Author: thependulumswings staff

Abby Picks, Year 4, Week 5

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

As Wall St pundits preach, “pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered.”

Last week, Abby felt queasy about the games and lines and stayed conservative.  The strategy paid as the bleeding was minimal and required only a small bandaid.  Therefore, through four weeks the tale (tail) of the dog is 12-9 won/lost, 19-10 bones won/lost, and the hunch bet extended its winning streak to 4-0!

The matchups and the spreads get more interesting this week as key conference matchups abound.

  1.  Arkansas at Georgia -18 — Speaking of hogs, Arkansas gets slaughtered this week.  Why?  Three reasons.  One, it makes no sense that they are underdogs to the Bulldogs by 18, so they will.  Two, Georgia is elite.  Three, Abby loves UGA the Bulldog mascot.  Two bones.
  2.  Houston +5 at Tulsa —  Abby loves to spot (not the dog) a team that she feels is a live underdog to win straight up.  One bone.
  3.  USC -7 1/2 at Colorado —  Does USC deserve to be favored over anyone by a touchdown or so on the road?  No.  Vegas knows something.  Abby knows when Vegas is trying to buffalo (see what she did there?) the betting public.  Two bones.
  4.  Washington at Oregon St -2 1/2–  Who are these guys behind the dark visors?  Quick, name one Beaver?  Thought so.  They play hard for four quarters, Washington sometimes does not.  One bone.
  5.  Ole Miss +14 1/2 and under 79 1/2 at Alabama —  Vegas has both the points and the total set way high to try to drum up some Rebels and under action. Abby will bite on the bait. Can Mississippi stay within two touchdowns vs. Goliath?  Can the scoreboard operator keep up with this offensive explosion?  “Yes and yes,” she barks.  One bone on Ole Miss and two on under.
  6.  Baylor at Oklahoma St. -3 — Baylor is getting better but on the road.  Oklahoma St is getting better and is home.  One bone.
  7.  Miss St. at Texas A&M -7 — Another Bulldog, this one from Starkville, travels to College Station.  Abby expects A&M to bounce back strong.  Two bones.

Auburn visits a rainy Death Valley Saturday night.  LSU can’t run the ball and Auburn can’t pass the ball.  Abby expects both Tiger teams to force the action on D.  On a hunch take under 56 on the total.

Seven games, eight bets, twelve bones, and a strong hunch.

Woof!

 

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Life and Sports

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

BBR’s fall Board of Directors meeting starts tomorrow in an undisclosed location in the Deep South.  This AM we are emptying our files, folders, creatives, thoughts, and tidbits to provide ten very random nuggets.

We’ll likely be dark until Friday when Abby gives us the weekend’s winners.

Business meetings aside, beaches, booze, and ball games beckon.  After all, someone once said all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  Who is this Jack person?

