Author: AJ

Huskies and Being Ranked in the Top 25

By Blaidd Drwg

Hey, the Huskies are ranked! Good for them, but before you get excited and start booking you tickets for a BCS bowl, the Huskies are probably going to make their top 25 appearance a brief one. While 5-1 is a nice start of the season, they have really beaten no one of any consequence – They managed to squeak by Eastern Washington, a FCS team with a 3-4 record and Hawaii, a team that traditionally does not play well on the road, in their first two home games. They then got lit up by Nebraska on the road. They have since strung together wins against Cal, Utah and Colorado who are a combined 0-9 in Pac12 Play. Not exactly facing murderer’s row with that lineup. They now have to play Stanford on the road and this has the potential to get ugly folks. Here’s why:

The Huskies currently rank 77th in the nation in points allowed, giving up 28.5 a game. The only two teams in the top 40 in the nation in scoring they have faced are Nebraska and Hawaii, who hung a combined 83 points on the defense. Stanford currently ranks 5th in the nation in scoring – I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they put up 50 on the Huskies defense. The Huskies offense has only faced one top 25 defense – Utah and only managed 24 points against them (they did score 31 total – one touchdown was on a fumble return). Stanford’s defense is ranked 5th in the nation and has been locking down opponents all season. I just don’t see the Huskies putting up more than 21 against the Cardinal. The short version, the Huskies can’t win the game if they can’t stop Stanford and I just don’t see it happening. My prediction Stanford wins going away 49-24.

On the bright side, the Huskies still have the benefit of playing in a very weak conference and should end up the season 8-4 or 9-3. Of their remaining games, they only have a real challenge in Stanford, Oregon and USC (they luckily avoid having to play Arizona St.) and they should roll over on Arizona, Oregon St. and Wazzu who are just a combined 5-13 and not very good.

Random Baseball Thoughts

By Blaidd Drwg

Just had a random thought – the Rays have now made the playoffs in 3 of the last 4 seasons and prior to 2008, were the only baseball team that had not appeared in a post season game. They also made it to the World Series that season, which means they beat these teams to the punch:

Seattle Mariners (no WS appearance since 1977)
Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals (no WS appearance since 1969)
Texas Rangers (made their first WS appearance in 2010)

This then lead me to the question, “How many teams have failed to win a World Series?” The list is a bit longer:

Colorado Rockies (lost in 2007)
Houston Astros (lost in 2005)
Milwaukee Brewers (lost in 1982)
San Diego Padres (lost in 1984 & 1998)
Seattle Mariners (No WS)
Tampa Bay Rays (lost in 2008)
Texas Rangers (lost in 2010)
Washington Nationals (no WS)

The Rangers are still alive, so one of them still has a chance to remove themselves from the list, although it would have been interesting to have both them and the Brewers in this year’s World Series looking for their first title.

Other interesting never have lists:

Never thrown a no-hitter:
The Padres and Mets are the only 2.

In researching this, I found the longest stretches without being no-hit in each league belongs to the A’s in the AL, who have not been no-hit since 1991 and Cubs in the NL, who were surprisingly last no-hit by Sandy Koufax back in 1965, in a game that featured just 1 run and 1 hit 1 walk and 1 error by both teams, combined.

Never had a 200 hit season:

Just one – Tampa Bay. Aubrey Huff had the highest single season total with 198, but no one has cracked the 200 mark.

Never had a 20 game winner:
Colorado and Tampa Bay. Both teams have had a 19 game winner, but no 20 game winner.

Never had a 40 Home Run Hitter:
Only the Royals have failed to accomplish this (the franchise record is 36 by Steve Balboni in 1985). They somehow completely missed out on the steroid era.

