Month: October 2023

The first college football rankings from the official committee

UncleScoopy

Predictably enough, they filled the top five spots with the five undefeated teams from major conferences, then filled most of the remaining spots with the one-loss teams from major conferences, followed by the top 6-2 teams. They reserved the 24th and 25th spots for Tulane and undefeated Air Force. They didn’t try to crowbar undefeated James Madison onto the list.

The committee has not been as impressed as the coaches and sportswriters with the achievements of Georgia. They ranked Georgia second behind THE Ohio State University.

Sagarin’s computer rankings are even less enthusiastic about Georgia. His choice for #1 is Michigan. He ranks Georgia 4th, behind Michigan, Ohio State and once-defeated Alabama. (The official committee places Alabama in the 8th slot.) Sagarin ranks undefeated Florida State 9th, and drops undefeated Washington all the way to 15th.

For what it’s worth, I agree with the committee’s decision to place THE OSU on the top. The Buckeyes have defeated two other teams that are currently in the top 15, while Michigan has not faced a ranked team all year, and Georgia’s only ranked opponent was Kentucky, which was #20 at the time, but has since dropped far off the leader board (Sagarin has them way down at #43). The Michigan / Ohio State dispute will get decided face-to-face on Thanksgiving weekend. Georgia, meanwhile, will now be tested. They face ranked teams the next three weeks, and even if they run that gauntlet undefeated, they will probably have to face off with mighty Alabama for the SEC championship.

Marina Sirtis in the challenging role of “Harem Girl” (uncredited)

UncleScoopy

Just a curious bit of trivia.

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She became a familiar star from her role as Troi in Star Trek: TNG; and her pre-Troi nude roles from the 1983-85 era are well known to fans of celebrity nudity; but her brief appearance in The Thief of Baghdad (1978, seen above) is obscure.

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The Harem Girl appearance occurred five years before any of her familiar nude scenes (below):


The Wicked Lady (1983)

Blind Date (1984)

Death Wish III (1985)

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Her sexiest scene on Star Trek: TNG

And one post-Trek nude scene in Paradise Lost (1999)

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Naomi Watts did a pretty great nude scene last year

UncleScoopy

There was frontal and rear nudity from a major international star, yet the scene didn’t draw much attention in the annual voting for the year’s best nude scene, probably because she was 53 years old and it’s all about the young ‘uns.

But even though she finished way back in 40th place on last year’s poll, damned if she didn’t look absolutely terrific in Infinite Storm, as seen here in 4K captures.


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Although Naomi has never made the top five, or even the top ten, on our annual lists, she has appeared farther down the list in three previous years:

2001 for Mulholland Drive

2003 for 21 Grams

2010 for Mother and Child

Goldie Hawn: “An alien touched me”

UncleScoopy

“She says she was unable to move, but that the aliens ‘touched me and it felt like the finger of God.’”

Could it just have been Harvey Weinstein?

I guess not, because …

“She claims she then saw three ‘triangular-shaped heads’, silver in color with a ‘tiny little nose,’ no ears and ‘a slash for a mouth.’”

That sounds more like the Hudson Brothers.

Could Chandler BE any deader?

UncleScoopy

“Matthew Perry Found Dead After Reportedly Playing 2-Hour Game Of Pickleball”

A former top-ranked junior tennis star killed by two hours of pickleball? His health had to have seriously deteriorated. I guess he drowned in his hot tub after the pickleball, but the real cause of death (that is to say what caused him to pass out in a hot tub) has not been revealed. It sounds like heart failure, but who knows? Perry had experienced multiple health issues in recent years, many of them more or less self-inflicted by years of substance abuse.

Matthew was a very talented, funny guy. During the COVID lockdown, I binge-watched Mr. Sunshine, which wasn’t difficult since there were only nine episodes aired (+ four unaired). Although it never caught on, I found it to be an amusing, underrated comedy series, with excellent lead performances by Perry and Allison Janney. (While Matthew was solid, the comedic star was really Allison Janney, who stole every scene she was in.)

Sweden’s tourist board has decided it is time to make it clear that the nation is not, in fact, Switzerland.

UncleScoopy

A study conducted by Visit Sweden in the US found that half of the respondents were not sure if there was a difference between the two nations.

And while they’re at it, they might make up a quick brochure on Switzerland vs Swaziland. (Swaziland was renamed Eswatini a few years ago, probably to avoid the disappointment of Americans who arrived there to ski the Alps. I’m willing to bet that, rounded to the nearest percent, zero percent of Americans know that Eswatini is a country. If you give us a multiple choice, we would probably identify Eswatini as an Italian cocktail. “Vodka Eswatini. Shaken, not stirred.”)

When I was in the Netherlands, the locals there told me that visiting Americans were convinced the locals were Danish, not Dutch. Ah, we Americans, always ambassadors of ignorance. You have to give us different first letters or the words look the same. Most of us probably can’t even tell Poland from Peru.

Also, Czechia and Chechnya might at least tack up a few flyers for us.