Cap’n Ken’s Homespun Wisdom

I owe a payoff from our exploratory journeys to Radial Cafe for brunch. This sprang from a spirited discussion here at C.K.H.W. and the wife”s place about brunch spots in the “hood (consensus is that Heaving Bowl now officially sucks; Good News is good unless you”ve suffered food poisoning there.)

So in those discussions, Woodhill Will threw Radial out as one of his favorite spots for eggs and whatnot. Thus the wife and I arranged brunches with Char-lez and Grant Park Tony over a couple of weekends.
Overall I give the place about a 7 out of 10. The eggs are passable, and they seem to do a good job with interesting pancakes (on our second visit the wife got a pumpkin pancake special that was damn good).

But there are a couple of things about Radial that will keep me from making it a regular spot.

First, there??s way too much of a vegan / hippie vibe. My first hint was the menu item “Vegan Biscuits and Gravy.” They make gravy out of rosemary and fennel instead of good old pork sausage. That”s fine, I suppose, but I”ve found that most places that go out of their way to make vegans happy tend to give the shaft to those among us who prefer to eat animals. Which leads into my next point.

Second, you”d think the place bought just one pig to serve a year”s worth of brunches. On our first trip, the side of bacon that came with my breakfast included two little shriveled bacon shards that wouldn”t have made up a half-piece of proper bacon. Same with the side of bacon Char-lez got on the second trip. The second time around I got sausage as a side. That choice entitled me to one entire quarter-inch-thick sausage patty. Thanks!

Also on the second trip, the wife and I both got their “special” grits dish - Bacon and Cheese Grits. Sounded good, as we enjoy making yummy cheese grits at home. This “special”, however, consisted of a regular bowl of grits with a tablespoon of bacon bits and a slice of American cheese sitting on top of it. That was a big waste of $2.50 each.

So given Radial”s stinginess in the pork department, the abundance of hippies floating around the place, the huge grits disappointment and the fact that they have a really cute waitress but gave us the less-than-cute one both times, it”s not becoming a regular stop.

It”s not going on the banned list (Heaving Bowl at all times, Ria”s on the weekends), and I”d join folks for brunch there if they asked. But it”s not becoming the regular place, either.

Still searching for brunch happiness …

Another followup from the SEC Championship Saturday night is also a followup on my post about “security” at Philips Arena (it involved me having to empty my pockets - except that I didn”t empty all of them, which was not a problem).

TCL and I got up to the Ga. Dome entrance about 7:45 Saturday night, pretty well tanked up on Maker”s Mark and TCL with a very nice silver flask (oddly enough with the initials “TCL” engraved on it) full of 101 Wild Turkey. I”d said earlier that he might want to leave it in the car because of “security”, but we”d had enough Maker”s by the time we headed over we”d forgot to swing by and drop it off.

So how tough was “security” at the SEC Championship - probably the country”s highest-profile event that evening? By kickoff we were sippin” de-flasked Turkey and Diet Cokes in our seats.

No “empty your pockets, please.” No “please take your cap off.” No metal detectors, patdowns or delays. I think they may have been looking into some purses, but TCL and I breezed right in.

Yet three days earlier I”d attended an insignificant, regular-season hockey game next door and the “security” measures involved this ridiculous “empty your pockets” routine.

Am I to think, then, that the 12,000-person hockey game was somehow a bigger “security” risk than the 74,000-person SEC Championship?

Nobody in the LSU section of the Ga. Dome got my Larry Munson reference [above] near the end of the SEC Championship game. That”s ok. And I think I did see some sugar cubes getting tossed out onto the field.

When Marcus Spears swallowed David Greene in the backfield on UGA”s last 4th down, the notion that we might play for the national title began to sink in. And at 3:15 this morning, as Boise State finished off Hawaii - a move BCS experts correctly predicted would give LSU a 0.32 strength of schedule advantage over USC - it was all but set. I finally went to bed at about 3:30. [note: TCL and I had intended to stay out with Tiger fans until the wee hours, but we were consumed with BCS analysis, so it was back to the EAtl to break out the spreadsheet]

Then this morning came the computer rankings, the Coaches” Poll and finally the AP. We got what we needed from the machines, and the pollsters rightfully dropped Oklahoma behind us, sending my Tigers (and me) to New Orleans Jan. 4.

