Live blogging the ninth, game 4

8:15 Holland vs. Ishikawa. Holland who didn't throw a strike in San Francisco, is the Rangers' pitcher in the top of the ninth down 4-0. He walks Ishikawa on a full count.

8:18 Holland vs. Renteria. First pitch strike. Swing and a miss, 0-2. Third pitch called strike three. First out.

8:19 Holland vs. Shierholtz. First pitch, ball, two strikes follow. Shierholtz hits it to center straight at Hamilton, two outs.

8:21 Holland vs. Torres. First pitch ball, 1-0. Another pitch high, 2-0. Swing and a foul, 2-1. Torres fouls off another, 2-2. Batter's advantage gone. 51,520 fans at the stadium. Let the all go hone with ashes in their mouths, especially the evil Bush family, Babs with her crossword problems. Torres hits into an out. the all important bottom of the ninth begins.

8:25 I hate predictions. The Giants ARE GOING TO WIN THIS GAME. THEY ARE BETTER THAN THE RANGERS.

8:26 Brian Wilson vs. Elvis Andrus. Fear the beard, Texas bitchez. First pitch strike. Second pitch ball. Andrus lines out to Shierholtz. One out.

8:28 Wilson vs. Michael Young. Strike then two balls, 1-2. Strike 2-2. Young hasn't swung yet. Now he has. SIT DOWN, MEAT!
Two outs.

8:29 Wilson vs. Josh Hamilton. First pitch, called strike. Second swing and a miss. Third, check swing strikeout. 21 year old Madison Baumgarner shuts out the Rangers in their home park for only the second time this year.

It's about to happen. Mark my words. I'm an old fart that waited since 19-fucking-62.

Let Timmy Smoke!

FUCK YEAH!

Michael Nava for Superior Court Judge

My blog buddy sfmike has a very good post today about an important endorsement Michael Nava received from Peter Keane, former dean of Golden Gate University of Law. Keane accuses the San Francisco Judiciary of essentially performing a shakedown on the local top corporate law firms to make sure Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer retained his seat.

Ulmer is an appointee of Schwarzenegger, and like many such appointees, he comes from a large corporate law firm. The fear in the judiciary stems not just from their sense of entitlement that an appointment by a governor should be a ticket to a lifetime job, but that people who will have a natural bias towards corporate clients that appear before them need to be retained. Michael Nava does not have that bias and for that reason, he is better qualified to be a truly impartial judge.

His election will be an important step towards reform, a battle that concerned citizens for good government must fight with our ballots against entrenched interests, whether they call themselves Democrats, Republicans or independents. If you are a San Francisco voter, please put your mark next to Michael Nava's name on ballot due this Tuesday.

Big Easy Looks to Be Anything But for the Steelers

I'm worried about the Steelers tonight. I think the Saints are a tough test because the 2010 Saints look a lot to me like the 2009 Steelers, which is to say, they get up, way up for good teams, and play like ass against bad teams. The Steelers went out and beat the juggernaut unbeaten Vikings, then went to Denver (the Broncos were 6-1 at the time) and smoked them. What could go wrong with cellar dwellers like KC, Cleveland and Oakland looming? The Steelers playing to the competition.

And so it is with the Saints. A loss to Arizona. A loss to the Browns. But, oh ho, the Steelers are in town this week. The 5-1 Steelers. Winners of the Super Bowl before the New Orleans Super Bowl. You think they're gonna be up for this? Because I do. If Drew Brees is ever going to pull out the 2009 version of himself, Halloween Night, in the Dome, against the Pittsburgh Steelers is the night to do that.

When I look at it really hard, if they are going to drop a game, this is a good one to drop. It's a road game against an out of conference opponent. As good as this Steelers team is, they are not going 15-1. From this game in Nawlins, they go to Cincy, then home to play the always scary Patriots, then the resurgent Raiders, before they get the Bills. So in this four game stretch, if they have to drop one, this is the one to drop. Also, I don't hate the Saints, I like Saints fans, and I absolutely adore the City of New Orleans, the greatest American city for my money.

Still, I won't be able to carry that kind of equanimity through the game. I just know it.

In the meantime, if you want to read a good story about James Harrison, check out Judy Battista's story in the New York Times. When Battista first started the Steelers beat for the NYT, I wasn't a fan. But she's been at it for a couple of years now, and she does great coverage of the Steelers.

The Sunday Recipe has moved over to Rub Some Dirt in It at OpenSalon. This week, it's spaghetti sauce that's better than your mom's sauce. Unless your mom is Lidia Bastianich.

Live blogging the top of the ninth, game 3

Here's the top of the ninth for the Giants. They are down 4-2, two homers to two homers, but the Rangers had two on for their first one. The Rangers bring on Neftali Feliz, their fireballing rookie closer.

Feliz vs. Pat Burrell. Two pitches, two strikes, brings one inside for ball one. Gets him on a 98 mph fastball. Burrell gets the collar, three strikeouts in three at bats.

Feliz vs. Cody Ross. Starts off Cody with two hard strikes. Cody flies out deep.

Feliz vs. Juan Uribe. High with the first pitch. Throws the second one by him. Outside for 2-1. Swing and a miss at a 97 mph low fast ball. Last strike for the Giants. Fouled back a 99 mph fastball. Scary stuff. Fanned him! Rangers win.

Giants now lead 2-1. This was a must win game for the Rangers and so is tomorrow to tell the truth. I still like the Giants' chances. This is the fun time.

The final push for legalization

The election is only three days away and many campaigns are winding down. Not so the Yes on 19 campaign, which got a million dollar cash infusion from George Soros, the big money donor to progressive causes so often vilified by Fox News and other right wing media. This means there will be ads on TV featuring former San Jose police chief Joseph McNamara talking about how the drug war has failed.

I've seen a lot written about the topic on both sides, and the metaphor that I found most interesting was Nick Gillespie comparing it not to prohibition but to the Cold War, an omnipresent but rarely mentioned part of our society that spread its influence everywhere.

It's clear politicians will never change the laws. There's no money in it for them. But there could be plenty of money in it for us, the taxpayers who don't smoke. It will bring in a lot of revenue and help with overcrowding of jails. Also, if marijuana as a drug is legalized, it would take the stigmatization off people who cultivate hemp for other products. It's a very useful plant.

I'm not a parent, so I don't have the same concerns that many do. But I recently spoke to a man whose son's career in engineering is dogged by a conviction from years ago when he was caught smoking a joint on his porch late one Saturday night. Legalization is not a utopia, but we aren't exactly living in paradise now.

