A new study published online yesterday reports the Food and Drug Administration vastly underestimated the cancer risk from seafood when the agency allowed commercial fishing in the Gulf to resume.
Miriam Rotkin-Ellman and Gina Solomon of the Natural Resources Defense Council authored the study where they found that by using flawed assumptions and outdated risk assessment methods, the FDA allowed up to 10,000 times too much contamination and didn’t identify the risks to children and pregnant women posed by eating the contaminants.
In a below post, we plugged tonight's New Orleans Film Festival showing of The Big Fix (reviewed here by T-P's Mike Scott) which itself raises suspicions about seafood safety. Dambala has been talking up the movie (which we personally think looks only slightly cheesy) all week and, in doing so, has been adamant in his claim that we haven't been told the full story of the risks involved.
As for us we wouldn't be surprised if much of this is true but we can also report that we have continued to eat our fill and probably yours too in the meantime. Just last week we enjoyed a delicious shrimp po boy at the Parkway Tavern and then on Sunday we had another one at Tracy's which we also greatly enjoyed.
Although we should say that as much as we wish it were not so given our neighborhood loyalties, we have to admit that the Parkway fare is ever so slightly outclassing Tracy's as of late. May be temporary. May not be significant but there it is. The good news as far as Tracy's is concerned is, it's a great place to catch a Saints game which is exactly what we did on Sunday. They also happened to have these on hand which, yes, we daringly indulged in as well.
So far there haven't been any negative health effects to speak of. Certainly no cancers we're aware of which we think is quite a feat since we're two weeks into Pinkwashing month in the NFL which we're told is designed specifically to enhance our cancer awareness.
Saints vs Panthers: (Usually there are more photos shamelessly stolen from NOLA.com but there's something wrong with their gallery this week and the selection is limited.)
- How the game was won: Pretty simple. After taking possession with about seven minutes left to play and trailing by four points, the Saints drove 90 yards in 13 plays and scored a go-ahead touchdown in the game's final minute. Because the drive chewed up so much time, there hasn't been as much focus on whether or not Drew Brees called his own play as there was when he led the game-winning drive against Houston. Or, at least, if someone asked that question, we didn't read about it anywhere. Whoever was calling the plays, we did very much appreciate one aspect of that final drive which we'll get to later on in the post.
Anyway, for the second time this season, we felt very much like we were watching a late 80s - early 90s era Saints-49ers game only now from the opposite sideline. Which is to say it was a hard fought game between an established champion and a hard luck upstart which almost felt... for a minute or two there... like the underdog might get away with a major morale-boosting victory. Only that inevitably gets taken away at the end by an improbably long drive engineered by a Hall of Fame quarterback who really shouldn't be as good as he is given his mediocre athleticism and arm strength. We used to hate the way those games ended. Now, we're kind of getting used to it.
By the way, nope, no contract extension yet. No idea why - Newtonian Physics: Ball goes up in the air, ball falls back to Earth. Too frequently it falls all the way to the Earth where no one could catch it. Despite his having made one or two big plays on the strength of his exceptional athletic ability, we weren't really all that impressed with Cam Newton. Sure, he ran the option pretty well and he does look like he can throw the ball hard. It's just that whenever he has to throw it more than 15 yards, he doesn't do so very accurately. Despite garnering a lot of attention for starting the season with back to back 400 yard passing performances and very nearly chalking up a "coming out" win over the Saints, Newton looks to us like a guy who is going to have start completing fewer passes to open areas of turf before he'll be someone who worries us as an opponent.
On the positve side, we understand that this pink towel will prevent Cam's head from contracting breast cancer, which is nice. - This game was played in Bank of America Stadium: It could always be worse, Saints fans. Remember that. No word on what the stadium ATMs were charging for withdrawals.
- It's Been Fun Index:
Not too much to report here since Reggie was off this week. Sproles led the Saints in rushing with 51 yards on 11 carries. He also had 5 receptions for 40 yards and lost 3 yards on only one punt return opportunity. "Tank" now has 804 all purpose yards and 3 touchdowns this season compared to Bush's 228 yards and 2 fumbles.
