Inside The House of Namath: A Giants Fan Goes To A Jets Game And Harasses Usher

Over the summer I was lucky enough to get into the Legends Suite at Yankee Stadium so when I had the opportunity to attend the Jets-Dallas 9/11 game in one of the "Hertz Presidents Circle Suites" I jumped at the chance. I have to give the Yankees credit, at least they don't whore out every possible advertising opportunity  and end up with weird names like the Hertz Presidents Circle Suites

The topic of the Jets is a sometimes contentious one here at PTU so I should preface this post with the fact that I'm a die hard Giants fan but not as much of a Jets Hater as Hater J. I'm going to focus on some cool things in this part of the stadium that I usually don't get to see, but speaking of the game, the Jets didn't really win, Dallas just blew it as usual. Jerry Jones is never going to admit he made a mistake investing so much in Romo and the Cowboys are going to be stuck with him for a while. He has some talent, he is just the least clutch player ever.

In terms of the snootiness level, I'd have to say that the Yankees Legends Suite were a bit higher on the snoot scale. Here is a pic from the suite, which luckily our host stocked with beers, Patron, and Makers Mark.

While the guy who has this suite is primarily a Giants fan, he had some obligatory Jets fan artwork that will make Hater J cringe. Just take a look on the back wall in this picture and you will see what I mean. Would be really nice to be here when it is cold out since you can hide in the heated room and if you go out on he balcony they have heat lamps.

Last time in Yankee Stadium I obtained pictures of the fancy bathroom. Unfortunately this time the bathrooms weren't picture worthy and all I have is a picture of a flushing toilet which I will spare everyone from seeing.

Other then the Cowboys handing over the game much to the delight of Jets fans who already expect their team to win the Super Bowl, the highlight of the night was Usher sitting right below us. We thought about spilling beer on his head so we could get on TMZ but better judgement prevailed. Here is a pic of a typical Jets fan getting ready for the Super Bowl and another one of Usher looking up at us while in a drunken state we screamed some of his song lyrics at him.

I know this probably will probably make the Yankees fans embarrassed....

Apparently Usher is a Jets fan now, I'm guessing he probably hangs out with Mark Sanchez.

Here is one last picture to close the post out of Usher emailing PTU asking for us to do an interview, which we are working on.

Week 1 Picks

Like most of America, some members of the PTU crew (M@D, Bagels, and myself) have joined a “Pick ‘Em” pool. The rules are simple. Pick all the games in any given week using the point spread. I don’t make myself out to be an expert, but I do think I’m better than these two clowns. So here go my week one picks (omitting last night’s game, which I lost…stupid goal line last play).

Giants (-3 ) Why give points when five of your defensive starters are out? You do it because the Giants have won five straight against these bums and the Giants have too much offense for “The Skins” and Rex Gross-man. I also love seeing the legacy of Mike Shanahan deflate while Elway looks more and more like the greatest QB of his generation.

Cowboys (+5) I hate the Jets. I hate the Cowboys. I hate this game and having to pick it. This feels like a game where the Jets put me to sleep after too many beers with Uncle Frank and win with Sanchez putting up 150 yards on 11/20 passes.

Ravens (-2) Like many, I think the Steelers will win the division and will be waiting at home to play someone in the AFC Championship game. But I’m taking the Ravens here given it’s early in the year and the home team always seems to win this game (by a field goal).

Lions (+1.5) I’m drinking the Kool-Aid for one week. I like the Bucs (I have Mike Williams on one of my fantasy teams and I wanted to draft Josh Freeman) but if the Lions are ready to get that last playoff spot, it has to start somewhere.

Falcons (-3) If you can give me two good reasons to believe in the Bears’ O-Line or Jay Cutler, I’ll consider otherwise.

Bills (+6) Ryan Fitzpatrick looks like a guy I want to have a beer with, wouldn’t mind getting in a bar fight with, and someone who will secretly throw for over 3500 yards in Butthole, New York. The Chiefs overachieved last year and are primed for a let-down year. I can’t see them losing a home opener (Arrowhead is a huge homefield advantage) to a bad team, but wouldn’t be surprised. 6 points are too much.

