Where to begin? Historically, when I've talked about stress in the Tent, I've considered stress as a function of challenge complexity. I have no doubt that most weeks, every baker on Great British Baking Show is stressed out to some degree, but the times I've felt the need to comment on it have been in … Continue reading Great British Baking Show Power Rankings 2020 – Chocolate Week
Author: Rob Mackie
Hi! I'm Rob. My interests are all over the place, which is why I created Rob Writes About Whatever, a free-form conversation where nothing is off topic. Home to Rob's Complete Guide to Retro Bowl, Gross Football Lunch, CRPG Corner, and more!
Week 7 Confidence Pool
I would like to personally apologize to anyone who make their picks last week based primarily on my advice. I don't know how I let this happen. Hitting on 8 out of 14 picks doesn't seem ghastly on paper, but Kirk Cousins' passing stats don't look ghastly on paper, either. My performance in Week 6 … Continue reading Week 7 Confidence Pool
Great British Baking Show Power Rankings 2020 – Bread Week
I can't rightly claim to be any sort of bagel sage. I have had a few bagels in my day, but no less than 60% of them were the mass-produced kind you get in plastic bags at the supermarket. While most of the physical properties of these bagels would doubtless draw the ire of bagel-knowing … Continue reading Great British Baking Show Power Rankings 2020 – Bread Week
Week 6 Confidence Pool
(Correction 10/14/20 12:25 PM EDT: I don't know how I managed this, but for some reason the original article had the Jets playing the Chargers, who have their bye week. The Jets instead play the Dolphins. This has had a ripple effect on point value assignment - I'm not putting 11 on the Dolphins - … Continue reading Week 6 Confidence Pool
Great British Baking Show Power Rankings 2020 – Biscuit Week
Second weeks are hard to parse. It doesn't matter if it's the second week of football, or the second episode of a new show, or the second episode of a beloved baking competition. In all three cases, there's enough information to make jumping to conclusions tempting, but not enough information to ensure those conclusions are … Continue reading Great British Baking Show Power Rankings 2020 – Biscuit Week
NFL Week 5 Confidence Pool
Here I was, several weeks into this column, thinking that I was going to be all done with housekeeping and rules clarification. And then, the Titans outbreak of the 'rona necessitated postponing their game with the Steelers. Since I had already published my picks when the announcement to postpone the game was made, and since … Continue reading NFL Week 5 Confidence Pool
Great British Baking Show Power Rankings 2020 – Cake Week
Well, this was unexpected. I had no idea that the Great British Baking Show was even doing a season this year; I sort of figured that it would be all but impossible to cram a bunch of people in a tent safely. And, had the show conducted business as usual, with the bakers dropping by … Continue reading Great British Baking Show Power Rankings 2020 – Cake Week
NFL Week 4 Confidence Pool
(Programming Note: Starting this week, the Confidence Pool column is being bumped up to Wednesday. That there even is a GBBS season this year caught me by surprise, but since it exists I'm clearing out Thursday to make room for the GBBS Power Rankings.) (Update 10/2/20 1:17 PM EDT: This column was written prior to … Continue reading NFL Week 4 Confidence Pool
Rob’s NFL Week 3 Confidence Pool
Well, that wasn't so terrible, was it? I didn't realize I had only whiffed on two games until it was time to start tallying last week's results (more on that in a second). Granted, one those whiffs was on my 11-point game, but on the other hand, I doubt too many people picked the Raiders … Continue reading Rob’s NFL Week 3 Confidence Pool
Rob’s NFL Week 2 Confidence Pool
Welcome to the first weekly installment of Rob's NFL Confidence Pool! For the uninitiated, a confidence pool is a method for picking games that's more interesting than picking games straight up, but less terrifying than picking against the spread. You pick the team you believe will win each game, then assign a point value to … Continue reading Rob’s NFL Week 2 Confidence Pool
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