Music Friday: "Song for the Dead"

I've been listening to Queens of the Stone Age today, and I was reminded of one of my favorite old songs of the band's. 

Here it is, people, in album form and live. 

Random Notes from a Crank

With the Packers losing at home and the unvaccinated Aaron Rodgers not throwing a TD pass, that offense and Rodgers really could have used ... a shot in the arm. 

The Washington Post has a good article about the game: "How the 49ers Beat the Packers in the Lambeau Field Snow."  The 49ers went old school against them. As Sally Jenkins says, "The moral to them [SF], with their bandaged-handed quarterback and their toss sweeps, is that football is still a hitting game, and still a game won as much by the unglamorous men as the glamorous." 

This not-so-recent article from New York Times Magazine, "What Teenagers Are Learning from Online Porn," is revealing and can be used to make a good argument for smart, comprehensive sexual education. 

Tottenham Hotspur hasn't done squat in the January transfer window so far. There are craptons of rumors and supposed reports out there on the InterWebs, but nothing has transpired yet. It's frustrating. 

When I picked Spurs to be my main club to root for in the Premier League, someone had compared Tottenham to the Minnesota Vikings in some online article I read, and I think that's a pretty apt comparison. 

They have a number of excellent and good players along with a strong tradition, but they'll often disappoint you. 

I've been commiserating with Ben and Sim on WeAreTottenhamTV during the window. Those fellows do some fine work. 

Music Friday: "The Frayed Ends of Sanity"

I've been listening to ...And Justice for All this morning. What a great album that was released in 1988. 

Enjoy. 

Random Notes from a Crank

There's a word "uncouth." But does anyone ever give someone a compliment about how "couth" they are?

Here's some interesting factoids from this month's Harper's Index:

• Percentage increase in number of yachts sold last year: 14
• Percentage increase in the wealth of U.S. billionaires since the start of the pandemic: 70
• Portion of adults who believe that U.S. crime has increased in the past year: 3/5
• Of regular Fox News viewers who believe so: 3/4
• Percentage change in the number of major crimes in the United States in the past year: -5
• Percentage by which more men died from police encounters than from testicular cancer: 135
• Minimum number of times Chevron has aired TV ads since June 2020 promoting itself as green or sustainable: 26,400
• Maximum percentage of Chevron's budget spent on green technologies in the past decade: 1
• Percentage of people worldwide who are "not too concerned" about climate change: 27
• Who are unwilling to make significant changes to their lives to reduce its effects: 19
• Factor by which someone born in 2020 will likely experience more river floods and droughts than someone born in 1960: 3
• By which they will likely experience more heat waves: 7

Since I follow the Premier League pretty heavily and I just got done watching season three of After Life, I've noticed some fun lexical differences/tendencies between English spoken and written in Great Britain and English spoken and written in the US. 

One is the use of "whilst" instead of while. I'm not a fan. 

Another is the phrase "going mental" meaning losing one's mind or going crazy. I like that phrase, and I think I'm going to start using it. 

Some people use the word "brilliant" ironically to mean that something is poorly done or something said is stupid, particularly Ricky Gervais. I'll be adopting that word in that way. 

Music Friday: "Write A List of Things To Look Forward To"

I got Courtney Barnett's newest album a while back, and I need to listen to it more often because she's one of my favorite younger musical artists. 

I was reminded of this tune today because it came across SiriusXM's The Spectrum. 

Sunday Hangover: Georgia

It was bound to happen one of these days: Smart would beat Alabama with his Georgia squad. Smart is an outstanding coach who recruits well. And UGA had a more veteran-laden team in the matchup. 

Compound those facts with our best starting corner and one of our best receivers were out and then Williams got hurt in the game, it is not a surprise that the Crimson Tide were defeated. 

Once Jameson Williams got injured, I had a sinking feeling that the Tide was in trouble. We have other good receivers, but they are really young - mainly freshmen and sophomores. And the elder statesman of that position group, Bolden, is a possession receiver. 

Hall, Brooks, and Holden are likely to become solid receivers, but they are green in terms of playing time. 

Cameron Latu was the man of the game for Alabama on offense in my opinion. Counter to expectations for this season, Latu was the best tight end on the team, and now with Billingsley putting himself in the transfer portal, I look for Latu to grow even more next season. 

The problems in the secondary that were evident early in the season resurfaced against a very good Georgia team. 

Alabama should have plenty of motivation for next season. Both Bryce Young and Will Anderson Jr. will be juniors next year. And freshmen Dallas Turner looks to be a rising star. Christian Harris had one heck of a game too. 

Music Friday: "Unchained"

I heard this song the other day when I was listening to SiriusXM's Rockbar channel. 

When I was a kid, I listened to a lot of Van Halen. They were easily my favorite band when I was in junior high school. I had all of their albums on cassette. It was glorious. 

Without further ado, I give you "Unchained" from the album and from a concert in 1981.

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Veggie Salad

Mrs. Nasty made a veggie pizza on rolled out crescent rolls for New Year's Eve, so we had some leftover cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and red bell pepper nicely chopped up.

So I whipped up a simple veggie salad using a basic dressing from a loaded cauliflower salad recipe.

Ingredients

Half a head of cauliflower, small florets

One head of broccoli, small florets

One carrot, shredded

Half of a red bell pepper, finely chopped

1/3 cup of sour cream

1/4 cup of mayo

1 tablespoon of seasoned rice vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Smidge of Penzey's Old World seasoning

Process

Dump all the veggies into a mixing bowl, and in a separate bowl mix together the sour cream, mayo, vinegar, and seasoning. Fold in the dressing to the veggies. Chill and serve. 

Sunday Hangover: Cincinnati

There were times in this game that the Crimson reverted to the halcyon days of joyless murderball, a game plan that entails lots of running the ball and great defense. 

That game plan was clearly evident on Alabama's first drive when the only time they passed the ball was on the touchdown to Bolden. 

Brian Robinson was an absolute beast with 203 rushing yards. 

The defense only gave up six points. The D was resolute with batting down four or five passes. And the sacks didn't happen early, but they happened later. 

Will Anderson Jr. did Will Anderson moves that either resulted in him getting a sack or tackle for loss or others menacing the QB because of so much emphasis on Anderson. 

I was disappointed with the Tide only scoring 27 points. However, it was a ground-control kind of game for the most part. 

Next up is a rematch versus Georgia in the national championship. I would have rather played Michigan to get revenge for the horrific loss versus Tom Brady in the 1999 Orange Bowl. 

Music Friday: "The New Year"

I'm late. 

I've featured this song before. It's the new year, and I'm hungover.