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Welcome to The Distributed Republic, a blog community started by the members of the original Catallarchy blog. We blog from a classical liberal viewpoint on a variety of topics. Feel free to start your own blog by registering on the sidebar. There are no broad restrictions on viewpoints.
Currently you are viewing The 'Verse, a culture blog. The main page can be found here.
Vanguard Fed Up with Fashion Stealing Proles
Submitted by Kyle Eliason on Fri, 2008-08-29 13:42.I'm not going to pretend like I know a whole ton about fashion, but since this is the DR's culture blog, away we go...
There is now a slow clothes movement. The liberal elite have had it with stores like H&M and Forever21 that take the trends of high end fashion, remove the designer label mark-up, farm out the manufacturing to third world countries, use cheaper materials, and allow all the hoi polli in Flyover to resemble their cultural betters, at least in garb.
I'll pull from a conservative rag, the Daily Mail, who's style expert Liz Jones spits out the following:
Cheap fashion, like cheap, factory-farmed salmon and chicken, has stripped away any notion we had of something being luxurious or in any way special (£8 cashmere sweater, anyone?). It has devalued all our lives, making us ever more dissatisfied, always wanting more.
I am going to go out on a very long and thin limb and guess that the "fashion expert" at the Daily Mail doesn't have a problem getting hold of high end fashion and cashmere sweaters. I'll also go out on a limb and say the folks that can now afford cashmere for the first time don't feel like their lives have been devalued. Jones goes on:
The problem, and it's a big one, is that women (it is particularly women who have fed this trend for ever-cheaper clothes) now think very low-cost but fashionable designs are their 'right' because they are 'worth it'.
That's completely different form the right Jones seems to think she has to keep "fashionable designs" the exclusive property of the upper class. When Jones says special, she means exclusive. In the past, once the hoi polloi got wise and started dressing like their cultural betters, it was time for a new seasonal collection. And time to keep stacking seasonal collection upon seasonal collection in an arms race of snobbery.
Are these folks really going to try to blame the grubby masses for the speed at which trends in high fashion change? The whole point is to keep everything moving fast enough and prohibitively priced so that members of the vanguard don't end up looking like proles. There used to be clear divides in the fashion world. High fashion took time to filter down to the masses. How long it took your clothes to ping back to the source told the fashionistas what your caste was. Make no mistake about the slow clothes movement, the crux of it is that these folks are now royally pissed off that the H&M's and Forever21's of the world are fucking up their radar. What's the point of being upper class sans status signaling?
The upper class left has always despised the sensibilities of the middle class and working class. That the market is now making their fashion one in the same is truly horrifying in their eyes. That the slow clothes movement is yet another chance to dredge up the same old condescension under the guise of environmentalism is perhaps the most predictable element of the movement. Al Gore doesn't want to give up air travel, he wants you to. On a smaller scale, we have Liz Jones and her cashmere sweaters.
Thankfully They Only Come Once Every Four Years
Submitted by Kyle Eliason on Tue, 2008-08-19 05:23.Nothing in the sporting world annoys me more than the coverage devoted to the Olympics.
For starters, a huge portion of the events are rudimentary contests (fastest, farthest, highest, heaviest) where there are no alternative routes to athletic success (the kind of strategizing and randomness that make watching sports interesting). Is it neat to know who the fastest human is? Sure, but a single sentence in the next morning’s newspaper is all it will take to quell that interest. I’m well aware of the years of training Olympic athletes go through in order to push the boundaries of what the human body is capable of, but one-dimensional tests are just plain dull. What should any given silver medalist have done differently? Not have slipped, or gone faster? Wow, we’ll all be talking about that race, lift, jump for years to come (or until that record is broken again in four years).
Same thing with all this Michael Phelps nonsense. Most gold medals in history? Big deal. He’s the biggest fish in a very small pond. The world’s best athletes don’t flock to swimming. I’m well aware that no baseball or soccer player can beat Phelps in a pool, but the inverse applies as well. Can we please get on to the next 47-month stretch when no one cares about competitions like who can swim the fastest?
