Super Bowl 50 – 10 things you don’t need to know

With the Super Sunday upon us I thought it’d be fun to look for some quirky things that relate to the Super Bowl itself as well as people that’ll be involved in making us happy/angry(circle the appropriate) during the probably most watched event in history of the USA. Well at least in 2016. So let’s start this list to prepare us for some trivia during commercial breaks and the so obvious booth reviews and other usual occurrences.

1. Super Bowl 50’s referee will be Clete Blakeman, the same super cool dude who somehow botched the coin flip during the Cardinals-Packers game causing Aaron Rodger’s slight confusion. Be aware, he’ll be flipping too. It can get scary.
2. For the first time in history of NFL two quarterbacks taken with first overall draft pick will go against each other during the Super Bowl. Manning was no 1 in 1998, Newton was no 1 in 2011.
3. Cam Newton not only works hard on Sundays during football games. He continued to take classes at Auburn during off season periods and he finished his degree in sociology in 2015.
4. There is 60 beer taps on the east side of the Levi Stadium at the 50-yard line and if you are lucky to attend the Super Bowl 50 in person and overdo on beers, don’t worry. There is 1620 women’s and men’s toilet fixtures. Splash away!
5. Peyton Manning is the only quarterback in NFL history to lead multiple teams (Colts, Broncos) to multiple Super Bowl appearances.
6. The number of Wilson factories that make the footballs used during NFL game is one. They produce around 700000 football per year. The air pressure matter we will leave in capable hands of the NFL.
7. Super Bowl 50 will mark the occasion where there was the largest age difference between the starting quarterbacks in history of Super Bowl, with Manning at 39 and Newton 26 the exact difference will be 13 years and 48 days.
8. It is estimated that over 1.3 billion chicken wings will be devoured by the fans watching the game from their premium spots in their lounges in front of the TV. Oh, it is expected that over 1500 litres of beer will be needed to wash the wings with.
9. When not busy tackling opponents or intercepting footballs, Panther’s Luke Kuechly likes to hunt. Its been a life passion for him as he started bird hunting at the age of four.
10. What is it with the linebackers and birds? Bronco’s Von Miller found his niche while minoring at Texans A&M and it is chickens. He already got some chickens and Miller Farms is his little side project.

So here. 10 things I didn’t know about Super Bowl 50 until I thought about it a bit more and poked my nose around.
I think my most anticipated moment of the Super Sunday will be a coin flip…yes definitely. It would be also a very special coin flip if it end up being needed to decide first possession in overtime as there has not been a period of overtime in Super Bowl history(oh did I just made an 11th fact?).

Tengu – Graham Masterton

You are just about to find out that Sherry has 23 minutes of life left. Just like that, with this simple and yet horrific message “Tengu” begins. It is another well written title that only bolstered my opinion about Masterton and his craft of scaring us and leaving us with shock written in our faces.
I still remember the day when I finished reading the novel and the end shocked me so much because I didn’t expect it and yet because I was really missing that type of a book ending, that it resulted in me needing to just go out and walk if off in a winter scenery surrounded by harsh and very cold air around me. I just had to cool off. Literally.
Have you ever wondered how the Japanese see the nuclear attacks that finished second World War? Have they forgave the nation or are they planning a painful revenge?
In this title Masterton creates an alternative story where dropping the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was somewhat the only choice the USA army had to prevent the Japanese from unleashing their secret weapon that could decide the war in their favour. Weapon so undefeated, so indestructible, almost demonic….
People responsible for the bombs attacks are still alive, they are tortured by nightmares by their guilty consciousness. Yet there’s a secret organisation in Japan that can not stand the  cruel act committed against their people, people who are now scared, deformed, miserable.
It is that organisation that forms an army of haunted by demons volunteers who are meant to kill the remaining soldiers responsible for the bombing and also commit an incredible act if revenge on the whole nation of USA.
The book just keeps you guessing until the last page. And yet, you get it wrong despite being sure you eliminated every other possibility. An absolutely great read that only confirms how skillful Masterton is in manipulating histories, merging them with the present world. “Tengu” left me speechless for a long time but it was the good type of speechless for sure.