I don't get it.

Everyone or at least a lot of people seem to think Tim Tebow, a professional football player for the Denver Broncos, is some kind of messiah.

I don't get it.

Before he was a professional football player he was a college football player and I didn't get it then.

I was in Jacksonville Florida near the epicenter of Tebowism two years ago during the height of his collegiate beatification. I had the temerity to express in a convention shuttle bus that "I didn't get it". I was subsequently verbal assault by the BUS DRIVER.


The expiration of his college carer was apparently enough to move his college coach to retire.

I still don't get it.

In his still nascent professional career he has played one game and most of that was pretty awful, but the press seems to be willing to anoint him as he next coming.


I'm perfectly willing to accord him his accomplishments on the football field, even grant him a measure of greatness. I simply don't get the near religious adoration accorded him as an athlete.

Perhaps it's his posture resembling a great work of art
Perhaps some of his disciples should reflect on his actual meaning.

I'm Getting Old

I recently had a birthday and She took me on a plantation excursion. We spent the night at Nottoway and at Houmas House. Each of those places has evolved into a tourist destination of sorts, with numerous attractions. Both host a lot of weddings and other events, both have fine dining restaurants. Nottoway has overnight accommodations for about 100 people including rooms in the house and cottages.

This is something we have been talking about for a long time. We even did it once, spending the night at Madewood a few years ago, before I started this blog.

This was a sort of surprise. I knew something was happening but I didn't know exactly what.


Friday afternoon we took off work early and headed up the river and over the Sunshine Bridge. We arrived a Notoway
and checked into our new cottage, it had been open only a year or two.

The room was very nicely furnished.


Since it was late in the afternoon we unpacked, walked around the grounds and eventually got ready for dinner at the Mansion Restaurant, located in the lower level of the house.


Our table was the one of the far right. The food was very good and the service pretty good. I recommend it. The only drawback is like a lot of restaurants it is noisy, although that may have had more to do with the party at the next table.

Saturday morning we had breakfast in the restaurant. Two eggs any style with choice of bacon or ham, grits and biscuit ($7.00). They didn't run out of grits.

Finally the tour of the property. It was interesting. The most interesting part was how the plantation survived the Civil War. It seems the owner took his slaves to Texas where he hired them out to make cash. When the war was over he had the cash to purchase a pardon and keep the plantation. The second most interesting part was the opinion of our guide, a retired school teacher, on the state of education in Louisiana.

Heading back across the Sunshine bridge to Houmas House.

Houmas House doesn't have any overnight accommodations except their Honeymoon Cottage.

It is an old cottage with two rooms, a bed room and a bridal room. It also has a large bathroom with a giant tub. There is no TV in the cottage nor as far as I could find anywhere on the plantation.

There is however a bar on the premises


It is fairly small and serves as the bar for the restaurant and the various events. I got the opportunity to teach two bar tenders how to make a daiquiri.

We had dinner at Latil's Landing Restaurant, located in the old trading post building behind the main house. The Food was excellent and the service very good. I recommend it also.

There are several small dining rooms, this is the one we ate in.

Sunday morning we had a bit of a problem, the water went out early in the morning and didn't come back on until after 10. We were wondering whether the rest of our day would be in jeopardy, you see we wanted to take a tour and have brunch before departing.

Nothing seemed to go awry. Tours were announced by the ringing of a bell and they went on more or less as scheduled. We took the 11:00 AM tour, led by a very dramatic young lady named Katie. Whenever I take these kinds of tours I'm never sure how much of the spiel is accurate but in South Louisiana we have never been anxious about letting a few facts get in the way of a good story.

Again Houmas House survived the Civil War as a viable working plantation. The story of how that happened is also interesting. Apparently the Owner freed his slaves several months before the war started and hired them back as employees. He also kept his money in Northern banks, was an Irishman and therefore a British Subject and had a letter for Abraham Lincoln.

The most interesting thing on the tour was a large map of Louisiana from the 1840's. It showed the extent of major plantations and listed the population of each parish. It listed population in three columns White, Free Colored and Slaves. I can't recall the exact numbers but I was surprised to see that Orleans parish was listed with somewhat over 100,000 residents. Somewhat over 50,000 were white and there were almost equal numbers of slaves and free colored residents (each in the 20,000's).

After the tour we had Sunday Brunch in the Pavillion Ballroom, one of the venues on site. It was pretty good as well.

After brunch we drove back to New Orleans in time to watch the saints game on TV, but that is another story.

