The Skolney Blog

1990: I was absolutely the exact right audience at the exact right time for Home Alone. And for an 11 year old in 1990 this movie was pure candy. At that age nothing was more cool than the idea of being at home all by yourself with no supervision. All the other stuff in this movie was kind of secondary to just that idea. But I loved the movie overall and it's maybe the 1st movie I really strongly recall the theater experience for.  Then I reviled this movie. Look, at 11 years old this movie worked for me, but by, say, 13 or 14 I had started watching a lot more R rated movies and started listening to rap. There was nothing I could have been LESS interested in for basically a decade than watching freaking Home Alone. But the years passed and I started to have fond feelings again for the movie. Nowadays I can enjoy watching this movie again for purely nostalgic reasons. There is such a warm feeling to a lot of this movie, and that helps to excuse that, honestly, a lot of t...

VIKINGS 28 PANTHERS 27 It was over. Game. Season. All of it. When, with just over 2 minutes left today Chad Beebe muffed a punt inside the Vikings own 10 and the Panthers recovered, that was simply the final mistake among many that had doomed the Vikings to a terrible loss that was going to.put the final nail in the coffin to the 2020 season. Instead this became maybe the most miraculous Vikings victory since the Minneapolis Miracle. Just when all appeared completely lost, this team crawled back out of the grave they spent much of the afternoon digging for themselves. To be sure, the Vikings did not play well today. The first half was decent enough. In an unwelcome throwback to September, we had that thing again where the first offensive series was really good and then the offense sputtered. The run game never really got going. Kirk made some plays but the OL play was really rough with Ezra Cleveland out again. Their 7-0 lead held up for a while but eventually Teddy Bridgewater hit a c...

COWBOYS 31 VIKINGS 28 I don't think I have anything left to give emotionally to the 2020 Minnesota Vikings season. I think today sucked it out of me.  This season, man. Everything has just been seemingly engineered to make me as miserable as possible at all times. Yes, even when things go good.  The 3 game win streak was great. It really was. Winning at both Green Bay and Chicago was great. But even those wins set up expectations and raised hopes that this Vikings team just cannot live up to. It just adds to the disappointment and heartbreak that I feel after watching this seemingly resurrected season euthanized as the Vikings just let a 2-7 team that has been a punchline for most of this season and is led by a backup QB and a lousy defense come in to US Bank Stadium and realistically end their season. This was unacceptable. You have it all there in front of you after crawling back to 4-5. A 3 game homestand against bad teams that could set you up for a chance at a playoff spo...

VIKINGS 19 BEARS 13 For 20 years, the most hated game on every Vikings schedule has been the Chicago road game. Year after year that game is torture to sit through, as good Vikings teams inexplicably fall apart there and bad teams look even worse. Things happen there that defy logic and reason, so even though the Vikings and Bears were decidedly trending in opposite directions entering Monday night, I still dreaded this game, knowing that some weird Soldier Field shit (aka SFS) was going to happen again and destroy our recent revived playoff hopes. And some SFS most definitely happened again, but this time we were finally able to overcome it and get a crucial win that sets this team up now to truly make a real run at this. In perhaps the most surprising development of the night, the Vikings honestly looked like the markedly better team the whole game. Right from the start we moved the ball, only to have our opening drive end due to a Kyle Rudolph fumble that was not a damn fumble (SFS)...

The Vikings faint but slightly resurrected playoff hopes hinge on two things. One is that we gotta do our part and win, starting with MNF tomorrow. But we also need these teams ahead of us to lose some games.  This seemed like a prime Sunday to get some of that outside help.  And we got NONE. It was a total disaster of a day from a hopeful Vikings fan perspective.  The early window of games teased us, as the Christian McCaffrey-less Panthers were hanging with Tampa. And most improbably, the Packers were struggling badly at home against the Jaguars. I had written off the division, but a Packer loss would mean we could pull within 2.  Neither was meant to be. The Packers pulled out a win due to a combo of Jacksonville being hideous, and naturally a fair share of ref ball. And the Panthers spent the 2nd half doing just about everything wrong you can do, and Tampa won in big fashion. The late window saw the Rams beat Seattle as Russell Wilson, who could do no wrong again...

IOWA 35 GOPHERS 7 Losing a handful of good players to the NFL does not excuse this.  The Gophers have plummeted so massively from where they were after winning the Outback Bowl that anyone questioning whether last season was simply one of the great flukes in Minnesota sports history can't be blamed a bit. This team is AWFUL. A complete fiasco on both sides of the ball. Tanner Morgan is complete garbage now. I never bought him as a pro prospect even last year, but my god it looks like he has had a brain wipe and completely forgotten how to play quarterback. Tonight's game was somehow within reach much of the way, cause Iowa isn't that good themselves. But Morgan could not complete a pass. He couldn't handle any pressure. He could not do ANYTHING. I have no idea why Fleck didn't bench his ass after that preposterous 3rd quarter pick that nuked the last true chance they had to win the game.  Rashod Bateman has to be lamenting his decision to play this season after all....

