I am looking at you Ray Ray and Thuggs, and you, too, Batman and Robin.

It's Hot in Tampa & in the Kitchen. Chili on Tap for Week 3

I love chili. It is a bizarre fact that I've never entered a chilifest or even been to one. Maybe because I don't have one, lone chili recipe, but rather about six or seven different twists on chili that I go to, depending on my mood. This week's chili incorporates italian hot sausage and also, makes enough for a house-full of football crazed friends. If you're not inclined to eat leftovers and you don't have a huge crew showing up, you may want to cut the proportions in half.

You will need:
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef (85%/15%)
1/2 lbs of loose italian hot sausage
2 large spanish onions - diced
2 cloves garlic - finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and shredded
1 large bell pepper (I prefer red) - diced
3 or 4 poblano peppers - diced
2 tomatoes - finely diced (or one large can of diced tomatoes in the wintertime, when fresh tomatoes are disgusting)
2 cans of black beans, thoroughly rinsed
2 cans of kidney beans, thoroughly rinsed (1 light red, 1 dark red)
1 large can of tomato puree
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
several tbsp. cumin
several tbsp. chipotle chili powder
several tbsp. ancho chili powder
2 tsp. paprika

-- Brown the sausage in a sautee pan and when it's thoroughly browned, move to soup pot.
-- Brown beef in same sautee pan; season with about 1 tbsp each of ancho chili and chipotle chili; when browned, add to soup pot.
-- Sautee onions, garlic, peppers and carrot in sautee pan (add healthy pinch of kosher salt; sautee until soft & add to soup pot.
-- Sautee fresh tomatoes with pinch of salt, and pinch of chili powders; add to soup pot.
-- Add crushed tomatoes, tomato puree, about 1/2 can of water (more if you like soupier chili), and beans to soup pot; toss in another pinch of salt, several tbsp. of cumin.
-- Let that simmer for about 20 minutes and check for flavor. Add chili powder or more cumin to taste. I have a huge soft spot for cumin, so I use about 4 tbsp of cumin for a pot of chili this size.
-- Serve with thinly sliced scallions, shredded colby jack cheese and dollop of sour cream. Also a cold beer. (I'm serving mine with a growler of Spaten Octoberfest. Thanks to the guys at Beer Nutz!)

And, it goes without saying, go Steelers.

Vietnam War: M69 Flak Vest

My next thing I'll Show you from my Vietnam War collection is my M69 Flak vest, these things are pretty hard to come by and Im really happy that I have one!

The vest is slightly small on me, but I can put it on if I wanted to, I think its a size small, I fit into a large or medium. I bought this on ebay for about 50 bucks, which isn't too bad as these usually go for about 75$ +. These vests were designed to stop shrapnel from grenades and from artillery shells and other such explosives. And also some small arms fire sometimes. Im not really sure how well they work, but they were widely used in the war. This thing is the real deal, its heavy and all that too. It has strings on the side for adjusting the size, a zipper and buttons on the front, grenade hangers , 2 pockets, and a thick protective collar. The tag on the vest basically you how to care and clean the vest.

So that's all for today's post! Thank you for reading! For you womens soccer fans out there, the championship game is tomorrow! FC Gold pride vs Philly! I'm rooting for FCGP on this one, as I am a Washington Freedom fan and I really dont wanna see the team that knocked us out of the playoffs win it all! So thanks for reading and go FCGP!

Random 10, 9/24/10

Red Rain Peter Gabriel
All I Have To Do Is Dream The Everly Brothers
Sound and Vision David Bowie
Waiting In Vain Bob Marley and the Wailers
When I Paint My Masterpiece The Band
Tired Of Waiting The Kinks
Valse #3 Op. 70 (Chopin) Claudio Arrau
I Almost Had A Weakness Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet
Tomorrow Never Knows The Beatles
Ask The Lonely The Four Tops

Tunes from the computer of an old person. The newest song, the one where the one true living Elvis sings with a string quartet, was recorded seventeen years ago.

