Snob

I've been called a beer snob by some folks. I don't buy it. I love good beer, sure. But I also drink Bud, Miller (High Life), Coors (gold not silver) and PBR. It's all good. And different times and places require different types of brews. The last time I went to the beer store to buy a little some some, I walked away with a 12-pack of PBR and a 4-pack of Belhaven Scottish Ale. That's pretty standard for me. The dichotomy of the choices, not the actual beers themselves.

I have been a tequila snob at one point in my life though. It was between 12-15 years ago when good tequila first started hitting big here in the States. If it wasn't anejo and it wasn't expensive, I wasn't interested in it. I tried it all. I remember finding a shitty restaurant in Jacksonville, FL that, for some reason, had a bottle of Porfidio Single Barrel Anejo behind the bar and they were selling it on the ridiculous cheap. That was a good night.

Then, somehow, I started to enjoy the blancos and reposados even more. They were stronger tasting, peppery and had a delicious tequila flavor. I know...tequila with a tequila flavor. Sounds weird, right? But some of the anejos are aged to the point where they taste mellow enough to be a Bourbon. That's when I really knew I had become a tequila snob. Because I could easily wade through the crap (Patron) and the uber-expensive (Herradura Seleccion Suprema) to find the hidden gem that was Cazadores Reposado. Or something similar.

But I don't really drink tequila anymore. No real reason. Just kind of organically happened. I still enjoy it on occasion, but I've become more of a whiskey/whisky guy lately. Not a snob though.

Too late of a start in life to become a Scotch snob. It's such an acquired taste and there are so many distilleries that I just don't have the energy to focus myself into becoming a Scotch snob. And I like good Bourbon, but there are so many folks that I know that can spot a great Bourbon from a mile away that I usually defer to them when it comes to picking a good sipper.

But I think I wanna become an Irish Whiskey snob.

It appeals to me on many levels. I'm a product of a primarily Irish background, for one thing. And there aren't nearly as many distillers in Ireland as their are in Scotland. But there is definitely some good stuff out there.

Yesterday, I had to pick up a bottle of Bourbon at the liquor store to bring to a party (to make these) and I spied a bottle of Irish Whiskey I had never seen before.

A 1994 Knappogue Castle pot-stilled Single Malt Irish Whiskey.


It was much paler than any whiskey I had ever seen before. And the price was downright reasonable for a Single Malt at $33 for a liter. So I figured why the hell not?

I had a wee glass when I got home from the party and it was absolutely delicious. Love at first taste. Not the best whiskey I've ever had, but unbeatable for the price.

So yeah...I think I want to become an Irish Whiskey snob.

Everyone has to have a goal, right?

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the fucking snobs are doing it.

483 and counting

Noticed recently that my 500th post is rapidly approaching. Should occur sometime around 2 and 1/2 weeks from now.

Here are a few ways that I am thinking of celebrating it:

• Making my own bacon-infused bourbon.
• Pretending like it never happened.
• More kitten pics.
• 500 random things about me.
• Yeah, I was just kidding about that last one.
• Seriously.
• Finally posting an actual picture of myself.
• Followed by my address, date of birth and social security number.
• (Yeah, right)
• A guest post by my hetero life-mate, Slyde.
• An immediate retraction and apology on my part for Slyde's guest post.
• Four words: Pants off, dance off!
  

So whaddya think?

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the prolific bloggers are doing it.

Music Video Fridays - Keb' Mo'

Happy Friday the 13th.

Continuing a proud tradition that is at least a week old, I give you Keb' Mo' this Friday for your music video pleasure.

For those of you not familiar with him, Keb' Mo' (born Kevin Moore) is an American guitarist and blues singer originally from Los Angeles, CA. He's received a lot of mainstream recognition lately for his soulful style and appearances on shows like "The West Wing" as himself, of course.

The first video is his rendition of "America the Beautiful" and it is my favorite version of the song. No need to provide the lyrics, eh?

The next video is a collaboration with reggae/blues artist Corey Harris on "Sweet Home Chicago". I was lucky enough to see Corey Harris live at The Green Parrot in Key West a couple of years ago. He's a great musician and a smart dude. I've written about him before on this blog. Once again, if you have even a rudimentary knowledge of the blues then lyrics won't be necessary.

