Yesterday's trivia question

Come on, no one even has a guess?

What do the following people all have in common?

Henry Rollins, Magic Johnson, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Gilda Radner, Jesse Jackson, Maya Angelou, Orson Welles, Martin Luther King, Jr., Carl Sandburg, and Ben Kingsley.

Angry Wisconsinites

And you thought the protests against the Danish were bad...

The Wisconsinites now have it in for the Texans.

And speaking of the Packers, The Onion has this.

The world of movie trailer parodies

There are many of these on the web, and when they're done right, they're really funny. I got this one forwarded to me today:

Brokeback to the Future.

The name says it all.

Some other ones I've seen in the past and enjoyed:

The Shining becomes a feel good comedy and The Passion of the Christ goes slapstick, set to the Benny Hill music. I hope the Christians don't react to this last one the same way radical fundamentalists reacted to the Danish Mohammed cartoon.

Bush Administration Logic

From Atrios:

Q Scott, I wanted to just ask a follow-up about the LA plot. Is there something missing from this story, a practical application, a few facts? Because if you want to commandeer a plane and fly it into a tower, if you used shoe bombs, wouldn't you blow off the cockpit? Or is there something missing from this story?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know what you're referring to about missing. I mean, I think we provided you a detailed briefing earlier today about the plot. And Fran Townsend, our Homeland Security Advisor, talked about it. So I'm not sure what you're suggesting it.

Q Think about it, if you're wearing shoe bombs, you either blow off your feet or you blow off the front of the airplane.

MR. McCLELLAN: There was a briefing for you earlier today. I think that's one way to look at it. There are a lot of ways to look at it, and she explained it earlier today, Alexis, so I would refer you very much back to what she said, what she said earlier today.

More on DC Curling

King Kaufman has a great article about the DC curling team today. I like to see the effort getting attention (apparently 10,000 people have now petitioned the International Olympic Committee).

I like that the team is making a real effort to actually be good at curling, and not treat it as a joke. I love curling. I'm not kidding. It's just about my favorite winter olympic event. Kaufman says "I like to joke around about curling, but I seriously and unironically love it, and I defy you to give it a fair chance during the coming Olympics and not find yourself drawn in." Here, here.

Today's trivia question

What do the following people all have in common?

Henry Rollins, Magic Johnson, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Gilda Radner, Jesse Jackson, Maya Angelou, Orson Welles, Martin Luther King, Jr., Carl Sandburg, and Ben Kingsley.

About Mike Martz

That post from a couple days ago?

Uh... nevermind. Good hire by the Lions.

Jonathan Koren Sucks

That's right, you heard me.

Full disclosure: He doesn't actually suck. That's just the domain name he just registered. More to come, I'd imagine.

Jonathan sent me a Menorah hat last year for Chanukkah. Here I am wearing it.



When I sent him the picture, He sent me a picture of his nice, multicultural holiday display in return:



In return, I sent him some large New Kids on the Block buttons. I'll be nice enough not to picture he sent back, unless he gives me explicit permission to do so. Jonathan?

Wedding Evites (yes, they exist).

Out of curiousity, some friends of mine wondered if there are wedding templates on Evite. Turns out, there are. Thirty-nine of them, in fact. To be fair, alot of them are for bachelor and bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinners, anniversaries, etc. But some, including this one, are clearly for the wedding itself.

Someday I will actually receive an Evite for a wedding, and I'll be honored.

Someone I think is keen

I have alot of respect for Penn Jillette. True, I'm an unapologetic liberal and he's a Cato Institute libertarian. But I still think he's keen. Bullshit is one of the best shows on TV, and while I haven't seen the Aristocrats yet, I'm looking forward to it.

And now, another sports post.

As usual, King Kaufman nails it. Sorry for all the posts about the Super Bowl controversy, I just feel the need to voice my opinion loudly when I seem to be in the vast minority.

Before this turns into a pure sports blog....

Here's a link to a story about NSA wiretapping. Pretty sobering article. The Bush administration thinks it can do whatever the hell it wants, but we already knew that.

I have a new least favorite football team!

Congratulations, Philadelphia Eagles! You are no longer my least favorite football team! The knew honor goes to the Seattle Seahawks and their whiny twit of a coach, Mike Holmgren.

The Seahawks did nothing... let me repeat that.... NOTHING that merited a win on Sunday.

They should have been my least favorite team anyway, as they are the main rival of my St. Louis Rams. It's kind of annoyed me, though, because the Rams need a better geographical rival. But now, I'm officially putting the Seahawks on notice.

Terrific Super Bowl officiating

Robert Weintraub is dead wrong. And so are all the other conspiracy theorists about the Super Bowl. Lets look at what he has to say:

"Four critical calls stood out. A rinky-dink offensive pass interference flag wiped out an early touchdown pass from Matt Hasselbeck to Darrell Jackson, forcing Seattle to settle for three instead of seven."

That was not "rinky-dink," that was blatant pass interference. Furthermore, Jackson was dumb, dumb, dumb for pushing off like that. Completely unnecessary. All he had to do was cut the other way and make the catch. The refs got the call right.

"When Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger lunged for the goal line near the end of the first half, replays indicated a close play but a clear stop by the Seahawks."

Nope. The tip of the ball crossed the front of the white line. That was a touchdown. The refs got the call right.

"Then came the pivotal double shot that ended all hope for Seattle. With the Seahawks trailing 14-10, a phantom holding call negated a completion that would have given Seattle first and goal at the one yard line."

That wasn't a "phantom holding call." That was an accurate holding call. The refs got it right.

"Three plays later, Hasselbeck was picked off by Ike Taylor, a mistake he partially made up for by tackling the Steelers CB. Sadly for Seattle, tackling now brings a 15-yard penalty—the zebras somehow called Hasselbeck for a "block below the waist." The last call set up Pittsburgh for the clinching score."

This is the only one that he might be right on, it's close but I might concede him this point. Still, Pittsburgh would have scored on that drive anyway. And even if they didn't they would have won.

Seattle was poorly coached by the whiny Mike Holmgren (did you see him at halftime?) and they played like crap for large stretches. No way they would have deserved to win.

Papa Johns lucks out

Papa Johns had a deal that everyone who registered would win a free pizza if the record for longest touchdown pass by a quarterback in the Super Bowl was broken. It wasn't broken. But the record for longest rushing touchdown was.