hondo in seattle

Not true! Last week, I wore by "17" jersey and Allen played like the MVP that he is. This week, I wore my Kyle Williams jersey because I thought the D needed some added juju. Sure enough, Allen's productivity went down but the defense really stepped up.

I'd take Fred Jackson ahead of him. Fred never had a QB like Josh nor an OL like this. But I enjoy watching Cook and am glad he got paid. Generally speaking, McD can scheme well enough to shut down bad QBs, but doesn't have the athletes to routinely succeed against offenses with elite players.

Steel moon on the rise, helmets gleam like katana, fins fall in silence.

I agree with you. But then I look at the weapons Brady has: an All-World QB and a fairly average squad beyond that. Averaging 36 points per game doesn't seem like a bad outcome. Weird analogy but... My college had a game room full of pinball machines. For a while, I thought I was the best player on campus. I had the high score on a bunch of the most popular machines and could do all sorts of fancy slap-saves, shots, and passes. But then some hip-looking transfer student started breaking my records. I was confused because while his slap saves were as good as mine, he didn't have the same shots as I did and would never even pass the ball from one paddle to another. His skills didn't look impressive, yet he'd put up great scores. Finally, I asked him his secret. He explained it to me. "It's all about rhythm. You do some cool passes and back-handed shots, but you're all stop-and-go. For me, it's all continual action, more like music. That's why I'm better than you." That's kind of how I think about Brady. It doesn't always look pretty, but I think there's an unseen wisdom in what he's doing.

I voted for Tre because I'm voting for a fully healed Tre. I'm voting that Tre has returned to a level he hasn't touched in years. But if my vote doesn't make that happen, I trust the coaches to play the best man.

As bad as Koo's been, I'm surprised they didn't simply cut him.

Allen is the #1 selling Rivalries jersey. Though the 49ers are the #1 selling team so far.

Defense not quite as bad this week... Bills 30 Jets 24

I never considered them a rival... There were many years when both teams sucked. Beating them during those years was nothing special. Neither was losing to them. When we were good and they were bad, they were just another team to beat up on. When they were good and we were bad, they were just another team beating up on us. Being both good at the same time is fuel for a rivalry. But that hasn't happened much.

I think these are great questions. We tend to judge coaches on in-game decisions but the preparations during the week are vital and determine to a large extent what happens on Sunday. But this is all invisible to me and I only dimly understand "the process."

A few - but they're not nearly as common as some other cuisines. I was in Tampa last year and made sure we hit one because I guessed the Cuban food there was better simply because there were more Cubans there.

I cheered the scoring and Henry's fumble, but I didn't think the Bills had a realistic chance of winning until Harbaugh decided to punt near the end of the game. Before the Ravens last drive, I would have given us about a 1% chance of winning. A few plays later, when the Ravens punted, I would have given us a 70% chance or more. Stopping Allen from moving us into FG position? That was a big ask for the Ravens D. Maybe I'm a masochist because I never turn off Bills games early, no matter how ugly. And while I've only attended 4 of 5 games in person, I've never left those early either.

Thanks for the recommendation. I used to keep a list of the restaurants I wanted to try the next time I was in town. I guess I need to restart that and add La Puertas. Also, I'm a big fan of mole ***** from Oaxaca. Somewhere I heard there's a restaurant in/near Buffalo with excellent made-from-scratch mole. I need to try that, too. One restaurant that I think is gone now was a French place downtown where you could make your own crepes on a table-top mini stove. My mom was French, so crepes were nothing new to me. But I'd never cooked my own crepe batter in a restaurant before. Cool experience. By the way, you mentioned the razor-thin profit margins in restaurants. You work in the biz?

I'm hoping to catch a game next year at the new stadium. Maybe you can point me to the culinary wonders I've apparently been missing in Buffalo. I'm old enough that I recall a time when the only Mexican food in Buffalo was Mighty Tacos (when they had that dirty location on Elmwood manned by pimply kids with greasy hair - though the food was better back then) and Chi-Chi's. To get Chinese food, you had to cross the bridge to go to Happy Jacks in Fort Erie. While I do get back to the city periodically and do my best to explore, I may not be entirely up-to-date with Buffalo's renaissance. Maybe next time I'll do fewer of the Buffalo classics (pizza, wings, BoW) and more of the newer stuff to see how it compares.

I don't usually cook at home. But the wife likes me to handle the proteins three times per year: The Fourth, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. With the idea of making our own Kummelweck, you've got me thinking: Beef on Weck would be cool for a holiday. Just found this:

Well, I guess we won't be sharing a beer the next time I'm in Buffalo. That's okay, I'm not a beer guy anyway. In the meantime, I'm going to eat well and hope you do, too.

