Scary. Scary. Link here.
Global warming smacks Britain. Link here. [London] Daily Mail here.
Less than twelve hours away: Santa Claus rally tracked here. The last two days, Monday / Tuesday -- January 4 and 5, 2021.
WTI: could it break $50 today?
PFF: this sounds very, very British, and very, very good. Link here. This is truly amazing:
PFF grades every NFL player on every play on a scale of -2 to +2 using half point increments.
The grades are based on context and performance.
A four-yard run that gains a first down after two broken tackles will receive a better grade than a four-yard run on 3rd & 5, where the ball carrier does nothing more than expected. A quarterback who makes a good pass that a receiver tips into the arms of a defender will not negatively affect the quarterback's grade on that play, despite the overall negative result for the team.
Furthermore, grades are separated by play type.
Beyond just an overall grade, an offensive lineman receives one grade for pass-blocking and one for run-blocking.
The average grade is meant to be zero, and raw grades are normalized. In watching every game, PFF is also able to record information and create data that is typically unavailable. One example is how frequently individual offensive linemen yield pressure.
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A Musical Interlude And Some Photography
Another bit of serendipity. I enjoyed Powerline at one time but not so much any more; I seldom visit the site except on Saturday morning for the "week in pictures." But when bored, I might stop by. Wow, I'm glad I stopped by this morning. Every Sunday they have a segment on music, always (?) by Scott Johnson. This past Sunday -- I guess it was yesterday -- a piece on Tony Rice. A must read.
Tony Rice on YouTube.
A British guitarist analyzes Tony Rice's technical ability. Another treasure and another example of how lucky we are to have YouTube. I know nothing about string instruments but I nailed it, watching Tony Rice, noting how Tony Rice managed to strum so quickly.
So, that's that.
But in YouTube's wisdom, seeing what I was watching, the site thought I would enjoy this clip, recommending that I take a look. I had not seen this Phil Donahue interview with the cast of Steel Magnolias. It was fascinating. I never cared for Phil Donahue but that's okay. One can get past that and enjoy the folks on stage.
Note: Sally Fields name is misspelled and the uploader failed to mention Olympia Dukakis on stage.
Phil does pop up in unusual places. Of all things, he shows up in the documentary, Finding Vivian Maier. Link here. The making of the documentary, the story of how this all came about is as interesting as the story of Vivian Maier herself.
