Snickers rule

It's been a while since I posted... it's been a busy month... mostly a lot of work travel.

But an issue of great import has brought me out of my blogging slumber.

Specifically... who cares about 3 Musketeers and Milky Way?  Most people don't.  Here's an experiment you can do.  Buy a bag of candy bar minis and set out a bowl full of them.  The Snickers will soon be gone and you'll be left (seemingly forever) with a bunch of 3 Musketeers and Milky Way bars.  Who eats that crap?  It's a universal human experience.  Snickers are clearly superior.  I'm sitting here, working late, and meandered over to the bowl.  What did I find... no less than like 40 or 50 3 Musketeers and Milky Way.  Not a Snickers left.  This always happens.  Everywhere.  In every human sub-group known to man.

No more 3 Musketeers or Milky Way... ever... please.

Yeah, Time's not biased

Time has an article on "The 25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century":

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2029774_2029776,00.html?iid=moreontime

Consider how they compare and contrast one of the most charitable women ever with one of the most vile.  If you didn't know anything about these two people and only had these articles to go on, which would you think was more controversial?

Mother Teresa (1910-1997)
Her iconic white garb with its blue stripe trim is now equated with her ideals of service and charity among "the poorest of the poor." Born Agnes Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents living under the Ottaman Empire, the petite nun made her way to India in 1929, building her start-up missionary community of 13 members in Calcutta, India into a global network of more than 4,000 sisters running orphanages and AIDS hospices. Sometimes criticized for lacking adequate medical training, not addressing poverty on a grander scale, actively opposing birth control and abortion and even cozying up to dictators, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize nonetheless inspired countless volunteers to serve, and will wear her white habit all the way to Catholic sainthood.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2029774,00.html #ixzz15g1MrJKi

...and...

Margaret Sanger (1879-1966)
Every sexually-active person who doesn't think twice about parenthood can thank Margaret Sanger. As a nurse on New York City's impoverished Lower East Side, Sanger spent much of her time treating women injured during botched, illegal abortions. As a result of this, she became convinced that contraceptive control was the primary avenue to freedom (and out of poverty) for women like her mother, who died young after giving birth to 11 children. Though she was born when contraception was illegal, by the time of her death at 81, Sanger had founded the American Birth Control League — later known as Planned Parenthood — and masterminded the research and funding for the first FDA approved oral contraceptive, Enovid.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2029774,00.html #ixzz15g1WcT6I

Is the honeymoon over?

Matt McGloin, Penn State (former) walk-on 3rd string quarterback, has been tearing it up after getting his chance in the last 3 games.  It's a great story, and he's riding on a cloud, but will a trip to Columbus against #8 Ohio State bring him and the Penn State offense back to Earth?

Maybe.  But remember... Penn State has got nothing to lose.  This one has been penciled in as a sure loss by everyone since about January.  Joe got #400.  Penn State is bowl eligible.  Evan Royster broke the all-time Penn State rushing record.  The final 3 games are simply icing on the cake.  Ohio State has more to lose.  Honestly, they'll be tough to beat, but it doesn't seem as impossible as it did six months, or even one month ago.

I don't know if I'm brave enough to do a prediction this week.

Yes, we're happy now

Joe Paterno got his 400th win in a thrilling come-from-behind 35-21 victory over Northwestern, and at the same time, Penn State won their sixth game of the year to become bowl eligible.  Both seemed only vaguely possible after getting killed by Illinois, but now as much as we could have hoped for has been accomplished by this young team, and the 3 games left are all gravy.

Without a doubt, Penn State has been on a steep improvement curve over the past 3 games.  Good enough to be Ohio State?  Could be a dream...but Penn State's got little to lose now.

The quarterback controversy is interesting, but I don't think there's any doubt (Joe may disagree) that Matt McGloin is the man.  Sure, Rob Bolden won the job fair and square earlier in the year, has the better arm, is probably the better athlete, and got unlucky to get hurt just before Penn State played a couple teams with shaky defenses.  They say he's poised and beyond his years for a freshman too, but I'll give you two words:  FRESHMAN MISTAKES.  Bolden throws a bullet, but how bad is Matt McGloin's arm when he's hitting everything... deep balls, screens, middle of the field.  The offense has been humming like it's a different team with McGloin playing.  It's a paradox... a conundrum... but I just don't see how you don't go with McGloin now.  Perhaps McGloin gets humbled at Ohio State (we hope not) but if so, Bolden would be a good change of pace if it's not going well.

