Fox announced its lineup for 2005-06 this morning, and nearly gave me a stroke when I couldn't find 24 among the listings. Turns out the rundown I was reading had fall '05 and January '06 schedules, where Keifer and company reside.

THE NEW

Prison Break has already started airing promos. The show revolves around a guy who gets himself thrown into prison to bust out his brother, who's on death row. It's in 24's time slot for the fall, which may make Monday at 9 eastern the most violent time slot in television next season.

Bones is about forensic anthropoligist and author Dr. Temperance Brennan, whose skill is, you guessed it, looking at bones to figure out what happened to their former owner. It's billed as a "darkly amusing drama" and is apparently based on a real-life forensic anthropologist and author. The always-brooding David Boreanaz is cast as a special agent who finds himself working with the good doctor when the need arises, even though he's skeptical of science and scientists when it comes to solving crimes. Because, really, where did DNA testing get us?

This airs before House, which seems like a pretty good fit.

Head Cases is about a pair of lawyers who are both recovering from mental problems, played by Chris O'Donnell and Adam Goldberg. They create their own offbeat, slightly disturbed practice while O'Donnell's character tries to reconnect with his son and maintain a connection with a woman (played by Rachel Leigh Cook) he met at the "wellness center" he stayed at post-breakdown.

Lots of star power, which it'll need for its Wednesday at 9 eastern slot.

Reunion follows six people from their high school graduation to their 20th reunion. Each episode covers one year of their lives, but there is reference back to the current day, when the death of one of the friends is being investigated.

There's not that much star power here, which is a real problem with its Thursday at 9 eastern slot. I fear that, unless the death actually occurred in 1992, we may never learn what happened.

The Gate - which is still listed as a working title, concerningly - follows officers of the San Francisco Police Department's Deviant Crime Unit. The duo at the center are a cop who went AWOL for a year after the death of his partner and his new, by the book partner who may have a vested interest in making his return a failure.

The show reads kind of like it was made in the TV drama chem lab - a pinch of The X-Files, dashes of the various Law & Orders, etc. It's buried on Friday.

There are two new sitcoms. One, The War at Home, gets the Sunday slot between The Simpsons and Family Guy. Though I don't know why - it reads like a cross between Malcolm in the Middle (now airing Fridays after The Bernie Mac Show) and Grounded For Life.

The other new comedy is Kitchen Confidential, based on the great book by Tony Bourdain. My main concern here is that the show will in no way live up to the book, whose exploits, while often comical, can be a little too edgy for network TV.

Nicholas Brendon becomes the second Buffy alum to wind up on Fox, playing one of the chefs that Jack Bourdain hires when he's given a shot at turning around a top NYC restaurant - in 48 hours.

I'll probably watch, and will likely be slightly disappointed.

Midseason offers little - The Loop is about a guy who is the first of his circle of friends to land a serious job, but who also wants to keep up with their serious social lives. Free Birds is kind of a burnout variant of Ed, where a guy returns home after spending his college years partying. He may wind up with the hot girl from high schoo, or he may continue to drink his life away with a former high school BMOC.

THE OLD

A lot of surprises among sitcoms, as both Arrested Development and The Bernie Mac Show got picked up. The former is Kitchen Confidential's lead in on Mondays until House takes their spot in January to accomodate American Idol's normal Tuesday slot. The latter leads in to Malcolm on Friday.

Stacked got picked up as well, a rare mid-season success. There was no listing for The Simple Life, perhaps the only meaningful result to the Paris Holton - Nicole Richie feud. There's talk Paris will be back with Kimberly Stewart (who appears to be even more blonde and vacuous than Hilton), though if we all think happy thoughts, we might be spared.

Both Trading Spouses and Nanny 911 aren't scheduled, either, but are likely to return as holes need plugging.

CBS presented its fall lineup today. To wit:

THE NEW

Threshold joins Fathom and Invasion in that oddly popular genre of aquatic-based paranormal drama. I was only partially kidding yesterday when I said that the first two shows were actually shot at the same time. Now, considering the economy of scale, I firmly believe that all three shows are being made in some sort of joint project involving NOAA, SETI@Home, and various branches of the US military. The one difference is that I've heard of a number of the actors involved in this project: Charles S. Dutton, Brent Spiner, and Carla Gugino.

Data or no Data, I'm still not going to watch this show about the discovery of a UFO landing in the Atlantic Ocean. Even if CBS had the good sense to use a body of water that actually exists.

Ghost Whisperer has nothing to do with Nicholas Sparks novels, thankfully. It does star Jennifer Love Hewitt, though, so we don't get off that easily. She apparently can hear the pleas of the dead, asking for help or things she cant' quite figure out. Kind of a Tru of Arcadia, but without the God or the need to make up actors as cadavers.

Both of these shows air on Friday before Numb3rs, which should be cold comfort indeed for Rob Morrow.

Close to Home is a prosecutorial drama set in the 'burbs, kind of a Law & Order: Desperate Housewives. Jerry Bruckheimer ends his run of vaugely sexual-sounding titles with this one. The prosecutor is a new mom who takes on the toughest cases, "fueled by her passion to protect her community and her family." In other words, a soccer mom with the keys to the electric chair. Yikes.

Criminal Minds is yet another show about criminal profilers, but the involvement of Mandy Patankin leaves hope that at least some of the serial killers they'll hunt have a love for over-the-top Broadway numbers. Thomas Gibson co-stars, as the first part of CBS's plan to bring back Dharma and Greg without actually bringing the show back comes to pass.

Oh yeah, this gets to air opposite Lost and E-Ring. Good luck!

The first of the two new sitcoms is How I Met Your Mother, which is set in flashback as man tells how he met his spouse. Good: Allyson Hannigan is involved. OK: Bob Saget only does the voice-overs. Egad: Neil Patrick Harris plays the wacky friend of the main character, kind of a grown Eddie Haskell for the 21st century.

It gets the gift of the time slot between The King of Queens and Two and a Half Men, so we'll at least get one full season of the show.

Out of Practice is an ensemble piece about a family of doctors. PAULA MARSHALL ALERT!!! She's in a cast that includes Stockard Channing and Henry Winkler, both of whom have their most recent experience playing medical types (First Lady Dr. Abagail Bartlet and the dentist who had the bug-crusing fetish on The Practice).

(Correction: Winkler has more recently been seen as the Bluth family attorney on Arrested Development and as a hotshot pathologist on Crossing Jordan. Kudos to Craig for the catch.)

It airs in-between Two and a Half Men and CSI: Miami, so we'll see how strong Marshall's show-crushing power really is with this one.

Mid-season brings two shows, most notably Everything I Know About Men starring Jenna Elfman. She plays a secretary trying to sort out men, completely unlike that woman Heather Graham is playing over on ABC. I'd love to see these two get scheduled against each other, for chaos purposes. In addition, it's apparently based on an awful British sitcom. Did they run out of good ones to filch?

(Oh, and to feed into my David Mamet comment yesterday, he's involved in the other mid-season replacement, the special ops drama The Unit.)

THE OLD

Among the shows getting the boot are Joan of Arcadia (quite a crash and burn there), Judging Amy, and Listen Up! (too bad PTI is pre-empted today). Some movement among returning sitcoms in the wake of Everybody Loves Raymond, but nothing major.

I hope the presentation lived up to standards (Les Moonves apparently puts on quite a show), because on paper these all sound pretty unremarkable.

Today's other upfront: ABC

THE NEW

Commander-in-Chief stars Geena Davis as the first female President of the US, who assumes the office from the Vice Presidency after the elected President dies of some illness (but not before asking her to step down so someone "more appropriate" can take her place).

Cast includes Donald Sutherland and Kyle Secor (among others), and may just be interesting enough for me to watch. Until they make that first "joke" about nuclear weapons and POTUS's Aunt Flo, at which point I will stop watching and not return.

The first contender for becoming the Tony Danza of his generation is Freddie Prinze, Jr., thanks to his sitcom Freddie. He plays the title character (though wouldn't it be great if he didn't?), a chef who take in various generations of female relatives when his brother-in-law dies. Send it back!

Those sea creatures from Fathom may be involved in Invasion, a drama about a Florida park ranger whose daughter sees lights on the ocean during a hurricane. When his ex-wife turns up naked and without memories of where she was during the storm, his curiosity picks up. Turns out rather than riding the storm out on a bender, she may have been on the front lines of a battle for humanity.

Like Fathom, I've never heard of anyone starring in this show (though William Fichtner, who plays the local sherrif, looks familiar). Are we sure this and Fathom aren't the same show with slightly different edits? Would anyone notice?

David Cassidy continues his interest in freakiness with this show, while Thomas Schlamme may be suffering from some sort of post-The West Wing trauma.

The Night Stalker is a reprise of the 1970s show about a reporter named Carl Kolchak who investigates the supernatural to help solve his wife's killing. The original is supposed to be great, a kind of proto-The X Files, though I've never seen it. Given ABC's treatment of this kind of show, expect L.A. Night Stalker to anchor Saturday nights for three weeks in September 2006.

Unless its Thursday at 9 time slot proves deadly (giving CSI the chance to investigate a death it caused).

ABC blew up it's TGIF line-up - again - moving Supernanny to the first hour, keeping Hope and Faith and putting in new show Hot Properties, aka Sex and the Listings. It's a sitcom about four Manhattan-based women who work in a non-cutthroat real estate office. I am praying for David Mamet to take over the show for a sweeps period. Gail O'Grady and Nicole Sullivan star.

Two new show will debut when Monday Night Football makes its swan song: Emily's Reasons Why Not, aka Heather Graham's Diary, and What About Brian, a drama about a guy who is the last single man standing among his married friends. Rather than Jonathan Silverman, we get 7th Heaven's Barry Watson as Brian.

