I started this blog 20 years ago tomorrow without any clue about what I was doing. (Yes, you can still say this today.) My first post didn't include a title. My second post misquoted the start of Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock's It Takes Two. Over the next few weeks and months, I wrote mostly short posts which would today be considered tweets or Facebook updates about a wide variety of topics though mostly about Pittsburgh sports. I was recently married and several years away from any kids. We didn't even have a cat yet!
20 years later, I have now spent over 40% of my life writing a blog. This is my 3,383rd post. From what I can find, Sean's Ramblings is the oldest, continuously-operating personal blog. There are other blogs that are subject specific (such as about individual sports teams) that are older, but many of them have had various writers during their existence. So why do I still write a blog? I'm not sure that I have a good answer. I really have no idea how many people still read this. I don't know much about SEO (search engine optimization), and I've never figured out how to build an audience. The best answer is that this is a journal for me. Yes, it's a public journal visible in theory to the entire world, but I write for me. And a little bit for my kids in case they ever want to read through this one day (even if they have no idea who Kevin Pittsnogle is though they may have heard of Flavor Flav).
I wrote fewer posts in 2024 than I have in any other year of this blog's existence. Part of the reason is that my posts are longer. You can read my random/quick thoughts and pictures on Facebook, Bluesky, Twitter, and Instagram. I consider many of my posts here to be "articles" or at least longer or more substantial than your typical tweet. So will I write more in 2025? Maybe. An average of a post a week seems reasonable, though I'd like to increase this some.
My main goal for this blog in 2025 is for me to branch out by attending events as a blogger/media member. I submitted an application to cover the Grammys virtually, and I plan on trying to participate in a few other things. (If anyone knows of events in the DC area, please let me know!) I think I bring a different perspective than many influencers that would be fun to read.
Thanks to all of you for reading this post and any of my other posts over the years. While I wrote that I write this for me, I do enjoy having an audience! Thank you!
While I've written this before, I dislike best and worst posts that come out in November or early December. What happens if you see something great in late December? Does it qualify for the next year or is it just forgotten? Now that 2024 is complete, here's my annual best and worst list. Please note that the items in this post represent what I watched or saw in 2024 even if they came out before this year. For example, The Sound of Music was released about 60 years ago, but I saw it for the first time over the summer as part of a live outdoor screening/sing-a-long (which was a lot of fun).
Best TV Show: A Man on the Inside and Primo
There's two things in common with these shows: They are comedies with a lot of heart, and Michael Schur is a producer on both. Primo, which aired on Freevee in 2023, featured a teenage boy in San Antonio raised by his single mom and five uncles. While it's a coming of age story about the teenager, the dynamics between the five uncles (as well as with their sister and nephew) made the show. I'm writing this in past tense since it's unfortunate and disappointing that the show was cancelled after one season. Still, I highly encourage you to check it out.
A Man on the Inside follows Ted Danson, a widower hired to live in a retirement community by a private detective to try to solve a case of a stolen necklace. This one seemed to hit close to home between older residents and Mary Elizabeth Ellis (maybe best known as The Waitress on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and her husband raising three boys. Any scene with the three kids seemed to mirror many parts of my life. While there are certainly funny moments, I think the show is much more of a drama than a comedy.
Right before I published this post, I changed my mind. My favorite TV show that I watched in 2024 was Only Murders In The Building. Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are fantastic. The show has so many good lines and scenes and amazing guest stars. The "minor" characters are all awesome too. The only negative is that I haven't watched the last two episodes of season four since my free Hulu subscription ended. I need to see how the last season ended!
Worst TV Show: Yellowstone
I watched the first three seasons last year, so this only represents season 4 and season 5, and really it's just the last 6 episodes which aired in November and December 2024. The show returned after a nearly 2-year break by killing off a major character but not having that character appear on screen thanks to a contract dispute. Even though there wasn't much time to wrap things up, there was still time to show Yellowstone's creator and writer Taylor Sheridan play poker several times and have Rip tell a story about meeting Sheridan's character at a bar fight. Oh, and there's always time for 2-3 minute clips of horses stopping quickly in the dirt for the 713th time. I really hope that there's not a 6th season though I would watch a spin-off featuring Mo and Teeter.
