Providence Journal / Mary Murphy
New England Patriots running back Corey Dillon hugs Detroit Lions quarterback Jon Kitna on the field after yesterday's game.

Bad fans:
Detroit Free Press: Patriots’ comeback gives Lions same old ending

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Here were the Detroit Lions with an opportunity to upset an elite team on the road. The New England Patriots were playing poorly -- marred by penalties and turnovers -- and the Lions led by eight in the fourth quarter.

But the Lions being the Lions, they blew it and lost, 28-21...

Detroit News: Patriots struggle, but beat Lions, 28-21

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Sooner or later, the real New England Patriots came out to play -- just as expected.

So did the real Detroit Lions.

When the imposters stepped aside, the Lions and Patriots played for real in the fourth quarter Sunday afternoon. It was no surprise that the Patriots dominated the fourth quarter to escape with a 28-21 victory at Gillette Stadium.

Any number of meaningless platitudes can be thrown the Lions' way for pushing the Patriots to the breaking point for three quarters. But in the end, they reverted to character -- a losing team that folds in the clutch...

Hey, Motor City fans: Do you root for your team?

Wax works: Pete Goldlust carves crayons: More at the link.

$ave on electricity: Surprise: Not-so-glamorous conservation works best. The Christian Science Monitor:

When high school science teacher Ray Janke bought a home in Chicopee, Mass., he decided to see how much he could save on his electric bill.

He exchanged incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescents, put switches and surge protectors on his electronic equipment to reduce the "phantom load" - the trickle consumption even when electronic equipment is off - and bought energy-efficient appliances.

Two things happened: He saw a two-thirds reduction in his electric bill, and he found himself under audit by Mass Electric. The company thought he'd tampered with his meter. "They couldn't believe I was using so little," he says....

More holiday music: Very longtime reader Bill Marsland, of Rumford, emails,

How are you?

Thanks for the holiday music. Please, keep it coming!!

Have you mentioned http://www.falalalala.com/ ?

They post a new song every day until Christmas. Then they give you the art work for a CD jewelcase so you can burn a CD of all the songs as a present or for your collection.
Looks like they have been doing this for a couple of years. I discovered them last year and collected the CD. This year they are offering the complete 2005 as well as the 2004 cd's and artwork as zip files under the heading Past ADVENTures. Might be a limited time posting as they use rapidshare.com to get you all of their music. By the way, rapidshare will try to get you to join up for a fee but you can very easily use their free service with a little patience.

Also look below the "Past ADVENTures" section for more holiday fun like a zip file containing 14 versions of the classic "Baby, iy's cold outside".

This is a fun site.

Also, you might want to check out the NORAD Santa Tracking site http://www.noradtrackssanta.com/en/default.php . It has some military band holiday music, a way to track Santa on Christmas eve and a fun puzzle you can solve.

Thanks for another great year. You are still my "go to daily" portion of projo.com and have been now since you started.

It's more than nice to hear from otherwise-invisible readers -- and Bill has periodically piped up for 4 1/2 years now.

Related: Big Rock Candy Mountain offers three tunes from Rockabilly Xmas:

Cordell Jackson: Rock'n'Roll Christmas (mp3)
Mark Anthony : Mama's Twistin' With Santa (mp3)
Marguerite Trina: The Rocking Tree (mp3)

and a couple of beatnik Christmas songs, including Yulesville by Edd ("Kookie") Byrnes* -- "a flurry of drums and be bop jazz-lite, with Byrnes giving his finger snapping version of The Night Before Christmas."

*"Kookie" parked the cars on the TV detective show 77 Sunset Strip (1958-64). Videos and theme song here.