Random bits

I'm kind of shocked to see that most of the sports talking heads are agreeing with what was the instant Pitt homer vibe upon selection Sunday, that being Pitt got screwed, being forced to play as a three seed, and facing the prospect of a Wisconsin team effectively at home in Milwaukee in the second round. This obviously means they'll keel over in the first round. S'anyway, does anybody know if Wisconsin's fans to the one appropriate thing their cheering section should be doing? The idea of giant mushrooms replacing the "BRICK" signs behind the glass is highly appealing. (Of course, if someone purported to be TROUT MAN, dousing the Pitt faithful with soy sauce and causing shame in their cats, that would certainly balance it all out.)

J-Walk pointed to this article, I'm just baffled at the notion that Hormel, the folks who bring you all you meat in a can needs, are pondering pasta.

Craig pointed out the imminent arrival of "Brood X". Now I have a previous relationship with cicadas, as my family's house is smack dab in the middle of Brood V and Brood VII territory. In their last visitation, Brood V managed to generate something around 40dB, while we were sitting in the house. Outside it was obviously worse. (I'm also very disappointed to find out the X in Brood X was a ten. Somehow I just expected the Sci-Fi Channel to produce an original film "Brood X", a nice ominous name, and if they're looking as far down the chain as snakeheads, all bets are off.)

Speaking of that, this really blew my mind. Compare: IMDB lists three films based on snakeheads. IMDB lists TWO current entries based on Beowulf. One is a 27 minute cartoon, the other is this, which has been sitting at an uncomfortable eye level in the local video store the last two times I've been in there, and quite frankly just looks like such a bad idea I'm afraid to rent it, but I know some kid has failed an English class somewhere because of it.

Meanwhile, Gone Stupid Network, excuse me, GSN, has decided to jump on the poker bandwagon by showing the World Series of Blackjack. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the whole notion of blackjack that you're basically playing against a house that is effectively on autoplay (I'll grant them a chance if they're doing something radical here). You can't fake the house out, thus there's nothing to watch here. Based on this, we're one step away from televising the slot machine world championships. And by extension, we're two steps away from "The Shiny Show".