Merry Christmas, Indeed

Packers 17 - Bears 24

It's the holiday season, so I'll try to keep things light. I was at the least disappointed to hear the loss (we were on our way from WI to MI, so I was forced to tune in on the radio and listen to Chicago's announcers, who suck, BTW). Three word anthem: I hate kickers. Of course, given the coaching decisions, we still would've lost by one point had Longwell even made those two kicks.

But even given the poor coaching and the poor execution and the seemingly endless stream of interceptions, I feel like a true Wisconsinite conservative when it comes to the Packers: Status quo is fine by me. Should Sherman come back next year? Absolutely. If he doesn't, guess who else doesn't?

I will be at the game next week, and quite honestly one of the things I will be looking for will be how the Lambeau crowd responds to Brett. I will be looking for the homemade signs, to see how many people really think it will be Brett's last game on the frozen tundra. I suspect at the very least he will be receiving an ovation. I hope it'll be after the game is securely in hand for the Pack, and Rodgers is coming in to spell Brett after he leads us to an insurmountable 35-point lead... but I'll take what I can get. My prediction is that Hasselbeck won't be making any predictions like the one he botched two years ago because the 'Hawks won't bother to play many of their starters after the initial drive. I hope we play our guys the whole way and pretend it's the fucking Super Bowl. It's as close as we're going to get this year, and, given the mentality of any good Packers fan, whupping the eventual Super Bowl loser is as good as claiming second place in the league, even in a 4-12 season.

Press the Big Red Button...

Packers 3 - Ravens 49

...You know, the one that says SELF DESTRUCT.

I'd write more, but the NFL strictly prohibits my writing descriptions of the game without their express written consent.

Lucky for me.

Sammy G: MVP

Packers 16 - Lions 13 (OT)

Samkon Gado is:

A) brilliant beyond his 7-game NFL career
B) lucky as hell
C) really, really stupid
D) All of the above

In the fourth of five quarters required for us to win a game at home against a depleted team with an interim coach (am I getting off track already?), following a brilliant goal-line stand, Samkon Gado took a handoff from like 6-8 yards deep in our own end zone. In the midst of his being tackled, he had the wherewithal (see question above) to pitch the ball forward across the goal line to avoid a safety. The refs called it 1) intentional grounding plus 2) a hold on Tausch. The grounding was declined and the hold was accepted, resulting in a safety.

Then they talked it over and, after a few minutes, Mike Carey opened his mic back up and explained that 1) since Gado was outside the tackle box and he threw the ball beyond the line of scrimmage, it wasn't intentional grounding, and furthermore 2) the hold was not in the end zone. Therefore, the safety was pulled off the board.

Sure, it was just two points, but it would've led to us free-kicking it back to Detroit and it would have been very difficult for us to tie it up and force overtime after that. We would've had to (gasp!) go for the win.

But we did win, and Gado did have a helluva' game (I vote A, BTW), and -- did I mention? -- we won. Sure, fine, some non-fan-type sports radio hosts say the win was pointless and that we should've pulled a Texan-like shankatolla to keep our hat in the first-round draft pick ring, but the high rollers in the draft right now are a QB and a Running Back from Southern Cal. We have Brett Favre (oh, yeah, and last year's "first round pick" Aaron Rogers) and Sammy G.

I'm just saying. Would we throw Reggie Bush back if we had the chance to draft him? No. No way. But should we play the rest of the season not to win just in case we could get a shot at him or at Matt Leinart? No.

No way.

A Useful Page!

It's official. The internet is now good for two things: Porn and this page.

If I Were a Rich Man...

...Christmas at our house would look like this.

This is not a hoax. Lots of people across the country are starting to sequence their lights like this. I say bravo. Even if I were the neighbor across the street from one of these displays, I would be more in awe than I would be annoyed.

But then again -- if you are to listen to my exes -- apparently I am a terrible judge of what's good about Christmas.

Holy Crap, We're a Department Store!

Stoffels : New Zealand Department Store & New Zealand Online Shop

I can't believe I never knew that. I only knew of stoffels.com, which is apparently the place to go to buy (or maybe just look at?) an expensive car in Germany (...or wherever Würselen is).

I'm adding this to the list of reasons why I want to go to NZ.

No Spoiler, We

Packers 7 - Bears 19

More streaks ended. Brett had an 11-game winning streak alive at Soldier Field, and he had thrown a TD pass in 26 consecutive games against the Bears. We did get a TD (something that's been hard for teams to do against the Bears this year), but it was Gado running in. Brett should have had a TD pass at the end of the first half, but it was picked off and run back 95 yards instead, in a play that was a bit too reminiscent of what Mike Brown did near the end of the first half at Lambeau last year.

Had just two plays worked out differently, we would've won 17-16. Yet this was our second-worst beating of the season. The 12-point difference also now means that our opponents have collectively outscored us. Shocking that, for a 2-10 team, it took until Week 13 for that to happen.

[sigh] I'm tired.

Shit Happens when You Party Naked

I just watched Bad Santa for the first time (thanks to an over-a-year-old recommendation from Lisa), and it just made it into my top five X-mas movies, which are as follows:

1. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
2. Love Actually*
   
3. Bad Santa
4. It's a Wonderful Life (yeah, but screw you, 'cuz it's a great movie)
5. Die Hard

A Christmas Story got bumped to #6. Sorry, but I have a hard time identifying with a kid who wants a gun more than anything else in the world. (The fact that it's in my top ten at all is due to the fact that he actually does end up [nearly] shooting his eye out.) A self-destructive, snarky drunk, on the other hand... well, that I can get on board with.

A couple of "facts" about Bad Santa that maybe you didn't know:

• The first set of scenes were supposed to have taken place in Milwaukee (despite the fact that the only O'Hara's Pub I ever saw was in Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
• You know the "The Producers would like to thank..." list that appears near the end of the credits (usually after all of the songs)? In Bad Santa, Leonardo DiCaprio was on that list.

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*NOTE: Lisa hates this movie