Cliff Clavin Strikes Back

This is the way the internet works. I was reading kottke.org, which is brilliant, as usual. It links to an article showing what films have the most Star Wars actors in a non-Star Wars movie. And it's a geeky list, and unsuprisingly, the "winners" of that list were Labyrinth and Flash Gordon.

But what stuck out to me, as I quickly glanced at that page, was one name: John Ratzenberger. Yes, Cliff Clavin. (I actually had assumed his characters last name was Claven, but nope...it's Clavin.)

Cliff Clav--er, John Ratzenberger - was in The Empire Strikes Back, playing someone named Major Bren Derlin. This is just astonishing to me. I'm sure it was a bit role, but I really will have to keep my eye open the next time I watch that baby. If I find out that George Wendt was the voice of Jabba the Hut, I might shit myself.

Rice v. Clinton: An election where nobody wins

When it gets down to it, aside from the incompetence, what really gets my goat about this administration is their massive arrogance. It’s couched in brilliance, I have to admit. So, when they fuck something up royally – Iraq, Katrina, whatever is going to happen next week – and senators ask for documents relating to those faulty decisions, they simply say no. Republican congressmen and women tow the line, insinuating that this is par for the course.

It’s very easy to imagine what things would be like if Bill Clinton ever tried it. The answer, of course, would be that there would be outrage that would trickle down to the news every night until Clinton folded. Which, of course, he would. But it’s not really a fair comparison – even though I do it all the time. Why not? Because Clinton only had a Democratic controlled Congress for the first two years of office, which is far less than that when you account for midterm election posturing, etc.

I know there are people out there who honestly can look at all the data – the war, the economy, the tragedy in New Orleans that is still massive but underreported, the NSA spying, Jack Abramoff – who still support Bush and Cheney. But…I just started writing these list of egregious behavior off the top of my head. There are quite clearly about another 100 things going on (Valerie Plame, anyone?) that deserve outrage. And to quote someone, I’m outraged that there isn’t more outrage at this. How do people just blindly smile at all this? What kind of drugs are they on?

Rob suggested the other day that 2008 elections might feature a choice between Condoleeza Rice and Hilary Clinton. First of all, there’s no way that will ever happen. The Democrats might be stupid enough to nominate HRC, but Rice simply won’t be in the mix. There are the obvious reasons – look, the Republican party is, quite simply, not a party of tolerance. Many Republicans are incredibly tolerant and wonderful human beings, but the PARTY itself has thrived on capitalizing on Southern prejudice, to name just one obvious example. (Before the Civil Rights Act, the South was a Democratic stronghold. Blacks who voted tended to vote Republican, presumably as a legacy of Lincoln freeing the slaves. After the Civil Rights Act, that flipped – black voters became a backbone of the Democrats and the Southern whites switched parties, not willing to associate themselves with a party that actually wanted to treat black Americans the same as white Americans. This is not a coincidence or a theory, it’s the truth.) So, you are telling me that the Republicans are not only going to have a woman candidate, but a black woman candidate? No freaking way. Not. A. Chance.

Besides all that, she is woefully incompetent, which means she fits right in to this administration.

It says so much about the people who are in control of the GOP that John McCain is a dark horse to be the candidate. He’d crush ANYONE the Democrats could throw up there, and people like me would probably vote for him over Hilary. Yup. But still…they won’t nominate him because he hasn’t sucked up to the Christian Right. That’s so sad, I can’t believe anyone would vote for a Republican unless they themselves were part of the Christian Right.

But if…just if, this happens, and it’s a Rice-Clinton battle in 2008, then Abby may need to know that we’ll be moving to New Zealand.

Fatherland

I'd seen Fatherland around for years. It's hard to miss, what with the giant swastika on the cover. In fact, reading the book creates its own mini social experiment, watching others see the awful symbol on your book cover, and their subsequent reaction. (One older man on the N Judah, perhaps insane, perhaps not, demanded to know whether it was a novel or not and then tried to start up a conversation with me about the evils of nationalism vs. patriotism.)

In either event, there are things about Fatherland that are "typical" thriller mystery elements. A policeman (Xavier March) investigates a body found in a lake near a wealthy neighborhood, and in doing his job, uncovers a decades-long secret that touches across powerful men everywhere. It's well told and a decent plot, but it's made all the more interesting by the major twist that is the overall conceit of Fatherland.

