Riddle Me This, Jishman

My hope is NO!!!

Anyway, my First Big Board of the Season for the 2007 NFL Draft to be held on April 28th and 29th. Jishman loves it when we start talking about the NFL draft…. and I am sure, he will gladly point out my mistakes.

If you are interested in my initial thoughts, click the more button below:

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The Washington Nationals will begin taking bids for the naming rights to their new ballpark in Southeast Washington, DC, scheduled to open in April 2008.

The Washington Post suggests that the deal could be between $5 and $15 million dollars per year based on other recent stadium naming rights deals. They list the following companies as potentially interested:

The leading candidates for the naming rights would likely include such local companies as Capital One Financial, Sprint Nextel, Chevy Chase Bank, Geico, XM Satellite Radio and America Online.

I volunteer my $5 to get the stadium named after the Jishman, anyone else interested?

Jake Plummer, QB, Denver Broncos, versus Adam Morrison, SF, Charlotte Bobcats?

At first, I’d want to go with Morrison, especially given his dedication to the ’stache after 2 years. But, then, Jake Plummer last year went full-on beard during the playoffs. I think Morrison would get my vote here, but just barely.

So, as I prepare to drive back to DC on the “worst travel day of the year,” I figured I’d see what other traffic mistakes there were in the world. And look what I found!

Wikipedia (seriously, one of the greatest sites of the last 5 years) also provides some great wastes of time with its own list. So, if you find yourself sitting on 84, 95 or some other numerical road, just looking for something to waste your time with, think about it this way, you could be on one of these roads.

If you’re travelling today (dear god, why!), hope you get where you’re going safely and quickly.

Welcome to Black Friday!!!

And while some of you are out trying to find the perfect gift for the ones you love, I would like to take a moment and point you in the direction of my wife Stephanie’s web site for Usborne Books: Educational Books.

UBAH MISSION STATEMENT:
“The future of our world depends on the education of our
children. UBAH delivers educational excellence one book
at a time. We provide economic opportunity while fostering
strong family values. We touch the lives of children for a lifetime.”

Stephanie has books for children from infancy to school age listed on her site. You can quickly and easily browse the titles by clicking on a category located on the main page!

If you have children, grandchildren, have nieces or nephews, or have friends or co-workers with children, these books make the perfect Holiday gift.

Happy Holidays!!! And Happy Shopping!!!

(PS- For the family members I have who are not well versed in hyper links; if you click on the words “Usborne Books: Educational Books” or “infancy to school age” above, you will be taken to Stephanie’s web site.)

Two posts in one day! Hey, I have to get my say in before March Madness explodes and my posts get buried at the bottom.

The Washington Post reports that Those Who Pass Classes But Fail Tests Cry Foul.

Defenders of standardized testing say the exams function like audits, revealing gaps in the curriculum that must be filled if the students are to reach high academic standards. Critics say that the differences between scores and grades show the fallibility of the exams, which provide only a snapshot of what a student knows.

Guess what side I fall on?

Today a coworker asked why we could do a zillion of a type of math problem and kids still miss it on the test. I have news for the educators and bureaucrats of the world: not all kids are as smart as others. Some of them are just low, and are always going to be low. No amount of remediation or NCLB is going to change that. I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t be saying this, but it’s true. Does that mean I think kids who are not smart are not going to succeed? No, but I think they need a different set of expectations then those who are lucky enough to be blessed with innate intelligence.

I have some sweet, nice, lovely kids who I know will be successful in this world because they are responsible, organized, and good honest citizens. They want to learn and I want to help them learn, but the pace I need to work at to cover all the material needed for the standardized test is not one that they can keep up with. Our educational system has set them up for failure when we tell them they should be achieving on the same level as their peers who have reading levels 3 or 4 grades above them. It’s not going to happen.

It makes me sad that we can’t just swallow this idea some students are just lower then others so we can move on and challenge these students at an appropriate level.

I have one sports questions for the week:

Who is the real Iron Man, Cal Ripken (2,632 consecutive baseball games) or Brett Favre (251 consecutive NFL games and counting)?

I know they are two very different sports but you know that sooner or later this argument is going to get debated by sportscasters around the country… why not let the RMTJ readers beat them all to the punch?!

A friend of ours … Godmother, Angie….posted some pictures of Halloween in a slide show!

Melly was Superman…

Josh was Woody from Toy Story!…see the resemblance

And Chloe was a cheerleader….. Save the cheerleader! Save the World!….

Aren’t they too cute!!! (but then again, I am biased!)

Btw, Angie…. That’s Josh and Chloe, not Josh and Melly in picture 6….can’t even get your godchild’s name right, now, can we?!

Most of us are familar with the term “snowbird” used to describe people who spend the winter in Florida and the summer in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic area. This morning on the news, WTOP in DC was reporting about a Giraffe named Randal who is going to a zoo in Tampa for the winter while the National Zoo expands the African Elephant pen and fix his habitat.

This is one smart giraffe

1.) 50 Worst Songs Ever! — What about Oops, I did it again? Or something by K-Fed? VengaBoys? Big Hair Bands, maybe?

2.) K-Fed plays to a mostly empty venue — need I really say more?

3.) Speaking of Oops I did it again — If Paris Hilton’s video did 2 million, how much do you think this one will fetch?

4.) Voltron is back on the air!!!! — Coming to Adult Swim at 5:30am. Thank god for Cartoon Network.

Whether the Yankees, Red Sox, or other team is able to woo these players, the $51.1 million dollar tab should count 100% against the 2007 payroll of the team with the winning bid.

But, if anyone knows how it works, does the $51.1 million count against the payroll and luxury tax system?

Think about it:

For sake of reference, the $51.1 million figure is more than the 2006 opening day payrolls in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Colorado, Tampa Bay and Florida.

Luxury tax and revenue sharing is supposed to go to small market teams like the ones listed above…

And what do you think about counting it against the payroll? do you think it should be counted?

I know we stay away from politics on RMTJ, but this story is to funny to pass up. Congresswomen Shelley Sekula-Gibbs was sworn in to replace Tom Delay (R-TX) yesterday for the remainder of his term, about three weeks. Sekula-Gibbs won a special election on November 7 to finish out Delay’s term, but lost the regular election held on the same day to Nick Lampson (D-TX), who will be sworn in in January for a regular term.

It’s amazing how stupid governmetn can be sometimes!

According to Billboard, K-Fed’s debut album, Playing with Fire, has been completely ignored.

“(Kevin Federline’s album) debuted last week to reviews that were across-the-board negative, when not utterly demoralizing, and tanked at number 151 on the Billboard album charts, with roughly 7,000 copies sold.”

Our on-site reporter, Snarky McHates-You (sister of our NFL reporter, Hatey McHates-You), tells us that those concerned should feel free to send checks by way of:

Snarky McHates-You
100 Ire Way
Tantrum, NY 12069

I saw this story over the weekend and wanted to share. Apparently this deer went a little over board on the trick-or-treating…

Thankfully he is going to be okay