For a state that's within driving range, you'd think I'd have overnighted in Vermont before last weekend. Well, I hadn't.

Now I have.

The wife and I headed up to Burlington to take in the sights, but mostly for the second game of what turned out to be a reasonably unsatisfying two game set between the Icedogs and UVM (both ties). Drove up Friday after work missing BU's steal of a point (tying goal scored with less than a minute to go) as well as any scenery offered by the drive (of which there is some, if my memories of a 1995 trip to a BU-UVM game are anything to go by).

Not surprising for February, it was cold and snowy during our visit. Our plans for Saturday were pretty well truncated by seasonal closures, but we did spend a little time at ECHO. It's really more set up for kids, but it was an OK way to kill some time, even if I did turn my ankle on some ice in the parking lot.

We went up to Church Street (a shopping area restricted to foot traffic, kind of like a smaller version of Boston's Downtown Crossing) to have lunch at the NECI Commons and look around. Turns out that the folks who run the New England Culinary Institute have decided to consolidate, as the Commons is now closed. You want NECI-made food, you have to trundle over to The Inn at Essex. So by the time we found a new place for lunch (OK, we went to a place that was across the street, but we waited a bit for a table), we were well behind out schedule to tour the Magic Hat brewery (located about a quarter mile from where we stayed).

That might have been for the best, as Magic Hat was sponsoring a Mardi Gras parade in downtown Burlington. I'm not a huge parade person, and when you factor in snow and temperatures in the teens, I'm even less interested. The wife concurred, so we instead bought some locally-made foodstuffs for dinner and went back to the hotel to rest and watch CBC coverage of the Olympics.

We left for the game at about 6:30. We should have left at 6. Traffic to Gutterson is awful, the product of some sort of crack-addled transportation engineer. The snow didn't help, as Vermonters don't seem to want to plow until the snow stops (as it was, I think we saw all of one plow before leaving on Sunday morning, when we saw 3 or 4). So we missed the first five minutes or so of the game, which included the first BU goal. The rest of the game was OK, I suppose a tie is better than a loss. Gutterson is a pretty good place to see a game, much more like the older rinks in Hockey East that are now largely gone (save for Alfond Arena, where Maine plays).

We went back to the hotel and crashed after the game. Sunday was the drive home, which I had to pass off to the wife pretty early on given that the ankle I'd turned the day before wasn't interested in continuing to depress pedals. We made one stop to have lunch (eating at the same place we had dinner on Friday, unintentionally), and were home by mid-afternoon.

A decent trip, but I think we'd like to go up when there's no snow and things are actually open.

I know this is probably wrong, but every time they talk about Irina Slutskaya having vasculitis, I can't help but think that, in a hospital in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, Dr. Grigoriy Dom is working with his interns to prove that she, in fact, has a prehistoric virus picked up from a thawing mastodon specimen through some series of coincidences as yet unknown.

Before the show last night the wife parked the car in the garage under the Boston Common, which was very convenient and a reasonably good deal given the difficulties in parking downtown. After the show, as we were taking the elevator down to the level where she parked, we noticed that the elevator was operating on a temporary permit good for 90 days.

It was issued in the fall of 2004.

I was going to write something about the US men's ice hockey team, drawing some comparisons to the US men's basketball team and their performance in Athens and pushing for both to come up with a more permanent national team akin to soccer.

But then the Canadians went and crashed out of Turin. It seems wrong to probe the not wholly unexpected US result when it's a national day of mourning for our friends to the north.

In checking the newspapers for doomsday headlines, it was interesting to see how most of them found the silver lining in the variety of medals won by Canadian women speed skaters (short and long tracks). Though one (the Toronto Sun, naturally) asked if one of the women could play hockey, given that the national team can't.

Anyway, I got to miss all the coverage yesterday by heading to the theater. I didn't think that the tickets for Les Miserables that I got the wife for Christmas would entail missing Olympic fun, but better last night than tonight (at least for the wife, whose interest in figure skating well exceeds my own).

Not much to say about Les Miz other than it was a competently executed (if long) musical about love, mercy, and justice in revolutionary France. It is now the first musical I've ever seen more than once, but with the original viewing now 14 years in the rear view that's not really anything to boast about. I have higher hopes for Spamalot, which we're seeing in a couple of weeks. I definitely hope that the rows at the Colonial Theater have more leg room than those at the Opera House, whose seating is an upholstered version of Fenway's grandstand.

Random Olympic thoughts:

* I'd hate to be the person who has to run against the Congressperson who sponsored the bill expiditing Tanith Belbin's US citizenship. Incumbency is enough of an advantage, never mind having a silver medal to go with it.

* For all the talk about the lack of goaltending chops on the US men's hockey team, it's the offense that's clearly the problem. In four games they've scored 9 goals. Seven were put up against Latvia and Kazahkstan. They're going to need more than one goal to put away the Russians, never mind upsetting the Finns in the quarters.

* At what point does our quadrennial love affair with curling develop into something more regular? Can we get Worlds to interrupt some of the wall to wall poker showing on the ESPN family of networks?

* The wife and I came to the conclusion that women's curling may have the cutest set of competitors across the field. Granted, we didn't see all the teams, and spending a couple of hours yesterday contemplating Rona Martin's mug would lead anyone to question this conclusion, but it still seems likely.

Not sure if this is female-only or Olympics-wide. Nominations are welcome, of course.

* With the coming of four man bobsled, I hope NBC doesn't cut things too fine and deprive us of some of the less traditional teams. I'd hate to miss Jamaica or Brazil so they could squeeze in five more minutes of analysis on figure skating. Because, you know, there's not enough time on that show they created specifically to discuss figure skating.

* It's much easier waking up to biathlon than other sports. The skiing is peaceful, and the shooting adheres to one simple rule: don't miss.

* Is Shani Davis the athletic equivalent of Kanye West? Both are African-American men from Chicago whose most public outspoken moment was carried nationally by NBC. If someone tells me that Davis survived a car accident to become a skater, I'm heading to the bunker.

Pointless BU connection to yesterday's tie between Latvia and the US in men's ice hockey: two of the Latvian players are brothers of BU blueliner Jekabs Redlihs.

And while the tie is getting a lot of talk, I have to think that the US losing to Italy in men's curling is bigger. I didn't even know Italians curled, though I suppose there's some up in that part of Italy that's pretending not to be either Switzerland or Germany.

Book Log 2006 #7: Magic Time by W. P. Kinsella

More writing about the mystical power of baseball, though in a less literal way than Shoeless Joe or The Iowa Baseball Confederacy. A minor leaguer signs with a semi-pro team in a small Iowa town that apparently lives for baseball - and trying to match up players with their host family's unmarried daughters. Something smells fishy, and the main character spends the rest of the book trying to sort things out.

