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You are here: Home / Sports / Late Night Open Thread

Late Night Open Thread

by John Cole|  November 3, 201311:54 pm| 107 Comments

This post is in: Sports

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Another Sunday, another distressingly bad performance by the Stillers. It really is kind of awe inspiring how quick and steep their decline has been. My mother, brother and I were talking and they both think there is nothing worth saving from Tomlin on down. I tried to argue and come up with something positive and blurted out Bell and Jones and Brown and started to say Suisham before I realized that not only is it pathetic that you are looking at the field goal kicker as a highpoint but that he missed two easy ones last week that cost us the game.

All I know is that if Haley is not run out of town after this season I may just give up.

Also, Brooklyn 99 is the worst show I have ever seen ever. I lasted 3 minutes.

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Reader Interactions

107Comments

  1. 1.

    Redshirt

    November 3, 2013 at 11:58 pm

    Fascinating. Pittsburgh sucks, you say?

  2. 2.

    Geoduck

    November 3, 2013 at 11:59 pm

    Meanwhile, the Seahawks somehow bumbled their way to another victory, and are 8-1 for the first time in history.

    And I see that the Colts managed to pull the same trick, coming back from being 21 down to win. Of course, the Texans having their coach physically collapse on the field was probably a little demoralizing..

  3. 3.

    Triumph

    November 3, 2013 at 11:59 pm

    God finally got around to punishing Steelers fans for cheering for that QB.

  4. 4.

    Yatsuno

    November 4, 2013 at 12:02 am

    @Geoduck: They should not have won that game. At the rate they’re playing they’ll get bounced from the playoffs in the first round. They also shouldn’t have beaten the Lambs. Oh wells, I get to listen to Betty bitch about it in the morning.

  5. 5.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 4, 2013 at 12:03 am

    The Steelers have finished below .500 six times since 1972. They’ve made the playoffs 14 times in the last 22 years. They haven’t lost more than 11 games in a season since 1969, and they’d only have to go 3-5 the rest of this year to keep that streak going.

    In other words, take your lumps and be glad you don’t root for the Browns or the Bills.

  6. 6.

    MoeLarryAndJesus

    November 4, 2013 at 12:10 am

    I’m a Patriots fan, and enjoyed the game completely, but I think Roethlisberger acquitted himself very well in defeat. He was getting his ass slapped all over the field but he never gave up. Steeler fans should appreciate that.

    Their defense, on the other hand… Jeezus, they folded like a well-oiled Thighmaster.

  7. 7.

    piratedan

    November 4, 2013 at 12:10 am

    well do your fan penance like a good blog host, some of us have suffered and are still suffering the woes, some self inflicted, others not so much; of following our own teams. I believe that Tomlin is a good coach, I believe Ben is a good QB but your lines (OL and DL) need to be completely rebuilt and your secondary is old, just mho. Besides, the Pirates appear to be on the rise….and the Pens are usually formidable.

  8. 8.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 4, 2013 at 12:11 am

    @Spaghetti Lee: As a Packer fan, I get pissed at my fellow Packer fans who bitch about the occasional bad game by Rodgers. We have been spoiled for over 20 years.. Don Majkowski was decent. Then Favre and now Rodgers. No right to bitch.

  9. 9.

    different-church-lady

    November 4, 2013 at 12:11 am

    So what’s their problem? (Haven’t been paying enough attention to football, what with Mumford and Sons winning the World Series.) They’ve still got a lot of guys on that team that can play the game, right?

  10. 10.

    max

    November 4, 2013 at 12:12 am

    It really is kind of awe inspiring how quick and steep their decline has been.

    You should watch more Detroit Lions games. Anyways, I was looking at the score at the end of the game and I thought, ‘Wow, if you had told me beforehand that the Steelers would put up 31 points against the Patriots, I would figure they probably won.’

    Defense wins championships, and also games. Sack the defense and start over.

    max
    [‘If it’s any consolation, the Ravens can’t get their shit together either. And the DC team seems to be working on the theory that they can only be slightly less good than Philadelphia.’]

  11. 11.

    different-church-lady

    November 4, 2013 at 12:13 am

    BTW, spoon roast is incredible.

  12. 12.

    ruemara

    November 4, 2013 at 12:14 am

    Saw Enders Game. How can any kid forget the golden rule-Adults are evil. Never trust them, ever. I’m an adult and I’ve never forgotten how cruel and wicked they are. Plus the closing credits song was horrible. Other than that, good enough. Trying to pack up Kage’s crate for tomorrow morning. Can’t quite figure out how to do things. Kage has elected to nap and inspect the extra cushioning I’ve put in at random intervals.

