Leap Day

Nothing really to report. Just thought I should put something up here on Leap Day.

It'll be four more years before I have this chance again, and who knows if this blog will even be active at that time.

Happy Leap Day!

(Lost wrap-up coming tomorrow....while I'm snowbound during the coming blizzard.)

Wednesday's Word
formerly known as the "What're Words For..."

Phrase: From away (Prep. phrase)
Definition: transplanted residents

Usage example:
"The folks that bought the Pingree place won't let our kids pick raspberries out back of the barn. We've been doing that for years, and besides, they admit they're not going to get 'em themselves."
"Well, they're from away and don't know no better."
"They'll learn, likely."



(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Test Your Knowledge Tuesday!

The answer to last week's tester: TEN (TENant/TENdon/TENure)

This week's challenge:

The names of three cities in a single US state are hidden in the sentence below. Can you find all three cities, which are in consecutive order?

"Watch out for that kayak," Ron said on Sunday to no one in particular, raising the panic level and upsetting the crowd.

Feel free to post answers in the comments section, or return next Tuesday to find out what the answer is.

Your time...starts...NOW!

Lost, Season 4, Episode 4 "Eggtown" (2/21/2008)

This was a Kate-centric episode. It was another episode that began with a close-up shot of someone’s eye, this time Locke’s.

--Kate: Flash forwards reveal that Kate has a son. Well, as far as the story that the Oceanic 6 have told the press is that Aaron, Claire’s son, is actually Kate’s son. She gets 10 years probation and she has to “stay put” (said so forcefully it almost sounds like someone wants to make sure she doesn’t leave California and go, oh say, back to the island….!) from her trial for murdering her step-dad after her Mom decides not to testify against her, telling Kate that it all changed when she thought Kate was dead in the crash. Kate refuses to let her Mom meet her ‘grandson’. On the island, Kate tells Sawyer her pregnancy scare was a false alarm. This is the first we’ve heard of a Kate pregnancy.

--Jack: In court for Kate’s hearing, Jack tells the courtroom that there were only 8 survivors of the crash of Flight 815 (two didn’t make it, according to Jack) and Kate was responsible for rescuing them all. Kate says to Jack: “I’ve heard you tell that story so many times I think you’re starting to believe it.” How many times has he told the story? But why wouldn’t he go back with Kate to see Aaron? Has he learned at this point that Claire’s his half-sister, making Aaron his…um…..nephew? (Do I have that right?) Jack’s appearance in the flash-forward finds him clean shaven, which implies that this is still before he becomes the frantic Jack who tells Kate that they need to go back to the island.

--Claire: What happened to Claire? Desmond had told Charlie that he saw Claire and Aaron leaving the island in a chopper. Something must happen to her between the helocopter ride and getting back to civilization. Unless Desmond lied to Charlie just to get him to go to the Hydra Station. Or maybe something happens where Clair had to hand Aaron off to people on the chopper when it was taking off because she had to go back for something. So, maybe she’s not dead. Or, maybe she’s one of the two who “didn’t make it” from Jack’s story of the crash. But remember from Season One, the psychic told Claire (who was pregnant with Aaron at the time) that she, and only she, could raise Aaron, and she shouldn’t let anybody else raise her baby. Is Aaron the key to the Lost mystery??

--Miles Straume: It’s odd that Miles would give Ben the chance to pay him off for $3.2 million to tell his boss that he (Ben) is dead. Two questions come up from this: 1) Where does Ben have $3.2 million dollars? and 2) Who is Miles’ boss and why would Miles risk extortion by lying to his boss? (Charles Widmore remains my guess). Miles says to Ben: “Like I don’t know who you are and what you can do!”
Just who is this Benjamin Linus?

--Charlotte Staples Lewis: It took me this long to notice this, but…….Charlotte Staples Lewis can be shortened to C.S. Lewis. A nod of some sort from the Lost writing staff to the author of the Chronicles of Narnia series perhaps?

