College Football Quiz: 1) Name the four Oklahoma running backs to rush for 4,000 yards, each of whom also played in the NFL, and all post-1965. 2) Who was Oklahoma State’s coach from 1979-83 who compiled a 29-25-3 record but went on to far greater prominence in the sport? 3) Who is Oklahoma State’s all-time rushing yardage leader? Answers below.
College Football Review…Quack Quack!
What a stretch we had on Saturday as No. 5 Boise State lost at home to TCU, 36-35, and No. 4 Stanford lost at home to No. 7 Oregon, 53-30.
For the second straight year, Boise lost an incredible heartbreaker thanks to a missed field goal. Last year it was kicker Kyle Brotzman who shattered the Broncos’ national title hopes when he missed field goals in both regulation and overtime against Nevada. Saturday, it was Dan Goodale missing a 39-yarder (badly) as time expired. So many records were shattered, with Boise having won 35 straight at home, the longest in the country, while it was the first home loss in a conference game since 1998. For quarterback Kellen Moore, it was his first loss at home. But kudos to TCU quarterback Casey Pachall, who passed for 473 yards and five touchdowns, while TCU coach Gary Patterson solidified his reputation on the national stage by going for two points after the Horned Frogs pulled to 35-34 with a minute to play.
[Boise has lost four games dating back to 2007, all by 3 points or less.]
As for Oregon-Stanford, so much for Andrew Luck’s march to the Heisman. Maybe he still wins it, but I wouldn’t give it to him after a lackluster performance, 27-41, 271 yards, 3 touchdowns but 2 interceptions. Granted, one of the picks wasn’t his fault but the Ducks totally outplayed the Cardinal as LaMichael James rushed for 146 yards and three touchdowns.
Who deserves the Heisman? How about Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden. The Cowboys destroyed Texas Tech, 66-6; the same Tech team that had earlier defeated Oklahoma, 41-38. All Weeden did on Saturday is go 31-37 for 423 yards and five touchdowns. For the year, Weeden has completed 73% of his passes for 31 touchdowns and just 9 interceptions. [Oklahoma State outgained Tech, 637-270.]
Or give the Heisman to Houston QB Case Keenum, who sets a slew of new records each week and now has 37 TD passes and but 3 interceptions for the still undefeated Cougars.
Andrew Luck? No. Trent Richardson (RB-Alabama)? Puhleeze. Kellen Moore? Sorry. He needed Saturday in the worst way.
One thing is for sure, this is as uncertain a Heisman race as they come.
In other games, in no particular order, you have to feel sorry for 2-8 Kansas, which built up a 24-3 lead after three quarters at home against No. 25 Baylor, only to fall 31-30 in overtime as the Jayhawks missed a two-point conversation.
No. 1 LSU defeated Western Kentucky, 42-9; No. 3 Alabama bested Mississippi State, 24-7; and No. 8 Arkansas destroyed Tennessee, 49-7.
Then you have No. 15 Georgia, which beat No. 20 Auburn, 45-7, in winning its eighth straight. Well, we can put one issue to bed. This would have been a big win for Boise State when it comes to the computer rankings and strength of schedule. Alas, TCU took care of any potential BCS controversy.
But Georgia is playing solid football and I wouldn’t discount them in the SEC title game against LSU.
Then there was Wake Forest-Clemson. My Demon Deacons were down 14-7 when they received a horrible spot on a 4th-and-1 in Clemson territory, after which I emailed Chris K., curious if he was at the game at Death Valley and had seen the call as I had on television. Chris told me he was on the sideline and it was indeed an atrocious spot. I didn’t comment further but I thought for sure that was the game.
Yet out of nowhere, Wake scored 21 unanswered points to take a 28-14 lead late in the third. I decided I wouldn’t text Chris because I didn’t want to disrupt the mojo and be blamed for a loss later. Alas, I should have because once again Wake choked late, losing 31-28. Our kicker missed two makeable field goals, Clemson’s made the clincher after he missed late, too.
So it’s another year of wudda cudda shudda. Legitimately, we should be 7-3 instead of 5-5 (giving Notre Dame their win even though we blew opportunity after opportunity in that one), and the Deacs should be in the ACC title game, assuming we had then beaten Maryland next week.
