After numerous stops, starts, delays and reschedules, the fine folks at aPa finally settled down and had their drafts Sunday night. I didn't miss it because of work for a change. This time, I was on vacation and had some friends in town, so we all ended up at Borgata and I missed the draft. But as history has shown us, it's probably better this way.
So let's see what Yahoo Auto-Draft hath wrought this time around:
1. (7) RB Larry Johnson - He would not have been my choice here, but I do expect him to bounce back, especially since the Chiefs will be leaning on him while QB Brodie Croyle hopefully develops.
2. (22) WR Larry Fitzgerald - You see how important stability at quarterback is? Fitzgerald probably should've been gone by this point except the Cardinals are still waiting on Matt Leinart.
3. (35) WR Chad Johnson - Oh, Chad. You're moody, you had some pretty bad games for me last year, you got a lot of blame that you didn't deserve, and now your shoulder's hurt. Though, all things considered, this is probably a pretty good value pick at this point, particularly if he decides he has something to prove this season.
4. (50) WR Roy Williams - Lost in the deserved hype over Calvin Johnson and the team still reeling from the flameouts of Charles Rogers and Mike Williams is that this guy's pretty easily the Lions' best player.
Oh, by the way, can I get a quarterback up in here any time soon?
5. (63) RB Selvin Young - He doesn't have a weed habit that we know of, so I fully expect him to rush for 1,000-plus yards barring injury. I mean, he is a Bronco, after all.
6. (78) TE Chris Cooley - Captain Chaos is back! He's become a favorite around our offices despite his Redskins pedigree. We still owe him for helping save us back in 2005.
Oh, by the way, can I get a quarterback up in here any time soon?
7. (91) QB Jake Delhomme - Thank you.... I think. Though his arm looked OK against th Eagles last week, I'm a bit worried about his lack of targets to start the season.
8. (106) Chicago DEFENSE - Still one of the better ones.
9. (119) K Nick Folk - I think he was the first kicker off the board, which shocks me. I'm also shocked that there wasn't a real run on kickers like there usually is. This also gives me more Cowboys (1) than Eagles (0), which just killed me a little inside.
10. (134) WR D.J. Hackett - Never got on track for Seattle or me last year. He'll get a chance early in Carolina with the Steve Smith suspension.
11. (147) TE Ben Watson - Seriously, he's about the eighth option in New England. I think there are tackle-eligible plays and quarterback bootlegs further up in the playbook before anything involving the tight end.
12. (162) QB Jon Kitna - If he predicts we're gonna win 10 games I'll kick his ass myself. Sadly, he might end up starting a lot because the Lions are, well, the Lions, and they're gonna be behind a lot.
13. (175) WR Sidney Rice - This guy's not bad. I feel like he would've gone higher if anyone had any kind of confidence in Tarvaris Jackson.
14. (190) RB Chris Brown - The Houston one. (Seriously, there's like six Chris Browns in the league and they're all running backs.) Likely bench fodder.
15. (203) Indianapolis DEFENSE.
Eh. At least I was up in my poker game while this was going on.
----------------
Now playing: Jason Mraz - The Remedy (I Won't Worry)
via FoxyTunes
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Out and Back: White House Subs
It's commonly said that after you live somewhere for a decent amount of time, you become, for lack of a better word, immune to being intrigued by all of the things your town has. You know, the touristy spots, the historical landmarks, the things that people from other places come to where you live to see.
But I've been coming down here since I was in diapers, so I'm not quite sure what my excuse is for having never been to White House Subs before yesterday.
Originally founded and run by a World War II vet, the place has been around since 1946 and looks it. There's a few tables, but it's mostly a take-out place and they don't deliver. They tape a homemade sign to the windows out front telling you what time they close that night. They don't take credit cards. There's no soda fountain; they have a machine in the back. The back wall is covered with photos of everyone from Joe DiMaggio to Carrot Top. It's as vintage AC as vintage AC gets. They get their bread from the Formica Brothers Bakery, which is literally down the street. (But there's no exclusivity; in fact, most of the hoagie and cheesesteak places around here use Formica Bros. bread... at least the decent ones do, anyway.)
