#[the great drafts clean out of spring '23]

[fr0gg13b413]

I fell in love with hope is holding my heart so gently while i break down in sobs. like it’s going “it’s okay, i know your heart is shattered. but broken things are okay. regardless if things are okay or not, you will be okay.”

[lindoig8]

Alice Springs & preparing for our Camel Trek

Thursday, 22 April

We drove the last 150 km into Marla on the Stuart Highway, the first sealed road for almost 700 clicks. We refuelled, although we probably still had enough to get us to Alice Springs. And we had lowered our tyre pressure on the gravel roads so this was the time to bring them up to pressure again because we would now be on bitumen right through to Alice Springs. We also ate our lunch there before setting off on the final section of our trip to the Alice.

We had expected to be stopped at the Northern Territory border for quarantine and Covid documentation checks, but there was absolutely nothing so we just kept driving through to Kulgera and thence on to Erldunda where we stopped for the night. There were a few more birds around the caravan park than at our previous stops, including a pair of Major Mitchells, a few vivid Australian Ringnecks and some Mulga Parrots.

We had another superb dinner at night, using our double-sided frying pan to cook a hearty roast chicken and vegetables meal to celebrate our arrival in the Northern Territory. Interestingly, we still haven’t turned on our TV to watch any DVDs since we left home. We have just read or done puzzles and turned in quite early each night. That will probably change once we are back in ‘civilisation’ again.

Friday, 23 April

We saw a couple of camels over the fence from our caravan after breakfast so took a few photos of them and told them that we would be walking in the desert with some of their brothers within the week – but that didn’t seem to impress them much. And then it was on the road again for the final 199 kilometres to Alice Springs.

We arrived at the G’Day Mate Caravan Park where we have stayed a couple of times before at about 12.45pm – a mere 3065 kilometres from home. We set ourselves up quite comfortably here and despite our resolve to leave all the cleaning and reorganising until after our Camel Trek, we did quite a bit of it during the afternoon. We have plenty still to do, but at least the main surfaces are now clean and most of our gear is accessible and usable if and when we want it. We noted a few more very minor damages to the van, but one important thing I saw when I disconnected the car from the van was that one of the two bolts in the trailer hitch had come loose and fallen out during the trip, leaving only a single bolt holding the van and the (fairly loose) towball hanging at an angle of about 45 degrees from where it should be.

We cooked another excellent meal for dinner and washed it down with a bottle of bubbles to celebrate our arrival at our first formal destination of this trip.

Saturday, 24 April

We had a huge fry-up for breakfast, using up lots of delicious leftovers before we started work for the day.

We had heaps of cleaning and rearranging to do as well as two giant loads of accumulated dust to wash out of our bedding and clothing. Everything was/is smothered in dust. I tried to get some out of our carpets and Heather did a lot of cleaning too, but it even coated everything in the fridge - how it infiltrated the fridge-seals beats me, but every cupboard, every drawer, every surface was reddish grey from its thick coating of dust. We had sealed boxes inside a closed cupboard under the bed and even they were full of dust. We will live with most of it until after our camel trek and do a more comprehensive clean after that. Of course, we will be travelling on lots more dusty roads over the next few months so I am quite sure it is all going to happen again, probably several times.

While the washing was on the line drying, we caught up with the scores of emails that had arrived while we were off the grid, with bills to pay and transactions to post, etc. There is no rest for the wicked and I had quite a bit of reading to do and correspondence to finalise for our next Owners Corporation Committee meeting the day after we get back from our Camel Expedition.

We also needed to restock some of our cupboards so went to the Supermarket during the afternoon too. It was a busy day even if we didn’t seem to have a lot to show for it. But we made a delicious paella for dinner - absolutely delightful! Man, can we do paella!

Sunday, 25 April

ANZAC Day, but apart from recognising it on Facebook, we didn’t make much of it this year. We both had things to do and I am still finding it exhausting to do much without gasping for breath with the lingering dregs of my cold - and a further 10 days later, I still haven't shaken it completely.

I wanted to check out under both car and van for any previously undetected damages and spent an hour or so crawling around inspecting the respective undercarriages. There is no indication of even the smallest damage under the car - what a mighty wagon we have! And perhaps surprisingly, the van is pretty good too. We have invested in a good deal of protective shielding over the years and although the metal guards are bent and ripped in places, it is still doing a pretty good job. It is just the odd stone that misses the shielding and hits something vulnerable (like a plastic water tap or unprotected hose) that does the occasional damage. But I guess a few million stones have hit the protection and it is not all that surprising that the occasional one gets through.

I had to tighten the towball that had become a little loose and retrieve the remaining bolt from the unit so I can buy an identical one and both tasks proved challenging, but I eventually succeeded with both. And we had to cut the padlock off the other gas cylinder so we replaced both cylinders with identically keyed locks. Accessing tools from both car and van and repacking the caravan boot also took time so with several rests to gird my loins again, it was almost lunchtime before that was all completed.

While I was doing this, Heather was reworking a draft I had prepared to nominate one of our Clubs for an award. We actually nominated them for two somewhat similar awards and it would be great if they got one. They really deserve it after their fantastic work supporting their members and growing the Club through the darkest days of the Covid lockdown.

We spent a good deal of the afternoon looking at our photos and writing stuff for our blogs but we went out for a 3-4 km walk in the arvo, just around the local area - basically along both sides of the very dry Todd River.

Monday/Tuesday, 26-27 April

In anticipation of our upcoming trek, we didn’t do a lot on these days. We had a couple of long walks in the area around the caravan park (one with our back-packs on to satisfy ourselves that we could carry the weight) and mainly just did more cleaning and maintenance around the van. We took quite some time packing for our Camel Trek to ensure we had everything we might need, that everything was fully charged and we were ready to take on the challenge ahead of us.

[papermoonloveslucy]

LIZ CHANGES HER MIND

June 24, 1949

"Liz Changes Her Mind” is episode #50 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on June 24, 1949 on the CBS Radio Network. This was the only “My Favorite Husband” episode to be repeated. It aired again on September 30, 1950.  

Synopsis ~ When Liz has trouble making up her mind, George decides she must finish everything she starts. 

This program was used as a basis for “I Love Lucy” "Lucy Changes Her Mind" (ILL S2;E21) first broadcast on CBS TV on March 30, 1953.

~ from Laughs, Luck... and Lucy by Jess Oppenheimer

REGULAR CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born as Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his  roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.”  From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) had worked with Lucille Ball on “The Wonder Show” on radio in 1938. One of the front-runners to play Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” he eventually played Alvin Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana, during two episodes in 1952. After playing a Judge in an episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1958, he would re-team with Lucy for all of her subsequent series’: as Theodore J. Mooney in ”The Lucy Show”; as Harrison Otis Carter in “Here’s Lucy”; and as Curtis McGibbon on "Life with Lucy.” Gordon died in 1995 at the age of 89.

Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury / New Secretary) was considered the front-runner to be cast as Ethel Mertz but when “I Love Lucy” was ready to start production she was already playing a similar role on TV’s “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” so Vivian Vance was cast instead. On “I Love Lucy” she was cast as Lucy Ricardo’s spinster neighbor, Miss Lewis, in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15) in early 1952. Later, she was a success in her own show, “Petticoat Junction” as Shady Rest Hotel proprietress Kate Bradley. She starred in the series until her death in 1968. 

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz (above right), a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

GUEST CAST

Frank Nelson (Waiter) was born on May 6, 1911 (three months before Lucille Ball) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He started working as a radio announcer at the age of 15. He later appeared on such popular radio shows as “The Great Gildersleeve,” “Burns and Allen,” and “Fibber McGee & Molly”. This is one of his 11 performances on “My Favorite Husband.”  On “I Love Lucy” he holds the distinction of being the only actor to play two recurring roles: Freddie Fillmore and Ralph Ramsey, as well as six one-off characters, including the frazzled train conductor in “The Great Train Robbery” (ILL S5;E5), a character he repeated on “The Lucy Show.”  Aside from Lucille Ball, Nelson is perhaps most associated with Jack Benny and was a fifteen-year regular on his radio and television programs.

Nelson repeated the role of the waiter in the “I Love Lucy” episode based on this radio episode. 

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benadaret was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

THE EPISODE

The story opens with Liz driving to pick up George at the bank. Liz is not a very good driver - she can’t make up her mind which direction to go or what dress to wear.  

They are meeting the Atterbury’s at the Green Room for dinner, despite the fact that she is wearing her blue dress and will clash with the décor. 

On “I Love Lucy” the Ricardos and the Mertzes can’t decide where to dine but end up at the Roof Garden, despite the menus saying Jubilee Club.

Liz finally gets the attention of a waiter (Frank Nelson) but then decides to move tables. 

On TV, Nelson wears thick eyeglasses to reinforce the visual comedy. 

LIZ / LUCY: “Does everyone have everything they need?” GEORGE / ETHEL: “I have three knives.” IRIS / FRED: “I beat ya. I’ve got a full house: three forks and a pair of spoons.” 

The scene that follows is virtually the same as it is on television. 

Liz sneezes, feeling a draft at their new table by the window, and spots another empty table nearby. 

RUDOLPH / FRED: “Stand by for another troop movement!”  

Liz crashes into the waiter mid-move. He spills a tray of shrimp cocktails all over Mr. Atterbury. 

On TV, the waiter returns with the tray, looks around for the Ricardos and Mertzes, who have moved a third time. When Lucy gets his attention, he immediately hands her the tray, grabs his hat and coat, and leaves without a word!