“Women” gymnasts are on par with pageant children.
Human interest stories make me nauseous. All the producers and anchors that work on these broadcasts, with their truly inspiring stories with montages and soap opera scores that seem to dominate half the coverage should be pulled out of their studios by the hair, thrown into the street, and beaten to death with gardenhoses filled with leadshot. If you think I’m being harsh, please watch five minutes of Tiki Barber and Jenna Wolfe on MSNBC’s Olympic Update and keep your ears open for the mention of the nation of Hungaria, USA basketball coach Mike Rezevski and hundreds of Chinese volunteers cleaning up algae with their hands.
Thankfully, both Major League Baseball and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association have more or less told the Olympics to go fuck off. FIFA only allows nations three players over the age of 23 to compete for any country in soccer, and even that proves disruptive for important league and cup matches at the club level. Fortunately many professionals opt out, and the World Cup remains the premier international soccer tournament, and with good reason.
Baseball is being bounced from the Olympics after the current games because their player’s union refuses to submit to Olympic standards of drug testing and because MLB itself refuses to allow Major Leaguers to be released from their professional clubs to play in the games (only minor leaguers may participate). Baseball has a well publicized drug problem, but receives way more scorn than other similarly tainted sports like American football and still more than completely compromised sports like cycling. And the Olympic drug testing regimen goes beyond urine samples. Athletes are required to regularly provide blood samples to test for HGH, and there are reports that the tests aren’t even effective. I’m quite surprised NBA players have put up with the whole mess in order to play for their countries in basketball. Furthermore, can you imagine MLB taking time out of an already packed 162-game schedule and interrupting the pennant races of late summer that define the sport on behalf of a bunch of international bureaucrats? Incomprehensible.
While I’m glad baseball is ridding itself of the mess, Fidel Castro raised a stink about baseball being dropped because it was the one source of athletic pride his unnecessarily impoverished nation could cling to. With the best players from around the world busy playing in MLB and Japan’s top professional league, those Cubans who hadn’t yet managed to defect could still get their chance by playing for the Cuban national team and, in the past, beating up on college students and later minor leaguers. Let’s see how many WBC titles the island nation wins in the coming years when it has to go up against the big boys from Japan and America.
All this means a greater importance will be placed on the World Baseball Classic. The first tournament was played in 2006, will be held again every four years starting in 2009, and is baseball’s equivalent of soccer’s World Cup. Since the 2006 WBC produced more drama on the diamond than any Olympic Games in memory, having the WBC as the sole focal point for international competition will only be a boon to the sport. (Perhaps the most compelling storyline involved the upstart South Koreans going undefeated through the first two rounds of pool play, twice beating favorites Japan who admitted shame upon the first defeat and vowed not to lose again, but did. Unfortunately, the two nations met up in the single game semifinals and Japan prevailed, going on to win the first ever WBC crown.) Also, avoidance of this monstrosity can only be a plus.
Sure, Olympic tennis is pretty much the same as a regular tournament, so it is on par, and Olympic basketball is the focalpoint of international play because basketball hasn’t yet gotten its act together as a sport and come up with their own international tournament, but the rest is rubbish.
Most annoying to me are the kings and queens of the smaller team sports. Listening to former players in the booth no one was ever familiar with blather on like John Madden does about Brett Favre for the likes of Super Dan the Chinese badminton ace or the Netherlands’ field hockey star whom I’m having trouble googling quickly is enough to provoke random violence. Being the bad boy of badminton is like being the prettiest girl at fat camp, or Michael Phelps.
