Sunday, October 30, 2011

APCKRFAN's NFL Picks 2011: Week 8

Week 8:
Sun., Oct. 30:
New Orleans @ St. Louis - New Orleans
Miami @ NY Giants - NY Giants
Arizona @ Baltimore - Baltimore
Minnesota @ Carolina - Carolina
Indianapolis @ Tennessee - Tennessee
Jacksonville @ Houston - Houston
Detroit @ Denver - Denver
Washington @ Buffalo - Buffalo
Cincinnati @ Seattle - Cincinnati
Cleveland @ San Francisco - San Francisco
New England @ Pittsburgh - New England
Dallas @ Philadelphia - Dallas

Mon., Oct. 31:
San Diego @ Kansas City - San Diego

Bye: Atlanta, Chicago, Green Bay, NY Jets, Oakland, Tampa Bay

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Sunday, October 23, 2011

APCKRFAN's NFL Picks 2011: Week 7

Week 7:
Sun., Oct. 23:
San Diego @ NY Jets - San Diego
Seattle @ Cleveland - Cleveland
Atlanta @ Detroit - Detroit
Washington @ Carolina - Carolina
Chicago @ Tampa Bay - Tampa Bay
Denver @ Miami - Denver
Houston @ Tennessee - Houston
Pittsburgh @ Arizona - Pittsburgh
Kansas City @ Oakland - Oakland
Green Bay @ Minnesota - Green Bay
St. Louis @ Dallas - Dallas
Indianapolis @ New Orleans - New Orleans

Mon., Oct. 24:
Baltimore @ Jacksonville - Baltimore

Byes: Buffalo, Cincinnati, New England, NY Giants, Philadelphia, San Francisco

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Sunday, October 16, 2011

APCKRFAN's NFL Picks 2011: Week 6

Week 6:
Sun., Oct. 16:
Carolina @ Atlanta - Atlanta
San Francisco @ Detroit - Detroit
Indianapolis @ Cincinnati - Cincinnati
Philadelphia @ Washington - Washington
St. Louis @ Green Bay - Green Bay
Jacksonville @ Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh
Buffalo @ NY Giants - Buffalo
Cleveland @ Oakland - Oakland
Houston @ Baltimore - Baltimore
New Orleans @ Tampa Bay - New Orleans
Dallas @ New England - New England
Minnesota @ Chicago - Minnesota

Mon., Oct. 17:
Miami @ NY Jets - NY Jets

Byes: St. Louis, Denver, Kansas City, San Diego, Seattle, Tennessee

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Thursday, October 13, 2011

Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 10/12-13/2011

10/12/1997:
In a game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Jacksonville, the Jaguars' James Stewart becomes only the fourth NFL player to rush for five touchdowns in a game. A disappointment since being drafted in the first round in 1995, Stewart is in the game only because starter Natrone Means sprained an ankle on the first drive. He has three TDs in the first quarter on runs of seven, eight and two yards, and the Jags build a 21-0 lead. In the third quarter, he scores again on a one-yard plunge through the line for a 28-7 Jacksonville advantage. Another one-yard run with 12:26 left in the game makes the score 35-7. Jacksonville goes on to win, 38-21.

Birthdays:
Joe Cronin b. 1906
Jaroslav Drobny b. 1921
Tony Kubek b. 1936
Jack Marin b. 1944
Charlie Ward b. 1971

Packers Fact:
End Max McGee led the NFL when he averaged a whopping 23.2 yards per reception in 1959. His 30 catches included 5 touchdowns that averaged 39.6 yards.

10/13/1972:
On Friday the 13th, the first home game of the WHL's Philadelphia Blazers is postponed because the ice is deemed unsafe. At game time, the surface is choppy and cracking, and the machine meant to repair the problem falls through the ice. Blazers president Jim Coops draws boos and a hail of souvenir pucks from the fans when he announces the postponement. After one season in Philadelphia, the Blazers will move to Vancouver.

