March 2010 Archives

I wonder why iTunes will sometimes stall on a song while importing from a CD. I always thought it was only a speck of dust or a scratch on the CD that could cause it. There must be more to it than that. I can close iTunes, leave the CD in disk drive, and rip it in Windows Media Player. What's making Windows Media plow ahead in the spots that makes iTunes stop?

• Day 12 of CrabAppleLane PC recovery ...
• CrabAppleLane iTunes library recover & rebuild stands at 3594 songs, 10.9 days, 29.92GB ...
• 162 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Down Poison - The Better Life - 3 Doors Down
2. An Old Fashioned Love Song - The Best Of Three Dog Night - Three Dog Night
3. What A Shame ( LP Version ) - Rock & Roll - Foghat
4. Romeo & Juliet - Making Movies - Dire Straits
5. Best Of Luck - Why Should The Fire Die? - Nickel Creek

About today's QOTD: I wonder if he knows how that sounds. Pretty much right out of V for Vendetta.

Quote of the Day

The laws are intended to make people fearful

Senator Russell Pearce, Arizona

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "To reduce the level of stress, creative designers decided to do something about these error pop-up windows. They edited the error messages and the interfaces to bring out the humor side of it."

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For all of the Hubble Space Telescope's early missteps, all of the talk of decommissioning and using limited scientific resources elsewhere, I think it has been a spectacular success and taking it out of service would have been a mistake. Hubble is about to turn 20 and has never been in better health. Professional astronomers glean most of their data these days from radio telescopes. That data comes in the form of numbers for computers. More informative for scientists? Yes. WOW for the "paying" public? Absolutely not. Below is the Cygnus Loop Supernova Remnant from the Hubble. I'm all for spending our limited money where it will get the most use but please keep some of it in reserve to produce eye candy such as this.

Source: Hubblesite.org

In CrabAppleLane news, got 18 tomato plants in the ground last night, 9 Creole and 9 Big Beef. I even charted the garden this year for the first time. I plan to put down 2 Grape tomato plants if I can find them and turn over the rest of the plot to Patsy to use as she likes. That will be eggplants, red bell peppers, basil, and assorted other stuff I probably won't eat. We'll save the fight over where to plant the two fig trees for another day.

• Day 11 of CrabAppleLane PC recovery ...
• CrabAppleLane iTunes library recover & rebuild stands at 3071 songs, 9.5 days, 26.32GB ...
• 163 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Beggars Day - Hair Of The Dog - Nazareth
2. Hot One - Velvet Goldmine Soundtrack - Shudder To Think
3. Junkie Doll - Sailing To Philadelphia - Mark Knopfler
4. Second Chapter - The Cross Of Changes - Enigma
5. Between Sun & Moon - Counterparts - Rush

Quote of the Day

If this is heaven
Then I'm in hell
If trust is misfortune
Then wish me well

Nazareth, Beggar's Day

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Obviously, things have changed quite a bit online since I came up with the idea and tried launching it in 2005. Then, only 25% of internet users had read a blog, and Facebook was only available to college students at select universities."

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Remember when I said there wouldn't be many upsets in this year's March Madness and that Kansas would win it all? Kansas is long gone and there have been a lot of upsets. I now think there are more to come. I don't think Duke will win this thing. I think Butler will. Bet any house you have to lose.

And, now, for something completely different: FWIW, ALL things spam should start with Monte Python. I digress. I was right in the middle of abandoning a longtime email address because of spam when I changed host servers. When I did that, almost all of the spam stopped. That led me to believe that my previous host was not very diligent about spam or they were an outright haven for it, both incoming and outgoing. I never quite completed the abandonment and I still receive desirable email on that account. Two fairly innocuous spams got through this morning. I'm on guard now but I remember a time when "only two" spam emails would be cause for celebration.

• Day 10 of CrabAppleLane PC recovery ...
• Less annoyed about that today than yesterday ...
• CrabAppleLane iTunes library recover & rebuild stands at 2792 songs, 8.7 days, 24.10GB ...
• 164 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. The Fish And The Bird - Kill To Get Crimson - Mark Knopfler
2. After Midnight - Time Pieces - The Best Of Eric Clapton
3. Love Of A Lifetime - Love Bites: More Romantic Power Ballads - Firehouse
4. We Can Get Wild - Kill To Get Crimson - Mark Knopfler
5. She's Too Good For Me - Ten Summoner's Tales - Sting

Quote of the Day

Female suicide bombers detonated explosions that rocked two subway stations in central Moscow during rush hour on Monday morning, killing at least 35 people, officials said.

CNN.com

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Data team intern Lisa Zhang expanded our Gross National Happiness index today to English speakers in the UK, Canada and Australia with new graphs for each nation. We applied the same model separately to each of the countries in order to control for cultural differences in how people use language. While this precludes us from determining whether Canadians are happier than Australians or vice versa, we have found a few interesting facts:"

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Glorious Sunday at CrabAppleLane. It's always fantastic when the yardwork is done but the sunshine and cool temps today make it even better. Probably makes you wonder what I'm doing here at the computer. Well ,there was this thing and it's taking a while to fix. It won't deter me much longer, though. I'll be out in the yard this afternoon tilling up the tomato garden and I hope to be on the bike sometime after that. In the meantime, I offer photographic evidence of a spectacular CrabAppleLane Sunday.

CrabAppleLane Crabapple bloom - March 28, 2010

CrabAppleLane Tiller - Ready for today's action - March 28, 2010

CrabAppleLane North-South trail - March 28, 2010

CrabAppleLane Eastern Redbud in full bloom - March 28, 2010

CrabAppleLane tadpoles - March 28, 2010

Once again, inspired by the iTunes shuffle, Spirit of Radio. It is one of my favorite Rush songs.

• Day 9 of CrabAppleLane PC recovery ...
• Less annoyed today than yesterday ...
• CrabAppleLane iTunes library recover & rebuild stands at 2138 songs, 6.7 days, 18.49GB ...
• 165 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. The Spirit Of Radio - Chronicles [Disc 1] - Rush
2. A Light In The Black - Rising - Rainbow
3. Midnight Confessions - 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best Of The Grass Roots - The Grass Roots
4. One Of These Days [Live] - Delicate Sound Of Thunder [Disc 2] - Pink Floyd
5. I'd Love To Change The World - A Space In Time - Alvin Lee (Ten years After)

Quote of the Day

All this machinery making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted
It's really just a question of your honesty
Yeah, your honesty

Rush, Spirit of Radio

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "1999: The “Melissa” worm makes a sudden appearance, screwing up specific e-mail programs by clogging them with infected e-mails issuing from the worm. It is the first successful mass-mailing worm."