At home that night, an embarrassed George chastises Liz for her inability to make a decision.

GEORGE: “Why are you so wishy-washy?” LIZ: “I can’t help it. My father was a wishy and my mother was a washy.”

George revolts against the adage that women are allowed to change their minds. He even threatens to spank her!  He gives his wife an ultimatum: Finish what you start!  Liz agrees and they kiss and cuddle as the scene fades out. 

Next morning, Liz asks Katie to help her clean out the desk, a project she started but never finished. 

KATIE: “It’s the only desk where the pigeon holes have pigeons in ‘em.”

In the desk, Liz finds a newspaper with the headline “McKinley Assassinated”!  She remembers Iris gave it to her because there was a good recipe on the back. 

William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States from 1897 until his assassination on September 14, 1901. The comedy here stretches reality, as the newspaper would be 48 years old at the time of broadcast!  Perhaps Iris had saved it after its publication date and passed it on to Liz. 

Digging a little deeper into the cluttered desk, Liz finds love letters from George. In one unfinished letter Liz threatens to leave George, but never mailed the letter. Remembering her promise, she mischievously decides to finish it and send it to George at work special delivery. 

At the office, George and Rudolph are playing darts when George’s giggly new secretary (Bea Benadaret, doing a second voice that sounds very much like Betty Rubble on “The Flintstones”) brings in a special delivery letter. It is a letter from Liz’s old sorority inviting her to a reunion, sent in care of George. The boys decide to leave early and that night convince the girls to go to the reunion.  After they leave, the secretary comes in with one more special delivery letter (the one from Liz) - but George has already gone!  The scene is set for a profusion of confusion! 

On television, Lucy finds a love letter to an old boyfriend, not Ricky, and decides to finish it and allow Ricky to discover it in order to make him jealous. When Ricky decides the letter is not real, but written recently to make him jealous, he decides to call her bluff and mail it for her!  

At home that night, Liz and Iris await their husbands return. Iris expects George to be furious, but he isn’t!  She brings up the special delivery letter, non-plussed. 

IRIS: “What do you think about it?” GEORGE: “I think you ought to go!” LIZ: “Rudolph Atterbury! I think you even agree with that heel!” RUDOLPH: “I do! As a matter of fact, as long as Liz is going I think you should go too!” 

The girls leave in tears; the boys are mystified. Over a drawn-out tearful dinner at the Green Room, Liz and Iris commiserate. Katie informs the boys of the real letter, and they realize their mistake. They find the girls at the restaurant and make up.  The waiter brings their lamb chops and all ends happily!  

On television, Ricky follows Lucy and Ethel to the old boyfriend’s place of business, a fur salon, where they spy on Lucy.  She has just discovered that her handsome beau has aged into a shorter, fatter, balder man (”Looks like my hunk has shrunk!”).  Just as Ricky is getting jealous, Lucy reveals the truth.  Just before they leave however, it is revealed that the short bald man is not Tom Henderson at all - and that the real Tom is a dreamboat!  Ewwwwwwww!

FAST FORWARD

This is one of the episodes performed in 2014 by L.A. Theatre Works starring Marilu Henner (Liz), Jeff Conaway (George), Alley Mills (Iris), and Harold Gould (Rudolph).

[youthforourplanet]

UK youth view on the new global biodiversity report

Veronika Pudilova, Alejandro Prescott-Cornejo, Peter Cooper and Matt Williams

Can you hear that? If you’re lucky, International Dawn Chorus day might carry the dulcet tones of a blackcap across the calm morning air to you. There’s a chance you’ll hear the mournful cuckoo. Or, if you live in a vanishingly small area of the country, you might catch the purring of a turtle dove. But maybe you can’t hear anything. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the dawn chorus has fallen silent where you are.

It’s sixty years since Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring (published 1962). Today, our countryside is quieter than ever. Nature is in crisis. That’s the conclusion of the world leading body of hundreds of scientists who published this week’s global landmark report on nature. That’s why young people like us across the globe are beginning to rise up for wildlife and nature.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services  was founded in 2012, yet the most recent 2018 findings are just as pressing — if not more — now than they were at its inception. Leaked drafts of the new report show that it finds that 1 million species are at risk of extinction. Our natural world is in freefall.

Humanity relies on the life-support systems that nature provides: clean air, fresh water, healthy soils and thriving oceans. A recent study in England found that in 40% of fields there were very few or no earthworms - the creatures that break down waste and help to recycle nutrients into the soil, meaning that we can continue to use it to grow food. 353 bee and hoverfly species in Britain have disappeared completely from a quarter of the places where they used to be present. The RSPB have just released a new birdsong single, that has entered the UK charts, highlighting the loss of 44 million birds from our countryside. Just across the water in Germany insects in nature reserves have declined by 76% in just a couple of decades.

Mother Earth is a ship carrying us through space. The big red alarm of climate emergency is flashing in our faces. But other huge red flashing lights are going off too. There is a critical failure of the life support systems on our planet.

Yet this crisis, on a scale at least as significant as the climate emergency, receives nowhere near the attention that politicians, the media or the public pay to climate change. Like climate change, it’s also a crisis that affects the poorest and most vulnerable worst, and so it’s intimately linked to efforts to combat poverty and the struggle for social justice.

To put things in perspective, here are some key findings regarding biodiversity in the regional assessment of Europe and Central Asia that includes the United Kingdom:

·      The extent of wetlands, key habitats for resident and migratory birds, reptiles and amphibians, have declined by 50% since 1970.

·      23% of amphibian species themselves are threatened.

·      28% of species that can only be found in the region are also threatened.

Despite these findings, it is clear that certain political actions have been successful in reversing negative biodiversity trends:

·      The Iberian lynx, often considered the most endangered cat species in the world, has rebounded thanks to both in- and ex-situ conservation efforts in Spain and Portugal.

·      The European bison, once extinct in the wild, has been brought back from the brink due to intense conservation, primarily in Eastern Europe.

Amongst the overwhelming messages we are accustomed to seeing of global environmental chaos, it is important to understand that some positive change has been achieved.

But young people are rising up to demand action for wildlife and nature. A recent copy of the Big Issue that focused on youth climate action also contained stories from Kabir Kaul and Dara McAnulty - a young birdwatcher and a young naturalist and campaigner. The nature crisis is there, but it usually remains hidden in the background, as do the passionate young campaigners who are tackling it head on.

“Intergenerational justice” sounds complicated, but it actually just means each generation doing their best to allow future generations to survive and prosper. It is deeply unsafe and unfair for us to grow old in a world with unhealthy soils, water, air or wildlife.

That’s why young people are rising up around the world, from the Youth for Our Planet movement, to A Focus on Nature and Action for Conservation in the UK, to Youth for Environment in Nigeria and South Africa, to Global Youth Biodiversity Network, to Yowana Bhakti Segara (Youth Who Protect Their Ocean) in Indonesia, to Youth4Nature which is headquartered in Canada.

The last of these is a new movement of young people focused specifically on the connections between nature and climate change. They know that a flourishing natural world, with large areas of healthy mudflats, oceans floors, peatlands and forests, is one of the best chances we have of tackling the climate emergency. Only through unprecedented financial, legal and political backing for nature-based solutions do we have any chance of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C.

Many young people who consider themselves part of the UK and global youth nature movement have been out on the streets with the youth climate strikers. The climate emergency, quite rightly, has received huge amounts of attention. But today’s new report reminds us that the desecration of our wildlife and habitats is just as much of an emergency.

The UK has the dubious honour of being 189th on a league table of 218 countries for its level of nature: one of the most nature-deprived countries in the world. For a supposed developed nation of animal lovers and cherished landscapes, this is not good enough. It has been going on for centuries; while we rightly mourn the loss of many of our habitats and the species associated with them in the 20th century’s drive to intensify our farmlands, we have borne witness to a passage of loss since we started draining the great fenlands of Somerset and East Anglia over a millennium ago, and cut the huge swathes of woodland that once covered our countryside while decimating many of our larger animals to national extinction - the loss of the beaver just as tragic as the decline of our bees.

Yet we are at a crucial moment in our history - in the last century, humanity learnt we can take just as easily as the earth can give. Each new generation has a greater resource of knowledge to illustrate this, but equally a greater drive to bring it back. Albert Einstein famously remarked that if one looked “deep into nature”, they would understand reality. To continue to turn a blind eye to its destruction therefore should be seen as a crime against the integrity of existence.

[fr0gg13b413]

turn into a vampire, obviously; endless time to read books, but i also wouldn't have to get iron infusions anymore.

[intricately-silly]

Get to Know Me Tag

I was tagged by @thesimparrot

Ok. So this was sitting in my drafts waiting for the picture for about three years, and I didn’t want to NOT post it. So here it is, very very very late. It did give me a reason to update my simself though. 

Thank you for tagging me friend! <3 <3 <3 Also, omg that’s so many questions... Who is really going to want to know all this about me?

Rules: Post a pic of your simself with your traits and answer the questions!

Traits:  goofball + perfectionist + loner

Honestly, how am I supposed to only pick three traits? I’m a complicated individual. I’m intricately silly. Anyway... 

1. What is your full name? Skye. That’s all you get. 

2. What is your nickname? Well actually, Skye is technically my nickname...

3. When is your birthday? August 8th.

4. What is your favorite book series? Hmm... I don’t know. I tend to like individual books rather than series. Although I read the Hunger Games series a while back and I liked that one. 