  1.  NFL Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker’s 66 yards long, best-ever field goal beat the Detroit Lions 19-17 yesterday at the game’s end.  It bounced on and then over the crossbar.  The 19-17 final is the same score that the Saints beat the Lions on a 63 yarder at the game’s end by Tom Dempsey 51 years ago.  The Ravens overcame a fourth and nineteen on the last drive to get in range.  They also avoided a blatant delay of game penalty.   Detroit losses in “oh so Detroit” fashion once again.
  2. Aaron Rodgers needed a mere 37 seconds to brilliantly drive the Packers to a final game-winning field goal as well.  After the ugly loss to the New Orleans Saints to open the season, Rodgers has thrown six touchdowns without an interception over the past two weeks.  A few years back he asked everyone to relax after a mid-season loss.  He even spelled it out for reporters. R-E-L-A-X!  In today’s world of instant overreaction, fueled by social media, we forgot to learn that lesson yet again.
  3.  The Raiders, Broncos, Panthers, Rams, and Cardinals are the lone undefeated teams after three weeks.  If you picked that three weeks ago you are one smart, or very very lucky, individual.  The Tampa Bay Bucs lost to those Rams late yesterday breaking a 10 game winning streak.
  4.  “Da Bears” invested the second pick overall last April in Justin Fields and yesterday decided to make him their starting QB.   He was sacked nine times while only throwing six completions versus the Browns for a putrid 68 yards.  Three games in the Bears are 1-2 and have scored a total of 40 points.  Can Head Coach Matt Nagy survive the season?  Doubtful.
  5. That thud that woke you up Saturday night was Clemson dropping to #25 in the AP Top 25 after its second loss of the early season.  North Carolina St. did the deed after Georgia held Clemson to three in the Labor Day weekend opening loss.  Clemson is still ranked, but on reputation only.  The reverberation that you felt was Arkansas pushing Texas A&M around.  A&M fell from too high #7 to #15.
  6. If you haven’t watched the Hogs play, you’re missing the best story of the football year.  Sam Pittman and his fine staff have the Razorbacks at 4-0 and ranked #8. They come at you for 60 minutes and from every angle.  They’ve beaten Rice, Texas, and Texas A&M all thoroughly along the way.  Maybe Friday Night Lights should be filmed in a different state?
  7. Let the annual debate of “does Notre Dame belong in the playoffs” begin.  They started the season slowly but are 4-0.  They started the game in Soldier Field slowly too, but closed strong, beating Wisconsin 41-13.  The Badgers scored a total of 23 against Penn St and ND in two early-season losses against quality opponents.
  8.  Turning to the world that we live in, guess which US state has the highest rate of new infections from the coronavirus?  Alaska.  Cases there have ratcheted up while the south seems to be past the latest peak.  So much for social distancing helping out.  And, you can read all of the state-by-state infection rate blame game info that you want.  The virus doesn’t see, know, or care about state borders.
  9. In fact, it doesn’t care about which country it is in either.  Norway joined Sweden and Denmark in removing all restrictions.  “It has been 561 days since we introduced the toughest measures in Norway in peacetime,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg said in a Friday news conference. “Now the time has come to return to a normal daily life.”  561 days.  What happened to two weeks to flatten the curve?
  10.  Where’s Brian Laundrie?  “No buzzards, no body,” says Florida cattle rancher Alan McEwen.  He has spent nearly every day of the last 30 years navigating the woods where Brian Laundrie is suspected of hiding and says it’s not conducive to habitation.  “There’s no surviving out here, I don’t know how to say it,” he continued.  Did Laundrie’s parents give the FBI and local officials a head fake when they retrieved the car from the entry point to his hiking in the preserve?  You have to think so.  Laundrie is either alligator food or never was hiding in the swamp.  A really sad story has turned beyond bizarre.

Abby Picks, Year 4, Week 4

Posted on by thependulumswings staff
  1. Faithful reader number one, after reviewing Abby’s picks last Saturday night, suggested that Abby take a bow.  Bow? Wow!  Faithful reader number two suggested that a steak was in order over the normal chow.  Wow.

As Judge Smails famously told his grandson, Spaulding in Caddyshack, “you’ll get nothing and like it.” Three weeks does not make a season.  But it is a good start.  With ten wins and six losses, sixteen bones won v six lost, and the hunch bet advancing to 3-0, it’s time for week four.

  1.  Wisconsin -6 v Notre Dame —  Soldier Field is the awesome setting for this early fall midwest scrum.  Abby is so mystified by this line that she’s going 100% against her thought.  That thought is that the wrong team is favored.  One bone.
  2.  Miami OH at Army -7 —  Can the Army make it four in a row versus the spread?  They’ll give it a go.  One bone.
  3.  Florida International at Central Michigan -11 — Cent Mich ran into an angry LSU team last week.  Two weeks ago they nearly beat Missouri.  Abby expects a rebound. Two bones.
  4.  Texas Tech at Texas -8 — The much-maligned Longhorns begin what might be their final stroll through the BIG 12.  They might start slow, but talent will take over in the second half.  Two bones.
  5.  Nebraska at Michigan St. -5 — Michigan St. might well be the best team in Michigan.  Is this the year they bust through and be the best team in the BIG 10 East?  Doubtful, but if they want to they need to take care of an average foe in the Cornhuskers first.  One bone.

Five home chalks get picked by a dog that likes underdogs!

Texas A&M might have their hands full in Arlington this weekend v a surging Arkansas program.  This is strength v strength.  The Ark O line v the A&M D line.  Abby, on a hunch, likes under 47.

Woof!

If A Tree Falls…

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Unless you live under a rock you know that 10-15k Haitian migrants have been living under a bridge on the border in Del Rio, TX for about 10 days and counting.

What you may not know is that in mid-sentence of answering a question yesterday (presumably about Ireland), UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was cut off by a White House staff that ushered all UK and US reporters out of the room.

