Week Ten, part two

New Jersey vs. Boston:



I apologize to that portion of my readership who are not familiar with 1970's Australian comic strips, as they have no real chance to understand this one. But I am trying to grow my brand and who knows, maybe next time YOUR niche interest will be represented.

I thought of asterisking "bonker" to the effect that it is not in my dictionary, so it is not going to be the answer word. But even if it happens to be in your dictionary, you might guess (correctly) that I would not have spelt it all out if I meant it to be the answer word, except perhaps on April Fool's Day, but one of the unfortunate things about this league is the lack of opportunity for April Fool's gags.

Anyway, New Jersey to win, which will be sad for Boston if it happens, but of course maybe it won't.


New York vs. Philadelphia:

Although any type of normal outcome works out well for Philly, I predict the particular one where they win the match.


Carolina vs. Manhattan:

Manhattan is in the annoying situation of having good tiebreaks, but still possibly needing to win their match. It almost makes one say, "why bother?". But they are a young team, have probably not been beaten down too much by life yet, and I think they will find the strength to continue and prevail.


Baltimore vs. New England:

The defending leaguce champs do not control their own destiny, but as clever sportswriters are fond of pointing out, nobody "controls" his destiny, because then it isn't "destiny". I pick New England to win and then get lucky somewhere, but remember that I'm right even if I'm only half right.

Btw, we had a real live "Nor'easter" in the Northeast this past week, which did worse damage to places that didn't really get damaged than Irene. Many branches down, even without much wind. Apparently this was because snow + leaves = too much weight for the branches to support. Additionally, this storm did not disprove global warming.