Fast Food Power Rankings

John wanted a post about fast food.  My favorite part of his suggestion was how it came in an email right in the middle of two paragraphs about baseball.  It was baseball, fast food blog post, and then right back to baseball.  I don't know if I'm enough of an expert on fast food, but it was a really good idea.  Mike Bloomberg does not endorse this post.  If anybody has any comments, feel free to weigh in.

There's a difference between different types of fast food establishments.  McDonald's and Burger King are pretty much the same thing, but McDonald's and Subway are very different.  So how wide of a definition of fast food are we using?  I'm going with any large chain restaurant where I don't have a waiter or waitress.  So yes, McDonald's and Subway both qualify, but at least I have a clear line between fast food and not fast food.

I don't frequent many of these establishments so this is based mostly on stories I associate with each place rather than the food.  You'd likely come up with a much different list from mine (except for number 1, I would throw down if you argued against my number 1), but here we go.

12.  Sonic.  I can't put it any higher since I've never actually eaten at Sonic.  It makes the list because I remember during our trip to Georgia Tech in 2006 that Wilhelm was determined to get Sonic on that Saturday as we were just sitting around waiting for the game.  He did find a Sonic, but I didn't go with him.  Also, they have pretty solid commercials.

11.  Taco Bell.  It's been a really long time since I had Taco Bell.  I'm putting it on the list because I thought this picture was funny:

I think this picture tells you everything you need to know about Taco Bell these days.

10.  Wendy's.  If I was going to eat at Burger King, McDonald's, or Wendy's, it would be Wendy's.  Their spicy chicken sandwich is solid.

9.  Chick-fil-A.  I had Chick-fil-A with Darryl's military friends when I visited him in North Carolina last year.  I don't remember what I had, but it was solid.  Also, Wilhelm is a big fan of Chick-fil-A.  The Chipotle (don't worry, we'll get there) that we used to go to in college was right by a Chick-fil-A.  We would all go to Chipotle and Wilhelm would go to Chick-fil-A.

8.  Arby's.  I think I've only had Arby's once.  We stopped at one in Kentucky on the way to Atlanta.  Dennis was infatuated with the accent of the girl that took his order.  Arby's gets bonus points because David Puddy on Seinfeld was a big Arby's fan.

Dennis, Chris, Jon, and me at an Arby's in Kentucky.  Wilhelm isn't in the picture because he was lame and didn't wear a suit for the trip.

7.  Quiznos.  If I went to Quiznos more, it would probably be higher on the list.  John is a big fan. When we were working postcamp in 2004, John, Molly, Courtney, and I went to Quiznos one day during lunch.  While we were there, John was talking about how he once ate for the cycle at Quiznos (eating small, medium, and large sandwiches in one sitting).  Molly and Courtney didn't believe that he could do it, so John did it that day to prove it to them.  It was one of the more impressive eating feats that I've witnessed in person.  A month or two later, I got a call from John who was in his senior year at Marist.  One of his friends didn't believe that John had done it so I had to confirm it for him.  My question for John:  What eating accomplishment are you most proud of:  eating for the cycle at Quiznos, beating Vinny in the party bucket eating showdown at Ralph's, or something else?  I hope Jack gets to hear these stories someday.

6.  White Castle.  I've only eaten at White Castle once.  It was in 2003 during precamp.  Pete, Bill, and I went there for lunch after being docked several jalepeno cheeseburgers by Alex for our job performance.  While we were there, Bill had the idea for a reality show called "Scumbags."  That show had potential.  Too bad it never happened.  Pete, Bill, and I also used to talk about going to White Castle on 6:00 a.m. on Christmas morning.  It's been a long time since I've seen Bill, but I hope if I ever see him again, it's with Pete at White Castle on Christmas morning.  Then there was the time that John, Sean (I think), and I were picked up by Vinny after our bar crawl in Huntington in 2005.  We tried to go to Little Vincent's, but they were out of pizza (What's that about?).  Since we couldn't get Little Vincent's, Vinny drove us to White Castle in Commack.  I didn't eat anything at White Castle, but I did have a line that Vinny still loves to quote to this day.  I was kind of upset the next day about how much sleep that trip to White Castle cost me.

5.  McDonald's.  I would consider becoming a vegetarian before having a McDonald's combo meal.  Regular McDonald's food has absolutely zero appeal to me.  So why is it this high on the list?  First, their hot fudge sundae is excellent.  If I see a McDonald's at an airport, I'll enjoy one (my last one was when I had a layover in the Cincinnati airport on my way home the Michigan game in September).  Second, the McDonald's breakfast is solid and it played an important role in the movie Big Daddy.  And third, I like capitalism.  You have to give them credit for their success.

