Roger, Roger

The Cast

Date: 10/23/2019

FILLERBUSTER’S ELEVEN

BACKGROUND:  This started as a long-winded numbered blog.  It transformed into an organized long-winded category blog.  Now, it is a quick-hitter to ease your pain.  I lack time.  So, the preparation of the blog actually made me procrastinate from writing the thing.  Let’s see who makes the cut.  Barely edited as usual unfortunately, so please excuse any mistakes during my stream of consciousness.  I feel the need…the need for speed.  Let’s turn and burn.

SETTING:  Airplane rant, and I want to spend more time with my wife this weekend.  Simple.  No internet, shorter, off the cuff, and makes the flight FLY by (no pun intended).  I am working on next flight, as that will have wifi.  You can only work so much.  Barely edited and written in a cramped seat on a very small plane.

1. EVERGREEN:  Clemson player Andrew Booth literally attacked an opposing player this past week.  You can say it was a kid who lost his cool.  You can say it had no place for the field.  You can say beyond a doubt it was bad sportsmanship.  And I know they are KIDS.  Dabo Swinney made him ride the bus home instead of flying with the team.  That is a start, and I know that Dabo probably is more forgiving than other coaches.  But, after watching that, suspend that kid for one, maybe two, games.
2. NFL (in fluid style):  I admit it.  I didn’t see it coming.  I thought the Lamar Jackson train would take a temporary stop in Seattle.  Well, the train had to stop in Seattle, but I thought that…ugghhh.  Whatever.  I thought they would lose.  I am not saying you can sell me fully on the Ravens, and I will of course use the foolish Wilson pick 6 mistake as most of the reason for the swing in the game, but regardless the win at the home of the 12^th Man was impressive.  The Bears have lost after their bye week in SIX consecutive seasons.  Matthew Stafford became the fastest NFL player to pass for 40,000 yards.  This means nothing, because in today’s offenses, that will probably be a relatively short-lived record.  I don’t root for the Patriots in any way, but I kind of want Mohamed Sanu to do well, and then start a social media war with Antonio Brown, someone who COULD have chosen to do well there with a full cupboard and title aspirations.  I am tired of Urban Meyer rumors, and I thought you were retired, man.  The NFL doesn’t have as clear cut  “buyer-seller” trade deadline as baseball, basketball, and hockey, but the Broncos sure have made themselves sellers in whatever they are in.  Sanders is traded to the 49ers, and Chris Harris might be traded before I land for all that I know. The Cardinals are now .500, and although they are not exactly beating powerhouses, it is impressive to have fought back after that start.  Road teams are 59-46-1 this year.  Aaron Rodgers accounted for 6 TD’s last week, and his synergy with his coach’s offense is becoming evident.  He also checked into the MVP possible list this week.  Winning previously, and now winning with stats.  I really need to look at weather forecasts before choosing overs.  Seriously, a problem.  Had minimal wrong picks this weekend, but both were in downpours.  But, in that weather, I guess you could say the Skins are getting closer (when they only allow nine points (spread was ten, by the way)).  If Teddy Bridgewater isn’t auditioning for a monster contract, then I don’t know what is going on.  Man, it must be nice when your backup comes in and runs the table like he is doing, when your HOF QB is about to return.  I don’t think this is how Melvin Gordon envisioned his holdout ending up.  Sure, the team had two other chances, but personally fumbling away the winning TD from inside the 3 yard line is just not good, especially after you were kind of a greedy jerk.  If you were thinking about trading Marvin Jones for a high value in fantasy, now is the time.  Not sure he will be getting 4 TD’s again anytime soon.  Well, most WR’s can’t do that again historically.  Not sure why they dealt Diggs though.  When the Pats were up 24-0, was The Hoodie already mapping out the Sanu trade from the sideline?  The Falcons have no sacks in their last four games.  Before crowning the Bills with anything, let’s keep in mind their 5 wins are against teams with a 6-25 record.  Finally, if the Jets are going to be mad about what gets on air, they probably shouldn’t agree to have Sam Darnold mic’d up when playing the best defense in the NFL.
