Countdown To The Super Bowl

The road to Tampa and Super Bowl XLIII starts this weekend with the Wild Card play-off games. After 17 weeks and 16x games, we are definitely getting down to the business end of the season.

Like last years Patriots going 17-0, another team almost replicated that record only this time Detroit went 0-17. Miami have turned around their fortunes, last year they went 1-15. The appointment of Bill Parcell as GM, a new coach and players. They have surprised everybody with the speed of their turnaround to a 11-5 record to get to the play offs. All the ups and downs in Dallas and Philadelphia meant people took their Eye off the NY Giants, who quietly became division champs and made their way to the play-offs for a chance to repeat. That was until wide receiver Plexico Burres went to a nightclub and got in trouble when he accidentally shot himself in the leg.

The season started badly for The Patriots losing Tom Brady in the 1st week. Matt Cassel understandably looked shaky, however he found his feet and confidence. He started to look like Brady…almost. The irony is that Tom Brady got his break in 2001 when Drew Bledsoe, got injured early in the season and Brady took them to the Super Bowl and lifted the Vince Lombadi trophy.

Matt Cassel put in 2x back-to back games with 400+ yards, which is a new Patriots record, a feat Brady never managed. The Patriots will be feeling very sore missing out on the play-offs with an 11-5 record. That is pretty amazing, especially when you look at the AFC West division champs the San Diego Chargers who with a 3-5 record came good in the final straight to win their division with an 8-8 record. It is anomalies like this that leads to fans and critics object to the NFL’s current play-off system as it means that some of the better teams with a superior record can miss out.

The simple fact is that some divisions are just stronger than others. The NFC East is historically the toughest and the best division in the league as it has produced the most Super Bowl wins of x11 since 1966. This season the NFC South is probably the next toughest division. The New Orleans Saints ended the season with an 8-8 record, but last in their division. This NFC South is very topsy-turvy, I guess these teams in this division make full use of the draft and free agents. This division had a strange record for the last 5 years where the team that finished last, the next year would win the division. I have to say, knowing this in September I came awfully close to putting a bet on Atlanta winning the division. Rookie QB Matt Ryan has impressed me and everybody from week 1, looking very poised in the pocket, accurate with his passing and unflappable, all to rare for a rookie QB. He was so impressive that this week he won the award for Rookie MVP. Sadly Atlanta, no fault of Ryan ended up 1x game shy of winning the division with an 11-5 record. Division champs the Carolina Panthers looked impressive, even if they did wobble mid season. The trick was they played badly but won the games and finished with a 12-4 record. They ended up sharing the best record with The NY Giants and joining them as the No.1 and 2 seed for the NFC and earned themselves a week off.

The Cowboys started the season as everyone favourites to win the Super Bowl. They won their opening 3x games however they began to splutter, Romo injured his pinky finger and missed 4x games. They almost bounced back however the teams December blues returned they began losing, arguing and never recovered. The Eagles were looking out of the picture, they even tied a game, the first time in the NFL since 2002. McNabb was playing so badly head coach Andy Reid benched him. It had the desired effect as he came back swinging and hitting his receivers between the numbers. Finishing the season with a 4-1 streak that saw them thump The Cowboys 6-44 in the last game of the season. It turn out the tied game came in handy as it gave The Eagles 2nd place and helped knock The Cowboys out of the race for the play-offs.

The St. Louis Rams, Oakland Raiders and the San Fransisco 49ers made mid-season coaching changes. The end of the season brought the sacking of a couple of head coaches. The NY Jets fired Eric Mangini for not getting his team to the play-offs from an 8-4 start, winning only 1 game from the last 5. I hate to say it but, it sounds like the fans and pundits are laying some, if not most of the blame on QB Brett Fave. Mike Shannerhan, the 2nd longest tenured coach who won back-to-back Super Bowls in the 90’s for the Denver Broncos was fired for losing a 3x game lead to The Chargers resulting in no play-off birth. The Seahawks Mike Holmgren is taking a year out, the Indianpolalis Colts Tony Dunghi is retiring. Along the sidelines, the NFL will look significantly different next year with the lack of big names that have the big game experience of winning Super Bowls.

