Fact-Checkless and Loving It: The Impact of the Mercator Effect On Ohio State's Win Over Texas (jk)

The Schloss-Blog is noticing, angrily, that Facebook is going Fact Checkless - just what we need; another social media app with no gatekeepers and a lot of crap. Thanks, Zuck. In addition...

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...Jean Marie Le Pen is dead, the right-wing politician in France who rose to a high profile in good part through antisemitic comments and other conspiratorial lying.

He was deemed a fascist and a racist by a great number of people in France, many of whom took to the streets in celebration upon his death. A far-leftwinger in France called him "an enemy of the republic." 

His daughter attempted to soften the image of the party Jean Marie established to try to help it regain some political prominence.

Jean Marie Le Pen was 96.

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So far, no one from Mark Zuckerberg's office has attempted to take this down since I posted it on 
Faceless, but we'll see what happens.

It's up on LinkedIn too.

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Ever hear of the Mercator Effect?

It's the process by which, on a globe or map, things further from the Equator appear to be much bigger than they are because of the way such a projection appears on the surface.

Thus, Greenland, our far northeast neighbor which Trump wants to buy (with U.S. funds which we don't have) appears to be much bigger than it actually is, as does Antarctica, for that matter. (Trump is determined to push our national debt up over $50 trillion or so.)

Anyway, the United States' esisting military base on Greenland would seem to counter why Trump wants to buy it (for security reasons, whaa..?). 

And so, Greenland, which Trump wants to make the 52nd state (after Canada at 51), would become our frozen wasteland to the north - but it is melting and has lost a good deal of its land mass. Greenland looks twice the size of the United States but is actually about half the size of the U.S. and it's melting fast.

Trump wants to build a hotel there. Go ahead, loser, go ahead.

Canadians, by the way, told BuzzFeed they have no interest in becoming the 51st state.

Trump says he'll invade our neighbor to the north and Elon Musk will apparently lead the armed forces into battle.

The Maple Syrup War - can't wait

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If you watched, as I did, the CFP semifinal games this week between Penn State and Notre Dame and then Ohio State and Texas, you saw some pretty good football and some questionable officiating.

In particular, in Ohio State's win over Texas, as the Longhorns drove toward a prospective game-tying touchdown, they got a key gain on a pass to their tight end, which would've left them just outside the Red Zone.

But a taunting violation (it wasn't) was called an Unsportsmanlike Penalty, which, after the play, moved Texas back 15.

It was key because the next play, as some have pointed out, a completion to star wide receiver Matthew Golden, would've been a touchdown. Instead, it put Texas in the Red Zone and you know the rest - scoop and score for a game-clinching Ohio State touchdown.

Not saying Texas would've won, but the game should've been tied at that point and then ... who knows?

To their credit, on ESPN2, Pat McAfee, Booger McFarland and Tim Tebow all noted, in no uncertain terms, that the flag was uncalled for and inappropriate.

On the main broadcast, with Chris Fowler and Buckeye alum Kirk Herbstreit, didn't hear a word to that effect.

That wasn't heard on SportsCenter later either, with Scott Van Pelt and expert Dusty Dvoracek, who I really like and respect for his careful, precise analyses.

ESPN, you should be ashamed.

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Speaking of the Penn State-Notre Dame game, Nittany Lions quarterback Drew Allar took a beating on social media for the interception that allowed for Notre Dame's game-winning field goal.

What was he thinking? He said later he "just didn't execute."

Oh yes he did, his own execution, on social media.

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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Keith Corbin, great to reconnect.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

Kids, Bowl Games, Gas Prices, Curses and Can Anybody Tackle Anymore?

The Schloss-Blog is noticing trends and they're making us  ... upset, disappointed, angry? Yes, yes and yes. 

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Florida, where no one has awoken in years, has banned kids 14 and under from using social media and is requiring parental permission for kids 14 and 15 to use it. Do they really think this is going to work?

In a related story, parents are going to need kids' permission to go to DisneyWorld in Orlando. In addition, parents without such permission can only be "awokened" by the kiss of a frog.

Yes, for Christmas, Florida has been "DeSantis-claused."

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Hey, sports fans, I'm sure you noticed that all four teams with a bye in the College Football Playoff are out.

Out.

All four started slowly, had terrible first-half performances and are now proving to the "committee" that did the seeding that the committee got it all wrong.

Ohio State-Notre Dame championship game? Yeah, sounds good.

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Uh, gas prices are low right now, really low.

Like under $3 a gallon, national average.

Did Donald Trump do this? No, the Biden Administration did this. But Trump will take credit. 

They've been dropping for a while though, so how come Harris never talked about it during the campaign, as part of what is and has been a robust economy for quite some time?

Never!

I've said all through 2024; Democrats' messaging was awful.

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Speaking of college bowl games, they've sucked, except for ASU-Texas, and even that had a targeting infraction that the refs did not call.

And that's because Texas is needed going forward for TV ratings, while ASU is not. That means it just might have been fixed.

Meanwhile, the not-CFP bowl games have sucked. Too many good players opting out for NFL draft prep or having already transferred because the transfer portal is open on Dec. 9 (closed Dec. 28) and the their bowl games aren't played until mid-to-late December or early Janaury.

That sucks. 

Hey college football, time to move the transfer portal to a later time slot, a lot later. Except that would overlap with actual school semester times. Hmmm...

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So it seems the CFP bye teams all fell to the curse of the bye - they all lost.

Just like pro teams did in the early days of Monday Night Football, with one less day to prepare for their next games. The curse of MNF, and it's been revived by a spate of injuries in MNF games of late.

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Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that defensive players can't tackle anymore? Because they can't.

I once had a very smart high school football coach tell me before a big playoff game against a team with an all-state running back that the best way, the only way to stop him was for his defensive players  to tackle with their heads up.

