Yes, as I wrote a couple weeks ago the bye weeks were over and the remaining weeks would be full 16-game schedules. A couple picks short...apantherfrommd and Anjin-san.

Searching for that perfect week...and thanks to the Lambs, started off on the wrong foot immediately. Thursday Dec. 11 St. Louis Sunday Dec. 14 Pittsburgh...This game has the makings of a shootout, as neither of these teams play much defense. Which shows you how bad Pittsburgh has suddenly become defensively...Troy Polamalu should probably retire. Baltimore...Lock of the week, which means it could be a trap game for Baltimore if they don't pay attention. Green Bay...Aaron Rodgers or Kyle Orton? Ummm, I will take Rodgers every time. And we know the refs will favour Green Bay with their calls. Tampa Bay...Anybody watching these two bozo teams needs to seriously get a life. Cleveland...Murphy's Law applies to both these two teams, so we may get another tie game. Indianapolis...Another possible "lock of the week", except division games can be tricky. Kansas City...No matter how improved the Raiders looked against San Francisco, Kansas City is always murder on Oakland...especially for a rookie quarterback. New England...Sorry Paul, New England seems to be rounding into peak form, while Miami can't seem to stop shooting themselves in the foot. New York Giants...Colt or RGIII or Cousins...will the circus never end in DC? The question isn't whether RGIII's days in Washington are numbered but whether Jay Gruden's days are? San Diego...It pains me to pick the Chargers as I hate them, but what the hell, AFC West games are usually full of surprises. New York Jets...Not many positives about these two teams of incompetents so I will grasp at the straw of the Jets superior defense. Detroit...If Detroit is truly ready to live up to their playoff potential, these are the games they must win. Lose to Minnesota and you can kiss the season goodbye. Seattle...What looked to be one of the games of the year seems like a mismatch now...unless the Forty-whiners have been playing possum lately. If Seattle embarrasses San Francisco, Harbaugh may resign or be fired on the spot. Dallas...With plenty of preperation this time, I fully expect Dallas to run Murray left, right and up the gut and control the clock. The Eagles can't score if they don't have the ball. Monday Dec. 15 New Orleans...I won't give up on pottedplant's team.

The story first came out that the poster failed to sell at the auction, as none of the bidders reached the reserve price of 2,500 pounds. So, rather than lose the poster to the person who put it up for auction, the highest bidder agreed to pay the 2,500 minimum...an extra 500 pounds. To be fair, it is signed by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones. No Bonham though. Dig the price of the concert ticket...one measly pound. And still I bet somebody griped about the price of tickets back then. Ingrates.

We just had our Tiki-themed Christmas party, so... Rum, rum, rum, rum, pineapple, rum, rum, rum, oranges, rum, rum, rum, rum, cherries, rum, rum, rum, rum, mangoes, rum, rum, rum, rum, rum, rum, rum, rum, rum, spam, and rum.

^^^ No apologies necessary Kiwi...your posts didn't annoy me. Not all of the songs people posted are awful.

That would be "The Christmas Song"...written by Mel Torme and Mel himself sings a great version of his song. But I will always prefer Nat King Cole's rendition over anyone else's. Cannot wait for Darlene Love's annual Christmas appearance on David Letterman. It will be the last one so it'll be an emotional performance, I'm sure. I also never miss a chance to watch "The Year Without a Santa Claus" just to hear the "Mr. Heat Miser" song. Too much! http://youtu.be/hGRkNaMFp6w

Good grief, there are some awful songs posted here. Thank goodness ebk posted the links to the two older threads dealing with Christmas music...and it is fun seeing some of the old names and reminiscing of long ago chats.

How is this for a Christmas present? Of course, you might have to mortgage the house to afford it. http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/photography/all/02616/facts.the_rolling_stones.htm You have to hand it to Taschen...they really know how to pull out all the stops. If I had the $10,000 to blow, I am not sure which special Art Edition I would get...maybe the Ethan Russell cover or the Guy Webster.

Now that the 12 Days of Christmas are almost upon us, I can finally get in the mood for Christmas.

Ok. Duly noted.

Sorry...been busy with drag queens and John Landis. St. Louis is my pick for tonight.

Happy Birthday Preetha! Rock on my Kiwi friend. A cheerful toast to you on your birthday!

Week 15 Schedule Thursday Dec. 11 Arizona @ St. Louis Sunday Dec. 14 Pittsburgh @ Atlanta Jacksonville @ Baltimore Green Bay @ Buffalo Tampa Bay @ Carolina Cincinnati @ Cleveland Houston @ Indianapolis Oakland @ Kansas City Miami @ New England Washington @ New York Giants Denver @ San Diego New York Jets @ Tennessee Minnesota @ Detroit San Francisco @ Seattle Dallas @ Philadelphia Monday Dec. 15 New Orleans @ Chicago

