Enemy of the State St.

I will not be going to State St. this Halloween. I urge all of you not to go either.

My opposition is not simply because of the admission fee. I do not have a problem with paying $5 to help the city to cover their expenses, if the city is spending the money reasonably. But there is not a need for the number of police officers that will be there. There is no need for music stages, or stadium lights.

My biggest problem with the way they are running things this year is the attempt to rebrand the event. What authority did the Halloween Action Committee have to change the name to 'Freakfest?' What was wrong with 'Halloween' (other than that it can't be trademarked)? And why do you need to call us freaks?

So hit up the other downtown bars. Go to Langdon. Just don't buy a ticket for State St. If no one goes, and the city doesn't recoup any money for their overblown plans, they will have to change it back for next year. And if no one is on State St, the city council will have a little bit of pressure put on them from the bars and other businesses.

Madison needs to learn to stop trying to regulate everything. Does the State (St.) belong to the government or the people?

Hodgepodge Tuesday: Thursday Sports Edition

Sorry Jon Stewart, you'll have to wait another year to try to cheat your way into heaven. The St. Louis Cardnials won the NL pennant. They now have the honor of being the team that gets to lose to the Detroit Tigers. Nation take note: the power is consolodating in the Midwest.

Good news: the NFL bomb threat was fake. There is no reason to fear a terror attack on the NFL stadiums in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Oakland, and Cleveland. The scariest thing this weekend will be the actual games of Arizona at Oakland and Green Bay at Miami.

Return of the Hodgepodge

It's been a while, but I'm back. And so is Hodgepodge Tuesday.

If you didn't watch the Chicago-Arizona game on Monday night, you may have been surprised if you saw that Chicago only won 24-23. Arizona wasn't supposed to have a chance to stay in the game. Of course, you might be more surprised if, like me, you watched the first three quarters and turned the game off, thinking the game was over with Arizona leading 23-3. Almost miraculously, the Bears scored three touchdowns (none offensively) and somehow pulled off the win. I know I picked them to do the Superbowl Shuffle last year and was wrong, but I might have just been a year early.

Scientists created yet another element yesterday. If you're keeping track, we are now unofficially up to 118 (ununoctium?). One scientist called creating a new element "the holy grail of nuclear physics." I'd say it's just smashing two large atoms into each other and seeing what sticks together. That's probably because I don't really see the point in creating something that cant exist for more than a milisecond before decaying and then splitting.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) apologized for saying that Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, a Republican Senate nominee, "slavishly" supported the GOP. If you couldn't tell, Steele is African-American. This is just ridiculous. Not the statement, but the apology. I've got no way of knowing if Steele was descended from slaves and I don't really care. This shouldn't be any worse than saying Lieberman 'slavishly' supports the GOP (Jews have been used as slaves too). Are we not even allowed to mention any form of the word slave anymore? It's not like anyone said Steele will 'niggardly' hoard pork if elected to the Senate.

In a somewhat related story, Chris Rock's mother, with the help of Al Sharpton, is going to sue the Cracker Barrel after being refused service. I am not saying it's right, but if you make a place called Cracker Barrel serve blacks, aren't you forcing them to commit false advertising?

To change topics, before I allude to any more racial slurs...
The Fort Myers Beach Council voted 4-1 Monday to allow the Surf Club bar to use the Turkey Testicle Festival name.

That's called ending on a high note.

Are You Ready for some Statistical Analysis?

*Spoilers ahead*


The Green Bay Packers play the Philadelphia Eagles tonight. Green Bay will not win. Philly is favored to win by 11. Pick them to beat the spread. I'm not saying this based on any player matchups, or Favre's stats this year, or anything that relates to either team. I am basing my prediction on Wisconsin's 52-17 beatdown on Indiana Saturday.

Over the last two years, Green Bay is 5 for 19 (.2632). However, they are 3 for 4 (.75) following a UW loss, and only 1 for 11 (.0909) following a UW win. That one win, by the way, was following Wisconsin's bowl win over Auburn last year, so it might not even count. If the Badger games were unrelated to the Packer games, they should have gone 1/4 and 3/11 after Wisconsin losses and wins. Statistically speaking, this amount of correlation points to a strong dependence.


Charting the margin of victory for each game, there was not a strong correlation, but it looks safe to infer that after UW's 35 point win, Green Bay will lose by around 20.

I could figure out the odds that there is no dependence, but this took enough of my time.