Back in the ’90s, there was a cooking show the Orange County PBS station (now the entire Southern California PBS affiliate) KOCE called “At Home on the Range”. The cook was RV impresario John Crean and self-professed “reformed slut” Barbara Venezia.
John was the chef and Barbara was the stirrer. She had many tools besides the spoons and spatulas she used to stir things. There are the fry glasses for when the oil spattered real bad. There are the rubber gloves for when things got too hot (rubber for your protection!)
The food is suspect, and the recipes are questionable at best. But what is undeniable is that they put together an entertaining show.
Thanks to the wonders of the interweb the shows are online. Well, some of them anyways.
Okay. It’s a bit cheesy at times, the production values aren’t the best, but for an 11:30 p.m. cooking show it was highly entertaining for my teenage self.
The show was in production until 1998 and lived on in reruns for years. The show also aired in Britain, Australia and New Zealand giving them fans internationally.
John passed in 2007 and his wife Donna passed in 2012. Barbara now is a columnist for OC Register.
I love taking public transportation. I thoroughly hate driving, and any chance I have to avoid it I do. My one big complaint is that there are not enough light-rail, subway or transitway services. So of course I applaud the groundbreaking of the Crenshaw-LAX light-rail line.
The new line will connect from the Expo Line at the Expo/Crenshaw stop to the Green Line at the Aviation/LAX stop. It will cut through Leimert Park, Baldwin Hills and Inglewood.
The thing though, “Crenshaw-LAX” is a bit of a misnomer since it will never stop in LAX. You have take a separate bus to get into LAX. They might want to get on that eventually.
By now everyone has heard about Seattle Seahawk’s cornerback Richard Sherman’s venting after his team clinched a berth in the Super Bowl. If not , here it is. That’s okay, it opens up in a new tab/window.
I’m not even going to talk about the racist shit some people spouted. But let’s see how some in the sports media talked about it.
They ranged from my reaction of go-on-with-your-bad-self to you-are-a-disgrace-I-can’t-believe-you-got-a-degree-from-Stanford-have-some-class. Let’s talk about this.
One thing I can almost guarantee is that all sports journalists hate the trite soundbites. “It is what it is.” “We gave it our all.” “At the end of the day…” I’ve made my distaste for this shit very vocal lately saying that I really want to carry a cattle prod to electrocute anyone who gives us these trite phrases. Other media folk have shared the same sentiment.
So why then do we persecute someone for giving us something outside of the normal Derek Jeter-esque quote?
“You can give us something interesting, but at least have some class.”
Okay, that’s fine. But let’s realize that this interview took place right after the game ended. Sherman had no time to cool down. The adrenaline was still pumping, perhaps even more so for him since his tip on the pass to Michael Crabtree with 22 seconds left led to the interception that won the game for Seattle. Of course things would be unpredictable.
On all of his other postgame interviews on the podium at the trophy presentation and on the set with the Fox guys, Sherman was calm and collected.
“But look at Russell Wilson.”
Sure, but like I said players are unpredictable immediately after the game.
Sherman in his weekly column on The MMQBexplains a little bit about the history between the two.
It goes back to something he said to me this offseason in Arizona, but you’d have to ask him about that. A lot of what I said to Andrews was adrenaline talking, and some of that was Crabtree. I just don’t like him.
I feel bad for athletes. They’re in a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t position. And if you’re an outspoken black athlete, it’s even worse. You get thinly veiled racist words like “thug” and “punk” and “classless” thrown at you by so-called respectable journalists. Never mind if you have a degree from Stanford.
Perhaps the media gets what they deserve. I hear them bitch about how athletes give them nothing, yet I’ve seen some of their tweets about this “thug” Sherman. I guess it is what it is.
1. But what about New England’s defense? That’s a question I asked myself as this game unfolded. As much as I was susceptible to the Peyton-Manning-Can’t-Win-the-Big-Games narrative (I know, I should know better), I forgot about how un-Belichick-like the Patriot defense has been this season.
New England was 26th during the regular season in yards allowed per game and third-down conversion percentage allowed, 18th in passing yards per game allowed and 30th in rushing yards per game allowed.
Oops.
While Denver only rushed for 107 yards, Peyton Manning torched the Patriots secondary for 400 yards.
2. CBS reported on the sun. Early in the first quarter, sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson reported on the motherfucking sun. Let’s just bask in the idiocy of that concept. I just…
3. Omaha Schmomaha. I don’t get it. I thought we were done with the fascination of the “Omaha” audible call back when Eli Manning used it to win a couple of Super Bowls. In fact here is video of Eli using it during Giants training camp back in 2006:
So this is a thing again?
