The Top Ten of 2022

This was the year where life got back to normal. There were so many points throughout this year where I exclaimed out loud: "I love my life!"

Keep stacking good months to make good years. Keep stacking good years to make an incredible life. 

As for blogging, not as many posts as usual but not a lot of filler. Maybe I'm getting better at this thing after 17 years. 

I had like 25 posts that I wanted to include in the top ten. So instead of having 15 honorable mentions, I'm combining a bunch into topics. I suppose that's cheating, but it's my blog and my rules and I get to cheat when I want to. 

Honorable Mentions

Reliable Joy

The Wrong Picture in My Head

holy shit, is it 5783 already?

10. Work Trip to NYC

Worth it for the pastrami and pizza alone, but the surprise Chris Rock stand-up pushes it over the top.

9. Chess

Had a solid 6-month run of chess and this was the peak. 

8. NFL Legacies and Fixing NFL Overtime Again

One of the better points I've made about how we view NFL careers and being one step ahead of overtime solutions. 

7. Judging Cities by Sports Teams

Where else are you going to get this kind of original data?

6. Vegas Sportsbook Getaway

A vacation in the making since 2006 lived up to the hype. 

5. The Best Drink and Foods I Made This Year

• Buffalo Pulled Pork
• Killer Garlic Bread
• Christmas Bourbon Cream

4. Starting Letterboxd and The Best Movies I Saw This Year

3. I Write A Lot About The Chiefs

• Bills at Chiefs: 13 Seconds Game
• One Title Changes Everything
• AFC West Shitpost
• MNF Raiders (hall of fame gif)
• Mahomes for MVP over Titans
• Birthday Win over Chargers

2. The Avs Won the Freaking Stanley Cup

• Premonition
• Getting Past the Second Round
• It's Glorious
• Stanley Cup Champions
• Completionist

and the best post of the year: Number One

Scorigami Fun Facts

https://nflscorigami.com/

A team has never finished with 1 point. 

Only one time has a team finished with 4 points.

Only one team has ever scored 50+ and lost. (Chiefs vs Rams, 2018)

No game has ever finished 8-7. Seems like it wouldn't be that unusual for a team to go for two instead of a tie in a bad weather, low-scoring game. 

We've never had a field goal fest that ends 18-9 or in a 9-9 tie.

The one we haven't seen surrounded by the most completed scores is 25-18. 

This one is really surprising. We've never had a 14-8 game. Lately the move when down 14 is to go for two. 

Christmas Bourbon Cream

I teased this out at the start of December. I finally made my own batch of a drink I've been enjoying for years. 

Homemade Bourbon Cream

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup (235 ml) heavy whipping cream

1 (14-ounce or 415 ml) can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup (235 ml) bourbon (I used Woodford Reserve)

pinch of brown sugar

I carefully followed the method of making the cocoa cream paste and slowly whisking it in. I assume this was to make sure all the cocoa got incorporated. Well perhaps because I used a heaping teaspoon of cocoa, it didn't all get incorporated and I was left with cocoa dots on top, that gives it a cookies and cream appearance. Which was a happy accident as I had planned on shaving some chocolate (but didn't have any) to give the top a little garnish. 

As for the taste, it was identical to the Irish Whiskey one. So go ahead and use whatever whiskey you have on hand, it's going to be just fine. I tasted it before and after adding the pinch of brown sugar, and it was not enough to be noticed. I love how the condensed milk adds sweetness and a satisfyingly thick texture. 

I think it tastes more like a chocolate shake than Bailey's but that's just me. 

In the future I could consider adding some hot chocolate powder or extra cocoa powder to see what happens if you make it more chocolatey. 

Could also try instead of chocolate, giving it a maple syrup vanilla profile. Or perhaps (inspired by Niraj's comment) some cinnamon to give it a mexican hot chocolate vibe.)

Potential Super Bowls

Andy Reid Matchup: Chiefs vs Eagles

Wings vs Cheesesteaks: Bills vs Eagles

Super Bowl IV Rematch: Chiefs vs Vikings 

Cursed Franchises Seeking First Super Bowl: Bills vs Vikings

Dallas Franchises: Chiefs vs Cowboys

Super Bowl XXVII and XXVII Rematch: Bills vs Cowboys

Super Bowl LIV Rematch: Chiefs vs 49ers (Mahomes vs the GOAT)

Best Movies I Saw In 2022

So Niraj got me into Letterboxd. Which got me into watching a lot more movies than usual. Especially from August to November it became my latest fad, following a series that includes chess, crosswords, pasta journey, Medium, daily favorites, etc. I recognize that these are short-lived phases and I embrace that. 