We also noticed that Sproles is really more shifty and slippery than he is fast. He doesn't outrun people to the edge or pull away from a crowd as often as he just makes himself damn near impossible to lay a hand on. We don't have a joke or an insult or anything to go with that, it's just something we noticed. - Diners, Drive-ins, and Diving to the Ground Index: Panthers tight end Jeremy Shockey had three catches for 21 yards. Once again he failed to score a touchdown keeping him tied at zero on the season with whatever Saints backup tackle might happen to score after lining up as an eligible receiver in a goal line situation this year. Also of note, Saints fullback Jed Collins scored his 2nd touchdown of the season giving him 2 more than Shockey and Bush combined.
Despite not having too much of an impact on the game, Shockey did manage to um.. make his presence known by directing what was described only as an "obscene gesture" toward the Saints' bench after DeAngelo Williams' second quarter touchdown and later refusing to shake hands with any Saints players or coaches after the game.It also probably wasn't necessary for Shockey to make a show later of apologizing via Twitter for having "offended God and mankind" but we weren't too surprised by that either.
The good news is the whole thing gave Jim Henderson an opportunity to tell us what he really thinks.
It also gives us an opportunity to make this short list of things that Shockey's absence from New Orleans has not diminished in the least.- The number of Shockey jersies parading around at the Gretna Heritage and "butt rock" Festival remains remarkably high. Fun Fact: Did you know you can quite clearly hear performances from the Gretna Fest main stage all the way across the river and as far back as Central City? Yep. Cowboy Mouth and Skynyrd clear as bell. Thanks, Gretna!
- Rest assured, the CBD-Warehouse District night life remains as cheesy as ever. Actually it's almost tragic that Shockey left town just a bit too early to take in the grandeur of the "cocktail lounge and amusement place" that is the Walk On's - Happy's megaplex. Maybe he'll make a cameo appearance there when the Panthers visit New Orleans. Odds are he'll be on the inactive list anyway.
Oh also, we're told through channels that since Shockey was leasing his downtown condo during his tenure in New Orleans, he can't be the mysterious "former Saints player" who sold his to Aaron Bennett. We must discover who this was! - Finally the Saints' passing game hasn't suffered much. In fact, as far as it concerns the tight end position, matters have been greatly improved. Jimmy Graham had 8 receptions for 129 yards against Carolina becoming the first NFL tight end to post three consecutive 100 yard days in over ten years.
- This week's massive failure on 3rd and long: This is something new we've decided to track. The Saints may show near the middle of the pack statistically on third down but they do have a knack for giving up at least one huge game-altering big play in a third and long situation in every game. This week, Carolina's Steve Smith scored on a 54 yard pass play on Third and 11 to get the Panthers on the board for the first time and also to inject some emotion into what became an exceptionally chippy game. More on that below.
We know Gregg Williams likes to be "aggressive" but sometimes there's a fine line between that and stupid. And the Saints are proving pretty good at identifying that line for us once a week. - This week's Jordan Jefferson Try Not To Kick Anybody In The Face Award:
This is actually a tough one since so much was made of two roughing-the-passer calls against the Saints' defense which greatly affected the action. The first penalty called on Turk McBride is the more questionable of the two since McBride clearly made contact with Cam Newton while he was in the act of throwing the ball. On third down. At a point in the game where the Panthers, then down 23-13 had to score or go home. And they did score a few plays later making McBride's penalty the turning point upon which this became a game again.
Later, a second roughing flag on Shaun Rogers granted the Panthers a few extra downs with which to score a go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter. Rogers' penalty was closer to something we can grudgingly call legit although we frankly aren't in the mood to grant that at this point. Last week we noted that Brees has been knocked around plenty this season but it somehow always seems to be the opposing quarterback who benefits from the NFL's "QB friendly" rules. It could be that some of this is just typical fan's-eye venting but we won't say we didn't let out a hearty "fuckin a" when we read Wang's outburst earlier this week.