Thank You TOM

I was anxiously awaiting the new improved Superdome this year. I was unable to attend either of the pre-season games so my first look at the new seating was for the home season opener against Chicago.


The first challenge is the new more extensive screening procedure. They are now patting people down much more thoroughly, unfortunately they have not increased the number of screeners, not the arrangements for screening. The only solution it seem they can come up with is for everyone to get there sooner and stand in line longer.


The new concourse and concession areas a substantial improvement, there is more space less congestion.


The new plaza level seating is a big disappointment. The seats don't seem as comfortable, the sight lines don't seem as good. In order to add more seat is seems the "rake" of the seating has been decreased. the opposite of what I expected.

Our seats are on the sideline at the edge of the sideline, across the aisle is the end zone seating at a much lower price. Unfortunately although we have the same seat numbers our seats are now as last year we are about 15 yards farther down the sideline.

However the biggest annoyance is the increased cost of beer. It's now $8.50 a piece. I have long been annoyed by the stupid beer guy games where in an obvious and petty effort to increase tip. They count out change slow motion, stopping after each dollar with a questioning, sometimes sad puppy, sometime aggressive look, hoping you'll get bored and give them a bigger tip. This year there is a new aggravation, then never have "change" tacking on an automatic $ 0.50 surcharge announced after they have my money. I understand these people deserve a tip for their service. I think I'm a pretty good tipper, but I'm also old fashioned. I like to think the tip is my idea adn I gave it freely.

In our section there used to be one really good beertender. He worked the section, came to the regulars at the right times. He knew what kind of beer we liked. He always had correct change and was cheerful about making it. I know he got more in tips from me and some of the other people than the current group does. I would often give him an extra tip at the end of the third quarter, for taking care of us during the game. I now often go out in the concourse rather than deal with the vendors.

Rising Tide 6 - Slacker Post

I have been involved with the annual Rising Tide Conference from the Beginning. This year I was a slacker, significantly reducing my involvement to barely anything. Probably as a direct result the conference experienced a surge of new organizers and a big increase in attendance. Even the MSM had some nice things to say. Like this excerpt by Dave Walker, The Times-Picayune

David Simon gave one of the keynote speeches at Saturday’s (August 27) Rising Tide conference, an annual gathering of the tribe that articulated an impassioned online defense of New Orleans after the levees flopped six years ago.

In season one of “Treme,” John Goodman’s Creighton Bernette used some of the words blogged by the late Ashley Morris, whose name is on an award handed out annually at Rising Tide. This year, the award went to Dedra Johnson, who blogs as G-Bitch and was the author of this excellent first-person account of “Treme’s” Jazzfest re-creation this past season. Other panels hit on topics of interest to anyone interested in “Treme,” including the BP oil disaster, New Orleans food and brass bands.

Unfortunately he more or less ignored the many other topic covered at Rising Tide 6.

What the matter with some people?

We are trying to buy some Real Estate, in this market you would think that Real Estate people would be all over any credible purchaser, yet getting some people to call back is very difficult.

We looked at one property and after several attempts the listing broker never called back. The Owner (a bank) is having trouble selling it, I wonder if the broker is part of the problem?

On another property I got the name of the person handling it. She didn't call back. I called again and spoke to the person. I called to set up an appointment for my wife. The person handling it would not be available when she was so we arranged for her to meet another person. She showed up in the rain for her appointment, called the guy who was supposed to meet her. He had either forgotten or blown the meeting off. When I called the office back to set up a meeting for myself, the original broker said, oh, he tried to contact you (not accurate) and I'm not handling it any more, he is. I called him, he said my wife was supposed to call and reschedule, that's sorta true, she didn't want to wait for him in the rain after he forgot the meeting. I asked if we could meet Wednesday or Thursday morning. I was thinking about 8:30 AM, he couldn't get there that soon. I decided We weren't that interested.

Newt, the historian misses a bet.

I have read and enjoyed the Gingrich/Forstchen collaborations on the Civil War.


I think they present a plausible alternative end game and an interesting take on the character of the major figures. At least that's my perspective from a lot of reading on the Civil War and from my family tradition, grounded in Rappahannock County Virginia.


My Father graduated from Rappahannock High School in "Little" Washington, Virginia, just prior to enlisting in the Army Air Corps. He was a firm believer that if Jefferson Davis had followed the advise of his Secretary of Treasury, Judah Benjamin the Confederacy might have prevailed.


That evaluation not withstanding my father climbed into a B-17 and bombed Germany, to his later chagrin.

Planes of the 486 Bomb Group
( my Dad may have been in one of these planes)

However I am not impressed with the Gingrich/Forstchen selection of Pearl Harbor for their World War II collaboration. The story rambles around without much purpose and with little conclusion.


