The Queen’s Golden Gaels are the 2009 Yates Cup Champions.  Back and forth contest which lived up to the hype the last few days.  I’ll write a more detailed post later on.  After that 5 hour broadcast including pre-game and post-game I’ll wait a day to talk about it. LOL.

http://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2009-11-13/sports/gaels-win-yates-cup-thriller-richardson/

http://www.torontosun.com/sports/football/2009/11/14/11748986-sun.html

http://www.thestar.com/sports/college/article/726024–danny-brannagan-s-golden-gaels-tame-mustangs

One thing though, CFRC is the ONLY place to catch the game live next week between Queen’s and Laval.  Kickoff at 1pm, but on TV it is on at 3:30pm.  Confused? TSN got the rights to the Churchill Bowl but they are airing it on a tape delay next Saturday.  The Score was doing a great job and then TSN drops the ball in a huge way like this.  Amazing.

Off to the NFL picks which I wrote on Thursday night.

Went with Bears over 49ers, that didn’t work.  I’m just glad I didn’t decide to watch that game.  Ugh.

Falcons over Panthers.  Battle for the scraps in the division with the Saints so far in front.

Dolphins over Bucs.  The Bucs’ creamsicle uniforms didn’t look too bad.  Plus they finally won which helped.  But their streak should end at one.

Vikings over Lions.  7-1 vs 1-7.

Jets over Jags.  Both 4-4 so not much to say, they’re middling.

Bengals over Steelers.  Might meet again in the playoffs, I’ll pick the Bengals in this matchup.

Saints over Rams. Don’t even pay attention to that game.

Bills over Titans.  No clue on this game.  I think Buffalo will lose, but since they’re a backwards team I’ll pick them to win.

Broncos over Redskins.  Can we send the Skins home for the rest of the season?

Game of the Week.  Chiefs over Raiders, someone has to win.  Unless they tie somehow.

Cards over Seahawks.  Arizona is maddening to figure out this season.

Cowboys over Packers. Tony ‘it’s still November so I’ll play well’ Romo over Aaron ‘how many times will I get sacked this week’ Rodgers.

Chargers over Eagles.  Andy Reid sucks as a coach, just look at the end of the Cowboys game.  Decisions that make no sense.

The real Game of the Week.  Patriots over Colts.  Colts have squeaked by the last few games.  Barely beating Houston and San Fran?

Baltimore ‘formerly the Browns’ Ravens over Cleveland ‘wishes they were a team other than the’ Browns.  Browns on Monday Night Football, go watch a DVD that night or something.

Not sure how many readers might be in St. John’s and have some free time Friday afternoon.  In case there is, you can see the Olympic Torch run go through town.  Friday’s show I’m re-airing the interview with Toni Marie Wiseman from this past summer.  She has the torch at 4:24pm Newfoundland time tomorrow.  From her Facebook page.

“I’d love to have people come cheer me on Friday when I’m carrying the Torch I start at Cabot Tower at 4:24pm. (Friday the 13th–Yikes!)”

It won’t be airing live on NTV, from what I can tell.  Possibly shown on tape during Friday’s news but that’s not confirmed.  With the internet I’m sure there will be pictures and video up soon enough.

So tonight at 6pm Toni’s interview from this past summer and music for 2 hours.  Some of her picks and other Newfoundland artists.  I also give my football pick for Queen’s-Western at the start of Hour 2.  Going with Queen’s but I forget if I said by 7 points or not.  I taped it Monday morning so it’s been a few days.

Show with Robin Meade is on Archive.org as well, forgot to put up a link before.

http://www.archive.org/details/SaltWaterMusicOct9th2009Hour2

Looks like I didn’t upload the first hour, but the interview was during the second hour.  I might go in and take out the interview separately for another link.  Make it a shorter download but that won’t be till next week.  Middle of working 6 nights in a row, so I’m busy. LOL.

Thanks again to Robin and Toni Marie for doing both interviews.

Queen’s won Saturday afternoon by a score of 32-6 against McMaster.  Most obvious reason is 8 turnovers by Mac.  You better win a game when that happens.  All of those touchdowns were direct results of the turnovers and short field position.  So the score doesn’t indicate the whole story.  Offense wasn’t as good as it has been as Brannagan threw for 161 yards.  Quite low for him but he didn’t make the mistakes Mac did.  With the Queen’s running game and defense that was more than enough for a win.  Need to play better against Western next week though.

