Sunday reading

Ugh.

... Did the taxes yesterday. Happy Valentine's Day to us.

... Got my ice skating fix for the winter. And this year I did it with clear vision.

... And we had the family over to celebrates Kates's dad's birthday tonight.

We're exhausted.

Here's some of the reads that caught my eyes this week and were worth sharing ...

Sports ...
a Francona is having the time of his life
a Griffey wants to return to Seattle ... Sweet!
a Confronting A-rod
a A-Rod Dead At 33 ... From The Onion.
a Measuring A-Rod
a A-Rod proves apologies are not easy
a One Name Is Not Enough In This Case
a Steroid stench grows even stronger
a This soap opera is beyond sordid, yet we still watch
a Baseball's Tainted Month
a Hall of Fame needs to get rid of ridiculous character clause ... This is a really tough one for me. I still think the character clause is a valuable factor in determining Hall-worthiness. But I also think guys like Pete Rose, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens put up deserving numbers in their prime, rule-abiding years.
a Juice has sucked fun out of voting ... Another good read about the Hall voting.
a Attendance figures and revenue could decrease as teams are feeling the pressure
a Sox-Yankees: Tranquillity vs. trauma
a Favre: Top 10 All-Time? ... His knack for throwing interceptions and coming undone when games were on the line certainly doesn't help his cause.
a Coach K Never Forgets an 'L'

Music ...
a Scenes from Grammy weekend ... You go Death Cab.
a Grammys on key, but also a bit offbeat
a Wild Thing ... Good stuff about Neko Case.
a Vinyl Takes Another Spin With Music Lovers ... Love it! Except for the stores that charge like 30 bucks for a good vinyl. That's just robbery.

TV ...
a Joaquin Phoenix and late night: What's old is new again ... Phoenix's Letterman appearance is one of the craziest things I've ever seen on television.
a Joaquin Phoenix mystifies David Letterman
a Flight 1549 crew gets laughs on 'Letterman'
a As Conan heads west, where will his humor go? ... I was one of those guys who loved watching Conan in college. Some time after that I realized he's not that funny. I think he's going to have to make some changes to survive Leno's spot.

Politics ...
a Stalled Switch to Digital TV A Classic Tale of Breakdown ... Pretty much. If you're not ready, it's your own fault, I say.
a Even Tiniest Lincoln Relics Command Reverence

Internet & Media ...
a What Newspapers Do, Have Done and Will Do
a Newsweek Plans Makeover to Fit a Smaller Audience
a Boy Photoshops girl: A Flickr love story ... This is my friend Raechel's submission for the week. I found this story both very cool, and kind of creepy.
a TV's Mark Suppelsa connects to 5,000 friends on Facebook
a How Google Decides to Pull the Plug
a Do We Need a New Internet?
a How fast can you add Facebook friends? Faster than Facebook will allow
a How Social Networking Sites Have Changed The Breakup Game
a Twitter? It’s What You Make It

Life & other stuff ...
a Snuggie Pub Crawl coming
a 40 years' worth of thanks ... Great story. If you can, watch the video, too.
a Queens Driver Unknowingly Drags a Body Nearly 20 Miles ... Awful.
a From tech bubble to tech bobbleheads ... I so want one.

Sunday reading

We got more snow this weekend ...

At least a foot, I'd say, which is a few inches more than the meteorologist I talked to Friday night said we were going to get ... At the pace it was falling yesterday, it took me almost three hours to clean our driveway and sidewalks, and then shovel the driveway again when the plow came by and stuffed it closed. The piles of snow in some places are literally up to my eyeballs ...

Phoebe appears to be feeling much better. It's no wonder; she also appears to have handed off her cough and cold to Kates and I ...

Which is perfect considering it's supposed to get really cold this week ...

Some of the reads that caught my eyes recently ...

