Odds and Ends

I’ve wanted to share some additional Las Vegas stories* for some time now and figured I would throw in a few links as well. Well, now is that time.

* When I checked into my Vegas hotel, I casually handed the person at the reception desk $20 and asked if they had a complimentary upgrade. The individual said yes, moved us from the South Tower to a nicer room in the North Tower and handed us a coupon book with buy one, get one free tickets to Penn & Teller and Jubilee, two free admissions up the Eiffel Tower and more.

* I did my good deed of the month by giving the Eiffel Tower coupon to a grandmother who was taking her two grandchildren up the Vegas version of Paris monument.

* If anyone is heading to Vegas soon and would like come coupons, please let me know. Although the coupons indicate that they are non-transferable or available for resale, how would they know?

* I attended my first and last timeshare presentation. The theme: vacation or die. Basically, life is short so you should take advantage of time away with family and friends as often as possible. What better way to do this than spending $5000 a year on a timeshare? Does anyone have a timeshare and want to explain how this makes sense financially?

* The timeshare presentation and tour ended up taking three hours instead of the two that the promised. During the presentation, they also said that they would not hard-sell. Naturally, at the end of everything, they brought in the closer, Fat Tony (his name was Tony and he was larger than The Simpsons character of the same name). He did a hard-sale.

Here are a few links for your Monday:

Pictures of Long Island native and now former Pittsburgh Penguin Rob Scuderi with the Stanley Cup (PSAMP)

Behind the Steel Curtain, one of the best Steelers blogs out there, interviewed Ross Ohlendorf of the, um, Pittsburgh Pirates. I just hope that BTSC doesn't expand to interviewing fake Brian St. Pierres, write stories about California Tortilla or create a Trivia Tuesday. If they do, I'm through. (Behind the Steel Curtain)

Justin Hartwig hurt his toe. One For The Other Thumb has a lead suspect. (OFTOT)

If there is a story about Peeps, there's a good chance that I'll link to it. (DCist)


Finally, I still need to share my thoughts from the Def Leppard/Poison/Cheap Trick concert I attended last week. Look for that later this week.


* Yes, I know that I have been back from Las Vegas for about three weeks now. If you really want to read more, check out Part I and Part II of the trip.

Steelers-Giants Recap

The Pittsburgh Steelers had a lead late in the fourth quarter at home and lost. Ben Roethlisberger was sacked five times, hit at least another dozen times and threw four interceptions. The team was 1 for 10 on third down, 0 for 4 on fourth down and had 8 penalties for 59 yards, many of them pretty stupid penalties. Plus, the Steelers defense who led the league in sacks coming into the game, failed to register a sack and rarely put pressure on Eli Manning. It was clearly not one of their best games.

However, let’s take a step back and put everything into perspective. The Steelers are 5-2 and have a one game lead over Baltimore, who they already defeated, in the AFC North. The 5-2 record is tied for second best in the AFC with New England and Buffalo behind only the undefeated Tennessee Titans. The Steelers are 5-0 against AFC teams, a very important playoff tie-breaker, which along with the Titans, is the best in the conference. Yes, the team has some work to do, but there’s no need to panic...yet.

A few thoughts from the game:

- Why was Dick Stockton so concerned about players getting out of bounds early in the game? Twice in the first half (Heath Miller’s catch on the first drive and Carey Davis’ catch with 12+ minutes left in the second quarter), Stockton stated that the Steelers failed to get out of bounds after making a catch.

- Ryan Clark and Brett Kiesel both played amazing games.

- Stupid Toyota commercial. I’m going to have "save by zero" in my head all day.

- Nate Washington has turned into an extremely solid receiver.

- The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror XIX" looks really good. Unfortunately, I feel like I’ve seen the whole episode already during all of Fox’s commercials.

- Am I the only person wondering why Justin Hartwig, the Steelers’ starting center, wasn’t able to serve as the back-up long-snapper? Doesn’t Hartwig make a living snapping the ball and then blocking the guy in front of him?

- Can the Steelers have another bye week? I’m writing this on Sunday night, so I don’t know the health status of Ryan Clark, Greg Warren, Mitch Berger and any other Steeler. Regardless, with Willie Parker and Bryant McFadden already out, it seems like the team could use a week off to get healthy.

I will be at FedEx Field for next week’s Steelers-Redskins game. If I was told that the Steelers could only win one of these two games against the Giants and Redskins, I would gladly take a Steelers win against Washington.

More about the game is available on the Post-Gazette website.