4/3.  In-N-Out Burger/Five Guys.  Now the actual fast food gets interesting.  And this is a debate that I've seen.  I'm giving Five Guys the edge, but I've only had In-N-Out once.  Unfortunately, In-N-Out is only in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Texas.  I'll be in Los Angeles soon (I don't know if I've mentioned that on the blog yet) and I'll try to get there again.  I'd be willing to reconsider.  But my first experience with both of these establishments was pretty similar and somewhat disappointing.  Actually, if I was just going on first experience, I'd give In-N-Out the edge.  In-N-Out was good, but it was just so hyped and I would say it didn't quite live up to the very high expectations I had (again, it was good, but I had very high expectations based on what I heard about it).  The first time I had Five Guys was when I went down to Washington DC in 2008 for my brother's bachelor party.  Vinny was still a student at Catholic, so I met up with him and went to Five Guys before the festivities got started.  I was not overly impressed with Five Guys that first time.  Since then, Five Guys has come to Long Island.  I decided to give it another chance in 2010 and I liked it a lot better than I had remembered from the first time I had it.  I'll go occasionally and always get the same burger:  little cheeseburger with grilled onions, green peppers, and barbeque  sauce.  I'm giving Five Guys the edge for their fries.  So if you're looking for a fast food burger and an incredibly unhealthy meal, my suggestion is Five Guys.

2.  Subway.  I had to rank Subway this high because of college.  My meal plan at Notre Dame was 14 meals per week in the dining halls plus $240 (or something like that) per semester to spend at various locations on campus.  The vast majority of that was spent at Subway (most of the rest was spent on stuff like soap and toothpaste).  Subway was in LaFortune, which was approximately 500 feet away from my dorm (I actually spent some time figuring that out).  I can remember a couple of really cold weekend days when I would go to Subway, get a footlong, chips, and a drink, and I wouldn't leave the dorm for the rest of the day because it was so cold.  If there was a big game that I was watching on TV, I'd grab Subway, bring it back to the lounge, watch the game, and love life.  My favorite Subway sandwich is the Italian BMT, but I'd work some others into the mix as well.  I've very rarely had Subway since college, but I had to put it this high because of free Subway 500 feet away from my dorm in college.  Subway also gets bonus points for its commercials.  Justin Tuck does commercials for Subway, and the Jared commercials led to the "Jared Has Aides" episode of South Park.

1.  Chipotle.  Really, this was easy.  There were two reasons for this.  First, I feel like I've accomplished something when I put down a Chipotle burrito.  It's such a great feeling that I don't get from any other eating experience.  Second, if I was getting the death penalty, I don't know what my last meal would be, but Chipotle is being considered.  I first discovered Chipotle during my Georgetown days and I've been in love ever since.  I remember when Chipotle first opened not too far from the Notre Dame campus in 2006.  The only bad part was that it was my last semester and Chipotle still didn't exist on Long Island.  My friends and I went the day it opened for a free burrito, but the line was way too long.  So we came back the next day and paid for our burritos (totally worth it).  Did we go there to celebrate after I took my last final of college?  Of course.  Probably the best development on Long Island since I graduated from college was Chipotle finally coming here in 2007.  I would occasionally drive the 26 miles from grad school in Oakdale to Chipotle in Hicksville to enjoy some amazingness.  When I got a job in Valley Stream, I would sometimes stop at the Chipotle in Farmingdale on my way to grad school in Oakdale.  Then I got a job in Farmingdale, which was wonderful.  Now I have a job in Hicksville and I pass the Hicksville Chipotle every day on my way home from work.  Chipotle is the one fast food that I would want to eat all the time.  When I have Five Guys, I have no desire to have Five Guys again for at least a month.  Definitely not the case with Chipotle.  My favorite is the barbacoa burrito with brown rice, pinto beans, mild salsa, cheese, and sour cream, but there are other good options so I'll mix it up every now and then.  I could have one Chipotle burrito and be good for the day.  No need to eat anything else.  Here's what I've wondered:  How many Chipotle burritos could Adam Richman put down in one sitting?  I would love to see that and hear him talk about how awesome it is (he loves everything he eats, I assume Chipotle would be no different).  Also, bonus points for Chipotle's role in the South Park episode "Dead Celebrities."  If Chipotle was the only fast food I could eat for the rest of my life, I'd be totally fine with that.  It's easily Number 1 in the Fast Food Power Rankings.

The Next Pope

I found out that the pope was resigning from one of my students.  I've found out a lot of really important news from facebook (bin Laden's death, for example), but that was the first time I found out something really big from one of my students.  When he said it, I thought he was making stuff up.  Then I went to Drudge Report and it was true.

Actually, when John Paul II died, I found that out on espn.com.  I remember that well.  It was a Saturday and everybody knew the end was near, but I first saw the news of his death on espn.com in my room in St. Ed's.  I hadn't planned on going to mass that night for Sunday, but then I knew I had to.  I went to the 5:00 mass at the basilica and it was packed.  While it was exciting to be electing a new pope for the first time in my life, it was incredibly sad to lose John Paul II.  I remember waking up at some ridiculous hour to watch his funeral.  I recently said in my Washington's Birthday post that George Washington was the greatest man in the world in the eighteenth century.  Without hesitation, I would say that John Paul II was the greatest man in the world in the twentieth century.  That's saying something when you consider how big of a Winston Churchill fan I am.  (Interesting question:  Who was the greatest man in the world in the nineteenth century?  Was it Lincoln?  As great as he was, his influence seems limited to the United States, unlike Washington, who inspired people to fight for freedom in other countries as well.)  I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have lived the first 21 years of my life with John Paul the Great as pope.  I would definitely name a son after him (which isn't going to happen because God is giving me all girls).

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about electing a new pope.  This is only the second time during my life that this has happened.  Unlike last time, we don't have the sadness of the pope's death attached to electing a new pope.  The pope resigning is quite historic as it hadn't happened since before Christopher Columbus was born.  I find presidential elections really exciting, but it's easy to be disappointed by the result.  No matter who the next pope is, I won't be disappointed.  