There are several listed mid-season replacements, most notable The Miracle Workers, aka Extreme Makeover: Terminal Edition. Every week, doctors use cutting edge medicine to save a patient with some sort of serious condition. Over/under on the number of episodes next season dealing with conjoined twins: three.

THE OLD

Hard to tell what was more surprising: the dumping of Eight Simple Rules and My Wife and Kids or the pick-up of Jake In Progress. Stamos must have some dirt.

It's easier to note what shows didn't move on the ABC schedule: current Sunday nights stay the same, and Lost stays in its Wednesday slot. Otherwise, check local listings.

The Bachelor will return in January - why? - and Less Than Perfect is slated for mid-season as well.

Outside of President Davis, none of the new stuff is really appealing. And it's a good thing I mostly watch ABC on Sunday; I won't have to go hunting for shows.

Today's first upfront: The WB.

THE NEW

Just Legal sounds a little too much like Barely Legal for my taste; I'm assuming it's Jerry Bruckheimer, as he's involved with both this show and with E-Ring. A better title would be Doogie Howser, JD, as this show is about a kid who graduates from law school at 18, and finds the only job offer comes from an ambulance chaser played by Don Johnson.

Woo hoo.

Supernatural is a cross between The X-Files and Route 66, as two brothers cross the country in their '69 Impala trying to do what their father can't: silence the supernatural forces that led to the death of their mother 20 years previously.

The show stars two "breakout" stars, one each from Gilmore Girls and Smallville, though I have no idea who they are. Hey, I'm a 35 year old male. I've not been in The WB's target demo for years, if ever.

This could work, and probably won't be hurt by airing after Gilmore Girls.

Related explores relationships through the lives of four sisters living in NYC(kind of a familial Sex and the City, no surprise as the WB show's creator also worked on this). I can't imagine this being better than the TBS re-runs of Sex and the City, but I suppose they'll do the best they can.

Most notable star is Laura San Giacomo, formerly of Just Shoot Me.

All of The WB's sitcoms are on the weekend now, and the lone new one is Twins. Beauty versus brains is the theme here, as a pair of twins (one book-smart, the other a lingerie model) take over the family undergarment business from their parents, who also embody the conflict (parents played by Melanie Griffith and Mark Linn-Baker; I'll let you decide which person embodies what quality).

Sara Gilbert plays the brainy twin; now if we can only get the kid who played DJ Conner a gig.

There are a bunch of mid-season possibilities, of which I'll only mention Misconceptions, a sitcom about a single mother (Jane Leeves) who finds out that her daughter wasn't the product of the Ivy League Sperm Bank, but some slacker who got his boys into cryo somehow. Will Ming Na get sued for malpractice?

THE OLD

Pretty much all the hour long shows are back, expect for Jack and Bobby. Living with Fran got picked up, for those of you still coasting on memories of The Nanny. Everwood gets moved to Thursday at 9 (eastern), putting it up against CSI, The Apprentice, and The OC. Ouch.

While the new stuff doesn't sound awful, I stopped watching The WB when Buffy moved to UPN, and I don't see myself going back.

As Dinan mentioned a few days ago, this week brings us the network TV upfront presentations, where the new fall lineups are trotted out in the hopes that advertisers will buy up as much air time "up front" as possible. Given their announced schedule for next season, NBC better hope the open bar works in their favor, at least where the new shows are concerned.

THE NEW

Fathom posits what it would be like if a new oceanic life-form was discovered by a bunch of people played by actors you've never heard of. Seriously, this could be the fake show on Joey. I'm also worried that the promo blurb on the NBC website mentions something called the "South Antarctic Sea," which I'm pretty sure doesn't exist.

My Name is Earl is a sitcom about a low-level hood who wins the lottery and tries to go straight. The blurb promises a show with "a voice and style all its own," which is about the best thing you can say about the combination of Jason Lee and Jamie Pressley.

The Apprentice: Martha Stewart shouldn't be a surprise, but what was surprising to me is that this will run along with the Trump version (but the day before and an hour earlier). I'd have much rather given The Donald a half-season off. That would be a good thing.

E-Ring sounds like it should be about a sex toy, but it's actually about intrigue within the Pentagon. It stars Benjamin Bratt and, in what may be the strangest casting ever, Dennis Hopper as military types trying to keep the military-industrial complex from crashing and burning. I suppose this is NBC's attempt to atone for/get the fans of JAG back on board.

Speaking of sex toys, Inconcievable is a drama set at a fertility clinic. The blurb suggests that the drama will be more personal than natal, which to my mind makes it sound like a fairly typical medical drama, but without the gore. Ming Na furthers her reach into the sub-specialty of medical acting by starring alongside unknown people deemed insufficiently awed by the majesty of the ocean to be in Fathom.

Finally, NBC jumps on the personal makeover bandwagon with Three Wishes, hosted by Amy Grant. She and her team go to small town America and change the lives for people who need help, blah blah blah.

Mid-season will bring two sitcoms: Thick and Thin about a newly thin and single woman, and Four Kings about four young people on the cusp of adulthood, aka Friends: The Next Generation. Seth Green stars in the latter, which may or may not help.

THE OLD

Most notable change here is that The West Wing gets moved to Sunday at 8 pm, making all sorts of ripe cross-marketing potential with the installment of Dateline that'll air before it. E-Ring gets its old slot.

Most notable omission from the schedule is Scrubs. From what I've read elsewhere, it and Fear Factor will return mid-season to plug holes.

While theoretically new, NBC is returning to an old practice of showing movies on Saturday, though they also mention airing reurns of current shows to give them more exposure. Good luck with that.

Canada will be facing the Czech Republic in the finals of the world hockey championships. Not that you'd know this if you lived in the US. Seems that no one here is airing the tournament, even though (according to Sports Illustrated) the broadcast rights were offered to American networks for free.

I know we're all on the outs with hockey because of the NHL lockout and all, but c'mon. Would we rather have the 2983rd airing of the 2003 World Series of Poker

(OK, based on ratings, "we" probably would.)

Still, this irritates me. Time to dash off some emails (Dear Sir: I am not a crackpot...)

I was a little surprised to learn yesterday that one of the churches we used to go to in Wellesley, St. James the Great, has had a vigil going 24/7 since last Halloween. Given how often we went only to see the place a quarter full, I don't think I'd ever have suspected that they could pull this off.

What brought this to my attention was a lawsuit brought against the archdiocese of Boston by the wife of the man who sold the land that St. James sits on to the archdiocese. The interesting wrinkle in this lawsuit is the claim that the sale was conditional on the property being used as a church. The plaintiff wants either a church open or her land back.

I can't imagine the archdiocese is too thrilled about this - they bought the property in 1948 for $12,000 and it now has an estimated value of $10 million. Given that there were a few closings where the likely value of the property seemed to play a little more heavily in the decision-making, this could be a case of the archdiocese getting caught with it's hand in the wafer jar.

In a completely unrelated bit of news, it looks like neighboring Salem is getting a statue of Samantha Stevens, the witch played by Elizabeth Montgomery on Bewitched. TV Land is apparently behind this, seeing it as a natural link between honoring the show and Salem's witch-filled history.

Personally I think it's one of those reasonably harmless but stupid things, given that the show had nothing to do with Salem. It'd be like putting a statue of Marcus Welby at the entrance to Mass General because doctors work there.

While griping about the amount of pre-Super Bowl coverage is almost as cliched as "only watching the game for the commercials," I think I've found a new champion in pointless pre-event coverage: the Kentucky Derby.

Thanks to the combined efforts of ESPN and NBC, you could have watched a minimum of eight hours of pre-race programming for an event that takes roughly two minutes. ESPN did pretty much the entire day from Churchill Downs, only stopping when NBC started.

Twenty horses ran the race this year, which means that each horse could have gotten 24 minutes of pre-race coverage. Which only makes it more entertaining that the horse that did win, second-biggest-ever upset-winner Giacomo, got about 12 seconds of pre-race coverage.

I'm also a little irritated that they've pushed post time to after 6 pm. After all the pointless pre-race filler, the extra time for pointless post-race filler is just piling on.

Which of these car names is worse: the Ford Aspire or the Suzuki Esteem?

I've generally been of the notion that the Aspire was the worst car name in recent history, as it suggests that the owner should aspire to a better ride. But the Suzuki entry goes even farther, suggesting that owning the tiny car with this name is some sort of path to personal betterment. When, in truth, the opposite is likely true.

In an unrelated note, much has been made of the crazy eyes of "Runaway Bride" Jennifer Wilbanks, but I'd also like to direct some attention to her carbon copy smile. It's not unusual for someone to put on a smile for a photo, but she has the same exact smile in every picture. That she seemed incapable of generating honest happiness when posing for snaps with her beau should have been a warning sign.

Then again, he's still ready to make with the matrimony, so he may need larger, more neon-laden signs than the average guy.

I wasn't surprised by much of W's speech yesterday on energy "policy," outside of one thing - the call for more nuclear energy. What I'd have liked to hear were the answers to four questions:

1. How will nuclear energy be cost-effective: given the great cost of building these things, and even if the feds foot the bill for "risk insurance," won't consumers just get stuck with more expensive electricity?

2. How will anyone be convinced to put on of these things in their neck of the woods?

3. Who's going to hold on to the waste the plant generates for the however many thousand years it'll take to decay?

4. Will the NRC actually regulate, or are they just going to play ball with the industry? Again.

It'd have been nice to hear W push other solutions, such as this one by Climate Energy. Actually, it also would have been nice to hear any suggestion that we could use greater efficiency to save oil. God forbid.

Of course, all of this got pushed to the side of my brain when news came across that Tom Cruise is dating Katie Holmes. Wha?