One final Penn State observation.  This year's Big Ten schedule has turned out to be very favorable.  Other than allowing Penn State to play all 8 games at home, I don't know how it could have gone better (except maybe replacing Illinois with Purdue).  Count it up:

GOOD:  Iowa and Ohio State - likely losses on the road.  They were going to lose anyway, so fine - they get them at home next year.
GOOD:  Michigan and Northwestern at home.  Nailbiting wins... the crowd helped...these needed to be at home.
GOOD:  An "away" game at Indiana being played in Washington D. C. - guess who will have more fans there?
GOOD: Michigan State at home.  A couple weeks ago, this game looked scary.  Now, Penn State is on the upswing and MSU is on the downswing... Penn State has a chance.
GOOD:  Minnesota on the road... Penn State would have won at home or on the road, so they pick up a road win and get them at home next year - so we'll call this one GOOD.
NEUTRAL:  A home loss to Illinois.  Penn State would have lost at either place, but they have to face them on the road next year, so let's call this one neutral.

So, the location 7 of 8 Big Ten games was of benefit to Penn State, and none had a big downside.  Murphy doesn't always get the best of you.

Don't celebrate too hard

Here's a great summary of why this week's electoral slaughter of the Democrats won't make much of a difference...

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2010/11/republican-irrelevance.html

Oooo... ahhh!  A 2.8% cut in the budget!  America is saved!!!!!!!!

(Not that they will even be able to accomplish that miniscule amount...)

Nevada funny

My father-in-law lives in Las Vegas, so I found the following comparison between California, Texas and Nevada to be humorous...

(The most politically relevant basic difference between California and Texas: the price of land. Texas has cheap housing relative to its income, but California is expensive. That has profound effects on the political cultures of the two states that we are only beginning to understand. For example, Texas tends to attract young white families while California sheds them.

(Nevada falls in between California and Texas. Although it looks empty, much of the land is locked up from development by lack of water, federal ownership, Indian reservations, nuclear bomb testing, nuclear waste storage, UFO storage, and so forth. Land prices surged in Nevada during the Housing Bubble, and then collapsed with the worst default rates in the country.)

 Source:  http://vdare.com/sailer/101104_election.htm
              (The whole article is worth a read)

My father-in-law actually used to work at the nuclear test site.  They seemed to do a lot of hard work to make sure everything was good and ready for a nuclear test, but it seems like things got to a point where they didn't do many, if any, any more.  I'm sure there are things that if he told me, he'd have to kill me, so I don't ask.  I'm just glad that Sasquatch came down to Earth on his UFO and brought us nuclear technology when he did.  I'm happy to leave it at that and let the Nevadans worry about the details.

Just an example...

The big news here is that this isn't news, isn't surprising, and isn't shocking any more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101103/us_nm/us_mcdonalds_toys

Remember the good old days when stuff like this would get true Americans, the philosophical descendants of the Founding Fathers, lovers of freedom, up in arms?  Now all we can do is look at a long-lost America in the rear view mirror.

It's really simple... a government that meddles in Happy Meals is not the government of a free society or a freedom-loving people.  Sure, there are more egregious examples of lost freedoms today, but there's something to be said for the absurdity of a nanny-state government occupying its time with Happy Meals.

And Rome burned on...

Prediction: Northwestern at Penn State

Since I did so poorly last week with my prediction (luckily), I'll try again this week.

PREDICTION:   Penn State 27, Northwestern 20

It's a fairly even matchup.  Hopefully Joe's quest for his 400th win will have the crowd revved up and that will play a factor.  Penn State's offense has shown signs of life in recent weeks, albeit against some lousy defenses.  But are Minnesota and Michigan's defenses really worse than Youngstown State, Temple, and Kent State, whom Penn State's offense looked pretty flat-footed against?  I don't think so.  I think Penn State's offense is improving.  Their defense may be also improving.  Nobody stops Denard Robinson, you can only do enough to survive against him, so don't let his big stats fool you... the Penn State D survived him, and plus some of their many injured players are slowly trickling back into the lineup.

