Tonight ended a rather lackluster 3 game ECAC string for the BU hockey team. They went 1-1-1 over Thanksgiving week, losing the annual tilt with Harvard (the first BU loss at Harvard in 21 years), tying Dartmouth by giving up a goal with 14 seconds left, and beating Yale (of small comfort given that Yale was 3-7 entering the game). Now begins the main part of our Hockey East slog, with brief interruptions for games against Niagara and Minnesota (who is having problems of their own, as they currently stand at 6-7-1) and the Beanpot. We get to start with a game at BC on Friday. Great.

Speaking of Catholics, at the end of Mass today the priest read a statement from all four Massachusetts bishops (Boston, Worcester, Spriingfield, and Fall River) regarding the recent SJC ruling regarding same-sex marriage. They termed the ruling a "national tragedy" and would at least like more time than the 180 days to figure this thing out. What they'd really like is a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and woman and no law permitting same-sex unions at all.

All of this was couched as for the "protection of marriage," which makes me wonder why the bishops never get together to decry how easy the state makes it for married couples to get divorced. Isn't divorce an even bigger threat to marriage? If divorce wasn't an option, you'd have to think that people would choose their mates a lot more closely (and probably not on national TV, an added bonus). You'd also have fewer legal problems as you'd not have to worry about child support, visitation, and all the other stuff that makes families suffer and lawyers rich.

Considering today's statement came at the start of Advent, perhaps they're saving the anti-divorce statement for the start of Lent.

So let's say you have a college football coach who, in six years, guides his team to a 58-19 record, with a 9-3 mark this year in what is probably the toughest conference in the country. How do reward such performance? You fire your head coach.

That's what Nebraska did to Frank Solich today, ending his run as the 'Huskers head coach effective immediately. The assistant coaches will apparently run the team for their bowl appearance (expected to be the Holiday Bowl).

Granted, it's not all been pretty in the land of corn. Nebraska didn't look particularly great in its losses, and you can argue that the team's been inconsistent under Solich, going from a national title run in 2001 to a 7-7 finish in 2002, the team's first non-winning season in over 40 years.

But it strikes me that the biggest problem Solich had, and the one he could never overcome, is that he's not Tom Osborne. Given that, it's probably a near miracle that he lasted six years.

The real question now is who will want to follow Solich? While the Nebraska AD claims that he never consulted boosters regarding Solich, other reports suggest otherwise. Even if the AD is telling the truth, the timing of the Solich firing wouldn't make me very comfortable in taking over. But there'll be someone out there who'll want the job, and good luck to them. Don't be surprised if whoever it is gets the hook after a 10-2 season.

In other college football news, Syracuse lost to Rutgers today, bringing their record to 5-6. Next week they get to face Notre Dame, who has the same record but has won three straight. Paul Pasqueloni should start getting his resume in order. Maybe he'll want to go out to Lincoln?

And in early bowl news, Kansas will play NC State in the Tangerine Bowl. Kansas is 6-6, with wins over UNLV, Wyoming, Iowa State, Baylor, and 1-AA Jacksonville State (the only team with a winning record in this bunch). They did beat Missouri, but then went 2-5 down the stretch. Anyone who can explain why this team is bowl worthy should drop me a line.

OK, shopping didn't turn out too badly. I got to nose around a Borders with Sarah's dad for most of the time, and only had limited exposure to the chaos at our local Target.

Quick correction while I'm here. The Fox Sports poker thing I was watching actually did have some name players, but they were gone by the end. I'll stick to the rest of my critique, though.

I fear that I'm going to be brought shopping this morning (and by shopping I mean pointless milling around punctuated by the occasional purchase of something). Given how much I enjoy that (as you probably picked up from my description), you can likely predict how much I'm looking forward to the post-Thanksgiving crowds on top of the pointless milling about.

I should just be happy no one tried to drag me to a 6 a.m. opening, I guess.

OK, that's better. I'd have returned to a state of relative coherence earlier, except that I went back for more pie. Serious tactical mistake.

In any event, things turned out well. Even though my brother's family couldn't make it, we still had food for 20, so it looks like leftover surprise for the next week. If you're in the neighborhood and feeling peckish, let me know.

