I hate that Curb Your Enthusiasm is better without Cheryl

Cheryl David is the third best female sitcom character of the last 20 years. She slots in right behind Elaine Benes of “Seinfeld” and Liz Lemon of “30 Rock.” Cheryl is funny, charming, and has great chemistry with Larry David (Curbs lead actor).

Season 7 of Curb closed with Cheryl and Larry on the outs, and Season 8 abruptly began with the couple getting a divorce. I didn’t like it, but I knew that Cheryl was such an intricate character that the show would have to find a way to include her in future episodes. To my immediate chagrin Cheryl didn’t appear in episode two, and by the time episode three “Palestinian Chicken” rolled around I wasn’t missing her at all.

Her absence gives the show a prequel type of a feel now. We always wondered how Larry got so lucky as to wed Cheryl in the first place. She’s younger, hotter, and better than him; we assumed that it was the Seinfeld money that made him attractive. So now post-Cheryl we get to see single Larry in all of his glory. And I must say it is “prettay, prettay, prettay” impressive.

In the span of two episodes one of my favorites had become insignificant. Can you imagine “Seinfeld” without Elaine? Cheryl was the table setter of the show. The sneaky hot wife that could stand toe to toe with Larry, and sometimes even outwit him. Larry is certifiably crazy, and we needed Cheryl to make everything believable. Cheryl would hastily apologize for Larry’s social phobias, or try to hijack them before they could do any significant damage. She was perfect. Little did I know, she was actually holding the show back? Season 8 of Curb was the best ever, and the stories told could not have happened organically with Cheryl being an active player.

In Palestinian Chicken (Episode 3) Larry (a Jew) meets a Palestinian woman at a verboten Chicken spot, they have immediate hate chemistry, which leads to the unforgettable scene where she and he are swapping paint, in the bedroom, and she initiates dirty talk by yelling at him “I’m going to Eff the JEW out of you.”

In The Bi-Sexual (Episode 7) Larry and Rosie O’Donnell are courting the same woman, and so Larry resorts to “juicing” to beat the competition. Jane the courted eventually finds out and forbids Larry from entering her Hall of Fame.

In Mister Softee (Episode 9) Larry is dating a woman who doesn’t know about his childhood mental scars and thus doesn’t understand why he goes soft when he hears the Mr. Softee ice cream music. This leads to countless shenanigans ending with Bill Buckner redeeming himself of his 1986 mishandling of a ball at Shea, by catching a baby in New York City.

In Larry vs Michael J. Fox (Episode 10) Larry is dating a woman who has a 6-year-old boy who is “fierce.” The lad’s birthday is coming up and Larry tortures himself trying to find a suitable gift. He settles on a sewing machine. The boy loves it, but Susie feels it’s not appropriate for a boy. Larry confesses that he bought the gift because he assumed the boy was gay. Susie says he’s too young to be gay, in order to be gay you have to have sexual feeling towards the same sex. She continues that the boy probably doesn’t have any sexual feelings, thus can’t be gay. Larry agrees, and then says the boy is “pre-gay.”

Season 8 was fantastic. Larry David is a comedic genius. First “Seinfeid” and now “Curb.” Not too many shows can claim that they are doing their best work in their eighth season. I hate to say it but this is a classic case of “The Ewing Theory” which basically supports the concept of addition by subtraction. Cheryl, you have become a casualty of greatness. We love you, but don’t miss you.

I hate that Tony Romo plays like score is not being kept

The most important part of all competition is score. Score equals accomplishment. Final score determines winning and losing. So no matter how much you score, unless you’re ahead at the final score, you’re a loser.

Tony Romo has a great physical skill set for a quarterback. He’s has a quick release, he’s accurate, he’s mobile all the physical things you want in a QB. But mentally he leaves much to be desired.

The fourth quarter of the game is considered winning time. Romo, not unlike Lebron James has difficulty during this time. I’m not sure if it’s pressure though in his case. I think its just Romo loves to play football so much that he loses sight on playing winning football. And as a Cowboys fan we suffer because of this. We as fans need wins to feel good on Mondays.

Sunday, the Cowboys were up by 7 against the Jets, in the season opener. My Cowboys had command of the entire game. We were inside the Jets 5 yard line. A field goal basically ices the win for us. Romo scrambles and then inexplicably takes off for the goal line, on third down, and dives for a touchdown. This play takes much guts, but little common sense. Like I said, a field goal wins it. When the play wasn’t there he should have played for the win, but he decided to play for the thrill.

Losers play for the thrill. Romo is an adrenaline junkie. He can’t help himself. He wants, nay, needs games to be close for some reason.

Romo fumbles on that dive for the end zone. The momentum of the game shifts, and the Cowboys end up losing by 3 points. Romo has no idea how bad that loss really was on Sunday. A win on the road against a quality team is hard to come by. On top of that there is a mental advantage to winning the first game of the season. The Cowboys play the AFC East this year with two home games against the Bills, and Dolphins. They could have ended up 3-1 against that division. The Cowboys also play the NFC West, which is an also-ran division where they could easily go 3-1. So even if they went 3-3 in their own division that would have left them very close to 10 wins and a playoff birth.

Now all bets are off, and the 49ers game this week is a must-win. You know if you ask loser QB’s about the game, they always say they want to make plays, or they dream about making the big throw in the big game. But a winning QB dreams about being in the Victory Formation, kneeling down with a lead in the big game.

So now Monday sucks, and I have to take all my frustration out on clients, and co-workers. They don’t deserve this, but its trickle down. Romo, does it to me, and then I must do it to you. I can’t imagine where it ends. There is probably some kid somewhere getting reamed and he has no idea why. I’m sure if he re-traced the evidence it would lead back to Tony Romo, and his disregard for winning.

Tony why do you hate winning so much? It’s done nothing to you. Winning is cute and has a great personality. I’m going to set you guys up on a blind date. I think you’ll like each other.

Until Romo gets his priorities in order Cowboy Nation will be forced to be thrill seekers, and miss out on all the winning that our brethren in New England, Green Bay, and Pittsburgh, get to experience.

Bobby Knight once said "Dumb loses more than smart Wins." I'm not sure if truer words have ever been spoken.