Do You Know What Time It Is? Time For The A2K NFL Pick-Um Game!

Here's an off-the-wall prediction of Skins-Vikes game with some semblance of credibility. RG III will reinjure himself.

An article on the fate of the world's smallest domed stadium, the Astrodome:
The county's voters rejected public debt to fund the proposed convention facility last Tuesday; that was not to be interpreted as "tear down the Dome".

The Houston Astrodome's obituary may have been written when voters rejected a $217 million bond proposal to renovate it, but some Harris County commissioners who will decide its ultimate fate said Wednesday it's possible that burial for the city's landmark structure is still some time away, if it comes at all.

"It's anybody's guess now," Steve Radack, one of the five members of the Harris County Commissioners Court, said.

And a quick decision or start to the demolition of the world's first air-conditioned domed stadium, dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World"?

"That's not going to happen," Radack said.

"We will wait to see what the consensus of Commissioners Court is before we decide what to do with the Dome," another commissioner, El Franco Lee, said.

For those of us who want to see the old girl live on, Commissioner Radack has assumed the role of Astrodome protaganist.

Studies in recent years have estimated that the cost of demolishing the Astrodome to be as much as $78 million. Radack said he understood it would cost about $20 million to fill the hole left behind.

"I think the Dome has served its purpose, but I'll say this: I'm not going to support tearing it down and then covering the hole with $20 million in dirt and a parking lot," he said. "If that's all, it can just stand there."

It doesn't have to do that, either. It can be a revenue-generating public facility and remain an iconic symbol of Houston's past... and future. My request of the Harris County Commissioners Court is to please consider again the Ryan Slattery (UH architecture student) option.

The Rodeo and the Texans want parking; the Dome sits over a 35-foot-deep hole in the ground with a 9-acre footprint. There's your parking garage, and it can be two levels. Eighteen acres' worth of underground parking. Put a floor down over that (a roof for the garage) and then strip the Dome to its skeleton -- a Texas version of the Eiffel Tower -- and repurpose it as a semi-open air park.



(It probably can't have a crater with a lake and trees as seen here, but it can be nine acres of green space with grass, shallow-rooted indirect sunlight-flourishing shrubbery, pavilions, playgrounds, walking paths, concessions, etc.)

A park like this instantly becomes the crown jewel of the city. An actual tourist destination for people from around the world ... just like the Eiffel Tower. A selling point for the Olympics. Perhaps most importantly of all, a bold symbol of a world-class city that pays tribute to its heritage and shines as brightly as its future.

Let the Rodeo and the Texans collect the fees for the subterranean parking -- your car stays cool in the summer! -- with half of the money collected paying back the taxpayers for the deconstruction and revitalization expenses until the (yes, public) debt is settled. After that, those greedy bastards can keep it all.

It's the best way -- as far as I can see the only way -- that everybody can get what they want.

This is the plan, commissioners. Make it happen.

I've no idea now if I agree with you (probably).

Back with back talk.

I shamelessly stole the above article from PDiddie's blog.

I read, hours ago, a woman writer on espn about whose lead in ended talking about what being a man means.

Now I can't find it on espn.

Maybe I'm not looking hard enough.

I usually don't go there, as they charge for living.

Meantime, where do you all come down re Martin and Incognito and his pals?

As none of us do, I don't know everything going on, but it seems to me that this is a fond revisitation of high school for some. And maybe not just with the Dolphins. You go to your apparent assigned lunch table (I gather with your cohorts, how adolescent is that? Is that an NFL rule? to promote bonding?) and the people there all leave when you show up?

Weirdsville.



I was a stranger in my small high school, literally I knew no one there on my first day. I sat off and on with the people with the right socks (catholic school, uniforms, socks mattered, I learned. Plus they had gone to elementary school together. I had the wrong white bucks, the cheaper ones). I mostly sat with the oddballs, some interesting. I wasn't shunned. Hard to remember myself now, but I was a mix of shyest person in the western world and opinionated person who sometimes spoke up..

Sounds like the football lunch scene.

That's one (RG III) tough QB. He almost made my prediction look good. Skins can't close a door without a strong breeze helping them. That Skin's game should have been there's except they suck at closing a team out they're beating for 05% of the game.

That Division (NFC Least) is now up to the 'Boys and Iggles...by default. A record of 9-7 could take it.

"... there's except they suck at closing a team out they're beating for 95% of the game. "
Should have been their's (not there's) aaargh:

...or perhaps even "theirs"?

oh my, yes! Yet again, I'm humbled.

Week #10 Preview With an Asterisk...
We agree on 81% of our picks this week. That is about average for us.
Here is the breakdown:
Wash @ Minn- 16-2 (JPB and Miz C being the contrarians)
Buff @ Pitt- 5-13
Cincy @ Balt- 16-2 (McGentrix and Mysteryman)
Det @ Chic- 10-8
Jax @ Tenn- 0-18
Oak @ NYG- 5-13
Phil @ GBay- 11-7
Sea @ Atl- 17-1 (Cowdoc)
St L @ Indy 2-16 (ehBeth and Rhys)
Car @ SF 2-16 (JPB and Rhys)
Den @ San D 2-16 (Panzade and JPB)
Hou @ AZ 6-12
Dal @ NO 2-16 (McGentrix and Edgar)
Mia @ TBay 12-6

Tico and Johnboy agree with the majority on every game while Cowdoc and Coastalrat are out of step on only one match. JPB is off on six.
Among the leaders, Rhys disagrees with Kolyo and Cowdoc on six games. Kolyo and Cowdoc differ on three.

* I drafted this last night before the Wash loss to Minn.

I have RG3 as my fantasy QB. He got a lot of points for me which in that game is perhaps more important than who wins.

Is this backwards?

Yes, it is backwards. Denver is the choice by most of us. Thanks for the correction.

Good Morning.
I was mulling over possible topics for inclusion in time-wasting storytime episodes. I ran across this quote from a post by Rockhead and realized that I couldn't top it.
He has moved to a new little town and observed "...I just saw a guy drive by in a late model Toyota pickup and in the back was a dude sitting on a stool and manning a mounted anti-aircraft gun."

I had to redo how we are doing on the Team Play thing. Edgar and Cowdoc have waived Jespah and added Panzade.
Through 9 weeks Tico/Kolyo/JPB have a winning percentage of .639;
Edgar/Panzade/Cowdoc are at .634 while Ehbeth/Mysteryman/Rhys and MizCowdoc/Coastalrat/Lightening follow at .632; Ragman/Andy/George are at .621 while Johnboy/Osso/McGentrix are last at .602.

I'm guessing they're hunting wild hogs.

If you say so.

"When pigs fly!"

I have Miz Cowdoc with 81, not 80 (after week 9)