We did our American duty and watched both NFL games, as unwatchable as they may have been (in case you missed it, Detroit topped Green Bay in an ugly contest, while Miami unvaunted the Dallas defense). For now we're watching a little bit of the centennial Egg Bowl (Mississippi-Mississippi St.), but that was looking routish. So we've been flipping a bit, mostly between the Bond marathon on Spike (currently on The Living Daylights, so we've taken Spike out of the rotation for now) and the Fox Sports no-limit poker tournament, which is horrible. Bad commentators, poor graphics, players I've never heard of, and even a dealer who seems a little unclear on how to deal hold 'em. I think Rupert's boys took a face-plant into the tailgate of the poker bandwagon.

(Speaking of which, while doing health and safety checks this week I ran into no less than a dozen rooms with some sort of poker setup.)

And if you're looking for a late-night Thanksgiving tradition, tune in to Letterman to see him try to guess what sort of pies his mom baked for the family dinner in Indiana. This annual event has even spawned its own prediction game among the Usenet Letterman fans, though I missed the deadline to enter this year. I'm going with pumpkin and apple, though this may be a year where Dorothy goes off the board and makes a non-pie. Crazy!

So. Full.

Happy Thanksgiving! Or, if you're reading from outside the US, happy Thursday!

We're hosting Thanksgiving this year, which would be much more of a concern if Sarah's parents weren't down and doing the bulk of the cooking. The only thing I'll really get to make is the green bean casserole, which isn't much to hang one's culinary hat on. But we always had it growing up, and what whitebread American family wouldn't serve it? OK, I'm sure plenty wouldn't. Cut me some slack.

In an announcement that should stun no one, the folks over at Fox admit they were greedy in going back to the well with this whole Joe Millionaire thing. It'd be nice to think there's a lesson learned in all this, but I doubt it.

For what it's worth I wound up watching a fair bit of this year's installment, and didn't think it was the crime against nature that some did. It wasn't great TV, either. But I do think that this couple seems more genuinely in love than the first pair, who seemed to hold on just long enough to get the maximum benefit out of their relationship.

I will also say that I am not fond of using subtitles when the person speaking is already speaking English, even if it is accented. All 12 women were fluent and spoke clearer than some native speakers I know.

Were I in charge, Kevin Harlan and Randy Cross would never work a Patriots game again. Harlan is apparently some sort of team jinx, as:

1. He mentioned at the outset that Brady hadn't been picked off in six games. He got picked twice today.

2. He mentioned that Adam Vinatieri had never missed a field goal in a domed stadium. He then promptly banked one off the upright.

3. He finally mentioned that the Texans had never blocked a field goal - just before doing so in the overtime.

Cross gets cut because, well, he sucks. He and Tim McCarver need to go on a three-hour cruise.

I finally said goodbye to my Mac Classic today.

Bought in 1991 just as it was becoming obsolete (or perhaps just after it did), I've dragged the thing around for a while until I could get things transfered from it to the current machine (a balky external drive was slowing things down, but I finally got it straightened out). It wasn't too bad, outside of having to load things one floppy at a time (and copy, at least on one end, at speeds that were state of the art in, say, 1988).

In any case, it's been interesting to go through some of the old stuff. I've found many of the top 10 lists I was required to compile during my turn as BUCB ombudsman, and they're all excellent proof as to the subjective, and often short-lived, nature of humor. A good three-quarters of the entries make no sense. You could argue they didn't at the time, either, but the gossamer nature of context puts all such argument to rest. Some of the entries are funny as stand-alone statements or because they reference people I still know, so there's at least that.

Playing some of the old games has been fun, too, though many of the old games are a little buggy. At some point nostalgia will give way to practicality and I'll toss the less reliable games, but for now I'm working through the best I can.

On the flip side of my very positive Millionaire experience are three things that suggest that the folks behind the show may want to ratchet up the publicity a bit:

1. I've run into a number of people who still think Regis is the host.
2. Even more people think that you still have to do the fastest finger.
3. Most can't place the time and channel on which it's shown (12:30, WCVB-5 for you in the Boston area).

I imagine problem 3 is the main contributor to the other two problems, especially as most folks are working or doing something other than watching TV at 12:30 in the afternoon. The UPN affiliate had it last year and aired it at 5:30, which worked out well.

We got back from New York yesterday from the Millionaire taping, and I won't have to go back. I got to tape relatively early (second of my group of nine, with two holdovers from the day before going first) and was done by 4 pm.