College football observers say this year”s “controversy” of a USC team ranked No. 1 in both polls but not going to the BCS title game is evidence the system has to be scrapped. It”s an outrage for the consensus No. 1 poll team to not be in the title game, they say.

There”s an outrage here, alright. The way I see it, the outrage is that the pollsters would elevate USC to the No. 1 spot above LSU (and Oklahoma). A team never drops in the polls when they win, of course, and to boost LSU to No. 1 would throw disrespect on the proud Trojan tradition.

But after Saturday, how do you argue USC is No. 1? Six of the seven BCS computers say Oklahoma and LSU are better. USC”s schedule strength lags behind both Oklahoma and LSU as well. And USC played one less game than either Oklahoma or LSU.

So of all the elements one might use to determine the two best teams out of three 1-loss schools, only the human ones say USC is among the two best. Simply put, the humans are wrong.

Only humans would look beyond all the on-the-field factors and rank USC No. 1 ahead of LSU and Oklahoma.

Did anyone notice that USC gave up 485 yards passing (and a total of 543 yards of offense to go along with the 28 points) to 7-5 Oregon State Saturday? Anyone check to see that those 485 passing yards were the most Oregon State had rung up all year? USC”s 52 - 28 win only looked good because Oregon State turned the ball over 5 times.

By comparison, LSU held 10 - 3 Georgia (now the No. 11 team in the polls) to just 249 yards of total offense, the fewest yards gained by the Bulldogs this year. UGA”s 13 points were the fewest for the Bulldogs since the Florida loss and the only team to hold UGA to fewer points than LSU did on Saturday was … LSU, who held them to 10 points back on Sept. 20.

On the other side of the ball, LSU rang up 444 yards of total offense, the most yards the Dawgs have given up this season. And the Tigers” 34 points were 11 more than UGA had given up in any game this year.

But any chance LSU would pass USC in the human polls after these performances? Of course not. USC got 42 of 65 first-place votes in the AP and 37 of 63 in the Coaches” Poll. And they don”t deserve it.

The voters obviously didn”t compare USC and LSU”s Saturday games to decide who”s No. 1, and the didn”t compare the seasons USC, LSU and Oklahoma are having, either.

Even after USC rang 52 up on Oregon State and Oklahoma was held to 7 against Kansas State, USC is averaging 3 points and 10 yards of offense less per game than the Sooners. USC scores 7 points a game more than LSU and gains 25 yards more on offense, but LSU”s defense gives up 8 points and 77 yards per game less than USC.

And keep in mind USC has the weakest schedule of the three teams (37th in the country, compared to LSU at 29 and Oklahoma at 11). And, of course, they didn”t play a conference championship game (or any 13th game, for that matter) like LSU and Oklahoma.

The one place you won”t hear complaints about a No. 1-ranked USC missing the BCS is … USC. See, if Oklahoma had won on Saturday, the Sooners and Tigers would still be the ones going to New Orleans (I did the math on that), and USC would have no real shot at an AP national championship. Getting to No. 1 in the polls is all that saved USC”s (split) national championship hopes.

So the BCS is working as it should … to reduce the influence of the purely subjective (human) rankings.

USC is the third-best team in college football this year, and they get a shot at a (shared) national championship anyway, just because tradition says you don”t bump a team down on a weekend they win a game.

That”s the outrage here. And it”s the human system, not the BCS, that needs to be overhauled.

P.S. I was 1 - 0 on my picks this week, bringing the non-bowl total to 76 - 22 and 12 - 1 on my Tigers.

P.P.S. Damn but did we destroy Georgia Saturday night. Geaux Tigers!!

Well, not a lot of games to pick this week ?� just that one here in Atlanta.

Georgia??s a better team now compared to our Sept. 20 game, mostly because they??ve gotten over the injury hump. But LSU has probably improved even more, given the emergence of our freshmen running backs ?? giving us 5 high-quality backs to throw in the mix ?? the adjustments forced on the defense by Florida??s ability to crack our pressure and the trials by fire against Florida, Auburn, Ole Miss and Arkansas.

UGA would have been better served to not play Vandy, UAB, Kentucky and Georgia Tech as 4 of their last 6 games.

This game should be a great SEC contest, pitting the 3rd (LSU) and 5th (UGA) ranked offenses in the conference against the 1st (LSU) and 2nd (UGA) ranked defenses.