I've been waiting for a Cousin Sal-Bill Simmons podcast going over the odds on the next pope.  That's not happening, so that's why I'm here.  This is purely for entertainment purposes.  I'm anti-gambling to begin with, but if you bet on who the next pope is going to be, you really deserve to lose money.

Let's start with the pope's name.  I would love it if we had a Pope James, but that is extremely unlikely as we have never had a Pope James.  I think it's a solid choice for a pope since two of the twelve apostles were named James, but John Paul I is the only pope in 1000 years or so to be original with a name.  I was curious when the last time we had a pope that didn't have the name of a prior pope before John Paul I.  The answer is Pope Lando who was pope for about six months in 913 and 914 (and he didn't take a new name).  Apparently the favorite for the name is Peter.  I'd be really surprised if that happened since we've never had a Peter II. So if we're being more realistic about what the next pope's name might be, I'd be rooting for John Paul III or John XXIV.

Also of significance is where the next pope will come from.  The favorite in that category is Italy.  For 455 years from Pope Adrian VI (from the Low Countries) to Pope John Paul II (Poland), Italy would have been correct..  I would definitely take the field over Italy this time.  We've had two straight non-Italian popes and my guess is that this time we'll have a non-European pope.  I wouldn't be surprised if it's somebody from Asia, Africa, or South America.  A non-European would be quite historical.  It's only been 1272 years since the last non-European pope (Gregory III from Syria).  The favorite is a Ghanan (Ghanian? Ghananian?), Cardinal Turkson.  Next comes an Italian, Cardinal Scola, and a Canadian, Cardinal Ouellet.  Cardinal Dolan is the American with the best odds (14th on the list), but it would be shocking if an American was the next pope.  It will be very interesting to see what happens.

In the words of Rogers Hornsby...

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball.  I'll tell you what I do.  I stare out the window and wait for spring."

One of my students a few years ago gave me The Gigantic Book of Baseball Quotations (possibly the best gift I've gotten from a student) and that's my favorite baseball quote ever, which is saying something.  There are so many good ones.  It pretty much perfectly describes how I feel about the baseball offseason.  I already had a post about how this is my least favorite time of the year.

With the Dodgers playing their first spring training game today, there's light at the end of the tunnel, but there are certain things that make that wait for spring more bearable.  If the Jets would ever win a Super Bowl, that would help.  If I was a Ravens fan right now, I wouldn't care that football is over because I'd still be basking in their glory.  There's the NBA.  The 2007-2008 Celtics were a pleasure to watch all season.  This year's Celtics team has actually been fairly entertaining since Rajon Rondo got hurt, but I know they're not going anywhere in the playoffs.

But what has really helped me over the last few years has been college basketball.  I wish Notre Dame had been good in basketball when I was there (but I had two pretty good football seasons, so I guess I can't complain).  Mike Brey has been Notre Dame's coach for 13 years now.  The two years I was there were his two worst years (17 and 16 wins).  I wanted Brey fired (the lesson as always, I'm an idiot).  Since then, Brey has done a great job.  Sure, I'd like more tournament wins, but he's getting us there just about every year these days (this year will be be 6 out of 7 years).  There are a lot of Big East schools that would love to be able to say that (St. John's for example).

There are two reasons why I really enjoy being a Notre Dame basketball fan.  The first is that Notre Dame has a legitimate team and not just a collection of mercenaries (you know, like Kentucky).  People like to talk about how our academic standards are a disadvantage in football.  That's much more true in men's basketball than it is in football.  We can get elite players in football.  The Anthony Davis types are never going to Notre Dame to play basketball because they're going to be college "students" for one year and then they're going to the NBA.  Last year's Kentucky team was a bunch of hired guns.  Sure they won, but they were like the 1997 Florida Marlins of college basketball.  How could you develop any attachment to that team?  At Notre Dame, you get players that will be there for four years.  The players on the team aren't just looking out for themselves and they have given a lot to the university.  This isn't just true of Notre Dame.  It's true of most schools, but for the elite programs, it is often not the case.  Kentucky is the most obvious example.  Duke does a good job of getting players that actually have an interest in sticking around and being students also, but even they had Kyrie Irving and his 11-game college career.

The second reason is that the regular season actually matters for Notre Dame. For so many teams in college basketball, the regular season is meaningless.  Georgetown and Syracuse is a good basketball rivalry (which is coming to an end unfortunately), but their game today means ... nothing.  If Syracuse wins today and then they go out in the second round of the tournament and Georgetown makes a run to the Final Four, I know my brother Sean won't care too much about losing to Syracuse.  Compare that to football.  If Notre Dame had lost to USC in the last game of the regular season and then won the Fiesta Bowl or something, I would still be really disappointed (it took me seven years to get over our loss to USC in 2005).  But for Notre Dame basketball, the regular season does matter.   Actually, if Notre Dame was consistently better, then the regular season wouldn't be as meaningful.  Unfortunately, we've never won the Big East Tournament (two more chances, it would be awesome if we did before we left).  That means that we need to be good enough during the regular season to earn a spot in the tournament.  Going back to Georgetown and Syracuse, obviously they can't both win the Big East tournament, but they are consistently good enough that they don't have to worry about getting into the tournament.  For Notre Dame, we're not usually a lock for the tournament.  Two years ago was an exception.  This year, a lot of us were worried that not making the tournament was a real possibility until we beat Louisville and Pittsburgh.  Right here on Long Island, Stony Brook has become a power in the America East Conference. However, they haven't been able to win their conference tournament, so finishing in first in the regular season has meant nothing for them (except for a spot in the NIT).

