Is anyone else as riveted as I am, about the OSU kids taking their trip to the BCS game? Why this is front page news, I'll never know. At first, we heard how they were going to "The Price is Right" and Tijuana. They did neither. How exciting. Whoever greenlit this should be forced to do a front page series on their next personal vacation.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of each year, I vow that I will clip coupons to become a better shopper. This usually gets boring by the Super Bowl, but the first foray to Giant Eagle in 2007, resulted in a few coupons for things I actually buy. Mostly on the meds side. You know, Tussin and the like. The idea of coupons is good until you find yourself with several containers of unused Country Time Pink Lemonade sitting around.

While gathering items for today's Big Breakfast, I picked up a Jimmy Dean Skillet that was on sale. With the new flavor of bacon. Mmmm...bacon. Anyhow, when I actually dumped this product into a skillet, I got the sense it was a smaller package. Indeed, having a package laying around from the previous sale, I noticed the price is the same, but the size is now 18 oz., instead of the regular 20. Pretty scandalous, I say. Especially for breakfast. If anything, it should be larger.

Meal of Links

During Christmas, I was really struggling with the idea of gift cards as presents. I'm still under the hood on them, because I don't mind getting them and I do give them out, but it seems the art of gift giving is dying. Here's more.

You, yes you, can "attend" Berkeley. For free via iTunes.

Malcolm Gladwell has an interesting New Yorker piece about Enron. Was it a puzzle or a mystery?

Exercise Yard

Showtime had last night's boxing card and I thought it kinda lame to kick off the new year. Good to see Steve Albert calling him the "Classy" Jimmy Lennon, Jr. again. And James Brown's band played the National Anthem, so life as a band goes on, it seems. I wonder if they have any singing or if it's all instrumentals now.

The bouts were Jose Antonio Rivera vs. Travis Simms for a belt at 154, and Samuel Peter against James "Lights Out" Toney in a heavyweight eliminator. Simple recaps: Simms whipped Rivera, making him a bloody mess throughout, finally taking him out in the 9th.

Peter almost threw a shutout at Toney. Toney allegedly trained with Billy Blanks of Tae-Bo fame for this match, even though he still weighed in at 234. Not exactly, a ringing endorsement. Blanks was actually in the corner, offering advice once. If I were trainer Freddie Roach, that would bother me. But it didn't matter, as Peter dominated and got a unanimous decision. Hard to believe I stayed awake.

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