Random birthday blogservations

Why is it that every time I do something that brings a lot of traffic around here, I don't post anything for a week afterwards?

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About once every two or three years, I hit a football parlay card. These cards, if you've never seen them, list a number of the week's college and pro games, along with pointspreads. The more teams you pick, the higher the payoff odds. It's tough to pick two games right, let alone four, five, or more. I only pick college teams; to me most pro games are flip-a-coin propositions, especially if you figure in the pointspread. I went four-for-four this week, picking Miami giving three points to Wake Forest (Miami won 16-10), Penn State giving three to Ohio State (the Nittany Lions got going in the fourth quarter and won 13-7), Arkansas getting four from Mississippi (Ole Miss won 23-21, failing to cover the spread), and Alabama giving seven to the whiny-ass Tennessee Vols (Bama won 29-9, hammering another nail in Fool Fulmer's coffin).

None of the above is meant to imply that Pole Hill Sanitarium condones illegal activity in any manner.

Tonight, the eyes of the nation will be on LP Field as the undefeated(!) Tennessee Titans take on Indianapolis, likely pile-driving Beth's boy Peyton Manning into the turf several times in the process. And yes, Debo, the Cowboys did win yesterday...

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Apparently, not all of us Tennesseans are Neanderthals after all. A new poll shows Barack Obama tied with John McCain at 45% apiece in the eight-county metro Nashville region. No cause for celebration yet, as Obama trails McCain by twelve points statewide, mostly because Crazy John is cleaning up in the rural areas - I've heard McCain is expected to get as much as 80% of the vote in some rural counties. Most of the state's Democrats are in Nashville and Memphis, and Tennessee's two biggest cities aren't big enough to counteract that big of a swing in the rural vote, along with traditionally Republican East Tennessee.

In another section of yesterday's paper, the president of the University of Tennessee is looking at making $17 million in budget cuts. That's not counting the $6 million buyout that Fool Fulmer gets if they decide to cut him loose...

While we're on the subject, by all means go over and read Magnetbabe's endorsement of Barack Obama. Her writing is passionate and her reasoning is as sound as that of most of the big-time political bloggers I read. Don't miss this post.

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Axl Rose, who should have OD'ed 15 years ago, somehow has managed to keep his shit together long enough to finally release Chinese Democracy, the new Guns 'N' Roses album that's been promised for ages. I don't know who else is in GNR these days, and frankly, I don't care. If the cuts featured on the website are any indication, save your money. (Fifteen years in the making, and it turns out that Axl wanted to be Eminem? Gimme a break.) Better is AC/DC's new track, "Rock 'N' Roll Train". The ghost of Bon Scott may have receded too far into the mists for AC/DC to channel, but The Rolling Stones will always be within reach.

In the middle of the "Delurking for Breast Cancer" thing, and with everything else that's been happening, I regrettably missed the death of Levi Stubbs, one of Motown's all-time great voices. Randy Raley put together an excellent tribute featuring video clips of several of Stubbs' greatest performances, and it's one you shouldn't miss if you're a fan of The Four Tops, Motown, or the great soul music of the 60's in general.

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Oh yes, today is my birthday. Forty-eight, if you're keeping score at home. Peggy's birthday was the 30th, which always made this a special time for us. The last birthday I celebrated without her was in 1984, and it's been kind of hard getting through the last few days. That's one reason you haven't heard from me in so long.