It seems odd to me, I think they probably intend(ed) to write a conclusion but either haven't yet or decided not to. In addition every historian I have read has unequivocally concluded that the United States would defeat at the Empire of Japan in an extended war.


The Japanese were well aware of the industrial potential of the United States and knew they could not survive a war a long war.

The United States was also the major supplier of oil to Japan. When the United States embargoed oil shipments to Japan some have stated that war was inevitable. That may be, but only because Japan was unwilling to back down. Others have gone further to state that the United States forced Japan in to a war. That premise seems to be based on Japanese oil reserves and not on diplomatic analysis.

A few have gone so far as to state that the United States provoked the war. These "historians" often invoke racism in their analysis. That has always puzzled me. The stated reason for the oil embargo was the Japanese invasion and outrages in Manchurian and China. The demands the United States made on Japan were all related to their conduct in China. I have never understood how the United States placing economic sanctions on Japan for killing Chinese can be seen as racist.

In my opinion the Japanese rationally assessed the United States Naval building program in 1930's and decided that unless a military strike was made soon the United States would have predominate power and military action would be useless. They refused to make the necessary political concessions, likely because that would have caused severe political disruption in Japan, possibly a coup, a mutiny or even a civil war.

After Roosevelt's election the United States built ups its military, partly in response to world events and partly as a jobs program

USS Essex CV-9

In 1938 Congress authorized the Essex, lead ship of what would be the 24 ship Essex class of Aircraft Carriers. Eight additional ships were authorized on September 9 1940. These ships alone would match the Japaneses Aircraft Carrier Fleet. Combined with the existing ships and the Hornet also then under construction the Japanese would have been significantly outnumbered by the middle of 1943. The follow on Midway Class was already being designed.

Add to that, the construction of the North Carolina Class of (2) Battleships was complete in 1940. The South Dakota class (4) was under construction and due for commissioning by mid 1942. The Iowa Class had been ordered and the keels already laid. The even more massive Montana Class was being designed.

North Carolina Class Battle Ship

This does not even include the literally hundreds of other ships on order or under construction in 1941. For example there were 21 Gleaves Class destroyers completed and commissioned between 1938 and the attack on Pearl Harbor, dozens more of the remaining 41 ships of the class were under construction. Work had already started on almost 2 dozen of the follow up Fletcher Class. Ultimately 175 Fletchers were built.

Fletcher Class Destroyer

Japan could not hope to match this pace of building. And most of the Japanese leaders were aware of it. The best they could hope for, short of backing down, was to strike a blow that would make the United States reconsider or temper it's opposition to Japanese policies in China.

Unfortunately that strike didn't cow the United States and prompted a national anger that lead to the total defeat of Japan. That defeat never required more than about a third of the US war effort.

I think there is a much more interesting scenario they could have investigated.

In 1940 Germany stood undefeated and arrogant at the edge of the English Channel. There were plans for an invasion. Men and machines were being gathered.

At the time (late August 1940) the RAF was near the breaking point. There were sufficient aircraft being built but pilots were being lost before they could become effective. There was serious discussion that the RAF would need to be pulled north out of the reach of the bombers.

Consider this;

The first RAF raid on Berlin took place on the night of 25 August 1940. It is widely believed that caused the Luftwaffe to switch from bombing airfields and military installations to bombing cities. After all Goering had said in 1939 "No enemy bomber can reach the Ruhr. If one reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Goering. You may call me Meyer."

In a speech delivered on September 4 Hitler promised retribution. Hitler threatened, "...When the British Air Force drops two or three or four thousand kilograms of bombs, then we will in one night drop 150-, 230-, 300- or 400,000 kilograms. When they declare that they will increase their attacks on our cities, then we will raze their cities to the ground. We will stop the handiwork of those night air pirates, so help us God!"

The first Luftwaffe raid on London was not until September 7 1940, making the premise more than plausible.

Suppose the raid on Berlin had not happened and the RAF had pulled back. The Germans may have begun to feel they had beaten the RAF, especially if the British fed misinformation to them through the XX double agent system of dis-information.

Suppose as a result of the 3 July 1940 Battle of Mers-el-Kébir, the egotistical French Navy decided to throw in with the Kreigsmarine?

When Eisenhower tried to get the French to switch sides a couple of years later French Admirals negotiated for personal position, rather than join the liberation of France, resulting in loss of a lot of French sailors and ships but few Admirals. They might have been persuaded by a deft handling and the offer of assistance to get their battered ships and egos seaworthy. With the French on board the excellent Italian Navy could not resist helping support the invasion. The Japanese might even be persuaded to help some, in exchange for British possessions in Asia.

