New Orleans Saints versus New England Patriots - Fantasy Gang-Bang

I'm wracking my brain trying to remember the last game that featured so many players starting for fantasy football squads.

At quarterback, you've got Drew Brees and Tom Brady. No one's sitting them, unless they're dead, they're playing in a "special" league, or they play in a 3 team league.

Likewise, Randy Moss, Marques Colston, and Wes Welker are no-brainers. Who else do you have that's got more scoring potential? New Orleans averages 420 yards per game and 36.9 points. It’s down from their record breaking average of 39-plus points per game the team rode until Week 7 but still more than five points greater than the second place Minnesota Vikings. New England ranks second in average yardage per game at 416 yards per.

What's Wrong With SNL?

The simple answer is that it just sucks. Terribly.

That in and of itself is nothing major. A lot of things suck. Particularly on network TV. In fact, it's not a stretch to say that most things suck when compared to good things. It's Sturgeon's Law, which paraphrased is that 90% of most creative media output is garbage. But the 10% that is good, is usually really good.

But Saturday Night Live has 35 years of mostly good history. There were clunker seasons, and clunker performers, and clunker guests, but overall, I'd give the 35+ years a solid cumulative B. The early years were genre-busting, dangerous, and brilliant at times. The middle twenty years were up and down, but generally reliable, and there were a few breakout performers and sketches that easily stand the test of time. The last couple of years, though, I'd consider sending a note home to the parents, indicating that items will be going into the permanent file. It's been painful to watch, at best.

The BBC Office's American Step-Children - Documentary Fail?

Thanks to Netflix's handy-dandy "Watch Instantly" feature, I spent a nice chunk of the weekend re-watching the entire run of BBC's "The Office," starring Ricky Gervais and Martin Freeman, created and directed by Gervais and Stephen Merchant. That includes the 6-episode Season 1, the 6-episode Season 2, and the two part Christmas Specials (which chronologically occur one year after the end of Season 2). It's a series that is short enough to knock out on a holiday weekend, just about 8 hours total (basically one and a half times your average Lord of the Rings extended edition).

Trend-Setting

As usual, I'm hopping onto a trend that's probably a couple of years past its "freshness" date and am starting a blog. I'll be attempting analysis and thoughts about various subjects, including but not limited to, pop culture, literature and non-fiction, fantasy football, comic books, games, politics, food, drink, and the rich, textured life of a divorced, single dad living in the D.C. area. Any similarity to any actual depth of analysis and nuanced point of view is coincidental. If you are reading this far, thanks. If you hit this while Googling recipes for tuna fish, well, I'll probably get to that tomorrow.