Thomas Boswell started of his legendary 1987 list of 99 reasons baseball is better than football with the following:
1. Halftime.
2. Halftime with bands.
3. Cheerleads at halftime with bands.
4. Up With People singing "The Impossible Dream" during a Blue Angels flyover at half time with bands.
That pretty much describes my reasons for loathing the weird spectacle that is the opening ceremonies. Combine the worst aspects of high and low culture, say the NEA and American Idol, and this is the shit that would result. Later, seeing a Chinese dance troupe take the platform immediately after the final lift in the clean and jerk event blew this whole kind of thing into its own orbit of bizzare and pointless. I'm sure all seven of the Russian weightlifting fans in attendance were captivated.
Then there are the governments that prostitute themselves for the “privilege” of hosting these trainwrecks, with the dubious claims of tourism income and raising their world profile. Let’s banish these games back to Athens on a permanent basis. This crap shouldn’t be any bigger on a global scale than the College World Series, which remains confined to Omaha, Nebraska. Maybe, just maybe, the Olympics are interesting from a Steve Sailer eugenics point of view, but that doesn’t warrant a full month of coverage with a signal-to-noise ratio lower than a presidential election.
Keepin' it Real
Submitted by Jonathan Wilde on Sun, 2008-08-17 22:45.
Batman is the best of the superheroes because he is one of us. He didn't get irradiated, isn't from outer space, and doesn't possess magical items that give special powers. He's just a pissed off rich guy who has fancy toys. If he has a power at all, it's the ability to channel his rage into a moral code while not letting it corrupt him.
Because Batman is an ordinary person--simply Bruce Wayne dressed in a funny costume--realism is the key to a good Batman movie. It was the reason the original Tim Burton vision was so good but the sequels sucked, and why The Dark Knight shines. Everything that happens in TDK could conceivably happen in our world. Granted, some of it is far-fetched, but none of it defies the laws of physics.
TDK takes place in a Gotham much like any other big city in the US with the usual shimmering hi-rises, grimy streets, and yuppies climbing the social ladder. Batman's toys are designed in the research and development wing of the corporation he owns. Their capabilities are explained to the viewer--Batman's cape stretches taut when buzzed with a small electric charge, not because that's just how it is. There's an underlying logic behind everything that happens.
Note that the way I use "realism" here is different from plausibility. Realism simply means lack of supernatural elements. Plausibility is about the likelihood of events happening within a given framework. Whereas the movie was real, it often lacked plausibility, one of its shortcomings. The Joker seemed implausibly to know in advance every single thing that would happen, including how the Gotham police would react at every moment.
An amazing visual occurs when Batman glides between the skyscrapers of Hong Kong at night on his way to snatch the mobster Lau. It's because the city looks like something of this world, rather than something out of this world, that his flight becomes breathtaking. The context is the familiar and the palatable, not the fantastic. Contrast this emphasis on realism to the Schumacher sequels which had Gotham being frozen over and fortresses erupting on islands. They reveled in ostentation.
As the distance from reality is minimized, so is the necessary suspension of disbelief. Lack of CGI, which is way overused in movies these days, adds to the realism. Whereas the 90s sequels tried to bring comic books to life on the silver screen, TDK tries to instill Batman into our world. That's how you tell a good Batman story: by keepin' it real.
Despite that, I think the Batman story hasn't yet been told properly. Christian Bale doesn't completely sell the darkness at Bruce Wayne's core though he's definitely the best Batman since Michael Keaton. Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan have taken their best shots at telling the story and have come close. Who knows--maybe in another twenty years, another talented director will come along and fulfill the promise of the Batman story.
Fair or Foul?
Submitted by Kyle Eliason on Tue, 2008-07-01 04:33.Nate Silver, the baseball statistician behind the PECOTA projection system, is now trying his hand at projecting electoral votes instead of on-base percentages. PECOTA is a very fun and informative tool, so I'm hoping his new site FiveThirtyEight is as interesting as electoral politics can get. I still prefer real hardball to the figurative.
