The Other Side of the Tracks
Everyone knows what “the other side of the tracks” means.
It’s the dividing line between “us” and “them.”
Read MoreStill Running — One Year Later
Running is pain.
Each and every step is a bone-grinding reminder that I’m not young anymore. I can’t quite do all the things I used to be able to do — at least not as fast, nor with as much ease.
But I try.
One year ago today, began my daily running routine. All 262 lumbering pounds of me shook the pavement with the full force of a jackhammer. I remember the pain as if it happened this morning. Perhaps that’s because today I felt many of those same pains once again. Indeed, I have come full circle to the place I was once before.
One year ago I weighed two-hundred and sixty-two pounds. Making it a full mile without stopping left me bent over, panting, and breathless. Running a few miles, even with deliberate stops in between, made my joints ache. After a few runs, my legs cramped up. At time, the pain was so severe, I felt paralyzed.
But I ran that first day. And the next. And the next, too. And with every step along the way, the one thereafter became just a little bit easier. Within a week of my daily run, I was already beginning to feel dramatic changes. Not only did I feel better physically, but mentally, as well. I also had lots more energy.
My lifestyle revolution — where I committed myself to running every single day with no excuses — began in the Bell Gardens section of Los Angeles on January 4, 2012.
And now today, it’s one year later. I have returned again to this place where it all started.
Read MoreNFL Picks — First Round Playoffs
NOLAN DALLA: 2012 POSTED NFL SEASON RECORD
89 WINS – 84 LOSSES – 6 PUSHES —– (+ 19.25 units / 1 unit = $100)
STARTING BANKROLL: $10,000.
CURRENT BANKROLL: $11,925.
BEST BETS OF THE WEEK: 12-5-0
Comments: Nice to end the regular season on a positive note, going 6-1. Let’s hope this continues on into the playoffs.
THIS WEEK’S WAGERS:
Read MoreThe Empty Blue Chair
This is the story of an empty blue chair.
More precisely, it’s the story of a person who once occupied it — someone’s name I do not know.
It’s the story of a loyal companion who sat beside the blue chair, so faithfully — at the same time and place, each and every day.
This is the story of love and loss, of life and death, and ultimately of rebirth and renewal.
This is a personal story, a search for that special someone who once occupied the blue chair — which is now empty.
Read MoreNFL MVP — Adrian Peterson
Adrian Peterson deserves to win this year’s MVP award.
Yes — Peyton Manning enjoyed an outstanding season. Robert Griffin III led his team to a remarkable turnaround and instant respectability. Andrew Luck surpassed even the highest expectations as a first-round draft choice. And, Aaron Rogers performed admirably given all the challenges to his team.
But Adrian Peterson is in a class all his own.
Consider that a year ago today, Peterson underwent major ACL surgery — which is normally a career ending injury for running backs. Recovering from a serious knee injury would be difficult for any professional athlete. But for an NFL running back with lots of mileage on the body, it’s unprecedented. Had Peterson simply completed this season healthy and contributed to his team’s success with a respectable year, that alone would have been an impressive feat.
But Peterson did far more than that.
He just posted the second-best season for a running back in NFL history. Consider all the great running backs of the past 80 years — the Jim Browns, the Gayle Sayers, the O.J. Simpsons, the Walter Paytons, the Barry Sanders, the Emmit Smiths, and so many others.
Peterson just eclipsed them all. He finished the season with 2,097 yards — including 199 yards today against division rival Green Bay. I would also argue that staying healthy in today’s NFL is tougher than ever before. Now, defenses are bigger, faster, and stronger than in years past. The human body simply isn’t built to withstand bone crushing tackles and years of abuse on these horrible artificial turf fields.
Moreover, it’s not like Peterson enjoys running behind one of the NFL’s best offensive lines. At best, those who lead block are average. In fact, the Minnesota Vikings have been a laughing stock for the past decade. Peterson has been the lone bright spot for a dismal franchise that seemed to be going absolutely nowhere and which was picked by most to finish dead last in the division.
Peterson has carried his team to an astounding turnaround, a 10-6 win-loss record, and a playoff birth — 365 days after he was laying on an operating table beneath a surgical scalpel wondering if his NFL career was over.
SMU and Los Angeles Rams great Eric Dickerson still holds the 16-game season record for most rushing yardage. And no running back ever had a season quite like O.J. Simpson back in 1973 (which was 14 games — so in all fairness, Simpson still stands as the gold standard). But as someone who has been watching NFL games for four decades, Adrian Peterson’s feat this season was as remarkable an accomplishment as I have ever seen in sports.
Adrian Peterson deserves the NFL Most Valuable Player honor more than any other. Period.
Read More
NFL Plays: Week 17
NOLAN DALLA: 2012 POSTED NFL SEASON RECORD
83 WINS – 83 LOSSES – 6 PUSHES —– (- 12.05 units / 1 unit = $100)
STARTING BANKROLL: $10,000.
CURRENT BANKROLL: $8,795.
