Can I get a witness!

That's right.

With hours to spare.  In truth, I don't usually cut it this close.  Sometimes I'll finish as early as...you know, the 22nd.

Week 16 is in the can, and the shadowy figure known as Stellick, who hasn't gotten a mention in this column since September of 2010, ekes out a win against last year's defending champ, Rich.  It took a boffo 120 point performance and the tiebreaker to get it done.

So here we are on the bell lap and Jim P isn't showing any signs of slowing down.  There are a couple of us who might just have enough kick to run him down.  Ben is only six back, and Kelly (and her ferocious Hello Kitty avatar) are sixteen back.

As for the rest of us, it could be worse. We could be in charge of a team whose best quarterback is a wide receiver.  Or you could be me, having just lost your fantasy football championship game to an attorney friend  by four stinkin' points, and you now have to write a rap about how dope he is.  I'm glad we didn't build an actual performance into the wager.

Best wishes for a nice peaceful holiday week to all of you.  I think we could kinda use one.

Breaking Radio Silence

Sorry for the little hiatus.  I had been working diligently on the world's best christmas card, something that soaked up nearly all the time that I wasn't spending either at work or figuring out the world's best christmas presents.  And now?  Well, work's not finished, shopping is incomplete, and the card is now a President's Day greeting.  You all saw that coming.

I write this while watching the cleanup of our first Snowmageddon in at least a couple years.  The storm announced itself with wind and rain heavy enough to maybe cause one to consider using an umbrella, and ended with nearly everything closed early for no discernible reason.  Not exactly the stuff of the Mayan apocalypse, and definitely nothing on the order of Mark Sanchez's performance last Monday night.

Congratulations to our last two weekly winners, Mike and Paul.  Also, a nod to Jim Peters, who recently overtook his buddy Ben for the overall lead with just two football weekends to go.  Most of you don't know Ben, but perhaps you caught his cameo in the the hit movie Forgetting Brandon Marshall.

"The hell with this football sh*t, Carimi.  Let's go surfing."

Or not.

Good luck to all as the season winds down, and best wishes for a nice, peaceful holiday.  Back next week.

Dean The Dream

Welcome to this brief weekend edition of whatever it is I write about after a weekend of football.  I used to write about the football weekend the same weekend.  Lately, the following weekend seems more convenient.  At this rate I might write the story of the final weekend of the season some weekend in March 2013.  Get all that?

Last weekend made it three times, count 'em, THREE TIMES for Dean this season.

Dean has reached a level of awesome where he is only visible to those wearing special "Three Goggles."  And sometimes not even then.

It is very possible that the only thing that will stop him is the end of the season, which is shockingly close all of a sudden.  Dean's hot streak, remarkably, does not put him at the top of the standings, which Ben is holding down with a recently expanded lead.  So for most of us, that means it's time to plot that desperation move, prepare to throw into triple coverage, call that hook-and-lateral play you've been saving up...and hope something good happens.

Have a good, you know, weekend.