--Locke: Ahhhh…anybody think he’s starting to become unstable? He seems to be a bit unhinged of late. Ever since he couldn’t find Jacob’s cabin he has become something of a…well, as Kate put it, dictator. He even tops Sayid in the creative ways to torture someone category by putting an active grenade into Mile’s mouth while he’s tied up, and tells him he’ll be fine as long he bites down on the trigger. He also bans Kate from his band of Losties after she tricks him ,with Sawyer’s help, and takes Miles to see Ben. Locke, it seems, is becoming a controlling leader like Ben was over The Others. Kind of scary when he tells Miles, during the hand-grenade scene, that he, Locke, is charge of the welfare of the island. Not the PEOPLE of the island, but the island.

--Sun & Jin: Well, it was nice to see them ever so briefly, trying to decide where to live when they’re rescued. Sun said something about “her baby”, and Jin was quick to correct her, “our baby”. Probably nothing, but it was odd she’d say it that way.

--Aaron: In the flash-forward he appears to be, what…2 years old? 3 years old? How could that be, unless it’s taken the justice system that long to bring Kate to trial. Or, it could be another clue that there is some sort of time anomaly when leaving the island. Maybe he left the island a baby but returned to the freighter one or two years old?

--Desmond & Sayid & Frank Lapidus: The helicopter has not contacted the island to confirm they made it to the freighter. It’s been over a day since the helicopter left the island. It took seconds for the radio signal to reach the phone on the island, it took 31 minutes for the rocket payload to make it to Daniel’s target (last week’s episode), and now it’s taking over a day for the chopper to reach the freighter. Time is an issue on this island. But by how much?

Oceanic 6: Jack, Hurley, Kate, Sayid….Aaron? Not sure if he can be considered one of the six…even if they’re telling a lie about him being Kate’s son. There’s still the body in the coffin that hasn’t been identified.

Funny lines:
Hurley to Kate: “You just totally Scooby-Do’d me didn’t yah?”

Sawyer, to Kate: “I know it’s in a box, but it’s pretty damn good wine.”

Sawyer to Locke: “If Hugo knows, everybody knows.”

Interesting:
1. The only videos they had in The Others’ village were Xanadu and Satan’s Doom????? That must have been hell…! Haha!
2. Locke gives Ben a book, Valis, by Philip K Dick. It is about a fool’s search for god and ends up finding it in a the form of a 2-year old girl named Sopie who tells him that everything is being controlled by a satellite orbiting the Earth. A bizarre story, for sure. Funny that Locke tells Ben he should re-read it in case he missed something.
3. Patsy Cline gets a lot of airplay on Lost, this time when Kate and Claire were talking on the island we hear “I’ve Got Your Picture” playing in the house they stayed in at with Locke’s tribe.

Final questions:
1. Why was Charlotte testing Daniel’s memory with the cards? Telling him that when he got 2 out of 3 cards correct, it was progress. What progress? What is wrong with Daniel that they need to test his memory?
2. Where’s Vincent?
3. Where is the chopper?
4. What does Eggtown mean (the title of the episode)? Locke served eggs to Ben. Locke killed a chicken (no more eggs). Kate’s not pregnant (no eggs fertilized).

Check out this website for some really good and clear screen shots:
http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/

Tune in next week for “The Constant”.

Until then, see you on the other side, brootha…

5 Year-Olds Attack.....

This is a joke, folks. I don't condone the beating up of 5 year-olds.

But, if you had to....maybe they're zombie kids. Or maybe they're Scientology kids. Whatever it is, you have to protect yourself from them. How many can you take care of?

http://www.howmanyfiveyearoldscouldyoutakeinafight.com/

Me? Not so good. Only 12. I'd be zombie meat in a matter of minutes.

Lunar Eclipse

I'm probably stepping on Quasar's territory here, but did you know there's a lunar eclipse tonight?

The skies are clear here and I'm expecting a great show as the moon disappears behind the Earth's shadow.