  13. 13.

    Three-nineteen

    November 4, 2013 at 12:15 am

    A person who watches True Blood is not entitled to have an opinion on which TV shows are good and bad.

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 4, 2013 at 12:16 am

    @Three-nineteen: You are new to the internet, huh?

  15. 15.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 4, 2013 at 12:17 am

    As long as we’re talking about foo’baw, I noticed today that the Players’ Union is getting involved in the case of Jonathan Martin, who basically had a nervous breakdown and left the Dolphins after teasing and bullying that included (no joke) not letting him sit with them in the team cafeteria. Yes, these are grown men with six-figure salaries.

    Now, I think that might be a bit heavy-handed (but maybe it’s worse than it looks) but what strikes me is how strong and active the pro sports unions all are. It’s like they were teleported in from an alternate universe. And yeah, the “rank-and-file” are all millionaires, but the owners are all billionaires, and I’m sure some of them would love to go back to the days when players had to beg hard-ass GMs for pocket change.

  16. 16.

    different-church-lady

    November 4, 2013 at 12:18 am

    If you had told me at the beginning of the season that a team would be on pace to put up over 680 points yet still be second in their division I would have told you you were crazy.

  17. 17.

    Bob In Portland

    November 4, 2013 at 12:18 am

    As a Niner fan it was a rollercoaster watching the Bucs blow it this afternoon. The rollercoaster did not end well.

  18. 18.

    ArchTeryx

    November 4, 2013 at 12:19 am

    @ruemara: Well, yes, the adults in that book were pretty exceptionally evil, but then, they were fighting a war of extermination with a hostile alien race. Exigencies of war, something Ender had picked up long before the adults really got a hold of him – you’re in a war, you win the only way that counts. Prevent the enemy from ever taking up arms against you again. Win not just the war, but all future wars.

  19. 19.

    Joel

    November 4, 2013 at 12:20 am

    At least you don’t root for the Texans.

  20. 20.

    piratedan

    November 4, 2013 at 12:21 am

    @Spaghetti Lee: part of that is due to the fact that so many pro-careers are short. Think it takes 4 years to get vested and the last I read, the average pro career was …. 4 years (at least in the NFL).

    Going to be big changes with HGH testing in MLB and the concussion issue in the NFL… pro sports landscape is going to be evolving before our very eyes.

  21. 21.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 4, 2013 at 12:24 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    That’s part of why I hate the Packers with such burning rage. I’m sure I don’t need to show you list of the three dozen Bears quarterbacks that derped their way in and out of town while the Pack started Favre for two decades. Now we have Cutler, who gets hurt every year and cycles through Offensive Coordinators the way hipsters cycle through new iPhone models, and yet he’s already one of the five best Bears QBs in history, statswise. And because he’s been just good enough (and there are no real alternatives) he’ll probably get a big fat contract at the end of the year that will take him through 5 consecutive 7-9 seasons, until he turns 38 and all his limbs fall off. Meanwhile, the Vikings will draft Teddy Bridgewater and he’ll throw for 5,000 yards as a rookie. Good luck on Monday, Packers. Like you fucking need it.

    That’s also why I’m growing to hate the Colts. Their living legend left the team and they spiraled into suckdom, but hey look, here comes to best college prospect since the aforementioned living legend! He’ll make a good starter for the next 15 years. Spend some time in QB purgatory like the rest of us, you jerks.

  22. 22.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 4, 2013 at 12:30 am

    @Spaghetti Lee: Dude, you are a Bears fan. You have to hate the Packers. It is reciprocal. At a recent Packer game, my brother overheard someone explaining the Packer-Bear and Packer-Viking feelings this way: “You hate the Bears like they fucked your wife. You hate the Vikings like they fucked your mom.”

  23. 23.

    Three-nineteen

    November 4, 2013 at 12:31 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: My comment was Internetspeak for “Cole and I apparently have the exact opposite taste in television”. IMHO, Brooklyn 99 is the best new comedy of the year. You can deduce my feelings about True Blood.

  24. 24.

    ruemara

    November 4, 2013 at 12:32 am

    @ArchTeryx: That’s the practicalities of war as done by someone who does not wish to fight endlessly. No, I mean that the game is real. There’s the cruelty. Winning requires a certain ability to limit yourself to the goal, which is why they tricked him.

  25. 25.

    mpbruss

    November 4, 2013 at 12:34 am

    I think Cole is trolling here. Brooklyn 99 is wonderful and nobody can judge a show after three minutes. It took me a solid ten to realize how horrible True Blood was/is.