It's not bad, not quite up to the level of the books I mentioned above but a decent read. I think part of it ran in Sports Illustrated, so if the beginning seems familiar that may explain it.

No trivia last night, as the wife and I had dinner at Rialto, a restaurant located in the Charles Hotel. Not a bad spot, elegantly casual with nicely attentive service. Can't knock the food, either, though the ginger chile ice cream that came with my dessert could have used a little more chile. That hardly detracted from the meal, though.

And you get no new questions, either, seeing as two from last week are still unanswered. So there!

Yeah, so that hockey game actually turned out be a lot of fun. The game itself was entertaining - too close for my taste given the way the teams were playing - but not a classic. I'm not going to argue given the result, though.

More fun was the company, as I had the chance to see an old college friend (Paul, a non-blogger but semi-regular commentor) who I hadn't seen in at least two kids and one wife (his and mine, respectively). He was also smart enought to not mention his personal BU losing streak until after the game was over; had he told me beforehand, I think I would have been duty-bound to keep him out of the arena.

The most apropos detail of the night: the on-ice logo for Northeastern, perennial Beanpot doormat, started to bleed during the second intermission of the title game. And, of course, in trying to fix the problem it was only made worse. So for the third period it looked like their logo was surrounded by that black cloud thing from Lost.

No word on if you could see Nigerian villagers in it, though.

The least classy yet apropos moment also came in the second intermission, as the BU and BC mascots played some variant of beer pong. This is at least the second time they've done that, and really, it's not any better than the first time. It was fun explaining beer pong to Paul, as the game wasn't popular in our heyday and, as a parent, he'll probably run into it with his brood sometime in the late 2010s.

Though they'll probably have EA Extreeme Beer Pong for the gaming system of your choice before too long.

Least entertaining moment overall came after the game, when I discovered that the 11:30 train I was planning to take home actually left from Beverly as a connecting train for the 10:40 - which I missed by about 10 minutes. Instead, I got to wait for the 12:10, meaning I got home at about 12:50 am. There was a time when that wasn't late. Sadly, that time isn't now.

Very dull weekend, describable in two words: Olympics and snow. For the former, we watched a lot of the coverage this weekend, which was at its usual NBC level, though I did get to see more biathlon than I ever thought I would (even if the coverage was mostly shooting and skiing in and out of the stadium).

The snow, well, there's a lot of it. Not as much as this time last year (or, even worse, two years ago), but still a good dumping. Not enough (or at the right time) to get a snow day, sad to say. Rather I got to fight through a commute that saw the "express" train I usually take posted as running 25-30 minutes late (I wound up taking the local that comes in about 10 minutes later) and the Orange Line decide to have cars sit in the tunnels for a couple of minutes, apparently for the hell of it (though I learned from co-workers that there was a medical emergency on the line earlier, so it could have been residual effects). But I'm here now and can't complain.

Besides, there's some sort of hockey game at the Garden tonight. That might be fun.

It's meme-tastic!

Four Places You've Lived:

1. Manchester, MA
2. Boston, MA
3. Wellesley, MA
4. Beverly, MA

Four Jobs You've Had:

1. Dog walker
2. Substitute teacher
3. Library security
4. Petroleum transfer engineer

Four Movies You Could Watch Over & Over:

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. Goodfellas
3. The Blues Brothers
4. Office Space

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch:

1. Jeopardy!
2. M*A*S*H*
3. House
4. Iron Chef

Four places you've been on vacation:

1. Quebec City (spring break)
2. Youghal, Ireland (honeymoon)
3. Myrtle Beach (regular old vacation)
4. Stevenage, England (holiday/wedding trip)

Four websites you visit daily:

1. Gmail
2. Wired
3. TV Barn
4. Wikipedia

Four of your favorite foods:

1. Cap'n Crunch
2. Harpoon IPA
3. Salmon
4. The BBQ Belt at Redbone's (AKA "Death by Meat")

Four places you'd rather be:

1. Australia
2. At the Olympics
3. In an office rather than a cubicle
4. Home with the wife

OK, it's getting close to the start of things in Turin, so where the hell are all you people for the ESPN game?

I'll make it easier for you: go here, create your entry, and then join:

Torch Time in Turin

Password: skeleton

Sign up. NOW! I command you! **CLAP CLAP**

Book Log 2006 #6: The Bernini Bust by Iain Pears

This is one in a series of art-related mysteries featuring a British art dealer and a member of an Italian police squad that specializes in art theft. Not much to say about them, they're pretty solid entries into the mystery genre. Having some basic art knowledge might help, but is far from required.

It may help to read them in sequence, given the evolving relationship between the main characters. Again, though, it's not required.

You know, I would feel more in agreement with the Rolling Stones' denouncement of their being censored during the Super Bowl halftime show if they weren't knowing participants. They should have threatened to walk - during the show if need be - rather than play along and complain about it later.

No trivia last night, but I'll throw out a few questions from weeks past for fun:

William King was the only Vice President sworn into office outside of the United States. In what country did he take his oath of office?

What musical group was indirectly responsible for the development of MRI technology?

What US President played a pivotal role in forming the current rules and structure for college football? Teddy Roosevelt (Mike) - TR was enough of a rugged individualist that he saw the promise of college football, but not enough of one to accept its occasionally lethal results. He pretty much strong-armed interested parties into various changes in the game, so in a way he's to blame for the BCS.

Born Michael Gubitosi, what actor is one of the few surviving members of the Little Rascals? Robert Blake (Mike) - apologies for the weasel wording, but I'm pretty sure the host claimed that Blake was the last surviving member of the Little Rascals. I think there are a couple of aged Californians who would be surprised at that remark, based on my (admittedly brief) research.

It's been a period of technology change over the last day or so, both in the office and at home. The office change wound up being pretty minor - my computer crapped out, our IT folks replaced the power supply and motherboard, and we're back in business - but the home one is more significant.

When I acquiesced on the issue of having a cell phone, I joined in under the wife's plan, and got a simple Motorola phone that did exactly what I needed it to do - send and receive calls while providing some resources for spot entertainment (most notably video poker and blackjack), all in a low-res package.

We were AT&T customers, but became Cingulair customers when they bought out AT&T. This led to a period where we were expected to pay a migration fee and buy new phones, an expectation that we gladly ignored. When the wife's phone died I got a used one off eBay, in the hopes of getting her through until June, when our contract expired.