There's always the chance I'll miss it though because I've been told I can't tell the difference between an eclipse and Uranus.

ba dum dum

Wednesday's Word
formerly known as "What're Words For..."

Phrase: Pork, had the (v.)
Definition: in bad trouble

Rather curiously, the opposite of "finest kind of pork"

Usage example:
"Yessuh, when that warden found them twelve short lobsters under the life cushions, I knew I'd had the pork."

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Not a real lobster...

Test Your Knowledge Tuesday!

The answer to last week's tester: DISCRETION

This week's challenge:
Place the same three (3) letters in front of each blank to form three different words:

1. ____ant
2. ____don
3. ____ure

Feel free to post answers in the comments section, or return next Tuesday to find out what the answer is.


Your time...starts...NOW!

Lost, Season 4, Episode 3 "The Economist" (2/14/2008)

This is a Sayid-centric episode. Sayid is ID’d as another of the Oceanic 6, him being the 4th we’ve seen.

--Sayid: Seems to have become quite the golfer, eh? All of that time practicing on the island, I guess. Working for Ben??? There’s only one thing that Ben could have over Sayid’s head, in my opinion, that would make him become one of Ben’s assassins: Naomi. Does Ben have Naomi? Is this why Sayid is working for Ben off the island? And who are the people on the “list” (another list??) that Ben wants taken out? “The day I start trusting him is the day I would’ve sold my soul”, he says to Locke about Ben. Sayid has become an assassin, taking out Mr. Avillino on the golf course, and then was to take out Elsa’s boss, known only as The Economist.

--Elsa: Worked for The Economist. However, she was a double-agent, trying to get information from Sayid. But who is The Economist? Hmmm…see below for my answer.

--Penny Widmore: If she didn’t give the picture of her and Desmond to the Freighters, then how did she get it? I’d venture to guess that the freightor was hired by Charles Widmore, Penny’s father, who set-up Desmond (in my opinion) to go on the around the world race that landed him on the island to begin with. So, Penny is looking for him and probably doesn’t know her father is looking for him too. So I’m guessing the picture was given to the Freighters by Charles Widmore…who in my mind would be The Economist. But what role does Desmond play in all of this?

--Hurley: That dirty double-crossing dog! He’s in the plan with Locke to trap Sayid, Kate and the gang. But as we already know, he’ll come to regret his allegiance with Locke.

--Daniel Faraday: Discovers that the island is 31 minutes ‘behind’ the rest of the outside world. “That’s far more than weird”, he says. He’s gonna love the SMonster.

--Frank Lapidus: A Yankees fan. I knew there was something about him I didn’t like.

--Miles Straume: Now that he’s been swapped for Charlotte, he’ll be with Locke and his gang. Miles’ psychic visions seemed to be used to contact the dead, so if he comes in contact with Jacob, or in the areas where all of the Dharma people were killed, I wonder what his reactions will be.

Charlotte Staples Lewis: She’s an archeologist, so it would be cool for her to find the Black Rock, or the four-toed foot statue. These being on the island would go along with idea that time is somehow warped around the island.

--Ben. On the island, he took care of rabbits. Off the island, he has dogs. Now, where have we seen a dog on the island? If you said VINCENT, you’d be right! Could there be some kind of connection there? That Ben comes and goes from the island is spooky. This guy is unbelievably crafty. But who is it that he needs killed so badly he was able to manipulate Sayid into becoming an assassin?

--Naomi: So, what if she’s not dead? I know, knife to the back and all. Maybe she got bit by one of the poison spiders that took down Nikki and Paolo.

Funny lines:
Hurley: “Oh awesome, the ship sent us another Sawyer”, in reference to Miles calling him Tubby.

Hurley, to Sayid after he tells Hurley he won’t hurt him: “Yeah, I saw you snap that guy’s neck with that break-dancing thing you do with your legs.”

Jack, to Frank: “Mind if I ask you a question? The Red Sox really win the series?”