Northwestern's performance against Michigan State scared me to death.  But their performance against other opponents makes them appear beatable.  Plus, with Michigan State getting hammered by Iowa like they did, perhaps they're not as good as we thought.

My dad was at Joe's wins #200 and #300 (not to mention the first game at Beaver Stadium 50 years ago), so hopefully he gets to see win #400.  If Penn State wins this weekend, they will be bowl eligible, Joe's win #400 will be behind them, and they've got absolutely nothing to lose in the final 3 games of the year (Ohio State, Indiana, Michigan State), which should make it fun to watch a couple of games that everyone has already written off as losses.

Memphis vs. Nashville

The winner:  Memphis.

As an outsider (who travels to Memphis rather frequently for work), this has always been my preference.  It's not just familiarity.  Memphis has soul.  And better BBQ.  Memphis is the blues... Nashville is plastic fantastic pop-corporate country-and-other-various-and-sundry boring music.  Musicians move to Nashville for a "career".  Musicians move to Memphis for inspiration.  Yeah, Memphis has more crime, corruption, and poverty, but there are good places to live, and you take the good with the bad.  I think I would find Nashville to be simply annoying.

I've found that the locals feel the same way.  In fact Memphians have a little chip on their shoulder about Nashville.  It reminds me a little bit of the Pittsburgh vs. Philadephia rivalry I grew up with.  To a complete outsider, say from Oregon or China, the differences may seem slight.  But the locals can see the difference, because...well... there are real differences.  I say hand over Philadelphia to New Jersey, where it really belongs, and... let's see... since no one would really want Nashville...maybe just ignore it, and its music.

So I was wrong

I am more than glad to have been wrong about Penn State's chances against Michigan.  The very last way I thought Penn State could win was the way they did... in a 41-31 shootout.  Denard Robinson is just as scary as I thought he would be.  I honestly think he's the most dominant individual football player I've seen in a long time, perhaps ever.  It's too bad for him that the Heisman voters generally only give the trophy to someone from a team at or near the top of the polls.  Otherwise, Denard Robinson would be a shoe-in (no pun intended).

Let's face it... although Penn State's offense has shown signs of life (and improvement) in the past couple of weeks, a good portion of Saturday's apparently outstanding performance was the fault of Michigan's defense.  As someone who has a great deal of respect for both the Michigan program and the Big Ten, RichRod has got to go.  Michigan is still recruiting well, but they're not doing well with what they've got.  Even a good friend of mine who is a Michigan fan describes the defense as "embarrassing".  And the offense... which is currently one of the most potent in college football, honestly has a lot to do with one person.  Denard is making RichRod look good (well, maybe not good, but at least it's not unanimous that he should be canned).

So, you take a team with a weak offensive line, a 3rd string quarterback (former walk-on) making his first start ever, a supposed "star" tailback averaging 62 yards per game... a team with the 115th ranked red zone offense in college football, 86th in points for, etc., etc., etc., put them up against a marquee program, and that program yields 435 yards and 41 points.  It would be an understatement to say that defense has problems.

Who runs a 3-4 in college?  Honestly... if you looked at the Top 25, how many of them do?

---J. J.

Prediction: Michigan at Penn State

Here’s my prediction… 30-16, Michigan over Penn State.  Usually Vegas knows what they’re doing, but they’re giving Penn State too much credit by only making them 3 point underdogs.  If Illinois beat Penn State 33-13, I don’t see a whole lot of difference in this game.  I know Michigan’s defense is a little weak, but it’s not like Penn State has racked up a lot of points and yardage against anyone, even the likes of Kent State (on top of that, third string quarterback Matt McGloin will be starting this Saturday).  Denard Robinson scares me.  Penn State’s defense is not what it normally is, and is riddled with injuries to boot.  They’ve occasionally been able to stop either the run or the pass, but not both, so someone like Robinson, who can keep them completely off balance, should have a field day.