January games take on a new intensity, you lose, and you go home. The hitting gets harder, there is more on the line, every play becomes critical. Normally you get some snow or icebowl games, sadly Green Bay and New England did not make it. Aaron Rogers came in a looked good for Green Bay, sadly the defence and running back Grant did not stand up. Last years Green Bay Ice bowel game against The Giants was one of the best games of the season. The Colts and Peyton Manning are on a roll with a nine game win streak. This is very impressive considering Peyton Manning came off knee surgery last summer. He took a while to get going but has got his team in a position similar to 2006 when they won the Super Bowl. Manning’s skill and leadership has led to him been named the leagues MVP. Manning has received this award 3x time now, equaling Brett Favres run in the late 90’s.


Wild Card Weekend Schedule

Saturday Jan 3:
9pm Atlanta at Arizona,
1.30am Indianapolis at San Diego.

Sunday Jan 4:
6pm Baltimore at Miami

9pm Philadelphia at Minnesota.

There is talk of all the road teams winning this weekend, which would be quite something.

The Colts and Manning maybe the in form team, however they have a lousy record of 1-3 against The Chargers. The Chargers just know how to line up against The Colts and how to fluster Manning as he averages 3 interceptions per game. He has had some his worst games in San Diego. Both QBs will come out slinging, as ever it will be a close game with no more than 4 points in it.

Arizona have not made the play-offs since 1947, so they maybe pretty nervous. Thankfully they have home field advantage and they are always strong at home. Even though Atlanta have the rookie MVP at QB, he may have hit the rookie wall. Arizona have the rejuvenated QB Kurt Warner who has had his best year since his Super Bowl winning days in St.Louis. Combine that with the tall, physical and reliable wide receivers Boldin and Fitzgerald, the Atlanta defence may have a long day, especially if Arizona mix it up with a run game. If Arizona want to progress the defense will need to step up to stop Michal Tuner.

The Ravens and rookie QB Joe Flacco travel to Miami for a tough game. This will be a defensive game, as The Ravens can shut down any team. It will be interesting to see how Miami and QB Chad Pennington and their wildcat offence do against Ray Lewis’s Raven defence. I can see the Ravens winning this by 10-6

Philadelphia Eagles v Minnesota Vikings will be another defensive chess match, with two of the leagues best running backs in Brian Westbrook and Adrian Peterson. If Donovan McNabb can have a good game he may be the difference maker.

The Vikings QB Tarvaris Jackson will need to have a good game throeing he ball, to allow Peterson to find the holes. Jackson will be tested more than his 17 previous games as Philly's defensive wizard Jim Johnson, will blitz Jackson more than any other team he has seen all year. Because of that I can see Philly winning the game.

Happy Birthday Mary

Mary Tyler Moore celebrated her 72nd birthday this week.

For a lot of people in the UK and of my age, the only reference people have for Mary Tyler Moore is from a lyric in the Weezer track Buddy Holly. Little do they know she was a hot brunette with great legs and a talent for comedy. In the 60's and 70's she appeared in two of the biggest and most celebrated US sitcoms ever made.

Her 1st starring role came in The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-66) when she was just 25. She played Laura Petrie, wife to Rob (Dick Van Dyke). Mary Tyler Moore soon became an instant sensation, with her Jackie Onasis bob and tight capri pants. Hollywood opened its arms to her once The Dick Van Dyke Show finished. Because of her clout she was able to pitch a new show to the network and get it made without a pilot, this was unheard of then and even today. She set up MTM productions in 1970 to produce The Mary Tyler Moore Show. By the third season MTM had made Saturday nights on CBS essential viewing with its double bill of Mary and The Bob Newhart Show, the addition of M*A*S*H* also helped.