We score 35 a game and give up 10.5. UGA scores 27 a game and gives up 11.8.

So how does it shake out? A defensive struggle is likely, and the game will probably come down to a big play near the end.

Of course I??m taking my Tigers. I??ll go LSU, 17 ?? 10

On a semi-related note, the effort by myself (and apparently a bunch of other LSU fans) to convince AP voters to not automatically pick USC as the No. 2 team has succeeded in spurring football writers to address the question.

And that??s all I asked ?? don??t just vote USC No. 2 because they??re No. 2 right now and didn??t lose. There??s a case to be made for LSU passing them if both teams win Saturday. The least the sportswriters can do is mention that possibility.

In today??s Advocate (The Baton Rouge daily, not the national gay newspaper), Scott Rabalais wrote a piece specifically about the AP voters and their thoughts on the No. 2 question going into the weekend. Scott gives a lot of play to the email campaign in his story.

Yesterday, AJC writer Tony Barnhart, whose piece that failed to even mention the possibility of LSU passing USC in the polls sparked my own little crusade, wrote a piece about the AP struggles and why USC is still considered the ??right?? pick for No. 2.

Over the course of a couple of days, I got replies back from about a dozen AP voters, all of whom seemed to appreciate the fact that my email was a original, hand-crafted piece (not a form email as most were). Most of them seemed open to the idea that a 12 ?? 1 LSU might be a better No. 2 than an 11 ?? 1 USC, so we shall see.

One jackass replied ??Beat Georgia, then start your advertising campaigns.?? To that I replied a) Saturday night would be too late to ask that you not blindly keep USC No. 2 and b) if the sportswriters were expressing any thoughts that a 12 ?? 1 LSU might be better than an 11 ?? 1 USC, the ??advertising campaign?? would not be necessary.

I got no reply to that.

Geaux Tigers!

Char-lez and I went to the Thrashers game last night (I finally won one of my company”s ticket raffles - damn good seats), and as we”re going in the doors we met with the requisite “security” procedure.

In the case of Philips Arena, “security” consists of a guy standing next to a card table who tells everybody in line to empty their pockets into a little plastic basket (note to Philips … if you”re going to do this, you need more than one little plastic basket at each table).

So I get up there and the guy says “Can I ask you to empty your pockets, please?”. Being that it was 35 degrees last night, I figured maybe this was to ferret out bad stuff that could be in a jacket or somesuch. So I asked him if he meant all my pockets - pants and such. “Yes,” he said.

This is the point during “security” checks when I either a) tell the “security” dude that what he”s asking me to do is completely pointless b) comply with the pointless, feel-good “security” measure and fume silently or c) only partially comply with the pointless “security” measure as a demonstration of the “security” measure”s complete lack of a point.

Being that I did, in fact, want to see the game; I plan to spend my free cash on SEC Championship tickets and not bail; and the fact that the “security” guy was apologetic to the point that he must know how stupid his assigned task is, I chose option C.

I dumped my keys, some change and my wallet in the little plastic basket. I purposefully held out on presenting my cellphone and gloves, which were tucked away in an inside pocket of my jacket.

“Thank you, and sorry for the inconvenience,” the guy said. I scooped my stuff out of the little plastic basket and moved on.

OK, so the point of that was what, exactly? To make Philips Arena 100% free of dangerous items the spectators volunteer to surrender at the door? My cell phone could have been 9 ounces of C-4; the gloves could have been pointy sticks I might use to hold Ilya Kovalchuk hostage at center ice. But “security” was only interested in seeing the things I told them I had.

Of course, there is no point to this exercise other than to provide a “sense of security” to the moronic public who believe that searching old women at airports makes us “safer” and to let the Philips Arena staff show that they take “security” seriously.

I admit that I was selfish last night. I”ve ranted here and in the real world that if we sit back silently and take this bullshit as we go through our daily lives, it will just encourage more bullshit. I should have said something - in a polite way since the “security” guy seemed to understand the pointlessness of his task - but for the sake of my own convenience I didn”t.

To make up for my selfish act last night, I will reinforce my position about “security” here.

