Oh yeah, Oscar nods. I've not seen any of the best picture films, which isn't a surprise as I saw very few movies overall in 2005. Heck, we've got a couple of Netflix discs on our TV that have been there since... well, I'm not sure. Too damn long to justify the continued membership fee, I'm sure.

So as I'll be watching the Super Bowl for the commercials, I'll be watching the Oscars for the snark (Jon Stewart and fashion disasters, ahoy!).

Today is Alan Greenspan's last day as chairman of the Fed. So what does he get as a going away present from his co-workers? A hike in interest rates.

Couldn't they have given him a watch or something?

Notes from the weekend:

* Friday we went to Game On! (a bar/lounge place that's part of Fenway Park) to watch the BU-BC hockey game (Icedogs victorious, 4-3). For a $5 "donation" (it was apparently upgraded from an actual donation to a mandatory one) we got in, got to participate in various raffles (the wife won a polo shirt - in medium - which will fit one of our nephews nicely), and have some free food.

It did not obviate us from a responsibility of ordering drinks and other food if we sat at a table, as a wait staffer was happy to let us know. This does seem a little like bait-and-switch, and as they pulled the free food pretty much when the game started, it wasn't like we weren't going to order anything for the next three hours.

I wasn't particularly impressed with the place, and in a way wish the skanky bowling alley it replaced was back. At least that had character.

We missed Cooch's latest Sports Pulse appearance, a Guinness-fueled spot where he apparently managed to malign a sizeable portion of the American population. Well done.

* Saturday we played in the Ann B. Davis mirror and did OK - 4th or 5th out of 12. We were clearly too old and/or mainstream for fair chunks of the tournament, which should put paid a little bit to trash being a format for dinosaurs. I was distressed to see my visual bonus on Winter Olympic logos edited to include years - at that point, why even bother with pictures? - but was even more distressed when I learned that the visual was printed on the back of questions.

After the tournament we went to the BU-UMass hockey game, which turned out to be the Icedogs' 7th win in a row, the longest current winning streak in the nation (for NCAA div 1 men, of course). They avoided the letdown, although at times they played like they weren't going to.

This all made it a good weekend for the team when thinking of the national tournament, as they jumped from the bubble to being tied at 4th (with BC) in the Pairwise rankings. The jump is a good thing, but it stikes me as showing the Pairwise to be too volatile. If we lose to Lowell this weekend, do we drop back down to the bubble? And what's so hard about using RPI?

* Sunday was a complete waste. The wife worked and took the car, so I stayed home and did nothing of consequence. We did watch the first two episodes of 24, which was kind of ruined for me when I'd read about one character's death a week or so ago. But the death of another character about 3 minutes later was a surprise. I'll save more discussion for the other blog.

The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim announced today that, next season, they'll be called the Anaheim Ducks. It also came across today that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays may drop the "Devil" from their name.

They were both stupid names to begin with. I suppose Anaheim Ducks makes the best of a bad situation, short of a complete change. Not that ducks are the most fearsome of creatures - or that they're found much on or near large bodies of ice - but it at least takes the stupid original name and tries to make something respectable out of it. Word is they're changing their unis and logo, too, probably into something less Disney.

As for the Devil Rays, one of the findings was that positive mentions of the team in media called them the "Rays," while negative mentions used the whole name most often. Given their usual level of play, you can work out how that looked.

I don't care for just using Rays. Too short. The entire name becomes this staccato mess. They should go with some other form of ocean-going predator. They could even grab some Federal League cred and go with Whales. Not that there's a lot of Federal League cred to grab, but it's better than what they've got going now.

Book Log 2006 #4: The End of the Beginning by Harry Turtledove

As many of you know, I have a fondness for the alternative history genre.

Yes, hi, I'm a dork. Tell me something I don't know.

