Turkey Stuffing/Filler

By The Fillerbuster

The Cast 112118

SETTING:

Speed one today.  Written some Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon before I left for Florida to see the ‘rents.  I feel the need…the need for speed.

Let’s turn and burn.

Last gasp for donations for Movember.  I would be thankful if you gave to my subpar appearance for one month and for men’s health.

https://mobro.co/markfiller

EVERGREEN/ THANKS:

Today’s “Evergreen” features things that were in the news that I am thankful for on a regular basis, so hence they are evergreen in their own right.  I didn’t sit down and meditate through an all-encompassing list since I don’t have time in life, but these are the ones that came into the news in SOME way to spark a thank you.  So, basically, I am saying I forgot lots of stuff obviously.  But, it is MY blog.

• Thanks to my wife, who somehow picked me as her lifelong partner, and I can’t really get any luckier than that in life.
• Thanks to my parents, who I am heading out to see tonight for my first Thanksgiving with them in WAY too many years. They did everything in their power to give me everything I needed as a child, dealt with my constant pivots in focus, and raised me the RIGHT way, even if I happened to take the very long way around to get to who I am today.
• Thanks to my brother’s family, who I don’t get to talk to enough, but are always in my thoughts daily. Congrats, Joseph, on setting your path for college.
• Thanks to my wife’s family, who have adopted me as their own.  Steve deals with my non-proficiency at fixing anything, Debbie is the smallest package of joy I have ever met, Avery is like the sister I never had, Gini enjoys every moment like it is life’s last, and Drew and I have the same humor and have adopted dad jokes, word plays, and puns every single conversation even though we aren’t dads (along with steering me towards the 4Runner heaven).
• People who get paid to write these things have written much more eloquently on the CA fires, so I will keep it simple. THANK you for the first responders, the present ongoing responders, and anyone who has put their life in delicate hands to fight the fires in CA.
• Thanks for Florida always finding new and exciting ways to make elections fun, and giving more reasons why our system also is not flawless and so genuinely democratic.
• Thank you to JR Smith, who never seems to go totally out of the news with something marginally dumb or outlandish. Whether it is tossing a fan’s cell phone, talking about tanking, wanting a trade because he realized that LeBron is the only reason he became a winner, or not wearing his shirt for a week, the guy always brings it in the most subpar way possible.
• Not sure how we hoops fans existed happily before early tournaments in college basketball, but thank you for making tournaments that end up getting us an early Duke-Gonzaga matchup, and also a possible Final Four preview game. This game will be the clash of the newbies against the experienced foreigners.
• Thanks to Auburn, who didn’t beat Duke last night, but somehow gave us all hope that SOMEONE might beat them by hanging within shouting distance. After the 34 point win against UK, not sure many of us thought so previously.
• Thanks to my grandfather, who passed away years ago, but is in my shoulder tattoo, in my thoughts daily, and left a HUGE imprint on who I am today.
• Thanks to the readers of this thing and future readers. I pour my heart into it in my bare minimum free time, and would write for no people, 1 person, 100 people, or 100,000 people the same exact way (well, if it was for 100,000 people, I might have to streamline it a bit, but that is neither here nor there).
• Thanks to karaoke. Some of us are too cool for it, some are too shy for it, but man does it bring out the true rock star in anyone who does it.
• Thanks to the Steelers for being such a class act organization. Aside from keeping an alleged rapist who went on to become a two time (hopefully THREE time?) Super Bowl winner, they made it very easy over the years to continue to love them.  One family in charge, three head coaches since 1969, and always being in the mix to make it very easy for other fans to be jealous.
