Southern Comfort on the Rocks

The title of this post just about says it all. Have you ever sipped on Southern Comfort? It tastes a bit like cough medicine. I guess you can mix it with things and come up with something digestible. For some reason, its taste reminds me of every high school/college overdrinking binge that ever involved whiskey. Because usually at that time I was mixing whiskey with 7-up or Sprite and Southern Comfort is so sweet, it like has the mix already mashed in... Anyways, I'm feeling a bit under the weather, so I figure if it tastes like medicine, maybe it will act like it.

I think we need to pay some proper homage to Pat Howard of the Erie Times-News. Howard is an outstanding local (Erie County) political columnist - the only one I've ever seen in my short time of following this sort of stuff. He pegged DiVecchio's shenanigans in a column in the Sunday paper just as we did in our Thursday post. As much as we like to pat ourselves on the back for being first to publish our opinion, Howard really added a couple of good points to our arguments. The first involved implying some sort of relationship between DiVecchio and the Summit Industrial and Economic Development Authority (SIEDA - I made up the acronym, but maybe we can pervert it to the Summit Economic Authority of Development and Industry - or SEADI - pronounced "seedy".) Howard called SEADI's partnership with MTR "strange and unseemly." Beautiful rhetoric, Pat.

He also pointed, "If you had legitimate worries about being sued, why on earth would you broadcast to the world that you intend to cave before the other party's lawyer even opens his briefcase?" I remember thinking the same thing, but figuring, no way, DiVecchio could be that obtuse - there had to be some sort of catch. I guess Howard, who's far more experienced in politics, is giving him no such credit.

Finally, Howard goes straight for the heart, and throws in DiVecchio's seemingly obscure Rubino family connection. Where did that come from? It's Rubino's uncle that married to DiVecchio's sister. Anyway, another article in the Times on Sunday seemed to dismiss this relationship as meaningless, but by throwing it in his column, Howard, who comes across as a guy in the know, has me second-thinking my opinion on this.

As I've said before if someone is not putting together a book on this MTR thing yet, but would like to, please get in touch with me. This is a can't miss story.

OK. Here are may picks for next Sunday's games. Haven't seen a line yet, and I'll set my own with the picks. These are for entertainment purposes only. We'll call it the Ralph's Place line:

New England by 7 over Denver - Patriots playing great and Jake Plummer and Shanahan bound to fuck up.
Carolina by 7 over Chicago - John Fox has proven, much like Belichik, he's a great playoff coach. Lovie Smith may be too, but he hasn't proven it.
Indianapolis by 14 over Pittsburgh - Didn't we already see this game a month and a half ago? Steelers may be playing a little better - but the Colts want it and they'll be ready.
Seattle by 13 over the Redskins - Seattle has an offense and the Redskins don't. Seattle defense isn't bad either and they're at home.

That's all,

Cheers.

Ralph