The End of the Beginning is a sequel to Days of Infamy, which ponders what would happen if the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was complimented with a successful occupation of Hawaii. I thought the first book was OK, but had a hard time keeping the military characters straight. Turtledove also like to repeat certain ideas and themes, which can get annoying after a while (for example, the first book would tell us about how civilians could be mistreated if they didn't bow to Japanese troops every time the situation was presented. OK, I get it, move on).

The second book is a bit better, probably as it took less time to get up to speed with who people were. I wouldn't say it was that much better, but enough so that I don't feel like I wasted my time reading the pair.

Though I would have liked a little more finality if this was the concluding book. There are enough open ends to allow for a third book, though I'm not sure life on post-occupation Hawaii would be enough to carry a book on its own.

For an interesting fantasy game for the upcoming Olympics in Turin, check out - and try not to cringe at the design - of Fields of Bronze.

We won at trivia again. This week it was Allyson's turn to be en fuego, including one instance where she managed to stump the hosts. All in all, good times and another free meal. Can't argue against that.

Your questions, which are paraphrased as the answer sheet is at home:

Haleakala is the highest point on which Hawaiian island? Maui (Scott) - The first of Allyson's correct answers.

What rap song samples the melody of the chorus to the Kenny Rogers - Dolly Parton song "Islands in the Stream?" Ghetto Superstar (James) - Allyson and the wife were killing themselves trying to come up with the name (I was no help). We put in some lame guess, which of course prompted Allyson to come up with the name about 15 seconds later. Being regulars we were able to talk our way into submitting a new answer as the last call for answers went out. So instead of losing one point we gained ten.

What well-known cartoon bird's middle name is Fauntleroy? Donald Duck (Greg) - Like Jack, my first thought was Foghorn Leghorn. Allyson came up with Donald Duck and was pretty sure about it, for good reason apparently. FWIW, it is the formal name of the sailor suit hat he wears. Still doesn't explain the lack of pants.

What is the name of the no-win situation that is used to test Starfleet cadets as seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan? Kobiyashi Maru (Jack) - the hosts wussed out and gave a hint that referenced the Kobiyashi character in The Usual Suspects. I think we should have gotten a bonus for knowing it beforehand, but that wasn't happening.

What European capital city - located in a formerly Communist country - is known as "The City of a Hundred Spires?" Prague (Greg) - total guess on my part. We also were thinking of Warsaw given all the Catholics, though I'd have to think that between the Nazis and the Red Army, Warsaw probably lost more spires than it currently has.

Before losing to Denver in this year's playoffs, what was the last team to beat the New England Patroits in the post-season? Jacksonville Jaguars (OTC) - we completely forgot about this - it was likely mentioned during the wild card game, but I probably wasn't paying enough attention to the announcers. We went with Green Bay. There'd been a dearth of sports questions in past weeks, so to miss one - and with local content to boot - was irritating.

85 percent of what state's population lives within 15 miles of the Wasatch Mountains? Utah (Mike) - This was the final question, which seemed too easy. Maybe I've watched too many college football games where the Wasatch range was in the background.

So I realize I didn't use the question where Allyson stumped the hosts. The multiple part question in the second half asked for the one hit wonder provided by these three-lettered bands: ABC, A-ha, OMC, and EMF. We got the last three ("Take On Me," "How Bizarre," and "Unbelievable," respectively - Greg), but disagreed on the first one. Allyson argued for "When Smokey Sings," while I favored "The Look of Love." I deferred to Allyson, given her run of answers and general knowledge of '80s music. Turns out that they were looking for "The Look of Love" or "(Shoot That) Poison Arrow."

I was under the impression that "When Smokey Sings" was by one of those similar British groups made up of suit-wearing Bryan Ferry clones. But it is indeed by ABC, and was the ABC song that had the highest charting position on the Billboard pop singles/Hot 100 chart. Maybe if we point this out to them we'll get free beer next week. But I doubt it.

