Eu desejo que eu tive um título

The Brits call today, the first Monday in February, National Sickie Day. Not a bad idea. Much of America is still stupified by the pre-game, intra-game, and post-game Super Bowl babbling, not to mention the massive quantities of calories and beer in many households. At our house, Sandra and I had our regular Skinny Cow snacks and, later, Marley and I shared an apple. We went to sleep sometime in the fourth quarter. I'm glad that Pittsburgh won, but I would have appreciated a better game. There were some impressive individual performances. The teams, however, never quite clicked. The Diet Pepsi ad with Diddy and the Hummer ads were the best of a lame lot. The Stones can still rock, even if Keith Richards looks like he's thinking about what color to paint his house.

Another trip to New York this morning. As always, I know that I work hard, but what I do isn't hard work. This story has been repeated several times in the past few years - foreign workers collecting cockles go out on a sand bar and then are trapped by the returning high tide and often swept out to sea.

A single serving of Snickers pie comes in at 1250 calories, with untold grams of fat and sugar.

I've had a long-running email thread with a friend from the Great White North on the topic of "Canadians are not like the rest of us." To that point, I offer Synchronized Steamshovels. Real Player or equivalent required. (Yes, I know that they're powered by diesel, not steam. The piece needed the alliteration.)

Over the weekend, I received a CD with about 40 minutes of music by friend Don. It was recorded eight or 10 years ago, just Don and his guitar in front of a tape recorder. He was a wonderful performer - good tunes, good music. A few times, Don got somewhat formal in his singing and I could hear, oddly enough, his father's voice. This was music of a special person but also music from a special time (60s into early 70s). He sang Draft Dodger Rag by Phil Ochs, a funny and yet desperate song. And, like Don, Phil Ochs got away from us too soon.