Interesting:
--The number on the helicopter was 842. 8 is one of the numbers. 42 is one of the numbers.
--The Jacob-cabin was not where Locke had first discovered it. Hurley knew it was in a different spot from when he saw it also. So, where the hell is it??
--The secret room in Ben’s house, with all of the money and passports and suits. It appears that Ben gets off the island a lot.
--Any of you read the Lost tie-in book a season ago called The Bad Twin? Wonder if something similar is happening here and is alluding to Ben having a “bad twin”. I know I know…we saw his mother give birth to him, and he was a solo baby.
--The rocket/payload sent to the island by Regina from the freighter to Daniel’s beacon arrived 31 minutes late. But, the phone signal seems to make it through in regular time. Remember from earlier seasons we heard Glen Miller music coming over the receiver Sayid and Hurley were listening to. So we now there’s some kind of time warping going on.
--The double-crossers in this episode: Hurley. Elsa. Sayid.
--Final scene: Ben stitching up Sayid’s gunshot wound, Ben says, “I have another name for you”. Sayid: “But they know I’m after them now”. Ben, in the creepiest of voices, says, “Good.”


Final questions:
1. Who is Ben’s spy on the freighter?
2. In the final episode of last season, Kate met with Jack, but left because “He” was waiting for her. We still haven’t found out who “he” is. Possible it’s Ben? Now that we know he gets off the island, it’s possible he was in the FlashForward as the one Kate is referring to.
3. How does the bracelet that Sayid found on Naomi and later saw on Elsa tie into this? The message on it read “N – I’ll Always Be With You – RG”.
4. Who is on Ben’s list?
5. Why are the Oceanic 6 keeping it a secret that there are other people alive on the island? What organization does Mr. Abaddon work for that would make the Oceanic 6 keep this secret? Is it tied in with Charles Widmore?
6. Where were Sun and Jin??

Check out this website for some really good and clear screen shots:
http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/


Tune in next week for “Eggtown”.

Until then, dude…….

Wednesday's Word

formerly known as the "What're Words For..."

I've decided to make a slight change in the name of my "How to Talk Yankee" posts. It's now going to known as "Wednesday's Word", and I promise to do my best to post something every Wednesday. Promise.

Phrase: On me (prepositional phrase)

Definition/Usage: Use this to attach blame to something or someone other than yourself

Examples: "I would've had that deer, but my rifle shot to the right on me."

Or: "I lost my pole, tackle box, and a pint with just one drink gone when the canoe tipped over on me."

"How many drinks out of that pint?"

"Well, thay was quite a lot left in her."

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Test Your Knowledge Tuesday!

The answer to last week's tester: INQUISITION

This week's challenge:
You can make one legitimate English word that is an anagram of DIRECTIONS. What is the word?

Feel free to post answers in the comments section, or return next Tuesday to find out what this word is.

Just don't hurt your brain trying to figure this out.

Your time starts.....NOW!

Worship The Master...ViewMaster, That Is...

When I was about 10 years old, I got a ViewMaster. Remember these?

I still have it all of these years later, and also have several packets of the reels that had filled so much of my time as a kid. Welcome Back, Kotter - classic. Herbie the Love Bug. The Six Million Dollar Man. Run Joe Run. One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing.

And I can tell you this: I see it filling my some of my time in the very near future. After all, it's been over 25 years since I've viewed Star Trek: Mr Spock's Time Trek cartoon in little 3-D photographic squares. So, beam me up, Scotty, we've got an advencha to go on.

Lost, Season 4, Episode 2 "Confirmed Dead" (2/7/2008)

Whew…this is getting confusing, even for me! Sorry for the length of this…gotta learn to condense.

This episode focuses on the four people (note: 4 is one of the numbers) who land on the island from the freighter and their impact on the Losties. I liked how the episode went, introducing each of the four as they were arriving on the island. Did you notice that in each of their flashbacks contained news of Oceanic 815’s crash?

