Well, shit. You go to bed one night with the world a certain way, and then you wake up the next morning (assuming you consider 3:45 AM the next morning, and not the same night), and everything’s changed. I have to admit, I haven’t actually been watching Olbermann these days, but it was always nice to know he was still out there, being a barnacle in the backside of wingnuts, Fux News, and, especially, Bill O’Reilly. Now, poof. All gone (or, as the NY Post puts it: “MSNBC pulls plug on gasbag Olbermann“). Replaced by Larry O’Donnell (a nice enough fella, but considered a “player” which to me means the sort of establishment Democrat – cough-O-cough, cough-bama – that got us shitty health care reform, shitty financial reform, shitty… well, just plain shitty shit). MSNBC, if you weren’t already dead to me, you’d be dead to me now. Now, let’s hope Keith gets an uncensored show on HBO.

I’ve always liked Tom Watson (except for when he was beating Jack Nicklaus), but who knew he’d go from winning British Open Championships to winning a seat in the British Parliament? And here’s what Labor MP Watson (West Bromwich East) had to say about Rupert Murdoch and Glenn Beck:

“Glenn Beck, you are a bigot. You bring shame to your country, not because you lack balance, but because you are an unthinking buffoon. Rupert Murdoch tolerates you because you are his useful idiot. He uses you to get a foothold in the doors of the powerful. Like his phone-hacking journalists and his pugnacious leader-writers in Australia, you are expendable. Let us hope he disposes of your nasty brand of intolerance sooner rather than later.”

“It is Rupert and James Murdoch who should answer for bigots such as Glenn Beck and phone hackers such as Clive Goodman and Glen Mulcaire. They employ them. They promote them. They are responsible for them. It is time for thinking citizens in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia to unite against the Murdochs’ vicious brand of politics that masquerades as publishing.”

Eagle for Watson, I’d say.

Otherwise, it’s frickin’ cold and windy here – with even colder weather yet to come. It’s supposed to be down to -15° by the end of the weekend, and depending on where you live around here, the cold and wind are supposed to be accompanied by a foot or two of snow (not that you’ll see anybody making a big huge deal out of it, of course – we’re just thrilled to be adding on to our 37″ lead over Rochester in the Golden Snowball contest – not to mention our lead in the national Golden Snow Globe contest). In other words, it’s gonna be a bit nippy in the old tractor saddle.

There’s much I’d like to do this weekend, all of which starts with a trip to buy a shitload of plywood, lumber, and other stuff. This is most likely not going to happen. I do, however, have a dual flush adapter to install on my big monster water-guzzling toilet. The other two are water-efficient, but this one’s old-school.

It shouldn’t be a big deal (have to take the tank off), but I’ve been reluctant to start it, because, from past experience, I know that whenever you start with the happy homeowner plumbing, everything tends to turn to shit (so to speak).

But, seeing as I have the parts on hand, that project may actually get done.

There are of course a lot of other important things going on (besides tracking the official snowfall and windchill numbers). First, at noon, we’ll see if the SU-Villanova hoops game sets the NCAA on-campus record for attendance (34,616 – which was set at last year’s SU-Villanova game, which, as I recall, broke the record from the 2006 SU-Villanova game of 33,633).

This, as you might expect, is big news around here. Or, as my wife put it, “oh, is there a home game tomorrow?” 🙄

On the bright side, she’s learned the phrase “home game,” and I believe she knows that basketball is the one with the round ball, so the past 15 or so years haven’t been a total waste.

After the round ball, we move on to the pointy ball, with the East-West Shrine Game at 4:00. Normally I wouldn’t care, but we actually have 3 SU players in the game this year – a testament to the resurgence of the program, and of course our mighty win in the all-important inaugural Pinstripe Bowl.

More pointy balls (which sounds painful, depending on which way they point) tomorrow, as the Jets (whose coach, Rex Ryan, and his wife really put the “foot” in football) take on the Steelers to see who represents the AFC in the Super Bowl. As a long-suffering Jets fan, I’m not allowing my hopes to get too high here.

Oh well, time to get another cup of coffee and fire off a useless e-mail to MSNBC, and maybe sign a useless online petition.

Stay warm out there.