Thursday, September 30, 2010
SkyNet Football 2010 Week Tres
Week Three goes back to Clancey Coronado, who is dominating this pool and making it look easier than playing Rock-Paper-Scissors at a Hitler parade.
While the ducats pile up on her side of the bed, the rest of us move one step closer to poverty, hopelessness, and voting Democrat. Where's mine?!?! I mean ... at the risk of going all Kanye here, "Baby, I'm really happy for you, I'ma let you finish, but my research was some of the best of all time!"
**If you are at all familiar with the Clancey Coronado response levels, you will know that if I were to interrupt the payout process to kick it Kanye-style, then it would not be met with any blinky-eyed Disney character response. We'd move past both Response Level One (disdain and disregard) and Response Level Two (withering verbal disembowelment), and into some form of Response Level Three (Wolverine-clawed rage-fueled frenzy). For future reference, at Response Level Four, somebody is going to end up in a box -- sorry about that, short-lived (literally) girlfriend in grad school :| . Pray you never see Response Level Four, which will have to be described by archeologists that can piece together what happened from the ash layers and pottery shards.
With two hours at the computer, pages of notes surrounding me, I had higher expectations. I had highlighters and whatnot. Did you know (and it must be true because it's on the world wide interwebs) that "DETROIT is 22-2 with revenge vs a division opponent off a fav loss; GREENBAY is 6-72 off a fav loss,"? I've got no idea what that means... but it seems very powerful. It would be nice to spend a little less time in the McDonald Playland Jumpy Ball Pit of Statistics and trust my gut: dogs don't have to win, they just don't have to lose as badly. I just really thought that the favorites would roll this week, like they did in 2009.
But hey, if wishes and hunches were sit-ups and crunches, we'd all be underwear models.
Get back out there.
SkyNet Football 2010 Week Dos
SkyNet Football 2010 Week Uno
Week Uno is in the books and Clancey Coronado draws first blood. That is both a metaphor representative of the first victory of the season, and the corporeal results of her very insistent demands to be paid. The House of Commissionero rang loudly with shouts of great joy after Monday night's games, followed very closely by a request for a full accounting. It's like being in business with Paulie Cicero.
And on that point, thirty-one souls are sailing with SkyNet this season. Over half have made their respectful donations, and I have no reason to suspect the rest are not rushing forward with fistfuls of crumpled lunch money even as I type. If everyone ponies up as planned, my first draft cipherin' and calculatin' says we're looking at a 120 weekly and 300/200/85 seasonal unit redistribution.
The first standing rule of SkyNet still applies, however: No one gets paid out until everyone pays in. Winners make great enforcers. So ... pay. There are some things you don't want in your face, like Dee Snutz and Multiple Scoregasms. You could lose an eye, most of your dignity, and the ability to distinguish yourself from a Kardashian.
SkyNet Football 2010 Kickoff
The opening kickoff of Football Season is about eight days away, and the Envelope of Financial Loyalty has about four donations in it. None of them is mine, so once again I wave gleefully from my glass house at all the black kettles out there. Being responsible for the payouts more so than soundbite commentary, however, my money is already in the bank.
SkyNet may be weakened with the age and the economy, but it's not dead. A couple dozen (ok, 22) of the faithful have already committed their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the prospect of having El Commissionero Magnifico memorialize their victory with a customized logo on the website.
And the money.
It's not all about the money, but a 2x3 picture lampooning your team name is not a straight up exchange for sacred honor, am I right?
(Incidentally, I have contacted the Half-brothers, Stepsisters, and Acquaintances of the Revolution that perch precariously on the fence, and have questioned both their heritage and physical prowess in respectful but stern tones. Feel free to prod them.)
But, the way I see it, usually through the bottom of a Double Old Fashioned tumbler of sturdy weight, it's time to revisit the awesome power of a SkyNet Football Season. You've competed in the past -- heIIfire, some of you have taken home some victory biscuits from this thing! You know what's it's like to commit to the study, the research, the stringent training; to have the wind at your back, whipping through your kilt and blowing your hair about as you raise your sword aloft and yell, "UNLEASH THE UNDERDOGS OF WAR! ... um, except for the Colts, they'll cover."
If you are going to be in this thing, then pony up the 88 units because you crave the fight, you know the teams, you know the games, and you know that this is your year.
And, deep down, because you want the kilt and the sword.
88 cash, at your earliest convenience,
El Commissionero Magnifico
PS. I'm out next week. Indulgences will be granted.
PPS. I changed the tiebreaker rules. Total game wins now trumps key picks. It's the Montione-Morris Resolution.
SkyNet Football 2009 Kickoff
Did you SEE the number of misspellings and missed words in my last email? Sweet Soloman on a Skateboard, if the only WiFi available is at a bar, it's probably wise to hold off on serious communiques until one is back to the mainland before typing.
Or one might proofread, but El C does not have the time or inclination for that. When you're living a Buffett song, up to and including white liquors AND a vicious Krugeresque cut on the heel, there's just no room in the day. Take the pearls I cast, and fill in the blanks.
So, um, make some picks this week. Before you do, don't forget to make a little drop by the Styx Marina to pay the boatman for this season's journey. I suppose I might rage and rant against the kind of sub-lamprey sludge that defers payment until after the first couple of weeks just, you know, to see if a win will make it unnecessary -- but you are my people, and I know that is not the kind of ilk that would include any of you. You know good and well that no one gets paid out until everyone pays in, and you're all well above lampreys on the evolutionary scale. I've seen you use tools to open beers.
So far, 24 people are in the game. I'd like to crest thirty so that payouts are more attractive; so put the appropriate pressure on people like Sheets and MonTony, Matchete and Coach CT, and other legacy players that have yet to respond to the siren call. Put the appropriate pressure on each other to pay in a timely and accurate manner.
But enough about the icky financial aspect of the business. Football, tailgating, chicken wings, jeans, firepits, and frolicking in an unmade bed full of gambling winnings -- these are the things that the season has brought us, and let us be joyful in them.
El Commissionero Magnifico
SkyNet Football 2009 Invite
Brothers, Sisters, and Friends of the Revolution,
You know the drill: pay money, make picks, watch season fritter away without a win, promise to do better next year.
Well, it's "next year" already. So raid your couch cushions, your car ashtrays, the need-a-penny-take-a-penny cups at Kwik-ee-Mart, and the nearby tables of inattentive waitresses.
Despite the breadlines, battered fedoras, and getting some of that free guv'ment gravy, the recent economic downturn has had no effect on SkyNet's demand for your tribute.
Got to be in it to win it. Got to pay $88 to be in it. You can make the algebraic link.
As duly self-appointed representative, you can pay me. Soon, por favor. The opening kickoff date is barreling down on us like Kate Gosselin on a chance to give a quote to Entertainment Tonight.
El Commissionero