5. Do you believe in aliens or ghosts? I mean, there’s nothing to disprove it. But I wouldn’t say I fully believe in them either. 

6. Who is your favorite author? I don’t really have one. 

7. What is your favorite radio station? I really like a station on Pandora called Summer Hits of the 90′s.

8. What is your favorite flavor of anything? It depends on what it is. 

9. What word do you often use to describe something great or wonderful? Amazing. I think it’s the only word I use. I should expand my “something great” vocabulary. 

10. What is your favorite song currently? Love Somebody by Maroon 5. It’s been my favorite since it came out and it still is.  

11. What is your favorite word? Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

12. What is the last song you listened to? Otherside by Red Hot Chili Peppers. 

13. What TV show would you recommend everyone to watch? White Collar I guess. 

14. What is your favorite movie to watch when you’re feeling down? I tend to listen to music when I’m feeling down. But Rush Hour. Or Shrek. 

15. Do you play video games? Nope, not at all... Such a silly question.

16. What is your biggest fear? I have a lot of fears. I have anxiety, so it comes with the territory. But I guess it would be being shut out from everyone and being alone. 

17. What is your best quality in your opinion? I’m a very accepting person. 

18. What is your worst quality in your opinion? Oof. Well...

19. Do you like cats or dogs better? Dogs. I’ve always loved dogs. Cats are great too though.

20. What is your favorite season? Autumn. The colors, the cute clothes, the ability to hide under three blankets. 

21. Are you in a relationship? Yep. For a year and a half now. 

22. What is something you miss from your childhood? Insouciance.

23. Who is your best friend? Rori, my six month old puppy. 

24. What is your eye color? Blue.

25. What is your hair color? Dark, dark brown. 

26. Who is someone you love? Family, friends, animals. So many.

27. Who is someone you trust? Trust is a hard thing for me. So only those very close to me. 

28. Who is someone you think about often? My boyfriend.

29. Are you currently excited about something? I dunno. Am I?

30. What is your biggest obsession? Anything made by Apple. It’s such a beautiful company.

31. What was your favorite TV show as a child? When I was two, Dora. I would sit and watch it, purposely giving the wrong answers to her questions. When I got asked why, my answer was “she’s just going to do the right thing anyway.”

32. Who of the opposite gender can you tell anything to? My boyfriend. 

33. Are you superstitious? Kinda sometimes. 

34. Do you have an unusual phobias? I have a fear of ladders. Not heights, ladders. 

35. Do you prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it? Definitely behind.

36. What is your favorite hobby? Video games is the only constant one, all my other hobbies constantly change. 

37. What is the last book you read? It was online and I can’t remember the name to be honest. 

38. What was the last movie you watched? Aquaman.

39. What musical instruments do you play? I played the clarinet when I was younger. Then I played the guitar. Now I’m trying to teach myself to play piano. I’ve always loved the piano. 

40. What is your favorite animal? All of them. But lions and tigers are gorgeous animals. 

41. What are your top five favorite Tumblr blogs? You think I can narrow it down to five?

42. What super power do you wish you had? Teleportation. 

43. When and where do you feel most at peace? When my dog is cuddling with me.

44. What makes you smile? When my puppy is playing.

45. What sports do you play? I played softball when I was younger. 

46. What is your favorite drink? I don’t know. Shirley Temples. Ginger Ale with Lemonade is really good too. 

47. When was the last time you wrote a handwritten letter or note to someone? I can’t remember. So a while ago.

48. Are you afraid of heights? No.

49. What is your biggest pet peeve? I have a lot. But my biggest I think would be people who walk in front of you so slowly that you trip over your own feet. 

50. Have you ever been to a concert? Yep. Maroon 5 was the last one. I hope to go to more too.

51. Are you vegetarian or vegan? No.

52. When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up? A veterinarian.

53. What fictional world would you like to live in? The world from Avatar. That’d be cool. 

54. What is something you worry about? Anything and everything. 

55. Are you scared of the dark? Depends on my mood.

56. Do you like to sing? Yes, I just wish I could say I was good at it.

57. Have you ever skipped school? No. 

58. What is your favorite place on the planet? My bed.

59. Where would you like to live? Not where I’m living now. I’m so over this town. It’s pretty clean and safe though, so I appreciate that aspect of it. 

60. Do you have any pets? Two cats and a puppy. Oh, and five chickens. 

61. Are you an early bird or a night owl? Night owl. I want to be an early bird, but I’m naturally more awake at night.

62. Do you like sunrise or sunsets better? Sunsets because you can see the stars after! <3

63. Do you know how to drive? I do.

64. Do you prefer earbuds or headphones? Earbuds. Although headphones sound better. 

65. Have you ever had braces? Yes.

66. What is your favorite genre of music? I tend to like specific songs instead of genres. But I really like 90′s music. 

67. Who is your hero? I have no idea.

68. Do you read comic books? No.

69. What makes you the most angry? So many things. I’m a little hotheaded. But mainly when people are illogical. 

70. Do you prefer to read real books or on an electric device? Real books!

71. What is your favorite subject in school? It was always math.

72. Do you have any siblings? Two. A brother and a sister. 

73. What was the last thing you bought? Coffee...

74. How tall are you? 5′ 5″

75. Can you cook? Psh. Not really. But I’m trying to learn.

76. What are three things that you love? Playing games, watching movies with my boyfriend, and training my dog. 

77. What are three things that you hate? It changes daily.

78. Do you have more female friends or more male friends? Female.

79. What is your sexual orientation? Bisexual.

80. Where do you currently live? Neverland. 

81. Who was the last person you texted? My boyfriend. 

82. When was the last time you cried? I think it was a week ago.

83. Who is your favorite youtuber? I haven’t had the time to watch YouTube lately. So I don’t know. 

84. Do you like to take selfies? Not in the slightest. The closest thing I’ll do to taking a selfie is make an edit of my simself. 

85. What is your favorite app? Netflix.

86. What is your relationship with your parent(s) like? I’ve always been close with my parents. I’ve always been really close with my siblings too.

87. What is your favorite foreign accent? British.

88. What is a place that you’ve never been to but want to visit? All of Europe. But specifically Paris.

89. What is your favorite number? Five. Always has been.

90. Can you juggle? For three seconds. 

91. Are you religious? I am.

92. Do you find outer space or the deep ocean to be more interesting? They’re both so interesting though! Outer space is so pretty and very interesting. But we know absolutely nothing about our oceans. It does peak my curiosity. 

93. Do you consider yourself to be a daredevil? Every once in a while.

94. Are you allergic to anything? Pollen. Grass. Dust. Spring is like death. 

95. Can you curl your tongue? No, and everyone else I know can and they all tease me about it. Meanies. 

96. Can you wiggle your ears? No... I can’t do anything cool OK? 

97. How often do you admit that you were wrong about something? When it’s clear that I’m wrong, then I’ll admit it. 

98. Do you prefer the forest or the beach? I love them both. Oooh! A forest near the beach so I can be by the trees but still hear the ocean.

99. What is your favorite piece of advice that anyone has ever given you? "Breathe.”

100. Are you a good liar? I am an awful liar. Like awful awful. I don’t lie, but sometimes I’ll do white lies playfully with my boyfriend and he’ll just laugh because I’m so bad at it.  

101. What is your Hogwarts house? Hufflepuff.

102. Do you talk to yourself? I used to. Now I just talk to my dog.

103. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? An introvert who loves talking and meeting new people. But at the end of the day, I have to be alone to refill my energy.  

104. Do you keep a journal or a diary? Nope. 

105. Do you believe in second chances? I guess it technically depends. But we’re all human and we all make mistakes. It’s unfair to not give more than one chance. Unless it’s PURPOSELY harming someone else. That’s not ok. No second chances with that. 

106. If you found a wallet full of money on the ground, what would you do? I would take it to the nearest business. Hopefully the person comes looking. 

107. Do you believe that people are capable of change? With most things. If they really wanted to. 

108. Are you ticklish? Yeah...

109. Have you ever been on a plane? I have.

110. Do you have any piercings? I have my standard lobe piercings. Then on my right ear I have a forward helix and upper lobe piercing. On my left I have a helix piercing. And my nose is pierced. 

111. What fictional character do you wish was real? Donkey from Shrek.

112. Do you have any tattoos? Yes, just one.

113. What is the best decision that you have made so far? Rescuing my dog, she means the world to me.

114. Do you believe in karma? Yeah, I think so.

115. Do you wear glasses or contacts? I wore glasses when I was younger, but I don’t need to wear them anymore. My eyes magically improved, I don’t know.

116. Do you want children? I’ve always wanted two.

117. Who is the smartest person you know? I know a lot of smart people.

118. What is your most embarrassing memory? This one time...

119. Have you ever pulled an all nighter? Probably too often. Then I got my puppy, and I haven’t since. Puppies are exhausting. 

120. What color are most of your clothes? Maroon. Or blue. I have a lot of grey I think too.

121. Do you like adventures? Yes! “ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE!”

122. Have you ever been on TV? Nope.

123. How old are you? 19.

124. What is your favorite quote? I have so many favorites, but... "You’re only given a little spark of madness, you mustn’t lose it.” - Robin Williams.

125. Do you prefer sweet or savory foods? Savory. But sweet is sometimes welcome too. 

I tag: anyone who wants to... since this is forever late

[whoisleft-rp]

WIL Holiday Season – Event & Timeline Masterpost

Out of character, all of our wonderful writers – and the very excited admin team – have just finished closing out the holiday season and entering a new year! Now it’s time for us to do the same with our characters. 