Sadly, the second phone was looking to expire first (one column of keys lost all function), and Cingulair decided that they'd rather keep us as customers than have us bolt due to that expectation of paying for a merger we didn't necessarily want.

Long story short, that's how I wound up with this Nokia phone that has things like polyphonic ringtones, backgrounds, screen savers, and a variety of other functions that I can use. For an added fee, of course.

You can guess how many of these functions I'll be using.

That being said, I do need to go out and see what sort of free stuff there is, as none of what the phone came with really does anything for me. Suggestions are welcome, of course.

First, an apology to BU fans. I left last night's Beanpot game early, so as to catch the train and get home before midnight. While it all worked out for the best, I feel somewhat responsible for Harvard's comeback. I know, I wasn't on the ice or coaching, but we all know that you don't leave games early for a reason.

I shant repeat my early departure next week.

For those of you looking for a more straightforward Olympics challenge game than Fields of Bronze, you can join my group for ESPN.com's Torino Challenge. It's just like their summer game; you pick five countries and get points for their medals, multiplied by a bonus factor. So if you really think New Zealand is going to score a medal, you've got a shot at some major points.

Group name: Torch Time in Turin
Password: skeleton

I managed to avoid most of the tedium of last night's Super Bowl by missing the first 27 minutes. I much more enjoyed celebrating my younger niece's birthday, and got score updates (OK, update) from her brothers. I had no real interest in the outcome, though I am mildly pleased with the Steelers win. AFC bias, I suppose.

By not seeing the start of the game I also seemed to miss all of the top-rated ads, though running down the list on USA Today I don't think I missed too much. I was surprised to see that the Sprint ad about the phone's "anti-theft" qualities wasn't on their list at all. Of the ads I did see, I think that was probably my favorite.

In any event, yesterday was just a pre-cursor to the real meat of the February sports calendar - at least in these parts, when the Pats aren't in the Super Bowl - the Beanpot.

BC plays Northeastern in the early game, which on paper is no contest - BC is ranked #5 nationally, while NU has one win. BC has struggled of late - they lost to us, had to go to OT to beat Lowell, and then lost at UMass on Friday - but they aren't struggling that much, sad to say.

We play Harvard in the nightcap. It'd be a nice time to avenge losing the annual pre-Thanksgiving game, and we are on a tear, with a nation's best 8 game winning streak. I'm still feeling anxious about this game, as the Beanpot is always ripe for an upset, and we seem like the most obvious target.

Laura has a nice reminiscence about the Beanpot and the last time she missed it. I have nothing quite so heart-warming, as I think the last Beanpot I missed was my sophomore year, when we lost to Northeastern in the title game. So not much missed their, either.

Tom Reilly, the state AG and front-runner for the Democratic nomination for governor, made news this week when he named Marie St. Fleur, a state rep, to be his running mate (lieutenant governor candidates run separately from governor candidates in the primary, but there's often this sort of linkage going into the primary). She then made news the next day by dropping out of the lieutenant governor's race due to financial questions. Let's just say that her approach to paying off loans and taxes is a little more relaxed than banks or the IRS would appreciate.

In talking about this yesterday, Reilly noted that running for governor " ...is a whole different level of politics, and it's never been my strong suit, and I have to improve on that."

I have to admit that I find a state-level politician admitting his lack of political skillz kind of endearing. But I fear for where this is going to lead come November.

Book Log 2006 #5: The Men Who Stared at Goats by Jon Ronson

This is a stange little book. I read Them: Adventures with Extremists a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it quite a bit. In that book, Ronson hangs out with a variety of "extreme" types, such as radical Islamic clerics in London and ultra-right wingers here in the US. It blended a serious topic - what goes into the mindset of someone who operates on the fringe - with humor, moreso than I expected.

The new book sticks with fringe types, but now within the area of psychological warfare. The goat-starers share pages with remote viewers, a general who thinks that he should be able to walk through walls if he concentrates enough, and connections to the Heaven's Gate cult and the CIA's LSD experiments.

Humor seems less prevalent in this book - still there, but muted a bit. In some ways it's hard not to find humor in some of this, but there's also some concern about how these operations influence the wider fight against terror and how the public doesn't seem to care about their relationship to torture or other mistreatment.

I liked it, but it's not exactly a general interest read.

While it's probably bad form to say a second place finish in bar trivia is disappointing, we did lose on the final question. That always sucks. Anyway, questions:

What celebrity was born in 1939 with the name Ralph Lipschitz? Ralph Lauren (Greg) - I managed to talk my team into answering Woody Allen, which was stupid. Had I thought about it for a second, I'd have known it was wrong. It didn't help that they played that short skirt, long jacket song which made us think it was a clue about Woody's, uh, wife. That shows you were our minds go.

What 2001 film, a cult favorite, opens with the line, "I'm voting for Dukakis."? Donnie Darko (Greg) - we had no idea. I don't think any of us saw it.

Who is the only coach to take three different schools to the NCAA division 1 men's basketball tournament Final Four? Rick Pitino (Greg) - Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville. Not BU. Oh well.

What Steven King novel opens, "Once upon a time, not so long ago, a monster came to the small town of Castle Rock, Maine.."? Cujo (Greg) - we had this, along with about a half-dozen other King books, as possible answers. We would up going with It. Not a bad guess, I mean, really, it's about a demonic clown.

Ragnar Frisch of Norway and Jan Tinbergen of the Netherlands were the first winners of what Nobel Prize, first awarded in 1969? Economics (Anon) - I was fairly certain about this, but the team wasn't so sure. We dickered a little bit about Physiology or Medicine, and in the end put the right answer, but for a medium-sized bet. Had we gotten full points... we probably still would have come in second.

Four of the 11 horses that have won the Triple Crown did so in what decade? The 1940s (Paul) - We went with the 1970s, as we could remember three of the horses and figured we were forgetting the fourth. In actuality we got all of the 1970s Triple Crown winners. Whoops. It didn't help that I mentally assigned at least one of the winners from the '40s to the '50s. Damn nags.

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

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

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

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

Notes from the weekend:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, your questions:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's going to be a long year.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So last year I did a top stories-type recap, both with actual news and my life. The year before was five word recaps. Before that, I was out of the country, and I don't think I even considered a year in review post in 2001.

As tempting as that last option is, I'll take the next shortest option that doesn't require trans-Atlantic flight.

