NOW A YOUNG MAN HAS GONE, BUT HIS LEGEND LINGERS ON: Brett Favre has announced his retirement. He leaves the NFL with the records for passing TDs (442), passing yards (61,655), wins by a starting QB (160), and interceptions (288). Including the playoffs, he played in 275 consecutive games.

I loved Favre's indomitable spirit. Peter King's thoughts are here and here (both worth reading, although the first story is long on the sugar).

THEY SAID YOU WAS HUNG: I've previously linked to one of Odienator's trenchant "Black History Mumf" 29 features in 29 days on race and popular culture; now I can link to all of them at once, including a take on Blazing Saddles that includes things I never knew:

You would think Richard Pryor wrote a lot of the Black jokes in this movie, but Brooks says that Pryor was fascinated with the character of Mongo, creating him, his dialogue and his scenes with Bart. If this holds true, then Pryor wrote my favorite line in this movie. The duo question Mongo about why Hedley Lamarr would be interested in a podunk town like Rock Ridge. Mongo has a newfound respect for Sheriff Bart--"Sheriff Bart only man whip Mongo, Mongo impressed!"--and he wants to be on Bart's team. "Dunno," says Mongo, "got to do with where choo-choo go." When Bart asks why Hedley would care, Mongo doesn't know. Then, as earnestly as he can, former football player Karras milks his closeup and delivers my favorite line:

"Mongo only pawn in game of life."

Other highlights of the month include is Hollywood Shuffle review and his appreciation of The Jeffersons: "Good Times was closer to my reality; The Jeffersons was closer to my dreams. The folks on Good Times acted like people I knew, and despite all his money, George Jefferson acted like people I knew too. I think this is where the confusion about his character lay. What made George such an inspiration to me was that he was a self-made man, someone who pulled himself up, but who also acted exactly like he did when he was broke."

THE LUCKY AND THE STRONG: When I read this morning about the opening of Bette Midler's Las Vegas residency, it occurred to me that there's a word that's increasingly absent from our popular culture: entertainer.

Not that long ago, America was replete with those who could sing, tell jokes, dance ... folks who were so eager to please that they would do whatever it took on a stage to blow away a crowd. I'm thinking of Sammy Davis Jr. in particular as an exemplar of this tradition (Liza Minnelli and Peter Allen too) and Martin Short as a ersatz version ... there's a certain ethos and group of talents that I'm not quite describing right, but I feel like the Divine Miss M and her brand of vulgarity, sass and talent are a perfect fit for Las Vegas. Long may she reign.

"I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER": Yankees general partner Hank Steinbrenner has been made a member of Red Sox Nation. Strangely enough, hell did not freeze over.

SCRATCHING AN ITCH: In The Wire's TV-season-as-novel structure, the last chapter is reserved, mostly, for denouement. That means that the climax comes in the penultimate episode (see, for example, the end of Bodie, Poot, and Wallace's childhoods; Stringer impatiently surrendering to Omar and Brother Mouzone; and Sobotka's fortunes changing in the few short steps from his car to the meet, as the Greek mutters to Vondas, "your way won't work"). This season's second-to-last episode, Late Editions, was right on cue. The first draft of this post just read "shit, that was some powerful TV." We finally see the end of Season 4's middle-school boys, not that we didn't know, or just pretend not to know, exactly where each one was heading (though it was nice for the show to wave goodbye to Bunny and Naiman), as well as one or two other old friends. And all that's left is for principle to get in the way of police work, or vice-versa

Plus the arraignments. But of whom?

Usmagazine.com | Hillary Clinton: My Worst Outfits Ever!

UP NEXT, JOHN MCCAIN PLAYS FASHION POLICE: Both pursuing the readers of US Weekly in recent weeks, Hillary Clinton presents "My Worst Outfits Ever!" while Barack Obama captions some candids of himself in a "The Stars: They're Just Like Us!" montage.

SWELL NEWS: Of interest to many here, Once stars Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglova will be doing a concert tour this spring.