Super Bowl Hangover

Good morning everyone and welcome to the Monday ramble.  I hope that you enjoyed your day yesterday.  I had a great time myself, and my 'hangover' isn't alcohol-related, but it's due to the fact that it will be SEVEN MORE FULL MONTHS until we see meaningful football games played again...  I predicted that the Giants would beat the Patriots 24-21 and the actual final score was Giants 21 Patriots 17...  Once we reached the conference championship games this season I was right in the ballgame with my predictions.  How many of you find Cris Collinsworth completely annoying?...  I was watching the game yesterday with my father and my brother (and 30 or so other people), and I found myself regularly turning to my brother to complain about Collinsworth and something that he said.  AND THEN Wes Welker drops that pass late in the 4th quarter and Collinsworth remarks, "he makes that catch 100 out of 100 times..."  HUH?????  I felt like yelling out, "AND THAT WAS THE EXCEPTION?????"  Mr. Collinsworth tends to over-dramatize EVERYTHING that happens in the game...  "That timeout could be important later, that point they lost by going for two could be important later, not getting enough cheese on those nachos could be important later..."  Okay, I might be embellishing a bit, but GIVE IT A REST, PLEASE...  Yesterday's halftime show seemed pretty popular with the fans in Indianapolis, and after some mediocre shows in the recent past, I turned to my brother and told him that the people on the entertainment committee for the NFL must have said, "we're done screwing around, next year we're getting Madonna..."  In the wee hours of Sunday morning I was playing some free online poker at MSN, and when the topic of the Super Bowl came up, one of my opponents mentioned what the menu was going to be at his house for the game.  "We're doing wings, bacon-wrapped teriyaki chicken, and deviled eggs - it's gonna be a chicken massacre..."  :)  Roger Goodell made a couple of comments on behalf of the NFL recently...  He mentioned that the Pro Bowl may be ended if the quality of the game does not improve (GREAT IDEA), and he said that the NFL will be expanding their Thursday night schedule to include games from Weeks 2-15 of the season.  Once the NFL Network came into existence you just knew that more and more games would find their way there, didn't you?...  Watching the halftime show yesterday reminded me of a thought that I had earlier in the week for today's ramble.  With my penchant for making predictions, I realized that I spend a lot more of my time looking toward the future than looking back at the past.  I have never seen some of the very popular movies about the past like 'Gladiator', but I am much more inclined to watch a movie that deals with future events (i.e...  'The Day After Tomorrow', 'Armageddon', '2012'...).  I made a trip to the library of my Alma Mater this week, and I found a few quotes that I wanted to share with you, followed by the story of how the library closes (TRUST ME)...  :)  Christine Lagarde, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, said this to Newsweek in an interview about who she likes to work with:  "I leave aside the bastards, because that's one thing I don't compromise with:  people who lie, people who cheat, people who are not with the group and behave like parasites.  That, I can't stand."  Amen Miss Lagarde...  This quote comes from Mark Jackson, the Head Coach of the Golden State Warriors, in an interview with Sports Illustrated:  "... I had to tell the group during a timeout I don't need a choir of "my bads."  Every time they come over, "my bad, Coach, my bad."  That's not what I'm looking for.  Find a way to get it done."  Well said Coach Jackson.  THIS happened at 2:30 a.m. at the library, as the library prepared to close at 3 a.m.  A girl on the P.A. system announced, "... all books must be checked out by 2:45...  all lights will be shut off by 2:55 SHARP..."  Yes, you read that right, and what's WORSE, she REPEATED THE ANNOUNCEMENT...  You can't beat that - the library will be closed at 3:00, and all of the lights will be turned off by 2:55...  OUTSTANDING!  :)  I also read in TIME magazine that YouTube is now getting 4 billion views per day, so at almost 3,700 views in 4 months, 'The View From Bikini Hill' is RIGHT BEHIND...  ;)  Have a great day and I'll see you again on Wednesday!