Sunday, November 6, 2011

A Trip to the Movies, Football Fun & Games, and Other Topics

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box....


  • As I usually try to confine this blog to light-hearted topics, saving outrage for baffling moves on the part of the Pirates, I will not expound on the truly awful news coming from Penn State this weekend. Better writers than I are opining on that, and I refer you to Gene Collier in today's PG, Joe Starkey in today's Trib, and Bob Smizik's blog on post-gazette.com, for more analysis. All I can ask is this: why did no one - no one -at the University call the police when the 2002 assault in the shower room was witnessed and reported to various University officials?

Okay, I will now return to the Fun & Games Department.....



  • For the first time in months, we took ourselves out to the movie theater yesterday and saw "Tower Heist" starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy. Now some readers who know me will be shocked - SHOCKED - to hear that I went to see Ben Stiller in anything. However, he did not play the usual put-upon character he usually plays (see those awful Focker movies), so I'm glad I kept an open mind. This is a movie that will never win any awards, but it was fun and entertaining, and a nice way to spend two hours. Also, it has been awhile since I've seen an Eddie Murphy movie, and I had almost forgotten how really FUNNY he is.

  • I watched the Alabama -LSU game last night that LSU won 9-6 on OT. Two great defensive teams, to be sure, but if you purport to be the Number One team in the nation, shouldn't you be able to play at least SOME offense?

  • On the other hand, any game where you can see Nick Saban lose has its merits.

  • You can get into all sorts of debates over the validity of overtime in regular season games, but I can recall Myron Cope once commenting that sometimes a tie can be a just result in a game. I think that game last night was an example of that premise.

  • The SEC Loyalists out there are already tub-thumping for a rematch of LSU-Alabama in the BCS Championship Game. Please, God, save us from that.

  • Got into an interesting, if short, exchange with a Facebook buddy last night. He was saying how awful the Oklahome State - Kansas State 52-45 game was because it was circus with no defense at all. I was saying how the 6-6 Alabama game was far from the "game of the century" the flacksters were promoting because of the complete lack of offense. I would say that we were probably both right.

  • Pitt once against snatches defeat from the jaws of victory, blowing a 10 point third quarter lead against Cincinnati last night. I was switching back and forth between that game and the Alabama game, but I saw enough to state that the Pitt offense in that fourth quarter was thoroughly awful. Almost unwatchable.

  • Then again, West Virginia loses to Lousiville yesterday. Big East football really is terrible, isn't it?

  • I have written in the past about how I enjoy listening to the "60's on 6" radio station on the Sirius XM satellite radio. Great music from the 1960's. However, when you listen for an extended period of time, as we did on our recent drive to Cooperstown, you learn that not everything from that era was great, and some of it was downright bad. As evidence I give you "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro, and anything by Bobby Vinton.

  • I was saddened to read in the paper a few weeks back that Highland Country Club has closed. I was never a member there, but for a period of time in the 1990's my boss was, and, thus, I was able to play there quite a bit when entertaining customers. Highland was never ranked as one of the truly great country club courses here in western PA, but I always found it a fun and enjoyable course to play. Too bad.

  • Also saddened to hear that Joe Frazier, 67, has been stricken with liver cancer and is now in hospice care.

  • And of course, I was also saddened to hear of the death of Andy Rooney. This morning's "CBS Sunday Morning" show was devoted to Rooney, and it included his essay on D-Day, which is something everybody should see.

  • Finally, I hear tell that a football game of some note will be played at Heinz Field this evening. The Ravens have been struggling of late, and the Steelers are coming off that huge win against the Patriots. What the hell, the Steelers to win tonight!!

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