Whipped Cream Difficulties

Right at the 5,200 word mark again. It really does seem like Gregg Easterbrook has an editor. Maybe. But we’ll get into that.

After the jump, this week’s TMQ…

Prep football considered harmful. You can now skip the first 1,200 words of this week’s column. But, if you were wondering, it isn’t the neurological effects that bother TMQ: it is the fact that football at this level has become, according to TMQ, a “year-round sport”, to the detriment of education and participation in other sports.

As a side note to this, since Texas is notoriously football crazy and Easterbrook mentions the state several times in this rant, we looked up the UIL rules on football. (The University Interscholastic League (UIL) is the body that governs athletic and academic competition in Texas, for our readers outside the state.) The last playoff game is in late December, true. But schools can’t start football – can’t even have practices, mostly – until either the first or second week of August, depending. That’s a seven month layoff. (The “mostly” qualifier is there because schools can have “spring practice” before August, but it is limited to a total of 18 days. If schools have “spring practice”, they can’t start regular practice until the second week of August.)

Just saying. Anyway. The maroon zone (which has nothing to do with the Pottsville Maroons). Stats.

Sweet: home Atlanta. Sour: Chargers. Mixed: Green Bay-Chicago.

Hell’s Sports Bar “showed Giants at 49ers—combined record 1-16—while no other game aired”. Man, we would have watched the Pathetic Bowl, if we hadn’t been busy with other more interesting diversions.

NASA’s budget is down in inflation-adjusted terms, but far more is known about rocketry today than was known in 1962—as Elon Musk’s private-rocket projects, operating at a fraction of the NASA budget, have shown.

It is interesting. TMQ has repeatedly expressed great cynicism about private space ventures, including ones run by Musk. But TMQ also seems to be skeptical of public ventures, too. Is Gregg Easterbrook just anti-space exploration in general?

Bad blitzing (ding!): Mississippi State.

How can Matchbox cars not be in the Toy Hall of Fame?

Well, we always found Matchbox cars to be more realistic than Hot Wheels (in general), but we also felt like Hot Wheels rolled better.

Something about Seahawks at Cardinals and uniforms. The Vikings are 7-2. “Can a team with a third-stringer at quarterback reach the Super Bowl?” Well, probably, yes, if he has a good offensive line. The Rams are also 7-2 “but have not beaten anyone that TMQ’s metric considers Authentic”.

1,300 words on how unrealistic time travel is, which you can now skip. (One very small point to TMQ for his reference to Dan Simmons‘s “Hyperion” series, though.)

Fullbacks, going for it on 4th, and chicken-(salad) kicking, all in the New England-Denver game.

We’re All Professionals Here. Quarterbacks Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh McCown started for the Buccaneers and Jets against their former teams. Fitzpatrick and McCown have lots of former teams, having been with a combined 15 NFL clubs. Each showing the opponent why he deserved to be let go, they threw interceptions on back-to-back snaps.

We have nothing to add to that, we just thought it was worth calling out.

The 500 Club. The 600 Club. Oklahoma, where the passes come sweeping down the field.

Beloit 35, Grinnell 0. Do Not Taunt Happy Fun NFL Players. No bad officiating this week? Really?

That’s a wrap for this week, folks. Tune in next week to see if our plan to travel back in time and prevent Gregg Easterbrook from writing TMQ works.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 15th, 2017 at 12:49 pm and is filed under NFL, Sports, TMQ watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.