I got there at about 8:30 after driving two laps around the place looking for somewhere to park. White House is tucked away in a pocket in the middle of the city; it's near everything (side streets run two blocks south to the main casino strip, and it's across from parking for the shopping district), but it's not in a place where it'll get lost among the brightness and buzz of the casinos. I went in and took a number. The place wasn't packed, but it was busy, even on a Wednesday night.
I hung out at the counter as I got my Italian hoagie and cheesesteak made. Here's the sub for you:
A half, about 9-10 inches long if I had to guess. I imagine those are Jersey tomatoes.
That second cross-section shot is in every Web review of this place ever. That's the angle it automatically corrects itself to when you unwrap it and lay it down.
The key to a good Italian hoagie can be summed up in one word: Balance. You don't want the onions or the spices overwhelming the meat, but you still want to be able to taste the cheese. And especially, you have to get just the right balance of oil and vinegar. Too much, and it's a bitter, sloppy mess. You put too much on and all the other ingredients suffer from being too dry. But at the same time, you need enough so that the bread softens just so, to a point where the firmness of the crust doesn't make it impossible to eat.
Well, when you've had 62 years of practice, you can probably do anything right, and this was an Italian hoagie done right. I don't know how close to perfection it is, but it's every bit as good as people who have been going there for years have been telling you it is. A hole in the wall in a city that is glitz built on top of grit, White House Subs is that rarest of things: a place that's bigger than the hype surrounding it, but that hasn't gotten too big for its own britches. That may not play on Atlantic or Pacific. But on Arctic Avenue, they wouldn't have it any other way.
But I've been coming down here since I was in diapers, so I'm not quite sure what my excuse is for having never been to White House Subs before yesterday.
2301 Arctic Avenue, Atlantic City, N.J.
Originally founded and run by a World War II vet, the place has been around since 1946 and looks it. There's a few tables, but it's mostly a take-out place and they don't deliver. They tape a homemade sign to the windows out front telling you what time they close that night. They don't take credit cards. There's no soda fountain; they have a machine in the back. The back wall is covered with photos of everyone from Joe DiMaggio to Carrot Top. It's as vintage AC as vintage AC gets. They get their bread from the Formica Brothers Bakery, which is literally down the street. (But there's no exclusivity; in fact, most of the hoagie and cheesesteak places around here use Formica Bros. bread... at least the decent ones do, anyway.)
I got there at about 8:30 after driving two laps around the place looking for somewhere to park. White House is tucked away in a pocket in the middle of the city; it's near everything (side streets run two blocks south to the main casino strip, and it's across from parking for the shopping district), but it's not in a place where it'll get lost among the brightness and buzz of the casinos. I went in and took a number. The place wasn't packed, but it was busy, even on a Wednesday night.
I hung out at the counter as I got my Italian hoagie and cheesesteak made. Here's the sub for you:
A half, about 9-10 inches long if I had to guess. I imagine those are Jersey tomatoes.
That second cross-section shot is in every Web review of this place ever. That's the angle it automatically corrects itself to when you unwrap it and lay it down.
The key to a good Italian hoagie can be summed up in one word: Balance. You don't want the onions or the spices overwhelming the meat, but you still want to be able to taste the cheese. And especially, you have to get just the right balance of oil and vinegar. Too much, and it's a bitter, sloppy mess. You put too much on and all the other ingredients suffer from being too dry. But at the same time, you need enough so that the bread softens just so, to a point where the firmness of the crust doesn't make it impossible to eat.
Well, when you've had 62 years of practice, you can probably do anything right, and this was an Italian hoagie done right. I don't know how close to perfection it is, but it's every bit as good as people who have been going there for years have been telling you it is. A hole in the wall in a city that is glitz built on top of grit, White House Subs is that rarest of things: a place that's bigger than the hype surrounding it, but that hasn't gotten too big for its own britches. That may not play on Atlantic or Pacific. But on Arctic Avenue, they wouldn't have it any other way.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Or, "Well, This IS Detroit."
