^^^ And you gotta love Mark Wahlberg's response to Tom Cruise's agent, who suggested actors worked as hard as Navy SEALS. This is from the Q & A after the premiere of "Lone Survivor" at the AFI Fest a few months ago:

Provided the team isn't blown up by some Islamic wacko in Sochi.

Belated birthday wishes to Otto Mason and Front Row Dave! Happy birthday wherever you are and keep on rocking and enjoying life!

Great news to begin the year. Wonder whose album will be released first, JPJ's or Plant's?

Speaking of the Yanks, I hope you don't mind if I indulge my passion for musicals here, but at least there's a baseball connection. Broadway legend Gwen Verdon was born on this day in 1925. Here is the irrepressible redhead in "Damn Yankees", singing "Whatever Lola Wants". Choreography by Bob Fosse. That's Tab Hunter on the receiving end of Gwen's charms.

^^^ Lovely photo zepscoda. I didn't think much...had a feeling he would be traded before the season was over. It's a 7th round pick we get for him, not a 4th...shows you what the teams thought of Carcillo. If you need a scrapper, I suppose he'll help the Rangers in that regard. Kings are in a slump...only three wins in their last 10 games. Ally, it was another chippy penalty-fest tonight between our two teams. Quick pitched a shutout...I had no idea Luongo was still out. How long is he going to be sidelined?

And I'm sure you're well-versed in how interesting people on Meth are to be around, so multiply that by however many hours the series runs. Picture your high school chemistry teacher. Can you honestly see him as a drug kingpin slaughtering foes left and right? I didn't think so. Breaking Bad is technically a fine show...it's well written and is put together with style. But the main premise and characters are preposterous...and it gets worse and worse after the third season or so. Right after Giancarlo Esposito...well, I won't give it away. After a while, you're just watching wishing for someone to off Walter White and his stupid family, to put them and you out of your misery.

Land's sake, let me clue you in...

A tip of the hat to the great Newhart Show ending...

As usual, you missed the fine print. I said I was only considering players I had seen play in my lifetime...Jim Brown retired before I started watching football in 1968. Obviously, he is one of the all-time greats and numbers-wise, probably the best running back ever. OJ had some memorable seasons, including being the first to rush for 2,000 yards in 1973. I remember well the Juice and the Electric Company. But Marcus Allen was more durable, excelled at more tasks (he was a good blocker and receiver in addition to being a running back...and he could throw, too!), and scored more and fumbled less than OJ. Marcus Allen scored a touchdown once every 25 times he touched the ball and fumbled once every 55 times. OJ scored once in 35 touches and fumbled once in 42. Marcus was a multiple threat coming out of the backfield...he was the precurser to Marshall Faulk...and he had deceptive speed. Just ask the Denver Broncos or Washington Redskins. He could go inside or outside and he was money at the goal line. Not even Sam "Bam" Cunningham went over the top at the goal line like Marcus Allen. Incredibly, he racked up all these numbers while being in Al Davis' doghouse for SIX seasons. His numbers would be astronomical if the Raiders hadn't spent six years trying to break his spirit. He was still an effective RB in his last years with Kansas City, unlike OJ, who was used and spent after 1976. And, Marcus Allen didn't kill anybody.

Wow, I am surprised by both of your posts...well, maybe not Rick's, given how much he hates New England. But I don't understand why you feel New England couldn't beat Seattle in the SB, in_the_evening? The Super Bowl will NOT be played in Seattle; it is outdoors at Giants Stadium in NY. In fact, I think either AFC team, whether it is New England or Denver, will be favoured over Seattle in the Super Bowl, and possibly San Francisco, too. Las Vegas loves Tom Brady and Payton Manning. Hmmmm...decisions, decisions.

I don't cry very often but this had me in tears. Places like the zoo and Sea World always gave me the heebie-jeebies, anyway, and this movie just clinched it for me...I'll never go to Sea World. By the way, if you can stomach it, you should check out a documentary called "The Cove" about the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. "American Hustle" is fabulous! By the way, what is the name of that club where they go dancing? Have you ever been there? Congrats to Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence for winning their respective actress categories in last night's Golden Globes for their roles in "American Hustle". Both of them are the bee's knees in the movie.

Is it that time already? Angels are doomed, I fear, for another mediocre season with guys past their prime being paid way too much.

Typical Le Retard shit...he's a blight on the sports scene. I am surprised Mike Piazza hasn't been voted in yet. That is just crazy...and Jack Morris belongs, too, in my opinion. Craig Biggio is on the cusp, but he'll probably get in next year.

What? He has remastered it again? How "new" is this? How do you like it?

