Odd Couple

As the old saying goes...

"Keep your friends close...

...and your enemies closer."

There's a New Sheriff in Town

If you look over at my Links section over on the right sidebar, you'll see that there's a new one right at the top. Ordinarily, I add each new link at the bottom of the list (mostly because it's easy and I'm lazy), but as I welcome my old friend the Faxman into the blogosphere, he gets the nepotistic treatment and a bump to the top of the list. He's only been going for a few days, but already has posts on Lenny Briscoe, Master P, Troeg's Oatmeal Stout, and Star Wars Legos. If you enjoy this blog (and my stats show that very few of you do), you'll probably like his even better.

Book Controversy

Whoops!

I changed up my "Recent Experiences" section (over in the left sidebar, if you've never scrolled all the way down) over the holidays to highlight a book I recently read and greatly enjoyed (and, by the way, the only time in my life thus far that I've ever read, let alone recommended, a book that was part of Oprah's Book Club). That book, which is still linked, is James Frey's memoir of rehab and recovery from alcohol and drug abuse, A Million Little Pieces.

But is it really a memoir? Earlier this week, Frey's credibility regarding a number of the events in his books was called into question by The Smoking Gun, specifically the severity of his criminal past. (Warning, spoilers in preceding links.)

Two problems, though:
1. TSG is trying to prove a negative--"because we can't find proof of Frey's accounts, therefore they're most likely faulty". (And my inference from the tone of their article is that the only reason they couched their accusations in tones with a hint of doubt is to avoid legal action from Frey and his publishers.) It's a simple fact...you can't absolutely prove a negative. (That said, I do find it highly unlikely that all of Frey's records would be supressed if he was as much of a badass criminal as he claimed in his book.)

2. More importantly, why does anyone care whether this story is complete truth, complete fiction, or some amalgamation of his actual experiences blended with exaggeration or outright invention. This is a great book, and if anything, the controversy only makes it more interesting to read and decide for yourself whether it's truth, fiction, or somewhere in between. The book stays, with my own recommendation, at least until I read something else that moves me to change my sidebar.

MVP

It's Sunday morning as I type this, and I'm sitting on my parents' couch waiting for the start of the Giants' first playoff game since their wildcard loss to the 49ers in the 2002 season. Since I've got football on my mind, here's some thoughts on the recently decided NFL MVP race.

There's no doubt that Alexander had the best season out of just about anybody in that race, and for that I congratulate him. He led the league in rushing yards and set a single-season touchdown record. But if you take the MVP award at its literal meaning of the player who was most valuable to his team overall for the year, there are at least two candidates who are far more deserving: Tom Brady and Tiki Barber. Playing in the NFC west, there really was very little doubt that Seattle was going to run away with the division and make the playoffs. True, they did better than almost anyone expected, running away with a first round bye and home field, but would they have done without Alexander? Chances are they'd still have won the division regardless--after all, 7-9 would have been enough to take it.

How would the Giants have done without Barber? How would they have done without over 40% of their offensive yardage? It's all speculation, but chances are they'd have lived up to preseason expectations and gone 8-8 or 7-9, and missed the playoffs--after all, in the NFC East, Dallas would have missed the playoffs even if they'd won their meaningless Sunday night game on New Year's Day to go 10-6. Tiki's phenomenal performance on the ground (a Giants franchise record for single season rushing yardage, by the way, and only 20 yards behind Alexander) and as a receiving option opened up the offense for a young, developing quarterback, who, oh yeah, still hadn't played a full season halfway through 2005.

And then there's Tom Brady. Sure, he started the season as a defending champ, predicted to continue to do great things in 2005. But then the wheels came off the bus, one by one, as defenders, receivers, and running backs fell to injury. It got so bad that Tedy Bruschi had to come back from a stroke to fill out the Pats' D (and he still makes me nervous every time he collides with someone). But Tom Brady stepped up, got the job done, and the Patriots are now in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Here's my rankings for the Beast's World 2005 NFL MVP, using the AP candidates:

1. Tiki Barber
2. Tom Brady
3. Shaun Alexander
4. Carson Palmer
5. Peyton Manning

Happy 2006, everyone!