Outlined below is our plan for moving through the in-game holiday season, ending with the New Year’s celebration into 1978! More details on timing, events, excitement and tags are below! As a quick overview...

Phase One [early break]

In character: beginning of break - December 23, 1977

Out of character: now through Sunday, January 13th

Phase Two [actual Christmas]

In character: December 24 & December 25

Out of character: Monday, January 14th through Wednesday, January 16th.

Phase Three [late break]

In character: December 26 – December 30, 1977

Out of character: Thursday, January 17th until 11:59pm on Sunday, January 20th

Phase Four [New Years]

In character: December 31, 1977 – January 1, 1978

Out of character: Beginning Monday, January 21st

Also, some quick reminders and encouragements for all our members...

AS ALWAYS, we love all of you and are so happy to have you with us! We know the holidays have been a little slower as everyone’s busy with real life, etc. but we’re so pumped to get back in the groove and know all of you are, too! 

There will be reminders posted to the main marking the beginning and end of each ‘phase’ below.

You are absolutely allowed to spring clean, even though it’s winter! If a thread has died out, or is just past its expiration date – especially after a time when all of us are so busy and we know our drafts have some dust on them – don’t feel bad about reaching out to your writing partner to see about dropping it and/or starting a new one! If it’s plot relevant, by all means, keep it. But there’s no reason to make yourselves stressed over a Summer 1977 Thread that you’re fully aware of the ending of.

The discord and plotting tag are great for getting ideas and posting your own – but they aren’t substitutes for reaching out to your fellow members and contributing to the plotting discussion! Don’t be afraid to share your ideas, and never be afraid to try out something new.

Any questions? Just ask! 

PHASE ONE •  Beginning of Break – December 23, 1977 

Release the students! The Hogwarts Express is fueled up, and the holiday season has officially begun. The first phase of our holiday break corresponds to the time from (roughly) December 19th through December 23rd. It’s a great time for pre-holiday celebrations, last minute shopping, catch-up meals between in- and out-of-school characters, as well as anything else you can think up! 

Starters for this block of time are permitted from now until 11:59PM ET on Sunday, January 13th.

No special tag is required for general starters; the events below all feature their own tags, which used be used in addition to the general WhoIsLeftStarter tag.

Available events include the following...

The Annual Malfoy Christmas Fundraiser & Formal Ball

The Malfoys are an enterprising family who loves to show off their wealth. While families like the Blacks are more traditionally tight knit (see: unwelcoming) and families such as the Greengrass clan are known for throwing lovely balls for close family and friends, Abraxas Malfoy and his ilk have always loved mixing business with pleasure. 

This evening, held on the 21st of December annually, combines all the fun of dressing up in your finest dress robes and sipping champagne with the dutiful pureblood birthright of networking and kissing up to the right people.

Notes to consider:

+  Invitation only (up to players to decide their status)

+  Primarily a pureblood guest list, with exceptions for notable or useful people (who are then treated as more useful object than treasured guests)

+  All invitees are given a +1 to bring a date; dates will not require host approval (as is the case with the family’s more formal Easter celebration in the spring)

+  The old, important pureblood families are invited as well as families such as the Boneses and Potters, who are active in the Ministry or business sectors of the magical world.

Starter Tag: WILHolidayMalfoy

Sebastian Nott’s Christmas Eve Eve Party

If you’re surprised that Sebastian Nott’s townhouse affair – the first annual of which is being thrown this year, on the 23rd as suggested by the name – is less formal than the Malfoy’s shindig, you haven’t been paying attention. For this fête, Sebastian(’s party planner) has gone all out and transformed his London townhouse into an Alice & Wonderland type rabbit hole. Upon entering, reality ceases to matter – exactly what he’s after to close out what’s been a rough year.

Each room has a distinct theme, ranging from ‘nighttime’ to ‘exotic greenhouse’ to the wonderfully trippy ‘in the sky with diamonds’ smoking room upstairs. Magic has, of course, been incorporated into every last detail to give the house a living feel. Beyond the decorations, though, it’s a party at its core. Performers such as contortionists, musicians and fire eaters are strewn throughout the house, not always sticking to the room to which they were assigned. One room at the back of the house, simply themed as ‘future’ and marked with a plain sign, is completely black within its interior and features the services of a tried and true Seer offering tarot readings and palmistry. 

Food and drink are strewn throughout the house as appetizers and general refreshment. The party’s midpoint will be marked by a four-course, sit-down meal in the dining room. The first course will be served promptly at 12:01AM and seating has been pre-assigned in order to promote interesting conversation.

Notes to consider:

The party is ‘technically’ invitation only, but not only is Sebastian not checking invitations at the door, he was less discerning in his guest list selection than the Malfoys. 

Every person on the list was invited for a ‘reason’ but that reason could be anything from ‘we had a great time that one time you bought me shots’ to ‘we went to school together and your name popped into my head’ to ‘you have a really interesting talent and would be good for conversation’ to ‘my moms/dad/Antonin told me to invite you’. 

Every currently taken character in the group can safely assume they were invited for some reason or another, even if they’re not aware of what that reason is. 

Starter Tag: WILHolidayNott

Diagon Alley Holiday Market

Did you wait too long to do your Christmas shopping? Do you want to support local vendors? Do you know that your family has no idea what to get you and decide to step out and buy yourself something you’ll actually like, for once? 

Then come on down to Diagon Alley’s annual Holiday Market! In addition to the dozens of wonderful stores the Alley usually houses that are bustling and brimming with activity, the street itself is now filled with tables, booths, tents and vendors eager to sell their wares.

Starter Tag: WILHolidayMarket

PHASE TWO • December 24th & 25th, 1977

For those that celebrate, Christmastime has come at last! Is your character spending it with family? With friends? Avoiding everyone and hunkering down with some Indian takeout and a glass of wine? All great and valid options! 

This phase of time corresponds to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day directly; we expect most starters will be closed rather than the more general open starters taking place during the pre-holiday and NYE blocks of time, which is why this event window is smaller.

Starters for this block of time are permitted from 12:01AM ET on Monday, January 14th until 11:59PM ET on Wednesday, January 16th.

PHASE THREE • December 26 – December 30, 1977

Christmas is over, and New Years is steadily on its way! This time represents necessary downtime for travel, relaxing, decompressing and playing with shiny new gifts. 

Events during this time will include a special engagement announcement and party! Please keep the shorter time window for this phase in mind, especially if planning to put up a starter related to the aforementioned; starters can be replied to at any time following the starter window closure.

Starters for this block of time are permitted from 12:01AM ET on Thursday, January 17th until 11:59pm on Sunday, January 20th.

PHASE FOUR • December 31, 1977 – January 1, 1978

There will be a special plot drop post specifically for New Years. This post will give more details about the various NYE celebration options and will also contain an RP-wide plot drop with information on the shenanigans that go down during the night. 

It will be posted during the morning of Monday, January 20th, at which time starters will be allowed for the evening of NYE, and the morning after. We’re still working on the time window for this event; however, we expect it to be about a week before we close out the starter eligibility and move into our next ‘special’ event, Timeline Week.

[fr0gg13b413]

"But I will say, when I obsess over something, I'll allow it to ruin my life, you know?" yes. yes, indeed. though is that not the most human way to consume something?

he's so real for this

I wish I read more. I really am not a very, very good– like, when I say "good reader" I'm just not a committed reader. But I will say, when I obsess over something, I'll allow it to ruin my life, you know?

hozier and his favorite books

[fr0gg13b413]

acd sherlock and john were chaotic good and i love them very dearly.

[junker-town]

Western Illinois, Year 29, 2035-2036

The Leathernecks shoot for back-to-back national titles in our College Hoops 2K8 simulated series.

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April for full context. As a reminder, we simulate every game in this series and only control the recruiting and coaching strategies.

Before we pick up with the Leathernecks at the start of Year 29, here’s a recap of everything that happened last season:

The Leathernecks returned four starters from an Elite Eight team the previous year. We were unranked in the preseason polls but started the new campaign rated as a 97 overall.

We had an impressive non-conference season, but lost another game during Summit League play, our third conference loss in the last two years after a long undefeated streak. After winning the conference tournament, we were given a No. 7 seed heading into March Madness.

We beat Michigan in the first round, defeated Xavier in the second round, beat Duke in the Sweet 16, defeated Indiana in the Elite Eight, beat Ole Miss in the Final Four, and took out Clemson in the national championship game to win our seventh national championship in program history.

We recruited for three scholarships and landed two players: No. 9 center prospect Vinnie Harmon and No. 92 overall small forward Spanky Fanning.

Here’s a look at our roster as we begin Year 29:

We only lost two players from our last year’s national championship team: superstar small forward Nic Cummings (the highest rated player in program history at 97 overall) and guard Goran Kent. Everyone else is back. While our stacked front court should again serve as the foundation of the team, I’m also excited to see what our new tandem of starting wings can do.

Let’s meet the starters:

PG Duncan Martinez, 89 overall, redshirt junior: Martinez is the highest-rated three-point shooter in program history, entering the season with a 92 rating from behind the arc. He’s not the most polished ball handler or passer, but it sure feels nice knowing we have a knockdown shooter on the perimeter. He had a solid but unspectacular debut as a starter last season, but we feel like he could be in a for a big year as a junior. Former No. 69 overall recruit out of Chicago with C potential.

