Quick Hits For October 11. 2010; The Football and Chris(es) Edition!

Hey ladies and gents. I took a couple of days off for football (first) and then for some family issues- nothing serious, but just a few things that needed some attention.

So I now find myself in a situation where I want to talk about a variety of issues in a short space of time.....how about some Quick Hits?

(1). The sign in the end zone said it all; In Dodd We Trust. And then some. Chas Dodd, the 18 year old true freshman quarterback for Rutgers University started in place of the injured Tom Savage, and the South Carolina native made a spectacular debut on national TV last Friday night. Dodd passed for 322 yards with two touchdowns in leading Rutgers to a thrilling 27-24 comeback win over UCONN.

It was a wild night at R House to be sure, with Dodd hitting Mark Harrison with a TD pass to tie the game at 24 with just 3:53 left in the game. After UCONN went three and out, Rutgers drove the UCONN 17 yard line where San San Te drilled a game winning 34 yard field goal with 13 seconds left in the game.

It wasn't quite "Pandemonium in Piscataway" but it would do quite nicely for the RU fans.

And I know what you must be thinking....Chas (pronounced "chase") looks more like one of Frodo's mates in Lord of the Rings than an NCAA quarterback. But the diminutive #19 is one of those players that has a bit of magic in them. And he looks good in Scarlet.

(2). And to the 10,000 or so of the 48,000 plus who left early with six minutes to go to beat traffic....shame on you! It's Rutgers-UCONN. And something always crazy happens in the last couple of minutes to win (or lose) games; muffed punts, field goals hitting uprights, 81 yard TD receptions with seconds to go.

By the way....looking at the UCONN message boards- it's amazing how many fans up there want to dump Coach Randy Edsall....and that's just stupid. Last year Edsall held that team together after the murder of Jazz Howard, and a slew of heartbreaking last minute losses to get them to a bowl game, where they soundly beat Steve Spurrier's South Carolina Gamecocks. And didn't those guys beat #1 Alabama last Saturday?

So go ahead and fire Randy Edsall, oh sons and daughters of Huskyland...he'll stay unemployed for about ten seconds

(3). It's Columbus Day! And The History Channel celebrated the day by giving us hour after hour of Pawn Stars.

And History International? Almost the same....no mention of the day and it's significance. You can talk about the genocide that happened to the Native Peoples in the Western Hemisphere after the arrival of the Spanish in 1492, and yes it was horrific and brutal. But no one alive today cam fathom the courage those mariners, led by their captain from Genoa, Cristoforo Colombo. And if not for him, would there not be a Columbus, Ohio? And then where would the Blue Jackets play?

(4). New Jersey governor Chris Christie recently said it's time to pull the plug on the $9 billion rail tunnel that would connect northern New Jersey and Manhattan because New Jersey cannot afford to pay $2.5 billion in overruns that Christie says the state does not have. But then Christie met with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and decided to put a two week hold on the cancellation while project is reviewed. I think there is a couple of things at work here.....first, the project would create thousands of jobs, perhaps as many as 40,000. The existing tunnels are nearly 100 years old, and will need to be replaced sooner or later. And also....the feds have already spent $600 million on the project, and New Jersey would have to pay back $300 million of that total.....money that New Jersey does not have. So the choice is spend more and create jobs and have a new tunnel  or don't build it and give $300 million to Washington and have nothing to show for it. Maybe if Mr. Christie would stay home and take care of business here.....and do the job we're paying him to do.....he'd know what's going on. But Oprah and GOP fund raisers beckon.

It's so nice to have a rock star in Trenton......I think?

More on the tunnel project here.

(5) And in closing, we've talked about Christopher Columbus, Chris Christie.....but what would  a QUICK HITS be without a mention of the newest Chris on the block, Christine O'Donnell.

How can you tell you've "made it", in a manner of speaking?

When Saturday Night Live! starts doing send ups of you. Below, from MORNING JOE, is SNL's take on Christine's "I'm not a witch" ad.





Parting shot...way to go Yankees!

And...Phillies (if Sue is reading this)!

Ohio Candidate is America's Angriest Republican......and a YouTube Sensation

Phil Davison, Republican candidate for Stark County (Ohio) treasurer, gave an impassioned speech that has become a viral YouTube sensation. Rather than me try to describe his delivery and style, take a look for yourself (be sure to pause the annoying 1960's music that I still love, than play the vid). I'm sure he just might remind you of someone you've seen on TV before.....perhaps on a Saturday night, many years ago.




