We will not have a DITCOW podcast tonight, but we return Monday, February 1st for SUPER BOWL WEEK!
Entries from January 2016
No DITCOW Podcast Tonight, Returning Monday 2/1
January 27th, 2016 · Comments
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Podcast: NFL Conference Championships 2015; Random Q’s (01-21-16)
January 21st, 2016 · Comments
This week -- we preview the Conference Championship Games in the AFC and the NFC. What do the Broncos have left after a lackluster performance in their divisional round win? Will the Patriots pull away or will it be a close game for the AFC title? In the NFC, the Carolina Panthers host their first ever NFC title home game against the very capable Arizona Cardinals. Can Carson Palmer improve upon his shaky performance last week and lead the Cardinals to another postseason win in Carolina? Will Cam Newton show his potential MVP mettle with another big win in Charlotte? We look at all the matchups plus some "Random Q's".
Tags: Podcast
This Week’s DITCOW Podcast Postponed
January 19th, 2016 · Comments
This week's DITCOW Podcast episode is postponed to from Wednesday to Thursday night, due to other commitments and possible company at the home studio. We hope to re-join you then, but if not, we'll see you back here next week at our usual time.
Take care for now, and enjoy the games!
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Podcast: Rams Return to LA; Lakers Update w/ Corey Hansford; NFL; Random Q’s (01-13-16)
January 13th, 2016 · Comments
The Rams return to LA following a Owners approval vote in Houston. Dave looks at the new era of football in Los Angeles: can it succeed, and will it get the fan support the NFL expects? We cover how the NFL works in LA PLUS -- Lakers Nation's Senior Writer Corey Hansford joins Dave to give us the latest on the Lakers, including a solid win last night against the Pelicans. Who of the new Lakers are playing the best this year? Will Julius Randle, DeAngelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr., and others be the future of the Lakers after Kobe calls it quits? Plus, an NFL Divisional Round Preview plus Random Questions in Hour 2, hopefully with the return of Kevin on the Cape.
Tags: Podcast
Podcast: CFP National Championship Preview, Alabama vs Clemson, Lakers in Transition, Random Q’s (01-06-16)
January 6th, 2016 · Comments
Lakers Nation.com's Senior Writer Corey Hansford (scheduled) joins Dave to chat about Kobe's ongoing Farewell Tour and the Lakers in Transition -- young players that could be the foundation for the Lake Show's future. We chat up Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, Larry Nance, Jr., and #2 Draft Pick DeAngelo Russell. What do they bring to the table and where can they improve to make the Lakers competitive again? At the 30 minute mark, the Kids Club (Ron, Andy, John) joins Dave to preview Alabama vs Clemson, the CFP Championship Game from University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Will Alabama steamroll to the title or will Clemson's spread offense and the dynamic Deshaun Watson pull off the win? PLUS: NFL coach firings and an NFL Wild Card Preview.
Tags: Podcast
The $30 Prime Rib Dinner for 4 at Safeway
January 5th, 2016 · Comments
Do I do it? A 30 dollar prime rib dinner? Not for me... for a group of 4-6 people! I saw the sign for it yesterday at Pavilions, a division of Vons, which is a division of Safeway, which NOW is a division of Albertsons. The grocery industry is nuts folks. However, this deal looks outstanding, but I will have to pass......... for now. The fight to eat and live healthier marches on.
I wrote a lot of notes in my phone let me share some of those with you:
Last week I was at a sushi place that had a "Dodgers Roll." I am *not* ordering a Dodgers roll in October -- I don't want to choke on it.
Ever try to put a fork into a grape and it won't go through? Some of those grapes are tenacious, and those moments can be so embarrassing. All you want to do is eat the grape with a fork and you gotta press on it and angle the fork and then the juice just squirts out into your eyes. What chaos!
What's the deal with holding the door for strangers? When you're in public and it's crowded, so like Las Vegas for example, or New York, the limits for how long you hold a door open for people can get so vexing. You hold it open for one family, and it's wonderful, the family shows their appreciation, you feel good helping somebody out and people can get right through the entrance, THEN some other jokers come in right behind them! You can't just close the door because you'll look like a *fool.* So you hold it open again for the second family... then right after that a couple comes in as if they were in the same stream of people. You hold it for them, but then you get a couple other guys, and one comes in and you have to wait him out and riiiiiiiiiiiight as he goes in the other guy is just close enough to where you have to hold the door open for HIM. It is a complete mess... where does it end? Why won't someone else step in and pick up the slack? Eventually *you* will be late for something if you don't let the door go, but how can you when one person after another marches towards the entrance?
This reminds me... ever notice that at Disneyland you never have to open a door to ANYTHING? I just realized that. No restaurants, no bathrooms, entrances to rides are just open from the start. This never occurred to me -- was Disneyland designed to have all facilities wide open during business hours? Boy, that's something else!
I went to a Ducks hockey game against the Winnepeg Jets with Canadian Karen and a friend of hers... the game was a laugher, but there was this small line, which grew by the minute for tall stacks of frozen yogurt, so I got in line during the 2nd intermission to try some. This frozen yogurt stack was amazing. The cup was really tiny, about the size of a kid's palm, but the frozen yogurt, split into half chocolate / half vanilla, was so thick and cold that it towered nearly a foot over the cup. This yogurt was tremendous! I'm used to good soft serve like this in many places, the Bigg Chill in Westwood, Menchie's, McConnell's, but this one holds up great. It surely made up for the lackluster house popcorn they had at Honda Center.
Remember Zack Garifalakis? Yeah, me neither! What a *dope.*
Here's my favorite line about anybody ever: The legend that is "Mark in the Morning's" Mark Thompson said that Pauly Shore is so unfunny that "he takes things that are funny and makes them not funny." A line I laugh at again and again.