Hat tips

I wanted to post an opinion on the U.S. government's payment of Iraqi news sources for positive pieces, but Stephen Green puts it much better than I ever could. The days of an impartial and unbiased media are behind us--just about everyone is pushing some agenda or other these days, and if we're willing to accept that from private sources, why shouldn't we accept it from our government in a country where we're desperately trying to stop the population from being recruited by extremist terrorists.

Also, I'd like to thank Blowhard from the Ron and Fez show for linking my blog. His articles are always an interesting read whether you agree with his views or not, and he updates much more frequently than I do. Bad Beast, bad, bad Beast!

Meadowlands

I'm a lucky boy--I got to go to the Meadowlands in New Jersey on Sunday to see my beloved G-Men take on the Minnesota Vikings with my folks. The weather was absolutely fantastic--the temperature was in the 50's when we arrived for tailgating shortly before 10 AM, and although I didn't check, it had to be up to the 60's by game time. I tailgated into a T-shirt, didn't even bring my jacket into the stadium, and only put my sweatshirt on at halftime because I was worried it might get beer spilled on it under my seat. My mother put together a great tailgating spread--homemade chicken barbecue and sausage soup. And the seats were great--in the back corner of one of the end zones, 17 rows up. We had a great few of the action in that end, and we had binoculars for when the game was on the other side of the field, though we hardly needed them. I also got some neat pictures of some of the on-field action which are now up on my photo site.

Unfortunately, those were the highlights. The Giants themselves provided mostly lowlights, losing to the Vikings in heartbreaking fashion. The offense and special teams played terribly all day, with only the defense keeping the game at all interesting. The offense finally got their act together late in the 4th quarter, putting together a great drive and 2-point conversion to tie it up with just over a minute remaining--I was convinced that they were going to win it in overtime with the momentum in their favor. But the defense promptly took a nosedive, letting the Vikings far enough down the field to kick the winning field goal, although I can't really fault them for one bad series during the entire game. That's just the type of loss that makes me really worried about Sunday's game against the hated Eagles. A couple of other observations:

-Early in the year, a lot of Eli Manning's errant passes were overthrows. He got away with more than his share in part because of the height advantage of his primary downfield threats--Plaxico Burress and Jeremy Shockey are both 6'5, and Amani Toomer is the shortest of the trio at 6'3. Of the four interceptions Eli threw on Sunday, two were tipped passes, and it seems to me that the other two were underthrown. It seems like maybe he's trying to make an adjustment in his throws. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt at this point and have faith that he'll get it worked out soon.

-Plaxico Burress is getting a lot of press as the best free agent pickup in the league from this past offseason, but I think Antonio Pierce was at least as vital, if not moreso, to the Giants' success this year. He's a real playmaker, which shows on the television broadcasts, but more than that, he adds a lot of fire to the team, which is difficult to see if you're not there live. He pumps up his teammates and does a lot to fire up the crowd to give the defense that "12th man" advantage during home games.

Saints owner

Saints' owner Tom Benson will not return to Louisiana

This guy is, to put it plain and simple, a paranoid jerk. Really, what sort of reception did he expect from a state that he just kicked all over the place while it was down? To even talk about permanently moving the Saints now, in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, would be akin to Wellington Mara making plans to move the Giants to Philadelphia right after 9/11. The reflections of the Giants' owner following his death last week really show what a classless individual the Saints' current owner really is.

And now, on top of being a douchebag, Benson has proven that he's, to put it bluntly, a pussy. Remember the fat kid who'd run wheezing and crying home to his mother, claiming he was beaten up when the other kids started calling him names? This is pretty much the same thing on a larger scale. Does he really think that the police and stadium security are incapable of physically protecting him from the drunken rabble that attend most NFL games? (Note that drunken rabble is used here as a compliment.)

Do yourself a favor, Tom. Sell the team and get the hell out of New Orleans. If you really want to put a team in San Antonio, well, I've heard they wouldn't really care over there in Arizona.

Comments

My thanks to those of you who leave comments on my rantings and ramblings. I hate to make it tougher for everyone, but due to the comment spam I've been receiving lately, I've been forced to turn on word verification for the blog. From now on, when you post a comment, you'll be required to type a nonsensical phrase into a box before the comment will be shown, in order to prove that you're a human and not an automated program spewing shit into my space. Sorry about that, but that's the way it has to be until we're legally allowed to hunt spammers for sport.