Three weeks left and it looks like a three-person race to the finish. jb126 is in the lead, with Walter and Anjin-san as the only ones with a realistic chance of catching her. apantherfrommd sabotaged his chances with a disastrous week, knocking him more than 10 games off the pace. Bong-Man and Strider pick up the victory for Week 14(Thank you, Raiders!)...each racking up their second weekly win of the season. Here now, the numbers... Week 14 results Bong-Man: 13-3* Strider: 13-3* jabe: 12-4 paul carruthers: 12-4 Walter: 12-4 Anjin-san: 11-5 ebk: 11-5 jb126: 11-5 mack: 11-5 in_the_evening: 10-6 zepscoda: 10-6 apantherfrommd: 9-7 LedZeppfan77: 9-7 Season Standings After 208 Games 1. jb126: 142-65-1*** 2. Walter: 138-69-1**** 3. Anjin-san: 136-71-1***** 4. Strider: 134-73-1** 5. apantherfrommd: 131-76-1*** 5. in_the_evening: 131-76-1** 6. paul carruthers: 130-77-1* 7. Bong-Man: 129-78-1** 8. ebk: 126-81-1** 8. jabe: 126-81-1* 8. mack: 126-79-1 9. LedZeppfan77: 123-84-1** 10. zepscoda: 116-90-1*

Except he had the ingenuity of adding pop tarts! How could I have been so stupid? How exactly are we being dragged into this? With ropes and chains? That is some assumption you are making. None of us speak with Jimmy, Robert or John Paul directly, so if you feel you are being affected by their conversations, you are not being "dragged" into anything, you are "forcing" yourself into the issue on your own accord. QFT.

We're still waiting... All of us have Green Bay tonight so the winners for this week are already set in stone: Bong-Man and Me! We are tied at 12-3. Give yourself a pat on the back, Bong-Man. jabe also could have been tied with us at 12-3 but he let LedZeppfan77 snooker him into picking Buffalo. I'll have all the numbers after the Atlanta @ Green Bay result tonight.

Week 14 picks. Thursday Dec. 4 Dallas...Your Boys looked good, Chuck. Sunday Dec. 7 (Remember Pearl Harbor) Pittsburgh St. Louis Tennessee New Orleans Minnesota Miami Indianapolis Detroit Houston Denver Arizona Seattle Oakland New England Monday Dec. 8 Green Bay

This thread is interesting only for the light it shines on some people's thought processes...or lack of same. It was late the night of November 8 when I was coming home from Abel Gance's WWI drama "J'Accuse", and after checking the football picks in the NFL thread, I noticed a new thread topic "whole lotta money" in the News section of this forum. It was a story so immediately idiotic and false, that I couldn't even be bothered to dignify the post with a response. The fact that The Daily Mirror was the source was a dead giveaway to the bogusness of the story, and it is usually better to ignore these things than to give oxygen to the fire via commenting on obvious attention-seeking gambits by the media. I forgot about the whole thing in an instant and went to bed. Unfortunately, fact-checking and rational thinking are in seemingly short supply in today's world. For when I woke up and over the next few days, my phone would keep getting zapped by texts from friends asking if I had heard about Plant ripping up the contract and squashing the Zeppelin reunion and "what did I think about that?". Then, as if that wasn't enough, this "Open Letter to Robert Plant" was posted November 11...basically, a reaction based on a lie. For, as should have been plainly obvious to everyone, the entire Robert Plant/Richard Branson story was completely untrue. What I particularly find fascinating, however, are the people who did buy into this story and their negativity towards Robert in reaction to the media's picking up on the story ( a black mark on the trustworthiness of the media today)...especially the people on this Forum, who as Led Zeppelin fans I would hope would show a little more credulity and fairness when faced with rumours such as the Daily Mirror's. To be certain, the majority of people here did in fact have suspicions of the reports. But for those who didn't, for those who bought it hook, line, and sinker, I have to wonder what you must think of Robert Plant to give credence to this story. Robert Plant and Richard Branson have both been in the music industry a long time and I am sure they have crossed paths at various times over the years, if not business-wise then certainly socially. As for Led Zeppelin, whatever feelings he has for that period of time when the band was alive and whatever issues he has had with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones in the past, it is still a creative entity he is proud of and they are all brothers of a sort...they went thru thick and thin, good times and bad. Maybe it wasn't always pretty but they were bandmates, one-for-all and all-four-one. Now read that Daily Mirror story again. Close your eyes. Do you really think Robert Plant is the type of person that would show contempt for someone like Jimmy, Jonesy and Richard Branson in such a public fashion as to actually RIP UP a contract in front of their faces? I am sorry, but there is no way in hell Robert would act in this way and it pains me to think some of you have such a low opinion of Plant to believe he would. This has nothing to do with whether or not you like his current music. If you don't like his solo albums, fine with me...to each his own. But to have so little respect for his character after all the tragedy he has been through shows a decided amount of small-mindedness. I feel sorry for you.

This is insane. A completely foolish idea that would have disastrous consequences. Evolution and the extinction of certain animal species happens for a reason. To reintroduce an animal that has not existed for millions of years into the present ecosystem would wreak havoc. Any scientist that would attempt such a foolhardy notion should be charged with reckless endangerment.

Yep. Although I will add that it would have helped if the album had been produced/mixed better.

Prepping for an upcoming book event, I was browsing thru 1970s porn star Serena's memoir and amid chapters like "Las Vegas, Whiskey-a-Go-Go, and Van Halen" and "In Love with Cock" I came across this passage: "One of the best memories about these early teen schooldays was the music. That music is the fleece of comfort on which I can still lay my soul. The Beatles, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, James Taylor, Carole King, the Moody Blues and the Grateful Dead all led onward to the soundtrack of a LOUD Led Zeppelin."

I think she just liked the photo...a lot.

This is all very intriguing and, for those that didn't receive a numbered copy, maddening, for I was just in Amoeba Records yesterday and they still have numbered edition copies of the Super Deluxe Box Sets for IV, Houses...and even III still on the shelves.

ledsox for the win! Vanna, give the man his prize.