So all this one and done nonsense and the meaninglessness of the regular season are the two biggest problems in college basketball.  I can live with the meaninglessness of the regular season because the payoff of the tournament is so amazing (the first weekend of the tournament is probably my favorite four-day stretch of the year).  I've tried to fix some problems on this blog.  Major League Baseball should really start paying attention because I solved their Opening Day and All Star Game problems.  I also have a solution for this ridiculous interleague play every day nonsense that starts this year (I'll try to get to that before the season starts).  I've solved some holiday problems.  Unfortunately, I can't solve this problem for college basketball.

There are solutions that would work for college basketball, but unfortunately they depend on the NBA.  If I were running the NBA, I'd want players to be eligible for the draft two years after their high school graduation.  That would be better for the NBA and having kids in college for two years instead of just being there and being "students" for one year would be better for college basketball.  The best solution for college basketball, however, would probably be going to baseball draft rules.  In baseball, you can play professionally right out of high school, but if you go to college, you have to stay for three years before you are eligible for the draft again.  That would be great for college basketball, but I'd be scared to death of what would happen to the NBA if 18-year-olds had to decide between going straight to the NBA out of high school or waiting three years.

College basketball is a great sport, but unless the NBA does something, it will never be as great as it once was.  Lew Alcindor stayed at UCLA for four years.  Michael Jordan stayed at North Carolina for three years.  Patrick Ewing stayed at Georgetown for four years.  That would never happen today.  Imagine what college basketball would be like today if Carmelo Anthony stayed at Syracuse for four years and Kevin Durant stayed at Texas for four years and Anthony Davis stayed at Kentucky for four years (or even three).  It would be amazing.  We'll probably never get back to the days of Alcindor, Jordan, and Ewing in college basketball, but this one and done nonsense is terrible and it's not good for the NBA either.  Something needs to change.

Anyway, four more regular season games for Notre Dame.  Then the Big East Tournament.  I'm hoping to go at least Wednesday and Thursday nights.  I think there's a slight chance that I could be able to go Thursday afternoon also, which would be amazing.  I know my brother Tom is in for one day of the tournament, but if anybody else wants to join, let me know.

Spring is almost here.

It's Not Presidents Day

And it's not Presidents' Day or President's Day.

It's Washington's Birthday.

It really bothers me that people refer to this holiday as Presidents Day.  We've had plenty of bad presidents.  Jimmy Carter does not deserve a holiday.  I think James K. Polk was a very good president (I have him ranked fourth all time), but he doesn't deserve a holiday either.  George Washington does.  His birthday should be our second biggest national holiday after Independence Day (which we've also messed up, I covered that in July), but we've turned it into this stupid, meaningless holiday that people call Presidents Day.

The confusion apparently comes from the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968, which moved Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day to Mondays.  Veterans Day was later restored to November 11.  Washington's Birthday was moved to the third Monday in February, which can be anywhere from February 15 to February 21, but never Washington's actual birthday of February 22.  Some years it is closer to Lincoln's birthday of February 12, so that's probably where we get this idea of Presidents Day.  As I covered in my last post, I'm completely in favor of Lincoln's birthday being a federal holiday, but we should make sure that Washington is honored the way he deserves to be honored.  Let's fix this holiday and call it by it's real name.  We should also either celebrate it on the fourth Monday in February or on February 22 every year.

I recently asked a simple question:  Who is the greatest American ever?  To me, it's between Washington and Lincoln.  I wanted to see if I was overlooking anybody.  My friends Darryl and Bobby (both history majors and teachers) said Martin Luther King Jr.  I wouldn't put him ahead of either Washington or Lincoln, but I think you can make a legitimate argument for him.  Other than that, who could be in the conversation?  We had some great Revolutionary Era leaders.  John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson are all probably in the top 15 Americans ever in my opinion, but you can't put any of them ahead of Washington.  We've had some great military leaders, but you can't put any of them ahead of Washington.  I personally think Washington is the third best president of all time, but the only president that you could possibly put ahead of Washington for greatest American ever is Abraham Lincoln.  And no politician who wasn't a president could be put ahead of Washington and Lincoln either.  If you're going to put somebody ahead of Washington, your choices are Lincoln or somebody who wasn't a politician, military leader, or Revolutionary Era leader.  It's hard to find somebody who you could make the argument for other than Martin Luther King Jr.

My answer to the question is George Washington.  He is the greatest military leader in our nation's history.  We've had plenty of good ones, but Washington outranks them all.  For his leadership during the Revolutionary War, Washington would be in the conversation for greatest American ever even if he had never been president.  Being president of the Constitutional Convention also helps his case.  It turns out he was a great president.  It is appropriate that Washington is the only president ever elected unanimously.  Maybe it will happen again, but I doubt I'll ever see it.  Others have come close.  James Monroe won the electoral college 231-1, Franklin Roosevelt won 523-8, Ronald Reagan won 525-13, and Richard Nixon won 520-17, but Washington won unanimously twice.