SG Sammy Yan, 89 overall, true junior: Yan is the highest rated recruit in program history as the former No. 10 prospect in his class, but he’s been decidedly average in his first two years coming off the bench. Let’s see if he’s more comfortable in the starting lineup. Yan is an elite finisher, a mediocre three-point shooter, a great defensive rebounder, and a solid ball handler and passer. He’ll have to prove himself come tournament time. Bay Area native with B- potential.

SF Warren Schultz, 88 overall, redshirt junior: I’m super excited about Schultz finally getting an opportunity to be a starter as a junior. Coming off a strong tournament run as a reserve, Schultz gives us a 6’9 wing with elite shooting ability (89 three-point rating). He’s also one of the best dunkers we’ve ever had with a 95 rating. Former No. 107 overall recruit from Jacksonville with C potential.

PF C.J. Cesar, 93 overall, redshirt senior: Cesar dominated the paint on both ends of the floor during our run to the national championship last season. A converted center, Cesar doesn’t give us much shooting at the four but he’s as reliable as they came as a rebounder, interior scorer, and shot blocker. He can out-muscle pretty much any opponent with a 95 rating in strength. Former No. 9 center recruit out of Cincinnati with B- potential. Projected lottery pick pick.

C Elvin King, 90 overall, true junior: Both King and senior Daron Coulter are starting the year at 90 overall, which is a great problem to have. We’re going with King as the starter for two reasons: a) he has a higher potential rating (B grade) and will likely end the season as the superior player, b) Coulter has greater positional versatility because of his impressive outside shooting, which makes him more valuable off the bench. King was the former No. 2 center recruit in the country and was super impressive in last year’s tournament run. Feels like he could be an all-timer with a big season. Projected top pick in the draft.

We’re bringing the 7’3 Coulter off the bench as sixth man, where he’ll be flanked by three redshirt freshmen: power forward Mitch Hunter, Kiwi shooting guard Dave French, and 5’10 point guard Rashaun Diggs. Center Thom Towe, who might be the most impressive redshirt freshman of the bunch, will only play mop up duty on the bench just because we already have so much front court depth.

We are also redshirting both of our true freshmen. Center Vinnie Harmon and small forward Spanky Fanning — yes, that’s his real name — are each rated as a 74 overall with B- potential.

Recruiting

We have three scholarships to recruit for this season. We want two guards and a power forward. We decide to offer the following players:

SG Rodrigo Milton, No. 42 overall and No. 13 at his position

PG Deon Bro, No. 39 overall and No. 19 at his position

PF Kody Douby, No. 56 overall and No. 3 at his position

Are we swinging for the fences a little bit? Yeah, but if we land even one of them it should be a dope class because there are some quality backup options on the board.

We also have a character to create from the winner of our bracket contest, reader Tim. Here’s what he hit me with:

Ay yo Coach, long time reader, first time Bracket Challenge Winner.

This game loves bigs, and the world needs DEKE VAN JR. now more than ever.

How about 7’ tall to honor our 7th Title? A Center like his father. And his father’s father (probably).

Seattle, WA after his pops lead the new SuperSonics to a few titles.

Those who have been following the series since the beginning will remember Deke Van as the senior leader on our first ever national title team in Year 8. This is everything I ever wanted out of a created character.

We’re ranked No. 10 in the preseason polls to begin the new year. Let’s go!

Regular season

This ended up as our strongest regular season in a long time. We stayed in the top-25 for the majority of the year and only had three losses before conference play. We lost a rivalry game to Illinois, fell to a Stanford team that was ranked No. 3 in the polls at the time, and lost to unranked Arizona.

Other than that, we cleaned up. Our best wins were beating No. 4 UCLA and winning a rivalry game against DePaul. If we can go undefeated in Summit season again and win the conference tournament, we’re likely going to get a great seed.

Summit League play

Can we go 18-0 in league play? Yes we can.

Along the way, I pick up career win No. 800. That earns us our first coaching point in like 15 years. We’re entering the Summit League tournament at 24-3 overall, ranked No. 23 in the polls. Can we add three more wins in the Summit League tournament to lock in the automatic bid?

Yes we can. We’re going to the NCAA tournament once again at 27-3 overall. Outstanding year so far. Before we sim to Selection Sunday, let’s check out the end of season stats:

The decision to start King could not have gone any better. He joins an elite group of ‘Necks to have 20 points per game, and he did it in only his third year on campus. As far as pure talents go, he’s clearly the best on the team and might be one of our best ever. I also love how Coulter gravitated towards his sixth man role to finish second on the team in scoring. I really thought Schultz and Martinez would level up this year, which didn’t really happen.

Good thing we all know legends are made in March.

How did recruiting go?

We targeted three top-60 prospects during the in-season recruiting period. Guess what? We didn’t land any of them. Fortunately, we are poised to land one prospect on the first day of the spring signing period:

SG 6’5 Scott Doornekamp, No. 111 overall and No. 22 at his position

We also have offers out to 6’5 point guard Randolph Pompey (rated No. 138 overall) and 6’7 power forward Ernesto Mack (No. 104 overall, No. 8 at his position). We’ll have to outlast high-major programs to get either of them after this season ends.

We also have some news on our created recruit for the year, Deke Van Jr.

The Deke legacy continues at South Florida. We’re super excited to see how he develops. As always, we create a recruit every year for the winner of the bracket contest, but don’t offer them at Western Illinois to maintain the integrity of the sim.

Time for Selection Sunday. What seed will we end up with?

2036 NCAA tournament

We enter the tournament as a No. 7 seed. Our opponent in the first round is No. 10 Arizona State. The Sun Devils are rated as a 94 overall. We’re rated as a 100 overall.

Here’s a look at our roster heading into the tournament:

This team is going to have to win in the front court. King, Cesar, and Coulter are all true centers with elite size/strength combinations that should be a matchup nightmare for whoever we play. I’d love to see Yan finally live up to his recruiting ranking. This is also a huge opportunity for Schultz and Martinez to join the pantheon of the great Leathernecks at their position.

The start of our tournament run is here. As a reminder, we’re watching a simulated game — I’m not controlling the Leathernecks.

Let’s go!

***

***

***

***

***

***

Win, 97-70. Blew ‘em out to start the second half and it was a wrap from there.

Really promising start to this tournament run from Schultz. We love a big wing who can shoot and Schultz — at 6’9, 228 pounds — certainly fits the bill. He’s a pure shooter who has all the tools to go on a Wilky Henry-like run through March.

I also like what Rashaun Diggs showed on the bench. He’s so tiny at 5’10 and like 160 pounds, but he’s tracking to be one of the better shooters we’ve had. Good to see him knock down a couple triples.

The win sets up a matchup with No. 2 seed BYU in the round of 32

BYU is rated as a 94 overall. This is a talented roster that could give us some trouble.

A Sweet 16 berth is on the line. Let’s go!

***

***

***

***

***

***

Win, 84-77! We’re going to the Sweet 16!

Oh my, that was close. BYU had the lead with under seven minutes left in the second half when I decided to make some manual subs. We went with the jumbo package: King at center, Cesar at the four, and 7’3 marksman Daron Coulter at small forward. It paid off in a big way:

Coulter added another bucket late to finish with 11 points. King added 17 points and 13 rebounds for good measure. Our front court is coming to play right now. I also love what I saw out of our redshirt junior point guard Duncan Martinez, who finished with 17 points, seven assists, and four steals. He’s more of a bucket getter than a pure point, but we’ll take all the buckets we can get right now.

The win sets up a matchup with Seton Hall in the Sweet 16

We’re in the Sweet 16. Can this charmed tournament run continue?

Win, 118-78! We ran them off the floor from the opening tip. We had a 23 point lead going into halftime and kept running up the score from there.

We’re onto the Elite Eight!

The win sets up a game against Xavier in the Elite Eight

Xavier has been a powerhouse throughout this sim. We’ve seen them so many times in big games. Add another one to the list.

Final Four trip on the line. Let’s go!

Win, 105-92. Now back in the Final Four!

Great balance throughout the starting lineup in this one. The redshirt juniors Martinez and Schultz carried us from the perimeter, each scoring 21 points. How about the redshirt freshmen Mitch Hunter (6’9 power forward) and Dave French (6’4 two guard) each hitting double-figures in scoring off the bench? We were in control pretty much the entire way.

I never thought we’d be back on college basketball’s biggest stage after losing a superstar like Nic Cummings to graduation, but here we are.

Western Illinois vs. West Virginia, Final Four, 2036 NCAA tournament

The Mountaineers are rated as a 99 overall. They’re the highest rated team we’ve faced on this tournament run so far. WVU is a No. 2 seed, we’re a No. 7 seed.

National championship No. 8 is within sight, but we need a win this game to have a chance at it. Let’s go!

***

***

***

***

***

***

Loss, 112-110 in overtime. I think that’s the wildest game in program history.

We were down 10 points with 10 minutes left. We were down 16 points with just over six minutes left. We were down 20 with 3:45 left! That’s when we turned up the defensive pressure and started getting steal after steal to stake our comeback.

Things started getting real weird once the clock ticked under two minutes. Just watch this sequence:

Halfcourt alley-oop and-one followed immediately by a steal for a bucket? I was shaking. We still had some work to do to send this one to overtime.

It happened on the weirdest play possible.

“WHAT!!!!!!” — me watching that live. Holy cow, still can’t believe that happened.