And The Kitchen Sink Too

by A.J. Coltrane

According to reports, the Raiders have traded for Carson Palmer. I would have been in favor of the Seahawks acquiring Palmer, but not at this price:

…the Raiders agreed to send their first-round draft choice in 2012 and a conditional pick in 2013 — which could become a first-round pick based on the level of Palmer’s play — to Cincinnati in exchange for the 31-year-old Palmer.
Yikes. Then there’s this:
This had better work for the Raiders, because there’s no cavalry coming if Palmer fails. The Raiders could get a compensatory pick in as high as the end of the third round for the loss of Nnamdi Asomugha in free agency. But for now they’ve traded three 2012 picks for quarterbacks — Palmer (first-rounder), Terrelle Pryor (third-) and Jason Campbell (fourth-) — and lost the second- in exchange for picks this year to take rookie tackle Joe Barksdale and running back Taiwan Jones.
The Seahawks may have actually dodged a bullet. So long as the quarterback position doesn’t become a reanimation of the  Kelly Stouffer/ Dan McGwire/ Rick Mirer zombie carousel, anyway.
 
In other news, boy was I wrong about Aaron Curry, but then, so was everybody.
 
Raiders fans seem excited though.

The Moron Who Poisined the Trees at Auburn

By Blaidd Drwg

I am trying to figure out which is the worst thing in this article about the poisoning of a couple famous oak trees at Auburn University:

– Someone was despicable enough to poison a perfectly healthy tree because it is on the campus of a football rival.
– Alabama has a law that allows this guy to be tried for the crime of desecration of a venerated object.
– Alabama considers a tree on a college campus a venerated object (how very un-Christian of them, something about false idols I believe).
– The moron who did this named his kids Bear and Crimson Tyde.

He should go to jail on the 4th one alone.

Bean Dip and Juliet

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Poor Pig. He has such a great idea for a novel, but just can’t get the names right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the result of his inability to name his characters:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Pearls Before Swine on 9/29 and 10/1. It is a good thing that Shakespeare was better with names than Pig.

The Winner of the Blind IPA Tasting is…

By Iron Chef Leftovers

..Pliny the Elder.

I will admit it, I was wrong.  I really didn’t think that Pliny would be able to win, although, it barely won. The scoring was on a scale of 1-9 with 1 being the best. There were 5 tasters and the tasting was conducted blind. Here are the results with how everyone scored them.

Rank Beer Judge #1 Judge #2 Judge #3 Judge #4 Judge #5 Total Score
1 Pliny the Elder 2 1 4 4 1 12
2 Boundary Bay IPA 4 3 2 2 2 13
3 Diamond Knot Industrial IPA 8 2 3 3 3 19
4 Anacortes IPA 1 7 9 1 4 22
5 Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA 6 6 1 7 6 26
6 Firestone Walker Double Jack IPA 5 5 5 8 8 31
6 Laughing Dog Devil Dog IPA 7 8 6 5 5 31
8 Avery Maharaja 3 9 7 6 9 34
9 Harpoon IPA 9 4 8 9 7 37

The judges’ identities are being kept secret to prevent retribution from any disgruntled beer drinkers, except Judge #1, which is yours truly.

I would caution anyone reading this that finishing at the bottom was not an indication of a bad beer – it was just in this sampling, the judges preferred one beer over another. I think if I poured any of these beers individually, everyone involved would have enjoyed them. You also have to deal with sample size – 5 people are not enough of judges to really get a handle on this, and I do think there is a certain extent of regional bias – everyone tasting the beers has lived in the Northwest for an extended period of time. There was some great conversation at the table surrounding what people liked and did not like and why the ranked beers in a certain place, which was unexpected and most enlightening.

This was a fun experiment and one that I hope to repeat again once I get my hands on some additional bottles of Pliny.

I also attempted to identify the beers. I was successful on 4 out of the 9 (I got Maharaja, Harpoon, Anacortes and Boundary Bay correct) but I somehow didn’t get Devil Dog (thought that Pliny was DD) or Diamond Knot (thought that Firestone was DK), which are 2 of my favorite beers. I wasn’t guessing on these, I was basing my decision on what they smelled and tasted like. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me though, the 4 I got correct were the last 4 IPA’s that I drank prior to this taste test, so everything about their makeup was relatively fresh in my mind.