Again, I ask my friends and readers in California to vote yes on Prop. 19 this Tuesday. Thank you for your kind attention.

Random 10, 10/29/10

This House Is Empty Now Elvis Costello with Burt Bacharach
Pain In My Heart Otis Redding
Glowworm The Mills Brothers
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher Jackie Wilson
Sunday Girl Parallel Lines
Baltimore Randy Newman
Bluebird Buffalo Springfield
My One And Only Love Rickie Lee Jones
Take Me To The River Talking Heads
Mystery Train The Band

As Padre Mickey and I have to admit time and again, this is a music list from an old person's computer. Usually, I see the Good Padre's influence in my musical tastes, but I knew about all these artists before I met him. There are two recordings less than twenty years old, but one is Elvis writing a song with Burt Bacharach in Burt's style, and the other is Rickie Lee Jones doing a standard from the American Songbook.

Not a bad list by any means, just not a new list either.

Rapace as Ripley precursor

Nikki Finke's website Deadline is reporting that director Ridley Scott is planning a prequel to the Alien franchise and is favoring casting Noomi Rapace—yes, Lisbeth Salander!—in the role of the Ellen Ripley-esque heroine. It is almost too good to be true. But, alas, it's not final because there is some concern about Rapace's ability to speak English. But I saw her on Charlie Rose recently (I know, I know, good grief), and she was perfectly fluent. So I hope they just finalize the deal. Wrap it up, people! I want to see Noomi Rapace as Ripley's predecessor. I mean, we know Noomi can handle a gun as well as Sigourney Weaver. We know she looks great lounging with bare arms and midriff. We know she can project the intense Ripley-style facial expression that says, WTF is going on in this crazy effing Nostromo spacecraft? (She's talking to you, Ash, you creepy droid.) Carey Mulligan and Abbie Cornish are also apparently being considered. But they, however adorable and talented, simply will not be convincing against the acid-for-blood badassness that is the alien.

Live blogging the bottom of the eighth and the top of the ninth.

The deep back story: My first love of a sports team is the San Francisco Giants. I don't live and die with the team any more, and the post-Barry Bonds era feels like a hangover. But this scrappy young team has fought hard all year, and against the odds, they are in the World Series, so I'm learning their names now, more than a little ashamed I didn't follow their progress more closely.

As an old baseball nerd, this team reminds me of the 1969 Mets. Nobody gave them a chance to even beat the Braves to make it to the World Series, but they swept the Braves 3-0 and bullied the Orioles 4-1 to become World Champs only six years after they were all time chumps. Their line-up was full of Ed Kranepools, Ron Swobodas and Cleon Joneses, but after their alleged ace, 26 year old Jerry Koosman, they had some kids with arms you had to like, like 24 year old Tom Seaver, and a couple of 22 year olds named Nolan Ryan and Tug McGraw.

The recent back story: The first game was supposed to be ace vs. ace, but the Giants won an insane game, 11-7. The Giants put up six runs in the fifth, the most runs scored in an inning of a a World Series since 1937. The bad news was the Giants used a lot of pitchers as did the Rangers.

The second game was a big question mark, but C.J. Wilson and Matt Cain came up big. Wilson gave up two runs in six innings for the Rangers, while Cain held the Rangers scoreless for a strong 7 2/3 innings. The Ranger bullpen betrayed them in the bottom of the eighth and the Giants put up seven with nobody on and two outs. This is fucking unbelievable. A record stands for 73 years and then it is broken the next night. 9-0 and the Rangers have three outs to redeem themselves.

8:06 Guillermo Mota vs. Nelson Cruz. On the second pitch, Cruz grounds out to third. One out.

8:06 Guillermo Mota vs. Ian Kinsler. One ball, one strike, fouls one off, 1-2. Outside for 2-2. Low for full count. Posey goes to change gloves. Lines out to Schierholtz in center right. One more out!

8:09 Guillermo Mota vs. David Murphy. First pitch ball. Second pitch a strike looking. Ball for 2-1, Swing and a miss, 2-2. Outside for full count. C'mon. Willie, get this guy! Fouled off, do it again. Fouled off again. Walks on a ball in the dirt.

8:12 Guillermo Mota vs. pinch hitter Jeff Francouer. Murphy takes second on the first pitch a strike. Second pitch ball. Third pitch, fly to right. Schierholtz has it!

GIANTS WIN!!!!!!

I hate to celebrate early.

Celebrating early, bad, BAD, BADDD!!!!!!!

But I believe these kids are going to do it. The Rangers are going to have a hard time forgetting how badly they were outplayed in these two games.

Since the Series has been best of seven, teams have come back from 0-2 deficits before. The New York Yankees did it twice in 1956 and 1958. The Brooklyn Dodgers did it in 1955 and the Los Angeles Dodgers did it in 1965.

Let me say it out loud. These Rangers aren't the glory day Yankees or the glory day Dodgers.

Two games away. This is a great feeling. This really could be the year.

How to lose votes and irritate people.

I don't pay that much attention to local politics, but over the past few months it's been hard to ignore. Early in October, I got a call from Pat Kernighan's campaign asking for my support. The person on the line gave me a rundown of the many civic improvements Kernighan lobbied hard for, and I listened attentively and said I would support her.

"Pat also supports Don Perata for mayor..." the caller said.

"Oooh, you just lost a vote." I told her.

Back in September, before the phone call, there was a leaflet on my door in my apartment building, an unusual occurrence since we have a gate. One of my neighbors, Jennifer Pae, was running for office and wanted to talk to folks about what their many concerns are. I didn't get back to her, lazy sod that I am, but I did file the name away.

She's running against Pat Kernighan. If you feel as strongly as I do that Don Perata is the wrong choice for Oakland, and you have a vote in District 2, please vote for Jennifer Pae.

Taking a Hard Look at the Loss of Aaron Smith

If you were making an instructional video of tackling form, you would be wise to chose as your subject Aaron Smith. He does it so effortlessly that one barely notices, yet he is picture perfect every single time: line him up, wrap him up, take him down. His technique is one of the reasons that he is the best run stopping defensive lineman in the league -- not the best run-stopper on the Steelers, mind you, but the best run-stopper in the NFL. No question.