4. What a blah game. Even my router hated the game: it committed suicide during the game. A quick jaunt to Radio Shack and 15 minutes took care of it.
— Seattle Seahawks 23, San Francisco 49ers 17.
5. Uh oh. The first play from scrimmage saw Russell Wilson scramble, run to his right and get strip-sacked by Aldon Smith. Uh oh, indeed.
Fortunately for the Seahawks, their defense stood up to allow only a field goal.
6. 4th-and-7. Trailing 17-13 just as the fourth quarter started, Seattle faced fourth-and-seven on the 49ers 35-yard line. Instead of trying for a 50+-yard field goal, Pete Carroll ultimately went for it. Anyone who knows me knows I believe that this is almost always the correct decision.
On the play, the 49ers jumped off sides. So at worst Seattle would have 4th-and-2. Wilson went for it and somehow threaded a pass to Jermaine Kearse for the 35-yard touchdown.
7. Shut up. MLB Network’s Brian Kenny wants to protect the children!!!!
Can't believe garbage promoted during these games w/families watching. Serial killers..women in danger, cop brutality.
That's entertainment?
All of these pundits on ESPN, CBS, Fox and NFL Network will pretend they know what’s going to happen. But all of that is utter bullshit. That’s why there is no need to watch any pregame shows unless you love a bunch of hot air being spouted. (Aside: maybe that’s what’s contributing to global warming? Sounds about as good as the cow farts-methane connection.)
So here is more hot air in the form of my predictions. Except in my case no hot air is being released into the atmosphere.
New England Patriots will beat the Denver Broncos 35-28.
Seattle Seahawks will beat the San Francisco 49ers 27-13.
Now on to deal with four of the more unbearable NFL fan bases.
A ballboy faints in the heat, as Melbourne heads towards 43 degrees celsius during day two of the 2014 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 14, 2014 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Last night a rain came through Melbourne and cooled out what had been a horrible heat wave. Players were playing under 110F heat which meant that on the court is was as high as 125F. The question was why was play allowed to continue?
It becomes crystal clear when your hear from the tournament doctor. From SI‘s Jon Wertheim story:
Here’s the tournament doctor, Tim Wood: “Tennis, as a sport, is relatively low risk for major heat problems compared to… continuous running events. So you’re more likely to get into trouble in these events, in a 10K road race, than you are in a tennis match. As you can appreciate, the players, the time the ball is in play, in total time for the match is relatively small. The amount of heat they produce from muscles exercising is relatively small in terms of what someone continuously exercising will do. They sit down every five to ten minutes for every 90 seconds at change of ends, so there is chance to lose some heat at that time. Tennis by and large is a low risk sport, and that’s why by and large, like cricket, we can play in these conditions and not be too concerned.”
Horseshit.
Don’t the players have a union? Can they get together and refuse to play under such inhumane conditions? Josh Levin of Slateexplores this.
So what’s holding back unionization? Extreme income inequality, for one. While Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NFL all have minimum salaries—thanks, players unions!—tennis players at the bottom rungs struggle to break even due to the high costs of travel and coaching. A struggling up-and-comer like Colin Fleming, then, has about as much in common with me as he does with Novak Djokovic. At the sport’s highest level, too, there’s no universal agreement about thorny subjects like drug testing, scheduling, and the ranking system. Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, normally the best of pals, had a bit of a falling out a few years ago over Nadal’s belief that Federer wasn’t speaking out about the issues bedeviling tour players.
Said Canadian player Frank Dancevic after he collapsed during his first round match on the second day of play: “I was dizzy from the middle of the first set, and then I saw Snoopy and I thought, ‘Wow, Snoopy, that’s weird.'”
Fortunately from here on out temperatures are expected to get no higher than the 80s. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that what happened in this first week of the major was borderline criminal.
I snapped this picture this morning showing how the smoke from the Colby Fire some 50 miles away in Glendora. I usually don’t see smoke from fires out here in San Pedro, so it was a strange sight. You can see the edge of the smoke from the fire meeting with the clear skies off the ocean. Just something interesting to see.
Vice did an interview with Alexa Chung: television host, model, designer, author and probably a host of other things. Some people don’t like her, but I do. Regarding Miley Cyrus, she said something spot on:
I don’t know when it became acceptable to be quite as harsh about women just out of their teens who are experimenting. They’ve been given this platform and more money and more exposure to do it, within the confines of their experimental phase, and that’s unfortunate in some ways. But I don’t think we should put too much serious weight on it. What were you doing when you were 20? We’re like, “She really means that.” Well, maybe she doesn’t. Not to be patronizing, because she does know what she’s doing, but it’s just a grand scale version of what everyone did at that age—it’s just we didn’t have Terry Richardson documenting it for us.
