Steve Sullivan Has No Goals; We're Fine With That

By Finesse

Because the Pens have a string of off days before heading out west, there's more time to digest what has happened over the first 13 games of the season.  Today, the Post-Gazette reports on Steve Sullivan's goalless start to the season.  Sullivan, who has 266 goals over his 15+ year career, has only three assists in the season's first 13 games and has failed to bury numerous chances.  The good news about the quotes in the PG article is that no one is panicking, including Sullivan.

"On my whistle, grind bitches down."

And neither are we.  Read on for more...


First, the Pens are 8-3-2.  If the Pens were 3-8-2, we'd not only be calling out Sullivan, we'd be having daily raw emotion podcasts where we called him a toxic disease on this, like, journey.

Second, Sullivan is playing well and is exactly the type of player the Pens need in the lineup, especially without Crosby and a with game-to-game Malkin.  He's super quick which makes him an almost automatic fit into the Dan Bylsma system.  (He's basically Alexi Kovalev, except the complete opposite).  When we watch him play, we see a guy who knows what he's doing out there and who you   actually expect will do something to will increase the Pens' chances of scoring a goal.  (He's basically Mark Letestu, except the complete opposite).

Third, James Neal has 9 goals and he's played the entire season with Sullivan on his wing.  Sure, Sullivan has only three points, but if you don't think that Sullivan's quickness and hockey sense are opening up space for Neal to operate, then just watch tape of last year where Neal's linemates were Mark Letestu and Alexi Kovalev.  You'll see the thoroughbred Neal galloping around the offensive zone watching Mark Letestu politely turn the puck over and a 315-pound Kovalev intentionally sit down on the ice mid-play like a dog who has an undiagnosable stomach ache and doesn't want to go for a walk.

Photo staged by same people who did the moon landing.

Finally, it's only been 13 games.  James Neal played 27 games last year for the Pens and had 2 goals.  This year, he's been one of the 5-best wingers in the league and a case study proving the point then when you come to a new team, just keep doing the right things and eventually the puck will go in.  The same is true for Sullivan, assuming no discs burst in his back.

I Nominate Heidi Klum As The Queen Of Halloween

There are lots of things you can say about Heidi Klum, but one of them can't be that she doesn't love Halloween.

I think she commits to the holiday like few other celebrities.

If you haven't seen her costumes, you've missed out, and I warn you, the last one is one you should avoid while eating.

*slow applause*

Linda Lovelace Biopics

Amanda Seyfried is now poised to play Linda Lovelace in a movie too?

Considering how many times that role has changed hands over the years (Anna Faris and Lindsay Lohan both come to mind for that particular role), I won't believe a Linda Lovelace movie is being made until one of them is finally released.

Syndies brighten up

Syndicated game shows did pretty well in the week ending October 23. TVNewsCheck scatters the generally good news...

Wheel of Fortune 7.0 - up three ticks
Jeopardy 5.9 - up three ticks to keep pace with the soulmate
Family Feud 2.8 - up a couple ticks
Millionaire 2.5 - flat, there's one in every group

Robert Seidman at TV by the Numbers brings the viewership averages right on time: Wheel of Fortune 10.9 million, Jeopardy 8.9 million, Family Feud 4.3 million, Millionaire 3.4 million. Very pleasant numbers as we head into peak viewing season.

Douglas provides the GSN viewer numbers for the week, except for Friday. Guess his source was off that day, or something. The prime time/total day averages (in thousands of viewers)...

Mon 205/202
Tue 300/216
Wed 345/235
Thu 301/249
Sat 310/218
Sun 258/216

Again a not so hot Monday and Sunday, sort of okay for the rest of the week. The top twenty, since we're covering a whole week...

Thu 4:30PM Family Feud (Karn) 476
Thu 4:00PM Family Feud (Karn) 443
Sat 9:30PM Family Feud (O’Hurley) 398
Wed 7:30PM Baggage 395
Wed 9:00PM Deal or No Deal 392
Tue 11:00PM Newlywed Game 372
Thu 5:00PM Deal or No Deal 368
Wed 8:00PM Deal or No Deal 356
Thu 10:30PM Family Feud (O’Hurley) 355
Tue 10:30PM Family Feud (O’Hurley) 353
Thu 3:30PM Chain Reaction 352
Sat 6:30PM Lingo (Engvall) 347
Thu 10:00PM Family Feud (Karn) 347
Tue 4:30PM Family Feud (Karn) 343
Thu 11:30PM Baggage 339
Wed 4:30PM Family Feud (Karn) 339
Wed 7:00PM Newlywed Game 334
Tue 6:00PM Lingo (Engvall) 329
Mon 4:30PM Family Feud (Karn) 324
Tue 11:30PM Baggage 323

Mostly the usuals. Karn got six spots, Jerry, Howie and O'Hurley got three apiece, Engvall and Sherri each got a couple, and Chain Reaction snuck in.

The Return of Mountain Snow and Some KUOW Comments

October is now over and it was a very benign month, with temperatures and precipitation very close to normal.   No big storms.  A few weak fronts.  Occasional sunny days and plenty of fog.  And very little snow in the mountains.

But it looks like this is going to change, with the mountains beginning to build the wintertime base of snow that all skiers long for.

The first shot comes on Thursday, when a very deep trough moves over the West Coast, pushing the jet stream into California.  Take a look at this 500 mb upper level chart at 2 PM on Thursday (below)...quite a deep trough over the northwest...and lots of rain and weather going into southern CA and the Southwest.  Bad time in lotus land! And a huge ridge in the eastern Pacific....reminiscent of a La Nina-type pattern.