WN 21
Submitted by Randall McElroy iii on Mon, 2008-06-16 14:10.Via Archinect, the news that Walter Netsch is dead. Though arguably his most famous work involves collaboration with two institutions I oppose, religion and the state, it is really stunning.
Kherington Payne
Submitted by Jonathan Wilde on Thu, 2008-06-12 21:13.Speaking of SYTYCD, one of this year's contestants is Kherington Payne, whose audition video follows.
One Republic's "Stop and Stare" had been an unremarkable mellow song to me. Kherington's audition changed it into an optimistic ballad. As the judges state, her expressions dominate the stage when she dances. In the clash between the song lyrics and her charisma, her charisma wins.
Most popular dancing that I see in clubs and so forth is rhythmic dancing. The movements coincide with the beat. It's refreshing to see dancing that doesn't rely on the rhythm of the song. Her movements are easy and elegant, her smile captivating.
Popping
Submitted by Jonathan Wilde on Mon, 2008-06-02 00:47.A recent episode of So You Think You Can Dance reminded me of the relatively unknown style of dance known as "popping". Long before Youtube, a clip of a talent show circulated around the internet the old fashioned way and made David Elsewhere a legend (he's the guy in orange).
You might remember this Mitsubishi Eclipse commercial with a girl in the passenger seat popping to the song "Days Go By" by Dirty Vegas.
On one of this season's audition shows for SYTYCD, Robert Muraine entranced the judges with his popping.
The crowd reaction in the clips is interesting. The audience at the Kollaboration talent show went crazy when David Elsewhere got into his routine. Similarly, the judges on SYTYCD went absolutely insane from Muraine's routine. Even these judges who've seen all different types of dancing before were shocked at this combination of rhythm, contortion, self-aggrandizing humor, and what can only be described as "special effects". It takes people by surprise.
Commercials of Note
Submitted by Jonathan Wilde on Wed, 2008-05-21 20:45.A few ads have caught my eye recently. As everyone knows, iTunes makes great commercials. I often find new music in them. Here's one:
Another uses Coldplay's new single, Viva La Vida.
Speaking of Coldplay, the trailer for Gears of War uses "Mad World" in a perfect melding of song and video.
Extended version here.
Distraction
Submitted by Jonathan Wilde on Wed, 2008-05-14 18:58.From last night's Spurs-Hornets game:
For those who might not get it, Eva Longoria is Tony Parker's wife.
The Chicken or the Egg
Submitted by Kyle Eliason on Tue, 2008-05-13 02:31.Vernon Wells (45 DXL)
The Jays keep taking hits in what was seen as a make-or-break season for this version of J.P. Ricciardi's plan. Instead, they're six games back and in last place, so losing Vernon Wells until the All-Star break isn't going to help them make up ground on the Yankees in the battle for fourth. Wells fractured a bone in his wrist, believed to be the scaphoid fx (not a hamate), on a diving catch. Wrist injuries tend to sap power and bat control, two things that Wells can't afford to lose. The Jays will shift Alex Rios over to center field in the interim, using newly-acquired Kevin Mench and Brad Wilkerson in right field. Wells' return should come without significant difficulty; with new technology, seeing him at the end of June isn't out of the question.
May 10: Wells will miss 6-8 weeks after breaking a bone in his left wrist on Friday, the Toronto Star reports.
Recommendation: Alex Rios will likely slide over to center field, while the newly-acquired Kevin Mench and Brad Wilkerson should see more playing time in right. Joe Inglett was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse to replace Wells on the roster.
Emphasis mine. I remembered the Yahoo! version while I was reading Baseball Prospectus tonight because I thought it was poorly phrased. If you're not an obsessed baseball fan like I am, you wouldn't know if just Mench or Mench and Wilkerson was/were newly-acquired. Could be coincidence, but the same confusing, hyphenated use of newly-aquired drums up suspicion.
What would be the ideal price?
Submitted by Kyle Eliason on Fri, 2008-05-02 23:00.
