--Britannica.com's commercial

Super Bowl ad report:
(In no particular order)

• Entirely too many Internet companies advertised, if you ask me.

• The Bud commercial with the dog's voice-over was the best beer commercial of the evening, I think. Wonderful reversal of the pet-food spot you're set up to expect.

• The Christopher Reeve ad... if this were for some company trying to raise funding to look for a paralysis cure, or something equally worthy, I'd be applauding. But for an investment firm? Doesn't it just seem wrong?

• The Mountain Dew commercial with the bicyclist chasing after the cheetah wasn't bad. But who on Earth decided that "Do the Dew" would make a good slogan? "Make 7 Up Yours" is practically Shakespeare by comparison.

• Meme #1: Yes, the E*Trade ad with the chimp was amusing. But then Lifeminders.Com used essentially the same shtick with their "worst commercial of the Super Bowl."

• You know, the ad-watching experience would be much better if they didn't keep showing bits of some football game between the commercials. Although it did give me a chance to clean my computer keyboard.

• The problem with the Oldsmobile parody of Gap commercials is that the Gap commercials are better.

• Meme #2: Having various people recite or sing various bits of a poem or song. "The Road Not Taken," for Monster.com, and "We are the Champions," for Agillion, whatever they are. Not to mention the Gap parody alluded to above.

• I don't know if it quite qualifies as a meme, but two commercials featuring Queen songs seems like one too many. (Mountain Dew did a takeoff on "Bohemian Rhapsody," in addition to the Agillion ad.)

• I'm not sure how to react to FedEx's Wizard of Oz commercial. Well done, yes, but shouldn't some things be sacred?

• I miss the annual Master Lock ad.

• Regis taking over Tuesday nights on ABC: Okay, as self-promos go, these were pretty amusing. I approve.

• Meme #3: Animals. Especially cats, with the Mountain Dew cheetah, the Bud Light tiger (I think), and the whole "cat herding" spot for EDS. And dogs; a couple from Budweiser, and the Pets.com sock puppet.

• Oyxgen.Com's nursery ad: You go, girls!

• OurBeginning.Com's bridal ad: You just go away.

• Coca-Cola never did recover from the 3-D halftime show fiasco, did it. Pity, that.

• And about that halftime show... isn't the halftime show generally performed in the same place as the game? What's up with replacing it with a Disney commercial? And didn't it seem almost as if the Disney people were trying to provide a religious experience?

Well, I've been getting a tad more active over at Clean Sheets, at least, getting back into the swing of proofreading, and recently committing to writing a series of reviews. And spending some time schmoozing with various staffers. So there's that.

On the other hand, don't ask about the American Studies website.

On the third hand, I finally sent out the first of the long-promised poems on Friday, and two more are done and just waiting for me to transcribe them neatly and mail them out. If Geology turns out to be even mildly boring, I should have the rest done within a couple of class periods.

Anyway, I oughta be going to sleep, I suppose. G'night, all!