The 2009-2010 Chicago Bears: The Greatest Show on Field Turf?

It would be nice if the Bears did go to field turf. The grass is all-natural, like many of the women I would like to date, but for playing in the 21st century, an offense-friendly system that assists these millionaires in slobber knocking the visiting team's defense makes sense.

But today's psychic vision is one of joy as Lovie & Co. drafted potentially a pass-happy group of players in the mold of Air Coryell and Mike Martz.

Lovie Smith knows what the Greatest Show on Turf looks like. He coached the defense of the 2001 St. Louis Rams (Super Bowl losers by a hair), when QB Kurt Warner went from the cute grocery bagger to 1st-team chick magnet (but married) in the span of two years in the late 1990s.

Kurt got the MVP hardware too. Imagine a Chicago QB with that...

So what about that team and this team? Why are the Bears prepared to be the 'Midway terrific offensive attack' instead of the brutish Monsters of the Carnival?

Since off-season moves and the draft count essentially together, here's the breakdown:

• Traded for all-pro QB Jay Cutler, who has a great arm to go deep always with


• Snatched up LOT Orlando Pace - a familar cog in the St. Louis Ram system


• Drafted WRs Juaquin Iglesias and Johnny Knox(right). Iglesias is more of a possession style receiver with 4.54 speed but a solid West Coast material. Meanwhile, Knox is a burner at 4.34 with agility and hands.

This goes along with RB Matt Forte's agility to catch the ball tremendously well out of the backfield (64 rec) and WR Devin Hester's home run ability. Meanwhile, TE Greg Olsen is a matchup headache for anyone.

Pass protection is critical to the success of this scenario because at least two of the five receivers will run a deep in, skinny post, comeback, speed out, or shallow cross. (Hester and Knox seemed to be suited for this.) This system was mastered by Mike Martz in St. Louis but gives props to Sid Gillman and the ultimate refinement by NFL coach Don Coryell. (With QB Dan Fouts, John Jefferson , Wes Chandler Kellen Winslow, Charlie Joiner doing the on-the-field stuff, that's all.)

The Bears have the needed players:

1. QB with ability to throw for over 4,000 yards accurately
2. Running back versatile enough to catch 60-70 balls and run for 1,200 yards and block
3. 2 WRs with sub 4.35 speed. Hester, with work, can become a lethal deep ball man. Knox smells of being that special deep-in guy.
4. Olsen gives them a proven TE that creates the headache in out routes or down the middle.
5. O-line of LOT Pace, C Kruetz, ROT Shaffer (another acquisition) and Chris Williams (from Vandy, Cutler's alma mater) should be able to execute this blocking scheme.
6. Offensive Coordinator Ron Turner certainly can open up the playbook - brother Norv Turner might even help.

That's my prediction. Let's see what transpires.

4 wide outs, weapons galore!!

250th Post: Last in Smallville(Lowell)...Indiana???

For several years and several reasons, I've been stuck in the non-urban, country town a.k.a. 'Hicksville' that is Lowell, Indiana. It is a deplorable place filled with ultra-conservative, FOX- watching, bible-thumping, tobacco chewing and smoking fools that just do not get the 21st century or the implications of the last thirty seasons of discontent. Responsibility for the United States demise does not compute in their minds. Oh, they blame perceived social ills like gay marriage, abortion and crime for the deterioration of the American Dream. Thinking Reagan got something right. Meanwhile, the magnitude of the real problem steems from economic problems triggered by their GOD, Reagan, and his disciples, BUSH I and II, and Clinton's less-than-liberal leaning economic path.

But that is not the reason I write this 250th post.

Rather, my fuel comes from a volatile home situation that is no longer worth saving. In numerous posts prior, I have basically stated why my family is as backward and unchanging as those conservatives, while, at least pretending to be liberal about some issues. (Mother votes DEMO; aunt does not vote at all.)

The economic problems at home are torturous. They are unyielding to reason, logic, mild irritation, anger and threats to leave. The last is my only option.

Now, I have made my mistakes -documented in many, many posts - and I pay (paid) for them just to see that in my efforts to get turned around, they are unable to make the same concessions and efforts.