Given that state of affairs then Hitler may have seen this as an opportunity to eliminate a threat in his rear prior to attacking his good friend Joe Stalin.

Developing the scenario further by postponing the invasion until the spring of 1941 to allow the French ships to be repaired, the Luftwaffe to bring on new aircraft with reliable drop tanks and for the further preparation of troops, ships and landing craft. We have a scenario which might be plausible.

We look back at the successful amphibious landings later in the war and see how poorly organized such an attempt have would been. But in 1940 no one had ever mounted a large scale amphibious operation. The famous Higgins boat had only recently been shown to the Marine Corps and the final version with a full width bow ramp was yet to be developed. The doctrine of amphibious warfare had not been developed and its dangers were not understood. During the attack on Wake Island in December 1941, the initial Japanese landings were fought off by a relatively small garrison of Marines. Up to the disastrous Dieppe Raid in August 1942 it was believed that surprise could allow an assault to succeed. The May 1941 Battle of Crete had not yet exposed the weaknesses of airborne assault. The war had not really started in earnest.

One thing I have seen written is that some in Germany believed that the Royal Navy may have decided not to put forth a maximum effort to oppose the invasion, preferring to take the King and Government to safety beyond reach of the Germans, probably to Canada. This is of course absurd, but the Germans may have convinced themselves.

Of course the Royal Navy would have steamed into the middle of the invasion fleet flying Nelson's message to the fleet before Trafalgar.

"England Expects That Every Man Will Do his Duty"

Nelson's famous statement that,"No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy", would be on the mind of every captain as well as the memory of the English ships who sailed out to confront the Spanish Armada, the last time anyone dared try to invade England.

The invasion would no doubt have been a disastrous military failure but the political calculus of the time would have changed enormously. England would be weakened enormously, possibly enough that Churchill would be put out of office and peace negotiated. Another possible outcome might be that Stalin would take the drubbing as a cue to attack Hitler while he was recovering from the loss. Japanese reaction might be to attack the United States sooner or more directly. Roosevelt may have been compelled to enter the war. Maybe India would leave the British Empire.

For the Record

As of the end of the 2009-2010 season, 14 NFL teams have never won a Super Bowl.

The teams that have been to the Super Bowl (in years shown) and lost each time:

• Buffalo Bills (0-4) consecutively 1991-1994
• Cincinnati Bengals (0-2) 1982, 1989
• Tennessee Titans (0-1) 2000
• San Diego Chargers (0-1) 1995
• Philadelphia Eagles (0-2) 1981, 2005
• Minnesota Vikings (0-4) 1970, 1974, 1975, 1977
• Carolina Panthers (0-1) 2004
• Atlanta Falcons (0-1) 1999
• Seattle Seahawks (0-1) 2006
• Arizona Cardinals (0-1) 2009

Teams that have never played in a Super Bowl :

• The Cleveland Browns
• Jacksonville Jaguars
• Houston Texans
• Detroit Lions

The Saints are the only team in the NFC South that has won a Super Bowl except for Tampa Bay.

Superbowl - The Last Pieces

After taking the decision to got to the Superbowl, we had to scramble to get our final preparations made. I plan on writing a series of posts about our experience, but not too much about the game itself, everybody saw it. If you watched it on TV you probably saw it better than I did.

Superbowl Tickets

After losing the first two rounds of ticket lottery (and apparently a third round no one knew about) we also quickly exhausted our connections. Everyone we knew who won the lottery (not too many) had already made other arrangements. They had already sold their tickets, promised their tickets to someone else or were looking to retire on the sale of their tickets. We started started looking on line for tickets.



Although there are many websites that sell tickets we quickly decided on either Stubhub or the NFL official exchange Ticketmaster. Due to the last minute rush to get going we felt we needed the credibility of companies associated with the NFL. Ticketmaster is the official ticket scalper and Stubhub is a subsidiary of the Official NFL package provider. They both offered the largest assortment of tickets, almost 5,000 each.

We settled on Stubhub because they had the strongest guarantee, although getting your money back after investing thousands of dollars in the trip would hardly be a satisfying result. She selected tickets in the Upper End Zone Corner, row 10 on the Saints side of the field. They were not the cheapest tickets (those were on the Colts side or in the end zones), but they were not much more than the cheapest. Our final purchase was Monday evening, we were leaving on Friday. Stubhub did not offer to overnight the tickets but did tell us we could pick them up on Saturday.

