67 Comments
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Dale's avatar

It sounds like Metcalf might be concerned about his job. Maybe he should be.

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Mcdude's avatar

I assumed you were going old school. I had to sharpen my pencils manually. You can lead a horse to water but a pencil is lead. Have a good day.

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Village Idiot's avatar

We morphed that adage where I last worked:

"You can lead a One Trick Pony to water, but you can't make it think."

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Rusty's avatar

Oh wow...I can think of a bunch of people I worked with that this would apply to.

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Paul G's avatar

“ ‘Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;”

We now know what Competition Wednesday is like!

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Flurb's avatar

Apologies in advance KenJoe

According to MRob, we might have a new concern next week - from last night’s postgame analysis:

file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/ce/14/53AF0186-3378-4C33-9F8F-118FB6501FB3/IMG_8479.MOV

He says Chauncey has a new approach to the back end, even uses capital “P!”

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Seaside Joe's avatar

I think this is a link to a folder in your computer.

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MOBILIZER's avatar

SJ I know you said you would bring max energy to your Substack this season, but... Shakespeare?

I think you are right about how RBs are strategically deployed based on many health factors and having a generally sustainable running game over a 17 game season. Hawks look to be in good shape depth-wise. (I will again and forever raise my futile protest against Thursday Night games. It’s all about the rich getting richer, directly against the health interests of the athletes.)

Sorry I don’t have the attention span, time, expertise or luck to play your hopelessly difficult version of Survivor. I trust that won’t affect my honorable survivorship as a (long term) Regular Joe!

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Bryant's avatar

Ken, one of us is departing survivor this week as I went with the Cardinals. I figured we’d have to pick a weak team eventually so better to flip a coin between two weaklings and get it over with.

BTW- KC’s dropped balls were brutal. It doesn’t matter how good your QB is if no one can catch the ball. Hopefully we don’t see any of that from the Hawks!

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Seaside Joe's avatar

The Chiefs may need to trade for a WR even though Kelce is basically a WR and will be back.

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zezinhom400's avatar

Check your inbox :-)

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Grant's avatar

If the Cardinals win, I think we'll be loosing more than just Ken to survivor this week, so I'm rooting for you Bryant.

Toney single handedly lost that game for the Chiefs.

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zezinhom400's avatar

Yes, more than anyone else out there he clearly needed to be using both hands

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Mcdude's avatar

Comparing halfbacks to baseball; you don’t see many complete games anymore. May the 12s be with you and Go Seahawks!

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Mcdude's avatar

Don’t forget to write down which team you picked each week. By week 15 you will have forgotten. My favorite basic rule is, “a short pencil is better than a long memory”.

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Seaside Joe's avatar

I should have just created a league in Yahoo. I chose the most complicated and inconvenient way to run a survivor league, which is what happens when you don't plan ahead.

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Dale's avatar

Oh well, it’s not as if you’re busy or anything 😅

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Shaymus McFamous's avatar

My wife disagrees, much to my chagrin

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zezinhom400's avatar

Took Seattle this week bc they were to me the most slam dunk of all games.

My #2 were the Lions given no Jones and no Kelce. Bitterly disappointed they won though bc that’s a 1-0 record for a critical playoff rival.

On the other hand, the Chiefs win that game if only two of those absurdly awful dropped passes get caught. Said another way, the press is all excited about the Lions having “arrived” but for me it was almost a relief, should have lost to a severely depleted Chiefs team

Nice Lions OL though, by the 4th quarter the Chiefs front 7 were thoroughly whipped.

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JIMMY JOHNSON's avatar

Dropped passes are indicative of a Defense's hard-hitting secondary, especially in the second half. I will watch the game on replay, looking to see if this may have contributed, as I expect Detroit to make a showing in the SB. (22 to 1)

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zezinhom400's avatar

Yeah is a good way to determine for yourself whether those WR’s were intimidated or just terrible. I know the Legion of Boom caused a bunch of drops.

But for me this was just getting the Candy wrong. Instead of Skittles, Butterfingers

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JIMMY JOHNSON's avatar

Looks like KC must get Kelce back, and with him, his Skittles. His absence, plus Chris Jones, is why I took the Lions to win. Crazy, but hey... crazy can be FUN. It's that mouth-money connection, to boot. (got a Franklin on them to show...)

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zezinhom400's avatar

Yes if it wasn’t the Hawks at home vs Rams, I’d have picked the Lions as you did — but KC gifted the game to them, am not as impressed by the Lions as I was pre-kickoff

But that Campbell at middle linebacker is a player. Reminds me of Kuechly actually — and that’s a mouthful

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Parallax's avatar

I must have misunderstood the survivor game. I thought we were supposed to choose the winner and loser of the Seattle game and that's it. What did I miss?

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Grant's avatar

Each week you will pick one winner from all the games scheduled for that week (Thursday through Monday night). You can only pick a team once all season long, however, so if you picked the Seahawks for week one, you may not pick them again for the rest of the season.

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Parallax's avatar

Ok, thanks. Very clear explanation.

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Parallax's avatar

Having misunderstood the rules, I of course picked Seattle against the Rams. Oh well. Can't pick Seattle again but this is one week I'm extremely unlikely to be eliminated so there's that.

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Paul G's avatar

You’re ahead of me—I can’t remember who I picked.

