Veronika Rajek's Ready For The Super Bowl, Tebows In Egypt & Jeff Gordon Vs. Garage Beers
There's something satisfying about throwing bins in the attic that had been in the way for six months
While the rest of the Big Js were busy telling their readers how they were on a plane to Los Angeles for Super Bowl week, I was humping it up and down the pulldown stairs into our garage attic. Boxes and bins. Up, down, climbing over boxes that have been up there for 10 years. Back and forth until I could've easily updated my Facebook status to "Feeling accomplished."
And then it hit me -- those damn bins filled with kids' toys, long-forgotten Christmas gifts and scratched dishes from Amazon (not so scratched that we won't use them one day) were finally out of my way. Talk about relief. It was like MY Bengals winning a playoff game. It was a huge weight off my shoulders. The days of banging into bins in the laundry room are over -- until more bins come along.
Sure, I'll have to hump it up and down those garage attic stairs in the spring to prep for a garage sale, but for this week heading into the Super Bowl, I've already taken out my aggression and I have the head cleared out, thanks to those bins I threw around.
Was it the most exciting Sunday ever? Clearly it wasn't, but stop and think of how many 'Feeling accomplished' moments you have around the house throughout the year.
In no particular order:
That was Sunday in a nutshell. It was either that or watch the Pro Bowl, Olympic figure skating or the AT&T Pro-Am that so many of the big names are avoiding these days. It wasn't a glamourous Sunday, but these indoor 'Feeling accomplished' Sundays are guaranteed to make Super Bowl Sundays feel so much more relaxing and that's my goal this entire week. Stay relaxed.
• The big news heading into Super Bowl Radio Row has to be that the NFL has Dan Le Batard's Meadowlark Media table next to Clay Travis' OutKick table on Radio Row. Talk about a powderkeg ready to explode this week. All eyes will be on this situation to see if there's a Le Batard-Travis showdown right there in the middle of the L.A. Convention Center.
To be fair, I have to assume Clay will be broadcasting from a massive stage constructed for Fox while the OutKick360 squadron will be squaring off against the Meadowlark crew. Tune in this afternoon as Paul, Jonathan and Chad broadcast live. Will fists fly? You'll have to tune in.
• It was interesting to see the mixed reactions to the NASCAR at the L.A. Coliseum question I posed during attic breaks. Quickly, here's my take on NASCAR.
• Here's how Woke All-Star Christine Brennan spun the Winter Olympics ratings disaster for NBC. We're talking about a Big J who has covered every major sporting event in the world, and she actually thinks it's because the Americans won a bunch of swimming medals in Tokyo. WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE OPENING CEREMONY RATINGS. This is a mess of an excuse. So lame.
• Travis H. writes:
Top of the morning Joe, I enjoy your screencaps and you mentioned more topics I would suggest some stories about old timers and the real hard stuff they did back in the day. I recently had an uncle pass away at 96. He worked in the woods cutting logs, firewood, staves, props, you name it for 80ish years.
He set up sawmills, moved houses, worked on a farm, basically whatever needed done. By the time he was 25 he had went to Germany and helped win WW2, married the woman who would be his wife for the next 73 years, and took in two young boys to help raise. Got me thinking about about the fact most of us don't do real hard things anymore. Congrats on your Bengals.
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Again, 'Do Hard Things' isn't easily defined. Are there guys on here who split 12 cords of wood for winter? Yes, Guy G. in western New York is that guy. Do we have readers who fly F-16s? Yes. Do we have guys who are commanding officers of U.S. Navy destroyers? Yes. Do we have readers who are cops going out there on a daily basis knowing there are scumbags who want to shoot them? You're damn right we do. We have many readers who fall into that category.
I've lost track of the readers who've sent me their life stories and they're definitely not bloggers writing about throwing bins into attics and drinking garage beers. Does Screencaps have a bunch of readers who are lawyers, CPAs and IT guys with long titles? Yes.
Don't lose faith, Travis. Each generation has their own struggles to keep this country rolling along. It's true, the remote sawmill business is down these days. Yes, men don't move houses as they once did.
Keep reading Screencaps. You're going to hear all about the hard-working men and women of this country as they tell their stories. The world keeps evolving and 'Do Hard Things' will do the same.
• Rams fan Michael J. has a message for Mike from Pasadena:
Looks like I got Mike in Pasadena pretty riled up there. LolI definitely didn't abandon the ship of Chicago sports teams. I never jumped on that ship. The idea that someone must root for a certain team based only on where you are born is pretty weak. What if the Bears move? What if the Bears fold as a franchise?
What if I live equal distance from two teams? If I live in northwest Indiana. Do I root for the Colts because they are in Indiana or do I root for the Bears because they are closer? If I move to Southern California. Should all future children I have be Bears fans or Rams fans or Chargers fans? There's to many scenarios to just make a blank statement such as his. If it makes him feel any better. We all hate the Packers.