Colts (+9) This isn’t a result of having faith in the “The Bearded One” a.k.a. Kerry Collins. It’s lack of faith that Houston (a perennial disappointment) can cover a huge spread and actually live up to an expectation.

Rams (+5) The Rams looked like a disciplined, overachieving team all last season. They showed the same discipline under Spagnolo this preseason and Sam Bradford looks like he’s ready to improve on a solid rookie year. Conversely, the Eagles have bench warmers claiming they are a “Dream Team” and Andy Reid has cost gamblers a ton of money with bad use of time out’s/challenges/overly aggressive play calling. I’ll take the disciplined home team getting points any day.

Browns (-6.5) The Bengals just had Ced Benson come back from jail (he should be ready for his standard 30 carries and 60 yards) and they are starting a “Ginger” QB. That’s enough to pick against them…I guess.

Titans (+2) I think The Bald Bomber and some “runaway from the cop’s speed” should be able to beat whatever inexperienced player the Jags start at QB.

Cards (-7) I’m not sold on Kolb just yet, but I’m convinced Cam Newton is terrible and this entire Carolina team is going to be God awful. One Arizona touchdown may be able to get you a push.

Seahawks (+5) Everyone knows the 49Ers are throwing this season to get Andrew Luck. They shouldn’t be favored again this year.

Vikings (+9) The Chargers seem to be 9+ points better than Vikings. But the Chargers don’t start playing until late October making me weary of the points.

Pats (-7) I was mad this was the Monday night opener. I was even more mad when I saw what the next game was. The Dolphins are not good. The Pats are. The Pats also have a douche bag, homeless wizard for a head coach who loves running up scores on crap teams, inflating the numbers of the most P-Whipped QB this side of the Mississippi.

Raiders (+3) Another crap MNF game. Unfortunately, I’ll probably place a small wager on this game and stay up until 1 in the morning watching and wondering, “Why does ESPN force me to watch this crap when there were so many other great games this week?” Run DMC killed the Broncos last year. That’s enough for me to take points.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

Ladies, Gents, Children of all ages! The time has come for some FOOTBALL! Tonight's match up is The Saints of New Orleans vs The Packers of Green Bay. Rather then bore you with words on how much I love football and telling you how much you should love football, I am just going to break down the game.

Packers are going to win the game, here is why.

1. Saints defense is still Swiss Cheese, Rodgers and company will take advantage of that to the max.

2. Saints improved ground game is smoke and mirrors. The Saints will miss Reggie Bush more then they know. Teams use to have to game plan for him, now the Packers can just key in on the passing game and give Drew headaches all night.

3. Packers are at home. Short preseason + having to travel= not a good time for the Saints and their passing game that involves a lot of timing.

Even though you know the outcome, there is still plenty of reasons to watch the game. It will be exciting and its the only game in town. So put your feet up, grab some brews and chow down on your E.P.H. from Pete's and enjoy the game.

M@D out!

Sandwiches

Who doesn't love the sandwich? Nothing satisfies quite like it. That earl of sandwich who supposedly invented the sandwich should have a national holiday dedicated to him. What did people eat for lunch before he happened upon the greatest invention in the history of food and people? Here at the PTU offices we can't get enough of sandwiches, it's all we eat around here. What are the best sandwiches you ask? Can we explain each sandwich in list form in a sarcastic manner? Glad you asked.

Tuna Melt

I'm not the biggest tuna melt fan (that honor would belong to Bottle) but pretty much anything with melt in the title is delicious. Tuna on it's own is fantastic (especially with some celery bits) but melt some American cheese and you have culinary gold.

