unclevlad

But who *is* consistent this year?

Actually there's rules in place for interviewing assistant coaches. I know it's allowed during the bye week for the top seeds, I don't remember any other ins and outs. The only thing you'd get something of a head start on is narrowing the field of candidates; interviewing during the season would be tampering, I'm pretty sure. And of course, you can consider plucking up a college HC, and there's a decent number of worn-out loser coaches where you can go the retread route.

You can't say the Browns are one of the league's worst teams. Niners, yes; they're bottom 5 material. But Browns are, I dunno, ranking 20-23 or so this year. They aren't good, but they're not donking up the joint since they canned Hue. Oh my. https://www.silverandblackpride.com/2018/12/12/18138048/hue-jackson-kiss-of-death-teams-he-has-coached-raiders-to-face-him-second-time-this-season-bengals They point out that...ever since the Bengals hired Hue the Wonder Dog...they're winless. I *believe* the Broncos can be eliminated if the Steelers and Ravens both win. Obviously KC, LAC, NE, and Houston can't be caught; Pitt win means their worst record is 8-7-1; and Ravens have head to head tie break because they beat Denver. Denver's also in bad shape in conferance tie breaker. If Denver does get knocked out...yeah, Joseph might get canned. Long as they're technically alive, I don't see it.

Stables need mucking out. Bad as that mess is, Hercules is probably gonna be needed to divert a river or two.

It's not necessarily the primary revenue stream, but it is important, as I understand. I think loss of a title sponsor probably means more, tho. It is true, tho, that most of the pre-Christmas bowls are easy tickets. Badger: my feeling too. It's also a reason why I'm on the players' side in a number of ways. They're almost indentured...not quite, but transferring before graduation is a bear. Coaches can move freely. It's gonna get worse because signing day's moved up. ESPN televised the announcement of the #1 rated HS player during halftime of the NM Bowl. It's not binding; the early signing period (which IS binding) starts on the 19th. Still quite early in the bowl season. So there's exceptional pressure on a school that booted their sorry excuse of a loser in yet another pointless attempt to keep up with the handful of Dynasties, to get their next exercise in futility in place ASAP. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2806294-explaining-how-college-footballs-early-national-signing-day-works

And watching the New Mexico Bowl saves my poor old eyes. Besides, the official question of New Mexico is, Red or Green? Green!!!! EDIT: man, one thing I dislike about early bowl games. Utah State's head coach bailed, moving to Texas Tech, and took a big chunk of the staff with him. Never liked that. Granted, these bowl games in particular are borderline exhibition games. Fun exercise...seeing the effort ESPN goes to, to avoid showing shots of the crowd. There was one just now (yeah, the game's on) from a ground-level shot across the field. Attendance is...soft. Let's just call it that. As is actually fairly common for these. The game's in UNM's stadium, and UNM winter commencement was last night. So there's no one on campus. Also interesting...and scary from the organizers' perspective...they have no title sponsor. That's not good for longer-term viability.

We'll have to see on the Affordable Care ruling. Ya gotta figure the plaintiffs filed in as favorable a court as they could. It's not over by any means. Apropos...what brought me here was this: https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/14/uk/oxford-dictionary-word-of-the-year-toxic-gbr-intl/index.html Toxic is the word of the year, chosen by the Oxford Dictionary. Superb choice.

Of the defined skills, Conversation or Interrogation could serve. Neither is perfect. The other option would be a custom skill. APG gives Leadership, another fairly staple (if marginal) skill. Basically, define the name...Sense Motive. Define the characteristic...should probably be Int. Agree on when it's useful...a side aspect here might be serving as a complementary role for Interrogation, Conversation, and in some cases Gambling. (Where bluffing is a factor, as in poker, but arguably even in some skill games Reading hesitations, or intonations if speech is part of the game.)

An inability to react ALWAYS implies coaching problems to me, so that buttresses the argument for canning the Vikes' OC.

So if you want to watch Football For FUN!! Tonight's the Stagg Bowl, AKA the Div III championship. NO athletic scholarships...altho there are workarounds. But pro chances are vanishingly small. Still a fun game to watch. There's also a very uncivil border war in the FCS semis...South Dakota State vs. North Dakota State. In Fargo...but fortunately indoors, given that we're talking Fargo, mid-December, at night. And, well, if you want to risk permanent eye damage.......Maine's playing at Eastern Washington. Yes...the evil, hideous, ugly red stuff. That's tomorrow. Fortunately the first of the bowl games also kick off tomorrow, with several of the....less than compelling games. The New Mexico Bowl. (It's up in the Albaturkey. It must be dissed.) New Orleans Bowl Las Vegas Bowl. Ohhh, ahh. Things don't get crazy until after Christmas this year.

What's more amusing is the reactions.

