Congress

Let me get this straight - Congress has funded 9/11 rescue workers' health care, ratified the START treaty, repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and renewed the Bush tax cuts, while renewing unemployment benefits, all in the last month?

Maybe we need to have elections more frequently?

Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Just saw the movie - it was pretty good, but the book was better.

Interesting casting - aside from Michael Cera, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman make appearances. Also funny is that Mae Whitman has a prominent role and she was Michael Cera's girlfriend on Arrested Development.

Kieran Culkin was also in the film - I didn't know he was still acting.

I lose some credibility here... I didn't realize that Jason Schwartzman was Rushmore until about 5 minutes ago.

The Rock's New Movie

Looks like the casting director for The Rock's new movie, "Faster," was a lost fan - Shannon (Maggie Grace) and Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) both are in the film!

R-Word

Is it safe to say Willow Palin is a retard?

Too hard for me to resist.

Rest of the Jets Season

Barring injury, the Jets have a pretty tough schedule to close out the season. It's a good thing they've started out well, even if some would say they were lucky.

Texans at home
Benglas at home (Thanksgiving)
Patriots on the road
Dolphins at home
Steelers on the road
Bears on the road
Bills at home

Looking ahead, their biggest trouble is going to be the lack of pass rush. The Texans and Bengals home games are games they are supposed to win. The Patriots will be tough. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago people said that the Patriots were throwing in the towel by getting rid of Moss? Let it be known that I wasn't one of those people. It would be hard to think that just one WR could offset an entire offense. The Dolphins are always a tough game, even if they are down to their 3rd string QB. Steelers and Bears on the road could both easily be losses. Bills at home should be a win.

If they win the "should" games - Texans, Bengals, Dolphins and Bills, and lose the others, it would mean an 11-5 finish. Looking at the Patriots, they have a pretty tricky schedule as well - Colts, at Lions (Thanksgiving), Jets, at Bears, Packers, at Bills and Dolphins. They have 3 games they "should" win, and if we use the formula above and they beat the Jets but lose the others, they would also finish 11-5. I do have a feeling they'll beat the Bears on the road. I think the Lions game is tricky for them, but if Stafford is out, then it's less so.

My prediction - the Patriots win the division and the Jets come in as wild card. The remaining games they don't have in common - Jets face Texans, Bengals, Steelers, and the Pats have the Packers, Lions and Colts. Slight edge to the Jets there, but I think the Pats will win the head-to-head match up which will make the biggest difference.

The Death of Spider-Man

Marvel teased a storyline called "The Death of Spider-Man" for their upcoming books. Turns out the story is in their alternate universe, the Ultimate Universe. Hard to get too excited about this - after all, "anything can happen" in the Ultimate Universe and nearly anything does - even Wolverine is dead in that universe! But since anything can happen, it feels irrelevant and I don't think anyone is really going to care.

Beard Papa's

Beard Papa's, the great cream puff store, is opening in Miami. It opened about 6 years ago in NY, and has already gone through the "cool-> hip-> really popular-> no longer cool" phase. Their cream puffs still are quite delicious.

Poor Cubs

The last time the Giants won the World Series was 1954. That was 56 years ago. When they won the World Series, the Cubs had not won for 46 years (1908).

The Texas Rangers have never won the World Series, even when they were the Senators. That team was founded in 1961. That's a 49 year span. But in 1961, the Cubs streak was 53 years.

Poor Cubs.

LeBron's mean tweets

So LeBron retweets some of his "hate tweets" trying to gain some sympathy.

He says in the article:

"I just want you guys to see it also. To see what type of words that are said toward me and towards us as professional athletes. Everybody thinks it is a bed of roses and it's not."

When Hank Aaron or Ken Griffey Jr got hate mail and death threats, that makes me feel bad. When Jason Taylor got death threats, even THAT made me feel bad. But when LeBron complains about it somehow it just seems immature. Is that too much of a double standard?

Let's not get too excited about the Jets...

