Weird Weather Week

Sat.-Wed., January 23-27, 2021 

We start with an unusual weather phenomena that hit us on Saturday, a hail storm. Not just any old hail storm but a specific one that seemed to only hit our home and the few around us.

When we queried our friends, Brian and Koreen FitzGerald about the hail at their home only a few blocks away, their answer was, "What hail storm?"

Anyway, here is what we at first just heard and then saw.

It started in our back yard

This is SOUTHERN California,

that is a lot of white stuff on the ground!

This was the view in our

front yard, equally puzzling

Somehow, we survived and were able to watch more NFL football the next day.

Tampa Bay 31 - Green Bay 26

Kansas City 38 - Buffalo 24

Always the #1 question whenever

the Chiefs get this deep in the playoffs

So, Super Bowl LV is set for February 7th in Tampa, Florida between the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs (16-2) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (14-5).

I wonder if I can buy a ticket to the game on StubHub?

The CHEAPEST tickets listed on

StubHub were a bit out of our

price range . . .

That is $8,558 USD/7061€ for just ONE ticket.

. . . and then there was the most

expensive ducats on StubHub for

Super Bowl LV

The amazing thought is that there are indeed people in the world who have the disposable income to pay $65,276.30 USD/53,852€ for ONE ticket to the Super Bowl LV game is a tad mind boggling.

The Skorpions started practicing

this week in Varese, Italy

New Head Coach Nick Holt and his wife Julie are still in their mandatory two week quarantine until next Sunday.

He is so excited about getting this extremely promising season underway as are all of the Skorpions.

Laurie set a fine table to celebrate

our daughter-in-law Vanessa's

20th birthday

Maybe it was her 21st . . .

 

EXTREMELY!

Mary on a walk around our

neighborhood with Mike

far in the background

I took Jacob to the park on one

of his school breaks on Tuesday

Reading Is FUNdamental!

Maigret books are ALWAYS

good reads in my humble opinion

A HUGE Week for American Politics

Mon.-Fri., January 18-22, 2021

While most of the nation focused their attention on Washington D.C. again this week, our home was consumed by . . . 

. . . the return of young Jacob to our

pandemic lair for his on-line education

In addition to his normal schoolwork, we opted to introduce the game of Scrabble to him to get him to further increase his mental limits through a fun game.

After playing one, fun non-scoring game with him on Tuesday we proceeded to play games each of the next two days for real.

On Wednesday, he beat us both.

Flushed with success, on Thursday, Jacob said we should play again but this time for money.

Our pride injured and our competitive juices fully flowing, we basically thought to ourselves, "HELL YES, BRING IT ON KID!"

Thus we each put one U.S. dollar into the kitty and played a game for blood and honor.

When Mike came over to pick him up, Jacob had three dollars in his pocket.

Who is teaching who here?

Wednesday was a HUGE day for

America as Joe Biden was sworn in

as our 46th President

Kamala Harris became the nation's

49th and first woman Vice-President

in another historic moment

 

The U.S. Capital building had a

much different look than it did

two shameful weeks ago

Poet Amanda Gorman, only 22 years old,

was AMAZING on Inauguration Day

Now for the latest News from the Net . . .

The Reagan Administration repeal

of the F.C.C.'s "Fairness Doctrine"

was a seminal moment in dividing

our nation

The "Fairness Doctrine" basically said that if a media outlet posted a view/opinion on anything, they legally had to allow someone with opposing views to come on to that same platform and give viewers, listeners and readers their point of view as a counterbalance.

With this repeal, all of the extreme right and left wing folks could talk to their respective bases with little/no fear of direct opposition.

Now elections can be "stolen" and our capital can be stormed with insane numbers believing/approving of such things.

No pardons for you from

your beloved leader on his

way out the door

Our crazy times . . .

Yep

Thank goodness!

Reading Is FUNdamental!

An anthology of 14 different

Sherlock Holmes short stories

Some were good, some were only so-so but it was still a solid pandemic era read.

Another Few Days of Covid-19, American Football and Political Turmoil

 

Wed.-Sun., January 13-17, 2021

Another week of mostly self-imposed home confinement was punctuated by some American football news and continuing, non-stop discussions of the political turmoil that is rampant in the USA these days.

Our resident football equipment

expert, son Michael, says that some

of these years are not correct

The L'Hospitalet Pioners won again!

