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Lou Pickney's Online Commentary

Weekend Plans

Thursday
February 1, 2007

This is shaping up to be a great weekend. Velvet is flying in from Huntington tomorrow afternoon, and she'll be visiting me through Monday morning. Between that, and the Colts playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday, it should be a very good time.

The one person I know who might have a more fun weekend than me? My friend Brook Gardiner, who works for the NFL's legal department. Brook has his own room at a prominent hotel on South Beach, not to mention a ticket to the game. Membership has its privileges, it seems.

By the way, I like the Colts -7, not that you would've expected anything else from me.

Rhetorical question: why doesn't ESPN list lines for sports events that they have on the board at the ESPN Zone in Las Vegas (which I visited in 2003) on their ticker/bottom line? I know that ESPN doesn't want to rile up the sports leagues that it seeks to broadcast games of, but it's not like there's a blanket ban; Chris Berman's 2 minute drill lists the spreads of NFL games. Where is the synergy when you need it?

One thing with the Super Bowl that is a time-honored tradition is the prevalence of clever, well-produced commercials. However, I fear that the "wow factor" for the ads this year will be diminished for the internet crowd by the leaking of the ads ahead of time online. Sure, the companies that are advertising like the free plugs, I'm sure, but the "wow factor" risks being reduced. For example, Kevin Federline working as a fast-food employee (where he belongs) won't have the same zing to it for people who already saw it on YouTube or iFilms or wherever it's available online.

I'm not going to go all conspiracy theory on you, but I can't read this story from CNET and not be frightened and angered.

"Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according to current and former officials. That database can subsequently be queried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords."

In many ways, the "war on terror" is a war on freedom. And privacy. Issues like this are why I'm a staunch Libertarian.

Yesterday I tried to buy new tires for Lou Junior (my Honda Accord) over at the Wal-Mart service center. My plan was simple: drop it off during my lunch break, have Sean (the new manager in training for this market) pick me up from Moe's Southwest Grill, and then get a ride over there at the end of the work day to pick it up, with fresh tires and an oil change and the balance work complete.

Naturally, Wal-Mart was not only out of Michelin tires in my car's size, they didn't have *any* tires that matched. It's not like I'm driving an obscure car; it's a freaking Honda Accord. So much for the best laid plans. I suppose that's what I get for going to Wal-Mart for tires.


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