Philly Cheese Steak

There was a controversy this past week sparked by M@d $cientist's insane revelation that Roy Rogers used to make the best cheesesteak. This laughable assertion is obviously a product of nostalgia clouded judgment. That or M@d has been sniffing paint thinner. Either way, there is no denying actual Philly Cheese Steaks, be they from the tourist traps in Philly, or just the greasy version served up at Nathan's (don't sleep), Carl's or Zeke's Roast Beef in Bay Ridge. Something about the thin steakum type meat mixed with sliced onions, gooey cheese (cheese whiz if you're a Philly person) and enough grease to drown a midget just makes me happy. (I was in Philly this weekend but alas did not get a cheesesteak. I suck).

Turkey and Swiss

What? Are you too good for the simple things in life? It's nothing fancy and doesn't have the greasy, over indulgent appeal of the cheesesteak but there's something to be said for the classics. Turkey (honey turkey maybe), couple slices of swiss cheese, crisp lettuce and two tomato slices, with a little mayo on your bread of choice is a traditional lunch that will always be the right choice. Add a bag of Kettle Salt and Vinegar chips, and you're all set.

Eggplant Parmesan Hero


Funny story about eggplant parmesan heros. M@d $cientist is so in love with the EPH from Pete's in Bay Ridge, that he froze a bunch of them and packed them in his luggage for a trip to Vegas. Sure, there's plenty of other types of food in Sin City that you could eat, but nothing satisfies the urge for gooey parmesan cheese, breaded eggplant and rich tomato sauce like the hero from Pete's. It's that good.

Sausage or Bacon Egg and Cheese


As Kanye West once said "Why's everything that's sposed to be bad make me feel so good?". As you can tell by most of the entries in my dream team of sandwiches, I'm not really the health conscious type. This being the case, it should come as no surprise that I have a Saturday routine that involves tossing on a t shirt and stumbling to Steve's Bagels in a stupor, for either a sausage egg and cheese or bacon egg and cheese. There's certain things in life that will never go out of style or be comforting. Whatever pork you put in your sandwich, be it on a roll, a bagel, a mcmuffin (dear God yes), you melt some American cheese (a theme in these sandwiches) on there and you have the food equivalent of pure mdma pills. Salute.

Is The Situation Gay?

This season of Jersey Shore is moving right along, with the requisite Ronnie and Sam fighting, grenade smushing and belching. It's all as watchable as ever even if Gorilla Juice headed up Snookie isn't as much fun as single Snookie and most episodes spend way too much time on the cast being lost in Florence. One thing has kind of stuck out, though, to me at least. The Situation appears to be gay. He's not a flamboyant, flaming parade float type gay but he definitely shows signs of homoness. Let's investigate:

• He rarely sleeps with girls since the first season, usually coming up with excuses like the girl smells funny (one time this was due to a provolone prank from the other housemates), he'd rather talk to Snookie on the couch about his issues, he falls asleep, or some other nonsense that prevents him from finishing the deal.
• He's unnaturally obsessed with his looks. There's nothing wrong with caring about your appearance, but Mike takes it to another level of self worship. This might not make him gay, but he doesn't seem to be using his GTL commitment to land chicks other than one twin slut who slept with the entire house before landing in his bed.
• He likes to gossip and sabotage other people's relationships.
• He knocked himself out by banging his head into the wall instead of fighting another man.
• This picture.

Of course, All this doesn't mean that he's a fanook, but all signs point towards The Situation's espresso being a little sweeter than he lets on. Even if he doesn't actually prefer bragole, he has the tendencies of a very annoying, effeminate heterosexual. Stay tuned for further developments.

Who Will Win the 2011 American League MVP?

The baseball season is fast coming to a close and at this point there is still no clear cut MVP. Unlike previous seasons, no one is far and ahead above other players and there is no powerhouse team that is dominating the competition. The Red Sox and Yankees are battling for first place, as usual, with each team boasting at least one worthy MVP candidate. There are also a couple other nominees for the award this year scattered among those other teams in the league. As always, the winner will have to meet the standard criteria of dominance in at least (and preferably more) statistical category and should be a member of a winning team (this has not always been the case through out history, but barring a truly ridiculous season like the Texas A-Rod had in his MVP year, the MVP should be on a winning team). Who's on the short list this season?

