AFCON 2022

Circling back to the AFCON, THE CAF has decided that there's nothing to see here:

"After examining the protest of Tunisia and all the match officials report, the Organising Committee decided the following: to dismiss the protest lodged by the Tunisian team. To homologate the match result as 1-0 in favour of Mali,”

Boy now there's a word you don't see every day. Or any day. Homologate?

 

Didn’t they say the ref had heat stroke?

 

Yes, that is the current claim.

Because there's no medical term for "bribe stroke"

 

How would you like to live somewhere where you had to worry about heat strokes in January?

 

Living somewhere with warm weather all year? Yes, please. I fvcking hate cold weather lol.

 

Get fukt!

 

Warm yes please. Hot enough to kill me not thanks.

 

I love winter. It weeds out the weaklings. Then again, I’m a non-stop whiner in hot, humid weather, so there’s that.

Just wish we really experienced it here. Snow. Real heavy glorious snow, brings me profound joy. When you look outside and are reminded that Mother Nature doesn’t give a shit about you and me. Snow, wind, cold…bring it on, baby.

But what are we getting tomorrow? Maybe an inch? What a disappointment. Nonetheless, I’ll be outside making four racks of ribs on the smoker and finishing them on the fire pit. Splitting some firewood. Having a few beers. Just chillin. Too bad it’s not going to be 5-10”, though.

 

I grew up in Rochester, where two feet of snow didn't even manage to close the schools. I laugh at what people around here call a "winter storm".

But let me ask: when you smoke meat in colder weather, do you cover the smoker with something like a welders blanket? Or is your smoker like one of those higher end Traegers with built in insulation?

I've smoked meat for many years but have always shied away from winter smoking because I figured it would be too much of a fight to maintain temp.

 

I'm new to my current set-up so I'll tell you next week.

I'm using a barrel smoker I got last fall, and have only used once:

https://www.oklahomajoes.com/bronco-drum-smoker

(I got it considerably cheaper than full retail)

That one time was a 10+ pork butt that took forever to finish (I learned a few things that I'll do differently next time), but it was New Year's Eve (well, early morning, day, eve, night by the time it was done), in the 50s.

For the ribs, I don't think temps around freezing will be an issue. This thing weighs 130 lbs, and can normally get 8-10 hours from an initial load of briquets. And it's great at locking in an maintaining a temperature. I'll do these at 225-250, so the coals should easily last long enough for the ribs, even if I have to crack open the air intake/exhaust a bit more to maintain temperature.

If I do end up, say, trying to do a brisket on a really cold day, I'd probably build a cheap, hinged set of plywood walls that I can easily place around the smoker, with some loose covering/blanket above, just to maintain a cushion of warm air around it. Famous last words, but I'm pretty confident it'll handle tomorrow's temps and a modest cooking time without insulation. Time will tell.

 

Southern hemisphere?

 

So, Mensah’s not played a minute for Ghana in their two matches (a loss and a tie). I have zero sense of how teams advance from the group stage in this tournament. Ghana plays what appears to be the worst team in their group in their final match. I assume they still might have a shot at advancing if they win, especially if they do so by a few goals?

It wouldn’t hurt my feelings any if they crash out at the group stage and Mensah’s on a plane back to Columbus (or Ft Lauderdale) the next day.

 

Ghanas game with Gabon ended with a draw and then a fistfight. Ghana was angry because they kicked the ball out for a Gabon injury and then on the restart Gabon kept the ball.

Ghanas opponent on Tuesday is something called Comoros, a new team from a flyspeck volcanic island in the Indian Ocean someplace. They're happy to be there, but were never likely to beat anyone who didn't start 10 nuns and a goat.

Gabon is in second place in the group and they're playing Morocco, the 800 pound gorilla of the group.

So if both games run to form, Gabon lose, Ghana wins and both end with 4 points at which point the winner will probably be decided by a committee of the hopelessly bribed.

 

Update:

The smoker had no problem whatsoever holding 225-235 degrees yesterday for six hours (31-35 degree temps outside), though it was starting to slide a bit those last 30 minutes (to 215-220). I could have packed in another couple of handfuls of briquettes, which would have easily bought me another hour or so. The air intake and exhaust were set only slightly more open than when it was in the 50s.

So, two thumbs up on the smoker’s performance in chilly weather. My technique, on the other hand, could use improvement. The ribs were good, but I don’t think Ray Ray’s has anything to fear quite yet.

 

I am not looking at a map but I think Morocco is north of the equator.

 

This is one weird conversation.

What does Morocco have to do with anything, other than being a participant in the AFCON, which is being hosted in Cameroon (which is also north of the equator, which seems to matter somehow as to whether or not it can be "hot" in January)?

 

So you're saying you hate tagine.

 

False. I love tagine, especially when lamb is involved.

 

Turns out that Janny Sikazwe, the " sunstroke" referee, was suspended by the CAF back in 2018 for taking a bribe to fix a match at the CAF Champions Cup.

But no reason not to give him more games I guess.

In other AFCON news, the stadium played the wrong national anthem for Msuritania.

Three times. On being told that they got it wrong the first time, they played exactly the same song a second time. Then the stadium announcer told the crowd that the team was going to sing it acapella. The players refused, so the stadium played the wrong song a third time after which the players gave up and took the field.

Meanwhile, in the city of Bua, which is the base for both Mali and Gambia, a day long running gun battle broke out between separatist rebels and government troops, leaving corpses scattered around town.

CONCACAF is such a dull affair. All they do is pass out paper bags of money.

 

Well, at least he's unlikely to get injured over there, then.

 

And will be back soon