FREE THE CITIZENS OF PAWNEE: Part of NBC's rationale for the "Leno at 10" experiment was research which said that viewers wanted to see more comedy at 10 PM. Recent launches indicate that this may be the case--light, jokey, character-driven procedurals like Castle, Hawaii Five-0, and The Mentalist are among the bigger hits to launch in 10 PM timeslots in recent years. That said EW is reporting that NBC is contemplating a 3 hour comedy block on Thursdays for the first time in years on Thursdays come Spring, with Parks and Recreation and new Olivia Munn series Perfect Couples joining the four shows already there, with 30 Rock and Outsourced moving to the 10 PM slot. I think there's a very real opportunity there--I find Mentalist to be a bore, and while Private Practice has been quite solid this year (KaDee Strickland has been particularly great with a very challenging plotline)--but both are pretty heavy, and I think something lighter could find an audience there.

NOT TO GOOD TO SWIPE AN NBA FRANCHISE, TOO GOOD FOR THE LINGERIE FOOTBALL LEAGUE: I'm not sure if there is a particular limiting principle regarding sports franchises on display here, but Oklahoma City doesn't want to host a franchise of the Lingerie Football League.

AND I'M LIKE [EXPLETIVE DELETED] YOU: This year's nominees for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Expurgation of a Cee-Lo Green song are:

• William Shatner
• Gwyneth Paltrow
• Cee-Lo Green and Stephen Colbert
  

Vote in the comments (though let's avoid getting political, mmmkay?).

25 YEARS AGO TODAY, I STOPPED BEING A HOCKEY FAN:   25 years ago today, Flyers goalie Pelle Lindbergh died when, as today's Philadelphia Daily News recalls, his "$117,300 Porsche 930 hit a wall in Somerdale, N.J., at 5:41 a.m. doing 80 mph. Lindbergh had been drinking with his Flyers teammates at the after-hours bar above the team's practice rink in Voorhees. His blood-alcohol level was 0.24, well above New Jersey's legal limit of 0.10 at the time."  Lindbergh was 26 years old.  I was 13, too damn sad to think of watching a hockey game again anytime soon, and scared enough that I didn't touch a drop of alcohol until Admitted Students Weekend at Amherst four-plus years later.

The Inquirer has more remembrances from his teammates.

COME ON DOWN, YOU GOT IT IN YA, YOU GOT TO SCRAPE THAT SHIT RIGHT OFF YOUR SHOES: I need your group help with a solution to a cleaning problem. Yesterday, leaving work in the dark, I stepped in something foul.* One of my dress shoes -- the nice ones, not the ones I tend to beat up -- got it all over. I went back to the office bathroom and washed the shoe (upper, sole, and heel) for 10 or 15 minutes, first with water, then with soap and water, scrubbing with paper towels the whole time, including in the seams. When I got home, I washed it again. Then, before going to bed, I wiped it down with a half-canister of Method wipes. Today, I scrubbed it with a toothbrush, and then I dipped the toothbrush in vinegar and scrubbed it with that. Then I wiped it down with Windex.

It still smells. The soft leather sole smells, the hard rubber heel smells, and the patent leather upper smells. Although it has accumulated the smells of Method wipes, Windex, and vinegar, the original smell remains the most powerful.

Is there anything that can rescue these shoes, or do I just have to throw them out? They're really nice shoes.

*I've spared you the disgusting details up here, but if you're really interested, they're after the jump.

COME FLY WITH ME:  The musical adaptation of Steven Spielberg's so-damn-fun Catch Me If You Can, after encouraging previews in Seattle, will be opening on Broadway this spring and its just-announced talent pool contains many familiar names in these parts: Aaron Tveit (Next to Normal, Wicked, the NPH Rent this summer) in the Leonardo DiCaprio role co-starring with Norbert Leo Butz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Wicked) as the FBI agent portrayed by Tom Hanks. (And, yes, both men played Fiyero.) Also featuring Tom Wopat as the dad, Kerry Butler (Hairspray's original Penny, Xanadu, Beauty and the Beast) as the love interest, and Linda Hart (Hairspray's original Velma von Tussle - Miss Baltimore Crab 1930) as her mom.

Book by Terrence McNally, music by Marc Shaiman and music and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and if you're seeing a lot of Hairspray alums here, you won't be shocked to see Jack O’Brien as the director and Jerry Mitchell doing choreography as well.  Three actual song titles and one fake:  "Fifty Checks," "The Jet Set," "The Man Inside The Clues," "(Don't Wanna Be) Louisiana Barred."

Also, this trivia via Wiki: the film's original cast had James Gandolfini instead of Hanks, Ed Harris instead of Christopher Walken and Chloe Sevigny in place of Amy Adams.

"INCURABLY CORRUPT":  The WaPo's Sally Jenkins decries the BCS for creating a college athletics universe of economic haves and have-nots, and calls upon Congress to kill it by treating BCS bowl money as taxable income to the schools.  (That the BCS also fails to crown a legitimate national champion is mentioned in passing, but isn't so much her point.)