And if you likewise want to know why defensive players so frequently launch themselves, missile-like, to try to tackle by hitting with their shoulder-pads rather than using their arms and wrapping up? Just stroll through Aaron Smith's injuries in the last five years:

Exhibit A: Torn rotator cuff.
Exhibit B: Torn biceps mucles.
Exhibit C: Torn triceps muscle.

Steelers fans know how valuable Smith is. It takes a lot of elements to make a great team. You need contributions from all over the place, from the gunner on kickoff returns to the starting defensive end, and the feature running back. But if I can be so simple minded as to point out won-loss records, other than Troy, there may not be a more valuable guy on the team. You can make an argument for Pig Ben, too.

(A quick look at won-loss records reveals that, in his career, Troy has missed just 11 games; the Steelers are 5-6 or a winning percentage of .454.
Pig Ben has missed 10 games [the 4 suspension games and then 6 with injuries] in which the Steelers won 6 and lost 4, for a winning percentage of .600.
And Smith has missed 15 games in his dozen years here and the Steelers record without him on the field is 7-8, or a winning percentage of .466. So there's that.)

The Steelers go as their defense goes and Dick LeBeau's unit's primary task, every game, every year, is to stop the run. Smith is the biggest reason that opposing teams simply cannot run against the Steelers. He disrupts his entire side of the line and forces running backs to either pop way outside, where the outside contain gets them, or cut back inside, where the inside contain gets them. Or run towards him, where he gets them. It's a no win to try to run anywhere near Smith.

But, you say, the NFL is a passing league now! Stopping the run is as old fashioned as the Wing T or the flying wedge. Let's take a look at what the Steelers are up against to (1) get to the playoffs, and (2) who they might face if they get there.

They have to play the Browns and the Ravens (on the road), the Bungles twice, the Saints, the Jets, the Raiders, the Patriots and the Bills. [They also have to play Carolina, but you know, amazingly, I'm just not worried about that game. Dead Coach Walking.]

Of the remaining teams on their schedule, the Ravens, Raiders, Jets and Browns have rushing attacks in the top half of the league statistically and in fact, the Raiders and Jets have the first and fifth most rushing yards, respectively. I'm not sure there is a tougher back to bring down than Baltimore's Ray Rice; I think that New Years game against Browns and Peyton Hillis will be a bitch; and despite their lower ranking, the Bengals Cedric Benson runs like a mack truck.

The point is, they have to face some really good running teams. Really good.

Then, there's the possibility of the playoffs where they might have to face: the Jets, the Patriots, the Ravens, the Titans, the Colts, the Raiders or the Chiefs. (Hey, somebody has to win the AFC West and it ain't gonna be the Norv Turners.) Those teams all have great running attacks, less Indy and New England. But then, of course, you have to deal with Manning the Greater or Justin Beiber. Pick your poison.

I don't think the loss of Aaron Smith can be overestimated and now I will echo the sentiments of so many others out there.

Starting this week, Ziggy Hood can prove he was worth that first round pick. Coach Tomlin and Kevin Colbert didn't draft Hood so that he could just 'spell' Smith from time to time; they drafted him to eventually replace the best run stopper in the league. The Steelers chances of making the playoffs and making noise in the playoffs now rest squarely on the shoulders of one Evander 'Ziggy' Hood. Go get 'em, Tiger.

Elisabeth Moss in iconic lesbian role

One of the great pleasures of the new millennium has been watching Elisabeth Moss play the role of Peggy Olson on Mad Men. Now we learn she will play the iconic lesbian role of Martha Dobie in Lillian Hellman's groundbreaking 1934 play, The Children's Hour, to be staged in London. Moss's co-star—and forbidden love interest—will be the toothsome and toothy Keira Knightley, playing the universally adored straight girl, Karen Wright. I would love to see what Elisabeth Moss does with the role of Martha. And I enjoy imagining the chemistry between Moss and Knightley, who play headmistresses at a girls boarding school. One of the girls accuses the pair of having a lesbian relationship. Naturally, much revulsion ensues, gossip spreads, scandal erupts, and devastation results. Even though the play is more than 75 years old, the demise of Martha Dobie is timely in today's climate of anti-gay bullying. When the play was first produced in the 1930s, the lesbian content—such as it is—was so controversial that the play was initially banned in Boston and London. The film, too, which was made in 1961, was controversial. Shirley MacLaine, who played Martha opposite Audrey Hepburn, said scenes were cut that explored Martha's true feelings for Karen.

The news of Elisabeth Moss in The Children's Hour presents many lesbian connections that we could record on The Chart, if Alice Pieszecki were available. Aside from the lesbian theme of the play, we have the following:

- Lillian Hellman, who herself was reputedly bisexual,
- Keira Knightley, who played the tomboy and similarly suspect friend in Bend It Like Beckham, to say nothing of her butch Domino role,
- Fred Armisen, Moss's ex-husband, who is currently in the comedy duo Thunderant with Carrie Brownstein, who we know from iconic queer grrrl punk band Sleater Kinney. By the way, Fred and Carrie's video The Perfect Song really makes me laugh,
- Peggy Olson is friends on Mad Men with the one lesbian character, Joyce Ramsay, and Peggy is so queer friendly that she even lets Joyce lick her face.

Buffalo Skinners, performed by Raphael Boguslav

The third video on my YouTube channel is from an album released in 1956. Raphael Boguslav sang and played guitar, mandolin and banjo on the album Songs From A Village Garret, the village, of course, being Greenwich Village. He recorded a set of folk songs, some from the British Isles and others from the United States. Buffalo Skinners is a 19th Century American folk song, recorded most famously by Woody Guthrie.

There is no trace of Raphael Boguslav's music on the Internet, so I'm going to put some of his songs up on my YouTube channel. I will also share them here when I finish them. Special thanks to Peregrin who had the software that could change my old fashioned .mpg file to the newer style that iMovie can read.



Let me know what you think.

What do I do for a living? Why, you writing a book?

I was filling my mail-in ballot last night, or as Republicans now call it, participating in widespread voter fraud. I was looking at the candidates' listed occupations.

Candymaker. Community volunteer. Entrepreneur/Visionary/Businessman.

So far so good. I'm kinda wondering how much money is to be made in the visionary racket, but no matter. There are only two candidates on the ballot who do not list what they do for a living. One is a no-hope, down ballot loser from the American Independent Party, the racist remnants of George Wallace's third party attempt from forty years ago.