• Curtis Granderson- The Yankee Centerfielder is making up for his disappointing first season in pinstripes with a ridiculous offensive year, on pace to possibly be the first player in forever to have 100 RBI, 40 Home Runs, 30 Stolen Bases and 10 triples. He's an absolute monster offensively and seems like a really nice guy (not that it matters).
• Adrian Gonzalez- Another recent addition to the Yankee-Sox rivalry, Gonzo has been hitting lights out this season. A shoe-in for the AL batting title (hitting a healthy .342), as well as the most consistent player on the Boston juggernaut who has barely lost this season aside from their early struggles and a couple hiccups here and there.
• Justin Verlander- I hesitate to award pitchers the MVP since they already have their own award, but Verlander's been so dominant that I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he took home the hardware this season. Virtually keeping the Tigers in the playoff hunt by himself (with some help from PTU hero Miguel Cabrera), Verlander is a no-hit threat almost every start, and he throws complete games like he's Doc Gooden in '86.
• Jose Bautista- This guy has really no chance of winning the MVP due to the fact that the Blue Jays kinda suck, and he cheats one of two ways (or both), but he's neck and neck with Granderson for the HR crown so you have to at least mention him. He burst onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere last season, crushing every pitch that came his way. The immediate thought (as always is these days) was that he was a juicer, but Toronto has also been known to cheat in subtler ways. The fact that his home to road homer ratio is so disparate only adds to the suspicion.
• Jacoby Ellsbury- No thanks.
• Dustin Pedroia- The scrappy little guy won it in 08, and he's putting up comparable numbers this season. While none of his numbers are very flashy, he's one of the leaders of the aforementioned never lose Sox so expect a lot of votes based on his "character" and such nonsense. That dominant photo above does make me like him a little bit more, but not much.

So, that's the list of nominees. Who's going to bring it home? I'm, of course, biased towards any Yankee so I'll say Granderson's historical season coupled with the fact that he's the most consistent player on a team battling for first place makes Curtis the feel-good MVP. Unfortunately, PTU doesn't qualify as a press credential so none of us have a vote (sorry M@D , you can't vote for Dante Bichette or Eddie Murray either) and I think the deck stacked with Red Sox players will result in the slow footed first baseman from Beantown being your 2011 American League MVP. The superior batting average and the likely first place finish for Boston is just too much to overcome. I'll settle for a World Series ring on Granderson's finger.

Top 5 Murderer Athletes

One time Laker Javaris Crittenton was back in the news again this week, and again it was for something thuggish. He may have been little more than a footnote in Laker history as the guy who was traded for Pau Gasol along with Pau's brother Marc, if not for his love for guns. You might remember him as the other party involved in the Gilbert Arenas locker room mess a couple years back, and with this week's news it seems like he's not just into flashing steel to scare boo-ray playing team-mates but he knows how to use his weapon as well. Of course, here in America everyone is innocent until proven guilty and these are just alleged charges against Javaris, but there have been many athletes through out the years who are actual soulless, cold blooded killers. Let's take a look at a handful of homicidal professional athletes:

5) Rae Carruth


Rae was only convicted of conspiracy to murder his pregnant stripper girlfriend, but even though he didn't actually pull the trigger, hiring a mentally unstable goon to shoot at your girlfriend to avoid child support payments, then sitting in the drivers seat as he shot at her, and then hiding in a trunk for 3 days to evade police makes you a murderer in my book. That hiding in the trunk part is one of the dumber moves by a fugitive of the law of any kind, whether he played sports for a living or is just your run of the mill baby mother slayer.