Other TV shows I watched in 2024:
Night Court
The Bear (season 2)
Archer (final episode)
Not Dead Yet
Abbott Elementary
Quantum Leap
Atlanta
Shogun
Modern Family (I had the last few seasons from several years ago saved on my DVR)
Welcome to Wrexham (latest season)
The Big Door Prize
The Amazing Race
Fargo (season 5)
High Potential
The Other Two (season 3)
Girls5eva
Succession (last half of last season)
Hard Knocks: In Season with the AFC North
Hacks (season 3)
Beast Games
Best Song: APT by Rose and Bruno Mars
While I wrote about my favorite songs of 2024 a few weeks ago, APT by Rose (from the South Korean group BlackPink) and Bruno Mars is my favorite. It's pure pop and really, really catchy. To me, the bridge makes the song.
Don't you want me like I want you, baby
Don't you need me like I need you now
Sleep tomorrow but tonight go crazy
All you gotta do is just meet me at the
So good. Plus, if you want to be silly, you can replace the chorus with a-pa-chocolate chip. It works. (Credit to The Moose for this change.)
Worst Song: Lonely Road by MGK and Jelly Roll
Look, if you're going to use the tune from John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads, just do a cover.
Lonely road, take me home
To the place that we went wrong
Where'd you go now?
It's been a ghost town
And I'm still here all alone.
No. No. No. No. No. Now, if you insert West Virginia after where'd you go now, that might redeem the song a little. That might be funny.
Best Movie: The Holdovers
I'll admit that this was the toughest pick for me. Oppenheimer and Barbie both deserved all the acclaim they received. Poor Things and Emelia Perez are both very weird (especially Poor Things), but I appreciate that the films went for a big swing. They are both so much different than anything I've seen. With all of that, The Holdovers is a safe pick. Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa are all excellent. A feel good story and ending too.
Worst Movie: Maestro
I give credit to Bradley Cooper for acting and directing this movie about Leonard Bernstein. I just found that I didn't really care about Bernstein's personal life.
Other Movies I Watched in 2024 not mentioned above:
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the 1971 version)
Dumb Money
Mississippi Burning
Lincoln
Ex Machina
A Star Is Born
The Sound of Music Everything Everywhere All at Once
Top Gun: Maverick
Knives Out: Glass Onion
If
Wicked (part 1)
Best Book: Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Vera Wong runs a tea shop with barely any customers and finds a dead body in her shop one morning. From there, she decides to solve the case. It's a really fun read.
Other Books I Read in 2024:
Rickey by Howard Bryant
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
60 Songs That Explain The 90s by Rob Harvilla
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn (only a few chapters in)
Best Pittsburgh Sports Moment:
The real answer should be anything related to Paul Skenes, but this picture (as shown below) after Pitt's men's basketball team defeated Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium in January is still awesome. Pitt really should have made the tournament, but a few pre-conference losses sealed their fate.
Worst Pittsburgh Sports Moment:
Everything else! The Penguins didn't make the playoffs. The Steelers lost in the first round of the playoffs in snowy Buffalo and seem headed to that again next week. The Pirates are the Pirates, Pitt's football team lost 6 straight, and Pitt's women's volleyball team had an incredible year but lost in the final four. Duquesne's men's basketball team winning an NCAA tournament game was fun though.
Best Sports Moment I Saw Live: Maryland Women's Basketball
Yes, this is definitely recent bias, but the pass starting around the 3:40 mark of this video was awesome.
Most Meaningful Blog Posts:
The high and low of 2024 came just a few weeks apart. The Moose celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in early April, and then, my mom passed away at the end of the month. I'm grateful that she was able to watch the ceremony online and congratulate him on an amazing job.
Worst Blog Post: A Hawk Tua Post
This was a dumb idea about hawks that lived on my street and the Miami Dolphins quarterback.
Best Concert: Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
I saw these concerts about a week apart, and that's quite the twin bill. What I appreciate about both is that they have deep catalogs and play such a wide variety of their songs. I was awestruck by the Bruce concert, and as I was leaving Nats Park, I started going through his hits that they didn't play. I wasn't upset. Bruce and company could play a 7-hour concert and still not play everything!
It's time for my annual trip around YouTube to find some of the best videos about and celebrating Hanukkah. White the videos below are fun and/or entertaining, none of them mention the new-ish tradition of pickles during the holiday. I don't have any musical talent, so maybe next year someone will mention pickles in one of their songs.
A long-running subplot of this blog is that there must be some type of rivalry between the a cappella groups Six13 and The Maccabeats. They're like the sharks and the jets. Or Coca-Cola and Pepsi. This year, both groups took this rivalry to a whole new level by both having songs related to Wicked.
There's a new (at least to me) a cappella group on the scene, Y-Studs. It's almost like they're the channel 2 news team in Anchorman.