• Thanks for Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, who threw golf into the basketball/football mix over the holiday. $10 million is couch/mattress money to them sadly, but damn it will be fun.  There is already a $200k side bet on the opening hole.  You younger people might want to see two golfers more in their prime, but if we are going to have a generation defining money match, this is it.
• And speaking of golf, thanks to the golf swing of Charles Barkley. Not only is it something unattainable by the worst golfers, but he somehow has rubbed off on Markelle Fultz’s jump shot.
• Thanks to Rocky movies. You might be cheesy and hit home more for people like me from Philly, but you DO ignite a spark in all underdogs.  The next Creed movie is coming out, and I will be seeing it.  We can write off Rocky V with an asterisk.  The overall series holds its weight.  And, to think I still listen to Rocky music when I workout, AND the picking up rocks and pulling wheel barrels methodology is now “functional” training, and more accepted than the machines that Ivan Drago used.
• Thanks to my cats. Just kidding.    Still hoping one somehow eats the other.  I love my wife, and it is nice having a live animal around the house to keep me company, but a chameleon or hermit crab might have bridged the get-a-dog gap better than those things.  But, I deserve thank you’s for acknowledging that one of them needed a friend. #twocatmark
• Thanks to Seinfeld. You became a part of my life, I find people weird who don’t laugh at it, and I average about 3-4 Seinfeld references a day to this day, just with less and less people getting the jokes as each year goes by.
• Thanks to scooters. You make that guilty feeling of not wanting to walk that far but being to close for an Uber ride DOABLE.
• Thanks to Mike Leach, who occasionally goes overboard and costs his school $1.6 million in donations, but otherwise provides us weekly humor that can’t be touched or replicated.
• Thanks to two-point conversions, for making some coaches dummies, others brilliant, and all games more exciting.
• Thanks to college football overtime rules, which are the most fair possible and should be adopted by the pros.
• Thanks to rock, paper, scissors, which somehow not only decides tiebreakers but also finds it way into sports matches somehow still.
• Thanks to LeBron James. Sure, he has changed the game, made progress in off the court movements, given us possible MJ comparisons, and won titles in TWO towns.  But, most importantly, he somehow has left a team, still intact, and made it become the WORST team in the NBA.    How they made the PLAYOFFS with him suddenly is magical, let alone beat the Warriors.
• Thanks to Dwight Howard, who somehow even gets heckled by arena workers during free throws AFTER games.
• Thanks to jam sessions at parties. At my house party on Saturday, I decided to hop on the keyboard when a band guy jumped on the guitar.  I forgot how quickly I could put together a song by ear.
• Thanks to rivalries in sports. With Auburn-Bama and Ohio State-Michigan upcoming, we never knew hatred could be such a loveable, marketable, and harmless thing.
• Thanks to beaches.   Thanks.  Not sure why I chose to live for 20 years in a landlocked state with the only sport I DON’T do (skiing), but I guess I will rationalize and say that I appreciate the beach SO much more when I am at one being far from it.
• Thanks to West Virginia, for ruining what could have been an epic matchup this weekend between one loss teams competing for the college football playoff.
• Thanks to the Denver Nuggets, who became a team changing trends. By hiring Sue Bird to a front office job, Denver became one of the more open-minded franchises in sports.  Females should have more jobs like hers.  To think they shouldn’t is living under a rock.
• Thanks to Le’Veon Bell, who although can’t communicate with his own team or fans, decided to tweet that the MNF game looked like a Big 12 game. Locked on in point, but you decide to start saying funny stuff NOW?
• And thanks to my employer, who knows I give it the maximum amount of effort every single day I step inside the doors.
• I am in a rush, so thanks to everything else I didn’t mention above.