1) Nobody is ever “secure”, nor will they ever be. Life is full of risks, and if somebody wants to kill you bad enough, they will.
2) If you feel “more secure” in airports and public places like hockey games because of the post-911 changes, you are stupid
3) If you never complain about stupid “security” measures, you are part of the problem
4) Making airports 100% free of bombs and boxcutters would do exactly nothing to reduce the threat of terrorism in the U.S.
5) Searching for bombs and boxcutters instead of searching for terrorists will make us lose the war on terrorism

Big props to one John Adams of the Knoxville News Sentinel. In his column about the BCS today, he not only explains why LSU should be rated ahead of USC, but he - an AP voter - goes on the record as having moved LSU ahead of USC on his AP ballot this week:

After going through the schedules and the numbers, I moved LSU ahead of USC on my AP ballot. And if LSU beats Georgia again in the SEC championship game, I expect other voters will do the same.

It”s about freaking time the notion that a 12-1 LSU would be better than an 11-1 USC starts getting some play in the press. The AJC”s Tony Barnhart - also an AP voter - wrote a piece about what LSU needs to make the Sugar Bowl this morning, and nowhere did he even mention the idea that LSU could pass USC in the human polls.

So, obviously, what we need here is a little education and maybe a bit of a grass-roots movement. Below you will find the names and MailTo links for the other 64 sportswriters who cast votes in the AP poll and haven”t made their No. 2 vote known. If you are so inclined, I invite you to write to these folks and express your opinions about who should end up No. 2 if both USC and LSU win this coming Saturday.

For the convenience-minded among you, here”s a link to email the whole bunch at once.

Elton Alexander, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland
Neil Amato, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.
Greg Archuleta, Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal
Paul Arnett, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Lee Barfknecht, Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald
Tony Barnhart, Atlanta Journal and Constitution
Steve Batterson, Quad City (Iowa) Times
Joe Biddle, The Tennessean, Nashville
Jack Bogaczyk, Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail
B.G. Brooks, Rocky Mountain News, Denver
Jimmy Burch, Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram
Scott Cain, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock
Jenni Carlson, The Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma City
Jim Cnockaert, The Ann Arbor (Mich.) News
Chuck Cooperstein, KESN-FM Radio, Arlington, Texas
Paul Coro, Arizona Republic
Barker Davis, The Washington Times
Pat Dooley, Gainesville (Fla.) Sun
Pat Forde, The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Chris Fowler, ESPN
Robert Gagliardi, Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Cheyenne
Artie Gigantino, Fox Sports Net
Adam Gold, WRBZ-AM, Raleigh, N.C.
Charles Goldberg, The Birmingham (Ala.) News
Lee Gordon, WCTV-TV, Tallahassee, Fla.
Herb Gould, Chicago Sun-Times
Lance Griffin, The Dothan (Ala.) Eagle
Tim Griffin, San Antonio Express-News
Brian Hamilton, St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press
Todd Harmonson, The Orange County Register, Santa Ana, Calif.
Doug Harris, Dayton (Ohio) Daily News
Kevin Haskin, Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal
Joseph Hawk, Las Vegas Review-Journal
John Hoover, Tulsa (Okla.) World
Kirk Johannesen, The Columbus (Ind.) Republic
Mike Kern, Philadelphia Daily News
Tim Layden, Sports Illustrated
George Lehner, WTVN-AM, Columbus, Ohio
Mike Lewis, The Salt Lake (Utah) Tribune
Tom Luicci, The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.
Susan Miller Degnan, Miami Herald
Ted Miller, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Tom Mulhern, Wisconsin State Journal, Madison
John Niyo, Detroit News
Neill Ostrout, Connecticut Post, Bridgeport
Tim Peeler, News & Record of Greensboro (N.C.)
Mike Prater, The Idaho Statesman, Boise
Scott Rabalais, The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.
Dave Rahme, The Post-Standard, Syracuse, N.Y.
Ray Ratto, San Francisco Chronicle
Rick Scoppe, The Greenville (S.C.) News
Mike Shalin, The Boston Herald
Bob Smizik, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Jerome Solomon, Houston Chronicle
Mark Tupper, Decatur (Ill.) Herald & Review Bee
Michael Wallace, The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Miss.
Steve Warden, The Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette
Marek Warszawski, Fresno (Calif.) Bee
Jeff White, Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch
Ryan White, The Oregonian, Portland
Jason Whitlock, Kansas City (Mo.) Star
Keith Whitmire, Dallas Morning News
Scott Wolf, Los Angeles Daily News
Lee Zurik, WWLTV, New Orleans.