I'm a perfect six-for-six aganist the spread on this season's UK football picks, but there will be no Big Blue football game prediction this week.
Though I've devoted my usual 14 hours (or more accurately, 6 minutes)to handicapping the Big Blue game and as usual I have run all the numbers through my custom handicapping program on the super computer, I will be unable to publish the result.
I apologize for this failure. It is due to some sort of glitch in the software, I'm sure, but I have as yet not succeeded in fixing the glitch. I've run the numbers again and again and again, and each time the results say I should take Tennessee and give the three points.
There's obviously a problem somewhere if my numbers say to take the Vols. I mean, when was the last time they won this game, anyway?

In desperation I consulted another source, one that has proven infallible in the past. Ten times I asked the question "Will Kentucky beat Tennessee tomorrow?"
Answer 1 was "Ask again later."
Answer 2 was "Definitely."
Answer 3 was "No way."
Answer 4 was "Maybe."
Answer 5 was "Definitely."
Answer 6 was "Definitely."
Answer 7 was "Definitely."
Answer 8 was "No way."
Answer 9 was "Absolutely."
Answer 10 was "My sources say no."

So: five positives, 3 negatives, 2 non-committals.

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The folks at the Kentuckysportsradio.com blog have done their usual terrific job. A couple of my favorite lines for the day...
Description of basketball coaches Bruce Pearl and Pat Summitt (with accompanying great photos): " Two of Tennessee’s most famous cheerleaders: One is built like a burly old man with a hairy chest, that creepily hits on women, drinks heavily, and should never be photographed topless. The other is Bruce Pearl."
and
Scouting report on recently arrested player: "No, that’s not a touchdown the officials are signaling for. Jackson is just holding them at gunpoint."

The Big One- Five-O

"The Origin Of Species" was first published 150 years ago today.
I am celebrating by browsing the "Answers In Genesis" web site. I have no idea why, but it is great, great stuff. There is nothing quite as entertaining as someone else's stupidity (as opposed to my own stupidity, which I never think is very funny).

What did I learn while visiting? Lots! I received confirmation that our planet is six thousand years old.

I learned that evolutionists don't really know how old dinosaur bones are because the bones did not have labels attached when they were dug up. Also, the evolutionists weren't actually there when the dinosaurs died, so how could they possibly know? The evolutionists just made up the story to make it fit with their pernicious theory.
Those silly evolutionists, always trying to trick me. I'm too smart for them though- I've seen "The Flintstones," so I know better than to assume people and dinosaurs never lived together.

I don't know exactly what I just did, but I believe my most recent post just disappeared. Several things were occurring all at the same moment- I was having trouble with the web site and trouble with my nearly-spilled cola, and also right at 7 pm, in the midst of the trouble, my antivirus software started a scan and froze things for a moment. Anyway, something happened.

So, I'll sum it up: Go Cats! Huge win! I'm excited!

Now I'll move on.

The scramble was a lot of fun yesterday. We played well. Brian and Jim hit plenty of good shots, John was solid, and I even contributed a few useful shots. We finished 3rd out of 40+ teams.
No prize, though. What a ripoff. All we got out of the lousy deal was a really fun day and the chance to donate to a worthy cause. Darn it.

I'll have no prediction on the UK/Tennessee game until Friday or so, but a simple comparison of scores vs mutual opponents doesn't look promising. I'm not a big believer in such things anyway, but they do have six common opponents and UT fared better (at least in terms of margin) against 5 of them. That seems significant.

This chili is rated PG-13; some adult content, intense themes which may cause tears, also elicits strong language.

Weekend predictions
-The Cats will probably lose to the Dawgs, but I'll take the points and UK.

-Louisville plays somebody, right?

-I'll take Michigan and the points over Ohio State in a scenario similar the one above.

-There are a couple of big PAC-10 games but, eh, I dunno.
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I watched "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" the other night and the opening segment absolutely cracked me up. I've now watched the clip of it (posted at right) about a dozen times. It still cracks me up.

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I encountered difficulty getting this post to publish because of an unclosed tag. Interestingly, I finally determined it was because the symbol for 'bolding' the script includes the word 'strong' and I also used the word 'strong' in my caption. I think that was messing something up.

Latest Wagering Exploits, or...

(alternative title)
How I Learned To Stop Winning But Keep About Breaking Even

My bulging account balance has been burning a hole in my cyberpocket; I've placed bets on about eight or nine races this week.

I lost about $25 total Sunday through Thursday.

Friday I bet on two races and came out a whopping $5.80 ahead. One horse I especially liked- was quite excited about, really- was 6/1 morning line odds and won, but his odds dropped to 7/5. I guess everyone else saw the same thing I did.

Today after work I scouted some races as I watched football. I eventually found a race I liked and won $25. That encouraged me to bet another, which in turn led me to give back six of my recently won dollars.

Factoring in the wagering fees I'm about $3 behind since Saturday. This high stakes gambling is heady stuff, but at $3 per week I guess it beats the garbage on television. Except for "Heroes" and "The Office," of course.

