Edwin MacPhisto

Prairie Home Companion was awful, but yeah, Altman was a hustler. I was bored more often than not by his recent films, but he's got some absolute gems in there.

Detox will go platinum regardless of its content. Whether it'll be any good (I'm skeptical about anything this oft-delayed) is entirely a different question. Also--and I've made this argument on this board several times, so forgive me for repeating myself--but people forget that Chronic 2001 wasn't exactly a great album. Fantastic singles, and the rest was filler with entirely too much Hitman. And that was 7 years ago.

"Unfinished Business" (the boxing episode) was one of the show's best. Last week, definitely filler, but okay filler.

We're a smallish company, and the CFO is the ultimate penny-pincher, to such an extent that it's pretty hilarious. He refused to allow the holiday party to be called a party, so it's "Holiday ... 2006" and will last maybe an hour this Friday. I think he budgeted about $250 for an office of 30 or so. I also don't think anyone's getting bonuses at all. We just won a $12 million government contract, by the way. I think he probably would have been taking our desks were that not the case.

Colston has rookie of the year on lock, but Jones-Drew has definitely been great. Also, Marv, the Ravens are probably going to drop another one before the end of the year and won't get homefield anyway. I expect them to get the 3 at this point, since New England won't have to do a whole lot to win their division.

The Ravens'll be out in the first round of the playoffs, certainly the second if they get that far. I don't think they can hold up against any of the other division champs-to-be (and yes, they beat San Diego once already, but the Chargers have gotten much, much better and are playing the best out of anyone in the league). McNair's entire body will fall apart by then.

We'll never be without Ravens play by play here at TheSmartmarks.com.

Because Louisville's been good the past several years, and Rutgers has never been this good. Relax, homeboy.

This is why I'll never be perfectly on board with the NFL and always prefer watching college ball: I have one 1 pm game and one 4 pm game. And I continue my streak of Broncos weeks unabated, as San Diego/Denver is the 4. I live in Virginia and I think I've had access to 11 Denver games.

TV on the Radio were the best, The Go! Team were a strong second. Also really liked Broken Social Scene, Yo La Tengo, GZA, and Wilco.

I'm not sure why the Bulls would go after Iverson instead of Garnett. Iverson gives them an excellent scorer and a gamechanger, sure, but they already have lots of talented young guards and small forwards. Garnett with those players physically changes their composition and gives them a the inside track in the East. Both take pressure off the 16-million dollar mistake as far as scoring goes, so I guess both are good in that sense.

I want so desperately to Insert Special Item.

USC getting held to 9 points against mediocre UCLA shows that everyone's fallible and that their offense might isn't exactly greatness. Anyone making bold predictions one way or another about the USC/Michigan game isn't operating on much more than a fan's disposition, I think. It looks like one of the more even matchups of the bowl season.

"High and Dry" was one of my favorite Radiohead songs. I still like it a lot, but after hearing the "Sexual High" mashup of that and "Sexual Healing," which improved on both songs vastly, I devalued it a bit. As for Wu-Tang, their debut is incomparable. Mixed results thereafter. But the debut is scary, angry, fun, funny, and a bunch of guys really gelling together as a group, not just a bunch of guys. And even if the RZA's production's been mimicked countless times since, I think it holds up tremendously.

Why he's popular: he has a flair for doing the singer-songwriter thing on a very grand scale, with chorales and big piles of instruments. He ends up with lots of memorable mini-epics like "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts" and "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades," which in different hands might not be so complex. He's also kind of quirky and twee, and the whole albums-about-the-50-states thing and his extremely long song titles make him ironic/clever enough to pass muster. On Illinois he really pushed his boundaries and I think successfully broke out of the somewhat-boring/ineffectual mode that drifted in and out of his earlier albums. I like him for most of the above reasons, but mainly just because I think he writes really good songs.

Radiohead's sweet and the live incarnation of "I Might Be Wrong" is one of my favorite tracks lately. That's all I've got for ya.

So Eden did shoot herself, right? To wreck her brain and keep Sylar from taking her power? Or did he make her shoot herself, like he intended to do with Clea Duvall when she and Parkman first encountered him? I interpreted it as being the former.

My, now you've got me thinking namely thoughts too. Rascal. Everyone still calls Czech Czech, so I think you'd be in the same situation as he is.

That was what struck me as odd watching the New England game. Grossman went for the 30-50 yard pickups on several occasions, and they just missed them each time. Strange playcalling to do that without going for the intermediate routes as well. I'm still a little baffled as to why they didn't grab one of the big tight ends in the draft, and still impressed beyond belief with Devin Hester.

It'd be Kyle Orton, I imagine. Who had the game manager thing down well, but never really blew the offense open. I say Grossman. Reason #1: Out of the three options, he's certainly the one who's shown, at his peak, the best playmaking, gamechanging, touchdown-throwin' abilities. Through the first half of the season, he was doing perfectly well with the Bears' very average receiver corps. Reason #2: He'll get this out of his system. The Bears have the division, and only need two more wins for homefield, and that's if both Seattle and Dallas win out (not likely). If he can get back up to making half his throws for 180 yards passing and maybe only 1 pick a game, the rest of the team can cover him. Reason #3: Brian Griese, guys. C'mon.

Somehow Wake, Boise, and Florida win, and we all scratch our heads a bit. Notre Dame still gets wasted, though. Though really, Boise would probably be a mild upset at best. They're way good. That's going to be a really good game.

The L.A. Times article mentions that Tressel abstained from voting this week so he wouldn't be helping choose who he faced. Any poll where a voter not voting seems like the reasonable and right thing to do has problems.

I have a bigger reputation of choking to uphold. I was ranked #1 most of the homestretch the first year, and Vern beat me in the bowl game. Last year I choked in at least two games that would have gotten me a bowl, and this game I lost to Spiff in the game that probably would have put me at #1 had I won. BCS #3 and #4 in the Race to the Bottom, baby!

Your letdown will lead to a crushing defeat in the Out Magazine Bowl. I'm the LSU of this shit, son.

Wins over still-ranked teams: Florida 3, Michigan 2. Wins over teams with winning records: Florida 7, Michigan 4. Wins over teams going to bowls: Florida 9, Michigan 6. That doesn't make a case for Florida being more deserving of the #2 ranking? All Michigan has is that they lost to a better team than Florida lost to, which to me isn't enough to say that they should play for the national championship over a team that achieved more in nearly every relevant category.