Green Bay Packers Favored To Beat Chicago Bears In NFC Championship

Yep. As of now, the Green Bay Packers are favored to beat the Chicago Bears in next Sunday's NFC Championship. That, even though the game's played in snowy Chicago.

Odds makers have the Packers giving 3 to the Chicago Bears, which means some think the Pack will win by more than that much. Personally, I can't see that.

The Chicago Bears just beat the Seattle Seahawks 35 to 24 in a game which saw the Bears ahead by as much as 27 points and for more most of the game. But a furious Seahawks rally made the final score closer than the game really was.

While the Packers blew out the Falcons, it was in perfect indoor conditions for a track meet. I don't think the Packers are going to have the same fortune in the cold at Soldiers Field against a team that knows them, playing for all the marbles.

Take the Bears.

Plus, you know the Bears are going to be fired up to learn they're the underdog in the game!

Stay tuned.

Pork Loin at Plum in Oakland Good, Overpriced

Pork Loin at Plum in Oakland, originally uploaded by zennie62.

Last night, I paid a visit to the new Plum Restaurant on Franklin near Broadway. It's a new addition to the Uptown Oakland food scene, joining Luka's, Osumo, Pican, Vo's, and Bakesale Beattie's, as well as Farley's Cafe and forming a nexus of food places at Broadway and Grand.

Now, I'm not a restaurant reviewer. In fact, I was spurred to try Plum because of Michael Bauer's review at SFGate.com. Plus, living in Oakland, I think its important to support Oakland business whenever I can.

Now, I've got to put this in perspective. The Pan-Roasted Half Chicken at The Wood Tavern is the best in the SF Bay Area. It's a 23 dollar meal that will more than fill you up; you'll have to take some of it home.

I asked what the most filling dish at Plum would be and the patron next to me recommended the Pork. So I ordered it. I inhaled it. It's $18 and yet is the size of a small salad. For the money, not far from the Wood Tavern's Chicken, it was too small a dish.

Good, yes. Awesome. But too small a dish, and that impacts its overall value. Sorry to say.

But here's the weird thing: the meals that have the best price / quantify relationship at Plum are in its late night menu. The Plum version of a Reuben Sandwich is one example, and at $12 is reasonably priced and will fill you up.

Plum's a lovely place, but it seems like the menu's upside down. Hopefully, they'll correct that, soon.

Oh, That Service Charge Thing

Also, Plum has a 16.5 percent service charge that the waiter said "is shared with the kitchen staff," which is fine. I have no problem with that, but it would seem to discourage tipping. I also wondered why they imposed it. Were they afraid that certain Oaklanders wouldn't tip? I commonly leave double the tax as the tip. It was interesting that the waiter pointed directly to the service charge, even though I didn't ask about it.

I gave him an additional $5 because the service charge was less than what the tip would have been. My entire meal, for just me, was $50 with the service charge, which I spent the night before for two people at Miss Saigon Restaurant on Grand next to The Alley.

Plum needs to work that out, and the price / quantity thing, before I can say it's really perfect.

Aaron Rodgers poses for pictures during playoff win, so what?

Yahoo Sports Chris Chase is making a big deal about Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers posing for pictures "like he was at a high school dance" while backup QB Matt Flynn was at the helm as his team was hammering the Atlanta Falcons 48 to 21 in Saturday's NFC Divisional Playoff Game at The Georgia Dome.

So what?

You know, this whole deal of beat reporters getting after players for doing everything from laughing during a loss, to crying, or taking pictures is a bit much. They're human. Just because communications technology lets us see what they do almost all the time during a game doesn't mean we become judge and jury of what they do.

Heck, I'd like to see more players send tweets during the game, it would heighten the experience of watching it.

After all, sports is entertainment today. But I digress.

One thing about Rodgers is he thinks about winning more than the game. I realized this while listening to him after the contest yesterday, when he remarked that "We're just one more game away from Dallas."

That's the wrong way to think.

Rather than thinking about winning, Aaron should be thinking about football.

Oh, GO BEARS (Aaron went to Cal).

Aaron Rodgers Puts On Clinic: Atlanta Falcons Lose To Green Bay Packers

The Atlanta Falcons loss to the Green Bay Packers revealed a lot about the Falcons, but this blogger would prefer (for this post) to briefly focus on one fact: Aaron Rodgers put on "a clinic." In fact, that word was used so much by Fox Sports announcer Joe Buck, he pissed off the Twitterverse so much his name became a Twitter Trend.

(As an aside, it was far different than the regular season game.)

But Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers was brilliant, and so was the Packers game plan.

Let's get this out of the way: Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy is light years ahead of the person who was the terrible offensive coordinator for The San Francisco 49ers in 2005, Alex Smith's first year in the NFL. (And in 2006, McCarthy was selected as the Packers coach in yet another obvious flaunting of The Rooney Rule)  And consider that had the 49ers drafted Aaron Rodgers number one rather than Alex Smith, Mike McCarthy would have coached Rodgers and not Smith, but he's now coaching Rodgers anyway.

