Comic for Friday, January 13th, 2006

Posted: 12:10 am, Friday, January 13th

Geez, it's Friday the 13th and I didn't put a Jason joke in there? How unlike me. Granted, this is probably the fourth or so Friday the 13th since the strip has started, but, still.

So, after one week of the NFL playoffs, I am in the lead of the office pool with a perfect field so far. Because, as I've mentioned, the girl who runs our pool is Canadian, we got two points for picking the underdogs last week, and since three of the dogs won, I'm at seven. Now, this week is three points for the favorites and four for the dogs - but there's no point spread, which I only just learned. I'm worried now that I know the rules I'm going to lose my mojo and biff out. Although, with the lead, I'm not sure if I should just take the dogs and hope two or three of them win. The winning outright is what frightens me - I'm reasonably certain the Skins and Steelers can stay within ten of the 'Hawks and Colts, but win outright? I have no idea. Anyone who knows anything about the NFL, your take? I need to get my picks in by noon. Straight up, I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the Colts, Pats, Bears and Seahawks, although I can be talked out of pretty much all of those. If we were playing with the spreads, I wouldn't think twice about taking the Steelers and Skins. I don't know the point spread of the Bears-Cats game (right, MNP, that's what they're called down there?), but I think it'll be close with the Bears - sorry, da Bears prevailing. And, you know, maybe I should go with the Steelers outright, because of the ownage they can inflict upon the Colts in a hacked-up game of Tecmo.

Quick story - the dudes down the hall from me my senior year had a NES with a Tecmo cartridge in it with a player for every team. I was never around when they were doing the drafts, so I never got in on it, but they played every single game of the NFL season, and the championships were epics to behold. The maid knocked the cartridge loose over spring break one year, losing the first 14 weeks of the season and I swear to God I thought this one kid was going to kill himself - he had the Bucs in playoff position somehow. Ah, Tecmo. Thou art great, that's for sure.

Onward, because it's late and I'm tired.

I like Fox Trot, and have always liked that Andy (the mom – short for Andrea, which I never figured out until a story with the grandmother ran a few years back) was an English major. I also remember having to read the Scarlet Letter back in high school and absolutely detesting it. Part of the problem was that my English teacher at the time was part-Hellbeast and had us read the 70-page prologue (the absolutely worthless Customs House segment). Part was that a high school schedule does not allow adequate time to discuss a book like the Scarlet Letter, and part was that I don’t think sixteen-year olds (or whatever we were at the time) are really ready for the Scarlet Letter. I re-read it my sophomore year of college, with a competent teacher, the undefeatable Prof. Krier, and absolutely loved it. To anyone who got stuck reading the Scarlet Letter in 10th grade and thought it sucked ass – it actually doesn’t, and give it another shot if you have an English-major friend with a copy of it laying around on their bookshelf. I do remain unconvinced, however, that Madame Bovary is any good at all.

Speaking of high school, I got a survey about my 10-year reunion the other day. 10 years already? Time flies when you’re not trapped in the bowels of hell. One of the questions is, “Will you bring a guest? If so, is your guest also a BKW Class of ’96 graduate?” Would they technically be a guest if I were involved with a classmate? I mean, wouldn’t they just be, you know, also invited? I was going to post the entire survey and let everyone answer the questions for me, but it’s all a bunch of practical questions, not anything good like, “What do you do now?” or anything like that. Also, someone I went to high school with has an e-mail address “squirrelsofwar,” which is fascinating.

I finally got off my butt and bought a calendar yesterday.  Any New Yorker still in need of an ’06 calendar, the Barnes and Noble on 5th and 44th or so (the big new one that just went in three blocks south of the other one) has a big and still reasonably good selection, all at 50% off.  I went with Pulp Art, because I love old pulp covers.  It was a close one, though – I almost went the more traditional route with an Italy one, and RubyGloom or something like that almost got me with their free enclosure of temporary tattoos (fact: temporary tattoos increase the rockingness of any party sevenfold).  I also had a Basquiat one I was thinking of, but I don’t know if I need 12 months of Basquiat on the fridge, and was about to buy Film Posters of the 50s until I noticed the Pulp Art one.  Ones that did not get much consideration: Thomas Kincaide, Fire Trucks, Dachshund Puppies, Derek Jeter, Quilts.

Maybe next year I’ll do a Five Bucks calendar. (Second empty promise in two days!  I’m like Zack Morris over here.)