The last video is a live performance of an original song by Keb' called "Perpetual Blues Machine". This was one had a bit of a crossover appeal and played on some alternative/public radio stations when it first was released back in the 90's. And it's the first time he ever flew into my radar.

Perpetual Blues Machine

You had style, you had class
you had everything to make a love last
you had grace, you had charm
you had me hanging on your arm
when I found out you were a fake
you rared up and bit me like a snake
and I was ready to let go
and let all my feelings show.

Chorus:
Tell me why you wanna be so cold
why you wanna be so mean
you've gone and let your true colors show
you're a perpetual blues machine.

We could've been just fine
if you'd have only been all mine
'cause I was for real, but you did not know
that you were steppin' on my heart
as you were walking out the door.
But now I know who you are
and it's a damn good thing we didn't get too far
'cause I'm not the one who's right for you.
You need a man to do your rolling
like you want him to do.

Chorus

Now you've gone, and I'm glad
that we didn't let it get too bad
you know I tried to make it go
but there was just no way to tell you so.

Chorus

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. Don't let the blues get you down.

Not again. Not this time.

I've been guilty in the past on missing out on some of the best that television has had to offer when they originally aired. Joss Whedon just happened to be the genius behind all of them. Check it out...

March 10, 1997 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer premieres. "Welcome to the Hellmouth", indeed. I didn't start watching Buffy until it ran in syndication on the FX network. Sometime late in 2003, I believe. In one way I'm glad that happened because I was able to watch the entire series in a couple of months. But I still feel like I missed out on watching it as it happened. The anticipation, the not knowing. Yet it still became my favorite television show of all time.

October 5, 1999 - Angel premieres. I only began to watch it after I fell in love with Buffy. And I didn't like it as much as Buffy. At first. I just recently finished watching the entire series again* and it is absolutely fantastic. Angel's character development is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen on TV. It's still in second place when it comes to Joss Whedon's creations...but it's sneaking up on Buffy.

September 20, 2002 - Firefly premieres. I still hadn't seen Buffy and FOX fucked this one up from the get go. Bad promotion, timeslots and they re-arranged the airings of the episodes for some reason. It seemed like they just didn't want it to succeed. But while it only lasted 1 season and 14 episodes, it may be the finest work that Whedon has done thus far. Great characters, plots and settings. Just brilliant. All with Whedon's trademarked humor and pathos. The subsequent feature film was even more fun...and devastating.

That leads us to this:


February 13, 2009 - Dollhouse premieres on FOX at 9PM EST. Yeah, it's on a shitty network on a shitty night in a shitty time slot. One that is probably gonna change two or three times this spring. Because you really can't expect a show to succeed on a Friday night at 9PM now, can you? I don't really know that much about it, and I only recognize a couple of the folks starring in it. Doesn't matter. I'm not gonna be left behind again. It's already programmed into the DVR and I'm gonna do everything in my power to make sure that it does succeed.

Like writing a blog post about it so that a handful of like-minded folks are aware that something magical might be happening again. The rest of it is up to you.

Are you gonna watch?

*OK...a few quick observations about Angel from just having watched it again:

1. I liked evil Angel (Angelus for those of us not on crack, eh Faiqa?) and goofy fun Angel much better than somber, righteous Angel. He just bored me when he was mopey.
   
2. I wish Cordy the Warrior had a longer run. She was always a great character, but she was just coming into her own when, ya know...things went bad.
3. Conner was a life-sucking abyss of a character that almost ruined the show for me. I know that it was necessary and all, but man I hated that kid.
4. Amy Acker is a talented actress and cute as a button, but I never really liked Fred as a character.
5. I dug dark Wesley just as much as goofy, brainy Wesley. And that guy could really act. "I had my throat cut and all my friends abandoned me" might be one of my favorite lines ever uttered on television. So powerful and chilling.
6. Holtz was pretty ridiculous as a bad guy, wasn't he?
   