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Had I known it was going to take three hours of technical support to get my computer issue resolved, I would have chosen a different day and time. I was exhausted last night when it finally ended. Not a good way to start the day on a weekend when I have more than a few jobs to do around the house and yard. The restoring and rebuilding on the PC continues with no end in sight ...

Inspired by the iTunes shuffle, Big Country

• Day 8 of CrabAppleLane PC recovery ...
• Less annoyed today than yesterday ...
• CrabAppleLane iTunes library recover & rebuild stands at 1437 songs, 4.5 days, 12.42GB ...
• 166 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out - Unplugged - Eric Clapton
2. Big Country - Live At The Quick - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
3. Everybody Pays - Shangri-La Mark Knopfler
4. The Rocks and the Thunder - Local Hero Soundtrack - Mark Knopfler
5. Darling Pretty - Golden Heart - Mark Knopfler

About today’s QOTD: That was a chat response to my asking if he wanted me to do anything. I had little confidence his ability to resolve my issue by the preliminary steps he took because I had done all of them before to no avail. After three hours of tinkering, he got my biggest issue resolved. Tip of the cap to you, Prashant, from a grateful CrabAppleLane.

Quote of the Day

just seat back and relax and seat in the front of your computer

CrabAppleLane’s PC Technician last night

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "We have way more "stuff" than we really need."

The problem that caused my PC crash last Saturday has not been resolved yet and I'm not as safe here as I would like to be. I lost another software program this morning just by turning on my anti-virus program to see if the latest update resolved the problem. It didn't and a program that was running had a few files quarantined. I can't get them out until I can fully load the program and I can't fully load the program until the problem is resolved. I may be proceeding with rebuilding and restoring unwisely and I'm more than a little perturbed at the people who caused this.

• Day 7 of CrabAppleLane PC recovery ...
• Very, very annoyed at that ...
• CrabAppleLane iTunes library recover & rebuild stands at 1363 songs, 4.2 days, 11.64GB ...
• 167 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Knocking At Your Back Door - Perfect Strangers [Bonus Track] - Deep Purple
2. In This Place - Bridge Of Sighs - Robin Trower
3. Behind Blue Eyes - Who's Next - The Who
4. Cyclops - Portrait Of An American Family - Marilyn Manson
5. Wond'ring Aloud - Aqualung - Jethro Tull

About today's QOTD: I suppose they didn't want to cause a stampede by releasing that information to the public. How did that work out?

Quote of the Day

The only problem: almost no one in the American driving public saw the warning, which was issued in September 2007 — two full years before Toyota announced the first in a string of recalls taking aim at the problem of unintended acceleration. That is because it was sent as a so-called "technical service bulletin" to about 1,500 Toyota and Lexus dealers.

Bernie Woodall, Soyoung Kim and Kevin Krolicki, Reuters via MSNBC.com

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "So got my priorities right and put up a feeding station and 10 nest boxes in the garden."

Cool birder's blog. -Rob

Finally saw a hummingbird here yesterday. It's a treat every year to spot their return. So far, I've only seen the one. He was a male Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. He was treated to fresh CrabAppleLane nectar in addition to lovely Bradford Pear and Eastern Redbud blooms.

CrabAppleLane First Hummingbird Sightings

• March 14, 2001
• March 17, 2002
• March 10, 2003
• March 20, 2004
• March 12, 2005
• March 12, 2006
• March 11, 2007
• March 9, 2008
• March 26, 2009
• March 24, 2010

In unrelated silliness:

• Day 6 of CrabAppleLane PC recovery ...
• CrabAppleLane iTunes library recover & rebuild stands at 907 songs, 2.8 days, 7.88GB ...
• 168 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Speedway At Nazareth - Live From The Ryman - Mark Knopfler
2. Turning Wheel - South Of I-10 - Sonny Landreth
3. Monteleone - Get Lucky - Mark Knopfler
4. Saint Augustine In Hell - Ten Summoner's Tales - Sting
5. Little Horn - Antichrist Superstar - Marilyn Manson

About today's QOTD: Pot meet kettle. There was no groundswell of fan support for changing overtime rules. The movement was created and driven by a few loudmouth, whining sportswriters, who should also "shut up and deal". I'm pretty well done with this now. Readers rejoice.

Quote of the Day

Re Sean Payton: he needs to shut up and deal. The sport exists for the fans, not the coaches' convenience.

Peter King, Sports Illustrated -Twitter

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "I now think that the trills were from New Jersey Chorus Frogs."

The NFL adopted a new rule for overtime yesterday but only for the playoffs. It's idiotic, idiotic, idiotic. The new rule allows for a team to tie or win if they lose the coin flip in overtime, kickoff, and limit the team with first possession to a field goal. If the game is still tied after 60 minutes and one possession each, the game goes into sudden death. No idea why that's more palatable to anyone.

These softer overtime rules will only reward gutlessness and were totally unnecessary. The NFL has plenty of gutlessness already. Overtime should be severe. It should be a deterrent. Teams should not want to take their chances in overtime. Teams should play to win in the 60 minutes of regulation. Furthermore, in the name of fairness and in their war on placekickers, the NFL did the one thing they wanted to eliminate: They heightened the importance of the coin flip. The flip is more important now than it was yesterday. On a related note, why not eliminate the coin flip altogether. The home team kicks off to start the game and the visitor kicks off after halftime. There is no coin flip in baseball. The home team takes the field to start the game. The NFL should do the same. It ensures fairness and eliminates the quirks of randomness, like the NFC winning 13 straight coin flips in the Super Bowl. I digress. With the rule passed yesterday, teams will get/have to decide whether to receive or defer possession. The rule should have made that impossible. It should have been written so that a team can't defer or if they do, they also give up the right of possession if the other team scores. There should be no strategy whatsoever attached to the flip of the coin.

This ridiculous rule change was driven by a couple of influential sportswriters. They're crying because a team could get a decent kickoff return, a couple of first downs, and be in range for a field goal to win the game without the desired winner other team touching the ball. That's not football to them. I have two better ideas. First, why play the game at all? Let the sportswriters determine the outcome they like and let them write about it. That would reduce injuries substantially.

Second, and for what it's worth, the CrabAppleLane overtime suggestion: Sudden death ... first team to score wins. If the game was tied by a field goal or extra point, the team who kicked it is responsible for the tie when they could have done something else to win. They should kickoff to start the overtime. If the game was tied by a two-point conversion or a safety, that's desirable and the two teams would switch sides at the end of the fourth quarter and keep playing until someone scores. No more coin flips.

