Scripting plays and No huddle

Many teams in the NFL like to script the opening offensive plays of a game. The idea is to use the week before the game to develop a sequence of plays that takes advantage of the opposing team's defensive weaknesses. The offense can be poised on the opening drives because it knows exactly what plays it will run and because the players have practiced those plays during the week.
It seems like a good idea, though I don't know if it has been proven to make a difference in the outcome of the games.

I've watched many games where the offense is said to be a following its game-openening script, but I have not seen many where the offense is going no huddle. The consensus is that no huddle helps offenses by giving defenses less time to prepare for the play. By moving quickly, the defense can't substitute players as well and becomes more tired and frazzled. The frenetic pace of no huddle can also unhinge the offense with the players going out of sync. That's why most teams don't run no huddle often, but those downsides should not occur with scripted opening drives. The players on offense will know all the plays that they are going to run, so there should be no confusion. Since defenses will still be disadvantaged by no huddle, it seems like going no huddle on the scripted plays is an obvious benefit for the offense. Why don't more teams do it?

The Smell of New Pavement in the Morning

What's not to love?
One of the better things that's happened lately has been the repaving of parts of 101. The beginning of the work was annoying because the road surface was gouged and uncomfortable to drive. Now, that the new surface is in place, it's a pleasure to drive. The road is so smooth. The contrast between the new surface and the old surface is very noticeable. As if to remind us without relying on our fragile memories, Caltrans has left patches of the old pavement interspersed with the new pavement in a few places like overpasses. They needn't have done that since a bigger contrast is further south on 101 where the road is the crummy old pavement. That can't be repaved fast enough -- some of the lanes seem to have ruts in them.
Hopefully, this new road surface stays smooth and shiny for a long time.

Some good sandwiches that are no longer with us

I used to eat turkey meatloaf sandwiches at Specialtys all the time, and they were awesome. For various reasons, I stopped eating lunch at Specialtys, but I kept meaning to go back and eat the turkey meatloaf sandwich. I finally had the chance recently, and I discovered that they no longer made it! It was quite a disappointment.

Now this wasn't the first time that a good sandwich has disappeared from the menus of Bay Area shops. It was at least the third time which calling to mind the famous Goldfinger quote means it is enemy action. But who would do such a thing?
In case it helps you, the other two times were the cuban sandwich at Bi-Rite and the Vietnamese sandwiches at Yucatasia. I miss them too.

The Patriots Spying Brouhaha

One of the scandals of the early 2007 football season has been the revelations of spying by the Patriots. It's been dubbed CameraGate since it involves illegal videotaping during games. The Patriots videotaped the signals of the Jets during week 1; the league caught them and punished them.

The media was riveted by this story, but I somehow managed to avoid paying attention to most of the ensuing controversy. My primary exposure to the media hype has been through the writing of Bill Simmons, a Patriots fan who has been fed up with the way sports commentators have piled on the Patriots. I can see his point, but I have some doubts about his defense of the Patriots. For example, he said on September 17, "If this pattern of inappropriate behavior had been happening for six years, wouldn't they have been caught before Sept. 9, 2007?"

I thought the Patriots had been caught before illegally videotaping during games and had been warned not to do it anymore. They may not have been stealing signals earlier, but that seems unlikely. It would be nice to get clarity on this point.

Are Molly Shannon and Paulette Goddard related?

I watched the Charlie Chaplin movie Modern Times recently, and I was struck by the similarity between Paulette Goddard and Molly Shannon. They looked similar, and their characters acted similarly as well. Maybe it was the way the Gamin character in Modern Times danced and leapt wildly that reminded me of Shannon's characters on Saturday Night Live.

As for the movie, it was good though I didn't enjoy it as much as other Chaplin movies. The set pieces were pretty funny and well executed. However, the Little Tramp character was too bumbling to hold my sympathy throughout. The epitome of his incompetence was when he worked as a mechanic's assistant and managed to get the mechanic jammed into some machinery. I still laughed, which is probably what counts.

Bay Area Newspaper Stars

It probably doesn't make sense to have a newspaper column called Bouncer written by someone who doesn't work at a bar, but that's about the only quibble-worth thing about the column by Katy St. Clair. It's not the first thing I read in the SF Weekly (since it's in the back), but I'm less happy when I get to the back and discover it's not there. Luckily, it's there most weeks, and she usually has some interesting stories from visiting Bay Area bars. Sometimes, there is even pathos like when she talks about her autistic clients.

The Bay Guardian has a food section staffed by stars, Paul Reidinger and L.E. Leone. Their writing entertains and enlightens with wit, grace, and humor. Plus, they're both capable of writing about more than food, and often do, sometimes even while writing about food.

Bay Area Radio Stars

I'd like to take a moment to recognize two stars of Bay Area radio.

Jerry Newman (spelling?) is an announcer on KQED and he livens up the seemingly boring task of announcing the current program name and the upcoming programs.

Gary Radnich and Tony Bruno make Bay Area sports talk radio fun. Their conversations are not always about sports, but they always drop "good knowledge".

Q: What do Danielson and How I Met Your Mother have in common?

A: Blinders!
The character on the super bowl theme episode of How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) gave them a fancy name, but their intent and design was very similar to the Good Eye Blinders that Danielson used to make.

It was surprising to see overlap between the two. I wonder if some of the writers of HIMYM are Danielson fans.