A. 克里夫蘭 B. 格林贝 C. 芝加哥 D. 辛辛那提 E. 底特律

F. 巴爾的摩 G. 匹兹堡 H. 明尼蘇達

This feature seems to grow more and more dangerously close to Tuesday every week, but we’ll do our best to prevent that, since we’ve already got a Tuesday thing, and one where it actually matters what day it’s on to boot.  The line, as they say, must be drawn here!

One purpose of KYPC, it seems, is to discover whether or not it is worthwhile to trust one’s irrational impulses.  Unfortunately, the results have been inconclusive.  I am sure that there have been numerous occasions on which these baseless picks have paid off, but unfortunately for Theoman, his was not one of them.  But maybe he only thought it was baseless.  Maybe he somehow knew that that character at the end meant “to chafe,” and, realizing the winter was coming, thought of the dry skin problems that wreak havoc on those who dwell so far north.  Except . . . that doesn’t make much sense either, because F is Baltimore, which, as A Fan noted, is further south than the Mason-Dixon line (though it’s not the furthest south on this list).  In any case, he can find his native Minnesota at H, where it is referred to by a strangely religious-sounding name, with characters meaning “nun” and “rebirth.”  Perhaps this is because, as A Fan would be quick to point out, the Vikings don’t have a prayer of making the playoffs this year.

You might think that Shirley would have better odds by taking shots at all eight cities instead of just one, but her results were no better than Theoman’s.  We enjoyed her imagining of the first two characters in D as the lampposts turning back on in Detroit, but if she had thought a little longer she might have put more weight with the fact that they were the same character and looked for a city that starts with the same sound twice: D is Cincinnati.  E is Detroit, and reality is much darker than Shirley’s proposed bright future: the first character there means, roughly, “rock bottom.”

But who cares about scores?  The fun’s in the guessing.  So we wish Shirley the best of luck with her surgery anyway.

A Fan, as usual, made sure we were all up to date on which teams he likes and which he does not.  He did manage to get one correct answer, for even though Baltimore is only “the North” by NFL standards, it’s not so far out there that it can’t be identified.  Still, we would like to suggest that he pull out a map and compare Baltimore, which he describes as being not the North, and Cincinnati, which he calls barely the North.  He might be surprised.  His beloved Chicago is, appropriately enough, at C (though it would have been equally appropriate for Cleveland or Cincinnati), where the first character (“lawn”) depicts the Midway of which the Bears are Monsters.  His objects of grudging respect are at B (Green Bay) and G (Pittsburgh).  A, of course, is actually a depiction of Red Right 88, with the first character being Quarterback Brian Sipe, the last character Tight End Ozzie Newsome (who is so obviously covered!), the next-to-last a wide-open Dave Logan, and the second character poor, beat-up Don Cockroft, lying on the ground (also, you forgot “The Fumble”).

In conclusion, Ohio is a terrible place to try to watch NFL games.

But forget Ohio.  It’s starting to get cold.  Let’s go somewhere warmer . . . say, the South?  Look for Atlanta, Carolina, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, and Tennessee.

A. 亚特兰大 B. 卡羅來納 C. 休斯敦 D. 印第安纳波利斯

E. 傑克遜維爾 F. 新奥爾良 G. 坦帕湾 H. 田纳西