"If you can't see it, you can't hit it," he told his defensive players before winning that game on the way to a state runner-up finish.

That was 46 years ago. And he was right.

Don't get carried away though ... I keep seeing defensive players falling for hard snap counts and jumping offside unnecessarily. 

And then missing tackles.

It ain't just me.

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I said this during the week:

**SEC teams overrated;

**SEC coaching overrated;

**Georgia sucks.

**So does Alabama.

Enjoy the Notre Dame-Ohio State CFP Championship Game.

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The Knicks. My Knicks. Go Knicks. And Stevenson High's Jalen Brunson.

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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Jack Stroupe, my late father-in-law. You lived a long and vibrant life.

More Sunday Night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

Net Flick This, At the Gaetz of Hell

The Schloss-Blog has noticed something about what's trending in sportscasting and it means he might get mad about having to buy all kinds of different streaming services. And "Brain Rot" is the word of year, per Oxford University Press. Really? Meanwhile, we drop in again on our occasional look at the differences between men and women, and take a look at the traffic at the Gaetz of Hell...

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Matt Gaetz not only took himself out of considerataion for Attorney General, another disaster nomination by Donald Frump, Gaetz wound up having that report he so dreaded released about his activities around sex with minors, drugs, prospective sex-trafficking, et. al.

Sex with a 17-year-old girl, use of Illicit drugs, paying for sex; Gaetz has denied everything, but so did Donld Frump when the Select Committee issued its report on his activities regarding his attempts to overturn the election in 2020.

Unfortunately, Attorney General Merrick Garland didn't believe it either and failed to investigate and prosecute immediately upon taking office or Frump would've been convicted and maybe jailed long before the 2024 election.

Garland sealed his legacy as the worst Atorney General ever with that failure because he became subsequently responsible for Frump having the opportunity to get elected again. Now, the Department of Justice he once headed will likely investigate and prosecute him for investigating and prosecuting Frump as part of the revenge tour that Frump has promised in his return to office.

Oh boy, can't wait for Trump's next turn in office - lots of revenge prosecutions, tariffs, taxes and inflation.

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Meanwhile, with sports trending toward being broadcast live more and more on streaming services, I'm about to become the dinosaur who still subscribes to cable.

Or am I?

My cable services are offering streaming service opportunity tie-ins to my packages for about $10 or so per month, per service, or so I've noticed.

This past week, on Christmas Day, two NFL games were broadcast exclusively on Netflix, which, along with the prior Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson boxing match, is trending toward live sports.

Although I woudn't call Jake Paul versus 58-year-old Mike Tyson "live" sports worth watching, somehow, 65 million Netflix subscribers tuned in.

Sixty-five million!

And that Christmas Day NFL doubleheader drew an average of more than 24 million viewers each for two dogfood games that turned out to be not that competitive.

But, with a playoff game slated for amazon prime this year, after last year's on Peacock, the trend is already there,

Amazon Prime is reportedly paying $120 million for this year's Wild Card game rights while Peacock reportedly paid more than $100 million for the privilege last year. Peacock also reportedly gained 2.8 million new subscribers for that Miami-Kansas City game in the frozen Midwest wasteland, while 23 million of their existing subscribers watched that game.

The NFL, yes, is that compelling, apparently.

And shows no signs of weakening.

OK Peacock, Hulu, Netflix, here I come.

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In this column's ongoing examination of the differences between men and women, we bring you this year-end edition:

**When a man has hair down to his neckline, to his shoulders it's considered long hair.

When a woman, however, has hair down to her neckline, to her shoulders, it's considered ... her hair.

(Yes, I've been letting my hair grow - my grandson, my daughter and most importantly, my wife, all like it, especially as long as I pull it back in a ponytail.)

**Anyway, as this column has noted before, men wear jeans.

Women, however, wear jeans that fit, that really hug their buns.

Which is why I've been wearing comfortable jeans from The Perfect Jeans for a while now (snug and comfortably stretchy), but I recently purchased a pair of Lucky Brand jeans that really fit well - it's a freakin' miracle, from Nordstrom in their semi-annual sale.

**Rolling right along, men like to drive and sing to the tunes on the car radio, whether it's Sirius/XM or just plain old FM, be it classic rock or even hip hop.

Women, however, know the words.

**Similarly, men like to dance (just turn me loose at a wedding, bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah).

Women, however, know how to dance. Just watch 'em on the dance floor at a formal event. It's kind of obvious.

**Finally, men say they're dieting, trying to stay healthy or be trendy and lose weight.

Women, however, make diets work and look good a few months or even just weeks into them.

(Yes, I'm on one - you wanna' make something of it?).

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Noticed at some NFL games fans sticking around at the amazon prime or ESPN psotgame shows and chanting "Sell the team" after a pathetic performance by the home team (hello, Chicago Bears). 

Know what happens to owners, GMs or coaches who listen to the fans? Yeah, they end up sitting with them.

Well, not the owners.

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Joe Burrow was down on this TD pass - I don't call what the expert analysts say, or the NFL. It should have been called a sack.

You agree? 

Didn't matter: they won that game and Saturday night against Denver, just the way the NFL wanted them to, in order to keep more suspense in more games next weekend.

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BRAIN ROT is the word (words?) of the year, per Oxford University Press. What? You agree? Got your own idea?

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My New Year's resolution is the same one I always make but never keep: return Christie Brinkley's phone calls already.

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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Jordan Grinnell.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show. And tune in to radiofeephoenix.com on Tuesday, New Year's Eve, at 10 p.m. Arizona time (midnight Eastern) for a rebroadcast of a great concert by Valley legend Jerry Riopelle. Join in anytime - it's a 3-hour show.