  26. 26.

    piratedan

    November 4, 2013 at 12:34 am

    @Three-nineteen: people who like Brooklyn 99 have no right to issue judgements on what passes as quality television… //////

  27. 27.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 4, 2013 at 12:34 am

    @Three-nineteen: I haven’t seen Brooklyn 99. I have only seen a couple of episodes of True Blood, but I not enough to know the story lines. So I got nothin’.

  28. 28.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 4, 2013 at 12:35 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Well, yeah, but it’s only the fun kind of hate when it’s a competitive rivalry. These days it’s more the sad kind of hate. We’re fucking 2-9 against you in the last 11 games, and Aaron Rodgers treats us like a chew toy. I wish I remember the 80’s. I hear you guys sucked turds back then.

  29. 29.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 4, 2013 at 12:39 am

    @ruemara:

    I really do want to see it. I like sci-fi yarns, even those written by kooks. And a lot of them are. 50 cents of my ticket price possibly going into Card’s wallet won’t deter me.

    I thought this piece was really interesting: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9909314/ender-game-controversial-author-very-personal-history

    It was written by a guy who grew up a Muslim in Wichita in the 80s, and how he identified with the outsider themes of the story, and how Card is more complex than his crusty old gay-hater image would suggest, even if that obsession has taken over both the image and the man himself. I agree with someone on the AV Club who said that if you read the book without knowing anything about the author, you’d assume he’s a total hippie, what with all the war-is-hell themes.

  30. 30.

    Yatsuno

    November 4, 2013 at 12:39 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’ve never even heard of Brooklyn 99. So I’m right there with you in the nothin’ category.

  31. 31.

    Geoduck

    November 4, 2013 at 12:41 am

    I’ll always have a soft spot for the Packers, not because of anything that happens on the field but because socialism.

  32. 32.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 4, 2013 at 12:41 am

    @Spaghetti Lee: Actually, the 70s and most of the 80s are one reason I don’t feel a bit guilty about enjoying the success the team has had since then. I watched those games. All season. Every year. I paid my dues. Another reason I don’t feel guilty is GB has made consistently good decisions (aside form a short lived experiment with hiring Ari Fleischer as a consultant). The team hasn’t been lucky; it has been well managed and developed.

  33. 33.

    ruemara

    November 4, 2013 at 12:44 am

    @Spaghetti Lee: I haven’t ever read the book, which is rare for me. Now I want to read it so I can compare and contrast. I think rational people know war is hell. When you write, you have to be as rational as the character. Maybe Ender preserved some that in Card.

  34. 34.

    Ben

    November 4, 2013 at 12:45 am

    Looking forward to my Bills tearing apart the Steelers next week, especially if Manuel is back as planned…

  35. 35.

    Suzanne

    November 4, 2013 at 12:46 am

    @Yatsuno: I’ve never heard of it, either.

    However, Mr. Suzanne and I just watched an old episode of “Step by Step”, and HOLY SHIT, THAT is the worst show ever.

  36. 36.

    Suffern ACE

    November 4, 2013 at 12:48 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: yeah, but remember Jon Hadl – Randy Wright or White or Ready or something like that. We can still say we suffered. When I was 11 I remember suffering, fur sure. And inflation was high, too.

    In other news, I like this new Texan QB and hope he does well. I hope he can thumb his nose at those teams who are desparate for QBs but can never find one.

  37. 37.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 4, 2013 at 12:49 am

    @Suzanne: Let’s not start a “Worst Show Ever” fight. Please.

    I originally typed “Let’s not start a “Worst Show Ever” fight.” No fight there: clogs.

    @Suffern ACE: See this.

  38. 38.

    Joel

    November 4, 2013 at 12:50 am

    Will Dune ever be made into a movie?

  39. 39.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    November 4, 2013 at 12:53 am

    Totally off topic but I’m watching Homeland, which I mostly enjoy, and discussing their upcoming attempt to turn someone into a double agent Saul, in answer to a question, says no, he’s not certain it will work. “Turning touches the stubbornness in some people” he says.

    Anyone else recognize that? Almost verbatim.

    I caught them shamelessly ripping off the same author earlier in the series, but this one is really ridiculous. It was a memorable line, for me and I’m certain for at least some others.

    Just write the stuff yourselves, sheesh.

  40. 40.

    Suzanne

    November 4, 2013 at 12:53 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: Uggs.

  41. 41.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 4, 2013 at 12:54 am

    @Suzanne: You live in AZ.

  42. 42.