I’m just hoping Penn State makes it to 6-6 this year, which they still have an outside shot at.  That would give JoePa his 400th win and make them bowl eligible.

Why We Haven't Met Any Aliens

It may be because they don't exist (perhaps I'll expand on that in a later post), but this is a pretty good theory too...

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/why_we_havent_met_any_aliens/

I'm trying hard not to give away the punchline.  Just read the article.  What it's *really* about is will make it worth your time.

Well I'll be darned

Which statement is true?

1. Middle Easterners migrated into Europe and taught agriculture to the indigenous people
2. Agriculture appeared in Europe because Middle Easterners, who knew how to do it, migrated there

The latest thinking is that #2 is correct:

http://isteve.blogspot.com/2010/10/are-europeans-all-middle-easterners.html

Hmmm... humanity spread from the Middle East into Europe.  Where have you heard that one before?

BBQ trifecta

After having spent several dozen weeks in Memphis over the past few years doing empirical studies on BBQ quality (and, as a side annoyance, doing my regular job during the daytime), I believe that my 3 trips to barbecue restaurants this week represent a near perfect trifecta:

• Central BBQ
• A&R BBQ
• Interstate Barbecue

There are certainly other great and legendary BBQ restaurants throughout the South, but there is no city anywhere where you could even come close to this trifecta.

If I could add a fourth, what would the word be, a quadfecta?  It just struck me that a trip downtown to The Rendezvous would be a perfect way to extend this list one further.  Maybe next week.

Tough times

Penn State has had 5 straight football seasons where they were pretty solid.  I could have been writing all kinds of wonderful happy stuff.  But I just had to wait until 2010 to get a blog.  Ouch.

Penn State and Pitt has been combined as a single entry in Mark Schlabach's latest "Bottom 10":

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?page=bottom10101013

That hurts... but the article is made palatable by the writer's in-depth knowledge of Cinderella (the most excellent hard rock band, that is, not the crystal shod maiden).

Honestly, I don't know that Pitt deserves to be on the list.  Their inclusion was probably just a dig at Pennsylvania football in general.  Their season is certainly disappointing so far, but they've been in games.  Penn State's losses, while to very good teams, have been ugly.

Penn State's excuse list is reasonable:

• Joe Paterno's youngest team ever - 61 freshmen and sophomores (I read one article that said they only have 20 juniors and seniors...sounds a little low, but that's in the neighborhood).
• A true freshman quarterback.  Rob Bolden shows a lot of promise, but has made a lot of freshman mistakes too.
• Injuries galore.  The medical staff (which has been there 24 years) says it's the worst they've ever seen.  What is it... 13 starters injured now (no exaggeration)?

All that being said,  a top-notch program with the 3 characteristics listed above still shouldn't be in as bad a place as this team is now.  Six wins is the magic number... it would be JoePa's 400th victory and would assure them of a bowl.  Six wins isn't a pipe dream, but it does look like it will be a tough road to get there.

Spew is vomit

A personal annoyance of mine is when people use the word "spew" for anything but vomit.  It's rare that someone can do this without coming across as a lib-uh-ral 19 year old college girl, but I get the sense that Joe Sobran (RIP) must have had a similar annoyance when he turned the tables and used it thusly...

On Canada banning Dr. Laura: "Canada has to protect itself against such pernicious, hate-filled American notions as the Law of Moses. If Dr. Laura wants to spew the Ten Commandments, let her do it in her own country."

Let there be Elder Rock

Wow.  I have a blog now.  I always wanted a blog.  I actually invented blogging before blogging was cool.  We all like to tell people what we think, so I would write down my thoughts and say that some day I'm going to put them on a web site and give people links to my site.  I never did.  But I'm sure I know how certain prescient people felt when televisions were invented and they had been saying for years "Wouldn't it be neat if we had a little box in our house that brought us picture shows".  Or something like that.  Kind of.

Welcome to the blog of Elder Rock.  Stay tuned.  Let's see if I actually end up with any time to post much here.