Thoughts for the Day, September 24, 2025: A surprise in Baltimore

The Detroit Lions

When I first saw the Lions’ schedule to start the NFL season, I expected the Lions to start the season at 1-2 with two road games against playoff favorites for this year, the Packers and the Ravens, and a home game against the Bears. The first two games went as expected as the Lions lost to the Packers and beat the snot out of the Bears.

What I was not expecting was what happened on Monday night as the Lions overwhelmed the Ravens offensive line while bottling up quarterback, Lamar Jackson with seven sacks, a record number of sacks given up by the Ravens. The final score of 38-30 is not reflective of the Lions’ dominance. The Ravens scored with less than a minute to go to in the game to make the final score more respectable.

On offense the Lions played as close to perfect of a game I have seen in a long time. The defense was also outstanding. If the Lions hadn’t dropped two interceptions, the score would have been much worse for the Ravens.

Although early in the season, NFL fans around the country recognized the importance of the game. ESPN on Wednesday said the Lions’ 38-30 victory attracted an audience of 22,847,000 viewers across its platforms, making it among its four most watched Monday Night Football games ever, dating to 2006. The number of viewers on ESPN, ABC, ESPN Deportes and NFL+ also was the highest ever for an ESPN Monday Night Football game in Week 3, the network said.

See my Video of the Day

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Tylenol

Excerpts from Bridge Michigan.

Michigan doctors say President Donald Trump’s warning that the use of Tylenol during pregnancy could cause autism has led to confusion and consternation among expectant families, physicians and researchers.

What drugs contain acetaminophen? Examples are Tylenol, along with Excedrin, Mydol, Dayquil/Nyquil, and some formulations of Robitussin, Mucinex and Sudafed. Discovered in the late 1800s, acetaminophen became widely used in the mid-1950s and is considered a safe and effective pain reliever.

Can expectant mothers switch to a different pain and fever drug? No they can’t, said Dr. Ann Gillett-Elrington, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist at Western Wayne Family Health Centers. Studies show other over-the-counter drugs, such as Ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), Naproxen (Alleve) and aspirin can be dangerous to a fetus. “They’ve been associated with the lowering of amniotic fluid,” Gillett-Elrington said.

Trump suggested Monday that women try to “tough it out” when they have pain or a fever rather than taking acetaminophen.

That’s a bad idea, Gillett-Elrington said, because fever can be dangerous to a fetus. She told Bridge she continues to recommend Tylenol to expectant moms for “run of the mill” fevers, with limits of two 500-milligram tablets at a time and no more than eight in a 24-hour period. “With proper education and assurance, the benefits of taking the medication (Tylenol) outweigh the risks,” Gillett-Elrington said. “If I were in that situation, I would take it. I recommend it for my family members.”

Dr. Brad Irving, an ob-gyn at University of Michigan Health-West, near Grand Rapids, said he is concerned that more expectant mothers will decline to take Tylenol to reduce fever because of what he views as political reasons. Fevers during pregnancy are associated with pre-term birth, fetal distress and, in early pregnancy, can lead to miscarriages, Irving said. “When you make a blanket statement based on questionable science, you’re going to cause a lot of fear that may not be justified,” Irving said. “You can feel the fear, the mistrust. We’re seeing more interruptions and barriers to care. “Pregnancy is a vulnerable state,” Irving said. “The choices that a mother makes can impact the welfare of that child. That vulnerability begets anxiety.”

Bridge Michigan gets my Orchid of the Day for the clarity they bring to important issues.

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Onion of the Day: The UN staff, who according to the White House sabotaged the president by stopping the escalator and the teleprompter. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Channel personality Jesse Watters that it looked like sabotage and she would personally see to it that there would be accountability, and Trump loyalist senator Mike Lee (R-UT) called for defunding the U.N. for “orchestrating escalator and teleprompter malfunctions.”

I can’t believe the UN staff would do such a thing. Accordingly, the United Nations correspondent for the Associated Press, Farnoush Amiri, reported that “[a] UN official said the UN understands that someone from the president’s party who ran ahead of him inadvertently triggered the stop mechanism on the escalator. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the White House was operating the teleprompter for Trump.

Quotes of the Day: “In my first term, I built the greatest economy in the history of the world…We had the best economy ever, history of the world, and I’m doing the same thing again, but this time it’s actually much bigger and even better. The numbers far surpass my record-setting first term.”

“On the world stage, America is respected again like it has never been respected before. You think about two years ago, three years ago, four years ago, or one year ago, we were a laughingstock all over the world.

“in a period of just seven months, I have ended seven unendable wars. They said they were unendable. You’re never going to get them solved…. No president or prime minister, and for that matter, no other country, has ever done anything close to that, and I did it in just seven months. It’s never happened before. There’s never been anything like that. Very honored to have done it.”

“It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them. And sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them. I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of each and every one of these countries, and never even received a phone call from the United Nations offering to help in finalizing the deal. All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that on the way up stopped right in the middle. If the First Lady wasn’t in great shape, she would’ve fallen. But she’s in great shape. We’re both in good shape, we both stood.”

“That being the case, what is the purpose of the United Nations? The U.N. is such tremendous potential. I’ve always said it. It has such tremendous, tremendous potential, but it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential.”

“[e]veryone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize,”

“In the United States, we reject the idea that mass numbers of people from foreign lands can be permitted to travel halfway around the world, trample our borders, violate our sovereignty, cause unmitigated crime, and deplete our social safety net. You’re destroying your countries. They’re being destroyed. Europe is in serious trouble. They’ve been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody’s ever seen before. Illegal aliens are pouring into Europe, and nobody’s doing anything to change it, to get them out. It’s not sustainable.”

London has “a terrible, terrible mayor”—Mayor Sadiq Kahn is Muslim and is of Pakistani descent—that it is “so changed, so changed,” and that “they” want “Sharia law.” He went on at great length about how immigration is destroying Europe and how dangerous and criminal immigrants are. He told the attendees: “I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell.”

“Energy is another area where the United States is now thriving like never before. We’re getting rid of the falsely named renewables…If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail. And I’m really good at predicting things. They actually said during the campaign, they had a hat, the best-selling hat: Trump was right about everything. And I don’t say that in a braggadocious way, but it’s true. I’ve been right about everything.”

The above quotes are from President Trump’s speech at the UN on Tuesday.

My second Quote of the Day: “A senior foreign diplomat posted at the U.N. texts me. This man is stark, raving mad. Do Americans not see how embarrassing this is?’ foreign affairs journalist Ishaan Tharoor said after Trump’s speech at the U.N.

My third Quote of the Day: “I have never watched a Trump speech. There is no reason to suffer through his ramblings.” Me in response to the question, Did you watch Trump’s UN speech yesterday?

Orchid of the Day: Bridge Michigan. See above story on Tylenol

Quote of the Day: See above from President Trump’s speech at the UN.

Onion of the Day: A tongue in cheek onion to the UN staff. See above.

Question of the Day: Have you ever seen a team collapse like the Tigers? I haven’t.

Lyrics of the Day: There she stood in the doorway. I heard the mission bell and I was thinkin’ to myself. This could be Heaven or this could be hell. Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way.

Lyrics of the Day for September 22, American Woman by Guess Who

Video of the Day: Calls of the Game: Detroit picks up a BIG road win in Baltimore | Lions at Ravens

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