November 19, 2022 News and Notes

• In the "Yeah, That Would Do It" Department:  What kind of Buffalo snow would move an NFL game, etc.?  Try four to five feet of it in one day!
• In the "Unintended Consequences" Department:  Amy Schneider wagering defensively to prevent Andrew He from winning the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions cost her the win of the tournament on Friday, as Sam Buttrey was finally able to get off the canvas and get his first point.
• Monday's Game Six has the same concept as Game Five:  He or Schneider can win, or Buttrey can extend, this time to Winner Takes All.
• Mass walkout at Texas A&M because the team is subpar.  Homecoming game with UMass, and 90% of the fans walked out after the band played halftime.
• It appears that alcohol is going to have to go on some kind of banned list -- not only is there the Titans OC DUI after the Packer game Thursday, but the Washington Commanders were boozing it up on the plane home Monday night!  Roger Goodell is not happy.
• A shooting this morning at the University of New Mexico has postponed their men's basketball game with New Mexico State, scheduled for later today.
• It's getting so dicey that Germans are actually boycotting the World Cup in such numbers that it's actually becoming noticeable!
• FIFA has demanded the teams "Focus On Football" in Qatar.  YOU FIRST!!!   
• I will refer to my readers who have asked me to boycott the on-field stuff on the World Cup, but this, though it does directly relate to human rights, is important:  On the eve of the opener, there are "sources" ("insiders" to both involved teams) who have spoken to Amjad Taha, the regional director to Britain and a strategic political affairs expert, that there is a $7.4 million bribe to at least a subset of the players on the Ecuador team to throw tomorrow's opener to Qatar.  Eight players appear to have been implicated, and the singular goal of the match is supposed to occur in the second half.  (Before anyone thinks this is too tin, I picked this up on my MSN feed.)
• And to feed into it...  An official FIFA "Integrity Alert" has been filed against the hosts -- referees in their friendly matches have awarded them what appears to be an excessive number of penalties.  Can we just cancel the whole damn thing?
• The FIFA President has blasted Europe, as a whole, and say they should be "apologizing for the next 3,000 years" for past mistakes.  Oh...  my...  Lord...  This is going to end SO BADLY...   
• Declan Hill, long-time academic and match-fixing expert for the sport of soccer, will not be even watching the World Cup.  He has announced he will watch the 50 greatest films of all time instead!
• Why?  Here's an example...  Journalist Kevin Baxter was covering the US team for their opener on Monday against Wales.  He was ordered to remove his rainbow facemask and was offered a plain blue one instead.  He refused (and then made abjectly clear that it was NOT the US team, it was the Qatari host security).  Hat-tip to my anonymous friend -- one of the readers I consult with for such proposed boycotts.
• In a move that is only surprising that it didn't happen 5 minutes after the ink was dry on the sale:  Welcome back to Twitter, you fat orange fuck!!!