WEEK-FISH (current topics of interest in sports): 

NFL

• Mike McCarthy WILL get another job if he gets canned in Green Bay, and will always be known as a football genius. But, I guess in the end game, it is results that drive job security.  And, when you have one of the best QB’s ever and one of the best WR’s in the game presently, a 4-5-1 record just doesn’t jive.
• Heinz is offering Patrick Mahomes a lifetime of free ketchup if he throws 57 TD’s. First of all, this would make more sense if it was Big Ben that they were offering it to.  Second, either guy can afford paid-for ketchup for the rest of his lifetime.
• RGIII will be one heck of a trivia question someday…just saying.
• The Steelers gave me a heart attack with real-time memories of last year’s playoff loss to the Jags, and then with 8 minutes left in the game, just decided to win…let’s start playing earlier, guys. My heart is getting older.
• AB had NO catches through three quarters…or thereabouts…not looking it up.
• In the game of the year (Chiefs-Rams), 105 points were scored. Some might have enjoyed this.  I did to a point, but still want my defensive stops and non-video game style drives.  Future of football?  I hope not.
• The Chiefs had a RIDICULOUS amount of penalties in the first half…and still weren’t losing somehow.
• The list of records they set Monday is long. I won’t run through all of them.
• But, scoring the most amount of points in MNF in its 773^rd game is crazy. That is a lot of games as a sample size.
• You know you are getting older when people around you don’t understand the Joe Theisman reference with Alex Smith. Hope he heals well and this isn’t the end of the most boringly consistent but not winning QB of our generation.
• They are not winning LIKE the Saints, but anyone want to play the Texans these days?
• Leave me alone, Broncos fans. I will be AT the game.  It is on my birthday.  Be nice.  Even after you lose 31-13.
• Man, I have gone about 7 weeks not believing the Bears are for real. They impressed me in winning against the Vikings.  I might be wrong.
• I know Randall C. and Michael V. are long gone from the NFL, but did we think a running QB wouldn’t come about again? Lamar Jackson will be good, but not sure why everyone is so blown away about his methods.
• I thought I lot of things would occur in the present demise of the Raiders as they rebuild. One thing I DIDN’T think would happen would be a sideline argument between Gruden and Carr.  Something else might be brewing besides losing now.
• I am utterly confused, and have been for about a week. So is everyone else, so don’t lie.  Even if they ARE the Browns and can do special things without us raising our eyebrows, thinking of hiring Condoleezza Rice as their coach?  I get it.  She knows football.  Make her the commissioner and stop the madness.  Someone should be fired for A) letting that leak or B) thinking it was a good idea TO let it leak.
• By the way, how did she get two “z’s” in her name? Were her parents worried about differentiating her from the other one “z” Condoleeza’s in her grade school class?
• I admit to turning off the Broncos game on Sunday when they were down 19-7 and taking a nap. Now, I am not a Broncos fan, so I don’t need to feel bad.  But, I don’t take naps very often, and this is the SECOND nap they have come back in a game and won.  You Broncos fans should feed me a sedative on Sunday so I have to nap during the second half of the game on Sunday.
• For the 1000^th time in this blog, the SKINS (insert team here) should call Colin Kaepernick for a QB position. Tired of it.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

• Army football is ranked these days and that is a big deal. The service academies have lots of obstacles in signing football players with their military regulations, so competing with the big boys on a consistent basis DEMANDS respect…even more respect than we already give them for being kids about to serve our country.
• CU fires their football coach. Given I am local, I can say it wasn’t exactly earth-shattering news.  The timing kind of was, but not the result.  The teams they beat early on were nobodies, and they fell when they faced good teams.  Given the fact that it is a school with a title and CAN be very, very good, not a bad time to give another guy a shot if you ask me.  Not the worst place to go to college.
• I hope you all taped that MSU-Nebraska game, because the 9-6 score sounded like it was not only a masterpiece, but probably the extreme opposite version of the Chiefs-Rams. Somewhere in the middle is where we like football to be, guys.
• I love timing of wire stories. So, KU faced OU while the lead story was KU hiring Les Miles.  Talk about writing on the wall for the interim guy.
• A Steve McNair record got broken this weekend. That is a big deal.  Way before the talk of how to sneak in small schools into big bowls, Steve finished THIRD in the Heisman voting on his own.  Pure stats.
• Ohio State football got leapfrogged by defending national champion (sarcastic) UCF this week in the college football playoff polls. Given they are making a living at looking the most dysfunctional a top talent team can actually look, this makes sense in a way.
• I only watched the second half of the Ohio State-MD game, and it STILL had a little bit of everything for a college football game. Fake punt, fumble for a TD, throwing on 4^th and inches, going for 2 at the end, failing on going for 2 at the end, etc.
• They basically pulled an OU without the odd plays.
• Fun fact. The Sooners are the first team since 1936 to allow 40 points in three straight games and…win all three.
• Fun fact #2. I did NOT know that KU football had a cornerback named Hasan DEFENSE.
• Northwestern continues its dominance, even in a game that didn’t matter. Beating Minnesota isn’t epic, but having one loss in its last 14 conference games (better than everyone including Bama, Clemson, Georgia, etc.) is.
• I bet you if there was a prop bet on whether there would be an unclassy unsportsmanlike penalty in the classy Harvard-Yale game, it would have paid madly this weekend. Cost a team a touchdown…Damn, wicked smart, classy kids.
• Ed Oliver had a spat with his coach most likely because he would be a Heisman candidate and then some if they would have won another game of two. He might get invited still, but we all know it is Kyler and Tua.
• Not sure if someone can find a way to wordsmith a banner, but Citadel hung with Bama better than anyone else this season…for a half. Coach’s halftime speech was probably all about “pick your head up” and such, and then it was a surprisingly TIE ballgame.
• We should all know when NOT to buy into the hype. I know I didn’t.  Well, I thought it independently, hoped internally, and then heard it from the talking heads to support my case.  I thought the Cuse would at least give Notre Dame a SCARE.
• You knew Chip Kelly might get a “signature win,” but against their rival (USC) was a double whammy.
• I smell an upset in Columbus this weekend, and hopefully that is not my hope again talking for the fam’s OU cause.

