Wednesday Morning Ranting

I have to tell you all, I really love blogging. I also find it a bit upsetting that I cannot seem to find time to do it. I have all this stuff running through my head all throughout the day on a wide variety of topics. I'd love to get it written down. So, here's what I am going to try to do (call it a New Year's Resolution):

On Wednesdays every week I am going to put together a post of quick-hit thoughts on all the unimportant stuff that manages to captivate me day-to-day. Then, on Fridays, I'm going to focus my attention on a longer post speaking to something more relevant. We'll see how this goes.

Off we go, then. Yes?

This is why I am not a sportswriter

1 for 4 on the playoff games last weekend (and if it wasn't for the atrocious kicking performance by the Jets' Doug Brien, it would have been a goose egg). Philly and Atlanta both looked great dismantling the last two playoff pretenders (Minnesota and St. Louis, respectively, who I both picked as upset specials) and I am curious to see what kind of defensive scheme Philly employs to stop Warrick Dunn and Michael Vick, who combined for over 300(!) yards rushing against St. Louis. I think Philly may wind up playing only 10 guys on D, since the 11th will have to spend his day spying on Vick and keeping him confined to the pocket. Mind you, Vick has been known to occasionally cough up a hairball in games, so maybe he'll make Philly's life easier and try to do too much in the biggest pro game he's ever appeared in. Regardless of what Vick does or doesn't do, however, I think this is the year for Philly to get over the hump and make it to the Super Bowl after three years of crashing and burning in the NFC Championship Game. Call it 20-14 Philly.

I was so stoked for the Colts-Patriots game, thinking I was going to see a classic. I love the Colts' high-octane precision offense and was looking forward to watching it go against a depleted Patriots secondary. Little did I know that the Colts would employ a weather-based, short-field strategy requiring their receivers to basically run through the Patriots' awesome collection of linebackers. End result, Patriots win, Indy looked awful, and a potentially great game was flushed because the Colts were scared of the snow. So now we get Brady vs. Roethlisberger for what I expect to be a berth against Philly in XXXIX. Big Ben looked pretty weak against the Jets and the Steelers were lucky to escape to play this week. If it's just playoff jitters, maybe Roethlisberger gets over them. However, I'd bet the house that the Pats put 5 or 6 in the box on defense and dare Roethlisberger to beat them with his arm. This will be a big test for the Pats' weak secondary, so I expect at least one linebacker to drop back and help. I think the Steelers will fall short this year, as the Pats go on to defend their title in Jacksonville. Patriots 17-13.

The best show on TV

It's great having 24 back on the air. The writers seem to have changed tack a little bit this year, focusing the first few hours on developing characters essential to the total plot, which leads me to think that there won't be that period of transition between hours 12 and 16 that has dragged down the past seasons. I am also pleased at the decision to toss the entire supporting cast from previous years and add a new cast around Jack. I really like William Devane as SecDef Heller and, especially, Shoreh Aghdashloo as Dina Araz. Dina may be the most evil Mom to ever appear on TV. This week's episode was pretty much a placeholder, as Jack's pursuit of Khalil ended when Khalil decided to drive head-on into a cement truck, martyring himself. We also had the dismissal of Chloe, which allows for an all-new team to start causing intrigue at CTU, the arrival of Erin's schizophrenic daughter at CTU, which will cause problems somewhere along the line, and further development of Marianne, who is going to raise some kind of ruckus at CTU before too much longer.

By the way, a note about Chloe (played by Mary-Lynn Rajskub). In Season 3, I thought she was the most annoying character on TV. Now that I'm re-watching season 3 on DVD, I find that she is probably the best-defined character. Occasionally mouthy and always blunt, she is smart and focused and (next to Michelle Dessler-Almeida) probably the best-defined female character in Season 3. If her dismissal on Monday is final, she is a character that will be missed, but I don't see how they could have done much more with her, other than having her continue to be an irritating PITA to those around her.

OK, enough of that.

CSI

Is it me, or is CSI losing its luster? I cannot, no matter how hard I try, get into CSI:NY. Miami is really inconsistent (although Monday's episode was top-drawer) and I have just lost interest in Vegas this season. Maybe I'll get into it more when the seasons come out on DVD and I can watch the episodes back-to-back.