The Diary of the Fantasy Virgin - Week 8 Tim Davoll, Fantasy Football Staff Writer Oct 31, 2003 | More

The anticipation is still there.  You know what I am talking about?  Well it comes after you submit your lineup on Saturday night and verify no injuries on Sunday morning.  Next come the read up on how great your RB is going to perform according to all those prognosticators.  Then the same prognosticators sprinkle my television with absolutes.  An absolute about this QB starting over this other QB and how about that guy coming off the disabled list?  He is going to make an impact.  Then the games come to your television and you see updates around the league.  If you are lucky your have a football package and see all the games.  I am amazed as to how “tuned in” my ears are when my QB throws a TD or my WR catches a 74 yard bomb for score.  The anticipation is still there my friends but the agony comes with the realization it’s going to be another tough day if your opponent is hot or if everyone on your side doesn’t have a good day.   So today’s installment gets out with a quick thank you to a fan and talks about

Hej Paddler. Tack så mycket

The title translates into … Hello Paddler. Thank you very much.  That is the extent of my knowledge of the Swedish language and thanks goes out to a Swedish fan of the Fantasy Virgin articles.  Rob’s interview of Paddler can be read at this site during the same run of this usual weekly article.  It is Sweden we can thank for words like slalom, hoot, ski, tungsten, nickel, and my favorite smorgasbord that get spoken every once and a while.  I will also add that Sweden is responsible for giving us ABBA.  Regardless of your opinion of them, the musical Mama Mia is an absolute hoot and for this alone I thank them for their music.  Soon the leaves will be off the trees in New England and skiing will be the only thing on our minds, besides football.

Fall In New England … I Know I Say It Every Year

Every year I am poetic about the way Mother Nature sheds her verdant beauty to reveal a resplendent cornucopia of colors in New England.  How much I admire the ornate displays of reds, yellows, and bright oranges that appear like a painter’s palette on the hills of Connecticut and the surrounding states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.  Please do not try and rent a car because the word is out and everyone else knows about it too.  How can you run out of rental cars?  Just look at the hills.  They are ablaze in a tapestry of colors that are the envy of the world.  It seems that our climate in New England, which comprises of blistering Bermuda Summers followed by frozen Canadian Winters is just the right recipe for this brilliance.  For those who have not partaken in a New England fall, please let me coax you into a visit.  You can start in September in Maine and end it in October in Connecticut.  All along the way the landscape will be entirely foreign and beautiful.  Every year is like a grape from the same vineyard.  Nature has shaped the colors all spring and summer and they rarely disappoint.  So come to New England and don’t stay too long for the winters are harsh and the summers can be steamy.  But in between there is a state of perfection that is overlooked by its inhabitants unless you notice these things.  And I guess I am all mushy in that way.  Lets see what the captain cares about this week

Captain’s Log – 10-27-2003 – 11:00 PM

Artemis came to me and let me know that Messrs Henry d’ Travis and Davis d’ Stephen were responsible for a much needed victory.  It had been our first in one fortnight and seven days and our ship had been clobbered by one calamity after another.  Normally, since this is a team effort, we do not take the time to recognize one or two individuals but it had been so long since we successfully navigated an obstacle a brief ceremony on the poop deck was called to order.  I read the following proclamation … “Dear conscripts, it is with great pleasure that we declare this the week of the RB.  Without the work of these tireless gentlemen, our fate would have been with the likes of the Kraken and other maladies.  We avoided Davy Jones’ locker and our ship is still in one piece.  So it is with great pride I present the following amulet of rune RB from the Swedish-Germanic Runes to CA. 500 AD. They stand for raidu and berkana and may these Runes call on the Swedish seafaring past and bring us better luck in the future.”  Luckily Artemis had a background from this type of stuff from visiting the North Sea and the great seafarers from that part of the globe.  A reasonable representation of the letters is shown below.

          Master D.