Sunday, October 11, 2009

“New York Jets - Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel” plus 4 more

“New York Jets - Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel” plus 4 more

New York Jets - Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

Posted: 11 Oct 2009 07:56 AM PDT

DAVIE - Twenty games into its NFL rebirth, the Wildcat offense continues to flummox Dolphins' opponents and observers alike.

Twenty-nine carries this season have produced an average of 7.3 yards, an improvement of nearly 20 percent over last year's eye-popping figure.

How can something so simple be so successful?

"We know, and everybody knows, we don't throw a lot out of it: How about zero?" Dolphins offensive coordinator Dan Henning says. "Now you tell me what other offense is going around like that?"

And then there is Rex Ryan.

Monday night at Land Shark Stadium, the New York Jets' rookie coach gets his third chance in less than a calendar year to prove that he — and he alone — has solved the Wildcat.

Twice last season Ryan, as Baltimore's defensive coordinator, brought his Ravens defense to South Florida and came away, not just with convincing victories, but with the sort of Wildcat-snuffing performance that caused some to wonder if the package was nothing more than a fad.

Between the two games, one in Week 6 and another in the playoffs, the Ravens held the Wildcat to a total of 11 yards on seven carries (1.6-yard average). There was also a false start penalty.

"Baltimore's defense was the Wildcat's Kryptonite, proving the need for more diversity," the Football Outsiders Almanac noted this summer. "Baltimore's lethal combination of team speed and gap control proved too much for the simple plays."

Take out the Ravens, and the Wildcat averaged an even 7 yards against the rest of the league.

"I would think overall [Ryan] would look at what he did with Baltimore last year and figure that's a good plan," Henning says. "I would if I was him. Now he doesn't have the same players. ... But I thought they did a good job and I would think that would be a pretty good maneuver on his part."

Henning smiles.

"But then again, you know, he's sneaky," Henning says. "He might say, 'Well, Dan's thinking that and they might [switch it up]."

Getting Ryan to answer a direct question about whether he "solved" the Wildcat is about as hard as finding a running lane against his blitz-happy defense. You'll have better luck getting him to discuss what differences he sees in the set this year.

"They're doing different things, [showing] several different ways of getting to it," Ryan says. "They put the rookie quarterback [ Pat White] in there some. They have different personnel groupings and things like that with it. Still a very multiple thing. Still the old single-wing football. "

What "really makes it challenging," Ryan says, is having two top-quality running backs in Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams.

"It's a good scheme," Ryan says. "I think if you're going to stop it, you're going to have to bring a heck of a football team with you. When we came from Baltimore, that's what we had. I think we beat them at the line of scrimmage, and that's what you have to do."

Linebacker Bart Scott and safety Jim Leonhard, both imports from Baltimore, could help their new team have better success against the Wildcat than the Jets did last year. And considering these teams play twice in a three-week period, that's no small matter.

Dolphins left guard Justin Smiley, who calls Ryan a "guru when it comes to defensive schemes," says it's important not to get too caught up in a package the Dolphins might run for a half-dozen plays.

"I'm going to tell you: The Wildcat ain't going to win this football game for us," Smiley says. "It should be a complement to our offense to kind of throw somebody off, but if you're going to beat a team like the Jets, you have to beat them with your base offense. You can't trick 'em."

Still, how much of a challenge is this for the Dolphins to prove their precious Wildcat can indeed work against a Ryan defense?

"It is a challenge, but I don't think it was anything special," Brown says. "I don't think it was really the scheme. They just did a great job of beating us on blocks. It wasn't so much they had our number. They just outplayed us when it comes down to the X's and O's. I guess their people were better than our people, myself included, because I wasn't able to get any yards."

Mike Berardino can be reached at mberardino@SunSentinel.com and read regularly on the Dolphins blog at SunSentinel.com/Dolphins

More online
Mike Berardino and Omar Kelly discuss Monday's Jets-Dolphins game in a video report at SunSentinel.com/dolphins

Will It Be A Bad One? 2009-2010 Winter Forecast - WCPO

Posted: 11 Oct 2009 04:21 AM PDT

The news is grim from the Farmer's Almanac, "Old Man Winter doesn't want to give up his frigid hold just yet, but his hold will mostly be in the middle of the country."  Not a very comforting forecast for those of us in the Tri-State.
 
The forecast from the Farmer's Almanac places the Tri-State in Very Cold & Snowy during January-March 2010, while eastern Ohio will see Average Temps and Precipitation.

Long range seasonal models from the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center for January, February and March 2010 have a different take on the forecast.  Their model is showing slightly above normal temps with below normal precipitation.  Their long range model for December '09 - February '10 depicts near normal temps with below normal precipitation. 

The National Weather Service is basing their forecast on a weak El Nino which causes the central and eastern tropical Pacific waters to warm.  It usually lasts about 12 months. 

Global temperature data from NASA satellites launched in 1979 have shown a decline in temperatures over the past decade.  The National Climatic Data Center shows that temperatures in 2008 were below normal for most of the country when looking at the 115 year average. 

There was only a slight increase in global temperatures for July and August this year due to a weak El Nino, yet Cincinnati in July recorded its coldest July since records started being kept in 1869.                  

Storm brings early snow - Coloradoan

Posted: 11 Oct 2009 04:00 AM PDT

Knowing a cold front was coming, Monika Little of Fort Collins ran around her yard in her nightgown Friday night, disconnecting her hoses.

On Saturday morning, she and other Northern Colorado residents awoke to 3 to 5 inches of snow and frigid temperatures.

After getting the emergency work done Friday night, Little and her daughters got in some play time Saturday, sledding on a hill at the Edora Park Ice Center.