• Day 5 of CrabAppleLane PC recovery ...
• CrabAppleLane iTunes library recover & rebuild stands at 603 songs, 1.9 days, 5.39GB ...
• Still no hummingbirds at CrabAppleLane ...
• 169 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Rattlesnake Shake - Then Play On - Fleetwood Mac
2. Brothers In Arms - Live From The Ryman - Mark Knopfler
3. Cryptorchid - Antichrist Superstar - Marilyn Manson
4. Long Way To Go - Rock & Roll - Foghat
5. Stockton Gala Days - MTV Unplugged - 10,000 Maniacs

Quote of the Day

The National Football League owners have approved a change in overtime, starting with the playoffs following the 2010 season, that will modify the sudden-death format and prevent a team from winning a game with a field goal on the opening possession.

Michael David Smith,

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "As recently as yesterday, discussions regarding changes in overtime were to be tabled until May. First healthcare reform, now this. I guess it is time to start the countdown to 2012."

Bulleted for fun ...

• Disappointed to learn that Nabisco stopped making Tidbits. They are the origin of that term's use here and a favorite of my youth ...
• Steadily figuring out the appeal of Facebook ...
• Twitter's appeal still a mystery to me ...
• Wondering if anyone has done a study comparing how many surnames start with C as opposed to other letters ...
• Day 4 of CrabAppleLane PC recovery ...
• CrabAppleLane iTunes library recover & rebuild stands at 573 songs, 1.8 days, 5.08GB ...
• Still no hummingbirds at CrabAppleLane ...
• 170 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Walking Towards Paradise - Now And Zen - Robert Plant
2. No More - Freedom - Neil Young
3. Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon - A Night At The Opera - Queen
4. I Guess You're Right - Every Kind of Light - The Posies
5. Victim Of Change (Live) - Living After Midnight - Judas Priest

Quote of the Day

For a very mediocre bill, this is a lot of noise.

John Sinteur, The Daily Irrelevant

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "The dude is a sculptor. I recommend him fiercely."

The Young Americans looked like my kind of movie. It figured to be a gritty crime drama set in London's tough neighborhoods and I suppose it was. I recorded it off of the Independent Film Channel. I don't know if I was watching a bad print, if the darkness and soft focus were intentional, or if it was just a poor production. A lot of the films shown on that channel are artsy or low budget so I may be thinking too much. The film had enough problems without that, though. For instance, unless you consider Viggo Mortensen a "young American", there are no young Americans in this so I don't know what that's about. A bad guy comes to London and uses young, disaffected, directionless kids to do his bidding and the main law enforcement character, played by Harvey Keitel, uses a young, disaffected, directionless kid to do his bidding to catch the bad guy. I guess the film was trying to show that the good guys aren't much better than the bad guys but the movie was such a mess that I'm not sure. On the bright side, this film features a very young, almost unrecognizable Thandie Newton.

Day 3 of CrabAppleLane PC recovery ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Lightning Crashes - Throwing Copper - Live
2. Drowned - Quadrophenia [Disc 2] - The Who
3. Paranoid - Live Album - Grand Funk Railroad
4. Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) - The Wall [Disc 1] - Pink Floyd
5. Fairytale of New York - If I Should Fall from Grace with God - The Pogues Featuring Kirsty MacColl

Quote of the Day

If you don't eat yer meat
You can't have any pudding
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat
You ... Yes, you behind the bike sheds
Stand still laddy

Pink Floyd, Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Over the last three years, I have predicted that Medicare reform would pave the way for health care reform, and this bill makes that possible. Under the legislation, Congress will no longer be in a position to thwart Medicare’s efforts to rein in spending by eliminating waste. Not everyone is happy about this. Over at Politico.com former Republican Senator Bill Frist and former Democratic Senator John Breaux register their protest in a column titled "Keep Medicare in Congress' Hands.""

I got to spend most of the day yesterday and a good bit of today restoring programs (Including Windows Vista twice), files, and settings after Bit Defender, an anti-virus program, hosed my computer. A faulty update is to blame. It hit a lot of computers and did a lot of damage. See BOTD. I don't use Bit Defender but my anti-virus program, PC Security Shield, uses the Bit Defender engine. Apparently, Bit Defender is the engine of choice for many AV programs. Gee, thanks. It's going to be a long and tedious road back but I don't think I lost anything major, except for my weekend and a little more hair.

I offer one from the CrabAppleLane Backyard this cool Sunday. I'm starting to get concerned about the CrabAppleLane Hummingbird flock. They're later than ever this year. I'm worried they might have missed their bus.

CrabAppleLane Hummingbird Feeder - March 21, 2010

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. When A Blind Man Cries - Machine Head 25th Anniversary Edition [Disc 2] - Deep Purple
2. The Goin' On-(w Vince Gill) - From The Reach - Sonny Landreth
3. Shoot To Thrill - AC/DC Live - AC/DC
4. Uberesso - From The Reach - Sonny Landreth
5. Space Truckin' - Machine Head (Roger Glover Remixes) [Disc 2] - Deep Purple

Quote of the Day

Today (morning PST) we had an update for 64-bit systems (available on our servers between 8 AM and 11 30 AM PST) that caused multiple Windows and BitDefender files to be quarantined.

Raluca, Bit Defender

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Just how many people were recently affected by the trojan.fakealert.5 software issue with BitDefender 2010? Right now this is the 11th most popular search term on Google, so many people have obviously been affected by this."

Looks like it will be the Minnesota Vikings coming to town for the Kickoff Classic on September 9. I think Brett Favre will be back at Minnesota for one last season and the rematch is something the Vikings and their fans are probably looking forward to more so than Saints fans. An opening night game can't match the intensity of that NFC Championship game but it still should be a great game. It will be a hot ticket in New Orleans. More than a few people want to be there when they drop the Super Bowl XLIV banner. Is it football season yet?

The Saints' other attractive home date, with the Steelers, will probably be saved for later. The Steelers have a scheduling problem with the Pirates and will probably be playing that week at home. They also have a quarterback who figures to be in jail, in court, or on suspension. I was always aware of Ben Roethlisberger's fantasy football value and I've seen him play a few times. I never knew much about him or cared much about his life away from football. What I've read about him in the last few weeks, and I've only read a fraction of it, is disturbing. The guy is an asshole.