For the third weekend in a row we got to travel out of state, though this past weekend's trip was merely a jaunt into New Hampshire to my youngest nephew's first communion service. It was not particularly impressive. I got the sense that there wasn't a whole lot of planning involved, or perhaps I should say a lot of useful planning. Still, my nephew came through about as well as can be expected of anything that leads you to wear a white suit.

Got to watch bits of the NFL draft afterwards, which wasn't much to talk about other than watching Aaron Rodgers free-fall his way through the first round (though landing in Green Bay isn't so bad). The Pats' draft was even less noteworthy, though they did get to pick Mr. Irrelevant, William Penn TE Andy Stokes. The Pats got pretty good mileage out of their last Mr. Irrelevant, Marty Moore, which hopefully gives the new guy some hope.

Not much else of consequence to mention from the weekend. Got to spend way too much time at the mall yesterday, which prefaced an irritating pair of visits to Cingulair stores where we learned that we'd have to pay a migration fee and upgrade both our phones just to replace the wife's phone, which took an inadvertant bath last month. That being said, if anyone has an old Motorola V60 lying around, or knows someone who is looking to part with one for cheap, let me know. We're combing eBay as well.

Oh, of passing interest to the trivia nerds among us: we wound up playing NTN on Friday and Saturday, and I managed to land in the top 10 for a couple of games of Countdown (4th and 8th, respectively). These were interrupted by a long foray into NTN's NASCAR game, where we got to make a bunch of predictions on yesterday's race, none of which I remember or actually care about. In any event, it'd been some time since I'd done that well, so perhaps I'll have to goad the wife into playing more often (though, oddly, we played both nights at her behest).

What does it mean that if you were looking for signs of the Apocalypse this week you'd have found them not on Revelations but on American Idol?

On Idol this week we had BOTH a contestant sing the Donna Summer version of "Macarthur Park" and a "rocker" now fully marked as a poser come out and perform in eye makeup. Which would have been fine if he were in full Ziggy Stardust mode. But he wasn't.

The sign, though, is that both of them made it through to next week. In a fair and just society looked after by a loving God, things would have gone much differently. Then again, in such a society I don't think we ever would have been subjected to "Macarthur Park" in the first place.

Revelations, FWIW, did have its own sign of the Apocalypse: Fred Durst in a credited role. The story of the actual and supposedly looming Apocalype? Surprisingly turgid and expositional.

Oh, and I'd be remiss not to mention that Paula Abdul has finally gone public to explain that her bizarre behavior on Idol isn't due to drugs, but rather the joy that comes at the end of a long and too boring to explain series of mishaps where either pain or drugs put her in a mood where she didn't want to dance or talk all over Simon Cowell. Inasmuch as it's good to celebrate feeling good, she doesn't have to be a tool about it. Just saying.

Well, that was quick.

I'll admit to some surprise that Ratzinger was chosen as Pope. I didn't think we'd have a non-European, but I was expecting someone less obvious. You hear about how people go into the conclave as Pope and go out a cardinal, and it makes the most obvious choice seem less so.

It's been interesting listening to the analysis about his election, especially as they try to peg where Ratzinger is going to fall in terms of orthodoxy. Most everyone says he'll be in line with John Paul II, though there's been some talk about him as a moderate, especially in his choice of Benedict as a name, given the moderate role of some of the more recent Benedicts. The name also suggests the understanding of a shorter papcy, as Benedict XV served for under a decade.

Speaking of the name, I am kicking myself a bit with regards to the Tournament of Popery, as I made a last-minute change from Benedict to Leo. Not sure why I did this; in retrospect Benedict is the perfect name for someone serving as Pope at this juncture.

This did leave the door open for Chris Rosenberg, who wins the Tournament of Popery with a score of 20 points based on his selection of the election happening tomorrow. Craig Barker and I tie for second with 15 points (we both had Thursday). Our last two entrants - Anthony De Jesus and ML Kingston - scored no points, as they both went for a longer conclave. Chris will pad his win by 5 or 10 points depending on whether or not it was the fourth or fifth ballot.

As you might have picked up from the discussion above, none of us got the cardinal or name correct.

Funnily enough, I learned about the election today not through the usual 21st century means, but from the bells of my church. Go figure.

Probably won't get much of a chance to post this weekend, so I just wanted to remind folks that there is still time to enter my Tournament of Popery. Instructions are in the April 12 post.

(Quick note on an irritation with Blogger: the link for each post doesn't take you to the post, but to the comments for the post. What's the point of that?)

The savior of otherwise postless days: television recaps.

Reality bites: On American Idol we're in an interesting situation where there's no real stand-outs. The annual competition between talent and image is a push at best. Even more confusing is the run of Scott Savol, who combines a pretty good voice with (what appears to the layperson) as a borderline sociopathic aspect. The sex appeal of Constantine Maroulis - he of the greasy shoulder-length hair and Chiclet-style yellowish teeth - is also hard to get a grip on, other than noting that he looks more dangerous than he actually is.

Over on America's Next Top Model Tyra Banks took a full-on nutty on a contestant last night, the capper to a double elimination. The judges hope this'll get the remaining contestant going, but it may just shake them more. The contestants have also shown an amazing lack of fashion knowledge (not knowing what haute couture is and being unable to pronounce designer names) and general knowledge (similar problems pronouncing 'magenta' and 'chartreuse.'). It's ugly.

Missed The Apprentice last week, though I've gotten the gist of things elsewhere. Big news is of course the arrest of hot-head Chris, which will only be a concern if he makes the finals. I don't see that happening. No real stand-outs here, either. Many more people who seem to be coasting, which will prove interesting now that the small teams should prevent such things.

Missing last week also apparently allowed me to miss an ugly product placement for Domino's new cheeseburger pizza. So much the better.

A modicum of praise be for Revelations, the short-run NBC series about the looming end of the world. The pilot was a little confusing, as it took some time to develop the background. Atmospherically it was all sorts of dramatic, although not so stupidly heavy-handed as Point Pleasant.

Anyway, Bill Pullman (a UMass grad according to a new ad running here; who knew?) plays a Harvard prof whose daughter was killed by a Satanist. He goes to Chile, captures the Satanist, and is now engaging in some sort of Starling-and-Lechter dialog with him (I'm calling pre-emptive shenanigans if they run off together to sacrifice more kids).

Meanwhile, Natasha McElhone plays a British nun with an Italian name who is investigating religious phenomena trying to prove that the end of days is nigh. She, of course, crosses paths with Pullman's character, which has the usual rational scepticism versus higher power face-off. The something happens to rattle the prof's beliefs, and we're off.

There's also a baby who was the only survivor of a ferry sinking. The baby may be the second coming. Or he's been sent to lead us astray. We'll be finding out later.

Smartly, this is only a six-episode run. So if it tanks, NBC can cut and run. If it doesn't, we can expect more eschatalogical wackiness next season. Either way, Aaron Barnhart pretty much nails the show in his review.

And finally I've been enjoying the USification of The Office, possibly because I've not seen the original yet. Tuesdays at 9:30 on your local NBC station.

Thing #7 6 That I've Done That You Likely Haven't

Organize a prediction game for an upcoming Papal election.

To play, you just need to email me with your responses to the following four questions:

1. Who will be elected Pope? While it's possible that the new Pope will come from outside this group, it's most likely that he'll be selected from the voting membership of the College of Cardinals. For those of you looking for more guidance, you could peruse this list of favorites. Or this one. There's also this article that details some dark horse candidates.

2. What day will the new Pope be elected? Note that the conclave will start on Monday, April 18.

3. On what ballot will the new Pope be elected? If what I've read is correct, there will be one vote on the first day of the conclave, with four votes per day after that.

4. What name will the new Pope take? For a look at the past 264 names, check this list here.

Scoring: each question is worth 25 points. For questions 2 and 3, you will lose 5 points for each day or ballot off you are. For example, if you said the new Pope would get elected on the 100th ballot, and he actually got elected on the 98th ballot, you'd get 15 points.

For question four, you'll get 10 points if you get the name or the number, but not both. You'll also get mocked if you pick the name but have the wrong number; I did post a link to that list, after all.

Entries are due by 11:59 pm on Sunday, April 17. No money, of course; this is already borderline on speeding my way on the Hell Express.

First, to tie up loose ends, congrat to Brian Hight for winning this year's Frozen Four pool. He correctly tabbed Denver University (or is it the University of Denver - none of the announcers seem to agree, even with themselves, on the name of the place) as the latest repeat champ. You final tally:

Hight - 50 points
Bruce - 42
Boggie - 30
Coen, Harper-Nixon - 26
Sorenson - 20
Barker - 16

Moving on to today's festivities, I got to hear when both the radio and TV guys got their rings at today's Red Sox opener. The TV guys took it pretty well, while Troop and Joe were in various states of awe, glee, and speechlessness. I suppose it's hard to call a game with that much bling on. It was actually pretty funny to listen to, as I think in that moment what those guys were covering on the radio became much more real, if that makes any sense. That and, for the homers they are, getting rings must have put things into overdrive.

It didn't hurt that the Sox won, either.

Watching news coverage tonight we saw a woman that the wife used to work with. It was hard to tell at first as she was wearing a hat and had sunglasses on, but it was cool to see her being interviewed about Opening Day.

Not much else to report on currently. I'm beginning to peel after getting burnt on Friday during a riverboat cruise, but it's pretty minor.

Greetings from New Orleans, where I'm helping out with the NAQT ICT. We got down here a little early to sightsee, fuller recap to follow. Suffice it to say that if you've not been here you should visit.

Keeping up with the meme:

Thing #5 That I've Done That You Probably Haven't

Read a baseball book a week from spring training through the end of the regular season.

