Happy Halloween

Greetings once again to everyone, except for the Chicago Blackhawks. I am pleased to report that the hiccup binge I went on last week has subsided. I have zero idea what I'm going to dress up as for Halloween, d truth be told, the last time I did dress up for it was 2010 and I went to downtown Orlando. Man, that was such a good time. Anyway, if I do decide at the last minute to dress up, given my hair now, I might become a monk:

...oh well, there's always next year.

So anyway, I had another pretty good week picking NFL games, going 11-2 and 7-6 ATS. I believe that's my third consecutive 11-win week, putting me at 76-31 for the season and 56-48-1 against the spread. As for tonight's game, I'm thinking upset in the desert, as Green Bay (+6.5) knocks off Arizona as the lone unbeaten team, giving Miami Dolphins fans the only thing they've had to cheer about this season.

Well, it's that time of the year again. No sis, not the time to stuff our house with things you bought from QVC, but winter storm season. Along with it comes the Weather Channel's stupid policy of giving winter storms a name. Instead of going off what that outlet of the media thinks (more on THAT in a moment), I've decided to use my own names for said storms. Here they are:

Agatha

Buttpaste

Cringe

DeSantis

Edsel

Flim-Flam

Gossamer

Hiccup

Insanity

Jameis (does that one come with a side of crablegs?)

Karen (obvious)

Lauren

Marjorie (see a trend here?)

Nincompoop

O'Really

Panther

QAnon

Robeson

Sham-wow

Trump

Ugly

Vanity

Whammo

XXX
Yankee

ZING!!

Really though, there isn't a need to name them; we went years and years going without and the only reason you did this was because of Sandy in 2012. Like I said, it's stupid.

Speaking of stupid, I have to call out this epidemic of stupidity that has been running rampant in our electronic media for a while now. It's like whichever medium you decide to watch/listen to, there seems to be a slant as to which POV a particular story is on. Take the Gabby Petito case. The side of the media that is aligned to the right (Fox News, Newsmax, NewsNation, etc) waned to delve into conspiracy theories that Brian Laundrie was alive, which brought back from the seemingly irrelevant Dog The Bounty Hunter attempting to extend his fifteen minutes of fame when it turned out he was dead all along. Then you have the greatest mystery inn aviation history, Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Remember when CNN basically had 24/7 coverage on it, and you couldn't go an hour of coverage with seeing Richard Quest's face? And one time, if memory serves me correct, a CNN panel actually speculated on whether or not the flight went into a black hole?

Whatever happened to critical thinking in our society? Whatever happened to thinking period? Nowadays watching the news is like the early 1980's song "Dirty Laundry" by Don Henley. Remember pageants like Miss America and Miss Universe? Why don't we start one called "Miss Informaton?" And here's our first contestant, Miss South Dakota!

Ah, that resting witch face already makes her a top contender for the crown.

Seriously though, media. Knock it off. What happened to "just the facts, ma'am (or man)?" What is the latest from Washington, not "President Biden picked his nose today. HE'S UNPRESIDENTIAL!!" Screw your ratings and your ad sales, we want the news. Not dirt slinging and agenda-pushing. If I wanted dirt-slinging, I can just to the Monster truck show in January at Raymond James Stadium. What I'm saying to the media is...

I think I'll wrap up this entry here. I should have more later this week. Until next time...

CT

I Have Some Catching Up To Do

 

Hello again. As you probably have figured out by now, I haven't been very active writing on this blog he past couple of weeks. As one twitter mutual stated this week, "Yay for depression." Besides that though, I've been battling a severe case of hiccups this week. Starting on Wednesday night and lasting until about an hour ago. It got so bad one time that early Thursday morning, I was nearly convulsing from it. Don't know what exactly triggered it, but I think it was the chicken pot pie I had Wednesday for dinner. For some reason it doesn't settle very well with my stomach; gas pain, bloating, the sudden inability to belch; okay, I'm going too far (and perhaps I should get some Gas-X). I just don't want to become that then-teenage girl from the Tampa Bay area that suddenly gained notoriety for having non-stop hiccups some years ago (I think it was the last decade) then a few years after that, was invoved in a bizarre murder-for-hire scheme. Yes, that actually happened. And just as I typed hat, they (hiccup) returned. Man, I (hiccup) just can't catch a good (hiccup) break. 