Overdue

Well, I think I've left this blog alone long enough. Almost a whole month? I'm afraid so--but I don't suppose any of my six readers are surprised.

What have I been doing with myself during all that time? Funny you should ask...

-I watched every pitch of the World Series--the first time in years I've done that when the Yankees haven't been in it. That was perhaps the closest swept series ever. Every game could have gone either way--especially the 14-inning extravaganza (after about the 10th inning, I'd have given the edge to Houston given their performance in the 18-inning NLDS game). I was dog-ass tired at work the day after that one, but I wouldn't have traded seeing it for the extra couple hours of sleep.

-In some sort of new record, I haven't missed a New York Football Giants game yet this season, and that streak will continue through Week 9. They started out winning some close ones, losing a blowout to the Chargers and one to the Cowboys that wasn't a blowout only because they tried almost as hard as the Giants to blow it, and looking particulary weak on defense through most of the early games--then came last week against the Redskins. Somehow, some way, it all clicked for them. The offense looked great, the defense shut down the previously hot Mark Brunell, and the G-men dominated for sixty solid minutes. I don't know if this was just a one-shot performance for their recently departed owner against a team that had previously overachieved and thus achieved an overrated status, but if they can keep up this momentum, they'll go far this season and postseason. (I'm not going to jinx them by speculating just how far.)

-I've played lots of WoW. This game manages to keep me sucked in for two reasons: number one, I've got it installed on my iBook so I can play it at work, and number two, this is the one that my gaming friends are playing. I've got a character at level 60 (currently the highest attainable level) that can do the ultra-challenging runs with "the crew", and two lower-levels for that ever-important sense of accomplishment. (Please, no comments on how pathetic the life of a person who gets a sense of accomplishment from a computer game must be.) This game eats up my evenings, and with the news of an upcoming expansion pack, I think that trend is going to continue for a while longer yet.

-I've read a couple of very interesting books, which I'm trying to keep up with over in my Recent Events section over on the right. I've got to recommend the one that's over there right now, Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. This book is the basis for a sitcom currently on Fox (which I haven't watched), and it's a mix of darkly comical stories of life in the restaurant business and tips for would-be cooks (like yours truly) and for restaurant-goers everywhere. (My favorite: avoid the seafood specials on a Monday.) Bourdain really finds his voice in print, and it reads like he's telling you these stories over a couple of pints. Highly recommended reading.

My thanks for reading if you made it all the way through this--imagine how much more readable it could have been if I'd done small regular posts throughout the month. I'll try to do better next time.

Thuuuuh Yankees Lose

Yee-freakin'-haw--at least another week and a half of that idiotic Rally Monkey I was bitching about last week. As far as I'm concerned, the Yankees' elimination last night at the hands of the Angels just caps off one of the worst sports long weekends in recent memory. There was no Giants game, three out of my four fantasy football teams lost, and I finished second-to-last for the week in my NFL pick-em pool, further securing my stranglehold on last place. Even my hated Eagles losing couldn't redeem, since they lost to the even-more-hated Dallas Cowboys, who may very well end up challenging my Giants for a wild card spot if the Eagles end up winning the division.

What happened? How did baseball's best team on paper end up losing this series? Last night's game really summed up the series quite well. The Yankees didn't hit like they were capable of, leaving 11 men on base (5 in scoring position) against a young kid with no playoff experience who no one's ever heard of. And their fielding sucked--last night's microcosm of that fact was the collision between Bubba Crosby and Gary Sheffield.

The Blowhard has an interesting, if somewhat optimistic, postmortem of the season up. As for me, I'll still be watching some of the playoffs, but not with the enthusiasm I had during the first round.

Oh well--I can always cheer myself with the knowledge that there's another microbrew fest this weekend.

Why Anaheim Must Lose

We need to get the Angels out of the playoffs as quickly as possible.

And here's why.

A capuchin monkey jumping up and down to House of Pain's Jump Around...c'mon guys. 1995 called, and they want their gimmick back.

Photo manipulation

Still think there's no liberal bias in the media?

Think again.

This is a great article that depicts how lies of omission can be some of the biggest lies of all.

Hat tip to Nuts McCracken over at the August Knights Forums.