Of course, I can't say how I did. I will say that we at least broke even, which is a good thing given the various costs involved. Not surprisingly, perhaps, most of the contestants in my group were from New York or New Jersey, or had a connection in the area. We did have one guy who came in from Las Vegas.

Overall, it was a great group of people. I'd feared that we'd all be too nervous or competitive to talk much, but it worked out.

Which was a good thing, as "contestant isolation" meant not having anything to read, listen to, or otherwise occupy one's brain from the time we got there to the time we left. I'd half-thought about bringing a book but didn't.

The show staff was great, from the PAs who were with us in the green room all the way up to Meredith, who was very sweet and (for lack of a better word) genuine. We chatted a little bit during breaks (on how I was doing, where Sarah and I went on honeymoon, etc.). She's tinier than we expected, but TV does make things look bigger (good for the studio, which is small; bad for me, who is not).

After taping we went back to the hotel (the Lucerne at 79th and Amsterdam, nicely appointed and well-staffed) and walked over a couple blocks to Luzia's, a family-run Portuguese restaurant, for dinner. Should you find yourself near 81st and Amsterdam any time soon, you should eat there. I had what was to me an unusual dish of cod, eggs, potatoes, and olives which actually worked quite well.

After that we went back to the hotel, had a sangria-induced nap, and wound up visiting with Boggie and his wife Jenny, who spent the previous four hours at a premiere for Henry IV parts one and two. Leaving Jenny at home (work in the morning), the three of us visited some local hang-outs and wound up in Times Square at 2 am, where it was bright as day and almost as busy.

All in all, a fun trip. One of these days we'll have to go to New York just to sightsee.

Did I mention I was asked to dress "springy" for the Millionaire taping tomorrow?

Got a call last week from a member of the production staff asking me to do this, not surprising given that the show will air in June. The problem I ran into is that the shirts I was planning to wear/bring (needing to have a change of clothes) have logos on the pocket, which is a no-no. This required getting news shirts. And a new pair of pants. And shoes. And socks to go with the whole thing. Funny thing is one outfit is very much fall-like (tans and browns). I suppose they'll be happy as long as I'm not wearing a cable-knit sweater.

People keep asking if I'm nervous, and I don't think I am, really. What I have been doing is psyching myself out. I'll be reading something or watching TV or what have you and I'll either (a) think to myself that I have to remember what I just read/saw/heard just in case, or (b) I'll suddenly come up with a question based on what I'm reading/seeing/hearing and realize I don't know the answer. It's been a fun couple of weeks, to be sure. I suppose I will get nervous at some level when things actually start to happen (and admittedly I'm getting a little edge on just writing this).

I'm a little ticked right now. On the heels of my question regarding UConn and a Big East bowl bid comes an ESPN.com article that notes that Notre Dame, if they go 6-6, can get the Big East's last bid assuming that no other team wins seven games.

Miami, Virginia Tech, and Pittsburgh are all in, taking three of the five Big East berths. Of BC, Syracuse, and West Virginia, BC is most unlikely to hit 7 wins given their last game is against Virginia Tech. Syracuse has a tough drive to 7 as two of their remaining three games are against West Virginia and Notre Dame. The Mountaineers just have to beat Temple.

The NCAA rule specifically covers teams who play 12 games and win 6 and are in a conference that has agreements with bowls, and UConn would more than qualify there with their 9-3 mark and their Big East membership (which, unlike Notre Dame, will soon include football).

What it comes down to (assuming we ignore money, which of course will dictate the outcome) is whether or not the conference wants to promote an up and coming team that had a good season, or a traditional team that will never be a football member of the conference (and who had to stage a major turnaround just to get to 6-6). I'm a Notre Dame fan, but I can't root for a .500 Irish team to box out the Huskies.

Could the Big East give a bowl spot to UConn rather than, say, Boston College?

UConn finished their regular season on Saturday with a 51-17 drubbing of Wake Forest (remember the heady days of the season when the Deacs were in the top 25?). They end the season with a 9-3 mark, with two of the three losses being quite respectable: a 10 point loss to BC and a 7 point loss at NC State (the third loss was a drilling at the hands of Virginia Tech).

It may be more appropriate to offer UConn a MAC bowl bid, given that they went 4-0 against MAC foes. Regardless, it doesn't seem fair that UConn will get snubbed while a very dull 7-5 (or even worse, 6-6) team could get to go somewhere.