7. Spike, for me, was a welcome addition to the show in Season 5. I enjoyed his interaction/competition with Angel and I could have enjoyed it for several more seasons.
   
8. Gunn was more fun as a brainy lawyer in that last season than he was as the muscle in previous ones.
9. I don't really know what to say about Lorne. Was something going on between Andy Hallett and Joss Whedon in real life? He was often funny, sure. But he just seemed like an excuse to introduce vaudeville to the audience. I dunno.
10. And finally, Wolfram & Hart. Best bad guys ever on a television show! Lilah, Gavin and, of course, Lindsey. They each gave it their all, didn't they? Well done, kids!
    

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. Buffy would want you to do it.

OVERKILL!!!

Looks cool, huh? And can you see (clicky to make it go biggy) who directed it? That's right. Well...not really.

It's just an image created from a zombie movie poster generator provided by the nice folks peddling the new House of the Dead game for the Wii.

Stacie Ponder over at Final Girl is asking her readers to create their own zombie movie poster for a feature she occasionally runs on Fridays.

I'm still having fun with it, so I don't think this will be the one that I submit. Needs tweaking.

It's way too much fun, though. Hehe.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the walking dead are doing it.

Crap! I missed it.

Last Friday was World Nude Day. Who knew?

Actually, it's mostly just a bunch of freaks down in New Zealand, but they are trying to spread the word of peace, love and nudity to the rest of the freaks in the world. That sure was nice of them.

You can click on that link to check out some videos that were sent in to celebrate the festive day, but I warn ya...it's mostly the fellas that get in the all together. Something for the ladies, you know.

And Slyde, of course.

(Yes...that was a preemptive strike against my friend of many years. It only serves to lessen the inevitable blow of him calling me gay in the comments for posting a website that features male nudity. What can I say? I'm weak. Let's see if he takes the high road. - Earl)

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the naked dudes are doing it.

Ponder this

Despite yesterday's news regarding A-Whatever, I've been pretty excited this Winter for the upcoming baseball season. So much so that I'm thinking long and hard about running a Fantasy Baseball League for the first time since 2002.

A friend and I started our own fantasy league back before the ease of the Internet and CBS Sportsline. Way back in 1990 or 1991, I believe. We made up our own rules and our own scoring system, based on existing fantasy leagues. We didn't do Rotisserie rules and this new league I'm thinking about forming won't be Roto either. It will be fantasy point based. With lineups and everyting. We wanted to make it resemble the actual baseball season as much as possible. And Roto doesn't really allow that. Like a team would really traded Albert Pujols for Jose Reyes after the All-Star break just becuase they needed SB? Seriously.

Anyway, I want to gauge the interest of the bloggy world about joining the league. I would set up a new blog just for the league and it would be open to anyone who reads this blog or friends of those who do.

It's not going to be a simple "draft your team and then sit there" league. It will require weekly lineups, roster maintenance, active trading, waiver wire transactions and free agent signings. I also would prefer to do an Auction rather than a Draft, if I can find the online service that supports it. Auctions are fun!

So how about it?

Anyone interested?

Email me at babyburke at aol dot com if you are seriously interested in joining. Or you can just leave a comment. But what fun is that?

Oh, and in the latest on boobs...Yowza!

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the fantasy freaks are doing it.

A-Roid

Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. Yeah, I know...their is no "proof" that they cheated. Well, there might be some proof on Bonds. But none of the allegations have surprised me. I watched Sosa and McGwire in 1998. You knew they were using something. Everyone knew it. And when Bonds showed up at camp the next year looking like a Marvel superhero, everyone knew he was using something. HGH or steroids. Whatever.

Roger Clemens didn't shock me. The guy seems like a Grade A asshole and someone who would do anything to perform better. Plus he threw a bat handle at Mike Piazza. Who does that?

Jose Canseco (admitted), Jason Giambi (admitted), Rafael Palmiero (caught), Luis Gonzalez (rumors), Gary Sheffield (delusional), Jay Gibbons (caught), Ken Caminiti (admitted and dead), Andy Pettitte (admitted and born again), Miguel Tejada (implicated and, frankly...older)...the list goes on. And none of them have surprised me or particularly disappointed me.