• Nebraska Bill the Homebrew Guy writes:
Wanted to chime in on the great grill debate. I was raised using propane because my parents farmed and had a 1000gal tank to fuel the grain dryers. Still love my Weber Genesis and use it regularly. But a couple years ago, my brother in laws neighbor had wheeled a ceramic Kamado Joe into a dumpster because he didn't want to move it. Yeah, the grill retails for $900-$1000 and he was going to throw it away.
My brother in law saw it, sent me pictures and asked me if I wanted it. Fifty bucks to replace the seal on it, and I have a freaking great addition to my cooking arsenal. Learning to use it was fun, and my family loves the food that comes out of it. This is the pork butt I did overnight Saturday. We had pulled pork mac and cheese for lunch Sunday
Bottom line is, use what you're comfortable with. I've had great meals out of all types. Love the content you put out. Ill be cheering for your Bengals.
• More grill vs. charcoal debate! Aaron in Texas would like a word with Phil H. who brought the heat with his email that ran on Sunday:
Phil H is definitely one of those guys that can’t handle cooking over a live fire on charcoal or wood. Probably had a charcoal grill once and burned everything so his wife made him get a gas grill if he was to continue. Now, I really don’t care how anyone cooks. Just don’t disparage us that like to do it a different way than you. I think smoking a brisket for 12 hrs and cooking my steak over a nice bed of coals is the way to go. If you don’t, ok. It’s also a family affair when I do it. They love it as much as I do. Not all chefs cook over propane, and even if they did, I wouldn’t care. I grill a better steak than almost any I’ve had in restaurants. Cheers, Phil. You do your thing and I’ll do mine.
• Daniel N. is back with a rebuttal as well as this debate is flaming hot!
Daniel from Athens, GA checking in. You know, I’ve read a lot of cold takes over recent Screencaps memory, from Texans thinking beans don’t belong in chili to guys thinking dads should drive the mini van, but man, I haven’t come across takes quite as bad as those by Joe from Fulshear. I had a lot of stuff I thought of saying to Joe, because just about everything in his email was incorrect.
But then I decided to take a step back and really think about where this “long-simmering complaint” stems from, and I realized how rough of a life it must be knowing that your lightning-in-a-bottle championship season has turned into competing with Auburn for last in your division within three years, with no signs of turning around in the near future (don’t even act like Brian Kelly is the answer). I am able to sit back on my couch knowing that we will be competing for more championships in the next decade plus, and while I’ll be happy even if we don’t win one for another 40 years, I at least don’t have to worry about losing to Kansas State in bowl games.
Looking forward to LSU visiting Athens in 2025, and by then, if they’re lucky, maybe their combined wins over the next three seasons will equal our lowest win total across any one of those seasons.
P.S. Joe from Fulshear, I’m glad that we can agree that Screencaps is the reason we get on the OutKick site, as it is easily the greatest thing that OutKick (or any other news site) has to offer.
• And as if that debate isn't hot enough, Camden in Texas came along and has a message for the charcoal and gas crowds:
I’m from Texas so any cold sucks. I have a pellet grill and it takes 20-30 minutes to get to the heat that is set, worse if the weather is cold. I was gifted a ninja foodie for Christmas. It grills, it fries, it does other things as well. This photo is the pork chops I grilled for dinner. I fried a bag of frozen tater tots in it at lunch.
I also ordered another of these to use at my office. I just bought a new truck, so that car payment will cut into my lunch budget. If I can grill a burger for lunch, heck yeah. Much better than a cold cut sandwich. My advice invest.
For the record, I don’t care who wins the Super Bowl. I’m just glad it won’t be KC or SF.
• Look what Keith W. discovered:
Hey Joe - you seem to be keeping up with this issue via the screencaps community, so i just wanted to send this and hear if you had a take on it. I just bought this roof patch at Home Depot and noticed they tore off the real bar code and placed a new price sticker on top. I thought it seemed expensive. Are they just raising prices on existing inventory now knowing new inventory is going to be higher priced?
Take care and good luck to your Bengals!
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I can't remember which reader was warning us of all the big box store prices that were going to go up, but I 100% remember being told by someone here that it was in the customer's best interest to buy before the prices went up.
Now it appears Keith's showing us that roof patch can be added to the list of items going up. As for putting new barcodes on old supply, that seems like a scumbag move to me, but it's not something that should surprise the consumer.
• JT writes:
Offered without comment and Go Bengals!
• Finally this morning, I heard back from Greg in Sarasota whose wife is in the running for Mrs. Russian-American.
Thanks for posting us in your column! Olga is very happy to be mentioned on OutKick.
Hey, she says she'd love to take a few photos wearing an OutKick t-shirt or something. Let me know how to get one.
• This sounds like a job for OutKick T-Shirt Marketing Manager Maxx (yes with two Xs!). Stay tuned. It sounds like Olga will soon be pumping out fresh content for Screencaps. Like I said, this column is going to evolve like crazy in 2022.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com