    Radio One

    November 4, 2013 at 12:54 am

    Brooklyn 99 is the only somewhat decent sitcom that’s premiered this year. I’m not crazy about it, but if you give it more than three minutes, I think it’s similar to Parks and Recreation working out the kinks.

  43. 43.

    Suffern ACE

    November 4, 2013 at 12:54 am

    @Joel: yes, but it will be rewritten to have cute cuddly yellow minion characters that make cuddly plush toys. Do you want that?

  44. 44.

    piratedan

    November 4, 2013 at 12:54 am

    @Joel: “come on Joel, you know that this thread has wormsign the likes that God himself has never seen” – Rand Paul

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    November 4, 2013 at 12:55 am

    Worst big network TV show was The Chicago Teddy Bears, wherein so many corners were cut that when someone shut a door, you could see the walls of the sets shake.

    Whilst idly blathering about new TV seasons, believe that The Tammy Grimes Show still holds the record for quickest cancellation. A network honcho issued the cancellation notice during the first commercial break of the premiere episode. The network did, however, show a total of four of the five episodes already finished.

  46. 46.

    Steeplejack

    November 4, 2013 at 12:56 am

    (Tardy) DVR Alert!

    Just got home a while ago and did a full Danny Thomas spit-take when I saw that TCM is really going edgy overnight—call it “Asian Hooker Marathon” or something. No, don’t, because that would trivialize it. These are serious, intense dramas, at least two of which have not been shown on TCM before. And TCM is to be congratulated for pushing the envelope.

    Currently on (started at midnight EST) is The Goddess (1934), director Yonggang Wu’s first movie. “Police and bullies hound a woman who prostituted herself to support her son.” Rated 7.5 on IMDB.

    2:00 a.m. EST: Story of a Prostitute (1965), directed by Seijun Suzuki. “A heartbroken woman becomes a ‘comfort woman’ on the Manchurian front in World War II.” Rated 7.5 on IMDB.

    4:00 a.m. EST: Women of the Night (1948), directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. “Fusako, a young woman in postwar Japan, is the mistress of a notorious drug dealer. Her tenuous grasp on meaningful life is shaken when she learns that her lover is having an affair with her sister.” Rated 7.3 on IMDB.

    Where is Dance Around in Your Bones? I hope she is lurking. She has liked some of Mizoguchi’s other movies. He’s the one who did Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff and The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, all shown on TCM in the last few months.

  47. 47.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 4, 2013 at 12:57 am

    @Steeplejack: Yeah, wtf is up with that?

  48. 48.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    November 4, 2013 at 12:58 am

    I didn’t even make it through the trailers of that stupid Brooklyn cop/comedy show. Who greenlighted this POS?

  49. 49.

    Yatsuno

    November 4, 2013 at 1:01 am

    @Suzanne: Yeah. Brady Bunch it sure wasn’t.

  50. 50.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 4, 2013 at 1:01 am

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: Here you go.

  51. 51.

    Suffern ACE

    November 4, 2013 at 1:02 am

    Is my memory wrong, or was there a 1980s show about a policeman and his robot partner that is being remade.

  52. 52.

    Nom de Plume

    November 4, 2013 at 1:04 am

    It really is kind of awe inspiring how quick and steep their decline has been.

    No it’s not. I’ve been praying for it for years. It’s actually taken a lot longer than I wanted, but G*d works in mysterious ways.

  53. 53.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 4, 2013 at 1:05 am

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:

    Is there something good about Andy Samberg that I’m just not seeing? He’s like a mix of Adam Sandler’s dopiness and Jim Carrey’s camera-mugging, which, yeesh.

  54. 54.

    Nom de Plume

    November 4, 2013 at 1:06 am

    @Suffern ACE:

    Is my memory wrong, or was there a 1980s show about a policeman and his robot partner that is being remade.

    If you’re talking about Holmes and Yo-Yo, we truly have reached the end of days.

  55. 55.

    Steeplejack

    November 4, 2013 at 1:07 am

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    You make a good point. I read Ender’s Game pretty close to when it first came out, and there wasn’t anything that jumped out and screamed “the author is a wingnut.” Although I note that in sci-fi you have to assume that a high percentage of authors will turn out to be wingnuts. Dunno why that is.

  56. 56.

    David Koch

    November 4, 2013 at 1:07 am

    Carrie Mathison is preggers!

    Thanks Obama!

  57. 57.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 4, 2013 at 1:07 am

    @Suffern ACE:

    Yeah, I think it was called Voltron.

  58. 58.

    Steeplejack

    November 4, 2013 at 1:11 am

    @Suzanne:

    Step by Step: Had to look that up to refresh my memory. Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Somers. Whoa, PTSD flashback. Thanks for sending me back to TV therapy.