Bit of misleading trivia coming out of this, already seen “Queen’s hosting the Yates cup for first time since 1978″.  Technically true, but part of the reason is Queen’s joined up the Ontario-Quebec Conference in 1980. They played for a different championship for the next 2 decades.  The Golden Gaels hosted the Dunsmore Cup in 1997, but that doesn’t sound as good as 1978.

1pm kickoff next Saturday on CFRC and on The Score.  Or catch the game in person in Kingston.  Did you see the crowd?  Or should I say lack of a big crowd.  Less than 2,500 for a playoff game is disappointing.  Weather was nice and sunny so can’t use the weather excuse.

Mac got a bit of revenge as the basketball team won Saturday night on CFRC.  My streak of working on every live sports broadcast since I started in 2006 came to an end.  Bound to happen with the increase of games this year and my work schedule.  I’ll give out the schedule for hockey and basketball for everyone.  Basketball isn’t on the CFRC website right now so this is the only place to read them right now.

2010 is getting close.

Quick version of NFL picks since work was quite busy on Saturday night.  Made the picks on Friday night’s show, but I can’t remember if everyone is the same.

Falcons, Bears, Ravens, Colts, Jags, Pats, Packers, Saints, Seahawks, Giants, 49ers, Cowboys and Steelers.

Think for Friday I’ll re-air the show with Toni Marie Wiseman.  It did air in July when a lot of people in the Kingston area might have missed it.  Summer is a slower time at the station and this Friday is the day she’ll be running with the Olympic Torch in St. John’s.  It makes sense to play that show again this week.

Will be taping a new voiceover for it.  Can talk about the feedback for it this past summer and a few other things.

Quick post late on a Friday night.  Queen’s vs McMaster starts at 1pm Saturday on CFRC.  Game might go longer than usual since The Score is broadcasting it which means more stoppages in play with TV timeouts.

During Friday’s show I had to make my prediction.  Went with Queen’s 26-23.  Tough to pick since the previous matchup had different QBs at the helms and was a game where neither team got into double digits in points.

Will write my usual late Saturday/early Sunday morning post on the weekend.

Back to Queen’s football on Saturday with the playoff game against McMaster.  So a taped show on Friday.  Still figuring out what the show will be on Friday.  Worked six nights in a row so that messed up my plan to tape it earlier.

No prediction yet for the game on Saturday.  I’ll have to come up with one but this one is up in the air.  They did play earlier in the season but this is a rare case where that really doesn’t help figure things out.  Queen’s won 8-7 but more to the story.

Brannagan was knocked out of that game and the backup was put in. However on the McMaster side they had some changes as well.  Ryan Fantham was the QB earlier in the season but Kyle Quinlan has taken over since then and led them to that road victory last week in Ottawa.

Leaning towards Queen’s but the Marauders been playing quite well as of late and I don’t think Queen’s being at home affects anything.

On the Olympic front, congratulations to Toni Marie Wiseman on being chosen to be one of the torch bearers.  She mentioned it on her Facebook page last night.  The torchbearer uniform just came in the mail and she gave some details on her part of the relay.

“My leg is from Cabot Tower to the Queen’s Battery sign. 4:30pm November 13. Yep FRIDAY the 13th.”

I don’t believe in bad luck on that day, but if you do that’s not the best date to be carrying the Olympic torch in front of people.  ha ha.  So if you know anyone in St. John’s you can pass the word along that they can see the relay next week.

“I wonder if anyone will be there to cheer me on? Gosh, I never thought of that. Am I suppose to ask people to come? Eeeeks.”

I’m sure they’ll be people there to see her. I mentioned how she worried a bit about our phone interview for the show this past summer. So imagine how she might be for this?  At least it’s happening quickly.

OUA playoffs started on Saturday, I saw none of it.  First time I’ve had a full amount of sleep before working in 7 weeks.  With a week off for Queen’s thought I’d pass along how my Saturdays have gone.

7am – Get off from work.  Which explains why I’ve been taping Salt Water Music during the week.  Saturdays are a long day.

7:45am – Get home after taking the city bus home.  Very quiet on Saturday mornings, sometimes even more quiet than Sundays.

8am-11:30am – Watch TV and try and relax.  Thought I could do a nap in between that and leaving for football.  But after one week I gave that up.  Knowing you have to wake up in a couple of hours doesn’t help trying to have a nap.

11:30am-12pm – Leave for the station.  Game doesn’t start till 1pm but I try and get there a little bit after noon.

