Our Ida, gridiron savant, has lived in an old stone house in Sheepshead Bay — circa 1936 — for much longer than you, dear reader, have been alive. Things have changed during those many years; the shop on the corner, once a pharmacy with an American flag hanging outside, is now a small Burmese grocery store overflowing with chillies, spices, and more than 20 varieties of rice. The meat man no longer delivers, forcing our prognosticator to order from a mysterious place called “Fresh Direct.” And, most disturbingly, football is played on Thursday nights.
Ida will not to let these things disturb her for she is a rock, solid as the stone that surrounds her come winter, when she chooses to sleep inside.
Yes, it’s true. During the warmer months, Ida prefers transient shelter to this domestic illusion of permanency. The troposphere is here ceiling, for what grander a rooftop is there than the dome of sky? And is there a greater fresco than the very heavens themselves?
The October cool is settling in and Ida, forever the realist, will move indoors before taking her annual winter sojourn to the Bay of Biscay.
In the meantime, she’ll take the words of the great record-spinner Casey Kasem to heart: “Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.”
Ida’s picks: Vikings (−7), Patriots (−7), Colts (3.5), Packers (−13), Chargers (−3), Bears (−7.5), Redskins (3.5), Raiders (1), Giants (1), Saints (6)
Breakouts:
Jets (−2.5) over Dolphins
“They’ll pull it together.”
Falcons (2.5) over Eagles
“Falcons will stay undefeated.”
Kryptonite pick of the week:
Seahawks (−3) over Lions
Ida’s record:
47–55–2,
4–3 Kryptonite
7–5–1 last week
Ida's Pigskin Prognostications appear every Friday on BrooklynDaily.com, unless there is one of those wacky Thursday night games, when it appears on Thursday, or, most likely, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving because Ida refuses to use a computer after stuffing a Turkey.