"We love to play in the snow," she said. "We were probably the first to come out and play."

Overnight temperatures into Saturday were in the teens, a record low for this time of the year, said Tracy Chipps, a meteorologist with DayWeather in Cheyenne.

"We don't usually start seeing these types of temperatures until December or January," she said.

Saturday's high was about 24 degrees. The temperature around this time of year is typically in the 50s.

Overcast skies are expected today with temperatures in the 40s. Forecasters aren't expecting much more snow, but there is a 10 percent chance of freezing drizzle in the morning.

Interstate 25 was closed at Wellington and north into Wyoming for most of the morning. U.S. Highway 287 was also closed at Ted's Place but was reopened by 1 p.m.

Stores in Fort Collins said they prepared for the demand of shovels, scrapers and salt they anticipated would come from the storm.

We were prepared for it coming into the day, said Eric Bowers, store manager at Jaxs Outdoor Gear. Thats what you gotta do in business.

He said within the first hour and a half of opening, the store had already sold 15 snow shovels.

Shoppers at Ace Hardware downtown could have almost been Christmas shopping in December.

The holiday decorations in the store, the trees frosted with snow outside and the chilly temperatures generally put customers in a good mood, said Thomas Barnett, a store manager.

Theres a kind of excitement and people are happy to see the snow, Barnett said.
On a hill next to the Edora Pool Ice Center, kids and adults were out sledding, some saying they were making the most of the day.

Life is a comedy - Tulsa World

Posted: 11 Oct 2009 03:53 AM PDT

It's going to be funny.

Really, what more do you need to know? If you know anything about David Sedaris, you know that he can take something as simple as oh, I don't know, killing a mouse in a bucket, let's say, and make it absolutely, wipe-the-tears-from-my-eyes hilarious.

Sedaris returns to Tulsa to give a reading from his work, answer questions from the audience and sign copies of his books, which include "When You Are Engulfed in Flames," "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim," from which we chose the example of the "killing a mouse in the bucket" example of Sedaris' way with events.

That is how "Nuit of the Living Dead" opens, before it segues into Sedaris being hailed by a van full of tourists how are lost and want to ask directions. It leads to a moment when Sedaris realizes that the furnishings of his home in France might lead visitors to get the wrong impression.

On one of the chairs is a towel with an emblem of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office; two copies of "a sordid true-crime magazine I purportedly buy to help me with my French," one opened to the photo of a murder victim, the other to a crossword puzzle where Sedaris, having successfully solved the clue "female sex organ," had decorated his answer "with bright exclamation points."

"There seemed to be a theme developing," Sedaris writes, "and everything I saw appeared to substantiate it: the almanac of guns and firearms suddenly prominent on the bookshelf, the meat cleaver lying for

no apparent reason upon a photograph of our neighbor's grandchild.

"'It's more of a summer home,' I said, and the man nodded "

David Sedaris

When: 7:30 p.m. Monday

Where: Chapman Music Hall, Tulsa Performing Arts Center, 101 E. Third St.

tickets: $40-$50; 596-7111, tulsaworld.com/mytix

James D. Watts Jr. 581-8478
james.watts@tulsaworld.com

Working or loafing, teenagers can't win - Chicago Tribune

Posted: 11 Oct 2009 12:54 AM PDT

Ask Amy

October 11, 2009

Dear Amy: I was saddened by the letter from "Sad Senior," in which he/she lamented the fact that, while Sad's classmates spent the summer before their senior year in high school in "prestigious internships," Sad merely took college courses and visited relatives.

What has happened to our youth?

The summer before my senior year of high school, I worked concession stands at music festivals for minimum wage.

In my spare time, I partied with my friends and my boyfriend, hung out at the beach and read novels.

I now have a Ph.D. and perform groundbreaking research at the most prestigious hospital in the country.

(Just for the record, my parents paid about 20 percent of my expenses for college and none for graduate school.)

I am serious when I ask this: Are today's young people barred from such success if they don't give up their youth in pursuit of long-term goals, or are they buckling down way too early and too seriously for little gain in the long run?



-- Way Former Teen

Dear Former: While I am amused by your tale of slacker's revenge, it occurs to me that young people just can't win.

Either they're uselessly lying on the couch, or they're wasting their youth by being too ambitious.

Not every young person is blessed with your brains and talent. Most people have to work pretty hard to attain the level of security and confidence that you were evidently born with.

I agree with you that it seems a shame to spend one's youth chasing prestige, especially when you could be outside, riding a bike.

But I also have to point out that "Sad Senior" (and you, evidently) didn't have to worry too much about money; feeling pressure over prestigious internships is a pretty cushy problem to have.

You'll be happy to hear that not all teenagers are buckling down way too early.

In fact, I spent last summer tripping over the sneakers of one who didn't seem in too much of a hurry to go anywhere in particular.

Dear Amy: I was interested in the letter from "Knit Wit" -- from a woman who was wondering if she was rude (as her husband accused) to knit while she talked to their friends out on a deck.

The day I read that letter, we received a copy of the 2010 Old Farmer's Almanac, which contained all kinds of "curious facts" about Mark Twain.

One of them was this: "In 1905, he spent the first of two summers in Dublin, New Hampshire. There he wrote (but never finished) a book called 'Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes.' To keep him company, he rented three kittens from a local farm. While lecturing at the Dublin Lake Club, he noticed that an audience member was knitting a pair of socks while he spoke. Infuriated, Twain declared that he had never played second fiddle to a sock and left the room."

I guess Sam Clemens would have agreed with Knit Wit's husband.

(For the record, I don't. I admire the woman.)
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