Monthly Roundup: January's Top Posts

To close each month, we'll do a quick roundup of the not-to-miss posts. In a blog with so much fascinating content, it could be easy to miss one or two good posts.

Yep, it's February already. Hopefully your new year's resolutions are still going strong. I'm struggling to remember what mine were. Fortunately, it's not tough to remember what the top posts of January were.

• This month will bring us Tinseltown's biggest night of the year. Gearing up for the Oscar's? Check out Saucy's predictions for the winners, losers and everyone in between.
• Sports more your speed? Or middle-aged men sitting at home in their underwear glued to the TV and Internet "playing" fantasy basketball?
   
• Local BYOB shines during Ambler Restaurant Week: Zake's Cafe is definitely worth a visit
   
• The post that drew the most traffic last month? 10 best pizzas of 2011
   
• Speaking of pizzas, we ate some pretty terrible ones last month. Luckily, SliCE was an exception.

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The Pizza Project

Just a nibble: http://twitter.com/ThePizzaProject
Single slice: http://www.facebook.com/ThePizzaProject
The full pie: http://thepizzaproject.blogspot.com/

A Slightly Aimless Rant about...My NBA Fantasy Team

For the longest time, I said I would never participate in this fantasy sports phenomenon. I don't know, man! I just thought it was silly. Banking on guys 15 years your junior to score 30 points so you could have bragging rights on your homies for something you had nothing to do with. Taking time away from your family so you can do research on what member of the Toronto Raptors was sitting out a game, opening up time for someone you could pick up on the sly. Praying for a guy to shoot a three up 30 points with five seconds left in the game so you could possibly get a couple more points on that week's opponent, the arrogant jackarse who you were just dying to annihilate and then denigrate via the trash-talk boards. Nah, it just wasn't for me.

Thank You, Taj Gibson!!!

I don't like the Miami Heat. LeBron James is, of course, a self-aggrandizing whiner who had no chance to win a title on his own so he went out and rigged the league. Dwyane Wade is an arrogant, self-entitled fiend whose only title was handed to him by the league. He showed how truly classless he was by dunking in the last seconds of the Heat's first-round victory over Philadelphia after the Sixers had conceded. As for Chris Bosh, well, he is simply a glorified caddy. He couldn't lead his Toronto Raptor team anywhere near a playoff victory, so he moved to South Beach to shoot wide-open 15-footers and most likely do LeBron's whites whenever "The King" is feeling a bit lazy! These clowns actually had the temerity to cry and celebrate on the court after a playoff victory over the Boston Celtics IN THE CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS!!! So now the Heat are playing the Chicago Bulls in the conference finals and...it looks like the road just got a little tougher!

Top Five Reasons...to Dump Andre Iguodala

1) He Is Holding the Entire Team Back - If I have to suffer through another season of Andre Iguodala bringing the ball up while Jrue Holiday, an emerging star, wonders what the F he is doing on the court, I will impale myself with a samurai sword. Holiday is the point guard and should therefore handle the ball, yet Doug Collins spent the whole season deferring to Iguodala, a guy who distributes the ball well yet has no business running an offense. He also plays the same position as Evan Turner, a guy who I was not a fan of in college and I don't know if he will ever be a star player, but at least he played like he had a sack in the playoffs. Thaddeus Young also gets minutes taken away by Iguodala. I don't know who you want on your team more, but I will take Young, the guy who was all over the court in Game 5 with the season on the line, instead of Iguodala, the guy who choked his way through the majority of the series, averaging about 6 points per game in the first three contests.

2) He Is Not a Leader - Maybe it isn't fair, but when you get paid the most money on the team, you are pretty much contractually bound to be the team leader. Iguodala? He ain't getting it done. If he was, there is no way Dwyane Wade gets away with throwing down a last-second dunk Wednesday night when the game was already decided. A real leader would have been running down the court to check Wade into the third row. Iguodala? He was most like trying to figure out whether he should or shouldn't wear his Urkel glasses during the post-game presser. After the game, the entire team, save a few guys who cherish their dignity (props out, Elton Brand), went over to the Heat slapping hands and hugging over the fact that they had just got unceremoniously dumped from the postseason. Ten seconds after the guy had clowned you with an unnecessary jam! Eh, I guess this will happen when your "best player" carries himself like he doesn't give a shizz!

Dear...You: My Fantasy Basketball Team

Every once in a while, The Pizza Project gets angry or happy or sad or excited. When this occurs, they need to write a letter to nobody in particular. Why? Becaue it feels good, that's why!

Dear My Fantasy Basketball Team,

Alright, no more games, motherf*ckers! This year, my first (and quite likely my last) season of fantasy basketball, started off so well. I received the second pick in the draft. I won my first four games, defeating people and mocking them horribly simply because it seemed fun. I ran up a record total of points one week, a stretch of seven days where it seemed that if I could have placed Drazen Petrovic's rotting corpse on my roster and he would have found a way to put up 25, 5, and 5, with a three-pointer of two.

Now look at me: 9-8, trying to scratch my way into the playoffs. It all started when I cut the captain and veritable namesake of my team, Yao Ming. I had promised to keep him on my roster all year, even if he was injured for the entire season. With Yao at the helm, I saw nothing but perfect health. Joakim Noah was rebounding and blocking shots. Jrue Holiday was coming into his own as a young playmaker. Andrea Bargnani was making chicken cacciatore for the team on off days. In short, it was bliss.