That is, the book takes place in 1964 Germany after the Germans WON World War II. This is the premise, and it's unnerving how little needs to be different in that world to make it plausible. A few references to Hitler attacking Russia in the summer, and other details left unsaid, set the stage. The German population, including March, have been told that the Jews were "relocated to the East" and understand that follow-up questions to that are not allowed. Author Thomas Harris does a good job of showing the police state mentality, and how easy it is for them to dispose of people who do not fit into their agenda. It is appropriately scary, and Harris does a great job of delivering a message without beating you over the head with it. After all, there aren't many - scratch that, there aren't ANY reasonable people who need to be told why Hitler's defeat was a good thing.

At the end of the day, Fatherland is a good thriller that sets itself apart from others in its category by the setting and surroundings. It's well worth the read.

Rating: 7.0/10.0

The Brooklyn Follies & Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I hadn’t meant to write these two reviews together. I hadn’t meant, necessarily, to read them back-to-back.

Paul Auster is, and always will be, one of my favorite authors. If there is such a thing as a defining literary moment in one’s life, reading The New York Trilogy was it for me. Though I’d read a considerable amount by then, I had never stumbled across an author who played with the language, created a mood and weaved stories around chance and wonder, all the while somehow grounding everything in a plausible reality. Books like The Music of Chance, Moon Palace and Leviathan remain some of my all-time favorites, and while he lost me for awhile with some other works, last years Oracle Night made it clear that my Auster was back. The Brooklyn Follies begins with Nathan Glass moving to Brooklyn. He says it’s to find a place to die, though as the novel goes on it is clear he’s looking to begin a new life. Through chance (an Auster staple) he comes across his nephew Tom, and through a variety of lovely sequences, reconnects with others in his family. If this book is more straightforward than some of his earlier works, it doesn’t make it less poignant and in a lot of ways, Auster is telling a more mainstream story here. It’s about a man rediscovering what’s important to him after a bout with cancer, a failed marriage and a falling out with his daughter. It’s about what people will really do when they are given a second chance. And it’s about hope. This hope, of course – because it’s an Auster book – is not laced with daisies and candy canes. It’s more of delayed trauma. That’s because, as it becomes clearer as you work towards the end of the book, that Auster has put specific dates into his chapters for a reason. The book starts around the Bush-Gore election of 2000 and ends in September 2001. (This same device of driving towards 9/11 was used in an even more dramatic way in Nelson DeMille’s Night Fall, by the way.) I will add that Auster’s politics – which seem to be identical to mine – sometimes get in the way of the plot. Hearing Glass tell his girlfriend to always vote Democrat and that George Bush is an evil idiot is nice, but it distracted from the story in an unnecessary way.

All that being said, The Brooklyn Follies is a great book, refreshing and rewarding. If it is not the dark, creepy tales Auster has shown us before, that’s okay too.

Rating: 8.5/10.0

After finishing The Brooklyn Follies, I picked up Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, not realizing that where Auster’s book ended, Foer’s began. The book is a story about Oskar Schell, a 9-year old whose father was killed on 9/11. Schell is a precocious, intelligent child and also one who has been crushed by his loss. He refers to his sadness as ‘heavy boots,’ and he wears them often. The story is also framed by Oskar’s grandparents – his grandfather, who left the family long before Oskar was born, lived through the horror of the Dresden bombing and has lost the power to speak. He is so terrified of emotional pain that he’s withdrawn, staying mute and needing to create “Nothing” spaces to exist in. His torment is brutal, and because he doesn’t speak (his hands are tattooed with ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ to make communication easier), he writes letters to his son from afar.

The book incorporates pictures that Oskar takes with his grandfather’s camera (passed onto him), many of which he snaps while investigating what he hopes is a clue to get him closer to his father, even in death. He discovers a key in a vase his father bought, and is determined to find the lock which it opens. Watching Oskar go through this exercise, and learn how to cope with his loss, and the horror of that day, is a hard thing to do. This is literally one of the sadder books I’ve ever read, but because it’s so emotionally connective, I enjoyed it immensely. Foer is a sickeningly talented writer (married to Nicole Krauss, another talent) and often he seems to be grinning while he writes, but he continues to be able to portray pain and sadness alongside humor in a distinct voice. This is a fantastic book.