I suppose I should be more angry with the lack of options for independent teams (outside of Notre Dame) in general. Not only does UConn look like they may not get to take their 9-3 record out for a bowl game spin, Navy may very well finish at 8-4 and go nowhere (and Navy even has a win over then-25th ranked Air Force).

Personally, I'd rather see North Texas play either of those teams than whoever the best 6-5 team in CUSA is (the UAB-South Florida tilt seems key here). But that's probably just me and my East Coast Bias.

Suggesting that one good link change deserves another, I have added a link to ProjectExplorer under the "Other Stuff" category. Check it out!

According to the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles web site:

"You may change your name with no documentation as long as there is no attempt to defraud."

You do have to go to a full-service branch to get a new photo and signature capture. I suppose the awe-inspiring majesty of a full-service branch of the Registry is supposed to be enough to keep people from making fraudulent name changes.

It strikes me that this is the sort of thing that would have changed over the last couple of years. I also don't know if we want the front-line folks at the Registry trying to determine when someone's pulling a fast one. Nothing against them, but it seems like the sort of process that should require at least a marriage licence or something.

In a related customer service note, the people at Sovereign Bank tell us that name changes can be done by a teller. Which contradicts what a teller at the Kenmore Square branch said at the end of last week, which was generally "I don't know." Part of me thinks we just should have closed the account. Anyone out there have an account with Banknorth? Are they any good?

And a hearty welcome back to Allyson Harper-Nixon, the first person to actually come off the bench among those links riding pine. I hope it's not another 9 months between posts!

Oh, I forgot to mention one of the films previewed on Friday. Calendar Girls is about an English gardening club whose middle-aged female members make a calendar featuring pictures of themselves in various states of undress to make money for one of their husbands who has, from what I can tell, cancer. It's based on a true story and stars Helen Mirren and Julie Walter.

I should also note the absolute testosteronic trough of the weekend, when the wife took me to a craft fair at a local school. There were a few booths of interest for me (a couple food-related ones and a guy selling old maps), and we did manage to get a Christmas present for one of the kids in the family.

Football helped restore manliness from there on out, as did a hockey game (BU wins 6-1 over Merrimack). The christening we went to was pretty much a push as far as gender balance goes, but was a splendid afternoon.

Ending the week with the Pats game was nice, if but a little bizarre at times (please see the game ending play off of Ty Law's second pick as an example). It also stuns me what may be the team's biggest obstacle to going deep in the playoffs is their punter. I can't help but think that there are 4 or 5 guys out there who the Pats can bring in who can punt better than Ken Walter, who reportedly ranks 32nd in the league (the NFL.com page only gives the top 30 punters, and he's not among them).

Considering all the other positions he's played this season, perhaps Dan Klecko can take over.

As the Bruce correctly surmised a few days ago, Love, Actually is a movie specifically engineered for my wife, and we did go see it last night. It is actually pretty good, as far as ensemble romantic comedy goes.

It's not the sort of movie you can easily sum up, given that there are something like 8 or 9 different love stories. Suffice it to say that a variety of people, all of whom have vaguely interconnected lives, spend the five weeks before Christmas in some form of romantic flux. And while it's often sappy, it manages to not have everything turn out perfectly.

Given the size of the cast and the relative lack of a lead, it's hard to say if anyone did better or worse than anyone else. I did think Emma Thompson did a good job with a role that made her change direction very quickly at times. Kudos as well to Liam Neeson and Laura Linney. You'll also probably see more of Martina McCutcheon, a former player on EastEnders and British TV presenter making the move to movies.

I don't know if you have to run right out and see this, but it'll at least be a pleasant diversion.

On, and on the preview front...

Saw previews again for Something's Gotta Give and Stuck on You - the former is a rental at best, the latter depends on your stomach for the Farrelly brothers. We also got a preview of The Cat in the Hat, which may be great and may suck. Either way, it's likely going to make boatloads of cash.

Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston get together in Along Came Polly, which looks pretty formulaic. Jim Carrey gets his bad memories toasted in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which at least has an interesting title and supporting cast (Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood, Tom Wilkinson).

Kind of a thin group, really.

