"Anorexic Margarita"

I work in a bar that is famous for margaritas. It's what we do best, and people come in all the time just to get them.  But there are still always guests (you have to say "guests" instead of "customers" when you work in a nice restaurant) that don't trust our recipe, and give specific instructions for how they'd like theirs to be made (although usually I make it my normal way anyway while they're not looking, and they never know the difference.  But that's another blog for another time).

The most common request is a "skinny girl" or just "skinny" margarita, which at this point I've decided to accept as a real drink.  The other day two women came in, and that's what the first one asked for.  The second then said "Can I um, have like an even skinnier one, like an anorexic margarita?"  I laughed (I hate the principle of what she said, but I still thought it was funny), then poured her a glass of water.

Ok, she asked for the water also, and I did make her a drink with tequila, club soda, and a little bit of lime juice.  But the point is this: There is no such thing as a skinny girl margarita.  If a drink has alcohol, it has calories.  "Lite" beer has fewer calories because it has less alcohol.  I realize I have written this before, and that I keep linking back to it time and time again.  But I feel it's my duty to educate the world on this, because nobody seems to understand.


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A look inside some of the Celtics final preseason numbers

- Rajon Rondo made 17-22 free throws in the preseason, good for 77%.  As I mentioned before, if this is a sign of things to come, watch out NBA.

Will Sullinger be the Celts best rebounder?

- Jason Terry hit 18 of 26 three's, 69%.  Obviously he won't keep that up, but it definitely bodes well for the new shooting guard.  Paul Pierce also made more than half his attempts from downtown, 14-27.  By comparison our old friend Ray down in Miami has connected on just 10 of 29 (35%) through 7 exhibition games (the Heat have one more tonight).

- Rookie Jared Sullinger led the C's in rebounding, averaging 7 per game.  I'm going to go out on a limb and predict he'll lead the team during the regular season as well.  He also pulled down 20 offensive rebounds in 8 games, nearly a third of the team's total (66), and more than double the next highest player (fellow rookie Kris Joseph with 9).  While this is definitely an impressive stat, I'm going to chalk it up mostly to the youthful exuberance.  Offensive boards are all about effort, and obviously the rookies care more and try harder during the preseason than veterans do; Kevin Garnett had just one offensive rebound.

- Rondo led the Celtics in minutes played, which is almost certain to happen during the season as well.  But second on the team was Jeff Green, a bit of a surprise.

- The same was also true for scoring; Pierce topped the C's by averaging 15 points a game (also likely to continue in the regular season), while Green was second at 13.9 PPG.  Hopefully the minutes and scoring are an indication of big things to come from Green when the games actually start counting next week.

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Does anybody use "StumbleUpon?"

The other day I literally stumbled upon (via somebody's twitter link) stumbledupon.com.  It seems pretty cool; basically you just tell it stuff you're interested in, then it picks somewhat random web pages it thinks you'll like to look at.  There's a button in the top left corner you click to move on to the next one.  It's a pretty fun way to waste some time.  One of the things it showed me was a page of famous author quotes, including this one from Elmore Leonard which basically sums up my whole "37 seconds" writing philosophy.

But my real question is, how to I get stumbleupon.com to bring people to LucidSportsFan.com?  It seems like that could do wonders for my site.  If any readers know more about this, please help me out!  Send a tweet, leave a facebook comment, or email me directly.

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Awesome Old Song of the Week World Series Edition: "Centerfield" by John Fogerty

I remember this 1985 hit mostly from it's appearance in Bull Duraham.  John Fogerty's Centerfield (not to be confused with another of my favorite 80's tunes, Centerfold) is just a nice, happy, sunny summer day type of song; but today I'm going with it in honor of Game 1 of the World Series.

The one thing I'm going to say about the World Series is that I am very glad the St. Louis Cardinals are not in it. With an 88-74 regular season record, they came oh so close to getting there for the 3rd time in 6 years, despite being the worst team in the league to qualify for the playoffs on each occasion.  The fluky-ness of their postseason success was really starting to irritate me.

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I've got a good idea for the New York Jets

Running Tebow into the line is dumb.

There's no Tebometer this week, Tim Tebow didn't throw a pass in the Jets 29-26 OT loss to New England on Sunday.  He did get to run the ball four times though, for a grand total of 12 yards.  Even though I don't think he's much of an asset, I assumed the Jets would at least try to use him creatively.  Pretty much all he did was take direct snaps and run straight ahead for a few yards each time.  Currently the Jets are getting basically no value out of their much over-hyped backup QB.  So here's my idea that will at least allow them to get something useful from Tebow: Make him the placekick holder.

Trailing 16-10 early in the 3rd quarter on Sunday, the Jets had a 4th and 2 at the Patriots 3 yard line.  My train of thought (being a Pats fan) as they trotted Nick Folk onto the field went something like this: "Oh nice, their kicking... Wait, what if they fake it?  What if they put in Tebow as the holder?  There's no way they don't get a TD if they do that... He could take it in by jumping over the pile, or run around the outside, or throw it, or roll out then throw it... Good, they kicked it."

Isn't that exactly what they got him for?  Historically backup QB's have frequently been holders anyway.  And if it was Tebow's normal job, other teams would be worried about fakes all the time.  It just makes no sense the Jets don't do that.

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Let's Not Bury the Patriots Just Yet

The front page of espn.com this morning.

Last week I wrote about the Pats loss to Seattle without hearing what anybody else had to say first. This week I'm taking the opposite rout.  For a team that won yesterday, they are dealing with a lot of bad press today.  Not to mention the fact that they have the 3rd best record in their conference, and sit all alone in 1st place atop the AFC East.  I'm sure many of the criticisms are true, but we should also keep in mind that New England is just 3 plays and 4 points away from being 7-0.

Now I'm not saying the Pats should be undefeated, I'm just pointing out that in the NFL there is a very slim difference between greatness and mediocrity.  Case in point: Last year the New York Giants were 6-6 in early December.  My sources tell me they won the Superbowl.  The year before that, through 7 games the eventual champion Green Bay Packers were 4-3, exactly what the Patriots are now.  Both of those teams entered the playoffs as the #6 (and last) seed in the NFC.  As long as you're still in the hunt, it doesn't matter how good you are now, just how well you play in late December and January.

I watched the game yesterday afternoon at one of the bars down by North Station.  The second Mark Sanchez's fumble was officially ruled a fumble, I ran out the door and across the street to the Garden for the Celtics final preseason tune up.  You can read my post about their new "big" lineup at CelticsLife.com.

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Out of Hand Bumper Stickers

Last week I was driving on the Mass Pike, and the car in from of me had this bumper sticker:

It says "My child is a member of the No Cavity Club."  I think personally I might be a little embarrassed to put that on my car; but hey, I don't have kids.  And I guess if you can't have a third grade honor student, at least this is something to be proud of.  I definitely do understand the need to take dental hygiene seriously.

But two of that sticker does seems a bit ridiculous.

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