Instead, some of us suspect coach Jim Grobe will be mentioned prominently as a potential successor to Joe Paterno, Grobe having not only run a clean program but also having achieved more than a little success at a school where it’s exceedingly difficult to compete with the big boys. He’d be the perfect five-year bridge to the future for the Nittany Lions. [Chris K. disagrees with me on this, going with Al Golden, among others.]
Lastly, speaking of the Nittany Lions, I watched the beginning of their game against Nebraska, which they would lose 17-14, and was immediately bored to tears. I also forgot until late in the first quarter that the Deacs were on! Exit Penn State game. More on Unhappy Valley in a bit.
But first…the new AP Poll:
1. LSU 10-0
2. Oklahoma State 10-0
3. Alabama 9-1
4. Oregon 9-1
5. Oklahoma 9-1
6. Arkansas 9-1…Fri. Nov. 25…at LSU
7. Clemson 9-1
8. Stanford 9-1
9. Virginia Tech 9-1
10. Boise State 8-1
11. Houston 10-0
And the new BCS poll:
1. LSU .9933
2. Oklahoma State .9642
3. Alabama .9099
4. Oregon .8755
5. Oklahoma .8400
6. Arkansas .7974
7. Clemson .6935
8. Virginia Tech .6755
9. Stanford .6746
10. Boise State .5959
11. Houston .5673…fighting with Boise for at-large BCS berth…possibly against Stanford in Fiesta Bowl? Kellen Moore or Case Keenum vs. Andrew Luck? That would be entertaining.
As for next week’s schedule, only one game matters, USC at Oregon, Saturday night. Yes, the Duckwear is back out for the kid in a big way, including the cap. “Hey, did you go to Oregon?” “Err, yeah…yes I did go to Oregon!” [Sorry if you’re disappointed in me…but this would be a total stranger in the mall that I swear I’d never see again.]
And what’s more about USC-Oregon, but it’s the Battle of the Cheerleaders! No. 1 (Oregon) vs. No. 2. On national television! Goodness gracious. It just doesn’t get any better than this. Steve G., I expect a full report on your impressions later (Steve and I still remembering Edy Williams in a famous moment of about 40 years ago).
Penn State…the trouble is just beginning
“It is a cliché to say that football is like life. At Penn State, it is also insufficient. For under Joe Paterno, football was life.
“And now a glorious era is finished, demolished beyond redemption. The scandalous end of Paterno’s career has wiped out the university’s sterling reputation and shattered the trust of an entire sport. Riots by crackpot students and death threats punctuate the madness.
“To Pennsylvanians and millions of football fans everywhere, the fall of the House of Paterno is like the collapse of an empire. It crashed without warning or mercy.
“In truth, the core values rotted away over the years, the work done secretly in the dark, like that of termites and cancer. The end only seemed sudden.
“It could be a long time before we know the full extent of the pedophilia horror allegedly perpetrated by a former coach and the outrageous silence of many, perhaps dozens, of people. But already the most important lesson is clear.
“Civilizations, from single universities to national cultures, must be defended with relentless vigilance and courage, or they will not survive. Only the details of their demise will differ.
“A sage, perhaps Edmund Burke, once said, ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.’
“(Evil) triumphed because of a fundamental failure by Paterno and others to uphold the principles the (‘grand experiment’ – of winning the right way, with honor) represented. And so the whole enterprise lies in shambles, everyone associated with it tarnished and generations of adherents suffering an angry loss of faith….
“The price for (the) shameful silence must be measured in tens of millions of dollars, reputations lost and lives ruined.
“All of which gives rise to these questions: Those men and women who remained silent in the face of this evil – are they truly good? Or are they cowards who were simply not willing to take a modest personal risk for the preservation of the one thing they supposedly valued most?
“I believe they are cowards. Their goodness was found wanting when it was needed most, and so was shallow if it existed at all. They are sunshine patriots who could not be counted on when the stakes were highest.
“In life, even more than in football, courage is required.”
“It’s fitting that Penn State wore its navy uniforms yesterday instead of its bright whites for its 17-14 loss to Nebraska in Beaver Stadium because few here are clean….
