That time of year again

So 9/11 is three days away. Meh. People seem oblivious to the main advantage of living in a linear timeline -- that events happen, and then they stop happening, and you're free to move on with your goddamn life. Or you could pick at the scab and thoughtfully stroke your scars as if they were the only part of you that matter.

I'm getting increasingly cranky about the compulsion to note and somehow observe anniversaries of pivotal events as if we were honestly capable of forgetting them. Florida Rep. Allen West seems to think it's possible, but West is a tiny-minded anti-Muslim fetishist with a questionable relationship to sanity and an impressive disregard for constitutionality for someone sworn to uphold it. Every single member and institution of the media seems to think it's possible for 9/11 awareness to somehow slide off the public consciousness, and each seems legally obligated to weigh in as yet another anniversary closes. We don't need supposed sports columnist Rick Reilly weighing in with his educated assessment of the bravery of the passengers on United Flight 93 -- Rick, we know, there was a goddamn movie made which we've all had the opportunity to rent if we wanted to, now get back to recycling columns or sucking things out of my carpet. We know. If you can successfully recite two numbers and instinctively know that it refers to a specific event ten years ago (and it's acceptable AP style on any reference), it does not need constant reintroduction to the general public for fear of it evaporating into the ether.

I'm not saying it shouldn't be observed; obviously, if you want to mark the occasion for whatever reason (and I'm certainly not saying those who suffered personal loss on the date should soldier on obliviously), feel free. But we as a people have been doing this for ten straight years, and nobody should be slighted for wanting to finally turn the page.

If you really want to relive or revisit it, watch it as it happens from TV stations from across the world. I throw this out there because it's a fantastic resource and nicely presented and executed (though I wish the clips were longer than 30 seconds apiece), and because one of my personal interests has always been the media's reaction to earth-shattering events -- and I think it can be argued that 9:03 am is the most earth-shattering event ever caught on live TV, certainly by multiple networks (the only other two that come close in my mind are Jack Ruby and losing Challenger, and those were only shown by one network -- though the latter was being watch by thousands of impressionable and soon-to-be scarred schoolchildren). So yeah, I'm deeply intrigued by Diane Sawyer gasping for breath and the panicked shouting of the on-the-scene interviewees and the anchors getting things wrong, wrong, wrong as they unfold. But that's my personal peccadillo, and I've already revisited it at my leisure and to my satisfaction. (If the anchors are too restrained and collected for you, perhaps this reaction is more of what you're looking for; 102 Minutes That Changed America is the definitive found-footage documentary of the NYC end of 9/11 which unfolds in astonishingly swift real-time and is as riveting and horrifying as it could be.)

Also that time of year again

YAYEZ FOOTBALLZ

It's a fun flip from last year, when the NFL had the lockout looming and the NCAA was only vaguely appalling -- now the college ranks seem to be caught in a two way struggle, one an all-out douchefest between conference-defecting teams (even more so than last year) or a scramble to see how many blatant violations a school can commit and incur the mighty wrath of having a handful of players sit out the season opener against perennial juggernaut West Boise State. The NFL -- where coaches like Pete Carroll and players like Reggie Bush escape from their college transgressions unscathed -- suddenly became an institution of laughably pretentious decorum, enforcing penalties on players and coaches for infractions committed while at the college level, which seems deserved if somehow not right; surely Roger Goodell has heard the word ex post facto at some point in his life and is lucky Terrell Pryor and Jim Tressel both know which side their bread's buttered and don't want to challenge this de facto farm club relationship between the NFL and the NCAA. A decently-motivated lawyer could have a hell of a time with this. Pity they're all busy paying Miami players.

So the NFL is the obviously professional league, and the NCAA is its implicitly professional junior corps. The transparency only makes it funnier.

Still, so now the million-dollar level athletes take the field. There are some who're writing off the Colts immediately after Peyton Manning's neck surgery, and I'm one of them. I'm a firm believer in the power of Peyton, as his perennial presence aboard the Manhattan Pretty Birds fantasy team would attest, and especially when your team is geared around his inimitable playmaking skills (which the Colts are and should be), trying to sub in Kerry Collins is like replacing Cate Blanchett with Carol Channing. Actually, Carol Channing might be an improvement over Kerry Collins -- she might be younger, I haven't done the math.

I also had the Chefs in the mix in the AFC West playoff picture until second-year tight end revelation Tony Moeaki tore his ACL while inexplicably playing in the second quarter of KC's last preseason game, and while Moe's not quite the indispensable cog Peyton is, I don't think that there's that much room for error in the AFC playoff hunt; no, not even against BRING ME THE SKULL OF Norv Turner, the Chargers' alleged coach, the man who makes Forrest Gump look like Vince Lombardi. Even without tiny speedster Darren Sproles, even without a coach with a central nervous system, even with their totally well-earned reputation for gnawing their own feet off during the first six weeks of the season, I see the Bolts moving on this year. Maybe the Chefs are in the wildcard mix, but I don't see it happening without Moe.

As for the final two this year, I hate to admit it, but the Pack look better than ever, so they get my pick in the NFC (and I still can't rule out the Saints with Drew under center, and Philly's, as usual, in contention, but only that). It's a toss-up for me in the AFC, but I think the Pats and the Bolts and Pittsburgh are in the mix with the Jets on the outside, if only because I bloody hate the Ryans and have heard enough of their brood for one lifetime and God wants me to suffer by constantly bringing them up. I don't know who makes it in the AFC; I don't think it matters.

Now, the question is, to play Madden with the birds or watch Saints/Packers? Might have to record the game so's I can watch at my leisure with the kids tomorrow. Muffin enjoys being my offensive coordinator.