mediocre things

Good morning, I hope everyone had a great weekend. Well, the Big Game happened, and our national food and sports holiday is over again for another year. Congrats to the Steelers for the win, especially Jerome Bettis (who might need a new nickname--"The Bus" just doesn't seem to capture his enormity anymore. Busses are big, but can we try "The Blimp"?) and Ben Roethlisberger, all of 23 years old. Seriously, 23. Kind of makes you feel like a failure, doesn't it?

More importantly, slate.com's Seth Stevenson rates the ads.

http://www.slate.com/id/2135409/

My father was all fired up for an ad by his company, Nationwide, which doesn't advertise much, and in the past has never shelled out Super Bowl-type ad dollars. Here's what Steveson thought of the ad:

Fabio is on a gondola. Later, he's a much older dude with wrinkles. Somehow, this is meant to advertise Nationwide insurance. I don't understand, and, when it comes to Fabio, I don't want to understand.

Oh well, at least my dad seemed satisfied.

On a day when football rules the news, Michael Sokolove has an interesting article in the N.Y. Times about the crackdown on amphetamines in baseball, and how "greenies" are so prevalent that this will change the game.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/magazine/05controversy_24_25_.html

Sokolove writes:

Is this what we really want? As a fan, I don't think I do...I care if the players cheat, and I'd put steroids in that category. But otherwise, I'd just as soon that they have what they need to put on a good show.

File under "Of Limited Interest:" with Jalen Rose on board, Knicks lose again, the 11th loss in their last 12 games.

As Liz Robbins in the N.Y. Times:

Knicks Coach Larry Brown tried to put a positive spin on the game. "I don't get caught up in wins and losses," he said.

Well, Larry, you're paid $10 million a year, so you might want to start. And a question for Liz Robbins: you call that a positive spin? If that's positive, why does it make me want to pull my hair out?

Leaving the world of sports for the world of, um, reality, comes this fun story, also in the Times, about Iran's nuclear development.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/06/politics/06assess.html

David E. Sanger writes:

Behind the diplomatic maneuvering, many of the diplomats and nuclear experts involved in the West's effort believe that stopping the program cold is highly unlikely, and probably impossible.

Happy Monday, everybody. On the plus side, however, according to Sanger there are still "technological obstacles" that might take years to overcome, and economic sanctions may prove to be influential.

But don't get too optimistic. At least one prominent Republican is talking serious trash. From John McCain:

"There is only one thing worse than military action," he said, "and that is a nuclear-armed Iran."

Good stuff.

More later, including reviews of the movies I saw this weekend, and more Oscar thoughts.