12pm-4pm – At CFRC until the football game is over.  Luckily this season they games haven’t gone long that often.

4:30pm-5pm – Get home around that time.  Get some food in me then head to bed.

5-10pm – Hopefully getting a good 5 hours of sleep.

11pm – Back to work on Saturday night.

7am – Off work on Sunday morning, but no city bus till later in the morning.  So I walk a few blocks and call a cab home.

Get to bed a couple of hours later.  Even after all of that I can’t get to sleep right away.  You get home from work you probably don’t go to bed that quickly either.  Same thing.

It’s November now?  Thought the Queen’s students just got back.  7 Saturdays in a row of that crazy schedule makes the time fly by.

Does mean I’ve only caught the Sunday Night NFL games this season.  Oh well, the better games are starting.  I will be able to watch Packers-Vikings Sunday afternoon.

Back to sports, Queen’s will be hosting McMaster next week here in Kingston.  1pm kickoff on CFRC.  The Golden Gaels beat McMaster earlier in the season and in the playoffs 3 years ago.

However the last 2 seasons the number 1 seed in the Ontario has lost their first playoff game.  Queen’s was the team last year when they were undefeated.

Neate Sager pointed out to me in 1997 they also had clinched “home field till the Vanier Cup” and didn’t win the OUA either.  Last Vanier Cup for Queen’s in 1992 they had to go on the road.

Last week’s loss could be a good thing though.  I thought they hadn’t been challenged much at the end of last year which cost them in the playoffs. One of the Golden Gaels agreed.  Quote in the paper from centre Dan Bederman about what happened last year.

“Last year, we were 8-0 and I think we kind of thought we were the cock of the walk. We know we have things to improve on the next two weeks to be ready for the playoffs.”

McMaster won on the road Saturday in Ottawa in a game with wet conditions and high winds.  Queen’s beat the Marauders 8-7 in September in a game I’ve hopefully erased from memory.  Defensive struggles aren’t exciting to hear on the radio as you can imagine.

Onto the NFL Week 8.  Almost halfway through the season?  And for quite a few teams they wish it was already over.  Start the picks with the a game to watch if you are a glutton for punishment.

Rams [0-7] at Lions [1-5].  Detroit can win this one.  Would make the Rams the losers of 16 in a row by the way. Thinking of the TV crew working on this one, they pulled a short straw this week.

Broncos over Ravens.  Watch I finally pick Denver and they’ll lose.

Bills over Texans.  Both teams are Jekyll and Hyde so flip a coin.

Bears over Browns.  I can’t see picking Cleveland at all this season.

Dallas over Seattle.  Seahawks decimated with injuries…. it’s their 2008 season all over again.

Colts over 49ers.  Last time San Fran went to Indy was historic.  Not for the game but the post game press conference from Colts coach Jim Mora.  Someone asked if the Colts would make the playoffs.  Yes that game was the reason for the infamous, “Playoffs? Don’t talk about playoffs” rant.  I don’t think Manning will throw 4 INT like he did in that game.

Dolphins over Jets.  Beat them on Monday night so I’ll go with Miami.

Giants/Yankees over Eagles/Phillies.  Going with both New York teams to win on Sunday.

Chargers over Raiders.  Although Oakland played them very tough in Week 1 on Monday Night Football.  10:30pm EST start that night so you probably didn’t see it.

Jags over Titans.  I would’ve picked the Titans but now Vince Young is the starter again.

Vikings over Packers.  Main part I took away from the earlier game was Green Bay’s offensive line not showing up.  Rodgers has been sacked 25 times in 6 games.  He’s on pace for 67 sacks this year.  If he’s not injured between now and the end of the season.

Cardinals over Panthers.  Arizona won in Giant Stadium on a Sunday night game.  I saw it and still didn’t look right.

Saints over Falcons.  New Orleans keep the streak going on Monday night.  By the way no Sunday night game due to not wanting to compete with the World Series.  I’d rather watch football.

Halloween is over for another year.  Never been a big fan.  Even as a kid I wasn’t that into it.  Probably because I never had a sweet tooth.  Candy?  Eh. Liked getting chips and chocolate bars but not many houses gave them out.   Now I just see the day as lame.  Not if you have kids of course, that makes sense. But seeing drunk grownups the last 2 nights in costumes in downtown Kingston just backs up my opinion.  Yep, they were out on Friday and Saturday night at the bars.  You can’t stretch it to 2 nights.  Don’t even do that for Christmas. LOL.