The other man with no visible means of support is Don Perata, the completely corrupt scumbag who has the most money to spend to become Mayor of Oakland. Even if he wasn't the epitome of a back room wheeler/dealer, I'm getting tired of the Oakland mayor's race being the Senior Tour of California state politics. First Jerry Brown, then Ron Dellums. Let's start hiring from the local pool instead of getting these retreads from Sacramento and Washington.

The East Bay Express recommends voting for Rebecca Kaplan, Jean Quan or Joe Tuman. Since we have Ranked Choice Voting, you can vote for all three in some combination, though you should know the person you put first is likely going to be your choice unless there are multiple run-offs. Personally, I put them in the order given above.

There's also a Peralta College Trustee running for mayor. No way in hell I vote for somebody in the hierarchy that is doing its best to steal from me personally.

I also didn't give a vote to the Entrepreneur/Visionary/Businessman. One slash in a job title is dodgy, two slashes screams "FLAKE".

But most importantly, vote No on Don Perata. That man needs to find honest employment, though I don't think he has any idea on how to start looking.

Are we ignoring the superficial?

Some traits are all a matter of perception. A person might be considered cheap, while others call her frugal. Another is perceived as mean, but well-wishers call him no-nonsense and tough-minded.

With some traits, the best defense is a good offense. If called a racist, a counter-charge of political correctness might soften the blow. If a public person is called stupid, why not call the accusers elitists?

But what can you do if you are called superficial? If still in high school, the counter-move would be to say, "Well, you're not one of the cool kids and nobody likes you!"

If past the age of consent, your options shrink significantly.

Superficiality has gotten a bum rap. My first blog hero was (and still is) Peteykins, the artist formerly known as Princess Sparkle Pony. He looked at politics and diplomacy through the lens of hairdos, dresses, shoes and accessories. Sometimes it was tongue in cheek and sometimes there was more to it. While the official birth legend of The Other Blog is that I awoke from a nap on my birthday with the concept fully formed, I would never have thought about writing about something so superficial had I not first seen a master do it so well.

Consider the two main statewide races in California. There are a lot of similarities. The Democrats have two career politicians on the ticket, the Republicans have two political novices from the world of business. The differences at the big level are that Jerry Brown is much more of a retread than Barbara Boxer, and Meg Whitman can point to a business record of success, while Carly Fiorina has a lot of baggage about driving companies into the ground and sending high paying jobs overseas.

Both Brown and Boxer are leading in their races, but Brown has been comfortably ahead for about a month while Fiorina is keeping it much closer.

What are we missing? Why is Fiorina a better candidate than Whitman? Let's take a closer look at the superficial.

Meg Whitman looks like hell, and it is within her power to do much better. She's a billionaire, for Lenny's sake! She can't find a hairstylist that can give her hair some body, some highlights, a more flattering cut? I'm not saying go crazy with the plastic surgery like she's some Hollywood wife, but straight white teeth would go over a lot better than crooked yellow teeth.

Fiorina was treated for breast cancer and was bald less than a year ago. Her hair came back in salt-and-pepper and she's making it work. High marks for her stylist and high marks for her dental hygienist.

Moving away from the superficial, I deeply hate the political positions both these women take. Should the polls be correct and both of them taken a beating a week from Tuesday, I'll be happier Meg and Carly lost than I will be that Jerry and Babs won. But if there is a reason why one of these women has a slim hope and the other almost none, the superficial goes a long way to explain the difference.

Timing is Everything, Even in Football

Did he cross? Didn't he cross? Who recovered? Was it Pig Ben? Was it Ikaika Alama-Francis? Was it Jesus?

By now, everybody knows that the line judge called it a touchdown in live action and blew the play dead as his arms went up. Tony Sparano challenged it and, it looked to me, like it was clearly a fumble. Then Gene Steratore, the head official, ruled that it was, in fact a fumble, but that there was no video evidence as to who recovered the ball. Thus, the ball was Pittsburgh's ball on about the 1 foot line and it was fourth down.

We've all been over the minutiae of the call. I'll admit it was one of the stranger calls I've seen, but just because it was strange doesn't mean it was wrong. Yet, I understand the Dolphins and their fans feeling that they got jobbed. I would probably be on their side if the timing were different. If that call was made with the clock showing 0:30 rather than 2:30, I'd feel like the Dolphins had no chance.

But that wasn't the case. The Dolphins got the ball back with 2:28 left in the game. They had one time out left, they would receive a kickoff from the worst kicker-offer in the entire NFL. And they were working against a Steelers defense decimated by injuries to key players, Aaron Smith and LaMarr Woodley.

So, what did they do? I'll let the official NFL gamebook do the talking:

J.Reed kicks 67 yards from PIT 30 to MIA 3. P.Cobbs to MIA 29 for 26 yards (R.Mundy; K.Lewis).

Miami Dolphins at 2:26, (1st play from scrimmage 2:19)

1-10-MIA 29 (2:19) R.Brown up the middle to MIA 31 for 2 yards (J.Harrison).

2-8-MIA 31 (2:03) (No Huddle, Shotgun) C.Henne pass incomplete short middle to A.Fasano.

Two-Minute Warning

3-8-MIA 31 (1:58) (Shotgun) C.Henne pass short left to L.Polite to MIA 33 for 2 yards (W.Gay).
4-6-MIA 33 (1:33) (No Huddle, Shotgun) C.Henne pass incomplete short right to R.Brown (J.Worilds).

Miami has a really good kicker who can hit figgies from 50 yards. They have one of the best, strongest receivers in the league in Brandon Marshall. They have an electric guy in Davone Bess. And they pick up 4 yards without even trying to get the ball to either one of those guys? You cannot be serious.

To say nothing of squandering two idiotic turnovers by the Steelers which gave the Dolphins the ball at the Steelers 22 and the Steelers 13, respectively, before even four minutes had elapsed in the game.

The Dolphins want to be considered an elite team. Then prove it. Elite teams take advantage of any breaks they get - turnovers, flukey bounces, weird calls. Nobody even remembers the Tuck Rule if the Patriots don't win the Super Bowl that year. Nobody remembers the Helmet Catch if the Giants don't go on to win that Super Bowl. The Dolphins didn't take advantage of two heinous turnovers to put the Steelers in a big hole early. Shame on them.

Elite teams also overcome some bad calls from time to time. Do you think Justin Beiber would have failed to move his team into field goal range? Would Manning the Greater? The Dolphins are good, but they've got a ways to go to be considered elite. You want to be elite? That's when you prove that you are. Even against a defense as good as the Steelers.

