By Joe Kinsey

Copyright outkick

Let’s end the week with some positive vibes Screencaps the III was named Student of the Month for ‘Teamwork’ and Screencaps Jr. told me he aced a big advanced math test. That’s great enough for me this week. PLUS: I booked a round of golf this weekend at the oldest public golf course west of Manhattan: That would be Ottawa Park Golf Course right here in Toledo. That’s what they claim. Put it this way, the course is ancient for the United States. It was left for dead about 10 years ago, but there’s been significant investment in the grounds and the course looked great when I was there for a cross country meet four weeks ago. It’s time to see if this old track IS BACK BACK. I’ll say it again, if your team is out of the playoffs, and you need a fun bandwagon to jump on, it might not get any better than the Giants He’s not here for a long time, but he’s going to give you a good time for the next four to five years, if we’re lucky. I’ll admit I didn’t stay awake until the end of that game. I crashed, but, I stayed awake long enough to see Skattebo run over a couple of defenders on his way to a three-touchdown performance that launched the bulldozer into one of the top spots on Google Trends in the United States. I know you guys are miserable over the Super Bowl halftime selection. I know you’re pissed about a variety of things and you just want to have an outlet. If you haven’t indulged in Skattebo, I’m begging you to find a way to see next Sunday’s Giants game against the Broncos. The Giants are suddenly fun to watch. Sit back and enjoy the ride. — John from SD enjoyed the show: I wast’t excited about TNF on Thursday night but decided to turn it on after dinner on the west coast instead of the college football games (best time of the year with football options!). So joined in during the third quarter. Prime has an excellent option to watch a quick recap from the beginning of the game so you can catch up within two minutes.Thankfully, the G-Men were solid (not a fan of either team). Their draft class is obviously paying off with Dart and Scattabo. Is the Giants head coach the 2.0 version of Dan Campbell without the loud hype? Seems like a hard grinder to me. Good for the Giants. Kinsey: I wouldn’t be so fast to jump on the Brian Daboll bandwagon. Based on the body language I see from him and the way he’s acted on the sideline, I think he’s an asshole who has a great draft class to work with and was ready to be fired until Dart and Skatt came along. Rate this tweet Some are saying this is the NFL Tweet of the Year. Screencaps reader reacts to Vern in the Pacific Northwest catching monster salmon — Chris A. emails: BTW, Vern makes me sick, and jealous, and ashamed. I consider a three hour river kayak and four-hour drive in the country a good day, and he’s pulling critters out of various bodies of water all day long and running it back at O-dark-thirty the next morning. At 87!! I need to up my retirement game. Kinsey: When I say Great American® Vern has led quite a life that includes hauling in monster salmon day after day, it’s not an exaggeration. Vern is who we all should aspire to follow. Here’s Vern’s salmon recipe: 2 CUPS TERIYAKI1 CUP SOY SAUCE1 CUP DARK BROWN SUGARADD APPLE JUICE (10-20 OZ) AS NEEDED TO COVER FISH POUR OVER SALMON WHICH HAS BEEN CUT TO DESIRED SIZEAND PLACED IN NON-METALLIC CONTAINER. (I USE ARUBBERMAID DISHPAN) BRINE TIME VARIES DEPENDING ONTHICKNESS OF FISH AND AMOUNT-I USUALLY BRINE FOR MINOF 12-16 HRS -OBJECT IS TO HAVE DRIED OUT SOMEWHAT–FISH WILL TURN A DARKER COLORAFTER BRINEING -QUICK RINSE IN COLD WATER AND PLACESKIN DOWN ON RACKS- THAT HAVE BEEN SPRAYED WITHNON-STICK (PAM). TRY TO PUT THICK TOGETHER AND THINTOGETHER THEN YOU CAN TAKE OFF THOSE DONE EARLIER.PAT DRY WITH PAPER TOWELS AND ALLOW TO AIR DRYEITHER IN REFRIDGERATOR OR A COOL PLACE IN THEGARAGE-DO NOT COVER-GLAZE (PELLICLE) WILL FORMAFTER ABOUT 12 to 24 HRS.SMOKE FOR 4-6 HRS, DEPENDS ON THICKNESS ANDPERSONAL PREFERENCE-I LIKE IT MOIST NOT DRY. SMOKERTEMP SHOULD BE 150 /160 DEGREES. REMOVE RACKS WHENINTERNAL FISH TEMP REACHES 130 +/- 5. WOOD CAN BEAPPLE, CHERRY OR ALDER. I PREFER APPLE-I NEVER USEHICKORY OR MESQUITE-TOO STRONG- WILL TAKE 2 FULLPANS. I BRUSH WITH HONEY/MAPLE SYRUP GLAZE OR AGAVEAMBER AFTER REMOVING FROM SMOKER. Readers like that I talked to John Tesh this week — Chris in OK tells me: Just wanted to say that you have absolutely no reason to apologize for