This was only one and one-half answer in for the Prime Minister, and after President Joe Biden had answered “good luck” to Johnson when he first suggested that the two begin taking questions.  Biden and Boris watched the herding out of the reporters with the look of second-graders when first introduced to long division.  There sat Plugs and Shag Rugs.

The migrants’ ten-day fiasco and the three-minutes and halted Q and A have much in common.   They are both unfortunate examples of the Biden Administration’s over-the-top, incessant attempt to control the content, its narrative, as well as Biden’s exposure to the press to account for any and all things pertinent to running this country.

Consider the following.

  1. None of the Haitians are directly from Haiti, hence the term migrants, not refugees.  Every single one interviewed thus far stated that they have been living in Brazil, Mexico, or in one of a few Central American countries.  They’re claiming refugee status in light of the recent events in Haiti as a cover for entry.  Biden kicked that door wide open months back.
  2. The Del Rio crossing as well as other entry points across the Rio Grande have gone unmanned in recent weeks.  The Biden team told the Border Patrol to stand down entirely.  Open borders it is.
  3. It is believed that Haitian’s are only 3% vaccinated.  Americans can’t walk into restaurants without one or two jabs, but it’s no problem for entry via our borders.
  4. On Sunday talk shows DHS and ICE leaders told America that everyone was going to get a one-way ticket back to Haiti.  Crisis solved. Nothing to see here.  Never mind that they don’t live there anymore.  Also, as of yesterday, only about 300 have been flown back. Over 1000 have caught buses bound to who knows where in the US sans any documentation.  And, most of all, estimates range from 10k to 30k people caravans of additional migrants headed to Del Rio from all parts south.
  5. The FAA over the weekend prohibited Fox News from flying drones over the site.  If you can’t see the crisis is there a crisis?  Other networks finally started covering the mess days later.  If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, is it sound?  Yesterday, the FAA relented.
  6.  Politicians and left-wing media types spent the last 48 hours comparing pictures of border patrol officers “whipping” Haitians to slavery, systemic racism, 100 years ago, etc.  The incensed officers pushed back yesterday saying no one was hit, the whips were actually horse reins and are swung for the horse to see to control their movements in crowds.   Doesn’t the Biden team control the border patrol?  They stood down two weeks ago when asked.
  7. Seldom seen Border Czar Comma La Harris called the images “very disturbing.”  CNN shrill Chris Cuomo compared the horse scene to the aforementioned slavery.  Cuomo may have a bit of a horse face, but his familiarity with equines likely stops there.  Forget the illegality of the crossing, the terrible conditions, the heat.  Forget the green card.  Play the race card.
  8.  Texas Governor Abbott yesterday finally put a halt to the unfettered crossings with Texas Ranger vehicles blocking the way.  He did what the federal government paid lip service to.  Somehow, he’ll be the bad guy now.  Isn’t that what the left wants anyway?

Walking out of the UN Council yesterday morning a masked Biden was asked what he was going to do about the “out of control border crisis.”  He answered simply, “we’ll get it under control.”  That’s it on day ten of this mess, five words.

The administration must be proud.  Plan executed.  You know, less is more.

Oh, and he must have been following the science wearing the mask.  Remember, he said sternly two weeks back that we need to protect the vaccinated from the unvaccinated.  Haitians aside we presume.

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-NCAA Football

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Three quick weeks in we’ve hit the quarter pole in a twelve-game schedule.  What do we make of the action thus far? It’s interesting as always, but conference play starts this week and we’ll be a lot smarter because of it soon.   Get your nuggets below.