And I'm actually following my old familiar pattern. Twice a year- Derby and Breeders Cup- I make a lot of bets for a couple of weeks and then kind of forget about it.
If I know me- and I don't- I'll go on a cold streak, lose $40 or so over a week and a half, and then not bet on a race until Keeneland reopens in the spring.

Heist of the Century

I visited Knoxnews.com searching for details regarding the arresteded Tennessee football players.

According to the story, the alleged victims say they were sitting in their car when two men in black hoodies opened the door, brandished weapons, and said "Give us everything you've got."

From that point on, the story is about as comical as an armed robbery can possibly be:

"I could just tell he wasn't going to shoot me. He didn't have too much authority," Zickefoose said.
The victims said they showed the two men their empty wallets and said they had no money.
"I said, 'Sorry, we don't have anything to give you.' " Zickefoose said.
"We ain't got nothing but a cheeseburger," Smith added, "but they didn't take that."
A third man then approached the car and told the other two men in hoodies, "We've got to go," DeBusk said.
The three men got into a 2010 Toyota Prius driven by a woman and fled the area. Zickefoose said he glanced at the Prius during the attempted heist and noted the woman seemed amused.
"She was smiling, with a big grin on her face," Zickefoose said.

I played golf at Covered Bridge today. I hadn't touched my clubs since a scramble in August, and I had not played my own ball since July. If my gambling success swelled my ego then I guess golf was the perfect remedy. I shot a 46-49, and that was with pretty good putting.

Actually, I was quite happy with it. My driver and irons were the same as they were months ago- lousy- and my putting was fine. The only part of my game that stunk was my chipping and wedges from 30-80 yards or so. I actually struck those shots okay but my distances were off. Unsurprising, I guess.

Before I left this morning I placed one bet on a horse race- just in case I was still lucky.
I wasn't. My 3-horse exacta box ran 2nd, 3rd, and last. Still, I think I was right to try it. I'd hate to still "be walking around lucky and not even know it."

Good Golly I'm Hot Today

Wow. I woke up still giddy over my weekend winnings.

And this morning it got even better. Last night I logged in to check my wagering account balance, and while I was on I went ahead and placed a $6 wager on the Oak Tee Derby. Then I became distracted and completely forgot about it until a few minutes ago, when I discovered I hit the exacta and it paid $40.

My Breeders Cup Picks

Would you rather take advice from Bad Bob or from the guy who doubled his investment today (me)?

Juvenile Turf: Pounced
Turf Sprint: Get Funky
Sprint: Dancing In Silks
Juvenile: Pulsion
Mile: Zacinto
(If you want a big payoff, your Mile 4-horse trifecta box is Zacinto/Justenuffhumor/Goldikova/Court Vision)

Dirt Mile: Mastercraftsman
Turf: Conduit (long shot= Monzante)
Classic: Einstein

My dream night before last was apparently punishment for my ‘Bah, Halloween’ comments. It was not a nightmare, by any means, but it sure turned out to be a disappointment.

It was a duel-topic dream, the topics being haunted houses and creative writing.

The dream began with a hackneyed, Scooby Doo/Ghost Hunters/Blair Witch scenario in which I attempted to spend the night in a haunted house. Then I was in some sort of creative writing class discussing my short story about people spending a night in a haunted house. Then I was back in the haunted house. Then I was in the classroom again. And so on.

It occurred to me (in the dream) that I could apply this vividly imagined haunted house to my story. I was switching back and forth between the haunted house and the classroom, and at each stop in the classroom
I feverishly wrote all the details of the ghost story I could remember, and I was really on a roll.

It fleshed out into a fantastic story with what I thought were lots of cool details. The house was tiny and clapboard - the former home of Poe, at one point, and then I think it became the home of some heinous criminal- but preserved in the middle of an otherwise modern neighborhood. I came up with what seemed a plausible reason I and two other people (both hot chicks, of course) would be investigating this haunting, and also with some sort of very sinister plot that would be foiled by me.

Anyway, when I woke up I thought ‘yeah, that was a cool story.’ But when I tried to piece together the details I realized there were very few, and that it was really, really stupid. I thought I developed a neat, highly-detailed plot while sleeping, but it was mostly just gibberish. Shucks.

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I finished “The Wordy Shipmates” the other night. It was so-so. I was a little disappointed.
Thanks to three recent bookstore excursions, I now have a small pile of attractive books to tackle over the next month or so. It’s a good mix of weighty stuff and escapism.

I’ll probably be reading quite a lot. Colder weather and earlier sunsets lead to more reading, plus I’ve finally made up my mind to rest my aching knee. I believe I’m just suffering from tendonitis, but it got worse and worse as softball season went on. By the end of the season it was impossible to ignore.

I’m fairly sure I just need to take it easy. After the season ended, and a couple of times since then, I’ve noticed that 3 or so days without strenuous use makes it feel a lot better. But then I keep aggravating it again. This time I’m going to go 3 or 4 weeks and I expect significant improvement.