CDeb

Vince Young blows.

And don't give me the "selling more tickets" garbage, as every game in the Texans' existance has sold out.

The overflows can always stay at the Holiday Inn/Days Inn/Heaven on Earth Inn, right?

When you're popular and envied, "haters" are just part of life.

Which is what Houstonians continually have to put up with from Dallasites who love to denigrate Houston so they can feel better about their city.

Tacky or no, the Dome will see the wrecking ball if it does not generate revenue in the mid-term future.

Sorry I just used the present stats, didn't just choose the worst.

Indy

2006 3 in the top 100

2005 2 in the top 100

2004 3 in the top 100

2003 1 in the top 100

2002 4 in the top 100

Pats

2006 4 in the top 100

2005 4 in the top 100

2004 5 in the top 100

2003 3 in the top 100

2002 4 in the top 100

More Egg Nog Please....................

1) To bungle Joseph Stalin (who nmainguy always accused me of being anyway): "Those who make the stats decide nothing, those who interpret them decide everything." You are choosing one stat to define an entire receiving corps for two teams.

Why, exactly, is #100 your dividing line? Is receiver No. 95 in the stats that much better than receiver No. 103?

There is a large difference between No. 1 and No. 100, but in your "rankings" they count the same.

What are you using to decide "top 100?"

2) "Statistics are like a bikini: they reveal much that is interesting, but nothing of importance." If you honestly believe that NFL personnel men would trade Indy's receiving corps from 2002-2006 for the Pats receiving corps from the same time period, then we are going to have to agree to disagree (and I hate egg nog).

Are you still tipsy over the egg nog? Only Reggie Wayne is in the top 50 (ranked #1 above Randy Moss) Dallas Clark is ranked 59th in the league, Anthony Gonzales is ranked 65th, Ben Utecht is 105th, Joeseph Addai is 109th, Marvin harrison is ranked 140th in the NFL, Bryan Fletcher is ranked 208th, Devin Aromashodu is 250th, Kenton Keith is ranked 262nd, Aaron Moorehead is 279th, Craphonso Thorpe is 298th, Clifton Dawson is 362nd, Luke Lawton is in a five way tie for 412th.

The Pats have three in the top 50 Moss (#2) and Walker (#15) are in the top 20 in the league, Donte' Stallworth rounds out the top 50. Jabar Gaffney is ranked 85th. Benjamin Watson is 122th, Kevin Faulk is 121st, and so on and so forth.

Uhhhh, Mark??

YOU (not I) were talking about "multiple rings," i.e. over several years time, not just THIS season. Indy's receiving corps has been depleted by injuries THIS year, but look back over the past several years (and look at them again NEXT year) and they have always had, and will have again, a top flight group of receivers. Don't pick the ONE year that the Pats have had a better group than the Colts and extrapolate it into a long-term trend. THAT is egg nog thinking, pal.

The problem with Jones Hall is that it's good, but not great (both acoustically and architecturally). It's hard to justify tearing down something that's good, especially when there's no guarantee that what replaces it will be great and not just good (and maybe even bad). Could you imagine if we tore down the crisp modern form of Jones Hall only to get something like the Hobby?

But anyone who has been to symphony halls in other cities, especially other symphonies in the nation's top ten, would have to agree that the interior space leaves something to be desired. Consider our neighbor to the north:

When I was in high school, our band got to play a concert at the Meyerson. Fabulous building with amazing acoustics.

Can you imagine Manning with a say Randy Moss to throw to? Manning with a show stopping receive would be many rings in Indy.

HUH?

Manning has had fantastic receivers in Indy practically his whole career. Marvin Harrison is no Randy Moss (frankly, only Moss is Moss), but he's been a Top 5 receiver most of his career and draws coverage the same way that Moss does. Reggie Wayne would be a No. 1 receiver on all but a handful of teams. Dallas Clark anyone? Having Edgerrin James or Joseph Addai out of the backfield?? Even his No. 3 for many years, Brandon Stokley, is a solid receiver.

Manning has had the most favorable receiver situation of any quarterback in the league over the past decade, so any statements of "if he only had such and such" ring pretty hollow, certainly when compared to Tom Brady's receivers over the years.

I've never had a flu shot.

I've never had the flu.

Seven Greenway Plaza At 7 Greenway Plz.

Hardly talked about is the Greenway Plaza Central Plant facility.

