IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters
https://mediumhappi.org/?p=7796

by John Walters

Tweet Me Right

Starting Five

This would be your SI cover because of the symbolism of the Georgia player falling flat on his face. Class dismissed.

Top Ten Tumult

It’s mid-October and top-ten ranked schools are falling like cabinet members leaves. Within a 45-minute span early Saturday night, the 0:00 struck in Baton Rouge, Ames and State College, ending the unbeaten seasons of No. 2 Georgia and No. 6 West Virginia and knocking No. 8 Penn State out of the playoff picture with its second defeat.

You think they were happy in Ames?

The culprits, respectively: LSU and Iowa State, who both were at home, and Michigan State, which got its biggest win in a few years on the road. Sparty has an opportunity to knock off its second Top 10 foe in as many weeks when Michigan visits East Lansing on Saturday.

Also, No. 5 (now No. 4) Notre Dame narrowly escaped from three-touchdown underdog Pitt at home.

2. Frost-bitten

Chicago issued a frost advisory last Thursday, and that was besides the looming arrival of the Nebraska Cornhuskers and coach Scott Frost to Evanston for a Saturday noon contest with Northwestern. You remember Frost, the coach who took UCF from 0-12 to 13-0 in just two seasons.

Well, in his first season back at his alma mater (refusing to heed the warnings of Steely Dan), Frost had been humbled with an 0-5 start. But Nebraska had never started 0-6 in any of its previous 128 seasons and after kicking a field goal to go up 31-21 with 5:41 to play, it didn’t look as if it would this season.

Long story short: The Purple Kitties scored 10 points to force overtime, then kicked a game-winning field goal to send Frost to an 0-6 start. No coach was a hotter commodity last December and deservedly so. And Frost will succeed in Lincoln. But this year the “N” on the helmet stands for nadir.

3. Boston Powers


(This man is paid millions annually for bloviating his opinions)

On Sunday evening in eastern Massachusetts, the Red Sox staved off (no one ever staves on, have you noticed?) the Houston Astros to square the ALCS at 1-1. Meanwhile, 25 miles south the Patriots won a tennis match with the Chiefs, 43-40, on a short field goal as time expired, knocking Kansas City from the ranks of the unbeaten (but I still see a path for them to get to the playoff).

The Sox and ‘stros are baseball’s two best teams. This is unofficially the World Series. The Pats and Chiefs are the AFC’s two best teams (the Rams are the NFL’s best). A pretty good night for Boston sports fans, but then it’s been a pretty decent millennium for them. And remember, now that LeBron has pulled his latest exodus (that’s three if you’re keeping score in Maryland, Susie B.), the Celtics will be favored in the East.


(This 75-yard TD catch tied the game 40-40 with just over 3 minutes to play, but that was too much time for the Pats. Note the Bud Light: Dilly Dilly!)

Question: Where will Tom Brady go down on the list of greatest Boston sports legends? Obviously in the top five, but is he number one? You figure it’s he, Larry Bird, Ted Williams, Bill Russell, David Ortiz and Bobby Orr. My guess is the ranking would go as follows: Brady, Russell, Williams, Bird, two-way tie. Your thoughts?

4. The Six Mistakes Of Man

Cicero: “SPQR or bust!”

We came across this last week and have been meaning to get it on the blog. So the Roman orator and philosopher Cicero (his greatness was such that they named a lower-middle class Chicago suburb after him), who lived in the century before Jesus was born, once spoke of the “six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century.”

They are:

            1. Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;

           2.Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;

                        3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;

               4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;
5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;
6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

Again, this was more than 2,000 years ago. Still relevant today, though.

5. Donald, Mitch: THIS Is What A Mob Looks Like

So here’s the next step in Fascism: angry white males jumping liberals and violently attacking them. If you don’t live in New York City, understand: this is the Upper East Side, just off Park Avenue in the low 8o’s. This is a very, very nice neighborhood.

The backstory, as you may know, is that Gavin McInnis, the leader of a neo-Nazi group called The Proud Boys, was speaking at the Metropolitan Republican Club on Friday evening. Protesters showed up. And then the violence began. Police made no arrests at the scene.

