Football Counter-Programming 2026: Week 3--Moses Thoughts

I was sitting in church last Sunday (as I usually do . . . Christian humble brag) and I heard the following first reading from our weekly lectionary of Biblical selections.

As I listened, I got to thinking about the wording of the Exodus passage and you will see that I have boldfaced portions of it below.

Putting 2 and 2 together, I quickly came up with the number 4--as in Water . . . Earth . . . Fire . . Air . . . and well . . . I guess I'll just say it . . .

WAS THE BIBLICAL MOSES AN AVATAR?

(a master of the four elements . . . not, to be clear, the alien blue skinned whatevers in those terrible James Cameron movies)

Yes, I'm asking.

Was Moses an Aang before Aang? Can Korra carry on a mental conversation with the Hebrew leader of the exodus from Egyptian bondage?

Blasphemy, you may say?!

Huh, others of you might also say.

If you aren't familiar with the lore of the beloved Nickelodeon cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender, I simply am not going to try and summarize the dense plot and the characters in this post. You can click on this link to enjoy a rapid-fire condensed plot presentation. 

This, in no way, should be considered an endorsement of NOT watching the full show. I heartily recommend the series and its associated spin-offs. It is a foundational text in my family and it is absolutely worth your time and your attention.

So . . . why don't you stop reading this and take the next few weeks* to carefully watch the 60ish episodes of the cartoon. Then you can consider if want to also watch the Netflix live action version (s2 was much improved over s1). And THEN come back and start over here with this blog post to fully appreciate the point I am trying to make.

. . . waiting . . .

Okay. Now then.

Now you can educatedly read this Old Testament passage, take note of my boldfaced passages, and nod your head in agreement.

Moses was an early, Hebrew avatar.

A Reading from the Book of Exodus

"The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. At the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptians army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, 'Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.'

Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.' So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. . . ."

(Also, don't watch college football.) I will not help you with your eternal salvation.

___

*It's not like you should be taking this extended time to be watching college football, right?

Football Counter-Programming 2026: Week 2--Hulk Smash . . . Cancer?

NOTE: There are brief mentions of fictional suicide in this post.

Last night I was relaying some information from Grace about events in her classroom.

To wit--

Grace creates several 16-item bracket challenges each year, giving her students something to vote on. Such as The Best Thanksgiving Meal Side Dishes or The Best Character in the Lord of the Rings movies.

Each week, kids in her class get to vote, round by round until a winner is determined.

At the start of this year, the final two in the Marvel Characters bracket was The Hulk versus Spider-Man.

(How did The Hulk make it to the final round, you ask? Who was defeated along the way? I cannot say. I am surprised that The Hulk did make it to the end. I am NOT surprised that Spider-Man did.)

ANDBUTSO . . . I was relaying this information to Sarah and Lynda. And it got Sarah and I talking about why The Hulk? We didn't get to an answer on that, but Sarah suggested it is because Bruce Banner is a sympathetic character. Someone that people can feel empathy for. Might that play a role in his popularity?

This conversation around The Hulk eventually touched on the question of How powerful is The Hulk anyway? Some comics suggest that his powers are kinda limitless and are fueled by the Hulk rage, feeding off each other in escalating ways. 

Eventually we got to the point that, in one of the MCU movies, Bruce Banner admits that when he was at one of his most depressed times, he tried to commit suicide. But The Hulk prevented it from happening. Not much more explanation was given . . . but it got me thinking even further.

How powerful is The Hulk . . . really?

If (even in a submerged, unconscious state) he has the ability to prevent Bruce Banner from suicide, then does that make Bruce Banner functionally immortal? And going at this from a different perspective . . .

can The Hulk cure cancer?

Because, if The Hulk can step in and prevent mechanical types of death, then I though the only way to stop him was through unavoidable, biological types of illness and death such as cancerous tumors and the like. 

But maybe not?

