XL Redux: The Final Chapter

Other news around the Big Game (then I'll move on to other things - promise).

The party: I had about five friends over to witness my football epiphany, some of the football newbies (they are called refs, not umpires). Monkey King and Peter and Mets-fan Bill and John and Janice. Served up chili and chips and beer and some wine. The Lovely Bride was at work, Vicky was hiding, and Harley was taunted the entire game by John (I don't think Harley even met such a gung-ho cat person - most humans lay off after the first fifteen minutes).

The pregame: OK, whoever thought that the dancers in a Stevie Wonder medley should have white canes should be beaten with said white canes. What, you think no one was going to tell him?

The national anthem: Let Aretha sing the whole thing. Her reedy, thin-voiced duet-mate sounded like a microphone failure, but the Queen of Soul smoked.

The commercials: Best Commercial by acclamation: The Magic Fridge (All the Bud Light commericals were good). Second place: the prehistoric Fed Ex. Best fan-geek moment Leonard Nimoy for Aleve (gods, we're getting old). Biggest misfire - Pepsi (which kicked off a discussion about other things that were brown and bubbly - no, it wasn't pretty). And I have yet to see a Hummer commercial that didn't have the subtext - "be a jerk, drive a Hummer". MIA - Mickey D, Microsoft, Coke, and Coors (the "official" NFL beer). Where did they go?

Oh, and the ad for Poseidon sparked a discussion about who was still alive for the original, followed by a discussion about the late Shelly Winters. Bad news - you don't want your movie ads to do that.

The half-time: We picked the songs correctly in advance - Start Me Up - something you never heard before - Satisfaction. You lead with your second-biggest song and close with your biggest. The fact that "Satisfaction" Was in rotation before Super Bowl I shows that the old folks are still in control. And yeah, Mick is a geezer, has moved into "we hope to look that good at his age" category.

One more thing on the game itself: A gadget play. The Steelers ran a gadget play. Chuck Noll must have been screaming when they ran this successfully.

After the Game - Peter David's site mentioned that the Animal Planet channel was running "The Puppy Bowl" - footage of puppies playing on a football field set. The Lovely Bride stayed up late watching it (and the Kitty HalfTime Show). Ahhhhh, puppies!

The celebration in Pittburgh - dumpster fires and an overturned Nissan at Pitt. Given that people are still talking about when celebrating fans turned over a trolley years ago, it was a pretty quiet celebration. Cold and windy weather had something to do about it.

The mourning after - The Seattle press and bloggers have decided that Seattle lost to the following (In order of importance):
1) The Refs
2) Bad Time Management
3) Their own Miscues
4) Some guys wearing Black and Gold

As a long-time Steeler fan, let me merely roll my eyes.

OK, I'm done.

More later,