3. COLLEGE FOOTBALL (in fluid style): You can say what you want about the Pac-12, but Oregon’s resume is not really so bad looking after coming back against Washington.  Neutral field loss to Auburn-that is it.  When the wagon falling over is what distracts you from fear about their actual offense, then your year is going just fine.  Sooner wagon is discontinued for a while, and I am sure Hurts will keep doing what he is doing without their support.  Really sad fact about the time we live in that PETA got all over this story…come on.  Wisconsin has now lost two years in a row A) being in the top 10 B) to an unranked opponent.  UVA beat the over by themselves against a decent Duke, and that win, like that, gave me hope again.  The Arkansas fake punt is one of the worst designed plays you will ever see.  Google it.  I am sure you were telling your friends before the season about how Minnesota and SMU would be undefeated at this point in the season.  We believe you.  Man, LSU is good.  Joe Burrow broke the LSU passing record for TD’s in a season, and we are still in October.  Baylor could possibly be good, but their quality time with OU is coming up soon.  It must be sad for Nick Saban to not have Hurts as his backup during this Tua injury time, so he has to pull from 2 other five-star QB’s.
4. COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Michigan State was #1 in the preseason poll recently released.  It was their first time to have this honor.  I didn’t know that.  I would have bet it happened at least once in the 2000’s.  UVA is #11, and I really hope Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy miss Bodo days this year while they are being a role player off the bench.  I get it though.  Now, they can just BUY Bodo’s.  Finally, don’t worry about not having good quality games.  The top four teams in the preseason poll…all play each other coming to an arena very soon.  You have to love the early tournaments as early tests.
5. NBA:  Giving Siakam the max four-year deal was more about locking up SOMEONE on that title team, and less that he deserves it at this point.  But, I say this, and there are deals going down all the time I question.  EVERYONE is getting overpaid.  The Celtics just paid Jaylen Brown $115 million over four years, and he averages 13,4,and 1.  It is a shame Zion is out longer than we thought.  Not a shame for New Orleans fans, but a shame for the NBA while we watch how early he will be special.  At least Zion is coming back.  NBA fans might not even be able to enjoy Klay Thompson for one second of the year.  Man, Curry is suddenly back in a position where he HAS to produce.  Should be interesting.  My prediction this year?  Well, my quick one is Bucks over Clippers, but I would like to think about it a little more, please.
6. MLB:  Altuve is fun to watch, whether he is hitting game winning home runs against the Yankees, or just playing the game.  Altuve has made it to base in TWENTY ONE straight postseason games.  The rotational matchups in this series are kind of ridiculous.  Do the Astros have NO left-handed pitchers?  The Astros dropped the first game, and I am not sure of what will go on tonight, but they are too good to lose this over a period of seven games or so.  I got Astros in six.
7. MISCELLANEOUS: Conor McGregor is accused of sexual assault and we were not surprised.  Andy Murray won his first tournament since coming back from injury and we were not informed enough about this.  Jason Day bested Tiger Woods in the Skins event we were not aware was going on.