  1.  ESPN ran this Sunday AM headline, “Bama Looks Beatable!”  Perhaps.  Another way to describe their 31-29 win over a well-coached Florida team in The Swamp would be: True sophomore Bryce Young, making his third start ever, led Bama into the hostile Swamp, scored 31 against a good defense that anchors the #11 ranked team in America, and won.  Saban has raised the bar so high that our perspective and ESPN’s headlines are jaundiced.
  2.  Georgia held on to the second spot working the not-so-game SC Gamecocks, 40-13.  That Oct 30th largest outdoor cocktail party that we don’t call the largest outdoor cocktail party anymore between the Gators and the Bulldogs should be quite the alcohol-fueled duel.  The Bulldogs will be glad they are hosting very pesky Arkansas and Kentucky prior and not traveling to play them before the first fan bellies up on Halloween weekend. The pollsters left Florida at #11, deservedly so, after the 2 point loss.
  3. Oregon took the week off after beating THE in the Shoe.  Well, not really.  They beat Stoney Brook 48-7 in the northwest rain.  After a 75 yard drive to start the game, the Ducks held SB to only 169 yards of offense for the remainder of the game with subs waddling in liberally.  The difference between Oregon and the rest of the PAC 12 is that they play legit D.
  4.  The BIG 10 wants in on the fun as well.   Iowa, yes Iowa, is now #5, Penn St. is #6 and THE OSU is #10.  They’re celebrating the 30 points that the Hawkeyes put up on Kent St. Saturday like it’s a corn crop safely in the silo.  Iowa has no O, but it has a playoff quality D.  Penn St. now has a single-digit win over Wisconsin(there) and Auburn(home) as two solid resume builders. That white-out scene in Happy Valley is quite the sight.
  5. It wasn’t pretty, but now #6 Cincinnati stayed undefeated after beating a good Big Ten team 38-24 on the road.  Indiana kept it close for a while. The Bearcats strategically scheduled no one this week to build up to a trip to South Bend next week.   An impressive win there would put Cincinnatti in the playoff conversation.  Though after ND, they play no one ranked in the top 25 as of now.
  6.  Texas A&M (7), Ole Miss (13), and Arkansas (16) give the SEC West four teams ranked in the top 16.  Florida kept it close with the juggernaut known as Bama.  Can any of these three shoot the moon, er, Bama? The best chance is three weeks away in College Station it seems.
  7. But, A&M needs to be focused this week on the opponent at hand-Arkansas in Fayetteville.  Sam Pittman has done quite a job resurrecting the Hogs.  The Razorbacks had one lonely win v 23 losses in SEC play from 2017-19 before Pittman took the steering wheel in 2020. There were a few chuckles when he was announced as the next pig expected to get smoked at the luau.  No more.   Whooo Pig!  The Aggies are an early six-point favorite on the road.
  8.  The BIG 12 has Oklahoma at #8 and Kansas St. #25.  Where’s the beef? It’s lean in cattle country.  Oklahoma’s win 23-16 over Nebraska wasn’t exactly what the Sooners needed to push higher.
  9. Life is good in Provo. Coming off last year’s 11-1 season, the BYU Cougars have secured a membership in the Big 12.   Now, BYU sits proudly at #15.  They’ve beaten three PAC 12 schools in three weeks.  Arizona, Utah, and Arizona St. are all early 2021 skins on the Cougars wall. Arizona St. had a chance to raise their profile and the PAC 12 South’s a bit on Saturday but wasn’t quite ready for primetime.  The other shoe dropped when UCLA gave up 75 yards in 6 plays in only 40 seconds and lost at the buzzer 40-37 to Fresno St.  UCLA dropped to #24 in the process.  In the PAC 12, it’s Oregon, and pray for rain.  Wait!
  10. Some eyebrow-raising early lines are out.  Wisconsin is a 5 1/2 point favorite over Notre Dame in Soldier Field.  Florida St is just a 2 1/2 point home dog to Louisville.  Memphis beat Moo St. Saturday but are only an at-home 3 1/2 point pick over UTSA.  And Michigan St is a slim 4 1/2 point home choice over Nebraska.

 

Abby Picks, Year 4, Week 3

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Sometimes the tail wags the dog.  Not this dog.  Abby Roux is riding the wave.  Four total points stood between her and a perfect week two.  So it goes.  She’ll gladly take it.

The results in week two were identical to week one.  That brings the season totals to six wins v four losses, ten delicious bones won v six lost, and the hunch bet is two and oh so fine.

Week three seems tricky.  Picks follow.

