Merry Christmas

Thought I'd share a few fun snowman jokes to the PEOPLE. Doubtful I'll be blogging the next few days, so Merry Christmas meatballers.





-Jesse

RIP Dolphins Playoff Hopes

Ohhhhhh snap, look who just found out how to put videos on the blog! This probably has little interest to the readers, but, it's a big family tradition back in NY. Why is that? Because my uncle works for NBC and always sneaks into their annual Christmas commercial. This year though, Unc Jeff went big and got his face time in there early (upper left corner in the beard and denim jacket during the :02 to :05 mark). Way to go!

Christmas is four days away, there's a few inches of snow on the ground in Ohio and I'm double-fisting hot chocolate and tea. I love the holidays.

I was unsure about the Yankees basically swapping 2009 World Series heroes Johnny 'Double Steal' Damon and Hideki 'Six RBI' Matsui for Curtis Granderson and Nick Johnson for a while until I found this site. I had a teacher in college who had a little saying about a PR or marketing plan. "You can have it good, fast or cheap. Pick two." What the Yankees effectively did with these moves were get better, younger and cheaper, LOVE IT. For more baseball talk, peep another blog I write for: Deadbeats.

Still looking for something to get your GF/BF for Christmas? Tony Gonzalez is selling his house and if you lock it up today, he'll toss in a Porsche.

Here's a list of what each bowl (save the Cotton Bowl) is giving to everyone playing in their game. You know your boy is going to pick the Texas Bowl as his favorite: $300 Best Buy gift card, Fossil watch, Under Armor shirt, hat and backpack and a belt buckle!

-Jesse

Week 15 and Playoff Picks

Last week:
Cleveland (+10) over Pittsburgh--> RIGHT
Cincinnati (+6.5) over Minnesota--> WRONG
Miami (+3) over Jacksonville--> RIGHT
Oakland (+1) over Washington--> WRONG

This Week:
New Orleans (-7) over Dallas- The 'Boys beat who they're supposed to beat, going 7-0 vs. teams currently under .500. The flip side of that coin is they get beat when they are supposed to, with just a 1-5 record vs. winning teams this year. Last I checked NO hasn't lost since Cliff Lee was on the Indians, so look for them to win big here and tempt Jerry Jones to pull the 'FIRE WADE' trigger.

Green Bay (pk) over Pittsburgh- Pelle's going to hate this if he still reads MITM, but I haven't seen anything lately that would make me pick the Steelers here. What happened to the Heinz Field advantage? The only good team they've beaten at home this year is Minnesota.

Minnesota (-7) over Carolina- Minny proved that they may not be on the Indy/NO echelon, but there is a step between themselves and the next tier of good teams by taking it to Who Dey in the dome.

Cincinnati @ San Diego (over 44)- San Diego has put up 30+ five times on this seven-game winning streak they are currently embroiled on and I trust Cinci to get at least two or three scores to make the over.

Playoffs:
Back in September, I picked these 12 teams to continue playing in January: Pittsburgh, New England, San Diego, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Miami...Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Arizona, New York, Green Bay. If the season were to end today, I'd have weak six teams in, but at least Miami, Baltimore and New York are in the conversation, so I could get up to nine.

With NO, Minny, 'Zona, Indy and San Diego all virtual (or actual) locks to make it, I'll revise me last couple of spots and see how I do with just three weeks to predict instead of 17.


A few links:
Cinci hoping for a case of Deja Vu?
And I'll leave you with an awesome Christmas decoration.

-Jesse

Jersey Shore Fantasy League (UPDATED)

Jersey Shore is clearly my new go-to show and The Lube Tube is on the bandwagon with me. He pitched the idea and we came up with a fantasy league based on this cast of characters. We assigned a point value to virtually everything this freaks could do over the next 6-8 episodes and then drafted our teams. Scoring is head to head each week and rosters and point values are below. Stay tuned for a game recap and live blog on Thursday at 10 pm!

UPDATE: The stakes. Loser has to get a fake spray tan, do his hair in a blowout, go sleeveless at bars and make a kissy face in every photo taken of him during Miami's homecoming weekend in 2010.

The Blowouts (Jesse): J-WOWW, Snooki, Ronnie and Vinny

The Situations (Lube Tube): The Situation, DJ Pauly D, Sweetheart and Angelina

And now for points:

Work

1-Being late

2-Yelled at by boss

3-Inappropriate conduct (drinking, hooking up, etc.)

5-No show

25-Fired

Law

3-Kicked out of bar

5-Cops talk to you

50-Arrested

Hook up

5-Make Out

5-Public indecency (hot tub/patio included)

7-Girl making out with girl

15-Hook up

x3-Threesome

Fight

10-Same Sex

15-Girl hitting guy

100-Guy hitting girl (slaps, hard shoves, tosses, etc.)