Not a bad list, some nice mix and match, just not very surprising for my money.

Watchoo list'nin' to?

Lazy blogging Thursday.Wait, what day is it?

What? Is it Caturday already?

No, it's Thursday. It says so in the title of the post and it says so on my calendar.

Wait! This isn't the Cat In The Bag blog! Okay, now I'm confused.

Okay, a lolz! This must be Lotsa 'Splainin' 2 Do!

Sure it is. It says so in the title at the top!

Sheesh. I'm glad we cleared that up.

Wednesday Math, Vol. 128: Maybe N = NP after all...

A few episodes back in Wednesday Math, I reported on a soon to be published proof that was supposed to answer once and for all whether the problems in the set P had any overlap with the seemingly tougher problems in the set NP. Vinay Deolalaikar said he had proved they had no overlap, but his proof was found to have a few glitches in it.

I hope he didn't start spending the million dollar prize he would have pocketed if his work had been right, because that would be embarrassing.

The search continues.

What Can Chaz Do for You

Back in 2006, I was traveling in New York over Thanksgiving weekend and I wasn't going to be back in Pittsburgh until Monday, which meant - horror - I would miss the Steelers v. Ravens game. Fortunately, a friend recommended NYC's finest Steelers bar - Scruffy Duffy's in Hell's Kitchen. (Sadly, it closed a couple of years ago, because it was an awesome joint.) I got there early. Early enough to grab a coffee and wander the neighborhood before heading in and settling right behind a fellow with a #35 Dan Kreider jersey on. Dan Kreider! I had to talk to this guy. His name was Harold and he had grown up, if memory serves, in Baldwin.

It turned out that meeting Harold was the highlight of my day: the Ravens defense swarmed, smelling blood in the water, and then Bart Scott almost killed Pig Ben, who wasn't Pig Ben then, just Ben, the idiot who drove his motorcycle around town sans helmet and had half is brains spilled out on 2nd Avenue.

He lay there lifeless on the Baltimore turf and for a moment, honestly, I thought Roethlisberger was dead. The entire bar paused but then Ben twitched or something and Harold, god bless his Dan Kreider loving heart, started a Charlie Batch chant -- like "Over! Rated!" during college basketball games, only "Charlie! Batch!" A great noise grew up in the bar and somehow, despite the score and despite the fact that the Ravens were unequivocally the better team that day, and that it was the season in which Bill Cowher mailed it in, and the Bus was gone, and there was a clear Super Bowl hangover, we felt soothed by the ritual of chanting Charlie's name.

None of which is to say that I want Chaz Batch leading my team for a full 16 game season.
But Charlie is strangely calming, steady. He's like the relative you trust to watch your kids in an emergency situation. No, the kids won't get their homework done. And yes, they'll probably end up eating foods that you wouldn't let them have. But when the emergency is passed, he'll hand the kids back to you, none the worse for wear, safe and sound, and maybe even a little happy from eating treats they don't get at home.

Maybe that's enough. Some Oreos, some television, make sure nobody swallows a tennis ball or puts a screwdriver in a socket. Charlie's job, as I see it, is simply not taking the killer sack a killer moment, throwing the ball into the ground rather than in an area where it can be picked off, just keeping the huddle warm and organized. He doesn't have to be McGyver, just my aunt Florence.

The question really is -- what can the rest of the team do around Charlie/Aunt Florence for the next two weeks?

Most years, I would be happy if the Steelers special teams were just indifferent, not a plus but NOT a minus. Funny how terrible play lowers expectations. But this year, even with Skippy's easy miss in the waning seconds of regulation versus the Falcons, the special teams have been a decided plus, evidenced by the gutsy call in Tennessee to run the reverse to Antonio Brown on the opening kickoff. Sepulveda has been booming the ball, so he can get them out of field position jams; Skippy was money against the Titans and has even kicked off into the endzone four times; and Stevenson Sylvester is a one man crushing machine on return coverage.