Since I visited Winnipeg earlier this fall, let's hear about the Hanukkah celebration in Manitoba.
How about some historical context about the holiday courtesy of Epcot.
A big deal is being made about Christmas and Hanukkah falling on the same day. This is from CBS:
Back to music. Kosha Dillz has a new Hanukkah song.
A land called Sufganiyot? Yes please!
Finally, this is just a clip of Spidey and The Thing saving Hanukkah by getting latkes back. I really want to see how this started (and if there are pickles involved).
Happy Hanukkah to those who are celebrating. And Merry Christmas to those who are celebrating too.
My friend Josh does a series of best of the year posts which I highly recommend checking out. Josh is also smart in that he does several posts on specific topics (such as favorite song, podcast, etc.) rather than one long post like I do each year. While I still plan on writing my one "best of" and "worst of" post in the next week or two, I feel like sharing my favorite songs of the year. A few notes. Many of the videos below are live performances because the actual official videos have a word or two that is not suitable to be viewed at work or with kids. In one case, I actively dislike the official video, so I used the live version. I also admit that most of the new music I hear is pop music, so that takes up pretty much the entire list. Even the two country songs I included received massive pop airplay. Enjoy.
Shaboozey: A Bar Song (Tipsy)
Pretty sure this is the biggest song of the year. I really enjoy the callback to J-Kwon's Tipsy from, gulp, 20 years ago.
Hozier: Too Sweet
Nothing like hearing your kids sing "I take my whisky neat."
Madison Beer: Make You Mine
I don't go to clubs, but if I did, this seems like a fun song to dance to.
Dasha: Austin (Boots Stop Workin')
I just like this one.
ROSÉ & Bruno Mars - APT.
Spoiler. This song will appear in a future blog post.
Gracie Abrams: Risk
Pretty sure that I'm the last person in America who learned that Gracie Abrams is the daughter of J.J. Abrams.
Charli xcx: 360
Tough call between this song and her other song, Apple. Going with the keyboards.
Chappell Roan - HOT TO GO
I accidentally left this off the post originally. Catchiest song of the year. Plus, as I wrote recently, spelling words in songs equals a hit!
When I was a sophomore in high school, I participated in Junior Achievement. Once a week in the evening, I would carpool with two friends and join about 20-30 other students from the Eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. I don’t remember much of what we did other than make hangars and sell them. While I appreciated the mission and purpose of JA, I really haven’t thought about the organization in years.
Fast forward to a few months ago at The Moose’s back-to-school night where his Civics teacher mentioned a field trip and the need for volunteers. All Fairfax County 8th graders visit Junior Achievement’s Finance Park. There are several in the DC area and probably many more across the country. According to their website, Finance Park is an experiential education designed to engage middle school students for life and work in the real world. It combines classroom curriculum taught by teachers with a high-impact situation. While this sounded great, I had no idea what this meant.
On the field trip day, I arrived at Finance Park and got a tour of the facility and received a brief training which left me with more questions than answers. We were then ushered into the auditorium with about 150 8th graders. Each student had already been assigned a group, and when the individual group was announced, each volunteer escorted the students to the particular room. Once in the room, I introduced myself to my group of 8 students, they introduced themselves to me, and I distributed tablets to each of them. The tablet showed each student a specific occupation, salary (including how much was taken out for taxes), and indicated whether the students had a spouse and/or children. After a few minutes making sure everyone was set with their tablets, each group went to one of about 15-20 rooms. The purpose was for the students to make a budget from their monthly salaries. This was my room:
I was assigned health, life, and disability insurance, which is definitely a fan favorite among 8th graders. A group would come into the room, and I asked them if they knew what health insurance, life insurance, and disability insurance is. While they did okay with health insurance, no one got disability insurance correct. At least 3 groups joked that life insurance is when you die, and they were shocked that this was actually correct. Then, the students would set a budget in their tablets before going to the next room. There was only about 2-3 minutes per group, so there really wasn’t time to explain how health, life, and disability insurance are often tied to employment. I enjoyed seeing each group including many of The Moose’s friends and The Moose himself. More about him momentarily.
After each group went to the 15+ rooms where they budgeted for many areas including transportation, housing, childcare, and utilities, the groups returned to their original room. Once back, they got to spend their money. It was fun seeing how many kids wanted a sports car or if they were able to sell off their kids or get a divorce. They quickly discovered that childcare can be expensive. And while you might want a sportscar, your spouse is going to have to find a way to get around too. My group was, um, interesting. One kid literally put his head on the table and didn’t really do the spending part. It’s a field trip! Pretend to be interested! Another kid discovered how to access YouTube on the tablet and played Travis Scott videos. Perspective is nice. You could really see several of the kids trying to be cool by not taking the activity seriously because another kid didn’t. At the end of the day, The Moose told me that the kids in my group were annoying.