  59. 59.

    Suffern ACE

    November 4, 2013 at 1:14 am

    @Nom de Plume: wow. It’s even earlier than I remember.

  60. 60.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    November 4, 2013 at 1:17 am

    @Bill E Pilgrim: And the answer is:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=nMpwEaNoqEY#t=39m52s

  61. 61.

    RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual

    November 4, 2013 at 1:18 am

    I read Ender’s Game pretty close to when it first came out, and there wasn’t anything that jumped out and screamed “the author is a wingnut.”

    I’ve read and/or own most of Card’s books. I enjoy his work immensely, but goddamn I hate him with a passion.

  62. 62.

    YellowJournalism

    November 4, 2013 at 1:19 am

    @Spaghetti Lee: No. Voltron was the precursor to the Power Rangers. It was a group of teens who piloted mechanical lions that when joined together became a giant robot.

    I loved that show.

    And the worst TV show ever has to go to “Small Wonder.” Vicki the Robot, people.

  63. 63.

    Steeplejack

    November 4, 2013 at 1:20 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Well, you can rerun Bringing Up Baby only so many times in a year.

    Seriously, I am liking how TCM is expanding its comfort zone. More foreign movies, more really old (silent) movies, more “deep tracks” in the standard library. Last night I stayed up way too late because while I was monitoring Balloon Juice to make sure it didn’t crater in the time change (you’re welcome!) I got sucked into watching Free Radicals, a documentary about experimental film, and then a bunch of experimental films that had been covered in the documentary. Very cool.

  64. 64.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 4, 2013 at 1:20 am

    @Steeplejack:

    “I don’t even have to live on the same planet as the government/the teeming masses/Mom and Dad!” + “Out here, no one cares that I dress like a dork and can’t get a girl, but they do care about my engineering skills!” + “The primitive inhabitants of Zarbok 9 will see me as a god for introducing science and logic!” Sounds like the perfect libertarian escape fantasy to me.

    Now, not all libertarian sci-fi is bad, and it’s gotten a lot more complex over the years, but I think such impulses are at the base of a lot of it. And I’m not even being really judgmental: I have my own existential fantasies about how the world should be, and it influences what I choose for my own escapism.

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    November 4, 2013 at 1:22 am

    @Steeplejack

    Monday on TCM brings a pair of Aussie goodies (all times Eastern).

    My Brilliant Career (8 p.m.)

    Picnic At Hanging Rock (10:15 p.m.)

    And an unusual showing of the Senegalese slow-burning comedic political, impotence-as-metaphor film, Xala, at 3:30 a.m. Tuesday.

  66. 66.

    Anoniminous

    November 4, 2013 at 1:23 am

    @Joel:

    Dune has been filmed twice. Once as a really gawdawful wreck in 1984 and a tolerable mini-series in 2000.

  67. 67.

    YellowJournalism

    November 4, 2013 at 1:24 am

    @Steeplejack: I’ve been clogging up our PVR with all the great silently and some other things I just enjoy watching but can’t get on DVD. They had a Lillian Gish marathon. I was in heaven!

  68. 68.

    Redshift

    November 4, 2013 at 1:26 am

    @Steeplejack:

    Although I note that in sci-fi you have to assume that a high percentage of authors will turn out to be wingnuts. Dunno why that is.

    I think that’s only true in military-oriented and, to a lesser extent, hard SF. Other than those areas, I would say that a higher percentage are toward the DFH end of things than the wingnut side.

  69. 69.

    Steeplejack

    November 4, 2013 at 1:30 am

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    Sounds like the perfect libertarian adolescent escape fantasy to me.

    Change as edited, and I think that explains a lot of science fiction in general.

    The genre has been getting more sophisticated in the last 20-30 years, but sometimes I wonder if that’s true only because adolescents have been getting (relatively) more sophisticated in the same time frame.

  70. 70.

    billgerat

    November 4, 2013 at 1:32 am

    The epic length of Dune and all the plots-within-plots does not lend itself well to being a film. Too much has to be left out, and costume designers just have to ruin it with godawful childish-looking clothes.

  71. 71.

    ? Martin

    November 4, 2013 at 1:34 am

    @Redshift:

    I think that’s only true in military-oriented and, to a lesser extent, hard SF.

    Meh. Wingnuts are dystopians. That gives you a pretty big clue about the author right there.

