Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Greenbacks
Sunday
October 19, 2003
"You wanna make fourteen dollars the hard way?"
-Rodney Dangerfield as Al Czervik in Caddyshack
Scott Massey and I walked into Demi's Market early Sunday morning, searching for a slice of the best pizza in Tampa Bay (no matter what the Weekly Planet might have you believe). It was the typical rigamarole on a Saturday night there, some of the cast the same, other new faces from behind the bar (and that place really hasn't been the same since Mandy left there, but so it goes). Anyway, Beth, the gorgeous but insanely tattooed and pierced up waitress, happened up to the bar in her cat-like making of the rounds. We said our hellos and what not. Then she blurted out how she needed to make $60 between "now and Monday." No elaboration given on the who/what/when/where/how/why.
|  | | There's an artform to stifling laughter. |
Scott and I looked at each other with one of Beavis & Butt-head stifled laugh faces. It's like when Chris Lucas and I would find something uproariously funny in junior high at Overbrook, usually something of a nature that the Dominican Sisters in all likelihood would not have found all that humorous. Sometimes you hang out with someone long enough that you develop inside jokes and lines of thought where words don't even need to be said.
Earlier in the evening, after my Yankees lost a nailbiter to the Florida Marlins in Game One of the 2003 World Series, Scott and I had a gridiron classic of our own in NCAA Football 2004. He was Oklahoma playing against me as Florida State in Tallahassee. He went up 10-0; I rallied to tie it at 10-all right before halftime. Second half I went up 17-10; Scott tied it at 17-all, only for me to answer to make it 24-17. For the final call, I steal directly from my own post on gamefaqs.com:
Fast-forward to the fourth quarter... I lead 24-17, but then got greedy on third down and threw over the middle. Scott made a "User Pick" with OU and took it back to the house. 24-all.
But I used smart game management, utilizing the short passes and slants to work it down the field. I moved into field goal range, and a short FG made it 27-24 Noles.
Then, with less than one minute to go, linebacker Kendyll Pope sacked OU quarterback Jason White, injuring his shoulder and knocking him out of the game (or "out for four weeks", which Scott and I joking said must be enforced for our future games.)
Scott then brazenly skipped past the #2 QB on his roster, Brent Rawls, and stuck in freshman QB Tommy Grady. Grady, against a Cover 3, no less, proceeded to dial long distance on a 75 yard TD pass with less than one minute to go. OU 31, FSU 27. My last gasp drive ended with Chris Rix getting hit as he threw and the ball flying backward out of his elbow (at least that's how it looked) and into the end zone, where OU's defense pounced on it for the clincher (and ruined what surely would've been a "Greatest Game" Top 10 finish).
Yep, that's NCAA Football 2004. I can lose a heartbreaker and still love it...
I went a little eBay crazy today, putting some old PSX titles (and my NCAA Football 2003 PS2 game) up on the auction block, among other things. We'll see if there are any takers out there...
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