The Marvel comics universe already has characters such as Wolverine and Deadpool that have a healing factor that allows their biological systems and body to recover from some of the worst types of degradation and damage. As a result of that we already know that Logan (Wolverine) has survived for more than a century and (probably) has been shown in some comic stories to live even longer and could be considered sort of immortal?

(I do not have more than a glancing knowledge of comics lore, which is varied, confusing, and EXTENSIVE. I do not pretend to have any kind of idea what sorts of crazy storylines have been dreamed up for Wolverine or any other comic book character. So if you already know "the answer" to this thought experiment, drop an educational comment below.)

Back to the thoughts . . .

Can The Hulk cure cancer?

And if he can, then can the gamma-irradiated qualities of Bruce Banner's DNA be a template for curing cancer generally? Or is he unique and no one else has the genetic quirks to make it work?

(Probably.)

Or are The Hulk cells so very unique and radiationally dangerous that no treatment can be pursued to make any kind of cancer cure?

(Again probably.)

Or is all of this nonsense fiction and there is no reason to pursue this any further because it's all just made up and why are you trying to apply real logic to this flimsy, idiotic scenario?

(Most definitely . . . but . . . do you see where I'm steering this?)

ISN'T THIS THE SAME SCENARIO THAT MANY COLLEGE FOOTBALL FANS PUT THEMSELVES IN WEEK AFTER WEEK?

Don't you convince yourself that anything that happens on the field has real bearing in your life? Or that what you do or what you say or how you sit or what you wear or when you eat has some cause and effect relationship with the real-time actions of separate college-aged individuals unconnected to you in a separate location with their own brain patterns and their own mind-body-musculature connections reacting to the complex thoughts and actions of other college-aged opponents. All being manipulated and coached and directed by a separate set of adult supervisors and leaders on the sidelines with their own separate ideas and motivations. NOT TO MENTION the infinite vagaries of wind, temperature, turf, rain, sleep levels, hunger, or a million other factors that affect and deflect each moment of a college football game?!

Stop trying to hold on to everything so tightly!

Let go and give in! You are not the game and the game is not you!

And so, smash your way out of this mindset.

Take a walk outside. 

Don't watch college football.

Football Counter-Programming 2026: Week 1--Seriously . . . is this a space for serious stuff?

What is the point of a blog if you are afraid to write in it?

If you aren't prepared to use a public forum to air out the biggest issues in your life, then why have such a forum at all?

Normally I use these sort of rhetorical devices to set up my FC-P theme of the week and then spin off into some nonsense that wraps around to the uselessness of college football. But maybe now I'm being more authentic than rhetorical and I'm grappling with the fact that life's problems are significant and people's lives are being reflected on. How comfortable am I dropping this stuff onto an online platform that tens of people might read?

To help me, let's put together a Pros and Cons list maybe.

PROS

1. Despite that fact that dozens of people read this space, it might helpful to lock all of the details of stuff here and maybe minimize the number of times that I would have to explain everything. It does get wearisome explaining your situation time and time again. Better to get it all out once and then hope you don't have to keep explaining yourself every time you turn around?

2. It is a sort of word processor-based therapy for me. Better mental health through increased words-per-minute.

CONS

1. I should remember that I am typing about real people with real lives and airing out their real situations--without their express consent. I don't know how David Sedaris keeps getting away with lightly editing his own family dramas into best-selling books and touring shows. But aside from our first names, he and I have nothing in common and I'm very confident that I would not have the familial leeway that he enjoys.

2. Let's be real. . . . Why Won't Your Grow?! is no one's preferred platform for anything. No breaking news is being effectively disseminated from this almost 30 year old platform. It's a friggin' BLOGSPOT webpage! That was effectively out of date a week after I posted my first WWYG?! post in 2004. So, putting anything of substance here is going to do me no good.

(side note about Con #1--Back when I was a young parent and a young blogger, I was having quite a day disagreeing with one of my very young kids. Both of us where digging our heels in and would not budge our position. And man . . . was I angry about it. I was very frustrated that I was being pushed around by a little kid and I didn't know what to do with that frustration and my anger. 