This week I am craving a box of Valencia oranges. My parents got a few boxes of citrus fruits at a Valencia stand on the way back to Oxnard for New Year's Day. They got one box of Mandarin oranges, one box of regular oranges, and one box of giant oranges. Normally I don't find giant oranges very good because they're just artificially inflated regular oranges, or in simpler terms, a "watered down orange." ...but THESE were tremendous! The regular oranges were that much better. The Mandarin oranges, still smaller than the regular oranges, were simply out of this world. I was blown away by their greatness. Repeatedly I had the thought of driving all the way to that area between Valencia and Fillmore just to get a box of mandarin oranges. Those things are unbelievable.
I have an addiction to Wheat Chex. I LOVE Wheat Chex. It's made of whole grains, plus it has a rather hearty amount of dietary fiber - 6 grams per serving. Wheat Chex is not only healthy but it tastes fantastic. Even when I have dinner I can throw in a partial bowl of Wheat Chex for dessert. It is great.
Last week I was off and I spent that time with my parents in Oxnard. During my stay I stopped at Target and bought a gallon of milk and two boxes of Wheat Chex. It's so irresistible that I bought more boxes of Chex on vacation. Worth every penny my friends, crispy, crunchy, and you can feel the nutrition flow throughout your digestive system.
The most frightening words to hear in the kitchen while on a diet: help yourself.
What's the difference between LA's Miracle Mile, Chicago's Miracle Mile, and the would-not-be-known-of-at-all-without-Billy-Joel Miracle Mile on Long Island? What is the Miracle of any of these "miles?"
That's all I have -- I want to close with a salute to my friend Ari in Philadelphia who showed us this nifty snack invention:
These are slices of pepperoni with a stick of string cheese on top, covering a thin layer of crust. Ari took out the middle man and chucked the crust leaving merely pepperoni and cheese. 180 calories of unadulterated joy, my friends. You'll need a fork for this one he says. Awesome ideas at work.
That's all from here. All the best to you in the early moments of 2016!
Tags: Blog
Kids Club Picks: Week 16 and Final Results
January 4th, 2016 · Comments
Friends, the contest is over, and Week 16 had these outcomes for the Kids Club Picks:
Andy in Seattle went (2-1-1)
SDSU, Seahawks hit; South Florida misses. Push: Jets
Dave in the City went (2-2)
WKU, Cardinals hit; USC, Falcons miss.
John in CT went (1-3)
Giants hits; Temple, UConn, Jags miss.
Ron in NJ went (0-3-1)
NIU, Indiana, Eagles miss. Push: Jets
The winner after 16 weeks: Dave in the City! Here are the final standings.
Dave: 36-24
Ron: 34-24-2
Andy: 31-26-3
John: 29-31
This was a tremendous contest! Ron and Dave went neck and neck for the final month of the year, and overall 3 of the 4 panelists finished above .500. A fine year indeed. Hopefully more of the same next year, and in the meanwhile, we have the College Football Championship preview w/ the panel Wednesday night at 9:30pm ET, following our Lakers update with Corey Hansford of Lakers Nation.com. Tune in at youtube.com/ditcow !
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Bowl Pick’em Favorites - By the Numbers
January 1st, 2016 · Comments
I had a lot of free time on this New Year's day so I compiled a listing of all the favorites in Bowl Games this year. Bowl favorites have had an extraordinarily good year this season. So much so that I looked at what would happen if we weighted all the bowl favorites and gave the biggest Vegas favorites the most confidence points and so on. I have the findings here with one exception -- for the purpose of the pickem I allocated one 30 point entry for the Championship Game. The entry could be used for the favorite (or what most people would select) when ahead... if behind, this entry could be used for the underdog to catch up. However looking at this list it doesn't seem like it would come to that. Picking big favorites with high confidence points would put you either at or near the lead in virtually all Bowl Pick'em Pools w/ confidence points. Here is the listing as of 6pm ET on 1/1/16.
If I picked all big favorites with big confidence points:
Virginia Tech (-13.5): 41
Arkansas (-12.5): 40* (pending)
Alabama (-9.5): 39
Arizona (-9): 38
Boise St (-9): 37
Washington (-8.5): 36
Tennessee (-8): 35
App St (-7.5): 34
Utah St (-7.5): [33]
Bowling Green (-7): [32]
Cal (-7): 31
CFP Championship: 30*
LSU (-7): 29
FSU (-7): [28]
Ole Miss (-7): 27*
Ohio St (-6.5): 26
Stanford (-6.5): 25*
UCLA (-6.5): [24]
Georgia (-6.5): 23*
Minnesota (-6): 22
Miss St (-5): 21
Marshall (-5): 20
Western Mich. (-5): 19
Louisville (-4.5): 18
Michigan (-4): 17
Oklahoma (-3.5): [16]
WKU (-3): 15
WSU (-3): 14
Navy (-3): 13
USC (-3): [12]
Col. St. (-3): [11]
Utah (-2.5): 10
Temple (-2.5): [9]
UNC (-2.5): [8]
Auburn (-2.5): [7]
Indiana (-2): [6]
SDSU (-1.5): 5
SJSU (-1): 4
WVU (-1): 3*
La. Tech. (-1): 2
TCU (PK): 1*
Total points as of 1/1 (at 6pm ET): 554
111 points pending (editors note: Stanford ahead 28-0 in 2nd qtr as of this writing)
It's an incredible study! However, I don't think this pattern would hold most years -- it just so happens that favorites were very successful, more than anyone could predict. Nonetheless, an interesting study and hope you find some good details within. Enjoy the remainder of bowl season!
Tags: Blog