“It was a beautiful fall college-football Saturday, not a cloud in the sky. You wonder if the victims and their families can appreciate such days. You wonder, ‘How does God paint a perfect palette for a football game in a place innocence has been raped away?’”
“They were losers on the field and in the stands.
“Legions of Penn State fans blinded by loyalty made a shameful show of support yesterday for Joe Paterno, waving signs and belting out chants in honor of the legendary coach who was fired amid a sickening child sex-abuse scandal….
“Current students, alumni and backers openly wept for their beloved ‘JoePa’ from the start of pregame ceremonies through their unified chants in the fourth quarter….
“ ‘They’re scapegoating him,’ insisted longtime Nittany Lions fan Lucious Samford, 28, a banker from Paterno’s hometown of Brooklyn. ‘Joe got a bum deal – he didn’t do anything wrong.’
“Freshman Spanish major Ali Deasy, 18, of Collegeville, Pa., was appalled by the Paterno lovefest.
“ ‘A lot of the students are blindly loyal to him. People think that because he’s not in legal trouble he didn’t do anything wrong,’ she said.”
“Oh sure, they returned to football Saturday at Penn State. They can never return to the false Happy Valley picture of the place as being different and special from the rest of college football, as hard as they will try. The more horrific details you hear about this case and the way it was handled across nearly two decades, the more you see how football really does become a religion, or a cult, at these big schools, see how powerful the institution is, even when under assaults.
“Early in the week, they were still acting like arrogant fools at Penn State, when they still thought the business of football would go on and Paterno would keep his job. There were people from the athletic department actually telling the media they would only be allowed to talk about football with the coach still known as JoePa there, before Paterno’s Tuesday media session was abruptly canceled by a school president on his way to the curb himself.”
“Joe Paterno’s dismissal…isn’t nearly as tragic as the alleged sexual abuse of boys by Paterno’s former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. But it is shocking and heartbreaking nonetheless.
“His departure, however, is far more than ‘the end of an era’ – the easy cliché that has been tossed around so much in the past few days. It is another step toward the extinction of a breed of football and basketball coach that for years dominated college sports, and that Paterno came to embody: the dynastic, iconic coach.
“With Paterno’s firing there are now, among the 120 coaches at the top tier of college football, only two men who have worked in their current jobs for more than 20 years. Frank Beamer is in his 25th season at Virginia Tech, and Larry Blakeney is in his 21st season at Troy University. There is only one other coach – Fresno State’s Pat Hill – with 15 years on the job.
“The highest level of college basketball has far more head coaching jobs – 344 as the new season begins – so the numbers are slightly higher. But only 12 current head basketball coaches have been at the same school for 20 years or more, led by Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, who is starting his 36th season at his alma mater.
“ ‘It’s not going to happen anymore in the future,’ Boeheim said in a phone conversation the day after Paterno was fired. ‘Too much has changed in college athletics. The pressure to win and keep winning has grown so much that even people you might think were untouchable aren’t. I used to say that if I had two bad years, there would be some people who might want me out. Now, it’s more like one year.’”
Duke’s Coach K: “We live in a world where almost nothing is good enough.”
Feinstein: “That sports world is filled with Internet chatter and rumors, constant rankings of recruiting classes, and angry sport-radio callers who seem to want a coach fired anytime a team loses two games in a row. That mentality was summed up by a phone call that Tubby Smith, then the basketball coach at Kentucky, received on his weekly radio show late in the 1997-98 season.
“ ‘Coach,’ the caller said, ‘I just want you to know I haven’t given up on this team yet.’
“That said, the greatest demands usually come from within: from athletic directors and presidents, who are themselves under nonstop pressure to raise money from boosters and sell tickets and sponsorships. Ralph Friedgen, the football coach at Maryland, was fired last fall after an 8-4 regular season that earned him ‘coach of the year’ honors in the ACC. Why was Friedgen, a Maryland alum with a 10-year record of 75-50, let go? Easy: The team wasn’t selling enough tickets, and donations from boosters had flagged because the Terrapins were consistently good but never great.”
“A few millennia from now, when archaeologists from an ascendant Brazil or Turkey or wherever sift the shards of American civilization and find the ruins of the Big House in Ann Arbor, Mich., they will wonder why a 109,901-seat entertainment venue was attached to an institution of higher education. Today, the accelerating preposterousness of big-time college football is again provoking furrowed brows and pursed lips. But there probably were few of either among the 20 million who Saturday night watched the University of Alabama’s student-athletes play those of Louisiana State University.
