Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Bowling for Dollars

Here are my bowl picks for this season, in descending order of confidence. I got off to a good start tonight with TCU's decisive victory over Northern Illinois tonight. Upset picks are denoted by boldface type.
































GameMatchupPick
Hawaii BowlArizona State vs. Hawai'iHawai'i
Sugar BowlNotre Dame vs. LSULSU
Fiesta BowlBoise State vs. OklahomaOklahoma
Texas BowlRutgers vs. Kansas StateRutgers
Gator BowlWest Virginia vs. Georgia TechWest Virginia
Poinsettia BowlTCU vs. Northern IllinoisTCU
Alamo BowlTexas vs. IowaTexas
Outback BowlTennessee vs. Penn StateTennessee
BCS ChampionshipFlorida vs. Ohio StateOhio State
Emerald BowlFlorida State vs. UCLAUCLA
Sun BowlOregon State vs. MissouriOregon State
Holiday BowlCalifornia vs. Texas A&MCalifornia
Independenc BowlOklahoma State vs. AlabamaOklahoma State
Orange BowlLouisville vs. Wake ForestLouisvile
Motor City BowlMiddle Tennessee State vs. Central MichiganCentral Michigan
Liberty BowlHouston vs. South CarolinaSouth Carolina
Insight BowlTexas Tech vs. MinnesotaTexas Tech
Papajohns.com BowlSouth Florida vs. East CarolinaSouth Florida
Chick-fil-A BowlGeorgia vs. Virginia TechVirginia Tech
New Orleans BowlRice vs. TroyRice
International BowlCincinnati vs. Western MichiganCincinnati
Capital One BowlArkansas vs. WisconsinWisconsin
Rose BowlUSC vs. MichiganMichigan
Meineke Car Care BowlNavy vs. Boston CollegeBoston College
Armed Forces BowlTulsa vs. UtahUtah
New Mexico BowlNew Mexico vs. San Jose StateSan Jose State
MPC Computers BowlMiami vs. NevadaNevada
Music City BowlClemson vs. KentuckyKentucky
Las Vegas BowlBYU vs. OregonBYU
GMAC BowlOhio vs. Southern MississippiSouthern Mississippi
Champs Sports BowlPurdue vs. MarylandPurdue

Monday, December 11, 2006

Fast Food Nation

The McDonald's and Taco Bell franchises that are closest to my house are located on opposite corners of the same intersection. For reasons that I will probably never know, both restaurants were demolished within a few weeks of each other earlier this fall and are now in the process of being rebuilt from the ground up. Having never dined at either of these restaurants, I can't say what was so wrong with them that they had to be completely torn down and rebuilt.

Taco Bell is an interesting restaurant. I don't think I've eaten there since I was in college and I have no desire to ever eat there again, but I do really enjoy their commercials. I can't think of any other product or service whose advertisements I enjoy as much relative to the product or service being sold.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Light Show

Here's a picture of the first annual Christmas light display at our house. It's not exactly Clark Griswold quality, but it's a start.

Sikh and You Shall Find

Due to the limitations of the form and the drudgery of churning out one strip after another each day in perpetuity, comic strip artists will occasionally (some more occasionally than other) craft a comic strip whose joke requires such an obvious set-up that any humor that may have been there is sucked completely out of the page. Today's installment of Curtis, a comic that is rarely funny even when such shenanigans are not being used, demonstrates a textbook application of this technique.



Ray Billingsley achieves a rare two-fer in this strip, he constructs a joke that requires knowledge of eastern religions and underground artists (knowledge that as far as I know has never been required to understand Curtis) and links it together in such a contrived fashion that it is painfully unfunny.