Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Drive Faster
Wednesday
October 15, 2003
The new headache medicine that I've been prescribed is working very nice so far (knock on wood). Let's hope it holds up.
I've discovered that this column that I wrote in March 2003 is, as of this moment, the first thing that comes up when you do a Google search for the word rizzle. I don't know what to think about that.
|  | | The NFL fined Warren Sapp $50,000 for making physical contact with a game official. |
A major addendum to yesterday's Warren Sapp column -- he was fined $50,000 by the NFL for making physical contact with a league official on the field before Sunday's game against the Washington Redskins. Meanwhile, I happened to catch some of his radio show yesterday on my way home from work, and his intimation that the refs were out to get the Bucs because Jon Gruden "used to coach for the Raiders" was beyond laughable. He still doesn't get it, does he?
There are some anxious Chicago Cubs fans out there going into tonight's pivotal Game 7 against the Florida Marlins. Last night's collapse by the Cubs (up 3-0 in the 7th with the normally dominant Mark Prior on the mound) was mind-boggling. Shades of the 1984 NLCS collapse against San Diego. But the Cubs get Kerry Wood tonight, which gives them the edge. I happened to stop by 98 Rock this morning, where Big Dick (98 Rock's promotions director) was not a happy camper. So naturally that had Brent and Bubba ribbing him like crazy. If the Cubs make the World Series, then all is well. But if they choke after being up 3-1... well I can only imagine how some irate some of those Cubs fans are going to get.
If the Marlins win, then they'd host Game 3, 4 and (if necessary) 5 in Miami next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night. Falling during the work week is a bitch, but by hook or by crook I'll make it down there for a game in they're in the World Series. That's just too big to miss.
SportsCenter tonight had a great feature on about the Chicago Cubs' "Curse of the Goat", which dates back to 1945 and the Billy Goat Tap. Here's a very abridged version that explains it (and yes, the modern day Billy Goat Tap has an actual live goat inside).
|  | | Monkeys + alcohol = a fun bar. |
Speaking of animals, I've had about enough of it from you people in PETA... I think Phil Hendrie hit the nail on the head the other night when he speculated that some members of PETA actually liked animals more than people (and became that way due to their inability to successfully interact with other people).
I mention this because PETA
complained about a bar in Nampa, ID that has live monkeys living there. Nevermind that the monkeys are well fed, shown love and taken care of... the PETA psychos opposed it. I'm all about animals being treated well, but PETA takes that concept and twists it to the point of absurdity. Though, I must admit that in my TV news producing days I loved running the stories of the girls who would get naked and paint themselves up as a tiger and crouch down on a public sidewalk as a protest when the circus would come to town. Of course, these were almost always young, hot women with great bodies. No biggins there. PETA may be psychotic with its views, but it knows what people (like me) want to see.
My Uncle Wyatt sent me a link to collegesportsinfo.com, which is a website with some interesting takes on the changing scene of conferences and how those changes relate to college football.
Follow the money -- there's as much as $10 million or so annually to be made by having a conference championship game. The SEC, Big XII and MAC have been enjoying the championship cash cow for some time now. The Atlantic Coast Conference greedily eyed that money, and thus it extended an invitation earlier this month to Boston College to become the 12th member of the conference (NCAA rules dictate that conferences must have 12 teams to have a title game).
To me, this is all rather meaningless in a world without a playoff system. My brother Matt, on the other hand, views the SEC Championship Game as perhaps the biggest college game of the year. So to each his own, I suppose...
While the mailbag is open, it's worth mentioning that my Mom wrote to say that I had received an IQ test when I was young... and I scored in the 130-135 range. So perhaps that emode.com test was on target. I say this not to be bragadocious, but moreso because the concept of it interests me. Of course, there's a big difference between capacity to learn and street smarts, and there are many abilities that defy testing. My Mom said she scored a 140 on the IQ test, which with her mathmatical prowess doesn't surprise me at all. Unfortunately my math skills were rather sub-par in comparison. Out of my immediate family, I'd guess that my younger sister Mary Beth probably has the highest IQ out of everyone. Near straight A's, mathmatical smarts AND excellent writing skills... and perhaps best of all the ability to talk her way out of any trouble. I don't think she's ever gotten a spanking for anything (whereas I got plenty of them when I was young). Though maybe she just stayed out of trouble more than I did. I do know that there were times where I would be pissed at her, and she would somehow spin the conversation to make me forget why I was mad. It's a pretty phenomenal trait to have. Anyway, if she stays on course, she has the capacity to do some amazing things in her life. She has all the potential in the world.
Work has been stop-and-go this week... downtime one minute, super-hectic beat-the-clock the next. But that's the nature of the beast when you're waiting on a number of other people to do things to allow you to proceed. I've learned an incredible amount in the past two days about banking, credit card processing and business underwriting. It has all been very interesting to me.
|  | | Tampa needs more road signs like this. |
There's comedy, there's high comedy, and then there was seeing some dude riding a moped along Dale Mabry in Tampa yesterday. We're talking bust out loud funny.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if you're going to insist on riding a bicycle in urban traffic, then use the goddamn sidewalk. Lazy bastards.
In traffic coming home from work today, I noticed some dude driving a really nice dark blue convertible. Shiny, probably one year old, nice rims and everything. Yet the guy looked like a putz. Why? He had his windows up. Look, I used to own a convertible (the old "Love Machine", later renamed the "Red Rocket" by my bro Matt). You want to ride in style? Put the top down, and for the love of all that which is holy, put your windows down, too. Unless there's a tropical storm blowing through, you really don't have much of an excuse. And under those circumstances, you're better off not being on the road in the first place. Or, at least not with the top down...
(Though the absolute worst is when they have the front windows down, but the back windows up. Or just one back window. That kills me. Makes me want to take a rock and "fix" their problem).
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