Waldorf to your Astoria: September 2009

Week 3 in review

Quite an exciting week, especially if you're a fan of Brett Favre. Not so much if you're a fan of good football and you watched the game on Monday night. Yikes.

Let's get down to what we saw in Week 3.

First things first: the Seahawks new jerseys.

Not too much new to be said here, since I'm sure people across the country had singed retinas, too. But I will say: if ever there's been a good argument for more gays in football, this was it. I am a fashionless gay man, but would never, ever allow a team to hit the field in something like this. C'mon, straight men! Yeah, we're blaming this one on you.

Sep

Week 3 preview

Coming off a really stellar week for picks, this is a pretty good opportunity for me to go back to clueless. I mean, I don't have a ton of strong feelings about the matchups I see, and the law of averages may as well be the law of Bill's NFL picks.

That said, here are my five fearless predictions for the week, including one upset. For some reason, I think this week will be less about upsets than weeks past.

1) Tom Brady rebounds. I know, shocker. But still, it should be said.

Sep

Bobby Framingham reviews "Glee"

I caught up with Bobby Framingham, star of the critically SUPER-acclaimed novel "Out of the Pocket" this morning and asked him whether he'd watched Glee last night. Now a freshman and fourth on the depth chart at QB at Stanford, he said he didn't have much time to chat. But finally he relented (journalists are known for being relentless).

Here is the ensuing conversation.

Q: So Bobby, did you watch Glee last night?

A: I watched it at a friend's place.

Sep

Stroke - A Sad Update

I got a text message from a number I didn't know just now. It turned out to be the son of the man who had a stroke at the restaurant where I was having lunch yesterday. I forgot that I had lent the man's wife my phone to call her son, so he had my number.

Sep

NFL Week 2 wrap-up

I was just 3-2 in my fearless Week 2 predictions, but what a three they were!

And I quote:

The Jets ... will keep this one close with supurb defense and will have a chance to beat Tom Brady with a final drive. In fact, I'll say they will win on a last-second field goal. Jets over the Pats.

Jets 16, Patriots 9.

Turns out they didn't need a last-second field goal. Their defense looks really, really good.

Sep

Bagel and sugar cookie

After my aborted lunch at the Granary (lost my appetite), I went and got a sandwich at a bagel place. And came across this sign:

Where to begin?

1) Has anyone ever ordered these two items together? Ever?

2) I tried to come up with a less appetizing combo: Brisket and beef jerky? Pudding and mayonnaise?

3) The price.

Sep

I watched this guy have a stroke...

So I'm sitting at the bar at a restaurant called the Granary, having an island salad for lunch. And I hear someone saying, "Um, Sir, can you please help us?"

I look up, and see that the woman who said it is looking directly at me, with some disdain in her eyes. Then I look closer and I see she is standing over an elderly man, who is lying on the ground, his chair tipped over next to him.

Sep

Pre-Week 2 thoughts

First off, I saw some "expert" making predictions (I'm pretty sure it was on NFL.com) where they were choosing games based on things like: "The Lions have the 32nd ranked pass defense..."

Duh. They faced Drew Brees and the Saints. It seemed really strange to me to assume that Week 2 will be a carbon copy of Week 1. In fact, teams that struggled in one facet of their game in Week 1 are much more likely to over-compensate against it than anything else.

Sep

Tortoise and the Hare

Today I was the hare.

I wanted to push myself to finish the first mile of my two mile "run" as fast as possible today, just to see if I could do it. And also knowing that I'd have to get back -- one of my biggest fears has always been getting stranded and being unable to get home.

I did pretty well. My first mile split was 7:45, and that included 90 seconds of walking. Of course, on the way back, I was only able to run for four minutes, and I walked for nine.

Sep

Southeast Review Interview

Here's a nice interview I did with Southeast Review. I like that on the front page of their site, they feature a quote from the interview:

“I would like to stop relying on scenes that utilize screaming or crying as the climactic moment. These bodily explosions seem to come too easily to me as a writer…”

Ah yes. There I go again, talking about bodily explosions. I need to stop doing that.

I thought the questions interviewer Katie Cortese asked me were quite interesting.

Waldorf to your Astoria

Author Bill Konigsberg's blog.