I finally got around to seeing the final season of House of Cards this weekend. This is the show that I used to watch an entire season the first weekend it dropped.
It got weird the last few seasons. Weirder still without Kevin Spacey. And a weak end to an increasingly weak series.
But I just had to see how it ended.
And now I have.
I’ve never been involved in a “Black Friday” sale. I can barely handle shopping on a Tuesday afternoon; I’m not doing it with a bunch of clowns in the middle of the night.
My plan today?
Newspaper, leftovers, sports, repeat.
Actually that’s every day of my life.
Wouldn’t have it any other way.
I have never seen the Jim Carrey version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Won’t see the new version either, out in theatres now so I’ve heard.
Don’t need to. I’ve seen the 1966 cartoon and nothing could possibly top that.
Green pancakes and green hot chocolate, however, at IHOP? Yes, yes, yes. My take? Two green thumbs up.
And the world just keeps on getting better.
While the rest of the country looks forward to Thanksgiving I am looking forward to Saturday evening, when the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame bring their act on the road to LA to face the USC Trojans. (A Hollywood ending to their regular season?) The Irish enter the game 11-0, a victory no doubt assuring them a spot in the College Football Playoff. This game follows the team’s one-sided victory Saturday against Syracuse, who came in to the game ranked in the top 15 for the first time since I believe 1987. (Well, not really that long.) The game was played at Yankee Stadium, and it’s been a while since I saw a team play that well in pinstripes. Actually, the Irish didn’t even play great, which makes their (potentially) three final contests that much more interesting. This team playing its best can compete with anyone.
But first they’ve got to make it in Hollywood.
There are many reasons why I left Binghamton many years ago.
Near the top of that list would be snow and ice in the middle of November.
Not cool, Northern Virginia. Not cool.
Gary Giddins’ new biography of Bing Crosby, nearly two decades in the making (“part one” was released at the beginning of this century) should be the kind of book that’s right up my alley. It’s more than 700 pages long, covering exactly six years of Crosby’s life. Yup, it just focuses on “the war years,” 1940-1946.
You know those people who bore us on social media with pictures of what they eat for lunch every day?
That’s this book.
First-place team as a three-point underdog?
That’s just insulting.
Thirteen-point victory?
That’s called redemption.
Notre Dame with a big game against Florida State tomorrow?
This is 1993, right?
There may have been a Blue Wave last night, but it did not extend to the University of Kentucky. The Wildcats’ men’s basketball team was trounced by Duke in the “Champions League” tournament in Indianapolis, 118-84. This following a disappointing loss last Saturday for the football team against Georgia.
My sources say the bourbon and fried chicken were unharmed.
Yesterday’s loss for my hometown (and still first-place) Redskins was far from the worst sports moment I’ve ever witnessed. That distinction belongs to Game Seven of the 2001 World Series, described in last Friday’s post.
Over the weekend I thought some more about “bad” sports moments I’ve experienced. Here’s the rest of the top five from this century, in chronological order.
On September 2, 2001, on a Sunday night at Fenway Park, Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina was nearly perfect. He ended up with a shutout, 13 strikeouts and no walks. His game score was 98, for those of you interested in such things. He faced 28 batters. The second-to-last (pinch hitter Carl Everett) was the only man to reach base. Nine days later was September 11 and everyone forgot about Mussina’s near perfect start (he had several near no-hitters in his career but never completed one). But not this guy.
On July 19, 2009, Tom Watson had a chance to make history. He was in search of his ninth major championship, and his sixth British Open. It would have been his first such victory in 26 years.
Did I mention he was 59 years old?
This would have been the sports moment of the century, but it was not meant to be. Par on Watson’s final hole would have done it, but he finished with a bogey, then lost in his four-hole playoff with Stewart Cink.
Number four is Butler losing to Duke in the 2010 NCAA Championship. Jim Nantz’s final call of “it almost went in!” pretty much sums up that game.
And number five? That would be Super Bowl LI, from February 2017, when the upstart Atlanta Falcons lost to the blueblood New England Patriots (the Butler and Duke of the NFL). Seriously, did anyone want New England to win that game? Atlanta had it won, but blew a 25-point second-half lead and lost in overtime.
Kind of puts that mid-season ‘Skins loss in perspective, doesn’t it?