While the NW beers did not win, they did finish 2nd, 3rd and 4th, which should not really be a surprise. Boundary Bay could have easily won the competition purely with my vote – I had Maharaja, BB and Firestone all ranked about the same and I kept changing my rankings on them. On several occasions, I had Boundary Bay ranked #3 and I changed it to #4 at the last minute, otherwise it would have tied with Pliny.

Harpoon’s last place finish was not a terrible surprise, it was by far the least hoppy beer in the competition, at 42 IBU (The next lowest was 75) and was really tasteless compared to the other 8. It was also the only English Style IPA, whereas everything else was a West Coast style single or double IPA.

I was also surprised that I didn’t like the Diamond Knot IPA. It is one of my favorites usually, but, unlike the other judges; I really didn’t like it on this day. I might have just had a bad day or my palate was not working at 100%, but I was getting a smoky/woody flavor out of it that was a bit off-putting. On the flip side, I was loving Maharaja, but I was in the minority in that opinion as everyone else ranked it in the bottom half of their list. Anacortes proved to be the most polarizing with 2 judges giving it the top spot and 1 the bottom. Anacortes was probably the highest IBU beer at 118 and it was the only one that did not come from a bottle – I drove to Anacortes 48 hours before the beer was poured to get a growler as it was the only way I could be assured that we would have it – I couldn’t find it on tap anywhere near Seattle. I think this might have led to some of the comments about it being flat.

So where does this leave us? I think it is inconclusive – Pliny, while a fine beer, doesn’t seem to be significantly better than at least one beer brewed in the Pacific Northwest, Pliny just has better marketing and distribution than Boundary Bay (as well as scarcity driving up the hype).  We need to do this again with a larger group of hopheads and see what the results look like in round 2. A couple of the beers might need to be replaced due to lack of availability (Harpoon definitely will be replaced), so who should be added to the lineup? Feel free to post your suggestions in the comment section.

Creamy Tomato Gazpacho

By Iron Chef Leftovers

With the extremely late arrival of summer in Seattle this year, all of my tomato plants ended up ripening at once instead of in stages. As a result, I had more tomatoes than I could possibly use, so after giving away a bunch of them, I was looking for new and exciting ways to use them (caprese salad is nice, but you can only eat it so many times before you end up getting bored of it, no matter how good the tomatoes).

I recently saw an episode of America’s Test Kitchen where they made Andalusian Tomato Gazpacho. It was an easy recipe, and really involves less than 10 minutes of hands on time to make, so I decided to give it a shot, with a few modifications.

The Software
2 lbs. tomatoes
1/2 red onion
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 cucumber
1 anaheim chili
2 tablespoons verjus (or sherry or red wine vinegar)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 cup of good extra virgin olive oil
1 slice good sandwich bread
2 sprigs of fresh oregano, stems removed.

The Soup
Seed the peppers and cucumber and remove the core from the tomatoes (leave the seeds). Roughly chop all of the vegetables into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces, place in a bowl and toss with salt. Transfer the vegetables to a fine mesh strainer and sit over the bowl for 1 hour to allow some of the liquid to be removed from the veggies. After an hour, add the bread to the liquid and allow to absorb as much of it as it will in about 1 minute (don’t worry if there is leftover liquid). Add half of the veggies, 1 tablespoon of vinegar, half of the bread and 1/2 of the oregano to a blender. Blend for about 30 seconds. With the blender running, slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup of olive oil. Once it is all incorporated, blend for an additional 2 minutes. Push the liquid through a fine mesh strainer. Repeat with the remaining ingredients, adding any leftover liquid from the veggies that were sitting over the bowl. Refrigerate for a couple of hours (overnight is better). Taste, adding salt and pepper if necessary and serve cold.