Meanwhile, I have to hand it to the offensive line. It wasn't pretty last week. Not by a long shot. This is the unit I consider to be the weakest on the team even at full strength, but with Max Starks out, Trai Essex going down, and players dropping in the heat, they managed to hang in there. Jonathan Scott jumped back and forth from left tackle (where he was starting in place of Starks) to right tackle, to spell Hotel in the 2nd half. Tony Hills came in at came in at left tackle when Scott moved. Essex went down and Doug Legursky came in for him. Guys got beat. There were pre-snap penalties. There wasn't much room for Rashard Mendenhall and not much more time for Chaz, but given that the only player on the line who played every offensive snap and who stayed in one position the whole time was Maurkice Pouncey, it's remarkable that the line was able to hang tough against a very good Tennessee defense. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't be happy with the line allowing four sacks, but given all the givens, I'd say four sacks was a win.

Things should be a wee bit easier this week. Tampa's defense is not the defense of the Tony Dungy glory days. Against offensive juggernauts like Cleveland and Carolina, the Bucs have given up a total of 618 yards of offense.

But really, with these guys playing defense, I think the Steelers offense doesn't have to do much at all anyway.

Lawrence Timmons is everywhere. He's second in the league in tackles with 24 and more than that, he's been in perfect position and shown great form and discipline. Late in the Titans game, it looked like Chris Johnson had a lane. Timmons not only came from nowhere to close that lane, he made a perfect Jack Ham tackle. If you're a linebacker, and you play in Pittsburgh, being favorably compared to Ham is the greatest compliment I can dole out.

James Harrison is on a mission to destroy all in his path. Silverback is always a good player, but we've seen him do this before, elevate his game and his intensity when the Steelers need it most.

Aaron Smith is playing run defense better than any other d-lineman in the league. That's right -- better than any other defensive lineman out there.

Troy Polamalu is simply transcendent.

The concern I have is if the Steelers defense can repeat what they've done in the first two weeks. It looked like a MASH unit in Tennessee. So I hope that Mike Tomlin and Dick LeBeau have given these guys what they need most - rest. They know what they're doing. They understand the LeBeau defensive schemes. They need some down time - physically and mentally - to get ready for Tampa. Maybe some Oreos and time in front of the television. At Charlie's house.

What happened to that crazy girl Sinead O'Connor?

Eighteen years ago, Sinead O'Connor was famous for being pretty and bald headed and singing a song written by Prince. Then she went on Saturday Night Live, sang the song War by Bob Marley a cappella, then said we had to fight the real enemy and tore up a picture of the pope.

She was reviled. How was the pope the real enemy? She was dismissed as some sort of lunatic.

This is what she has to say today. She had a point then, she has a point now. Different pope, same hierarchy, same problem.

Not a lunatic, but a survivor of a nasty system that has still not seen the complete light of day.

I wish her Godspeed.

Vietnam War: M1 Helmet

Hello! I haven't posted in a little while and I got some cool stuff since then, Ill save all the new stuff for another post, but if you want to check it out, I update my Youtube Account often. For today Ill give you a close up look at my M1 Helmet!

This helmet has the Mitchell Camo cover on it right now, A Helmet band for putting things on your helmet, Like the bottle of good ol' bug juice I got on there to keep the skeeters away! Heres a look on what the inside of the helmet is like:

This is the Helmet liner, a separate part from the Steel Pot of the helmet, I have the liner, a sweatband and a chinstrap on my helmet, I have pretty much all the things you can get for the M1 except for the nape strap which wasn't really on every helmet anyway. This helmet is really heavy and gives you a stiff neck if you wear it for more than 10 minutes!

