More things to be thankful for, organized thematically in groups of five

Five Robert Pollard-penned songs I am thankful for
1. "Glad Girls"
2. "Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory"
3. "Salty Salute"
4. "Love is Stronger Than Witchcraft"
5. "Shocker in Gloomtown"

Five Innovations in Candy I am thankful for
1. Sour blow pops
2. Almond Snickers
3. The Take Five bar
4. Various lemonade flavored Mike and Ikes
5. Sugar Babies

Five Pink Floyd songs I am thankful for my recent rediscovery of
1. "Careful with that Axe, Eugene"
2. "Pigs (3 different ones)"
3. "Bike"
4. "Seamus"
5. Not "Welcome to the Machine"

Five Redskins Players I am thankful for
1. London Fletcher
2.
3.
4.
5.

Five Historical Figures I am thankful for
1. Napoleon, but not II or III
2. Brian Epstein
3. Hubert Lyautey
4. Henry Clay, the Great Compromiser
5. Meriwether Lewis

Five Types of Pretzel I am thankful for
1. Snyder's of Hanover Sourdough
2. Utz thin wheels
3. Rold Gold mini twists
4. Snyder's of Hanover Buffalo Nuggets
5. Big soft ones

Five Pieces of Americana I am thankful for
1. Motel 6 or Super 8 or whatever
2. The little triangle-golf tee games at Cracker Barrel
3. The interstate system
4. The Little Caesars Pizza Bowl
5. Historical outdoor dramas, a la "The Legend of Daniel Boone"

A few odd things for which I am thankful

It's Thanksgiving time. We here at the Zawiya wish you all a wonderful holiday. Beyond the food, and the gathering of the friends and the family, my favorite part has always been the lazy morning around the house. My various relatives usually have very elaborate meals planned, and they being the stellar chefs that they are, usually do not ask for help, willing though I am to provide it. This frees me up to sit around and watch one of America's hokiest traditions, the Macy's Day Parade (the enjoyment of which is passed the the patrilineal line directly to me from my dad, who, to my knowledge, has never missed the parade). It also frees me up to watch the annual trouncing of the Lions. Like most NFL fans, I've often wondered why the Detroit Lions -- a team that, for all intents and purposes, have been really very bad for a long time and who do not seem to have an especially large national fanbase -- play every year on Thanksgiving, but I suppose it's about as natural as watching lip-synched duet of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" by Taylor Hanson and Julianne Hough in the Macy's Parade. The nice thing about commercialized holidays is that we're encouraged not to ask too many questions.

So beyond being thankful for my wife, my family, and my friends, here are a few off the wall things I am grateful for this Thanksgiving. This list is partially inspired by a game I played with my niece a year ago when we drew hand-turkeys and wrote the things we were thankful for in the fingers. I wrote "mayonnaise" and "socks" as two of mine, and she's never let me live it down. Here's a few more: the Thanksgiving weekend football schedule, which provides a constant flow of high quality rivalry games all the way through Sunday; smoked turkey and Duke's mayonnaise; Kentucky WR Randall Cobb; the complete irreverence of most of Ween's recorded output; the handful of impeccable pop songs that sprinkle throughout that same Ween recorded output ("Stay Forever", "Joppa Road", "Ocean Man", "What Deaner Was Talking About"); Butterfingers, both the candy bar and the power-pop tune by Gentleman Jesse; smart wool; good punting and an old-fashioned field position battle; decorative gourd season; my/our impending honeymoon trip to Egypt; the slim possibility that the US and North Korea as well as France and Algeria could be drawn into the same World Cup groups; oatmeal; "Careful with that Axe, Eugene" by Pink Floyd; knowing that I will not be standing in line anywhere on "Black Friday".

Anyone else care to add?

Algeria - Egypt game, live video

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/news/newsid=1135950.html#watch+algeria+egypt+live+now

Good picture, too.

John Wall at the buzzer

What's that catchy lingo the kids are using these days? I think it goes something like "John Wall FTW". It actually applies here:

Misr wa al-Jaza'ir / Egypt and Algeria

World Cup qualifying is winding down. All the places will be set soon, with Euro qualifiers wrapping up this week. African qualifying should have finished yesterday, but the final spot out of five total for the continent is still up for grabs.

Algeria and Egypt met in Cairo on Saturday to settle that final spot. Algeria led the group by three points, and held a better goal differential. To win the group, Egypt would need to beat Algeria by three clear goals. A 1-0 win did them no good; it would send Algeria to the World Cup on better goal differential. There was one other possible scenario, of course: a two goal victory for Egypt would set up one final, winner-take-all playoff in Sudan on Wednesday.

So the teams took the field, and Egypt, in front of a spirited crowd at Cairo Int'l Stadium, got off to the dream start in taking a 1-0 lead in the 2nd minute through former Wigan striker Zaki. Algeria then held them off, valiantly, for the next 90 minutes, even creating (but blowing) a few chances of their own. And then in the 95th minute, 5 minutes deep into the allotted 6 minutes of injury time (the ref is surely not loved in the Maghreb today)...

Well...just watch for yourself:

There's going to be a lot to look forward to next summer. Here's hoping Cairo's buzzing about a first WC berth since 1990 when my wife and I get there in just about a month for our delayed honeymoon.

The Half-Game Suspension

My beloved Kentucky Wildcats are typically subjected to an annual demolition at the hands of Urban Meyer's Florida Gators, but, despite this, I don't hate Meyer all that much. He's brought a couple national crowns to the SEC, and, in so doing, made the Big Ten and Big 12 look like the pretenders that they are.

The guy's a great coach, no denying it, but a few things of late, for me, hint that he's a jerk. The latest is this "half-game" suspension for Brandon Spikes, Meyer's All-America linebacker who tried to gouge out the eyes of a Georgia player during the Gators blowout win on Saturday.

I understand that crap happens during the game that is pretty dirty and that we don't see. I played a little rugby and getting raked at the bottom of a ruck is pretty much par for the course. Cheap shots, all that...whatever. I'm not too concerned about it, but anyone who does it knows the consequences, which is generally some kind of suspension. But Meyer's docked him half a game for the gouging, which is weak. And not because it should be two games or three, but simply because one game is so little that it makes pretty transparent that Meyer could not care less about suspension, discipline, or even really participating in the charade that a token suspending or disciplining would be.

Also, they're playing Vandy. You mean the number one team in the country can't beat Vandy with Spikes on the bench? Please.