This is the Spanish DII (Serie B) club that I am helping as their Analytics Coach this season.

Saturday's win puts the

Pioners at 2-0 on the season

The current Spanish DII Central-South

and Eastern Conference standings

Next up for the Pioners (2-0) is a HUGE Eastern Conference game on January 30th against the also 2-0 Valencia Giants.

Four NFL Divisional Playoff

games were also on tap

this weekend

This was the only one

of interest in our house

Too much Rodgers,

not enough Donald

Exciting news for the

Varese Skorpions on Sunday

New Head Coach Nick Holt

and his wife Julie arrived

in Italy on Sunday!

The traditional three hour

"Welcome to the Skorpions" lasagna lunch

at the Petrillo home was a MUST!

In sad news from San Diego,

Jack Murphy Stadium was torn down

We enjoyed many a Holiday Bowls,

Padres and Chargers games there

over the years

Set to replace it in time for the 2022 football season will be a smaller but adequate 35,000 seat stadium built for San Diego State Aztec football.

In comparison, "The Murph" held 70,500 fans 

In news from the net . . .

100% agree

Thankful for the little things in life

SO true

Proud to have active library cards in Sweden (Hässleholm and Upplands-Väsby), Switzerland (Thun), France (Lyon), Spain (Murcia and Arganda del Rey), Italy (Venegono Superiore and Varese) as well as in Camarillo, California, USA!

Not even the old Schoolhouse Rock!

series can explain what's going on

Political Logic 2021 style

Read and understand the

Constitution before invoking it

But do you really want to unite

with neo-nazis and racist factions?

A lot of this the last two weeks

True from BOTH sides

Where are we headed?

Loyalty is just a word to some

And five years later,

why yes, yes you are Senator

American Football on Parade and the News from Washington D.C.

Mon.-Tue., January 11-12, 2021

Despite our country's reaping of the political whirlwind that President Trump continues sow in the wind, we'll start today with some positive notes about American football.

The NFL playoffs are set for

this coming weekend

Our #6 seeded Los Angeles Rams (11-6) will travel to Wisconsin to play the #1 seeded Green Bay Packers (13-3) who are rested as they are coming off of a playoff bye.

The Barcelona Gladiators are born

The Gladiators, headed by good friend Bart Iaccarino, will be part of the new, eight team European League of Football this coming Summer.

This initial EFL season features six clubs in Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hildesheim/Hannover, Ingolstadt and Stuttgart) and one in Poland (Wroclaw) in addition to our favorite Spanish team.

Good luck, Coach Bart, in this promising new project!

Apparently there was a game of

some importance played on Monday night

Oh right, that's it, the

College National Championship Game

Speaking of History . . .

Seven seasons ago, college football evolved into its current four team playoff configuration. From the get-go, people have been arguing for the need to expand the playoffs to at least eight teams.

What has history taught us?

In the 14 semi-final games blowouts are the norm.

Here are the winning margins in those 14 semi-final games:

39, 38, 35, 31, 27, 21, 20, 18, 17, 17, 11, 7, 6 and 6 points.

That's 11 double digit wins and only three one possession games.

The championship game's winning margins are dicey as well.

The winning margins in the seven championship games are:

28, 28, 22, 17, 5, 4 and 3 points.

Four double digit thrashing and three one possession games.

Maybe four teams is enough in one respect, but on the other hand, in a normal non-pandemic year, having all five Power Five Conference Champions at least having a shot at the title plus three other deserving clubs would be of interest.

It shaped up to be a competitive game

It wasn't

Alabama won its 18th overall National Championship in the game of college American football.

For Crimson Tide Head Coach Nick Saban it was his seventh National Championship team making him the all-time leader in this prestigious coaching category.

Coach Saban won his first National Championship as Head Coach of the LSU Tigers in 2003. His six Alabama titles have come in the 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020.

Quite a run for the Crimson Tide with no end in sight.

Now for some news of the day commentaries . . .

Nice Venn diagram

I want a copy

Silence of the Donald

The quiet the last few days

has been nice

Brain Trust

To be clear, if you are in a crowded

room with people wearing pro Nazi,

neo-Nazi, 6MWE, Confederate or

Camp Auschwitz t-shirts . . .

LEAVE NOW!

If you do not, you are in no way a "patriot."

We fought wars to defeat those causes.

The current state of the

Republican Party

Unfortunately, this is our current

state of affairs

It is good to end this post with a smile