Football picks recap: Week 7

Let's get this out of the way first and foremost:

• "Who has a better record than the Vikings? Nobody." Heeeeey there, Sparky... we can think of at least three teams with better records than the Vikings!

• "4+28=1" is sooooo yesterday. The new math says that 4+28 acutally equals 2.

Now that Lino has been properly mocked for his highly-overused statements on the Viking's previous undefeatedness, let's get to this week's picks. First the bad news (at least for those involved):

• LINO & MAUREEN: 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Unfortunately, 2 out of 3 isn't good enough this week, so both contestants go down to defeat... and Lino has his first losing streak of the entire contest! We're not really sure who the true loser is in this: Lino, or the TCGS listeners who are going to have to hear him sing the Beastie Boys' "Paul Revere" live on the air.

Now the good news:

• LOU: Can you believe it? Lou was a perfect 3-for-3 this week! We at Lino Watch salute you! The only bad part is that one other contestant was also perfect this week, and another might join the club tomorrow night. But at least if you do lose the tiebreaker, Lou, it won't be your fault.

• FR. ROB KEIGHRON: Our other 3-for-3 contestant so far this week. 'Nuff said.

• MARK HART: 2-for-3 so far, and just waiting on the outcome of the Eagles-Redskins game tomorrow night to see which club (tiebreakers or losers) he joins.

We'll update tomorrow once the last game is played. Note, however, that since Lino is off this week, the tiebreaker will not occur until Thursday, November 5th. Until tomorrow night!

UPDATE 10/26: The Eagles won 27-17 over the Redskins, so Mark Hart moves into a three-way tie with Fr. Rob and Lou. See you on the 5th for the tiebreaking points guess/coin flip/whatever-the-heck-Lino-springs-on-us-this-time!

Buon Compleanno, Lino!

Yeah it's a few days early, but since Lino's abandoning us for his beloved Italy for a week we wanted to get this posted before he left. We here at Lino Watch wish you, Lino, a very Happy Birthday! We even pray that your flight on Saturday doesn't explode in an enormous fireball so that you'll be around to celebrate your special day. (Coming back is a different matter, though.)

So have a great day and celebrate in style with some great Italian food (or just plain 'food' over there) and some tasty adult beverages. You may despise us, but we still like you, Lino… just not as much!

Check out the new CatholicGuyShow.com

For a while there we were wondering if Lino Watch was going to have to carry the Lino blogosphere banner alone. Fortunately for us (and especially for Lino), that's not the case! Check out the totally redesigned CatholicGuyShow.com that launched late last night. dustin has done a fine job with the site's redesign, and they even have a quasi-offical stamp of approval from the Catholic Guy Show crew, as Maureen and Lou are now contributors! Maureen has already posted exclusive behind-the-scenes stuff, and we'll also hear from newly-appointed co-ambassador of the show Alicia. The big kicker is that for some reason, they kept the link to our humble little site up in the top right corner... as hard as we are on Lino sometimes we thought we were goners! All in all, a job well done and worthy of Lino adulation!

On a side note, Lino Watch also has a redesign in the works... primarily to make better use of browser space and to give the site a bit of a facelift to keep it from getting stale. It won't be as big of a makeover as CatholicGuyShow.com just got, but it'll retain the edgy look we debuted with. One thing that won't change is our site's philosophy: to applaud Lino whenever we can but to gently slap him on the wrist when it's necessary and appropriate, and to poke at him just a tiny bit. Like we said when we began our site, we're not out to compete with other blogs but to complement them.

Look for our redesign in mid-December, just in time for Lino Watch's first birthday!

Football picks recap: Week 6

UPDATE 10/22: Lino pulled a fast one on us… instead of employing the points guessing system that was used on the previous two tiebreakers, it was decided that coin flips would be used to decide the winner. So thanks for telling us, and congratulations to Mark Hart, who in his very first week of participation is the Winner of Week 6!

