STRONG 10 FOR WEEK 10 FOOTBALL

I am almost back to even as we wait for week 10 to kick off. My investing associate, Two Gun Pete, was much chagrined by last week's grand failure. The STP Partners' portfolio, always in tune with the time, suffered its largest single day decline in value since the fund was established in 2002. We have assured ourselves that this is an anomaly and we are prepared to come out firing our way back to prosperity this weekend. We are also considering applying for a federal bailout and giving ourselves a bonus or taking a junket, as everyone else is getting flush this way, and we feel it is only fair that we receive equitable treatment, particularly because we are a diverse organization with magnanimous objectives.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Here's this week's outlook:

Syracuse +14 @ Rutgers
The Orangemen come in at 2-6, Rutgers is 3-5. Rutgers is fresh off a bye week that would have been their letdown game, that being the followup to a the 54-34 kick in the Wannie they gave to the Pitt Panthers (the same Panthers who then went out and beat the University of South Bend in an overtime futility battle in which they didn’t cover the spread). Syracuse beat Louisville 28-21 last week, so this should be their letdown game. My thought is that the Orange can stay inside the points.
Wisconsin -10 ½ @ Indiana
The Badgers are 4-5, having lost to MSU 25-24 on a last second field goal last week. The week before, Wisconsin pasted the Flighty Illini 27-17. Indiana is 3-6, with their only big win coming courtesy of Northwestern. Wisconsin seems to be improving week by week. Indiana is licking its wounds from last Saturday’s smackdown by Central Michigan, 37-34. I’ll take the Badgers and give up the points.
Purdue @ Michigan State -10
The Boilers won 48-42 last week against frustrated Michigan, using an exciting hook and ladder play to score the winning TD as the clock wound down. Sparty enters with an 8-2 record and visions of a major bowl game. Purdue is 3-6 and waiting to bring down the curtain on Joe Tiller’s reign. This is going to be a tune-up game for Michigan State and the Boilers are gonna get spanked.
Florida -24 @ Vanderbilt
Vandy started off the year hot-hot-hot. They are not-not-not in the same league with the Gators, though they will have their home crowd and fans to surround them this Saturday. The home town folk will witness a beatdown of grand proportion. FLA likes to humiliate people. Vandy is next in line.

SanDiego State @ BYU -36 ½
BYU is the Cougars, not the Fighting Mormons as I would have had them. SanDiego State is the Aztecs. The Aztec is also the ugliest car ever produced by Pontiac, but I am digressing. Bright yellow is its most hideous rendering for the automotive Aztec, and now I have digressed further. BYU was an early season high flyer, getting derailed by the Horned Frogs of TCU a few weeks back. 36 ½ will make this a stretch, but I think the Fighting Mormons have it in them.

Utah State @ Boise State -32.5
Boise likes to score lots of points on the SmurfTurf. I think they will do just that this Saturday against the 2-7 Aggies of Utah State.
Penn State -7.5 @ Iowa
Yer kiddin’ me right? Joe’s boys are going to clobber the Hawks, book it.
Baylor @ Texas -26
The Longhorns are going to be very, very angry this weekend after TexTech gutted them last week. Give up the points, lock up the women and children and watch Baylor get destroyed.
Louisville @ Pittsburgh -6 ½
Oh why, oh why do I do these things???? Wannie’s rolling, Louisville isn’t very good and this is only their third road game of the year, everything’s ripe for another Wannie screw up…I’m taking Pitt and giving the points anyway. No guts, no glory. No Wannie, no nothin’.
Michigan @ Minnesota -7 ½
I see this as the Gophers’ rebound game. They are plentymuch p.o.’d after Northwestern’s Mike Kafka ran for over 200 yards against them last week. MN would love to trash the Wolverines in the Humpdome to assuage their Land of 10,000 Lakes depression. Another smack in the beezer for Rich Rodriguez.

As for the local lads, come Saturday afternoon the Lemont Indians will travel to the ersatz tundra of Gately Stadium, 103rd and Cottage Grove, in the heart of Chicago's scenic south side, to tangle with Morgan Park. My last trip to Gately was when I was a sophomore in high school, as my son is now.

There is no punchline to that bit of anecdotal information, sorry. That is all.

The Gambler

If you have any money parked in traditional investment vehicles, you are probably accustomed to getting hammered. Real estate is in the tank, equities have been in a steady decline and low interest rates mean low returns for cash. Don't despair, there is an alternative.

The alternative is the Sportsbook.

I was never much of a gambler. I didn't play cards, I didn't set foot in a casino until I was into my, well, not a kid anymore, and I didn't get into betting on games. Playing cards was like work for me. I could explain the arithmetic behind all the casino games and I wanted to be the casino, not the gambler. Betting on the games required research that I didn't want to do.

Then along came Pete. Pete was an inveterate oddshound. He tracked the horses, worked the baseball lines (a weird subculture of wagering) and followed the football spreads. Pete and I would talk baseball generalities, as he is a devotee of the history of baseball and a veritable font of statistical minutiae, as well as an all around good guy.

One day, when Pete brought up the current outlook for whichever team he was following at a time when I wasn't any too interested, I pointed out the arithmetic that makes baseball a bad addiction. I explained to him that there are 162 games in a season. Every team is going to win 50 games and lose 50 games, so there's a hundred games, or about three months worth, that we can push to the side of the road, almost 2/3 of the season played to get back to where you started. So, if everyone skipped the first hundred and played just the remaining games, I continued, we'd have a six week baseball season and I wouldn't get so bored and we'd all have time for things that matter. Pete uttered "national pasttime" and I responded with "it's time has passed" as he considered my argument.While this was a pretty clear case of figures lie and liars figure, it appeared to assuage Pete's current state of angst.

Pressing on, I challenged Pete to consider a new source of entertainment that provided a compact and immediate gratification completely unlike baseball, plus time for a nap. I introduced Pete to NASCAR. What followed this introduction is a parade of rewards that I could never have expected.Tomorrow, I'll explain how we corrupted a casual conversation for our mutual gain, both personal and financial.

DAY 3 of the Amazing Photo Mystery: Here's another hint in the ID the Photo challenge. The photo was taken from the perspective of a place named in honor of a Chicago politician (imagine, honoring a Chicago politician!). By the way, the place doesn't have an actual street address, how 'bout that!