BURYING THE LEDE: For reasons not entirely clear even to myself, I spent a portion of this weekend watching a Fox News piece on the apparently quite substantial humanitarian and other non-basketball-related achievements of former NBA star Dikembe Mutumbo. Somehow, what I thought was universally acknowledged as his most significant achievement was not mentioned anywhere.

PAUL NEWMAN! The Buckeye State is trying to determine which famous Ohioan should take the place of its existing William Allen statue in the US Capitol's National Statuary Hall.

For Athletes in Motion, Real Estate Can Be a Burden - NYTimes.com

LOCATION, LOCATION: Interesting evergreen article in today's NYT on professional athletes' real estate problems during our economic downturn -- essentially, they purchase nice homes, get traded (or leave via free agency) and no longer can re-sell at anywhere near the purchase price, making the most elegant solution to rent out their white elephants to other athletes now moving into those cities.

PERHAPS WE DID, IN FACT, GIVE HIM UP, LET HIM DOWN AND SAY GOODBYE: Last year at this time, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade rickrolled itself, and we all speculated as to a series of future such appearances (Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest, the Obama Inauguration, Super Bowl halftime) that sadly was not to be. Still, we have the memories.

THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF CLOWNS -- A TRAMP, AN AUGUSTE, A WHITEFACE AND A CHARACTER: I cannot say enough good things about Modern Family. The show just knows its characters so well, structures its episodes well and delivers the comedy expertly. "People are gonna stare! They're not used to seeing one clown in a car!" [More on Fizbo's origins here.]

Bold statement time: it's time for 30 Rock's Emmy reign to end. Yes, this show is that good.

Remembering the 2000-01 Sixers | Philly

THE GAME THAT I GO OUT THERE AND DIE FOR AND PLAY EVERY GAME LIKE IT'S MY LAST: I said my goodbye to Allen Iverson when the 76ers traded him in 2006, but if Stephen A. is right it's over-over now. What a shame. The Inquirer helpfully brings us back to the 2000-01 season, one of the most wonderful, thrilling, city-uniting sports experiences of my life.

As he said in that press conference, "Believe me, it is just not about Allen Iverson. I am going to go to war for Philadelphia. Every time that ball goes up, I will go to war and fight. I am going to do some [expletive] that's wrong and I will do some things right. I can't do everything right all the time. Michael Jordan is the great player in the world. He did not do everything right all of the time but he tried and gave it his effort. That's all you can ask for." And that's what Iverson did.

THE BLUEGRASS SELF-DENIAL: According to a new survey, the new product launched in 2009 most remembered by consumers is Kentucky Fried Chicken's effort to negate one of the words in its title. Also on the top ten list: the Blackberry Storm, Beatles Rock Band game and (even though we discussed it in December 2008) the Snuggie.