I'm having some sort of blog-related ennui, in that I want to write but am having trouble with the motivation and the information. I've not really written on anything coherent in some time, just dribs and drabs. Maybe I'm being seasonally affected.

Part of it too is that the things I most want to write about are kind of second-personal (a term I just made up about things involving another person that may or may not be my business to discuss in public without prior authorization). I can say it's not domestic - married life is still swell - but it's more that I had a chance to get back together with someone I'd not seen in a while who has had a less than stellar 2003.

Without getting into specifics, then, I will say I was impressed with this person's resilience, though I shouldn't have expected anything less. I don't think I could come out of the same circumstances nearly anywhere as strong or positive. It was also nice to see that, even after some years and life changes, there are people who are not only interested in renewing aquaintances, but can carry the relationship forward into the present day. Most of the time it's a "hey, nice to hear from you" email and resultant silence.

So a nice positive note for a week that's about to become very blustery.

Something I forgot to mention back from the weekend we were in Maine is that I saw what might be the least fraught idea in niche cable/sattelite programming: the NFL Network. They were getting a free preview, and if the finished product is anything like it the channel is going to be the pigskin equivalent of crystal meth.

Sadly, the schedules suggest it's going to be more like whatever drug is repetitive and boring (quaaludes?). The signature show NFL Total Access, airs at 8 pm, again at 11 pm, and is then repeated the next day at 2 am and then from 5 am to noon. Most of the other non prime-time programming is repeated from earlier in the broadcast week. Hopefully this will change as the network grows. At least it's not infomercials.

OK, I'll admit it. I thought Art Carney was dead.

I'll admit to not having a very good track record with these sorts of things, at least if my dead pool entries are anything to go by. Part of my problem was having two entries that split my total body count of five (Bob Hope, Warren Zevon, Leni Reifenstahl, and Katherine Hepburn on one entry, Strom Thurmond on the other). I also seem to have picked some pretty feisty octogenarians (Barbara Billingsley and Shelley Winters, for example).

And in an annoyance for this week, I don't get Veterans Day off. I don't know if very many people do, but I find it interesting that we get Memorial Day off but not Veterans Day. Wouldn't the powers that be rather we take time to honor veterans while they're alive? I know that days off most often translate into car dealers putting on loudly-advertised sales or malls opening at 5 am, but I can't help but feel the living veterans are getting the short end of the stick here, especially if they're also not getting the day off.

Notes from the weekend...

* For those of you who played in a TRASH regional, the first tossup and bonus of the first pack (assuming you played the packs in numerical order) were written by me. I just thought that was neat. Undoubtedly, some of you would have another adjective to use there.

* I really wish I'd gotten to see more of the college football carnage, though I did get to see about half of Bowden Bowl V while flipping back to Virginia Tech's loss at Pittsburgh. I really would have been interested in Oklahoma's 77-0 waxing of Texas A&M, if only to see how the Sooners managed not to score in the fourth quarter.

* Got to see a little bit of the lunar eclipse on Saturday night while waiting for a table at John Harvard's in Framingham. I'd forogtten about it, which seems to be the standard case whenever astro-phenomena are afoot.

* I managed to aggravate my knee problem on Friday, which led to some gimping around over the weekend. I did manage to spend large chunks of yesterday in bed with the heating pad and ice pack, and took some ibuprofen, all of which seems to have gotten me back to semi-normal.

* For this week's fantasy football game, I had three choices for 2 RB spots: Michael Pittman (TB), Anthony Thomas (CHI), and Moe Williams (MIN) (I'm sure those of you who participate in this sort of thing see what's coming). Pittman and Thomas were facing run defenses of similar rank, while Williams was facing a weaker defense but appeared that he'd be losing carries to the returning Michael Bennett. So I talked myself into starting Thomas and Pittman... and thus missed out on Williams' 2 TD catches and 171 total yards.

The good news is that I have about a 7 point lead going into tonight with Donovan McNabb. I have half a mind to bench him to preserve the win, though even in his depths he's not caused me to lose that many points.

* In good holiday news, we got a new Christmas tree this weekend, a 6.5 foot fakeroo (can't have real ones in the residence hall, fire codes) to replace a 3 foot fake that could open and close like an umbrella. In bad holiday news, we don't know where we can put it in the apartment where it won't be in the way.