I'm angry, shocked and thoroughly disappointed in the news today that Alex Rodriguez failed a steroids test in 2003. He may be a prima donna and a jackass, but I always thought he was clean.

I don't give a crap that it was part of a test program to determine how wide-spread the steroids problem was in baseball. I don't care that there were no penalties in 2003 for steroid use. I don't care that he is the only one out of the 104 players that tested positive for steroids whose name was leaked to the media. I don't if he only used steroids one time, as I'm sure he will claim when he finally comes clean. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care.

But this was supposed to be the clean guy who would take back the HR record from dirty, dirty Barry Bonds in a few years. The guy who was so talented right out of High School that he would never need to juice. The guy who told Katie Couric on 60 Minutes that he never used steroids or HGH, never considered it and never would.

He's a cheat. He's a juicer. He's a liar. Once. Always.

So that's it. I will never believe any of them anymore. I will not be surprised when the next names are revealed. I don't care who it is. Chase Utley, David Ortiz, Tim Lincecum, Albert Pujols, Hanley Ramirez, CC Sabathia, Mariano Rivera...they are all suspects. And none of it will ever shock me again.

Fuckers!

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the fucking frauds are doing it.

Music Video Fridays - Sleater-Kinney

I spent the night nursing an upset stomach, watching the kittens run around like crazy and watching old music videos on Youtube.

Not a bad evening. Except for the upset stomach.

There is so much good shit out there. So much that I've forgotten over the years. Remember bands like Ned's Atomic Dustbin or Carter USM from the UK's Grebo scene? No? I barely do either. But I was listening to them almost exclusively back in 1991-92. Right around the time that grunge kicked in here in the US.

Anyway, I'm starting a new feature here on The Verdant Dude. Music videos on Fridays. Yay! I've noticed lots of other folks doing it around the Interwebs as well, and I'm nothing if not a sheep. So I'll post a couple of vids from the past for y'all to either enjoy or ignore. Either ways is fine with me.

Our first edition features a couple of videos by one of my favorite all-time bands, Sleater-Kinney. They are on what may be a permanent hiatus right now. Shame. These women did it the right way. The first video is a song called "Modern Girl" and it features Carrie Brownstein on vocals. I'm generally more of a fan of the songs that Corin Tucker sings. I dig her warble. But this one off of their final album in 2005 is one of my favorites.

MODERN GIRL
My baby loves me
I'm so happy
Happiness makes me
A modern girl
I took my money
And bought a TV
TV Brings me
Closer to the world

My baby loves me
I'm so hungry
Hunger makes me
A modern girl
I took my money
And bought a donut
The hole's the size of
The entire world

My baby loves me
I'm so angry
Anger makes me
A modern girl
I took my money
I couldn't buy nothin'
I'm sick of this
Brave new world

My whole life
was like a picture
of a sunny day

My whole life
looked like a picture
of a sunny day

The next video is from their album "All Hands on The Bad One" released in 2000, and it features Corin Tucker on vocals. Mostly. The song is called "You're No Rock and Roll Fun" and strangely enough...it is a lot of rock and roll fun. Enjoy!

YOU'RE NO ROCK AND ROLL FUN
You're no rock n' roll fun
like a party that's over
before it's begun
You're no walk in the park
more like a shot in the dark
with clues left for no one

And all the boys in the band
know how to get down
fill our Christmas socks
with whiskey drinks
and chocolate bars
and when the evening ends we won't
be thinking of you then
Although the best man
won't hang out with the girl band!

You're no rock n' roll fun
like a piece of art
that no one can touch
Your head is always up in the clouds
writing your songs
won't you ever come down?

And all the boys in the band
know how to get down
fill our Christmas socks
with whiskey drinks
and chocolate bars
and when the evening ends we won't
be thinking of you then
Even if your song
is playing on the jukebox

You wanna party with the lights on
Come on I like it dark!
You always wanna hear the same old song
Come on play another song!

You're no rock n' roll fun

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the riot grrls are doing it.