173 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Gold Dust Woman - Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
2. All Lovers Are Deranged - David Gilmour - About Face
3. Rats In The Cellar - Aerosmith - Rocks
4. Aqualung - Jethro Tull - The Anniversary Collection [Disc 1]
5. Back In Black - AC/DC - AC/DC Live

Quote of the Day

Safe complainin'
Cause everything's rotten
Go insane and
Ain't a thing forgotten
Feelin' cozy
Rats in the cellar
Cheeks are rosy
Skin's turnin' yellow

Aerosmith, Rats in the Cellar

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "The song used a prepared piano, which is when the strings of a piano have been labeled and objects have been placed on them so the pianist can pluck the strings with their hands."

That sounds weird to me. I have never seen it but now I want to. -Rob

I became a fan of Mark Valley when he was starring in Keen Eddie. Unfortunately, I only started watching that show after Fox canceled it. Fox likes to cancel pretty good shows after one season. See Firefly. I also liked Valley in Boston Legal but this new series, Human Target, is what he does well. He easily has enough star power to drive a series and he doesn't take himself very seriously, which I think is his best quality. In this, he runs a protection service of sorts. He has a past life in mercenary black ops that the show reveals a little bit of in each episode. There isn't much believability here and I'm OK with that. Human Target is just good, fun CME ... but I love CME.

174 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen - A Night At The Opera
2. Ten Years Gone - Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti [Disc 2]
3. Carry Out Feelings - Nazareth - Close Enough For Rock 'N' Roll
4. The World - Earlimart - Mentor Tormentor
5. One I Love - Meav - Méav

Quote of the Day

Kind of makes makes me feel sometimes
Didn't have to grow
We are eagles of one nest
The nest is in our soul

Led Zeppelin, Ten Years Gone

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "It reminded me of someone. Me. I was a troll."

There's a lot more to that entry and it's a quite compelling look into the unique internet phenomenon of trolling. -Rob

March Madness starts today and for the first time in many years, I am not in any real pools. I filled one out on ESPN but to win one of those amongst the other 3 million entrants is impossible even if you know what you're doing. I do not and will rely on luck. The most exciting part of this very exciting tournament is the opening round today and tomorrow. These are 18-23 year-old kids chock full of hormones and adrenalin. One kid playing out of his mind can make a huge difference in a basketball game. It says here there won't be very many upsets this season and Kansas will be cutting down the nets in April. Bet any house you have to lose.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Tenderloin - Blue Öyster Cult - Agents of Fortune
2. The Jean Genie - David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
3. Hangin' On A Limb - Neil Young - Freedom
4. Might Just Take Your Life - Deep Purple - Burn
5. Sweet Afton - Nickel Creek - Nickel Creek

Quote of the Day

Sits like a man but he smiles like a reptile
She love him, she love him but just for a short while

David Bowie, The Jean Genie

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "This game was possibly more exciting than the actual 2010 Superbowl. Being a Saints fan I actually got goosebumps several times while watching this great video. All the drama and excitement of a feature length film but in only 12 minutes. Well done, well done."

Lift a glass of green beer or a shot of Irish whiskey. Have some shepherd's pie. Everyone is Irish today.

Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly,
A terrible beauty is born
William Butler Yeats, Easter 1916

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Little Things - Bush - Sixteen Stone
2. Shaky Town - Jackson Browne - Running On Empty
3. Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
4. Money - Pink Floyd - Pulse [Live] [Disc 2]
5. Take It Like A Man - Bachman-Turner Overdrive - The Anthology [Disc 2]

Quote of the Day

It's supposed to give you "the gift of gab," but it can also give you a stiff neck — and countless germs. The Blarney Stone is a must-see tourist destination in Blarney Castle, near Cork, Ireland, and 400,000 visitors line up every year to kiss it in hopes of boosting their eloquence. But it isn't so easy to smooch the stone — you must sit on a ledge while someone holds down your legs, then bend over backward while holding iron rails until your face is level with the stone. Congrats, you've now kissed a surface similarly kissed by hundreds of thousands of others. Hopefully the gift of gab is worth the bacteria.

Megan Friedman, Time

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "You have good taste in design (and books!) and have dressed your window with my My Aunt Came Back from Louisiane book, Rodrigue's Blue Dog book and three children in spring plaid and stripes."

The NFL makes the schedule and it was their decision who was going to play the first game in the new Giants/Jets Stadium. So why pretend there was a coin flip? What a cowardly thing to do. Either have an actual coin flip with both teams present or explain why you want the Giants to host the first game. That said, this PR fiasco is nothing compared to the one they're about to perpetrate on NFL fans in 2014, when the Super Bowl will be played in that stadium.

While The Saints and Colts were playing a terrific Super Bowl in Miami under perfect conditions this year in front of a record audience, the new New York, actually New Jersey, Stadium was under about 2 feet of snow. The NFL is a quarterback league and they've made no bones about that. Do you want to remember a Super Bowl for the great touchdown pass in the corner of the endzone or do you want to remember it for the weather?

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Deformography - Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
2. Yeager's Triumph - Bill Conti - The Right Stuff / North and South Soundtrack
3. Song For Sonny Liston - Mark Knopfler - One Take Radio Sessions
4. True Love Will Never Fade - Mark Knopfler - Kill To Get Crimson
5. Good - Better Than Ezra - Deluxe

Quote of the Day

Sitting around the house
Watching the sun trace shadows on the floor
Searching for signs of life but there's nobody home

Better Than Ezra, Good

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "The NFL has found a compromise solution to the spat between the New York Giants and New York Jets over who should open the new stadium the teams will share."

Temps were supposed to get down in the 40s here last night. Perfect night to open windows and get a great night's sleep. It never got down that low or the cool air just never got into the house. I had to get up and turn the AC on. This is a sure sign that spring is almost here at CrabAppleLane. We use the heat part of the day, open windows for a few minutes, and AC the rest of the time..

Looks like the Cleveland Browns are putting an awful lot of faith in Jake Delhomme's ability to shake off a horrible season and I think they'll be rewarded for it. It's probably just me and the Browns, or the Browns and I if you prefer, but I think he can still play at a high level in the right offense. The change of scenery will do him good. Jake will be getting $7 million from the Browns in 2010 and $12+ million from the Panthers. Not bad, Jake. Not bad at all.

178 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Watch That Man - David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
2. In The Light - Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti [Disc 2]
3. Love Over Gold - Dire Straits - Alchemy [Disc 1]
4. Fall Like Rain - Eric Clapton - Pilgrim
5. Mary's Place - Bruce Springsteen - The Rising

Quote of the Day

Beware the ides of March

Soothsayer, William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "As for Greene, he’s still worth a first-round selection ahead of Steven Jackson, Jamaal Charles and DeAngelo Williams."