Spent most Halloweens growing up just being a “chaperone” for my younger sister as she went door to door.  She’s the opposite.  Loved candy and would go out for a long time if she could.  Since my Dad was in the army, every year I did the laziest costume.  Grab some army gear from him and I’m a soldier.  Piece of cake.

Since I just passed 1000 words I should stop for the night.  It’s 1:55am and it will be again in an hour since the clocks go back  in 5 minutes.  No extra hour of sleep for me as I’m at work.

Back to doing the show live on Friday, but it’s only an hour this week.  Hockey game at 7pm EST.

CFRC, the only radio station in Kingston that now has live local hockey broadcasts.  None of the stations in town wanted to pick up the Kingston Frontenacs games so a station in Napanee got them.  A town over 40 km away from the arena.  I’ll be writing a longer post about that.  Which might also be popping elsewhere on the web.  More details later on.

So I’ll be playing some new music on Friday during the shorter episode.  Be nice not having to tape it ahead of time after 7 weeks.

Queen’s lost their first regular season game since October 2007 today against Laurier.  Laurier was playing to get a 1st round bye which they ended up getting.  So you know they were going to go all out.  Win or lose Queen’s had nothing to gain and I thought they should sit a lot of starters in the 2nd half.  Especially after last year’s injury to Mike Giffin.

Which they didn’t do. Assume part of that was wanting another undefeated season, but trying to help Brannagan get the passing record might’ve been part of it.  When your QB is still in the game in the 4th quarter of a meaningless game for the team there has to be a extra reasons.  Especially since he’s had 2 concussions in the last 2 seasons.  Should play it safe. Luckily no big injuries out of this game.

My pre-season prediction was 6-2 for Queen’s so I was close.

Brannagan did have the all time CIS passing record, for about half an hour it sounds like.  Michael Faulds of Western passed him with 550 passing yards as Western hammered Toronto.

Next game is November 7th in Kingston as Queen’s host the lowest seed out of the remaining teams.  Which will be McMaster, Ottawa or Guelph.  2 out of those 3 teams gave Queen’s a fight earlier in the season.

Guelph was involved in that crazy 52-49 Labour Day game which the Golden Gaels won on a last second field goal.  Few days later McMaster came to town and it was an opposite type of game.  8-7 win for Queen’s, in what might have been the worst game I’ve been a part of in 4 seasons.  Sitting through that one was a chore.

We have Queen’s hockey next Friday night, so my return to doing Salt Water Music “live” will be a shorter edition.  About an hour or so as Queen’s plays McGill at 7pm.

Onto NFL Week 7 picks.  Try to buzz through these ones.

Packers over Browns, 49ers over Texans, Chargers over Chiefs, Vikings over Steelers, Colts over Rams, Patriots over Bucs [in England], Panthers over Bills, Jets over Raiders, Bears over Bengals, Falcons over Cowboys, Saints over Dolphins, Giants over Cardinals and Eagles over Redskins.

Not picking Redskins for the rest of the season after this dumb week.  Even dumber than usual for Washington.  Pulling the play calling duties away from the head coach in an effort to make him quit.  Thanks to Hall of Famer Steve Largent for getting the story out on what happened.

Still think Zorn will be fired but this has made the management look more horrible.  Now I’m glad Zorn didn’t quit because that was Dan Snyder’s way of not wanting to pay him.  Since when does Dan care about spending?  $100 Million on one player in the offseason says otherwise.

Could be worse, Redskins still aren’t as bad as the Maple Leafs have been so far.  Ouch.

About yesterday’s post, I now have the proper spelling thanks to a comment from Jesilou last night.

—

Hi Mr. Carnell,

I found your blog through following the links from your Twitter page. Thanks for blogging about Tyler and me. It was a pleasure to meet him yesterday and he’s clearly very talented.

Also, thanks for pointing out the multiple misspellings of my name on the article. Just when I thought my name couldn’t be more of a typo!

Have a good week and keep up your great work.

- Jesilou

—

After the blog I found her Twitter page so I had the right spelling but I had already posted.  For those who Tweet here is her page.

http://twitter.com/exitghost

Having a computer about to kick the bucket so I’m dealing with that.  Luckily not my main computer but it’s still a pain.  Some files on there I have to get off.

I’ll upload the last episode of the radio show late tonight.  Unless this computer does something strange too.