  72. 72.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 4, 2013 at 1:34 am

    @Steeplejack:

    I try to avoid coming down too hard on escapism in art: the yearning for something beyond the everyday, on no basis other than the artist thinks they deserve it, has produced some great art of all media over the years. It’s when they start punishing the thinly-veiled versions of anyone who every made fun of them that I start inching away.

  73. 73.

    Hill Dweller

    November 4, 2013 at 1:34 am

    NewsMax says Willard accused PO of “fundamental dishonesty”. If he actually said it, irony has officially died.

  74. 74.

    Schlemizel

    November 4, 2013 at 1:38 am

    You want to talk about falls you have to be a Vikings fan. They had a GM who knew football and how to assemble a team. But the senile owner fired him after he had the gall to ask to be allowed to buy 10% of the tam. That ended the streak of Superbowl appearances. The guy he brought in was a moron and a crook who managed, while Vikings GM, to win 2 Super Bowls for the Dallas Clownboys, Swindle the team out of a million dollars a year for as long as they play in the Metrodome and eventually the owner out of his team. He was followed by an ass clown who was a Pillsbury exec that was able to identify a football from a hole in the ground 8 out of 10 times. It has only gotten worse since then. This year they have the easiest schedule in the NFL and have parlayed that into a 1-8 record.

    Add to that having to put up with obnoxious Packer fans twice a year & you have 25% of the reason I refuse to follow football any more. The destruction of young mens lives, high school and college life and the propensity to inflict communities with super-ego assholes are the other 75%. My 20-something kids still want to believe so I can’t escape.

    BTW – the GM that got canned? Put together the Cubs team that nearly went to the World Series then was hired by the NO Saints & put together the teams that made runs deep into the play-offs before he died of lung cancer.

  75. 75.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    November 4, 2013 at 1:38 am

    @billgerat: It’s true but they missed by such a distance in the 1984 version, I mean you could drive a heighliner through the space between that book and where Lynch ended up. Movies often have to be selective when inspired by book-length source material, I really don’t think that was the problem.

  76. 76.

    karl

    November 4, 2013 at 1:38 am

    @Spaghetti Lee: One doesn’t watch it for Samberg, one watches it for the few seconds worth of Andre Braugher.

  77. 77.

    piratedan

    November 4, 2013 at 1:39 am

    @Steeplejack: I’d say it’s closer to 50-60 years, some sub genres have been making some interesting choices, the fantasy, fantasy-noir, alternative-history, and anti-trope have all been very active over the last 20 or so. But storytellers like Clarke, Delaney, Asimov, Zelazny, LeGuin really opened the door for others to push boundaries and allow the genre to be more big tent and less hard science by allowing more fields of science to allow different developmental paths to be followed, i.e. humanity doesn’t make strides based on the changes to physics and astrophysics alone.

  78. 78.

    Steeplejack

    November 4, 2013 at 1:42 am

    @NotMax:

    They showed Sembene’s Black Girl on the 23rd, so I wonder if he’s a “director of the month.” Too lazy to look it up.

    All this stuff is catnip to this old movie hound. [Switching on “Four Yorkshiremen” mode] When I was in college, before DVDs or even videocassettes (sheer luxury!), you had to get your ass out to a theater or an auditorium to see classic or foreign movies, and you had to work your information sources constantly to find out what movies would be on when and where. With limited auditorium, theater and budget “bandwidth,” even popular chestnuts like Bringing Up Baby or The Big Sleep might show up only once a year or so, and you might catch one Ousmane Sembene movie in your whole college career if you were lucky, probably sponsored (unsuccessfully) by the African Student Union right before they all got pissed off and went home.

    And when you got out of college you hoped you ended up in a city with a good “art house” cinema. I lived in Mobile for a while and thought nothing of driving to New Orleans to see the new Truffaut movie, etc. Good times.

  79. 79.

    billgerat

    November 4, 2013 at 1:42 am

    @Bill E Pilgrim: You could drive a heighliner through the space between the target and where they ended up, without using Spice.

  80. 80.

    NotMax

    November 4, 2013 at 1:43 am

    @pitaedan

    Also too, Ellison and Lem.

  81. 81.

    Phil Perspective

    November 4, 2013 at 1:45 am

    @Spaghetti Lee: Want to know something really funny? I once thought he was Breitfart’s father. Hard to keep bigots separated.

  82. 82.

    piratedan

    November 4, 2013 at 1:46 am

    @NotMax: and a bunch of others I could have mentioned, but for fans of the genre, it differs as to who speaks to you and the style of a story as to what appeals and what causes you to think. Sorry about forgetting those two… just didn’t want to get into laundry list mode :-)

  83. 83.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 4, 2013 at 1:47 am

    @Steeplejack:

    WE only had edited-for-commercials Frank Capra movies aired on ABC once a year and by God, we were grateful for even that!

