FRIDAY

Word of the day : kaput
                                       : utterly finished, destroyed, or defeated
                                       : outmoded 
                                       : useless; unable to function 

Beautiful weekend down here in Romney-ville.  I don't have too much today - the Fischer family is just itching to get out of town and go to Savannah - but I might as well give my football picks for the weekend: 

- NY Giants over Cincinnati
- Baltimore over Oakland   (the Raiders and Bengals' seasons will be kaput after this weekend)
- Denver over Carolina
- Tennessee over Miami    (I don't know, now that their owner has called them out, I'm expecting the Titans to respond in a game in which I think they have more talent)
- Detroit over Minnesota  
- New England over Buffalo    (the Bills never win in Foxboro.  Never.)
- Tampa Bay over San Diego   (tough game to pick)
- Atlanta over New Orleans   ( I want to pick the Saints in this one, but I feel like I keep under-estimating the Dirty Birds)
- Seattle over NY Jets
- Philadelphia over Dallas    (Who knows?  I mean, Christ, who knows?) 
- SF over St. Louis
- Chicago over Houston    (great game, could go either way) 
- Pittsburgh over KC 

Last Week's Record: 10-4 
Season Record: 83-49

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Let's keep with sports today.  I'm pumped about the start of the college basketball season too, which is right around the corner.  Here's the AP top 25:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/ncaa/men/polls/

Wow, the top 4 are all "Tri-state" area teams, with even UC making an appearance at the bottom of the poll.

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A performance today for my list of the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time:

  
Robert Ryan 
as Montgomery in Crossfire (1947) 

Pretty much the movie that put the often-cast, criminally-underrated Ryan on the map, this tough, cracking, message-heavy film noir stars Robert Mitchum and Robert Young (a lot of Roberts here, folks) as a cop and sergeant, respectively, trying to discover which  member of a group of de-mobilized soldiers who killed a Jewish man.  Ryan, earning his lone Oscar nomination for his powerful turn, is the anti-Semite, embittered man most likely responsible.  Ryan, nasty and bile, makes his prejudice raw and (sad to say) invigorating; what a scoundrel! 

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Best song I've heard so far this year:

Adele's new theme song from the James Bond pic Skyfall:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HKoqNJtMTQ 

WOW!  



Image courtesy of: 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zZN63nSqOmk/To1kRz2IsuI/AAAAAAABFDc/NfT-6btA2uk/s1600/2731275311_26c8b7a550.jpg