Briefly.
Prospects for Sale! (This is still a great line!)
The minimum salary for a major league baseball player is $507,500.
RIP Princess Leia – DYK, Carrie Fisher completely finished filming her role and all necessary reshoots for Star Wars: Episode VIII which won’t be in theaters for almost a year. (I must add RIP Debbie Reynolds as well. Sad in that she followed her daughter’s death the next day)
Now must be a good time for trivia question #1: Of the numerous celebrity deaths in 2016 who was the first, passing away on January 10? Answer below.
Headline of the Week – Pagan priest granted right to wear horns in Maine driver’s license photo.
Trivia #2 – What is the one day of the week on which an NFL game has never been played? Answer below.
Double-down on a good deed. 36-year old Josh Katrick of Nrothampton, PA was going through his eighth round of chemotherapy for treatment of colon cancer when he found out he had won a pizza parlor’s, his favorite, raffle for a years’ worth of pizza. Katrick promptly donated his winnings to the Northampton Food Bank. After hearing of Katrick’s plans for his donation, the owners of Mario’s Pizza decided to double-down and award the prize to both him and the food bank.
Believe it or not. The Notre Dame sports information director convinced future Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann to change the pronunciation of his name from “THEEZ-min” to “THIGHS-min” so it would rhyme with Heisman. The new Mr. Thighsman would not win his Heisman, finishing second to Jim Plunkett. (Hmmm, never heard that before)
FoxNews.com put out an article entitled – “A Look Back at 2016. Stories that amazed, amused and made history.” Then you read the opening to the article only to see that it contains only the stories that FoxNews.com broke first. I guess all other news just wasn’t news?? What a joke.
Monmouth men’s basketball coach King Rice was warmly welcomed back to Chapel Hill, NC on Wednesday when his team took on the Tar Heels. The overly emotional Rice thanked coach Roy Williams for putting Monmouth on their schedule for the 2nd time in 6 years and Rice went on to say that he was “the luckiest guy that in 1987, Coach (Dean) Smith gave me a scholarship and it’s made me have a great, great, great life.” This was all after his team lost the game 102-74.
According to Merriam-Webster, the word of the year is “surreal” (meaning: marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream) because it was looked up significantly more frequently by users in 2016 than it was in previous years, and because there were multiple occasions on which this word was the one clearly driving people to their dictionary.
Conversely, for the 8th year in a row(!), the New Marist Institute of Public Opinion revealed that the word “whatever” was considered the most annoying word or phrase used in casual conversation. In a poll of adult Americans, 38% were most annoyed by the word “whatever”.
OK, so the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in the playoffs if: they beat the Panthers AND the Cowboys beat the Eagles AND the Titans beat the Oilers AND the Colts beat the Jaguars AND the 49ers beat the Seahawks AND the Giants beat the Redskins AND the Lions beat the Packers. Noooooooooooo problem!
The Bruins faced arguably the best team in hockey on Tuesday night spotting the Blue Jackets to a 3-0 lead before the 1st period was half over. The rest of the way they were the better team and fought back to tie it, only to give up a late power-play goal and fall 4-3. Can you say “missed opportunity?”
Polk County (FL) Sheriff Grady Judd says his office arrested a real-life Grinch who allegedly masterminded a scam to steal toys from the Polk County Toys for Tots charity. The Ledger reports that 38 year-old Tammy Strickland was charged with 166 felony counts and 28 misdemeanor charges. Bail was set at $180,000 because of the numbers of charges. She is still in jail and it’s unclear whether she’s retained an attorney.
22 coaches have coached in the AFC East since Belichick took over the Patriots in 2000. We have to remember, Robert Kraft gave up a first round pick to get Belichick. While there have been several franchise players in the NFL, Belichick is the only franchise coach.
The Celtics can be frustrating to watch these days. They are just not able to pull out wins in those “big” games. See last night vs. the Cavs.
Speaking of the Celts, Marcus Smart has a new hairdo only this one isn’t cutting it either.
Pats/Packers Superbowl.
Congratulations to Wac & Murph. What a great couple!
Final RIP to Robert Leo Husleman, inventor of the Red Solo Cup. DYK, the rings on the “real” Red Solo Cup (18 ounces in size) mark 1.5 ounces for liquor, 5 ounces for wine and 12 ounces for beer? (If you have never drunk from a Red Solo Cup I want to know)
Trivia answer #1 – David Bowie
Trivia answer #2 – Trick question. At least one game has been played on every day of the week. (One Tuesday game was played due to a blizzard in Pennsylvania and the single Wednesday game was because the NFL moved the Washington-New York Thursday night season opener so it wouldn’t overlap with John McCain’s speech at the Republican National Convention. The Friday games were either Christmas or New Years’ related)
“We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.”
I sincerely wish all of you (and yours) a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!
Ed's Head On Friday 