I can't believe you don't know who Bob Avellino is

Classic Dad moment at dinner tonight. The MNF game runs a stat about the undrafted quarterbacks with the highest winning percentages, two of whom, Tony Romo and Jake Delhomme, were playing in the game. I didn't see the stat, so Dad asks, who's #2?

Me: Boy, I don't know. Is he an active player?

Dad: No.

Me: Hmm. I need another hint. Where did he go to college?

Dad: UCLA, I think.

Me: UCLA... boy, I should really know this, then!

Mom: When did he play?

Dad: Oh, like in the 90s, mostly.

Me: So he must have been one of the guys right before McNown... I'm just drawing a blank here. At the risk of totally giving it away, what team did he play for primarily?

Dad: The Redskins.

Me: The Redskins? Well, it wasn't Shuler or Frerotte... Mark Rypien?

Dad: Nope.

Me: Boy, I give up.

Dad: Okay, ready?

Me: I'm sure I'll kick myself. Go ahead.

Dad: Jay Fiedler!

Me: ...Jay Fiedler played primarily for the Dolphins, in the 2000s, and went to Dartmouth. But otherwise, great hints! I can't believe I didn't figure it out!

It turns out he was thinking of Jay Schroeder, who did play for the Redskins (although he spent more years with the Raiders) and did go to UCLA, and the peak of his career straddled 1990. And, weirdly enough, his career winning percentage as a QB was almost identical to Fiedler's (.616 to Fiedler's .617). He was, however, drafted.

The whole thing reminded me very much of another classic family story from the late 90s, alluded to in the title of the post. We were out in Pennsylvania and passed a store called Avellino's, which I think sold tires or some such thing. As we pass it, my dad jokes, "Hey, is that owned by Bob Avellino?"

Mom: Who's Bob Avellino?

Dad: You don't know who Bob Avellino is? You're kidding me! I can't believe you don't know who Bob Avellino is!

Mom: So, who is he?

Dad: The Bears' quarterback in the 70s!

Mom: You mean Bob Avellini?

Dad: ...yes.

This report called in by Russian journalist Baba Booski

Okay, maybe I have the mind of a 12-year-old. But I found this hilarious.

So I'm listening to the BBC today and they're talking about Russian operations in Georgia. And they discuss what the Russian army did in Poti, a city on Georgia's Black Sea coast. (You can see it on this map.) In fact, it's not just a coastal city, it's a port city. And it's pronounced pot-tea. Or, if you like, potty. And that was what the BBC reporter kept saying.

The port of Poti.

Thank God he wasn't Irish, if you get my drift. I don't know what they call portable toilets in the UK - possibly "portable toilets" - but you have to love that the end result is this slipped right past the goalie. I mean, it sounds like something you'd get on some prank phone call, where someone calls CBS News and tells them he's in the port of Poti, and then they put him on air and he milks that joke for a while, then yells out something about Howard Stern's butt cheeks.

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Russians make pit stop in Georgian port of Poti

POTI (Reuters): A number of Russian soldiers, under orders to return to their country, have paused in this seaside city for what Russian president Dmitry Medvedev termed "a quick pit stop."

"Our soldiers merely need to make brief use of the port of Poti," Medvedev said. "I assure NATO and the Georgian people that our troops will move on once they have done their business."

Told that Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili had declared that "Russian soldiers have to go," Medvedev replied, "I agree completely," before lapsing into a brief giggling fit.