Rating: 9.0/10.0

Wheels on the bus go round and round

Some years, there isn’t much upheaval in the NFL; last season only three head coaches were new, and by all accounts, they acquitted themselves well – Saban got a winning record out of the Dolphins, and Romeo Crenell and Mike Nolan did good work with the Browns and 49ers.

Perhaps their success is one reason that there were so many off-season changes this year. This is not a final decree – some teams are still twiddling their thumbs, but most have made a decision. Here then, are my off-the-cuff thoughts on the hires thus far:

Green Bay Packers: Fired – Mike Sherman; hired – Mike McCarthy. McCarthy was the offensive coordinator for the 49ers, and apparently manning the worst offense in the league gets you a plumb head coaching assignment. Formerly running the offense at New Orleans (a mixed resume, to be sure), McCarthy should have his hands full with the Pack. He’s known as a QB specialist, and has worked with Brett Favre before. For this reason – and perhaps this reason alone – he seems like a great fit to see the end of the Favre era and the beginning of the Aaron Rodgers era.

Forty-Niners: Lost Mike McCarthy (OC); hired Norvelle Turner (OC). While they didn’t have a head coaching vacancy, McCarthy’s exodus led to one of the worst things that has happened to me in a sporting capacity in a while. The 49ers hired Norvelle Turner as their offensive coordinator. Seriously, why not just give the job to, say, Liza Minelli or Johnny Fairplay? Could they be worse than Norvelle? Turner had a great run leading the offense when he had the Triplets in Dallas (not to mention that offensive line), and has failed – utterly – everywhere else. Now, he’s a better coordinator than head coach but most of all, he’s useless. Actually, I have to stop writing about this or I’m going to burst into tears.

Jets: Traded Herm Edwards to KC; hired Eric Mangini. I don’t know much about Mangini, but he worked with both Belichek and Parcells, and that’s good enough for me. It’s sad that the Jets job has turned (okay, returned) into one of the worst in the country, but having a young coach with an emphasis on defense is a smart way to go. I like this hire a lot, even if I couldn’t pick Mangini out of a lineup.

Kansas City: Dick Vermeil retired; traded with the Jets for Herm Edwards. Conversely, KC had its eyes on Edwards from awhile back, as soon as it became possible that Vermeil was going to hang them up after the season. Edwards, I have noted elsewhere, is a great coach in front of a microphone. He says all the things you want to hear, he speaks eloquently but with passion, and you know deep within you that he’s a good person. He is not, however, a good coach. Yes, the Jets have made the playoffs 3 of the 5 years he coached them. Whoop de doo. He can’t manage a game clock, consistently makes wrong-headed decisions and is generally a fraud. The question is, what will he do with a talented offense like Kansas City? Coordinator Al Saunders – long expected to replace Vermeil – isn’t happy and will likely leave. Not impressed by this hiring whatsoever.

Saints: Fired Jim Haslett; hired Sean Payton. I really don’t like saying positive things about Tom Benson, but this is possibly the best two decisions any owner or GM has made this year. First off, Haslett stinks. He talks like Mush-Mouth and coaches about as well. He should have been fired three years ago. Sean Payton, longtime protégé of Bill Parcells, will be a nice fit with the Saints, who desperately need some discipline and energy, something Haslett was in short supply of. Great hire.

Vikings: Fired Mike Tice, hired Brad Childress, formerly the offensive coordinator of the Eagles. No matter what, this is addition by subtraction as Tice was in way over his head. Childress is faced with a big challenge with a quarterback controversy (if Culpepper is healthy) and a mess of a team, though one talented enough to go 9-7. I think this is a good hire, again simply because Tice is gone and because the Eagles really did move the ball with talented players. They should be fun to watch.

Texans: Fired Dom Capers, no hire yet. Good riddance to Capers, who seemed way over rated. This team dramatically underperformed, and with the offensive trio of Carr, Johnson and Davis they should be better. Which is why hiring Gary Kubiak does make some sense if that pans out. Drafting Reggie Bush will make any team better, but they’d be wise to trade Davis for some offensive linemen, or ensure that Kubiak brings over some of his friends from Denver to help get that line together. The jury is out, but Kubiak doesn’t seem like a magic tonic just yet.