interviewing John Tesh. The NBA may be useless, but Roundball Rock is an absolute classic, and objectively the greatest sports theme song ever made (sure, I’ll hear arguments for others, but I’ll tell you right now none of them will be convincing), and I’m thrilled it’s coming back to the airwaves. Kinsey: To be fair, Fox had been using “Roundball Rock” for college basketball, but it just wasn’t the same. The Tesh story will be out next week as we prepare for the big return of Roundball Rock to NBC on October 21. Many of you thought I was crazy to have Wendy’s on my “Chains That Will Be Out Of Business In 5-10 Years” list I can’t remember if I said five years or 10 years. But, my sense that there was trouble at Wendy’s seems to be spot-on. For those of you who are new around here, I based my assumption off the employees my local Wendy’s was hiring: ex-cons. Now, I know what you’re thinking: It feels like all of these places outside of Fil-A hire ex-cons. True, but the local Wendy’s franchisee seemed to be hiring workers who went to prison for some really f’d up reasons. I’m talking bottom-of-the-barrel criminals. We went from having a Wendy’s that had old ladies just trying to make a few bucks on a Tuesday morning to work release criminals manning the drive-thru overnight. It felt like I was going to open up a Dave’s single and there was going to be spit on the burger. “The burger chain’s stock has lost roughly half of its value over the past year, during which time the company has cut guidance twice, citing weak sales trends and shifting consumer behavior,” the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Let’s go over this one more time for Wendy’s senior management: The Ts roll into Roswell & Carlsbad, New Mexico — Mike T. reports: You can’t visit the SW without buying some trinkets. We have a Texas electricity battle brewing between Drew in Katy vs. John in Huntsville — Drew in Katy fires back: If you go out today and look at any one of the Power to Choose websites for Texas today to shop for an electric plan, you will see electric prices for my zip code advertised for as allow as 9.5 cents/KWH all the way up to 22.7 cents/KWH. And those are all bull ___ numbers. The first scam is that a lot of the cheap rates are only available to new customers and aren’t available if you want if to keep your same provider. I just shopped for and selected a new electrical provider last week. I read the fine print. I read the Electricity Facts Label (EFL) and the Terms of Service (TOS) documents. Then I use a spreadsheet that I built years ago to input all of the details of various electrical plans and simulate them against my last year’s utility usage by month. I pick the plan that actually works for my house. What too many people do is trust the advertised number or the discounts the electric companies offer if you use “X” amount of kwh in a given month. Those discounts are extremely deceptive as to whether they work for you or not. In the EFL, you have to watch if they are telling you about the all- important distribution charge which for my area is an additional 5.9 cents/kwh. There are often fixed based charges each month that need to be included in the evaluation. As I said in my first email, I track my total electrical bill divided by KWH from past bills and estimate future bills on the same basis to make my selection. My all-in rates including that distribution charge have risen from 10.8 cents/kwh in 2018-2019 to 18.1 cents/kwh in 2024-2025 despite shopping every year for the best rate. Is the craft brewery era coming to an end? A report from California — Jim T. in San Diego has been watching this industry: Living along California State Route 78 – the so-called “Hops Highway” due to all the microbreweries here in San Diego County’s northern reaches – I can tell you that the craft beer wave has not only peaked, it’s getting even tougher. Just in the past seven or eight years, we’ve lost SpecHops, Barrel Harbor, Five Suits, Latitude 33, WestBrew, Toolbox, Iron Fist, Barrel Republic, Plan 9, Jacked Up, Black Plague, Mason Ale Works, Midnight Jack, Rouleur, San Marcos Brewing, Oceanside Ale Works, Double Peak, On the Tracks, and Wild Barrel. I’m sure I’m overlooking some. And that doesn’t include the rest of San Diego County, including the City of San Diego! And of course, Stone is no longer a microbrewer, having been bought out by Sapporo. Ballast Point was acquired, as well. The local