Projo Subterranean Homepage News

What do they know? The wags at Sports Illustrated are largely picking the Colts over the Patriots, including Nunyo Demasio, who is also picking the Bears over the Patriots. (Double whammy?) Go figger...

At the Indy Star, Bob Kravitz sounds a little tentative about Peyton's last stand (Manning faces another career-defining challenge):

He is the giant blue elephant in the room. The one wearing No. 18. The one with all the TV commercials. Nobody wants to talk about the giant blue elephant. Specifically, nobody wants to commit the blasphemous act of considering the possibility that Peyton Manning is not a postseason quarterback, that he is lacking as a big-game player, going all the way back to his college days.

C'mon. Admit it.

You're wondering whether Manning is going to crumble Sunday against the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game...

Sidebar from the Boston Herald: Does Tom have Secret he’d like to share?

Word from San Diego is that supermodel Gisele Bundchen - who once professed her admiration for the New England Patriots QB/QT - was outside the Pats’ locker room after Tom & Co. shocked the Chargers on Sunday.

"She was standing outside the locker room, just kind of leaning against the wall," said our spy in the bowels of QualComm Stadium. "No one noticed her, she was dressed like a high-school kid, just in jeans and a T-shirt. But she is gorgeous." ...

Dylan as ghostwriter: Longtime reader Adam Crane ("Heart is in Matunuck, Body is in Minnesota") writes,

Got to see Bob at the Xcel in October and it was a great show as usual.

Wasn't sure if you've seen this but it is pretty funny. Parody of No Direction Home and the startling revelation that Bob has written every song in the past 30 years. Too funny.

Thanks, Adam! I'd rather be in Matunuck, too.

Land of opportunity: Iranians' love affair with America at Christian Science Monitor.

Only lobsters remain: Sea Sends Distress Call in One-Note Chowders: NYT.

Down Easters said that the more variety of fish in the pot, the “deepah the flavah.” Like most sons of sons of Maine fishermen, Mr. Bridges, 61, grew up eating fish stews that were as diverse and densely packed as the local waters.

Cod, haddock, white hake, halibut, cusk and dozens of other groundfish, fish that live near the ocean bottom, mingled with clams, shrimp, lobster and mussels under the creamy surface of the stew, cresting a puddle of yellow butter here, a slick of smoky pork fat there.

Today there is nothing but lobster to be fished commercially near Stonington (Maine). Lobster floats alone in the local chowder, pinking the cream and, in the mind of food lovers, perhaps elevating Everyman’s dish to luxury status. But when Mr. Bridges looks at a single species stew he sees a dangerously impoverished fishery.

Here's Mr. Bridges' lobster chowder recipe.

T hrd: I'm Trying To Learn Arabic: Why's it taking so long? at Slate. It's not structured like English, and not similar to anything we know.

...in Arabic, as in Hebrew, people don't include most vowels when writing. Maktab, or "office," is just written mktb. Vowels are included as little marks above and below in beginning textbooks, but you soon have to get used to doing without them. Whn y knw th lngg wll ths s nt tht hrd. But when you're struggling with comprehension to begin with, it's pretty formidable...

Years ago, I lived in Gambia, West Africa, and learned Woloff, a non-written language, by asking "How do I say 'I go'? " then "How do I say 'I went'? " and listening for the difference. Because the concept of grammar didn't exist, I had to figure it out for myself.

This process might work well for Arabic, too. It's easier to get used to and remember the sound of "I go" than to slice and dice tense and case:

Arabic is a VSO language, which means the verb usually comes before the subject and object. It has a dual number, so nouns and verbs must be learned in singular, dual, and plural. A present-tense verb has 13 forms. There are three noun cases and two genders.

FREE: Banksy is offering high-res, printable images of his work:

Everything in the shop is free. All the images can be downloaded to print or use as a desktop.

Serving suggestion:
Prints look best when done on gloss paper using the company printer ink when everyone else is at lunch.

Please do not use this service to launch your own poster company or t-shirt line.

Despite his reputation as a grafitti and "guerilla" artist, some of these are fairly tame.

Background from the BBC: Artist Banksy targets Disneyland from September:

A life-size replica of a Guantanamo Bay detainee has been placed in Disneyland by "guerrilla artist" Banksy....

Banksy is notorious for his secretive and subversive stunts - such as sneaking doctored versions of classic paintings into major art galleries.

In 2005, he embarrassed the British Museum by planting a hoax cave painting of a man pushing a supermarket trolley, which he said went unnoticed for three days.

Last week, he smuggled 500 "alternative" versions of Paris Hilton's album into record shops around the UK. ...

Shame: A voice from Gitmo's darkness: A current detainee speaks of the torture and humiliation he has experienced at Guantanamo since 2002. At the L.A. Times, "JUMAH AL-DOSSARI is a 33-year-old citizen of Bahrain. This article was excerpted from letters he wrote to his attorneys. Its contents have been deemed unclassified by the Department of Defense."

As promised...House Democrats Beat 100-Hour Clock: WaPo.

WASHINGTON -- Hickory, dickory dock, the Democrats beat the clock.

They passed their six-bill, 100-hour agenda with 13 hours to spare.

The last of "Six for '06" bills that Democrats promised voters in the fall passed shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday, about 87 hours after the 110th Congress opened Jan. 4....

The bills passed by the House as part of the 100-hour agenda would:

_Slap a "conservation fee" on oil and gas taken from deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico; scrap nearly $6 billion worth of oil industry tax breaks enacted by Congress in recent years; and seek to recoup royalties lost to the government because of an Interior Department error in leases issued in the late 1990s. Passed Thursday.

_Lower interest rates on federally subsidized student loans from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent in stages over five years at a cost to taxpayers of $6 billion. About 5.5 million students get the loans each year. Passed Wednesday.

_Make the government bargain directly with drug companies with the aim of reducing prices of prescriptions for Medicare beneficiaries. Passed Jan. 12.

_Expand government-financed embryonic stem cell research. Passed Jan. 11.

_Raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over 26 months. Passed Jan. 10.

_Bolster terrorism-fighting efforts with more cargo inspections. Passed Jan. 9.

Democrats also won approval of internal House rule changes dealing with ethics, lobbying and budgeting. They were passed on Jan. 4-5, the first two days of the new Congress.