Infidelity

5-Excessive grinding

10-Making out

20-BF/GF cheats on you during visit

25-Hook up

Miscellaneous

1-Call BF/GF

1-Saying Guido, Guidette, or The Situation

2-BF/GF crying

4-Crying

5-Puking

5-Bring home random (per person)

10-Getting a tattoo or piercing

20-Break up with BF/GF

25-STD scare

50-Pregnancy scare

x1.5-Anything with a roommate

-Jesse

"Everybody loves me, babies, dogs, hot girls, cougars." -The Situation

If you're not watching MTV's Jersey Shore, make sure you start. It might be the most amazing series premiere I've ever seen. Like a car crash, it's tough to watch, but I can't pull myself away from it. Lube Tube and I are absolutely live blogging the next episode. J-WOWW, Snooki, The Situation, Ronnie, EPIC CHARACTERS. If this show was on HBO or Shotime, it would be the best show of all time. Scratch that, I wish this had it's own U-Stream, so we could watch every single thing these kids do. Thanks Ally for the BBM telling me to watch this classic.

More on that on Thursday, now it's time for this week's NFL picks.

CLEVELAND (+10) over Pittsburgh

The Browns are bad, but that's worse than awful, which is what they were earlier in the year. They've been in the game the last three weeks (@ Detroit, @ Cincinnati, vs. San Diego) and are starting to look like a bottom-5 team in the league - as opposed to a bottom-2 team. The Steelers have been sliding for a month and The Clocktower's unbeaten record in Ohio fell earlier this year, so it's no longer a guarantee he's going to win when in his home state. I like the Steelers to win, but not in a blowout.

Cincinnati (+6.5) over MINNESOTA

Who Dey has only lost one game by more than a score all season (Week 6 vs. Houston) and I don't see them losing to Minny by more than that. Favre threw two picks last week after throwing just three all season before that. The Bengals are top-10 in both INTs and sacks, and they should put enough pressure on the ol gunslinger to force a couple turnovers and keep this one close, if not winning outright.

Miami (+3) over JACKSONVILLE

The Jaguars had around 42,000 people in attendance during last week's win vs. the Texans. That's just over half capacity (78k and change) and with Dolphins fans all over Florida, expect some (lighter) teal and orange to fill up a few seats in Jacksonville Municipal this Sunday. The Fins have boatloads of confidence after beating NE and winning six of their last nine. They could sneak into the final wildcard position with a win vs. the Jags this Sunday.

OAKLAND (+1) over Washington

Oakland has beaten two good teams in the last few weeks (vs. Cinci and @ Pittsburgh) and the 'Skins can't even squeeze out a win when they're up late (see: @ Dallas and vs. New Orleans). Gradkowski has been playing well since taking over for good from Jamarcus Russell with a 2-1 record and six TDs while tossing just one ball to the guys in the other colored jerseys.

-Jesse

One Year Anny/Thanksgiving and Travel Thoughts

We launched on November 24, 2008. Thanks for everyone who's laid their eyes on MITM since then. I (we?) do it for the people.

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Airlines shouldn't say "pagers are not permitted at any time on the plane and should be shut off and put away." They should say "If you still have a pager, get off the plane and onto a time machine, if you are serious with that."

Like Wilson looks like he's put on a few lbs. in the new AT&T commercials bashing Verizon, don't you think?

If you're flying this Christmas, try to steer clear of these airports if at all possible. I thought Newark was much higher in years past. The most recent American Top 5 (or bottom 5 to travel through) are Atlanta (Jackson), Chicago (O'Hare), Los Angeles (LAX), Dallas (DFW) and Denver (really?). By God's grace I flew through/to/from O'Hare and DFW without a hitch on Thanksgiving week.

There's been talks of allowing cell phones on planes in the near future. This would be the worst thing that ever happened to airplanes. That is all.

Why wouldn't airlines just sneak the $10-$20 checked baggage fee into the airfare? There would be no public outcry and people wouldn't event realize fares are up a few percentage points. Southwest wouldn't have to film those dumb commercials with the baggage carriers all sappy about bags leaving or whatever. There are already less flights because of this economy which leads to more seats being filled per plane. Couple that with people trying to save $20-$100 on checked bags means bigger carry-ons. Flights are packed to the gills and more annoying to get on, off and be on than ever before. Ughhhhh I wish I had money for NetJets.

Tiger's other chick is pretty good looking. This is one of the craziest stories in recent memory. Elin's first instinct was to take a golf club through the back window? I really feel like it was more of a 10-16 (AKA a domestic disturbance) where Elin was screaming "You want to golf and leave me for weeks at a time? I can golf too (begins swinging golf club at his face and car)." Then cooler heads prevailed and they thought of a way to cover it up with a fake car accident.