The Mary Tyler Moore Show revolutionised TV sitcoms. Mary was a single, working, independent woman, not reliant on a man. The shows characters were not one dimensional and evolved as the show went on. The show lasted an impressive 168 episodes over 7 seasons and won a record breaking 29 Emmy's. This number has only recently been broken when Frasier won its 30th. Along with The Dick Van Dyke Show over a 12 year period Mary Tyler Moore won 6 EMMY awards for her acting and the shows won a combined total of 86 nominations and 44 trophies. This is why these two shows are held in such high regard. Plus the fans love them to bits.

This can be seen on The Simpson's 'And Maggie Makes Three' and Family Guy 'Wasted Talent' episodes where they have been homaged. For the Simpson's this is understandable as producer James L. Brooks created/wrote The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The city of Minneapolis where The Mary Tyler Moore Show was set even has a statue of Mary because of how the show put the city on the map. The show proved so successful that it spawned 3x spin-off series Rhoda, Phylis and Lou Grant.

One of the reasons people in the UK don't have an appreciation of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Is that when it was originally screened in the UK in the early 70's on BBC1 they only showed about 30 episodes. Then when CH4 launched in 1984, again only 30 episodes were screened. As far as I know no other repeats have been screened on any of the UK channels. I can just remember the end of Happy Days and Mork and Mindy, then the endless repeats of those shows on CH4. It baffles me why The Mary Tyler Moore show couldn't have been picked up for those 6pm repeat time slots or even daytime TV.

I Love The Mary Tyler Moore Show, its a great snapshot of the 70's. Every DVD boxset was welcomed with great joy. Sadly its run never finished on DVD, as they only released 4x seasons, sadly the same happened with The Bob Newhart Show. After a few years of misery, complaining and petitioning things were looking bleak. This year things began to turnaround, a groundswell of popularity for the show grew. The catalyst for this was a recent Oprah episode and cast reunion which resulted in a rise in DVD sales on Amazon. Perhaps the biggest reason was that the man with the power, the senior vice president of Fox, Steven Feldstein’s email address was found by Mary fans. This led to his inbox been swamped with emails pleading that seasons 5-7 to come out on DVD. Shortly after this Mary fans were rejoicing with news that FOX will be finishing the shows run on DVD. That was in September, however no release dates have been released yet. News should be forthcoming once we get into 2009. Hopefully they will decide to finish The Bob Newhart Show at the same time.

I cannot wait for Seasons 5-7 as apparently the best episode of the whole series is to come. Chuckles Bites The Dust was voted #1 in TV Guides 'Greatest Episodes Of All Time'. This was partly due the dealing of the death of a cast member, the episode dances precariously between tragedy and black comedy in how Chuckles dies and then how Chuckles colleagues mourn his passing.

Christmas Presents

We had a great Xmas in our house.

I got a couple of great cook books by Jon Torode and Atol Kochhar from my brother and sister.

I have sampled a recipe and some of the writing from this book, when there was some recipes and tips from the book in The Observer some months back. Avaible from http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/ for only £6.99, howver P+P is £3.50, unless you spend £25, either ways it is till cheaper than Amazon.

I am looking forward to trying some recipes from Atol Kochhar's new book, this guy knows how to make contemporary Indian cuisine and present it like haute cuisine. That's how and why he became the first Indian chef to be awarded a Michelin star for his restaurant Benares. Kochhar along with Reza Mahammad and Cyrus Todiwalla they have elevated Indian cuisine and given it a new sophistication. If I lived in London I would be in their restraunts all the time.

I have had a busy time leading upto Xmas. I gave away some Lemon Curd and some very festive Cranbery Curd to a couple of Friends. I ordered 24x Italian (Amalfi) lemons from http://www.natoora.co.uk/ which cost me nearly £10. I have 1x left, 2x went mouldy and I used about 8x for the Lemon Curd and the rest I preserved. Preserved lemons are quite expensive in the shops. A shredded lemon really adds a Moroccan touch to any tagine or couscous recipes. Speaking of preserving, I also confit some duck. In other words I slow cooked some duck legs for two hours submerged in a deep dish full of duck fat. You know when its ready, as the flesh is almost falling off the bone. I let the duck cool and then put it in a sterilised kilner jar and covered the duck with all the flavoursome fat. This duck confit will sit in my pantry for months till a recipe calls for it or I finally get round making a cassoulet. When you want to use it, you put the duck along with some of the fat into a very hot oven for 5 mins and you will have the crispiest duck. The rest of the duck fat can be used to make the best roast potatoes you will ever taste. I have always been put off attempting duck confit as it sounded very daunting. But with the help of a good recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Meat book. I found the whole process very easy.