MLB

• The Yankees picked up James Paxton. Paxton was 11-6 and is only 30, so not a bad pickup.  It is not a flashy pickup, but rotation depth is always key late in the season.
• The Phils are ready to spend “stupidly.” Getting Machado and Harper on their roster would qualify as spending stupidly and getting stupider in the exact same move.  Make the moves, fellas.  You need some hitting talent.
• Fun Fact #3. More games occurred last year in MLB where a position player pitched than when a starting pitcher pitched a complete game.    Kind of mind-blowing.
• Adrian Beltre is retiring. He had a great career with plenty of All Star accolades coupled with 3000 plus hits.  He will be in that group of players known WITHIN baseball circles as one of the best, but unknown to every non-baseball fan who didn’t live in a city where he played.

COLLEGE HOOPS

• There aren’t many years in history when UCONN over Cuse would sound weird. This is one of those years though.  Good win by the Huskies and a good start to their new foundation.
• By the way, Cuse hoops, can you spell the freaking coach’s SON’s jersey name correctly? Come on.  Not just a coach, but a HOF coach.
• Zion Williamson is pulling windmill dunks because he is bored. People who live in a vacuum, if you don’t know who he is and have somehow lived under a rock for the last two years, you WILL know who he is very shortly.  Every story about him being a tweener is drowned out by a thunderous dunk.
• Speaking of odd/weird things, Nova AND Georgetown are BOTH out of the top 25.
• Sure, he is pretty much a local kid and played for the coach already in high school. But, the first rule of recruiting is putting a fence around YOUR region, getting all of THOSE kids, and then branching out.  Memphis has done this.  Not sure why I am rooting for Penny Hardaway so much to succeed at coaching Memphis, but I am.  They just snagged James Wiseman, who is the top recruit in the land for the next class, happens to be from the area, and will now play for The Man With a Million Moves, or whatever he was called coming out of college.

NBA

• Just to remind us that he isn’t all about a stat line that isn’t flashy to non-basketball fans, LeBron reminded us the other night that if he chooses to score, he can at will. He went for 51.
• We all know he ran that Cavs team when he was there. Therefore, true or not, I find it hard to believe he was innocent in getting Irving shipped, no matter how much he is dodging the blame now.  My gut tells me he had some disagreements, and really thought he could do it on his own.
• Donovan Mitchell is a class kid and fantastic scorer. In a loss last week, he impressed me.  When hoisting up 35 shots and NO assists (sounds like a Melo stat line), he immediately came clean and voiced his regrets to the media and fans.  Love that guy as a pure basketball player and possible face of our league in a couple of years.
• Trade talks. Wall firing profanities at his coach in practice.  I feel like the Washington Wizards might literally implode on national TV one of these games.
• Fultz has a shoulder injury? Does it even matter if it is on his shooting side or not?

NHL

• I looked at the standings this week in between things. The cream is starting to rise to the top.  Predators, Maple Leafs, and Lightning all are doing their thing as we expected.  Blue Jackets, Jets, and others are keeping it real.  The only oddities?  The Pens are slacking a little along with the Ducks, and the Golden Knights are doing what I expected, falling off as the whole on-flashy role player magic can’t be recreated in consecutive seasons as easily.

Finally, Katie Ledecky got the Golden Goggles award this year.  She is now in the same conversation as Phelps with multiple awards.  But, my thing is this.  I have been a swimmer all my life.  I just NOW am finding out the yearly award for swimmers is the Golden Goggle Award?  Had no idea.  You learn something every day.