So, I typed it all out in a very angry blog post and I published it. Or I was very close to publishing it. But while this was happening, Lynda got in touch via phone with our priest and I got a phone call. With gentle words and some calming perspective, I took the post down and started to begin calming down. And maybe that is all that I need to remember about this now.)

SO!

What, then, are we left with?

Just keep tossing together the same old half-baked, quickly conceived drivel that I've been doing seasonally since the early 2010s? 

Keep trying to come up with a weekly idea that has some tenuous connection to collegiate pigskin and then vainly attempt to be diverting enough? 

Keep hammering away at the quixotic conceit that this little game plays any role in what you choose to do each Fall weekend?

Guess so . . . !

See you next week . . . and remember everyone. Your alma mater had no idea what is going on in your personal life. They just want a. alumni checks, b. occasional sports ticket purchases, c. lots of merch purchases, and d. no angry tweets about how bad this year's defensive line is performing.

Spider-Men Ranked!

I love ranking things. I love ranking movies. The internet loves both ranking things and ranking movies too.

So, because I also love Spider-Man, I'm going to take a cue from a recent episode of The Big Picture podcast and provide my own personal rankings of all eleven Spider-Man movies from the 2002 Tobey Maguire original, through Andrew Garfield's Amazing series, including the Spider-Verse animated offerings, and including the Spider-Man of this moment--all four of Tom Holland's web-head films.

This will not consider Japanese Spider-men. It will not include more mainstream children's animated Spidey shows. It doesn't include Tom Hardy's Venom series and it certainly won't try to rank the putrid Sony Spider set of Morbius, Madame Web, or Kraven the Hunter. It won't let in the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon series of my youth either.

It looks at the live action, feature length theater movies (as Cinemark and Tom Cruise demands that we must!).

And, while I have used more elaborate ranking methods and scoring rubrics to rank the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole, this list is put together in a more rapid fashion--"on vibes" as the kids might say. It reflects more about how I view the films as a whole, not judging them on their full cinematic merits. And while there are absolutely loved scenes in some of these movies that fall lower on the list (looking at you Emo Peter and apologies to you Emma Stone), the glory of those scenes alone cannot pull the whole movie above some of their more well-rounded brethren.

Enough typing!

We rank!

11. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Something has to come last and I don't think most anyone is going to argue that Andrew Garfield's last solo Spider-Man movie shouldn't be that lowest ranked movie. I probably am more forgiving of Garfield's movies than most professional film critics, but I didn't love Electro overall and I really didn't like Dane DeHaan's portrayal of Harry Osborne/Green Goblin. And I certainly didn't enjoy losing Emma Stone's Gwen Stacey. Even the final scene where Peter returns as Spider-Man to save an inspired kid from Giamatti's Rhino can't scrub the taste away. But being the worst Spider-Man movie is so much better than being almost any other movie!

10. Spider-Man 3 Many people will reflexively put Garfield's The Amazing Spider-Man here. But, even though I love the Tobey Maguire movies, I've got to put Spider-Man 3 here. And the reason is because I was so disappointed in this movie after I watched it. I had high hopes for the cinematic portrayal of the Black Suit/Venom. But it just wasn't good enough. (Even though the Emo Peter sidewalk suit dance scene was incredible.) And . . . there was too much Sandman + Venom + (other) Green Goblin.

9. The Amazing Spider-Man This movie is third worst only because all of the other movies are so much better! I think Andrew Garfield was a very good, lanky, tall Peter Parker. And he was more loose and more fun than the angstier Tobey Maguire Peter. Plus I simply love Emma Stone without reservation. I did not, however, love The Lizard in this movie, despite him being such a classic Rogue. This movie DID deserve the adjective of Amazing. It really did.