And of course the bug juice! This is an original bottle from December 1966, the stuff smells... Thats all I have to say about that!
So thats all for my helmet really, Its Vietnam Era and looks awesome with the camo cover on it! Thank you for reading and dont forget to check back for more Vietnam War items,  and Womens soccer Autographs, Stories and cards! Thank you for reading!
-Anthony

I did it for the money. I did it for a woman.I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman.

I've been watching a lot of film noir on Netflix recently. Mostly movies I've never seen before. Mixed results.

The Asphalt Jungle had its moments. The Killing was early Kubrick, and he got a lot better later.

Kiss Me Deadly flat out stunk. Seriously, avoid this film at all costs.

So I decided to go back to a movie I'd seen before that is definitely film noir, Double Indemnity. Was it as good as I remembered? Was it really a classic?

Yes and yes.

People like to say no movie is as good as the book. Double Indemnity the movie is better than Double Indemnity the book. James M. Cain wrote the book as a serialized story in Liberty magazine. Cain was good at plot, but dialog, not so much. The movie is written by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. They kept most of his plot, except where they improved it, and they wrote some of the best dialog in movie history. People say they hated each other, but on the printed page, it was a match made in heaven.

And then there's the cast. Nobody wanted to be in this movie. There was fear of being typecast as a villain. Think about it. Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck plays murderous adulterers and we are supposed to be pulling for them. Billy Wilder always wanted Stanwyck to play Phyllis, but MacMurray had to be persuaded after several other actors turned the role down. That he could be so damned good at playing a heel was a complete surprise. Except for this, The Caine Mutiny and The Apartment, both of which come later, most of his career is in light comedies with B movie budgets.

MacMurray gets the lion's share of the screen time and he's brilliant. I was listening to the commentary tracks on the DVD and some of the people said Double Indemnity is the first film noir. I'm not so sure, because there are some Bogart private eye movies and Hitchcock thrillers that precede this that I say would qualify as noir. But one thing is for sure. There's one line in MacMurray's narration that sums up film noir pretty well.

"I did it for the money. I did it for a woman. I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman."



And then there's the third lead, Edward G. Robinson as the insurance company investigator who works at the same company as McMurray, who plays a salesman. Robinson was one of the great stars of the gangster films, so he had no qualms about playing villains. In fact, his character is the hero. His problem was he was third bill. He made a tough choice to take smaller roles in good films rather than starring in films with smaller and smaller budgets. It was the right choice. Some of his best remembered films today are roles like this on Double Indemnity, or opposite Orson Welles in The Stranger or Steve McQueen in The Cincinnati Kid. His earlier work is in a broader style of acting, but when a film called for subtlety, Robinson could under play like nobody's business.

If you've never seen Double Indemnity, see it. Yes, he doesn't get the money and he doesn't get the woman, but I promise you, this is hardly a spoiler. The interesting thing is how he doesn't get what he wants.

If you've seen it before, ask yourself how long it's been. If it's been more than five years or you can't exactly remember, give it another try. Movies don't get a lot better than this.

Jimmy Eat World- Invented

Album drops in a week, until then you can stream three songs:

 

The Steelers Beat Living Hell Out of the Titans -- Nobody Arrested.

There are statements.

"I once had a farm in Africa" is a statement.

"Excuse me, sir, I believe you are holding my pet warthog," is another kind of statement.

"Mission Accomplished," is an entirely different kind of statement.

But memorable as those may be, none compares to the kind of statement the Steelers defense issued on a hundred degree day in Nashville, Tennessee. I can't really put it into words because it's not that kind of statement. It's more of a visceral kind of statement, the kind you feel in your bones, in your bone marrow, really. If I may translate, I think it goes something along the lines of:
"Any man I see out there, I'm gonna kill him. Any sumbitch takes a shot at me, I'm not only gonna kill him, but I'm gonna kill his wife, all his friends, his dog, and burn his damn house down.
Sincerely,
James Harrison and Troy Polamalu"

Or something like that.

