That sentence offends you? It's just a review...no children were harmed. You either missed the point/humour of the sentence or you are more tightly wound/high strung than I thought.

I have always thought Robert Plant and Jack White should get together and it seems like such an obvious and natural path for Plant to choose that it does give me pause as to whether it will actually ever occur. For if there is one thing Plant has shown over the years, it is to never expect the expected with him. He has a mischievous sense of humour and likes to cross people up by doing the least likely thing. I would love for a Plant/White collaboration to happen, but sooooo many people are clamoring for one now, that he may decide to throw everyone a curve ball again and go off into something else entirely.

Haha, I just noticed that Kansas City bizarrely tacked on to San Francisco when I originally posted the week 2 schedule...here is the fixed schedule. Don't forget there is a Thursday game, so get your pick for that game in by Thursday at least and you can worry about the rest of your picks on Friday or Saturday. Week 2 Pittsburgh @ Baltimore Miami @ Buffalo Jacksonville @ Washington Dallas @ Tennessee Arizona @ NY Giants New England @ Minnesota New Orleans @ Cleveland Atlanta @ Cincinnati Detroit @ Carolina St. Louis @ Tampa Bay Seattle @ San Diego Houston @ Oakland NY Jets @ Green Bay Kansas City @ Denver Chicago @ San Francisco Philadelphia @ Indianapolis

The fact that you feel such grief tells me that you loved her very much. Which suggests that, unlike some unfortunate souls, you had a mother who loved you very much and was invested in raising a happy and healthy Dark Lord. You don't have to be a wizard to know that there are an awful lot of bad parents out there making their children's lives a living hell. So don't dwell too long on the passing of your mom. Celebrate the life your mother did have...and the life and love she bestowed upon you. My condolences. If you find the grief hard to take, I suggest reading Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking", an excellent book to help you work through the emotions of losing a loved one.

You've just made me hungry. I was undecided about what to do for dinner but now I think I'll have lamb kabobs.

Rabih Abou-Khalil's "Blue Camel" album is an excellent blend of jazz and Arabic music.

Morning mantra music...Popol Vuh "Hosianna Mantra":

Walter, Dallas should have won that game...they dominated the 49ers statistically in that first half especially. If they hadn't turned the ball over, it would have been a different ball game.

^^^ That's more like it...accentuate the positive.

Snap out of it. You're alive and breathing and well-off enough to have a gadget and the free time to post. So that should count for something.

Getting the new Robert Plant album this morning...Amoeba will be open in a couple hours. I see a lot of people down on the album already but I prefer to hear the album proper on a real stereo before rendering judgement. I find it hard to believe Robert and a band comprised of such wonderful musicians would make a dull album. I'll be listening tonight with a bottle of Port and watching the Harvest Moon traverse the nighttime sky.

Rick, after clobbering the Indians yesterday, it's all AL West division foes for the Angels the rest of the season, starting at Texas tonight. @ Texas 3 games Houston 3 games Seattle 4 games Texas 3 games @ Oakland 3 games @ Seattle 3 games I'm guessing Baltimore has a similar division foe-heavy schedule remaining. After Bud Selig dicked around with the schedule for a few years, MLB regained their senses and realized it made for better pennant races and created more fan interest to have teams play their division rivals the last month of the season.

Week 2 Pittsburgh @ Baltimore Miami @ Buffalo Jacksonville @ Washington Dallas @ Tennessee Arizona @ NY Giants New England @ Minnesota New Orleans @ Cleveland Atlanta @ Cincinnati Detroit @ Carolina St. Louis @ Tampa Bay Seattle @ San Diego Houston @ Oakland NY Jets @ Green Bay Kansas City @ Denver Chicago @ San Francisco Kansas City Philadelphia @ Indianapolis

Week 1 is now complete. Congrats to KB and Rick for winning the week. Season Standings: Anjin-san: 11-5* LedZeppfan77: 11-5* in_the_evening: 10-6 jb126: 10-6 Strider: 10-6 Walter: 10-6 jabe: 9-7 paul carruthers: 9-7 mack: 9-6 Bong-Man: 8-8 apantherfrommd: 6-10 ebk: 6-10 zepscoda: 6-9 * denotes winner of the week.

