Brain Buster

I normally hate forwards, but I thought this was great and wanted to share. I didn't get one of these right. How did you do?

Your Yearly Dementia Test
It's that time of year to take our annual senior citizen test. Exercise of the brain is as important as exercise of the muscles. As we grow older, it's important to keep mentally alert. If you don't use it, you lose it! Below is a very private way to gauge your loss or non-loss of intelligence. Take the test presented here to determine if you're losing it or not. The spaces below are so you don't see the answers until you've made your answer. OK, relax, clear your mind and......


START......
1. What do you put in a toaster?



Answer: "bread." If you said "toast," give up now and do something else. Try not to hurt yourself.

If you said, bread, go to Question 2.

2. Say "silk" five times.
Now spell "silk."


What do cows drink?
Answer: Cows drink water.


If you said "milk," don't attempt the next question. Your brain is over-stressed and may even overheat. Content yourself with reading a more appropriate literature such as Auto World. However, if you said "water", proceed to question 3.

3. If a red house is made from red bricks and a blue house is made from blue bricks and a pink house is made from pink bricks and a black house is made from black bricks, what is a greenhouse made from?

Answer: Greenhouses are made from glass.

If you said "green bricks," why are you still reading these??? If you said "glass," go on to Question 4.


4. It's twenty years ago, and a plane is flying at 20,000 feet over Germany. (If you will recall, Germany at the time was politically divided into West Germany and East Germany.) Anyway, during the flight, two engines fail. The pilot, realizing that the last remaining engine is also failing, decides on a crash landing procedure. Unfortunately the engine fails before he can do so and the plane fatally crashes smack in the middle of "no man's land" between East Germany and West Germany. Where would you bury the survivors? East Germany,West Germany, or no man's land"?

Answer: You don't bury survivors. If you said ANYTHING else, you're a dunce and you must stop. If you said, "You don't bury survivors", proceed to the next question. 5. Without using a calculator -

You are driving a bus from London to Milford Haven in Wales.
In London, 17 people get on the bus. In Reading, six people get off the bus and nine people get on.
In Swindon, two people get off and four get on.
In Cardiff, 1 1 people get off and 16 people get on.
In Swansea, three people get off and five people get on.
In Carmathen, six people get off and three get on.
You then arrive at Milford Haven.
What was the name of the bus driver?


Answer: Oh, for crying out loud! Don't you remember your own name? It was YOU!! Now pass this along to all your friends and pray they do better than you.
PS: 95% of people fail most of the questions

Pumpkin Carving

Prior to yesterday's Giants game, the wife and I carved our Halloween pumpkins. I thought both turned out great!!

Big Blue Defense Rules Again in 33-15 Victory

It sure has been a different Giants defense since Week 2 of the NFL season.

Today against the San Francisco 49ers, the Giants defense gave up 15 points. They racked up another 6 sacks. And they terrorized backup QB Trent Dilfer all day long.

Early in the 3rd quarter, Osi Umeniyora made the play of the game forcing Niners QB Trent Dilfer to fumble. Osi then returned the ball 77 yards for a TD. At the time, the Niners were trailing by 12, but were putting together an early 2nd half scoring drive before Dilfer fumbled at the Giants 15 yard line. It was definitely the play the shored up the game for the Giants.

The Giants offense played well enough to stay ahead of the Niners inept offense the whole day. It all added up to a solid, convincing 33-15 win for the Giants against the Niners. All week long -- and probably for the last 2 weeks - the NYC media has talked about potential trap games prior to the Giants Week 9 bye.

Last week they talked about a possible loss to the Falcons in Atlanta. Didn't happen. ...

This week, the NYC media talked about how this was exactly the type of trap game that the Giants usually lose. Didn't happen this time either.

The team, lead by their stellar defense certainly has been a breath of fresh air. I've mentioned it before and I'll say it again. In the first two games, the defense gave up a ridiculous 80 points. During the Giants 5-game winning streak, the team defense has given up 53 points - not counting the 17 points the Giants gave up on special teams and blunders on offense. That's solid.

Next week, the Giants head to jolly old England to face the winless Miami Dolphins (0-7) at the new Wembley Stadium in London. Is this another potential trap game before the bye? We'll see.

I'm definitely excited about how this season is going so far for the Giants.

What I Think ...