Anyways, I have some public-facing stats from the year. 

I watched 215 movies this year, easily the most I've ever done. 

141 were movies I had never seen before, bringing my current total up to 1,070 unique movies that I've marked as watched.

Just like I do with blog posts, I thought it would be fun to do an end of the year recap with movies. I lot of serious movie buffs focus only on the movies that came out in 2022, but I only saw a handful from this year. 

So instead, I'll organize my lists in a few categories around what I saw this year. First up...

Top 10 Movies I Watched for the First Time in 2022

10. Captain Phillips

9. The Next Three Days

8. The Invisible Man

7. Glass Onion

6. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

5. Run

4. Before Sunrise

3. Upgrade

2. Prisoners

1. RRR

Top 10 Movies I Watched in 2022 That I Had Already Seen

10. Zero Effect

9. Air Force One

8. Naked Gun

7. Ocean's Eleven

6. Source Code

5. Forgetting Sarah Marshall

4. Airplane

3. National Treasure

2. Social Network

1. Ex Machina

(Honorable Mentions were Moneyball and Talented Mr. Ripley)

Best 2022 Movie I Saw

RRR

- - -

Also just for fun, this is really more of a work in progress, but I'm keeping a running list of my all-time favorite movies: 

Searching

Ex Machina

MI: Fallout

Fight Club

Inside Man

Lebowski

Shawshank

Edge of Tomorrow

Groundhog Day

Get Out

Upgrade

Prisoners

RRR

National Treasure

Now You See Me

Social Network

Eternal Sunshine 

Almost Famous

Vegas Sportsbook Getaway

For as long as I've know Brittany's Aunt Paula we've bonded over our shared love of football and gambling. We've talked forever about meeting up in Vegas to spend a NFL Sunday in the sportsbook. We had plans in 2020. Well, we finally made it happen. 

Let me rewind a little. Got a good shot of the desert as we're coming in for a landing.

Had to visit my Mom's favorite machine, the Hot Roll video poker.

Had dinner with Paula and Neena at Prime, the Bellagio steakhouse.

Went for the 18 oz dry aged bone-in ribeye. Very nice.

Wisely got all my morning bets in the night before.

Paula had two prime seats reserved at the Bellagio sportsbook for us.

Great view of all the games.

Spent 7 hours in the sportsbook and come out it and it's still 5pm and a whole night ahead of you.

Got the Frozen Bailey's from the Bar near the Linq.

On Monday we met up again and had a great lunch at Joe's Seafood (not to be confused with Joe's Crab Shack).

I did like the machines at MGM which allow you to build parlays, and do live bets. When the Chiefs were losing, the live spread was Chiefs +4.5. I was walking up to the machine when they changed the line to Chiefs +3.5. I decided not to bet it but I should have. Chiefs only lost by 3. 

There were some bets that I didn't make that would have won (Eagles, Broncos under) and that would have lost (France to go to extra time for one) so it all evens out.

It's not easy to make money in Vegas but it is easy to have a good time.

USA Advances

Just like in 2010 and 2014, the USA advanced to the Round of 16 with a thrilling/nervous 1-0 victory over Iran. They advanced despite only scoring two goals in three games. But it counts. 

I made a chart to show what kind of teams have advanced in 3 of the last 4 Cups. 

First thing that leaps out at me. Italy zero. USA three.

Okay, let's do a proper deep dive. 

Over the last 4 World Cups, here are the teams to advance to the Knockout Round at least twice, sorted by tiers:

4 Times

Argentina

Brazil

3 Times

England

France

Japan

Mexico

Netherlands

Portugal

Spain

Switzerland

Uruguay

USA

2 Times

Belgium

Chile

Colombia

Croatia

Germany

South Korea

That's absolutely wild. By this measure of recent and consistent World Cup success, Brazil and Argentina stand alone. Then there are 10 countries in the next tier. And then another 6 in the conversation. 

USA doing better than Germany, Belgium and Italy. That's nuts.

We'll be longshots against Netherlands, but that's okay. I'll take this over not making out of the group any year. 

