Analogies

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


Mario Lemieux : Sidney Crosby :: Dr. Dre: Eminem

The second analogy is that Uncle Buck is the Atticus Finch of Chicago. There isn't any secondary analogy portion. He just is. I know it. You know it.








That's how I roll.

Don't Toews me, Bro!

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

Apparently I need to link to this article about Johnathon Toews.






That's how I roll.

USA Anthem for Gold Medal Hockey Game Against Canada

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter



As American as a Big Mac with supersized fries and non-diet cola.






That's how I roll.

Kentucky Will not win the NCAA Tournament

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter



I should have written this article a few days ago, when KY was still #1 in the country. Saying that they can't win now, after losing to 17th ranked Tennessee, doesn't make this prediction sound quite as gutsy. But it is still as true, and they will be the betting favorite heading into the tournament (barring injuries), even if they aren't the overall #1 seed.

Kentucky just has "sucker bet" written all over them. By "sucker bet" I don't mean that they have zero chance to win the tournament but just that they offer terrible betting value. Horse racing fans have been familiar with a sucker bet for years- invariably its the horse in the race that, 1) is the biggest name for whatever reason- usually its best races are better than the best races of the other horses its facing that day, has a big-name trainer/jockey/owner, has the most talent yet isn't able to run its ideal race as often as others in the race, etc. The overwhelming talent level serves as a siren song to lure in the suckers, the undecided and the spineless. If this horse wins the race it could be by 8 lengths, yet no one would be surprised if the horse throws in a clunker of a performance and finishes in 5th place, either. The sucker bettor lazily thinks, "If every horse runs their best the favorite will surely win. Therefore, I will bet on the favorite." but fail to look deeper. What they need to say instead is, "This horse runs at 100% (of potential) only 65% of the time, whereas less favored horses who are, 90% as talented, can run at 100% closer to 90% of the time.".

Another contributing factor that turns a horse from "favorite" to "sucker bet" status, is a relative difficulty to distinguish between the other logical contenders. It's rare to see an archetypal sucker bet horse be 2-1 with horses being 5-2, and 3-1. Usually the sucker is 2-1 and the other horses are more like 4-1, 9/2 and 6-1. So how does this relate to KY?

1. They are the sexy pick, for sure. No one disputes that Kentucky is by far the most electrifying team in the country, the most talented and easily the most fun to watch. IF they played up to their potential they would win any game they are in. The problem? their two losses haven't came against highly ranked foes. In typical John Calipari fashion, this is a team that can lose focus, get flustered when they don't get their way, and panic when they get hit in the nose. They're a lot like a bully that acts tough but cries after they get hit.

2. Kentucky has the most exciting player in the country since Kevin Durant, in John Wall. That isn't a bad thing for Kentucky, but it is in terms of offering value to the bettor. Visions of Danny Manning and Carmelo Anthony highhandedly carrying their team to the promised land still delude bettors and decrease the value on the team with the best player.

3. They're a bandwagon team. This is what happens: Kentucky fields an outstanding team, they have a sexy new coach who has done everything but win an NCAA championship (coincidence?), new uniforms, and arguably the most passionate fanbase in NCAA basketball, and they play a very entertaining brand of basketball. CBS and ESPN realize this and decide to cash in. ESPN is at its horniest when a large market team and/or superstar with a huge following gets hot. Can you recall being over saturated with news about teams like the Yankees, Red Sox,The Cubs (when in the playoffs) or players like Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, or Tiger Woods? I thought so. You can add Kentucky to the list because it's good business. ESPN knows that when they broadcast a KY game, KY's huge and loyal fanbase will tune in, as will most other college basketball fans. The result is a huge audience and huge profits. This is why you see Kentucky on national TV more often than a team like Purdue, who was ranked third before losing their best player- there is just more money in to broadcast a KY game over a Purdue game. This familiarity then leads to more buzz- now that KY games are on tv more, they are more likely to be on SportsCenter, PTI, the blogosphere and talked about around the cooler. With all this buzz, the casual, the suckers, the uninformed and the spineless think, "well, I haven't followed much basketball this year, but I keep hearing about KY, and they look impressive as hell on SportsCenter, so I guess I'll bet on KY." The influx of that sucker money, reduces their Vegas odds, and subsequently, everyone else's odds, and lowers the value on all bets made on KY. Think of this as morons taking money out of your pocket if you bet on KY. It's called a sucker bet for a reason.