Redskins lost to the Chiefs, like I said they would but the Skins’ coach is still there.  The owner is horrible and I don’t know when it will turn around.  At least I’m a big NFL fan so the fact Washington is horrible doesn’t affect me too much.  Rather follow the rest of the league as my team does a downward spiral, again.

Almost wrote that it was Monday Update, but it 1:30am.

Some things to start working on over the next day or two.  Uploading the Thanksgiving episode with the Robin Meade interview.  And start putting some more work into the NTV/Rogers Facebook group.  Keep seeing hits coming in to this blog about it so we’ll see where to go from here.

Congrats to Tyler King on getting a bursary award from Sports Media Canada. Worked with Tyler on CFRC Sports broadcast and Offsides until this past June when he left for Syracuse.  Here’s the link.

One funny thing in the article about the other winner.  Mentions how her name is different than most, but then the same article has THREE different spellings of what it is.  Oops.

http://www.sportsmediacanada.ca/?page_id=52

2009 Student Award

Tyler King & Jessilou Tongio

In 2009 two students receive a Bursary Award. Tyler King of Bath, Ontario, just graduated from Queen’s University will work on a Masters Degree at Syracuse U and Jesilour Tongio continues her Journalism studies at Ryerson.

After graduating from Queen’s University, King already had a well-rounded resume. He hosted his own weekly sports talk show for the campus radio station, earned a multi-year gig as the school’s hockey and basketball play-by-play commentator and covered the Kingston Frontenacs as a TV feature reporter and backup host of The OHL Tonight.

Hoping to gain an edge in the job market, the Toronto native is now completing a Master’s degree in broadcast journalism at Syracuse University. “The guy is very good,” notes Toronto Sun TV critic and former NBA reporter Bill Harris after reviewing King’s demos. “He’s calm … better than a lot of guys working professionally today that I’ve seen … I say show him the money!”

For years, Jesilou Tongio worried that her given name wasn’t suited to a byline. “I hated that Microsoft Word always underlined it with a red squiggle as if it was a typo. And it got to me that female sportscasters all had names like Jennifer, Sara and Holly,” she says.

But Tongio, 20, learned to care less about those things and more about what feels right. Basketball and hockey features – on camera and in print – ensued. “It’s all prep work,” she says, for a seminal moment in her dream career – a double-digit drama for which Toronto hockey fans have waited decades.

A life-long NHL enthusiast, Tongio, 20, plans to be on the sidelines, as a reporter, when the Stanley-Cup starved Maple Leafs finally turn 13 into 14.

—

I would have corrected her name but I don’t know which one is right. 

Queen’s Hockey on CFRC is starting up again.  So the show will have a few times where it’s cut down to an hour or so.  I’ll pass along details closer to those dates.

Queen’s got the win over Western.  Didn’t tweet during the game since the playoffs are more important.  Playoff record in the last 4 playoff games for the Golden Gaels, 1-3.  Worked on all those games so while beating Western was a big win which gives them a 1st round bye, I’m not that excited.

That one playoff win was on the road in Hamilton.  Their 2006 victory over McMaster was the first time they’d won in that city since 1975.  Followed that up with a great effort in Ottawa but lost to the Gee Gees.

As for the last 2 home playoff games, you probably know about them. 2007 Western came in and beat Queen’s in the first round.  2008 the Gaels had a first round bye and a week off, but lost at home again this time to Ottawa.

The win Saturday also means next week’s game is rather meaningless.  Clinched 1st in the OUA so a win or a loss versus Laurier doesn’t affect the standings.  I’m not going to pump it up like the Whig Standard has on their website.  This is the opening line from the story.

“The road to the Vanier Cup goes through Queen’s University after the Golden Gaels posted a thrilling come-from-behind victory Saturday at Richardson Stadium.”

How about getting to the Yates Cup first?  Call me crazy, but you might want to focus on the championship for winning the province first.

After that is the Mitchell Bowl, which this year in the rotation is being hosted by the OUA Conference.  However they will be hosting the winner from Quebec.  Tough game there.

Finally after all of that is the Vanier Cup, November 28th in Quebec City.  So calm down people a regular season win doesn’t mean a whole lot with that long road ahead.

We remember the 8-0 Queen’s getting beat by the 4-4 Gee Gees last year. I recall it the most since I predicted Ottawa would win the night before on my show.  Yep, going on CFRC and picking the opposition.  I’m not a homer and if I think you’ll lose I’ll say so.

Onto the NFL picks.

Bengals over Texans.  Division leaders against Houston, nuff said.