Sunlife Stadium Section Numbers

We still didn't have a hotel room. I had already made some enquirers. We checked out our hotel in South Beach, the Marsalles and the first hotel we stayed in in South Beach The Ritz Plaza. We looked at the Yankee Clipper in Fort Lauderdale and one of out favorite hidden spots in Fort Lauderdale Lago Mar. We checked Trip Advisor my go to hotel site and we tried Travelocity Orbitz and Expedia. When we go to South Florida we usually rent a condo. I like having space and a kitchen, but since we usually deal with individual owners it takes a lot more effort and time to arrange. We called a few places we had stayed before.

As I expected there were plenty of rooms pretty much everywhere but prices were all pretty high, about double and sometimes tipple what rooms go for normally, even in "season".

The Contenders,

The Marseilles Pool

The Marseilles was out hotel for New Years Eve 1999, the Faux Millennium Eve. We have returned several times since. The hotel is located on Collins Ave, withing walking distance of Ocean Drive and Lincoln Road. The hotel have a nice poll and direct beach access. It is the best of At that time we first stayed there it was in almost original condition. It has since been updated with new decoration in the rooms, but most of the origiual hotel is still there, unlike many South Beach Hotels. Price $349/night.

The Ritz Plaza Pool

The Ritz Plaza a couple of doors down from the Marseilles it was the first hotel we stayed in in South Beach in the early 90's. We were were there for a conference. Then in almost original condition it has been closed for renovations for several years always due to open next year. There have been several owners and it's still under renovation. Maybe Next Year.

The Yankee Clipper pool side

The Yankee Clipper is a Fort Lauderdale Landmark, built in the form of a cruise ship it is one of the few hotels in Fort LAuderdale located directly on the Beach. There used to be a pretty goood Steak house in the hotel, I'm not sure it's still there.

The Yankee Clipper Bar

It features a bar with windows into the swimming pool complete with mermaids from a earlier era. Recently renamed the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Beach Hotel. It is located steps from the NFL Saturday NIght FREE Concert. SOLD OUT.

Lago Mar Bayside

Lago Mar was a sleepy relatively inexpensive beach resort when a friend first referred us to it in the mid 90's. It is located in a quiet residential area, with an almost private beach. When we discovered it it was the best deal in Fort Lauderdale, it has since moved upscale with little improvement in quality, still its a nice place. $429/night

We decided not to stay in Southbeach or Fort Lauderdale. We booked a room in our favorite area Hollywood, mainly because there is a lot of resturants within walking distance and its convenient to the stadium. We tried a number of condos, but that didin't work out. We kept coming back to the Ramada Hollywood Beach Resort.

Hollywood Beach Resort, Ocean Side

The Hollywood Beach Resort built in 1925 as the Floridian by the world renown Rubish and Hunter architects of Indianapolis has been converted to an odd combination of hotel/ Condominium/ Time Share/ Mall. We have an affinity for grand old hotels and this was once one of them. It has been the victim of several ill conceived and poorly executed conversions over the years. We were anxious over the possible accommodations and have avoided staying there in the past. Since this was not a typical trip we decided we could sleep there 3 nights since we would be out of the hotel most of the time. $189/night.

The Final Piece was parking. Where would we put the car during the game? I had read that if we bought tickets from Ticketmaster we would have the opportunity to purchase a Stadium Parking Pass. I got a pleasant surprise when checking out at Stubhub. I was able to order a parking pass at the Stubhub Experience located at the racetrack adjacent to the Stadium, even more surprising there was no additional charge, so I ordered one. The website was a little sketchy on where the parking was and how I could get the pass. I also tried to figure out how to purchase a pass to the Stadium parking. I looked everywhere and while I could find sites reselling the passes I could not find out how to purchase one directly. Finally I called the stadium. A very helpful lady there told me I could go to Click and Park to purchas one.

It was Tuesday afternoon and we had all of our pieces in place, but not our ducks in a row.

Guess what we did!

I've been a Saints fan for a long time. I was at the first game. I saw Tom Dempsey kick the field goal. I heard all of the squirrels on WWL talking about a Superbowl after a couple of preseason wins.

I'm not as flamboyant as some fans, in fact by New Orleans Standards I quite reserved. I am also an almost compulsive planner, looking forward to what might happen and guarding against what might go wrong. My major Saints superstition is not to get too far ahead of events. This year I was cautiously optimistic after 8 wins in a row, by the time we got to 10 I was confident we would make the playoffs. By 12 wins I couldn't get hold of myself, I started to plan. What if they actually did it? What if I missed the Saints' first Superbowl appearance.