Bush Fire Station No. 2 - March 14, 2010

CrabAppleLane Front Yard - March 14, 2010

Hadn't been on the bike in a while. My legs noticed.

The Hurt Locker is pretty much everything I thought it would be. It's a glimpse into the everyday lives of soldiers doing their jobs in combat. The film follows a team whose job is disarming IEDs in Iraq. One guy disarms the bombs while the other two keep people away and watch for bad guys. Since this is urban warfare, the enemy, including the bomber, himself, could be anywhere ... watching from a window, an alley, or a rooftop. The opening scenes shows the audience what that's about. How those guys function day to day, both on the job and away from the job, when the job demands sharp focus that's fueled by danger, anxiety, fear, and adrenalin, is what this film is about. I don't know how accurate the portrayal is because I can't know. The film, itself, is flawless. Kathryn Bigelow's Academy Awards are well-deserved. This is a great film.

I offer one from the CrabAppleLane Backyard this gorgeous almost spring Sunday. The Bradford Pear trees are in full bloom and are covered with honeybees. Everyone has watched a honeybee go about her business from flower to flower. Ever wonder who is going to harvest the honey she's working on? I wondered that this morning. Not sure why. I must get out in that sunshine and mild temps this afternoon. Enjoy.

CrabAppleLane Bradford Pear and blue sky - March 14, 2010

CrabAppleLane is trying Twitter again but it is already frustrating me.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Hoedown - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones - Live At The Quick
2. I Wanna Go To The Sun - Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive! [Disc 1]
3. Somebody To Roll (Edit) - Nazareth - Play 'N' The Game
4. White Lightning & Wine - Heart - Dreamboat Annie
5. Lady Double Dealer - Deep Purple - Stormbringer

Quote of the Day

Well, the uh, guy over there with the red thing on his head, he threw it at someone.

Contractor Team Leader, The Hurt Locker

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "I figure they did that to please the masses, whatever the reason I feel it was a huge mistake."

The Hurt Locker is on tap for tonight's entertainment at CrabAppleLane. I've been looking forward to it since long before it won all of its Academy Awards. I like Jeremy Renner. I first saw him in S.W.A.T. but the ridiculously short-lived series, The Unusuals, is where he got my attention as a terrific feature actor.

The CrabAppleLane automatic icemaker is out. As I was leaving for work last Saturday, Patsy saw a lot of water on the floor. Whatever switch or sensor that is supposed to shut the water off when it reaches a certain level failed and the water just wouldn't shut off. At least, I hope that's what caused this. I left her with quite a mess. I ordered a new one online last week but we're buying ice for a few more days. If we still even own ice trays, we don't know where they are. I never, ever want to go back to using ice trays.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. About To Begin - Robin Trower - Bridge Of Sighs
2. Why Ya Wanna Do Me? - Cowboy Mouth - Mercyland
3. Shitty Chicken Gang Bang - Marilyn Manson - Smells Like Children
4. Where Do the Children Play? - Cat Stevens - Tea for the Tillerman
5. Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy (Remastered)

About today's QOTD: Michael Vick has made no bones about wanting to start somewhere next year. He has also mentioned what he could do for this team or that team. He's still under contract to the Eagles and I can't imagine why they haven't reined him in with his statements. They undermine the club's already weak negotiating position. The Eagles have too many quarterbacks. They have to trade or release at least one of them and everyone knows it. My guess is Vick and Donovan McNabb are both on the trading block. One or both of them will be traded or released by opening day. If the Rams draft Sam Bradford, Brett Favre comes back for another year with the Vikings, and there are no major quarterback injuries in the NFL during preseason, the Eagles will have to beg someone to take one of those guys off their hands. Head Coach Andy Reid's infatuation with the gimmicky Wildcat offense really mucked things up for his team. His Wildcat potential is the only reason Vick is in the NFL right now if you ask me.

Today's BOTD reminds me that my hate for cellphones grows by the day.

Quote of the Day

I can't be a disgruntled employee, because that's not who I am.

Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "A disgruntled film patron who complained about a woman talking on her cell phone during the film was stabbed for turning in the offender."

'Captured ghosts' sell for $2830 - I've mostly, mostly been opposed to selling my soul for personal gain but I've sadly succumbed to it on occasion. Selling other people's souls is a whole other thing, though. I have no objection to that. I didn't think there was much money in it. Apparently, I was wrong. That should come as no surprise to CrabAppleLane Blog readers because I've mentioned here many times that I have no head for business.

All proceeds of the auction were to be donated to the SPCA, once the exorcist's fees had been paid.

Wonder how much the exorcist's fees were. Didn't think there was much money in that, either. Even though this sale wasn't for profit, I think Avie Woodbury should pursue this venture further. I'm not really up on the captured ghost market but I think she got a pretty good price. If you're scoring CrabAppleLane at home, put this one in the "Wish I'd thought of that" column.

Tomlinson visits Vikings, heads to see Jets - That's Ladainian Tomlinson, of course, or LT, as he is called these days ... much to the chagrin of Giants fans, who think it belongs to Lawrence Taylor exclusively. The New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings both made it to the conference championship game last year and both are serious contenders next year. The Vikings have a workhorse running back in Adrian Peterson. In Minnesota, LT would come in on 3rd down passing situations and maybe give Peterson a breather once in a while. The Jets run the ball more and will rely on LT to carry a bigger load. They also play in the AFC, where LT has spent his career, and will probably offer him more money but I think much of it will be incentive-based. He'll get more playing time in New York. To make the right decision, he has to be honest with himself. Is he still up to that? I'm going to assume the Vikings made him an offer that didn't entirely sweep him off his feet or he wouldn't have left town. Just my opinion: It will be a close call but I give the Jets a slight edge but not because of money. The playing time will make the difference. He thinks he can still contribute a significant amount of playing time at a high level for a whole season.

Tebow will work out for Bills, Seahawks - There's some air miles.

Former NFL star, actor Merlin Olsen dies at 69 - I saw him play many times. One of the classiest players ever. The Rams always had a good, exciting team and they were always on TV here in the 60s and 70s. Don't remember too many of those games but I remember them clocking the undefeated Baltimore Colts on the last day of the season one year to win the division. R.I.P., Merlin.

Today's QOTD is from a very nice story at USA Today. Go Grizzlies.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Thru The Curtain - Red Rider - As Far As Siam
2. Bitter Green - Gordon Lightfoot - Complete Greatest Hits
3. Don't Walk Away - Zebra - Zebra
4. Me In Honey - R.E.M. Featuring Kate Pearson - Out Of Time
5. Private Investigations - Dire Straits - On The Night (LIVE)

Quote of the Day

She was going off to college in two weeks. They saw each other every day. The night before she left, he proposed — with a rubber band as a ring.

