Post-Season Saturday Grab Bag

The Steelers begin their playoff campaign today! I haven't posted much about football the past few weeks, no doubt owing largely to the dishearteneing collapse of the Giants down the stretch there. Even though NY ended the season on a pleasant note by downing the Deadskins, it was still bittersweet not only because the Packers' victory that same night made the win moot, but also because the G-Men's margin of voctory was much narrower than it should have been against such a weak opponent - and thus they failed to cover the spread and I lost my bet on them in the weekly football pick'em pool.

Incidentally I finished the pool tied for 31st out of 44 players and didn't win the kitty a single time. My weekly records were 4 and 11, 4 and 12, 8 and 8, 8 and 6, 9 and 5, 5 and 9, 8 and 6, 5 and 8, 8 and 5, 6 and 7, 8 and 7, didn't turn my sheet in for Week 12, 3 and 12, 7 and 8, 9 and 6, 10 and 5, and 10 and 6. So I finished strong (at least compared to how I started) and was one win away from sharing the best record in that second to last week, but overall my 115 and 131 record is one of many indicators why I am not a professional gambler.


Well, there's always next season, and now that the entire NFC East is eliminated from championship contention I have no grudges to settle and can focus all of my attention on rooting for my wife's team and enjoying the overall spectacle of the playoffs.

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Today when I announced it was time to get dressed, the little guy in turn announced he was going to help me find my clothes. Usually this translates as him wreaking havoc on everything two feet off the ground and lower in the walk-in closet, but that doesn't really bug me too much. Today, in the course of his havocry, he discovered a pair of my sneakers and insisted that those be my footwear for the day. The sneakers in question are maroon-and-gray plaid flannel Chuck Taylors, and they are not only the most 90's articles of clothing I still possess, they're probably the most 90's articles of clothing I ever acquired during the decade in question. And I am wearing them right now and I gotta say they are AWESOME.

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I have a t-shirt with all of the 80's Justice League of America on it including not just the iconic members like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and so on but also less luminary heroes such as Red Tornado, the Elongated Man, Zatanna and Firestorm. The little guy recognizes Green Lantern (because he's daddy's favorite) and Batman (because HE'S BATMAN) and then he asks me often who the other guys are. Yesterday I was wearing the t-shirt and changing the little guy's diaper and I pointed at Firestorm and asked "Who's that?"

I'll give the little guy points for confidence, at least, as he shouted out "Fire hydrant!" So, so close.

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Haven't done a Vanity Plates Archive in a while, so here's one: the other day I saw a car with CRUZNLO on its tag, and that's not the kind I would usually take note of because it's fairly phonetically straightforward, I get it, cruisin' low, yes you're so radical. Grammatically suspect statements of the obvious are fun to collect, whereas insipid braggadocio is more dime-a-dozen. What made this one stick out was the combination of the tag with the license plate frame which said across the top "You're right where you belong" and across the bottom "BEHIND ME" and the fact that of course the guy was cutting me off in the merge area getting on 66 which was how I was able to read all of that. The cherry on top was a rear-window decal which said "U.S. Army Veteran" which meant, dag, I couldn't even hate on the guy unless I also wanted to hate America.