January: Goodbye Walter Brown, hello Harry.
February: Three Lombardis equals dynasty, bitches!
March: Hockey and basketball - it's Madness!
April: John Paul departs, Benedict arrives.
May: Felt is Deep Throat? Huh.
June: Visited Chicago and Maine. Woo!
July: Took teacher's exam, NHL returns.
August: Wentworth hires me, finances rejoice!
September: Expensive gas mars driving vacation.
October: Pale Hose win Series, finally.
November: Red Sox drama begins anew.
December: W and Santa are watching!

Happy New Year to all!

Another fantasy football season has come and gone, and depending on how you look at it I either finished 10th (out of 10) or 8th (former my regular season mark, latter my final position based on consolation games). I'd feel better about my performance if I were just filling out the league for someone, but considering I run the league, I feel like I should at least be going .500 for the season.

Consider that my opening week line-up featured:

* Aaron Brooks, who would get benched

* Ahman Green, who went out for the season with a quad injury (and later had surgery for a ruptured tendon)

* Curtis Martin, who went out for the season with a knee injury (late in the season, after weeks of being stuck running the ball in the Jets' makeshift offense)

* Michael Clayton, who may have lasted into week 5 before his lack of production sent him packing

And that was for a week where I won. My roster also featured Deuce McAllister (season-ending knee injury), Chad Pennington (season-ending shoulder injury), and Tyrone Calico (lack of production, cut before season-ending injury). So it was a nice combination of bad luck and drafting poorly; I'll claim the former based on my 1-2-1 record in games where I scored over 100 points.

Now I just have to figure out who - if anyone - I want to keep from this team.

Happy Merry to all! Hope that Holiday is treating or treated you well. I'm still kind of sickly full from dinner (and post-dinner snacking, which you think I'd have passed being kind of sickly full, but I'm not that bright), but doing OK. I may be one of the last people to have discovered the appeal of the game Apples to Apples, as my sister-in-law and her boyfriend got a copy and we played it a couple of times. It certainly went better than my attempts at playing spades and hearts, whose rules I tend to confuse for the first half of the game. Cribbage went better, as in both games I managed a 24 point hand.

Not sure what my favorite present was. It's probably a toss-up between the first and second seasons of NewsRadio or a pair of slippers. I know, slippers, but when you have feet of my size any footwear that actually fits is cause for celebration.

Is it a recent development, or is the popularity of the Christmas song "Dominick the Donkey" something I've managed to miss over my 36 years? I'd not heard of it until last week, and now I can't escape it. What the heck?

Only two of us from the regular team made it to bar trivia last night, and at the end of the first half we were down by 16 points (which I suppose is a lot, given that a perfect score for the first half is 50 points). But we battled through the second half and managed to eke out a win on the final question in a semi-themed Christmas game that wasn't always to our liking. Anyway, questions:

What modern country was home to the St. Nicholas who inspired Santa Claus? Turkey - We had no idea. I thought Hungary, Mason thought Romania. We went with the latter. We needed to head farther east.

What 1977 Jim Henson offering was a holiday special featuring otters that was narrated by Kermit the Frog? Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas (Sly) - I suppose it can only be this, given that there's not a wealth of otter-related holiday material out there. I had heard of this, but in no way did it enter my consciousness when we tried to answer the question. The guys running the game claim it merits classic status. I'll leave that open to the court of popular opinion. But really, of all nights for our resident Muppet fan to not be there...

What US state was the first to make Christmas an official state holiday, doing so in 1836 (I'll give you a less defining hint than we got: the state would later not be a US state for a while). Alabama - The actual clue we got was that it was a Gulf Coast state. We guessed Louisiana based on the somewhat jazzy music being played during the question.

In what ocean would you find Christmas Island? Indian Ocean (Paul) - we went with Pacific. I suppose we were close.

What actress played Audrey Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? Juliette Lewis (Chris) - she had pre-skank days? Anyway, I remembered that it was someone who was a "name" actress, just not who. For some reason Christina Ricci came to mind. Must have been all of her Addams Family work.

What four letters start the names of two - and only two - US states? K, S, T, and V (Paul, but with kudos to Jack for his alternate answer) - we had 'C' briefly, until I started writing out postal abbreviations and stumbled across CT. Go figure we forgot the one closest to us. I have a feeling this is where we made up some ground.

Who wrote "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" and all that)? (Hint: he may be better known to us young'uns for recurring cameos on a sitcom.) Mel Torme (Chris) - Were it not for the hint, we'd never have gotten it. Good thing I was a Night Court fan back in the day.

What country was the first to popularize Christmas trees? Germany (Brian) - we bet to hold second, not expecting that the team in first would miss this. I wonder what they put? I was a little nervous that it would be some other Germanic country, so perhaps they went with Austria or something. Not only did we get the win, but being only two of us, we had a credit left over from our $50 bar cash prize. Woo hoo!

Let the hyperventilation begin: Johnny Damon is now a Yankee, to the tune of 4 years for $52 million. This seems like a lot of money. I'm sure Jon will give a reflective, well-concieved analysis of the signing (certainly in comparison to the apocalyptic rantings of sports radio).

I am unsure who'll be out in center for the Sox in the coming year (my guess is that whoever it is spent a lot of 2005 in Pawtucket - or perhaps even Portland), though if they can bring a shortstop with them when the show up for spring training, so much the better.

So today I started the book Crossworld, in which the author discusses the history (and even some sociology) of the puzzles, documents his own addiction to the New York Times puzzle, and enters the world of competitive puzzling.

At the beginning of the book, the author notes that he is from a town "at the northernmost end of Boston's North Shore (white-clapboard public buildings, preppies, gulls wheeling in the deep, snug, boat-filled harbor)..." As I also hail from such a town, I glanced back at the cover to get the author's name. Turns out that the author, Marc Romano, was in my brother's high school class. I knew him a little bit (about as much as an 8th grader can know a senior who isn't a family friend), and the book seems like him in tone and spirit (that being said from 20 years after our last meaningful interaction, which was undoubtedly not that meaningful).

It's a pretty good book, owing something to Word Freak but able to stand in its own right. Some of the Amazon reviews feel that Marc's a little too-focused on himself in the text, but as a blogger I don't have much ground to stand on making that argument. I will say that I'd have liked a little more meat to the history of the puzzles, but I don't think there's a great deal of primary source material from which to work.

I was going to post yesterday on the minor irritation caused by the turnstiles being down at North Station when I came in for work. This forced two commuter trains' worth of people to use the lone gated entry, meant primarily for wheeled contrivances.

Of course, given that I could just have no subway to use, like our friends in New York, such complaints look pretty paltry. I look forward to Boggie's take on this, assuming he ever posts again. My guess is that work has outdone itself and sent him on a job to either McMurdo Sound or the International Space Station (in which case we'd better get photos of penguins or a first-hand account of zero-gravity toilets, respectively).