  84. 84.

    Phil Perspective

    November 4, 2013 at 1:48 am

    @Nom de Plume: You mean RoboCop? Yes! :-(

  85. 85.

    Steeplejack

    November 4, 2013 at 1:52 am

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    Hah! We only had one Frank Capra movie—It’s a Wonderful Life. We all knew how it turned out and we thought it was pretty stupid, but we liked it, damn it! And were damn lucky to have it.

  86. 86.

    NotMax

    November 4, 2013 at 1:55 am

    @Spaghetti Lee

    In the 1950s, we had a color TV (maybe a 10″ screen inside a HUGE wooden console) which was switched on only for The Wizard of Oz and for Peter Pan. The 25″ B&W set was used at all other times.

  87. 87.

    Suffern ACE

    November 4, 2013 at 1:57 am

    @Schlemizel: I still think the New Browns and the Cardinals fans deserve some credit for sticking it out even when it is clear that management has no intention of trying to field a team that will win. The Cardinals team that went to the Super Bowl was a fluke (and Kurt Warner should be in the Hall of Fame for that effort). After 95 years, you start to wonder why fans show up when the owners don’t want to win because that might mean salaries go too high.

  88. 88.

    dance around in your bones

    November 4, 2013 at 2:03 am

    @Steeplejack:

    In lurk mode – just watched The Goddess, gearing up for The Story of a Prostitute.My grandkids ask “Why do you like to watch black and white movies? Is it because that’s how they were when you were a kid?” Ha!

    Steep, you are a sweetie.

  89. 89.

    Steeplejack

    November 4, 2013 at 2:08 am

    @NotMax:

    Talk about sheer luxury! And what are you, some kind of goddamn one-percenter?! A color TV in the ’50s cost a fortune—if they were even broadcasting in color then, which I’m not sure I believe.

    We got our first color TV sometime in the early ’60s. The first things I can remember seeing in color were The Flintstones and Bonanza. Oh, yeah, and the NBC peacock logo. You could just marvel at that a time or two and then pretty much call it a night. Which we did. And considered ourselves mightily blessed. And a damned sight better off than the goddamn Russkies.

  90. 90.

    Steeplejack

    November 4, 2013 at 2:11 am

    @dance around in your bones:

    Glad to hear from you, hon. Lurk if you must, but it’s good to hear your voice now and then.

  91. 91.

    NotMax

    November 4, 2013 at 2:27 am

    @

    Heh. Not a 1%-er, not by a long shot. My father ran a TV and electronics repair business from the very large basement of our house, so we always had lots and lots of TVs around. He was also one of those people who just had to get something new close to when it first came out. Could well be that the color set was payment for other work he had done for someone.

    And yes, there were color broadcasts during the 50s (after the industry standards wars had been sorted out), but they were by far the exception rather than the rule.

    Trivia: The reason the George Reeves Superman show switched to filming in color (although still being broadcast in b&w) was that the producers saw the handwriting on the wall for both color TV and syndication.

  92. 92.

    NotMax

    November 4, 2013 at 2:35 am

    @NotMax

    #91 meant to be @Steeplejack

    One other little tidbit – all sorts of defunct tube testing machines and also rack-mounted equipment no longer used was stored in the garage. My friends and I had a whale of a time sitting in front all those knobs, switches, button, dials and gauges and playing spaceship.

  93. 93.

    Steeplejack

    November 4, 2013 at 2:42 am

    @NotMax:

    My friends and I had a whale of a time sitting in front all those knobs, switches, buttons, dials and gauges and playing spaceship.

    That would be awesome. I remember how much fun I had just with an old typewriter and a huge Zenith all-band radio set (something like this) that were gathering dust in the basement.

    God, I love how you can find everything on the Internet. That is sheer luxury.

  94. 94.

    Steeplejack

    November 4, 2013 at 2:47 am

    I’m out. The housecat is making her eyes do that bloodshot, exhausted, guilt-inducing thing, even though she has been sleeping all day, and I can’t take any more prostitution and degradation, no matter how artistic. Plus the allegedly new episode of The Mentalist turned out to be a rerun.

    Looking forward to all you NFC Centraloids kvetching during the big game tomorrow night.

  95. 95.

    Anne Laurie

    November 4, 2013 at 3:37 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: I watched the pilot episode of Brooklyn 99 on Hulu, because I’ll try anything with Andre Bragher involved.