--Daniel Faraday, physicist. Parachutes onto the island from the rescue helicopter. Claims to be part of the rescue team from the freighter. He notices and mentions how the light doesn’t work right on the island. Also tells Jack and Kate that rescuing them is not the primary objective. He does refer to Kate and Jack as “good people”, continuing the theme of the good vs. bad. (Name note: Michael Faraday was a physicist from the early/mid 1800s who became famous for his work on electromagnetism. He’d’a loved the island, eh?)

--Miles Straume, Ghost Buster (Miles Straume…maelstrom??). Seems to have some kind of mild psychic ability. Not the first psychic character we’ve seen on Lost. How about his weird machine? Shows the picture to Jack and tells them that they are there to get Benjamin Linus. How stupid do you think he is??

--Charlotte Staples Lewis, anthropologist. Investigates the polar bear skeleton found in Tunisia and it had a Dharma collar. That she was wearing a bulletproof vest when she landed on the island indicates that they did not come there for a rescue mission and probably expected some kind of hostile resistance.

--Frank Lapidus, pilot. Says he’s the one who was originally supposed to pilot flight 815. He pilots the helicopter to the island on the mission, but of all the people in the group, he seems out of place. Why would they bring him to the island? And why did he not pilot the flight to begin with? (I’ll tell you why: because the flight was set-up with the Losties and the plane had to be flown by someone on the inside. But why was the flight set-up to begin with?) He knew that Juliet was not a passenger on Flight 815.

It seems that the freighter people, or Freighties, are there as part of the follow-up to the overthrow of Dharma by Ben and the Others so many years earlier. They arrived at the island, I think, because of when Locke was playing the computer chess game in Mikhail’s place, and entered “77” when the Marvin Candle message said “Has there been an incursion on this station by the Hostiles? If so, enter 7-7". This would’ve alerted whomever was at the other end of the message to react accordingly. Looks like they’ve arrived. But I don’t know why Frank would be with them, unless, as part of the cover-up of the plane crash, including the plane being found in the Sunda Trench off Indonesia full of bodies, they need to get rid him. With Frank still alive in the real world, he becomes a mouthpiece who would refute the plane crash story, which would not be good for whoever it is that went through all of the trouble to make all of this happen to being with. By having him on the island, maybe this is the way they get rid of him.

--Penny Widmore’s rescuers will come later, I believe. Two rescue parties with different purposes.

--Ben. How many beatings can this guy take and not be hurt? I guess the island really does heal people. This guy sure has a way of getting to people, but, it seems, he sure knows a lot. That he has someone on the freighter and knew why the chopper had come to this island is frightening.

--Matthew Abaddon. Based on the flashback with Naomi, he believed at that time that there were no survivors of 815 and that they were going to the island to rescue whomever they’re aligned with. But, based on last week’s episode, he kept asking Hurley how many were still alive. So, with the Oceanic 6 in the flash-forward headlines, we’ll soon learn what the connection will be as to why they have to go back and why Abaddon is trying to get them. And it’s possible that we’ll learn that the reason they, the Oceanic 6, are not mentioning any other survivors is because they learn of whatever conspiracy it is that took them to the island. Yeah, I know….my brain is doing loop-to-loops too!

--Naomi. She was on the inside with Abaddon and knew the reason for the trip to the island. Now, she’s just “meat” according to Miles the psychic. But, let’s be real here….she could always come back.

Funny lines:
Frank Lipidus: “I saw a cow.” (Don’t know why this is so funny to me…he did see a cow. But the way he said it….I’m still laughing)

After he calls him “Mr Linus”, Ben says: “Karl. Now if you’re gonna sleep with my daughter I insist you call me Ben.”

Sawyer: after Locke says that Ben is harmless except for his mouth, “That mouth put that hole in your gut?”

Miles: “How stupid do you think I am?” he says to Jack. “I don’t know Miles, how stupid are you?” Hahahahaha!

Locke: "Walt told me….only he was taller."
Sawyer: "Taller, like a giant?"
then later, when Locke says where they’re going, Sawyer says, “Who are we to argue with taller-Walt”.