The critical path was through airline tickets. If the Saints' won flights would be almost instantly full, in fact the closer the Saints' got the more Who Dat's would be planning on the trip. I secretly checked flight availability almost daily. Judging by the prices flights were either already heavily booked or airlines were holding seats back anticipating heavy demand.


I finally could not wait any longer and used some frequent flier points to book flights knowing that if they didn't go to the Superbowl, I could cash in the tickets and use them another time. I had almost waited too long. I only got the green light on January 20th after the Arizona game. Even then I couldn't get us both back on the same plane.

That left a rental car, tickets and a hotel. The car was easy, rental cars can be canceled with no penalty and the earlier it was booked the cheaper it would be. That could be done before we committed to a trip.

Tickets would have to wait for the season ticket holder lottery.

The Hotel was trickier. Being familiar with South Florida I thought getting a hotel wouldn't be that difficult and would likely have a cancellation charge if it was canceled the last minute. That would have to be the last piece of the puzzle.

One of the reasons I married her is that She is lucky, both kinds of luck, the kind you make for yourself through preparation, hard work and making the most of opportunity but also the other kind, just plain dumb not so random luck. She has won drawings lotteries and countless prizes awarded on a random basis, including Superbowl tickets the last time it was here and a 10 day Mediterranean cruise on a sailing ship. When traveling her luggage is always the first one out. Mine is usually last. She was sure she would win. So was I but not as sure as she was. She didn't win the first round, nor the second round.

It was time to decide. Time to make a commitment.

We decided that this is a historic event. A once in a life time opportunity. There would never be a second chance to attend the Saint's first Superbowl. We decided to go for it.
We're going to be leaving Friday. I'd be happy to hear of anything the Who Dat Nation has planned.

Mile High Pi(l)e

Recently corporate attempts to reduce the commons by Intellectual Imperialism , intimidation and bullying in New Orleans by the National Football League have been in the news.

This is not the first time I have heard of similar behavior towards New Orleans cultural icons.

Years ago after the Pontchartrain Hotel passed from the Aschaffenburg family to David Buras, we were told by one of Buras' executives that the hotel had received a cease and desist order from the Bennigan's Restaurant chain. They claimed that Mile High Pie was a trade mark of their chain. I understand that the hotel located an old menu in store room predating Bennigan's clearly listing Mile High Pie as a dessert and mailed it to the lawyer.


Any foodie worth the name knows that Mile High Pie originated at the Pontchartrain Hotel. I don't know the exact date but I bet someone here abouts does.

Bennigan's attempted to steal a well known trademark from the Pontchartrain and then prevent the originator from using their original product. That is unethical, illegal and despicable. Any Chef worth a damn would have known better but some MBA and a dumbass Lawyer decided to intimidate rather than research.

Tailgating New Orleans Style

I've wondered about the fascination for Urban Tailgating for a while.

It seem to me that tailgating was an invention of Land Grant Colleges in small country towns surrounded by trees and Suburban Sports Stadiums surrounded by suburbs, parking lots and massive traffic jams.

Wikipedia says;

The concept of "tailgating" originated in 1960 in the team parking lot at Yankee Stadium (Bronx, New York), by Angela Pisani, wife of Dr. Anthony Pisani, team doctor for the New York Football Giants. Mrs. Pisani set up her station wagon "tailgate" with sandwiches, other lunch items and drinks for her children, friends, and sports writers. A reporter inquired about her "car picnic" and she said that it's actually more of a "tailgate" party.

I never could figure out with so many hotel's bars and restaurants in walking distance of the Dome why anyone would want to risk the rain or forgo creature comforts. I started to write something about this a while ago;

9/25/07
The Saints have four evening games this season. I guess the programmers were expecting them not to suck. In any event we have started a new tradition for evening games. We are going out to an early diner. Last season with Bon Ton.

This season we went to Luke before the Miami game, but since it looked like rain an since LSU was playing we had a very nice dinner but never made it to the game.

Before the Titans game we went to one of my favorite restaurants Bayona. They opened early so people could have a nice dinner before the game. It was the high point of the evening.

Back to 1/18/10. We have more or less continued the tradition of visiting a restaurant within walking distance of the Dome before any Saints game that starts later than noon. This year we have gone to Li'l Dizzy's, Dominicia, HerbSaint, and Leonardo Trattoria before games this season. We're still working on where to go Sunday.

I also discovered something else, again according to Wikipedia "In 2007, the NFL angered many football fans by banning tailgating at Super Bowl XLI in Miami."

