Random Thoughts 12/19/07

• The Hobbit will happen! New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson have worked out their legal issues and MGM is on board too. They'll begin pre-production immediately with the goal of the movie being out in about two years. Then they want to do another movie that will bridge the gap between the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I don't know if that means the Silmarillion or not, but who cares?! More Tolkien is always good!
  
• 2007 will be the first year that American households, on average, spent more on cell phones than on landlines. I'm not surprised, for most of us seem willing to sacrifice quality and dependability for convenience and flexibility. I hate my using my cell phone but I can't imagine living without it either.
• The Pro Bowl is too much of a popularity contest. I vote in it every year (fan voting counts for one third) and try to vote for the guys who most deserving. Yet there are always under-performing stars that make it because they always make it, usually at the expense of younger more deserving players. It's less of an issue in the NFL because injuries will send a lot of replacements to Hawaii, expanding the list quite a bit. Hopefully that includes the likes of Fred Taylor, Mario Williams, and Derek Anderson.
• How do you fix the Pro Bowl? Instead of voting in October, save the voting until the last part of the season and announce the rosters during the playoffs. I can't think of a reason they couldn't delay it, making it a truer representation of how the season played out. It also would help to reduce the influence of fan voting, who vote more on name recognition than anything else; let's make it 1/3 coaches, 1/3 players, 1/6 fans, 1/6 sports writers.
  
• The Jayhawks' basketball team has started 11-0, matching the football team which also started out 11-0. Football coach Mark Mangino is the 2007 AP Coach of the Year, has two first team All-Americans, and has landed in the BCS Orange Bowl. And the expectations for the basketball team is even higher. This could be a great year for Jayhawks.
• I'm still plugging away at the AFI list of greatest movies: I've watched about 80-85% or enough to know that my top-100 would be about half different. I'm also going through the list of Oscar winners. Some of my recent discoveries include Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and the Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Both of these movies, though different, were really well done. My boys watched Errol Flynn as Robin Hood and wanted to re-watch it!