Seven turnovers. Two forced by Harrison. One huge endzone interception by Troy.

The best running back in the NFL held to 34 yards on 16 carries.

Vince Young. Benched.

They did it with no help from the offense, with the quarterback listed FOURTH on the depth chart holding down the fort, and a decimated offensive line. They did it with players going down to injury, heat exhaustion and general attrition. And yet, they were completely and totally dominant every moment they were on the field (except when they went to that silly PREvent defense.)

Steelers Defense to NFL:

Reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated. Consider this our one and only notice. You have officially been served. It is on, bitches.

More later.

Ellis Jerry Powell for AC Transit Board

I usually don't talk much about my students, current or former. What goes on in the classroom stays in the classroom is my motto.

I'll make an exception in the case of Ellis Jerry Powell, who is running for the AC Transit Board At Large seat against an appointed incumbent who shall remain nameless. Ellis is entering politics for the first time because he cares about public transportation and the effect of budget cuts on the community, especially the cuts in weekend bus service that hit people who work weekends and the people who need the bus to go to church.

If you live in the East Bay and you see his name on your ballot, please put your mark next to it. I applaud Ellis for getting involved in politics at the local level to make sure people have a voice in the services that are important to their lives and livelihood. He has my vote and my support.

A Delicate Balance

I didn't play team sports in high school. I went to a big public school and, frankly, was to small to be able to play football or baseball (and too old to play soccer, at least in Michigan).

Swimming and golf, though were two sports that weren't particularly discriminatory with regard to size (although admittedly you won't find many 5' 9 1/2" Olympic swimmers). I didn't learn much from my high school golf coach that I've been able to translate to my soccer team (unless it's simply to not be a confrontational, crotchety old SOB like he was), but swimming is a different story.

There were some conventional wisdoms in swimming 30 years ago that, while regarded as gospel at the time, haven't proven to be much more than voodoo or old wives' tales. We used to stretch a lot before meets (as opposed to currently, where static stretching is viewed as inhibiting muscle performance when done immediately prior to an event). We used to "carbo load" the night before big meets (not immediately before, like Michael Scott) which is of questionable value these days. And before and during meets we would eat plain sugar or jello mix because we thought the glucose would give us additional energy.

The one training tool that we practiced in swimming that I believe still has a great deal of validity, and is equally applicable to soccer, is "peaking." The idea was that there were only so many times during the swim season when an athlete could be at his or her best. So, while no one tanked any meets, it was understood that you wouldn't prepare for all meets in the same way (training hard, then tapering your training a few days before). Only the really important meets merited that type of training. Your performance in the run-of-the-mill meet or race may not have been optimal as a result, but that was okay because you had the big picture -- the county or state meet -- in mind.

As an athlete, peaking and tapering made a lot of sense -- maybe just because it meant I didn't have to work as hard at practice during the days leading up to a big meet.  As a coach, however, I find I have to constantly remind myself that I can't expect great things out of my team every game.

The high school soccer season lasts for 20 regular season matches in West Virginia. Add to that the possibility of up to five post-season games (if you make it all the way to the State Finals), and you have a situation where, realistically, your players cannot be as physically and emotionally sharp as you'd like them to be for every single contest.

It's a difficult concession for me to make, that we can't or even shouldn't be expected to play our best every single match. I'm competitive by nature and at any game want our team and its players to perform as well as possible. I find I'm more disappointed with a "bad win" than a "good loss" almost all the time.

But, as the cliche goes, a bad win really is better than a good loss.  After all, the ultimate goal for a game is to win, and for the season is to win a championship, not to look good losing or to win a relatively unimportant game 5-0 instead of 3-0.

Although I'm in my ninth season as a high school coach, I'm still learning better ways of doing things. There's a lot of introspection in coaching, as in legal work -- especially litigation. I find myself often examining the way I approach issues for an audience, whether it's my players, the press, a judge, or a jury. This year, I'm consciously making an effort to be satisfied with an occasional adequate performance, with the understanding that it would be too demanding to expect the team to play at a peak for 25 straight games.