The best part of the day was seeing The Moose and him being happy to see me. He smiled and waved every time he passed the room. He will not want to see me in social settings at some point in the near future, but that hasn’t happened yet. I'll take that as a win.
As for Finance Park, I wish I had this in 8th grade. It really shows how many expenses adults have. I’m also willing to volunteer again though it won’t be until my other boys reach 8th grade!
(The first picture is from the Junior Achievement of Greater Washington. The rest are by me.)
I recently submitted an application for virtual media access to the 67th annual Grammy Awards in February 2025. Unfortunately, the Sean's Ramblings budget does not allow me to travel to and attend the red carpet and ceremony in Los Angeles (assuming that I get accepted), but I think it would be fun to cover the Grammy Awards remotely and provide interesting and informative information to you. To demonstrate my music credentials to the Recording Academy, I am writing this blog post to show a trend in music history maybe not known to many. And my finding/theory is this:
Spelling a word in a song = H-I-T
Seems simple, right? Like A-B-C (though ABC isn't an actual word), easy as 1-2-3!
While I acknowledge that this is not an exhaustive review of every song with words spelled out, I think this is a pretty thorough list. The idea of this post/theory stemmed from the current Chappell Roan song, HOT TO GO! where the artist spells out H-O-T-T-O-G-O 14 times. It's a really catchy song and Target agreed by featuring it in a commercial. HOT TO GO reached #15 on the Billboard HOT 100 chart, but would easily have reached #1 if Billboard had a HOT TO GO 100 chart. Let's take a look at other songs that help make my argument.
Respect by Aretha Franklin
This is simply one of the greatest songs of all time. Not much more to write except that it went to #1 in 1967.
Saturday Night by Bay City Rollers
BCR (did anyone ever call them BCR?) just comes right out with a spelling lesson. It’s right there at the start of the song. S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night! Saturday Night hit the top spot in 1976.
Jump Jump by Kris Kross
Two different words spelled in the same song. First, you have the D-A-double D-Y-M-A-C. (Yeah, you know me!) Later, either the Mack Daddy or the Daddy Mack spells out J-U-M-P. Next, wear your clothes backwards, and you get a 1992 #1 song.
Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani
You never realized how much fun it was/is to spell bananas until Gwen Stefani told us. This song was #1 in 2005, or nearly 20 years ago which is B-A-N-A-N-A-S!
U.N.I.T.Y by Queen Latifah
Although this song didn't reach the top 20 like the others above (#23 in 1995), this is Queen Latifah's biggest song and won a Grammy for best rap solo performance.
Gloria - Them
Until I started writing this post, I thought this was a Van Morrison song. Turns out, the song was released by Morrison's band Them in 1964. This is the rare song in this post that didn't chart very highly. Sort of. While Them's original Gloria only peaked at #75, a cover version released around the same time by The Shadows of Knight reached #10. Patti Smith and The Doors both had their own versions of the song. This song received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and made multiple greatest songs and rock songs of all time lists. While I can't prove it, I don't think this happens without Morrison spelling out G-L-O-R-I-A. (The audience shots in the video below are fantastic.) Thanks to Wikipedia for all of this information.
P.I.M.P. by 50 Cent
Let's go back to 2003. 50 Cent was the biggest artist in the country. His Get Rich or Die Tryin' album sold over 9 million copies. Although P.I.M.P. didn't reach the top spot like 50's first two singles from this album, it made it to #3. Not too shabby.
Safety Dance by Men Without Hats
After being told that you can dance if you want to, this song went to #3 in 1983. I also danced to this song with friends at an 80s dance party in college.
Fergalicious by Fergie featuring will.i.am
Glamorous by Fergie featuring Ludacris
While Fergie may not be a pioneer in spelling words in songs, if you had a spelling contest, she would be the bee champion. Fergie released these songs back-to-back with Fergalicious reaching #2 in January 2007 and Glamorous going to #1 in March of the same year. The former somewhat indirectly spells multiple words like the D-A- double D-Y-M-A-C did 15 years earlier. First, you have "T to the A, to the S-T-E-Y girl, you tasty" followed by D to the E, to the L-I-C-I-O-U-S. Glamorous has none of the "to the" in the middle of a word. That's probably why the latter went all the way to the top of the chart!
