Sun - 1 Feb/15

Welcome to February and the Super Bowl Weekend.

WI-Fi should improve a after the Rally group leaves. I'm assuming tomorrow. It's actually a little better at this time (mid-morning). I will even try for a few pictures.

While the north is bracing for more snow amidst the cold (below 0 F) back home here we are going to have a week of "Yo-Yo" days.

 "Yo-Yo" days are when the temps will alternate between low 70 F and high 60 F. The days will alternate between sunny and cloudy and dry and thunderstorms (or rain). It should be mostly sunny today as soon as the clouds burn off about mid-morning.

Usual Morning = Sunday Morning on CBS.

Afternoon = Movies from our collection.

Today is the largest "Snack Food" Day and the 2nd largest "Food Day" in the USA after Thanksgiving.

Americans will eat:

      - Americans will eat 120 million avocados - enough to fill a football field 18 feet deep with guacamole.

     - They will down 325 million gallons of beer - enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool 1,938 times. 94% of the beer will be major brands with Bud, Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Light with the lion's share.

     - Estimates are that Americans will eat 1.23 Billion Chicken Wings - that's 1,083,333 Football Fields worth of 3" wings. (Enough to supply Hooters for 2 years)

     - They will consume 11 million pounds of the various flavours of Potato Chips. That's about the weight of 12,137,931 footballs or 186 tractor trailers full. No telling how much in dips, salsa, cream cheese, etc. will be downed.

     - Fans will spend $2.37 million on soda this Super Bowl Sunday - That's enough to buy about 846 tickets to the big game, which are currently going for an average of $2,800 each in the secondary ticket market.

     - Dominos will deliver more than 11 million slices of Pizza today...and that's just one chain. All in all there will be an estimated 4 million medium pizzas consumed today.

     - Super Bowl watchers will eat 3.8 million pounds or 60,800,000 ounces of popcorn = the weight of 4,193,103 footballs.

     - 72 million rice cakes (Hey, surprised me, too!) Many go for "Chinese" take-out today!

     - Can't even come close to estimating the other snacks like brats and burgers, steaks, chicken, ribs, etc. on the BBQ, not to mention the loaded potato skins, seafood, sushi, etc. prepared at the more elaborate home Super Bowl Parties.


Non-Food Facts:

     - Monday after the game will have an antacid sales increase of 20% above average. Aspirins?

     - 7 million employees won't make it to work on Monday.

The Commercials: (Quite possibly the best part of watching the Super Bowl)

     - most new and varied advertisers.

     - Many advertisers have already released their commercials online, while also attracting millions of views. The average 30-second Super Bowl commercial can cost as much as $4.5 million. To some advertisers, it's worth getting their brand in front of more than 112 million viewers (USA), which is the number that watched last year's game.

     - GoDaddy yanked it's planned commercial (lost puppy sold by GoDaddy Ad) due to complaints by animal rights groups. Some think this was a calculated ploy to gain coverage. Any Press = Good Press?

     - Favourite: I'm leaning on the Budweiser sequel (Lost Puppy) to the fan favourite from last year -  an adorable puppy and a cross-species friendship with a Clydesdale horse. Animals now trump "cute kids" (Female, kids and older folks). Of course, considering the game demographics, "sex" still sells best for the young male audience. (FYI - many car dealer, lawyer, etc ads on TV down here show their dog. It's a wonder they don't show their personal handgun!)

     - Funniest:  The FIAT 500X "Viagra" Commercial where an old man's "little blue pill" slips from his fingers, bounces and ricochets through the village right into a FIAT 500 (2 door) gas tank which magically enlarges and morphs it into a FIAT 500X 4 door.

The Game:

     - 151.6 million will be tune in to the game in 232 countries in 34 languages.

     - Number of languages in which the word "football" doesn't mean "soccer." = 1

The Teams: 

       NFL Super Bowl XLIX - (Phoenix, AZ)

New England Patriots (14-4)

Seattle Seahawks (14-4)

Before the Game: Too close to call - my prediction = Seattle Seahawks.

Seconds before the End of the Game: First and Goal (to win)

     - My words to Charlotte: No passing plays - just running plays. What else would you do with the best running back in the league and only a half yard to go? Everyone watching the game questions the play call:

     - They threw, it was intercepted and they lost the Super Bowl! Ain't hindsight Wonderful!

Final Score: New England Patriots: 28 - Seattle Seahawks: 24.