There's still room for improvement in our team, just as there is in me as a coach. As a wise man once said, "when you stop getting better, you stop being good."

A trip to hell with friends and colleagues.

Tracy Camp teaches math at Laney College. Her mom Ernestine also taught here back in the day as well. She's also a mom. You'd think that would be enough to keep anyone occupied, but you would be wrong.

A few years ago, Tracy caught the acting bug and she has been in many roles in local theater productions, mostly musicals.

Earlier this year, she told me she was in rehearsals for Jerry Springer: The Opera which would be performed at the Victoria Theater down in the Mission District. It's a very ambitious modern piece that was originally produced in London several years back, and it does count as an opera. The only role that isn't sung is Jerry Springer himself, who is relegated to the side of the story in Act One but becomes the clear protagonist in Acts Two and Three, which take place in Purgatory and Hell.






(Photo by Kat Wade, S.F. Chronicle)

When I heard about this, I immediately thought of my blog buddy Mike Strickland, who loves opera from the ancient to the avant garde. This publicity still features Jordan Best as a crack whore, Keith Haddock as Steve the head of security (a very meaty role for operatic spear carrier), and Tracy as Peaches, the long time girlfriend of the fat, bald guy in the background, who in the best tradition of Jerry Springer's guests is constitutionally incapable of keeping it in his pants.

(photo by Mike Strickland)

Steve Hess plays the unfaithful Dwight in Act One and God in Act Three, and Timotio Artusio plays a pre-operative transsexual who is another of Dwight's close personal friends. My friend Mike works as a supernumerary at the San Francisco Opera and has been in several productions with Timotio, who did a wonderful star turn in the upbeat Talk To The Hand in Act One.

As you might expect, your choir group is not the target audience of Jerry Springer The Opera. When I told Tracy I'd be coming to see it, she apologized in advance for all the profanity I'd be hearing.

It was a remarkable evening at theater. You can read Mike's review at Civic Center, where he lavishes praise on the band that played the very challenging music and Jonathan Reisfeld, who played Jerry Springer's warm up man in Act One and Satan is Acts Two and Three. I'd like to also give a shout out to Chris Yorro, who played Montel, the guy who likes to wear diapers in Act One and Jesus in Act Three.

(Photo taken from the Ray of Light Productions cast list)

After the show, Mike remarked that this British opera continues in the tradition of oratorio that has been a hallmark in England since Handel moved from Germany to London. In oratorio, the chorus gets a major role and the cast list shows that many of the chorus members have had much larger roles in their careers. As often happens, there is someone in the chorus I found myself watching more than anyone else, and in this show it was Gregory Marks. Among his other credits, he played The Mysterious Man in Into The Woods and Nicely-Nicely in Guys and Dolls, so this is not his first time stealing scenes.

If you'd like an interesting evening at the theater in San Francisco, it's hard to beat Jerry Springer The Opera. It's long, it's loud, there are times you want to look away but you just can't. Don't be surprised if you find yourself singing "This is your Jerry Springer moment!" for a few days after seeing the show. The cast is filled with strong voices and good acting in an over the top sort of way. But hey, it's the Springer show! What, you were expecting Strindberg?

More than that, the guys from Security walk around the crowd beforehand making sure there aren't any troublemakers. I had a new found level of respect for their work when the show was through.

Grilled Pizzas - the Perfect Food for the Steelers Trip to Nashville

With the Steelers heading down to Nashville today, not a good place for them, historically (I think they've won just one game in Tennessee since the Oilers moved there -- oy), I thought about making BBQ in honor of the host team. I had some of the best BBQ of my life in Nashville several years ago when I was there with the Pittsburgh Passion, but proper BBQ is an an all day project. I'd have to have the pork butt on the grill smoking around 4:00 a.m., so ...