That is a shame, the parking lots near Joe Robbie Stadium, Pro Player Park Pro Player Stadium, Dolpins Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, LandShark Stadium, Sun Life Stadium are especially well suited to tailgating, they were probably designed for it. The spaces a partially paved and especially large, a normal size vehicle can easily fit into one leaving 6 feet of paved area for tables chairs and barbecue grill. These were very much in evidence at every Orange Bowl we have attended. We don't usually participate but even part time visitors can swing by WalMart, pick up some beer, some burgers and a cheap Chinese grill for a real old time tailgate barbecue.

African American Representation in the Oscars

I heard on the radio that the African American Film Critic Association had a meltdown over which of two actresses nominated for the their Best Actress award should receive the award. Apparently there were allegations of vote tampering and some members have left the group to form another group.

The NPR analysis of this "issue" proceeded down the predictable path that African Americans are "under represented" in the Academy Awards. I was skeptical.

Approximately 12-13% of the U S population are African American, statistics vary somewhat. That works out to about one in eight.

Since 2000 there have been 3 African American winners of the best actor OSCAR.

• 2001 Denzel Washington
  
  
• 2004 Jamie Foxx
  
  
• 2006 Forrest Whitaker
  

Since 2000 there has been 1 African American winner of the best actress award.

• 2001 Halle Barry

That works out to 4 in 18 possibilities or a little more than 22%, far in excess of the African American representation in the general population. If you go back through the 1990's when no African Americans won, the percentage is reduced to a little more than 10%, still within a reasonable distance of fair representation.

Is that progress or not, I don't know.

Nobel Noble

The President has received his Nobel Prize. His speech was very good, although it to sounded to me like he was really speaking to the domestic audience, trying to distance himself from the pacifist leanings of the Democratic Party. What better way to make the point than to go in front of an audience inclined to disagree with the content and deliver a "courageous" speech. It is a time honored political strategy.

I'm still mystified as to why the award was given. I guess he got it for not being George W. Bush. The Nobel committee seems to be pushing it own agenda, rather than rewarding accomplishment or even effort.

I wonder if they even read the rules.

This is from the Nobel Prize Website;

February – Deadline for submission. The Committee bases its assessment on nominations that must be postmarked no later than 1 February each year. Nominations postmarked and received after this date are included in the following year's discussions. In recent years, the Committee has received close to 200 different nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. The number of nominating letters is much higher, as many are for the same candidates.

On February 1 Obama had only been in office for a few days.

And this from Wikipedia.

Alfred Nobel left a fortune to finance annual prizes to be awarded "to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".

What did he do in the preceding year that warranted this prestigious award? Certainly running for President is not enough or Eugene McCarthy would have won for his anti-war campaign.

Checking who won the award I find some interesting choices.

Two U S Presidents have previously won while in office. Both for significant accomplishments.

Teddy Roosevelt won in 1906 award while President for "for his successful mediation to end the Russo-Japanese war and for his interest in arbitration, having provided the Hague arbitration court with its very first case"

Woodrow Wilson won in 1919 for founding the League of Nations.

Two other awards were won by others but probably should have included the presidents.

In 1978 Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin were awarded the peace prize for the Camp David Peace Accords, brokered by Jimmy Carter. Without his personal involvement I doubt the agreement would have happened.

Then there is the weird award in 1973 to Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho (who to his credit refused the award) for the intellectually dishonest Vietnam Peace Treaty, somehow leaving out Richard Nixon who no doubt had at least as much involvement in the agreement as Kissinger.

Jimmy Carter did finally win the award in 2002 for being the best ex-President ever.

Of the 97 individuals so far honored, 22 are from the US, more than any other country.

Whodat Nation FLL Style

For the first time ever our annual trip to the Orange Bowl conflicted with the Saints' schedule. The Saints were not playing at home so back in July when we started thinking about this trip we didn't think there would be a problem. The Saints would be an afterthought by January.


Later as the Saints performance reached new heights, our planning faltered. We failed to make any accommodation for the possibility that the final game would be of any interest. We were wrong.


Events overtook us. A hectic travel schedule including, a trip to Atlanta for our Company Christmas Luncheon, back to New Orleans for the New Orleans Company Christmas Luncheon at Arnaud's, Christmas Eve with the extended family, a Christmas Day trip to Dallas to spend Christmas Day with my mother.

After Christmas another business trip to Atlanta before a New Years Eve rendezvous with old friends in at the Ocean Beach Club in Key Colony Beach FL.

