The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Search This Site

Enter keyword(s) below to search for relevant articles.

Home Archives for 2024

Archives for 2024

Weekly Mounjaro Update: Week 24

Posted on Written by Leave a Comment

I’m sitting here awaiting my new refrigerator. Just got a call from Jesse the delivery guy. The unit it replaces died last Thursday of old age, and the soonest* I could get a replacement delivered was today, Monday. I’ve got to tell you, man, you don’t know how much you rely on a modern convenience until it goes away. But that will soon be rectumfied.

Mounjaro to the rescue!

WTF, you ask? I’ll tell you how Mounjaro rescued me from no-fridge hell. A couple of months ago, I purchased a dorm-sized fridge for storing Mounjaro because I was ordering twelve-weeks’ supply at a time from my PBM. I did not want to clutter up the primary food storage locker with drug boxes. So, I installed the little thing in my upstairs ham shack and electronics lab. Locating the device next door to my office provides convenient cold drink access, although it curtails the exercise I get running up and down stairs. In the context of my main refrigerator’s outage, I am fortunate that my prescient auxiliary larder purchase provided adequate cold storage to give me some weekend food variety.

I’ll keep the update brief this week, so we won’t have any opinionated editorials. But before reporting the week’s results, I cover a couple of miscellaneous personal topics.

Annual Physical Exam Blood Work

My annual physical exam is scheduled with Dr. DeLorean (not his real name) for November 26. I’ll have blood drawn for several tests in advance of that appointment. Among those scheduled are HbA1c, complete blood count, and comprehensive metabolic panel, to which I have added a self-ordered fasting insulin. I will report my progress on relevant markers next week in this space.

Physical Therapy Progress?

I have been undergoing physical therapy for lumbar spine issues. This week, we will be wrapping up that treatment with a full session on Tuesday and a progress review on Friday. I believe the therapy, coupled with daily home exercises, has done some good, although my back pain has not decreased. Looking at my MRI at our initial assessment, the therapist told me what she could and couldn’t do. There were more “couldn’ts” than “coulds”. Furthermore, a new issue cropped up just as I started PT, a nerve inflammation in my right thigh, called meralgia paraesthetica. To be fair, the PT was not directed at this issue, which could be related to the spine problems. Although I can live with its pain and tingling, I would like to find a solution.

My next step is to see a physiatrist (physical medicine and rehab doctor) on December 9. My hope is to fix as much as possible without surgery, although many of the problems with my spine suggest its need. Like anyone, I am reluctant to go under the knife, more so because I had cervical spine fusion in 2007, which did not work out too well. I will fill you in on my progress if and when anything happens one way or another.

Returning to Exercise

My physical therapist asked that I suspend weight training while she did her Cruella de Ville routine. I miss working out and want to get back into it, so I hope that I’ll get clearance at Friday’s assessment. In anticipation, I have asked the exercise physiologist at the same rehab where I get my PT if I can re-join her wellness program. She will give me an exercise capability assessment and, for a low, low monthly fee, I’ll have access to the PT training facilities. I had been a member prior to the COVID fiasco, hitting the gym three times a week mainly for resistance training. I dropped it when all the pandemic bullshit was going down.

So, my hope is that while my back is assessed six ways to Sunday, I can get my sorry ass back in shape. I hope my rapid weight loss has not caused too much depletion of muscle mass, a peril associated with Mounjaro, particularly for old farts like me. I want to preserve as much sinew as I can, trying to keep protein intake at a decent level to help with the process.

Mounjaro Update

This was a chaotic week, so my progress was not terrific. According to Stelo, a CGM that doesn’t want to call itself a CGM because, I suppose, it measures blood glucose at discrete intervals, my average glucose for the week was 103 mg/dL (5.71 mmol/L). This equates to an HbA1c of 5.2% (33 mmol/mol), which is my target. However, I am not happy with my morning glucose, which hovered around 100 mg/dL (5.56 mmol/L). I’d like that value to stay well under 100 (5.56).