4) Jayson Williams


For much of the 90s, Jayson Williams was a wise cracking, rebounding class clown for St.Johns and then the Nets. Just take a look at that Slam cover up there; if you had to guess which of those fools would eventually catch a murder charge he would be your fourth guess after the guy with the warped alien head, the Mormon making the tough wigger face at the camera, and Kerry Kittles (Kendall Gill doesn't look very murderous). Williams was the funniest of any of the guys named Jayson (or Jason) Williams to ever play in the NBA, and he was more like the funny Puerto Rican guy at your job that sometimes drinks too much at Christmas parties and tells dirty jokes that make people uncomfortable. Unfortunately for Jayson and his wife, his drunken party jokes got a little too wild at the "Who Knew?" Estate in New Jersey and he ended up killing his driver while doing TRICKS WITH A SHOTGUN. Who knew?

3) Robert Rozier


I wasn't really familiar with Rozier's story until M@d $cientist told me about him in my research for this post. He didn't have a long professional athletic career, but he might be the craziest and most dangerous person to ever play in the NFL (and that's saying something in a league that's employed Hershel Walker, Pacman Jones, Mark Gastineau, Lawrence Phillips, Lawrence Taylor as well as other homicidal maniacs who will appear later on this list). After an unremarkable six games in the league, Rozier messed his career up by using drugs and committing petty crimes before eventually joining a radical cult founded by Yahweh Ben Yahweh. Under the inappropriate name "Temple of Love", Rozier and the rest of the kooky followers promoted their silly agenda about the original black man and their higher level of knowledge and understanding of self by MURDERING AS MANY WHITE PEOPLE AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. OJ doesn't have shit on this guy when it comes to murdering white people.

2)Hiroshi Ogawa


Yeah, I'd never heard of him either. But he belongs on this list as much as anyone despite his anonymity in America. Ogawa, a one time player and assistant coach for the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan's Pacific league seen above with Bobby Valentine, had some money problems later in life. In order to solve this issue he didn't call the Money Tree, or seek employment in the States like some of his counterparts. He attempted to rob a 67 year old woman, and then pushed her down a flight of stairs, put her in his trunk in a steel coffin and dumped the car into a river, earning him about 1.75 million yen and a spot on PTU's murderer's row.

1) OJ Simpson


The Babe Ruth of murderous athletes, no man has become more synonymous with murder than Orenthal James Simpson. The one time USC and Buffalo Bills star turned Hertz spokesman and actor (his role in Naked Gun is great, and his SNL hosting is available on Netflix if you like to see murderers act in sketches with Bill Murray) briefly became the most famous fugitive from the law and eventually became the most famous defendant in sports and maybe US history. The crime he was accused of was grisly, maybe not to the degree of the previous two guys on the list, but there's never been a sports figure who was as prominent a figure as OJ was who ended up being on trial for murder. We all know what happened from there, the country was obsessed with his trial for months, turning everyone involved into celebrities, from the lawyers on both sides (Johnny Cochran and Kim Kardashian's father amongst others) to goof ball witnesses like OJ's layabout stoner housemate Kato Kaelin and ex ballers like AC Cowlings, and eventually it all ended in a televised Not Guilty verdict resulting in outrage by most and celebrations by some. I remember a tv being wheeled into my 8th grade social studies class so we could all see this live. 35 8th graders were very happy that a man was found not guilty of slitting his ex wife and her lover's throat. Not sure why. No one's doing cartwheels in the street now as OJ sits in a jail cell for an unrelated incident involving some of his memorabilia and a hotel room, most likely contemplating karma or something.

Congratulations, Juice. The number one PTU murdering athlete.

PTU 2011 Pundit Predictions: NY Giants

While during baseball season we root for different teams here at PTU (Mad and myself are stupid enough to still support the Mets), we all share a common love of the NY Football Giants. For most of our lives, they've been a very dependable winning team, having played in 4 super bowls in the last 25 years and winning 3 of those. 