So, as I am at least free to report that I haven't been convicted of a crime in 7 years - I have to leave them behind. Let them do the paper route I've done (on their behalf) for 4+ years while garnering less than a minimum wage for myself. That would not bother me, IF, IF, they would pay their bills right, get decent transportation and show some learning about finances. My mother just cleared her 1st bankruptcy, yet, she does not get it.

But it is her unconditional love for her sister that is the final straw. She allows her to make dumb decision after dumb decision - car rentals for 7 weeks (of $1,500) while her minivan had a $100 problem - and covers for her, like she just is not capable of better. Her sister has enough intellect and controlling behavior to do the right thing, but she does not.

Instead she (my aunt) does it to annoy and infuriate me. (She compares me to my father. A terrible and horrible guy - and I am not him. Yet, that's the damage being done to me.)

So, it is time to leave Lowell. I never liked it - nor did I have good reason to stay with these jokers called my family. My mother and I are no longer a rewarding relationship. She picked her sister over me - and more to the point - she chooses to allow her to do whatever she wants.

I'll have a bus ticket, $250 and a bag full of clothes and the book I am writing on baseball. That's it. I have no real friends; that can help. The ticket is to Baltimore, but I need to change it to further South or somewhere else.

I made this plan in January rashly. But now, it just behooves me to escape for good.

Smallville has held me back - and after living elsewhere, it does not have to be SIN CITY to please. I just can not stay the course of insanity to please my mother. AND I don't ever think (now) that she cared at all for me. Tolerated is all am to her.

Castle & Cupid: ABC Hits Bulls Eye With Love And Crime

One is a writer searching for godly inspiration for his new pulp fiction character, Nikki Heat. The other is a God playfully mixing and matching us mortals in order to please his fellow immortals once again.

Those would be short blurbs to describe ABC’s new hit comedies – with serious subjects – Castle and Cupid.

The leading men have their leading ladies panties in a bunch (if we drop the P.C for a second) over what these amorous, ornery and witty god-men decide is right in their pursuits.

Castle (Nathan Fillion, right) takes over where the Moonlighting series left off that ABC ran over twenty years ago. While the guy is slightly more controlled, has a charming young daughter and is much, much more successful, his partner, is more urban, East Coast-educated and refined, than the Cybill Shepherd model character ever was. Castle is playing cop – vicariously acting out his latent, if crude and unvarnished, detective ability stored in his prior novels – while driving the hard-boiled lady cop (Stana Katic)bonkers with his antics. “Children are so hard to control,” she thinks every time Castle interrupts any train of thought she has, yet she likes the child and man in him.

Will Castle’s inspiration like his future Nikki Heat version of her? Will the flames reach season two?

And with the arrow – he hits the mark. Cupid. Eros. The God of Erotic Love. A ‘Stimulus Package’ for your recession love life.

Just what America needs.

Charm and creativity is the name of the love game. Friction can be attractive. Unforeseen happenstance becomes Cupid’s (Bobby Cannavale) target and objective. Vocations in conflict become harmony in the bedroom. Only there’s a problem: Female psychiatrist(Sarah Paulson) thinks he’s crazy, and destroying people’s chances at ‘true love.’

Through Cupid’s imagination and rough-cut plan and her responsible actions and look-before-you-leap intervention, so far, the couples come home cheery. And only 98 more to go before he goes home to Olympus.

It’s Hitch on TV – and the psych lady has a thang for her Cupid – and the God has to fall for ‘Psyche’ sometime.

ABC put these male-female characters at odds, with the men providing the slapstick comedy and the women at the ready to shutdown their whims. It’s fun; and keeps one from dwelling on the recession. Or turning to just ‘reality TV’ that is not in any way reality.

These hour-long forays into the romantic comedies are nicely written and show potential for a 3-4 season run if given their head.

Cubs & Yankees: Destine To Meet in The 2009 World Series?

It would be nice to see those Cubs get back to the place where they belong. (Ok, so they have not belong to the World Series since my great-great -grandpa was watching Ty Cobb lace them up.)

