What a year it has been!

 I'm pondering the premise that 2020 will go down in history as the most interesting year in decades. Part of me wants to accept this child be true. However, I also know how little modern culture knows or values history.

We are dashing towards 2021 with great expectations of a widely available and effective remedy to COVID-19. I'll be glad if we have only a dim memory of 2020's unpleasantness.

Blogger appreciation

You sometimes forget or take for granted the people you've known the longest . The same goes for technology. Blogger was an early blogging platform, the first many bloggers who still blog elsewhere used.

I now write more frequently elsewhere but tip my hat to Google for keeping this service available.

Now, if my fellow "Stop Me When I Am Lying" cohorts would start posting as frequently as I do this project might amount to something. 🧐

What would we write?

The times have been so contentious, one would think we should say something. We have Twitter and Facebook for that. I chuckle to myself when I look back at the time just after Obama's election when I blogged about him here. Turns out his administration was just about what I expected.

I'll just leave you with this: it is just as plain to see Trump will also play to his stereotype.

The New Browns Logos

The helmet looks fine. The dog is only suited for the puppy pound. He looks like a neutered version of the old dog logo. Why did we even get excited? We should know better.

Browns management promises us that they will get more innovative and daring when they reveal the new uniform.

The best we can hope for is Ray Farmer will text his best public relations tips to the podium during the press conference revealing the new look.

Here we go, Brownies! Here we go, again.

Money where my mouth is...Browns won't win 8 Games this year

They've won three out of four preseason games. I highly doubt that the Browns will have a  75% winning record this year. I'm so confident that I've bet a coworker that they won't win 8 game. If they win more than 7 games Alan gets a crisp Jackson.

I'm still a Browns fan, but I'm also a realist. The way I look at it, I can't lose. Either I will have two sawbills in my pocket at the end of the season or my Brownies will be watchable. WOOF! WOOF!

The Indians - "Next Year" for another year

I am a Cleveland Indians fan. I've been a fan all my life. Therefore, I am used to disappointment. That doesn't mean I like disappointment.

It is the last day of August and my last flame of hope for the Tribe has been extinguished. They just can't beat Detroit. Hell, they can't even score enough runs to beat the lousy teams. Does that make them a lousy team? I don't think so, but it does mean I can't get excited about this season any more.

A couple nights ago there was a telling event in my house. My 10 year old son is baseball nut. He LOVES to play the game and loves the Indians. As I was tucking him in I turned the radio on to the Indians game. He asked me to switch to the Browns (fourth) preseason game. When they have lost the interest of my boy in favor of a meaningless game for his third favorite sport that is your sign that this season is over.

So you think Peyton Hillis isn't tough? I'm here to help.

I've lived in the Cleveland area for more than forty years and I've followed sports for almost as long. You can imagine I've seen and heard some pretty ridiculous stuff in that time and you would be right.

Sports fans in Cleveland like to tell ourselves and like to hear our teams say we are "the greatest fans in the country". While it is true we tend to come back year after year to see basically the same disappointing results, that does not mean we are particularly good at being fans. Bottlegate anyone?

I can honestly say one of the lowest points for Cleveland fans may have been hit these last two weeks. Peyton Hillis, the one bright spot of the Browns' season last year and Madden cover winner, is being called weak and heartless because he sat out a game because of strep throat.

Why do I feel this criticism is unfounded and unfair?

Follow my steps below:
1. Have you ever been sick? Yes? Go to 2. No? Shut up.
2. Have you ever had a job. Yes? Go to 3. No? Shut up.
3. Have you ever been so sick you couldn't work? Yes? Go to 4. No? Good for you. You have been lucky. (If you think this gives you authority to talk crap about Hills, shut up!)
4. Have you ever been a professional athlete? Yes? Go to 5. No? Me neither. Shut up.
5. Are you Peyton Hillis' physician? Yes? Feel free to say he should have played. No? Shut up.
6. Are you any one of the following; a sports writer, a radio talk show host, a blogger, a guy sitting a home reading blogs, listening to radio talkers and reading sports columnists? SHUT THE HELL UP!
7. Are you Peyton Hillis' agent. Please shut up. (This goes for all agents, actually.)
8. Are you Peyton Hillis? Keep doing what you are doing.

The rest of you clear on this? Good.

What? You're still here?

Well. I'm awfully glad to see you stopped by. It is a small miracle that I decided to stop by my own self.

Here is the truth > Twitter and Facebook have just about sated by urge to blog. Times change, people change.

I do, however, still value the medium of the daily web log (commonly known as a "blog".) So today I will commit to reinvigorating both this humble exercise as well as The MatthewK.com Blog.

My next post will concern the absurdity of non-athletes criticizing Payton Hillis as they have in the last two weeks.

The Keynes / Hayek Rematch Video

This is pretty epic and if the sergeant stripes were not inverted and it didn't flow over my template it would be near perfect.