Ben: I have information that you need. I have answers.
Locke: What is the ‘monster’?

Names from the past:
--Seth Norris – we finally learn the name of the pilot of 815 who got taken by the SMonster right after the plane crashed. Obviously he was in on the reason they brought the Losties to the island to begin with.

Interesting:
--Locke would probably be dead, he says, if he still had a kidney where the bullet passed through him when Ben shot him. Seems a coincidence that it was that kidney that he donated to his father…or is it?
--This is probably nothing: in Ms Gardner’s house, where Miles found the money in the vent, the camera paused over some pictures on the wall in the stairway. One of the pictures looked like Eko when he was younger.
--Phone number on news to call Oceanic in reference to the plane crash: 888-548-0034. Go ahead and call it…I did. ;-)
--When Hurley mentions the cabin, Locke and Ben both take notice and didn’t look happy. However, the direction in which Hurley pointed that he saw it was different from where Locke had seen it. The cabin must be in some kind of time shift…..?

Final questions:
1. Who is funding the freighter’s rescue?
2. Who is Ben’s “man on the freighter”?
3. When Naomi parachuted onto the island, she had a picture of Desmond and Penny. But, she’s not part of that rescue team, so how did she get that picture?

4. Why did the rescue chopper have gas masks on the flight in the metal box? Were they expecting another Others gassing?

Check out this website for some really good and clear screen shots: http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/

Tune in next week for “The Economist”.

Until then, Razzle Dazzle!

Big Happenings in Eastern Maine

It seems that Maine has become somewhat important to a couple of Democratic candidates. Hillary Clinton spoke at a rally at the University of Maine here in Orono this morning at 9am.


I called my Dad to tell him that traffic might be an issue in town, so he'd better wait to go out and do his things. (Note: I have a different perspective on what defines "traffic" in this little town of 9,100 residents. Having spent those 12+ years in Philly, I know what a traffic jam is, and I can tell you that they ain't NEVER had a traffic jam in Orono...but try convincing the residents of that...)

He tells me that he's aware of the visit, and that "that Alabama guy" was going to be in Bangor this afternoon, just 5 minutes south of us. So, I'm scratching my bald head and thinking to myself, "Who is the Dem candidate from Alabama?" I just couldn't think of the Alabama guy my Dad was referring to. So I asked him who the Alabama guy was, and he says, "You know, the guy running against Hillary...Alabama... what's his name?" So there you go....my dad has Obama confused with Alabama. Brilliant.

We're bracing for the first storm of February that is supposed to settle in tonight and end at some point tomorrow. Right now they're saying 6-8 inches. We'll see.

I gotta go now, though. I'm trying to find Alabama.

Happy Chinese New Year!

A hearty and healthy Happy Year of the Rat to you all as today marks the start of Chinese year 4706. I just know I'm gonna keep writing Year of the Pig on my checks for the next two weeks....

Legend has it that in ancient times, Buddha asked all of the animals to meet him on the Chinese new year. Only 12 animals came so he assigned them each to a year. The years, or animal signs, repeat every 12 years, and those born under each animal sign are said to have some of that animal's characteristics. Here is the list of all twelve: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.

TFKoP was born in 1965 in the Year of the Snake. Snake characteristics include tremendous wisdom, cleverness, and profound thinking. But you already knew that about me.

And I can't mention Year of the Rat without directing you to the video of Badly Drawn Boy's great song of the same name, "Year of the Rat".

What're Words For, Part 22

Word: Stave (v.)

Definition: to move vigorously, often irresponsibly; to break, esp. to break-in our up

Usage: "Henry was here for about two hours, full as a tick and staving around, looking for a fight. Finally his old lady showed up, took him right by the ear and fetched him home. Did he let out the blats out of him."

Or: "Get ahold of that ram b'fore he staves up the whole barn."

Or: (past tense) "Too bad about your car gettin' stove up by that tree, Anne. How fast was it goin'?"

