XL pregame

Yes indeed, today is Super Bowl XL, show number forty in an ongoing parade that has helped make football the biggest professional sport in this country. People who don't even like sports (much less football) will attend parties all over the country (and the world), eat and drink and watch hours of endless prattling in between the biggest commercial frenzy of the year.

Somehow, perhaps because it's the first big event of the year, the advertisements have become one of the big selling points for the party. Some people watch only for the commercials, which now have specials to show the best of the previous ads and will have people swarming the Internet for the next few days re-watching the ads and voting for the best and worse in different categories.

For football fans, this is last call unless you are into the arena game (the Pro Bowl is pretty pointless, but I'm sure that it's a nice, mostly relaxing trip to Hawaii for the players and their families).

Here's an interesting tidbit about Detroit. Several stories filed this week have talked about Windsor, Canada being just across the river from Detroit but I don't recall any that talked about the direction. One heads south to get to Canada from Detroit. I wonder if there are any songs about the area that talk about goin' down south to Canada? I'm sure someone has had a go at playing with that kind of 'up is down' humor.

Last summer I learned that many flights from SoCal fly pretty close to Detroit on their way to New York. The flight I was on entered Canadian air space just south of Detroit and returned pretty close to Erie.

As for all the Steeler fans making their way to Michigan, I fail to see why everyone is so surprised. It's only about 200 miles away (probably 300 driving... Google Maps says 284). People make drives like that all the time for all kinds of silly reasons. Steeler fanatics doing so to be near the game? D'oh!

As for the game... Despite the fellas from the Steel City being favored and my wife's family connections (my father in law has been a Steelers fan all his life) I'm pulling for Holmgren, Hasselbeck and company (the Sea Chickens as they are known on one mailing list I read) to win today. Either way, a competitive game would be better than a blow out, just ask any of those advertisers who have purchased obscenely expensive air time in the fourth quarter. Enjoy the festivities for whatever reason makes you happy!