Witch's Tit

Whenever I want to really get to the bottom of something, I go to Wikipedia. I mean, if it's on the Internets it has to be fact-checked. Right? Anyway, here's what Wikipedia has to say about the Witches' mark or Witch's Teat or Witch's Tit, if you prefer. I prefer tits. If I was given a choice between marks, teats or tits I would probably pick tits every time. Unless I needed some milk for my coffee. I can't drink my coffee without some kind of dairy product. Half and half would be best, but I don't know how it comes out of the cow exactly. And where does buttermilk fit in? Wait, what was I talking about?

Oh yeah, Wikipedia and the Witches' Teat. "According to witch-hunters during the height of the witch trials (c. 1645), the witches’ mark (also called a Devil's mark or a witches' teat) indicated that an individual was a witch. The witches' mark, witches' teat, and the devil's mark are all terms applied to essentially the same mark. The beliefs about the mark differ depending on the trial location and the accusation made against the witch. {snip} Sometimes, the mark was believed to have been left by the Devil licking the individual."

"The witches' teat is associated with the feeding of witches' imps or familiars; the witches' familiars supposedly aided the witch in her magic in exchange for nourishment (blood) from sacrificial animals or from the witch's teat[4]. It is also where the devil supposedly suckles when he comes at night to bed his faithful servants, sometimes impregnating them with his seed. Once the devilish half-breed has been conceived, the cambion may only feed upon this teat and no other. Folklore suggests that on the 7th day of the 7th week of consecutive feeding upon the teat, the cambion would grow to adulthood immediately and begin wreaking havoc with a range of demonic powers inherited from its supernatural father. {snip} Witches’ marks were commonly believed to include moles, scars, birthmarks, skin tags, supernumerary nipples, natural blemishes and insensitive patches of skin."

And in current culture and slang you can find mention of the witch's teat when talking about something like the weather when it gets particularly cold. Wikipedia says so. "The "witch's teat" has been adapted to mean something of a cold or foreboding nature. A common function of the word as slang is used as a representation of cold temperatures. An example of this is: "It's colder than a witch's teat out here!" or "Teats, it's cold!" The first time I had heard this expression was while watching the film All That Jazz with Roy Scheider. Someone said that one of the dancers was "uglier than a witch's tit." Someone else argued that the proper phrase was "colder than a witch's tit." I was 13, so all I cared about was "tit". Of course.


So yeah, it was colder than a witch's tit in New York yesterday.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the sexy witches are doing it.

Meet the kittens

Now these suckers barely stop moving for a minute all day long, so it wasn't very easy to get pictures of them. But we tried.

Here they are just waking up from a nap. Wolowitz is on the left and Gogo Yubari is on the right. Kinda difficult to tell apart, eh? We know. Well, without picking them up to check under the hood.


Wolowitz looks a bit darker colored than Gogo because she is a bit furrier. You can really tell it's her because of the extra tufty hair in her ears. As you can see they are very attached. They like to sleep directly on top of each other. See?


There's Wolowitz all by himself. They both have the same mustard colored eyes. Even though it doesn't come through in these pics. Their coats are mostly black with some brown and white speckled through. He's a big purrer and a big cuddler. Loves to be picked up.


And there is Gogo. She's a bit more vocal than her brother. And so far (it's only been a little over a day) she is not as much of a cuddler. Maybe that will change. You can see how much fluff she has in this picture.


Let's not forget Sammi. She is none too thrilled with the new additions to the house. All they want to do is play with her, but she isn't into it yet. She is doing better than when we first brought them home, but it might take a few more days for her to adjust.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the fun, new kittens are doing it.

Today

New kittens!!!

A brother and sister act named Wolowitz and Gogo Yubari. Yeah, we are a couple of geeks...get over it!

Tomorrow: PICTURES!!!

(Just too lazy to do it tonight)

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the cool kids are doing it.

Two movies...

...that I would like to hear your thoughts on. For those of you that have seen them, of course.

Eagle vs Shark - For a lot of it, it seemed to be the Kiwi version of Napolean Dynamite. Yet there was a sweetness and a distant hilarity to it that I thought the other missed out on. For me, at least. Fans of The Flight of the Conchords should love it.