Boozy Christmas Drink

For a couple years in a row, Mrs. Hoagie Central received a boozy Christmas drink as a gift and it was always delicious. I finally asked her to ask for the recipe and here's what it is:

Homemade Irish Cream

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup (235 ml) heavy whipping cream

1 (14-ounce or 415 ml) can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup (235 ml) Irish whiskey (I used Jameson)

 

In the bottom of a pitcher, whisk cocoa powder and a spoonful of cream into a paste. Slowly, whisking the whole time, add more cream a spoonful at a time until the paste is smooth and loose enough that you can whisk the rest of the cream in larger splashes. Once all of the cream is in, whisk in condensed milk, whiskey and vanilla. Cover with lid or plastic wrap and keep in fridge for up to two weeks, possibly longer. Serve in a tiny tumbler filled with ice, or splashed into coffee.

 

To make less sweet: Add more cream and more whiskey, 1 tablespoon of each at a time.

To make less boozy: Add more cream and condensed milk, 1 tablespoon of each at a time.

To make more boozy: You know what to do!

In case, you're curious, I found a video with a very similar recipe. 

 

I'm planning on making it at the start of Christmas break. I have a ton of bourbon and no irish whiskey, so I'll be making that substitution. I also might add a pinch of brown sugar. But wanted to share it in advance in case anyone wants to join me. 

now that's a festival

Instafest calculates what I listen to on Spotify and created this little poster. Fun! 

Buble and Vince Guaraldi Trio is because they have the best Christmas music. 

Imagine Dragons is my kids. Taylor Swift is my wife. But I do like the idea of Taylor on the smallest stage on a Tuesday.

MAHOMES IS INEVITABLE: Birthday Win over Chargers

When the Chargers scored with 1:46 left, they put up a graphic. 

Chargers expected win percentage: 74%
Chiefs expected win percentage: 26%

I laughed. Do they know who the Chiefs quarterback is? My concern was not whether Patrick Lavon Mahomes was going to go down the field and score. The only concern was would they leave the Chargers too much time. 

Remember when Chargers were so excited to beat the Chiefs in the regular season that they printed t-shirts? LOL. 

Mahomes and Kelce were fired up after that score. I hope somebody was mic'd up. 

Winning my birthday game is always the #1 regular season I want to win. Thank you, Patrick. Excellent birthday present. Best QB in the league does it again. 

Mahomes to Kelce for 3 TDs. The Hat Trick for Patrick. 

Nike World Cup Adverts

1998. This is the one that started it all for me. The '98 World Cup cemented my love for the event and this commercial was a decent chunk of where that love came from.

 

2010. The storytelling in here is so great. Possibly the best one.

   

 2014. My least favorite of the four on this page, but still worth including.  

 2022. A fun installment for sure.

There are others, but these are the ones that stuck with me.

Great Football Day

The title of this post should be Josh Allen Choke Artist. While that is true, there was so many good things that happened today, I'll be generous. 

First up, the Chiefs. 

In the start of every season you see all these stats about how ridiculous Mahomes is in September. Then today they start the November/December stats:

So the only month where defenses have a chance is October, got it. 

Today Chiefs win easy. Mahomes already the MVP frontrunner puts up 331 and 4 tds. They're the only AFC team with only 2 losses. But that's not all that happened today:

The Raiders lost to the Colts coached by someone with no coaching experience. Now 2-7. Just win baby.

The Broncos lost to the Titans. Let's ride to 3-6. (Russell Wilson put a QBR today of 22.3.)

The Chargers lost in primetime. Preseason favorites, regular season frauds. 

And the Bills got the inspired double choke by one of the best choke artists in the league. After your defense bails you out with a goal line stand, you fumble in the end zone AND throw a pick in the end zone. Truly chef's kiss. 

The Kansas City Chiefs are alone in first place in the AFC. 

The Buffalo Bills are currently in 3rd place in the AFC East. 

Sometimes deleted tweets are the best tweets.

Here's your updated standings. 

And here's the overall league standings:

The first two are my Calcutta teams and the third is the Chiefs. That Vikings win over Buffalo was doubly sweet.

World Cup 2022: Who I'm Rooting For

Tier One

USA

I'm a US Soccer fan first and foremost. In things like Olympic Basketball, it's not really fun to root for USA because it's typically a forgone conclusion. But in Olympic Curling or the World Cup? Yes, it is absolutely fun to compete with the best on an international stage. 