Erik Brady, USA Today

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Now I should back up for a minute and explain that I have long been a skeptic that there will be significant adoption of all-electric vehicles any time soon. But this car changed my mind a bit."

I usually skip conspiracy theories and I skipped this one and this one when I first ran across them. I don't have much else to do this morning so I thought I'd exercise some futility. I really need a different kind of exercise but that's another matter. The futility is in play because any sane person already knows this and the insane won't change their minds. As to those conspiracies, it says here that it is thoroughly impossible to "fix" a Super Bowl for at least two reasons.

1. They could never get away with it. History gives us the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Those World Series games were seen by relatively few people. No television then. I don't know what the seating capacity was in the Reds and White Sox ballparks so let's be generous and say they could seat 50,000 each. Of the 50,000 people in those seats, I'll guess 2500 had a view good enough to tell if a player was intentionally trying to do bad or simply not trying very hard. Of those 2500, maybe 500 knew the game and the players well enough to know something was amiss. I think I'm being generous with these numbers. I think there were considerably fewer people that knew something was wrong. Even with those odds, the players didn't get away with it. A modern Super Bowl has 100 million viewers, many cameras that can zoom in close enough to read lips, and several players for each team that are miked. Because football is so much more of a team game, more players would have to be involved and my guess is that players for both teams would probably have to be in on it. Simply put, there is just no way that kind of questionable play wouldn't be noticed by a lot of different people. Players and coaches not in on the fix would know immediately that something was wrong and would do something about it.
2. This is the really big reason, though. The NFL has one of the goldenest golden gooses of all time. A scandal such as a fix would be a million times bigger and a million times more notorious than that Black Sox scandal was. It would kill their goose. I know that absolutely everyone near the teams or the players knows the consequences. They'd be prosecuted and banned from the game, not necessarily in that order. What does anyone have to offer that could be worth that risk?

On a completely different note, I read two opposite visions for the current economy and how to address joblessness. One says government should step up for the jobless and the other says neighbors should step up.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Living Forever - Genesis - We Can't Dance
2. Miss Misery - Nazareth - Hair Of The Dog
3. Treat Her Right - George Thorogood & The Destroyers - The Baddest Of George Thorogood & The Destroyers
4. Principles Of Lust [(A) Sadeness, (B) Find Love, (C) Sadeness (Reprise)] - Enigma - MCMXC a.D.
5. Crazy Eyes - Old Crow Medicine Show - Tennessee Pusher

Quote of the Day

You know I've got to find a way
Got to find a reason
Got to find your weakness
So I can end your witchin season
Got to break the spell you hold on me

Nazareth, Miss Misery

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Hello and Welcome to another soothing episode of The Thursday Blog, the only blog in history to be turned into a relaxing bedtime CD for insomniacs."

1986's Lucas is a movie Patsy and I both love. We haven't seen it in a few years and I guess it's time to look it up again. It featured Charlie Sheen, Winona Ryder, Courtney Thorne-Smith, and Jeremy Piven, who were all very young then but are fairly well known now. The real stars of this goodhearted little movie, though, are Corey Haim in the title role and Kerri Green as the older girl he has a crush on. I thought they would both be big stars some day. Their careers never really took off. Too bad. I'm very sorry to hear about Corey Haim this morning. Much, much too young.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Magic Carpet Ride - Steppenwolf - All Time Greatest Hits
2. Trees - Fionna Joyce - Celtic Woman
3. Take It To The Limit - The Eagles - Their Greatest Hits
4. Going Down Slow - Eric Clapton - Pilgrim
5. Honky Tonk Women - The Rolling Stones - Hot Rocks, 1964-1971 [Disc 2]

Quote of the Day

But there's something lovely and breathtakingly generous about someone with newfound notoriety leveraging into something other than just more notoriety.

Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon.com

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "If I had to count the phrase that has killed more interesting business ideas than any other, “That’s been done before” would be it."

Cold winter in Baltimore. Lots of snow anyway. FWIW, it's been colder than normal at CrabAppleLane, too. We've used more wood pellets in our stove this winter than we ever have in the past and that included a few days this season when we were totally out and had to use our central heat. I'll be glad when its over. I'm going to push my vegetable garden planting back at least a week but that's mainly because I'm not looking forward to hooking my tiller up to my tractor. My hands start aching just thinking about it.

Jeanne Moos is delightful. Check out the one called "Elevator Attacks". I couldn't figure out how to link to it directly.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Oh Daddy - Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
2. We're Going To War - Mark Knopfler - Wag The Dog Soundtrack
3. Pieces of a Story - Randy Edelman - The Last Of The Mohicans Soundtrack
4. Stand Back - The Allman Brothers Band - Eat A Peach
5. Pussywillows, Cat-Tails - Gordon Lightfoot - Complete Greatest Hits

About today's QOTD: Expert, eh? Things can go wrong? I wonder how many years of study it took to reach that opinion. I don't dispute it because it is absolutely correct but it's not something I need from an expert. The average ninth-grader could have offered that one. I think their expression is "shit happens".

Quote of the Day

Pretty much anybody who works on electronic-based vehicle systems understands that things can go wrong.

Raj Rajkumar, Carnegie Mellon University

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "How I wish the value of the property will be up so that we can sell our condominium and then we will pay our mortgage so that we can save a lot of money for vacation and also we can buy something that we need/wants for us and for the twins."

I worked Saturday. Patsy worked Saturday and Sunday. I just don't know where the time went but I surely would like it back.

How to prevent sexual assault courtesy of today's BOTD. I've seen it or something like it before. It's not aimed at victims or even perpetrators so much as it's aimed at people who tend to blame the victim. You know the type. They ask questions like this: What were they doing out that late? Why were they in THAT neighborhood? Why didn't they bring someone with them? People should be safe even when they're out that late, in THAT neighborhood, or alone.

It looks like I'll have to wait a while longer to see The Hurt Locker on Pay-Per-View. I suspect its theater run will be extended. Congrats to those filmmakers.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Bad Apples - Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I
2. The Ballad Of John And Yoko - The Beatles - 1
3. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - The Police - The Police Greatest Hits
4. The Mummers' Dance - Loreena McKennitt - The Book Of Secrets
5. Feelin' Bad Blues - Ry Cooder - Crossroads

Quote of the Day

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

Loreena McKennitt, Dante's Prayer

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "I hugged his neck they day after she died. It still feels gross to think about it. Some people just have no real conscience, and do not deserve our pity or compassion. It's been a long 4 years."