  1.  Michigan St +6 1/2 at Miami —  Something about this line troubles Abby greatly.  Is the wrong team favored?  She hopes.  It’s a bit more humid in Coral Gables than in East Lansing this time of the year.  That said, take the Spartans plus six and a half for one bone and straight-up(+190) for one bone wagered to win two.
  2. Mississippi St. at Memphis +3 1/2 —  Is the wrong team favored, part two? This is the beginning of the end for Mike Leach.   The money line isn’t great, so one bone on the plus.
  3. Central Michigan at LSU -19 1/2 —  Hopefully the wrong team isn’t favored here.  LSU has done nothing in two games to inspire any confidence much less be favored by this much over a high school team.  Did we mention that Abby likes to zig when others zag?  Two bones.
  4. Arizona St – 3 1/2 at BYU —  The Sun Devils historically trip over their pitchforks in a spot like this. Herm Edwards is in year four in Tempe.  UCLA in week one, and Oregon in week two got big out of conference wins for the PAC 12.  Ariz St. does as well in week three.  One bone.
  5. Florida St +4 1/2 at Wake Forest — Nobody circles the wagons like the Seminoles, do they?  They’ll need to after a devastating loss last week to Jacksonville St.  Wall Street calls this a dead cat bounce.  Abby hates cats, so she approves of this Wall Street metaphor.  One bone.

Alabama, favored by 14 1/2, travels to Gainsville to beat Florida this Saturday.  The over/under is 60 and 1/2.  Abby thinks Bama’s D will come to play.  On a hunch, she’ll take the under.

Woof!

 

A Not So Hairy Recall.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

In the 19th-century election ballots were counted by hand. Usually, when the count was first announced, the customary crowd of people that gathered to await the results cheered loudly. Oftentimes, this was a preliminary indication of who would win the election, hence the expression, all over but the shouting.

In California last evening it was over without any shouting.  And, in fact, the recall Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom election ballot was over before it started. BBR’s best guess is that the final tally will be at least 60% against combing back Gavin like his hair to under 40% in favor of a new dude with a new do.  That’s not close, and it never was.

Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly a 2-1 margin these days in the Golden State.  With nearly 40 million residents it’s not too hard to get 1.5 million to sign a recall petition, but it’s really hard to get 51% of a vote when the sitting governor “identifies” the same as 67% of the state’s citizens.

“We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic,” said Newsom.  He controls none of that, but never mind.  “Economic justice, social justice, racial justice, environmental justice are values where California has made so much progress.   All of those things were on the ballot this evening,” he added.  That’s a lot of justice.  It makes you wonder why Cali is losing a congressional seat due to an accelerating population reduction even with immigration flowing in.

This brings us to a bevy of questions.  One, did Cali vote against Larry Elders (or anyone not deemed Progressive) or for Gavin Newsom?  Two, did America vote more against Donald Trump or for Joe Biden? If you say you voted for Biden and not against Trump, get some truth serum in your next booster vaccine, please. Three, did America vote against Hillary Clinton more than for Donald Trump?  Likely.  We could continue.

This brings us very prematurely to 2024.   Can America find a candidate that the very polarized public can get behind from both sides?  We HIGHLY doubt it.  The entirety of the process, more than ever before, sets up against it.  Lobbyists, big donor money, PACs, two-party dominance, fractured feelings, and several other major factors all set up against it.

America sees things more black and white than ever before and we aren’t talking about race.  Though, playing the race card is still a, ahem, trump card.  Either you’re with us or you’re against us.  Hatfields and McCoys.  Cowboys and Indians, though you can’t say Indians any longer.  Good cop, no cop.

Hey, how about Rand Paul?

Have you ever listened in detail to his orations?  He identifies as a Republican, but he’s plenty Libertarian.

Yesterday, without malice he took Secretary of State Antony Blinken apart limb by limb over what we did and didn’t do in Afghanistan, knew and didn’t, and what we are going to do, or not about it now.  Like Paul himself, it was a poised, unemotional, educated, evenhanded, intelligent drive down the middle lane.

Unelectable you say?  We agree.  Paul favors a balanced budget, not a ballooning deficit.  Strike one.  He favors independence over dependence on government.  Strike two.   And, three, his hair game ends where Gavin’s begins.  Strike three, you’re out!

Logic is as out of style as a perm on the national scene.  Emotion is all the craze.

Meanwhile back in Cali, Newsom can again dare to depart for the maskless, crazy expensive dinners that he doesn’t dare part his hair for.

After all, a part divides.

Slick.

 

 

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-NCAA Football

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Well, if week one was crazy, then week two was cray, cray, as they say.

We have a few observations as you might imagine.  Ten to be exact.