Here is the snowfall for the 24-h period ending 5 PM on Thursday--several inches in the Cascades--with some of it getting down to pass level (snow level descends to roughly 2500 ft).  Not much, but a start.

Then another trough moves in on Saturday, and again the bulk of the flow going into California.

This relatively weak feature only provides a dusting of snow over the Cascades, perhaps and inch or two at the most. 

But then on Monday another trough approaches--stronger and embedded in much stronger flow.  This system could produce FAR heavier snowfall, with totals reaching a foot or more.

Of course, our confidence in the forecast declines in time, but it is clear that during the next week, a colder, wetter pattern more reminiscent of the La Nina situation of last year will set up.  In fact, the NWS Climate Prediction Center forecasts for the next 6-10 days is for colder than normal and wetter than normal conditions (see graphics)---enough to warm the hearts of Northwest skiers hoping for an early start to the season.  And yes...a reminder of last year.

KUOW Update

I have been fairly quiet about KUOW recently, not the least because I am really enjoying doing my weekly weather program on KPLU (Fridays at 9 AM) with Keith Seinfeld, their excellent science reporter.  But all too often I get reminded about the attitudes over at KUOW, and particularly at Weekday, that I found so disturbing when I was on the inside.  Case in point:  Joel Connelly, the well-known PI reporter.   This week Joel wrote the following:

"Not long ago, on KUOW Radio -- before being exiled for protesting their ouster of weather expert Cliff Mass..."

Joel was one of the wisest and principled voices on the 10 AM "Week in Review" Friday program on KUOW, and a wonderful counterweight to the very conservative views of the Seattle Times' Joni Balter.   He was a vocal critic of my "firing" for the terrible sin of talking about an education issue on one program--and wrote a very supportive piece in the PI on the subject.  Turns out that criticism of Weekday staff  or KUOW management is not allowed by this public radio station.  It appears that by speaking his mind, Joel was given the boot....in a very similar way I was given the boot when I disagreed privately with Steve Scher's approach of selectively allowing certain opinions on his show.  Folks--this is very disappointing behavior and quite frankly unacceptable for those responsible for a very important public radio outlet--a station whose license is held by the University of Washington.

And as long as I am complaining, why does KUOW Weekday insist on using a non-meteorologist, posing as a meteorologist, on many of their Friday shows?   This is about as reasonable as having a person without a medical degree doing surgery or providing detailed medical advice.  And what does this say about journalistic integrity?  The KUOW audience deserves better. 

Local American Meteorological Society Meeting on Friday:  Open to All

The Puget Sound Chapter of the American Meteorological Society will be meeting on Wednesday, November 2 at the Northeast Branch of the Seattle Public Library at 6:30 PM.   UW Graduate Student Luke Madaus will describe the new dual-polarization products available from the newly upgraded National Weather Service radars.  All welcome.   Location: 6801 35th Ave. N.E.  More directions at: http://www.spl.org/locations/northeast-branch/net-getting-to-the-branch

Arkham Horror dice set review

To enhance the gaming experience of my Strange Aeons and Arkham Horror boardgame sessions, (and because I was getting sick of my old Games Workshop dice that seem to hate me for not playing GW games and punish me by constantly rolling 1's  and 2's), I bought a pack of these engraved dice from Q-Workshop through Maelstrom Games as I had a bit on my "money back" account.

These dice are produced under Fantasy Flight Games license, and come in bone white with black numbers or black with green numbers. I prefer these as the black one's were hard to read quickly enough.

Dimensions are 15mm diameter so they are not as big as they might appear on the store pictures.

The engraving is nice and thematic, it has a "elder sign" engraved on number 5 and 6 since those are the default results when you roll "successes" in the Arkham Horror boardgame. These pack seem to be rather well balanced from my limited experience with them. Better than the original dice that come with Arkham Horror anyway.

The cardboard pack has a small compartment - for additional cards I presume. You can never have too much room for extra cards in Arkham Horror and this might be a nice place to store all those rare cards from the expansions that you use infrequently and don't want to mix with the other decks (certain spells, membership cards etc).

The price for these over at Maelstrom £7.19 so not cheap, but I still think they are kind of worth it. Maybe even more for Strange Aeons where you rarely need more than 5 dice at any single point (In Arkham Horror you can max out to around 12 dice at some occasions). Not much more to tell.

I liked the look of them well enough to buy a single pack. There are tons of similar dice over at Q-Workshop (in all formats from D4 to D20) with all kinds of theme's. So if these look interesting but does not fit in with your particular game you can take a look at the Q-Workshop site (Polish store but it is in English as well) to see if you find anything to your liking and that fits the theme of your game.

Million dollar Nielsen bust

BuzzerBlog posted some local market ratings for the October 23 premiere of Million Dollar Mind Game. Nobody should have expected anything except near-invisible numbers, and that's exactly what happened.

My own review was tepid at best and brutal at worst. ABC knew what they were doing when they burned the show off in a throwaway Sunday afternoon slot. Still, I'll admit to a sneaking wish that a few more people would give the show a chance.

I'm not just pleading for game shows in general, though there's a little of that involved. Million Dollar Mind Game is a truly offbeat departure from the usual run of American game shows. Frankly, some of the departures, like the excruciating difficulty of the questions and the lollygagging pace, strike me as anything but favorable.

But it would still be nice to see such a quirky show somehow find a few viewers, at least the famous "cult following." I'm afraid even that may be too much to ask for the import from Russia without love (by Nielsen).