First Class by Jack Harlow
Harlow sampled Glamorous in 2022 and kept the spelling of Fergie's title in his version. The result was another #1 song.
Lola by The Kinks
Spelling out C-O-L-A and L-O-L-A is just brilliant. This song reached the top 10 by going to #9 in 1970.
R.O.C.K In the U.S.A. by John Mellencamp
#2 in 1986. Maybe this would have gone to #1 if Mellancamp went by John Cougar Mellencamp at the time.
Steal My Sunshine by Len
Although it’s not prominent, Len sneaks in the spelling of L-A-T-E-R early in the second verse. Steal My Sunshine went to #9 in the US in 1999 and is Len's only charting song.
Can’t Hold Us by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton
The winner of the longest spelled word goes to Macklemore for I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T. No record label is going to sign him. He's not going to sell out! Can't Hold Us went to #1 in 2013 and was the most streamed song on Spotify that year.
O.P.P. by Naughty by Nature
Y.M.C.A. by Village People
Technically, these are abbreviations and not words. O is for other, P is for people. The last P , hmm, stands for property. This song reached #6 in 1991 and was played at every single homecoming dance in America that fall.
Not much to write about Y.M.C.A. Amazingly, it never reached #1 in the US, peaking at #2, though it went #1 in 15 other countries. If someone finds this blog in 100 years and looks through the songs in this post, this is the one that will still be known.
Finally, I'll give an honorable mention to Taylor Swift for her song Me with Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco where she says "Spelling is fun." I agree with Taylor (though apparently there was some controversy with this line), and spelling words in songs is a key to success!
Now that we're through Thanksgiving, it's the perfect time to, um, revisit Pittsburgh Pirates predictions made back before the season started. While the full post is here, let's see how we did.
1. What do you expect from Paul Skenes this year?
Skenes exceeded all expectations. He finished the season with a record of 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, and 170 strikeouts in 133 innings pitched. Skenes won the National League rookie of the year, finished 3rd in the NL Cy Young voting, and started the All-Star game. Josh predicted Skenes would have 10-12 wins and finish top 3 in rookie of the year. Point for Josh!
2. What do you think Oneil Cruz's state line will be for 2024?
Cruz had an uneven year. 21 home runs, 76 RBIs, .259 batting average, and 22 stolen bases. He also had 181 strikeouts and moved from shortstop to center field. Overall, a positive step forward, and Pirates fans hope that he builds off this season and becomes more comfortable as an outfielder for 2025. Josh was the closest again predicting 24 HR / 66 RBIs / 20 SBs / .252 average.
3. Who will lead the Pirates in home runs?
The answer was Bryan Reynolds with 24. Is this turning into Josh's Ramblings? He is the only one who predicted Reynolds. Jim, The Moose, and I all made the terrible call of Jack Suwinski. We chose poorly.
4. When will Livvy Dunne make her debut at PNC Park?
The answer was May 11th for Skenes' first start. While I hoped that people would give an actual date, the question was somewhat vague, so Brian and Amanda both said she would be there for Skenes' debut. Technically, they were right. Points for them.
5. Will Rowdy Tellez be more successful as a Pirate than Daniel Vogelbach?
If we answered this question on June 1st, this would be a definite no. Turns out he was pretty good the last few months of the season before being unceremoniously released during the last week of the season. His overall stat line was 13 home runs, 56 RBIs, a .299 OBP, 1 stolen base, and a -0.4 WAR. He also made three pitching appearances. In 2022 with the Pirates, Vogelbach had 12 home runs, 34 RBIs, a .338 OBP, and a 0.6 WAR. As fun as Rowdy was over the summer, I think the answer is no. Jim predicted no and Brian leaned that way. Points for them.
6. Will the Pirates be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline?
Overall, the Pirates were buyers getting Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Bryan De La Cruz, and reliever Jalen Beeks but the team also traded Martin Perez to the Padres. Brian, Gary, Josh, and Jim all get credit for their answers.
7. Overall Pirates record and place in the division
The Pirates finished 76-86 with the exact same record as 2023. However, the team finished last in the NL Central. No one thought the Pirates would finish below 3rd place in the division. We were also an optimistic group. Josh's prediction of 79-83 was the closest.
Congrats on Josh on doing the best in predicting. Let's try this again in 2025.
Photo of Skenes by Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images. Photo of Dunne by Charles LeClaire-USA Today. Charles is making the rounds!
