Jack, I totally agree with your analysis of the game. Personally, I was pulling for Carolina (since Dallas beat them this year, we could have claimed title to being a team that beat the champs). However, the non partisan sports fan in me wanted New England to come out on top. Hell, like you said, they flat gave away 23 points. End of story. To have lost that game would have been an injustice to the total effort they put forth. I just wish their fans knew how to celebrate a nationaL championship like our Tiger fans down here in beautiful (well, sort of) Baton Rouge. I guess we're more of a group of friendly drunks

Towards the end oft the game, I was getting a feeling similar to the feeling I had when LSU was in the position of having totally dominated OU in the Sugar Bowl, but faced the real possibility of OU scoring a TD against a very tired Tiger defense in the waning minutes, forcing an OT, and who knows what after that? Why Stoops abandoned the running game to go to the pass, after he had run our defense into the ground is beyond me. I'll forever be thankful for his decision tho.

As far as the dumming down of our culture, I just won't accept that as the norm. Call me idealistic, but just because its there doesn't mean we have to accept it. I read today the Beyonce lip syched the National Anthem. WTF???

As for Friends, I've grown rather fond of it in reruns. Certainly better than the basic sitcom fare gracing our airwaves. (none of which I've watched more than an episode or two, I'd rather watch bombs explode on the History channel). I only catch it for one reason, it comes on before the daily Simpson's rerun, so I usually see the final 2-5 minutes of it every evening after dinner. Perhaps in small doses like that its not so offensive???