Ocean Beach Club , Key Colony Beach FL

Finally we arrived in Hollywood FL after a brief respite we were looking for a place to watch the Saints. Good News, the Condo we rented had Dish TV and a list of channels that was hard to comprehend. Bad news the Saints weren't on the list of games available.

I furiously Googled to find a local sports bar. I failed. She would not be denied. She Googled Shuck N Dive, a New Orleans themed bar/restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. We were all over it.

Arriving after the kickoff we ordered drinks and ersters on the half shell. They were fresh, plump, properly shucked gulf oysters. This is no mean accomplishment in South Florida.

We love oysters on the half shell. We order them almost every time we can. On two previous attempts on this trip we had oysters on the half shell. The first was in the Keys. The oysters were small and had not been shucked recently nor properly, they were kind of shriveled up. The second occasion was in a Stone Crab Restaurant without Stone Crabs. The oysters were OK but small and not properly shucked. By properly shucked we mean opened and cut form the shell and free of broken shell pieces.

The first two servings were not separated from the shell. The oysters at Shuck n Dive were fresh plump and properly shucked.

We lucked into a cocktail table behind the end of the bar with a perfect view of the biggest screen TV. We stayed almost the entire game and had Oysters on the half shell, fried pickles, and oysters three ways. They are reputed to have great burgers.

The Interior of Shuck 'N Dive (our table was off camera to the left)

Watching the game was fun. Most patrons were decked out in their Saints gear. They played the Who Dat after the Saints recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown. We wuz robbed.

We recommend Shuck 'N Dive as an outpost of the Who Dat Nation.

I wonder if anyone is tracking the location of Who Dats across the globe?

What a Nightmare

The Saints are 13 and 2, have the best record in the NFC, have won the division and a first round bye but had get help to win home field advantage in the playoffs.

Some fans are upset that they lost two games. I don't know anyone who thought the Saints would win 13 games before the season started.

Of course if you listened to Fox announcers Sunday, you'd have thought the only reason Tampa didn't blow the Saints out was Tampa's mistakes, or that the Saints were the 2-12 team. I had much the same feeling last night. The announcers relentlessly criticized Jay Cutler and practically canonized Bret Favre. Funny thing is Cutler had a better QB rating and won the game he also didn't argue with his coach, although according to the "experts" Bret was right and the coach wrong. Favre seems to be reading his press clippings a little too much.

All this reminds me of the final scene from one of my favorite movies, My Cousin Vinny.

Vinny Gambini: My problem is, I wanted to win my first case without any help from anybody.
Mona Lisa Vito: Well, I guess that plan's moot.
Vinny Gambini: Yeah.
Mona Lisa Vito: You know, this could be a sign of things to come. You win all your cases, but with somebody else's help, right? You win case after case, and then afterwards you have to go up to somebody and you have to say, thank you.
[pause]
Mona Lisa Vito: Oh my God, what a FUCKING nightmare!

On WWL this morning some guy was hoping we didn't have to play the Colt's in the Super Bowl. I think we have a few other things to do first.

For example, Jeffrey over at the Yellow Blog has long noted the correlation between the Saints wearing black pants and poor on field performance. I suggest we have a public pants burning in Mid-City on New Years Eve. It might work as well as the trophy funeral they had a couple of years ago.

I suggest bringing back the Black Helmets.


The Saints wore black helmets during the 1969 preseason, but NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle barred the Saints from using the helmets during the regular season, since owner John Mecom*, Jr. did not notify the league office of the change.

I think I'm just going to enjoy the playoffs.

I wonder when my tickets will arrive.

*I also discovered that Wikipedia has no article on John Mecom Jr.

SuperDumb Gender Gap

In an effort to keep up the negativity after the Saints mind blowing destruction of the Pats I'll return to a thing I wrote a little while ago.



Quoting myself;

At gate D where we entered only two sets of screening lines were open and the female lines were virtually empty. The screeners refused to allow men through the female line and refused, in spite of the obvious problem and the chants from the crowd pressing forward, to convert one of the female lines to male.

That was the Giants game which the Saints also won.

Since then we have played two home games and Dome Security changed the arrangement at Gate D installing 3 sets of lines handling everything efficiently. Even the Monday night game against Atlanta was efficient and waits were minimal.

This week for the much anticipated Monday night game and the second largest crowd in Superdome history, the Dumb Security reverted to the two lines, with predictable results. There were long lines waiting for screening. Again there were often extended times when the female lines were completely empty. Yet the female screeners did nothing help out the guys standing right next to them, except block males from crossing the gender line.