NFL Talkboard: Wildcard weekend

Nice to see the English are coming around. We have been pointing all week to the Jet game today. Looking for Sanchez to have a good game. Hope springs eternal, even when it's ten degrees outside.

In one of my failed but fun business attempts, a friend and I came up with a concept called Quarterback Legends cigars and had Kenny 'the snake" Stabler come to Nashville for a smoker. As we engaged in a pub crawl around town Kenny let me slip on his Superbowl ring and I felt the magic. It was big and grand like the event. Yeah, I am sure it is about the money and the fame but it is also about being the very best at something and amazingly entire towns and states get to share in that glory.  Football (the oblong kind) is truly an American experience, a great sport and economic sucess and I suspect the impetus for the large screen TV. In any case, beer, chips, and pizza sales are destined to soar and the uninterested can debate the fate of Leno.    

Most sport's programing sends me shopping.
 
My ex would watch any sport on TV even Bowling for Dollars.
 
That's all I've got. 

I've been in the DC area working so I've missed a few days but I did read yesterday's and as soon as I find my friend's recipe for Venison I'll be sending it to BERT.
 
It was simple, tender and delish.

I love American Football!! Let the playoffs begin...
Toomy T., your statment of being the very best at something I believe is true for most players.  And the sense of pride one has for a team from their state or town is unexplainable for those fans of losing teams.  I really like the AZ Cardinals and have for years.  Look what they did last year and what they can possibly do this year.  The years before - well....but they were never intensely hated but got a state of the art stadium.  Yes, that money could of fed and housed a lot of people but it is also giving alot of people jobs and income.  Want a job - go to the stadium and pick up trash or whatever is available.
 
The rules are becoming a little much for me but I am rambling now.  Later...

Yesterday,  a dj from wfan  radio walked across the Brooklyn in a green speedo and Jets jersey because he lost a bet.  He didn't think the Jets would get this far.  The last time he bet against the home team and walked over the Bridge in a speedo was the year that  the Giants won.  So maybe its good sign for  the Jets.   

KORTHAL- I've got nothing too! Shopping, eating, & curling up in bed w/ a great book are all exciting alternatives.
 

JULIA- I think wfan had the 2 sports guys on- was one of them mad dog- they had been together forever & were very cutting  funny. I believe they are no more. I have no brain left.Mike & the Mad Dog????

 SHANDONISTA- I looked at the copyright on the "21" book- it is 1995- I thought it was new. I took the lobster ravioli recipe & adapted it using a sausage, mushroom, cheese,& spinach concoction. I was just so excited about the wonton revelation.

Bebe: It was Craig Carton.

Actually, it was Mike Francesa. He still has a show. Mad Dog has moved to Sirius. You would have no brain left listening to the two of them.  I hate to correct a fellow New Yorker,  but Craig Carton has a show with Boomer Eiason.

jmr-you're right -I found their relationship fascinating. I read a profile in the New Yorker on mad dog & I couldn't put it down. weird since I'm no sports fan.Thanks!

Korthal -- if I wasn't married so long and gotten married so young, I would think that your ex was my current......he would watch two 8 year olds shooting marbles if it was televised.  There was a time when some of it interested me, but even ice cream (I'm told, not having experienced it myself) will lose its charm after too much.

bebe - Yep, that's the same one I've got.  Half the value of the book, maybe more, is the history of New York and the restaurant and the pictures. Fun to read while you're sauteeing. 

As long as the Ravens, Bengals, Cowboys and Cardinals lose this first round, I'm a happy camper. That & the Patriots losing the divisional round. 

The Green Bay - AZ game?  What time is it on and I hope it's not on today...anybody?

If you're not watching le football and you feel like seeing a good movie, here's one, showing on TCM at 6:00 PM Eastern.

 
Tender Mercies (1983)
An alcoholic country star stranded in a small town finds love.
Cast: Robert Duvall, Tess Harper, Ellen Barkin, Allan Hubbard Dir: Bruce Beresford C-92 mins, TV-14
 
Worth watching because Robert Duvall is brilliant, as always. 
 

PARK4 - They play at 4:40 Sunday. I promised Stoney I'd root for the Packers.  May George Halas forgive me.

Hi! JPL! thank you very much!  May George Hallas forgive us both, then. 
 
(I'm getting tired waiting for Da Bears, you know?)

I'm making a kidney pie. YUM!!!

Gramma Park~ There's always next year!

Dear grandson,
 
I've been saying that since 1986.
 
I'm not at the point where I don't buy green bananas, but I don't have forever.
 
;)

College football is over for the season, so I've lost interest.

Park4:   Thanks  for  the  tip,  "Tender  Mercies"  is  a  great  film  I  haven't  seen  in  YEARS.   My  male  friends,  all  rabid  Cincinnati  Bengals  fans,  are  down  the  street  at  the  onsite  tavern  in  our  gated  lake  community.   They  stand  in  front  of  the  tv,  yelling  at  the  screen.  As  the  beer  flows,  the  decibel  level  steadily  goes  up.   I'm  just  not  that  interested,  I'm  home  after  an  emergency  court  hearing  this  morning.  Fireplace,  favorite  chair  and  ottoman,  dog.   Years  ago,  I  made  fun  of  my  dad  for  doing  the  same  thing...lol    Is  THIS  the  "Circle  of  Life?"

jmr: thanks, Sometimes, I just don't pay attention.

