Monday Post (Supplemental)

We plan on writing more posts to more quickly get to the 5000 number, at which point we stop blogging. This is post 4,769. Were we to do one post per day from this point, we'd hit 5000 on Friday, August 19th, 2022. Right? Someone want to check the math on that one?

The girls got a PS4 for Christmas. Bear in mind we haven't gotten a new video game system since 1995. Anyone else remember Sega CD? We set up the PS4 yesterday, a much easier experience than we anticipated. With an Atari one needed a screwdriver. We ourselves got a game, Star Wars: Squadrons. Not bad.

Post-Christmas, a report from The Times of Israel on the nation's Christian community. 'Israel’s Christian community grew by 1.4 percent in 2020 and numbers some 182,000 people, with 84% saying they were satisfied with life in the country, the Central Bureau of Statistics said in a report released ahead of Christmas.' Huh. We thought there were more Christians in Israel. Anyway, try being a Christian in any other Middle Eastern nation, see what that gets you. We remind critics of Syria's Asad that he is the only Arab leader who has lifted a finger to protect Middle Eastern Christians.  

What Will's Watching, the New York Giants. We sat through the Giants getting thrashed by the Eagles 34-10, while flipping to the Jets on occasion. We don't know who needs to hear this, but the Giants suck and have sucked for a decade. This is the Giants' first sustained bout of suckitude since the 1970s. That's a baaaaaad thing. We don't know what's wrong. Fire the GM and coach, send Barkley and Jones on their way. 

Your Monday Not Metal, courtesy of NJ.com: 'In what may be the largest deal ever inked for a single musician’s body of work, Bruce Springsteen has reportedly sold his publishing catalog to Sony for $500 million.' The state's very own millionaire man of the people. What a joke. Bon Jovi is better. Once again:

NYG 20 years on

Today the AFC and NFC will play their championships to determine who will represent their respective conferences in the Super Bowl.

Reader(s) will kindly forgive this blog its nostalgia, but it was 20 years ago, ok 20 years ago plus a couple of weeks, that our own New York Giants hosted the Minnesota Vikings for the NFC Championship. 

Ohhhh....the Vikings were everybody's darling. EPSN assured us that the Giants were soft and not a real contender.  Bristol just loved leg humping the Vikings and their offense.

Well, the final score was Giants 41, Vikings 0. It wasn't even that close. 'As close to a perfect football game as I think we will see.' Below are the highlights:

Wither Big Blue

Wither the New York Giants.

The Confederate Contingent asked for our thoughts on the New York Giants' current situation. A word of explanation. He's a fan of Ole' Miss, the college Giants quarterback Eli Manning attended and has followed the man ever since.

For 30 years the Giants were a model NFL franchise. They've been to five Super Bowls and won four of them, defeating the vaunted New England Patriots in 2007 and 2011. Their 1990 upset of the Buffalo Bills is among the top five moments of our life.

[He's not kidding, people-Ed]

Since 2012 the franchise has been a mess and it's getting really bad. Their current general manager is very meh, we give him a C. Eli Manning is now old and the team has botched his exit, as it did with former coach Tom Coughlin, the man who twice beat the Pats. They replaced him with the wrong coach, and then replaced that guy with the wrong coach. Right now the Giants feel less like the Giants and more like the Jets, New York's other football team and a perpetual mess.

The Giants just hired a coach no one ever heard of, New England's wide reciever coach Joe Judge. We'll see. I'd never heard of Andy Reid when Mrs. Stroock's Philadelphia Eagles hired him in 1999 and well...check his record. Let's hope it works out, becuase Coach Judge is a pretty cool name.

'Till then, lets go retro, ya'll, back to 1986. the Giants' first Super Bowl season:

Love ya Big Blue

Ah this takes us back:

We have the 45* somewhere.

That first game is the NFC divisional playoff against the San Francisco 49rs (wusses). The Giants demolished them 49-3 and knocked QB Joe Montana**(wuss) out of the game.

I was there.

That other game was against the Denver Broncos, who the Giants would go on to crush in Super Bowl XXI. You see #75, George Martin running the interception in for a touchdown? He's running toward me. That's #56 running alongside him, Lawrence Taylor or LT for short, the greatest linebacker ever. In 1984 the owner of the New Jersey Generals of the fledgling USFL got Taylor to sign for the upcoming season for a million bucks, but the league folded. That owner was Donald J Trump.

*That's a small record album, Millennials....you know, those big black frisbees your parents keep in the basement.
**The Tom Brady of his day, for you Millennials, or Naymar or say Renaldo for you Europeans. The technical term for Montana was 'really good'.

Will's NFL Update Blue

Last night the New York Giants quite sensibly picked Penn-State running back Saquan Barkley. He will instantly be the best running back in the league. As Mrs. Stroock is a yuuge Penn State fan we've seen an awful lot of Barkley. He seems a nice young man.

Of course last season the Giants defense was putrid, but two seasons ago it was among the best in the league. Under new management we expect the defense to make a comeback.

Quarterback  Eli Manning is 37 and had an awful year in 2017. Can you blame him? The combo of Barkley and perpetual head-case Odell Beckham should rejuvenate Manning for one more great run, no?