First off, the authorities found Brian Laundrie, or what was left of him, yesterday. Good. I think everybody under the sun who have been following the case knew he strangled poor Gabbie Petitio to death. As for me, I speculated with a friend up in St. Louis via text around the time he suddenly vanished in that nature preserve that he was more than likely in the belly of an alligator. I didn't buy into conspiracy theories that many in the right-wing media were trying to peddle (which caused Dog the Gravy Trainer to try to "chase" after him, much to the delight of Fox News and NewsNation). Sure enough, he was probably mauled to death/eaten by a gator or some other animal in the Florida swamp.

 

Given the proximity of this story to Halloween, I wonder if someone in Hollywood would try to spin this entire tragedy into a scary Halloween-type horror story. Like Laundrie isn't actually dead, but he somehow managed to survive the swamp and now he (or his zombie-like body or his demented spirit) now haunts that part of SW Florida. Then again, a story like that probably has been done before, but if it does get done, I have one request: please have a running car scene in it.

Hockey and basketball seasons have started. I have high hopes for the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions Tampa Bay Lightning again this season. Three-peat? Possible, but I kind of doubt it. My Stanley Cup Final picks are the New York Islanders over the Colorado Avalanche (who the Lightning play Saturday). As for the Orlando Tragic, it's another year in their perpetual rebuild. After tonight's loss, they're 0-2 on the young season. To be honest, I think they'll struggle to win 20 games this season, and probably gain a top-3 lottery pick. As for who wins this season? Well, it's the 75th anniversary of the league this year, so naturally it will be the Los Angeles Lakers besting the Boston Celtics for the Larry O'Brien trophy.

My football picks have been pretty good...sort of. In the last two weeks I was 11-5 and 11-3 straight up, but 7-8-1 and 8-6 against the spread. For the season, I'm 65-29 straight up and 49-44-1 ATS. Allow me for a second to go over the Seminole Compact. Yes, it's good that people in Florida can participate in sports betting...but there's a catch. It must be done on Seminole land. Which means unless you live in South Florida or Tampa, you're sh*t out of luck. And you can't participate in sports books that you see advertised on TV (such as Caesar's). Which means if you live in (ironically named) Seminole County, you have to traverse the hellish nightmare that is Interstate 4 through downtown Orlando AND the attractions area, then miles and miles of swampy wasteland until you reach Lakeland, where you're within striking distance of Hard Rock Tampa (which is thankfully on the east side of town by the fairgrounds). If you remember my entry from over two years ago, you'll remember I had it with living in Florida, and had about a foot out the door even. But my sister didn't want me to explore St. Louis when I wanted to (she apparently has never wanted me to possibly fall in love), and I wound up waiting until November of that year. Then the pandemic happened. Now we're here. Yes, Tampa has won three championships in that time, but it isn't the end-all-be-all. You know how some folks are now saying "bleep Joe Biden?" well I have my own mantra I've had since 2018: "(Bleep) Ron Desantis and (bleep) Donald Trump."

Sorry about that rant, anyway, here are my picks for this week's NFL games:

NYG (+3) over CAR

ATL (-2.5) over MIA

GB (-7.5) over WAS

BAL (-6.5) over CIN 

NE (-7) over NYJ

TEN (+4.5) over KC

LAR (-16.5) over DET

LV (-3) over PHI

ARI over HOU (+17.5)

TB over CHI (+11.5)

IND (+4) over SF

NO (-4.5) over SEA

BYES:

BUF, DAL, LAC, PIT, MIN

Bye-bye-bye:
JAX

I might have more later this weekend, but (hiccup) I have to (hiccup) get these (hiccup) hiccups squared away (hiccup). Until later (hiccup).

CT

Twitter

NFL Week 6 picks

 I should have a proper blog entry tomorrow, in the meantime here's who I have this weekend in the NFL:

Tampa Bay (-7) over Philadelphia

Miami (-3) over Fulham (Jacksonville)

Cincinnati (-3.5) over Detroit

Kansas City (-6.5) over Washington

Carolina (+2) over Minnesota

Indianapolis over Houston (+10)

LA Rams (-9.5) over NY Giants

Baltimore (-3) over LA Chargers

Green Bay (-5) over Chicago

Arizona (+3.5) over Cleveland

Las Vegas (+3.5) over Denver

Dallas (-3.5) over New England

Pittsburgh (-5) over Seattle

Buffalo over Tennessee (+5.5)

Bye:
Atlanta
New Orleans
San Francisco

Bye-bye:
NY Jets

CT

Red Flags

Red flags. I'm sure you've heard of them. If you're a gearhead, they mean stop an auto race for a bad accident. For maritime messaging, it means the letter B. For relationships, it's a little different because it isn't literal. 