Alright, well. That's enough out of me. Have a good weekend, y'all. Oh, since AD's blog got gypped out of a proper link yesterday, let's do it correctly. dave called the rage lyric yesterday, but Wednesday's was one, too, from their Battle of Los Angeles CD, which I think may actually be better than the eponymous debut album... It's tighter, at the very least.

OK, seriously. Good-night.

bullfrog

Pretty sure they're just the Panthers...but given that I've only been to 3 games I'm not really an expert. I'll check with Mr. MNP.

Got my 10 Year High School reunion notification as well. Along with a database of where everyone was last living & what they're doing. there are a depressing number of "night watchmen" and "gas station clerks". I mean, my high school sent 90% of grads to collitch. Night watchman??

The hubby confirms it's mainly just Panthers. Apparently they earned the nickname "Cardiac Cats" when they went to the Super Bowl a few years ago b/c they kept winning close games. But if you said you were going to a Cats game around here, people would think the Bobcats (NBA).

Shoot, now I feel lame.

FWIW, Ron Jaworski on the "Mike and Mike in the Morning" show picked Colts, Patriots, Panthers, Seahawks.

The Seahawks and the Colts are locks to win.

I'm not as sure about the Patriots vs. Broncos. My gut tells me that the Pats will find a way to win, especially considering the game earlier this season the Pats were devastaed by injuries and still only lost by 8.

Da Bears vs. Panthers is going to be interesting. I think the inexperience of Grossman and Lovie will show here, while Fox will have his team better prepared. I think the Panthers win on the road.

The problem with picking two road teams is that the home teams (with the bye) typically win 80+% of the time in this round.

At the B&N in Hoboken, I also passed on the Derek Jeter calender. My family opted for "Castles", and my 5 year-old son got a NY Giants calender. Oh well.

Yeah, I have a hard time going with two road teams, otherwise I'd take the Panthers in a heartbeat. I guess the Bears D v. the Carolina O is probably a wash, and the Carolina D is significantly better than the Bears O.

Silly Canadian, why can't we use the spreads? Grr.

By the way, Lissa's t-shirt (which must've been a Christmas gift from Jen or something) is a threadless.com model.

I'm picking Steelers. I really think they'll get up enough motivation to win this one. If not, I won't be shocked, but I have faith.

Otherwise the winners will be the Seahawks, Patriots and Panthers.

Oh, and nice job linking to my friend Greg's site!

Yeah, your buddy made the big time - that Tecmo thing was on Deadspin yesterday, it's actually where I saw it first. The comments about the Bus's run-up-then-down technique almost killed me.

Did he alter the screens, or did he actually find a hacked-up Tecmo ROM? I have a Tecmo Rose Bowl with college rosters from '99 that is pretty rockin'.

Speaking of recreating old seasons, good article in the Times today on Strat-o-Matic baseball. My dad tried getting me into that as a kid, but I didn't have the patience for it at the time. I should give it another shot, it's right up my alley these days.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/13/sports/13str atomatic.html

Jaws is an idiot (and an Eagles fan which I guess is one in the same)...here's who is going to win this weekend: Seattle, Denver, Indy, and Carolina. The Bears will not score more than three points and John Fox is a coaching god right now. Pittsburgh is good, but c'mon, Indy has been waiting weeks to put the smackdown on some team (and Pittsburgh might deserve it considering Joey Porter's comments that the Colts would not win if they played Steeler-style football because they apparently cheat by trying to catch the other team off-guard...isn't that the point of trying to win the game?). The Patriots, although I will likely be rooting for them, have run out of luck. They really aren't all that good this year, Brady is still immobile, and the Broncos are the most well-rounded team (even if they do have that homeless looking QB). Seattle all the way. I don't think they ever have won in the playoffs but the Redskins deserve to lose with that conservative offensive play-calling last week (anyone know if Bob Davie was hired by Gibbs to be the Offensive Coordinator?...maybe they could just go out and keep taking a knee all game).

I went with Seattle, Indy, New England and Carolina. I just got the sheet with everyone's pick and the difference between me and the dude I'm tied with is the NE/Denver game. Almost everyone behind me made the exact picks I did, too, which is good... Basically, if the Pats win, I'll take at least a four point lead on the field. Which means that this would be a great time for Jake Plummer to play like Jake Plummer.