Quotulatiousness

October 15, 2013

Tune in Wednesday for another thrilling episode of “As the stomach turns”

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 07:19

It’s rather sad that a losing team tends to generate more interesting — and more amusing — media coverage than a team that’s currently winning. TV execs, however, may be wondering how they can possibly earn a profit when they’re contractually obligated to broadcast games like next Monday’s matchup between the 0-6 New York Giants and the 1-4 Minnesota Vikings. How do you get even hardcore football fans to waste several hours of their Monday evening watching teams that are this bad?

One minor point of interest is figuring out who will be starting at quarterback for the Vikings. Christian Ponder may have started his last game for the purple, and Matt Cassel didn’t do himself any favours in Sunday’s debacle against the Carolina Panthers. Newly signed QB Josh Freeman appears to be the odds-on favourite to start this game … after all, as Christopher Gates says, how bad can it be?

In one corner of this Triangle of Mediocrity … and I use that term because I’m feeling unusually generous today … we have the guy that began the season as Minnesota’s starting quarterback in Christian Ponder. In another corner, we have the guy that took over for Ponder when he was injured, Matt Cassel, who was last seen in a heap on the turf at the Metrodome. And in the final corner, we have the newly-acquired Josh Freeman, who has been on the team for a week and is probably already wondering exactly what the heck he’s gotten himself into.

[…]

That leaves us with Freeman, who this week could … and probably should … start an 11-game audition for the rest of the NFL to show that his rough start to the season was due to being trapped in Greg Schiano’s House of MRSA and Innuendo. There’s a concern that he doesn’t know the playbook yet, but considering that Bill Musgrave’s offense is slightly less diverse than the menu at your local Five Guys, I’m not sure how big a concern that actually is. Freeman’s next start will be his 60th as an NFL quarterback, and he’s got to be to the point of his career where he’s seen quite a bit from opposing defenses. Besides, what’s going to happen … this offense going to get worse?

Frankly, I think Freeman gets the start because, at this point, he’s the only option that makes sense. There’s a chance that the team could go with Cassel again, and basically no chance that they go with Ponder.

Tune in Wednesday for the thrilling conclusion of It Doesn’t Matter: We’re Screwed No Matter What Because None Of These Guys Can Play Corner.

Update: “How bad is the Vikings defence?” I pretend to hear you ask. They’re among the most generous in the NFL, giving up 418 yards per game (which is second-worst in the league) and allowing nearly 32 points per game (third-worst). Opposing teams convert third-down opportunities 49% of the time (as Chip Scoggins points out, that’s even worse than their putrid 2011 season where they allowed a 44% conversion rate). They’re third-worst in the league for getting off the field, staying on the field nearly 34 minutes per game — time of possession isn’t a total measurement of defensive ineptitude, but teams that don’t score quickly (or at all…) put extra pressure on the defenders.

Lies we tell to pollsters

Filed under: Politics, USA — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 06:46

David Harsanyi wishes the nonsense we tell to pollsters was a bit closer to the truth, at least in some cases:

A recent Rasmussen poll found that one in three Americans would rather win a Nobel Prize than an Oscar, Emmy or Grammy.

Though there’s no way to disprove this peculiar finding, I’m rather confident that it’s complete baloney. The average American probably can’t name more than one Nobel Prize winner — if that. Even if they could, it’s unlikely many would choose a life in physics or “peace” over being a celebrated actor, musician or television star. Put it this way, any man who tells you he wants the life of Nobel Prize-winning Ahmet Uzumcu, Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, instead of George Clooney is lying. And that includes Ahmet Uzumcu.

Polls might have been precise in forecasting recent elections (though, 2012 pollsters only received an average “C+ grade” in a poll conducted by Pew Research Center; we’re waiting on a poll that tells us what to think about polls that poll polls), but it’s getting difficult to believe much of anything else. Beyond sampling biases or phraseology biases, many recent polls prove that Americans will tell pollsters what they think they think, but not how they intend to act. Part of the problem is social desirability bias — the tendency to give answers that they believe will be viewed favorably by others. That might explain why someone would tell a pollster that he would rather win a Nobel Prize than a Grammy. There is also confirmation bias — the tendency of people to say things that confirm their beliefs or theories. Whatever the case, voters are fooling themselves in various ways. And when it comes to politics, they’re also giving small-government types like myself false hope.

Over the last few months, we seem to have been added to some sort of polling telephone list, as we’ve had dozens of calls from various institutions conducting “important public research” and insisting that we have to take part in their surveys. It’s quite remarkable how angry they get when I say we don’t want to take part. They go from vaguely pleasant at the start of the call to downright authoritarian by the time I hang up the phone … how dare I not want to give them the data they’re asking for? They’ve collectively become more irritating than the calls from “Bob” at “Windows Technical Support”.

QotD: Duties of a good host

Filed under: Quotations, Randomness, Wine — Tags: — Nicholas @ 00:01

Up to a point (i.e. short of offering your guests one of those Balkan plonks marketed as wine, Cyprus sherry, poteen and the like), go for quantity rather than quality. Most people would rather have two glasses of ordinary decent port than one of a rare vintage. On the same reasoning, give them big drinks rather than small — with exceptions to be noted later. Serious drinkers will be pleased and reassured, unserious ones will not be offended, and you will use up less chatting time going round to recharge glasses.

Kingsley Amis, Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis, 2008.

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