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Test Your Knowledge Tuesday!

A new feature here at TFKoP each Tuesday will be Test Your Knowledge Tuesday. I'll scour the the internet to find some intersting brain-testing questions to see if you can solve the answer before you search for it on the 'net. And searching for it on the 'net is totally allowed! Why wouldn't it be...you're doing research. And research suggests that you're studying, and studying is good!

I'll get you all started with an easy one, just to get you warmed up for the things to come. The answer will be posted next Tuesday when the new game/puzzle is unveiled. Or, someone might post it in the comments, so check there too.

And away we go!

Fill in the blanks to complete the word:

_N_U_S_T_O_

Your time...starts......NOW!

Super Blow 42

Well, TFKoP readers, when I'm wrong I'll admit it.

My New England Patriots forgot to show up for Super Bowl 42, and the New York "football" Giants won the game, 17-14.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitter. The Giants completely dominated the Patriots' offense and defensive lines. I think Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers spent more time on the field during their halftime show than the Patriots' offense spent on the field the whole game.

Here's where the difference in this game was: despite New England being the better team all year long and the team that was favored to win, the Giants WANTED to win whereas the Patriots EXPECTED to win. The difference, as told by the final score, was the wanting to win, and the Giants worked harder for it and earned it.

So, hats off the Giants. It's not the outcome I was hoping for, but the better team won tonight.

And that's how it's supposed to be in the Super Bowl.

So much for 19-0. I was so hoping that Mercury Morris was now going to shut the fuck up.

Lost, Season 4, Episode 1 "The Beginning of the End" (1/31/2008)

Finally, after 253 days of waiting, we get a new episode. And it was a good one, eh? And a couple of other things happened since the last time a new LOST episode was on. One thing is that I moved back to Maine. But more importantly, I got a DVR and new flat screen TV. Wow! What a picture!

It looks like we'll now watch the episodes in an "island time" and "future time" scheme. So get used to "flash forwards"…a brilliant idea introduced in last season’s Though the Looking Glass episode.

Some notes:

This episode focuses on a future time that is before the time we saw Jack in the Season 3 finale...a time that is right after 6 of the Losties have been returned to civilization.

The Oceanic 6: Hurley, Jack and Kate. The body in the coffin from season finale last year makes four. And then two more. But who are the unknown three people? We'll find out soon, I'm sure. Any guesses? And what does this mean for the other Losties? Are they dead? Does something happen to them during the rescue? Are they in hiding on the island and the Oceanic 6 are protecting them for some reason?

Do you think Naomi and Nadia (Sayid's former love) will somehow end up being related? Just a thought. Remember, Naomi did say to the guy on the phone right before she died, “Tell my sister I love her”. But then again, maybe this was code-speak to warn the freighter folks.

It was clearly Christian Shephard, Jack's dad, sitting in the rocking chair in Jacob's cabin when Hurley found it. What can this mean? Remember, we've never seen Christian’s body on the island, only the casket it was supposed to be in on its way back to the US from Australia. Are Christian and Jacob one in the same, or two separate people? If two separate people, that’s the creepiest cabin on the entire planet.

Hurley's vision of Charlie while at the police station: he sees Charlie swimming in the two-way mirror and then Charlie uses his open-palm to smash the mirror. Upon freeze-frame, written on Charlie's open palm are the words "They Need You". It's the same thing Charlie says to Hurley in the vision of Charlie at the mental hospital: "They need you"..apparently referring to the ones left on the island. It's interesting to note that one of the other patients at the mental hospital saw Charlie, and told Hurley, "That guy is staring at you". So, how could this other patient see Charlie? And how is it that Charlie can be "dead and here at the same time". He admitted to Hurley that he knew he was going to die when he went down to the Hydra Station. Strange. Was Charlie the SMonster? Jacob?

FutureHurley was playing "Connect Four" in the mental hospital, just as he played with Leonard Simms in flashbacks from Season 2. But who was it that he was playing against this time? It looked to me like his old boss Randy from Mr. Cluck's (and Locke's boss from the box company). Possible? Why would Randy be in the psyche ward…still not able to get over seeing Tricia Tanaka get creamed by the meteor?