8. Spider-Man: Far From Home Even the inclusion of Jake Gyllenhaal and his weird mental energy can't prevent this Tom Holland sequel from being the weakest of his Spidey quartet. Don't take that to mean that this is a bad movie because it absolutely is not. Holland's Peter is still prevented from growing into his own as a solo hero because Happy Hogan and Nick Fury are still hanging around and retarding Peter's growth. The crisis of Peter being tricked by Mysterio's lies is a good plot. And Mysterio himself is a fun, visually cool villain (in comics or in movies).

7. Spider-Man I think a lot of people are going to push back on the fact that this OG Spider-Man movie is ranked in the middle of the pack. But once again, I say that this is more a reflection of how good the overall Spider-Man suite of movies is. Even so, I'm slightly abashed to put Tobey's original superhero movie out of the Top Five. Just know that I dearly love this movie. Willem Dafoe was a GREAT Norman Osborne/Green Goblin. He just chewed up the scenery in the best way. (He's something of a villain himself!) Just know that eagerly awaited its release. And I was happy that it justified the entire superhero movie complex that we live within today. If you force me to give a reason for why this gets downgraded a bit, I have to say that there are parts of Spider-Man that are too jingoistic for me. It ran in theaters when 9/11's aftermath was still strong in people's minds and psyches. So I wasn't surprised to see a billowing American flag behind Spidey in the final shot. But I can't NOT cringe when the crowd of New Yorkers yell at the the Green Goblin that You mess with Spidey, you mess with New York. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us! 

6. Spider-Man: Homecoming Let's go from cringeworthy moments to a genuine moment of shock and awe. The reveal of Liz's father being Adrian Toomes/Vulture as Peter arrives to pick her up for the Homecoming dance is . . . just GREAT! Maybe Michael Keaton is one of the best qualified (certainly) and most skilled (yes) actors to portray a villain in these Spider-Man movies! This movie proved that Tom Holland could carry the movie. Even if the writers started down the road here of diminishing Peter's abilities by pairing him with a father figure in each following movie. (Also, the end credit stinger of Captain America's ". . . so you're in detention" VHS clip is laugh out loud funny.)

5. Spider-Man: No Way Home Why do some people not like this movie? I cannot tell you. But you can't be surprised that I would highly rank the Spider-Man movie that came up with any reason to include Tobey, Andrew, and Tom in the same movie?! I was so excited for this film and it did not disappoint me in the least. Don't forget that this movie held the burden of having to launch Marvel's Multiverse Phase, which it did well. PLUS . . . it brought many of the Peters Rogues together in the movie as well as the three heroes! (Any more opportunities to see Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina is more than enough reason to celebrate this movie. PLUS AGAIN . . . it helped bring J.K. Simmon's slightly tweaked J. Jonah Jamison back into the world with more screen time as well! Incredible. I love this movie.

4. Spider-Man 2 I have deeply loved this one since the moment I started watching it in the theater in 2004. My coworkers got me a Spider-Man 2 poster which still hangs in my work office to this day. It did such a great job of balancing the problems of Peter's dual life. And Alfred Molina's Dr. Octopus was very strong, even if he is missing from the middle third of the movie. But that is fine because that middle third is watching Peter struggle and then try to give Spider-Man up. (Spider-Man No More alley shot!) Which leads to another laugh-out-loud scene . . . the "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" song where a de-powered Peter catches up on school, Mary Jane, and life. My only really strong criticism is that Kirstin Dunst doesn't do much more than scream a lot in this movie.

3. Into the Spider-Verse Not to sound too much like Tobey Maguire's version of Peter Parker . . . but "Oh boy, yeah. I do love the Spider-Verse animated movies." The visual techniques and the animation techniques created for this genre of Spider-Man storytelling was and remains incredible to me. I'm so very happy that Miles Morales has been given such a strong platform to tell his own story of being Spider-Man. And that's not even given near enough time to Gwen Stacey's Spider-Gwen character, whom I dearly love as well! The first Spider-Verse animated movie was a promise of excellence to Spider-Man fans that has not been forgotten so far.