Book Log 2006 #3: Pop Goes Religion by Terry Mattingly

Mattingly writes a weekly syndicated religion column, and this book is a collection of his work put into functional areas (music, TV, etc.). This gives the collection some organization, but not enough. It'd have read a little better if related columns were presented together (for example, columns related to U2 were spread throughout the music chapter rather than with each other). There are a couple of themes presented at the start of the book, and they do show up in columns, but it never feel very unified (which, given the nature of the book, may be inevitable).

The best part of the book is likely the introduction, which has a good story about the author introducing ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons to the then-new archbishop of Denver.

Having a familiarity with contemporary Christian (in this case meaning evangelical Protestant) practice and culture helps, but isn't required. Not a bad book if you're interested in issues of popular culture and religion, but if you have a specific interest you're better off seeking out books focusing on it.

For what it's worth, I made a prediction to colleagues on Friday that we'd have a Denver-Carolina Super Bowl.

There's a reason I've never entered the world of on-line sports betting.

I'm a little torn today at the news that the state House has passed a bill that would make not wearing a seat belt a primary offense for which you can be pulled over. I'd generally describe myself as favoring seat belt laws - though I'd like to think that wearing a seat belt is something you'd do because it's a simple, barely invasive way to protect yourself should the unexpected happen - but maybe not this specific form of seat belt law.

The slippery slope seems to be the problem for me, though most of the examples of where the slope leads - cell phone use, loud music, animated conversations with a passenger - are also all situations that I also see as jeopardizing public safety. And for the hypocritical turn in this post, I'm OK with laws banning drivers from using cell phones. I think.

***

In a barely related note, read an article today that Massport is halting the Logan Shuttle service that runs from Peabody. This would be sad news if we ever used the service, which we didn't. The Peabody line apparently has significantly lower ridership than the other lines, which the article seemed to blame on the line's opening shortly after 9/11. I can't imagine that helped, but I tend to think location is a major factor, too. The terminal is located on the southbound side of Route 1, kind of out in the sticks. Compare that to the Framingham location, which is near a shopping center just off of Route 9 (which is much easier to change direction on than Route 1, where you pretty much have the jug handle and an occasional underpass).

We thought about taking the Shuttle a couple of times when we were at Babson, but running the numbers it turned out that long term parking was cheaper. The bus ticket was $15, and the daily parking rate wasn't that much lower than long term.

One of the new alternatives to the Logan Shuttle mentioned in the article was an extra bus from Portsmouth that would stop in Newburyport before heading to Logan. Huh? From Beverly I think it's a push for driving time to Logan versus Newburyport.

Although I really don't want to drive to Logan ever again. I got to drop the wife off earlier in the week as she was out of town for work (happy to say she's back now), and it's pretty damn confusing. The signage indicates general direction, but doesn't indicate proper lane use. So when I went in the general direction for the terminal, I wound up going by the terminal before it. Irritating.

Thus ends the transportation portion of this month's blogging.

When I was getting off the train last night, I could see and hear some heavy precipitation, so I opened my umbrella and walked off.

What I didn't expect was that the precipitation was hail. Well, more of a mix of hail, sleet, and rain, but mostly hail. It wasn't the famed hail the size of canned hams, more along the BB to pea size range, and it stopped a couple of minutes after I got off the train. Strange, but kind of fun, too.

Didn't go to trivia Tuesday, so instead you get:

Book Log 2006 #2: Finding Betty Crocker by Susan Marks

I can't say I'd ever really wondered about the history behind Betty Crocker, but I do have an interest in corporate history-type books, and one of my favorite Bloom County story lines is when Milo goes to General Mills to proclaim his love for Betty, only to be crushed when he learns that she's not real. So I had to read this.

And I'd say I was fairly well rewarded. Most of the book covers Betty's rise to prominence, from appearances in print ads to radio hosting to TV. I was unaware of just how popular Betty was in her heyday; in one year of her Cooking School of the Air radio show, there were 700,000 registered participants. That's pretty impressive.