Lions over Packers. Yes, I’m picking the Lions to win a game.  Only 1 win but they’ve put up a fight each week.  Unlike the Jaguars, Raiders, Bucs, Rams, Panthers, 49ers, Redskins, Browns…. long list.

Jags over Rams.  Ugh.

Vikings over Ravens.  Baltimore looked really good until the last 2 games.  Minnesota is well balanced so I’ll go with them.

Giants over Saints.  If it was in NY I’d pick the Saints, but it’s in New Orleans so I’ll pick the Giants.  Eli Manning is much better on the road than in Giant Stadium.

Steelers over Browns.  Shouldn’t even waste time on the Browns.

Panthers over Bucs. Ugh, part 2.

Chiefs over Redskins.  Yes, every team Redskins have played this season has had zero wins.  But that’s a bit silly since people keep counting Week 1 vs the Giants.  When the season is starting you can’t have a win since you haven’t played a game yet.  Picked the Panthers to beat Washington so I’m going with the Chiefs.

Eagles over Raiders.  Oakland blown out again.

Seahawks over Cardinals.  Different team with Hasselbeck at QB.

Patriots over Titans.  Like I said last week, the Titans are bad.  Pundits need to get over it.

Jets over Bills.  After the Bills/Browns joke last week I can’t pick them.

Bears over Falcons.  Sunday Night game which seems a bit strange.  Chicago-Atlanta doesn’t come to mind as a big game.

Chargers over Broncos.  Think San Diego can get the upset, but this pick is also a protest against those Bronco uniforms from last week.  Good lord.

Looks like a rerun for tomorrow, found out that last week there was a technical problem at the station.  First hour never aired.  Oops.  Luckily someone caught it and the 2nd hour got played, so for tomorrow I’ll just rerun last week’s show. Possibly with a voiceover explaining why I keep talking about Thanksgiving a week late.

Did realize after I put it together “not many people will be hearing this episode with the long weekend”.  So it works out in a way.  Saves me taping a new show too.

Saturday is Queen’s/Western.  TV ad in the Kingston area getting a bit carried away though calling it an “Instant Classic”.  Tone down the hype boys.  It’s a big game but that doesn’t say anything about the quality of it.  Not topping the Labour Day game this year Queen’s had against Guelph which ended 52-49.

The game is on TV.  ’The Score’ is airing it nationwide which means TV timeouts, so the game will drag a bit longer on radio.  More stoppages in play to deal with.

Light at the end of the tunnel, only 2 regular season games left for my crazy schedule.  Then should get a week off with a 1st round bye [not guaranteed yet].  A Saturday when I can get a full amount of sleep before work?  Should be nice.

Been a flu bug going around at work and it’s finally gotten to me.  Think I slept 12 hours yesterday.  Was going for a nap and just kept sleeping.

Messed up my plans this week.  Uploading the last episode will wait a bit longer, with The Band in Hour 1 and the Robin Meade interview in Hour 2.

Friday’s show I’m going to pull out a rerun.  Maybe the 2 hours with Ian Foster since it was his birthday last week.  Try to tape a voiceover explaining to listeners it is a rerun.  But we’ll see how my voice is holding up.

Flu is one where people have a chest cold and you cough a lot.  Fun.  But the forecast of flurries isn’t happening so I’m glad about that.  It’s -1 C right now so it would be snow but no precipitation for the next few days.

Queen’s wins again to move to 6-0.  Danny Brannagan became the OUA all time leader in passing yards as well.  That made it on the front page of Globesports.com and a story in the Canadian Press.  Final score was 43-21, but those last 2 TD’s by Waterloo were late in the contest when it was already over.

The Golden Gaels have won 16 regular season games in a row, so not much else to say about today’s game.  Onto week 5 of the NFL and a bad week of games. Only 3 games will have teams with winning records against each other.  Onto the predictions.

Ravens over Bengals.  Baltimore will not want to lose two in a row, especially in a battle for 1st place in the division.

Bills over Browns.  And the “can I pick neither?” games begin.  Buffalo should win this.

Panthers over Redskins.  I’m waiting for my team to get a new coach.  I know they won’t hire a new one right away but Jim Zorn has to go.  Guess who interviewed for the head coaching position of the Redskins before Zorn was hired? Mike Singletary.  Too bad they can’t get a new owner.

Steelers over Lions.  Detroit has been putting up a fight this season, but I think Pittsburgh should win.

Cowboys over Chiefs.  If Romo can’t beat Kansas City, damn.

