BURYING THE LEAD:...
BURYING THE LEAD: For reasons not entirely clear even to myself, I spent a portion of this weekend watching a Fox News piece on the apparently quite substantial humanitarian and other non-basketball-related achievements of former NBA star Dikembe Mutumbo. Somehow, what I thought was universally acknowledged as his most significant achievement was not mentioned anywhere.

PAUL NEWMAN! The...
PAUL NEWMAN! The Buckeye State is trying to determine which famous Ohioan should take the place of its existing William Allen statue in the US Capitol's National Statuary Hall.

For Athletes in Motion, Real Estate Can Be a Burden - NYTimes.com
LOCATION, LOCATION: Interesting evergreen article in today's NYT on professional athletes' real estate problems during our economic downturn -- essentially, they purchase nice homes, get traded (or leave via free agency) and no longer can re-sell at anywhere near the purchase price, making the most elegant solution to rent out their white elephants to other athletes now moving into those cities.

PERHAPS WE DID, I...
PERHAPS WE DID, IN FACT, GIVE HIM UP, LET HIM DOWN AND SAY GOODBYE: Last year at this time, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade rickrolled itself, and we all speculated as to a series of future such appearances (Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest, the Obama Inauguration, Super Bowl halftime) that sadly was not to be. Still, we have the memories.

THERE ARE FOUR TY...
THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF CLOWNS -- A TRAMP, AN AUGUSTE, A WHITEFACE AND A CHARACTER: I cannot say enough good things about Modern Family. The show just knows its characters so well, structures its episodes well and delivers the comedy expertly. "People are gonna stare! They're not used to seeing one clown in a car!" [More on Fizbo's origins here.]Bold statement time: it's time for 30 Rock's Emmy reign to end. Yes, this show is that good.