While I'm here, let's take a moment to revel in the Steelers' D's performance. The big knock on them last year was that they couldn't close out games, hold other teams down when they had the lead, in the 4th quarter. Well, they did just that on Sunday, on the road, in the heat, without the glue that holds the D together (Smith) and one of the most disruptive players in the league. For what it's worth, that was an impressive performance on the last defensive series.

Meanwhile, this guy just added another bullet point to his Hall of Fame resume. All alone at fourth all time for most consecutive games with a catch, and now in second place on the Steelers list with touchdowns, behind only the magnificent Franco Harris.

From the Lost Recipes file

I had planned on posting my super awesome adapted menudo recipe. But then, um, I tasted it and, wow. Just wow. Less flavorful than I had hoped for. But it made up for that by being greasy. Not exactly a winning combo.

So, I wrote about the whole thing over at my other blog, Rub Some Dirt In It, titled, Adventures in Menudo.

Sometimes the food gods smile on me, and sometimes, um, not so much. Ah well.

A disappointing setback.

When I was a lad, we had the album pictured on the left Songs From A Village Garret, folk songs sung and played by Raphael Boguslav, recorded about the time I was born. I loved the music and listened to it often, even after I discovered rock and roll. Boguslav stayed in the music business through the 1960s, but he never was a huge success and spent the rest of his life as one of the best known calligraphers in the United States.

So anyway, fast forward several decades. Songs from this ancient album would still get stuck in my head, so I searched for it online and bought a copy on eBay. (Thanks, Meg! I'm still not voting for you and I hope the millions you spent on this disastrous campaign will taste like ashes in your mouth until the day you die. Love and Kisses!) A friend had the tech to turn a record into .mpg files, so I now have the album on my computer and can listen to it at my convenience.

So far, so good.

If you go on The You Tubes, you can find a video about Boguslav's calligraphy, but none of his music. After I bought the album, I had a short e-mail correspondence with the artist, who was a very gracious person. He died earlier this year, and I thought that there should be some record of his music in the most important music library of today, The You Tubes.

I wanted to make an iMovie of his version of the traditional American folk song Buffalo Skinners, but iMovie doesn't like .mpg files, it only wants .mp4 files. This means I was able to make videos of Burl Ives and my own music, but trying to share Ray Boguslav's music with the world is so far no go.

If anybody knows an easy workaround, I'd be glad to entertain any suggestions.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup Means Good Eats

A few years ago, while traveling around Patagonia, I tried the local staple of pumpkin soup at just about every restaurant, from the most upscale to the combo convenience store/restaurant. It was wonderful stuff. The best was in El Chalten, Argentina and the chef/owner was Chippo. The wind had kicked up and the temperature was dropping outside. Chippo's wife brought a big bowl of this rich, creamy, rustic, delicious goodness. I was in love.

In our efforts to replicate it, we discovered that it works best to actually use butternut squash, rather than pumpkin. Beyond which, I'm not sure that the Argentines mean pumpkin in the "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" kinda way. At any rate, here's my version of Patagonian Pumpkin soup, also known as Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, just in time for Halloween.

You will need:
two butternut squashes, peeled, seeded and cubed
two small to medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
two carrots, peeled and cubed
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, smashed
handful of thyme sprigs
3 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade, but you can use a box or two of supermarket stock if you're not in the habit of making stock) [also, you can use more or less stock, depending on how thick or thin you prefer your soups]
1/4 pint of heavy cream (you don't need much cream, just a touch to really finish it)

The Prep:
The prep on this is really easy. Clean and dice all the veg, toss them with olive oil, the smashed garlic and the thyme sprigs. Spread out on cookie sheets. You want to have just one layer, so I usually have to use two cookie sheets. Add salt and pepper and roast at 350 degrees for about an hour. Check it after 45 minutes - it can roast faster depending on the size of your dice. You want it to be the veg to be really soft. If they're not, give it another 5 or 10 minutes.

The finish:
Run the roasted veggies through the food processor and then add to simmering chicken stock. You're almost done. I usually run the soup through the blender one more time. The food processor doesn't get the soup creamy enough and you don't want this to be chunky at all -- you're after a really creamy, smooth texture. So, it's a little messy and kinda time consuming to blend unless you have an immersion blender (food gadget lust), but it's worth it. I think that changing the texture alters the flavor, taking it from delicious to sublime.

Once blended, check for salt, stir in about 1/4 pint of heavy cream and let it simmer for another 10 minutes before serving.

It's a simple, elegant soup. I like it with some really good, crusty bread. Today, for the Steelers-Dolphins tilt, I'm serving it with bread from Breadworks.

Today's Growler: Church Brew Works Octoberfest. Easy. Easy like Sunday mornin', yeaaahh.

Melissa Ferrick, the brave one

This is for all you hard core Melissa Ferrick fans out there. (You know who you are.) And if you are not yet a fan, you should be. Our girl Melissa Ferrick has been tearing things up for more than twenty years, and she was an out performer long before most everyone else. She is also mesmerizing on stage—even if in recent years she is listing toward playing the elder eccentric. She's still charming and cute and vaguely dissolute. You should make an effort to see Melissa Ferrick perform live whenever you can. The girl is intense, and she is a first class, Berklee-trained musician.

I admit, she's my homegirl. I've been keeping track, losing track, and keeping track again of Melissa Ferrick for a couple decades, so, yes, I am biased. (But, ironically, when I met her many, many years ago, I was not familiar with her music.) Lately, I love her even more. Just the other day I came across Melissa in my hometown newspaper, The Boston Globe, being interviewed with other Bostonians about their experiences as gay youth. In the article Melissa describes being harassed in the Harvard Square T station when she was a teenager. (This photo, at right, is of her at that age.) Someone hit her, shouting, "[expletive] gay freak.’’ She said: "I was terrified. I felt completely powerless and lonelier than I have ever felt. No one did or said anything. No one asked me if I was OK. No one stood up for me. It became very clear to me that I was alone in this." From there, she came out, stayed out, performs out. We should all be so brave.

Melissa Ferrick is currently touring on the East Coast with Ani Difranco. She'll be in Massachusetts and New York next month. You can check show dates here.

Something has to give.

The San Francisco Giants, a team built on good pitching and timely hitting, will be in the World Series against the A.L. champion Texas Rangers. While the Giants won several pennants when they played in New York, they have not won since they moved west back when I was still in knee pants. The Rangers have never played for the world championship, so one way or the other, something's got to give.