Giants over Raiders.  This could be a blowout.

Eagles over Bucs.  Tampa is worse than I thought.

Vikings over Rams.  Again, this could be a blowout.

49ers over Falcons.  Probably game of the week, which isn’t saying much but I like this matchup.

Texans over Cardinals.  Both teams could score a lot, or stink up the joint.

Patriots over Broncos.  They had to postpone the Rockies-Phillies playoff game because of snow in Denver. So this should be the first cold weather game of the season.

Seahawks over Jags.  Hope you’re not stuck watching this one.

Colts over Titans.  Please, enough from people saying “Titans still have a chance this season”.  0-4 and their defense is bad.  Ranked 31st against the pass and they get the Colts this week.  Hello 0-5.

Jets over Dolphins.  Talk about a drop off from last Monday Night’s game.  They’re not getting over 21 million people watching this one.

This is for the Canadian readers of the blog as it is Thanksgiving weekend.  I work all weekend but have Monday/Tuesday off.  It’s something but not really the same.

The link for Friday’s show will be up after the long weekend.  First hour I played songs from The Last Waltz since that was recorded on Thanksgiving night.  Sure it was American Thanksgiving but most of The Band was Canadian so it makes sense.

Second hour is the interview with Robin Meade and the music of The Lever Pulled.  You can get it from the CFRC archive but I’ll upload it in a couple of days.

Very early on Sunday morning.  But time for a post.

Queen’s beat Windsor 42-13.  Score doesn’t indicate that the Lancers were putting up a good fight until halftime.  Blocked a punt and returned it for a TD at the end of the 2nd quarter to get within a touchdown of Queen’s.  But the Golden Gaels figured out the bad weather conditions and adapted well to finish them off.

Kingston was sunny and a high of 17, couple of days after it was 3 degrees when I came home from work in the morning.  Windsor was cool, wet and windy.  Combine that with a 9 hour bus trip on Sunday might explain the slow start this week.

But at least Queen’s recovered from some sluggish play.  Upsets in the OUA across the province.  The number 2 ranked team in Canada, Western lost at home to McMaster.  Won’t be number 2 for long after that performance.  Fell behind 28-0 at halftime!  They tried to come back but it was too big of a hole and lost 42-35.

No. 8 Laurier was upset as well at home.  They fell to Ottawa 27-25.  Which means Queen’s is the only unbeaten team in the OUA now.  So book a playoff date for them.  Not exaggerating as 6 out of 10 teams in the province get in the playoffs.  Like the CFL, but not in a good way.  4 would be a better number but that’s me.

Better get to the NFL picks.  Bye week for Philly, Carolina, Arizona and Atlanta.  Makes no sense to have a week off so early in the season.  Which I’m sure those teams would agree with.  Injuries pile up later in the year.

Tough week to pick, a lot of games with teams that are in the middle of the pack.

Bears over Lions.  Almost picked Detroit last week on air, but couldn’t do it.

Bengals over Browns.  Browns are horrible.

Texans over Raiders.  Both 1-2 but can’t pick Oakland.

Colts over Seahawks.  Picking against Seattle just for those horrible neon green uniforms they wore last week.  Good lord.

Jags over Titans.  Would make Titans 0-4 but I think it will happen.

Giants over Chiefs.  KC in the running for worst team in the NFL.

Ravens over Pats.  Can’t pick against Baltimore with the way they’ve played so far.

Bucs over Redskins.  I should just pick against Washington till they get a new coach.

Bills over Dolphins.  Gotta pick one.

Saints over Jets.  A game I don’t care about.

Cowboys over Broncos.  Denver is not good at all, 3-0 but 2 bad teams and a fluke win.

49ers over Rams.  San Fran. would be undefeated except for that Favre pass last week.

Chargers over Steelers.  Both teams I think will be scratching to even make the playoffs.

Vikings over Packers.  One time I’m glad we don’t have ESPN in Canada.  Couldn’t stand the all day Favre hype.  Game should be great but all the crap beforehand not so much.

Thus ends a long sports post.

Hectic week with work, taping the interview with Robin and a road football game this week. So I dipped into the archives this week to last March. Episode with an interview I did with Andrea Wittgens and her latest CD in its entirety. Good chat with Andrea so for those who missed it last winter you can check it out tonight. Along with some other music in Hour 2.

This morning after work it was 3 degrees. So I think we might be skipping fall around here. That’s cold for early October.

