A mindnumbingly dumb idea

Six weeks after they agreed to terms on new contracts, Barry Bonds and J. D. Drew remain unsigned. Bonds hasn’t signed with the Giants; Drew hasn’t signed with the Red Sox. That prompts a thought. If both contracts were to fall through, the Red Sox could sign Bonds to play left field and move Manny Ramírez back to his original position in right. -- Murray Chass, New York Freaking Times.

Predictions

New England over Indianapolis.
New Orleans over Chicago

Super Bowl: New England over New Orleans.

Last weekend

Baltimore over Indianapolis
- Wrong

New Orleans over Philadelphia
- Right

San Diego over New England
- Wrong

Seattle over Chicago
- Wrong

My cousin makes the Boston Globe

Jeep fun for young filmmaker

By Carol Beggy & Mark Shanahan, Globe Staff | January 16, 2007

Twenty-year-old Zachary Miller is a mini-movie mogul in the making. The second-year media studies major at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., just won a 2007 Jeep Compass in a contest where entrants made a commercial that was then voted on by viewers online. Miller's piece, which runs over a minute, features several guys with a cardboard cut-out of the new SUV running through rugged terrain acting out its features. (One guy has a water bottle, another a portable stereo, and another has a big backpack .) But don't expect the Newton South grad to be tooling around in his new ride. Miller plans to sell the Jeep to pay his actors and crew -- including Massachusetts native Boa Simon, a Chapman University student who was the director of photography . With the rest of his winnings, Miller says he'll fund his next project. He got into the Jeep contest after winning a $7,500 second prize from Paramount Studios for a 15-page screenplay about HIV and AIDs and the teen community ; that award partly funded the Jeep spot. But he's savoring his win right now. "I thought, how can I show a Jeep I don't have access to, and it just evolved," said Miller, who worked on the movie "Normal Adolescent Behavior ," which was shot over the summer in Rhode Island and stars Amber Tamblyn. "I think it turned out all right. Everything came together."

An economist and a farmer are standing in a corn field

And the farmer says, "I can't believe the year I just had. I can't explain it. I've never grown more corn, never sold it for higher prices, never had a more productive workforce."

And the economist says, "That's great in reality, but how does it hold up in theory?"

At the bottom of the Hall of Fame Ballot

2007 Election Results

Orel Hershiser	24	4.4
Albert Belle	19	3.5
Paul O'Neill	12	2.2
Bret Saberhagen	7	1.3
Jose Canseco	6	1.1
Tony Fernandez	4	0.7
Dante Bichette	3	0.6
Eric Davis	3	0.6
Bobby Bonilla	2	0.4
Ken Caminiti	2	0.4
Jay Buhner	1	0.2
Scott Brosius	0	0.0
Wally Joyner	0	0.0
Devon White	0	0.0
Bobby Witt	0	0.0

Who is voting for Dante Bichette for the Hall of Fame? He had one great year. One. And Jay Buhner? Heck, he only made the All-Star team once! Three very nice seasons in the middle of an otherwise mediocre career.

I only bring this up because there is no way on earth that letting the fans have a piece of the vote would create worse results. Anyone who didn't vote for Ripken and Gwynn, or who did vote for Dante Bichette or Jay Buhner ought to have his vote taken away. Presidential elections, too.

NFL Playoff Predictions

Baltimore over Indianapolis
New Orleans over Philadelphia
San Diego over New England
Seattle over Chicago

San Diego and New Orleans advance to the Super Bowl. San Diego wins.

To be updated, same time next week based on all my mistakes.

NFL Playoff Predilections

Ranked in order of love
1. New England
2. New Orleans
3. San Diego
4. Baltimore
5. Seattle
6. Indianapolis
7. Chicago
8. Philadelphia

With apologies to Jason H.'s annual baseball predilications

I've visited all of these cities except for Indianapolis, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

Why can't I predict like this?

From Denton, the author of SurvivingGrady.com:

The J-E-T-S Jets will not keep this close, 31-10 Pats...
Real score: 37-16.

Maroney will run wild, 140 yards including a 40-yard TD run...
69 yards. And Dillon was better.

Brady will be Brady, slicing and dicing, using whatever the defense gives him...
Lots of incompletions. But a competent, mistake-free game

The Jets will have under 100-yards rushing...
70

Samuel will run back an interception for 6...
True

Pennington will not look like the comeback player of the year, under 220 yards passing and three picks...
277 yards, one INT

Pretty solid for a guy who mostly cares about baseball.

Things I never did before I got married

1. Iron a tablecloth.

And I'm learning that I wouldn't want it any other way

I don't get personal on this blog very often. But The Grand Marnier just let me borrow her copy of the Barenaked Ladies's (I'm having trouble with the possesive here. Do I have that right?) "Barenaked Christmas," and I just connected some dots in my head.

In December 1997, I made a trip to Madison -- legendary in certain circles for 22-year old Josh making an absolute fool of himself while having the time of his life and honing the practice of talking in the third person to absolve his future self of any actions on that trip. The less said the better.

Marnie and dl004d were dating then. Well, maybe they were. Time gets a little hazy, and it's impossible to believe that trip was nine years ago. Either way, I found myself in a Marnie-driven car, introduced to my future best man's future wife for the first time. Little did we know, eh?

Upon the radio came BNL's Life, In a Nutshell. I loved them then. So did Marnie. Dave protested. The song stayed.

I don't like the band nearly today as much as I did back in December 1997. It's a nice album, but I won't be buying it any time soon. There's a wonderful version of Auld Lang Syne that closes the album. Slurred lyrics better reflect why I'm so embarassed by December 1997, but the words themselves are beautiful and appropriate as I remember the first time I met my good friend.

I have great friends

Now THIS is a toast.

Oct. 4, 1993

A day on which I thought David Letterman was funny, and Conan O'Brien was not funny. (Search for my last name.)

Oh, how wrong I was.