It's various behaviors that signify to another person, usually a potential dating partner, that something isn't quite right. And since on Twitter, posting "🚩" have been all the rage this week, I thought I might share a few of my own.

If she smokes, 🚩

If she doesn't like nor follow sports, 🚩🚩

If she refers to the Tampa Bay Lightning as the Lightening, 🚩🚩🚩

If she doesn't like that you watch wrestling on occasion, 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

If she sounds like Fran Drescher, 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

If she doesn't believe in science, 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

If they like Ron DeSantis, 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

If they're MAGA, 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

...and my personal favorite, if they attended a particular college in the Appalachians,🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

okay, not really...😂

CT

Friday Night Shenanigans

Hello again, it's Friday night and nothing's going on. I could be drinking, but I'm not really supposed to. The Red Sox won tonight, so that sucked. So, what should I write about?

Well, I can retrace how I did last week in my football picks. In a word lousy. College picks were 6-9 (NOT nice at all). In the pros, I went 10-6 straight up but a puny 7-9 ATS, so for the season, I'm 43-21 straight up but 34-30 ATS. Suffice to say I'm glad I don't gamble on games, then again I live in a state with a sorry-ass governor, so there's that.  

For this weekend in college football here's who I have

Ohio State over Maryland

Tennessee over South Carolina

Florida over Vanderbilt (seriously though, WTF was that performance last week?)

Texas over Oklahoma

Georgia Tech over Duke

Virginia over Louisville

Wisconsin over Illinois

Georgia over Auburn

UMass over UConn (in the Toilet Bowl; they're a combined 0-11)

North Carolina over Florida State
SMU over Navy

Iowa over Penn State

UCF over ECU

Kentucky over LSU

Michigan over Nebraska

As for the rest of this week in the NFL (I was successful Thursday night)

NYJ (+2.5) over ATL

NO (-2.5) over WSH

GB (-3) over CIN

MIN over DET (+10)

PIT (+1.5) over DEN

TEN (-4.5) over JAX

TB over MIA (+10)

NE (-8) over HOU

CLE (+2.5) over LAC

LV (-5.5) over CHI

AZ (-5) over SF

DAL (7) over NYG

KC (-3) over BUF

BAL (-7) over IND

Hang on while I grab a snack real quick

Alright, I'm back. Bit of clarification on the posted tweet from earlier. When I composed said tweet, I wasn't really feeling it; tonight, I am. I guess that's what chronic depression can do, at least I take Prozac to keep me on somewhat even keel.

Something from my last entry I wanted to talk about briefly:

Yes, I'm starting to get too old to have crushes, heck I'm pushing 50 for heaven's sake. That doesn't mean that I don't have interest in females, though not the ones listed though because those five are not in my ballpark, unavailable, or both. I know schoolteachers in Orange County probably breathe a sigh of relief, but realistically I'm not in a position to even see anyone, let alone date (Thanks, sis!). I mean I'm kinda aggravated enough as it is living with my siblings, my stroke four plus years ago also doesn't help matters. There's plenty of other factors that limit me that I'd rather not get into here, but if anyone has a question about it, I might address it, though likely not here.

Well, it's getting late, so I guess I'll wrap this up. Until next time.

CT

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Someone Wake Up Green Day...

 ...September is coming to an end. That means the spooky month is upon us, and already Halloween-inspired television ads are inundating our programs. The "Why can't we get in the running car?" Geicoween spot I've seen already. Did you know that's a seven-year old commercial? I thought those that silly Discover Card ads that have been running lately were old; you know, the one where the woman is screaming "it's cash back match people!!!" while all her coworkers are giving her funny looks like little Chloe in that viral video about her sister going to Disneyland several years ago. Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent.

Let's take a gander on how I did last weekend? Well after a somewhat sluggish start, I matched my 11-4 mark of the week before, and got the upset special right...AGAIN! You're welcome, NC State fans.

Let's see if I can up that mark for this week? Here are my picks for this week's college slate:

Tulsa over Houston
Wisconsin over Michigan
North Carolina over Duke
Pitt over Georgia Tech
Georgia over Arkansas
Notre Dame over Cincinnati
Ohio State over Rutgers
Syracuse over Florida State
UCF over Navy
SMU over USF
Florida over Kentucky 
Air Force over New Mexico
Army over Ball State
Baylor over Oklahoma State ("upset" special)
LSU over Auburn

As for the NFL, after what was another unreal week, I went 12-4 straight up (for the second straight week), but a measly 8-8 against the spread. There was another Gusgasm, and also a record-breaking field goal to win a game, although it shouldn't have happened. Also, the Giants shot themselves in the foot again, leading to another loss, and my Bucs may have been looking ahead to this Sunday night in Foxborough (then again, maybe not) in losing to the Rams.

