Miscellany

I've been fighting a bug off and on since just after Christmas. Finally went to the doctor on Friday. I rested over the weekend and am feeling a little better. The down side -- now I have to catch up from missing a day when the work load is very high. Not much time to blog, so I'm just going with a few random observations and notes:

I really didn't have a favorite in the Super Bowl. I started out rooting for the Steelers, but as the referees kept making error after error in the Steelers favor, I starting shifting towards rooting for Seattle. I didn't think it was a bad game. I like a defensive battle where first downs and points are at a premium. Mistakes become magnified as do big plays. Unfortunately, so do officiating mistakes. Bottom line, Pittsburgh came up with more big plays than Seattle, even though Seattle outplayed Pittsburgh.

I was happy for Jerome Bettis. He's one of those special players who never forgot that football, even high stakes NFL football, is still a game. He played with passion and intensity, but never lost his smile. He loved what he did and it showed.

Steelers guard, Alan Faneca, should have been the Superbowl MVP.

The Rolling Stones are done. Probably have been for a while. I saw them in concert in the mid-nineties and was not impressed then. The halftime show was an embarassment. Here's a tip for Keith and Ron - maybe your guitar parts should work together and actually have a melody rather than being random riffs and notes. If John McCain were in the audience, he would have had you locked up for violating the new "torture and abuse" policy.

This is Detroit, why bring in an import when there are plenty of great home-grown domestic models. I would much rather have seen an expanded version of Mowtown medley like was done before the game.

Aretha Franklin is one of my favorite female vocalist of all time. Aaron Neville is usually pretty good, too. Sadly, I think they both may be as done as The Stones. That arrangement may have been the worst rendition of the national anthem since Rosanne Barr.

The Super Bowl commercials weren't as good as recent years, but there were a few that stood out. Bud provided most of my favorites -- jr. clydesdale, sheep fan (streaker), hidden fridge, touch football game (Michelob) and grizzly. Others I liked were Ameriquest's medical misunderstanding with the defib paddles and the fly, careerbuilder's chimp ads, and Sprint's theft deterrent. Big loser -- Diet Pepsi. Those commercials and the "brown and bubbly" slogan were awful. To see the top ratings by demographic, go here.

On a more serious note....Where are the counter protests in the Islamic world? I don't want to hear CAIR cry out that they are being mischaracterised as fanatics and terrorists until the fanatacism and terrorism are denounced specifically. A few cartoons warrant protest, but the burning of property, blowing up buildings and beheadings are acceptable and even encouraged by Islam? Maybe threatening to chop off the arms legs and heads of those who depict you as people who support chopping off limbs and heads isn't the most persuasive counter argument.