“These teams’ head coaches’ salaries are $4.6 million and $3.75 million, respectively, and their additional perquisites and incentives have cash values not to be sneezed at. But by some hedonic or other calculus, these coaches may add more to the national stock of pleasure, and even more value to their institutions, than do Alabama’s president and LSU’s chancellor, who earn $487,620 and $400,000, respectively.
“The college football conglomerate has recently been roiled by an unseemly scramble – if seemliness pertains to this industry – of schools abandoning their old conferences and jettisoning traditional rivalries in a race to get into other conferences where television revenues are more bountiful. For now, this is the landscape:
“The Pac (for Pacific) 10 now has 12 teams, having acquired Utah and Colorado, which is 936 miles from the Pacific. The Big Ten, which has had 11 teams since Penn State joined in 1990, now has, with Nebraska, 12. The Big East, having lost several members (including Pittsburgh and Syracuse, to the ACC) and its sense of geography, is courting Southern Methodist, which is in Dallas, and Boise State, which would have to fly 4,300 miles round trip to play South Florida in Tampa. The Big East is desperate to remain one of the six conferences whose winner gets an automatic bid to one of the Bowl Championship Series games, which can pay a conference as much as $26 million. One reason Texas A&M is bolting to the Southeastern Conference from the Big 12 (which is also losing Missouri to the SEC) is that Texas struck a 20-year, $300 million deal with ESPN and started its own cable channel. ESPN, which has rights with its sister network ABC to 33 of 35 Division I postseason games, will by next year spend more than $700 million on rights to college football and other sports. ESPN is what the feckless NCAA pretends to be, the real regulator of college football….
“In 1873, Andrew Dickson White, Cornell University’s first president, refused permission for the school’s football team to travel to Cleveland to play Michigan: ‘I will not permit 30 men to travel 400 miles merely to agitate a bag of wind.’ Today, the muscular interests around, and institutional momentum of, big-time football make it impervious to reform. Agitation, in several senses, will continue.”
Mr. Will hit on the topic, the conference realignment rush, that should be as much a part of the overall discussion about college football as the Penn State/Paterno scandal itself because it just further proves the point how out of control the sport is.
Meanwhile, a federal investigation is on the way for Unhappy Valley, followed by massive civil suits. Shanin Specter, an attorney out of Philadelphia who has been hired by the family of one of the alleged victims, told ESPN.com that plaintiffs currently over the age of 20 can pursue lawsuits only in cases of sexual abuse that involved “forcible compulsion,” including rape, but not always lesser forms of physical contact; so potential defendants such as Joe Paterno will pursue this loophole. No matter, Paterno and the school face massive damages, which is why anyone thinking the healing process at Penn State will be short just isn’t dealing with reality. No way would I consider attending this institution if I was a high school student these days. There are other beautiful campuses with big-time sports programs to satisfy that need. Like go to Wake Forest (assuming the basketball team gets its act together by 2013).
Lastly, you know how the Big East is hot to recruit Central Florida? Did you see what happened with that school this week? It got lost amid the Penn State debacle but the UCF athletic director resigned after the NCAA alleged that a recruiter for a sports agency and an associate committed all manner of recruiting violations for both the football and men’s basketball programs.
I mean to tell you, this one guy, Ken Caldwell, allegedly paid the tuition and fees for UCF men’s basketball players, including $11,190 in tuition and fees for one; gave a laptop computer to a football recruit; and covered transportation expenses for men’s basketball recruits.
An assistant football coach resigned and basketball coach Donnie James was suspended for three conference games. Head football coach George O’Leary was not implicated.
NFL Bits
–The Suck for Luck Sweepstakes is already over. The winner of the first draft pick and Andrew Luck is Indianapolis! Indy is now 0-10 and with the Rams and Dolphins picking up their second wins of the season on Sunday, Indy is two games clear and is not going to win more than one of their remaining six contests, if that.
