Back from the NYC

Yes, I spent this past weekend on the isle of Manhattan, an interesting place to have a frivolous vacation. Kristin and I saw Avenue Q, which was fantastic, and Evil Dead: The Musical, which ... wasn't so much. Not that it was bad, but it was nowhere near as good as "Q," which isn't horrible for a niche show like this -- I mean, I don't see how anyone who hasn't seen all three "Evil Dead" movies could get 4/5s of the jokes in the show. But Kristin enjoyed it, and the tickets were half-priced, so it was totally worth it.

I'd never been to New York, so it was neat if for no other reason than to be in a new place. And it is friggin' huge -- we never came close to leaving Manhattan, and it's less than 1/5 the total area of that city. You can do and find pretty much anything there, and I can understand people who say that they could spend their whole lives there and never have to leave. I could never live there though: I can't imagine having to go through that kind of hassle just to get 150 short miles away. I love being able to jump in my car and go wherever the hell I want. But generally we did a lot of what you do when you go to NYC, I guess: we ate, saw shows, shopped, and looked at shit. Good times. And it led to me calling Todd Saturday afternoon and completely mindfucking him, because he had no idea we were in New York, so my "I'm at a bar in Times Square watching Florida-LSU, Texas-Oklahoma, and Michigan-Michigan State. Also, Jeremy Bonderman has a perfect game through five" really threw him off. As it should've. Other things on my mind:

I tell you what, words can't describe how awesome it was to watch my team eliminate the Yankees in the middle of a packed bar full of Yankee fans, saying stereotypical Noo Yawk shit like "Not even Jeetuh can hit disguy." I still have a hard time believing the Tigers are good; it's just surreal. I recently read that 11 guys from the 2003 roster that lost 119 games played for them this year -- while new blood was brought in and made a huge difference, a lot of guys just flat-out got better, like Jeremy Bonderman, who lost like 17 games that year (at the age of 20. 20!).

Speaking of that series, I can't believe how noone thought the Tigers would win. Look at this list of "experts" picks -- zuh? And then after the series they're all saying to themselves "Oh, that's right. The team with the better pitching staff usually wins playoff series'." Gosh, I can't believe you all forgot about that. Although I have to admit that I sure as hell didn't see Rogers and Bonderman being that dominant against that Yankee "fantasy baseball" lineup in games 3 and 4. Now all of a sudden something like 50% of the users at ESPN.com think the Tigers will win the World Series now that we're down to four teams. Beating the Yankees cures all perceived ills, apparently (although it must be stated that AM-1270 cobbled together a list of 20 baseball "experts," and 2/3 of them are picking the A's to win).

Apparently the NHL season started; I think Nips may have mentioned it in a conversation. I don't care -- I'm just pissed that Brendan Shanahan is on the Rangers, because now my only Wings jersey is totally useless. Along those same lines, I think the NBA preseason is on the verge of starting. And again, I couldn't physically care any less than I do.

Being in NYC reminded me of The Turk. If anyone didn't know, sophomore year in the dorms I lived across the hall from a turkish guy who demanded that we call him "Turk" or "The Turk." He was from New York City, and what's interesting about him is that those two facts about him -- "From New York" and "Turkish" -- encompassed the whole of his personality. He apparently viewed himself as those two things exclusively, and as a result, so did everyone else. "The limit does not exist."

I fucking hate The Gap right now. Them and their skinny pants. For one, women all over the place are wearing them, and that cut of pants is only flattering on about 2% of women in the world. For second, that ad with Audrey Hepburn and that AC/DC song really gives me the creeps. Seriously, it's ruining Audrey Hepburn for me.

On to CFB:

I didn't watch the Bucks, as they were relegated to regional ESPNPlus and I was outside of the greater Columbus area. I saw maybe one five or six minute clip on one of the bar TVs that was on ESPNNews. So I have nothing -- at all -- to say about the game.

EXCEPT: we've had a few conversations in the past about how, in Troy Smith, we may be watching the best quarterback in OSU history. Well, as MotSaG pointed out, Smith is now number one in the Big Ten in career pass efficiency. First. All-time. And I think the guys are right in saying the most impressive thing about Troy's play is how he's talented AND doesn't make bad decisions. Craig Krenzel made great decisions, but was only marginally talented. Steve Bellisari and Stanley Jackson were extremely ath-eh-letic, but the sight of a heave into double coverage became all too familiar in the five out of six years where one of those two was the primary quarterback. Now we've got a guy who is doing it all. Let's keep enjoying Troy while we've got him.

I watched most of LSU-Florida, and that game was way more competitive than the final score indicated. One could even argue that LSU carried the play for most of the first half, but was done in by self-inflicted wounds (Russell fumbling on a QB sneak at the 1 that would have put the Bayou Bengals up 14-7; two muffed punts that were both lost and both led to points) over a 20-minute stretch of the game in which Florida scored all its points. Florida is putting a helluva resume together.

Texas-Oklahoma was completely uneventful. Because of ABC regional programming, this was the second time I had seen this game in the last seven seasons. If they're all as boring as this relatively close game was, I have no desire to watch any more.

I don't have any data to back this up, but I'm 99% sure that the Cal-Oregon game Saturday night featured the most combined "ugly uniform-age" of any sporting event since the ABA was still in existence. Plus they're wearing helmets, so we get the ugly uniforms of the ABA but without the gigantic afros that accompanied them. Humbug.

Todd, ever gonna get back to the video game list?