Anyway, here's this weekend's NFL picks:

CIN (-7.5) over JAX

NO (-7.5) over NYG

KC (-7) over PHI

BUF over HOU (+16.5)

DAL (-4.5) over CAR

CLE (-2) over MIN

IND (+2) over MIA

TEN (-7) over NYJ

DET (+3) over CHI

WAS (-1.5) over ATL

LAR over ARI (+5)

SF (-3) over SEA

GB (-6.5) over PIT

BAL (pick 'em) over DEN

TB (-7) over NE

LV (+3) over LAC

To see which games you'll get to see, 506 Sports has your info. 

One bonus pick this week, Apopka over Evans in high school football. I don't normally pick high school games, but I had to pick my HS alma mater over that school in Pine Hills. 

Some other things before I go just to trigger certain schoolteachers in Orange County. Anyone who watches/follows professional wresting sports entertainment are probably wondering what on Earth they saw at the end of WWE's special event last Sunday. For those (like me) who have been following the WWF/E for years, this has to be the hokiest thing we've ever seen. As we were watching it live, we thought the same thing: 

Their next one is in Saudi, so I won't be watching for...reasons.

Someone on twitter about a month ago pondered the question who my five crushes were or who had a crush on me. First off, if anyone has a crush on me, it would be a first. Secondly, if you want to know who five of my crushes are, well I can give you five random names since I'm 47 and quite frankly am getting kinda old for this shit. 

Heather Locklear
Miley Cyrus
Lynda Carter c. 1979
she who shall not be named (told you I would trigger someone)
and since it's Halloween season, Erin Nicole Kline.

Who's she, you ask? Well she portrayed Chance the Clown at Universal Studio Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights (which I've never been to by the way).

She kind of reminds me of a bartender in the Tampa Bay area I used to be interested in but has since gotten married. Anyway, she hasn't been around for a few years now and that bums me out to be honest, because she was the most attractive clown like ever. Wait a minute, someone has a question for me?

"Why can't we just get in the running car?!"

Oh jeez...😖  

CT

College Week 4/NFL Week 3

 

Greetings everyone, except for you Brian Laundrie. Well, it's Friday afternoon, and you know what that means:

...too bad I couldn't find a GIF with larger captions,  but anyway let's get after it, starting with the college slate:

College week 4

Last week was my first week keeping track of college games, and I didn't do too badly, going 11-4. I hope for a similar outcome this week...

Virginia over Wake Forest

Libbity Bibbity over Syracuse

Texas over Texas Tech

Notre Dame over Wisconsin

Mississippi State over LSU

Michigan over Rutgers

Arkansas over Texas A&M 

NC State over Clemson (upset special)

Louisville over Florida State

Purdue over Illinois

Duke over Kansas

Florida over Tennessee

Oklahoma over West Virginia

North Carolina over Georgia Tech

BYU over USF (by a thousand)

Oregon over Arizona

UCF has the week off to lick their wounded pride.

I hit on my upset special last week (West Virginia over Va Tech), and I'm going ACC again this week. Clemson BARELY beat Georgia Tech at home (in a game that had a lengthy weather delay), and their offense without Trevor Lawrence looks lost. 

NFL Week 3

Last night I correctly picked Carolina minus the 8 points, giving me a 1-0 start to the week. Let's see f I can keep it going:

BAL (-8) over DET

NYG (-3) over ATL

NO (+3) over NE

PIT (-3) over CIN

TEN (-5.5) over IND

BUF over WAS (+7.5)

KC (-7) over LAC

ARI over JAX (+7.5)

CLE (-7) over CHI

DEN (-10.5) over NYJ

LV (-4) over MIA

SEA (-1.5) over MIN

LAR (+1.5) over TB 😑

GB (+3) over SF

DAL (-3.5) over PHI

Wait, I hear the Weeknd is trying to find that GIF that has larger fonts:

Oh, A Bonus Pick For You

Melbourne over Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League Grand Final. Melbourne hasn't won a premiership since JFK was President, and America had zero clue what "footy" was. Damn you ESPN for getting me hooked when I was little!

oh, and Go USA in the Ryder Cup!  \

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

CT