I thought I'd create little grilled pizzas, using the Mark Bittman flatbread recipe I used last week (I have been critical of Bittman in the past, but those flatbreads rocked) and creating my own margarita style pizzas from there. Here's the plan:

The Crust.

2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon instant yeast
3 cups all-purpose flour
Extra virgin olive oil as needed

-- Whisk together the salt, sugar, yeast and 1 cup warm water in a large bowl. Let the mixture sit until it begins to froth, about 5 minutes, then add the flour and mix until well combined. (If the dough is very dry, add more warm water a tablespoon at a time to moisten it.) Cover and let rise somewhere warm for about an hour.

-- Although Bittman does not call for it, at this point, I knead it again, and let it rise again, what my great-grandmother called 'punching it down.' I always think that multiple rises (raises?) gives anything yeasty a better, lighter feel. It doesn't take a full hour to come up a second time, usually only 15 or 20 minutes or so, but your mileage may vary. When the dough has puffed up a second time, transfer it to a well-floured surface and knead until soft and silky, about five minutes.

-- Cut the dough into eight equally sized pieces and roll each one out; don’t worry about making these perfectly round - a kind of lopsided rectangle is just fine - but try to keep them relatively even in thickness.

-- Prepare a grill; the heat should be medium-high and the rack about 4 inches from the fire. If you're using a gas grill, as I am, once the grill is hot, at least 300 degrees, turn off two of the burners. You'll need a 'cooler' side to work on.

-- Brush one side of the rolled dough with olive oil. I'm using garlic oil - which is just olive oil into which I toss chopped garlic. I don't like big hunks of garlic, but I like the flavor, so this works best for me. You can strain out the garlic or just work around it.

-- Place the dough on the grill, oiled side down. Within a minute the dough will puff slightly, the underside will stiffen, and grill marks will appear. Using tongs, immediately flip the crust over, onto the coolest part of the grill. Quickly brush the grilled surface with olive oil. Scatter the cheese over the dough, spoon dollops of tomato over the cheese, and add the prosciutto over that. Do not cover the entire surface of the pizza with tomatoes.

-- Slide the pizza back toward the hot coals, but not directly over them. Using tongs, rotate the pizza frequently so that different sections receive high heat; check the underside often to see that it is not burning. The pizza is done when the top is bubbly and the cheese melted, about 6 minutes. Serve at once.

The Toppings are easy, but you can use what you like. I used:

fresh buffalo mozzerella
imported prosciutto
grilled tomatoes. These, I just core and quarter, toss with oil and salt and toss on the grill. When one side gets charred, flip it and continue until each tomato is charred all over and soft. Once grilled, toss the tomatoes in a bowl with julienned basil. The sauce is really that simple.

Enjoy! And go Steelers!

Ranking the QB's, One Week into the 2010 Season

I've been thinking about NFL quarterbacks and I was making a running list of the starting QB's in my head, one through 32, but hell, I bored even myself with a pedestrian ranking like that. Would you rather have Peyton Manning or Tom Brady? Um, yes, please. Silliness.

But still, I kept thinking about it and thought, rather than argue the greatness of Brees over Brady or some such nonsense, why not just group them - the guys you do want, the guys you don't want and the ones you can live with if you have to. So here it is, based on one week of work in 2010, past performances where applicable and what they are capable of now, given age, injury and so on. On with the first QB grouping.

The Joe Montanas. These are the guys who have, can and should win Super Bowls. If you have one of these guys, chances are good that you've already celebrated a Super Bowl win, or there is a very good chance you have one (or two or three) in your future. You should be happy as a clam. No surprises here. Just the five best in the NFL:

Peyton Manning
Tom Brady
Drew Brees
Aaron Rodgers and
(Ben Roethisberger.) [Pig Ben gets a parenthetical, because Dennis Dixon is playing as PB was suspended for four weeks for being, at the very best, a huge, gaping a-hole. Let's not even discuss worst case scenario.]