Now Peyton Manning is not happy, but the Colts have until next March to pick up his option for 2012 at a cool $28 million. If there are any questions whatsoever about Manning’s health, it’s an easy decision. If he appears to be fully recovered from his third neck surgery, he might convince management not to select Luck, but this would be nuts. It’s a business, Peyton, and you’re likely to be the victim.
—Pittsburgh goes to 7-3 in beating the Bengals in Cincy, 24-17; the Cowboys go to 5-4 in destroying the now 5-4 Bills, 44-7 (bye-bye, Buffalo); the Giants lost a tough one to the now 8-1 49ers in San Francisco, 27-20; and the Philadelphia Eagles, 3-4 two weeks ago but seemingly on the verge of soaring from there with home games against Chicago and Arizona, proceeded to lose both and are now an unfathomable 3-6. The Dream Team, sucking wind. Gotta love it.
–In Kansas City, Tim Tebow was just 2 of 8 passing for the Broncos but he led them to their third win in four starts, 17-10 over the Chiefs. Next up, the Jets on Thursday night.
–Lastly, I kind of surprised myself in watching the entire Oakland-San Diego game on Thursday night (thankfully my cable system has the NFL Network…some in my area do not carry it) and I can’t ever recall a game where more spectacular catches were made as the Raiders prevailed, 24-17.
Wilson Ramos
I never thought I’d write this, but congratulations to the Venezuelan commandos who rescued Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos, 50 hours after he was kidnapped outside his home in Valencia on Wednesday night and whisked away in an SUV. It was the first known kidnapping of a Major League Baseball player in Venezuela, though there have been numerous incidents, some with tragic endings, involving players’ family members.
The Ramos kidnapping ended amid a hail of gunfire, lasting about 15 minutes as Ramos took cover. Ramos said he didn’t know the four who were then arrested, but that he thought they were Colombian by their accents. [It’s unclear from the accounts if four Colombians are still being sought after four Venezuelans were arrested, plus an elderly couple as accomplices.] They only sought lots of money.
“They put me in a room with a bed; I was lying there,” Ramos said after. “It was hard for me to think about, if I was going to get out alive first of all, about how my family, my mother were.”
At 3 a.m. Saturday, Ramos arrived home as neighbors screamed: “Wilson! Wilson! Wilson!” and dozens of relatives, from cousins to siblings to uncles and aunts, gave tearful hugs. “God is good! God is good!” cried his mother, holding her son tightly. “Thank you my lord!” [Washington Post]
What an awesome moment. Again, job well done by the Venezuelan security forces.
Wilson Ramos is a budding star and it should be stirring following fan reaction this coming season, even in opposing ballparks. I’d give the guy a standing ‘O’ if presented the opportunity.
—Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski could become Division I’s all-time winningest coach on Tuesday if the Blue Devils defeat Michigan State at Madison Square Garden.
Bob Knight 902
Coach K 902
Dean Smith 879
Adolph Rupp 876
Jim Boeheim 857
Jim Calhoun 856
There haven’t been any giant upsets in the first week of college basketball, unless you count Loyola-Marymount defeating UCLA, which I don’t, plus Wake Forest notched a win, 75-63 over Loyola (Md.). Huge! [Even though we made only 22 of 46 from the foul line.] And North Carolina defeated Michigan State in the Carrier Classic in San Diego, 67-55.
Speaking of Carolina, Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal:
“North Carolina fans are absolutely spoiled rotten this year. First, the Tar Heels played pickup basketball games on campus against students in the offseason, endearing themselves to the common folks. Now, UNC begins the season as a nearly unanimous No. 1. Star small forward Harrison Barnes, arguably the nation’s most talented player, might not win the player-of-the-year award because he’s surrounded by too much talent.
“Rooting for Carolina this season is like pulling for the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, a team that finished 72-10: It’s almost not even fair.”
Final preseason poll…Sports Illustrated:
1. UNC
2. Kentucky
3. Ohio State
4. UConn
5. Duke
6. Florida
7. Pitt
8. Syracuse
9. Vanderbilt
10. Louisville
I’ve only said about 15 times that North Carolina will win it all, but for the record I’ll pick a Final Four of UNC, Vanderbilt, Baylor, and Syracuse.