-Jesse

UPDATE: Week 11 Power Rankings and World Series G6 Time Lapse

	Rank	SoS
IND	1	16.4	16.7
NOL	2	20.2	19.7
MIN	3	19.9	15.9
CIN	4	13.8	21.0
NE	5	16.4	15.3
ARI	6	16.9	20.4
PIT	7	14.6	19.6
SD	8	17.7	19.3
HOU	9	15.9	16.7
BAL	10	14.2	15.3
DEN	11	14.8	18.3
DAL	12	19.7	17.9
MIA	13	14.4	14.7
NYG	14	17.9	15.1
GB	15	18.2	16.3
CAR	16	17.3	12.6
SF	17	15.1	20.6
ATL	18	14.6	20.0
PHI	19	18.4	17.4
TEN	20	14.2	13.3
NYJ	21	15.1	14.0
JAC	22	18.0	14.4
CHI	23	16.7	15.3
BUF	24	16.4	15.6
SEA	25	16.0	17.9
DET	26	15.1	15.3
WAS	27	21.6	13.6
OAK	28	16.4	14.7
KC	29	18.7	13.9
TB	30	16.1	14.6
STL	31	15.3	15.1
CLE	32	11.9	17.7

IND - I don't think I need to change my view of them from Week 5. Peyton is still the MVP.

NOL - They have too easy of a schedule. Of the NFC contenders right now, all of them play in a dome. That bodes well for the Saints.

MIN - Dome games are good for an aging quarterback, too. Still, I worry that Brad the Beard is going to screw this up somehow.

CIN - As a Bengals fan, I can't believe it. It's too good to be true. Look for them to lose one of these next three cupcakes (OAK, CLE, DET).

NE - It was the right call. That being said, does anyone else still think the Pats could beat any other team besides the Colts?

ARI - Their remaining schedule is too easy NOT to go to the playoffs.

PIT - Steelers fans are complaining that the Bengals wouldn't have won without Polamalu. Umm, didn't those same fans repeatedly tell Cincy fans to stop complaining about the loss of Palmer in the playoffs and using it as an excuse. Guess what? You're two games back. See you in the playoffs.

SD - Must be nice to play Kansas City and Oakland twice a year.

HOU - I have no idea about what this team can do. For now, let's just assume that they can sneak into the playoffs.

BAL - MNF at its worst. How did this team go to the AFC championship last year? Was Rex Ryan that big of a reason?

DEN - This was the turd of a team that I thought they were at the beginning of the year. Chris Simms + Starting = Other team + Your $$.

DAL - Five weeks ago I said they'd win six games. I was wrong. I forgot how bad the NFC is outside of the Saints and Vikings.

MIA - Ronnie Brown being out for the year really hurts. That wildcat worked (depending on your definition) because of him. Ricky Williams is running like there’s no (pot) tomorrow.

NYG - The opposite of San Diego. They start hot and cool real quick. Get ready for three straight wins and everyone hopping back on the bandwagon.

GB - Note to Mike McCarthy: Please use Ryan Grant more. Thank you.

CAR - NFC is bad. It makes Carolina look good. They aren't. Miami proved that.

SF - Curse of the Crabtree (TMQ). The offense went straight to hell very quickly. Five picks by the D vs. Chicago, and you squeak out the victory? Not a good sign.

ATL - Very disappointing stretch. They get TB twice still, but it may be too late considering the have the Giants and Saints as well.

PHI - Brian Westbrook should not come back. He wasn't having a good year anyway. (Editor's note: the Lube Tube drafted him 5th overall in our FFL b/c he was making soup in the other room or something. HAHAHA!)

TEN - The Vince Young experience! Who would have thought that replacing Kerry Collins would have been a good idea? Everyone. Everyone.

NYJ - There is a reason so few QBs succeed as rookies. The speed of the game gets to them. Give it time Jets fans.

JAC - MJD has to stand for "Makes Jacksonville Decent."

CHI - I want to say that Cutler is now 24 - 27 as a starter. He also looks like he should be on ABC Family.

BUF - Glad Dickie boy got rid of that offensive coordinator. Really saved his job…..

SEA - Seattle 3-6. Cincy 7-2. Seems Housh may have been part of the problem.

DET - They looked decent (5-11) at the beginning of the year, but they'd be lucky to lose by only five points by now.

WAS - Awful. There is not one exciting thing about this team. Seriously. Not one.

OAK - Russell finally got benched. Glad to see they didn't have a backup QB.

KC - You beat Oakland. Congrats. That game was one of the bottom five worst I've ever watched.

TB - Pathetic. Oh, and thanks for beating Green Bay, and ruining every one of my bets.

STL - Steven Jackson is their only threat. He has to hate the fact that he's stuck there for his prime, because this team will not contend again.

CLE - It doesn't rally matter what they do on the field for the next two years. This is a major rebuild that is going to take a lot of patience.

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Thanks to Josh for this hot item. I encourage you all to take three minutes or so and watch this epic display of photography. Week 11 Power Rankings should be up later today

-Jesse