Rodgers is the only unproven in this group, but I really believe he's got a date with Lombardi in his future. I could have bumped him down one notch, but hey, the Pack was my NFC Super Bowl pick.


The Doug Williamses. These are guys with loads of talent, guys who are capable of winning the big game, provided they find themselves on the right team. They're also incapable of maintaining that level of play consistently over a long term. Generally, they'll turn in a stinker or two, but these are the original 'huge upside guys' and if you get them on a roll, you're in for a good time:

Brett Favre
Phillip Rivers
Eli Manning
Carson Palmer
Joe Flacco

Yeah, I know. Two of these guys actually have Super Bowl rings, but both the Ancient One and Opie are streaky. And their inconsistency drops them from the Montana level greatness.


The Trent Dilfers, a/k/a THE MATTS.. This is my way of skirting the "game manager" designation, but these are the guys who benefit most from being on really good teams in systems that play to their strengths. Get one of these guys in the right system, with a good defense and good special teams, you have the 2000 Ravens or the 2002 Bucs. All hope is not lost if you have one of these signal callers, but you'd better have a great coach and a great defense if you do because they cannot win games on their own.

Matt Hasselbeck
Matt Cassel
Matt Ryan
Matt Schaub

Seriously, what are the chances all four guys would be named Matt? Parents, if you want your kid to be a pretty good athlete, not the greatest, but good enough to draw a paycheck for a lot of years in the NFL, name him Matthew. You're welcome.

For the record, I think 'the game manager guys' actually get short shrift. Doing enough to win usually means making a few good reads, some heads up check downs, plus a handful of really, really good throws when the chips are down. Something that the next group is usually incapable of.



The Kordell Stewarts. These are the guys who are tantalizing, just tantalizing, mouth watering talents. And yet, they will disappoint you in the end. Nay, they will crush you in the end, saving their worst for the post-season, doing just enough to keep the franchise from looking for another QB, but never quite making it through to the promised land. Since I actually lived through the Kordell Stewart era in Pittsburgh, I have waves of sympathy if you find your hometown QB on this list, guaranteed to break your heart:

Jake Delhomme
Donovan McNabb
Jay Cutler


The Matthew Staffords. We just don't know about these guys, hence the Matthew Stafford designation. I think Stafford's gonna be great. That's just my gut, but that's what it says. My gut says the same thing about Sam Bradford. But we don't know about any of them yet:

Matthew Stafford
Sam Bradford
Kevin Kolb



The Rick Mirers. This is reserved for guys drafted in the first round. Expectations are high when a QB goes in the first round. Everybody's hoping for the next Peyton Manning, but guys like that don't come along very often. What you usually get is David Klingler. Or worse, somebody who seriously flames out. The one and only member of this group is Mark Sanchez!

My brain says, put this guy in the Stafford Division, my gut instinct says this is where Sanchez belongs. I know it's early to make this designation. I know!






The Brian Sipes.These guys are sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always entertaining to watch. So there's no shame in landing here. They are capable of winning games, lots of them, in fact. And they have flashes, real flashes of greatness. But also huge brainfarts. I don't think I'd want either one leading my team, but I do love watching them.

Vince Young
Tony Romo



The Chris Chandlers. These guys, well, I have nothing truly bad to say about them, except to say, I sure wouldn't want them leading my team. Ladies and Gentlemen, the one, the only -- the fair to middling -- the Chris Chandler grouping!

Kyle Orton
David Garrard
Chad Henne
Alex Smith


The Cliff Stoudts. This is the home of, 'really, THAT guy is your starter? Be serious.'
Some of them have a large body of work, but sometimes you don't need a large body of work to know. You know? If you have one of these guys, look on the bright side, you may get a good QB out of next years draft.

Josh Freeman
Matt Moore
Trent Edwards
Derek Anderson