Says here that Avatar will win more awards than it should. It will win because of its box office more than its worthiness. Up In The Air is getting lost in all of the hoopla. Patsy and I both thought this was the best movie we saw last year. George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick were all fantastic. On another Oscar-related note, I am dying to see The Hurt Locker.

Pissing matches between networks and cable/satellite carriers are becoming a little too common. Yet another one. I'll bet there is a resolution of sorts before the broadcast.

The Saints lost linebacker Scott Fujita to the Cleveland Browns today. Scott is a good guy who has strong ties in the New Orleans community and was a great ambassador for the city and the team. He was an unrestricted free agent. I'm not surprised that it happened so much but I am surprised that it happened so quickly. He scheduled his visit for today and signed today. Terms haven't been released yet but I'm guessing the Browns threw a lot of money at him. This makes next years Saints-Browns game in the SuperDome a little more interesting. Good Luck, Scott.

I doubt I'll upgrade to Movable Type 5.0+ any time soon or ever. It looks like a major pain. I'm coming up on the 7th anniversary of the CrabAppleLane Blog in a about 3½ weeks and my activities haven't changed much over the years. Growth is not important to me. What I'm using now is fine and will probably serve me until I decide to move on to something else ... hopefully, more productive.

I offer one from the backyard. Spring is almost here.

CrabAppleLane Backyard - March 7, 2010

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Homeward Bound [Live] - Simon & Garfunkel - Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits
2. Polk Salad Annie - Tony Joe White - Unknown Album (5/7/2005 4:20:15 PM)
3. Heavy Fuel - Dire Straits - On The Night (LIVE)
4. Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In - The 5th Dimension - AM Gold: The '60s Generation
5. Rudiger - Mark Knopfler - Live From The Ryman

Quote of the Day

When the moon
Is in the 7th house
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then Peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of The Age of Aquarius

The Fifth Dimension, Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Or maybe it's because of the one I saw the other day wearing a men's suit two sizes too big for her and bad flat hair that made her look like she was trying to look like a man. Or maybe it's the opposite, the ones who look all sexy and pretty and I gotta wonder if men watching and listening to them are watching or listening to them. I don't know, I just have disharmony with the whole women sportscaster thing and then I have shame and disharmony for feeling that way."

First things first. AllTheBest, 256th. Love the sendoff.

A few thoughts on NFL Free Agency, which got underway yesterday.

• You'd never know it in New Orleans. Nothing lost, nothing gained here. Very quiet.
• The Vikings became the first top four team to lose an unrestricted free agent. They can now sign one of equal or lesser value. Someone will someday have to explain the fairness of this rule to me.
• If you'd asked me last week who I thought would be the most active, free-spending player in free agency of all 32 NFL teams, the Chicago Bears would have been my 32nd guess. Seriously. This is not like them.
• Carolina released Jake Delhomme yesterday. His career started here in New Orleans and I wouldn't mind if it ended here but I'm sure he would. He'd have to be a backup again in New Orleans. He'd have no chance at starting except through injury. He wants to start but I really don't think he'll get that chance. He'd have to go somewhere that has a murky quarterback situation and any team that has one would view Jake as someone who would add to the murkiness, not clear it up. When he was here, he backed up Aaron Brooks. As Brooks started to tail off in 2002 with an unreported shoulder problem, many here thought Jake should have been starting. Because then head coach Jim Haslett didn't want a quarterback controversy, he let Jake go in free agency when that season ended. He went to Carolina and played very well there, particularly against his old team twice a year. He led them to a Super Bowl. Many thought the Saints had let the wrong quarterback go. Haslett and Brooks continued to self-destruct and were well on their way to wearing out their welcome when Hurricane Katrina struck before the 2005 season and unfairly finished them off. That season was not fair to anyone trying to turn their career around. It was horrible but it was also the event that provided the circumstances that brought about the biggest and best changes in the franchise's history. The Saints decided to fire Haslett and start fresh. They hired Sean Payton and he brought in Drew Brees. Those two worked out pretty well. Best of Luck, Jake.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Uirchil An Chreagain - Clannad - Anam
2. Mama Told Me (Not To Come) - Three Dog Night - The Best Of Three Dog Night
3. Every Time You Say Goodbye - Alison Krauss & Union Station - Live [Disc 1]
4. Everything Zen - Bush - Sixteen Stone
5. Boom, Like That - Mark Knopfler - One Take Radio Sessions

Whatever unresolved feelings I had toward the employees of A.I.G. that were simply caught up in their company's mess, today's QOTD might have resolved. I'm assuming that's just one angry employee, though.

Quote of the Day

To be honest with you, I really hope it blows up. I think the U.S. taxpayer deserves to lose a trillion dollars over this thing for the way they have behaved.

A.I.G. Employee

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Each one of the seven billion of us is a uniquely-wired neurological universe, a secret kaleidoscope of variety."

It doesn't surprise me that Federal government workers make more on average than private sector workers during bad economic times ... like these. Federal wage averages are not totally immune from market pressure because new hires start at market rates or even below market rates in many cases but Federal workers do enjoy some level of insulation from the wild swings of the market. Wage freezes or hiring freezes are the tools of choice when the Fed looks to reduce payroll. Pay cuts, lower commissions, layoffs, increased workloads for remaining staff, etc are the tools of choice in the private sector. When the economy picks up, the scales will tilt substantially back the other way. This is my way of saying that the results of that study should be no cause for alarm or anger. It's not a bad thing. We need good people in government, too.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Phoenix (Live) - Wishbone Ash - Live Dates [Disc 1]
2. Patty Attack - Danny Elfman - The Frighteners Soundtrack
3. Jeepers Creepers - Louis Armstrong - Back Through The Years (Disc 2)
4. Red Dirt Girl - Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - Real Live Roadrunning
5. Once Upon A Time In The West - Dire Straits - Alchemy [Disc 1]

Quote of the Day

One thing they don't tell you about the blues when you got em
You keep on falling cause there ain't no bottom
There ain't know end
Least not for Lillian

Emmylou Harris, Red Dirt Girl

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Then I tell them to create interesting content: Alison recently riffed off the jokes going around online following Apple's unveiling of the iPad:"

Everyone needs a break once in a while from the every day drudgery, the stress of their lives, the seriousness of their job. Some, like air traffic controllers, probably need it more than most. I have no idea what that job must be like but treating it with anything less than utmost seriousness is wrong. There are people who fly a lot, there are people who fly sometimes, there are people who are afraid to fly, and there are people who have lost loved ones in airplane crashes. Stories like that just add to their anxiety, their fear, their sadness, their anger, etc. An air traffic control tower is not a good place to fool around and it's not a place to let kids play. Do that somewhere else. It boggles my mind that this even needs to be said.