I lost about 2.4 pounds (1.1 kg) during the week. That’s not healthy. As I’ve mentioned (ad nauseam), weight loss is desirable, but I’ve already lost too much, too fast (about 50 lbs (22.7 kg) in twenty-four weeks. I’m now at 195 lbs (88.6 kg, or 13 st 13). My primary goal is glucose control, and after that comes preservation of muscle mass. A distant third on the list at this juncture is weight loss.

That will do ‘er for this week. Now, it’s time to fill up that new refrigerator. I’ll be back with you next week for the next instalment in the continuing saga of As the Turkey Turns.

*With apologies to Professor Amar Mukherjee, former Chair of Computer Science at UCF, who once prohibited the use of the word “soonest” in any internal departmental correspondence to my eternal bemusement, may he rest in peace.

Well? So it’s a big deal?

Posted on Written by 1 Comment

#4 Penn State 49, Purdue 10

Well? What did you expect, already? Such a mismatch you wouldn’t believe! The Penn State Nittany Lions, albeit over-ranked, defeated the West Lafayette High School Junior Boilermakers’ cheerleading squad 49-10, before a rapidly emptying Ross-Ade Stadium ‘crowd’. (Official attendance was 58,346. All except the 346 had left by mid-third quarter). We knew what the outcome of this one would be for several weeks, although most of us didn’t think about it at all, having filed it in the ‘win’ bin at season’s outset.

Like Roberto Durán before the ninth round in the 1980 Sugar Ray Leonard fight, the Junior Boilermakers should have taken a cue from the dwindling crowds and muttered, “¡No más!”, as they were about to emerge from the Joe Tiller tunnel at the outset of the second half. But to their credit, outmanned and doomed, they came out and played their little hearts out to no avail, other than to add some points by virtue of a touchdown in garbage time.

What to say? Nothing.

What can I write about? The usual suspects did well, and we got to see some promising Penn State freshmen, who entered the game in the third quarter when the outcome was so far from being in doubt that even if they handed the ball to the Junior Boilermakers on every touch, the game would still be won. Beau Pribula took over for Drew Allar, but we did not see fellow Ohioan Ethan Grunkenmeyer, a highly touted Penn State freshman quarterback. In all, sixty-eight players got real game playing time.

How about the stats and a digression?!

Stats are meaningless in a mismatch like this, so I won’t be crowing about how “dominant” Penn State was. A kindergarten teacher is dominant over her class, but you don’t see anyone bragging about it. After all, it’s expected, normal, natural, and unremarkable. I cannot even dredge up some bullshit here, except to say that if you thought Purdue had half a chance to win this game, then you’re the type who would bet on Mike Tyson against Jake Paul, who didn’t even work up a sweat against the tired, 58-year-old Rusted Iron Mike. Your bank account undoubtedly reflects your sports betting acuity, too.

Why the hell were Tyson and Paul fighting with 16-oz sparring gloves instead of 10-oz and why were two-minute rounds fought instead of three? That alone should have told you it was a staged exhibition with the object of it not being too embarrassing for the geriatric former heavyweight champ while bilking the attendees at AT&T Stadium and the viewing subscribers on Netflix. Tickets to the live event ranged from $78 in the upper deck, where binoculars were required to see the boxing ants, to a $2 million MVP “Owner’s Experience”. Ringside seats on the stadium floor were $1,900 each. Fortunately, the undercard was entertaining. In fact, the Netflix Internet dropouts were more exciting than the main event.

Every digression needs a digression.

But I digress, a trite phrase stolen by other PSU blogs who wish to mock my pseudo-erudition, digression notwithstanding, as it were. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In fact, I am flattered even more than when I compliment my good looks when I look in the mirror.

What else can I say here? I always wondered how Ross-Ade Stadium got its name. Is Ross-Ade something like Gator-Ade? Those guys playing there need all the sports drinks they can get, I guess. Give them all extra Ross-Ade. Don’t stop me, I’m on a roll.

Wrapping it up, already, thank God.