BEST BETS OF THE WEEK: 11-5-0
Comments: Let’s just say that I know exactly how football legend Y.A. Title feels (see photo above). My handicapping record has been reduced to the results one would expect from flipping a coin. Indeed, this has been one of the strangest seasons I’ve ever experienced as a sports bettor. The good — I’ve been in the black since Week 2, at least until last Sunday. The season’s high point was after Week 11, when I was ahead +78 units. The bad — I’m on brutal cold streak. Now, after a terrible two-month run and losing an average of 20 units a week, I need to close with a few winners to lock up a season in the black. Here it goes….
THIS WEEK’S WAGERS:
Read MoreThe Unfriendly Skies: Nolan Dalla’s Flying Enemies List
The only thing worse than flying, is flying during the holiday season.
Seriously, could air travel be any less glamorous?
When I was a kid, I remember people used to get dressed up when they traveled by air. Fliers were polite. No one ever seemed to be in a rush. The seats were comfortable. There was plenty of leg room. The airlines served you a hot meal and it tasted good. Alcoholic beverages were free. You never paid additional charges and your luggage arrived on time. When there was a flight delay, the airline apologized and even put you up in a first-class hotel, when necessary.
Now, boarding a plane is pretty much like getting on a Greyhound bus — only with wings.
Flying is constant battle. You battle to find a decent fare. You battle to get a good seat assignment. You battle to get to the airport on time — at least two hours early. You battle to run the gauntlet through TSA screening without being strip searched. You battle to get into the right boarding group. You battle for precious overhead bin space. You battle for the armrest. You battle for peace and quiet during the flight. You battle to depart your row so as to exit the aircraft. You battle to claim your luggage. Then, once you’re out of the airport, you battle to get a taxi or a rental car.
Indeed, if flying has become a serious of battles, then I’m hereby declaring war!
NOLAN DALLA’S FLYING ENEMIES LIST
1. BIN HOGS — I realize the airlines now try to pork you for $30 per checked bag each way. But carry on abuse has become intolerable. Now, jackasses are hauling 50-pound suitcases down the aisles. Then, they heave the bone crushers into a tiny overhead bin space intended to be a storage area for purses and coats. I’m so sick of seeing these selfish pricks usurping every inch of storage space with bags the size of a Great Dane. It’s time for airlines to start enforcing carry-on size rules.
2. ARM REST THUGS — I paid the same $389 fare you did. So, move your fucking body part off my half of the arm rest. You’re not sitting at home in a Lazy Boy parked in front of the television. You’re in public. Try to act like a responsible adult.
3. BORING CONVERSATIONALISTS — I don’t want to hear your life story. I don’t want to hear your personal problems. I don’t give a rat’s ass what happened to you last week in Cleveland. I don’t care what your opinion is of the Redskins-Cowboys game. You’re on a cheap Southwest Airline flight just like me, pal. You’re not a guest on The David Letterman Show. Zip it.
Read MoreThe Worst Bad Beat in College Football History?
Read MoreThe onslaught of a collective “bad beat” in sports betting has a unique sound and feel all its own.
Think of an approaching freight train. Recall the suspense of a slasher movie. Imagine the instant before an explosion.
I’ve heard this sound of terror many times.
Movie Review: Skyfall (James Bond)
Read MoreIt’s hard to believe that fifty years have passed since we first met James Bond in his 1962 debut, Dr. No.
Movie Review — Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away 3D
About a half hour into Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away 3D my wife leaned over to me and blurted out, “Are you as bored with this as I am?”
Frankly, I wasn’t. By that point, my boredom had turned into annoyance.
Things went downhill from there.
Another scene or two passed and our mutual annoyance metastasized even further — into unconditional surrender. We had enough. But the cinematic Rubicon was passed.
In the final scenes towards the end of an overly-long 85-minute test of patience, I found myself talking back at the movie screen mocking the performers, oblivious to those within earshot around me. I didn’t mean to cause a disturbance, but no one else seemed to care. Needless to say, we departed the theater in a fit of rage and disappointment.
This movie should never have been made. It’s a testament to the old edict that if you’re going to do something, then do it right — or don’t attempt it at all.
How in the name of James Cameron — who produced this monumental mess (this one sinks faster than Titanic) — do you screw up something as spectacular as Cirque du Soleil? Who would have thought trivializing death-defying stunts was possible? It’s baffling to imagine a production blessed with many of the world’s most gifted performers, with such an impressive array of set designs and costumes, and some of the most innovative music ever recorded could induce a mass slumber.
How bad was it? For those who have visited the Las Vegas airport, recall the jumbo screen inside the baggage claim area. Think of the 45-second video clips from one show after another. Imagine that highlight reel repeated over and over and over again and then compiled into an full-length motion picture. Indeed, the comparison of waiting for bags at an airport might be appropriate here, except there’s actual suspense in waiting for one’s luggage. There’s no such drama in this montage of monotony.
Read MoreMy Muse
Marieta Dalla
Supporters Emeritus
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Dutch Boyd
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Anonymous Eccentric
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