planted, my "head-in-the-sand" remark was directed towards the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL. For too long, the NFL has looked the other way on domestic violence incidents, preferring to sweep them under the rug. If you recall, when this incident first came to light, Ray Rice was suspended for only 2 games. That's less punishment than what a player gets for smoking pot or using steroids. As Walter has noted, just this past weekend a San Francisco player was allowed to play after being charged with assaulting his pregnant wife. I'm sure the team and NFL was hoping the video would never come to light. Now that it has, people are understandably outraged and the NFL is in CYA mode. They are claiming they didn't see the video until today. Which, if you know something about the long reach of the NFL and its cozy relationship with law enforcement, sounds like a cop-out. The idea that TMZ would get the video before the NFL is absurd. I'm not going to blame the victim. I may question her judgement in marrying the jerk, but that doesn't mean I'm going to say she deserved to be punched in the face...twice! Meanwhile, this Chargers-Cardinals game is a good cure fir insomnia. Snooze-ville.

I had salads yesterday, too...didn't feel like eating fried junk while watching football. Strawberries, blueberries, sliced nectarines with quinoa was my early game salad; then for the afternoon game I had a roasted carrots and beets salad with peaches. Abita Purple Haze beer from Louisiana.

Anti-climactic men's final so far. Cilic firmly in control over Nishikori two sets to love...6-3; 6-3. Just killing time until MNF.

Fuck Ray Rice. Any man who hits a woman or child ain't a man. Period. No excuse. And no excuse for the NFL and Ravens claiming they never saw the video until today. Bullshit. Law enforcement had it...which meant it was available to the League. I usually abhor TMZ but in this case they did good. They exposed the head-in-the-sand approach of the NFL when it comes to domestic violence. Fuck Ray Rice. Asshole. Hope his face is used as punching bag in prison.

Hell yes, Ady. This is one I noted in my Mads Mikkelsen post. Are you continuing with the entire trilogy? Namea, thanks for the tip about "The Grump". I'll be sure to keep an eye out for it at the upcoming film festivals and foreign releases.

Oh his profile has risen significantly since the documentary came out. More people know about him and you hear his music on college and NPR-type radio stations. His concerts in L.A. sold out as well.

Sorry STZ...didn't see your question until today. While the movie simplified or overlooked some facts of Sugar Man's recognition for dramatic purposes, the plain fact is that it is impossible to hear and see everything. There are thousands of records, thousands of movies, and hundreds of thousands of books released every year. Even if you wanted to, you could never get to them all. Some things are bound to slip through the cracks and go unnoticed by the mainstream public. I didn't hear about Nick Drake until he died. When I began investigating his albums I was sad and upset that I hadn't known about them while he was still alive. Why hadn't radio played him more often instead of James Taylor and Cat Stevens and John Denver?

It'll be interesting to see your reaction paul if you lose the pool by one game and that switched Carolina pick is the difference. All right, as it stands we currently have a Baker's Dozen participants: lucky 13. But don't let that stop some of you late-comers from joining the fold. Even though you missed the first week, you'd be surprised how much ground you can make up with a few good weeks of picks. With 14 games in the books, here is how things stand going into the two Monday Night Football games. mack and zepscoda missed the first game; that's why their W-L totals only 13 games so far. Week 1 standings as of Sunday night: Anjin-san: 9-5 in-the-evening: 9-5 LedZeppfan77: 9-5 jabe: 8-6 jb126: 8-6 Strider: 8-6 Walter: 8-6 Bong-Man: 7-7 paul carruthers: 7-7 mack: 7-6 ebk: 6-8 zepscoda: 5-8 apantherfrommd: 4-10

Denver is up a ton but I'll wait for the official end of the game to tally everyone's picks. I'm at an event tonight, so I'll post the tally after it's over...around midnight PST.

Another 4-game sweep for the Angels! Oakland was the victim last week...this week it was Minnesota. Now, if they could just stop losing to the Astros, they might clinch the division and best record in baseball.

Chicago has tied it up so Rick is probably now tearing his hair out and yelling at the officials. Raiders game is over for all intents and purposes...20-7 Jets late in the 4th.