* We got the stuff we bought at Waterford last week, and it came with a care manual. We thought this was unusual, until we got to the passage noting that the faceting and shaping of some pieces can, if left in direct sunlight, focus beams to the point where it'll scorch wood. That's good to know.

* As irritating as it is to go to Walter Brown and see the alma mater drop a 4-0 decision to UNH, it's exponentially more dispiriting when you realize that the last time BU scored on UNH's Mike Ayers was 17:19 into the third period of a BU win over UNH on JANUARY 23, 2003. The Terriers have not scored on Ayers in 254 minutes and 24 seconds of hockey. I'm not sure if there is a NCAA record for longest shutout streak by a goalie against any one specific team, but if there is Ayers must be getting close.

And in a move I should have made a long time ago, I've added Amanda Conaway to the links at left. A Terrier with the good sense not to get mixed up with either the RA or college bowl crowd while at BU as a student, Miss Amanda has nevertheless become stuck with us now. Thankfully, she's taken the energy that most of us put towards trivia and/or regulating and put it towards a fine appreciation of various distilled and fermented beverages. What were the rest of us thinking?

Proving that I'm not the only person thinking about this, the Blogalicious Lone Star State correspondent, Brian Hight, reports that:

* Troy State will be heading to the Sun Belt next year (in fact, the conference web site notes that they'll be a full member in 2005).
* Utah and New Mexico States have already been poached by the WAC (if I read the papers at all, I'd have noticed this happened a couple of weeks ago).
* Rumor has TCU ditching CUSA and joining up with Mountain West, thwarting a mini-Southwest Conference reunion.

Sticking with CUSA, it'll also likely be losing St. Louis and UNC-Charlotte to the Atlantic 10 (offer made for them to join the A10 today), and Army has already given notice that it's returning to independent status in football after 2004. Which makes things tough for CUSA, as it loses some of its basketball power and (if I can count) means only 11 football teams and thus no title game (not that it'd be a huge earner, I suppose, but it's the hot thing to have).

I really have nothing to say about The Reagans, other than regardless if its yanking was caused by a populist groundswell or some Right Wing Media Death Squad, we were probably saved from four hours of crap TV. Unless you subscribe to Showtime, in which case you'll be paying to watch it. Suckers.

I was among the many that ran right out today and saw The Matrix Revolutions, mostly because if I didn't see it with coworkers today I'd probably not see it in the theater. I'd heard a lot of chatter about highly negative reviews, and while I don't think the movie was as bad as all that (I liked it better than the middle film), I can't say I'm particularly satisfied. This is in part due to the ending (which I won't go into), and part a shift away from the characters who've taken us through the story (especially Morpheus) and towards large battle scenes.

We did see the movie on an IMAX screen, which was a nice upgrade. We didn't see a lot of wannabe Neos or Trinities (apparently the first showing attracted some, which I suppose makes sense given that only the most obsessed would go to the 2:30 showing), but there was a preponderance of dorks in long coats. We had a trio of guys working their Blackberry and Wi-Fi in line, undoubtedly talking to Matrix fans in Europe or something.

While the holiday season isn't bringing a ton of films that I want to see, I am looking forward to Master and Commander, the first film based on the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. I've only read the first book (there's something like 20), and I really should re-read it given that I didn't give it as much focus as I'd have liked the first time around.

I am very much not looking forward to the new Loony Tunes movie. Apparently, no one at Warner remembers Space Jam. I was looking forward somewhat to Timeline until I found out it stars Paul Walker. I'll probably just re-read the book.

As for period pieces,The Last Samurai? Doubtful. I have a feeling I'll see Girl with a Pearl Earring given that Sarah read the book and liked it. Sticking with books, but out of period, I think I'd also like to see The Statement, based on a book by Brian Moore (whose novels, all seemingly under 200 pages, suggest that there is a way to write successful fiction without using twice as many words). And, oh yeah, there's that last Lord of the Rings movie, too.

KNEE UPDATE Had my follow-up appointment with an orthopedist today, and he thinks I may have a small tear in my knee cartilage. Where my knee isn't locking or buckling at present, he thinks it'll be OK over time. I'm not supposed to baby it, but I think I'll keep up at least some ice/heat for a while given that it does still get sore.