Birthdays:
Eddie Mathews b. 1931
Doc Rivers b. 1961
Jerry Ric b. 1962
Trevor Hoffman b. 1967
Paul Pierce b. 1977

Packers Fact:
Defensive end Willie Davis (1960-69) played college football at Grambling.



“Make voyages!—
Attempt them!—
there’s nothing else.”
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, American playwright

“I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”
AGATHA CHRISTIE, English writer

ON FACTS, INCREDIBLE

People who survive grow older with each year they live.

from the article “Average remaining lifetimes can increase as human populations age” in Nature magazine

ON PIANOS, TINY

Weakest Link Host Anne Robinson: How many keys are there on a standard grand piano?

Contestant: Five.



BESTSELLER
Car salesman Tim Blake gets up in the morning, fixes scrambled eggs for his 17-year-old daughter, Sydney, and then things take a turn for the worse. For one thing, Sydney storms out after Tim wrongly accuses her of stealing a pair of sunglasses. When she doesn’t come back from work, Tim, wanting to apologize and make things right, goes to her workplace and finds that no one has heard of her. The cops suspect Tim of foul play, the ex-wife blames him, his ditzy girlfriend is no help, and somebody wants to kill him. Linwood Barclay is a master of characterization and of realistic detail that makes the situation all the more terrifying—it happened to Tim; it could happen to you.

FEAR THE WORST, by Linwood Barclay (Bantam, 2009)
I’LL EAT YOUR LIVER!
The foie gras wars started in Chicago, when Charlie Trotter let fly an uncharitable remark about a rival chef, suggesting his liver be cooked and served foie gras–style. Within a remarkably short time, Trotter was announcing that he would no longer serve the ancient delicacy—shouted down by a firestorm of bad publicity and shrill invective. Foodies, chefs, animal rights activists, politicians, and the very few who produce foie gras in this country started an international food fight and shouting match, and the Chicago Tribune’s Caro is right there at ringside in this analysis of a controversy that may change our food ways forever.

THE FOIE GRAS WARS: HOW A 5,000-YEAR-OLD DELICACY INSPIRED THE WORLD’S FIERCEST FOOD FIGHT by Mark Caro (Simon & Schuster, 2009)


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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 10/11/2011

10/11/1931:
The Toronto Maple Leafs send Art Smith, Eric Pettinger and $35,000 to the Ottawa Senators for King Clancy. To obtain the cash sum necessary to complete the transaction, Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe borrowed part of the money from friends and bet it on his own filly, Rare Jewel, who came in for a high payoff. While in Toronto, Clancy will be a first- or second-team All-Star four times.

Birthdays:
Maria Bueno b. 1939
Steve Young b. 1961
Chris Spielman b. 1965
Dmitri Young b. 1973
Jason Arnott b. 1974

Packers Fact:
Aaron Kampman entered 2009 ranked fourth on the Packers' career list with 50.5 sacks. The only players ahead of him were Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila (74.5), Reggie White (68.5), and Tim Harris (55.0).



“The drop of rain maketh a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling.”
HUGH LATIMER, 16th-century bishop 
 
ON SPEECHES, REALLY CONFIDENCE BUILDING

One of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people’s money to help prevent there to be a crisis.

President George W. Bush

TWO NEW FROM EDWARD HUMES
Edward Humes’s Pulitzer Prize in 1989, for his investigative reporting on helicopter crashes in the military, established him as a force to be reckoned with. His nonfiction has taken on such subjects as grade inflation in high schools, infant emergency medicine, and the juvenile court system; his true-crime stories are acclaimed, as well. These recent titles have garnered a roar of praise, and Eco Barons in particular has been hailed as one of the few hopeful—even inspiring—notes in climate-change news.

