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Your NFL loser update: week 5, 2026.

Sunday, October 11th, 2026

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:

Miami
Tennessee
Chargers

Well, will you look at this? Miami is 0-5, but I can’t believe they are really that bad.

Someone had to win the Tennessee-Houston game, and it turned out to be Houston.

And the worthless Chargers are now 0-5 as well.

This is actually making me kind of happy.

It looks like Miami has a bye next week, and the worthless Chargers play Kansas City. KC is a heavy favorite in that game, of course. Tennessee plays Indianapolis: Indy is also a heavy favorite in that game.

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | No Comments »

Obit watch: October 10, 2026.

Saturday, October 10th, 2026

Short and quick: Mike Ditka. NFL.com. ESPN. Chicago Tribune (archived). Chicago Sun Times. NYT (share link, may require).

Noted:

But Ditka became disenchanted in 1966, when he had just 32 receptions for 378 yards and two touchdowns, and claiming a “clash of personalities” with Halas, signed a three-year contract with the AFL’s Houston Oilers. Before the Bears could challenge the legality of that move — the AFL and NFL were in the process of a merger — Halas traded Ditka to the Eagles for quarterback Jack Concannon.

Posted in NFL, Obits, Sports | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: October 9, 2026.

Friday, October 9th, 2026

I know about Mike Ditka, but in keeping with this blog’s policy, I want to wait until tomorrow to do a round-up.

In the meantime:

Margaret Hamilton. No, not that one (though I did say to my mother when she asked me if I’d heard of her, “Wasn’t she the Wicked Witch of the West?”). This one led the team that developed the software for Apollo.

She was the first female programmer hired to work on the Apollo project, housed at M.I.T.’s Instrumentation Laboratory, in 1965. Her skills led to her promotion to director of software engineering on the project, which developed the two 70-pound onboard computers for the Apollo flights: one in the command module, which carried the astronauts from Earth, and the second in the lunar module, which set down on the moon’s surface.

…

Ms. Hamilton worked on the six lunar landing missions from 1969 to 1972. Her programming also contributed to Skylab, America’s first space station, launched in 1973, and to the early design of the space shuttle. She left M.I.T. to found a company, Higher Order Software, in 1976, as well as a second firm a decade later, Hamilton Technologies.

Cecily Gemmell. You’ve never heard of her, but she was the last tie to a particular era of history.

She was Winston Churchill’s last surviving personal secretary.

Ms. Gemmell, known as Chips, first entered Churchill’s orbit in the summer of 1947 at the age of 18, arriving in the still-stunned aftermath of his 1945 general election defeat as Britain’s wartime prime minister. His reputation as the man who had saved the world from Hitler’s tyranny was titanic, but his electoral ejection from No. 10 Downing Street before final victory — Germany had surrendered, Japan had not — remained humbling.
Youth was a requirement for a Churchill stenotyping secretary. “The Old Man,” as he was known, dictated so long and so late into the night, as a rule, that stamina was essential. Ms. Gemmell joined a team of extraordinarily bright and capable, if often exhausted, young women, and a proud line of exceptional Churchill personal secretaries (all but one of them female) that extended back through both world wars to 1902. At her death, Ms. Gemmell was the last.

…

Ms. Gemmell was initially assigned to Churchill’s literary assistant, Denis Kelly, cataloging the prime minister’s World War II papers in anticipation of Churchill writing his war memoirs. The cache was housed at Chartwell, Churchill’s country home in the county of Kent, and so a place was found for Ms. Gemmell to live in the nearby village of Westerham. She bicycled back and forth to Chartwell, pushing the bike up “an incredibly steep hill” that, at least, “was a cinch coming back down.”
She worked in what she described as the semi-basement of the Muniment Room at Chartwell — “completely untrained,” but tasked with organizing the monumental paper trail of Churchill’s wartime existence. She saw virtually no one other than Mr. Kelly, along with “everybody’s socks — the socks of the famous,” from her obscured vantage. She would “look up and see Anthony Eden’s pink socks leaving the room,” she recalled, referring to the foreign secretary who would later briefly become prime minister. “All I saw of the famous were their socks.”

…

Ms. Gemmell was back again in London with Churchill when he was returned as prime minister in 1951. She accompanied her boss to the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street; to the racecourses where his thoroughbreds ran; to Monte Carlo, where he gambled; to Blenheim Palace, where he was born; to Marrakesh, Lake Como and the Dolomites, where he painted.

Posted in History, NFL, Obits, Science, Sports | No Comments »

Your Friday loser update.

Friday, October 9th, 2026

NHL teams that still have a chance of going 0-84:

Philadelphia
Los Angeles Kings
Calgary

Still early, but I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re going to have at least one horrible team this year. And I don’t think it will be one of the Florida teams, which I hope will make McThag happy.

Posted in Loser, Sports | No Comments »

Firings watch.

Thursday, October 8th, 2026

In March 2026, the Tennessee Titans continued their love affair with all things Oilers, rebranding their uniforms to closely match the relocated franchise that lived in Houston from 1960 to 1996.

I can’t find it now, but I recall the Titans wearing Oilers throwback uniforms during a fairly recent game. I also recall advocating for the public flogging of everyone involved in this decision.

Seven months later, the executives who oversaw the uniform and logo switch have been fired.
According to a statement to the Nashville Tennessean, the Titans have decided to move on from three vice presidents who oversaw marketing, creative and revenue.
“As the Titans prepare for the opening of our new stadium and the future of Titans football, we are making changes to how we lead the business side of the organization,” the Titans said in a statement to the Nashville Tennessean. “We will hire an Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer to lead our revenue, marketing, and communications teams. As part of these changes, Adam Nuse, Erin Swartz, and Charles Jensen are leaving the organization. We are grateful for everything they have contributed to the Titans and wish them the best in future endeavors.”

