Tortilla Soup: On The Border

I had the tortilla soup from On The Border tonight. Yum. Well seasoned. Decent amounts of stuff in the soup. Pleasant seasoning. Wonderful taste.

I'm not a big fan of rice in my soup--it's like a filler. I don't want filler in my soup. This soup has rice. Another drawback was that while there is a variety of ingredients in the soup (including squash), there weren't ample amounts. I like a bit more chicken, cheese, and avocado in mine. The tortilla strips though were great. Plenty of them provided many crunchy bites throughout the life of the bowl.

This is a really good soup. I heartily recommend it.

Rating: Four stars out of five.

The Year of Phil Mickelson

This is the dawning of the year of Phil Mickelson, year of Phil Mickelson...

After taking it yet again in the ass from Tiger at the Doral, Phil was pissed. He was no longer mister nice guy. No longer the “aw shucks” I can’t believe I missed that short putt to take the lead. He was hacked. He went on air and led off with an obscenity. Well, if you can call “pissed” a swear word.

But there was Phil. Pissed off at himself. No more calling Woods out for anything. No blaming any bad shots on anybody but himself. You know what else? He didn’t back off of Tiger’s challenge. He did not wilt under pressure. He answered nearly every challenge. If not for that one putt on 16, he would have beaten Tiger.

"I enjoyed and loved playing head-to-head against Tiger at his best," said Mickelson after he had calmed down after the Doral. " It was great fun. I just don't like the result. ... I want to be head-to-head against him again."

Now I'm going to do something guaranteed to piss off Harper: Compare Tiger Woods to the Yankees.

For decades, everybody was saying that the Yankees were in the Red Sox's heads. And for decades, they were. But then, one year, last year, the Sox said enough. They kicked the Yankees out of their heads with a combination of bravado, determination, resilience, and sheer idiocy (not to mention a few shots of Jack Daniels). That’s right. Tiger is the Yankees. Phil is the Red Sox (calm down, I’m not bringing the Nation into this discussion. We all know that the Mickelson Nation is no where near the status of Red Sox Nation).

Phil’s past bravado has been his attempts to get into Tiger’s head. It hasn’t worked yet, but Tiger has been put on notice. Yes, he was all smiles and said the right things after the match, but Tiger noticed.

What is my point? This is Phil’s year. Last year, Vijay got tired of playing second banana to Tiger, and most any other golfer. He got serious and started kicking butt. This year, I don’t believe Phil is just spouting off for the sake of spouting off. He believes it. It’s his year.

It’s his year to take down Tiger—and it’s gonna happen at one of the majors.

Either that, or he's going to take him out like Tanya Harding did to Nancy Kerrigan.

Tortilla Soup: Posados

I had dinner at Posados tonight and sampled their tortilla soup with my enchiladas. I had the "cup" on the bowl. It's a decent soup with a broth base. It had generous amounts of chicken and cheese. The spice level was mild and the overall taste was salty. Overall, it's an average soup. Good for what it is, but not stellar.

Rating: 2.5 stars out of five.

The John Chaney Donnybrook

Upset by what he thought were illegal screens by Saint Joseph's that were not being called by the officials, Temple head coach John Chaney resorted to thugery by sending into the game seldom-used Nehemiah Ingram to "send a message." Ingram started throwing his arms around and tossing elbows, once connecting hard to the chin of Hawks center Dwayne Jones, and had a hard foul on John Bryant that left him sprawled on the court for several minutes with what x-rays later revealed as a broken arm. (From ESPN)

Chaney has since issued several apologies (to Jones' family and university of Saint Joseph) and has pulled himself from the bench for at least the duration of the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

Is it enough? Time for a donnybrook with Spork Boy and Harper.

Harper says:
He should be fired.

Spork Boy says:
I think he needs to go. But let him have one final year. Call it the "Anger Management Tour."

Harper says:
Why give him another year? Why take the chance that some other college player might have his season curtailed if Chaney gets a little hot under the collar? No, he was the reason Bryant’s arm is broken. Can him.

Spork Boy says:
The only thing that keeps me from screaming "fire him" is the fact that Chaney admitted wrong-doing, keeps apologizing, keeps increasing his punishment, and keeps showing remorse. Harper says: That’s called CYA, Sporkie. It’s the I-Don’t-Want-to-Lose-My-Million-Dollar-a-Year-Job dribble. It's one thing to send someone out to act like a goon, but when it gets to the point that an opposing player receives a season-ending injury--that coach has to go.