I don’t think she’s being manipulated either. I think she is intelligent enough to make her own decisions. She’s obviously clever, she’s made millions. Newspapers are really weird because they’re like, “Oh someone should really do something.” Yet they point a finger, but also eschew responsibility. Who are the people that are gonna [intervene]? And what would they say? What’s gone wrong? She discovered hip-hop and is really happy about it, that’s cool. I wonder what will happen in the future…
In other words, stop being fuddy-duddies and sexist. It’s a very entertaining interview to read through. Go read it.
David O. Russell really makes you work for it in American Hustle.
About a month ago I went over to Brendan’s apartment to watch the screener. We put it in, and 17 minutes later took it out. It was really fucking awful. We watched Blue Jasmine instead and like it a lot. Brendan went back and watched Hustle again, got through it and really really fucking hated it. I trust his judgement, so I let it be. I’d eventually catch it down the line.
But after the Golden Globes and hearing all of the rave reviews, I figured I’d stick with it and give it second chance. It took every bit for me to make it through the movie.
On the most recent Jay and Dan Podcast, someone described the movie as a bunch of people standing up and talking to one another. That’s probably the most accurate description of the movie.
People are standing around and talking about how to scam people, scam politicians, scam the Feds, scam one another. It’s really fucking tedious especially if you don’t really care about anyone on the screen.
There are some good moments: the “science box” aka the microwave and the mishap that ensues. There’s Jennifer Lawrence kissing Amy Adams in the bathroom. And the final 30 minutes of the movie was pretty good.
But damn there was a lot of wasted celluloid in the first two-thirds of the movie.
I’m glad I gave this movie a second chance. Instead of really fucking hating it, I now merely don’t like it. And it makes me wonder just what the fuck the critics were watching. It still seems like a Martin Scorsese rip-off, and in a year we had The Wolf of Wall Street who needs it?
1. Going for it on fourth down. The first big decision in the game came at the end of the first quarter. The Panthers had the ball fourth-and-goal with only a yard to go for the touchdown. Trailing the 49ers 6-0 at that point, to go or not to go was the question. At least, some people thought it was a question.
Going for it is an emotional decision. It will be interesting if this emotion is rewarded. Panthers showing inexperience so far.
I didn’t think there was a question there. You absolutely go for it. The best case scenario is you take the lead. The worst case scenario is you back your opponent deep in their end of the field.
As they changed sides for the second quarter the Panthers ran a quarterback sneak, a shit play call I thought, and Cam Newton was held out of the end zone. The 49ers still led 6-0.
No, because what happens next happens because they went for it on fourth-and-goal. The 49ers gained only two yards on their drive including a third-down throw that was nearly intercepted for a touchdown. San Francisco punted from their own end zone, and Panthers returner Ted Ginn ran the punt from the Carolina 45-yard line to San Francisco’s 31-yard line.
The first Panthers play was a long 31-yard Cam Newton throw to Steve Smith in the end zone for a touchdown. With the extra point the Panthers take the 7-6 lead.
Sure the Panthers might have taken the 10-6 lead had they went for the field goal in that critical play. But what if the 49ers scored on their drive? What if the Panthers got the ball back but deeper in their own side of the field? The variables and possibilities multiply from there.
2. Not going for it on fourth down. Later in the second quarter the Panthers were faced with the same exact decision. This time they had the 7-6 lead, and they seemed to have all of the momentum after proving they were “in it to win it” or something like that.
I thought it was a perfect time to go for a play-action pass on fourth down since each time there had a goal-to-go down they tried to either go for a power run or a quarterback sneak. A little deception would be good in that instance, maybe sneak a tight end behind the linebacker, or something. Anything.
Instead Carolina went for the field goal, and it seemed that the fire they had after going for it the first time around was extinguished here. San Francisco took the ball and scored a touchdown leaving only five seconds left on the clock in the first half with a 13-10 lead.
Carolina would never see the lead again in the game. After taking the points here are the drives from both teams:
Carolina: Punt, punt, interception.
San Francisco: Touchdown, end of half, touchdown, field goal, downs.
With the 49ers 23-10 win, we get an all-NFC West NFC Championship Game.
3. Vlade Divac would be proud. Here is what is perhaps the flop of the year:
h/t Deadspin
4. Silly queen thinks he has a personality. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great troll job by Colin Kaepernick, but that doesn’t make him any less a silly queen.
h/t Deadspin
5. Redundant idiocy. Even casual football viewers should know the yellow tabby things indicate how many timeouts a team has remaining. Then why do these broadcasts insist on tacking on an additional timeout graphic?
6. What a fucking miserable game. Peyton Manning. Omaha. Offsides. Phillip Rivers going redface on his team. That’s about all I took away from the Chargers-Broncos game.
