Mexican Weather Girl Yanet Garcia Claims 'New Year, New Me', Packers Keep Playoff 'Hoes' Alive & Bills Mafia Delivers
Welcome to 2024...I woke up all confused and thinking it was Tuesday and that I had a Zoom call in like 30 minutes...that was a rough start to the year
Full confession: I didn't plan on drinking on New Year's Eve outside of a ginger ale, but then we got an interesting party invite at the last second and who are the Kinseys to turn down a casual NYE party invite when the organizer says she figures everyone will leave at 10.
PERFECT!
We'll go over, I'll drink a ginger ale at a house that I've never been in and we'll take this slow. My son knows their son. The kids play together, but I've never met the families involved.
Next thing I know, I hadn't been in the house five minutes and my ginger ale plan was thrown right out the window.
"You want a beer?"
Uh, yeah, sure.
Next thing I know, I'm on the floor of this family's family room playing some dice game that's like shuffleboard where you have to get your dice between two strips of tape and if you get the dice to stop on the tape, it's double points.
Race to 100.
Losers have to do shots.
Uh, yeah, don't twist my arm.
My dice partner and I went 0-2 (both matches went into overtime; in the second game we were down by like 40, came charging back only to lose a heartbreaker). I'm now addicted to this dice game, our kids got to play their hearts out with their friends, we met nice couples, I drank beers, did shots and we were home by 10.
I think the lesson from 2023 is to take life as it comes and go with it. Trust the instincts. When the NYE gods send you a party invite, you oblige. You never know what path it will send you down like finding a new party game to play with your friends.
Other weekend observations:
The Lions refs
• Myron in MI writes:
I am sure you will get a few outraged emails from other Lions fans but after so many terrible calls in the last 20 years we should expect it.
I used to tell my rec soccer players there are two rules for refs. 1. The ref is always right. 2. When the ref is wrong, see rule 1.
Actually stole that from a sign in the old Douglas House bare in Houghton Michigan about bartenders but it still applies.
It's emails like this that fuel the passion I have for this column
• David A. writes:
Long-time reader, first-time writer.
I just needed to say thank you to Screencaps. I’m currently flying home from Montana. After seeing so many pics of Glacier National Park in your column I had to check it out for myself. So my wife and I (in our 40’s), our daughter (19), and son (16) traveled to Whitefish, Montana and saw snow for the first time.
We are from Louisiana. I just retired in October after 26 years of working for a local municipality. I took 0 days off and got another job at Tulane University while still being able to draw my pension with free health insurance for life. (This afforded us the luxury of taking this trip).
While in Montana, we stayed at Grouse Mountain Lodge and went to Whitefish Mountain Resort to try skiing. We all took first-timer lessons. I killed it on the all-day lessons, but after 3 falls going down the actual mountain, I was out. Do hard things…but don’t hurt yourself (or others). I will say my feet have bruises and blisters from those vice-grip ski shoes. Of course, the teenage kids excelled going down the mountain while mom and dad bowed out of the night skiing.
The next day we took a tour through Glacier National Park and saw the beauty of America. Seeing Instagram posts in real life was a sight to behold. We got to do a brief snowshoe hike which we all enjoyed.
Before leaving today, we went back to Big Mountain to go to the Summit to see the views from above. While doing so, we got to see a beautiful sunrise over the mountains—obligatory sunrise picture attached.
So thank you for the inspiration for a great trip. The kids are getting older and we don’t know how many opportunities there will be for trips like this in the future, but it was fun to make the memories while we can.
Kinsey:
I can't remember the reader, but I seem to remember it was back in 2021 when a Californian saw a burrito in the food section of Screencaps and called up his son. He told his boy they were going to go eat this burrito he saw on Screencaps. My memory is foggy, but I believe it was like a two-hour drive to get this burrito.
That was a high honor for me at the time. I couldn't believe the impact the column was having on readers.
Along comes David A. to say his family picked Montana for a Christmas break trip based on the Screencaps travel section. The high-honor meter has officially gone to the next level.
I think all that can top this is if someone goes and buys one of these crazy cars I post -- or a Zillow Gone Wild house.