^^^ Thanks. Just noticed some typos and the ending was clipped off when I posted it...hazards of writing after a long day, I guess. In addition to fixing my post, I decided to add a little visual appeal with some photos. Of course, January 12 was the release date for those of us in the U.S. (and Canada, I presume?). It would not be released in the U.K. until March 31, 1969. Having just rampaged through most of the Western United States by the time of Led Zeppelin being released in the U.S., I am sure most of those first week sales were in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Denver. As the tour progressed through the country, airplay and sales built and built momentum until the album peaked at #10 the week of May 17, 1969, during Led Zeppelin's second North American Tour. By then, anticipation was running high for the second album...and the rest is history.

January 12, 1969. Like a depth charge going off underwater, Led Zeppelin unleashes their debut album, and the ripples from that musical explosion are still being felt to this day, 45 years later. The last time I talked about Led Zeppelin's first album, my post ended up being Moby Dick length...the book or the song, take your pick. I'll be much briefer this time. But an album of this significance deserves a birthday wish. While there were certainly some signs in the last days of the Yardbirds that pointed to the direction and shape that Jimmy Page's new band would take, nothing on "Little Games" prepared one for the giant leap in sonic architecture and impact that Led Zeppelin delivered. It is easily one of the five best and important debut albums in the history of rock and roll. So, happy birthday 'Led Zeppelin'! From the opening bang of "Good Times Bad Times", with its searing guitars and announcement of a new force and attitude in drumming...to the Joan Baez-by-way-of-Thor's-Thunder of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", alternating butterfly delicate acoustic filigrees with thunderous walls of sound...to the orgasmic blues stomp of "You Shook Me", crushing man and woman alike in its sex-groove and unleashing on unsuspecting ears and libidos the unalloyed and unprecedented power and approach of Robert Plant...to the hypnotic psychedelic demon blues of "Dazed and Confused", where Jimmy supplants the use of a vocal chorus with the idea of the riff as chorus hook instead, and the band summons its talents to create such a rampaging storm of sound and fury that a million air-guitarists and air-drummers are born...to the country church blues of "You're Time Is Gonna Come", with John Paul Jones opening the proceedings with a pastoral organ flourish, and an actual sing-along chorus just to show that they could...to the Welsh mountains by way of India (and Bert Jansch) acoustic reverie of "Black Mountain Side", offering a little mellow respite before the closing salvos...to the proto-punk-metal of "Communication Breakdown", sonic blueprint of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" and Johnny Ramone's guitar attack, and early cause of headbanging at concerts everywhere...to the electric Chicago blues of "I Can't Quit You Babe" with the primal raw tone of Jimmy's Dragon Telecaster and John Bonham's rat-a-tat-tat drum beat playing Hot Potato with your ears...to finally the closing barrage of "We've come to conquer"-attitude and sonic maelstrom that is "How Many More Times", a psychedelic-jazz take on "How Many More Years" souped-up for the nuclear age, complete with scorched-earth guitar solo and scorched-brain bowed guitar spookiness...Led Zeppelin was the album that kick-started the Seventies and brought the sound of records into the modern era, in particular with respect to the use of drums and space...the 'sound' or ambience of a room. In addition, whereas so many guitar heroes hired a band to just stay in the background while they hogged up all the limelight and sonic space, Led Zeppelin immediately sounded like a unified band of equals, with everybody getting their due and room in the sonic palette to be heard. It wasn't Jimmy Page and a bunch of lackeys, which is how Jeff Beck's bands came off most of the time. Led Zeppelin was an immediate force to be reckoned with. The Who and the Rolling Stones were served notice from this day forward, 45 years ago. Time for all the so-called 'heavy groups' to step up their game. If they couldn't, it was "Goodbye!"...I'm looking at you Iron Butterfly and Steppenwolf. When Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham, and Robert Plant first walked into Olympic Studios on that long ago day of September 20, 1968, I am sure not even they, in their wildest dreams, imagined the dramatic results and impact those first album sessions would deliver to an unsuspecting public. Only Jimmy Page could be considered a known entity at that time, while John Paul Jones may have been known to the more dedicated album credits reader, but certainly not known to the general layman. Bonzo and Percy, on the other hand, were complete wild cards. Young and from the relatively barbarian wilds of the Midlands, you could say they were the X-factor of Led Zeppelin. For drums and vocals were two of the elements that dramatically separated Led Zeppelin from the lumpen hordes of blues-rock bashers. They walked into Olympic Studios four guys from four different backgrounds with differing influences and differing levels of confidence. They emerged a few weeks later as a BAND ready to storm the world. They were mere kids when they commenced recording their first album. But the music they unleashed was no mere kid's play. It was the real deal.

Cosmetic score by San Diego...just enough to mess with the spread and screw the Denver bettors.

Cue Dandy Don Meredith...Turn out the lights, the party's OVER!

^^^ And more often than not knocked out by their own player, as happened to that Charger.

Denver just cannot deliver the knockout blow. Flag brings back the TD return.

How about 1968-1980?

Only one quarter left. Chargers running out of time.

Just delaying the inevitable...

That is probably my answer...or the entire year of 1971. No deaths, drugs or health issues messing things up.