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Shaymus McFamous's avatar

Don't worry, LA and Arizona play 15 more games they will be outmatched in

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Parallax's avatar

Yes, makes the game much easier that we can only pick a winner once but we can pick the same loser again and again. Would be much harder if the losers rather than the winners were eliminated.

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zezinhom400's avatar

Awesome, two pools!

Survivor league

Deceased league

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Doug's avatar

And all this time I thought baited breath referred to the unlucky fisherman who ate his bait for lunch.

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Parallax's avatar

Now I'll know to say "I wait with abated breath". How cool is that?

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Doug's avatar

Abated on th' Cheefs an' I lost.

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Rozone's avatar

7 is my lucky number! The Chiefs, however, were my instant failure. Mixed feelings on it--I always want them to lose, but I didn’t want to leave Survivor that fast 🤣🤣🤣

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Seaside Joe's avatar

I am sorry it went so soon! If you root for a lot of people to get knocked out fast, we should be able to do a second midseason league.

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Village Idiot's avatar

You tied with Doug!

#DeadPoolWon

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zezinhom400's avatar

Ah that's a better name for the two pools:

Survivor (pick the winner every week)

Dead Pool (pick the loser every week)

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Charley Filipek's avatar

ahh, The Merchant of Venice harkens back to my high school days in '64 ~'67.

Your quote jogs memories of another story, a long short story by Edgar Allen Poe, The Cask of the Amontillado.

https://poemuseum.org/the-cask-of-amontillado/

“Nemo me impune lacessit.” is "No one attacks me with impunity."

~ which is also the motto of Scotland and of the Order of the Thistle.

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Shaymus McFamous's avatar

I had an apartment a few blocks from the Poe Museum in Richmond. I had a bit of a fascination with his writings in high school. I did a term paper on his short stories and got an "A+". I recycled the same paper in college and got an "A", again. It was there that I learned some shortcuts actually do have merit, and to maximize the benefit of your work.

I have always been partial to The Tell-Tale Heart, the Masque of The Red Death, and his other short stories, but his poetry is remarkable, as well.

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zezinhom400's avatar

Quoth the raven: "Nevermore"

No one ever says "quoth" any more

Was that the hidden meaning in his "Nevermore"?

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Village Idiot's avatar

Hey! I just used "quoth" in a feghoot comment the other day! Pay attention!

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zezinhom400's avatar

Nevermore

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Shaymus McFamous's avatar

Yes, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. The raven was predicting that the word "quoth" would nevermore be used, so he could nevermore quoth. He did however quip and query a few times later. The irony is that the raven is still quoted frequently to this day.

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Dale's avatar

Maybe it should read: Quoth the raven? Nevermore. Rather than: Quoth the raven: "Nevermore".

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Shaymus McFamous's avatar

Yes. It was a typewriter error that wasn't caught when proof-reading the original manuscript. It was up for some debate among scholars, but ultimately, the evidence pointed to a faulty key on Poe's typewriter. It was originally intended to be a question mark, but the key only hit the bottom of the ink pad and just the very tip of the curve of the question mark, resulting in what appeared to be a colon.

The scholars also debated whether Poe was indicating that the raven had died, (hence nevermore being able to quoth) but eventually it was decided that the raven was predicting the lack of future usage of the word "quoth".

Historians noted that Poe used one of the first prototypes of the typewriter, which had just been developed around 1843, and is most likely the cause for the error. They were a bit buggy until the beta tests were complete in 1850, and version 2.0 was released. News reports widely held that folks camped out in line for days awaiting the new versions' release every year.

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Village Idiot's avatar

Was that the Bambridge scholars?

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Dale's avatar

My head just exploded. 🤯 I can’t tell if you’re serious or you just spent an inordinate amount of reply on an elaborate jest.

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Village Idiot's avatar

Ahhh...age, with his stealing steps, hath clawed you both in his clutch.

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Charley Filipek's avatar

What ?! Oh, No. Age is a Friend, along with Death, when Time is fine.

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Rozone's avatar

Same years I was in high school

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zezinhom400's avatar

I think I was too but I can't remember

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Village Idiot's avatar

Well...he did until he cried "havoc"...

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Paul G's avatar

I worked summers with a guy from NYC. When he found out that I was an English major, he asked me if like Shakespeare and then added “‘Cry havoc and let slip da dogs o’ war.’ What a great line!”

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Village Idiot's avatar

And what follows (IIRC): "...that this foul deed shall smell above all the earth and carrion men, groaning for burial."

It has been a long time...I may have botched the details.

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Paul G's avatar

Antony was not always in a philosophic mood:

https://youtu.be/tvDcrZIht7Q?si=XjowiCObeUjNseTS

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Ray's avatar

Quite an endorsement for #19. This might be the year that my fav camp guy turns out to be an actual player.

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Parallax's avatar

If he turns out to be a legitimate rotation player, a reliable 4th receiver with a reliable 3rd receiver in front of him, this offense will have an incredible array of options. Heck, we might have the best receivers corp in the league.

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JIMMY JOHNSON's avatar

Bobo would be a godsend to any OC. We will now watch Waldron earn his reputation as an out-of-the-box genius.

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zezinhom400's avatar

Hate to break it to you, but he's not a 4. Seattle has 4 starting WR's, three of them particularly gifted in the slot

Bobo is the real deal, he's more like Cooper Kupp than anyone is willing to accept (yet). Think about it. Slow white guy that's always open and is always breaking guys in half with his downfield blocking.

You read it first here.

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Village Idiot's avatar

...and THAT will be very, very interesting.

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