  1.  Alabama had mercy on Mercer.  After leading 31-0 at halftime, Bama cruised to a 48-14 victory.  Predictably, this made Nick Saban unhappy. His rants are fun to watch unless you’re sitting in front of him.  If you’ve seen this movie before you know it’s purely using the press to motivate his team into how good he thinks they can be.  Like him, or not, it’s vintage stuff from the legend that he is.
  2. Oregon provided the PAC 12 with another big statement going into the Horseshoe and taking Ohio St. down with malice. The score was 35-28, but Oregon was in control from the first snap.  Though, UCLA’s week one win v LSU looks a bit less shiny after the Tigers mailed in at home in week two beating a terrible McNeese St team 34-7.  Oregon won the line of scrimmage against a major contender for the playoffs in their house.  The “not physical enough” knock on the PAC 12 might be waining a tad.  Mario Cristobal take a bow!
  3. Fifth-ranked Texas A&M lost their starting quarterback, then nearly lost to Colorado.  An 11 play 77-yard grind late in the fourth quarter saved the Aggie day, 10-7.  The Aggie D is playoff-level good.  The O, and especially without Haynes King, isn’t.
  4. Clemson scored only three last week vs Georgia. They held South Carolina St. to only three this week.  But, like Jimmy, who cracked corn, nobody cares.  The Tigers 49-3 win is meaningless.  And, their schedule is weaker than Biden’s defense of the way he pulled out of Afghanistan.  No team currently ranked inside of the top 25 is on it.  A trip to Pittsburgh looks like their only possible road bump from here.  But, will 11-1 against fish wrapping paper be enough to get to the final four?
  5.  Notre Dame is replacing their leprechaun mascot with Houdini.  A week after surviving sudden death v Florida St., the mighty Fighting Irish got a last-minute touchdown in South Bend to overcome Toledo 32-29.  Wow.  Toledo.  And, Florida St. lost on a last-second hope and a prayer heave by Jacksonville St. this week.  Wow.  That doesn’t sound like the two-game resume of an eighth-ranked team.
  6. Metaphorically, a “Trojan horse” has come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or place.  USC is no Trojan horse.  They invited Stanford into the Collisium Saturday and the Cardinal took what they wanted.  Stanford was a 17 point underdog and won 42-28, or straight up by 14. You wonder how much sucker money went to the Trojans’ side of the line in Vegas. So much for the return of USC to the national landscape.  The LA Times has seen enough of head coach Kim Helton.  We’ve seen this Hollywood act before, haven’t we?
  7. Texas got a taste of the SEC that it will join in a year or two.  Arkansas was picked to finish last in the SEC West this year but worked Texas over and over.  Arkansas won’t finish last.  Three hundred and thirty-three rushing yards later, the scoreboard clock thankfully showed 0:00.  Arkansas rushed the ball 47 times for a hog-like 7.1 yds per carry average.  The scoreboard showed Arkansas 40, Texas 21.  The game wasn’t nearly that close.  Hopefully, Steve Sarkesian isn’t hungover this AM.  The Longhorn fans sure are.
  8.  Last week Penn St. and Wisconsin set the game back 25 years with their three yards and a pile of dirt fight.  Iowa and Iowa St. one-upped the Big 10 mudders this week.  Iowa completed under 50% of its 21 passes and rushed 39 times for a 1.7 yards per carry average.  And, they WON 27-17!  ND isn’t good enough to be ranked 8th.  Iowa isn’t good enough to be ranked 9th.  And, Iowa St surely isn’t good enough to be ranked 10th.
  9.  Cincinnati agreed to join the BIG 12 earlier this week.  On Saturday they took care of more business beating Murray St. 42-7 to go to 2-0 on the season.  Cincy is ranked a sneaky 7th.  BYU, Houston, and UCF also agreed to join the Big 12 after Texas and Oklahoma take their talents to the SEC soon.  The Big 12 only had ten teams, and are losing two, but gaining four.  Got that?  There really will be 12 teams one day once again.  But BIG?  Meh.
  10.  We borrowed the following from ESPN, cause we think it’s an interesting gambling oddity at the least.  Air Force topped Navy 23-3 in the first game between military academies this season.  And the result fits nicely into one of the most consistent trends in college football. Since 2005, 39 of 49 military games have failed to hit the Las Vegas total. Saturday’s over/under was set at an impossibly low 39.5, and yet the matchup never came close to eclipsing that total. Air Force hosts Army on Nov. 6, so mark your calendars to bet on that one, too.

Jury duty for one of our staff members beckons.   It’s an honor, your honor!