We've been debating what we think the Giants record will be for the 2011 regular season. Unfortunately they Giants haven't done much (if anything) to improve the team, losing Steve Smith and Kevin Boss, two security blankets for Eli. If anyone watched the pre-season game against the Jets, Eli was bad enough he almost made Sanchez look like a good QB (see Hater J's previous article for more on that). Special teams in particular looks like a mess both on kick off coverage and returns. While I like Tom Coughlin, it seems like the players don't want to play for him anymore. It's for these reasons that I'm taking a somewhat pessimistic view on what I expect the Giants' record to be in 2011. Some of my other PTU'ers have a more favorable view, so I thought it would be great to publish everyones predictions now and see how things turn out at the end of the season. Also, me and Hater J have a bet on our projections, the winner of which will receive a snooty bottle of Macallan 12 YR, so this is a critical wager.

Snoot:               8-8   (No playoffs, Coughlin loses job)

Hater J:             10-6 

Bottle:               9-7   (Make wild card despite the fact that 10-6 wasn't good enough last year)

Mad:                10-6  (He secretly loves the Dolphins but is ashamed)

Johnny Bagels:  10-6  (Also commented that Bottle will eat a turkey sandwich)

The consensus is that the Giants will end up 10-6. This is overly optimistic based on what I've seen, but either I get a bottle of Whiskey or the Giants make the playoffs, so I win either way.

Mark Sanchez Is As Good As Joe Namath

If you ask any Jets fan about Mark Sanchez, you are bound to hear praise. Comments ranging from how awesome he’s been in the clutch to how he’s the best quarter back in New York. Some of them even go as far as saying that although it is early in his career, he may be as great as Joseph William Namath.

Well Jets fans, you’ve all got one thing right. In his early career, Sanchez is very similar to his older Jets counterpart. Aside from loving booze and ladies (try and Google “Namath & Susie Kolber" followed by “Marc Sanchez freshman arrest”), both Sanchez and Joe Willy have a skill possessed by few athletes. They own the ability to distract everyone from the important stuff like a poor passer rating, completion percentage, yards per game, or even TD’s. Instead of focusing on those things, they force you to look at team results, earned by talented players, whose hard work got the team a win but barely got them the post game interview love they deserved. While his defense is licking its wounds from a hard hitting game, his running backs are icing knees that had to fight 8 men fronts all day, and his receivers are getting massages for the hits they took outreaching for yet another overthrown ball, Sanchez is front and center for the interview. Could you imagine a world where Trent Dilfer got some love for actually winning the Super Bowl and that Ravens “D” was a secondary story?

If you speak ill of their beloved “Nacho” (thank you Bart Scott and HBO’s Hard Knocks) Jets fans will quickly go into a defensive mind set. They will tell you that he is still young and has the most post season wins of any Jets QB in history. They will not tell you that prior to last year, that record stood at two wins with Joe Namath, Richard Todd and Chad Pennington owning that distinction. They will omit that those playoff wins should be attributed to a great defensive scheme and excellent execution and their failure to make it to a Super Bowl falls squarely on the shoulders of their lack of a consistent offensive game (Sanchez does show flashes of good play, but flashes aren’t beating the Steelers in December).

They will also omit that he was 29th in completion percentage, 27th in QB rating, 25th in yards per game, and 19th in TD passes. You should be careful of mentioning these stats around Jets fans, as they may tell you that “their” Jets are a run first team. These fans would be shocked to know that of all QB’s in football, Sanchez was 9th in attempts, which is more than Flacco, Brady, and Josh Freeman (who is a personal favorite of Snoot and mine, mostly for his awkward fro).
These are all similar positions Jets fans take with regards to the team’s Godfather. After guaranteeing a win in Super Bowl III, Joe Namath threw for exactly zero touchdowns and did not throw a single pass in the 4th Quarter. Despite all of that, Namath still won the Super Bowl MVP (the only guy to do so without throwing a TD) and is heralded by Jets fans as the savior of the AFC. All poor Matt Snell did was carry the ball 30 times for a 121 yards and a TD. Jet fans will also defend their hero’s status as a hall of famer despite his QB rating being lower than all HOF’ers aside from Bobby Layne, Bob Waterfield, George Blanda (a man who had diabetes and lost some toes), and Jim Finks. All of those guys had their first start between 1945 and 1949…not a very pass friendly league in those days. They will also ignore his losing record as a starter and the fact that he threw more picks than he did touchdowns.