The first one led SportsCenter when it happened. This one started the same way (with a retaliation) and got in at the 50-minute mark. But here's what I'm interested in:
Rick Mahorn was always a big guy. But he's gotten HUGE. I think he ate Vinnie Johnson. He looks like Arsenio Hall's rap alter ego whose name I can't remember.
"I think Rick was trying to play peacemaker, but he's just too big," Sparks coach Michael Cooper said.
(Seriously, has anyone seen Vinnie Johnson recently?)
But this may be the funniest thing you read all year, especially considering the source:
"Rick Mahorn is known as a peacemaker, from even the brawl we had here with Indiana," Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer said.
Really? This must be a new development. Rick Mahorn a peacemaker? Compared to who? Laimbeer? (Who's gotta be on anyone's "Top 3 Ex-Athletes You Never Thought Would Be Coaching Anywhere" list.) Remember, these were the guys who made the Bad Boys the Bad Boys. That's a rep that's almost impossible to shake.
Also, check out the new improved blogroll on the sidebar.
Rick Mahorn was always a big guy. But he's gotten HUGE. I think he ate Vinnie Johnson. He looks like Arsenio Hall's rap alter ego whose name I can't remember.
"I think Rick was trying to play peacemaker, but he's just too big," Sparks coach Michael Cooper said.
(Seriously, has anyone seen Vinnie Johnson recently?)
But this may be the funniest thing you read all year, especially considering the source:
"Rick Mahorn is known as a peacemaker, from even the brawl we had here with Indiana," Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer said.
Really? This must be a new development. Rick Mahorn a peacemaker? Compared to who? Laimbeer? (Who's gotta be on anyone's "Top 3 Ex-Athletes You Never Thought Would Be Coaching Anywhere" list.) Remember, these were the guys who made the Bad Boys the Bad Boys. That's a rep that's almost impossible to shake.
Also, check out the new improved blogroll on the sidebar.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
I Have GOT To Get Out Of This Business, Part X
I've highlighted the thing about irony in the middle.
----------
Newspapers, reeling from slumping ads, slash jobs
By SETH SUTEL, AP Business Writer
Sun Jun 29, 2:55 PM ET
Even for an industry awash in bad news, the newspaper business went through one of its most severe retrenchments in recent memory last week.
Half a dozen newspapers said they would slash payrolls, one said it would outsource all its printing, and Tribune Co., one of the biggest publishers in the country, said it might sell its iconic headquarters tower in Chicago and the building that houses the Los Angeles Times.
The increasingly rapid and broad decline in the newspaper business in recent months has surprised even the most pessimistic financial analysts, many of whom say it's too hard to tell how far the slump will go.
"They're in survival mode now," said Mike Simonton, a media analyst at Fitch Ratings, a credit analysis agency.
"We had very grim expectations for the sector," Simonton said, and publishers have either met or surpassed his estimates for how bad the results would be.
Last week alone, deep staff cuts were announced at The Hartford Courant and The (Baltimore) Sun — two Tribune papers — as well as at the Daytona Beach-Journal, while The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press said they hoped to reduce the head count in their joint operations by 7 percent through buyouts. The Boston Herald said up to 160 employees would be laid off as it outsourced its printing operations, and in a memo explaining the terms of its job security pledge, the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., said it is operating in the red. The week before, McClatchy Co. said companywide staff cuts of 10 percent were coming.
Tribune, meanwhile, told its employees Wednesday that it hoped to wring more value out of its "underutilized" real estate in Chicago and Los Angeles, extending an asset-selling program Tribune is pursuing to service a $13 billion debt load, much of which it took on from going private.
Tribune has already reached a deal to sell one of its largest newspapers, Long Island-based Newsday, but ran into delays early this month in liquidating Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs play, when negotiations for the field's purchase by a state agency broke down over financing. Tribune is also moving to sell the Cubs.