Sports ...
a Old guard squeezed in new market ... A new era is definitely taking hold ...
a A Really Big Deal ... You can't blame a guy for wanting to play for the Yankees. But the money involved here is just sick.
a Apples for a Nickel, and Plenty of Empty Seats
a Pursuit of glory is turning gory

Politics ...
a 'Virtual JFK: Vietnam if Kennedy Had Lived' -- archival bits and pieces forge a fantasy history
a The perils and joys of self-esteem ... From Garrison Keillor
a Palin Pummels the Press
a Sweet on Caroline
a Caroline Kennedy Is No Sarah Palin
a Let Roland Burris have the Senate seat and move on, already!

Media & the Internet ...
a Can America’s paper of record survive the death of newsprint? Can journalism? ... Ugh.
a For newspapers, time's the enemy
a Sunnier Times in New Mainstream Media ... Say what you want about Jay Mariotti, but his debut column for AOL brings up some great points ... Phil Rosenthal has more here.
a For BlackBerry, Obama’s Devotion Is Priceless
a Former Tribune photog gets White House post
a On the Net: 'Tis the season for year-end lists

TV ...
a Paving the way to 'Sesame Street' ... Who doesn't love "Sesame Street."

Music ...
a Katy Perry fills music’s quirky girl void

The Onion ...
a Terror Experts Warn Next 9/11 Could Fall On Different Date

Life & other stuff ...
a Ford's Theatre to Curtail Display of Lincoln Coat
a The Next Next Things ... Some pretty cool stuff to look forward to.
a Milky Way not such a lightweight; new study suggests it's 50 percent more massive than thought

Sunday reading

So the storm that was coming yesterday? ... Yeah, it came all right -- in the form of a wet, icy mess. Shoveling the driveway and sidewalks last night was like trying to shovel Lake Michigan ...

Kates and I just finished watching "Elf" on TV ... We saw it in the theater a few years ago, and I hadn't seen it since -- mostly because I haven't had a high regard for it. I think perhaps it was one of those movies where it was so hyped that we went in with huge expectations, and left the theater feeling let down. So last week when my cohorts were putting together a short list of the greatest holiday movies ever made, I bemoaned "Elf" going on the list ... Seeing it again today, I realized how charming of a little holiday film (and cast) it really is. Forgive me.

Here's some of the reads that piqued my interests last week ...

Drew Peterson ...
a Relative's help alleged in Peterson case ... Like I've said: The twists get better each day ...
a Peterson's camcorder footage shown on 'Good Morning America'

Music ...
a 'Idol' Jordin Sparks makes CD debut ... I do like her first single.

TV ...
a Late-night laugh-in

Baseball ...
a Dodgers' activity absent after Torre ... Yep. It's pitiful.
a Raines deserves Hall of Fame induction ... Until I read this story, I wouldn't have taken a second look at ol' Rock. Indeed he's a worthy candidate ...
a What the voters got right ... and wrong ... more on baseball's objectionable postseason awards. This one is quite a bit closer to my opinions compared to a column I cited last weekend on the same subject. Jimmy Rollin should have finished at least third in the NL MVP voting ...
a Hometown Views of Bonds Are Unchanged
a Next year's Rockies: Six teams poised to go from sub-.500 to postseason ... I do believe the Reds are going to be in it next year; they've been on the cusp for a couple years now. But the Royals and the Rangers!? I'll believe it when I see it ...

The Internet and media ...
a How Do You Tell a Web Name From A Typo?
a Storming the News Gatekeepers: On the Internet, Citizen Journalists Raise Their Voices

Politics ...
a Calculation and Conviction
a Her Heart's in the Race: Michelle Obama on the Campaign Trail and Her Life's Path
a Obama's Amnesia Problem
a Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton Bring Star Power to Iowa

Life and other stuff ...
a Capturing final, precious moments
a The Truth About Lying: Our Lives Are Filled With Untruths. But Why Do We Lie, And How Can We Tell When Others Are Full of It?
a What's wrong with this picture?
a Lincoln had cancer, doctor theorizes
a Is Lincoln Earliest Recorded Case of Rare Disease?
a Step Inside, and Back in Time, and Dial Away: The Area's Last Public Phone Booth Is Shabby but Holding On

More on Thursday night's football game ...

a In heart of Packers country, Romo's hometown faces tough choice