VIKINGS 34 LIONS 20 This strange Vikings season has reached its midpoint. They are not where I thought they would be (I figured 4-4 at worst). They have at times looked absolutely hapless, at times brilliant. Today they looked much more the latter in earning their 1st home win of the year, dispatching the Lions. While less eye opening than their big upset in Green Bay  last week, this too was a complete performance on both sides of the ball. And it was the first game of the season that was kind of no sweat. The Vikings got up multiple scores early, finishing their 1st 2 surgical drives with a Cook run and a short Kirk to Irv pass. The Lions had a scoring chance, but Matt Prater missed a field goal. Once you saw that Prater of all people could miss a kick against us there was little.doubt who would win the day. The Lions did.get in the endzone late in the first half to close to within 13-10. But then we got one of the best 2 minute drills in recent memory. With 1:30 left and 3 timeo...

I mean, it fucking took the media long enough to call this thing. It was blatantly obvious by at least Thursday morning that Biden was going to win not just Pennsylvania but all the other uncalled states too (except North Carolina). I was frankly fed up with the reluctance to call this thing, when you know damn well they would never have waited like this if the R and D were reversed. But that's over now. Joe Biden is officially going to be president now! We now have our salvation as a country. Donald Trump is officially a loser. He can whine all he wants and file all the lawsuits he wants but it won't work. That fat fuck traitor will be dragged from the White House in January if necessary. There's definitely reason to worry about what further damage he can do in the next 2+ months before he is removed. He is an evil, spiteful monster who will no doubt lash out against the very population that rejected him twice. And his supporters are violent, ignorant thugs who will also l...

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Between this and the election, it is a bad week for violent old conservative douchebags with a predilection for young girls. Revenge. Tastes good. 

What a rollercoaster the last day has been. But worth it, cause what for much of Tuesday night appeared to a slowly evolving deja vu nightmare instead turned into a glorious, exhilarating victory for all that is good and just. Joe Biden will be elected president! We did it! We turned back Trump! Tuesday night had me furious, as my previous blog can attest. To see Trump not only competitive but winning was revolting. How could this be happening again after what the last 4 years have been? I was furiously checking Twitter and Reddit and even Facebook for signs of hope. And I saw a lot of people talking about how Biden was still in great shape despite the numbers we were seeing.  The cable news networks really were awful. It's like they were trying to turn every viewer into a paranoid mess. Florida looks good! (No it doesn't) Texas looks good! (No it doesn't) North Carolina looks good! (No it doesn't) Ohio looks great! (No...it really doesn't) By the time states like W...

It's about 10pm on election night as I type this.  It looks like at best Biden might squeak this thing out. At best. But it might just be 2016 repeated, cause somehow, after 4 years of nonstop criminality, and after a 2020 in which he deliberately let well over 200,000 Americans die of COVID, this piece of fucking shit country for some reason decided, "hey, give us more of THAT." The son of a bitch will probably end up getting MORE votes. I simply do not understand why we have to be like this. Donald Trump is the biggest disgrace of a president we have ever had, and he is either going to get a 2nd term or come damn close. I'm not mad at the polls. I'm not mad at Joe Biden. I'm mad at this country. And we will get what we deserve if this nightmare actually happens again. Hundreds of thousands more will die from COVID as Trump continues to ignore the virus. Obamacare goes away with no replacement. Roe v Wade gets overturned with no hope of a reversal. We cannot ...

Well, here we are. The eve of quite literally a do or die election. It could be the last presidential election we ever have if things go wrong. Like many I have major PTSD from 4 years ago. That was one of the worst days in American history, a horrible miscarriage of justice that has done more damage to this country than can maybe ever be fixed.  Can it happen again? Yes. Yes it absolutely can. Do not count on anything good until it happens. Like most I thought Hillary would win, but was wary of the evil and stupidity of much of the electorate. I knew Trump had a chance. That didn't stop me from having a fucking panic attack as that night progressed. But yes, it CAN happen again. Trump could win. Oh he can't win through any legal means, but he can win. I don't think that's how it will go. Biden will win. We will know he won sooner than we knew Trump won in 2016. That wasn't official until the wee hours, but we all saw the writing on the wall by 9 or 10pm. I think we...

VIKINGS 28 PACKERS 22 The least anticipated Vikings game for me in a very long time turned out to be one of their most unexpected and satisfying wins in a very long time. This is not a win that is going to save the season, or propel them back into playoff contention (although they have a decent shot to be just 2 back in the loss column in the division by next Sunday night). But damn it was it a fun win to get. To go into Lambeau Field, with such a depleted defensive roster, and take down the media darling Packers and their lord and savior Aaron Rodgers, is SO satisfying.  It was a strange game from the start. The first half had only 4 drives in it (aside from a 1 play Packer drive that killed clock before halftime). Green Bay methodically drove down the field and scored two touchdowns. Minnesota methodically drove down the field and scored two touchdowns. The only difference was the Packers were doing a lot more dink and dunk passing, while the Vikings rode Dalvin. After halftime i...