I’ve tried having a discussion with Jets fans about Namath and Sanchez for a while. It usually just gets me frustrated. I’ve learned that the next time a Jets fan says something about Sanchez, it’s better to just tell them, “Bro, he’s as good as Joe Namath.”

Hurricane Irene: The Aftermath!

Hurricane Irene came and went and the amount of damage caused is generally less severe than originally predicted. This, we should be grateful for. I have seen many people expressing their dismay over over the severity of the hurricane and the perceived overreaction by the local governments. The Bloomberg administration acted properly in exercising caution in the wake of an unprecedented storm. The two most criticized moves was the forced evacuation of residents of low lying areas and the shutdown of the transit system. The results of the hurricane proved their actions right. Many places were flooded although not specifically the ones that Bloomberg ordered evacuated. They took the areas most at risk of flooding and made a decision from there. Certain sections of the subway are also flooded. If the trains were running, at the very least you would have had a situation similar to the past snowstorm where commuters were stuck in a train for over 8 hours. The government's job is to protect the public, not worry about your weekend plans. People need to stop being so selfish and realize although you personally might not have been affected, many people were. Like the poor owner of the car underneath that humongous tree.

Hurricane!!!

Earthquake hysteria is so 3 days ago. Added to the list of "scary things that you never thought about growing up in New York" is now Hurricanes. This bitch Irene has been on the lips of every man, woman and child in the tri-state since Thursday morning. Honestly, I'm already sick of this storm and we haven't had a drop of rain fall yet. Mayor Bloomberg has already declared a state of emergency, which sounds scary and apocalyptic, except I get the feeling that this is more like overcompensating for the post Christmas blizzard debacle on the part of hizzoner (I love when the Daily News calls him that). Nevertheless, most people seem to be as hysterical and nervous as a state of emergency and MTA shut down would figure to make people. Home Depots and Costcos are packed with nervous shoppers trying to stock their fallout shelters. By Sunday night, a bottle of Poland Spring will go for 50 dollars on the black market. Despite all this craziness, I'm holding out hope that this will just be a windy, rainy August day that screwed up our end of summer plans and not a cataclysmic Katrina type deal. If you see Sean Penn holding a shot gun in a canoe down Flatbush Avenue, then we have some issues.

Try not to panic and keep safe this weekend, everyone. WE WILL SURVIVE.

PTU 2011 Childhood Sugar Water Championship

Today a few of us at PTU were arguing about the best childhood sugar drinks. Apparently these types of memories can conjure up some powerful emotions since we really got into it. With this in mind I decided to put together a championship bracket that will be decided by our faithful PTU family. Here is a brief overview of the match-ups:

Kool-Aid (#1) vs. Tropical Fantasy (#8):
Realistically many of you may not even know what Tropical Fantasy is but I ran out of crappy drinks. Everyone knows that Kool-Aid can't lose in the first round anyway.

Capri Sun (#2) vs. Tang (#7):
Capri Sun has a really strong line-up of flavors which make it a formidable foe. Outside shot of an upset due to nostalgia for Pat Morita (Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid) making Tang commercials.



Hi-C (#3) vs. Misc Iced Tea (#6)
Hi-C comes in strong with a line-up that includes ecto-cooler. Hi-C also seems to have a lot of support among other PTU members. Misc Iced Tea is going to have a tough time unless you have good memories of drinking it at bottle's house as a kid.

Hawaiian Punch (#4) vs. Quarter Water (#5)
The closest battle of the bunch. Does Hawaiian punch win on the strength of that little red head guy that looks like Carrot Top, or does nostalgia for drinking the blue quarter drink all summer while playing handball win out...

It's time for you to comment on who you think should move forward to the next round to settle this once and for all.