Quick hits

Last Monday of January.  Already.  Where does the time go?  If you know, please speak up!

Today's post isn't really ONE post, but numerous small ones.  Here goes.

Are you excited about the Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers?  I read that the Niners are slight favorites, but the Chiefs have been in four of the last five SB games with this one.  Hard to beat that.

But I'm almost to the point I was with the Patriots, as in, "Them?  Again?"

$83.3 million.  Ahem.

Meanwhile, various entities are trying very hard to pull the U.S. into active war in the Middle East.  Our next move is likely to be calculated as a proportional response to the death of three service members.  Let's hope that more won't follow.

Charles Osgood, former CBS reporter, anchor and host of "CBS Sunday Morning," passed away recently, and his former show devoted its entire 90 minutes to Osgood, who was a witty, comfortable presence in many living rooms throughout his time as host, including ours.  I'll confess that I smiled a lot and shed a few tears watching the retrospective.

I'm not especially enjoying our schizophrenic weather patterns lately.  My car still looks like a war zone.

College basketball is beginning to resemble professional basketball more and more.  Players can't make layups and defense is something of a passing phase for many teams.  And, by the way, I detest professional basketball.

There are approximately 15 days until baseball begins spring training.