West Virginia would miss a shot at the end of regulation and we headed to OT. After an ending like that, we have to win, right? Obviously not. WVU cut through our defense like it wasn’t even there, and we couldn’t hit enough shots to keep up.

What a game, and what a way to lose. 20-point comeback in three and half minutes and we still drop it in overtime. Ugh.

The dream of another national title is deferred to next year. Let’s get to the offseason.

Offseason

West Virginia wins the national championship over Wisconsin

Elvin King wins conference player of the year

King leaves for the draft as a true junior. He’s the third player in program history to stay only three years. Coulter and Cesar also got drafted. Our front court is going to look totally different next year.

We put our coaching point into discipline, which is now a B+. Just please don’t call me Ricky Discipline.

We lose an assistant coach, and replace him with someone with an A teaching rating, B scouting rating, and C ratings in offense and defense.

I get offered a bunch of jobs at bigger schools and turn them down.

Recruiting

Doornekamp commits on day one. He didn’t play AAU so we don’t have much data on him, but he’s a 6’5 shooting guard ranked No. 111 overall. I’m thinking he’ll be able to play both wing spots and (hopefully) give us more shooting true freshman Spanky Fanning provides.

Two more scholarships left to recruit for. We’ve had offers out to Ernesto Mack and Randolph Pompey. We end up landing them both:

Pompey (No. 134 overall) enters the program as a 6’5 point guard, but should have the size to play all three perimeter positions if he grows another inch or two while he’s in school. I’m also hoping for a growth spurt out of the 6’7 Mack (No. 104 overall), who showed nice shot-blocking ability and is ranked No. 8 at his position.

Solid three-man class. Probably not a superstar in the mix, but each should be a foundational piece for us moving forward.

Now it’s time to set our schedule for next year.

This is what we’re going with:

Vs. Northwestern, @ Notre Dame, @ DePaul, Great Alaskan Shootout, vs. Valpo, vs. UIC, @ Washington State, @ South Florida, @ Marquette

Year 30

Here’s a first look at our roster:

One thing you’ll notice about this roster: we swapped the position of our guards. Martinez is moving from point to shooting guard, where he goes up two points to 96 overall. The program record for overall rating is Nic Cummings at 97 overall — will D-Mart match it or surpass in-season? We’re moving Yan to the point in his place because we think it’s a better fit for his skillset despite lowering his overall rating two points. Yan is a really solid ball handler and passer, and has never been a takeover scorer. We’re thinking Martinez will get more scoring opportunities on the wing.

Here’s where our true freshmen came in:

SG Scott Doorenkamp: 77 overall with C+ potential

PF Ernesto Mack, 76 overall with C potential

PG Randolph Pompey, 76 overall with D potential

All three players have already grown an inch. Doornekamp and Pompey are now 6’6 while Mack is 6’8.

The next stream will be Monday, Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. ET on Twitch. For email updates to this series, subscribe here.

[fr0gg13b413]

haha, i did this backwards!! shakespeare -> dead poets society -> marauders(almost)... i took a wrong turn and ended up with sherlock, have been stuck in this ditch since may.

was anyone else a victim of the marauders to dead poets/Shakespeare pipeline? Or is that just a me thing?

[mitchbeck]

CANTLON'S CORNER: (FOR THE FANS) PACK SEASON COMES TO A MERCIFUL END

BY: Gerry Cantlon, HOWLINGS HARTFORD, CT- The 2018-19 season has mercifully ended for the Hartford Wolf Pack and thus begins another long spring without having playoffs in the Connecticut capitol and a summer of big questions for the New York Rangers' AHL franchise. The locker room was silent. The ice surface is gone as scrubbers cleaned up any residual water left over. Wolf Pack players received their exit interviews and left for various different ports in the US, Canada, and Europe. On a day the world mourned the burning of the 870-year-old iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, the Rangers were completing the immolation of the latest edition of the Pack. The Rangers relieved head coach Keith McCambridge and his assistant coach, Joe Mormina. The team chose not to renew their contracts. This hardly came as a surprise given the team's performance these past two years. They became the first AHL coaching casualties of the 2018-19 season. Pack GM, Chris Drury, declined to be interviewed as he was conducting the exit interviews. Calls to McCambridge were not returned. Three weeks ago, Cantlon Corner was told by an NHL source that McCambridge had been informed his tenure was up. Out of respect for McCambridge, an honorable man, we declined to publish that. “It’s tough. You feel really bad, and you wish you could have done more for the team as a whole. It’s not fun for anyone,” Shawn O’Donnell said. The 30-year-old completed his third tour of duty in Hartford. “One thing is we had a lot of (personnel) turnover and it’s a part of the league. You look at Hershey. They had very few changes in the second half of the season. We had changes on an almost a weekly basis.” One of the assistant captains, Rob O’Gara, was sidelined for much of the second half with back spasms was very disappointed. "When you work with someone who has helped you and you develop a relationship with them, it's never fun to see them go through something like this. We do develop a family atmosphere and (McCambridge) was very honest with me, which I appreciated, and he helped me because I struggled a lot early on trying to do too much. I got to be in a good spot where I was playing some good minutes, and then I got injured, but I appreciate he gave me a leadership role this season.” The season result was not all McCambridge’s fault, nor was it his predecessor, Ken Gernander’s, fault either. Asking a head coach to turn lemons into lemonade is what was asked of both men. The Wolf Pack have hit bottom and have been cresting at the bottom of the division and the entire AHL for almost five years. They have not made the playoffs in six of the last seven years. That's an organizational failure, not just a coaching problem. There have been some moments to celebrate the signs of player development, but those are few and far between and what has seemed to become a trend, change is in the air again. The team’s break up day process was shifted until Tuesday despite ending on Sunday with a 3-1 loss in Hershey. Many of the players who ended the season with Hartford now will clearly not be here for training camp next fall. Sunday’s loss saw the Bears sweep all the Pack in all six games they played this season. On January 14th, the Wolf Pack (40 pts) were four points ahead of the Bears (36) and just three points out of the fourth and final playoff spot in the Atlantic division. At the conclusion of the season, the Pack finished 25 points behind them! Give some credit to the Bears, who played .789 hockey from that point and amassed 56 points. They will deservedly be in the playoffs while the Wolf Pack will look back to see that they won only TEN games in the final three months. January 14th was the day the Rangers made the fateful decision to trade Pack captain Cole Schneider to Milwaukee for Connor Brickley. The Wolf Pack simply never recovered. “It was rough no question," O'Donnell said. "Cole was a good hockey player, a good leader, and was an all-around good guy. We lost guys to the NHL and a couple of other trades. It was different that’s for sure.” Schneider was the fourth captain in a row that was traded. For this Wolf Pack team, the self-inflicted pyromania by the Rangers continued with the subsequent trading of their goaltender, Marek Mazanec, who was the team's first off-season signee. Then came the departure of their leading goal scorer, Peter Holland. All of this went down in a three-week span as the Rangers made it clear they had thrown in the towel, not only in New York but in Hartford as well. “I had no idea that three other captains had been traded before Cole," O'Gara said. "His going was tough enough. He was the backbone of this team and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be because we won the first game after the trade, 6-5 in OT, in Lehigh Valley. We weren’t consistent enough. We would win five in a row, then turn around and drop five in a row. In some games, we struggled to be consistent. We would have a bad five-minute segment that would kill us. Just before Christmas we were above .500. We never got back to that level the rest of the way.” O’Donnell is at a playing crossroads and enjoys Hartford. “Hartford has become a second home. I like it here, but this is still a business. What comes my way this summer, and my second year when we went to the conference finals, I will look back at the years here were one of the best of my life in hockey and it's great to go on a playoff run like that. I just wish we could have had a few more of those here." The scoring on Sunday by Hershey was all done by ex-Pack, Chris McCarthy. He tallied a goal and two assists, while Joey Leach, who was just recalled from the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL, scored his first of the season. Joe Snively, fresh out of Yale, also tallied a goal and two assists. Hershey’s Aaron Ness had two assists on Friday night in Hartford’s home finale. That production allowed him to surpass the Pack's John Gilmour 55 to 54 points and capture the AHL defenseman scoring title. The on-ice carnage is best reflective in the plus/minus numbers. While plus/minus can be skewered by individuals making a faux pas that reflects on the rest of their teammates on the ice, but once a player gets into the deep teens or to over minus-twenty, that reflects far more on a fundamental flaws that extend from the forwards to the defensemen and possibly even the goaltender. Six Pack players were a minus-20. In that category, Bobby Butler and defenseman Libor Hajak were both a minus-26. Lias Andersson was a staggering minus-24 in just 36 games, breaking Matt Gilroy’s record of minus-16 in 31 games mark, yet he was recalled to NY. Sean Day was a minus-23 in 47 games. Steven Fogarty, the team MVP, was also over 20 with a minus-21. Rookie Tim Gettinger was a minus-20. The best players on defense ended their season on the injured list, Chris Bigras (ankle) was a plus-5, assistant captain Rob O’Gara (back spasms) plus-3, Ryan Lindgren (concussion) with two Rangers recalls at minus-1. Only Binghamton, Ontario, and San Antonio had numbers like that. Daniel Brickley, Ontario's Jake Walman, John Gilmour’s collegiate defense partner were tied for the worst at minus-31. The Rangers are on the hook here as they await the naming of a new president of the team to succeed Glen Sather. That fortunate soul will have to pick through the debris in New York and Hartford and try to plot a forward course. The Rangers clear indifference to Hartford has to end. Winning and the playoffs were once synonymous here. Over a 14-year consecutive stretch where the team made the playoffs and competed at the top end of the AHL. Winning and playoffs still matter. The Rangers have to decide if they care to accomplish that objective here. Cantlon’s Corner has learned that the Rangers have had a preliminarily interview with at least one Hockey East coach about the Hartford opening, However until a new President is named, these preliminary interviews will likely be done to present the new person a list of candidates to come for second interviews. Director of Player Development, Jed Ortmeyer, was on the bench during three games this season. He also conducted several practices last week and is likely on an initial short list. Clearly, the Rangers talent evaluation process is broken. A major shakeup is needed to achieve better results so necessary changes in the scouting department will likely happen. About seven years ago in Worcester, a former high-ranking AHL official in a profanity-laced tirade lamented at how poorly Hartford had become both on-and-off the ice. Since then, it has only gotten worse. Too many average skilled players have been sent to the Connecticut state capitol. Others were picked off the waiver wire scrap heap, or they were traded for, have all dotted the lineup over the past five years. Many of the present Wolf Pack need to excise a set of words from their vocabulary how good, great or talented they are. The team's record demonstrates the team's reality and other teams that used to fear the Wolf Pack over the years, have, over the past several seasons, feasted on the Wolf Pack. The Rangers have an abundance of selections coming up at the Vancouver Entry Draft this summer and that's all fine and dandy, but they need to make sound choices and sign genuine quality AHL free agents to help nurse them along the path. The days of bringing in the likes of players like Akim Aliu, Cody Beach, Andre Deveaux, Dustin Tokarski, and Bobby Butler have to stop. The organization must stop the goaltending madness. This year with simply a redux of years past with a refined packaging of rotating people to be Henrik Lundqvist’s backup. Remember the Cam Talbot-Chad Johnson saga when the Ranger's rotated them up and down the Merritt Parkway like a relay recall race? Both players went elsewhere to find NHL playing time in other NHL cities. This year Alexander Georgiev was dispatched to play in Hartford while Lundqvist went one of his playing tears. Tokarski and Mazanec went to New York to be well-paid practice goalies and fatten their bank accounts but didn't help either team. If the Rangers choose to name a captain or to sign a player next season to assume that role, that agent must extract the first AHL NTC-No Trade Clause. A franchise that set the standard of what a captain should be and that had his number retired as his should have been, that indifferent approach to the captaincy has to end. The Schneider situation demonstrates so clearly that it can have a truly devastating consequence to the team's in-season plight and the growth and development of their prospects. The Rangers have to make choices in Hartford. You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that the status quo is not good and not working. Read the full article