Bills: Fired Mike Mularkey; no hire yet. This is scary – they hire Marv Levy as the GM who admits it will take him awhile to figure it out because its all new to him. The guy is in his 80s. Good times all around. The names they have floated around as possible replacements are even scarier, and almost all retreads: Haslett, Dick Jauron, Sherman. I can’t see this working out well.

Rams: Fired Mike Martz; no hire yet. Martz was about a tenth as smart as he thought he was, and while I hope his health is in good graces, I would NEVER want him coaching my team. The leading candidates to replace Martz are Ron Rivera, Cam Cameron and Scott Linehan. I know little about any of these guys, but Rivera seems by far the best choice, as he’ll bring back the Lovie Smith defense that got the Rams to the Super Bowl a few years back.

Lions: Fired Steve Mariucci; no hire yet. Mooch deserved to be fired, as his team gave up on him. But every citizen of Detroit knows the real problem is Matt Millen. The only saving grace is that Millen may (stress the word MAY) feel the heat and actually hire someone who will save Millen’s job in the process. But, what’s he waiting for? Mooch was fired midseason, and a lot of good candidates have passed the Lions by. It’s hard to see a real candidate take this job if anything better is out there. Russ Grimm (the o-line coach for the Steelers) is the leading candidate and probably a good hire. But it’s hard to see good things coming out of Detroit anytime soon.

Raiders Fired Norvelle Turner, no hire yet. This is so sad. And funny, because I hate the Raiders. But what a crap job…and yet, Tracksuit Davis will never recognize that he’s having difficulty hiring anyone because he meddles so much. The only people wiling to go to Oakland are guys with no better offers or guys who don’t really want to run the team themselves (like Turner). Al Saunders is a leading candidate for the job; were I a Raiders fan, I would first probably be a felon, but secondarily I’d be concerned about why the team that knows Saunders the best (KC) went out of their way to find someone else to run their team. Not feeling this. Not at all.

Killing Yourself to Live

I am a huge fan of Chuck Klosterman - his articles in SPIN and ESPN manage to combine the best pop culture references (that is, accurate without being trite or overdone) with true knowledge about music, sports, etc. Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs was a perfect example of this. So, I was pretty excited about his new book, Killing Yourself To Live: 85% of a True Story. It's a good book...but it falls well short of his prior work. The main difference is that this is a memoir of sorts, following Klosterman as he drives around the country visiting spots where musicians died. The marsh where Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane went down; the Chelsea Hotel (where, among other sundry activities, Sid Vicious killed his girlfriend and himself); Kurt Cobain's house in Seattle. Along the way, the focus of the book is less about this then about Klosterman's issues with the women in his life. It's interesting - at one point, he categorizes each into which member of KISS they would each be, and that actually works. But overall...I just didn't care enough about his love life. I mean, it's interesting and all, and he writes about issues that are understandable to all, but it feels like a half-step. There isn't any real analysis into his problems, and yet there isn't the witty pop-culture insight either, by and large. While he bills the book as 85% of a true story, it's more like 50% of the book it should be. Not a HUGE disappointment, but far short of what Klosterman can do.

Rating: 6.5/10.0

# 44, Tom Rathman

Like many 49er fans growing up during the 80’s, there were a lot of potential stars to follow. The easy ones, like Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott were slam-dunks, to mix sports metaphors…but the true devotees also liked the role players. Harry Sydney. Keena Turner. Michael Carter. John Frank. Lots of other guys to put on that list. But perhaps by definition, a fullback is a role player by profession. Most of the time, he blocks for the star running back – in Rathman’s case, that was almost always Roger Craig another guy I would put on that list if his fumble against the Giants in the 1990 NFC Championship still didn’t haunt me. (Though I suppose that game is more memorable for Leonard Marshall’s hit on Montana, still the most devastating hit I’ve ever seen. It hurts thinking about it.)

Anyway, Rathman was my guy…and a lot of others. He didn’t just block, he had insanely soft hands for a brute, and caught a lot of important passes, and when called upon to run, mowed over people. But what I loved – and I suspect what others did too – was the way he ran when he had the ball. Rathman probably ran out of bounds without taking a hit during his career, but I don’t remember it – he always lowered his helmet and ran straight into anyone trying to tackle him. Those were the years when he and WR John Taylor perfected the straight-arm, and I can remember scores of runs where Rathman just shoved defenders to the turf as he scampered by them. The dude was great.