Everywhere I turn on the net—blogs, message boards, etc—sports fans are decrying increases in ticket prices and slamming franchises and leagues and owners because "real fans" can no longer afford to attend sporting events in person. Meanwhile, our population has grown, modern transportation continues to make it possible for fans to travel greater distances to attend events, and television, radio and their internet counterparts have provided sports fans with new methods of following their favorite sports from around the globe (depending on your level of interest in sports and your views on intellectual property, myp2p may be your favorite site on the internet). So while the number of sports teams and leagues have grown, that pace has nowhere near matched the increase in demand for tickets generated by the aforementioned factors.
I have no doubt that many passionate and dedicated fans are being priced out of attending as many games as they would like to, but one question that I never see asked is how their lot would be different if tickets were price controlled (and for the record we're now operating under the assumption that only lower-to-middle class fans can be "real fans").
Starting with an extreme example, if tickets were free, they would have to be rationed by some means other than price. Perhaps everyone that wanted to attend sporting events for a particular team or league would put their name on a waiting list and once they received their ration of tickets they would move to the bottom of the queue. But here, "real fans" probably wouldn't get to attend as many games as they would if there were a charge for tickets, because casual fans, having to invest nothing more than their time, would consume more tickets. Invariably, a black market of ticket scalping would emerge and the "real fans" would go right back to paying for tickets, since "real fans" would undoubtedly value the tickets more than other people.
There seems to be a pervasive assumption that there would be no increased competition for cheaper tickets. I'm preaching to the choir here, but I challenge anyone who self-identifies as a "real fan" to name me the price at which they, personally, could afford to attend more matches and would also be able to secure tickets against the increased demand that would come hand in hand with those lower prices. It is no doubt out there, but it is going to be hard for the average fan to identify and will vary from fan to fan depending on their disposable income, travel costs, and a variety of other factors.
Going further, let's speculate about a situation similar to rent control in New York City. What about cheap season tickets that could be renewed, indefinitely, at their original purchase price, even if adjusted for inflation. The decriers seem to be operating under some sports variant of Kip's Law, in that they assume they'd be the lucky few with season tickets priced way below demand that would rarely, if ever, be relinquished. Heaven help you if you fall in love with a franchise after all the renewable season tickets have been rationed by a means other than market price.
A good portion of this backlash is directed at the number of seats sold to companies, instead of directly to individuals. Soccer fans often raise this complaint with regards to the difference in crowds between professional club and national team competitions. The spectacle of the World Cup draws in a greater number of casual fans, aided by the number of tickets given out by large companies, which leads to a less boisterous crowd. What I find humorous is, if operating under the viewpoint of "real fans", the act of tickets being given out by corporations to casual fans actually demonstrates the problem caused by removing market forces from the pricing of tickets—with less of a sacrifice required to win tickets in competition with other fans, be they casual or "real", the casual fans end up with a greater share of the available tickets. And none of this touches on if self-identified "real fans" have more of a right to tickets than the casual fan.
I remember the Society of American Baseball Research conference I attended in the summer of 2005. One panel included members of the Toronto Blue Jays front office and they were kind enough to field questions from obsessed baseball fans on why they are bastardizing the game (namely the J-Force dance troop that performs on top of dugouts in between innings, something that could get those well meaning dancers shot at Fenway, Busch, or Yankee Stadium). One Jays official said that, unfortunately for "real fans", the focus is at the margins. The hardcore baseball fans show up for Blue Jays games because the team plays in the best league on Earth and the quality of play is the highest around. The Jays official said this group of "real fans" probably account for around 15,000 seats a game. The remaining seats get filled by bandwagon jumpers when the team is doing well and casual fans drawn in by promotions and other entertainment like the abomination against God that is the J-Force.
