Hear the Wager Machines Totaling.

 

Today's Tids Issue 5,263 

 

Hear the roar of the crowd: 

 

 

“Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army football team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds yesterday afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down on the bewildering panorama spread on the green plain below.” --Grantland Rice 

 

I thought I’d begin this first issue of 2022 TidsPickers with one of the most famous football game reports ever written. It was one of those moment in journalistic history that grabbed people's hearts.  

 

America's Got Talent is down to the final 11. It seems to me that this year's show has been going on forever. Next Tuesday we’ll see the final performance-off and on Wednesday somebody will be in theatrical heaven. I have no favorites.  

 

The Question:  

Lately we have had some fierce appearing, super damaging hurricanes like Katrina killing 1,200 and Irma where 20 died. How many were killed in the Galveston Hurricane of 1900.  

 

The Headlines: 

--Markets Looking For Direction As New Fed Rate Increase Looms. 

--Medical Experts In England Newly Focused On Queen Elizabeth Health Concerns; Queen Managed To Meet With And Officially Approve New PM Liz Truss; QEII Cancelling Other Official Appointments. Charels And William Traveling With her. 

--Man Captured After Shooting Rampage In Memphis; Second Assailant in Canada Stabbing Spree Apprehended, Dies In Custody From Self Inflicted Wounds.  

--Apple Not Raising Prices For New iPhone 14. 

--Goldman Sachs Sees Home Prices Falling In 39% Of US Cities; Most Of Decline Will Be in Western States. 

 

Only 9% of US workers belong to unions. That accounts for 16% of US households. Of the record billion raised by Biden, $275 Million came from unions. It is the largest union contribution to a president ever. And then we have the contributions to Congress to complete the package.  

 

The TidsPickers are back. It’s going to be a good year, but maybe not for my good old NE Pats. I always shoot for 75%. So, let's see how this week stacks up. The tough picks are tonight's Rams-Bills game, maybe the feature game of the year already in week 1. The Bucs Cowboys shapes up as another glamor game and a tougher pick. The other tougher picks are Bengals-Steelers, Jags-Commandeers (Because they are both bad), Raiders- Chargers, Chiefs-Cardinals and … Pats-Dolphins, only tough because I am emotionally involved in the Pats and the Dolphins look better in practice. The Bills-Rams game really is a tossup. Bills are getting all the love from the press, but I take the Rams to hold serve at home. But I will root for the Bills. Maybe there will be a Brownout! Oh, that’s in Cleveland. I like the Cowboys to come out strong against the Bucs, and I pick The Bengals to beat the Steelers with confused QB situation. I’ll take the dreaded Commanders over the more sympathetic Jags, and I like the Raiders to upset the Chargers. That's my hunch of the week. The Cards are good, but KC’s QB magician will do it again. And I pick the Dolphins over the Pats. I hope I’m wrong. 

 

Of the rest I have Saints over Falcons, Panthers with ex-Brown QB over no QB Browns – a Brownout. I got the Niners over da Bears, and Eagles over the Lions, The Colts, who seem to be putting something together, will take the Texans and you have to pick the Ravens to have a good time with the Jets because of the QB disparity. The Giants aren’t back yet but the Titans haven’t lost it all yet and have enough to win it. The Pack takes the Vikes in a tough rivalry game. And on Monday Ilike the Bronco with Wilson are better than the Seahawks without Wilson. So... we’re off. 

 

History is mainly a list. of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised again. --Kurt Vonnegut (With a light alteration from me.) 

 

It seems that over the past few days almost all of the headlines were about law in enforcement tracking down and capturing horrific murderers. Doesn’t the world seem more dangerous. Do you get the feeling that criminals no longer fear the consequences from small or large criminal acts. Is that part of the trophies for all mentality, the bailout syndrome? 

 

Yesterday when I write about the Eliza Fetcher case, my phrase, “people must be more careful in our increasingly lawless world” may have implied that have the impression that the USA has embraced giving up a lack of will to enforce and prosecute the lawlessness? That couldn’t further from what I believe our law enforcement people are capable of, and continually pursuing. Now, there may be some politicians who see criminals as an important voting bloc. All I was saying is that our streets don't seem quite as safe and that you tend to look over your shoulder a little bit more often. 

 

This is not a political statement. I repeat, this has nothing to do with politics. I don’t think Michelle Obama’s official portrait does her justice. Any first lady deserves better.  

 

There was a time when sports writers were poets too. 

 

Today is National Literacy Day. Do typos count against oyu? 

 

I always wondered why Fordham U of NYC wasn’t basketball powerhouse like similar academic rivals Villanova and Georgetown. 

 

The bad news seems to be that the Fed wants to temper rising stock prices, handcuff exuberant bulls.  

 

There is a problem with the current society, you just can’t make an Idle judgment out loud lest somebody accuses you of being political. It’s out of hand nuts. 

  

The Answer: 

It is estimated that between 6K and 12K died in the Galveston hurricane. The number most agreed upon is 8,000. Worldwide, Bangladesh is not a place to be when storm clouds rise as accumulated deaths over the tears there are over One Million.  

 

I’m looking for the crunch of body against body, perfect spirals floating in air and humans flying aerodynamically to grasp in firm fingertips that oblong pigskin sphere. But what I’m hearing and seeing are lots of people talking about odds and spreads. Bring on the sweat and the bruises and the angst of losing; the triumphant victories of Sunday warriors, the cheers! 

 

Amen.