Tribune has enough money to meet its debt requirements this year, bond analysts have said, but it must make headway on asset sales in order to meet its obligations in 2009.
Tribune's troubles reflect broader problems in the industry, where a deepening economic downturn is worsening losses from a long-term shift away from print advertising toward online, especially in classified categories like help wanted, autos and real estate, where rivals such as Craigslist, Move.com and AutoTrader.com are thriving.
Advertising is by far the most important source of revenue for newspapers. And in the first quarter, their overall ad revenue slumped 12.9 percent, led by a 24.9 percent drop-off in classifieds, compared with the same period a year earlier.
*****
In fact, the industry group that compiles and releases ad revenue figures, the Newspaper Association of America, this month stopped putting out quarterly press releases with the numbers, though it quietly updated them on its Web site.
*****
NAA spokeswoman Sheila Owens said in an e-mailed statement that the organization will now put out press releases only with full-year data "to keep the market focused on the longer-term industry transition from print to a multiplatform medium."
Some say complacency in the industry about the threat the Internet posed is to blame for the current quagmire.
Speaking on the CNBC business news cable channel Friday, Sam Zell, the real estate magnate who is now Tribune's CEO, said newspapers have historically been "monopolies" in their local markets and "insulated from reality," according to a transcript of his remarks provided by CNBC.
Going forward, if ad revenues continue to slide rapidly, companies including Journal Register Co., MediaNews Group Inc. and — in the absence of further asset sales — Tribune could then risk violating their loan terms, said Emile Courtney, a media industry credit analyst for Standard & Poor's.
Already, just two major publishers have investment-grade debt under S&P's ratings — Gannett Co. and The New York Times Co. The industry is divided between them and "everybody else," Courtney said.
Given the current poor climate for the business, he said: "I have doubts banks will be as willing as they were in the past to waive or amend covenants."
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Now playing: Godsmack - Awake
via FoxyTunes
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Out and Back: Sonic
I freely admit that sometimes I get bugged by things that, frankly, I know shouldn't bug me.
For years the Sonic drive-thru chain would buy national ad spots during games or shows I watch a lot, and it always bothered me a little bit because a) I'd never heard of Sonic; and b) once I discovered what Sonic was, I also discovered that there weren't any within about 300 miles of me.
Well, not long ago, that changed, and New Jersey got a Sonic. And by "a Sonic", I mean "exactly one Sonic."
(Route 9 North, Waretown, N.J.)
In retrospect, I don't know how I almost drove past the place. Possibly mental fatigue from thinking "Where the hell IS IT?" for the last five miles of the drive. Seriously, no building has ever looked more out of place for where it is than this one. You can't really tell from that shot.
I'm not entirely sure, but I think those drive-up stations in the background are for paying with credit or debit cards. I didn't give that a spin because if you're so paranoid about carrying cash that you don't have enough on you for drive-thru fast food, you've got problems I'm not qualified to solve. There is no interior seating that I could see, by the way - they have a patio outside where I actually saw someone get food brought out to his table, but I don't think you're getting inside the building unless you're wearing the uniform.
I wasn't tremendously hungry at this point, so I just got a Coney (what they call a hot dog) with chili and cheese, fries and one of their Famous orange slushes. I capitalize "Famous" because they do it and, as the first-timer, I feel I have to take their word for it.
While I railed on the use of foil paper at Roy Rogers, this probably is the best way to store a drive-thru hot dog.
Plating is not my strong suit. It certainly isn't theirs.
The food was about as nondescript as it gets, which may actually be a good thing. The chili cheese dog tasted like, well, a hot dog with chili and cheese on it. The fries were salted almost perfectly. (This reminds me that my ketchup consumption has plummeted as I've gotten older.)
Sonic makes a big deal about drinks. It's their hook, like how McDonald's puts "Mc-" in front of everything. Sonic's thing is they have a menu of flavors you can add to any drink if you want, so if you want a cherry-flavored Diet Coke, you can get a Diet Coke and ask them to add cherry flavoring to it. Or a Sprite with vanilla (ew). Or even root beer and Powerade, which seems like something you'd drink before going on a mass crime spree.