Washington's Farewell Address is famous for warning against political parties and permanent alliances.  It's funny that we've totally ignored Washington's advice.  I don't think there's any way to prevent political parties from existing, but I do love that Washington is our only president that didn't belong to a political party.  As for alliances, Washington was probably right in 1796.  The United States needed to be completely independent.  Today, we have permanent and necessary alliances.

Like many of our early presidents, Washington owned slaves.  Washington owned 124 slaves.  Washington freed his slaves in his will and he is the only president to free all of his slaves.

I haven't mentioned my favorite thing about Washington yet.  He was the most popular public figure in American history after leading the victory in the Revolutionary War.  Compare Washington to similar leaders such as Caesar, Cromwell, Napoleon, and Lenin.  Washington did not cling to power the way those people did.  Instead, he gave it up voluntarily.  And he did this twice.  On December 23, 1783, Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.  And after two terms as president, Washington retired.  He could have kept winning presidential elections for the rest of his life if he wanted to.  When King George III was told that Washington would probably return to his farm after winning the war, he said, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

George Washington was the greatest man in the world in the eighteenth century.  He is the greatest American ever.

Happy Birthday George Washington!

The Worst Time of the Year

I absolutely hate this time of year.  From the Super Bowl until the start of the Big East Tournament, it's cold and there's nothing going on in sports.  Regular season NBA, regular season hockey, and regular season college basketball.  Those are the sports with the worst regular seasons.  I like all of these sports, but more than half the teams in the NBA and NHL make the playoffs.  College basketball is a little more complicated.  If you're in a small conference, all that matters is winning your conference tournament (with some exceptions like Gonzaga who can get in even if they lose in their conference tournament).  If you're in a big conference, you have to either win your conference tournament or be good enough to get one of the thirty something at large spots in the tournament (if you can't do that, you're just not good).  And today I realized that since tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, I can't eat meat for two of the next three days (the worst three-day stretch of the year).

If you know me from my days at camp and my Alvernian articles, you know that I've been influenced by Bill Simmons in my writing.  But this post is actually influenced by his podcast.  In particular, his Half Baked Ideas podcasts with Kevin Wildes.  His Leap Year Day bit was my favorite moment in BS Report history.  I just loved that idea.  Anyway, Joe House said, "There's no such thing as too many holidays in February."  In another Half Baked Ideas podcast, Kevin Wildes proposed celebrating more eves, like we celebrate Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.  I've been celebrating Thanksgiving Eve for years, and I've had some great Easter Eves with John and Darryl.  So naturally, I loved this idea also.

Also, the day after the Super Bowl needs to be a holiday.  Some folks have suggested playing the Super Bowl on a Saturday.  I'm opposed to that.  I like the tradition of Super Bowl Sunday.  We just need to have a federal holiday the day after the Super Bowl.  The suggestion has been made to push the Super Bowl back two weeks and have it the day before Washington's Birthday.  I'd be fine with that.  Part of the idea was play two more regular season games and then have the Super Bowl two weeks later.  They're not going to 18 games any time soon.  Of course, they could just push back the start of the season.

But here's my solution:  We make Lincoln's Birthday a federal holiday that is celebrated on the second Monday in February.  The NFL season starts at the same time, but each team gets two byes (one of which would come the week before playing on Thursday night).  That pushes the Super Bowl back one week, which would make it the day before Lincoln's Birthday.

And why shouldn't Lincoln's Birthday be a federal holiday?  The man was our greatest president ever.  He saved the Union and freed the slaves.  Besides being our greatest president, you can make the case that he's the greatest American ever.  I took a little survey today on who people thought was the greatest American ever.  My friend/fellow history major John and a few other people said Lincoln.  He's actually not my answer (more on that in a future post), but I agree that a very good case can be made for Lincoln.  If you made a top ten list, there are several politicians that you might consider, but the only politician that you could possibly put ahead of Lincoln is George Washington.  So your choices for greatest American ever are Lincoln, Washington, or somebody who's not a politician.  My brother Sean brought up the names Thomas Edison and Jonas Salk (although he leaned towards Washington).  Not bad suggestions.  When I asked my friend/fellow history major Darryl a few months ago, he said Martin Luther King Jr.  I don't have a problem with that suggestion, and as you've probably noticed over the past 27 years, we do have a federal holiday in his honor.  Check out the list of federal holidays.  I'm not anti-Columbus and he is certainly very historically significant, but I think Lincoln deserves a holiday more than he does.  And while I like not going to work on New Year's Day, I'm not sure why it's a holiday (we put up a new calendar, big deal).  You're telling me Lincoln doesn't deserve a federal holiday?  Let's make it happen.

So to summarize:
1.  We honor somebody who is well-deserving of a holiday.
2.  We get an extra holiday in February.
3.  We celebrate Lincoln's Birthday Eve with the Super Bowl.
4.  The NFL season starts at the same time, but we get an extra week of regular season football.
5.  The Super Bowl comes a week later, which reduces that awful time between the Super Bowl and the start of the Big East Tournament (soon to be the ACC Tournament that I care about, although I might still go to the Catholic 7 tournament occasionally if it replaces the Big East at Madison Square Garden) by one week.
6.  We don't have to work the day after the Super Bowl.

Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln!  Sorry my brother called you racist (yes, this actually happened and if you know my brothers, I'm pretty sure you can guess which one it was).

The Best Basketball Game I've Ever Watched

As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to go to a basketball game at Notre Dame this year.  Tonight's game was one of two games that I was considering going to.  I never would have made it out there today, so I'm not at all upset about not going, but if I had been there, it probably would have been my best blog post ever.

Here's how I spent my day today:  shoveling my driveway, watching The Office on DVD, watching the Notre Dame basketball game, and drinking.  It turned out to be a pretty awesome day.

This game definitely calls for a blog post after enjoying several Boston Beer Company products.  The first 39 minutes of the game weren't pretty.  We led by three at halftime, but we were pretty bad for the first 19 minutes of the second half.  Jack Cooley fouled out on a horrendous call.  I'm not complaining about the referees.  I didn't have any beef with them other than that call.  Cooley had four fouls.  He probably would have fouled out at some point.  And if that foul hadn't been called on him, the game might have turned out differently.  But that call was as bad as it gets.

Anyway, I had my first beer (the new Sam Adams White Lantern, which is very good) about halfway through the second half.  I finished that with about two minutes left in the half. As you might know, I drink by mood, so I decided to have a leftover Old Fezziwig Ale instead of an Irish Red because the Fighting Irish had lost the game.  Only they hadn't.  Late in the second half, Dick Vitale had talked about looking for Cam Biedscheid to score.  I remember thinking, no, I want Jerian Grant with the ball if we need a big shot.  Even if I had realized that he hadn't made a field goal at that point, I still wanted Grant with the ball.  It turns out that I was right and Grant went nuts and scored 12 points in the last minute and got the game to overtime.

Grant fouled out in the first overtime.  Cooley and Knight had fouled out, so it was up to Eric Atkins, Pat Connaughton, Cam Biedscheid, Zach Auguste, and Garrick Sherman (who hadn't played in regulation) to find a way to win.  Pat Connaugton was great (16 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists), Cam Biedscheid hit a huge three at the end of the second overtime (I think it was the second overtime), Eric Atkins played 60 minutes and only turned the ball over three times, Zach Auguste provided some great hustle, and Garrick Sherman turned out to be a very unlikely hero (17 points and 6 rebounds in 22 minutes).  Sherman had a huge tip in at the end of the fourth overtime (I think it was the fourth overtime, I'm losing track), to tie the game.

In the end, we just outlasted Louisville.  We won in five overtimes.  It was definitely the longest game I ever watched.  The UConn-Syracuse Big East Tournament game a few years ago went six overtimes.  I either turned it off at some point or fell asleep watching it.  This game had a very very improbable comeback and my team won.  I enjoyed every Celtics NBA Finals win over the Lakers more than this (because of how much higher the stakes were), but if I were an objective basketball fan, this was the most entertaining basketball game I've ever watched.  And we beat Rick Pitino.  Now that Jim Calhoun is gone, the three most despicable coaches in college basketball are John Calipari, Jim Boeheim, and Pitino (even though his son went to Notre Dame).  We've beaten Calipari and Pitino this year.  Maybe we'll get another shot at Boeheim in the Big East Tournament next month.

If this was hockey and I was naming the three stars of the game, Garrick Sherman would be the third star, Pat Connaughton would the second star, and Jerian Grant would be the first star.  The fact that Grant didn't play the last 22ish minutes of the game and Sherman didn't play the first 43ish minutes of the game and they were two of our three most important players in the game tells you a lot about how amazing this game was.

Go Irish!

I don't recommend driving in a blizzard

I had considered going out to Notre Dame for the basketball game against Louisville tomorrow.  I haven't been in the basketball arena since it was renovated, so I really want to get there while my friend Jon is still in law school there (he graduates next year).  Fortunately I decided not to go this year, because it wasn't going to happen this weekend anyway.  I'll do what I can to get there next year.

I did a post after my last trip to Notre Dame in October about my worst travel experience ever.  I was complaining about having a delayed flight, not being able to drink in the airport, missing my connecting flight, and then having to sleep in the terminal at O'Hare.  I topped that today and I just had to drive 13.6 miles.

I was paying attention to the weather forecast for the last few days and was hoping that school would close early today.  Unfortunately, Elwood and Manhasset were the only school districts that had enough sense to make that move.  It rained for most of the day in Hicksville so I figured the trip home wouldn't be too bad.  I planned to stop somewhere on the way home to get something to eat and at Blue Bell to pick up some liquid provisions for the storm.  Usually I stay and get some work done after school, but today I ran out once dismissal was over.  I left at 2:55.  It had been snowing for about an hour and the roads were getting bad, but I got off to a good start and figured I'd be home by 4:00.  Then I made it North of Jericho Turnpike on Woodbury Road.  And traffic stopped.  At one point, I decided to pay attention to how long it took to go a mile.  It took over 35 minutes.  And I still had about six miles to go.