My friend
Christian and I are attempting to attend a National Hockey League game in every
city with a team. While our annual hockey road trips haven’t been as annual
lately (thanks to kids and Covid), we’re closing in on our goal. This year,
joined by our friend Jason, we visited Winnipeg along with North Dakota. I
already wrote about our dining experience in Winnipeg and will write a separate
post about being a tourist in Winnipeg, our time in Grand Forks, North Dakota,
and how we confused both American and Canadian border agents. This post focuses
on the Winnipeg Jets-Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game. Please note that there
are plenty of non-hockey related items, so please continue reading even if
you’re not a hockey fan.
Let’s start
with scheduling this trip. Our initial idea was to attend a Jets game as well
as a University of North Dakota hockey game. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t
work out for a UND hockey game though we did incorporate a visit to a
University of North Dakota football game instead. Because why wouldn't you
go to a UND football game when you have the chance? Fortunately, the timing
matched up with seeing the Jets face my hometown team, the Pittsburgh Penguins.
I figured out that it's been over a decade since I attended my last Penguins
game. In the pre and early Alexander Ovechkin era in Washington, it was really
easy to get tickets to Pens-Caps games. That changed when the Caps started
being good, and ticket prices got a lot more expensive. And while I go back to
Pittsburgh at least once or twice a year, I haven't been to PPG Paints Arena,
except to see the Harlem Globetrotters. This is a long way of writing that I
was very excited to see Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in person again.
Trying to be a
gracious tourist, I didn't want to walk around Winnipeg and the arena
wearing Penguins gear. However, I wanted to show that I am from Pittsburgh for
people who might understand.
Even though
there were a lot more people in Penguins gear than I expected (I forgot that
Crosby is a national hero in Canada), exactly zero people commented on my
shirt.
Going with the
Jets (and Top Gun) theme, I liked that the home team hits the ice to Danger
Zone by Kenny Loggins.
That's Kenny
Loggins!
For no apparent
reason, the Jets have two mascots. The first is Benny, who served as the team's
mascot in the 80s and 90s before the team moved to Arizona and is now the
secondary mascot. Benny is named for the former team owner Ben Hatskin and for
the song Bennie and the Jets because nothing represents Sir Elton John's
longstanding ties to Winnipeg like a blue mascot with a giant red nose and
mohawk.
The second
mascot is Mick E. Moose, which may be one of the worst names in mascot history
and seems like a Disney lawsuit waiting to happen. The silhouette of Mick E.
visiting our section might give you nightmares!
When the Jets score a goal, the arena blasts Takin' Care Of Business by Bachman-Turner Overdrive (along with the goal horn). Fun fact: the band is from Winnipeg, so this song makes perfect sense. The mascot really should be called BTO rather than Benny. Anyway, after the initial playing of the song, the arena staff figure out who scored the goal, and each player has their own individual song. It's a very cool idea that I haven't seen before. While one player had your standard AC/DC goal celebration song and the others weren't very memorable, Adam Lowry's goal song is Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter which is certainly a choice.
The Jets have a
house band called Mach 10 that perform between periods. At one point during one
of their sets, the lead singer announced that they were going to play a song
that is a fan-favorite and represents Winnipeg. Was it a BTO song? Bennie and the Jets? If you guessed Bon Jovi's Livin' on a
Prayer, you win!
I appreciate
Winnipeg making me and others from Pittsburgh feel like home.
Mid-way through the second period, a chant of "Where is Rutger?" emerged throughout the entire arena. Rutger McGroarty was the Jets 1st round draft pick in 2022. While I don't know the entire story, it seems that Rutger never wanted to play in Winnipeg, so the team traded him to the Penguins over the summer. The one thing you can't do as a player is say that you don't want to be there. Fans hate that more than anything else, so even those wearing Penguins gear joined the chant. I tried to answer the question by explaining that Rutger is currently in Wilkes Barre-Scranton, home of the Penguins top minor league affiliate, but no one seemed to acknowledge my response.
Before the
game, the team had a nice tribute to forward Bryan Little who had one last
pregame skate with the team. I didn't realize that Little played his last game
in 2019 but only formally retired recently. He is a fan favorite in Winnipeg.
This is the
best jersey I saw at the Canada Life Centre:
If you really
want to see highlights from a game that occurred a month ago, please check out
the video below. The game recap is here too. You might notice that Pittsburgh center Lars Eller had two
goals for the Pens. I think he is a solid veteran that the Penguins would want
to help the team win. (Sean's note: The Penguins traded Eller to the
Washington Capitals last week, so never mind.)