Meeting celebrities/athletes in the wild when they're acting like complete normals
• Tyler E. writes:
Fun story. Went to the University of Houston. We made our run to play Florida St. in the Peach Bowl in 2015. Buddy and I went to the college football hall of fame to check it out. Had no idea it was the actual induction ceremony for the new inductees.
End up stumbling into the induction ceremony by complete accident. Got to meet the Boz (and his smoking gal). Ended up BSing for a good 15-20 minutes.
He was super cool. Got to meet Jim Tressel as well because the Boz introduced us. Totally surreal. And just because I know my buddy reads this, I’m not the short one!
• Duncan writes:
I was an assistant golf professional in Augusta for a few years, so I met plenty of celebs when they came out to play during Masters week. But my favorite encounter was when Ray Romano and Kevin James checked in to play. Earlier that spring, Ray had played in the Pebble Beach pro am, and hit one on to the beach. Since it made for good TV, he went down on the sand and played from there. As they were headed out the door, I said Ray, we don't have any beaches, but try to keep it out of the pine trees. He gave me a death stare, but Kevin James was laughing. I felt pretty good that I made a comedian laugh!
Also met The Fridge at Outback in Augusta. He had a huge plate of wings, and I apologized for bothering him, but told him I was a huge fan and loved that the bears destroyed the Patriots in the SB. He shook my hand and I can't explain how big his hand was. Super nice guy.
Duncan continues:
He grew up un Aiken, SC, real close to Augusta. I felt terrible bothering him, but I was a huge fan when I was a kid. His personality, size, nickname - it was all perfect to a 12 year old kid! And pretty sure he had at least a double order of wings, maybe triple.
Screencaps Green Berets
• Bo T. in Michigan writes:
Joe, it was pretty humbling to be mentioned in Matt B's email in SC this morning. I'm certainly no legend in the Green Beret community although I've been privileged to serve and work with some, from Vietnam era studs to Cold War/Early War on Terror guys (my generation) to full-on pipe hitters from the GWOT. I've been fortunate to be able to give back to the Special Operations community in some small ways. If any SC readers are interested, the Green Beret Foundation (https://greenberetfoundation.org) does outstanding work for some of America's best warfighters.
Mexican sunrise and sunset
• John fron SD writes:
“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”:
Not as entertaining as Dave K’s flight to Cabo, we were a few days earlier into Mx.
Wife was sick by day 2-3, kid 1 by day 3-4, kid 2 by day six. All viral until the wife tested positive for the Vid upon return today.
One of the kids had to go to the ER today and is spending the night with me there. Happy New Year!
The good: beautiful weather and worth the trip.
The Bad: 3/4 of us getting sick!
The ugly: #4 throwing up for 24 hours.
'I'll miss your Screencaps when you are running your own high-powered media company someday'
• Mike N. writes:
I’ll really miss your Screencaps when you are running your own high-powered media company someday… I’m just going to appreciate it while we can…. Thank you for your grinding efforts…
Kinsey:
Thank you, Mike, but have no fear, I'm married to the Screencaps game and it will go with me wherever I end up in life. Just remember, I'm on record saying OutKick is my final Internet stop as long as OutKick will have me and provide a fair salary.
Mike, I never in my wildest dreams thought Fox News Corp. executives would ever give a crap who I was or even talk to me. I came from the newspaper industry where the executives couldn't wait to get rid of workers. The quicker they got your salary off the books, the better for the newspaper.
It has been a completely different story with Fox. The executives actually talk to me. They actually make small talk back to me. Executives in New York City shouldn't be responding to me, but here we are.
At first, I didn't take to it very well. I've been very, very guarded with my career due to newspaper executives who wounded me early on. I've been a lone wolf on a mission for the past 16 years. The Internet has been my way to get back at those scumbags. It's that revenge that fuels me.
Fox has had two years to screw with me and reopen those newspaper wounds. Fox has done nothing of the sort.
I recently retold the story to my wife of the newspaper executive who told me he'd given me a nickel per hour too much in a raise and he was taking back the nickel even though I was piecing together machines with paper clips to make sure that newspaper was published.
Mike, this is my dream job right now. I get to talk to this audience and hopefully put a finger on the pulse of the populace. It's a huge honor.
Now let's go have a huge 2024. I'm refueled and ready to go.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com