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Wednesday, September 11, 2002
THE CASE FOR WAR AGAINST IRAQ From a story in the Associated Press: "[Iraq's] state-owned weekly Al-Iktisadi covered its front page Wednesday with a photograph of a burning World Trade Center tower and a two-word headline in red: 'God's Punishment.' " IN MEMORIAM 
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish`d rows of steel, "As ye deal with my contemners, So with you my grace shall deal;" Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel Since God is marching on. ... In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on. --Julia Ward Howe, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" NO TRUER FRIEND My 9-11 column is a tribute to America's most loyal ally in the War on Terror, Great Britain's Tony Blair. Tuesday, September 10, 2002
WEINKOPF.COM FOOTBALL POOL - WEEK 1 UPDATES 
Gillette Stadium, by way of the Boston Globe If you had Kordell Stewart, 1.5 interceptions, and the under -- you lost, within five minutes of kickoff, no less! Wow, what a game on MNF to cap off a fantastic NFL season opener and the start of this year's Weinkopf.com Football Pool. Where to begin? Well, how about with them Patriots? Squeel Town Don't worry, I will go on to cover other topics, but a little bit of I-told-you-so is in order to Ben "The Blitzburgh Barfer" Kepple, who must have been upchucking all night long as the sight of his sickly team. Ben not only picked the hapless Squeelers to beat the Mighty Mighty Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots by more than 3, but he also assigned them all 16 confidence points (as did Steel Man Joe). Blitzburgh? Shouldn't they be calling it PICKSburgh, given the way Stewart's throwing the ball? Bottom of the barrel Still, despite picking Team Ketchup, The Brawler put in a respectful weekly performance, with 62 overall points, putting him roughly in the middle of the pack. That's far better than I did with a piddly 36, putting me in front of only Steel Man Joe, GMAN and the NevadaNiner. Speaking of NevadaNiner, for a while it looked like Jason chose that handle because that's how many points he was going to score this week -- 9! Fortunately, he had the good sense to pick the Pats with 14 confidence points, which pushed him well into double-digits. There's a certain poetic justice in his miserable performance, though -- it was Jason's bright idea to use confidence points in the first place. The Kid NevadaNiner could learn something from his own 3-year-old son, Padawan Ebin, who came in an impressive 6th place -- putting him ahead of 13 of us who HAVE completed kindergarten. He's also the only member of the pool who knew to pick Atlanta over Green Bay. How's that for humbling? (Ebin did not, however, know to pick Denver over St. Louis. None of us did, proving, once again, that if EVERYONE in the pool picks a certain team, it's sure not to cover.) The Winner 
Hail to Scott "Hail to the Redskins" Rubush, who mowed over the rest of the pool like a Steve Spurrier offense. It was quite a week for Scott, with his newly revamped team looking impressive (over the Cardinals, anyway) and getting his 16th, 15th, 14th, 13th AND 12th picks all correct -- for a total of 94! Scott simply trounced the rest of us as though we were, uh, the Pittsburgh Steelers. For that, he is the obvious choice for this week's One To Watch. Scott obviously got the brains in the family, though -- little brother, Barrio Bravo Matthew only scored 42 (6 points, more, it's worth noting, than your's truly). Honorable mentions go to Kenny "Grogan's Heroes" Scagel, with a stellar 80 points, Stinky Cheese at 71, and Flipper Lynn Donahoe with 68. Lower than bottom of the barrel The truly pathetic in our midst are Bruiser Tim and Frappucino Commando Charles, both of whom failed to turn in their picks, and both of whom were in Washington, D.C., at the time. (A coincidence, I think not!) Looks like they'll be taking their "DROP" early. Come on guys, stay with us! On confidence points ... It's worth noting that confidence points did not have a huge effect on rankings. The week's top three performers also picked the most games correctly. And the three biggest losers also picked the fewest games. All of which seems to suggest that confidence points alone won't make or break a season -- in the end, it still comes down to the number of correctly picked games. The confidence points just seem to add another dimension -- in other words, I'm coming around. (Never mind that I got smoked this week.) Corrections When I wrote the introductions last week, I erroneously if not libelously identified Stinky Cheese as a Packer fan. Turns out she's no such thing, but a fan of the Mighty Mighty Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots -- but then, who isn't? Also, it turns out Hoboken Orphans is NOT the same person as last year's champion, Hoboken Headhunters, who decided to sit out the season for lack of a high-speed Internet connection. (Yes, I know, a very lame excuse.) "Orphans," according to WildStyle75 Stacey, is Headhunters' boyfriend, also named Chris, if I'm remembering correctly. Everybody got that? All in the Family That brings us to the next point, the familial bonds in our pool. We have: 1) A pair of brothers: Barrio Bravo and Hail to the Redskins 2) A pair of brothers-in-law: Yours Truly and When's Baseball Season Start? 3) A father-son combo -- NevadaNiner and Padawan Ebin and now, 4) A married couple -- "At Least I'm Not a Zebra" Elizabeth and "Grogan's Heroes" Kenny Scagel. New additions I know, I know, you're asking yourselves: Who's "At Least I'm Not a Zebra" Elizabeth? Mrs. Scagel joined the pool late, apparently for one purpose alone -- "beating me week to week," says her husband. And in that spirit of matrimonial rivalry, she's chosen her handle as a way of mocking Kenny, who, like Nevada Niner and yours truly, attended a high school that shall go unnamed, whose mascot is a zebra. "It's about to get very chilly at the Scagel household," says Kenny. Also joining us just in time to get on board for Week One is Glen "GMAN" Cohen, who hereby replaces NevadaNiner as the person in this pool who's known me the longest -- Glen and I started hanging out and getting into trouble at the tender age of 7. Sadly, like Flipper Lynn and Hoboken Orphans, he's something of a Dolfin Phan. Oh well, no one's perfect. Welcome aboard GMAN and Mrs. Zebra! And get set, everyone, for Week 2 in the Weinkopf.com Football Pool! Yours, Chris, the Mighty Mighty Pats Fan Monday, September 09, 2002
REMEMBERING 9-11 My Sept. 11 memorial column appeared in Sunday's Daily News, titled, Everything Changed -- for a Time. |