FOOT IN MOUTH UPDATE You've probably heard about Howard Dean's comment about being the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks. Inasmuch as his phrasing stinks (couldn't he have just called them NASCAR voters?), he does have a point. You don't have to be James Carville to realize that not winning a state more southernly than Maryland is problematic. Even moreso is that, without a Southern candidate, you have to go back to JFK to find your most recent Democrat wins in some of the southern states (most had a brief flirtation with the Dems when Carter and Clinton were running).

I also don't think southern voters will warm to a Vermonter who signed a bill legalizing gay marriage. From what polling I could find in a brief Yahoo search suggests that Wes Clark and John Edwards are up front in South Carolina, Dean is reasonably close, but at least a third of voters are undecided. I suppose if Dean does well in Iowa and New Hampshire that may help. Not sure if John McCain is a good example here or not of how that might not work.

MARRIAGE UPDATE Yesterday marked the one month anniversary. No presents were exchanged, it was more of a "it's been a month?" sort of thing.

CONFERENCE UPDATE The Big East invited five schools to join starting in 2005 - Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida, De Paul, and Marquette (the definition of "east" apparently not being an issue). This helps the basketball side, but doesn't help the football side much (Louisville is in and out of the top 25, Cincy and USF aren't within yelling distance, and the other two don't have teams).

CUSA will replace their defectors with Rice, Tulsa, SMU, Central Florida, and Marshall. This gives them a slight bump in football, as they'll now have enough teams to hold a title game. The MAC can hold steady, as they'll only drop to 12 teams (preserving their title game).

The real loser will be the WAC, who will drop to seven schools (one of which, Louisiana Tech, is geographically out of whack with the other schools in the conference). They could try to work a merger with the Sun Belt, though I wonder if they'll try to poach the likes of Utah State, Idaho, and New Mexico State and force Louisiana Tech out, making them an obvious choice for a Sun Belt now centered on Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee. As for the Sun Belt, then left with six teams? They could go after Troy State (a football independent), but after that... well, I may be the only person not employed by the conference or a member school thinking about that.

I have to vent regarding fantasy football for a second. It's week 9, I've started four different QBs.

Donovan McNabb started for several weeks, but only succeeded in getting Rush Limbaugh fired. Sadly, I didn't get any points for that.

After a few weeks of ineffectiveness I tried Kyle Boller, but was apparently a few weeks ahead of the curve. I dropped him and started Jake Delhomme, who wasn't much better.

I thought I had something trading for Rich Gannon, but his torn labrum relegated this to the "seemed like a good idea at the time" pile. I then let myself get caught up in my annual fantasy football cutsiness and started Marques Tuiasosopo, who then went out and injured his knee. Really, I should threaten the Raiders with picking up Rick Mirer this week. Then again, they may not care. Have they gotten Vince Evans out of cryostasis?

All of this is compounded by McNabb finally having a good week, scoring 10.34 points to Tui's -0.65. I have a 9 point lead going into tonight, and thus have to hope that Rod Smith and Adam Vinatieri have off nights. I am rooting for a 8-3 Pats win.

(I could also complain about Yahoo! marking Eric Barton as questionable and then having him score twice as many points as Joey Porter. I won't even go there with Anthony Thomas and his 2 TDs, as I probably wouldn't have played him even if he wasn't also marked questionable.)

We're back from a foray to Maine to visit Sarah's family. We did something this weekend that I'd never done before: seen a BU-Maine game at Alfond Arena. BU played pretty well... after the first period. Problem being that they played like crap in the first 20 minutes, giving up the two goals that stood for Maine's 2-1 win. Now, because you didn't ask for it, my ranking of the Hockey East arenas:

NR. Mullins Center, UMass-Amherst. Never been, the only Hockey East venue I've never been to. BU's lone trip to Amherst this season is on the same day as CBI regionals. Wait 'til 2004-05, I suppose.

8. J. Thom Lawler Arena (ne Volpe Sports Complex), Merrimack College. OK, they've renovated Volpe (which we called the Simplex, given that it was wooden bleachers and an ice surface), but they're not moving up until I get to go see the finished product.

7. Schneider Arena, Providence College. Completely drab, soulless building which has always been about a third-full when I've gone to games there. There's also been a lack of a crowd, though that seems to be improving (last night's game against UMass had about 2/3 capacity).

