IWW4

The Alienist.

It is historical fiction that takes place during the Gilded Age and is set in NYC. The primary characters are a newspaper reporter (narrator of the book), a psychiatrist, two police detectives, a police secretary and a number of assistants the psychiatrist has helped throughout his career and became part of his crew.

The story is about the psychiatrist and his team, at the direction of Teddy Rosevelt, investigate a serial killer who prays on prostitutes.

The author Caleb Carr at the time of writing the book was a military historian so the setting of the book is meticulously researched and Carr works in historical figures and settings, such as JP Morgan, Adolf Meyer.

One of the primary early events of the book takes place in Teddy Rosevelt’s office when he was the police commissioner of the NYPD. A major theme of the book is inline with the gilded age as organizations moved away from conventional wisdom to more science based approaches.

The title of the book comes a widely held notion that people who had mental illness were alien their body, therefore psychiatrists were called Alienist.

The Jacksonville Jaguars kicker, Cam Little, kicked a 70 yard field goal. If it had been a regular season game it would have been a new record.

Have to recommend this one, just because it has been one of my favorites for about 45 years.

This book has it all, heroes, villains, loyalty, espionage, action and even true. Also it has such incredible characters and dialogue.

The link bellow and site are absolutely terrible, so apologies upfront.

https://3dvf.com/en/a-3-hour-war-movie-two-years-in-production-and-a-star-studded-cast-a-risky-bet-soon-in-theaters/

I recently rewatched this and I always remembered it as being a laborious dull watch. So since it has such a monstrous cast and is about a terrible battle in WWII I gave it another try.

Maybe my perspective would change.

I did not. The movie is still bloated dull and does such a great job of burying the lead. I struggled to finish it and it didn’t do much to illustrate the mess that the battle was.

I am surprised this movie was a financial success and well received. Then again I am used to being out of step with what is popular.

This is plagerized from ESPN, but as the AFC North is the conference I watch the most:

AFC NORTH

Baltimore Ravens

Kicker

The Ravens have two rookies battling it out to replace Justin Tucker, who was released in May amid an investigation into sexual misconduct.

Tyler Loop, a sixth-round pick, remains the favorite over undrafted free agent John Hoyland, but the competition has been close throughout the first week of training camp. Loop made his first 23 kicks of the summer and is 28-of-31 (90.3%). Hoyland also has missed three attempts, going 25-of-28 (89.2%).

The Ravens would like to settle on a kicker around the preseason finale on Aug. 23.

"When the winner shows, it's going to show," Ravens special teams coach Chris Horton said. "How soon is that going to be? I don't know, but I do know that these guys are going to be out here getting valuable work every day and in these preseason games.

Cincinnati Bengals

Right guard

Early in camp, the battle was billed between Cody Ford and Lucas Patrick, who signed with the Bengals on a one-year deal this offseason. But so far, Ford safely has the inside track.

Ford is firmly in the RG1 spot, something that has been strengthened only with Patrick dealing with an injury that kept him out of practice for a couple of days. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said the offensive line has done well in training camp.

Cleveland Browns

bbwahahahah

Quarterback

The Browns opened camp with what was billed as a four-way QB competition, but the first week saw veterans Joe THE ELITE DRAGON Flacco and Kenny 10 thumbs Pickett take the majority of first-team reps.

Pickett's hamstring injury has seemingly paved the way for Flacco to lead the starting offense and stake his claim to be the starter. It has also opened more opportunities for rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders  to make an impression, too.

Coach Kevin Stefanski said he has a tentative timeline to make a decision on the starter but wants to evaluate each quarterback in various situations before moving forward. 

Pittsburgh Steelers

No. 2 wide receiver

Sound familiar? A year ago, that was the most talked about position battle (other than quarterback, of course) and on paper, the Steelers are in a similar position this year after trading away George Pickens.

The room is led by DK Metcalf, but the order behind him is a little murky. During minicamp, wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni said receiver Calvin Austin III, a speedy yards-after-catch (YAC) threat drafted in 2022, was the team's WR2 -- but there are other players on the roster battling for the role, including Robert Woods, Scotty Miller and Roman Wilson.

The Steelers also acquired receiving threat Jonnu Smith. General manager Omar Khan downplayed the possibility of adding another true wide receiver to the roster, but the team brought in Gabe Davis for a visit earlier this offseason. There could be several wide receivers available on the trade market, too. 

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/45910378/espn-get-nfl-network-rights-redzone-nfl-equity-stake

I assume it will take a while before there is any significant changes to either.

I love RedZone if my Raven’s have a night game or a bi I suck down 8 hours of ~~crackzone~~ RedZone.

If you are looking for a book WWI, check out “A World Undone” by G.J.Meyer.

The audio book has the added joy of being read by Robin Sachs. Sachs has such a great voice.

While it would take a library of books to get a comprehensive understanding of WWI (COUGH** COUGH WWII Phase I) this book gives the reader a broad understanding of all the various players and “reasonings” behind those players involvement.

It breaks down the war year by year and sprinkles into that breakdown are detailed histories of the following:

• The Serbs
• The Hapsburgs
• The Hohenzollerns
• The Rommanovs
• The Ottoman Turks
• The French and Brits
• The Junkers
• The Cossacks

I highly recommend the Audio book.

Hard Knocks is typically the only part of Pre-Season I really enjoy. Though that depends on if the show can find some players with personality .

I will watch a Raven’s Pre-season game to see who may or may not make the team.

Here are more pics

A buddy and I were riding our jet skis to Chesapeake and Delaware canal.

There are a series of these towers in the water. The have lights at the top that made me think the towers are associated with an airport, I don’t know if any airport is near there.

My first thought was, it was just a cell tower, but then the fact there’s like a series of them in the line, maybe go kind-of X-Fileish about them.

Who you got? Lions v Chargers in tonight’s Hall of Fame game.

Seems the Bucs got some injuries in the back field. Will they able to get to the 8 and 9 recorded needed to win that steaming pile of dogshit division?

Only time will tell boys.

Things aren’t looking good for the Saints.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45853878/new-orleans-saints-quarterback-frontrunner-one-week-camp-stay-tuned-tyler-shough-spencer-rattler

I have followed Rattler since he was on the Netflix show QB1 on Netflix.

I guess the best thing the Saints go going for them, is that the rest of their division is a total disaster.