ECO BARONS: THE DREAMERS, SCHEMERS, AND MILLIONAIRES WHO ARE SAVING OUR PLANET, by Edward Humes (Ecco, 2009)

MONKEY GIRL: EVOLUTION, EDUCATION, RELIGION, AND THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA’S SOUL, (2007)

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Monday, October 10, 2011

Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 10/10/2011

10/10/1926:
The Cardinals win their first World Series with a 3-2 triumph over the Yankees in Game 7 in New York. The score stands at 3-2 in the New York seventh with the bases loaded and two out. St. Louis manager Rogers Hornsby gambles by sending in 39-year-old Grover Alexander to relieve Jesse Haines, whose pitching hand had developed a blister. Alexander, who pitched a complete-game victory yesterday and reportedly celebrated far into the evening, strikes out Tony Lazzeri to end the rally and sets down the Yanks in order in the eighth. With two out in the ninth, he walks Babe Ruth, who impulsively tries to steal second and is thrown out to end the game.
 
Birthdays:
Gus Williams b. 19253
Norm Nixon b. 1955
Brett Favre b. 1969
Pat Burrell b. 1976
 
Packers Fact:
On this date in 1969, Brett Favre was born in Gulfport, Mississippi. Favre played 16 seasons in Green Bay beginning in 1992.


“Be thankful for small mercies.”
JAMES JOYCE, Irish writer

ON HOTEL MANAGERS, OVERLY INTRUSIVE

We hope you want to drop in. I give personal look to the interior wants of each guest.

in a hotel brochure in the Dolomites, Italy

A LIGHTER SIDE
If you read the Los Angeles Times (where a running discussion appeared in “Jacket Copy”) or Playboy (where this spoof was first serialized), you’ve already heard of or read this wisecracking L.A. Confidential sendup from National Book Award-winning author Denis Johnson (Tree of Smoke). Jimmy Luntz, an affable small-time hood and gambler, is in a lot of trouble with the underworld powers that be. While hiding out with the beautiful, if troubled, Anita, whose prosecutor husband set her up to take the fall for his million-dollar embezzlements, Luntz works on a plan to recoup the money. When the bad guys track them down, the pulp fiction implodes, in this breezy, enjoyable read that shows the lighter side of one of our contemporary masters.

NOBODY MOVE, by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009)

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Sunday, October 09, 2011

Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 10/9/2011

10/9/1915:
Woodrow Wilson becomes the first U.S. president to watch a World Series. It's Game 2 of a matchup between the Red Sox and Phillies in Philadelphia. Rube Foster not only pitches a three-hitter for the Sox but breaks a 1-1 tie with an RBI single in the ninth inning. The game ends when center fielder Tris Speaker reaches into the stands to rob Dode Paskert of a Phillies home run. Boston will win the Series four games to one.

Birthdays:
Walter O'Malley b. 1903
Joe Pepitone b. 1940
Mike Singletary b. 1958
Kenny Anderson b. 1970
Annika Sorenstam b. 1970


ON YOU TELL’EM!

RESPECT ARE
COUNTRY!
SPEAK ENGLISH!

anti-immigrant political sign, held by a protester

“Comin’ in on a wing and a prayer.”
HAROLD ADAMSON, American lyricist, quoting a fighter pilot in a damaged plane

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Saturday, October 08, 2011

APCKRFAN's NFL Picks 2011: Week 5

Week 5:
Sun., Oct. 9:
New Orleans @ Carolina - New Orleans
Philadelphia @ Buffalo - Buffalo
Seattle @ NY Giants - NY Giants
Cincinnati @ Jacksonville - Cincinnati
Kansas City @ Indianapolis - Indianapolis
Tennessee @ Pittsburgh - Tennessee
Arizona @ Minnesota - Arizona
Oakland @ Houston - Oakland
Tampa Bay @ San Francisco - San Francisco
NY Jets @ New England - New England
San Diego @ Denver - San Diego
Green Bay @ Atlanta - Green Bay

Mon., Oct. 10:
Chicago @ Detroit - Detroit

Byes: Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas, Miami, St. Louis, Washington

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Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 10/8/2011

Jim Bouton in his book Ball Four, published in 1970: "You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time."
 