This was, I think 1996. I'd fallen out with baseball before the 1994 strike, which caused me to fall out even more. Cal Ripken's streak brought me back a bit, and I decided to give it a chance by reading up on things. It worked; I now enjoy baseball quite a bit. Not as much as football. Or hockey, I suppose. Still, it's back in my good graces, which I'm sure is a load off of Bud Selig's mind.

Thing #4 That I've Done That You Likely Have Not

Blogged about my honeymoon while still on my honeymoon.

I doubt that I'm alone on this one generally, but as far as people I know go most of my friends who are married wed in pre-blog times.

Had we not been trying to follow the ALCS I don't know if I'd have blogged. Then again, public internet locations in Killarney are cheap and plentiful. So perhaps I would have just blogged less.

Thing #3 That I've Done That You Probably Haven't

Sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" duing a blackout at Fenway Park.

OK, there is one person who reads this semi-regularly who did this (hi Paul!).

I think I've mentioned this, but if not here's the skinny: it was a 1991 game against the White Sox, transformer blew in Kenmore Square. While we were waiting for the lights to come back on, Sox PA guy Sherm Feller leads us in song. Or sings the first verse with us, leaving the rest of us to finish while he gets another Scotch.

The Sox would lose in extra innings, but it was a great game all 'round.

I wrote a post about John Paul II, but it wound up getting eaten. Which probably isn't a bad thing, as I don't think it was very good. Suffice it to say I'm pretty conflicted, as for every positive you can point at something that doesn't sit so well.

So I'm not even going to bother to recreate the post. Were I a better Catholic (or a better person, for that matter), I'd make some commitment to being more involved in my faith. Knowing who I am, though, I'll just continue to feed that typical (or stereotypical) divide American Catholics have of appreciating the Pope while not caring as much for all of those faith and morals issues where he says things that clash with our secular American values.

So after all that typing, I'm vaguely dissatisfied with the results. That's probably a metaphor for something.

Thing #2 That I've Done That You Likely Have Not

Waited bascially a lifetime between taking the driver's test to get a driver's license.

Took it the first time when I was 17, and the second time when I was 34. I won't rehash the details here; interested parties can check the archives for the summer and early fall of 2004 for more.

I will say that I have found, in the six months or so that I've been driving, that I do enjoy it. I still don't understand the impulse that leads people to drive to work if they have a useful public transit option. Though the vagaries of the T (especially the Green Line) can lead to very similar irritation as rush hour traffic.

I've not had much to post about the last few days. Life's been pretty uneventful and we don't have any more college hockey until next week. In order to fill the gaps until something more interesting comes along, I'm going to pick up the "10 things I've done that you probably haven't" meme, but post them one at a time. Which will fill that longing for a week and a half of annotated personal navel-gazing that many of you have.

Thing #1 That I've Done That You Probably Haven't

Lost a playoff round at a debate tournament to an opponent who arrived at that tournament prepared for the wrong topic.

The year was 1987, the location Lexington (MA) High School. It being the bicentennial year for the Constitution, the LD debate topics for the year were all going to be Constitutionally-themed. Unlike policy debate, where there was one topic for the year, LD topics changed on some regular basis (monthly or bimonthly, though a handful of tournaments had one-off topics).

In any event, some wires got crossed somewhere and the folks from the Bronx High School of Science show up thinking that the topic being used was something other than it actually was. Bronx Science is a pretty good team, but I figure that this is going to hamstring them.

But I wind up getting paired against one of their folks in the quarterfinals. Clearly, they were better debaters than I gave them credit for. And, naturally, I lose a 3-2 decision. I don't remember much about the round, though I do have a memory of getting stumped on a cross-examination question that I'd answered with relative ease in other rounds.

In a way this round more or less summed up my performance as a debater. I averaged about one piece of hardware a year, generally at that level. My best performance, at least based by nomenclature, was a semifinal berth at the very first debate tournament I ever participated in. My partner and I (in novice policy debate) had to forfeit based on team policy, as our semifinal round was against another team from my school with a better record.

The closest I ever came to a national tournament was via student congress, where participants get to vote for other participants. Being the only person from my school who competed in student congress didn't help.

So there's more than you ever wanted to know about my debate career.

Two rounds done, and we've got our all-WCHA Frozen Four. Pool standings, with number of teams left and national champion pick in parentheses:

Coen - 26 points (3/Colorado College)
Hight - 26 (3/Denver)
Boggie - 22 (3/Minnesota)
Sorenson - 20 (2/CC)
Bruce - 18 (2/Denver)
Harper-Nixon - 18 (2/BU)
Barker - 16 (1/Michigan)

A couple of people have noted how this pool is the ying to their March Madness bracket yang. Not sure it's reached that level for me yet, though Kentucky's impending loss isn't going to help me in Barker's pool (it was the one thing that differentiated me from the other folks who have Illinois going all the way). In the Bruce's weighted competition it appears that my fortunes are tied with Louisville's.

For something completely different, Easter was pretty uneventful. The in-laws were down for the weekend, and we had an early dinner at restaurant that's part of a local yacht club (we'd briefly looked at the place for our wedding reception, but they wanted way too much for a room rooted in the 1970s). Church was a zoo, of course, as the C&E folks packed it to standing room only. The priest made a pretty funny reference to the need to show up more often, using the phrase "same Bat-time, same Bat-channel." We'll see how it goes.

After the first round of the Frozen Four:

Coen, Hight - 14 points
Sorenson, Barker - 12 points
Boggie, Bruce, Harper-Nixon - 10 points

Upset points work a whole lot better when there are, you know, upsets. The only one that's happened - North Dakota over BC - was picked by no one. Not surprising given the people involved, various upsets involving BU were picked but obviously came for naught. Harvard and Maine got their share of upset picks, with similar results.

Without giving too much away about the second round so far, yesterday did bust someone's bracket pretty seriously. So much for a repeat of the 1998 final.

In related news, I got an email back from Comcast regarding my question on ESPNU. My inquiry was passed along to the marketing department, and did I know that there is a sports package that I could buy? Not that any of those channels would have helped me yesterday, either. I'm not sure that sort of answer is one they wanted to append a link to a customer service survey to, but I was happy to comment on the "helpfulness" of their canned response. I don't expect a reply.

Good early games on the road to the Frozen Four today. Maine took Minnesota to OT in Minneapolis, and Denver also had to go to an extra frame to knock out Bemidji State.

Not that I got to see either game.

No local cable - NESN, FSNE, or CN8 - carried either game. Now, if lived in college hockey hotbeds like Kansas City, Memphis, Tulsa, Wichita, or Mason City, Iowa, I'd have had some luck. But in suburban Boston, we don't get a game being played in our own state or one involving a Hockey East team.

Not helping is that Comcast hasn't added ESPNU to its offerings. It's not even available as part of their sports pack. Hopefully, other college hockey fans have sent along an email similar to my own, asking when it may join our lineup. Too late for this year, of course.

So the BU men's ice hockey season ended last night with a whimper rather than a bang (well, it was more like a whimper and a thud) by way of a 4-0 loss to North Dakota. If you saw the game on TV, take my word that it was worse in person. If you didn't watch the game, consider yourself lucky. Nothing worked for BU at any end of the ice, though their 0 for 10 on the power play especially stands out.

Last night was also the second - and hopefully last - appearance of the third jersey. They need to be encased in cement and sunk in the Charles.

The DCU Center (former the Centrum) is an OK place to see a game, though the NCAA component was odd. We got a lot of random clips of "exciting" moments from past championships - just not from hockey very much. We saw Notre Dame stay in the 2002 College World Series, Wake Forest win their second field hockey title in a row, and several basketball moments. We did see clips from 2001 (which we shall not speak of again) and 1996. I don't mind this, though they could have cut the number of clips in half and shown more hockey content.

I also know now the dates and locations of several NCAA championship events. Were I to be in Annapolis, College Station, Sacramento, or Houston over the next couple of months I'd make the trip. Note to Cooch: the NCAA team bowling final will be on ESPN2 in mid-April. Set your TiVo.

The BC-Mercyhurst game was much more fun, as a 5-4 final for BC would suggest. We knew something would be up when Mercyhurst scored on their first shot. Both teams looked like they were playing at three-quarters speed, while Mercyhurst's approach to defense was, shall we say, nonchalant? Still, they put forth a better performance than BU did. Erie should be proud.

In any event, if you're looking for 2 tickets to tonight's BC-North Dakota game, drop me a line.

As for the Frozen Four pool, only one person got all of yesterday's games right. He is, I think, also the most objective entrant of everyone given that UVa doesn't have hockey:

Hight - 8 points
Barker, Coen, Harper-Nixon, Sorenson - 6 points
Boggie, Bruce - 4 points

Only one person with a real bracket-busting loss; going with BU all the way was a bold choice for someone (not me!).

And after the serious post, more sports.

I've set up a group for ESPN's Baseball Challenge:

Group: Wait Until 2091
Password: fenway

What with the Schiavo case all over the place this past week, no time like the present to suggest to one and all that you set yourself up with a durable power of attorney for health care decisions.

Unlike a living will, the durable power of attorney designates someone to make medical decisions for you in the event that you can't. It also includes a section that, like a living will, allows you to make clear indications of what you want and don't want based on your assumed future condition and available treatment options.

The durable power of attorney does require a little more work than a living will. You'll have to have it witnessed and notarized and such, but doing this will help head off problems that could arise if you just filled out a living will and stuck it in a drawer.

NOTE: You should try to find a form specific for your state. A Google search with the terms "durable power of attorney," "health care," and your state's name should lead you to something useful. There are several sites that will try to sell you a form, though between your state bar and the helpful people at your local library, you should be able to find what you need at no cost.