4. John Calipari is their coach. That guy is as erratic, big-headed and chokey as his players. When was the last time a Calipari-coached team OVERachieved? They don't. They look amazing blowing teams out 85-61, but never win the dogfights. They panic in close games, and since they can't hit free throws, they lose. It's always the same story- great athletes, but no veteran leadership or mental toughness, because any Calipari player worth his salt left for the NBA as a sophomore at the latest. Under him, the only kids that stick around to graduate are either head cases, or just plain underachievers. All of Calipari's teams do this, and this group will be no different.


According to VegasInsider, Kentucky is the second choice to win the NCAA Tournament Future Pool, at 4-1. (Kansas is the favorite at 2-1). Following KY on that list are Syracuse, Villanova, Texas and West Virginia. Such a (relatively) mediocre and undistinguished bunch do little to attract significant betting attention, as a result, the betting question becomes, "Well, it's gotta be Kansas or Kentucky, because I can't tell the other teams apart." and that is just lazy betting.


Don't be fooled by KY as a sucker bet. While talented, excited and enticing to wager on- they offer by far the worst value in the field. If KY were 15-1, 10-1 or even 8-1, you could live with their shortcomings, but as the second choice at 4-1, you can't live with them.





That's how I roll.

Where Fat Kids Come From

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter





It's great to see my man Jamie Oliver doing my second favorite form of fighting childhood obesity*. I think he's doing God's work and I hope his movement catches on. When an English dude comes to America to help out our obese children, you gotta respect that.


* denotes- This is my favorite kind.







That's how I roll.

Great Dr. Dre Lyrics

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

At the 1:43 mark when he says, "You must be smoking something if you think I aint smokin nothing". Good work, Dr. Dre!










That's how I roll.

Cubs 2010 Season Outlook

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


I don't even want to talk about it.







That's how I roll.

Two Books I Read and Can Recommend

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter



I May Not Get There With You: The True Marting Luther King Jr., by Michael Eric Dyson and

Metal Men: How Marc Rich Defrauded the Country, Evaded the Law, and Became the World's Most Sought-After Corporate Criminal by A. Craig Copetas

The first book is awesome. I hadn't read a book about MLK and thought I probably should, especially with it being black history month. I'd seen Dyson on Real Time with Bill Maher and a few other tv spots and was always impressed by him. His book is insightful, and exhaustively researched. It's a great combination of hard facts about MLK, and commentary. I wanted to learn about MLK from the book, obviously, but I didn't want a dry excerpting of his works, or some puff piece telling me how he was objectively the best person of all time. This book was ideal to achieving that.

Dyson just tells it like it was and is refreshing honest and fair in his assessment of King. What I learned from the book is how King wasn't just the voice of people with dark skin, but someone who tirelessly crusaded for the economically disenfranchised. King's policies were more about human rights and making sure even the most downtrodden have at least a chance of success. He wasn't so much about saying, "hey you guys kept us as slaves for generations, and we are pissed off!" it was more about saying, "look, everything available to poor people totally sucks. Our schools don't give our kids a chance, colleges won't accept anyone from these schools because they suck so bad, and there are no job opportunities in largely black areas, and the white areas don't admit black people. We need to do something here so blacks/downtrodden have a chance to stand on their own two economic feet and contribute. We don't need a hand out, just a more level playing field, so that we can contribute to the economy and help ourselves, and society in so doing. I'm not asking for a bushel of apples, but I'd like to have the right to buy the seeds to grow my own apple tree." kinda thing.

I also didn't know that MLK was an adulterer and accused repeatedly (and rightfully) of plagiarism. The last thing that struck me about the book was how relatively radically were MLK's opinions about Vietnam and Socialism.

If the word ceiling can be used to represent the highest limit of achievement, (e.g. she shattered the glass ceiling"), then we should be able to use the word "floor" to mean the opposite- the depths of economic depravity. The book made me view MLK as less of a race-centered thinker, and more concerned with "raising the floor" of America's impoverished.

*****************************

The second book is about rogue trader/treasonist/slimeball/alpha male Marc Rich. Chances are that if you have heard of him, you heard of him because he was the sketchiest person that Bill Clinton pardoned during his last week as President.

Initially I went to the library to find this new book about Rich, but it wasn't available, so I went with Metal Men. It's all about the life of Marc Rich and how he cut his teeth with uber-trading firm Phillip Brothers. The firm was the perfect incubator for a guy like Rich who apparently cared ONLY about work, and dominating his office as the smartest guy in the room, the biggest earner, the hardest partier, most intimidating guy, etc. He achieved those ends quickly at Phillip Brothers and quickly his ego, appetite for risk, and questionable ethics grew too big for the relatively conservative firm.