Birthdays:
Billy Conn b. 1917
Fred Stolle b. 1938
Paul Splittorff b. 1946
Rashaan Salaam b. 1974
Amos Zereoue b. 1976

Packers Fact:
Pro Football Hall of Fame fullback Jim Taylor (1958-1966) wore number 31.

“Shoulders are from God and burdens too.”
ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER, Polish-American writer


ON FORGET WE ASKED

Sportscaster: Do the Broncos have your number, Christian?

Kansas City running back Christain Okoye: Do they have my number? I don’t know. Do they have a guy with the number 35?



REBEL WITH A CAUSE
Elizabeth Dawes admits that she’s been stalking Camus for more than 50 years. When Camus’s daughter published her father’s autobiographical novel, The First Man, in 1994, Dawes was again fired by love of her subject and set out to try to understand the mystique of the highly principled novelist, journalist, and philosophe, who was only 46 when he died in a car accident in 1960. The combination literary study and personal memoir is engaging and revealing, both of Dawes and of a thinker who holds a fascination for, and is revered by, many.

CAMUS, A ROMANCE, by Elizabeth Dawes (Grove Press, 2009)

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Friday, October 07, 2011

Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 10/7/2011

10/7/1945:
In the second quarter of a 57-21 win by the Green Bay Packers over the Detroit Lions, Don Hutson scores 29 points on four touchdowns and five extra points, setting an NFL record for points in one quarter. After being held without a point in the first quarter, the Packers collect 41 in the second to set another league record. During an 11-year career that will end this season, Hutson leads the league in receptions eight times, in scoring five times and in interceptions once. He hauls in 99 TD passes, an NFL record that will stand until Steve Largent exceeds it with 100 passes in 1989.

Birthdays:
Willie Naulls b. 1934
Johnnie Morton b. 1971
Priest Holmes b. 1973
Charles Woodson b. 1976
Evan Longoria b. 1985

Packers Fact:
Linebacker A.J. Hawk started each of the first 51 games in his NFL career until the Packers opened in a nickel defense against the Vikings in Week 4 of 2009.


“You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side.”
WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, British prime minister

ON AND HOW BIG IS YOUR BRAIN?

Game show host Bob Eubanks (questioning people on the street):
How big is your epidermis?


Man: Six, seven inches.

THE CATS WILL PLAY
In this caustic look at modern life, Zoe Heller follows the bravura performances of Everything You Know (2006) and What Was She Thinking? Notes from a Scandal (2003) with a scathing look at the modern family. Jeff, a successful New York lawyer, lies comatose in the hospital after suffering a stroke in the courtroom while defending a Muslim terrorist. His wife, Audrey, holds court, spouting platitudes and dripping venom, criticizing her daughters, insulting Jeff’s mistress, and enabling the drug habit of her adopted son. Audrey’s special brand of harridanism is a botched, self-serving version of ’60s left-wing politics, gone horribly awry.

THE BELIEVERS, by Zoe Heller (HarperCollins, 2009)

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Sunday, October 02, 2011

APCKRFAN's NFL Picks 2011: Week 4

Changing PIT/HOU pick to Houston.

Week 4:
Sun., Oct. 2:
Detroit @ Dallas - Detroit
Carolina @ Chicago - Chicago
New Orleans @ Jacksonville - New Orleans
Tennessee @ Cleveland - Cleveland
Buffalo @ Cincinnati - Buffalo
Minnesota @ Kansas City - Minnesota
San Francisco @ Philadelphia - San Francisco
Washington @ St. Louis - Washington
Pittsburgh @ Houston - HOUSTON
Atlanta @ Seattle - Atlanta
NY Giants @ Arizona - NY Giants
Denver @ Green Bay - Green Bay
New England @ Oakland - Oakland
Miami @ San Diego - San Diego
NY Jets @ Baltimore - Baltimore

Mon., Oct. 3:
Indianapolis @ Tampa Bay - Tampa Bay

Byes: None

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