(It should also be noted that nothing in this post should be construed as legal opinion or lawyerly advice. It's one guy [who is not giving you advice as a lawyer or with any guarantee of accuracy] putting out there for you to use as you see fit, as is, at your own risk.)

That being said, here are some decent links:

* The Missouri Bar offers a useful form and informational booklet, as well as a handy HIPAA waiver that will allow medical providers to discuss information with your designee.

* The University of Michigan provides this general form, as well as a link to the Michigan Bar's PDF version.

* This page from the Lifespan hospital network in Rhode Island also provides links to the proper forms and other information related to the topic.

Which of these is worse?

a. CBS is airing a movie tonight - in prime time! - called Spring Break Shark Attack.

b. At the end of the ad for Spring Break Shark Attack, there was a quick chomping sound.

c. Brian Brown and Kathy Baker have to stoop to starring in Spring Break Shark Attack.

d. They are all equally bad.

As promised, here's my Frozen Four pool for the year.

Go here to see the bracket (warning: a print window will also automatically pop up). You send to me your picks for each round through the finals. Points will be given on a 2-4-8-16 basis (2 points for picking a first round win, 4 for the second round, etc.).

Upset points will be granted throughout the tournament based on regional seeding. For example, if Mercyhurst topped Denver to win the national title (and you were crazy or drunk enough to call it), you'd get 19 points (16 for the correct pick, plus three bonus points for the difference in their regional seeds).

The regional seeding is helpfully provided at the bottom of the bracket page.

One entry per person, due by the 11:59:59 pm EST on Thursday, March 24.

I'm not sure which of my five brackets on ESPN.com's tournament challenge is my "real" one. I know it's not the one where I chose winners based on whose mascot would win in a fight (that's how I got the improbable Iowa State-Montana final). I suppose it'll be whichever one is doing the best right now.

There's actually little variance between three of them, separated by 20 points. I didn't pick too many of the upsets, mostly mild ones. I think UW-Milwaukee was the one I picked most consistently, while UAB got a nod at least once. I think the only place I got Vermont was the same place I got Bucknell, the aforementioned mascot bracket.

Speaking of mascots, the second intermission of tonight's BU-UNH Hockey East semifinal featured the mascots of the four semifinal teams in a hockey game against the five mascots of the non-semifinal teams. The non-semifinal team won 2-0. Some observations:

* The UMass minuteman has an unnatural grey pallor to his skin. It's like he's got an airway obstruction or some sort of constrictive lung ailment.

* The Merrimack warrior had a skin tone very similar to his helmet and uniform. I'm assuming he's a Roman legionary stationed in Judea or something. Added entertainment value here as the logo used to represent Merrimack on the video screens was their old one, the Native American rather than the generic ancient guy.

* The Providence friar was wearing a white robe. We figure he's actually come out of the closet (or perhaps shrub) as a Druid.

* The UMass-Lowell river hawk is actually more like a man-bird superhero. It has no wings, a cape, and a very tight-fitting costume.

Everyone else's mascot looked pretty normal, except that Northeastern's husky looks a little horse-like to me in the face.

Anyway, this was the most entertaining part of the game, as BU went down 5-2 to UNH. It was a 40 minute system failure for BU, who garnered all of three shots in the first period (somehow only going down 1-0), and not reaching the 10 shot plateau until there was just over a minute left in the second period. Nothing was working on any end of the ice, and our atrocious penalty killing (7th of 9 in Hockey East) was in full force.

Not sure it'll change too much in regards to the NCAAs, as long as other tournaments hold to form. But I assume we'll be playing in our road scarlet uniforms rather than home white. That may not be a bad thing, as long as they aren't the accursed third jerseys.

Rounding out my sports viewing of late was the opening hour or so of the steroids hearing yesterday. It made for thrilling TV, as the ranking members of the committee and subcommittee made pretty much the same speech four times. The committee chair did make some passing reference to not looking forward to nosebleed seats in the coming few years, which gave a sliver of credence to Tony Kornheiser's theory that the chairman called the hearing in retaliation for MLB not putting the Expos in northern Virginia, which includes the chair's district.

I got through about half of Jim Bunning's testimony before changing the channel. I flipped back a couple of times, but only for a few minutes before returning to sanity and turning back to basketball. I didn't see any of the "star" testimony, but I don't think I missed all that much. Besides, if Bonds wasn't there to blow up at various elected officials, the hearing was never going to be that much fun, anyway.

I'll also take a moment to plug Matt the Bruce's "March Mathness", where you assign what amounts to confidence points to any or all teams. I may be doing it a disservice by calling it "March Mathness," as it's not all that complex, but it does require that extra step beyond the usual BS analysis that 99.4 percent of us put into filling out brackets. Or, probably more accurately, the usual BS analysis that 100 percent of me puts into filling out brackets.

So while I will not be running my usual March Madness pool (though I will be running a Frozen Four pool once the bracket is set up on Sunday), I do have an ESPN.com Tournament Challenge group for one and all:

Name: Bracket Racket 2005
Password: madness

ESPN does give you five entries, so feel free to use one (or all) to join. Note that the group will lock when play begins, so you won't be able to move your entry to another group.

Apropos of having nothing to say, an update on the reality shows I watch. You missed them, I can tell.

On American Idol, the show has whittled its contestants down to the final 12, but with a hitch. One of the more popular contestants on the show quit due to some set of ill-defined personal reasons involving family matters. Of course, every yahoo with access to a two-bit message board is saying he's gay and didn't want to be outed.

Regardless, the show's change in format, where the 24 semifinalists competed every week rather than in groups over a month's time, actually went pretty well outside of throwing two and a half hours of programming at us a week. One problem was the gender-balancing of the contestant pool, as there was not equal talent in the men's and women's pools (this year in the men's favor).

I'm not going to get into the individual contestants, other than to note the greatest benefactor in this whole episode of a finalist quitting is the son of baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, who was voted off in the last round of the semifinals. He had more votes than the other guy who got booted, so he was asked back to take the open spot.

The Apprentice and it's book smarts versus street smarts is proving one thing very clearly - it doesn't matter how much education you have, your ability to succeed pretty much directly correlates with how much of a jackass you are.

The tasks have mostly been marketing-related, coming up with a way to pitch a new Burger King sandwich or promote a new body wash (a task one team tried to win by making an ad combining the fondling of cucumbers and surprise gayness).

The contestants are more interesting than last time out, though with that level of "interesting" comes worrisome, call a mental health professional moments. Such as when one contestant walked off the task, wheeling her suitcase aimlessly along the streets of a Jersey seashore town. Or another contestant going into fugue state while recounting her hardscrabble upbringing.

Anyway, it's better than last season, if still ridiculously over-hyped. I'm looking forward to Martha Stewart taking over for a series, if for no other reason than in hopes that she'll shiv someone.

America's Next Top Model has started its fourth season, and it's pretty much the same as before. Young women do something requiring photography and are adjudged worthy or not of becoming a housemate on The Surreal Life sometime in 2007.

Off the bat, I did not like the way the show went from 35 to the 14 finalists in one show. Perhaps a two hour episode would have been better, if at least to give more background to contestants. It was pretty easy to tell who was going to make the finals given how many of the women who didn't basically had cameos in the episode.

If the show's idea of a creative shake-up is a move from New York to LA, it may be a long season. They've also seemingly gone the "interesting" route with casting, given the number of contestants with children (and even, occasionally, husbands).

Tyra Banks, true to not wanting to create a stereotype in casting a bitchy African-American, did so again this season, finding a young woman who managed to antagonize the folks running the first shoot and complain about her makeover (after complaining about not getting one as her look was adjudged to be sufficiently "fierce"). Yet she survived the first cut of the finals. Thankfully, there was a contestant over the age of 21 who had the gall to be a weight closer to most of humanity than the rest of the contestants.

Should this season unfold like all the ones before it, I hope they'll take the summer to come up with some changes. Reality requires some tweaking with format to keep things fresh, and they don't seem to have tweaked enough yet.

The Icedogs live for another week.

BU advanced to the semifinals of the Hockey East tournament by winning tonight's deciding game with PC by another 2-0 score. Goalie John Curry now hasn't given up a goal in just over 168 minutes of play (the last two full games and the time he was in net after PC's second goal on Friday; their other two were both empty netters). His shutout streak was mentioned twice tonight in the third period, yet such fate-tempting didn't lead to the expected Friars goal.

Tonight was less chippy while still physical. The most damaging hit of the night was on the referee, as he collided with a PC player that was coming out of the penalty box. The game continued without the ref for the rest of the period, with him returning for the start of the following one. Consensus among us at the game was that he got the arm he hurt good and numb, and he didn't move it all that much the rest of the night.

The Terriers move on to the semis, where they'll face UNH. Speaking of shutout streaks...

Good news tonight too for the men's hoops team. They made the NIT, and will travel to DC to take on Georgetown in the first round. Northeastern also got in, though they'll be making a longer trip to face off against Memphis. Holy Cross (for the locals who care) get to face off with intra-religion foes Notre Dame. Unfortunately, the winner of this game does not have a shot at the University of San Francisco or St. Joe's in the following round.

Things returned to normal at the Agganis Arena tonight, as the BU hockey team won a 2-0 decision over Providence to force a third game in their Hockey East quarterfinal match-up. Much better performance than last night, though PC was a lot chippier than you'd expect from the team with a one game advantage.

We're the only series going three games, as Maine and BC won their deciding games by 5-1 scores. For the record, the two "streaking" teams no one wanted to play wound up going 0-4 and got outscored 22-4 in the playoffs. Thanks for nothing, NU and Lowell.

