| Taylor's premature certification
Since there will probably be some discussion on the topic of Taylor's album being certified platinum by the RIAA (at the behest of his record label), I thought it should have its own thread -- thanks, Babe, for the heads-up. I love how unquestioningly this news is presented, as in this example. There is, as those of you who have commented have quickly pointed out, a huge gap between 1 million copies shipped and 572,000 copies actually sold. And when Taylor's selling 11,000 copies last week (and 14,000 the week before), and the album's been out only a month, it seems highly incautious at the least for the label to seek certification so early. There's just no guarantee he'll make up those 400,000-plus albums. As a Taylor fan, I hope a single and other factors boost his sales pace (I think I said that earlier this week -- deja vu).
NEWS SECTIONS
I was too darn angry to even appreciate this year's Super Bowl commercials. It had been more than 20 years since the Chicago Bears had reached the Super Bowl and then they got there and embarrassed themselves. By the fourth quarter, you could have aired commercials giving away free cheeseburgers and I doubt I would have noticed. The only commercial that might have caught my attention would have been one offering a chance to kick Rex Grossman's interception-throwing fanny. OK, it wasn't a terrible game, it was just a game that the Bears probably could have won by, I don't know, not repeatedly running that one play where they toss the ball directly at the other team. If I had to pick, I'd probably go with the commercial where the sad dog gets to participate in the parade as my favorite. I have no idea what product was being sold, but he sure seemed like a cute dog.
More Midwest Love: The 2007 Chicago Auto Show's Right Around The ...
I had the opportunity to head over to Chicago for the weekend for a little bit of work and a little bit of pleasure. The little bit of work included spotting the following lampost already sporting a sign (sponsored by ToMoCo haulers) for the big truck auto show here in the windy city. Expect to be coming back here throughout the first full week of February as Jalopnik heads to the land of Bears, brats and bitingly cold wind for the February 7th - 9th press days. So whether you drop the tag-site into your favorites bar above or the RSS feed into your fave reader, you'll be able to take in your full share of would-be hotness coming from all of the automakers at the same time as we're taking in our full share of UNO's deep dish and polish sausage. Somehow we think you'll be getting a little less heartburn -- although if we end up seeing a "Hi, I'm Dave" front-end on the 2008 Ford Freestyle, maybe you'll be feeling the same level of Maalox-inducing acid indigestion.
Helton stays
For nearly a week one of the league's pre-eminent first basemen was dangled in front of my beloved Red Sox. It was a virtual certainty: Todd Helton - probable Hall of Famer Todd Helton - was leaving the Mile High City for Fenway.
A host of journeymen have manned the corner for the Sox in recent years so my elation, while premature, was hardly unfounded. And all it was going to cost - I thought - was two aging players with expiring contracts.
Start printing the No. 17 home and road jerseys and painting those "Shelton (Conn.) loves Helton" signs. Start pondering a name change, Hilton, N.H.
Was this a tease? Hot stove discussions typically are.
As quickly as they heated up, the talks ended as abruptly as a Rockies season come October.
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