I know, it is rooting for laundry, and more so than usual. But the Titans annoy me, and this is one of the reasons.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | No Comments »

Your NFL loser update: week 4, 2026.

Sunday, October 4th, 2026

I think maybe panic is worth considering now.

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:

Miami
Houston
Tennessee
Chargers
Tampa Bay

Houston is 0-4, which surprises me. But…is there a chance, maybe a slim one, but a chance, that the worthless Chargers could go 0-17 this year?

A man can hope, can’t he? Isn’t hope what defines humanity?

NHL teams that still have a chance of going 0-84:

Detroit
Philadelphia
Dallas
Chicago
Los Angeles Kings
Calgary

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | No Comments »

Obit watch: October 2, 2026.

Friday, October 2nd, 2026

Playing catch-up:

Gordon Johncock, noted racing driver. He won the Indianapolis 500 twice. His first win was the notoriously bloody 1973 race. His second win was in 1982.

That race featured a spectacular duel in the final laps, with Johncock and Rick Mears vying side by side. Johncock, on the inside, driving a Wildcat/Cosworth, finished a few feet ahead of Mears, winning by 16-hundredths of a second, the slimmest margin in the race’s history at the time.
Johncock’s margin now ranks fifth. The closest finish came this year, when Felix Rosenqvist bested David Malukas by 0.0233 seconds.

Dennis Haskins, actor. Other credits include “Hardcastle and McCormick”, “Cutter to Houston”, and “The Dukes of Hazzard”.

Posted in Cars, Sports, TV | No Comments »

Your Friday loser update.

Friday, October 2nd, 2026

Two things snuck up on me while I was on the road and/or down with the crud.

The first thing was the end of the MLB season. As I stated in a previous update, there were no historically bad teams this year. The Colorado Rockies were not good, but they finished 58-104, with a .358 winning percentage, the lowest this season. The White Sox were 84-78, for a .519 winning percentage, and are in the playoffs. The City Unknown Athletics finished 64-98, with a .395 winning percentage.

And the Astros went 81-81.

The other thing that sort of snuck up on me was the start of the NHL season. I knew it was coming, but I wanted to wait until today before posting a loser update.

NHL teams that still have a chance of going 0-84:

Detroit
Ottawa
Buffalo
Tampa Bay
Carolina
Philadelphia
Washington
New York Islanders
Dallas
St. Louis
Winnipeg
Nashville
Chicago
Anaheim
Los Angeles Kings
Calgary

Posted in Loser, Sports | 1 Comment »

Your NFL loser update: week 3, 2026.

Sunday, September 27th, 2026

Still on the road, so not a whole lot of sophisticated commentary this week.

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:

Miami
Houston
Tennessee
Chargers
Tampa Bay

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | No Comments »

Your NFL loser update: week 2, 2026.

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:

Miami
Houston
Indianapolis
Tennessee
Chargers
Washington
Tampa Bay
Atlanta

Still early in the season. Probably still to early to panic. But: Houston is 0-2? Washington looks to be in trouble. And the worthless Chargers are 0-2 as well.

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | No Comments »

Your NFL loser update: week 1, 2026.

Tuesday, September 15th, 2026

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:

Miami
New England
Cleveland
Houston
Indianapolis
Tennessee
Denver
Chargers
Washington
Dallas
Green Bay
Carolina
New Orleans
Tampa Bay
Atlanta
Rams

Remember, it is just the first week of the season. There’s still plenty of time to panic.

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | No Comments »

Loser update update.

Sunday, September 13th, 2026

The start of the NFL season sort of snuck up on me while I was out of town.

The loser update will return sometime on Tuesday (should be back by then) to allow for the results of the Monday night games.

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | 1 Comment »

Quel fromage!

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026

Previously on WCD:

I’m absolutely convinced that, even if everything is true, the NBA and the Player’s Association won’t do anything about it.

Guess what? I was wrong, WRONG, wrongity-wrong!

The NBA on Wednesday announced severe punishments for the LA Clippers — including the loss of five future first-round picks and a fine of $30 million — for violating salary cap circumvention rules when they signed star Kawhi Leonard in 2022.
In a statement, the NBA said a near-yearlong investigation “found a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers organization, a prior offender of the salary cap circumvention rules.”

There are some other penalties, too. The one that jumps out at me:

Owner Steve Ballmer is suspended from all league and team activities for one year.

Posted in Sports | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: August 27, 2026.

Thursday, August 27th, 2026

Tim Curry. NYT share link (may require registration or an email address or something).

Oddly, I have never seen “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. I didn’t move in the right circles when I was in school, and now it seems like that particular moment has passed.

Other credits include “Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties”, the 2000 “Charlie’s Angels”, “The Blues Brothers Animated Series“, and “Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain”.

The NFL Pro Bowl. Awful Announcing. Enough said.

Posted in Movies, NFL, Obits, Sports | No Comments »

You are not going to space today.

Monday, August 24th, 2026

Dana Brown out as general manager of the Houston Astros.

The Chron calls it a mutual parting of the ways, but it sure sounds like a firing to me.

ESPN.

The Astros are currently in first place in the AL West, but with a 65-66 record. They have lost six of their past eight games.

Posted in Firings, Sports | No Comments »

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