On the down side, the BU women's hoops team lost the America East tournament final to Hartford, 52-50. Hartford won on their last shot, an 18 footer that hit the front of the rim and got a home bounce up and in. We got one last chance, but couldn't get off a decent try. So no repeat of 2003's tournament run from the eight seed, but a positive tournament nonetheless.

In another case of being careful about what you wish for, the BU hockey team lost to Providence 4-1 last night in the opening round of the Hockey East playoffs. This despite putting up over 50 shots on goal. Providence scored on two of their first three shots.

As you can imagine, it was not a game for the highlight reel.

And as for Northeastern and UMass-Lowell, the two teams no one wanted to play? NU was drummed out of the tournament by UNH, losing two games by a combined score of 10-1. Lowell, meanwhile, went up to Maine and got spanked in the first game 7-2.

UMass-Amherst almost did us a favor, but their 2-0 lead became a 2-2 tie to end regulation, and BC took it in OT. Damn.

On the plus side, the BU women's hoops team is making another improbable run at the America East title. After winning a play-in game to be the tournament's 8th seed, they knocked off top seed Maine, and beat Vermont last night to make the finals, where they'll play host Hartford. If the weather were going to be better, I'd have half a mind to sell my hockey tickets and drive down for the hoops.

Here's a new weather term for you all: thunder snow.

It is, simply enough, when you get a snow storm that also produced thunder and/or lightning. We had just such a system yesterday, as in the space of about six hours our temperature dropped by half and the rain turned snow (with a fun frozen rain period in the middle that gave everything a nice, Krispy Kreme-inspired glaze).

Should I be worried that a condition once so rare that Lewis Black called in sick for a gig (in Boston, interestingly) now has its own weather term?

As you can imagine, this was a fun storm to dig out from. Snow on top of ice, blown to various depths thanks to a wind that topped out with gusts around 50 mph. And to think we get to do it all again on Friday. Hopefully without the thunder.

Tonight marked the end of the season for two BU men's teams.

The hockey team wrapped up its regular season with a 3-2 at New Hampshire, locking up a tie for second place and the second seed in the Hockey East tournament. While that's a great result for a team not expected to do quite that well this year, it's a little frustrating when you look back and see opportunities lost during the season. Giving up leads to tie games at home against Lowell and UNH (the latter just this past Thursday). Only getting one point out of Northeastern the weekend before. Dropping both games to BC during that home and home series.

Still, better to play Providence in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs than either NU or Lowell, given how this season's gone.

The other team that wrapped things up tonight was the hoops team, as they dropped their opening round game in the America East playoffs to Maine. This is the second year in a row they've lost the opening round game. It may be something in the location, at least this year; they also lost their regular season finale at Binghamton, who is hosting the tournament first and semifinal rounds.

The hoops team winds up 20-8, which I hope will get them into the NIT. I'm not holding out too much hope, given that their best win of the year was their home victory over Vermont. They do have wins over URI, Fordham, Youngstown St., and Michigan, but none of those teams are over .500 (some dramatically so). We'll see.

It must be a sign of my growing comfort with the dentist that I didn't blog before going in to see him today, as if I were going off to war and needed to say that one last thing before shipping out.

It would also be a sign that I voluntarily took a second appointment today to get more work done to hasten the end of the never-ending root canal.

Our fun today was shaping the tooth (or what's left of it) and getting a temporary crown, with the second trip in to make a mold for the post. I didn't even use any Novacaine, which isn't that surprising when you remember that all the nerves for that tooth are long gone.

Not that it was painless. The dentist's assistant was using a tongue depressor to keep my tongue out of the way, and the end of it was jabbing into the back of my mouth something fierce. I had to get them to stop a couple of times even.

Thankfully, when I go back next week to get the post put in I'll be numbed up so I won't feel the jabbing. I actually get to go twice next week, too, as for some reason I have a cleaning scheduled the day before the post. Not that I'm doing all that much, I suppose.

TD Banknorth Garden.

Ugh.

For those of you who hadn't heard, the building formerly known as the FleetCenter is now the TD Banknorth Garden. As bad as the FleetCenter name was, with its connotations of colonic health, at least had a certain euphonic nature.

Now, you either have a mouthful or a pointless grab at nostalgia by folks who'll just call it "the Garden." Were this the first name we went with after losing the original Garden, then fine. There's continuity there. The FleetCenter interregnum makes the reversion to a Garden-inclusive name seem a little pointless. Inasmuch as there are people who never stopped calling the arena where the Bruins and Celtics play the Garden, there are others (like myself) who'll probably keep calling the new place the FleetCenter until we get more odd looks than not.

Don't mistake this for love of the FleetCenter name. But there was one Boston Garden. It was torn down, and the building that replaced it is not it. Regardless of who paid what to call it whatever. From my perspective, you could keep calling one of those one day names from the past month and it'd suit me fine. Heck, I think the Jimmy Fund Center is a much better name, given that it highlights a very worthwhile cause rather than someone who'll charge me $1.50 if I'm using their ATM with a non-native card.

The new building is generic, and the changing corporate names just reinforce the point. When I do finally stop calling it the FleetCenter, I'll probably just refer to it as Banknorth. That's the part of the name the bank would want me to remember, isn't it?

For the second time in two days, someone here in Beverly drove their car across railroad tracks and got hit by a train.

Yesterday, a Peabody woman got the rear end of her SUV taken off when she tried driving across the tracks. The gates and lights deployed a good 45 seconds before the accident (according to the story I read), but they didn't stop the woman because she was driving on the wrong side of the street.

Needless to say, she's facing a number of charges.

This morning, a guy had his Pontic turned 180 degrees when he didn't see the lights or hear the bells while driving over Beverly's only railroad crossing not to sport gates (it's on a private road; not surprisingly residents are very concerned about not having gates now). It's understandable that he wouldn't hear of see the warnings of an impending train: the driver is 87.

He's also a former secretary of the Air Force and NASA exec. I know, it's not rocket science, it's driving.

Thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the veal!

Not sure what's been put in the water here recently (my guesses, given the accident stories: bourbon and Ambien, respectively), but it's an odd run of accidents. Keep your fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Interesting side note is that trains coming through Beverly don't sound their own horn at crossings. Apparently, Beverly has managed to trump whatever state and/or federal laws would require it. Train horns are kind of a hot button issue here; my hometown has had a citizen's committee set up (called HORN, which stands for something too cute by half that makes you want to slap whoever came up with it), with the main contention being that train noise lowers property values.

Because, you know, you might miss that there's a train running by your house.

Considering we've also had a fatality in recent months (boy on bike not seeing or hearing train, view obscured for some reason), perhaps the value of one's McMansion isn't the most important issue here.

I'm a little less understanding about the Pats cutting Troy Brown loose than I was regarding Ty Law. Age may be a concern, but given how versatile Brown is, the role he's played with the team, and his willingness to pass up bonus money in taking that role, it seems petty that the team would cut him loose. I know, I shouldn't be surprised at a front office making a cold-hearted business decision. And I suppose I'm not. I'm more disappointed.

As a free agent Brown could still return to the team, but I'm not counting on it. Then again, I could see Brown taking less and returning if the other offers aren't that much higher and are with less successful teams. He seems like a guy who would, after a fashion, value winning above more cash.

Even still, it's a pity I'm even talking about this.

It's 11:40 and the Oscars are over. That's probably the one real surprise of the night.

Not too much I can say about the winners, outside of wondering when Martin Scorcese will finally win one. I mean, given the way his mom looked, Clint Eastwood has another couple of decades to go. Why not give Marty his due?

So here's a question. The guy who won for original song was in the audience, yet we have Carlos Santana and Antonio Banderas perform the song. I like Santana, and know that Banderas can sing to some extent, but if you have the original performer in the building, shouldn't they perform their own song? Given that he won the Oscar he probably minded a little less, but I'd be a bit ticked nonetheless.

Getting back to the time thing, I'm sure everyone will credit the changes in how awards were presented for the savings, and I'd have to say they helped. But I think the limits on performances and the special awards did just as much. It wasn't all that long ago we'd get an all-dancing tribute to sound editing. Thankfully, those days seem to be over.

Hey, here's a song about a disfigured guy coping with his future solitary life. Let's get Beyonce to sing it.

Huh?

So bringing all the nominees up on stage for their Oscar category works pretty well. Going to the seats? Not so much.

Chris Rock is good, but his monologue went on too long. Though I did like the cut to Puffy when Rock mentioned that the Source Awards included shooting.

Not much else to mention, it's been pretty much the Oscars otherwise.

I'm currently at the wife's office, and as I sit here I can hear something skittering around above my head. There's a definite Alien vibe as I wait for whatever it is (mouse? rat? possum?) to drop down from the ceiling.

It's a little disconcerting, but given how close we are to train tracks and the water hardly surprising.

How is it that I now live in a world where Antoine Walker is a Celtic but Ty Law isn't a Patriot?

The Walker thing is a mystery, given how Danny Ainge let his feelings on the once (and future?) captain before shipping him out to Dallas. Perhaps Ainge felt bad that Walker was stuck in Atlanta. Not sure. From what I've read everyone involved in the deal is on the last year of their contract, so even if Antoine II doesn't work out, the Celts aren't stuck with him long-term.

Also interesting: Gary Payton, one of the players sent to Atlanta for Walker, is looking to be bought out of his contract so he can sign with a new team - possibly the Celtics.

Maybe he wants to be here after all.

The Ty Law thing is a little less surprising. Law and the team were having contract issues in training camp, he missed half the season with a broken foot, was going to cost $12.5 million against the cap for the upcoming season, and (if we learned anything this season) the Pats can put together a secondary with just about anyone.

