Fish Fear Me

Zig Or Zag?(updated)

I suppose I shouldn't tempt the fantasy football gods, but at this point I'm having too much fun, win or lose. With 7 games remaining I could go 3-4 and still be assured of getting an upper division playoff spot. Here are this weeks musings:

• QB-Stafford at home against the Bengals or Cutler on the road against the Redskins(uh-oh, there's that word)? Cutler technically has the better matchup, but Stafford is at home, Calvin Johnson is listed as probable, and Stafford has the hottest hand right now. I'll go with Stafford.
• RB-What can I say? Jamaal Charles is the highest scoring running back in the league right now and Reggie Bush is #6. Add 10 points for week 3 when I played Joique Bell for the injured Bush and the platoon is actually #5. Doing my due diligence with the rest of my backs, Steven Jackson is still out and Jacquizz Rodgers has a terrible match up against Tampa Bay, a team that has yet to give up a TD to a running back. Charles and Bush it is, not that there was ever any doubt. 
• WR/TE-Brandon Marshall is a must start and currently #7 in WR/TE points. Vincent Jackson got hot last week and has a good match up with Atlanta, which has given up at least one WR touchdown in each game this year. What to do for the third receiver? The options are Boldin against Tennessee, which hasn't given up a WR touchdown since week 2. The injured(probable)Cecil Shorts against San Diego, which has given up 2 WR touchdowns in half their games this year. Jordan Cameron, who has gone stone cold since I picked him up, against Green Bay, which gave up 81 yards and 1 TD to Dallas Clark last week.  I would like to start Shorts, but I'm worried that even if he plays, he takes one shot on that shoulder and he's done for the day. I'm going with Cameron.
• My DST is the Ravens and my kicker is Justin Tucker. They are what they are. Tucker has been alternating hot and cold so far this season and this is his turn to be hot. Hopefully.

There's the week 7 lineup. My opponent is 4-2 and from the QB through WR/TE positions has 5 of 6 good match ups. His team is no pushover. 

Update: My opponent put up a respectable 50 points, not enough for my even more respectable 64. 6-1, baby.

My correctly figured zigs were Stafford with a very nice 12 pts, Charles with a healthy 10pts, Vincent Jackson with an outstanding 17 pts, and Cameron Jordan with a TD and 2 bonus pts for a total of 8(he was due). Brandon Marshall had a less than stellar performance today, but nobody on the bench would have topped his score of 3.

I should have zagged: Reggie Bush managed only 3 bonus points while Jacquizz Rodgers defied the odds and came up with 2 receiving TDs today plus a bonus point. That's the way the FFL ball bounces, I guess. You kind of have to figure that you're going to miss one or two of those every week if you have good options. 

Which is a lot easier to say when you're 6-1.

The Word Of The Day: Harbinger

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You know the old saying that goes "Make hay while the sun shines"? Well, yesterday for me was all about "Mow the lawn before the snow comes!". 

Yeah, I said that four-letter word. It's not my fault and besides, it was gonna be said soon anyway. It arrived here a few minutes ago as a brief downpour of frozen rain, too hard to be called snow and too wimpy to be called hail. It was loud enough to call attention to itself though, as it ticked against the windows.

It was over as fast as it arrived, melting before I could finish this post. It will be back fairly soon, I'm sure.

The Key Is The Key

From the Strib's west metro police blotter:

MAPLE PLAIN

AUG. 20

Assisting a motorist. A female motorist flagged down an officer at Baker Park Road and East Main Street for assistance. She had bought a pair of handcuffs at a garage sale and lost the key to the cuffs. Her two sons had attached one cuff on each of their wrists. The woman asked the officer to try his handcuff key, but it didn’t unlock them. She said she was going to a store to buy another set of handcuffs to see if that key worked.

Yeah well, you let two boys get a hold of a pair of real handcuffs and sure as the sun rises in the east, one or both will end up shackled in some form or another. That just shows how important it is to have the key too. 

Why mom bought a set of handcuffs in the first place is a whole different issue.

On A Lighter Note

It was a big win for my fantasy football team this past weekend. I took on my previously unbeaten division rival and won by a score of 72-52. That leaves us tied at 5-1, but now I have the head-to-head advantage plus 20 points in the first second tiebreaker if it comes to that. 

I benched Matthew Stafford because I didn't like his matchup and I lost 6 pts with that mistake. Cecil Shorts turned out to be a bust for the week because he got hurt in the first quarter of his game, but looking at his teammate Justin Blackmon's 190 yards you know he would have lit up Denver too.

Other than that, I got good scoring from all the big hitters. Seeing Vincent Jackson finally break out was particularly gratifying since I picked him to start over Anquan Boldin and Jordan Cameron. I think he's going to get a lot more action with Mike Glennon as QB in Tampa Bay. 

Speaking of Boldin, I haven't given up on him. He can still be a decent matchup play, and if Mario Manningham comes back in the next week or two he could catch fire. Right now he's getting an awful lot of double coverage because the rest of the receiving corps in San Francisco is so weak, Vernon Davis excepted. That won't be so easy for opposing defenses when Manningham gets back.

In the real football world, the Vikings got creamed at home 35-10 by Carolina on Sunday. They were once again outplayed and outcoached. Matt Cassel threw two horrible interceptions, but it really was a dismal team effort on both sides of the line. There will be a lot pressure now to start Josh Freeman next week against the NY Giants and I think that would be a mistake. There are too many other things wrong with this team and throwing Freeman in there before a few of them are fixed will just poison the well for him too. I would give Cassel another chance while continuing to bring Freeman up to speed. Then I would hand the offense over to Freeman week 8 at home against Green Bay. 