Notes
I used verjus since the tomatoes were extremely sweet, so it cut the sweetness. You could probably use just about any kind of vinegar. I ended up using a combination of tomatoes since that is what I had on hand, but you can use whatever type of tomato you choose. The chili is optional – remove it if you don’t like chilis or add any other chili if you like something hotter. Don’t skip the salting – it removes the liquid from the vegetables. I garnished the soup when I served it with some diced tomatoes, diced chilies, a couple grinds of black pepper and a drizzle of red wine vinegar and olive oil. Some fresh herbs, onions, croutons, crème fraiche or goat cheese would probably work well also. This soup can probably be heated and served warm and be just as tasty.

I figure that I am going to try this recipe with the green tomatoes that are left on the vines since I doubt that they will ripen as fall is upon us. If you have green tomatoes and don’t know what to do with them, Green Tomato Salsa is wonderful and they can be pickled also. If you can’t be bothered with them, just give them to me, I would be happy to use them.

Recommended Game: Agricola

by A.J. Coltrane

Title:  Agricola

Game Type:  Resource acquisition/allocation game.

The game is better than the box suggests.

Number of Players:  2-6

Complexity of Rules:  Medium/High

Time to Play:  2 players, over an hour. 3-4 players, 2-2.5 hours. The box says 30 minutes per player, which is probably true if everyone has played once or twice and they’re focused on the game. Four players is plenty if I’m going to be playing. (See “Why I Like It”, below, for more explanation.)

The Concept: The players are European farmers, around 1670 AD. Each player is striving to build the biggest and best house and farm, as well as have the most livestock and most vegetables/grains. Having a big family is desirable too. Players must balance this growth against the never-ending need to feed their family. Starvation is always possible at the next harvest.

Each turn the player designates a family member to acquire resources. Resources can be anything — grain, mud, reed, food, wood, sheep, coal, grain, cattle, stone, etc. (Even using a family member to claim “first player”, or to make more family members, costs an action.) Players then use their resources to build stuff — fences for livestock, more rooms for the house, upgrading the wood house to something better, building a brick oven, or digging a well, or a host of other things.

The game ends after 6 harvests (14 turns). Whoever has the biggest family and biggest and best farm wins. Ideally nobody starved out in the process.

Why I Like It: Agricola is a fairly involved game. Thinking about what you’re doing is highly rewarded — really, it’s mandatory. However, the “thinking” isn’t really *heavy* thinking. It’s not the thinking required for really deep strategy games like chess. There just aren’t that many viable decisions to choose from. It’s definitely possible to have a beverage, chips, and a conversation, and still keep the game moving.

But here’s the rub:

Note that the game lasts 14 turns. On average each player gets about three actions per turn. Let’s say we’re playing with four players. That’s 14 x 3 x 4 = 168 actions. If people are thinking ahead and paying attention it might take 30-40 seconds per action, and the game will conclude in about 2 hours, like it says on the box … if the group isn’t paying attention and they’re not thinking about what their options might be when it’s their turn to play, or they can’t make up their minds, or they’re taking smoke breaks — look out. 168 actions at 1 minute per action is 3 hours, and at 90 seconds per action it’s 4.5 hours. 

Having said that, Agricola has been either liked or loved with everyone I know. Get two or three friends together and turn off the tv and the cell phones. Agricola finds a nice balance of strategy without being headache-inducing. Highly recommended.

Available at Gary’s Games in Seattle or Amazon(dot)com. BoardGameGeek page is here.

Also recommended is a Plano 3500 to go with it. (Photo by Brian Spieles via BoardGameGeek images.) I believe that’s the same one that I have here.

 

 

The Queen is Dead…

By Iron Chef Leftovers

It looks like Bricco on Queen Anne has closed up shop. Opening in its place sometime in October will be a new restaurant by the former chef at the short lived 5 Corner Market. I really liked the food at 5 Corner, so hopefully it will be along the same lines.