What made this game unwatchable was the Chargers offense being a no-show for 45 minutes. Through three quarters they gained 81 yards. Sure, the Charger defense did a good job holding the Broncos to only 17 points for those three quarters, but if you’re not going to score points why even bother?
Well they finally showed up in the fourth quarter scoring 17 points including nabbing an on-side kick which made things interesting down the stretch. But Manning got the first downs in the final drive to get the 24-17 victory.
Also can someone turn Peyton Manning’s mic off? I don’t get what the fascination is with all of his audibles.
7. Peyton Manning can’t win. If the Broncos lost the game, Peyton Manning once again can’t win in the playoffs. But now that they won, oh well he was supposed to win. It’s clear that for the public it’s Super Bowl or bust for Peyton. How can he be great if his bum of a brother Eli has more rings than him?
I find those sorts of arguments trite and short-sighted. They’re on the same level as the supposed feminization of sports and other nonsense. Besides, it discounts the contributions of every other player on the field.
8. Who will Jim Nantz cheer for next week? It’s Manning v. Brady. Broncos v. Patriots. We might witness Nantz explode in the booth next week.
1. What the fuck was Marques Colston thinking? When Marshawn Lynch broke a 31-yard run for a touchdown with 2:40 left in the game to give the Seahawks the 23-8 lead, everyone figured the game was over. But Drew Brees didn’t think so.
Brees led the Saints on a nine-play, 80-yard drive that culminated with a Colston touchdown with 26 seconds left on the game clock. An on-side kick, some luck, a two-point conversion and the game would go to overtime. Colston recovered the on-side kick. With 11 seconds on the clock, Brees connected to Colston for 13 yards to the Seattle 38-yard line.
All Colston had to do was go out-of-bounds to stop the clock, and perhaps Brees could throw up a prayer to tie the game. But instead Colston did this (click to video because the NFL is too mentally retarded to allow embedding video).
So Colston scored the touchdown, grabbed the on-side kick, but all of that was for naught. Instead of going out-of-bounds, he tries a lateral that goes awry to put it generously. Despite all the good he did, the only question remains: what the fuck was he thinking?
2. This was only the ninth 23-15 game in NFL history. Here is the list of all eight previous 23-15 games in NFL history:
3. We’re halfway to an all-NFC West NFC Championship Game. In the 2010 season no NFC West team had a winning record. By default the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks was the playoff representative of the division. Also because they were a division winner, the Seahawks got to host a playoff game. Because life just isn’t fair, the Seahawks beat the Saints 41-36.
Three seasons later the NFC West has two of the better teams in the NFL. In fact, Arizona Cardinals went 10-6 and did not make the playoffs. Again, because life isn’t fair.
If the 49ers beat Carolina tomorrow, next week will see an all-NFC West Championship Game. Three years ago that seemed unfathomable.
4. Fox announcers trump the CBS announcers. Fox made the right decision to give Kevin Burkhardt and John Lynch a divisional playoff game. I suppose CBS also made the right decision in giving the retiring Dan Dierdorf a final hurrah. But thinking about it, I think Fox has the better announcing teams.
5. LeGarrette Blount’s Night. This is how I remembered first learning about Blount:
Funny thing was I thought he wasn’t completely wrong.
Anyhow he gets lost in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization, gets to the Patriots and voila! With four rushing touchdowns he came one touchdown shy of Ricky Watters’ record of five rushing touchdowns in a postseason game (1/15/94, SF vs. NYG). He also avoided a 19-way tie with players with three rushing touchdowns (which includes Shaun Alexander, Curtis Martin, Larry Csonka, Emmitt Smith, Otto Graham and Adrian Peterson.)
I’m not saying Blount is a good guy, that he changed his ways, that he’s reformed or anything like that. I don’t know the guy.
But he’s a good football player.
6. Luck v. Brady. Some people thought this game would come down to this.
Andrew Luck: 20/41, 331 yards, 2 TD.
Tom Brady: 13/25, 198 yards, 0 TD.
The Patriots won 43-22. Not included in the numbers above was Luck throwing four interceptions. That’s seven interceptions by Luck in two weeks in the playoffs after only throwing nine interceptions in the regular season. Ouch.
Although Brady would have a shitty fantasy game, with Blount’s four rushing touchdowns and Stevan Ridley’s two touchdowns the Patriots just stomped all over the Colts.
New England ran for 234 yards. With 267 rushing yards against the Bills in the final week of the regular season, that marks the only 200-yard rushing games the Patriots had. With 185 passing yards it also marked only the third game all season Patriots had more yards on the ground than in the air.
7. This was the only 43-22 final score in NFL history. That’s it.