The Giants beat the allegedly superior Phillies in six games, when Juan Uribe broke a tense 2-2 tie with a solo home run in the eighth inning with two outs.

The Giants have broken my heart several times in post-season play throughout my lifetime, starting with losing a Game 7 back to the (still) hated Yankees in 1962. But does Matty Boy come crawling back, time and time again? Of course I do, hypothetical question asker. That goes without saying.

This is our year! Go Giants!

(photo by Howard Smith/US Presswire)

Thank you, Sarah Silverman. Please listen, President Obama.

We were all pretty shaken up by the suicide of Tyler Clementi last month. Many of us out in the world, away from the uncivilized behavior of dorm rooms and teenage callousness, forget the kind of hell that our gay younglings go through. I was reminded of it when I spoke to my campus Gay/Straight Alliance about two weeks after Clementi took his life. I was on a panel for Coming Out Week. The room was filled with young people who did not seem all that surprised by Clementi's despair. They seemed familiar with vicious treatment. This is why I was so impressed and grateful to hear "Sarah Silverman's "Message to America on Gay Suicide." With just a few words, Ms. Silverman made it all too clear why America's gay youth are harassed:
"Dear America,
When you tell gay Americans that they can't serve their country openly or marry the person that they love, you're telling that to kids, too. So don't be fucking shocked and wondering where all these bullies are coming from that are torturing young kids and driving them to kill themselves because they're different. They learned it from watching you."

Sarah Silverman's compelling message about discrimination was made all the more chilling just a few weeks later when President Obama chose to fight the court ruling that threw out Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Even though President Obama has claimed to oppose the anti-gay military policy, he is choosing to fight for it to remain in place. He says the better place to dispose of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is in the courts—even though the Pentagon seems happy to suspend its enforcement and even though more than half the country opposes the policy (according to the latest Pew Research poll). One of my in-laws is a decorated Army officer who has served in Iraq. He is straight and says he does not care if gays serve openly. "A soldier's a soldier," he says.

Perhaps an even better argument against President Obama's resistance to overturning DADT can be found in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail" Dr. King criticizes those who cry "wait" to Americans seeking swift action against unjust laws. Dr. King's greatest disappointment is in those who should know better. "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

Random 10, 10/23/10

The People's Limousine Elvis Costello and T-Bone Burnett (The Coward Brothers)
Can Your Monkey Do The Dog? Rufus Thomas
Low Symphony - Warszawa (Philip Glass) Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra
Money Don't Matter 2 Night Prince
Cry A While Bob Dylan
Shake, Rattle & Roll Big Joe Turner
The Flying Dutchman Raphael Boguslav
If You Want Me Markéta Irglová and Glen Hansard
Standing Anthony Stewart Head
Beginner's Luck Fred Astaire

My lists are never as all over the map as Padre Mickey's, due in large part to not having any local music from Panama or 14th Century plainsong, but this one travels far and wide for the music from a hermit's computer. The three songs from the 21st Century, one from Bob Dylan and two from soundtracks, don't sound super modern, but the Low Symphony kinda does. I think my next project on The You Tubes is to get some of the music of Raphael Boguslav up and available. He was a folk musician in the 1950s and 1960s who became a top calligrapher. He passed away earlier this year. I bought his album on eBay a few years back and I got in touch with him through e-mail. He was a very gracious answering a fanboy's questions.

Good manners aren't expensive and they never go out of style.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about the candidates and ballot measures I support. I wrote about four of them and I sent $50 to each.

Some have gotten back to me by e-mail. Some of asked me for more cash. I am neither surprised or disappointed by this.

Today, I got a handwritten note from Michael Nava, the lawyer and former mystery novel writer now running for Superior Court judge in San Francisco. Here is what the note says.

10/19/10

Dear Matthew,

Thank you so much for your contribution to my campaign. Please call your San Francisco friends and ask them to vote for me. I deeply appreciate your help.

Michael

The title of this post bears repeating. Good manners aren't expensive and they never go out of style. To all my readers who are registered to vote in San Francisco, please vote for Michael Nava for Superior Court judge on the November 2 ballot.

Thank you for your kind attention.

The Three Greatest Linebackers in Steelers History: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

With all the talk of James Harrison's fine, James Harrison's physicality, James Harrison's retirement, why the boys and I got to considering the greatest linebackers of all time, right here at Linebacker Central, a/k/a, Pittsburgh, Pa. Without further delay, the three greatest linebackers in Steelers history, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good: Jack Ham. Always in position. ALWAYS. IN. POSITION. It's almost freakish. He had perfect tackling form and took a good angle on the ball carrier every time. He was not flashy, nor was he intimidating off the field, but he really was a nearly perfect linebacker. There has never been another like Dobre Shunka (the Great Ham.)

The Bad: James Harrison. Coulda been Super Bowl XLIII MVP. The man blows up tackles who outweigh him by 50 to 70 pounds, who has more fines than any other Steeler and, I would point out, who is held on nearly every single play because he's just such a freak. There are very few players in the NFL who have hit with as much force as Silverback. He scares me.

The Ugly: Jack Lambert. The sneer. The complete and total contempt for opponents. It was palpable even through the cathode ray tube. He was the man who once punched a Cleveland Browns player on the sidelines (he had it coming, believe you me) and tossed Cliff Harris to the turf after Harris taunted Roy Gerela in SB X. The Steelers draft report on him described him as having, "a lust for contact."


It's certainly open for discussion, the greatest three. But who would fill out the top five? Where does Gregg Lloyd fit into this?

Don't say nothin' bad about my baby.

Have you ever heard of drunk dialing? Of course, you have. Have you any first hand experience with drunk dialing? If you can answer in the negative, you are a more evolved human being than I am.

Here's an excellent rule of thumb with drunk dialing. If you get the answering machine, Odin, Krishna and the Li'l Baby Jesus are trying to tell you to HANG THE FUCK UP!!!!!

Cute li'l Ginny Thomas, a mere child of 53 years old, has had no one to instruct her in the proper ettiquette of drunk dialing, so she gets into the Drunk Dialing Hall of Fame on her very first try. If we are to believe a voicemail, she called Anita Hill, the woman who said her husband was a creepy scumbag and probably shouldn't get a job for life on the Supreme Court, and told Ms. Hill that it would be a good thing if she admitted she was wrong and apologized after all this time. She even told Ms. Hill that she "should pray on it."

Ginny has no idea how creepy that sounds to sane people, having so little personal contact with them. She works at The Heritage Foundation and before that for the Chamber of Commerce.