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We told you so. It came down to the final game of the day between Chicago and Atlanta to determine our winner… and even that didn't happen. Here's how things stand now:

• LOU - Unfortunately, the only contestant who didn't draw Chicago-Atlanta was Lou… and by virtue of going 1-for-3 is declared the early loser this week. Poor Lou… he just can't catch a break. But we here at Lino Watch are pulling for you!
  

• LINO - His three-week winning/ego-flashing streak has come to an end. Even if Chicago had won tonight, Maureen made the same pick, which would've made her this week's winner. Instead, Lino gets to share his 1-for-3 record this week with Lou.

• MAUREEN - If not for picking the Bears, she would've won with a perfect record this week… and Lino would've had to attribute it to some flimsy excuse. (Our guess: he would've mentioned something about her getting an easy pick with the Patriots' 59-0 demolition of the Titans.) Still, she went 2-for-3, which ain't bad at all.
• FR. ROB KEIGHRON & MARK HART - Each got hosed by one of their picks. (Ironically, Lou got hosed by both of those picks, which explains why he lost.) But they made it to overtime by predicting a win by the Falcons.

Bottom Line: Maureen, Fr. Rob and Mark Hart each went 2-for-3 and currently share a three-way tie for the lead. Quick reminder of the tiebreaker rules: each contestant guesses the total number of points scored in their three games. Whoever estimates closest to the actual number without going over wins. See you on Thursday!

And *BOOM* goes the dynamite…

…blowing up what's left of a TCGS institution known as Who's More Catholic. After today's events we wouldn't be surprised if we never see this game played again. It certainly shouldn't be played when the host is liquored up on cold medicine… boy, that is some strong stuff. Why are we so pessimistic? Well, let's see if we've got the events of this Friday's game straight:

1. After Cathy from Woodbury, Minnesota gives Fr. Jim the first point for what admittedly arguably was a really bad answer, Lino bans all call-in votes based on the premise that no one outside the studio will be fair to him. He also bans Cathy from calling in for four months. (Mark Tuesday, February 9th on your calendars, folks.)
2. After tying up the game at 2-2, Lino demands that Fr. Jim give up said first point on the basis of it being tainted. Fr. Jim, exhibiting far more class than Lino did, complies. There have been plenty of tainted points (on both sides) to go around in the history of this game, and only now does Lino resort to circumventing the rules to get his way.
3. Somehow Lino goes off onto a bodily fluids tangent, informing us that his frequent fluid intake is forcing him into multiple potty breaks, and then wondering out loud why "Number 1" and "Number 2" are referred to as such. The ensuing sound clip played by Lou turns out to be the only truly funny part of this whole segment.
   
4. Lino demands the trumpets when he "wins". How dare they not be ready for me, dammit!
5. After Fr. Jim loses, Lino is so pumped that he gives poor Maureen a shot at going against him to further boost his ego. Fortunately Maureen holds her own, as their round ends in a split decision.

So at least for now, we bid Who's More Catholic a fond farewell. At this point it has become a shadow of it's former self, it's already been reduced to once-in-a-blue-moon status, and we'll be surprised if it comes back bearing any resemblance to its former glory. We guess that it wasn't enough that Lino usually won anyway… after Fr. Jim's four week winning streak a few months ago there's no way that Lino could let anything like that happen again.

Gus' spiffy new logo

Our friend Gus Lloyd has revealed the new logo he had commissioned for Seize The Day:
Makes your mouth water, don't it?

Seriously, though... now that Lino is debuting his new tagline at the end of today's show, shouldn't he have a proper logo to go with it, or even to put it on? He can even steal some of Gus' ideas: he's going to have his logo put on coffee mugs and stuff like that and use them as prizes on Seize The Day. Can you imagine the schoolgirl-esque glee you'd experience if you won a coffee mug on Let's Make A Catholic Deal emblazoned with Lino and his tagline? He could even take some on his next trip to Rome and have them blessed by the Pope! Move over, popener... there's a new grand prize in town.