I did a couple of new voiceover parts, but just saying it’s a rerun and that I’ll be back with a new show next week. Also mention the Robin Meade interview will air next Friday.

Wanted to wait till I had done the interview to mention this one.  Took a few months of planning and emails but I spoke to Robin Meade from HLN [formerly Headline News] this morning.

She wrote a new book that came out this past month and since I’ve watched the show for a few years thought I might as well give it a try.  Authors do radio interviews to help promote the book so I threw my hat in.  The long version will wait for another post.  Need to head to bed.

Robin was very nice and generous with her time.  Knew she was phoning at 10am but forgot to check how long she had to speak with me.  Oops.  Went close to 30 minutes which was longer than I thought. Thanks to Robin, especially since she’s on the book tour today and tomorrow.  She’s doing some book signings in her home state of Ohio.  These will be some long days.

I’ll air it next Friday as this week is almost done.  And I wasn’t sure how long we were going to chat for.  Gives more time to spread the word too.

You’ll get to hear me tell her one big Canadian/American difference of a certain beverage she liked.  If you read the book you’ll know what drink she used to like a lot in Chicago.  [Nothing to do with alcohol.  Come on. LOL.]

A lot of Canadians don’t even know there is a difference between the countries when it comes to this one.

I quickly mentioned the Facebook page at the end as I found out Brent Maclean from The Lever Pulled also watches Robin.  She said she does read the comments during the commercial break and knows there are a lot of Canadian viewers.  So feel free to visit that page.

http://www.facebook.com/MorningExpressHLN?ref=ts

And places to get the book online in Canada.  I’d recommend it to viewers of the show and people interesting in how someone dealt with panic attacks.  She started having them after being in TV for a few years but pulled through it.  Came close to quitting which is hard to imagine if you see her on TV now.

Also a fun read for someone like me who is in broadcasting. Always interesting to read about how other people started out.

http://www.amazon.ca/Morning-Sunshine-Radiate-Confidence-Feel/dp/1599951649/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254239658&sr=8-1

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Morning-Sunshine-How-Radiate-Confidence-Robin-Meade/9781599951645-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3a+%2527robin+meade%2527

Made the NY Times Bestseller’s list on the “Advice, How-To, and Miscellaneous” section.  “Advice and How To” is a category that makes sense.  But adding the word Miscellaneous?  That’s vague.

Now off to bed, up quite late being on midnights.  Funny thing as I ended the phone call, Robin told me to get some rest.  When a morning TV person is saying that, you know you have strange hours.

Another thrashing of York by Queen’s today.  67-0 which is not as bad as last year’s 80-0 win but still makes for a boring game to sit through.

Those interested in the “Fauxcoming” street party on Aberdeen Street this year check out the Queen’s Journal Twitter feed.  They have been updating all night.

http://twitter.com/queensjournal

From the reports there was less people than previous years and the police were taking a hardline.  About time.  Giving leeway really doesn’t work in cases like this with people coming from out of town just to get drunk and trash things.

Talking about rowdy crowds, time for the NFL’s Week 3.

Ravens over Browns since Baltimore looks like the best team in the AFC right now.

Redskins over Lions, but I’m not very certain about this one.

Texans over Jags.  Houston woke up last week so should be able to get another win.

Vikings over 49ers in what should be a good game

Patriots over Falcons since I’m not sold on Atlanta yet.

Eagles over Chiefs.  With the Philly QB situation Chiefs have a shot at winning but I don’t see it happening.

Packers over Rams.  Rams, ugh.

Giants over Bucs.  Jets over Titans.  Picking both NY teams this week.

Saints over Bills.  New Orleans offense is too much for Buffalo.

Bears over Seahawks.  Not excited about either team but I’ll go with Chicago.

Steelers over Bengals.  Bengals surprised last week over Green Bay, but a division rival will not take them lightly.

Broncos over Raiders and Chargers over Dolphins.  Not much to see in those games.

Sunday Night Colts over Cards and for Monday Cowboys over Panthers.

Would’ve posted during the week but spent my 2 days off fighting a flu.  But I already have up the episode from Friday night with Allison Crowe online.  Didn’t divide it up into separate hours, it’s the full 2 hours in one shot.

http://www.archive.org/details/SaltWaterMusicSept25th2009AllisonCrowe

I play both CD’s “Little Light” and “Tidings” in their entirety.  Along with 2 covers at the end.  One of Radiohead’s Creep which is new to the show.

Since it’s exactly 3 months till Christmas I thought it be OK to play Christmas music.