6. Matthews Arena, Northeastern University. Even though it was renovated within the last 10 years, it still looks like a dump. They also have some of the least comfortable seats in Hockey East. Though they at least have seat backs, unlike some of the people who'll be coming up. Crowd is usually pretty vocal, and they hate us, so that always ratchets things up. It's also fairly easy to get to as long as you're not driving.

5. Conte Forum, Boston College. The first of the new Hockey East arenas, it's also my least favorite. It has nothing to do with the team that plays there, but rather the relative crapitude of the building. Many of the seats do not have backs. There are windows that put light on the ice during day games (though you don't have many of those anymore). The audio is horrific. The traffic to get out of the place nightmarish (though taking the T is reasonably simple). Being new it does have amenities that older places do not have. But it's middle of the pack, no doubt.

4. Tsongas Arena, UMass-Lowell. It's a great building, but it's really not UML's (the AHL Lowell Lock Monsters are the major tenant). The building holds over 6000, and it's rare to have it even half full. So while it gets points for being new, it loses points for atmosphere. It may also be the seediest location for Hockey East home ice, though the neighborhood around Matthews can be tricky.

I was actually a much bigger fan of the Tully Forum, Lowell's home ice when I first started going to away games. A Depression-era building, it was dumpy but lively. Out in the middle of nowhere, you either had to subsist on concessions (which were pretty good and reasonably priced) or dare a walk up the road (no lights or sidewalks) to a Chinese restaurant in a colonial-era house. Apparently the Forum had a very colorful history back in Lowell's lower division days, as Dave Hendrickson recounts here.

3. Alfond Arena, University of Maine-Orono. A pretty high ranking for a building I've been to once, and is actually kind of dumpy, but the crowd was very into the game and not as rude to the visiting fan as I'd heard. The building is one of those 1960s tent-looking constructions where the roof is wood and some sort of crushed-mineral paneling that I always think has asbestos in it. There are many bench seats without backs, though they're so close together that backs would wipe out what little aisle space there is already. They could have the worst sound system in the league; even when it was silent it was a chore to hear what was being said.

Still, it was a fun place to see a game and I'd go back no problem.

2. Whittimore Center, University of New Hampshire. It's new, great sight lines, and the crowd is into the game, for the most part. The fans can be annoying (they're still getting used to being good, I think), and parking can be problematic (it always seems like we're parked a mile away). Still, it's a great facility.

Though I would be remiss if I didn't mention Snively Arena. Lively Snively was this wooden airplane hangar type building with wooden bleachers. The press were herded up on some sort of catwalk. Even so, I always enjoyed going up there for games. Concessions were cheap though limited access points meant missing game time. Still, fun atmosphere.

1. Walter Brown Arena, Boston University. Yes, I'm a homer. Sue me. Even though it's a concrete bunker with a corrugated metal roof that's low enough for pucks to hit, it's our concrete bunker with a corrugated metal roof that's low enough for pucks to hit. Besides, it's hard for me to speak ill of a rink I've overnighted in twice.

And as an added bonus, my five favorite non-Hockey East arenas.

5. Fleet Center, Boston MA. BU seems to do pretty well there, but it's too big and impersonal. And for all the Beanpots I've seen won there, the biggest moment I've spent there that was college hockey related didn't involve the Terriers at all - it was the 1998 final where Michigan beat BC.

4. Bright Center, Harvard University. We play Harvard every year just before Thanksgiving, which means I go to one game here every other year. It's not a bad building, but it's oddly shaped and has very low glass relative to the compact seating area. I do love all the team pictures and historical stuff, and I have great memories of walking over for the 1990 tilt with some fellow RAs.

3. Yost Arena, University of Michigan. Nice house, good crowd, but the hockey as Rocky Horror Picture Show vibe is off-putting. It would have helped if the one game I'd seen here actually been a game (I got to see the Wolverines pummel Western Michigan).

2. Gutterson Fieldhouse, University of Vermont. Unbelieveable crowd, especially when you consider that it was a healthy mix of students and locals. They may be all granola, but when it's game time, it's game time.

1. Boston Garden, Boston MA. 1991: I'm up in the balcony loge, which I swear is a section of seats bolted to the ceiling. We have to bend down to see the scoreboard. I'm with my friend Leo at the Hockey East title game. It's OT, and Shawn McEachern goes streaking up the right side. He fires. Game. Bedlam. Even in the bloodiest of nosebleeds, bedlam. I miss that building.