Spork Boy says:
He did a stupid, dirty deed, but he admitted as much. Rarely does anybody apologize anymore. But the broken bone was technically not Chaney's fault. He didn't actually break the bone. He didn't commit the foul.

Harper says:
So, I can go break your kneecap and as long as I apologize and punish myself by not going for tortilla soup for three months, everything would be okay? He sent in a goon—whether or not he fully considered the consequences of this action (i.e., a broken bone) doesn’t matter. He was the one with the premeditated thought to send in the goon to rough things up…and something worse than he expected happened. He’s responsible for that.

Spork Boy says:
But according to your logic, it would be okay if you smacked my kneecap and it didn't break.

Harper says:
I never said that.

Spork Boy says:
“It's one thing to send someone out to act like a goon, but when it gets to the point that a player is hurt--a broken bone that causes him to miss the rest of the season--that coach has to go.” So if the arm was not broken, just a bunch of really hard fouls, Chaney can keep his job?

Harper says:
No, Mr.-I-Want-to-Get-into-an-Argument-So-I-Can-Post-This. Nowhere in that statement does it condone sending in the goon. Bottom line: He should receive a lengthy suspension for sending in the goon; he should be fired for sending in a goon, the result of which was a season-ending injury to another player.

Spork Boy says:
I'm going with intent on Chaney. He didn't intend for any bone to be broken. He just wanted to send a message. His player just happened to do too good of a job. Besides, Chaney simply got caught doing what most coaches and teams do anyway.

Harper says:
Intent to harm, Sporkie! I hope the NCAA sends it own message to these over-the-top coaches who think they can get away with anything these days. You think John Wooden never got pissed off over the officiating? Of course, he did. But the man never took it out on an opposing player.

Spork Boy says:
Suspended, yes. Fired, no. But I think Chaney needs to step down at the end of next year. He's had too long a history of being an angry, angry man. He needs to take an anger management course and give lectures on the subject. He's traditionally been a man who doesn't shy away from issues. Well, here is one issue he shouldn't shy away from. Thus, the “John Chaney Anger Management Farewell Season.”

Harper says:
May it end in March 2005.
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What are your thoughts? Suspend John Chaney? Fire him? Dip him in a vat of molten toffee and roll him in nuts? Click on the comments link and join the donnybrook!

Setting Low Expectations=Low Performance

Mike Davis has said some pretty inane things in his career, but the thing he says in this article bothers me. No, it pisses me off. Here is what he is quoted as saying in regard to making it into the NCAA tournament:

"I think if you get 10 victories in any conference, that speaks volumes," Davis said. "Just look around the country. Who has 10 victories? I don't have any idea how people look at it, but when you get to 10 wins in a good conference like ours, I think you should be in."

Right now IU is 9-5 with two games remaining--Wisconsin (tonight) and Northwestern (at home). Davis’s quote tells me he is conceding a loss to Wisconsin and predicting a win against Northwestern. He has put into his mind that IU will finish 10-6. And if he believes that, then so do the players.

Davis is giving the impression that all he is interested in is padding his resume. For him, all that matters is making the NCAA tournament. It doesn’t matter how. What counts is that the team he coaches makes the tournament.

Here’s why I think this way. During the early part of the season, as Indiana was losing seven games in a row and Davis was under fire, he continuously pointed out three things: The schedule was too hard and not his fault; the team was young and just not getting what he is teaching; and he had already made it to the championship game.

All of those excuses tell me that Davis is insecure. He so badly wants to succeed that he will say anything to prove to others, and especially himself, that he is a good coach. For him, the definition of a good coach is taking teams to the NCAA Tournament—especially a young one that has to overcome circumstances beyond their control.

This is a must win game. So is the game against Northwestern. So is making a deep run in the Big Ten tournament. It’s a must for Coach Davis to show everybody that he actually can coach, that the team he leads is making improvements and can win on the road. It’s a must-win game because he must prove to us in Hoosier Nation that he deserves to be back next year.

It’s not enough to win 10 Big Ten games and then whine to anybody who will listen about how the last 27 of 28 teams that won 10 league games reached the NCAA Tournament. Backing into the tournament is not the hallmark of a well-coached team.

This is a must-win game because everybody—the fans, the selection committee, and especially the players—needs to believe that this team is growing up and getting better. And that Davis is a good coach. If that doesn’t happen, I don’t care how good the incoming group of players is, it won’t matter if the guy can’t coach.

And 11-5 looks way better than 10-6 on any resume.