This blew my mind. My wife told me this last night:

As I was riding the bus home from Qwest last night, my wife Kate and our 3-year-old daughter Lucie are watching the beginning of the Dallas-Green Bay game. The camera takes a shot of Packers QB Aaron Rodgers. Lucie sees it, and according to my wife, this is what she said:

Lucie: "Oooh, that's the new guy."

Kate: "What? Who?"

Lucie: "Him. That's the new guy. And everybody was nervous about him. But it's okay now."

I have not discussed the Rodgers-Favre brushup with Lucie at all because -- well, it just didn't come up, you know?

Oh God. A Packers fan. In my own home. I've tried as a father. I've really tried. I don't know what to do.

Yes, this is what I've been reduced to as a former sports blogger: making trivial note of any chance encounter with an athlete that I might have as a football fan, grasping onto the fumes of coincidence so I can show off my mere presence in the right place at the right time. It's pretty pathetic actually. Don't become like me.

THAT SAID, I was at a Belltown restaurant this evening with Some Business Associates, and about halfway through our pork terrine, Matt Hasselbeck walks in and takes the table next to us with a couple of friends. It was kind of thrilling.

Did not appraoch him.

His back looked fine but he didn't use it that much.

Anyway, that's all.

Um, anyone hitting Bumbershoot this weekend? 

Naturally I'm despairing about the Sonics buyout, but I don't have much to say personally about it. It was a fait accompli 2 years ago.

All I will say is that I clicked over to The Oklahoman newspaper website this evening. The #2 story in the "Top Viewed" list of Oklahoman stories was "Oklahoma City gets NBA team."

The #1 story was: "Dog sex tapes lead to arrests":

TULSA — A woman who was charged with committing felony crimes against nature was arrested this morning after police were notified of more than 150 homemade movies of the Tulsa County woman engaging in various sex acts with dogs.

Welcome to the big time, NBA.

By now you know: This afternoon the Seahawks parted ways with the most successful running back in franchise history, Shaun Alexander (ESPN.com). Shaun made a typically classy parting statement to the city of Seattle, reprinted on the News-Trib's Seahawks Insider blog.

Hopefully you've read Mr. Morgan's eulogy above. I think it pretty much says it perfectly. There won't be another Seahawk like him.

Hey. Hope you like the new place. Man, it's tall.

So I seem to start a new blog every year, whenever I get the flimsiest of inspirations while doing things I'm not really paying attention to in the first place. And I've done so again: Museum Of Pop Archaeology. It is, I trust, self-explanatory.

There is also a Facebook Group for the Museum that you may consider joining.

The Benign Comedy is still up, but on hiatus. I'm just not into telling the truth lately.

Thanks. I'm out like Clay Bennett's soul.

--P

Hold your horses, it's officially become a screwball comedy: Howard Schultz is going to sue Clay Bennett to regain ownership of the Sonics.

This is just flat-out adorable. This is the cutest thing.

It's a Hail Mary, of course, and I don't think it'll work in the end, but it's at least a little more likely the Sonics' impending move to OK City might get delayed for a spell.

From the Seattle Times, verification that you, the sports fan, are smarter than most state and local officials in these matters, and definitely smarter than would-be sports team owners who still haven't learned never to correspond via the internet: The long-rumored emails indicating that Clay Bennett was planning to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City long before he was supposed to legally start talking about it.

Um, question. Little question here. How exactly was it that I, a poor schlub erstwhile fake sportswriter, figured out that this was Bennett's plan within hours of the announcement that he'd bought the team?

And I am to believe that local government officials are truly stunned, and not feigning indignation, that these self-proclaimed rednecks were not operating in good faith, but in fact fucking liars?

You mean, we really are smarter than the people we're electing? Wow! I thought that was just a gimmick to make us watch more cable!

Good lord. This is hilarious.

I'm not saying anything more. It might sound like I'm bitter.

Two weeks in Nashville, Olympia, and Austin. Some observations:

(1) Elvis is still the king of dead guys in Nashville, but Johnny Cash is racing way up the posthumous hit parade.

(2) You do not have to be dead (yet) to get your own statue in Nashville. Billy Graham has one.

(3) Brad Paisley and Miranda Lambert are brilliant. As for the rest of the contemporary country scene in Nashville... well.

(4) I should never try to sing Stevie Wonder at karaoke after I've had six Witty Chucks and have blown my voice by singing Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" and impersonating Sean Connery rapping "Stronger."

(5) Austin, Texas is the most bohemian city in the United States. Sorry, Yakima.

(6) Never take public transit after midnight in Austin. Actually, you don't even have to make the choice: the fucking buses just won't stop for you.

(7) Hayes Carll's "She Left Me For Jesus" is the greatest country song of the decade.

(8) My Morning Jacket is the closest thing to Radiohead America has, and they will soon give the best arena concerts on the planet.

(9) Sensible shoes are a must in Austin during SXSW. I found this out the hard way. The bottoms of my feet look like the top of Mount Vesuvius. My daughter looked at them tonight and said, "That looks like meat and juice!"

(10) I no longer have an aversion to cowboy hats.

(11) Both Nashville and Austin are hardcore basketball towns at the moment for good reason.

(12) I guess we're not, eh?

The Packers' quarterback is done. His team's spanking of the Seahawks in last year's divisional round will therefore stand as his last professional victory.

When he wasn't playing us, I had a whole lot of admiration and respect for Brett Favre. He looked like he was having fun. He was the anti-Ryan Leaf. Then again, anybody who signed a Christmas card was by definition the anti-Ryan Leaf. But not many could throw the ball.

His cinematic high point was his role as the ex-boyfriend the Farrelly Brothers' There's Something About Mary.

Two of my ex-girlfriends had obsessions with Brett Favre which made me somewhat uncomfortable.

Anyway, Wisconsin's gonna be melancholy today. Try to wrap up business early. Happy trails.

O, who has set my heart on a melancholy journey? 'Tis you, my strong-footed minstrel.

Dreamboat won't be floating in Elliott Bay next season.

(Sigh.) Who's gonna cover our kickoff returns now?

Thanks for the memories, J.B.

Update [2008-2-29 20:57:3 by Shrug]: But we'll still see him at Qwest once a year. According to the Seattle Times, Josh is now a St. Louis Ram. Be good to him, seattlesucks... (sniff, sniff).

I'm really not that broken up about it, actually, but there's no denying Dreamboat's place in Seahawks lore.

Update [2008-2-29 21:8:3 by Shrug]: 2: According to that Times article, the Seahawks allegedly offered Brown a deal that would have made him the highest-paid placekicker in NFL history.

Not that Dreamboat wouldn't try to earn every penny in that contract, but personally I think the Hawks just avoided a little financial bullet.