And here’s a good one, Wake fans. Remember guard J.T. Terrell? After a solid freshman campaign last year (albeit an erratic one), Terrell withdrew from Wake following an arrest for DUI and other related charges that include a 60-day jail sentence, which he’ll serve following a year-long probation term. In other words, it was not your normal DUI, though very mysterious how no details were forthcoming when it happened.
So guess who picked him up? USC, which speaks volumes about that program. Terrell, according to ESPN.com, is currently at Peninsula Junior College in Port Angeles, Wash., and will be eligible to play for the Trojans next fall. USC coach Kevin O’Neill lavished praise on J.T., saying, among other things, “He’s as talented a perimeter player as I’ve coached in college.”
I believe in second chances, but I just get a kick out of this, especially in light of all the problems college football is facing these days, let alone the myriad issues the USC basketball and gridiron programs have faced.
–The Philadelphia Phillies signed Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon to a four-year, $50 million contract.
–With the Mets moving in the fences at Citi Field, three of their key starters for next season, Dillon Gee, Jon Niese and Mike Pelfrey, all benefited from spacious Citi, each with an earned run average of 3.54 or better at home last season. But on the road, all three had a much higher ERA – 5.33 for Niese, 5.49 for Pelfrey, 5.74 for Gee. [New York Times]
So moving the fences in could mean these three are absolutely hideous, both home and away. Ughh.
Let’s see, the N.L. East…Phillies? Still great. Braves? Tons of young pitching. Nationals? Steadily improving. Marlins? New stadium and suddenly aggressive on the free agent front. Mets? On the decline and staring at a 63-99 season at best. This blows.
—Tiger Woods finished third at the Australian Open, a very solid effort as he bid for his first win in two years. He was low American in a field that featured eight players from the 12-man U.S. Presidents Cup team that will play at Royal Melbourne beginning on Thursday. [Greg Chalmers won the event.]
Meanwhile, another American made news at the Aussie Open. John Daly. Playing with yet another sponsor’s exemption, in the opening round on Thursday, Daly was playing well thru nine but after knocking his ball in a bunker on No. 10, he inadvertently played the wrong ball out of the sand to take a two-stroke penalty.
Frustrated, Daly hit his first ball into the water at the par-5, 11th, and then, after taking a drop, proceeded to hit six (or maybe seven…everyone lost count, it happened so quickly) more into the water, a la “Tin Cup.”
The problem was, whatever Daly’s last ball in the water was, it was the last ball he had, so he stormed off the course.
His playing partner, Craig Parry, actually defended Long John. “I like John. I think when he comes out here he does try his best. He’s a very pleasant guy. He doesn’t carry on, doesn’t swear.”
What sucks is that a TV cameraman knew Daly was about to play the wrong ball out of the sand but didn’t say anything until after Daly had hit. [Ironically, the ball was a range ball!] True, it wasn’t the cameraman’s job, but he’s an ass.
–I didn’t see it, watching the Oregon-Stanford game instead, but Manny Pacquiao won a majority decision over Juan Manuel Marquez, Saturday night, with Pacquiao taking two scorecards while the third ringside judge had it a draw. Sounds like it was a highly entertaining affair. But the Las Vegas crowd booed the decision, the third fight between the two; the first a draw while Pacquiao won a split decision in 2008.
–According to the New York Post’s Marc Berman, through Saturday, NBA players and owners have held 24 labor bargaining sessions since July 1; 159 hours worth.
–As posed in the current issue of The Economist, aside from dinosaurs eating other dinosaurs, who else ate dinosaurs?
Crocodiles! Yes, the evidence is in, boys and girls. At the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology convention held in Vegas (couldn’t make it), Dr. Paul Sereno of the Univ. of Chicago “uncovered a crocodile-dominated ecosystem from about 100m years ago (the middle of the Cretaceous period), in what is now north Africa. Besides water-dwelling giants similar to (though much bigger than) today’s animals, he found a range of forms including vegetarians and species that ran on elongated legs – more like dogs than crocodiles.”
Yikes, that would have made those morning walks to the train a bit discomforting. ‘What the [heck] is that?!’
“What’s there to think about?”