What the hell else can I say? I predicted 41-3 and friend Mike predicted 40-3. The spread wound up 30.5. Penn State easily covered for a change, but what did you expect? If the starters had stayed in for Penn State, the outcome would have been about 56-3. And it wasn’t even that close. I was sitting in my family room watching with Jenny falling asleep while I texted Mike and old lifelong PSU friend Joe about the game. The remarkable difference in our texts this week is that we did not feel the need to bitch about Franklin’s dumbass decisions or poor officiating. But I’m sure TS (name elided to protect the guilty) and the Almighty Sanguinarians will propose a summary indictment of the officiating, if only on general principles and force of habit.

Last time I was in Lafayette, it was snowing and I was charging the Tesla in the parking lot of a Meijer Grocery with a singular objective in mind: Get the hell out of Indiana! But afterward, someone asked whether we had visited the Purdue campus. WTF, why the hell would I do that? In the snow, already? So I could get a six-pack of Ross-Ade? Some things completely make no sense.

Back to today, the Super Moon rose over Ross-Ade and supermooned the Junior Boilermakers, as did the Penn State Nittany Lions, 49-10. Now, let it snow. Take THAT, Mark Pappas!

Other Games of Import

Wisconsin and #1 Oregon are tied 13-13 in the fourth quarter as I write this drivel. OMG OMG WTF if Bucky prevails against the Quackers? In that case, the nitwits at the CFP would put one-loss tOSU at #1, one-loss Texas at #2, and one-loss PSU at #3. Too soon to bitch about that, but what Penn State should be playing for at this point is home field advantage in at least one playoff game. Of course, that is putting the damn cart about two blocks before the horse because we’ve all got a couple of games left. To coin a phrase, we need to go 1-0 next Saturday against 6-4 Minnesota, and 1-0 on Black Friday Weekend against the 4-5 Twerps.

Next weekend is the so-called showdown between undefeated and untested #5 Indiana and the #2 Schmuckeyes. That nooner will be entertaining, consequential to Big Ten standings as it is.

No more digressions. Promise.

I’ll be back mid-week, after celebrating a birthday age that based on the juvenile prose above is so old you wouldn’t believe. What am I coming back next week for, God willing? Oh, yeah. My bad! Senior brain fart. I’ll be back to preview and predict the game with the Auric Rodents, the boat-rowers from Minnesooda. But I digress, already.

Pur-doodoo and the CFP

Posted on Written by 2 Comments

#4 Penn State (8-1, 5-1 Big Ten) at Purdue (1-8, 0-6)

Purdue

Mismatch games like this shouldn’t be allowed. We are in the home stretch of one of the softest schedules I have witnessed in my sixty years of Penn State fanhood. This week’s game with “the other” Big Ten team in Indiana is the nadir of the conference schedule. That the spread is only 28.5 points as I write this tells you that the punters don’t have much confidence in Penn State scoring a lot of points against the worst team in the Big Ten.

The Nittany Lions should prevail in a walkover, which will impress no one. Last week, the Schmuckeyes blew out the Boilermakers 45-0 in the Horseshoe. Two weeks prior to that, the Ducks shut them out 35-0 back home in Indiana. And a couple of games before that, Wisconsin clobbered their asses 52-6 at Camp Randall.

Purdue started out the season looking like they might have something, beating non-conference, in-state opponent Indiana State 49-0. The euphoria over the big win over an inferior, Missouri Valley Football Conference opponent best known for producing basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird, quickly faded when yet another home state opponent came to West Lafayette the following week. The Fighting Irish blew up the Boilers, 66-7.

Purdue’s only narrow escape was at Illinois, where they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in a 50-49 overtime loss. The Illiniweks scored a touchdown and an extra point in overtime. The Boilermakers returned the favor with a touchdown, then got cute and failed on the two-point try, muffing their best chance for a conference win for the whole damn season. The game displayed an amazing of lack of defense, with Illinois narrowly edging out Purdue 556-536 in total yards.