I’m reminded of this because – and I didn’t even know he was a coach at all – Rathman is the current RB coach of the Lions. Now, given how Kevin Jones performed this year, that isn’t exactly an inspiring resume. But, after Mike McCarthy leaves, there is a rumor that Rathman might be a candidate for that job. I’m not sure whether he can do it or not, that’s for Mike Nolan to figure out. But I do know that getting Rathman back into the 49er family on its own would be a huge positive.

Speaking of McCarthy, coaches everywhere need to hire his agent. This is a guy who led the WORST offense in the league, and he’s going to parlay that into one of the best coaching jobs out there? I mean, if it were the Jets, that would be one thing…but wow. I wouldn’t be jumping for joy if I was a Packers fan, I’ll say that.

Judge John Jones

I feel remiss for not posting anything back in December about Judge Jones' ruling on Intelligent Design. Not that I need to post about...well, anything, since I'm not sure anyone reads this, but it truly was a triumph and a sign that this country hasn't completely lost its mind.

Not only did Judge Jones rebuke the challenge to teach Intelligent Design (ID) as an alternative to evolution, the way he did it was inspiring, to say the least. Talk about a smackdown:

The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy. It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy....[snip]...Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an activist Court. Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on ID, who in combination drove the Board to adopt an imprudent and ultimately unconstitutional policy. The breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.

There is more, a lot more, but I just thought I'd print that. A good man, John E Jones III.

The Patriots Club

After reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, I needed something light and quick so I picked up The Patriots Club by Christopher Reich. I’ve read some of his books before – breezy, thriller type stuff that is generally based around the financial world. Not great, but usually easy to read and not utter dreck. This was not his best effort. In fact, of the three books I’ve read by him, it’s by far the worst – that being said, it’s light reading. The plot, tangential as it is, is about a guy who gets wrapped up in a secret club, which has something to do with some of the nations founders. There are some interesting, though one expects unintentional, discussions about whether a president needs to listen to the people or whether a more trusted advisor (the Patriots Club, in this case) should really guide the masses. What with unauthorized wiretaps and the news that Bush has slipped in riders to over 500 bills that he’s signed saying he might choose to ignore the law, there is something creepy about the theme of the book. That being said, it’s purposefully fiction and at a 20,000 feet level, so don’t expect any philosophical or political debate of any substance. Again, it’s a decent book. But, it reminded me that I really don’t need to waste my time reading these kinds of books unless I really think they’ll be riveting. It’s hard to stop reading a book even when you know it’s not all that and a bag of chips. With the ever growing piles of unread books (largely thanks to Bookins), I need to be more selective with my spare time!

Rating: 5.5/10.0

It's all over but the crying.

If the games themselves on Week 17 were only occasionally exciting, the Greeby Time Pick-Em (version 5.0) came right down to the wire. This week was won by Osvin Torres, who has participated for years. He’s a Jets fan – one of a few who don’t wear silver fire chief hats to the games, that is – and specifically requested a picture of “Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart or Vince Young” wearing a Jets uniform. While I don’t have the time or inclination to indulge that specifically, the Jets need help – and quarterback is certainly one place they can address that need. (No chance they get Reggie Bush unless they trade up.) So, accordingly, I give you the potential Jets QB of the future:

For the record, I love this picture. Not only does Leinart look like a complete turd, but this girl he’s hanging on top of is clearly leading him on and enjoying the attention. But what really sells it is the look of the other woman in the photo, apparently the first girl’s friend. Not happy. She looks like a LOT of fun. This cracks me right up.

As for the season, we have our first ever TIE! That’s right - Judge Ito and Mommy and Me tied for first, with Mommy and Me’s husband (whose birthday is also today) Team T’s Todd Shriber coming in third. That’s a big win for the Shriber household, but it’s worth mentioning to the Shribers that Judge Ito never won a single week. That’s truly the mark of consistency. Look here at pensive Judge Ito, and remember that his courtroom let O.J. run loose. For the Shribers, a picture of your child Theo, albeit a dated one (come visit!) Todd, if you have a photo of him in a Patriots jersey, I’ll post that also.
For the record, that means Amy and Scott each share 1st and 2nd place prize money ($450 and $250, or $350 apiece) and Todd gets the $75 for third place. Good times.