[beingulti]

Charles Mann

Hidey Ho, everyone! My name is Charley Mann, I'm 23 years old and I'm not good at ultimate. I currently work in the Princeton, NJ area and play in the very serious and very important MCUDL winter draft league. I just recently moved to the area after graduating from Emory last spring (with majors in political science and german studies, the future unemployment combo pack) and working on the Buford Highway Corridor in Atlanta over the summer. I started playing ultimate with JUICE my sophomore year after quitting the volleyball team because I kept getting severe ankle sprains almost every other month. During my rookie season I decided to try to lay out for the first time ever at High Tide and broke my wrist (I had to ice my wrist with two beers because the folks at high tide would only give me one bag of ice which I used for a sprained ankle). I served as social chair at Emory which basically meant that I ran the twitter, posted memes to the groupme (an oft-overlooked responsibility of social chairs), and organized team gatherings. Another responsibility I had was to roast coaches and captains as much as possible and I'd like to think I made their lives as difficult as possible during my time with the team.

Outside of ultimate in college, I spent time on the exec board for a student organization called Refugee Revive, which looked to serve the refugee community in the Clarkston area. I didn't do much with the organization, but I tried to solidify the structure of the organization (which I admittedly did not do a great job at) and tried to connect the organization as best as I could with community leaders I had met through work. Between my junior and senior year, I split my time interning for a refugee resettlement organization in the Tucker area of Atlanta and cleaning the pools at Emory (nothing makes you appreciate working for free in an air-conditioned office like scrubbing an Olympic sized pool with a hand brush). My senior year I was lucky enough to be selected as a Community Building and Social Change fellow at Emory which granted me the opportunity to work in Atlanta the summer after I graduated doing affordable housing research and advocacy.

I'm currently scheduled to go into the Peace Corps in July (fingers crossed I get all of my forms in by then) as an Early English Educator. If anyone has comments or stories about their experiences working abroad, please hit me up as I'm dying to learn more about what it's like.

This week I'll probably cover

-My love of Anders and Dan as coaches

-My love of TJ and Gabe as coaches

-My deep love of music and music memes

-How it feels to have Fairley guilt trip you

-Why Atlanta is awesome

-Weird stories from my time with Juice

-My juicy romantic life

-Why Lebron is better than MJ

-Other twitter accounts that I think people should follow

-My struggles to become a big time ultimate frisbee celebrity

-How I feel about MCUDL so far

-Whether or not I feel loved by my father

Thanks for being here and don't forget to follow https://twitter.com/EmoryJuice

(March 4th - March 10th)

[jodyedgarus]

Bengals-Ravens — On A Thursday Night! — Is The Most Important Game Of Week 2

Just one week into the NFL season, it’s hard to know exactly which teams will be contenders and which will be focused on their spot in the draft next spring. So it probably seems too early to be discussing playoff implications — a conversation that’s usually on hold until Thanksgiving. But in a 16-game schedule, the margins are small, and each game has a big effect on the postseason picture. Week 2 is no different — after all, the season will be 12.5 percent over after Monday night.

Thursday’s AFC North tilt between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Baltimore Ravens is one of those early season contests that could end up having real postseason consequences. In fact, our NFL Elo prediction model considers it the most important game of Week 2. (Remember when Thursday Night Football was a place to stash the NFL’s unwanted matchups?) With a win, each team’s chances of making the playoffs would jump by about 15 percentage points, while the loser would see a commensurate decline. Especially after the division-rival Pittsburgh Steelers stumbled out of the gate without star RB Le’Veon Bell, the chance to jump out to a 2-0 start is a big opportunity for both Baltimore and Cincy.

Bengals-Ravens could help make or break their seasons

Week 2 games with the most total potential swing for the two teams’ playoff chances, according to FiveThirtyEight’s NFL Elo predictions

Playoff % Playoff % Team A Current Avg. Chg* Team B Current Avg. Chg* Total Change BAL 59.0% +/-15.1 CIN 39.6% +/-14.8 29.9 ATL 51.1 14.1 CAR 52.4 13.9 28.1 GB 29.0 13.5 MIN 73.7 12.9 26.3 NYJ 39.0 13.3 MIA 30.3 12.9 26.2 LAC 33.3 12.4 BUF 21.8 9.8 22.2 PIT 53.8 12.1 KC 74.8 9.9 22.0 TB 35.6 11.6 PHI 82.9 8.4 20.0 JAX 64.3 10.8 NE 81.8 8.8 19.6 SEA 40.3 11.8 CHI 14.6 7.2 19.1 LAR 58.1 10.9 ARI 14.1 7.9 18.8 DEN 30.0 10.5 OAK 14.3 7.9 18.4 TEN 30.4 9.7 HOU 15.2 8.1 17.9 DET 19.1 8.7 SF 22.2 8.4 17.1 DAL 33.5 8.1 NYG 6.4 4.1 12.2 WSH 39.1 7.9 IND 9.9 4.1 12.0 NO 27.8 4.2 CLE 2.4 1.2 5.4

*Average change is weighted by the likelihood of a win or loss. (Ties are excluded.)

Source: ESPN.com

The Ravens come into the matchup off of a 44-point demolition of the Buffalo Bills, which propelled Baltimore from 12th to eighth in our Elo rankings. With the Bills starting the comically ineffective Nathan Peterman at QB, it’s difficult to judge how much we really learned about the Ravens in the blowout. But it had to be encouraging for Baltimore fans to see Joe Flacco play well, regardless of the opponent. At home against Buffalo, Flacco generated 119 more adjusted net yards than a generic backup-level quarterback would have (aka yards above backup QB, or YABQ), which ranked sixth among all signal-callers in Week 1 — behind Ryan Fitzpatrick, Drew Brees, Patrick Mahomes, Philip Rivers and Aaron Rodgers.

In terms of YABQ, this game also represented the third-best that Flacco has enjoyed since Week 3 of the 2015 season, which helps underscore how bad Flacco has been in recent years. For instance, last season the Ravens had the third-worst quarterbacking production of any team in the league, with Flacco’s individual metrics in a three-year tailspin. For a team that featured one of the NFL’s best defenses last season, any spark that Flacco and the offense can provide could go a long way toward sending Baltimore back to the playoffs for the first time since 2014. And in their first test against the overmatched Bills, Flacco and the revamped Ravens receiving corps passed with flying colors.

A somewhat similar narrative is unfolding in Cincinnati. With much-maligned QB Andy Dalton embarking on his eighth season as the Bengals’ starter (and coach Marvin Lewis back for an astonishing 16th year on the team’s sidelines), Cincy went into Indianapolis and beat Andrew Luck and the Colts thanks to solid passing and rushing, plus timely defensive plays late in the game. Aside from maybe Flacco, few quarterbacks in the league needed to start the season on the right foot more than Dalton, who infamously has never won a playoff game during his time in the Queen City.