All of this could be chalked up to the evil influence of money in sports, but like anything in life there are tradeoffs. Without money, teams and leagues wouldn't attract the caliber of athletes they do. They'd leave for other teams, leagues or sports, and eventually sports altogether. That horrible corrupting money is the reason we now enjoy levels of competition unrivaled in history.
I recently watched a DVD of the original BBC broadcast of the 1961 FA Cup game won by Tottenham Hotspur, a team that won "the Double" that season (where a club soccer team wins both its league title and highest tournament cup). Compare that to the DVDs I own of today's Tottenham Hotspur beating Arsenal 5-1 in the decisive leg of the Carling Cup semifinal, and their following 2-1 victory over Chelsea in the final at Wembley. Tottenham are a mid-table Premier League side this season, and today's Carling Cup is considered the lowest of five potential trophies available to Premiere League clubs. Nonetheless, the 2008 Spurs would completely and utterly obliterate their 1961 counterparts, who were the finest club England had to offer in that day. This massive improvement in play is a result of all the money that has followed all the interest the sport has attracted. The difference in the speed of play between the two championship matches I own on DVD, separated by less than 50 years, is staggering.
As often happens with naive populist grumbling, the faults of the market are derided while at the same time the benefits are taken completely for granted. The fact that, despite all this complaining, the Premiership (as an example) is growing in popularity the world over speaks to the fact that the quality of competition is the absolute bottom line when it comes to our enjoyment of sports. Far and wide, there will be cries of outrage as the top leagues pull top players out of their native countries as these players go in search of more money and greater competition, but I for one welcome it. With modern media, attending a match live, while often an amazing experience, isn't the primary method of following sports. Sites like myp2p are the future. The real problem going forward will be time zone differences. How can we make it so fans from the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and all parts in between can watch the same games live? In any case, I do not count myself among the ranks of the doomsayers. I think the future looks bright.
Too Beautiful To Live
Submitted by Brandon Berg on Sun, 2008-04-20 15:26.I just want to put in a quick plug for the immensely entertaining TBTL, a new apolitical talk radio show which is probably Too Beautiful To Live. It airs on Seattle's 710 KIRO from 19:00-22:00 (Pacific). For those outside of Seattle or unable to listen during those hours, the show's web site offers live streaming and MP3s of the ten most recent episodes.
The show consists of host Luke Burbank, producer Jennifer Andrews (formerly of Peter Weissbach's show on KVI, for readers who were in Seattle five years ago), and engineer Sean Trattori screwing around and saying whatever happens to pop into their heads, with occasional input from guests and the "tens" (of listeners).
TBTL makes liberal use of running gags, inside jokes, and drops (i.e. sound bites, which I would conservatively estimate account for about 103% of the show's air time--sometimes they play two simultaneously), which I suspect make it very much a love-it-or-hate-it thing.
Anyway, great show. Give it a listen, and if you love it remember that I told you. If you hate it, remember that this whole Verse thing was Jonathan's idea.
That Stevie Wonder is right on
Submitted by Jonathan Wilde on Fri, 2008-02-29 15:20.The wonders of Japanese culture never cease to amaze me.
Thugs Watch The Wire
Submitted by Jonathan Wilde on Thu, 2008-02-28 16:27.Don't read this unless you're caught up on this season's The Wire episodes.
Sudhir Venkatesh gets his hands dirty with some real-life thugs who watch The Wire.
Shine and I walked back into the apartment to watch episode 8. The rest of the crew was already assembled. Many had served up plates of catered food and were opening their fine domestic beers.
The viewing was uneventful until, “BANG!” Omar fell to his death. Kenard, the shortie from Michael’s street crew, had laid claim to the bounty.
The place went crazy. Omar is dead! Long live Omar! Kool-J threw a bag of pork rinds in the air, causing Shine to rebuke him with: “Hot sauce don’t come out of the carpets, boy!” Orlando woke from his semi-comatose state, crying, “No! No! They took my boy! First Butchie and now Omar!”