My Filipina wife is a good mimic. When we have a good meal at a restaurant, be it Cambodian, or Oaxacan, or French, or whatever, she'll come home and imitate the dish, often with great success. But we decided Beef-on-Weck would be impossible because you can't buy Kimmelweck rolls where we live. Stupid us, we never considered making our own. This would be a great 4th of July project.

The only defender who showed up to play last week won't play this week? Not the news I wanted to hear.

I go back to Buffalo typically every 2 or 3 years. Each time I do, I talk to family and friends about restaurants, check Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews, and eat at the most promising spots. My last visit was 2 years ago so maybe a bunch of good restaurants have popped up since. The awards do mean something. So do my own taste buds. They both tell me the same story. I apologize if you don't like the story, but my experience is my experience. I've eaten out at so many restaurants in so many cities in 40+ different states and 20+ different countries, my opinion is strongly held. But I'm glad you're happy with the Buffalo food scene. It's all subjective. If I loved BBQ, maybe Kansas City or Austin would be my favorite food cities. But I'm wired differently. Btw, I'll add this: Pizza in Buffalo is criminally underrated. I once saw a top ten list for pizza created by two pizza chefs. Weirdly, to me, they had both Seattle and San Francisco in their top ten but not Buffalo. I've had plenty of pizza in those three cities and Buffalo pizza, on average, is easily the best. I could only guess they'd never been there.

I hear you. I was once driving across the US and stopped in some little town off the highway. I was hungry but not in the mood for fast food nor a diner, and this little burb wasn't big enough to have much else. Or so I thought. As I drove around, as unlikely as it was, I saw a sign for a Basque restaurant and had a great meal. Even the smallest towns sometimes have awesome food, though your odds and choices are better in the big city.

"The most important restaurant in the world..." That's quite a compliment! I believe Iron Chef Marc Forgione's dad worked at the River Cafe??? (I used to watch the Food Network).

We can agree to disagree. But I've eaten all over Buffalo and I've also eaten all over several other cities as well. This is one of the reasons I don't want to retire in Buffalo. I love food and, for me, the food scene in nearly every West Coast city (Vancouver BC, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, LA) is much more diverse and just plain better. I'm not saying Buffalo doesn't have some good dining options. It does. I always eat well when I'm there. But, for example, the people I know in California don't go out for "Chinese" food. They're much more specific about what they want: Hakka, Szechuan, Cantonese, or some other regional specialty. And beyond the regional differences, there are Chinese restaurants in California razor-focused one particular thing like Dim Sum, or hand-pulled noodles, or dumplings, or hot pot, or clay pot, or mala skewers, or whatever. Chinese restaurants in Buffalo are mostly generic Chinese-American places serving inauthentic and less-delicious food. Or think about Latin food. It's hard to find a good Mexican restaurant in Buffalo. In CA (San Francisco or LA), you can find tons of good Mexican including Jaliscan, Baja, Yucatecan, Mexico City street food, and my personal favorite: Oaxacan. If your Latin palate extends beyond Mexico, you can also find good Peruvian, Colombian, Brazilian, Salvadoran, Puerto Rican, Honduran, and Guatemalan restaurants. But if Europe is more your thing, you can also find German, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Romanian, Russian, Austrian, and Scandanavian (etc.) restaurants. Both LA and SF have restaurants serving over 100 different national and regional cuisines. This is kind of a hobby of mine - trying new cuisines. The other day, I ate at a good Uyghur restaurant in San Jose. Buffalo doesn't even have a Uyghur restaurant. Most American cities don't. The Bay Area has seven. That covers diversity but what about quality? LA has 27 Michelin-starred restaurants. The Bay Area has 17 including two (French Laundry and Atelier Crenn) that are considered among the very best in the world. The entire state of California state has 87 Michelin-starred restaurants. Vancouver BC has 9 and a strong overall food scene. Michelin doesn't do a Seattle guide yet, but its food scene is also excellent. Food & Wine magazine ranks LA, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle all in the top 10 food cities in America. Buffalo, sadly, didn't make the top 25, which is as far as the list goes.

Agreed. I've also had some great food in unexpected places. Whenever I go to Buffalo, I try to hit a few of these regional specialties: Wings, Pizza, Pierogi, Beef-on-Weck, and sponge candy. And much to our surprise, we once found excellent Indian food in Buffalo. And, btw, Geoffrey Zakarian, celebrity chef, is a huge fan of the Beef-on-Weck at Charlie the Butcher in Buffalo. If you don't mind me asking, what Michelin-starred restaurant did you run?

Buffalo is a somewhat bigger version of Dayton - both midwestern, rust-belt cities - but Buffalo is on the water, so maybe a trip to Canalside or some other waterfront locale might be nice. Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy!

At a 66-year old man, I can neither confirm nor deny these reports. Happy Birthday, SDS!