Stunningly, Ms. Hill decided that no conversation with Odin, Krishna or the Li'l Baby Jesus was necessary and that no apology would be forthcoming.

Ms. Thomas married Clarence in 1987, an innocent child who had only seen 30 summers, so she clearly did not know the ways of the world. Hon, here's a clue. Clarence had been around the block a few times before he got wind of your fat ass.

What's worse than drunk dialing? Ex-girlfriends, bitch. Here's another lesson most folks learn before they hit menopause.

Anita Hill would have stayed a dim memory from the early 90's, a trivia answer slightly better known than the name of The Tick's sidekick (Arthur), not as well known as the big hit for Bell Biv Devoe (Poison). Since Ginny had to proclaim her husband was not a creepy, porn addicted lover of the big bazooms and Anita Hill a jealous lying harpy, one of Clarence Thomas' ex-girlfriends who did NOT testify in front of the Senate thought this would be as good a time as any to tell her side of the story.

Her side: Years ago, Clarence Thomas was a creepy, porn addicted lover of the big bazooms.

Gentle readers, if you are new to the world of drunk dialing, let this be a lesson to you. As bad as it can be if the person you are trying to reach in your diminished state picks up, it's about a jillion times worse of you leave a voice message.

Glad to be of assistance with the 'splainin'.

NHL Player Loses Mind, Attacks Fan

I'm all for fans getting whatever comes their way if they set foot on the playing surface, whether it be the ice, the court, the diamond or the gridiron.

Tazing that idiot fan who ran onto the field of a Phillies game? I'm for it. In fact, I think they should hire sharpshooters and equip them with high powered rifles; if a fan steps on to the field, give them free license to fire away.




When a Cleveland Browns fan ran on the field in 2005, James Harrison took him down. It was totally deserved. Run on the field, you risk running into Silverback. Enter at your own risk.



But Rick Rypien of the Vancouver Canucks is a cementhead and a punk. During a game against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night, on his way down the ramp to the locker room, Rypien grabbed a fan in the stands. Here's the video of Rypien reaching over and grabbing the fan.

Hockey tolerates a lot of stuff. Fighting and tussling is tolerated. Love it or hate it, it is part of hockey culture.

But going after a fan? That's Hansen brothers stuff.

The fan in question was just clapping and claims that he said something along the lines of, 'way to be professional.' It was probably a little stronger than that, probably laced with some adult language, but the guy was where he was supposed to be and it's not like he tossed a key chain (or tire iron) at Rypien. If the fan called Rypien out for being unprofessional, looks like it was a dead accurate comment.

Some have called for Rypien to be suspended 20 games. That would be fine by me. But might I suggest they taze him? And then have James Harrison take him down.

Wednesday Math, Vol. 130: Benoit Mandelbrot, 1924-2010

Benoit Mandelbrot coined the word fractal. Even non-mathematicians might remember fractals. They were a popular culture fad about thirty years ago, fading from view around the same time as sociobiology and Gödel Escher Bach. Fractals may not be bandied about in coffee shops anymore, but the idea is still bearing fruit in computer science, math and biology.

What is a fractal? Is it a noun or an adjective, like in the title of Mandelbrot’s most famous book The Fractal Geometry of Nature?

Mandelbrot was vague at first. Without a definitive statement, some wag declared “fractals are the mathematical proof for the existence of paisley.”

By the time of his death last Thursday, the definition had been refined to self-similarity, systems with small pieces that look like the whole. Think of tree branches or blood vessels. A nautilus shell, if shrunken and rotated just the right amount, will be almost identical to removing the last chamber the critter inhabited.

Benoit Mandelbrot is considered a French or Franco-American mathematician, but he was born in Warsaw in 1927 into a family of Lithuanian Jews, the family name Yiddish for “almond bread”. They left Warsaw in 1936 for Paris. When the war came, they moved again, leaving their son in the care of a rabbi. He spent much of the war in hiding.

After the war, he attended colleges studying math and aeronautics in France and the U.S., getting a Ph.D at the University of Paris. Instead of the teaching route, Mandelbrot took work at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorkton Heights, New York. The standard mathematical path to glory is solving some open problem that has stumped the finest minds for decades or centuries. Mandelbrot found fame pondering a poorly defined concept of his own making for a very long time, usually a one-way ticket to Eccentric Palookaville. Could math replicate the messy shapes and patterns created by living things that grew following instructions stored in self-replicating cells?

Jonathan Miller said in The Body In Question everything must be understood first in metaphor. The heart was a drum until someone invented the pump, and no one could have dreamed the better metaphor before the pump’s invention. The computer was both Mandelbrot’s metaphor and major tool. Mandelbrot didn’t so much “prove” his main thesis as show it was plausible. Computer graphics took huge strides forward in creating natural looking landscapes and biological textures based on simple instructions repeated at different scales many, many times.


On self-similarity, the last word goes to Sally Draper, precocious daughter of Don Draper of Mad Men, from an episode this season, discussing eternity with her creepy friend Glenn.

Sally Draper: “When I think about forever I get upset. Like the Land O Lakes butter has that Indian girl, sitting holding a box? And it has a picture of her on it, holding a box, with a picture of her on it, holding a box. Have you ever noticed that?”

Creepy Glenn: “I wish you wouldn’t have said that.”

Informed voters, yes.Informative reporters, not so much.

So the Ipsos/Reuters poll I responded to has been made public. I always find new numbers interesting, but these are partly troubling, partly heartening and partly too undecided to be useful, especially at this late date. Also, the story gives some information that puts all the numbers in dispute.

The troubling numbers
Boxer's lead over Fiorina has shrunk to 46% to 45%.

The comforting numbers
Brown's lead over Whitman is now 48% to 44%.

The too undecided numbers
Prop. 23, the crap anti-environmental proposal endorsed by two Texas oil companies, is getting shellacked 46% to 35%, but having 19% undecided at this late date is unnerving.

The problem with the reporting is this. Ipsos/Reuters says the poll was done with 601 Registered Voters, of which 448 call themselves likely voters. They say the margin of error on the big sample should be 4.0%, while the smaller sample should have a margin of error of 4.8%.

Hmmmmmm, not so fast.

The probability that the smaller sample has the exact same percentages for Brown, Whitman, Boxer, Fiorina, pro-23 and anti-23 is teeny tiny. There should be some differences, but I can't find them anywhere in the story and they don't link to a raw numbers .pdf.