Tony-T was the most visibly shaken. “It can happen to any of us, just like that. You think you’re going out to buy some chicken and Pepsi, and the next thing, some kid wants to make a name for himself by taking you out.”
“We got to tell Flavor,” Shine said. “I know he’ll go nuts when he hears this.” Shine left the room to call Flavor on his cell phone. The rest of the Thugs began making side-bets.
“I say Michael kills Marlo,” Orlando said soberly. “That young [man] is going to take over.”
“Nope,” said Tony-T. “Avon. Avon, Avon, Avon. He’s got a deal with the Greeks, and they’ll take out Marlo. You watch: Avon is coming back! That’s my boy!”
Amidst the speculation and wagers, Shine returned. He had a fresh beer in his hand and he was shaking his head.
“Flavor’s in some real trouble now,” he said. “That boy should have laid low, and instead…”
“He went after Pootchie, didn’t he?” Kool-J yelled. (Everyone in the room evidently knew about Flavor’s troubles.) “Just say it! I’m right, ain’t I? Flavor went after Pootchie, didn’t he? I knew that son of a b—h couldn’t just hide out, keep quiet. That’s all he had to do! Jo-Jo was going to get arrested in a week — I told him that.”
Shine nodded and then explained: Flavor was so upset about the coup d’etat orchestrated by Jo-Jo that he decided to go after Jo-Jo’s girlfriend. But on the way to her place, he stopped off at a strip club, where he ran into some of Jo-Jo’s guys.
“They beat the s–t out of him, but that n—-r got away! I guess he left this trail of blood; he’s hurt pretty bad. But he’s in his car, still running.”
“I say Flavor goes after Jo-Jo,” Orlando said. “That [guy] can’t wait. Impatient m—-r f—-r.”
“No,” said Shine. “I think he’s shaken up. I think he’ll call his brother, Richie, stay at his place.”
“Hell no!” Tony-T yelped. “He’s going out like John Wayne. Guns firing.”
Stringer Bell, these guys aren't. Among the many not-believable characters in the series, Stringer Bell stood out. I always thought that someone as smart, calm, and far-thinking as him would not stay long in the Game. He'd realize that he'd have a much easier time making money by legal means with a fraction of the risk. But David Simon needed a diabolical "capitalist" genius criminal.
Super Bowl Thoughts
Submitted by Jonathan Wilde on Sun, 2008-02-03 23:37.* Is there an in-the-grasp rule in the NFL? Sure looked like Eli Manning was in the grasp on that crazy play at the end of the game.
* Speaking of that play, I think it will probably be replayed 30 years from now on ESPN8. It was an unbelievable play both from the QB and the WR on a drive where it counted the most.
* What's up with Belichick's short-sleeve sweatshirt? I've never seen such a thing. Don't the short sleeves defeat the whole purpose of the sweatshirt? It even had a hood.
* Best commercial was probably the pair of E*Trade commercials with the baby. The first one with the puking was all slapstick. The second one with the clown was cerebral.
* More fashion: what in the world is Keyshawn Johnson wearing on the ESPN set?
* The NFL now has two "faces of the NFL", not just one.
* WHERE'S TIKI? It's bad enough his team win the Super Bowl the year after he retired. But he went the extra mile and publicly criticized Manning and Coughlin at the beginning of the season. There are winners and there are talkers. Tiki turned out to be a talker, Manning and Coughlin winners. I think he'll have to publicly give credit to Manning and Coughlin to have any credibility remaining.
* I remember an interview with the Archie Manning sometime while Peyton was in college. They asked him about Peyton's little brother who hadn't yet started high school, and the elder Manning said something like, "Yeah, he shows promise, but I'm not going to push him into football. We'll see what happens." Archie Manning never played in a Super Bowl. Both his sons now have Super Bowl MVP trophies.
* Hey Tom Brady - chin up. Even on your worst day, it's still Christmas.