Barring the weekend in Chattanooga, I feel better today than any day since Thanksgiving. I know I'm jinxing myself by saying that, but I figure I might as well say it now before the bird flu hits.

A pretty uneventful weekend, spent either Christmas shopping or watching football. I had hoped to liven things up by seeing the blog equivalent of Cooch shooting blood from his ears based on Nomar signing with the Dodgers, but nothing yet.

The revelation that W has sicced the NSA on us piqued my interest. That he fully intends to continue doing so makes me plutonium wonder what it takes to Allah get put on their yellowcake watch list. Probably more Bin Laden than this.

As Jon mentioned, our governor, Mitt Romney, has decided to pack it in after only one term, opting to not seek re-election next year. I caught a little of his press conference on this, and it bore a certain similarity to the autobiography the first President Bush wrote on The Simpsons, as Mitt (like 41) stated he'd pretty much done everything he wanted in one term.

Romney now goes off to see if his steady shifting to the right over the last year or so gives him any traction in a run for the White House. Good luck with that; I'm sure there'll be some questions about the same-sex marriage thing when you stump at Bob Jones U.

Though, if nothing else, Romney will go down as the greatest governor of the last 20 years. Consider his opposition:

Mike Dukakis - who looked like a genius, until he ran for President, lost focus, and helped plunge the state into a recession well before the rest of the country caught on.

Bill Weld - a liberal Republican and Boston Brahmnin as well-known for his love of the Grateful Dead as for whatever he did while governor. Was going to be an ambassador until Jesse Helms stuck his nose into things.

Paul Celucci - elevated to governor when Weld resigned to chase that ambassadorship, won the office outright in 1998. Preached fiscal austerity, but ran up personal debts of $750000 and apparently let the Big Dig firms audit themselves. He also resigned over an ambassadorship, but actually got the post, serving as ambassador to Canada.

Jane Swift - Ah, Swifty. Between using her staff as domestic help and a state police helicopter to commute to and from her home out west, she managed to become very unpopular. At one point she had a favorability rating in the single digits. She was the first governor to give birth while in office, which I guess is something.

No pub trivia last night, I was too busy segueing from the "nose running like a sieve" stage of whatever I have to the "sinus pain and coughing up of stuff with the consistency of tar" stage.

(Apologies if this catches you while eating.)

I did have one of my more surreal nights of sleep (or "sleep," given the relative lack thereof), highlighted by my taking a Benadryl to induce drowsiness - only to wake up 90 minutes later when all the stuff in my sinuses apparently converged on the same point, creating a singularity of snot. Trust me, that's the sort of thing that gets your attention, pharmaceutically-induced sleep or no.

I've been running at about 40 percent effectiveness at work, though I'm doing pretty well with things not requiring me to leave my desk. Outside of wanting to nap, I actually feel OK. That will likely change when I leave to go home and expose myself to more of our frigid weather. Really, what's with the single digits?

Not too much to add, as being sick has generally curtailed activities. We did go to the wife's work holiday party, which was fun but abbreviated due to her being sick. We did stay the night at the Omni Parker House, which I can't complain about. We definately had one of the rooms they use for specials, as it was on the smaller side, but it was pretty well appointed. I'd go back.

So I'm back to being sick again. Or, perhaps more accurately, whatever I had that was never completely cured has mounted a comeback. It's not been too bad (the wife is much worse off, and it could be that I segued seamlessly from what I had to what she has), though for whatever reason it seems like one of the side effects is a lack of tiredness (as you might imagine given the time of this post).

Another side-effect (well, more of a self-imposed condition of trying to get better) is I've spent a fair amount of time lying down and watching sports, which is never a bad thing. I got to watch Northern Iowa and Appalachian State punch their tickets for the 1-AA national title game, and see top-ranked Grand Valley State hold off Northwest Missouri to take the D2 crown. All the games were well-spirited and went down to the last play. I know bowl games can be exciting, but there's something abotu having games like this at the end of a playoff that cranks up the intensity. I don't think I'd have cared as much if it were the close ending of, say, the Fort Worth Bowl.

I also got to see a bit of the SWAC title game between Grambling and Alabama A&M. I didn't even know they had a title game. Of course, I didn't see any of the second half, wherein the Tigers turned it into a rout.

Topping this off was an installment of Ice 2005, a two-hour block of bobsled, luge, skeleton, and curling. There wasn't enough bobsled for my taste, and the curling was a men versus women Team USA skins event (four ends, team with the hammer has to score two points to take the end), which was different. I suppose it would be too much to ask for this show to appear all year and actually follow the World Cup circut (or whatever curling's equivalent is).

Italy. Ghana. Czech Republic.

USA.

Damn. This is not going to be an easy group at all. It may very well be the group of death. B (England, Sweden, Paraguay, Trinidad) and C (Argentina, Ivory Coast, Serbia-Montenegro, and the Netherlands) are pretty tough, too.

Groups G and H vie for the weakest groups. No worries about France and Spain making the second round this year, unless France coughs one up to Togo.

I figured I missed the World Cup draw as I was doing an errand for work, but as of now they've not ever started yet. Are the Oscar people running the show? Considering a message just came across that the official mascot just finished presenting a song to the world, I'm going to assume that, yes, Gil Cates is at the helm.

I almost missed the pick for good, as when I left the building to go to the post office, I nearly got crushed between one of those Bobcat things and the building. Though it's nice to know that Lewis Black is in town; how else to explain the snow, thunder, and lightning?

Unrelatedly, commisserations to JQ for his second place finish last night on Jeopardy!. Go figure that this time, everyone knew the final question. Glad to see he got the question on the Phillipines, though!

About the time today when most Americans are somewhere between lunch and their mid-afternoon snack, a drawing will be held in Germany to determine the first round groupings for the 2006 World Cup finals. This article does a nice job of describing the process and has a link for following the draw live, if you're so inclined.

The US kind of got screwed going into the draw as they did not get one of the top 8 seeds, based on a formula FIFA devised using past World Cup experience and world rankings. Mexico managed to pick one up, though, which is a little galling given that the US did better than Mexico in the last World Cup and beat Mexico in the most recent qualifying. The Netherlands also missed a seed, punishment for missing the 2002 tournament.

This still leaves the question on the best and worst draws for the US team, a question answered here. I do have some disagreements, though.

First, the author suggests that Germany would actually be a nice first round opponent, as they aren't as strong as in the past. As true as this might be, this fails to note that:

1. Even without the world beating talent of previous squads, they're still good.
2. The tournament is being played in Germany.
3. Germany will play in the largest stadiums, which I imagine will be filled with German fans.