And what McCarthy and his staff is doing are developing plays that don't have Rodgers holding the ball very long, throwing into windows to his receivers, rather than waiting for them to break open on long routes.  In many ways, the Packers are the classic Bill Walsh Offense team, an approach the San Francisco 49ers should take note of.

Rodgers was not only 31 of 36 for 366 yards and 3 touchdowns (a lot of 3s) but continued a pattern of passing brillance that this space took note of during the NFL Preseason.

Now, they wait the winner of the Chicago Bears vs. Seattle Seahawks NFC Divisional Playoff game, and as of this writing, Chicago's ahead 21 to zip, and with the snow it may stay that way.

Stay tuned.

Mike Tomlin A Twitter Trend As Pittsburgh Turnovers Cause Baltimore Lead

While the Pittsburgh Steeler's offense is better than that of the Baltimore Ravens in this AFC First Round Divisional Playoff, it's not enough to overcome two turnovers. Now, Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin is a Twitter Trend as of this writing, and his team's behind, 7 to 21 for the visiting Ravens at halftime.

And...

A mid-blog-post UPDATE: the Steelers' offense just scored with 50 seconds elapsed time to start the 3rd Quarter.

The Twitter Tweets on Tomlin are, in part, due to his resemblance of the actor Omar Epps (Tomlin is on the left; Epps on the right) and the TV close ups of his expressions during the first half of the game.

But now that the Steelers are making a game of it, guess what?  Tomlin's no longer a Twitter Trend.

LOL!

Tomlin fell off the board and was replaced by Steelers Tight End Heath Miller, who scored the second touchdown to put the Black and Gold to just seven down from a tie.

steelers Pittsburgh Steelers
Touchdown Heath Miller! 14 - 21
12 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

The Steelers now have almost double the offensive yardage of the Ravens at 94 to 168.

99ers Tier 5 Jobless Talk Rant for January 14, 2011: Believe

This is the 99ers Tier 5 Jobless Talk Rant for January 14, 2011 - titled “Believe”.

It is the second in the weekly feature on ThePaladinette’s YouTube Channel that began 2011 and is a spin off from Her BlogTalkRadio show Jobless Talk - which airs Fridays at Noon Pacific.

Today’s show is subtitled BELIEVE: for Man surely cannot achieve anything unless he can first conceive it in his mind and spirit then believe in that vision.

Theodore Roosevelt my favorite President ever said “Believe you can and you're halfway there.” another relevant quote of his that I LOVE is - “The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.”

In the first of the 2 part BELIEVE series for this week, Paladinette [in the I cannot believe that I even have to say this at all department] attempts to quell certain rumors of late within the Blogosphere that she is leaving the Tier 5 fight to “ride off into the sunset” with a Fellow 99er.

You know I tend to believe that my PERSONAL BUSINESS is exactly that!

BUT - In the interests of full disclosure (and since some of the blogs out there have been rank with speculation about a possible 99er romance taking Paladinette out of the fight for Tier 5) Out there on the FaceBook, WW and other blogs where the unemployed gather to gossip, opine and slam everybody without cause or good reason - I have had my share of put-downs, slander, disparaging remarks and out right lies! When these asinine little barbs stab at me I could care less. BUT when they involve such falsehoods and misinformation or seek to harm those I care about, the gloves come off-baby! Being that Valentines Day is exactly 1 month away, Just let me say this about that.

Hear the rest at 4:55 into video 1 below.

BREAKING NEWS: I was just able to confirm before Yesterday’s Jobless Talk Radio show show that Rick Sloan will be my special guest next week and he will take your calls too so Bring your U-Cubed questions next week and get them answered by the MAN himself! Mr. Rick Sloan special guest on Jobless Talk January 21, 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: “Future Jobless Talk Rants beginning with January 21, 2011 I hope to have whittled down to no more than one 7 minute PepTalk for the 99er Nation - focusing on what we are doing currently in the fight, any progress we are making and what YOU can do to HELP.”

Part 1

Part 2

[The donation button below is for Paladinette. If you like what I write please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]

99ers to Speaker Boehner "We're Starving...How was Golf..."

Saw this pic 99ers to Speaker Boehner "We're Starving...How was Golf..." on my Facebook Page and just had to reiterate the 99ers plan of Action using it! This is just a reprint of the Boehner part of our current campaign.

I implore all unemployed Americans 99ers especially to bombard the Speaker with your requests for 99er HELP NOW!

This is the 99er Tier 5 Daily Plan of Action beginning now and continuing throughout January, the only question is:How bad do you want it? Do you want this bad enough to consider these daily emails, faxes, and phone calls like the job you do not have now? Do you want it bad enough to recruit all of your contacts in your address book and ask them to do the same? Will you post this plan of action everywhere you can to reach as many people as possible?

The new Speaker of the House, John Boehner, R-Ohio - wants to hear from America. I suggest we all answer the call every day several times per day! His website invites all those outside his district to contact him... Gee Pelosi did not even do that! Live outside Ohio's 8th District? Contact Speaker John Boehner http://speaker.gov/Contact/default.aspx orspeakerboehner@mail.house.gov

We need everyone with an email address to contact these addresses relentlessly! I myself have 11 email addresses and am sending 3 per day from each one of mine.

[The donation button below is for Paladinette. If you like what I write please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]