THIS AND THAT (pop culture, Fillerbuster thoughts, quick hitters):

• I get why Kanye West and Zuckerberg might sing one of their songs for karaoke, but still am wrapping my head around HOW the Backstreet Boys are popular again mainstream. So, were they singing it for karaoke for old times fun or because they are popular again?  Deep thoughts by Jack Handy.
• I realize I am getting older when a buddy of mine had to Google Jack Handy SNL.
• I find an efficient way to save money is forgetting that Black Friday even exists and just watch football.
• My wife doesn’t like my workout songs at all. My wife just found out that one of her friends plays in the band From Ashes To New.  Therefore, I have calculated that we might be going to more concerts playing my favorite workout songs now (for example, Breaking Benjamin is presently on tour with them).
• I would like to see the decision making process for how they decide which person at Rodizio Grill carries around which meat. Who carries the pineapple TODAY?
• The Champions Of Magic show was pretty awesome. I have decided that the mindreading stuff is what I dig most.  With technology being what it is today, the Houdini tricks ring more hollow to me.
• I just saw him at Caesars in Vegas so I wasn’t sad, but who would have thought I would EVER go see a second tier magic show instead of Seinfeld housed in the adjoined building on the same night?
• Ever just feel like trying “The Opposite” methodology from Seinfeld to see where the day took you?
• The uptick in readership continues to center around the August installment of “Feed The Wolf,” and I have NO idea why that is so. But, considering it still tops the charts as my favorite workout song, I guess there could be worse blogs for the masses to read.
• It occurred to me Saturday that we had a 27 Dresses party for Avery on perhaps the coldest night of the entire year in Denver.
• You can say he is pessimistic during a game sometimes, but my father-in-law knows OU football. He has been closest to the pin on score predictions three times this year.  No one else has two.
• There is a new show called “FBI?” Along with rebooting old ideas, has the industry just also given up on clever names?
• April is one more week closer, and GOT will be there at that time.
• I am hearing whispers about a reboot of The Office. Now THAT is a reboot I fully support.
• I think when I eat green things, it is frequently arugula simply because I like saying the name of it. Such a SMOOTH word.
• Does anyone else have packing dreams where they wake up and decide to just get up because they don’t want to forget to put the thing in their dream in the suitcase?
• Amazing how a part in my hair as a kid was OK and then went out of style as I got older, and now it is BACK.
• Dubai police now are in the works to ride flying motorbikes. I feel like watching the Jetsons suddenly.
• We went to New Saigon for dinner for Avery’s (Lindsey’s sister) birthday and I found it as much fun figuring out which tune we were hearing an Asian mix of as picking and choosing my battles of what I could eat and not eat that would agree with an 8 year old stomach.
• Tell me this. Does everyone else realize that Bruno Mars is simply redoing 1989 dance tunes into new hits?

TWEETS OF THE WEEK:

THE BEST WORKOUT SONG EVER FOR THIS WEEK:

Feed the Wolf-Breaking Benjamin 

Fragile Minds-Silent Theory

Pure Evil-Like A Storm

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”

Willie Nelson

LINKS TO SAVE YOU TIME IN LIFE:

BY THE NUMBERS:

548

308

THIS WEEK’S LIST:

Next time, folks.

THE RIDDLE:

Wait until I am not getting ready to travel on hell travel day.  Tell you what.  Whoever contributes money to Movember for me, maybe I will give you a lay-up riddle to get you your money back.

CLOSING:

The theme?  Well, I figure the golf event IS the stuffing at the Thanksgiving meal.  Go Tiger.

I will be back well before that Alaskan town, without sun now for 65 days, gets a hint of it, so try and stay away from Romaine lettuce and looks forward to chatting again.

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoyed or are at least more informed.  Remember two things.  First, feed yourself, feed your family, but always, always remember to…feed the wolf.  Second,  if you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker.  Will I blog again?  That is a CLOWN question, bro.

PICS:

Not a bad turnout for dress wearing dudes at my wife’s sister’s dress party in sub freezing weather.

We even had a runway.  I give you Kevin.

Here is where I am at, folks.

My wife’s mom breeds dogs, and each one gets cuter.

We sat in these seats for the magic show.  What was crazy, and maybe it was Seinfeld being in the building next door, was that these seats did NOT fill.

And, in case you care about what I threw back in the pond, here you go…

Hitchcock unretiring oilers