Rich started off on his own and wasn't necessarily drunk with power, as much as he went on a 7-month, Vegas coke binge with a gaggle of hookers, a few midgets, circus animals and a pony- with power, metaphorically speaking. Rich quickly became even more wildly successful and roguish. Eventually he was doing business with enemy-of-the-State Iran, and defrauding the US of hundreds of millions of tax dollars by virtue of a banking shell game based out of Switzerland, with tentacles in the Cayman Islands, Bahamas, and South America and New York.

I guess I'm not making the book sound all that interesting, but it is. It's very informative about how the trading industry works, the pressures involved, the risk and the profit potential. It's a fascinating look at an industry that wields unspeakable power, but few people really understand. Rich began as a metal trader, which essentially means, he and his cohorts controlled the world's supply of metal. Kind of a big deal. His first firm, Phillip Brothers, owned metal mines all over the world and Rich's job was to be the middle man between the mines and firms looking to buy their various metals. After striking out on his own, Rich was trading metal, oil, weapons and probably everything else between whoever was willing to bid for his goods. Warlords, the Shah of Iran, governments, stand-up businessmen, and shady businessmen. If someone had money, Rich would relieve them of it. Then with his complex network of banks and lawyers, Rich would defraud the US of tax money, and manage to somehow keep even more of his astronomical and shady profits.

It's an entertaining, informative and quick read about a true American asshole. He makes Ted Turner or Larry Ellison or John Rockefeller, or whoever else you thought of when you thought about wealthy, bristly titans of business look like a thumb-sucking altar boy. Rich was so good at being an asshole on such a grand scale, that you just have respect him for being so fucking good at what he does. Even if that makes him an anus.

That's how I roll.

SNL Analogy

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

Does anyone else think that, Andy Samburg: SNL :: Ashton Kutcher: Movie Acting.

I don't mean that as an insult to Samburg, but more of a brotherly, "lets step your game up, big guy". When Samburg started out, he was the young, hip, partying type and his sketches reflected that, and it worked. But how long has that guy been on the show and he's still doing the same laser cat stuff? It reminds me of Ashton Kutcher's post-That 70's Show roles.

You can tell that the goal of Samburg/Kutcher is to make the viewer think, "Man, that acting was bad, but it's cool! Him not even trying to act as anyone other than himself just belies how awesome he actually is. He is just oozing "bro cred" with this awful, sophomoric acting. As an actor, he possesses every skill I look for! Namely, poor acting, stoner humor, and an unwillingness to deviate from that! Where can I get more of that???"

Trust me guys, we get it. We get that you're a jeans and t-shirt or jeans and hoodie type of guy. We get that you have smoked marijuana and you are in touch with your inner child. Mission accomplished gents, we got it loud and clear.

Further down the road, but to that end, when you hear praise the most famous of the famous praised, or the most talented of the talent, it's common to hear them lauded as "multi-talented" and there is a reason that talented is valued. It's hard. It's hard enough to master one thing, let alone multiples. Samburg you might want to think about diversifying your portfolio before you go the route of ostensible mentor, Kutcher, and you decided that you need to be the czar of some new-media platform.










That's how I roll.

Bigotry Remix

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

1. This is how you legislate- with belittling, bewilderment/lack of understand, and finally, with the first two coming to their natural combinatorial end: assumption.

2. It reminded me of the song beneath. That song along with Boom, Shake Shake the Room; Deeper Shade of Soul and Tic Tac Toe made up my favorite hiphop songs of 5th grade.












That's how I roll.

Unrecommended Freestyle Rap Accesory

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


Since this was on Funny or Die, I am guessing it was staged. But it looks believable. "Irregardless", you shouldn't end your freestyle rap the way this gentleman does.

Best Freestyle Ending Ever - watch more funny videos

That's how I roll.

Eskendereya Kickin That Hiney

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

This is 2 year old Eskendereya in Saturday's Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park (this was the race last year where I became enamored with Quality Road). He kicked a lot of hiney and earned himself a 106 Beyer Speed Figure for his effort. The video quality is the opposite of hi-def, but you get the point.







That's how I roll.

Great Video

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

People forget how awesome this song and video were/are. It's timeless. Well, except for when Busta shouts out the Flipmode Squad. They sure as hell aren't timeless. I forgot how great Janet Jackson can be. Janet, I luh you baby booboo and Imma holla atchu when I get off lockdown.










That's how I roll.

Remote Handling

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

(If you are unfamiliar with what I mean by "Remote Handling", read here.)

Once again I was thinking about what an awesome remote handler I am. Then this analogy dawned on me.

Candles: Candelabra :: Remote Controls: My hands.