FYI, I hate all of you for being so much better than me at this.

Some thoughts on the season:

Has anyone ever had a season like Larry Johnson? He didn’t start a game until Week 9 – yes, halfway through the season -- and ended up with 1,750 yards and 17 TD. There have been flashes in the pan before (Kevan Barlow, Willis McGahee, I’m talking to you) but it seems impossible to not think we are looking at one of the great running backs here.

Hey Marty Schottenheimer – good plan to start Drew Brees in a game that meant nothing to you. Brees is out four months with surgery on his injured arm, and yet you STILL don’t really know if Phillip Rivers is capable or not. This is why you are a moron, in case you are wondering.

Just about the only reason I want Brett Favre to retire – aside from the fact that watching him stink up a bad team is pretty painful – is that if I have to listen to announcers extol the virtue of all that is Favre again, I might have a nervous breakdown.

That being said, for all those who talk about Dan Marino being the greatest quarterback based on stats, it’s hard to ignore Brett Favre who is second to Marino in every important category there and has a ring. I’m not sure he’s the greatest ever, and Chris Berman and Tom Jackson implored me to believe, but he’s up there. Yes, he is.

In terms of other big names retiring, I’m more inclined to give Jerome Bettis (5th all-time rushing leader) his props than Deion Sanders. Sure, Primetime was bigtime, and he changed the game back when he was really something, but he almost never tackled anyone and was – along with Michael Irvin – one of the worst parts of the NFL in the early 1990s. (Of course, when he helped the 49ers win in 1994, I was willing to overlook it. Same goes when he briefly played centerfield for the Giants. Hey, at least I admit this.)

After Frank Gore’s last two weeks, which coincided with the 49ers winning and knocking themselves out of the Reggie Bush sweepstakes, I must say I’m pretty happy with the graphic and headlines I’ve been seeing a lot: Who needs Bush when you’ve got Gore? Ah, so true, so true…but then, who would spy on domestic citizens and flaunt the very laws he says are so vital to our security? But…I digress. The reality of the 49ers is they will now have something like the sixth pick overall, which sounds heinous until you realize they are more than one player away, the first pick is just as often a bust as not (jury still out on Alex Smith) and the financial burden Reggie Bush will place on, say, the Texans is something the 49ers can’t handle, as they are just getting out of salary cap hell.

I’m thinking that moving Monday Night Football to ESPN would have been a non-event, save for the fact that it means I’ll have to listen more to Joe Theismann. Can we have a rule that after he starts spouting off about some nonsensical topic – like, for instance, that Jim Haslett (the appropriately fired coach of the Saints) should be Coach of the Year – that ESPN is forced to air footage of him breaking his leg, a clip he says he’s never seen? I’m pretty sure that would shut him up.

As for the playoffs, I did predict a Colts-Panthers match-up, and frankly this is one of the first years that both teams I chose even made the playoffs, so I have to feel good about that. But the Panthers are not looking that tough, despite their trouncing of the Falcons on Sunday. (By the way, what a horrible lay-down by that team, which went 6-2 to start the season and 2-6 to end it. Atrocious.) The Seahawks are the best bet now to make the Super Bowl, not just because of their bye but because they have homefield advantage and, of course, a hell of a team. I’ll stick with my original prediction, but it could just as easily be Seattle-New England.

I think it’s safe to say that if an NFC team wins the Super Bowl, mouths will drop everywhere. From Indy to Cincy to New England to Denver, those are four great teams, and Pittsburgh and Jacksonville – well, Pittsburgh – is a very good team. I don’t buy the Jags at ALL. That schedule is softer than Mariah Carey’s grasp on sanity. In the NFC, there are the Seahawks, and then a LOT of question marks. The Giants, Redskins, Panthers, Buccaneers and Bears are all incomplete teams. The Super Bowl might not be fun, but the games leading up to it should be fantastic.

In any event, hope you all enjoyed playing the pool this year, and congrats to all of those who beat me into submission. I'll leave you with this gem, and before you start salivating too much, know this: this is bin Laden's niece, or cousin or something. I'm not really sure. But I do know this -- this is just one more example of why the world is a complex place. Grr.