189 days until football season ...

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Virginia Plain - Roxy Music - Velvet Goldmine Soundtrack
2. Black Coffee - Humble Pie - A&M Records Classics Vol. 14
3. Highgate Shuffle - Rod Stewart - Unplugged... And Seated (LIVE)
4. Hocus Pocus - Focus - Moving Waves
5. Dazed And Confused - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I

Quote of the Day

Even the term "dwarf" is offensive to some; his organization prefers "person of short stature."

Sharon LaFraniere, NY Times via MSNBC.com

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "The photos show that one forest area is home to seven cat species -- clouded leopards, marbled cats and golden cats, all of which are rare, and tigers, leopards, leopard cats and jungle cats, which are more numerous."

There is a movement afoot to change the NFL's overtime rules. I'd rather they didn't. I'm not a big fan of changing rules. I prefer evolution (See today's QOTD for an example of evolution). The cry now is that too much importance is riding on the coin flip but that ignores the 60 minutes of football that came before the coin flip. During those 60 minutes, one or both teams made a conscious decision to tie the game or take their chances in overtime and they probably did it more than once each. In the Vikings-Saints overtime game, the game was tied 4 times, twice by each team. In a typical game that goes into overtime, teams kicked an extra point to tie rather than attempt a two point conversion, kicked a field goal to tie rather than go for a first down, or took a knee with the game tied rather than risk an interception.

Is there any doubt that Colts Head Coach Jim Caldwell would have called for an extra point to tie the game had they scored in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl? Any at all? Leave overtime alone. Let it become a deterrent. Sooner or later, the still very conservative NFL will have a coach (Probably Sean Payton) that will say to his team, "We're not kicking an extra point - we're going to take our chances with the ball in our hands at the two yard line or we're not kicking a field goal - we're going to make the first down." and they'll do it in an important game. Mike Tice did it when he was coaching the Vikings. He went for two to beat the Saints at the SuperDome. His team was hopelessly out of the playoff race and had little to lose so it was a bit easier decision. It was the right one, though. It surely won't be Jim Caldwell. I doubt he has permission.

Bottom line: Change the thinking, not the rules. Don't make it any easier to be conservative. It will take longer to change minds on this but it will also make for a better game, even though it's a pretty damned good game as it is.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Conversation - Joni Mitchell - Ladies Of The Canyon (Remastered)
2. 25th Floor - The Patti Smith Group - Easter
3. 1996 - Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
4. Rock Is My Life, And This Is My Song (Quad Mix) - Bachman-Turner Overdrive - The Anthology [Disc 2]
5. Ashes to Diamonds - Tom Cochrane & Red Rider - Tom Cochrane And Red Rider

Quote of the Day

Overtime has become over-reliant on playing for field goals. In the first five years of overtime, NFL kickers were accurate on 61 percent of their attempts. In the last five years, the number is 82 percent.

Peter King, Sports Illustrated

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Oh Randy Moss, so you won't re-sign with the Patriots after next season? Oh yes you will if they offer you another 7-9 million per year, but if they don't (and they won't) then take your game and your 33 year old body to the highest bidder. Just don't expect a farewell tour-you've been a pain in the arse since you got here, really."

Blog post titles here at CrabAppleLane will be a mystery to some historian 2000 years from now. I give my entries a title when I've decided I want to save something before I'm finished. The temporary title may have nothing whatever to do with the eventual title I use or anything I end up typing out but the temporary title is the one that stays in the storage database unless I make some effort to change it. Since I don't care much about historians 2000 years from now and because I'm lazy sometimes, I don't make that effort.

Speaking of historians 2000 years from now, I wonder what they'll think of the mountains of drivel that will be saved on old servers they find in basements, landfills, whatever. Today's historians only have to sift through a few mountains of text to get a sense of history. Tomorrow's historians will have to sift through hundreds of billions of mountains of text. Wonder what kind of picture that will paint. Stephen Hawking's or Margaret Thatcher's thoughts lumped in with mine? Ours lumped in with a couple of million teenagers on MySpace? It should be noted that I view my ruminations closer to the teenagers than to Thatcher's or Hawking's. Actually, sifting through all of those servers is probably a fairly accurate chronicle of these times. That's a little troubling here. When I was in grammar school, one of the nuns found a student's textbook. On the inside, he had written, "In case of fire, please throw me in". I should probably post that all over the blog here.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Waterloo - ABBA - Gold
2. Se A Cabo - Santana - Abraxas
3. Dueling Banjos - Eric Weissberg & Deliverance - Dueling Banjos (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture)
4. Breathe Me - Sia - Breathe Me
5. The Ways Of Love - Neil Young - Freedom

191 days until football season ...

Quote of the Day

You know sometimes, baby, I'm so carefree With a joy that is hard to hide
Then sometimes, seems all I have to do is worry
Then you're bound to see my other side
But I'm just a soul who's intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood

The Animals, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Sonne playing in the snowicane"

Love the pic. -Rob

Congrats to the Canadian men's hockey team on their gold medal. It was a very exciting game yesterday.

Two Feet of Snow in New York City. I enjoyed that. The equivalent of a web pun, I guess.

The City of Pittsburgh had better hope the judge that hears that case has never had a gallstone attack. The worst gallstone attacks lead to pancreatitis. My gallstone attacks led to pancreatitis. 60 minutes worth was almost unbearable for me. That poor guy endured 30 hours of it in a cold house before he succumbed to it. Combine that with several unheeded 911 calls and something tells me that his family won't have to look in the phone book for a lawyer. They'll be tripping over them as they leave the house.

Did finish Irma LaDouce yesterday. I think a poke in the eye would have been better. Glad I don't have to wonder about it any more, I suppose, but I think the price was too high.

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Honky Tonk Women - The Rolling Stones - Hot Rocks, 1964-1971 [Disc 2]
2. Love And Happiness - Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - All The Roadrunning
3. Jumpin' Jack Flash - The Rolling Stones - Hot Rocks, 1964-1971 [Disc 2]
4. Sussudio - Phil Collins - Hits
5. Sex In A Pan - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones - Greatest Hits Of The 20th Century

Quote of the Day

Update | 9:35 p.m. O.K., now it's officially turned into a Saints' home game, Colts fans are just stunned. It's going to make it that much tougher for Manning to muster up anything late in the fourth quarter.

Justin Sablich, New York Times

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "Bring a black arm band and a
light. We will ride single file, silent through Old Town and Downtown."