This was the star of the day:
That's a quality frozen beverage. It may not look like it (blame the photographer), but it is. You'll just have to trust me. Good flavor, structurally sound, not watery, and it holds up - an hour later it was about the same consistency on top and hadn't turned into a melted, syrupy mess.
The topper was unexpected, and, I believe, a fast-food first:
Yep. That's a Sonic after-meal mint. I didn't believe it, either.
----------------
Now playing: Wu Tang Clan - Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)
via FoxyTunes
For years the Sonic drive-thru chain would buy national ad spots during games or shows I watch a lot, and it always bothered me a little bit because a) I'd never heard of Sonic; and b) once I discovered what Sonic was, I also discovered that there weren't any within about 300 miles of me.
Well, not long ago, that changed, and New Jersey got a Sonic. And by "a Sonic", I mean "exactly one Sonic."
(Route 9 North, Waretown, N.J.)In retrospect, I don't know how I almost drove past the place. Possibly mental fatigue from thinking "Where the hell IS IT?" for the last five miles of the drive. Seriously, no building has ever looked more out of place for where it is than this one. You can't really tell from that shot.
I'm not entirely sure, but I think those drive-up stations in the background are for paying with credit or debit cards. I didn't give that a spin because if you're so paranoid about carrying cash that you don't have enough on you for drive-thru fast food, you've got problems I'm not qualified to solve. There is no interior seating that I could see, by the way - they have a patio outside where I actually saw someone get food brought out to his table, but I don't think you're getting inside the building unless you're wearing the uniform.
I wasn't tremendously hungry at this point, so I just got a Coney (what they call a hot dog) with chili and cheese, fries and one of their Famous orange slushes. I capitalize "Famous" because they do it and, as the first-timer, I feel I have to take their word for it.
While I railed on the use of foil paper at Roy Rogers, this probably is the best way to store a drive-thru hot dog.
Plating is not my strong suit. It certainly isn't theirs.
The food was about as nondescript as it gets, which may actually be a good thing. The chili cheese dog tasted like, well, a hot dog with chili and cheese on it. The fries were salted almost perfectly. (This reminds me that my ketchup consumption has plummeted as I've gotten older.)
Sonic makes a big deal about drinks. It's their hook, like how McDonald's puts "Mc-" in front of everything. Sonic's thing is they have a menu of flavors you can add to any drink if you want, so if you want a cherry-flavored Diet Coke, you can get a Diet Coke and ask them to add cherry flavoring to it. Or a Sprite with vanilla (ew). Or even root beer and Powerade, which seems like something you'd drink before going on a mass crime spree.
This was the star of the day:
That's a quality frozen beverage. It may not look like it (blame the photographer), but it is. You'll just have to trust me. Good flavor, structurally sound, not watery, and it holds up - an hour later it was about the same consistency on top and hadn't turned into a melted, syrupy mess.
The topper was unexpected, and, I believe, a fast-food first:
Yep. That's a Sonic after-meal mint. I didn't believe it, either.
----------------
Now playing: Wu Tang Clan - Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)
via FoxyTunes
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Grand Theft Cable
Up until the end, this post was supposed to be titled "Unplugged" and it was supposed to be about how I spent at least 36 hours outside the Information Age. No TV, no cable, no Internet. It was supposed to be about how shockingly productive I was without being able to switch on and drop out. I might have even thrown in a life lesson or two, or said something pithy about how we need to disconnect every once in a while in order to reconnect with the world around us.
But that, as we say in my business, would be "burying the lede."
And the lede is this: I got my cable stolen.
Our story begins late Tuesday night, when I got home from work and turned the TV on, flipping channels while waiting for Poker After Dark to start. There's no picture. This, by itself, isn't particularly unusual - I just figured the cable had gone out for one reason or another, possibly weather-related. So I figured it wasn't anything more than that. But it went on (or didn't, as the case may be) for a little longer, and I just figured the cable was OUT out for whatever reason and went to bed.