Peter Serafinowicz Does Macca

Saw this Paul McCartney spoof a few weeks ago on a repeat of The Peter Serafinowicz Show and I thought it was funny as hell.



His sketch on Al Pacino ia also pretty hysterical



And Finally I can't talk about Peter Serafinowicz without mentioning his Darth Vader In Love sketches.

A Very Star Wars Christmas

I love this Yoda picture so much that I bought the figure and it comes out at Xmas and sits on the mantelpiece.

Listening To.....

The brilliant Dusty Springfield. My interest in her was reawakened by a beer ad over the summer that used her track Spooky.






Anyway trying to find this song is very hard. Because Spooky is a cover, Dusty couldn't release her version before Classic IV made it a hit in the UK. So the record company released it as a B-Side to How Can I Be Sure in 1968 . This is why its so hard to track down.

That's why I was so excited when I found it on The Complete A and B Sides 1963-70. this is a fantastic CD, as you get 41 tracks on 2xCDs. The CD includes all the greats like I Only Want To Be With You, I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself and Son Of A Preacher Man. Whats really impressive is that a lot of disc 2 (B-Sides) is just as good as disc 1 (A-Sides). A keynote for Audiophiles is that the CD set contains the original mono versions.

This great CD set is available on Amazon for a criminal price of 4.99. Do yourself a favour buy it for yourself, or give it to friends as an Xmas present.

Its Beginning To Look A Lot Like Xmas

As Da the advert goes.


- .

You either love it or hate it.

I love it, this Bing Crosby tune started getting me in a jolly mood and looking forward to Xmas at the end of November when it was 1st shown.

9 Days to go, the presents are all sorted, I made some mince pies at the weekend and my Guinness home brew is ready for supping.

Had a quick scan through the Xmas TV Times. Not sure what this says about Christmas TV, I spotted count 'em 7x Carry On films in 9 days, across 3x channels on terrestial TV. I would say its lazy and the schedulers are filling up airtime because when I started this blog in September, I am sure 3x of the films were screened then.


List of Carry On's over Xmas are:

Carry On Follow That Camel *
BBC1 Xmas Day/Night 1.40 am

Carry On Jack *
ITV Mon 29th 11.25 am

Carry On Behind *
CH4 Mon 29th 12.20pm

Carry On Cowboy *
ITV Tue 30th 12.55pm

Carry On Cleo *
ITV New Years Eve 11.25 am

Carry On Screaming
ITV Fri 2nd Jan '09 12.55 pm

Carry On Girls
BBC1 Fri 2nd Jan '09 12.10 am

*To Sky+


Carry On Behind Trailer




I will watch /Sky+ most of them, however I have seen them all bar a couple. Carry On Behind (1976) is lots of fun with Elke Sommer as a sexy Russian archaeologist chasing Kenneth William's Pofessor Crumpet around (another) campsite. Sommer who for some will be best remembered for her role alongside Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther's first sequel A Shot In The Dark (1964). There is some interesting stuff on her IMDB page, for example she guest starred on The Muppet Show in 1978. Peter Rogers must have really wanted her because she joined Phil Silvers (Carry On...Follow That Camel) (1967) as the highest paid performer with £30,000. To put her fee into to context Kenneth Williams was only paid £5,000. For Horror Hounds she will be best remembered for starring in Mario Bava's Baron Blood (1972) and Lisa And The Devil (1973).



If you need some more convincing here is a stylish picture of Elke Sommer in her prime posing for Playboy about 10 years before Carry On Behind.