It's just their natural habitat and where they belong. My remote handling has been so good lately, I'm thinking about calling my hand, my "Remote-elabra". It's like the black belt of remote handling.

Now you may think, "That sounds a lot like bragging." Of course you would be correct. It is. I am that good.







That's how I roll.

They're Here: Avatar Lifestyle Dorks

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

You knew this day would eventually come. People are now starting to live their lives as Navi People or whatever they are called. You can read more about it here.




White people.





That's how I roll.

Lookalikes 33.0: Georgian Luger and Speed Racer

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter
























That's how I roll.

Lookalikes 32.0: Jonathan Toews and Drew Bledsoe

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

For this one you have to think of Toews (pronounced "Taves") as a younger version of Drew Bledsoe. You'd have to grant that a 21 year old version of Bledsoe would have to look a lot like Toews.

Don't Toews me, bro!


























That's how I roll.

Hell Yeah! Palestinian Leader Sex Tape Scandal!

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

It's about time! This news story really rubbed me the right way.






That's how I roll.

You're Doing God's Work, Goldman Sachs

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

Goldman Sachs helped Greece conceal debt for years. Now you may ask, where now are Greece's feces? In the bed. Greece shit bed financially. Goldman helped.







That's how I roll.

Valentine's Day Music for the Disenfranchised

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter










Just one of Those Things- Frank Sinatra






































It Isn't Gonna Be That Way- Steve Forbert. Relatively obscure and highly recommended, I just couldn't embed the video on this page.











Now that you have listened to them go buy a bottle of rye whiskey and drink it neat or on the rocks or in a highball while watching casablanca. by the time bogey gets to his "of all the gin joints in all the cities in all the world and she walks into mine" line, you'll be in similar shape as he and feel it on a deeper level. Then even moreso by the time he gets to his awesome, "...with a comical look on his face because his insides had just been kicked out." line, followed by the alcohol-fueled invective, "Or aren't you the type that tells?". not that i'd know from experience.





That's how I roll.

dick

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

i know that member of the georgian luge team died today. i was on a sports website and read the headline 'luger died' and for a second i thought it was about indiana senator(r) dick lugar having died. then i realized it was spelled differently, and i wouldn't be reading about a senator's death on a sports website. i wonder if anyone else made that mistake tonight.

but it begs the question, better porn name: dick lugar, or dick luger?






That's how I roll.

This is Grody But Educational. If You Are My Sister Reading This, Turn Away Now (Trust me, it's About Poop)

Via: Online Schools








That's how I roll.

Jamie Oliver Talking the Truth at TED

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

I loved this guy when he was just The Naked Chef. His new anti-obesity mission about food education is probably my favorite cause out there now. Great speech here.










That's how I roll.

Hunker

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter



I hear the word "hunker" only when I hear the phrase, "hunker down". Is there any other way to hunker? If someone calls you, and asks what you're up to can you say, "Oh, just hunkering", or, "Don't bother me. I'm hunkering."?

To illustrate that I used a picture of a hunker, hunker burnin' love, so to speak.






That's how I roll.

Yes! Thank You.

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter










That's how I roll.

Sarah Palin is Roman Helmet'd by Stephen Colbert

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


Righties and Lefties argue whether Sarah Palin has sold her soul to the Devil, but after defending Rush Limbaugh's repeated use of the word "Retard", it is clear she has at least sold her soul to him. After demanding Rahm Emmanuel's resignation over use of that word, she came off as a righfully protective mother, and defender of decency, even if a resignation was a bit extreme, I see where she was coming from. Then Limbaugh had to go hog wild and bathe his audience in the word "Retard" to attempt to prove a wrong point. So how did Palin demand his resignation? By saying it was fine because Limbaugh was using "satire". Palin knows that Rahm Emmanuel cannot damage her brand, because she writes off his criticism as elitist, or socialist or plain-folk-hatin'. Knowing full well that Limbaugh could ruin her brand if he so chose, Palin acquiesced and fudged the definition of satire to wrongly defend him.

So what did that win her? Stephen Colbert pissing out the flames of her dignity as it burned to the ground.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sarah Palin Uses a Hand-O-Prompter
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

That's how I roll.

I Told you Quality Road was Nothing to F with

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter



I plagiarized this from here. Steve Crist can tell it better than I can.

Quality Road's powerful runaway in the Donn Handicap Saturday earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 121, the highest awarded to any race since Midnight Lute's 124 in the 2007 Forego and the highest in a race longer than a mile since the Commentator-Saint Liam Whitney of 2005. (Update: Revised from a preliminary 122 to a final 121 Sunday morning.)