I dont know if anyone saw it, but there was yet another news report on Channel 13 the other day about HPD stepping up its police presence along 1960 between 249 and I-45. The crime is getting pretty bad there. They really need to do something

Everything would be solved if they just stopped the METRO bus service on 1960!

I am now ready to debate anyone who thinks we should have drafted Vince Young...or Reggie Bush.

Hopefully, the Kordell, errrr, Vince lovers will be mercifully absent from 610 for the rest of the season.

Another real world example of the HCTRA speeding up projects is the Katy Freeway expansion. Before they were involved to bring managed toll lanes down the center of the project, the expected timeline was 2003 - 2012/13 as the project would have to wait on slow moving federal highway funds. Bringing the HCTRA shaved 3-4 years off the total construction time as they can fund parts as the project as fast as the construction companies can move.

This also brings to mind another example:

TxDOT is shutting down most of their projects right now due to a funding crisis. I don't know the specifics, but I do know that they are giving the "all stop" to engineering work that is ongoing, including the US 290 project (everyone in Cypress: call your legislator and your state senator).

But HCTRA will possibly build the Hempstead Managed Lanes regardless of what TxDOT does with US 290. They can bypass the FEIS process since they won't use federal dollars to pay for it. There are several complications, but there's a good chance it could be built quickly like Westpark.

Is there any website or report they issue that shows what comes in and what goes out (and where)?

To me it feels like the lottery. You know they are making a LOT of money off the public, but where does the surplus money actually go. I know you told me generally, but are there any specifics?

Well, for instance, since HCTRA has a lot of extra cash on hand due to toll collections on the Sam, the construction of the Hardy extension will be accelerated, as I don't believe they will be selling bonds for the project.

If the trains are made in Germany then they get that pollution

But if you have drunk the global warming koolaid, that shouldn't matter.

Road maintenance is only based in part on traffic volume, and then passenger vehicles aren't nearly as destructive to roadbeds as is truck traffic and time.

To back you up on this point, in pavement design, passenger car traffic is either ignored or has a minuscule input. Truck traffic governs pavement design.

On a slab of pavement designed to handle thousands of trucks a day for twenty years or more, passengers cars are like love bugs on a windshield.

the mayor said "this developer isn't as cooperative as other developers."

You mean they aren't willing to roll over throw away a half million bucks?

Whoda' thunk that, Bill?

Which is why I exactly said outside of the Houston area. If you do go outside of the Houston area, you will rarely here that from Cowboy fans. I just find it funny how Texan fans have the Cowboys as one of there top rivals yet Cowboy fans do not think of the Texans as rivals at all. In fact, the Texans have the Cowboys as one of their top 5 rivalries while the Cowboys have the Texans outside of the top 10.

This isn't a diss to the Texans because I actually root for them when they aren't playing the Cowboys. But it's still weird yet funny to see the hatred be so one-sided.

The Texans haven't been good enough to have bandwagon fans.

And bandwagon fans, which Dallas has loads of, are the most obnoxious subspecies of human on the planet.

And people who actually display loyalty in spite of losing especially despise bandwagon fans and love to see them brough back to earth so they can wait for the Yankees and the Lakers to start their seasons.

Also, remember when Davis caught the ball and had both knees on the ground (and an elbow), and then a Jag player took the ball from him, and the refs then called it an interception.

Yeah, that was a bad one, and they even got to look at it again on instant replay and they STILL blew it.

But I also recall the Texans being down 21 at the time anyway.

No believers, I understand. I guess the boys will have to prove everyone wrong.

They already had that opportunity.

While they played with the Patriots for 35-40 minutes, the game is 60.

You guys want to get beat TWICE by the same team in one season ? WOW !

It is going to take several (i.e. more than one) key injuries or a Saturday night Tom Brady drinking binge for anyone to beat the Patriots this year.

I look forward to the creativity, but I'm laying odds that they try to use the traffic angle

But even then, the developers don't need driveway permits or anything of that nature, so even if the new study shows that the tower will turn Bissonnet into Westheimer, the City has no ordinance allowing them to do anything about it, right?

I noticed on the way to work this morning that they are measuring the traffic counts on Bissonnet right in front Maryland Manor apartments.

People out there counting or a black hose?

Another traffic study will be done.

Of course, even if the new study concludes that this project will be a traffic nightmare, given that the study is not required, what legal recourse does the city have to stop the project without getting its pants sued off?

a sports bar is calling your name.

True, true.