My most enduring memory of Law will be his drafting. We were heading back to Boston from a tournament at Williams when I found out he was our first round draft choice. Sports talk radio, as you can imagine, was livid. There was a lot of talk about why we didn't trade up and try to get one of the fine RBs drafted in front of Law - guys like Ki-Jana Carter or Rashaan Salaam.

It's always nice when long-term planning shows its value. Though I'm sure there are still people out there who swear we should have gone after Joey Galloway.

Looking at it, 1995 was a pretty good draft for the Pats. They got Law, Ted Johnson, Curtis Martin, and center Dave Wohlabaugh (and Jimmy Hitchcock, who played but didn't have the same impact of any of these guys). Compare it to 1994, where after Willie McGinest, the highest impact player the Pats got was Max Lane - an offensive lineman taken in the sixth round out of Navy. Marty Moore, that year's Mr. Irrelevant, actually wound up seeing a fair amount of playing time.

I thought 1994 had a pretty weak top 10 overall, but feast your peepers on 1991. Yowza.

As Craig pointed out, yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice hockey game, wherein a bunch of American college kids beat the Soviet Union's Red Army machine 4-3. Place it in the historical context of the Cold War as you wish; there's at least one Russian man out there who cites it as one of the three causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union (and was surprised to find that Boston University, the school that created some of the Soviet giant-killers, was not some sort of hockey player factory - or at least wasn't in the way he was thinking).

I did spend part of last night watching the game again, and was reminded of one of my favorite parts of the rebroadcasts. The one reasonably famous person ABC can find in the crowd?

Jamie Farr.

Those of you over the age of 30 will remember him as Max Klinger on M*A*S*H. The rest of you probably don't know him at all.

It's pretty random, actually. At some break in the action they cut to a crowd shot, and there's Farr. He's looking pretty agitated, and is clearly into the game. It's a nice juxtaposition to what you get when a network "finds" a celebrity at an important sporting event today. Someday, I hope the shmuck that has to do the seatside interviews covers the celeb's eyes with one hand and asks "OK, hot shot, who all is playing in this game again?"

I mean, they'd get canned, but it'd be a great way to go.

(As Craig also noted, yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Bobby Knight throwing a chair across the court at Assembly Hall during a game. I'm sure Viktor Tihkinov wishes he thought of that.)

While I can't join in on the memorializing for Hunter S. Thompson (like others linked at left I never really "got" him, though I really liked Joe's excerpt), I would note the passing of Reggie Roby.

Roby had a long and highly successful career as a punter in the NFL, and even though he played many years for the hated Miami Dolphins, I always enjoyed watching Roby kick. Not only did he have tremendous leg extension - often looking like he was going to knee himself in the face - but his punts had amazing hang time. As has been often mentioned in articles about him, Roby liked to wear a watch during games so he could measure hang time.

Don Shula also noted that when the Dolphins played in domed stadiums, Roby liked to try to hit the roof with a punt, and was successful more than once.

Roby did something that none of the guys who punt today can do - make punting fun to watch. Like Reggie White, he died early - he was only 43 - which makes me think that other recent NFL retirees should get themselves to the doctor for a check up ASAP.

Some equal time for those of you who didn't find the Stock Car Challenge that interesting: an Oscars pool from Yahoo.

Go to Yahoo Movies to join my group:

Group name: Rock the Oscars (group number: 2234)
Password: award

Considering I only have three people in Stock Car Challenge (it's not too late to join! They're only one race into the season!), I'd like to think we can do better here.

So the owners and players managed to kill the 2004-05 NHL season again yesterday, as reports about an agreement to a $45 million salary cap saving it were, at best, premature. And you know what? I don't really care.

I know, this is a pretty dominant stance, and one widely mentioned in media coverage of the lockout. In my case, college hockey passed the NHL some time ago, so it's not a major revelation. As also mentioned in some circles, the lockout can only help me by keeping college players in college longer (or at least those players who decide life in the minors is preferable to going to class).

It'd be cool if the NCAA did something to promote college hockey more to fans in NHL cities who have an option, but I don't think they're doing so (though I live in a market where the college teams get pretty strong support, so perhaps any effort put forth is being done elsewhere). This would a great boon to some of the newer D1 teams like Niagara, Robert Morris, and Wayne State, who play in or near NHL cities.

But back to the NHL. I don't claim to understand the financial issues underpinning the dispute, but I do tend to agree with the ESPN.com writers that the owners seem to be trying to break the union. The players seem to have made all of the concessions, and the idea that the owners can't move $3 million on the salary cap is ridiculous. The real test, to my thinking at least, will be the decision to start the 2005-06 season with replacement players. Should that come to pass, there's a part of me that hopes the players extend the collective middle finger to the owners and go play in Europe or barnstorm or something. I can't think that the Scab Hockey League would last all that long. On the other hand, if enough people come to see enhanced minor league hockey, the NHL just might persist - for a while.

Either way, I know BU won't get locked out.

The start of a new NASCAR season is just around the corner (so to speak), and in my usual nod to a sport I only follow for fantasy purposes (now that I don't have a boss who is a NASCAR fan), here's the sign-up info for ESPN.com's Stock Car Challenge:

Group name: Vroom!
Password: vroom

Only had four people sign up last year; let's see if we can at least get one for the thumb this year!

Last night was the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, and if you missed the coverage on USA, a German shorthaired pointer named Carlee won best in show.

I mention this not only to further my own pro-dog agenda, but to recall the times when my dad would watch the show with our daschund Abby, all the while reassuring her that she was much prettier than the dogs on the TV.

To be fair, Abby was a cute dog. On the other hand, I don't know if she was all that threatened by the show dogs.

I wasn't the only one who ran across the dog show last night and watched a bit thanks in some part to my dad. My sister pretty much did the same thing. In fact, it sounded like we watched the exact same things on TV last night, which I wasn't expecting.

Unrelated to matters canine, Lent started last week. As many of you remember, I usually have some trouble coming up with something to give up, and even when I do I then sometimes have trouble actually giving it up (remember back to the Lent where I tried to give up cursing, to expected results).

This year I came up with something pretty quickly: nail biting. I've done pretty well so far, managing to not chaw on a single nail so far. They're growing out pretty quickly, which just ratchets up the temptation that much more. It may help that I stopped biting my nails a couple of weeks before I got married in deference to the soon-to-be missus. I think I wound up biting them on the wedding day itself (big surprise), but at least I didn't draw blood like some people who shall remain Rosenberg.

I just wrote a big post on last night's Beanpot final - and it got eaten by an "internal server error." So here's the skinny:

BC beat Harvard in the consolation game, the least attractive regular season college hockey matchup of the season. No one cares. Harvard played like they didn't care, as they were down 3-0 and being outshot 35-10 when we showed up at the start of the third period.

My dubious stat for this game: BC hadn't lost to Harvard in a consolation game since 1981.

BU beat NU for the title, bringing their total to 26 over the 53 years of the tournament. They didn't play all that well, despite taking a 2-0 lead on a shorthander and a power play goal. The Terriers let NU hang around in the offensive zone too much, making it not that surprising when they tied it up with 2 minutes to go.

Chris Bourque put in the winner in OT, and got the MVP award for his tally. Didn't think he'd really earned it - Bryan Miller had the shorthander and got the assist on Bourque's goal, and seemed like a better choice - but I think the media remembered his dad's goal to win the 1996 NHL All Star Game... at the Fleet Center.

The two stats of note I had here: BU's not lost an OT Beanpot game since 1963, and NU has never won a Beanpot in a year where '8' was not its third digit. Could be a long wait over on Huntington Avenue.

Spent a lovely Valentine's weekend in Salem, here's your recap:

Friday we checked into the Hawthorne Hotel, which is highly recommended if you ever decide to sightsee around here. It's right downtown and very close to most of what you'd want to see. Didn't have any plans, so we decided to get a quick bite to eat and see a movie.

That movie wound up being Sideways, which I thought was pretty good. I was afraid that my general lack of wine knowledge would be a problem, but it wasn't. We saw this at the local Hollywood Hits theater, the "cheap" theater. We paid $8 a ticket. Not sure when that became cheap, but there you go.

Saturday dawned with the main plan to go check out the newly-expanded Peabody Essex Museum. The museum grew out of Salem's maritime history, with the bulk of the collection being either maritime-related or items picked up by sea captains and the like while on voyages. If you're interested in Asian art, or various forms of pottery get you going, it's the museum for you. There's also a pretty good collection of local furniture. We also took a house tour where we got to see a house from the 17th, 18th, and 19th century.

We didn't do too much else, though we had a very nice dinner in the hotel's restaurant. After seeing the movie I was too self-conscious to order the pinot, so I went with the shiraz. No complaints there.

Sunday saw us return home and pass a pretty typical Sunday. We wound up watching the Grammys, which was OK if a bit predictable. The all-star version of "Across the Universe" was pretty gruesome, but sales do benefit tsunami relief. The NARAS president was a little less irritating on the issue of downloading music, but still unbearable. It didn't help that he was put in towards the end of the night, which meant he got to be dead weight at what should have been the height of the ceremony.

Two things I didn't know about Jamie Foxx until last night: he has a tattoo on the back of his head and he is a reasonably good musician. He'd have made a better halftime entertainer at the Pro Bowl than former American Idol finalist Jasmine Trias. Jasmine Trias! I can't believe anyone thought it was a good idea to let her sing on national TV again. Ugh.

In the interest of meme generation:

Where I've Watched the Super Bowl

XXXIX At my sister's house in New Hampshire. They just got a big screen TV (hadn't planned on having it in time for the game, but it was delivered early), so it was a better viewing experience than I'd had at home. Mostly family.

XXXVIII At home, which is how I wound up doing dishes during Nipplegate.

XXXVII At my neighbor's apartment at Babson. Wound up being a small gathering of work types, with none of us having a very strong interest in the game.