So, the spread being only 28.5 is disturbing. Is the supposedly #4 team in the country only that much better than the worst squad in its league? Purdue ranks 128 out of 133 FBS teams in scoring defense, right between Temple and Tulsa. They’re 118th in rushing defense and 108th in passing yards allowed. Offensively, the rankings are about the same, 117th in passing and 88th in rushing. The big question is whether Penn State will take this game seriously and show up. The secondary question is whether Purdue has conceded this season and will show up. Overall this portends a meaningless game, but one replete with perils if the teams sleep through it. Could the overlay spread reflect general apathy?

OK, enough of that. I will not even try to analyze Purdue’s strengths and weaknesses. Why bother? I want to move to the CFP craziness.

How Will the CFP Shake Out?

Of the CFP top twelve right now, four represent the Big Ten and five represent the SEC. The top two teams are Big Ten. SEC has positions 3, 7, 10, 11, and 12. Just out of my ass, I would bet that any one of those SEC teams could prevail over either of the top two Big Ten teams. The back door path for a Big Ten team to win the Still Somewhat Mythical National Championship (SSMNC) requires that SEC schools keep on doing what they have been doing all year long — beating the shit out of each other.

Looking at the four Big Ten teams, Oregon has two significant wins, an early season 37-34 victory over Boise State, and the 32-31 win over tOSU. Ohio State’s only significant win was beating our Nittany Lions 20-13. Penn State’s big win was arguably at USC, who have a 4-5 record at the moment. Similarly, #5 Indiana has played no one. Its big win was last week, beating 5-5 Michigan, struggling in the wake of its SSMNC season.

The SEC is a mess. As I noted, when it seems that someone will emerge, they get beaten back. Texas, #3 in the CFP standings, lost to #12 Georgia, who lost to #11 Ole Miss and #10 Alabama. Ole Miss had off-weeks against Kentucky and LSU. Alabama lost to Vanderbilt and #7 Tennessee, who lost to unranked Arkansas.

I do not see Indiana beating Ohio State on November 23, so they’ll have one loss when all is said and done. That will make the Big Ten a holy mess, too. Oregon has two games left, at Wisconsin and the Border War with Washington back home at Autzen Stadium. They will win both. So who the hell will win the Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis? Who the hell will even play in it? The new conference mish-mash pits the No. 1 and No. 2 teams against each other in that match. We assume that the Ducks will remain No. 1. With all the one-loss teams, how is No. 2 determined?

The new tie-breaking rules are ridiculously complicated. Head-to-head competition comes first. So, of the three potential one-loss teams, namely Indiana, Ohio State, and Penn State, Ohio State would emerge, having beaten Indiana (predicted) and Penn State. This, of course ass-umes that Ohio State will not lose any of its remaining games, including Indiana and the rivalry game with Michigan. So, a rematch of the Oregon vs. Ohio State game looks likely for Indy.

The conference championship is important, because it enables a first-round bye in the playoffs. We concluded that Penn State is unlikely to play in Indianapolis, let alone win it, so assuming they make the playoffs, which seems likely, they will probably play an SEC opponent like Ole Miss in the first round, last year’s Peach Bowl opponent in PSU’s 38-25 losing effort. We’ll see.

Of course, you knew all that already. I just had to work through it in my mind, and I needed to fill some space because I have nothing to say this week.

Da Wedda

While Florida keeps a wary watch on the Caribbean, where another damn hurricane, this one named Sara, will form this weekend, the weather in Indiana for Saturday’s 3:30 game looks pretty. A forecast high of 60 and low of 45 with no precipitation and little wind makes for a fine, fall football day. Not that anything resembling football will be played, or anything, but the weather provides no advantage to either team. And Purdue needs all the advantages it can get.

Da Bottom Line

Let’s cut to the chase. The Official Turkey Poop Prognostication will be brief and to the point. Spread of PSU – 28.5 and over/under 50.5. Penn State 41, Purdue 3. We’re taking the under.

See you after the game. #7 Tennessee at #12 Georgia is the game to watch this weekend, so my recap will be late.