Funny Games - I saw the English language version with Naomi Watts, Michael Pitt and Tim Roth. Not that it matters. I understand the director did a shot by shot remake of his original German language version of it. I have mixed feelings about it. I wanna say it was brilliant, but I also wanna say that I was bored to tears.

Have you seen either?

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the film junkies are doing it.

Super Duper

Last year I got to root against the Giants, even if it meant rooting for the evil Patriots. I just hate the Giants more.

The year before I got to root for the Bears over the Colts. I fucking hate Peyton Manning.

The year before that I rooted for the Seahawks against the Steelers only because I respect Mike Holmgren. But that one didn't matter very much.

And the year before that my Eagles played against the despised Patriots in a Super Bowl that, for some reason, I can't really remember. I guess the Eagles lost, but that's about as much as I want to know. (Psst - don't remind me)

This year...I kinda dig both teams. The Cardinal's story is pretty cool, so is the comeback of Kurt Warner. Even if they did beat my Eagles two weeks ago. But the Steelers play the kind of football that I love. And they have Troy Polamalu and James Harrison...two ridiculously talented defensive players.

So I'm rooting for the Steelers, but if the Cardinals win I would be okay with that. I just want a good game. And some good food. And some good bourbon. Yeah...that's what it is all about today. Good football, good food, good bourbon and good friends.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

January Trivia Results:

1. Me - 243 ponts.
2. RW - 225 points.
3. Avitable - 224 points.
4. Evyl - 218 points.
5. badgerdaddy - 205 points.
   

Think you have it in you to take the crown in February? Hmm?

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the Super Friends are doing it.

And I salute you brother!!!

Went out for a fabu dinner in Queens tonight. Douglaston. Not my normal hangout, but it was fun nonetheless. Hey Poppy, you and Dawg should check it out. Great Italian food!

On the way home we tuned to a nostalgic 80's radio station on the old XM/Sirius dial. One of the songs was from the Jim Carrol Band. I know you all have heard it before. I'm pretty sure RW referenced it pretty recently, but I can't be bothered to check.

Enjoy and happy fucking Friday!

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All my dead friends are doing it.

Kurt Warner

FYI - Liv Tyler screaming her balls off over at the Moviegrenade. What, she doesn't have balls? You sure?

OK, I promised Becky I would root for that OTHER football team from Pennsylvania in this Sunday's Super Bowl. And I will. Plus, I have no love lost for the Cardinals who used to be in the old NFC East along with my Eagles. Fuck them!

But I do have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for Kurt Warner.


The guy made me a bunch of coin back in 1999 in my office fantasy football league. No, I had never heard of him before the season. But I had drafted Vinny (from Elmont) Testaverde as my starting QB and he ruptured his Achilles tendon in the very first game of the season.

So I looked around the boxscores and the only starting QB that wasn't drafted in my league was a dude named Kurt Warner who won the starting job in the pre-season when Trent Green went down with an injury. I already had the Ram's RB, Marshall Faulk, on my squad so I figured I might be able to double up on some points when the two connected.

And boy, oh boy did I rack up the points that year. I rode Warner's hot ass (not literally) all the way to a Super Bowl win in our league that year. It wasn't even close. I destroyed the competition.

It was the only season I came even close to winning that league. And it wasn't because I drafted well or put together a well-balanced team. I got lucky when Testaverde got hurt for the year and Warner was available. I wonder how many other fantasy football fans that happened to in 1999.

So good luck to both teams this weekend. I'm hoping for a great game and a Steelers victory. But if my boy Kurt Warner does something heroic, I won't be surprised. He's done it before.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the lucky bastards are doing it.

Trivial shit

Note - scary chocolate new awfulness over at the Moviegrenade for y'all to ignore. Go ahead, ignore it bitches! - Earl

This is for those of you who are cool enough to play in my trivia game. You can get to it by the tab on top of my header pic, by the way. That would make me happy. Or I usually link to it at the bottom of each post.