XXXVI At the house of the director of my former office. This worked out pretty well, as if there was going to be any rioting on campus after the game, all of us who'd have to respond were in the same place. There were a few non-Babsonites there, one of whom I don't think had ever seen a football game (live or televised).

I also got drink very old wine, bottled when the Pats first made the Super Bowl and saved by a co-worker who was, easily, the most ardent Pats fan I'd ever met. Still holds true.

XXXIII, XXXIV and XXXV Honestly, I have no idea. Home, probably. Though I have vague notions of seeing the final play in the St. Louis-Tennessee game on a large screen. So perhaps I went out for that one.

XXXII The then-apartment of the fabulous DeVeaus. Quite a game.

XXXI Went to a party at the American Legion hall in Manchester. Most notable here was the small card table set up in a corner and decorated in Packers colors - for my father. He always hated the Pats, mostly due to the Sullivan family.

XXX Home again, I think.

XXIX In the basement of a house belonging to the brother of someone I'd worked with. Pretty sweet set-up, a ceiling-mounted projection unit with a wall-sized screen. It was much more appreciated with a post-game viewing of Tombstone than during the game itself, given that it was over early.

XXVIII I may not have even watched this one, given how sick I was with the Cowboys. I don't recall doing anything special, at least.

XXVII For this one I spent most of the game in bed, the victim of food poisoning thanks to a Connecticut McDonald's. The blowout status of the game didn't help matters. I did manage to rouse myself at some point in the second half, but spent most of the time getting back into something resembling death warmed over rather than watch the end of the blowout.

XXVI Watched it at T's Pub, or watched as much as one could in such a crowded atmosphere. A fun time, at least.

XXV Headed for the student ghetto in Allston to watch the game at the apartment of a friend of a fellow RA. Proving that I don't learn, I also watched the BU-Norhern Michigan NCAA hockey final in this apartment. Where everyone else thinks of wide right, this Super Bowl reminds me of hitting posts in overtime.

At least Dave Emma didn't get his Hobey until sometime around 11 pm.

XXIV One of the small lounges on the second floor of Sleeper Hall used to have a ceiling-mounted projection TV. We got it going and figured it'd be a great place to watch the game. One problem: the projector would go out of focus when there was some sort of vibration (such as opening and/or closing a door). We muddled through, but part of me thinks the decline in my eyesight started this day.

I've never really cared for Denver, so I did watch all of this blow-out. That it erased the Patriots' record for biggest Super Bowl blowout was a plus as well.

XXIII Home or dorm room. Not sure.

XXII In an unusual move, I decided to take the train back from home to BU during the game. The logic, I think, was that there'd be fewer people, thus a quicker trip and less of the game missed. For the trip I had a Walkman with radio, so I could listen.

Except for that whole part of the trip from North Station to Kenmore Square when you're underground. Care to guess when Doug Williams went on his tear?

XXI Home, likely.

XX A bunch of us gathered at my friend Dean's house to watch what we thought would be a once-in-a-lifetime event. I mean, given what we'd seen of the Pats to then, who'd have expected a return trip?

The game was off by halftime. We spent the second half watching The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie. A vast improvement.

IV through XIX Home, most likely, to the extent that I could watch the game for the earlier ones. The first one I really remember watching was XIII. I do remember missing a goodly chunk of XVIII thanks to CCD, as I was very surprised to hear that the Raiders had won.

I through III I suppose I could have caught some of III in utero, not by watching of course. Not even that was possible for I and II.

Somewhat lost in the Patriots' hoopla was that yesterday was the first Monday in February. Which, to many of us in the Boston area, is better known as the first round of the Beanpot.

This year, the games had two clear "favorites," if you went by the polls. Nationally-ranked Harvard opened with under .500 Northeastern, while the nightcap pitted top-ranked BC against lower-ranked BU. If you went by the numbers, a Harvard-BC final was in the offing.

It should come as no surprise, then, that BU and Northeastern will square off for the Beanpot title, a pair of red-hued teams on Valentine's Day.

How did this happen?

Harvard-Northeastern started in front of a crowd of dozens with a 5 pm face-off. The early game is always quiet, but is even moreso when the two least-followed teams take the ice first. NU has a vocal but small fan base, but it was more than enough to best the scattering of Harvard supporters.

Even so, the Crimson put up the first goal of the game with less than a minute off the clock. They then proceeded to doze through the next 80-some-odd minutes of hockey, allowing NU to tie it up and then take the win in double OT.

It was not a thing of beauty. Much of the third period looked like it was being played at three-quarter speed. The extra frames pushed back the start of BU-BC by an hour, though it felt like much, much more.

Harvard has played pretty well this year - they've beaten BC and BU in earlier games - but they had no spark last night.

Reasonably pointless statistical note: Harvard hasn't made a Beanpot final since 1998.

Almost pointless statistical note: Harvard hasn't won a Beanpot in a year where there was no change in the US Presidency since 1974. Since then, they've won the title in 1977, 1981, 1989, and 1993. Spooky.

BU-BC had a late start, but the delay didn't diminish anyone's energy. BU came out looking like the Philadelphia Eagles - carrying play but not scoring. BC got their first goal just after they went off a power play, on a knuckling screen shot. BU managed to dampen momentum by tying the score on a goal with less than a minute to go in the period.

BU went ahead on a nice goal in the second period (both goals scored by John Laliberte), and hung on to win despite being outshot by something approaching a 2:1 margin. BC's coach noted that very few of their shots were good scoring opportunities, but I think he's trying to downplay things a little. After all, his team couldn't solve BU's backup goaltender (as our walk-on turned starter is still out with a separated shoulder).

Reasonably pointless statistical note: BC hasn't beaten BU in an opening round of the Beanpot since 1981 - a year before BU goalie Stephan Siewec was born.

Somewhat less pointless statistical note: BC hasn't won back to back Beanpots in 40 years.

So the good news, depending on how you look at it, is that the missus and I will be spending a romantic Valentine's Day at the Fleet Center. That's better than the alternative if we'd lost, which was scalping my finals tickets to buy flowers.

The idea of a New England Patriots dynasty has, like jumbo shrimp or Swiss cheese, an oxymoronic quality to it. While never quite the Gridiron of the Absurd you'd find in Arizona or (until late) Cincinnati, the checkered past of the Patriots - from abortive moves to St. Louis and Hartford to their former cesspool of a stadium to the many years where watching the game brought with it the color commentary of Beasley Reece - makes contemplation of a Foxboro dynasty a slippery thing to hold.

But I'm warming up to the task. They may not have sealed their destiny by blowing someone out (as the 49ers did to the Broncos or the Cowboys did to the Bills), but three Super Bowls in four years, in an NFL set up to defy dynasty-building, speaks volumes. What speaks even louder is that, loss of coordinators notwithstanding, there would be very few people surprised to see the Patriots play for a fourth title in five years on a February 2006 night in Detroit.

Thinking about the game more specifically, I think I would have opted for Rodney Harrison over Deion Branch for MVP, though it was a close-run thing in my mind. Fitting for the Patriots, there wasn't one clear-cut player to go with.

I'm also still trying to sort out Philly's clock management strategy late in the game, but I think there are plenty of people related in some fashion to the Eagles who are trying to do the same thing.

Now for the commercials. According to the USA Today Ad Meter thing, Bud won the night with their ad about the pilot who ditches the skydivers to go after the Bud Light that's been thrown from the plane. I thought it was a pretty good ad (better than Bud's usual parade of flatuent animals and single entendre sex humor), but the best of the night? Not so much. I'd have given that to Ameriquest's ad involving apparent felinicide. I also thought the FedEx ad with all the required Super Bowl commercial elements was better than its Ad Meter ranking. You can decide for yourself by taking a gander at the ratings.

In the run up to the Super Bowl, Freddie Mitchell of the Eagles said he had something he wanted to give Rodney Harrison. Given the result and the two players' relative performance (Mitchell had one catch for 11 yards, Harrison two picks, a sack, and at least seven tackles), what did Fred Ex have for Rodney? A congratulatory ham?

Tonight's game at least helped prove one thing: I can pick winners, but not details like the winning margin. Several years of ESPN.com games can back this up.

More on the game tomorrow.

With the Super Bowl being this Sunday, it's time for my fearless prediction: the Pats will win.

Were you expecting anything else?

Now, I don't have the cockiness that some fans do. I expect the game to be close. I hope the win won't come down to Adam Vinatieri's foot again, but it wouldn't shock me if it did, either. My thinking is that it'll be close for most of the game, with the Pats winning by a two-score margin thanks to some late points. Given the players and coaches that each team brings into the mix, though, there's very little that would surprise me.

Well, the Pats running the wishbone. That would surprise me.

I've managed to miss most of the hype these last couple of weeks by not watching televised sports news (or "news"), especially avoiding the half-hour specials our Fox affiliate has been running in place of the 7:30 Simpsons. No way I'm going to reward that sort of scheduling.

The one story I've found reasonably interesting is Jacksonville's performance as host. The gist of most of what I've heard is that the city isn't up to the challenge, which makes me worried that the game will fall into a regular Miami-New Orleans-San Diego orbit (with occasionall forays into Tampa and perhaps the Rose Bowl). I like the idea of non-traditional cities getting the game for variety's sake. After this year, though, the pressure will be on Detroit and Arizona to provide more amenities.

(That being said, I do wonder how much of what's being said is accurate and how much of it is media grumbling; Jon's posts on his work trips lead to some doubts on this topic.)

Still don't know what, if anything, I'm doing for the game. I don't even recall where I watched last year's game (I think it was at home; yup, I remember doing dishes during the "wardrobe malfunction"), so it's not like it's a huge concern.