How dare he steal the act of the late Chris Farley as "Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker"! Has he no shame! Do you think I'm kidding? Look at the video below.


Matt Foley halloween special
Uploaded by roxannekitty. - Click for more funny videos.

Yeah, we get it....Phil has a master's degree in communications.

Next he'll be saying that he "lives in a van down by the river"....in beautiful Minerva, Ohio.

More from The Washington Post.

Quick Hits for May 7.....and 8th, 2010; Betty White, SNL, and a Plum for Heigl

Its another one of those days with much to talk about, and so very little time. So here I am again, copping out with QUICK HITS.


(1). Here's a thought someone called "Hugh Jee" had on TWITTER last night...."Being "de-citizenized" by Joe Lieberman's proposed "Strip The Suspected Terrorist Law"; is that kind of like being "unfriended" on FACEBOOK?".

The guy has something there, heh?

(2) So the DOW plummeted 1,000 points in less than an hour, supposedly because someone transposed 16 billion for 16 million on the future's market? Don't you think its a little too easy for one person to do some serious damage to the the economies of this nation and the world- and to millions of little guy investors? If one person could do this with a mistake, what about someone with ill intent, like foreign or domestic terrorists, or someone just doing it because they want to do it. Another case for some serious Wall Street reform, and some competent eyes to watch what's going down.

(3).Katherine Heigl of "Grey's Anatomy" fame has landed The Plum role. And "Plum" should be capitalized. Ms. Heigl will star in One For The Money, the screen adaptation of the first of a series of novels by Janet Evanovich about Trenton (New Jersey) based bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, murder mysteries that are more comic than procedural. The sixteenth entry in the Plum series, Sizzling Sixteen, will be released on June 22.

My only question is...what took so long? These novels are fun, are an easy escapist read (I have read the first 10, so I have some catching up to do), and hit home for me on several levels. I was born in the Chambersburg section of Trenton where the novels take place. Stephanie is of Italian-Hungarian decent (as am I). My Grandpa used to drive a huge blue 1953 Buick like the one owned by Uncle Sandor in the novels (Stephanie Plum is really hard on cars- she either totals one or has one blow up in every book). And I have certain family members who closely resemble that of Stephanie Plum- though my grandmothers were not as zany as Steph's Grandma Mazur. About 10 years ago I thought Sandra Bullock should play Stephanie, but as she approached 40, I switched support to Jennifer Aniston (Steph is perpetually 30 years old in the books).

As for boyfried Joe Morelli and mysterious tough guy Ranger, it will be interesting to see how the casting goes. But two people I'd love to see in the supporting cast of any future Plum mysteries; Queen Latifah as Lula (Steph's street wise former working girl BFF), and America's Grandma, Betty White as whacky Grandma Mazur. And any character who goes to funeral homes to pick up grieving old geezers is a bit whack-a-doo....and inventive, I suppose.

A long pause here....continuing the blog entry a mere 36 hours after starting it...I told you I've been busy. Hate it when people don't update their sites...I have a responsibility to give you guys information whether you want it or not. You've been warned.

(4). Now......where was I? Oh yeah! Speaking of Betty White. She's hosting SNL tonight. And who woulda thunk it? At 88, she isn't the oldest person to appear on Saturday Night Live. SNL's announcer Don Pardo, who has been with the show for all but one of its 35 years on NBC, has celebrated his 92nd birthday last February. But the oldest guest ever on SNL was probably composer-pianist Eubie Blake. On March 10, 1979 Mr. Blake guested on SNL, which was hosted by Gary Busey that night. Depending on your source, Eubie Blake was either 96 or 92 in 1979, though his 100 birthday was celebrated shortly before his death in 1983.

At any rate, below is the video of Mr. Blake's appearance on SNL in 1979, with the great and sadly missed Gregory Hines singing. Hines died much too young at age 57 in 2003.


Gregory Hines - Eubie Blake

Macgoddess | MySpace Video

(5). And finally....Happy Mother's day to all of the Moms reading this. And to all you guys who still haven't gotten anything....there's always the fresh cut flowers at the all night supermarkets. Have fun!