Keeping connections

Not sure what happened, but Friday evening our communications basically went kaput.  Internet? Out.  Phone? Out.  TV? Working in one room (until we tried to change the channel, we later found out).

So, for the entire weekend, we were only reachable through our cell phones.  Very annoying, to put it mildly.  And the Superbowl?  Had to watch that on the tiny TV upstairs that's actually got an antenna.  The one that only has comfortable watching positions for two.  And the one that's reachable by the toddler.  All sorts of annoyances going on there.

Quite a game, though.  Turned it on early in second quarter; was shocked game was so close when they said that Wilson hadn't yet completed a pass for the Seahawks.  Then he did pretty well for a while (helped by a couple of big plays).

And man, look at how well that prevent defense worked at the end of the first half.  Both offenses, which had been having trouble, moved quickly down the field and scored a touchdown.

And then the second half... Man, what a finish.  Looked like the Seahawks were going to win it all, then the Patriots came back to take the lead with little time remaining (40s?).  Then, with a long, freakishly lucky reception, it looked like the Seahawks were going to win.  And then they decided to pass at the goalline.  Someone was trying to be too clever by half.

Dunno, but I'm pretty sure they won't make that mistake again, whoever was responsible.

I missed the halftime show (giving the kids a bath), but it sounds like it was the first good halftime show in many years (I generally detest them).

As far as the commercials, I saw a few.  I kind of liked the Toyota one that played Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle".  I need to back up for a second on that song.  I heard it many times, growing up, and it never meant much to me.  But then I didn't hear it for quite a few years, and then ran into it again freshman or sophomore year of college.  And then I fell in love with it.

I liked the usage of it, mostly, except that they neutered it by chopping off the end.  And made it a happy ending.  Somehow, after all those years, picking his kid up made everything all right.  That wasn't as good.

I also very much liked the "throw like a girl" ad, although I mostly missed it during the game, and had to watch it attentively after seeing it shown on twitter a couple days later (I've been way behind on twitter for about six weeks now.  I'm almost caught up, finally).  Anyway, as the father of two girls (both too young to have been affected by the subtle messaging talked about, thankfully), I heartily approve this message.  This needs to be more widely seen.

I think those were the only two really noteworthy ads; a down year, I think.  But the game itself was magnificent.  What a finish!  Too many Superbowls end up being blow-outs, but this battle of the dynasties (well, one definite and one pushing towards it) lived up to the hype, and then some.

And not to get too sidetracked, but I do want to say a word or two about the ball deflation discussion.  I do not, for one second, believe that Brady (at least), was unaware of the inflation (or lack thereof) of the balls.  I found the articles about the Patriots fumbling (or not) quite convincing that there was some benefit.  But I think the league looks at least as bad as the Patriots, as they should be policing these things.  And the refs handle the ball on every down; how could they not know?

It also amazes me, if this was the source of the Patriots' sure-handedness, that no one else noticed (whether via handling a ball, or being told by a player who'd left, or whatever) for so many years.  All kinds of strange going on.