Waylaid

Hello Offering faithful. Sorry for the long layoff, but things have been hectic in the last couple of weeks and I have not had the chance to keep the masses entertained for quite some time. I will take the increasing rudeness and impatience of your emails urging me to update this page as a compliment. I'm glad to see that this blog has become a regular party of your obviously irregular lives.

Time is still short, so let's just do a quick 2-week layoff catchup:

*Last weekend was a bit slow, with the troops never really putting forth a stellar effort either Friday or Saturday. I saw Rigoletto at the Lyric Opera on Friday; it was quite good but I thought it left a little be desired. The words in Verdi operas seem a little overcooked to me, and I thought the Duke of Mantua didn't have quite a big enough voice. I would have liked to see Pavarotti in that role in his prime.

*Super Bowl Extra Large turned out to be Super Bowl Extra Lame on Sunday afternoon. I had a subdued group of 18 or so at my bachelor palace, but the boring game, uninspired commercials, and general lack of excitement made it a somewhat underwhelming event. I had a good time, but this was about as beat as a Super Sunday can be. Seattle got jobbed a little bit by the refs, but neither team really played well and the Seahawks certainly had their chances. Miss the game? Check out the Sports Guy's running diary.

Two Super Bowl Notes:

1) This whole officiating controversey that has plagued the NFL throughout the 2005 playoffs has me wondering: is it even possible to get all the calls right in the NFL? We have our best crews doing the playoffs, we have the benefit of instant replay, we have allowed more time to be certain on the calls by allowing all the refs to confer before making a ruling, and we still blatantly miss lots of crucial, game-changing calls with alarming frequency. Maybe it's that some of these calls are simply too hard to see, and the camera angles don't always get the full picture either. I don't know. But the league needs to look at doing something to get these calls right. Too many playoff moments this year were ruined by bad calls. I'm not sure what the answer is, but I don't get paid to figure out it out. Someone solve this problem.

2) Jerome Bettis had a great career. He is a media darling, a good team player, and a great locker room presence. But he does not deserve to go to the Hall of Fame. In 13 seasons, he never led the NFL in rushing. He finished in the top-10 in rushing only five times in 13 years (with two 9th place finishes). He failed to hit 1,000 yards 5 times, and failed to hit 1,100 yards 8 times. He was, for his entire career, a one-dimensional player. He was a bad receiver (200 career catches), had the third-lowest average per carry of anyone in the top 25 in career rushing yards (3.9 yards), and averaged less than 4 yards per carry in 9 seasons, including 4 of his 1,000 yard seasons. He is tied for 8th in rushing touchdowns, but there are handful of great backs within a few scores, so he will undoubtedly fall off that list within a season or two.

He was durable, dependable, a good goal-line back, and a great Steeler, but that doesn't come close to putting him in the discussion of the greatest backs of all time. Want 10 that are better off the top of my head? Okay: Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Emmit Smith, Gale Sayers, Franco Harris, Thurman Thomas, Earl Campbell, John Riggins, and the Juice. There you go.

*The Hawks are rolling right along, after a 26-point drubbing of Michigan at home, Iowa remains undefeated in Carver-Hawkeye and has taken over first place in the Big Ten. We have to figure out how to win on the road, starting with a big matchup at Northwestern tomorrow, where we have lost four of the last five games. Let's keep it up.

*One week until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. It's an exciting year for the Cubs, with lots of new acquisitions and the possibility of a healthy rotation for the first time in a couple of years. Our bullpen looks better too. Check out the Cubs Spring Training Guide.

On to non-sports related items:

*The Muslim world is in an uproar over cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammed that originally appeared in a Danish newspaper. I hope that the leaders of largely Islamic nations will soon ask that the protesters stop the violence (and Kofi Annan agrees). Four protesters (presumably all Muslim) have already been killed. I don't think the anger of the Muslim world is necessarily unjustified, but the negative consequences of the cartoons are multiplied when these demonstrations cause needless deaths.

One other note: I think this issue is a very important one (freedom of speech/press versus religious tolerance and respect) and we should feel free to discuss it here and elsewhere. But Islam forbids depictions of Muhammed, and out of respect for this precept, the Offering will not be publishing any of the controversial cartoons or linking to them on the internet.

*Samuel Alito was confirmed as the Supreme Court's 110th justice last week. Yee ha. It was a largely partisan vote (4 Dems broke ranks), and not a surprising one. This will give the right wing a solid block of four votes on most or all social issues (Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito), with a strong moderate block as well (Stevens, Breyer, Souter). This court is a young one (with the exception of 116 year-old John Paul Stevens), so it has a chance to make a lot of landmark decisions. I hope that the scales haven't tipped too far toward literal interpretation of the Constitution. I like implied rights.

*Apparently, the State of the Union is still strong. Record deficits, a military quagmire abroad, and rampant fear-mongering may indicate otherwise, but anyway: President Bush delivered his 5th SOTU address last week, and focused on Iraq, energy alternatives, and the success of his various domestic programs.

*R.I.P., Coretta Scott King. If you want to get learned on some civil rights stuff, check out this Offering post: Got MLK?

*Scientists have found a "garden of Eden" in New Guinea, a complete, untouched ecosystem hosting hundreds of new species of plants and animals. If you were going to discover something in your lifetime, wouldn't this be high up on your list? Isn't finding a land untouched by humans with literally hundreds of never-before-seen plants and animals so much better than finding a skeleton, or old artifacts, or even a pyramid or tomb? To me, this would be so much cooler.

*If you need to drink this soda, you need help.

*John McCain and Barack Obama are fighting over lobbying reform, but I'm not sure what McCain is so furious about. Maybe the GOP just felt like knocking a Democratic superstar down a notch or two. I don't know. Here is a good summary of the battle of words.

Finally, the Offering welcomes a regular reader to the Windy City as a brand new resident as of tomorrow. You're going to like Chicago, Speedy.

More later this week.
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