By the way, if we assume the numbers are for the larger OR the smaller sample, we can do a confidence of victory test for Brown and Boxer, because over 90% of respondents show a preference for one of the two main candidates. With the 81% either pro or con Prop. 23, we are SOL because of the high undecided.

If the numbers are out of n=601
We are about 60% confident this poll shows Boxer will beat Fiorina if the election were held when the poll was taken.
We are about 85% confident this poll shows Brown will beat Whitman if the election were held when the poll was taken.


If the numbers are out of n=448
We are about 60% confident this poll shows Boxer will beat Fiorina if the election were held when the poll was taken.
We are about 80% confident this poll shows Brown will beat Whitman if the election were held when the poll was taken.

Neither election is in the bag, but early voting has already started, so for some people, the election is being held when the poll was taken. There is still uncertainty, but for right thinking people, none of the numbers point to our impending doom.

If you really want impending doom, go to my other blog and read the stories from the Sun.

It's okay to click. Remember, when it comes to my other blog, I'm not silently judging you.

NFL Addresses Head Injuries

I spent the morning debating the nature of helmet to helmet hits with my merry band of ne'er do wells. It's a tough thing. I love the hard hitting element of the game. I love the speed. I love big collisions. But ...

Any time I see a player face down on the field, lifeless, it makes me sick deep in the pit of my stomach. Something has to be done, because somebody's going to end up dead.

So, I posted about it at my other blog, Rub Some Dirt In It.

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Want to know something about Ranked Choice Voting? You've come to the right place.

So I was walking across the Laney campus a few weeks back, minding mah own bidness, when a fellow steps up to me and asks if I would like the school the votin' populace of Oakland about Ranked Choice voting, also known as Instant Run-Off.

Hey, it's about combinations of stuff! It produces numbers which can be analyzed! I git PAID to 'splain stuff! What part of this is not fun, fun, fun to Matty Boy?

So this election day, I will be a Ranked Choice Voting facilitator in a precinct near my house. People will come to me confused and in need of knowledge, and they will depart in confidence that their vote will count.

I've taught the stuff to both of my stats classes and did a run through of how it might work in an election like the Oakland mayor's race, where there are ten, count 'em ten candidates.

It should be lots of fun.


Looking around the Internets for more info,I found this graphic showing how voters in Minneapolis felt about RCV.

Notice how Democrats and Independents, who we will lump together in a new category called Right Thinking People, prefer Ranked Choice Voting to a primary system by wide margins, while Republicans, who felt bad they didn't get a new category name so I will call them The Unwashed Masses just to keep them from whining, pretty much hate the idea in a nigh-exact mirror image of the Democratic numbers.

Weird, huh?

I get the feeling anything that takes more than 20 seconds to 'splain and doesn't have a catchy jingle is just not their cup of tea.

So to speak.

BCS Rankings Are Out and, Hey, Wait a Minute ...

So let me get this straight, after starting the year with the Crimson Tide atop the polls and watching them fall. Then watching Ohio State (oh, excuse me THE Ohio State) stick in that Number 1 spot for just six days before falling to the Badger.

After watching Boise State dominate on or off that retina-popping blue field, including games against Virginia Tech and Oregon State.

After watching LaMichael James and the Oregon Ducks put up mad offense on simply everybody, including Tennessee and Stanford.

The BCS standings were released last night.

Oklahoma! Where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain, is the No. 1 team in the country.

You're doin' fine Oklahoma. Oklahoma, okay!

As for the rest of the nation, nope, no need for a playoff system. The BCS operates perfectly. Why, whatever is better than perfect, that's what the BCS is. Move along, now. No gawking.

When logic and persuasion fail...

It's nice to have the trump card.

Pig Ben Sparks the Offense Over the Browns

Sometimes erratic, sometimes reckless, and sometimes positively breathtaking, Pittsburgh's Pig Ben Roethlisberger returned, turning a pedestrian offense into an explosive one, making throws of 50 yards to both Mike Wallace and Heath Miller, and tossing a beauty of an over the shoulder pass to Miller to sock the game away. Other times, he strangely overshot receivers and threw an ugly interception on the first drive, but all things considered, it was about as good as anybody could expect and better than most predicted. There were times when he was vintage Ben and good enough that his QB rating was a lofty 112.7. So, there's that.

Bruce Arians called a great game and I so rarely say anything nice about BA that I'd like to go on record saying that I thought he had one of his best games in recent memory. He was aggressive without being greedy, daring without being hasty or thoughtless. He didn't get away from the run, even when the Browns were bottling it up; he called plays that allowed Pig Ben to hit six different receivers. 27 passes and 35 runs on the day and that strikes me as a really nice balance.

Rashard Mendenhall turned in another impressive game, running with power, stiff arming defenders, sticking his head into tight spots, and hanging onto the ball. Issac Redman added 31 yards, each of them hard fought and well-earned. The line, despite shuttling in players as Doug Legursky and Chris Kemoeatu were injured (both returned), did a really solid job up front and it looked like Maurkice Pouncey had a real bounce back game after struggling a bit against the Ravens.I want to give a big shout out to Flozell Adams here. He wasn't flagged all day and that has to be a first in his career. Plus, he positively clothes-lined Cleveland DB Joe Haden as he rumbled back and forth across the field after picking off Pig Ben. The Hotel is 35 years old and the Steelers list him at six feet, seven inches and 338 pounds. He was the only Steelers player who was able to run from one sideline to the middle of the field, probably covering more than 70 some yards, to take down a speedy, elusive corner. Seriously? That might have been the most impressive thing I saw all day.

On the other side of the ball, the Great Troy was quiet, but James Harrison seemed to make a point of trying to be a one man tour of destruction, sending both Josh Cribbs and Mohamed Massaquoi to the locker room in the first half. And Lawrence Timmons turned in another monster performance and was a large part of the reason that the Steelers were able to hold Peyton Hillis to just 41 yards rushing on they day.

As to the opposition, I think the best things to have happened in Cleveland in a long time may have been the injuries to Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace. I thought Colt McCoy played with a tremendous amount of poise, no matter how many times Harrison, Timmons and Lamarr Woodley hammered him and lord knows the kid is accurate when he has time.

Oh, and congrats to Hines Ward, who turned in a very Hines Wardian day -- five receptions for 54 yards and a head-shaking, tackle breaking touchdown. He is now tied for fourth on the all-time list for most consecutive games with a reception at 164. Just who are these people who don't think he's a Hall of Famer?