Sure, but that's not what the aphorism says. It goes much further. It's saying you need an elite defense to win. Hooey. An elite defense and a poor offense can win, but IMO ONLY IF they create negative plays out the wazoo. Turnovers will tend to come from that, enough to do what you want, but if you're constantly winning the field position battle by 5-10 yards on every change of possession, you'll get the points even without the TOs. But it's not necessary. The problem with KC and the Rams is, those defenses are VERY far from good. Heck, the 2 point play that won the game...what happened? A terrible defensive screw-up. At this point in the season? That says it can't be fixed, and mistakes lose more games than good plays win games. BTW, I loved going for the win. Not because it worked. At the crux, you want your best against their worst...and the KC defense is for sure their weak side by a massive margin. Some postgame comments were, well in that situation...late TD, 2 pointer to win the game over kicking for the tie...the success rate's bad, it's only 5 outta 17. That's idionalysis. If you're playing the Texans, you kick. If you're playing the Rams or Chiefs, you go for 2. It's a root flaw with decision-making based on aggregate stats, when those stats may not take the specific factors in play in the moment.

My, my. "Defense wins championships" is BS. However, a severely deficient defense does not win championships. KC's secondary is abysmal, and...who knows. It may cost them now, given that their offensive diversity is so reduced. They're not scoring with quite the same efficiency as early in the year; defenses finally rounding into shape is another factor there too. That means the defense needs to be merely adequate. Fine, they had sacks, they got pressures...but they caved repeatedly, and gave up 2 late TDs while showing not much resistance. Chiefs have to go to Seattle, which is a tricky game to handicap. Seattle plays the Niners, so they should win and move to 9-5. That's enough to clich a tie for the 6 seed no matter what; dunno where head to head tiebreaks are, but beating the Niners gives them the better conference record guaranteed. In my book, it's a contender/pretender game...if the Chiefs are real SB contenders, they need to win a game like this. If they lose.....they're in a world of hurt. Chargers have to beat the Ravens...and then a rivalry game in Denver, but the Broncos may well be eliminated. Amusing thought. An all-LA SB is plausible. Rather a long shot, but plausible.

Venom is out on disc. "Just in time for the holidays!" Uh huh...just what I want to watch at this time of year. Well, I suppose dark and brooding fits winter anyway......

That's nice. Don't forget to wash your hands before dinner, now.

Oh, and apropos book... Marc Stiegler's The Brain Trust. Now up to 3 novels, and one novella, IIRC. He too equally bashes the left and the right.

Oh yeah. The polarization is extreme. I even question the loyalty to our side aspect, relative to the kneejerk rejection of the other side. I think politics is driven by the negative...so what that Trump is a terrible choice, he's not Clinton!!! And that strikes across the board. Our guy might be a nightmare but as long as he'll vote Our Way, he's golden. Oh, if he's white, and yes, male is *strongly* preferable.

Hey, many of them would be perfectly good draftees for John Scalzi.

And in a case of dog bites man....banana had the early lead but it has slipped behind! The texture issues...the best flavor is from bananas with a good bit of brown, but that's where the texture goes really south. Another argument for a nicely spiced banana bread! No texture issues. Do that with yer little sugar bombs!

I don't think I'd give Trump a 50% chance; I'd take the under. That might be my hopes speaking but...we'll see. The whole "I'll shut down the government. I'll own that!" rant has to rattle the Republicans. The various allocutions, all the things that are coming out, provide a foundation for an impeachment. Statements like the shutdown provide the impetus to bail on the idiot before he draws the entire Party down with him. It can't happen with what we have right now, not even come January, but the potential is definitely on the upswing. On a different front: https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/13/health/gun-deaths-highest-40-years-cdc/index.html Yet we can barely manage a restriction on even such a fringe aspect of guns as bump stocks.

The other aspect of the Intelligencer article is, it's trivial for Trumpeteers to ignore. Just another bash. At least in public. It would be interesting to hear their thoughts in private. The RNC has to be terrified, because the midterm elections were a debacle. If Trump is still President a year from today, then the Party will be completely swept out in 2020...White House, House, and Senate. I'd also be worried that the backlash would damage the Party for a couple election cycles. To be sure, some of this may depend on the Democrats finding a candidate with a clue.

The story on CNN suggests Pelosi and Schumer really didn't do anything. Trump threw that tantrum on his own.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/11/media/time-person-of-the-year-2018/index.html Bravo.

Yep. The Brits shot themselves in the foot with an autocannon. Hey, guess what, Brits...you've got no leverage here, beyond the fact that a decently clean separation is also in the interest of the EU. Get used to it. Populist SCREAMS will be the New Normal moving forward. The major shifts that will be necessary in the face of climate change will ensure that. Or, of course, they'll be in response to all the ongoing disasters that are triggered.

The detail's there but it still looks like mid-level video game quality. Some of it might be poor POVs. But yeah, the story's very dark in places, and how much pastoral, rabbits all hopping happily in the meadow, can we take? Certainly, the dark tone is in the book. Adams didn't push it that much, that I can recall. Granted, it's been 30-40 years. But that's the part that makes for the conflict to drive the story.