But it would be a mistake to give this week's honor to anyone other than Roman Harper for taking out his frustrations on Panthers' receiver Steve Smith for... slowing down or something.. before his first quarter touchdown. Harper, who quite obviously had been running even more slowly than Smith on the play since after all he didn't catch him, slammed into Smith well after he had crossed into the end zone in order to make some kind of a point.Harper admitted that he needs to be able to control himself better, but he wasn't all that apologetic for taking the late shot at Smith.
"I'm not mad at myself at all," Harper said. "If you're going to score, go score. But you're not going to just walk it in on us like that."
Unless you badly outrun us, that is. From our perspective watching through the big TV at Tracy's, it didn't look to us as though Smith had done anything blatantly offensive. But judging from Harper's reaction, you would have thought Smith had gone all Brad Wing on him there.
But what's really great about this is that Harper is sticking by his actions and only sounds more ridiculous the more the two players get asked about it.Smith said Harper misread the situation.
"He felt that I was slowing down and trying to disrespect somebody, and that wasn't my intention," Smith said. "With physics, when you accelerate at some point you have to slow down. So I wasn't slowing down to hot-dog in front of someone, because at the end of the pylons, you have to stop or there's a large blue pad … that you will run into. So I was slowing down, not to disrespect anybody, but to decelerate."
When advised of Smith's explanation, Harper appeared unmoved.
"That's a good story. That sounds very legit. You tell him I like it," Harper said. "It seemed like he studied. He learned the names. He filled in all the right blanks. I can't complain with that."
"Learned the names"? What the hell is he talking about? Look we don't mean to come down too hard on Roman here. We know he takes a lot of undue criticism from Saints fans who don't understand his role on the defense. But he's clearly not in the right about this. At the same time, he does appear to be doing exactly what Gregg Williams wants his players to do so maybe that's where we should forward our complaints... such as they are. Frankly we're more entertained than anything and are very much looking forward to this rematch now.
Meanwhile, we understand there's some enthusiasm on the Twitters and such for allowing Roman to share the greatest football nickname of the 21st Century with LSU's Tyrann Mathieu. But let's not get carried away with that. If we don't limit ourselves to one "Honey Badger" every ten years we're liable to dilute the brand.
- Boneheaded play of the game: The Panthers couldn't get lined up correctly to defend what would have been a rushed field goal as the Saints raced against the clock with no timeouts to get the unlikely kick away at the end of the half. Because they had too many men on the field, Carolina was forced to call timeout and give John Kasay time to breathe before the kick which ended up greatly affecting the outcome of what became a close game.
By some odd coincidence, LSU is playing Tennessee this week. Les Miles was asked to comment on Panthers' stupidity and had this response. - Jimmy Graham gave up another sack in this game: He kind of does that a lot.
- This week's thing to not worry about: Okay so you're a defensive coordinator drawing up your game plan to stop the Saints. What's to stop you from just assigning five guys to cover Sproles, putting the other six on Graham and just calling it a day? Do the Saints even think to get the ball to anyone else? Well, yeah they do, but rarely. Maybe we're not seeing this correctly. Maybe the Saints really are checking down to Graham or Sproles on 50 of their 70 or so plays every week. Or maybe they just don't have much else in the way of ideas lately.
Or maybe they're just waiting for the right time to make everyone's head spin. Sort of like they did on the winning touchdown here.Thomas actually scored on a play that was designed for Sproles - but Brees explained that having Sproles in the game for that play would have thrown up a "red flag" to the Panthers' defense that they were going to throw the ball.
Zoinks! Pierre Thomas.. the guy Wang calls "Mean Joe Screen" is in the game and that's the alternative to "throwing up a red flag" that maybe the running back is in on the pass pattern? Maybe that's how you're gonna beat 'em, Butch. They keep underestimating you. Or are you underestimating them? Oh it doesn't matter, really. The point is the Saints offense is trickier than it looks right now. It may feel like they're just giving the ball to two guys all day but, early in Act 2 of the season, that's probably a good thing.
And that's all we've got this week. Probably time for more shrimp anyway.
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