Back (temporarily)

Hi All.  It's been quite a while, over a year, in fact; a year of many milestones, including, but not limited to: completing my MBA, losing my job, temporarily working at a new job, and welcoming a baby daughter into the world.  And after all that, my first sentence contained seven commas, a colon, and a semi-colon; it looks like I haven't lost a step, despite going through the blogular equivalent of Tommy John surgery.

Anyway, on to buisness.  There are two things I wanted to discuss today, the first being football.  Last Sunday was a great day; any day the Patriots lose is a great day, and anything that happens during the game that leads to their demise is a great thing.  My issue is that the Ravens are doing it wrong; in fact, most teams do it wrong.  Mr. Easterbrook mentioned it broadly in this past week's column: "The small number of deuce tries that happen in the NFL are almost exclusively when a team is trailing.  Adding a deuce conversion when ahead can have a psychological impact as well as adding a point; and football, after all, is about scoring points."  That was a very general statement, whereas I'm going to make a very specific one.

Here is the setup: First play of the 4th quarter, Baltimore leading 14-13 in possession of the ball, 1st and goal at the New England 3-yard line.  Anquan Boldin makes a leaping catch of a Joe Flacco laser, and now it's 20-13.  Now in my head, this is where you absolutely, positively go for two.  You're in New England, you're driving into the wind for the remainder of the game, the crowd is hostile; who knows if this is the last time you're going to score today?  New England has a prolific offense; put yourself up two scores!  Here are the scenarios:

1. Two-point conversion succeeds, and Baltimore leads by 9.  At this point you're sitting pretty because New England needs a TD and at least a FG to take back the lead.

2. Two-point conversion fails, and Baltimore leads by 7.  Not a terrible alternative, because New England still needs a TD to tie, and they're unlikely to go for 2 to take the lead in a playoff game when a miss could result in a loss.

3. Kick a PAT, and Baltimore leads by 8.  This is really almost equivalent to #2, because New England needs a TD and a very make-able two-point conversion.

Does nobody in the NFL think about these things?  Am I missing something?

Here's the other thing I wanted to talk about today; and this is something that's been stewing for a while upstairs.  I'm a righty (no, this is not about politics), but there are some things that I have always done the way a lefty would:

1. Dealing cards:  I hold the deck in my right hand and deliver the cards with my left.  For me it's much easier to do that than the reverse because I find manipulating the deck and pushing one card with my thumb to be a much more complicated maneuver than tossing the cards to the other players.  I'll leave the complicated maneuver for my dominant hand.

2. Putting on a belt: If my waist were a clock-face, I would loop my belt clockwise.  If I did it the reverse way, then I'd be holding the end of the belt with my right hand and manipulating the buckle with my left.  Again, manipulating the buckle is the more complicated procedure, so I'll leave that to my dominant hand.

Does anyone else do these things or have other examples?  I'd be interested to hear them.

Welcome back, me.