Then things got really bad.  Woodbury Road comes to a fork shortly after I crossed into Suffolk County.  I wanted to take the fork to the left and stay on Woodbury Road.  As I was trying to go that way, I got stuck.  There were a couple other cars stuck as well.  Not knowing what to do, I called my dad.  He volunteered to come meet me and try to get me out.  I knew that was not a good idea and I talked him out of that.  He asked if there was anybody that could help.  I didn't see anybody so I said there was nobody.  I felt like Commissioner Loeb in the climactic scene of Batman Begins when he had to tell Lieutenant Gordon that there was nobody left to send in.  I was kind of hoping Batman would come to rescue me.  I was thinking I might be spending the next 16-20 hours right in that spot.

I had a shovel and I tried to dig my way out, but the problem wasn't that I was stuck in snow, it was that I was on ice trying to go uphill.  Within a few minutes, the police had showed up and they had closed where I was trying to go anyway.  A police officer pushed my car as I stepped on the gas to help get me unstuck.  I wish I knew who he was so that I could buy him a very expensive bottle of Scotch or something to thank him.  That guy was awesome.

Once I was unstuck, I had to take the fork to the right.  I had never gone that way before, so I had to use the map on my phone to figure out where to go from there.  It was still hilly and my battle was not over yet.  I almost got stuck again, but I managed to get myself out.  I was worried about getting stuck any time I had to stop.  I could have turned on Pulaski at one point, but I went straight instead because the gates by the train tracks had just gone down.  I drove past the Huntington train station and had to stop at a light.  The car in front of me got stuck and I almost got stuck behind that car as I tried to get around it.  That was the last time I got close to being stuck, but I still had a couple of miles to go.  I was really excited when I turned off Broadway onto Fenwick (like two-tenths of a mile from my house).  That was the first time I knew I would make it home (even if something bad happened with the car, I could walk home from there).

I pulled into my driveway around 5:35.  I have never been so happy to get home from work.  What is usually a half-hour drive took almost 2 hours and 45 minutes.  And that was without picking up food and stopping at Blue Bell (don't worry, I have enough age-appropriate beverages for tonight, and I'll need them).  Driving home tonight was the scariest experience of my life (I'm not exaggerating at all).

Big thanks to the Suffolk County police.  Great job by them out there tonight.  I saw a lot of buses crawling along on Woodbury Road trying to get kids home.  God bless those bus drivers today.  I hope all the kids got home safe.

If you're in the Northeast and you're reading this, you're obviously not out there right now.  I recommend that you stay where you are for at least the next 12 hours.

My X Favorite Super Bowls

Today is Super Bowl XLVII and this is my XLVIIth blog post (and I'm going with this Roman numeral gimmick).  The Super Bowl is one of the many many things that makes the United States the greatest country in the world.  Sports and capitalism come together today.  They don't have the Super Bowl in Iran or North Korea.

Anyway, in honor of Super Bowl Sunday, I'm giving you my X favorite Super Bowls.  I'm limiting this list to Super Bowls that I've watched.  If I didn't, I'd have to include Super Bowl III (for obvious reasons), Super Bowl XIX (Joe Montana beating Dan Marino), and Super Bowl XXIV (Joe Montana beating some quarterback from Stanford).  So here's the list:

X.  Super Bowl XLIII.  I remember thinking that the fourth quarter of this game was great, but the rest of the game wasn't.  Santonio Holmes made one of the greatest catches in NFL history.  He was a Super Bowl MVP and a great wide receiver, but the Steelers were willing to give him away to the Jets (should have been a big red flag).  This was also the last game that John Madden ever called.

IX.  Super Bowl XXXIX.  I was rooting for Charlie Weis because he was coming to Notre Dame.  I was also rooting against Terrell Owens since he was the biggest scumbag in the NFL.  Owens played a great game, but Charlie Weis won.  Weis never should have left the Patriots.  But good news, the Patriots haven't been able to win a Super Bowl without him.

VIII.  Super Bowl XXXVII.  This is easily the worst game on this list, but I loved every second of it.  I hated the Raiders more than any team in the NFL back then.  I still hate them, but the Patriots have taken their place as my least favorite team.  If the Buccaneers had been my favorite team, this would have been the NFL version of Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals.  It was awesome.

VII.  Super Bowl XXXII.  I think this is an under-appreciated Super Bowl.  The Broncos were big underdogs, it was probably the best quarterback match up I've seen in a Super Bowl (I'd give Favre-Elway the edge over Brees-Manning, II Aikman-Kelly match ups, and II Manning-Brady match ups), and the NFC had won XIII straight years.  It was a great game.  And it prevented Brett Favre from winning a second Super Bowl.

VI.  Super Bowl XXXVIII.  It would have been awesome if the Panthers had beaten the Patriots, but this was a great game.  For the first XXVII minutes, the teams struggled to score.  Then they went nuts.  It was back and fourth and the Patriots won it with a field goal with VI seconds left.

V.  Super Bowl XXV.  This would be higher on this list if I remembered it better.  It was the first Super Bowl I ever watched.  I remember Norwood missing the field goal, but I don't remember much other than that.  I also remember rooting against the Giants because I was a Jets fan.  I didn't understand that the Bills are a natural rival of the Jets and the Giants aren't.  This is right in the conversation for greatest Super Bowl of all time.  And Bill Parcells won, so that's good.

IV.  Super Bowl XXXIV.  We've had Super Bowls that came down to the last play, but this is probably the best finish in Super Bowl history.  I remember thinking the Rams would win easily because I didn't think the Steve McNair could lead the Titans to victory.  I gained a lot of respect for McNair in this game and he became one of my favorite players.  Kurt Warner set the Super Bowl record with 414 passing yards in this game (amazingly enough, Warner has the top III spots on the list of most passing yards in a game in the Super Bowl).