ANDY:
 
No my EX is dead!
 
I married long ago (1960) and young (19 years old) like you (?) but he didn't have the fortitude for the long haul.
 
He jumped off after 18 years  and with a new 23 year old started over at 46 leaving behind 3 beautiful sons. Not to say without ME. After another 7 years he died.
 
So sad.
 
My dreams are filled with anger, ,lust, violence and more.
 
And that would be bacuse I loved him to the end of my being.
 
Even though I've had other relationships I'm still alone.
 
And I like it that way.
 
If someone was to come along I be up for a try.
 
And now all my vertial friends at the EYE know me a LOT better.

Sometimes it is so painful to post the personal stuff but I feel the love here.

Korthal:   I  can  only  speak  for  myself,  but  cleansing  your  soul  by  getting  a  lot  off  your  chest  is  very  likely  a  GOOD  thing.   Others  have  bittersweet  moments  in  our  lives.   Love  requires  making  yourself  vulnerable.   That  in  turn  creates  risk,   your  heart  will  break  in  a  million  pieces  if  betrayed.   Your  ex-husband  left  a  good  woman  as  an  irrational  response  to  the  anxieties  of  his  midlife  crisis.   That's  my  diagnosis,  although  I  don't  know  you  from  a  hill  of  beans.   Thanks  for  sharing.

I think I'm going to make some popcorn (yes, I CAN cook!) and NOT watch some football on TV.... maybe (recorded) Charlie Rose interviews or a(recorded) Dr. Who episod.  Billie Piper, ah, a thinking man's companion..... but I digress.

Korthal:  I'm so very sorry.  My god, that's a rough path you've been walking lady.  You're right if you feel the love -- it's right here, between my words. 
 
I recall a death in our family, it was long ago now: my husband's father at age 52 in a plane crash: a horrible thing, a tragedy, and my husband and I who'd already married (young, age 21) were all of 23 when this happened, and we talked of divorcing just because love was such a risk (we saw his mother crumble before our eyes) -- and one cold February night driving back to his mother's farm, Paul Simon's song "I Am A Rock" came on, and in our anger and grief, we thought it made perfect sense, who wanted to let themselves be open to the pain we felt -- that's when we thought it would be smart to divorce before we could love each other too much.
 
Well, that wasn't exactly a brilliant idea, nor was it a solution, nor was it possible, because once you've put your foot in it, deep, you're stuck in love until the end and even after that. 
 
Life is not for the weak of heart, is it? 
No, it's not.
<more love, and a big hug to you b.)
 

 
 
 
And bert:  yeah, I think that's what they call the Great Mandela.  The wheel of life. 

KORTHAL- Your story is heartbreaking. You are a strong woman and this may sound strange, but so many people will never love like that. You cannot banish love - it is in you for better or for worse.
 
It took a lot of guts to share this & if you can feel them- I am sending some love rays your way on this frosty eve. I do strangely understand your peace w/ being alone- I believe that if something ever happened to my husband I would want no one else.
 
Tell your sons that they have a hell of a mom...
Love rays & my dogs send a lick for your cheek.

Right now, on TCM, a great movie.  A fascinating story, a very talented cast, the most handsome leading man, and - arguably - Ingrid Bergman never looked more beautiful than she did in this film.
 
Enjoy, I plan to.
It's on NOW!
 
Notorious (1946)

A U.S. agent recruits a German expatriate to infiltrate a Nazi spy ring in Brazil.
Cast:
Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern
Dir:
Alfred Hitchcock BW-101 mins, TV-PG

PARK- Thanks!!!!!!!!! This is one of my favorites- my mother's too! Ingrid Bergman is absolutely, achingly beautiful. Cary Grant- swoon to the 100th power...
 
Now, for some wine.

Korthal: Now that we know you better, can we come crash on your couch?

I hate being sad.happened a bunch of times today. I think that meeting someone to ease the lonely is right for me. I don't quite know how yet,but I do not rule out serendipity (Sereh is my guardian angel).

PARK- this scene is so seriously romantic- (where he is getting her ready to leave the evil mansion). Kissing Cary Grant must have been soooooooo taxing...

Korthal, how sad.  Sorry to hear about your experience with your ex -- yes, like you, we married young, I was 19 and he was 22; we've been married for 48 years and fortunately, somehow, someway, it's lasted........I'm grateful he likes old things.  My son though is now going through that kind of thing -- his ex thought she wanted greener pastures and now that he's moved on, she tries and often succeeds in making his life miserable through their children......sad. 
 
I wish for you the best in the new year and great big hug from me.

Thank you all for the kind wishes and thoughts.
 
Now I think I'll go to bed.
 
My love back at everyone of you.