Breaking his own track record of 1:47.72, set winning last year's Florida Derby, Quality Road won by 12 3/4 lengths in 1:47.49 over a track that was not particularly quick in the day's other five dirt races. The only other dirt race on the Saturday card at the nine-furlong distance was the opener, where $6250 older-filly claimers were timed in 1:53.18. Three one-mile races went in 138.04 (older males $25k claimers), 1:38.44 (3yo Alw N1x) and 138.51 (OF N1x) and the day's lone dirt sprint, for 3-year-old maidens, was run in 123.22.

Quality Road's performance looked as good as it comes up on paper. He stalked Past the Point through six furlongs in 1:09.87, shot past and extended his lead from 5 lengths after a mile in 1:34.78 to more than a dozen at the wire. Granted, he was the only Grade 1 winner in the Donn, but the second- and third place finishers had each won four graded stakes including the G2 Suburban (Dry Martini) and G2 Ohio Derby (Delightful Kiss). It was a huge effort against a respectable field, one worth savoring:

That's how I roll.

You Might Cry and Wap.....Like Peyton Manning's Team

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


Since no one needs me to break down the X's and O's and re-re-re-re-re-explain why the Saints won, I'll put in some bullet points of stuff I thought during the game.

- Phil Simms, great to hear you again pronounce Manning as "Maneen" and him as "eem" as in, "Maneen had eem wide open and completed a big pass!"

- The commercials really sucked, just like last year. And how un-Budweiser-like was it for them to not have one good commercial that was superior, but instead they carpet-bombed the commercial market with tons and tons of average-at-best commercials until we just relented and were like, "ok fine, it wasn't that bad I guess I'll accept it". Oh wait, that's been their ethos for a century plus.

- Are Charles Barkley's buns so big that it affects his posture?

- What are the odds that Colts coach Jim Caldwell is actually highly expressive, but he just does so much botox that we can't see his epxressions? I texted 4 friends that question during the game and I got one friend's answer as "100000000:1" and immediately before that I got "3:2" from another friend. So it's somewhere betwixt there. Probably.

- Who thought it was a good idea to bring in the Who? I've never heard of anyone my age listening to them. And why the hell does every super bowl band have to be foreign? U2, Coldplay, The Who, The Rolling Stones, etc. And it goes for award show hosts- Ricky Gervais, Russell Brand, etc. Does anything watch American football and think, "Man, this makes me want to listen to the Who. Just the vibe of this game really reminds me of Pinball Wizard. Dude, put on your The Who album. What do you mean who don't own one????!!!"?

-It seems like there have been a lot of feel-good champions recently. The Patriots broke the Boston curse, then the Red Sox were the biggest deal possible, the White Sox broke their drought, the Phillies eased Philadelphia's pain, Peyton Manning finally got his Super Bowl, The Saints won it for New Orleans. Even Zenyatta's win in the Breeder's Cup Classic was historic because she was the first chick horse to ever win that race.

- Why does no one ever yell at Reggie Bush for voluntarily stepping out of bounds every time he touches the ball? Can some Photoshop Wiz doctor a pic of Walter Payton crying in heaven while watching Reggie Bush do that? Thanks.

- I don't even know what commercial will emerge as the consensus best. The only two that even made me emote were the Emerald Nuts + Pop Secret commercial where that weirdo dude trained humans, and the Hyundai commercial where the toys came to life and went to Vegas.

- That onside kick was so effing radical. Nice to know the guy who muffed it is married to Hugh Heffner's ex-girlfriend. I wonder if that made Bob Guccione and Larry Flynt smile.

- I was impressed at how clean the game was: minimal penalties, only one INT, only the one minor fumble that wasn't turned over, the only missed FG was 50+ yards, not that many drops, few punts, no back-breaking pass interference calls, pretty solid officiating, good third down conversion %ages from what I recall, high completion %age for each QB, neither special teams nor defensive units gave up anything resembling a big play, etc.

- Nice to see Shockey get a ring. I don't love the guy, but you had to feel bad for him when the Giants won without him.

- Great job by Garrett Hartley, the Saints kicker, who everyone seemed to assume was a liability at best.

- This game really seemed to illustrate the importance of field position. Through 3 quarters each team was playing relatively flawless football from each side of the ball, with the only minor difference being the Saints average drive starting at the 30 and the Colts starting at their 15.

- After Indy went up 10-0 I thought it could get ugly

-Speaking of which, Tony Dungy's prediction was, well, dung-y.

-











That's how I roll.

My Life is Practically Over: Scott Lee Cohen Drops out of Lieutenant Governor's Race.

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

I don't even want to talk about it.






That's how I roll.