Playing at home gives you a huge bump; look at how Japan and South Korea did in 2002. A good German team with that bump will be very hard to beat.

The best choice from among the seeded group has to be France. They failed to qualify in 1990 and 1994, and didn't get past the first round in 2002. And while plenty of French fans will be in attendance, you'd have to think that locals would at least root against the French, if not in favor of whoever they're playing.

Out of the second pot, I'd go with Angola. It's their first World Cup, and they're about as surprising a qualifier as anyone (they and Togo would probably share that award). From the third pot I suppose I'd take the Swiss, though they're close enough that they should have some fans in attendance (I also don't want to chance a repeat of our loss to Poland in 2002).

As for the draw of death, how's this for starters: Brazil, Paraguay, and the Netherlands. For fun, you could sub out Brazil and the Netherlands for Argentina and the Czechs. Heck, any of the seeded teams outside of Mexico will be tough. Sadly, we don't get a shot to play Mexico in the first round.

I would add that I'm at a loss to explain how Australia gets into group of death consideration. They've not qualified in 34 years, and made it to Germany by beating Uruguay - South America's fifth-best team - in a playoff decided by penalty kicks. I can see why England wouldn't want to play them - the English can't seem to beat Australia in any of the other sports they compete against each other in - but I really don't see why we should fear them.

(And isn't that a statement worthy of coming back to bite me in the ass?)

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed.

First off, congrats to James Quintong for winning last night on Jeopardy!. It was, as he termed it, a war of attrition, evidenced by his locking up the win going into Final Jeopardy - with $4200. He's said that tonight's game will be more entertaining. Just hope it's another win.

Finishing what I started earlier in the week, there is very little that can be said for the state quarter class of 2008:

Oklahoma - I'm not particularly crazy about this design, but I think I like the idea behind it.

New Mexico - here are two very different takes for the Land of Enchantment. Hot air ballooning and nuclear warfare? Where do I get my moving van?

Ideas that come to mind: the symbol from the state flag (a cop-out, but at least something to fall back on), a kachina or other symbol of the native American population, some sort of Roswell-inspired alien design (can't we have at least one fun state quarter?).

Hawaii - out of the several designs here, I think number 14 is most striking, though I'm not sure how (or even if) they could get that same effect on a coin. Number 2 is pretty good if you want to go in a non-native direction. A spoof of the usual reverse side using a nene goose and native plants rather than olive branches would be interesting.

Arizona and Alaska - no designs for either of them on the site I keep linking to, and I can't find much out there elsewhere. This article has a good slide show of suggested images, though I'd have to say if it's a barometer of the social climate in Arizona, perhaps it's best that my lone "visit" there was a walk across the Hoover Dam from Nevada.

Arizona might have the toughest problem of any state, though: how do you get it's most obvious icon - the Grand Canyon - on a coin?

There's pretty much nothing for Alaska out there. But they've got a good site for their coin commission, if nothing else. I'd like to nominate the Iditarod as subject material, though getting a sled dog team on a coin may be tough.

Program note: as he's mentioned on his blog, James Quintong will be on Jeopardy! tonight. He's been quite mum on his performance, so check your local listings and keep your fingers crossed!

After a few weeks off, we returned to bar trivia with the same result as last time: second place. We lost by two points to a guy playing on his own, and given the winning score it was pretty impressive. Anyway, your questions:

What rapper-turned-actor made his film debut in the 1994 movie Renaissance Man? Mark Wahlberg (Phil) - we had no idea, but settled on LL Cool J pretty quickly. Seemed like a good idea at the time, and really, how much of a rapper was Marky Mark?

What South American country is named for a tree or the people who collect its wood to make dye? Brazil (Paul) - we followed roughly the same logic, though I was fairly sure there was a brazilwood tree. Good thing there is, too, as the Brazil nut grown on a completely different tree. Take that, logic!

With the help of accountant Walter Diemer, what company was the first to produce bubble gum? Fleer (Myron) - Right on the company and the name. We couldn't come up with it, and guessed Wrigley's, even though we were pretty sure that wasn't right. We started talking about card companies pretty late, and I think if we'd taken that tack earlier we'd have come up with it (or at least come closer).

Whose debut album was 1999's On How Life Is?

What rock (more pop than rock, really) musician was the first Western performer to play in both Israel and the Soviet Union, doing so in 1979? Elton John (Sly) - We went with Paul McCartney, based on his Back in the USSR album and the musical clue of "Back in the USSR" by that first band he was in. Given how obvious some of the earlier musical clues were - "Mrs. Robinson" for a question about David Robinson and "I Ran" for a question about, yup, Iran, it wasn't that much of a stretch.

Of course, we also were thinking of a reasonably legitimate rock person, as per the question (the parenthetical comment is mine). Feathery capes and platform shoes are only really rock if they're on Ziggy Stardust.

This was actually much harder than the final question, naming the continent whose highest peak is Mount Kosciusco. They'd have been better off asking that one in reverse.

It appears to still be a little early to find the final designs for the 2007 state quarters, but here's what we've got:

Montana - they took the route that gave us the very nice Mississippi quarter: give the US Mint some ideas and let them design something. Like many of the western states, the ideas tend to focus on natural beauty and features. At least one has a state outline involved, which I kindly ask the folks at the Mint to ignore with prejudice.

There are a bunch of ideas here, the only one that really piques my interest is the Little Bighorn one, which seems ripe for a controversy (or contrivoversy).

Washington is also going this route (OK, expect that people are unless I tell you otherwise), and you can read the official press release about the final designs here. The prominence of the state outline is highly troubling, and I would whole-heartedly back either of the last two options over any of the first three. I would tend towards the orca one given that Native Americans aren't getting a whole lot of play where state quarters are concerned. Couldn't hurt to throw a bone to the people whose land got stolen.

Though, I have to say, Bigfoot on a state quarter would totally rock.

Idaho - finding information here is pretty tough - the site I've been linking to for many of these entries doesn't even have a short list of themes. This article gives us what we're looking for, and isn't that a mixed bag?

The falcon, fine. The Sawtooth Mountains, great. A "Farmland Tapestry" is, uh, interesting. The state song sounds like we're viewing the state in a museum ("and here we have Idaho, next to the petrified dinosaur poop"), and "Bold and Distinctive" sounds more like "have to come up with a fifth idea before I get to go home for the weekend."

This may be the first case where an outline of the state would be welcome.

I also find the lack of a potato in any design to be perverse.