I would have liked more on how General Mills developed Betty and the people who made her what she is. There is some discussion on that, but the bulk of the book is about her media presence and popularity. I suppose there are other, more orthodox histories that cover the company and their best known employee.

While references are made in the book to changes in Betty's appearance over the years, there's only one chapter that really discusses this. I'd have liked more on this and less on the changes to the Betty Crocker test kitchens.

It's a quick read and pretty entertaining. Sadly, it doesn't mention the Bloom County story line. It also made me long for baked goods, which is both good and bad.

In the interest of ripping off other bloggers and giving myself something to write about, I hereby introduce Book Log 2006, though I ask you to keep the following in mind:

1. I make no claims to being a critical reviewer. It's been a long time since I had to systematically pull a book apart, and I don't think I'd do much of a job of it now.

2. As most of my reading is done while commuting, don't expect the classics. Though I fully intend to get to some of the books you all recommended to me back when I asked about books you liked in high school/college. Someday.

3. My reading is also fairly well constricted by the acquisitions of the Beverly Public Library, as I'm too cheap to actually buy books I can check out for free. I will say that I've rarely been unable to find a book I've wanted, and now that they've gotten their accreditation back I can interlibrary most of the books I can't find.

That being said, let's get on with it.

Book Log 2006 #1: Hetty: The Genius and Madness of America's First Female Tycoon by Charles Slack

I knew about as much about Hetty Green as the author did going into his project: she was a woman of immense wealth who got into the Guinness World Book of Records for throwing nickels around like manhole covers, landing the not so coveted title of World's Greatest Miser. Her cheapitude led to her son losing his leg, and an argument over milk led to the apoplexy that killed her.

The truth, of course, is more complex than that. The heiress to a New Bedford whaling fortune, Hetty's formative years imprinted on her an odd combination of business acumen and Quaker values. These informed her adult years, where she made millions of dollars and spent as little of it as possible. Not that she would never spend, and she did when she felt the price was right - most often on litigation.

Slack does a pretty good job telling this story based on the available material, which includes less primary material than a biographer might like. Hetty didn't talk as much as her fellow tycoons, but she did attract enough newspaper coverage (and generate enough trial records) to leave a colorful paper trail.

There's a good mix of Hetty's business side and personal side, with her complicated family dynamics being perhaps the more entertaining part of the book. While I think I had at least some handle on Hetty's eccentricities by the end of the book, a fair bit of the explanation is supposition (Hetty not providing a lot of background on the subject herself in the few interviews she gave), though probably not too far off the mark.

Oh, and for the record, Hetty did try to get her son treatment for his leg. She just preferred to get it for free, and had to switch doctors often when charity hospitals found out who she was. I'm sure that didn't help the son's leg any, though.

I'd recommend the book, especially if you've heard of Hetty and have wondered what the story was behind her parsimony.

Yeah, five turnovers. That'll derail your playoff hopes pretty quickly. There were other problems, but I don't think you have to go too far past the turnover stat to see where this game turned.

What I do find interesting is the "end of the dynasty" talk. Granted that the Pats' dynasty has a different feel to those of the Steelers, Niners, or Cowboys, but without any material changes in sight - and with an off-season that will hopefully see full health for Bruschi, Dillon, and about a half-dozen DBs - the Pats should still be an elite team when things kick off for them again in September. If you saw any of the post-game interviews, some idiot nearly got himself killed asking Brushci about the Pats' ability to compete next year. Tedy's intensity certainly isn't injured.

Now that we're out of it, I have to determine an official rooting interest, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it may be a NFC team. It can't be Denver; not just for last night, but for all of the losses to Denver over the years (I took great pleasure in their 55-10 Super Bowl loss to the Niners). I could get behind Pittsburgh, I suppose. I am similarly ambivalent about Seattle - doesn't help that their QB went to that school in Newton. I could get behind either Carolina or the Bears.