I got up on Wednesday, still nothing. Or possibly nothing again; I'm not sure at the moment. My Internet wasn't working, either. And again, I didn't really think that much of it because I assumed it was being fixed. So I went out hunting for a new battery for my digital camera (which I'd found two days earlier after having it go missing for three months, but that story's not nearly as interesting) as well as my bi-weekly grocery shopping trip. No luck on the battery. There's a non-zero chance they don't make it any more.
I got home... still nothing. Now it's officially ridiculous. I called the cable company - it's about 8 by this point - and they told me they'd send somebody over the next day (today, now).
Now it's today. And we've all been there with the cable company. They tell you 10 to 12 and it's always closer to 12 than 10. In this case, it was after 12 when the guy finally called (I'd actually called them again just to make sure I didn't miss their call the first time) and he said he'd be over in 10 minutes or so.
When he showed up, he immediately told me to turn my TV on. I did. It came on.
What he said next was the last thing I expected I'd hear.
Apparently what happened was one of my neighbors had enterprisingly gotten into an outside cable connection and cut off a set of fittings, then illegally hooked up his own to that set. The set they cut off happened to be mine.
I was stunned. I actually said, "I didn't think this still happened in 2008."
By this point my modem had come back online too. I didn't think to ask how he knew what had happened, but he had obviously checked the box outside and cut off the illegal connection before he came in to see me. He did cut me some new connectors because my picture had gone fuzzy, so that was nice of him.
After he left, I plopped down in my chair and just started laughing. I got my cable stolen. In 2008. Think about that. It's absurd.
Semi-related tangent: The first story that came up on Yahoo after I started Firefox: the LifeLock guy getting nailed. Seriously, who didn't see that one coming.
But that, as we say in my business, would be "burying the lede."
And the lede is this: I got my cable stolen.
Our story begins late Tuesday night, when I got home from work and turned the TV on, flipping channels while waiting for Poker After Dark to start. There's no picture. This, by itself, isn't particularly unusual - I just figured the cable had gone out for one reason or another, possibly weather-related. So I figured it wasn't anything more than that. But it went on (or didn't, as the case may be) for a little longer, and I just figured the cable was OUT out for whatever reason and went to bed.
I got up on Wednesday, still nothing. Or possibly nothing again; I'm not sure at the moment. My Internet wasn't working, either. And again, I didn't really think that much of it because I assumed it was being fixed. So I went out hunting for a new battery for my digital camera (which I'd found two days earlier after having it go missing for three months, but that story's not nearly as interesting) as well as my bi-weekly grocery shopping trip. No luck on the battery. There's a non-zero chance they don't make it any more.
I got home... still nothing. Now it's officially ridiculous. I called the cable company - it's about 8 by this point - and they told me they'd send somebody over the next day (today, now).
Now it's today. And we've all been there with the cable company. They tell you 10 to 12 and it's always closer to 12 than 10. In this case, it was after 12 when the guy finally called (I'd actually called them again just to make sure I didn't miss their call the first time) and he said he'd be over in 10 minutes or so.
When he showed up, he immediately told me to turn my TV on. I did. It came on.
What he said next was the last thing I expected I'd hear.
Apparently what happened was one of my neighbors had enterprisingly gotten into an outside cable connection and cut off a set of fittings, then illegally hooked up his own to that set. The set they cut off happened to be mine.
I was stunned. I actually said, "I didn't think this still happened in 2008."
By this point my modem had come back online too. I didn't think to ask how he knew what had happened, but he had obviously checked the box outside and cut off the illegal connection before he came in to see me. He did cut me some new connectors because my picture had gone fuzzy, so that was nice of him.
After he left, I plopped down in my chair and just started laughing. I got my cable stolen. In 2008. Think about that. It's absurd.
Semi-related tangent: The first story that came up on Yahoo after I started Firefox: the LifeLock guy getting nailed. Seriously, who didn't see that one coming.
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