    Bragher was better than his lines (which stank like my male cats’ litterbox on a particularly humid day) but chroist jaysus, that “comedic star” — Andy Samms? — doesn’t just eat a well-stuffed sack of sugar-frosted rat dicks, he actually seems to be one.

    I’d say Cole was trolling, if I thought Cole had any taste!

    ETA: Andy Samberg — thanks, SL!

  96. 96.

    Anne Laurie

    November 4, 2013 at 3:50 am

    @Steeplejack: In case you hadn’t heard it: Back in the 1970s, some journalist asked legendary wingnut pulp sf editor John Campbell for his definition of the “golden age of sf”. To which Campbell replied, “Twelve.”

  97. 97.

    Anne Laurie

    November 4, 2013 at 3:53 am

    @dance around in your bones: Always nice to hear from you, Dance!

  98. 98.

    NotMax

    November 4, 2013 at 4:18 am

    @dance around in your bones

    My grandkids ask “Why do you like to watch black and white movies? Is it because that’s how they were when you were a kid?” Ha!

    Calvin and Hobbes explains it all.

  99. 99.

    Jibeaux

    November 4, 2013 at 4:20 am

    I’m only up because of my fucking dog, who senses possums or whatever shit in the backyard, and now I can’t sleep and good grief, haven’t you even seen Two and a Half Men?

  100. 100.

    MikeJ

    November 4, 2013 at 4:33 am

    Since people were discussing Ender’s Game, here are some relevant links:

    Orson Scott Card has always been an asshat
    Ender and Hitler
    Creating the Innocent Killer

  101. 101.

    Thlayli

    November 4, 2013 at 4:44 am

    @Suffern ACE:

    After 95 years, you start to wonder why fans show up when the owners don’t want to win because that might mean salaries go too high.

    That’s exactly it. The fans keep showing up no matter how bad the team is, so the owners figure ‘Why should we expend any effort to build a good team if it won’t help our bottom line?’

    The Cubs are the prime example of this.

  102. 102.

    Ramalama

    November 4, 2013 at 4:51 am

    @Spaghetti Lee: I’m related by marriage to a pro baseball player whose teammate was Babe Ruth. He had his own small claim to fame, and he played a long time. But he had jobs on the side to keep the family eating. And when I met him, in his twilight years, he had crap health insurance and so could not fix a major ailment, and lived in a glorified shed down by the river.

    All of which to say I support any mechanism to mess with cats who get fat off of something you do.

  103. 103.

    SixStringFanatic

    November 4, 2013 at 5:19 am

    @Spaghetti Lee: Sorry to be late to the party but I just had to respond to this, late or not.
    “Spend some time in QB purgatory like the rest of us”? I see from another of your comments that you don’t remember the 80’s so I made a nice little list for you of the endless parade of sacks of meat who lined up at QB for the Colts between the years 1984 and 1998:

    Mike Pagel, Art Schlichter, Mark Hermann, Jack Trudaeu (sucked so bad I just realized I misspelled his name and don’t care), Gary Hogeboom, Blair Kiel, Chris Chandler, Tom Ramsey, Jeff George, Jim Harbaugh, Don Majkowski, Browning Nagle, Craig Erickson, Paul Justin, Kelly Holcomb.

    That, good sir, is QB purgatory. Best talent on that list, by roughly a country mile? Jeff fucking George. When Jeff fucking George is the closest thing to quality-QB-talent that you see in fifteen years, you are intimately familiar with the masochistic side of NFL fandom.
    Granted, it’s not decades of QB suckitude exhibited by such teams as the Chicago Bears, but who’s fault is that, exactly?

  104. 104.

    Matt McIrvin

    November 4, 2013 at 6:44 am

    Now, now, both Jerry Stiller and, believe it or not, Ben Stiller have given brilliantly funny performances on TV, and I’d argue that there’s been plenty of great comedy since Lily Tomlin.

    What?

  105. 105.

    carbon dated

    November 4, 2013 at 9:06 am

    It really is kind of awe inspiring how quick and steep their decline has been.

    No, it really isn’t…

    /GiantsFan

  106. 106.

    Jamey

    November 4, 2013 at 11:38 am

    @Spaghetti Lee: Have said hereabouts that Gregg Easterbrook’s (I know, him…) The King of Sports is an important book, if only for applying a fair level of academic and journalistic rigor to the sport of football and America’s relationship with it. For me–and YMMV–I walked away feeling about football the way I did about meat after reading Fast Food Nation.

  107. 107.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 4, 2013 at 12:27 pm

    @MikeJ:

    Godwin’s Law isn’t any less relevant in book criticism than it is in politics.

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