III.  Super Bowl XXXVI.  The Patriots were not the detestable team that they've become.  The Rams were pretty detestable under Mike Martz (they weren't II years earlier under Dick Vermeil).  I was rooting hard for the Patriots, who were big underdogs.  Due in large part to Mike Martz's crappy coaching, the Patriots were able to pull of the upset.  The game ended with  the greatest kicker of all time making his second best kick of the season (Vinitieri's kick against the Raiders in the snow was amazing, he's is another person that the Patriots haven't been able to win a Super Bowl without).

II.  Super Bowl XLVI.  I was really worried about the Patriots winning this Super Bowl.  My favorite NFL player, Justin Tuck, played a great game with II sacks (pulling him within a half sack of the all time Super Bowl record) and a forced safety on Brady's intentional grounding.  The Manning to Manningham pas was a thing of beauty.  If the Patriots losing wasn't enough, Bradying became a thing:

That's right, Tom, you've failed in your II efforts to tie Joe Montana in Super Bowl wins.

I.  Super Bowl XLII.  I never found the Patriots detestable before this Super Bowl.  This was the season of Spygate.  An undefeated season was on the line.  Because of how big of an upset this was, it gets the nod for the top spot over last year's Super Bowl.  Justin Tuck was the best player in the first half of this game.  I remember thinking early in the fourth quarter that this game could be an all-time classic (a thought I also had II years later, but the TAINT by Peyton Manning to Tracy Porter ruined that) and it turned out to be quite possibly the best Super Bowl ever.  The helmet catch is probably the greatest play I've ever seen (the Mike Jones I yard short tackle and the Santonio Holmes catch are the II other possibilities I can think of).  The Legend of Eli Manning started that day.  And it prevented this.

It's kind of sad that a Jet fan's II favorite Super Bowls were won by the other New York team, but that's the way it is.  Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

Super Bowl Logos

There are some folks who don't like Roger Goodell.  I don't entirely get why people dislike him so much.  Bill Simmons hates Goodell.  He says that the NFL didn't care about issues of player safety, but then he gets mad at Goodell for doing something about the Saints' bounty program.  How does that make sense?  Anyway, there is one thing that Goodell did that I absolutely hate with a passion:  standardized Super Bowl logos.  I'm not kidding.  I feel very strongly about this.  Check out this picture of all the pre-standardization logos:

To be sure, there were some bad ones.  But at least they weren't all bland and generic like the Super Bowl logos Goodell has given us.  Quick googling turned up a logo that would have been a million times better for Super Bowl XLVII than the generic grey logo:

The first Super Bowl I ever watched was Super Bowl XXV.  I'm going to give you my five worst and five best Super Bowl logos from Super Bowl XXV to Super Bowl XLIV.  Let's start with the five worst:

5.  Super Bowl XL.  The only thing good about this logo is that it's red, white, and blue.  It's pretty bland.  There's something lacking.  Give me some kind of artwork rather than just the words "Super Bowl" and the Roman numerals.

4.  Super Bowl XXIX.  The only thing this logo has going for it is the sort of sun-looking thing at the top.  Too many straight lines.

3.  Super Bowl XXXIV.  Pretty bland.  And why is the third X bigger than the other two?

2.  Super Bowl XLII.  Great Super Bowl, crappy logo.  What is that supposed to be?

1.  Super Bowl XLIV.  Unlike Super Bowl XLII, I get what this is supposed to be, but it's just bad.  The game was in Miami.  Give me the beach and/or the sun in the logo somehow.  That logo had no connection to the city where the game was held.

In Goodell's defense, the Super Bowl logos were getting pretty bad.  I didn't really like the logos for Super Bowl XLI or Super Bowl XLIII either.  But I'd still take a bad logo that was unique for each game over Goodell's generic standardized logos.

And now for the best logos from the Super Bowls I've watched:

5.  Super Bowl XXV.  I had four that I really liked and I needed a fifth.  This makes the list for not being bad, for being red, white, and blue, for being from the first Super Bowl I watched, and for being the logo for one of the best Super Bowls ever.

4.  Super Bowl XXX.  It has a very Arizona feel to it.  Very appropriate for a Super Bowl played in Tempe.

3.  Super Bowl XXXVIII.  This is the Super Bowl that has the longest Roman numeral attached to it.  All those letters could have been a problem for designing a logo, but it was done very well.  The planet is also very unique for a Super Bowl logo and appropriate for Houston.

2.  Super Bowl XXVII.  I've talked before about how I want to get to every Major League Baseball Stadium, but I don't feel the need to get to every football stadium or every basketball arena.  There are only two football stadiums that I haven't been to yet that I would make a point of visiting.  One is Lambeau Field.  The other is the Rose Bowl.  This is the perfect logo for a Super Bowl played in the Rose Bowl.  It was also the last Super Bowl played in the Rose Bowl.  They should go back there, but it won't happen because these days they won't put a Super Bowl in a stadium that doesn't have any NFL team (the Rose Bowl never had an NFL team, but it hosted five Super Bowls).

1.  Super Bowl XXXVI.  If you know me well, this one was pretty obvious.