My Dirty Dozen Prophecies Revisited

Dude, I’m tellin’ ya…………

Well, it’s been another 7 or 8 weeks since I last reviewed my Dirty Dozen prophecies that I made on 11/5/09.

I last checked on them 12/23/09 and a couple had already come true. And I know that another one came awfully close since then—but failed—so I thought perhaps I’d take another look and see what the scorecard is.

Again, I won’t list the prophecies in detail as you can just refer to either post from 11/5 or 12/23. Instead, I will just see if they came true or not since then, or are they still in-limbo:

1)  The Chicago Bears finished the season at 7-9. My prophecy, made when they had a winning record at 4-3, was that they would finish at .500 at the very best. I said that this could mean they finish 8-8, or 7-9, or even a God-awful 6-10. They won their last two games to finish at that 7-9 mark and this one is definately, 100% a successful prediction in my book.

2)  The Chicago Blackhawks continue to be well on their way to making the conference finals in the NHL. They are 41-15-5 for one of the three best records in all of hockey. The league is on break right now for the Olympics and the Hawks have six players representing their countries. They sit at the top of their division and entered the break having won four in a row. Everyone is basically healthy at this point and I have the utmost confidence that this prophecy will be fulfilled.

3)  I said that the Chicago Bulls would finish 43-39 at the very best. I then went on to get a little more specific by stating that I really envisioned a 42-40 record when it is all said and done. At the moment, the Bulls are 26-26 after thumping the New York Knicks last night. They are exactly at the .500 mark. So this one looks really, really good too. If they go 16-14 in their remaining 30 games, they will hit my number on the button. And going 16-14 over the next 30 contests isn’t exactly shooting for the moon. Feeling confident on this one.

4)  My baseball prediction is only half-determined right now. I predicted that WhiteSox ace pitcher Jake Peavy will win 16-19 games for the team this year and we obviously won’t know if that is true until later this summer. On the other hand, I predicted that with the sale of the Cubs to the Ricketts family, the team would acquire a big name either thru trade or free agency. They didn’t. The team reports to spring training in just a few days and they have basically the same lineup as last year. Rich Harden and Milton Bradley are both gone as I suggested they would be……but the team didn’t add anyone of consequence in their place. So I count half of this prophecy as off the mark already. Hopefully Peavy can help me save face here.

5)  I predicted the Indianapolis Colts would win the Super Bowl in early November when the NFL season still had several weeks to go. Well, the Colts did indeed make it all the way to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately (for me), they lost to the New Orleans Saints. Many people were glad to see the Saints and the resilient city of N.O. win it all. I wasn’t. But only because I wanted my prophecy to come true. I came very, very close on this one with the game coming down to the final 6 minutes before being completely decided. But in the end, this one is a loser for me.

6)  I’m running out of time on my prediction that the next serious terrorist attack on US soil would happen in the next 3-5 months. I made the prediction in early November 2009, so five months from that point takes us thru the end of March in my book. In the final days of November, that dickhead in Ft. Hood down in Texas shot down a bunch of people. And on Christmas Day, a serious disaster was averted when the guy on the Detroit-bound plane could not ignite his explosive. So there have been a couple of close calls. But thankfully, there hasn’t been an attack of the scale that I foresaw. I still hope that this one does not come true and it goes down in the loss column for me. But there is still about 6 weeks before my timeframe expires.

7)  I prophecized that between 11/1/09 and 11/1/10 that a major force in popular music under the age of 45 would perish. Thus far, thankfully it hasn’t happened either. We did lose a B-list actress in Brittany Murphy. But that doesn’t come close to the music megastar I am foreseeing. Again, this is a prediction I am not too keen on seeing come true. But it happens and I still think a major player will pass away by 11/1/10. This one is still to be determined.

8)  In the same timeframe, I predicted a major celebrity divorce. I’m thinking that Tiger Woods could be my meal ticket here. Charlie Sheen is up to some of his old tricks, but his wife isn’t as big as former spouse Denise Richards. My best bet looks to be the Woods debacle. So far, the prophecy hasn’t come true. But it seems like the groundwork is set on this one. You occasionally even hear rumors of dissension in the Brangelina marriage. And Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes are often in the tabloids being portrayed as unhappy. So we’ll see how this one turns out.

9)  I prophecized that Xmas sales would really suck this year providing NO optimism for the economy for the year 2010. To be honest, I didn’t hear any hardcore statistics on how the Christmas retail season went. I do know that it didn’t exactly flourish. And I do know this….the economy still sucks. The only people I hear saying there are signs of improvement are the millionaires in the TV news media and the people in the White House desperately trying to get the American public to believe it. I do know that at least 4 more of my friends have lost their jobs in 2010 while only one has returned to work. I know that everyone I know is hurting as much financially as ever. So I’m going to call this one a wash. I can’t name 5 people who are optimistic about the economy or think things are improving. I know a few dozen people who are getting awfully desperate. So I think it is fair to say that this one is a draw….at the very least.  

10)  There has not been a really, really aggressive move made yet by one of the planet’s most hostile nations against one of their neighbors. Thank God for that. But there is a ton of tension in a lot of different places and this prophecy is just in the early stages. My timeframe was from 12/1/09 thru 12/31/10. So there is a long time to go on this one and some pots seem ready to boil over. This one is definately still in the “wait-and-see” category.

11)  I predicted that this winter would be a real bastard across the US. I am calling this one a successful prophecy. If anyone disagrees, please call anyone you know on the East Coast. They have been battered mercilessly. They had back-to-back poundings with over a foot of snow each time. And winter is not yet even over. I’ve seen statistics on the news that one of the storms was in the Top 6 of the “worst ever” list. And I see statistics that the cumulative totals are at record levels for many areas. And like I said, winter is not yet over and there could still be more substantial snowfall yet to come. This one is a winner in my book.

12)  Finally, neither Fidel Castro or Kim Jong-il has passed away yet since my initial prophecy. But Castro could go any day. He was born in 1926, so he is about 84 years old and has had ill health for years. While definately another “wait-and-see” prophecy, I think this one has a really good chance of coming true. We’ll see.

So that means I have been successful on the Chicago Bears (#1) and the terrible winter (#11).

The dismal 2009 holiday shopping season and the low optimism for the 2010 economy is considered a draw (#9).

And I blew the one about the Indianapolis Colts winning the Super Bowl (#5). But I came really close !

I feel really good about the Hawks and the Bulls  (#2 & #3).

I’ll check back again around April 1 and we’ll see where I stand then. By that time, the timeframe will have run out on the big terrorist attack on US soil and I hope to be able to chalk that one up as a loss.

Just be sure to be aware of the people and things around you between now and March 31.

Please.