8. THIS AND THAT:  I like Pizza Hut’s saying “You can’t have football with the hut.”  I don’t understand hair extensions and am pretty sure I was not aware it was a thing until about 7 years ago or so.  I tried the Einstein’s Bagelrito.  It was OK, and glad I tried it, but will be going back to the standard bagel breakfast sandwich moving forward.  The Bagelrito was effective in eating in the car while driving though.   On The Voice, I feel like Gwen and Blake actually listen to each other when the other coaches give their opinion, and that is cheesy.  And are we officially at the point in musical time that I won’t see any rockers on The Voice?  No one can win with a Sebastian Bach voice anymore?  Ugghhh.  Got stuck in Hacksaw Ridge the other night, and man you need to watch that movie if you have never seen it.  Got stuck in Princess Bride the other night, and we all know that is the greatest movie of all time anyway.  The new Star Wars trailer?  It was ok.  Looks good again.  Not believing this is the “last one.”  I have a firm belief that Star Wars movies will easily outlast my existence on this Earth.  Finally, read the SI article on Tom Seaver.  Quite moving and informational at the same time.
9. THE FILLERBUSTER:  I think I thought Everything bagels had things I didn’t like because it was “everything,” but turns out I like the things in that everything.  The Denver wind last week was nuts, and let’s just say I am collecting tree trimming quotes VERY quickly, as one tree has already had a part fall in year’s past.  I have found my winter outfit.  My customary drifit with a thermal UNDERNEATH.  Brilliant.  No outfit changes.  My wife bought cat costumes for Halloween, and I don’t know what to think about one being a bat and the other being a peacock.  But, we tried them out already, and the one that I thought wouldn’t take it for a second…just sat there, full costumed out.  Bacon Social House is a good spot to go, and get the Bacon Flight if you do.  Yes, a bacon flight.  I had SO much fun drafting my fantasy basketball team for NBA.  Never expected it.  But, my rule was to use my hoops knowledge, and get people I like.  My team name is Hoos Scoring, I have an OU product in Blake Griffin so my wife roots for me.  I have a couple of UVA guys for backups.  And, my starting lineup is Jamul Murray (Nugs), Luka (favorite player), LeBron (because he was there), Blake (last position picked), and Rudy Gobert (wanted him), and I couldn’t be happier.  I had the Impossible Whopper just to try it.  I won’t seek it out, but I thought it was surprisingly good.  My wife let cheese go bad in our fridge, and she knows that is the ONLY thing we can’t let happen in our house.  No bad cheese on my watch, but I am not allowed to go into certain fridge drawers.  Finally, my brief notes on the Montreal trip.  One stop flights for work are the WORST.  Why does United have plugs and no one else does?  We got air on one of our landings, and it was horrifically cool.  Chicago’s airport is really big, but I like it because you can walk everywhere and don’t need a train.  Montreal is the city where everything is preferred in French, but they will speak in English on everything, and that must irritate the hell out of them.  I watched my first snow shovel commercial when in Canada this week.  Finding a sports bar wasn’t too hard, but keeping the baseball game up on a TV was.  East Coast time just stinks all the way around.  I barely stayed awake for Game 1 of the World Series.  Sad.  It rained, as Forrest Gump would say, very wet rain while we were there.  We didn’t have time to explore, but luckily had time to that last time.  They don’t have aioli there, so when I asked what they had besides ranch for fries dipping, and they said gravy, I said sure, why not.  Finally, in Canada, everyone is SOOOO freaking nice.  IN every situation.  To everyone.  Wow.
10. TWEET OF THE WEEK

1. 11.This was a lightning fast blog.  Let’s count the Montreal stuff technically as #11.

ALTERNATE CATEGORIES THAT DIDN’T MAKE CUT THIS WEEK

1. THE BEST WORKOUT SONG EVER FOR THIS WEEK (because the best song this week IS the best song ever…for now):
2. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
3. LINKS TO SAVE YOU TIME IN LIFE
4. TRAVEL
5. THIS WEEK’S LIST
6. MY NUMBERS
7. GONE FISHING (the riddle for money):
8. PICS BY MY PIXEL (pictures from my phone):
9. LIFEGUARD ENTRY:
10. NHL

The theme?  Read this more.  It is an Airplane rant.  Possibly one of the best comedies of all time, ahead of most, and always behind the true #1, Princess Bride.

And our weekly reminder of the greatest sequel ever made coming out next summer… Top Gun 2.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSqVVswa420

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.  As one shepherd said to the other shepherd, let’s get the flock out of here.

Clips win round 1 vs. lakers