Tier Two

Spain

Belgium

Croatia

Serbia

Ecuador

Tunisia

Qatar

These are my Calcutta teams for this year. So I'm absolutely rooting for my teams to bring me a title that only comes around every four years. 

Tier Three

I did my 23 and Me and my ancestry results give me in this order:

Germany

Poland

Sweden

Denmark

England

The only team that didn't qualify from this list is Sweden, so there's four more countries I'm rooting for. 

My three favorite countries I've visited are Italy, Jamaica and Argentina. Of these, only Argentina qualified. 

So including Argentina that's 13 out of 32 countries that I have a reason to root for. 

Of course, I think Brazil is going to win. If that happens it would prove me right, but it would mostly sting that I didn't have the balls to bid them up all the way.

Knockout Round Update: My original 13 is down to 6.

USA

Spain

Croatia

Poland

England

Argentina

World Cup Big Board

I didn't want England because they always choke.

I didn't want France because it's hard to repeat. 

The only time Argentina did well in the WC was 2014 when it was in Brazil. Messi is 8 years older (now 35) so despite my affinity for them, I didn't think they had the best odds of winning it all. 

So I had Brazil in the Top Tier by themselves. 

I had Argentina, Spain, Belgium and Netherlands in the next tier with Netherlands being the best value pick. 

My next tier was Germany, Portugal and Denmark. 

My bottom tier was Croatia, Uruguay and Senegal. 

- - -

My plan was get Brazil no matter what. Then get the Netherlands. Then see how it shakes out trying to get as much of the other teams I had marked. 

I went up to $11.50 on Brazil but thought if I went up to $12 that I would only be able to get one other decent team. So I let Kirat have Brazil at $11.61. 

Instead I was able to get Spain and Belgium for just over what Kirat paid for Brazil. But then when it was time to get Netherlands, I went up to $6.70—my max at the time—even though they were supposed to be a value pick, and Matt still outbid me.

- - -

Happy to get Spain and Belgium, but the only other team that I had marked that I ended up getting was Croatia. 

- - -

Mark spent most of his money on the two teams I didn't want. But they'll still get to the quarterfinals. France could lose in the title game, I thought they would go for more. 

Kirat is top heavy but comparing rosters, probably has the best 1st team and the best 2nd team. Kirat did well. But we'll have to see.

The Mahomes for MVP Game

Coming into Sunday Night Football, there was a logjam of 5 and 6 win teams. Buffalo lost so the 1-seed is back in play, but there are 9 teams with 5 wins. Meaning that if the Chiefs lost, they could suddenly be thinking about just making the playoffs. 

In short, this was a big one.

After taking a 9-0 lead against a team with no passer, things seemed pretty great. Until King Henry made it 14-9 in the blink of an eye and the Chiefs started to stall. 

The Titans were doubling Kelce and getting pressure on Pat. Receivers are dropping passes. Butker is missing kicks. Mahomes is getting sacked. And then there's the inaccurate pass that Kelce tried to reach for it and it became a tip drill—interception. 

There's 10 minutes left and the Chiefs are down 8. They take over on their own 7. 

They pick up a few first downs but then take a sack on 2nd and 10. It's 3rd and 17. 

Wait. Hold everything. Where have I seen this before?

Oh yeah: 

Yesterday it was two less points but two more yards to go. Roughly the same spot on the field. And the time. It was 7:13 in both games. 

(Yesterday it was a running clock. SNF was fading back from graphics so at 7:13 the shot wasn't in focus yet, but it was 7:13 in both games.)

This is the point yesterday and in Super Bowl LIV that Mahomes put the team on his back and said we're not losing this game.

He made the biggest plays of regulation with his feet. And then in Overtime on 3rd and inches does this:

Here's your updated standings:

Bills and Chiefs are only teams with 2 losses in the AFC. Bills have tiebreakers over Chiefs, Chiefs have tiebreaker over Titans. 

Allen and Hurts still have strong MVP cases and there's more than half the season left to decide things, but I'll tell you this with 100% confidence: there is no other player in the league I'd rather have than Mahomes.

Tuesday Update: New Vegas odds for MVP have Mahomes, then Hurts, then Allen as a top 3. Tua is 4th but a tier below. Tyreek is 10th, the highest non-QB.