The Jets are 4-1, they look good and have been executing well. Still let's not get too excited - it's only October and frankly they haven't played that many good teams. NE is pretty decent and Baltimore looks strong but they lost that game. Miami is probably about an average team when all is said and done and Buffalo is poor. I also think the Vikings are very overrated this year. So before we crown the Jets as Super Bowl contenders, let's see how they stack up against the top teams.

Who's David Less?

They obviously meant "David Price" here. I wonder if they're using dictation software or voice recognition because that's a strange typo.

No Soda for People on Food Stamps?

Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban soda purchases using food stamps in NYC. Interesting thought - sugared soda is certainly full of calories and very cheap, and likely contribute to obesity. So the suggestion would ban "beverages with more than 10 calories per 8 ounces, and would exclude fruit juices without added sugar, milk products and milk substitutes." Interesting questions arise from this, of course:

Should the government be involved in these types of personal choices?
Considering that food stamps are a federally backed program, isn't it reasonable that they can set limits?
Is it even fair to suggest that people on food stamps (poor people) are part of the obesity problem?
What about diet soda?

Interesting approach. I like Bloomberg's ideas, even if I don't necessarily agree with them.

Carry Your Cat in a Bag

I just got a new iPod Touch with a camera. The camera quality isn't great but it lets me take pictures like this when I notice something silly. For example, at Best Buy the other day, I noticed this woman was carrying her cat in a bag! Dogs I've seen, but I don't think I've ever seen a cat in a bag before. Please, no "who let the cat out of the bag" jokes.

Bring Your Gun to DInner

The NY Times headline reads, "More States Allowing Guns in Bars and Restaurants." I have to think this would lead to more accidents. Booze and guns seem like a bad combination, no?

Law and Order and Marvel Comics

Another set of Law and Order connections to Marvel Comics movies. JK Simmons has long been the psychiatrist on Law and Order, and of course, he is J Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man movies. But now two other characters are part of the regulars on Law and Order: Los Angeles - Alfred Molina (Dr. Octopus) and Terence Howard (James Rhodes).

Life after Lost...

Last year, it seemed like the former stars from Battlestar Galactica kept popping up on Law and Order. This year, I guess it's Lost. The season premiere of SVU featured Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond) from Lost, and now the new Law and Order: Los Angeles had a cameo by Mira Furlan (Rousseau).

Tom Brady's in a car accident

If you were the guy (Ludgero Rodrigues) who hit Tom Brady's car in an accident, would you need to consider moving? Or are you really lucky? At least Brady wasn't hurt. Had it been more serious, you and Steve Bartman would have a lot to talk about.

Revis, Richardson - The Jets

This week's episode of "Hard Knocks" should be pretty interesting since Darrelle Revis has finally ended his holdout. Interestingly, he only gets $11 million more in guarantees, and 1 more year than he would have had if he had played out his original contract based on what is reported. Thankfully Revis will be back - with Calvin Pace out for a few weeks and a thin backup corps, the team's defense was looking vulnerable. Also, in the first three games the Jets are set to face Anquan Boldin, Randy Moss and Brandon Marshall. They needed Revis to be playing.

The other news of the weekend is how the Jets released, then re-signed fullback Tony Richardson. This too will make good "Hard Knocks." During his release will they then tell him that they'll re-sign him the next day? This is why football is so strange in general - you can release a player, then re-sign him the next day for the roster cuts with no penalty. The business aspect is so strange. The NFL still doesn't have a collective bargaining agreement yet either, which could lead to some business drama in the coming year.

By the way, "Hard Knocks" is pretty good tv. Why doesn't MLB get their act together and do a similar show? In fact it should be even better watching young players try to make the cut during spring training because there are so many more players in baseball invited to the camps.

Brett Favre Returns... Again.

I can't wait for October 11, Vikings at Jets. Can't wait for the Jets to pummel Brett Favre.

NBA Saves Knicks From Themselves

Maybe there is an NBA conspiracy to make the Knicks good (as suspected for the 1985 draft lottery) since the league rejected Isiah Thomas' contract with the Knicks. Phew! Dodged a bullet there!!