Remember that Seinfeld episode where George was mistaken for a white supremacist? It was funny then. Now it’s real.

Reserves

By the way, while hunting down that previous video, we found this one. “NO SOUP FOR YOU!”

Music 101

Your Time Is Gonna Come

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fssblRRCgmg

This Led Zeppelin track from 1969 leads off Side 2 of their eponymous debut album. It starts off with an organ solo that puts the listener in the third pew of 9 a.m. Sunday mass, and then it segues into Robert Plant’s vocals and the song’s title on refrain. Is that a a warning or a promise?

Remote Patrol

The Exorcist

8 p.m. AMC

I’m sorry, Michael Myers and Leatherface, but Regan McNeil (Linda Blair) was the scariest movie character of the 1970s. The Exorcist, or as we like to call it, The Linda Blair Witch Project, was responsible for our first sleepless night since after I stopped wearing a diaper.

Brewers-Dodgers

NLCS Game 3

7:30 p.m. FS1

Twilight baseball from Chavez Ravine….

 

5 thoughts on “IT’S ALL HAPPENING!”

  2. Excuse me, Mr “Taxes Schmaxes” (is your middle name ‘TRUMP”?!!), but you didn’t answer last Friday if you had any divy stock recs. Also, it’s not just the higher tax rate when one buys & sells so frequently/in the short term, but all the trade commissions. Ouch.

    Do you think “the correction/crash” has begun or will we bounce a bit & then go?

    And, er, I wouldn’t keep trashing sweet sainted Timmy if I were you, the Big Guy upstairs doesn’t like it! Wasn’t that scare (Pitt) on Saturday enough? 😉

    And nice to know Cicero thought “women” were PERFECT. 🙂

    Reply

    • Now Susie B. I am not obligated to answer every question you toss my way. You know what I look like, where I’ve worked and pretty much have my curriculum vitae. Whereas no one here knows what you look like, where you work, how many horses you’ve owned or even if you’ve ever traveled south of DelMarVa. For all we know you are a character I created as a proxy to act as a foil for the author of this blog, a counterweight, a Tracy Lord to my C.K. Dexter Haven.

      As such, I will retain my right to privacy when and if I see fit. And hence the brilliant scheme continues, as your making requests I find too intrusive only convinces the audience more that you must be an actual human being and not just another character in this grand charade. Ingenious by you, by which of course I mean me.

      Reply

      • Now I know how “Alice” felt… INTRUSIVE? I only asked if you were knowledgeable about dividend stocks or were interested in them &/or had any recs. It’s not like I asked for your account balance or annual returns! (Although, if you care to share… 🙂 ) As for intrusive, wanting my number of “owned horses”?! LOL, I grew up on a FARM in MD, not Southfork ranch! Actually, I’ve never personally owned any but my Dad did (kinda a requirement to be a jousting champion) & my younger sister owned one which she competed with on the MD-PA-WV-VA horse show circuit many moons ago.

        For the record, my “traveling shoes” have barely left the box, a situation I plan to remedy in 4-5 years or so. I have not even taken an actual vacation the past 14 years, due to 1st, digging out of credit card debt , & then 2nd, addressing the dire need to “save my retirement”. Luckily, the stock market “partnered up” with me for the latter & “we” increased my nest egg by a factor of 10 in the last 10 years. (Yes, TEN, as in “ten TIMES”, not 10%). At least until last week. Ooof. I’ve been to Floriduh 4 times (once only as a embarkation point for a Caribbean cruise), once to Colorado on a 2-week tour all around & let’s see, I guess 6-7 times to NYC. I’ve not yet been to Calif, the Grand Canyon or Las Vegas & have only “seen” the Midwest from a plane, roughly 30000 (?) feet in the air. Other than one 16-day trip to England & France & the places I noted above, you’re right, most of my time has been spent in MD-VA-PA since I was born.

        Just so you know, I do NOT know the “real” name of the Cookoutateria nor it’s exact location except it’s along the water & unless the NYC cab drivers know it as such, you never need fear a “drop-in visit” by this ‘character’.

        Reply

  3. JW, your “no comment” soliloquy is the best thing I’ve read in months. Are you and Susie B. merely a figment of my overactive imagination? Plot twist.

    Reply

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