Abby Picks, Year 4, Week 2

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

While Wisconsin, Nebraska, Washington, and LSU disappointed their fan base in week one last week, Abby hit the ground like a bloodhound.  She hunted down three winners v two losers, five tasty bones up v three down, and hit her hunch.

That said you’re only as good as your next week, not your last in the gambling game.  She approaches week two cautioning herself not to overread week one.

Now, to the picks.

  1.  Western Kentucky at Army -6 –That said, Army got it done in week one.  She’s marching with the cadets again.  Either you stop their three-headed run game or you lose.  One bone.
  2. Pittsburgh at Tennessee +3 — The Volunteers and their beautiful bluetick coonhound Smokey stands their home ground.  Abby likes them straight up, but will take the three and run.  Two bones.
  3.  Buffalo at Nebraska -13 —  Scott Frost is coaching for his job.  Expect the Huskers to be hungover from the corn mash they took last week by Bielema and the Fighting Illini, but pull away in the second half.  Two bones.
  4.  Texas at Arkansas +7 — Texas pulled away impressively from U of Louisiana, formerly known as U of Louisiana Lafayette, formerly known as U of Southwestern Louisiana in Sark’s debut.  What’s in a name anyway? It’s all about the chant.
  • Raise your arms above your head during the patented (yes patented)  Hog Call, yell “Wooo” and wiggle your fingers for a few seconds.
  • Next, bring both arms straight down with fists clenched while yelling, “Pig.”
  • Then extend your right arm with the “Sooie.”
  • Repeat these steps two more times and finish by yelling.
  • Win two bones.

5.  Stanford +17 at USC —  If you look back at last week, you’d think Abby has gone doggone mad.  Did she mention that it’s important to not read too much into week one?  She’ll zig here when others zag.  One bone.

Washington travels three time zones to Ann Arbor to face the Michigan Wolverines for a 7 pm kick.  Under the lights, the over/under is low at 49 points.  Abby thinks lower, and that Washington will give Michigan a battle in a field position/field goal-filled defensive struggle.  She likes under 49 on a hunch.

Woof!

 

 

Storm Clouds

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Yesterday President Joe Biden warned Americans that time had run out to keep global warming from causing catastrophic weather events in the United States.

“Climate change is real. We’re living through it now. We don’t have any more time,” Biden said.

Ida was the perfect storm for Biden and the Democrats.  It was terrible ripping through Louisiana, but the flooding it caused in the northeast gave Biden the platform to stump not once, but twice, for his left wing’s climate change initiatives. Hammer a red state, bad.  Hammer a blue state or two, hit the campaign trail.

And, how timely, they have hundreds of billions of the 1 trill infrastructure and 3.5 trill budget resolution earmarked for climate change at the ready for passage.

“Every part of the country is getting hit by extreme weather,” Biden said. “We’re now living in real-time what the country is going to look like.”  How many years have forest fires scorched the west in the dry and lightening filled summer? Four?  Or, forever?  Can you help us with how many hurricanes have hit the coast of Louisiana in the last, say, 10,000 years?  And, who knew that heavy rains could cause flooding over the banks of rivers, even in New York and New Jersey?

Biden said powerful hurricanes like Ida and wildfires in the West only proved that climate change was real.  Not really.  It only proved that it’s late summer again.

The next thing you know, some expert will tell us that melting snow from the nation’s heartland will eventually find its way next spring to the Mississippi River and threaten to flood states west and east of it from Iowa clear down to Louisiana yet again.  This happens every spring, doesn’t it?  There is a reason why the richest soil for farmers in America lies in the flooded lands of the mighty Mississippi.

“I think we’re at one of those inflection points where we either act or we’re going to be, we’re going to be in real, real trouble.”  Sometimes Biden is hard to understand with his occasional misspeak, flub, mispronunciation, and/or truncation.   Not this time.  Give me my spending bill or you and your loved ones are going to perish in all of this peril, he says.

Our kids are going to be in real trouble,” Biden said.  We’ll give him this one.  Biden knows a lot about troubled kids.

And he knows a tornado when he sees one.  Not really.  “Looks like a tornado, they don’t call them that anymore,” he said.  “They are wreaking havoc in our nation’s heartland.  Nevada, Iowa, our wetlands, etc,” he stammered.  “We’re in this together.”

US geography may not be a long suit of Joe’s.

Meanwhile back in Afghanistan, it’s not so sunny either.

But if you change the narrative, you can hide behind the clouds.