A MOOSE SHOUTING "MAZEL TOV!" JUST LIKE WILL.I.AM INTENDED:   First you should read this revealing WSJ piece on how the Black Eyed Peas became "the most corporate band in America." Only then will you be prepared for this Backyardigans music video.

YOU DON'T SEEM LIKE A PUBLIC MENACE TO ME:   Itchy and Scratchy parody the opening montage in UP.

DAD, PROMISE ME SOMETHING.  WHEN MY FRIENDS COME OVER ... DON'T DO THAT:  Since we often talk about "tv that's good for kids," I wanted to alert you to a show that our seven-year-old has grown deeply found of lately.  It's called "The Cosby Show," and reruns from season one are airing daily on the Centric channel.

Do I have to sell this one?  The show holds up remarkably well -- its morals are timeless, and Bill Cosby is an inexhaustible comic resource.  I think as a grownup I appreciate the mugging and the physical comedy more than I did as a kid, but there's nothing about the show I'm not enjoying right now.

108 STITCHES:  Congratulations on Dan Suitor for winning A League With Thrown Baseballs 3, our sixteen-team head to head fantasy baseball league.  He beat me in the finals, and if you think I'm going to whine about losing my first two picks down the stretch, Hanley Ramirez and Dustin Pedroia, you know me well.  But Dan had a damn good team, winning the regular season as well, and he is to be commended.

[Side note: we all pretty much agreed that a 16-team league was a demanding experiment which we're not eager to repeat.  But we didn't want to lose any owners either.  What we'll do is that the bottom four (or six) owners from this season's standings have agreed to be relegated into a new ALOTT5MA Baseball League hosting 8-10 owners which will serve as the entry point into the league for new owners and provide a less intense experience.  Every year, the top four teams from that league will be invited into the ALOTT5MA Premier League for the following season,with the bottom four from Premier agreeing to be relegated in exchange.  More details when the snow melts.]

Yesterday also concluded the real-world regular season, and we'll have time later this week to talk playoffs and awards. For now, let's just focus on memories of the season which won't be captured in those later discussions.  I was lucky to attend a 16-inning game with my dad that finished well after midnight with Roy Oswalt playing left field and which was so giddy and exhilarating by the time of the second "seventh inning stretch" in the 14th that the result felt irrelevant. What will you remember?

added:  Thanks to the work of intrepid blogger Peter J. Nash, the National Baseball  Hall of Fame has determined that a donated jersey allegedly worn by "Shoeless" Joe Jackson in 1919 was a fake.  I mention this because you'd know avid baseball collector/historian Nash more by his former stage name -- he was the Prime Minister, "Sinister" Pete Nice of early 90s rap group 3rd Bass.

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THE UNIVERSE WITHOUT A CONSPIRACY THEORY?: Are Tivo and Burger King property of the same corporate parent? Does some highly placed party in the BK marketing department have their entire retirement portfolio in companies that hold or exploit patents covering DVR technology? What dark secret, what network of cynical calculation explains this on-going effort to make live television unwatchable, and why it has taken the form of saturation advertising for this particular fast-food franchise's breakfast menu?

A NOBLE SPIRIT ...  It's got to be a pretty cromulent day in the Simpsons' writers room, as another word they've invented has made its way into mainstream vocabulary.

WOOOOOO.....WHEE!  The return of "What's Up With That?" with Academy Award winners Morgan Freeman and Ernest Borgnine?  Awesome.  (As always, it's the Sudeikis leap into his dancing which elevates it even further.)  Samberg-as-Rahm?  I'm always a fan, even if it was just another let's-see-who-breaks-character-first challenge.  Kanye?  That was ... different.  (As always, give him points for ambition.)  But the Wiig Showcase sketch on the basketball court didn't end as strongly as it started and the rest ... fast-forwardable.  Free Jay Pharaoh!