A month after
this game, the Penguins are near the bottom of the Eastern conference standings
and like this game in Winnipeg, regularly lose leads. Meanwhile, the Jets are
16-3 with the best record in the league. If the Penguins aren't going to win
the Stanley Cup, I'm going to support the Jets especially since I can say that
I attended one of their games during their championship season. And here are a few more pictures.
The Steelers
faced off against their division rival the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday and
somehow prevailed 18-16. Here are some key stats from the game:
The goal in
football is to score more points than your opponents. To do this, you usually
need to score touchdowns. The Steelers scored the same amount of touchdowns as
me on Sunday with 0.
Wide receivers
Van Jefferson, Calvin Austin, and Mike Williams combined for 1 catch for -1
yards. Again, that's one less than my cat Lucy.
Baltimore
rushed for 124 yards on 19 carries for 6.5 yards per carry. With that type of
success, many are asking why the Ravens didn't run the ball more. Derrick
Henry, arguably the best running back in the NFL, only had 13 carries.
The Steelers
were 4 for 16 on 3rd down conversions. That's a lot of failed 3rd down
conversions.
The Ravens
scored two touchdowns in their two red zone attempts, while the Steelers went
0-4 in their trips to the red zone.
Based on these
stats, you would definitely think the Steelers lost. Again, they scored no
touchdowns against the highest scoring team in the league! However, the
Steelers forced three turnovers and kicker Chris Boswell went 6 for 6 on field
goals and that was the difference in the game.
8-2 is nice. Go Steelers!
Finally, I need
to give credit to Taco Bell for using Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta in one of
its newer commercials. Love this song.
Much better than Davante Adams looking miserable that he has a Taco Bell in his house. (Just ignore everything other than the commercial in the video.)
Late in the fourth quarter of the Pittsburgh Steelers-Washington Commanders game, the Steelers had the ball with a slim 28-27 lead. The Steelers ran three straight running plays with Washington using all of its time-outs to stop the clock after each play. The Steelers had 4th-and-1 with 1:02 remaining on Washington's 49 yard line and chose to bring out its offense instead of punting. I said to my kids that the Steelers were going to try to draw Washington offsides because there was no way they would go for it and risk giving Washington the ball only needing about 15 yards to get into field goal range. (I only said the first part.) Everyone knew this. Well, maybe not one person. Let's go to the video.
As the Steelers celebrated the win, all I thought of was this:
I watched a lot of TV over the last few days, and I've come up with this conclusion: There is too much coverage of the Dallas Cowboys. Seriously, they are a mediocre to above-average team and have been that way for nearly 30 years. While I stand by my opinion of the Cowboys and the media obsession with this team, that's obviously not the point of this post.
I created Sean's Ramblings as a diary of sorts. The purpose of some posts is to share something entertaining or interesting with people who read this, but there are other posts that are more for me. I like being able to look back at posts I wrote about major moments of my life over the last 20 years. Big things like the birth of my kids and the passing of my parents. I also see this blog as a bit of a time capsule for me. Because of that, I want to write my thoughts on the 2024 presidential election in real time.
Let's start with this. I'm disappointed with the results. I wanted Kamala Harris to be the 47th president of the United States and not just because I predicted in January 2020 that she would be president on January 1, 2030. (My prediction of the Kansas City Chiefs winning the most Super Bowls in the 2020s is looking good right now.) Obviously, this is 20-20 hindsight, and I'm not trying to play the blame game (though it may sound like it). Joe Biden never should have run for reelection. Back when he was running for president in 2020, he talked about being a 1-term, transitional president. At some point during his term, probably when he saw that Trump was going to be the Republican nominee, he changed his mind. Many believe that Biden thought he was the best (or only) person who could defeat Trump since he did it before. However, it was clear during his debate with Trump over the summer that Biden could no longer serve as president and campaign for re-election at the same time and then do the job for another 4 years. He should have bowed out a year ago, allowing for a Democratic primary. Again, I'm really not trying to blame Biden. I think he is a good person and should be remembered as someone who dedicated his life to serving Delaware and America.
Unfortunately, Biden's late decision to bow out of the race left Kamala Harris little time to organize. Again, this is hindsight, but even after her time in the Senate and as Vice President, she's not that well known to many Americans. I'm writing this acknowledging that I follow politics rather closely and understand that many people don't. At least by polling data, Biden isn't considered popular with the majority of Americans, and Harris struggled to show where she differed from him. For many people, illegal immigration was one of the most important issues in the election. Even though a vice president has little to do with the policies and actions of the president, by being part of the Biden administration, she became the candidate responsible for any real or perceived border crisis. Sure, border crossings are down and a bipartisan deal to provide increased border security was killed by Trump telling House and Senate Republicans not to support the legislation, but that wasn't the message much of the electorate heard. Same with the economy. Inflation in America was and is lower than most of the world and the unemployment rate is down, but people see higher grocery bills and higher interest rates on homes and vehicles and blame the current administration.