Names from the past:
--George Minkowski - the guy on the 'rescue' freighter
--Big Mike - Ana Lucia's partner

New Names and/or faces:
--Matthew Abaddon, Lawyer for Oceanic Airlines. Or so he claims. Asks Hurley: "Are they still alive?" Is he referring to the other people from the flight that didn't come back with the Oceanic 6? (note: Abaddon means "place of destruction" in Biblical poetry). I thought the name resembled "A bad one". You know, in keeping with the good guys/bad guys theme. He's creepy. And when Hurley turned to watch the guy leave the psyche ward, it almost looked like SMonster smoke...or was it a shadow.
--Daniel Farrady, parachutes onto island from a pretty low-flying helicopter. Claims to be part of the rescue team from the freighter.

Who's eye was in the window when Hurley was looking into the cabin? After freeze-framing it and staring at it for a while, I can only venture a guess, but I think it was Locke's. I think Locke was in the cabin with Jacob and Christian. And with the cabin disappearing and reappearing, this enforces the idea that time and space don't work the same on some parts of the island.

And it's obvious that Jack would kill Locke...but some of the other Losties agree that the freighter rescue may be a bad thing, as predicted by Ben, Locke, and Charlie ("not Penny's boat") as they've learned from Desmond.

Final questions:
1. when FutureJack went to see Hurley at the nuthouse, right after he says "I'm thinking of growing a beard", Hurley says "What are you really doing here Jack? You checking to see if I was gonna tell?" Jack says, "Are you?". But no answer. Tell what???? Does this have something to do with the remaining Losties on the island? Then Hurley says, "I think we did the wrong thing. I think it wants us to go back."
2. Tied in with this, Hurley then apologizes for taking Locke's side on the island, and says "I should've stayed with you". Did Hurley's decision to side with Locke create the situation that kept some people on the island?
3. Who are the rescuers? Dharma? Hanso? Widmore? Maybe Sun's dad has his hands in this somehow?

Tune in next week for "Confirmed Dead".

Check out this website for some really good and clear screen shots:
http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/

Until then, Namaste.

Tom Petty Day!

It's Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Day here at TFKoP. In preparation for Mr. Petty's big halftime show at the Super Bowl on Sunday, I have been playing all of my Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers vinyl and CDs.

They'll put on a great show. I saw them, with Jackson Browne opening, back in June of 2001 at the Tweeter Center in Camden, NJ. A buddy of mine got tickets through work and took 3 of us along with him. Awesome show! Thanks again for that ticket, DP!

And it is with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in mind that I send this message to the NY Giants about Super Bowl XLII incorporating some of the words of this great songwriter:

Dear New York Giants,

The New England Patriots "Won't Back Down" from you. Even though we expect you, the Giants, to "Breakdown" in this game, it will be just as much fun watching you fall apart as "The Waiting" was to witness it. We know that you'll score once or twice in this game, to which we'll shrug and say "You Got Lucky". While the Patriots are "Running Down a Dream" to finish the season 19-0 you will be "Free Fallin'" into the history books as the team that LOST Super Bowl XLII. And it's important to remember, "Even The Losers" get mentioned in history...just not very often. As the game wears on and Plaxico Burress is flat on his back looking up at the New England defense saying "You Wreck Me" and screaming "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)", they Patriots will continue to march on. After the final seconds tick off the score clock and the Patriots can safely declare "It's Good to Be King", Super Bowl XLII will close by telling you "Don't Come Around Here No More" because it will know who the losers are. And it will also know the excitement the winners will be experiencing. And let's face it Giants, when it comes to the emotion of winning Super Bowl XLII, "You Don't Know How It Feels".

Go Patriots! And don't forget that in this day and age if you're not a Patriot, the government will track you down and prosecute you. So, you'd better be a Patriot