Barely related to this, I have to say that I hate the Coors Light ad where they show clips from Super Bowls past while insering the "Silver Bullet" train and stupid period references (like they guy with the Michael Jackson vest and high top fade) to hawk their cheap, watery product. Still not as bad as the sub-moronic Bud Light ads with that "stunt" guy who does things like stay at work until two minutes past five - on a Friday. I know, stupid ads for crap beer, I might as well get mad at the sun for setting in the west.

Playoff predictions/guesses: Pats, Colts, Panthers, Seahawks. Though in my heart, I'd love to have Super Bowl XL be a rematch of Super Bowl XX. Just hopefully not a re-enactment.

The new year of bar trivia started out like the old one, as we claimed victory on the last question. It was an interesting night, as there were 26 teams - which is about 50 percent more than the busiest I've seen it - and the usual pair that run the game were off. The replacements were OK, but they were pretty slow and seemingly a bit lax on the rules - one team seated about 5 feet away from them was clearly using cell phones. Hard to quibble when you win, though.

It was also a good night for the wife, who was on fire. We wouldn't have won if she wasn't there.

Anyway, your questions:

What four instruments make up a string quartet? Violin, viola, cello (Salome), and another violin. We had the original guess made here (bass rather than the other violin), but we did manage to change our answer to include two violins. Unforunately, there was a communications error that led us to delete the viola rather than the bass in our final answer. Whoops.

What band took its name from a cloning-themed episode of The X Files? Eve 6 (Greg) - The wife pulled this one out, with the help of the musical clue (that Gwen Stefani/Eve duet from a few years back). The replacement hosts are the regular hosts of another game that a member of our team plays at, and he said that these hosts give more helpful musical clues. Thankfully.

What planet has 8 moons, three of which are named Larissa, Proteus, and Triton? Neptune (Greg) - eighth planet (usually), 8 moons, the song clue? "8 Days a Week" by the Beatles.

Before The X Files, David Duchovny played a cross-dressing FBI agent on what TV show? Twin Peaks (Greg) - Here's where too much knowledge is a problem. I was unaware (or had forgotten or something) that Duchovny was on that show. I remembered that he was on Red Shoe Diaries and pushed that enough to have the teammate who came up with the right answer change it to my wrong answer. This was the only regular question we got wrong all night. So proud.

The invention of what office product is commonly attributed to Arthur Fry? Post It Notes (Scott) - The wife pulled this one out of thin air. I'd like to think we'd have come to it eventually.

After the USA, what country has the greatest number of Miss Universe pageant winners? Venezuela (JQ) - we actually followed the same thought pattern as you see in the comments, putting Brazil out first and then coming up with Venezuela after some thought. While this was some solid group-think, I'll credit the wife with taking the point. She was the first to come up with both as possibles. I'll also credit Mason with coming up with the right bet, as we won by a point over a team that made the same size bet (which makes me wonder about their betting strategy, though I'm about the last person who should be trying to sort that out).

While the governor's race here in MA won't culminate for a good 10 months, it's already turned ugly.

Tom Reilly, the current attorney general and likely Democratic nominee, was called out by both the current governor and the leiutenant governor - the likely GOP nominee - for interfering in the investigation of a one-car drunk driving accident that killed two teenage girls (they being the drunk ones).

For his part, Reilly says he called the DA to ask that autopsy results not be released to the media in order to spare the family some public embarrasment (which he says he's done in other cases, though it doesn't help that in this case he knows the family). The DA says there was no interference, and that his decision to not pursue charges against the host of a party the girls were at before the accident was made well before the call. On the other hand, the police chief of the town investigating charges against the host of the party seems to think there were ground for some sort of charge.

I have a hard time thinking that Reilly actually impeded an investigation - he's been around too long to think that he'd be able to get away with it, especially if he's going for higher office - but given the perceptions it leaves, making such a call is probably not the smartest thing. I'm also having a hard time figuring out why Romney and his understudy thought this was a good time to bring this up - there's not enough there to force Reilly out of the race. They've tried to frame it among recent news and legislation regarding drunk driving, but the political implications are too clear to buy that justification.

