everything is divided, nothing is complete.

--I’ve said in the past that it’s really pretty easy to root for both the Colts and the Saints. Not only are they in different conferences and accordingly don’t play each other much, but the prospect of the Saints getting to the Super Bowl at all (let alone playing the Colts in it) seemed inherently ridiculous. But there was a lurking anxiety throughout this season that the two teams—both franchises arguably having their most successful seasons ever—were on a collision course, and we’re now officially two weeks away.

I couldn’t really be happy after the NFC Championship game, even though it was an incredible milestone for the Saints to make their first Super Bowl berth. It wasn’t because I felt the Vikings had dominated the game. It wasn’t because the normally unstoppable Saints offense sputtered yet again against a Cover-2 defense with a stout defensive line (nothing to worry about going up against the Colts). It wasn’t because I had witnessed a maestro performance from Peyton Manning against the best defense in football (and a similar one, schematically and philosophically speaking, to the Saints) hours earlier.

I couldn’t be happy because I’m slowly beginning to realize that this is probably the best team the Saints will ever field. This is their peak, and as loveable, lucky, and occasionally brilliant as they’ve been, I don’t think it will be enough. I think they’re going to lose this Super Bowl—possibly the only one they’ll ever reach—and I think it’s going to happen at the hands of my favorite athlete. In everyday terms it’d be bittersweet, but in the world of sports fandom it’s a cruel, cruel irony.

--I’ve been reading 20th Century Ghosts, a short story collection by Joe Hill, and have really enjoyed each story thus far. They’re allegedly horror stories, but more often than not they’re simply weird, and weirdly sentimental. “Pop Art,” in particular, is a damn fine story; it’s like Bentley Little’s heart grew three sizes.

--I want to like The Roots, but slam poetry sucks.

--Jay-Z, The Clash, and Outkast have been in heavy rotation on my iPod. Madvillain and Girl Talk aren’t to be slept on, either.

--I saw (and highly enjoyed) Pan’s Labyrinth and (500) Days of Summer in the last few weeks. Guillermo Del Toro, even when he’s expanding on bad ideas, is endlessly entertaining to me; Joseph Gordon-Levitt, meanwhile, is quietly establishing himself (even with appearances in movies like G.I. Joe) as one of the best actors (if not the best) of his generation.

--Coming up later this week: a compendium of lesser-known athlete nicknames, a comparison of the first seasons of The Sopranos and The Wire, and (possibly) an exhaustive guide to Tommy Wiseau’s The Room.