Whether you're at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt's End
*I'm not big into moral victories, but there are degrees of losses. I know some of you linear-thinking Neanderthals believe in only "dubya's 'n ellz, baybee", but there's more to it. There are bad losses. And, yes, like the epic 51-48 setback to the undefeated Broncos, there are "good" losses. I rank the Cowboys' Top 5 all-time over at
NBC 5's Blue Star Blog.
*While 105.3 The Fan inexplicably worries about trivial matters like who socializes with whom off the air, the station's alarming ratings plunge continues. The September PPM ratings are in and they show The Ticket as strong as ever (No. 1 in every daypart 6a-7p), ESPN saying goodbye to the 4th-rated afternoon show in Randy Galloway, and The Fan drastically losing listeners across the board from 2012. In the wake of
RAGE being fired for reasons other than ratings -
ring a bell? - program director Gavin Spittle lied that the move was indeed about ratings.
"We need to be more competitive in that time period," he told the Dallas Morning News in attempting to justify our termination. The same guy who thinks Tim Dobbins is more relevant than Emmitt Smith must also be a tad confused about the not-so-subtle difference between more and less. Because - no way around it - The Fan is less competitive with him at the helm. Much less. 105.3's morning show had a 2.3 rating in Sept. 2012, but in Sept. 2013 dipped to a 1.8. Middays dropped from 3.1 to 1.8. And while a year ago Greggo and I had a 2.5, our replacement,
Ben and Skin, last month posted their fifth consecutive sub-2.0 rating, this time a 1.7. In sports - and in sports radio - bad coaching can doom a team.
*Speaking of The Ticket, don't fret Collin and Denton County P1s. As part of the Cumulus-taking-over-ESPN deal 104.1 FM may be Dead 'n Gone, but The Ticket's simulcast is actually moving to a stronger signal on 96.7 FM. The frequency has been home to WBAP 820's simulcast, but it's now The Ticket's sister station to 1310 AM.
*Saw
Gravity last night. Didn't love it. But, I admit, my expectations were probably too high. I wanted
Castaway meets
Open Water set in outer space, but instead I got some cool special effects harpooned by too-cool dialogue and glaring plot holes. Like, I didn't believe George Clooney could just jet-pack his way from satellites in different orbits,
and turns out my skepticism was warranted.
*As for Sunday's media "fight" in the Cowboys' locker room that I first reported, yes I originally Tweeted that I was going to "name names" and I had full intention of doing so. Then I talked to a couple of the guys involved and became convinced their livelihoods were at stake. There was more to it than me being first with some cheap "breaking news." The parties involved admitted their mistakes, called each other to apologize and realized that, yes in fact, a little professional "growing up" was in order. The names are out there if you care. And if you wanna call me "pussy" or "coward" for backtracking and - after further review - not directly contributing to fathers with families losing their jobs, so be it. I can live with that.
*Try this experiment: Next time somebody says "Romo's a choker" jot down their career. Do it for the whole week. Come Friday I predict your results will show that those that use their brains for a living back Romo, and those that use their bodies for a living will be his critics. In other words, an air-conditioning repairman is more likely to say "time for Romo to go" than, say, a lawyer.
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Hot.
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*The President's Cup was boring. Until a patriotic-sorta-hot-but-too-skinny streaker showed up. Then she left. And it got boring again.
*As a guy who had multiple partners, constantly changed time slots and was generally mediocre during five years in radio, I'm in awe of Galloway lasting 28 years. He debuted on WBAP 820 AM while I was still in college, way back in 1985. It takes a tough sonofagun to last that long in a tough industry, and ol' Randy's nothing if not tough. Kudos. Fittingly he was serenaded off the air by the country classic, "Happy Trails."
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Crooked as it is, how long until Rays' closer Fernando Rodney just wears his hat totally sideways,
Max Patkin-style?
*Yes, you
can have too much pink. A week after having its referees throwing pink penalty flags, the NFL will return to yellow next week because of confusion between pink flags and players' pink towels.
*The Dodgers started the season 30-42. They are now in the NLCS. Reason? Yasiel Puig.
*Saw a Georgia receiver go head-first into a padded wall last Saturday at Tennessee. Scary. The pad saved him. Surprised we almost never a player collide violently into the padded goal post just beyond the end zone. Dangerous as they are now, hard to believe that until 1974 those things were in the middle of the end zone.
*Need a pick-me-up, Cowboys fans? Try this on for size. The New York "Football" Giants have allowed 182 points through five games, most since the Oakland Raiders allowed 187 in ... 1961. And you thought Monte Kiffin's defense sucked?
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*In 2010 we were horsing around playing basketball in my driveway. Buddy got "accidentally" body-checked into the fence and a piece of the board came loose, splintered and eventually fell off. No problem, replaced it with a new board. It, of course, didn't exactly match the color of the older, weathered wood on the rest of the gate/fence. But over the years the colors have grown closer and ... hey, what the what?! Last week - three years later - I get a card in the mail from my neighborhood's friendly HOA demanding that I, yep, make all the boards on my fence match in color. Um, no thanks. I'm good. If you haven't noticed by now, is it really a problem? HOAs suck. And the people that enforce their asinine bylaws need more hobbies.
*Let's admit it, through five weeks Doug Free has been a better offensive tackle than Tyron Smith.
*Obamacare has hit home. Got my Humana premium increase for 2014 and it'll be ... $16 a month. Yep, that's it. If that's what it takes to help millions afford health insurance, I'm in. That's like one trip to Taco Bell a month for me 'n Sybil. We'll be healthier anyway. Don't understand how people don't see that the Affordable Care Act might be more expensive to some, but it'll keep others alive and well. Like, for example,
these 10 folks whose lives were saved by ... Obamacare. Of course, all these good intentions don't mean squat
if they can't fix the website.
*From the Dept. of Humans Are Weird: Why do we hide our happiest moments? I mean, when we're
really enjoying ourselves we like to hide it. As in, crying tears of joy, piggin' out on a plate of food, sleeping or even, ya know, making out with ourselves. I guess we're trained to keep those moments private because, somehow, they're supposed to be embarrassing?
*My sympathies to bettors who had money on Northwestern +7 against Ohio State Saturday night. The Wildcats led a large part of the game and trailed only 34-30 with less than 10 seconds remaining. They tried some crazy lateral play and - oops - a fumble returned for a touchdown by the Buckeyes as time expired. Final score: Ohio State 40, Northwestern 30. Vegas oddsmakers say $4 million changed hands because of that play. Nauseating. Or, I suppose, exhilarating.
*Today? Off to Fort Worth to Pizza Buzz. Couple consultants coming in to tell us what we're doing wrong (and hopefully right) before opening. Don't be a stranger.