And, of course, the family whose privacy was trying to be maintained is now getting none of it.

It's going to be a long year.

Went 3-1 in the NFL Wild Card games over the past weekend (picks made on The Bruce's blog comments), missing only the Redskins' upset of the Bucs. I'm still a little stunned that you can rack up 120 total yards and win on the road in the playoffs, but if nothing else it underscores the need to protect the football.

I also had the "joy" of attending the wrong BU hockey game over the weekend, seeing the 5-1 loss to Providence rather than the 4-0 win over Northeastern (though we did keep tabs on the latter during breaks in the Patriots game, managing to miss every goal). I was surprised at the result of the NU game given how absolutely lousy we looked the previous night. It didn't help that we started one of our backups on Friday, and he did not look strong (this was the same guy who shut out Denver, increasing the puzzlement).

Laura had a good idea to motivate the men's team - tell them that if they finish the season with a worse record than the women's team, the women get to play in Agganis next year. The men are 8-8-2. The women are 9-9-3. The race is on!

And really, the women would do well to play at Agganis, given that it's hosting the 2009 women's Frozen Four. It may be wishful thinking, but it'd be nice to develop that home ice advantage now.

While it doesn't appear to have had much of an impact on the game, I do think that Reggie Bush's spontaneous lateral in tonight's Rose Bowl game is the early leader in the Alex Rodriguez Memorial "What the Hell Was That?" Sports Play of the Year competition. The Houston Texans must be thrilled.

While there isn't much to talk about in the way I saw 2005 out and 2006 in, I went back and looked at past years, and I have to say that entering 2006 was very similar to 2004 - an abundance of football and the accidental re-discovery of Sci-Fi's Twilight Zone marathon (much of which I was able to record into a DVR that we spent a goodly portion of New Year's Eve emptying).

From that comment you can guess as to how we rung out 2005. The wife wasn't feeling too hot, so we passed on seeing family or participating in Beverly's First Night activities (we did watch the parade that went by the house, which I suppose counts for something). I find it interesting that the number of New Year's Eve shows seems to be growing at a time when my interest in watching them is at an all-time low. I almost tuned in to see what Fox News Channel was going to present, but couldn't bring myself to do so.

Reading Laura's recent entry on the typical New Year's Eve she married into was entertaining, as I've participated in 2 or 3 of those. Note that what she tries to pass off as tradition is totally indoctrination. They will have no problem finding some grand-nephew to drive them to the casino.

The football cavalcade that is January 1 (or 2) was probably the closest thing we had to a New Year's tradition when I was growing up. It always started in the morning by watching the Cotton Bowl parade. My dad would then point out all the various landmarks he remembered from growing up in Dallas. He was also oddly proud of the Kilgore Rangerettes, the result of crossing the Rockettes with ranch hands. I'm not discounting the appeal of attractive young women performing a kick line in short denim skirts and cowboy boots, but I don't think I was getting the group's wider cultural appeal (assuming there is one).

I've never been much for televised parades, but do miss the days when you got more than 30 channels covering the Tournament of Roses parade. I did see about 20 seconds of ABC's coverage this year, all focused on Teri Hatcher (apparently having borrowed some of Paula Abdul's meds) trying to get on a designer rain poncho. None of the other people in the booth were wearing rain clothing. She must be a hoot on the set as long as the Xanax holds out.

Not surprisingly, the Cotton Bowl got more attention than average in our household. It's kind of sad to see it outside of the BCS system, as when I was a kid the top bowls were Rose, Orange, Sugar, and Cotton. Then those interlopers from Arizona came along and got the Fiesta Bowl top tier status, and the Cotton Bowl got kicked to New Year's morning. Ugh.

Even so, I did spend most of my morning and early afternoon watching Texas Tech and Alabama battle, at least partly in homage to years gone by.