On the death of Adrian Peterson's son: I don't think we know the whole story, so caution is in order when it comes to what Peterson did or didn't do regarding his son. That said, I didn't care for his demeanor in front of the media on Friday before his son died. I don't like that he heard that boy was his son three months ago and yet he hadn't met him until the child was on life support last Thursday. I don't like that he's had three kids with three different women. I guess that's all I have to say at the moment. 

Two Cents

If I ran the GOP in the House of Representatives right now, here's what I would do:

1. Pass a simple six month extension of the debt ceiling, no strings attached, and dare Reid and Obama to reject it. Obama said that's what he wanted and then he would be willing to negotiate something for the long-term, so call him on it and end the drama over that issue. But hold Obama's feet over the fire. The day after he signs that, demand the start of negotiations, public negotiations, on a debt limit increase that will last through his term.
2. Pass a six month continuing resolution to fund the federal government(and Obamacare) at FY2013 levels, including the sequester, but also include:     

• Language that eliminates the administration excuses for making the sequester as painful as possible. 
• Repeal of the medical device excise tax which even Harry Reid has called "stupid."
• Make Obama's one year delay of the employer mandate legal by changing the law and also give individuals the same reprieve.
• Delay the insurance coverage mandates for one year so people can actually keep the plans they have, as Obama himself promised.

If Reid and Obama don't like any of those points, they can put their big boy pants on and negotiate. If they refuse to negotiate, then fuck 'em, they're the ones keeping the government shut down. Democrats need to grow up and accept the fact that the House has as much of a right to present their own vision for how the government is funded as the Senate and the President. That's the way it works. That's the way it has always worked. 

Odds And Ends

Congrats to the Minnesota Lynx for winning their second WNBA Championship in three years, and in convincing fashion by sweeping Atlanta.

Another beautiful fall day here in the Northland. We may get some rain later today, but the weekend is looking great.

My fantasy football team ran into a buzzsaw last week in the form of the highest scoring team for the week. I lost 66-44 to go 4-1. This week I face my undefeated division rival and have a chance to reclaim my share of the division lead. Brandon Marshall and Jay Cutler got me off to a good start last night and I'll go into Sunday's action with a 23-6 lead.

QB confusion for the Vikings this week. Matt Cassel took the helm two weeks ago in London against the Steelers after it was disclosed that Christian Ponder had a fractured rib near his heart. Cassel guided the Vikings to their first win and it seemed to me that it was a no-brainer that he would work with the first team offense this week and start against Carolina on Sunday. But then the Vikings picked up Josh Freeman, who had been released by Tampa Bay a couple of weeks ago. With coach Leslie Frazier being about as transparent as Barack Obama this week, nobody is sure of anything.

My bet is on Cassel starting this week and Freeman getting a chance the next, regardless how well Cassel plays this week. I don't agree with that, but that's what I'll bet the organization forces Frazier to do. They didn't bring Freeman in to warm the bench. Personally, I don't care who starts as long as they finally get that offense firing on all cylinders.

The Washington Redskins name controversy is heating up in Minnesota. The Minnesota-based American Indian Movement and other Native American groups are pressing the Vikings and local media to not use the name "Redskins" when they come to town in November and are even threatening lawsuits to force the local sports authority into prohibiting the use of the name. Sorry, no on that last part. Protest and call on people's sense of morality all you want, but you can't call on government censorship to get your way.

I'm somewhat ambivalent about the whole thing. If it were up to me I guess I would change the name because it doesn't seem like it's worth the fight. And, as my friend Rob has noted before, there's almost certainly a merchandise bonanza to be reaped.

One more note on that story. Check out this ridiculous propaganda from some activist named Richie Plass:

That’s not how it’s viewed by native people, said Plass, who was humiliated as a teenager when he was asked to be his high school’s Indian mascot. The Redskins name doesn’t stem from skin color, but from the blood running down their bodies after they were scalped by European settlers, he said.

Wow. I can't believe the Strib actually published that. If I owned that paper I'd personally track down the editor who allowed that and fire his/her ass on the spot.

Two days in a row I've left the memory stick with all the rest of my pics in the office. It's in my pocket now.

The High Falls, Pigeon River

(click to enlarge)

It Gets Dark In The Woods

Spot The Crescent Moon

Tonight's sunset:

Did another nice hike today, but it was a much rougher trail than yesterday. Lots of steps up, onto, and over some good-sized rocks and boulders. A good chunk of the last 1/3 mile to the summit looked like this:

Those rocks are the trail, and they went another 50 feet or so beyond what you can see here. Talk about lift your boots and push off. My previously injured thigh held up well though. A few other leg muscles, however, are screaming at me a little tonight. More pics from Carlton Peak tomorrow.

Sunday Shutdown: Compare And Contrast

Here's how our dickhead National Park Service is handling the government shutdown:

Here's how the U.S. Forest Service is handling it in northern Minnesota(click any pic to enlarge):

The little building there that houses the restrooms was closed, of course, but the rest of this parcel of federal land in Superior National Forest is open to all. No barricades blocking the trailhead or parking lot, no stern looking forest rangers doing their best to make the public miserable for no good reason at all. Judging by the number of people I saw on the trail and the cars going in and out of the parking lot, somewhere around 500 people enjoyed the views while hiking the loop around the top of Mt. Oberg today.

Views like this:

I'll throw a few more pics below the fold. 

I realize that many of our National Parks are designed to serve tourists with staff and amenities and don't work well or safely without them. It's only common sense to close those facilities in a government shutdown. Many however, just like the Forest Service's Mt. Oberg loop, work fine without any staff even when the NPS is fully funded. That the NPS went out of its way to close the latter is shameful as hell. I hope they enjoy the well-deserved scorn they will receive from so many for years to come.