I definitely think that the Yankees brass knew that Torre would reject the contract offer and they offered it to him to save face with Yankees fans and players so they could say that they tried to bring the manager back and Torre rejected their offer. Of course it's now backfiring on the Yankees in the eyes of the media, who are calling team officials a bunch of scumbags, but it is interesting how it turned out.

It's kinda like in High School, when you heard through the grapevine that your girlfriend was going to break up with you, so to save face you went ahead and broke up with her before she had the chance to break up with you...Not like that ever happened to me or anything ...

I'm in Shock Right Now

I am in an utter state of shock, right now. As I do on most days, I listened to WFAN in NYC all day in the hopes of hearing some news about the Joe Torre situation. Around 3 p.m., WFAN started reporting that The Newark Star Ledger was reporting that Torre was in Tampa ready to re-sign with the team. Mike and the Mad Dog talked about it for a full hour about how great it was that Torre was back. I too, was excited about it as I wanted Torre to re-sign with the team.

WFAN informed its listening audience that the Yankees had planned a conference call at 4 p.m. today and the station would play excerpts of the call after it happened. Figuing that it was a foregone conclusion, I started letting my friends, neighbors and Dad know that the Yankees were about the announce that Torre was returning.

Well, the Yankees shocked the world by announcing on the call that Torre had rejected the Yankees 1 year offer at a reduced salary. I'm sure taking a pay cut was a kick in the face for Torre and he decided to tell the Yankees to fuck off. In a way, I think it was the right move for him. The Yankees shouldn't have treated a manager that led them to 12 straight postseasons like that.

While I'm upset that he's not coming back as manager, I hope that this doesn't hurt Torre's relationship with the Yankees long term. I would really like to see them retire his No. 6 in Monument Park and have a Joe Torre Day at the Stadium, when the hubbub from this shocking announcement today dies down.

Maybe it was time for a change...but I surely wasn't ready for it.

What Yankee Brass Had for Dinner

I'm refreshing ESPN.com, NYPost.com, NYDailyNews.com every minute or so, while at the same time watching WFAN on the YES network...all while doing real work, mind you.... so I guess I'm partly to blame for the crazy coverage that this Joe Torre situation is getting the last couple days.

Member of the NY media are huddled outside the homes of Joe Torre and George Steinbrenner. They are camped out at Legends Field where internal Yankee meetings are being held to decide what the 2008 Yankees look like.

And since there hasn't been much news the last couple of days on the subject, media members have now resorted to reporting who they saw walk into the meetings, what the exact time was, who went to dinner with who the night before, what they might have discussed, what they might have worn to the dinner and if Anna Nicole Smith's ghost joined them for dessert....okay, I made that last one up.

Bottom line is that the coverage of the Torre situation this last week has been downright ridiculous. ...and no doubt due to the insatiable thirst for news on the Torre situation by millions of Yankees fans, including yours truly.

Four Years Since Boone's Historic Home Run

Four years ago today, Aaron Boone hit one of the biggest homeruns in Yankee history in Game 7 of the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox. I was at the game. And I remember that moment like it was yesterday.

I found out about going to the game the day before, took off early from work and paid $50 to attend the greatest game that I will ever attend in my life...I just didn't know it at the time.

I remember vividly that a pipe burst in NYC that day and caused tremendous backups on roads into the City. A trip that would usually have taken 1 1/2 hours tops, took 3 hours. Once we finally got into the Stadium, there was a ridiculous buzz in the air. Future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens was facing Future Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez in the game and we were sure that it was going to be a pitchers duel.

By the second inning though, Clemens was knocked out of the game - sound familiar? - and Mike Mussina came in to save the series for the Yankees.

Down by five early in the game, the Yankees started to come back led by two homeruns by Jason Giambi. The Yankees finally tied the game in the 8th inning off a bloop single by Jorge Posada and the Stadium was buzzing again.

The game didn't end until the bottom of the 11th inning when Boone took the first pitch from knuckleballer Tim Wakefield and blasted it into the night. As the pitch was leaving Wakefield's hand, I remember telling my friend Chris how much Boone sucked. The words had barely left my mouth before Boone connected with the pitch. What followed was complete and utter madness.

I have never before been in a brighter or louder place in my life. It was a truly ridiculous moment that I'll never forget. And I can't believe it's already been four years.