A win over Baltimore on Thursday won’t change that — perhaps surprisingly, Dalton has beaten the Ravens more often than not anyway — but it would help quiet the doubts that Dalton’s best days are behind him. Since he finished third in the league in YABQ in 2015 (despite suffering a season-ending injury that December), he slipped to 11th in 2016 and 21st in 2017, and the Bengals didn’t make the playoffs either year. With a defense that projects to be mediocre at best, Cincinnati needs Dalton to reverse that slide in order to have any shot at the postseason — and probably to have any chance at salvaging the Dalton/Lewis era.

The great irony of the Bengals is that their quarterbacking has always been just good enough to come up short. While the Ravens have won two Super Bowls behind a couple of QBs (Flacco and Trent Dilfer) who were below-average passers for their careers, Cincinnati has consistently had average-to-good passing over the years, aside from a few notable exceptions. Just look back at the Bengals’ history of primary quarterbacks: 40 of their 47 seasons since 1972 have been led by five quarterbacks — Ken Anderson, Boomer Esiason, Jeff Blake, Carson Palmer and Dalton. Although none is in the Hall of Fame (Anderson’s case is a point of contentious debate), each rates as average or better in his career according to Pro-Football-Reference.com’s advanced passing index.

That’s why, from the 1970 AFL-NFL merger until the present day, no team has gotten more seasons of “competent” (above-backup level) quarterbacking than the Bengals have:

The Bengals always get competent QB play — but no rings

Most seasons with positive yards above backup quarterback (YABQ) for NFL franchises, 1970-2017

Franchise Seasons above backup level since 1970 Total YABQ Super Bowls 1 Washington 42 23,642 3 1 Cincinnati 42 23,128 0 3 Dallas 41 28,383 5 3 Miami 41 25,480 2 3 Pittsburgh 41 18,754 6 6 Minnesota 40 23,118 0 7 Denver 39 22,648 3 8 San Francisco 38 31,028 5 8 New England 38 25,478 5 8 Philadelphia 38 16,004 1

Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com

And yet, even though the teams around them on that list have won multiple Super Bowls, Cincinnati has yet to break through with even one win of its own.

History says that’s unlikely to change this season. But it is fair to say that Dalton’s duel with Flacco this week has taken on unexpected importance for an early season game. The winner will ensure itself a quick boost in playoff chances — and an extra helping of redemption after the way both teams have played the past few seasons.

FiveThirtyEight vs. the readers

Last week, we relaunched our NFL Elo prediction interactive, which you can use to track every team in the league in the race for the Super Bowl. Along with it, we also brought back a popular feature from last season — a prediction game that lets you test your football smarts against our model (and thousands of fellow readers). Here were Elo’s best and worst picks against the field in Week 1:

Elo’s dumbest (and smartest) picks of Week 1

Average difference between points won by readers and by Elo in Week 1 matchups in FiveThirtyEight’s NFL prediction game

OUR PREDICTION (ELO) READERS’ PREDICTION PICK WIN PROB. PICK WIN PROB. Result READERS’ NET points OAK 50% LAR 68% LAR 33, OAK 13 +11.7

���

ARI 61 ARI 55 WSH 24, ARI 6 +4.8

–

GB 63 GB 71 GB 24, CHI 23 +3.3

–

BAL 64 BAL 72 BAL 47, BUF 3 +2.9

–

JAX 58 JAX 62 JAX 20, NYG 15 +0.7

–

SEA 54 SEA 52 DEN 27, SEA 24 +0.0 PIT 79 PIT 76 PIT 21, CLE 21 +0.0 LAC 56 LAC 55 KC 38, LAC 28 -0.6

–

CAR 60 CAR 60 CAR 16, DAL 8 -1.8

–

IND 50 IND 50 CIN 34, IND 23 -1.9

–

DET 71 DET 71 NYJ 48, DET 17 -2.4

–

MIN 76 MIN 71 MIN 24, SF 16 -5.3

–

NE 86 NE 77 NE 27, HOU 20 -6.3

–

PHI 65 PHI 57 PHI 18, ATL 12 -9.6

–

MIA 53 TEN 55 MIA 27, TEN 20 -10.3

–

NO 74 NO 82 TB 48, NO 40 -13.5

–

The scoring system is nonlinear, so readers’ average points don’t necessarily match the number of points that would be given to the average reader prediction.

Overall, it was a pretty impressive opening week for Elo — in fact, our model cleaned up nicely, beating readers by 28.3 total points on average. This is especially surprising because Week 1 would seem to be the moment of the season when human pickers have the greatest edge on the algorithm. In our NFL preview, I noted that Elo can get caught a little flat-footed early in the season because it doesn’t know about all the roster and coaching moves that transpired over the summer. Theoretically, that should have made it as unprepared for Week 1 as Matt Patricia’s Detroit Lions … but unlike the Lions, Elo proved the naysayers (i.e., me) wrong.

Elo’s biggest win was in not dismissing the Buccaneers completely. While our readers gave the home Saints a better than 80 percent chance of winning, the model was more cautious, and it ended up paying off when Tampa (and backup QB Ryan Fitzpatrick) dropped 48 points on New Orleans. Elo also picked up credit for calling the Dolphins’ protracted win over the Titans and for once again showing faith in the Eagles (just like in last year’s playoffs).

If the readers did have a crowning moment in Week 1, though, it was for calling the Rams’ big win over the Raiders in Oakland on Monday night. Elo thought the game was a pick ’em, but the readers knew better, giving L.A. a 68 percent chance of spoiling Jon Gruden’s return to the sidelines.

Thanks to everyone who played on opening week, and remember that it’s not too late to start, even if you missed Week 1. So be sure to get your picks in now!

Check out our latest NFL predictions.

from News About Sports https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/bengals-ravens-on-a-thursday-night-is-the-most-important-game-of-week-2/

[nflfanpointii]

Saints could find some boom in Giants draft busts

Ereck Flowers and Eli Apple haven’t worked out in the Big Apple. Could New Orleans salvage their reeling talents?

The New York Giants are going full-steam ahead towards wasting the second-overall pick in the draft on a running back, but this story isn’t about the awful contract ramifications and misuse of resources that move would embody - no matter how cool Saquon Barkley would look in Big Blue. The Giants have been mismanaged for several years now, and that’s something the New Orleans Saints could stand to gain from.

New York’s draft flops are most clear in their first round picks in the 2015 and 2016 NFL Drafts: offensive tackle Ereck Flowers and cornerback Eli Apple. Both of those players are on the way out in NYC, and either of them could potentially turn things around in New Orleans if they came at the right place.

The Giants overpaid Nate Solder to get Flowers out of the left tackle spot, making Solder the highest-paid offensive lineman in the game despite having never made even a Pro Bowl selection. They’ve since informed Flowers that he’ll be moving to the right tackle spot, but Flowers has abstained from voluntary workouts and the Giants front office, headed by general manager Dave Gettleman - fired a few months ago by the Carolina Panthers - thinks they could recoup some draft capital.

I want to be very clear: I don’t think Flowers is good, much-less worth sacrificing any meaningful assets to get. We’re talking about moving some of the Saints’ five picks in the last three rounds at best.

It’s clear that Flowers isn’t playing with confidence and is lost out there. The Giants have undergone some deep spring cleaning this year, revamping the front office and coaching staff, and Flowers likely needs a fresh start as badly as the Giants do, if not more so.

Contrast that with the Saints, who have a very good coaching staff. Offensive line coach Dan Roushar has especially done a great job, trotting out a variety of combinations after injuries hit early in the season; Roushar found ways to win with four different combinations in the first seven weeks. He could definitely make the most out of Flowers, if there’s anything left there at all. With Zach Strief’s retirement and Senio Kelemete’s free agency exodus in the rearview, the Saints need to explore all avenues in pursuit of offensive line depth. The Jermon Bushrod comeback tour is not inspiring.

On the other side of the ball, Giants third-year corner Eli Apple is coming off the heels of a bizarre family drama involving a coup by his mother against his stepfather and siblings. Unlike Flowers, Apple reported to spring training with a “clean slate” mentality and made-up with team leader Landon Collins, who had been critical of Apple’s immaturity last season.

Still, the potential for change is there. The Giants are rolling out an entirely-new coaching staff and defensive philosophy, and Apple may not fit what they’re looking for. Reuniting Apple with his Ohio State Buckeyes teammates Marshon Lattimore, Vonn Bell, and Michael Thomas could be just what he needs to overcome whatever personal problems may still plague him. Saints defensive backs coach Aaron Glenn has done an awesome job fielding a competitive unit with just one highly-drafted asset (Lattimore) among them. Maybe he can help Apple get right, too.

The Saints are far from set at cornerback, even with Lattimore, Ken Crawley, and P.J. Williams returning and Patrick Robinson back in the fold as a slot coverage specialist. As last year’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams without Lattimore and Crawley demonstrated, you can never have enough corners. Apple won’t turn 23-years old until August and has a contract running through 2019, with a team option in 2020. I’d much prefer him compete with Arthur Maulet and any rookies the Saints add than De’Vante Harris for the fifth cornerback spot.

So let’s say the Giants make it known this Saturday afternoon that Apple or Flowers could be had in exchange for a sixth- or seventh-round draft pick. Imagine that the Saints are content with their early-round selections and are already starting to make recruiting calls to prioritized free agents. I’d be all about them taking up Apple or Flowers for reclamation projects over the summer.

[fr0gg13b413]

women in STEM (schemata, truculency, enigmatic, malignity)