Wyoming - the only one of these I like is the one using the lariat. In official channels, I can only find that designs were due to the state at the end of April. There's really nothing about what the final themes were.

I have a feeling the quarter will either wind up taking the logo off of the University of Wyoming's football helmets or somehow play off of Yellowstone and/or Old Faithful.

Utah - honestly, I think this one is pretty good. The only other thing I can find in a cursory Google search is information on the formation of a commission to come up with designs. The page for the commission on the state's website is not working. That bodes poorly.

Were I to guess, there will be a final design featuring a beehive, one the Great Salt Lake, and one with a seagull (perhaps centered on an outline of the state). Given its position as the state's official snack food, perhaps a Jell-o mold could sneak its way in.

If you're a job-seeker, it may not be the wisest thing to have the email you submit with your materials to share the name of this band. Especially around here, where, you know, there are a few of us whose families came over from Ireland.

While I was away being a nerd this weekend (the skinny: 4th place as a team, 9th place individual scorer, discovered that pineapple Coke is good while watermelon root beer isn't), I got a West Virginia quarter as change, an in observing such it came up that I'd not updated the Mark Across America portion of Travelin' Jones to include new quarters and such.

It's nice to know that someone cares. Or is at least willing to make it seem so.

Rather than making the promise to update things that I will likely not keep in a timely manner, here's a preview of the 2006 state quarter designs:

Nebraska - you can see all four finalists here, and I'll mention that the winner is the Chimney Rock design, which I like quite a bit. There is part of me, though, that wishes they had saluted their unicameral legislature.

Nevada - here's the winning design with some finalists. The bighorn ram quarter finished second (it's the state's official animal) and the miner came in third.

According to this article, roughly a quarter of the votes came from children. Which I think goes a long way to explaining why the horsies won over the scarier animal and the gruff miner.

I do think they missed a golden opportunity in not selecting a slot machine paying off in Nevada quarters. Would that be the first time a coin appears on itself?

There's also little to disagree with for this quarter-turned-PSA.

Colorado - if nothing else, the winner and other finalists get the point across: Colorado has mountains. I'm not crazy about this one. Pretty blah, really.

North Dakota - bison are great, but I'd have gone with Roger Maris.

South Dakota - no big surprise that Mount Rushmore won, but I didn't realize that the pheasants grew so big out there. The lack of scale is a little off-putting. The sheafs (sheaves?) of wheat are a nice touch, though.

Tomorrow: 2007!

We saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tonight, and we enjoyed it quite a bit. It was clearly much darker than the first three (in keeping with the shift in tone in the books), and the least "Hogwarts-centric," meaning that it was less concerned with the school year as with the plot involving You-Know-Who.

It's also the least true to the book of the four, but not in a bad way. There's a fair amount of stuff left out as well, but given the length of the book there's no way they'd be able to put it all in a movie without it approaching Fanny and Alexander-type length. I thought this hurt the portrayals of Krum and Delacroix the most, as they're not much more than place-holders in the movie. Between the two of them they probably get 10 lines of dialog, if that.

As for the actors getting older, they're all still believable as 14 year-olds. As much as the main characters have changed, I thought the difference in appearances in Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom were the most striking.

I was also pretty surprised that Cho Chang had a Scottish accent. Me and my cultural biases.

Anyway, it's another solid entry for the franchise. Especially when you can use half-price passes to go see it. Viva parsimony!

And with the movie we got six previews:

* Aeon Flux, which looks like they crossed The Matrix with Gattaca. Though that may well be the vibe from the series; I never watched it.

* The Shaggy Dog, another remake of the man-becomes-canine Disney film, this time starring Tim Allen. Yes, there are wacky hijinx and valuable Lessons Learned. Hopefully, one of them is that you should never see a Tim Allen movie.

* Cheaper by the Dozen 2, which leads me to ask, "Why?" Basic plot: Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt's huge family takes on Eugene Levy's richer big family. There are wacky hijinx and valuable Lessons Learned. Hopefully, one of them is that most movies should not be sequelized.

* King Kong, which I have to say I have no interest in. I've never been that interested in the story in general, which leads me to ask: are there supposed to be dinosaurs on Skull Island?

* The new Superman movie had a very vague preview, mostly short snatches of film that give you a general idea that he's back, but without showing too much of the film. It piqued my curiosity, but didn't show enough to really pull me in.

* Finally, there was Happy Feet. It's an animated cross between The March of the Penguins and... Swing Kids? Strictly Ballroom? One of those dancing movies, anyways, as it appears to be about penguins who dance. Robin Williams does his fey Latino voice for one of the penguins, which is problematic.

Since we knew we weren't going to make our usual trivia game tonight, the wife and I decided to try the game at one of the local bars here. The bar's chalkboard advertised an 8 pm game, but it never materialized.

But in the spirit of the thing, here are five questions that I've come up with inspired by our attempt at local nerdiness:

What ale claims to be Ireland's oldest? Smithwicks (Ted) - since 1710, according to the advertising material they had at the bar.

What TV host's middle name, McFeeley, was the last name of his maternal grandfather? Fred Rogers (Scott) - this is in honor of New York Giants kicker (assuming he hasn't been cut yet) Jay Feely, who went 0-3 down the stretch in an OT loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

The name "cole slaw" came to English via "koolsla," a term for cabbage salad in what language? Dutch (Paul) - they aren't just about windmills, tulips, and lax drug laws.

Who hold the record for most consecutive games played in the NFL? Jeff Feagles (Brian) - I'm in JD's camp on this one, given the turnover at that position.

What explorer's first trip to North America was on the Matthew? Giovanni Caboto, aka John Cabot (Anthony) - as the bar is located on Cabot Street, I figured I'd throw this in for some nominal non-pop culture content.

Two interesting notes from today:

1. The car rolled over 40000 miles. It seems like a lot given that we've only had the car for two and one-third years, but it has gone to Detroit, Pittsburgh, South Jersey (twice) and Hilton Head (in addition to the numerous trips to Maine). The good news is that, it being a Toyota Corolla, we've probably only used about 15 to 20 percent of its lifespan.

2. I learned a new word today: pharyngitis. It's a general term for an inflammation of the tonsils and back of the throat, and I'm non-plussed to say I'm currently fending it off. Started with a sore throat on Wednesday that, rather than going away conveniently after a day or two, has decided to set up housekeeping.

Not 100 percent sure what's causing it, but based on the prescriptions I got today (antibiotic and ibuprofen to take the edge off the sore throat) I'm assuming it's not strep or some other viral cause.