So the end of the month is approaching and I wanna make some changes to the format. First lemme run through a few things about the quiz. I don't make up the questions. All I do is pick the categories. And some of them suck! Like the History category. What the hell is that all about? They include Spelling Bee questions, recipes and stuff about embroidery. I guess just about anything that is factual could wind up in that category, but I would prefer REAL history questions. Here are the canned categories available to us:

• Animals - no difficulty levels
• Celebrities - Easier and More Difficult
• General Knowledge - 6 levels from Very Easy to Very Difficult
• Geography - Easy, Intermediate, Difficult
• History - Easy, Intermediate, Difficult (what a joke!)
• Hobbies - no difficulty levels
• Literature - Easy and More Difficult
• Movies - Easy, Intermediate, Difficult
• Music - Easy, Intermediate, Difficult
• People - Easy and More Difficult
• Religion - Easy, More Difficult and Bible Trivia (!!!)
• Science & Technology - Easy, Intermediate, Difficult
• Sports: Baseball - Easy and Difficult
• Sports: General - Easy and Intermediate
• World: Australia - no difficulty levels
• World: UK - no difficulty levels
• World Trivia - Easier and More Difficult
• World: Canada - no difficulty levels
• World: Europe - no difficulty levels
• Fun Trivia Mixed Bag - taken from all categories

Another thing that I have control over is the difficulty level. I prefer the difficult questions over the easy questions because, frankly, the easy questions are retarded. The difficult questions aren't much better, but at least it's not a race to answer 10 questions the quickest. That's not very fun.

The one thing I do like is the Wednesday Custom Category Day. Where we get to pick the category from any subject. Today's category is Pirates and it was suggested by badgerdaddy. There were only 45 questions in the database on Pirates, but I thought that was good enough. So no matter how esoteric (is that the proper word?) you believe the category to be, keep the suggestions coming.

So for those of you playing the quiz, I have three (3) questions for you:

1. What canned categories would you like to see?
2. Do you prefer Easier or Difficult questions?
3. What would be one custom category you would like to see on Wednesday?
   

For those of you who don't play the quiz...well, February 1st is Sunday. Sounds like a great time to join in, if you ask me. Invite your friends too. The more the merrier!

PS - Good luck to Adam and RW. With only a few days left in the month it's almost a dead heat between the three of us for the top score in January. A few more of you would be in there if you played everyday, but you have to be in it to win it.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the quiz kids are doing it.

Comfort Food

Psst - new awful movie goodness over at the MovieGrenade for you to ignore. Or you can get there by clicking on the tab for "Bad Cinema" up there over my header image. That would make me happy since I worked so hard on it. And I did it all for you!- Earl



Tuna and egg salad (mayo, salt, pepper, dill) on toasted English Muffin (sandwich size) with potato and celery soup (dill as well) and Salt & Vinegar potato chips.

Chased down with an ice cold Dr. Pepper and followed with a slice of NY cheesecake.

Best comfort food meal ever or best comfort food meal ever?

You decide.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the dill weeds are doing it.

Thanks

Thanks everyone. For the kind comments and e-mails. Syd was a unique soul and we aren't dealing well with our loss. Gia, especially.

But you pick yourself up, you dust yourself off, yadda yadda yadda. Right?

Anyway, thanks again! It means a lot.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the cool cats are doing it.

heartbroken

Our big boy Syd passed away today.

It was sudden. It was unexpected. He died in our arms.

I started and deleted this post a half a dozen times tonight. I never want to get too personal and yet it was the only thing that I cared about and I needed to say something. It hurts too much. Tears like this haven't flowed since my father died 5 1/2 years ago.

I've never loved an animal as much as I loved Syd. I've only loved a handful of humans as much. He was my boy, my buddy, my best friend. He was the smile on my face in sad times. Now at the saddest of times...my smile is gone.

He was the first thing I saw in the morning and the last thing I saw each night as he slept right next to me with his head on my pillow. He lived for 12 years, but I only knew him for 2 1/2 years. In that time we grew so close that Gia actually was jealous of our connection. She is dying inside tonight.

I don't care if you think he was only an animal. Only a cat. Fuck that! He was my heart and now it is missing.

I miss my little buddy.