I made a loaf of bread during the football game yesterday afternoon. I found an old packet of yeast in the deli drawer, so I decided to use that up. Bad move. Might as well have left the yeast out altogether. It’s amazing how heavy a loaf of bread feels when it’s unleavened. It felt like a boulder when I lifted it out of the breadmaker.
Yes, I watched the game. It proved to be vastly entertaining. The game itself started off looking like a blowout, then turned into a nail biter that went right down to the wire. Some people complained that the Ravens’ final play (the deliberate safety that chewed up the clock) was a low-down thing to do, but I’m of the opinion that if you can avail yourself of the rules, why not? It’s no worse than standing around and letting the clock wind down instead of making a play where you might inadvertently lose the ball to the other team.
There was only one controversial call (or, rather, a non-call), but there’s not much complaining about that one. The commentators felt that it could have gone either way, since pushing and holding offenses were committed by members of both teams. All in all, an exciting game. I didn’t have a stake in either team, so either outcome would have been fine with me.
I’m not a Beyonce fan. Don’t know any of her songs. Neither like nor despise her. I thought the halftime show was okay for what it was. I’ve seen worse. I was amused by the schism between opinions expressed via Twitter and those on Facebook, though. People on Twitter thought it was the most amazing thing ever and the general consensus on Facebook was that it sucked. I don’t know how to explain the split decision. Something generational?
The power outage was interesting, notably because of the jokes that it quickly spawned. My favorite was the one pictured here—the still from Airplane! Oreo managed to tweet an impromptu ad thanks to the fact that their marketing team and executive approvers were all in the same room during the game. It was free advertising, and it went viral. Good job. My favorite tweet was the one that said, “Ravens expected to resume playing in 7 to 10 minutes. No estimate on when 49ers might start playing.” At that point, the 49ers were way behind and had just been humiliated by an opening half 108 yard return for yet another touchdown. The tide shifted after the power came back on, though.
I remember the terrible commercials more than I do the good ones. None stood out like the little-boy Darth Vader ad from last year. The Bar Rafaeli ad for GoDaddy made me cringe. I liked the Big Bang Theory football promo. I thought they missed an opportunity in the Samsung Galaxy spot. As soon as I saw “Saul Goodman” from Breaking Bad, I remembered the scene where a cell phone went off in his desk and he opened the drawer to reveal dozens of burner phones. Well, maybe that’s not the message Samsung wants to send…
The “Jamaican” Volkswagen ad probably sounded better in the pitch room than what ended up on the screen. There was also the usual rash of ads where you don’t know who the sponsor is until the 29th or 59th second. Paul Harvey waxing philosophical about farmers. Nice, but what was it for? Some sort of truck, I gather. I think Gangnam Style has run its course, too. Other times, I just didn’t get the concept. The Black Sapphire beer ad: was that meant to appeal to people who drink like fish? The Tide commercial made me chuckle, as did a few others. The Willem Defoe car commercial was good. The one with Penny from Big Bang had its moments, too. The talking squirrels were funny.
Good teaser trailer for Iron Man 3, and for Star Trek: Into Darkness. The Fast and Furious one was boring. There was also a teaser for the Under the Dome series, but since they haven’t filmed a second of it yet, all they could do was animate the dust jacket.
