TMQ Watch: September 2, 2014.

Yes, we know. We’re still a little behind. Our schedule was thrown off yesterday because we actually went “golfing”. (Technically, we went to a driving range. Yes, we know that seems odd; it was a corporate outing, and we were in it more to be social than to hit balls.)

Anyway, haiku after the jump….

By our count, TMQ’s seasonal prediction haiku contain precisely one seasonal reference (if you count “December”) out of 32. Should we just give up this battle?

TMQ’s “recent positive developments” include:

The Ed O’Bannon and Power Five decisions, which may lead either to less inequity in the financial situations of big-college athletes or to the collapse of the NCAA. Either would be preferable to the current arrangement.

Interesting that TMQ is endorsing the possible collapse of the NCAA. We endorse this as well, but we don’t work for a major sports and entertainment programming network that has a great deal invested in the current system.

(O’Bannon and Power Five explained.)

“Further reforms are needed.” Including:

Rules about heat awareness are one thing; observing the rules is another. Last week Marquese Meadow, a football player at Morgan State University, died of heat stroke. Unlike other risks in life, heat stroke is 100 percent preventable. No one in a supervised setting should die from heat.

Yeah, we pretty much agree with that.

It continues to be absurd that NFL headquarters in New York City, where Roger Goodell pays himself $44 million a year as he pretends to run a civic-improvement organization, enjoys not-for-profit status.

Hey, did you know that “PIN” means “Personal Identification Number” and thus “PIN number” is redundant?

Regret the Error“. “Smarter Times“. “Tuesday Morning Quarterback“. One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong…

Your columnist thinks this creates an opportunity for either the FCC or the Justice Department to end the arrangement in which only subscribers of DirecTV can purchase NFL Sunday Ticket.

And we already used the “not this shit again” graphic, didn’t we?

The Michael Brewer situation sounds appalling, but we wonder if there’s more to than TMQ is letting on.

Is Philadelphia deliberately tanking?
Honestly, we’re hoping that they go 0-82 this season. Creep.

While print editions of newspapers struggle, their web editions keep getting better.

[Citation needed.]

Noted:

Last week some Harvard alums released numbers the university’s money managers have been trying to keep quiet. (The alums are unhappy with the university’s self-indulgent use of money. Harvard’s endowment is sufficient that every undergraduate could attend free, but instead university insiders live in luxury while alums are dunned for more donations, a topic this column will return to later this autumn with my annual endowment-abuse item.) The alums found that Harvard’s endowment has a 324-person staff with an average annual income of $410,000, captained by the recently departed Jane Mendillo, who paid herself $5 million a year. For doing a terrible job! Harvard would have ended up ahead by laying off 323 of its money managers and instructing the remaining one to call the 800 number of Vanguard. But then there would have been no mysticism about secret investment formulas and no excuse to divert huge paydays to unproductive white-collar cronies of Harvard’s administration.

The state of automotive reviewing. Yawn.

Here the Times practically has an orgasm about the Mercedes S550. Not only can the car’s 155 mph top speed not be used on any public road, including in Germany — autobahns have speed limits of about 80 mph in some areas, while anyone can be ticketed for driving too fast for conditions — this car can barely get out of second gear in New York City, where the default speed limit is 25 mph and the max speed limit is 40 mph on FDR Drive.

Is the NYT only supposed to consider how “useful” (for want of a better word) a car is in New York?

The new Impala is impressive, and the fact that a Detroit automaker builds a well-done full-sized sedan that gets a combined fuel rating of 29 mpg is something the New York Times ought to celebrate. Instead the Times calls the car underpowered — a rich man’s complaint.

“A rich man’s complaint” until you start trying to merge onto a freeway, perhaps.

Ezra Dyer, same reviewer who was not amused by the fuel-efficient Impala, didn’t like the Chevrolet Malibu Eco, which also records 29 mpg and emits half as much carbon dioxide per mile as the monsters the Times adores.

Luckily, TMQ provides a link to Dyer’s review, so you can see what his actual issues with the Malibu Eco were. Hint: “An appealing car wrapped around a Rube Goldberg powertrain.

If you were a United States soldier, sailor or aircrew member on duty protecting oil supply lines in the Persian Gulf, how might you feel about the nation’s most important newspaper mocking fuel efficiency while praising wasteful cars?

We like to think that, if we were in that position, we’d look forward to coming home on leave and taking that 580-horsepower Camaro ZL1 out for a spin. Perhaps we’d make the run between Austin and El Paso along I-10. It smells like…freedom.

But a designer cocktail dress or $300 meal don’t have public-policy implications.

Somebody ought to tell that to Mark Bittman.

Do you remember David Sills? 13 year old kid? Already had a football scholarship with USC? Surprise, surprise, surprise.

But is sitting in front of a computer clicking boxes on a screen really education?

We’re not familiar with Eastern Christian Academy’s programs, and we doubt TMQ is, either. But “sitting in front of a computer clicking boxes on a screen” seems really dismissive of online education.

(Speaking of hustlers and phony stories, we’re throw in a link to this TechDirt piece, just in case you missed it.)

Money. Money. Money. Brady.

Candidates for the spot include a bevy of undrafted free agents — Ryan Wendell, Dan Connolly, Jordan Devey and Josh Kline — all of whom earn substantially less than Mankins.

We think we hear TMQ’s nipples exploding with delight at the prospect of being able to write more about the Patriots and undrafted free agents.

And that’s a wrap. Next week, the season begins in earnest.

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