Think too hard and you’ll go soft, sports fans. “Men who stress about their performance in bed may be more prone to difficulties becoming and staying sexually aroused, a 2011 Canadian study found. ‘Anxiety is not a sexy feeling,’ says study author Andrea Nelson, Ph.D. ‘If you’re monitoring your [err, you know], you’re much less able to enjoy the erotic aspects of sex, and that makes it difficult to maintain arousal.’ Instead of trying to consciously suppress thoughts that aren’t erotic, refocus on the hot details, she says.”
Which is why these days I focus on the Mets moving in the fences and the prospect of more home runs in 2012 from Ike Davis and Lucas Duda…maybe even Jason Bay…though I’m assuming David Wright is traded.
“Stuff you’re not grateful for – but should be [The small personal pleasures that make life wonderful]”
#3 “Her nagging. It means she cares. Silence means she’s plotting your death.”
#6 “Your blowhard of a boss. Hey, at least you have a job! No, really. Better a bad boss than no boss.”
And “From The Girl Next Door”:
Lloyd from Hartford, Ct., asks… “If a woman is quiet during sex, does that mean she’s not enjoying it?”
TGND responds: “While men focus on not finishing too soon, women usually focus on actually finishing….Our volume settings are as different as our sexual preferences. Never ask, ‘Was it good for you?’ [Ed. Doh!] Instead, in the afterglow, ask her what drives her wild and what she wants more of. Let her take the lead, and she might just help you wake the neighbors.”
Well, I gotta tell ya…I’m not into wakin’ the neighbors. Don’t want them retaliating and wakin’ me, know what I’m sayin’?
–Did you see the new beer that is premiering in 2012…Bud Light Platinum? It’s going to contain 6% alcohol by volume and 137 calories, compared with 4.2% ABV and 110 calories for regular Bud Light. Budweiser has 5% ABV and 145 calories.
Anyway, Anheuser-Busch is going to advertise BLP with a Super Bowl ad. Platinum is actually replacing Bud Light Golden Wheat, which is being discontinued after bombing. Bud Light Lime, which got off to a good start, has slowed considerably.
Then again, I don’t drink any Bud beers, but every time I’m in Ireland, I’m amazed how well it sells in pubs there. [Crain’s New York Business]
–We note the passing of Bill Keane, 89, the creator of “Family Circus.” I can’t imagine more than 28 people, worldwide, ever laughed at this strip. Yet, sadly, it appeared in 1,500 papers and will continue under one of his sons, which really sucks.
–Some of you have written me on Pippa Middleton’s latest split with Alex Loudon, expressing the sentiment that I have yet another chance to get into the picture. I’ve done a lot of soul-searching and determined that, like Loudon, I just wouldn’t be able to deal with all the media attention given to the bodacious one.
—Runner’s World surveyed almost 4,000 readers and found that 94% of runners are college educated. 42 is the average age. 80% run 3-5 days a week.
–I’m not a fan of Billy Crystal. Far too precious for me.
Top 3 songs for the week 11/13/76: #1 “Tonight’s The Night (Gonna Be Alright)” (Rod Stewart…just relax, Rod) #2 “Disco Duck” (Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots…my freshman year at Wake Forest was getting off to a poor start) #3 “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (Gordon Lightfoot…interminable)…and…#4 “Love So Right” (Bee Gees…eh) #5 “Muskrat Love” (Captain & Tennille…don’t wanna see it) #6 “Rock ‘N’ Me” (Steve Miller…had a guy on my floor who ran every Steve Miller album into the ground) #7 “If You Leave Me Now” (Chicago… whatever) #8 “Just To Be Close To You” (Commodores …remember hearing this for the first time while eating a delicious cheeseburger) #9 “The Rubberband Man” (Spinners…they did far better) #10 “Do You Feel Like We Do” (Peter Frampton…you need to give me more information…)
College Football Quiz Answers: Four Oklahoma running backs to rush for 4,000 yards and also play in the NFL: Billy Sims (1975-79) 4,118; Joe Washington (1972-75) 4,071; Adrian Peterson (2004-06) 4,045; Steve Owens (1967-69) 4,041. 2) Jimmy Johnson was Oklahoma State’s coach from 1979-83. 3) Thurman Thomas is Oklahoma State’s all-time rusher with 4,595 yards. [If you were thinking Barry Sanders, he was 1,000 yards behind Thomas.]