2. Spider-Man: Brand New Day I've only seen this movie once. But I really, really enjoyed it and look forward to watching it many more times. Yes . . . it was stuffed to the edges with characters and plot and stuff that it had to do. But I never felt that the story was lagging and I liked all of the choices. I'm not a huge Punisher guy. (The less said about the Netflix one-off, Punisher: One Last Kill, the better. Yet I've liked Bernthal's Punisher within the context of Daredevil. I really enjoyed the more sanitized version of the Punisher that is present in Brand New Day. And . . . finally, Holland's Peter gets to stand on his own feet and face his circumstances without the support scaffolding of Iron Man or Happy or Dr. Strange or Nick Fury or (R.I.P.) even Aunt May, MJ, or Ned. Peter's really going through it. He proves to himself and to us that he is up to the task. As we always knew he could be. Peter Parker's life (in most comic story lines) is never a walk in the park. This movie does a great job of showing how hard it is. It will earn billions!

1. Across the Spider-Verse It was hard to not place Brand New Day at the top of the list due to recency bias. But I have no sadness at all about saying that Across the Spider-Verse is the best Spider-Man movie. It is a visual spectacle. The sensory and character and joke overload of every Spider Society scene is incredible. Spider-Gwen gets to do even more in this movie and its all just a beautiful love letter to everything that makes the Spider-Man story universe so fun and appealing and beautiful and emotional and inspiring.

The MCU Ranked: An Ongoing List

Grace, Jay, and I are big fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It's been many years in the making and over 30 films deep. I'm updating on WWYG?! the MCU rankings that we have compiled as we have watched the movies together.

And yes . . . you'll notice that we decided to include non-Marvel movies in our rankings. I regret nothing about this.

KEY:

Infinity Saga

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Multiverse Saga

Phase 4

Phase 5

Phase 6 

(This list is always being updated, as new movies come out.) 

1. Spider-Man: Brand New Day

2. Spider-Man: Homecoming 

[n/r] Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse

3. Iron Man 3 

4. Spider-Man: No Way Home 

5. Spider-Man: Far From Home 

6. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 

7. Avengers: Infinity War 

[n/r] Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse 

8. Black Panther 

9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier 

10. Guardians of the Galaxy 

[n/r] Deadpool 

11. Captain America: The First Avenger 

12. Thunderbolts*

13. Fantastic Four: First Steps

14. Thor: Ragnarok 

15. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3

16. Black Widow 

17. Avengers: Endgame 

18. Ant-Man 

19. Ant-Man and the Wasp 

20. Captain America: Civil War 

21. Iron Man 

22. Deadpool & Wolverine

[n/r] Deadpool 2

23. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

24. Thor 

25. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 

26. The Avengers 

27. The Marvels

28. Eternals 

29. Captain Marvel 

30. Iron Man 2 

31. Avengers: Age of Ultron 

32. Thor: Love and Thunder

33. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 

34. Doctor Strange

[n/a] Shazam!

35. Captain America: Brave New World 

36. Thor: The Dark World 

37. The Incredible Hulk (Ed Norton edition) 

38. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Don't like our rankings? That's fine. I know there are others out there that will suit you better. Here is another web writers thoughts on the MCU phenomenon.

And what about the MCU TVverse?

I can't really scale them in the same list as the cinematic stories, so I'm creating a separate list here. (This includes the original ABC TV shows, the original Netflix shows, and the Disney+ series.)

1. Daredevil

2. Jessica Jones

3. Loki

4. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

5. Agatha All Along

[special] Werewolf by Night

6. Daredevil: Born Again (only inclusive of s1 . . . so far?)

7. What If . . . ? (all of the current seasons)

8. Agent Carter

9. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

10. WandaVision

11. Hawkeye

12. Ms. Marvel

13. The Punisher

14. Luke Cage

15. The Defenders

[special] The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

16. Echo

17. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

18. Ironheart

19. Iron Fist

20. Cloak & Dagger

21. Moon Knight

22. Runaways

23. Inhumans

24. Secret Invasion