craft meaderies, cideries, wineries and distilleries are also struggling. A couple years ago, Manzanita Brewing dropped their beers and focused on a local craft rye (that was quite good), but now they’re completely out of business. There’s always been this saying that most new restaurants fail within the first 3 years. And it’s got little to do with the menu – it just takes that long to build up a loyal clientele. And most folks starting a new restaurant don’t have the finances to run at a loss for that long. I’m guessing the same is true for a lot of these craft breweries. Most of the first generation started out as hobbyists who were brewing at home for family and friends, everyone raved about their recipe and they convinced themselves that if they just opened a tasting room the whole world would come calling.Out here at least so many folks rushed to open a microbrewery that there was just no way for all of them to survive. Plus, at least in California, tasting rooms are limited to the hours they can be open, only serve their own beers (or meads, or ciders, or wines, or spirits), and rely on pop-ups or food trucks to provide a meal option. Most are also located in industrial parks, where you can get permitted for brewing and rent is cheaper than in a retail location, but can be hard to find (location location location). Being underfunded, many tasting rooms have kind of shabby decor, and some don’t even offer sports on TV. Trying to compete against a sports themed restaurant serving dozens of different beers with a full menu and late hours? New entries still pop up every so often, but with Gen Z drinking far less than their parents or grandparents at the same age, I don’t see the boom coming back. In fact, Stone, Ballast Point and Karl Strauss (San Diego’s original craft brewer, from 1989), have succeeded largely by getting picked up by local distributors and being available at local grocery stores, liquor stores and other restaurants and bars. AleSmith, which worked with Tony Gwynn on their signature .394 Ale (and continue to work with his family), is also getting their brands into local stores and restaurants. I just don’t see room for many of the dozens of other local microbreweries to survive longterm. A report on craft breweries in North Carolina from a guy who knows this industry — Thomas V. in NC has sent me his craft brews before: State of Craft Beer has hit maturity and yes perhaps decline, a combination of causes. 1 – Taprooms have always been the money maker, since Covid they haven’t made it back to the same levels. 2 – Younger generations are more interested in seltzer-THC beverages and while they can consume them at the taproom, mostly they want to drink at home. Interesting some national chains like Total Wine have embraced them, but only on the lower side of the scale 10mg or less. For stronger tastes people visit the vape shops. 3 – In NC and elsewhere I suspect, victim of their own success. Breweries often started in industrial and run down parts of town, now approaching the end of their rental contracts and new. rents are pricing them out of the market. They built up neighborhoods and now can’t afford them. 4 – Generational shift, if you don’t have kids to pass along the business, sell off or close. For every Yuengling or Sierra Nevada, there is 2-3 Goose Island or Iron Hill. Tough days, but the ones who are embracing the changing landscape seem to survive and potentially thrive. Our European readers check in — Bob writes: Hey Joe-Your old pal Bob here. Lovely picture of a sunset over the Rhine River in Germany taken from the Tauck riverboat, Savor. Keep up the good work. ######################## That is it for yet another week of life. Hard to believe it’s already Friday. The weather is looking amazing. The apple orchard is calling Mrs. Screencaps. It’s time to have us a Fall weekend. Have a great one. 📩 Email: joe.kinsey@outkick.com or use my personal GmailSend your photos, stories, tips, rants—whatever you’ve got. 🐦 Twitter/X: @JoeKinseyexpTag me or drop a DM. 📸 Instagram: @OutKickScreencapsYou guys need to start tagging me on content you’re seeing. 📘 Facebook Page: Screencaps on Facebook 👥 Facebook Group: Join the Screencaps CommunityConnect with fellow Screencaps readers. 🗞️ Sign Up for the Screencaps Newsletter:Make sure you’re opening the newsletter or don’t sign up. You’ll hurt the open rate.👉 Subscribe here Numbers from : Stuff You Guys Sent In & Stuff I Like