But with opening up of the $1.5 Billion House-that-A-Rod-financed-through-Public- Steroids a.k.a. the new Yankee Stadium, and the Cubs making a cameo in April, I think it only fitting that the Wrigley wonders and new digs be home to the 2009 World Series.

Wrigley is going to be a historic landmark that sees less usage by 2016-17. Why you may wonder? The 2016 Olympics makes it a hope they build a brand new baseball stadium with a Chicago heart of Wrigley Field pumping inside of it. It seems far fetched, but with the stadium renovations becoming a yearly task, a new building with the ivy character and internet modernization would be snappy. (Assuming the Olympics, else, no go.)

But looking at the present, 101 seasons and the Yankees. The Yankees doubled down like a gambling addict in spending three times as much as those AIG executives got in bonuses. So with all that cash, it's a lock to be in the playoffs. Right?Well not so fast there, partner. You better get a blackjack dealer that isn't called Doc. (Or hope C.C. is enough medicine for your ailing pitching. And A.J. is more a Jack-Ass when it comes to getting his meds after injuries.)
The Cubs are hoping Fukudome does not Fuk themout of a playoff run. Or that Harden, Dempster, and/or Big Z fail miserably to repeat last season's pitching excellence. Or that Milton Bradley does not break the Boardwalk (or bat) in showing he cares so much about his performance for those lovable Cubbies. Geovany needs to keep his head. That's all. That's all...???

When it's all said, and written about, the Cubs can go far in the weak NL Central. Then on to Philly, NYC or LA, or maybe Florida Sunshine in October. The Yankees have two teams in Boston and Tampa now that can play Yankee ball better than the Yankees. More talent in the minors too.

I don't count them damn Yankees out - but unless they are going to buy every fantasy star in MLB, I have my doubts.

24 Hours...to live: What would you do?

Awhile back, about 2 years ago, I posted to a renunion site (now Mylife.com) what I would do with 24 hours to live. Here's my 10 things:

Do all the things I never have done due to fear or some hang up externally or internally.

1) anything enjoyable
2) tell people off that deserve it
3) Go skydiving
4) Make [wild] love
5) Eat great seafood
6) Say goodbye to a few friends
7) Watch a sunset by the ocean
8) Fly a plane
9) Give all my money remaining to a down on his luck person
10) Kiss the woman I love before I die

Amendments:

11) Swim with sharks - A great white would be thrill, in a cage of course.

12) Taking batting practice at Wrigley Field, Dodger Stadium and Fenway Park.

As you notice, there is some unfinished business in my life. Flying a plane, making passionate love (not necessarily to the true love, though, that would be special) and skydiving - risky tasks for some, ordinary for others.

I is hard to pack a lifetime of missed opportunities into one day. Flying will cure some of that. You can get pretty much anywhere in the United States in 2-3 hours. But to have to do all that - then die. Boy, that would surely suck.

So why wait?

What usually keeps me from enjoyment such as this is routine and required responsibility. My paper delivery route is a nightly routine. Cannot go anywhere with significant cash.

I wished recently that a superhot woman (say eliza dushku above) would want me for a night companion. But it would be like 2AM and I would have to decide whether to blow off (heh heh) my route or make love to eliza. Now, of course, the animalistic male say, "SCORE BABY!" While the responsible, she's-just-not-gonna-be-that-in-to-you-after-your-performance-baby says, "Wait for true love. You have to pay (your mother and aunt's) home equity and eat in the future."

You can't afford to get fired. The angel with no brains reflects.

But then after watching Dollhouse, I must say I gotta be a major tool not to have such reckless abandon.

So that's the world in which I inhabit.

Today, for example, the car I drive got another brake job (eight months since the last one) for $238. Now, I DO NOT drive reckless or ride my brake. But had other problems (steering column broke) that could explain that. Meanwhile, the auntie after a $700 fucking on Monday, has a transmission leak that caused a no go vehicle. (So that's my life - I live at home. LOSER!!!)

I hope you last 24 hours post can reveal the sadness of the life you lead.

GOOD LUCK!