So even though Trump started campaigning for president nearly a decade ago and doesn't seem to have much interest or ability to formulate specific policies (see the concept of a plan for a new health care system) other than making bold statements (see ending the war in Ukraine in 24 hours), Trump appears to have won more votes based on the issues. Fine. I mean, not fine, but fine. I'll get more to the issues momentarily.
Character needs to count for something. Even Trump's biggest supporters admit that he needs to get off social media and tone down his rhetoric. That's being generous. He's a bully who constantly insults people. He's a terrible example for kids. He's a sore loser who never admits defeat or that he is wrong.
He was found guilty of 34 felonies for falsifying business records. A jury found him liable for sexual abuse. 27 women have accused Trump of sexual assault. I'm sure that there are some MAGA members who think that everything is a big conspiracy against Trump. Do they truly believe that ALL of this is made up? That's like believing that Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson just likes getting massages from different massage therapists each time.
It really says something that VP Mike Pence, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, and many other members of his administration refused to endorse or support Trump.
Okay, back to issues. Deport criminals? Assuming there is some type of proof of crimes and/or due process, no one is going to argue with this. Get em outta here.
Mass deportation for all undocumented migrants including those who have been in the US for years, pay taxes, and contribute to society? Not so fast my friend. Trump also wants to pardon the January 6th rioters. But I thought it was antifa or government operatives who rioted. So why exactly is the "tough-on crime" Trump going to pardon those convicted? Oh, it was actually Trump supporters that rioted, and he wants to show his support for them.
This post is too long already. I haven't even touched on abortion, LGBT rights, the fact that Trump wants the licenses of CBS and ABC revoked, and that he will go after political opponents. I haven't included the role of Elon Musk (whose companies have billions of dollars in federal contracts; hello conflict of interest!) and Robert Kennedy Jr. (with years of experience as an environmental lawyer but will be in charge of health and have nothing to do with the EPA) in the administration. There's just so much. Maybe Trump will try to be a president for all Americans like he said in his speech after winning the election. Based on his history, I'm not counting on it, but I'm trying to be positive. I'm hopeful that Trump will be good for Israel in getting the hostages home and helping to end the conflicts between Israel and the Iranian proxies.
I guess I'll end with this. My parents were both government employees. Yes, they were in stable jobs with good benefits, but they both wanted to help people. We grew up directly across the street from a parkway exit. Over the years, friends and neighbors wanted us to put campaign signs in our front yard due to it being a high visibility location, but my parents refused to do so because they couldn't as federal employees. They took this very seriously. This is a big part of why Project 2025 scares me. Mass firings of good civil servants doing their jobs just because they don't share the same political affiliation of the administration is not the way to make America great again. It's the exact opposite.
Photo of Harris by Alex Brandon (AP). Photo of Trump from Getty Images.
Sure, there's a pretty big election tomorrow, and I still want to write about my Winnipeg-North Dakota trip, but today, I feel like sharing pictures. Warning: Some of these are not very recent.
I had no idea there are large groups of people who thought Honey Nut Cheerios are too big and need to be smaller.
I found a Wegmans-mobile in the wild (assuming you consider a Wegmans parking lot the wild).
Here's a fresh and current picture. While I knew that the Nathan's hot dog eating contest on July 4th wasn't aired live, ESPN really killed any suspense by showing that Miki Sudo won with the number of hot dogs eaten in the middle of the telecast.
For any of my Ithaca friends, my parents kept a bowl full of matches in their home. While we didn't keep any while cleaning out their place, I enjoyed coming across this one from Simeon's on the Commons (now called Simeon's American Bistro)
From a Nationals game this summer, I liked the look of these Japanese heritage jerseys.
Deer (and geese) really like "my" golf course at dusk.
It's a rainbow!
At the end of his time in first grade, Luigi drew George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Pretty good!
When I first saw The Moose's socks, I questioned why we bought him a pair with the picture of some type of angry bird
Turns out, that it's actually the Under Armour logo.
Welcome to Sean's Ramblings! If you're looking for thoughts on pop culture, music, fun and informative links, random DC and Pittsburgh info, sports (particularly Pittsburgh sports), and just what's going on in my life, then you're come to the right place.
Any questions, comments or links? Contact me at seanramblings[at]yahoo[dot]com.
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