Daily Archives: October 17, 2009

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Video: Bills-Jets preview

by Ted Berg on October 17th, 2009 at 11:12 am

Yesterday, I got on the horn with Brian Bassett from The Jets Blog to preview the Bills and Jets.

Essentially, if the Jets lose this one, they’re not nearly as good as I thought they were after the first quarter of Week 1, when I — normally a huge skeptic when it comes to the Jets — announced to my wife that they were Super Bowl-bound.

The Bills are terrible. Watching Eric Mangini and Dick Jauron match wits in last week’s Browns-Bills matchup was like watching a chess match between, well, between Eric Mangini and Dick Jauron. It might have been the worst football game I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a ton of really, really bad football games.

Did you know that in ten years, from pee-wee to high-school football, I played on a total of one winning team? And yet every single one of those terrible, terrible clubs executed better and protected the quarterback more successfully than the Bills and Browns.

Someone, I forget who, said on Twitter that it was setting football back 50 years. I don’t think that’s appropriate. It wasn’t football. It was like some new sport where someone just threw 22 random huge dudes out on a field and watched to see what happens. It’s called Ham!Smash! and Eric Mangini is its greatest mind and motivator.

Anyway, here’s the video. J-E-T-S.

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From the Wikipedia: the Count of St. Germain

by Ted Berg on October 17th, 2009 at 9:12 am

Don’t ask what silly Wikipedia tangent brought me to this page, but it’s fascinating so I figured I’d share.

From the Wikipedia: the Count of St. Germain

The Count of St. Germain was an 18th-century man about town in London and also possibly in India. He was a charmer, for sure, and apparently a pretty talented violin player.

But the most interesting thing about the Count of St. Germain was that he either was immortal, or — more likely — was able to convince lots of people that he was immortal. Both are pretty impressive.

In fact, in some religions, people believe the Count was also Plato, St. Joseph (ie Jesus’ stepdad), Merlin, Christopher Columbus and English philosopher Francis Bacon, whom many believe to be responsible for writing all the plays attributed to Shakespeare. I’m skeptical, but if the Count was even three of those guys, that’s a pretty crazy resume.

The Wikipedia claims he supposedly dictated a book in 1670 even though he wasn’t “born” until 1710. It’s a pretty confusing Wikipedia page in general.

In any case, the Count of St. Germain should be lauded for his immortality or, at the very least, his ability to make Wikipedia editors suggest his immortality.

Fun fact: Pretty soon after I started writing for SNY.tv, I added myself to the Wikipedia page for Rockville Centre, New York, under “Notable Residents” in a vain attempt to drive up traffic. I briefly frolicked among the ranks of Dave Attell, Billy Donovan, Joan Jett, Segway inventor Dean Kamen, Sandy Koufax, Billy Idol [citation definitely needed] and Howard Stern.

Then, a couple months later, someone took me off the list of notable former Rockville Centre residents. I mean, I get that I’m not as notable as Billy Idol, but c’mon. Who took me down? It’s just messed up.

And to add to my frustration, two people I know pretty well have since been added to the same list, presumably not by themselves. They are ESPNews anchor and area stickball legend Kevin Connors and Taking Back Sunday drummer and incredibly nice dude Mark O’Connell, and they are both clearly more notable than me.