As you can imagine, it made for a fun holiday weekend, though I was able to power through it to enjoy Thanksgiving and a visit from the in-laws, and a pair of confounding BU hockey games - a 1-0 win over two-time national champ Denver (the first shut-out for the backup goalie) and a 6-5 OT loss to Colorado College which saw the Icedogs score two goals in the last two minutes - only to cough up the game-winner in the first minute of the extra period. Also notable was that a CC player managed a hat trick and four penalites (of the 19 total called in the game). The celebration for the former is obvious, but what do you throw on the ice for the latter? Handcuffs?

While most of us are enjoying turkey today, it looks like Jeffrey Loria is carving himself up some Marlins.

Beckett and Lowell to the Red Sox, Delgado to the Mets. Expect Dontrelle Willis, Jack McKeon, Miguel Cabrera, and Juan Pierre to be sent somewhere in return for single-A players and a bag of balls.

Marlins management refuses to call this a fire sale, opting instead to say they're tailoring the roster to fit their revenues. This also came about as the team announced they're going to pull up stakes if they can't get a stadium deal done, which while understandable - they've been playing in Dolphins Stadium too long - just adds to the Era of Cheap Feelings that's being reborn in south Florida.

That Loria's been through this before when he owned the Montreal Expos is hardly cause for optimism. I mean, look at the farce that became before the team was moved. All I'm saying is that when Loria sells the Marlins and they become the Las Vegas Croupiers, beware if he comes sniffing around to buy your favorite team.

Anyway, happy Thanksgiving to one and all - and especially baseball fans in Miami, who could use the positive distraction.

Former RA, current trivia compatriot, now blogger: please welcome Mason to the links at left. He's easily the youngest of the linked bloggers, which should be good for something. He's also often half-loaded, which should also be good for something (hey, he says as much in his first post).

It looks a little discordant to see the single-name link, but given that my wife may be the only person I know who regularly uses his first name - and even then not 100 percent of the time - it's fitting.

OK, Craig, I hope you're happy - I got to go 0-2 for BU-Michigan basketball tilts, as the Wolverines made the trip east and knocked off the Terriers 51-46. Which bookends the 1989 Rumeal Robinson homecoming, a 73-65 win for Michigan.

Michigan got an early lead and was able to keep BU at bay most of the night, though we did get the deficit down to 2 in a number of places. It's hard to decide what was most frustrating:

* Michigan scoring 12 of the game's first 16 points,

* The number of shots missed by BU from within three feet (heck, one foot) of the basket,

* Guard Brian Macon continually falling for a hardwood version of the neutral zone trap - he'd get over half-court, bring the ball to the side, and get hemmed in by a couple of defenders. This had to have happened a good half-dozen times.

Even if the Michigan of now isn't quite the Michigan of the Fab 5, a threepeat would have been huge for a program like BU's. Now the hopes for a win over a "major" opponent lie in next Tuesday's game against URI (I have scant hopes of winning at George Washington, given that they've gotten back to top 25 form, and even if you don't consider Bucknell major, they play like they are; I suppose a win at UMass isn't completely out of the cards).

I just hope there's some sort of crowd. There was no listed attendance on the box score available from the BU athletic web site, but if I had to guess I'd say 2500 people were at the game. Which is pretty good for a BU hoops game, but sadly typical for the level of support the program gets.

On a vaguely related note, I was amused to see that Michigan has a guy whose sole job appears to be handling stools for the players to sit on during time-outs (picture, if you will, director's chairs without backs or arms). At the time out he'd set them up on the court in a little semi-circle, and when the time out was over he'd take them back and sit with them at the end of the bench.

I really hope this guy has duties I don't know about. Otherwise, I'd suggest to the Michigan tax-payers who read this that they should contact their elected officials.

Prior to the game, the wife and I had dinner at the Super 88 Market Food Connection, a food court connected to an Asian supermarket. It was fantastic! I had a chance to try both a grilled pork and a grilled beef bahn mi, a Vietnamese sub sandwich. I would highly recommend either; the pork has a somewhat sweet sauce, while the beef was quite spicy. And at only $2.75 a pop, it's hard to go wrong. Though next time, I'll try the pho with one of the sandwiches I haven't tried yet.

While it's not the sort of "butterfly causes hurricane" example of chaos theory that everyone loves, our foray to play trivia last week was caused by an unusual chain of events.

The wife and I were not going to play last week, and we made plans to ride home on the train together. I normally catch one that leaves North Station at 5:25, and we planned to meet and get on that train.

That was until I got stuck late at work and suffered a s l o w T ride and arrived at the station around 5:30. At this point, the 5:37, the next train home, was delayed due to a mechanical problem. So we waited. And waited some more.

No train was forthcoming.

Adding to this was the arrival of passengers for the next train - one that, according to other passengers, is often cancelled. Meaning that there could be three trainloads of commuters trying to squeeze on to the 6:10.

Off to trivia we went.

And, to make a long story short, the wife and I came in second, losing by a single point. This week's questions will give you a taste of how that came about:

What musician and producer performed the song "Cruel to Be Kind" and wrote "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" for Elvis Costello? Nick Lowe (Shawn) - For some reason I got stuck on Nick Cave during the question, which is clearly wrong but was also impossible to clear out of my head. The only other Nick I could come up with was Nick Drake, which wasn't right, either. And on top of everything, I now need to download "Cruel to Be Kind."

Manitoulin Island, the world's largest freshwater lake island, is located in what country? Canada (Paul) - We got this right, but out lack of surety led to us bidding only 6 of a possible 10 points. D'oh.

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte, a painting seen in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, was done by what artist? Georges Seurat (Greg) - I had no idea, and the wife's answer of Manet was as good as any. Seurat was bandied about briefly, but not seriously.

The 1977 film Grand Theft Auto was the writing and directorial debut for what Oscar-winning director? Ron Howard (Greg) - now this I'm pissed at myself about. I know that Steven Spielberg's first film was Duel. I know that Ron Howard was older than Richie Cunningham, and thus could have written and directed his first film in 1977. But I went with Spielberg anyway. Stupid me!

The protozoan Plasmodium is responsible for what disease? Malaria - this was our first thought, be we then thought that malaria was caused by a virus and looked elsewhere. We wound up answering typhus (or typhoid fever, can't remember).

David Adkins is the real name of what comedian (hint: his stage name uses just six letters)? Sinbad (James) - we thought about this one for a long time, and we used pretty much all of our time up before the wife mentioned Teller of Penn and Teller. Seemed good to me. I know, you may be thinking that Teller isn't much of a comedian, what with the not talking and all. But how much of a comedian is Sinbad, really?