• Just imagine if you got to the Super Bowl, and they didn’t have a seat to match the ticket you bought from their lottery! Here’s a first-person account of an SMU journalism professor who was part of the Super Bowl’s XLV’s ticketgate.
• People are immigrating illegally from India via Brownsville?
• There’s an opera about Anna Nicole Smith opening in London?

• Why the spectacle of the Super Bowl is a snapshot of our society, aka a "pop culture nexus point."
• Quelle horreur! There weren’t seats for some of the Super Bowl ticket holders! This is ironic, given that it totally wasn’t a problem getting a seat at the first Super Bowl.
• Looking at the Super Bowl commercials with the crazy idea that women are people.

• What do Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon have in common? Tear gas, water cannons and old fashioned beatings.
• Why are we still talking about President Obama's birth records?
• Where's the beef? We're looking at you, Taco Bell.

• Tragic. The i love you so much mural on the side of Jo’s Hot Coffee on Congress was tagged by a wanker, and had to be painted over. Click thru to the coffee shop’s Facebook page to commiserate with mourners.
• Austin musician paralyzed after diving into underfilled apartment pool is awarded $6.2 million in damages in a Travis County trial.
• This soda fountain in Rosenberg looks awesome enough to warrant a road trip! (The cherry phosphate sounds scrumptious.)
• Great pictures of bikers visiting the Capitol.
• Here’s a virtual tour of the NFL Experience that just opened in Dallas. Visiting this link won’t cost you the 20-plus smackeroos that visiting the real thing will!
• Austin baby’s foot featured on the Tree of Life poster. The baby is now 3 years-old!
• Ironically, even if you have a Super Bowl Championship ring…it’s nearly too heavy to wear.
• Interesting angle on why the TV shows filmed in Texas might not have done well with viewers outside the state.
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• More snow heads for the mid-Atlantic.
• Rep. Murtha, D-PA, who initially voted for the Iraq War but then became one of its most vocal critics, died yesterday at 77.
• Sen. Ben Nelson polishes his DINO credentials.

• Dallas needs to start getting ready for the next Super Bowl!
• Michael Jackson's Houston-based doctor now charged with involuntary manslaughter.
• New exhibit of the work of modern Italian sculptor Maurizio Cattelan will be showing at the Menil Collection in Houston. This looks super-fun!

• UK troops pave way for super massive blackhole NATO Afghan assault.
• Toyota’s chief apologizes, says company is in crisis.
• Knife-wielding politician refuses to step down in IL lt. governor's race.

• Haiti officials to relocate 400,000 to tent villages.
• Rescuers in Haiti find two more survivors, a week after the 7.0 earthquake.
• How could the healthcare bill be even "less ambitious"? Some Dems want to find a way.

href="http://torontoist.com/2008/02/phototo_snowbal.php">photographing a big, organized snowball fight.

Super Tuesday is the new Super Bowl; New York Times continues its mastery of the obvious. Oh, Obama. Bringing the Dead out of the grave. Is there anything you can't do? Move over, Zeus - archaeologists have found evidence of a pre-Jove deity in Greece. more ›

15% of items put out for recycling in Austin end up in a landfill anyway. Dewhurst doubts TxDOT's claims of being really low on funds. Speaking of TxDOT, you can vote on their site for the next state license plate design. Voting ends next Monday. Illegal immigrants moving to Texas in large numbers from . . . Oklahoma and Arizona? more ›

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Austin-based advertising firm LatinWorks scored a major honor last week. The local company earned a bronze lion from the Cannes International Advertising Festival for its "Classroom" commercial featured during Super Bowl XLI. Why let Saatchi & Saatchi have all the fun? According to the synopsis provided by the folks at Cannes, the "spot showcases Carlos Mencia's comedic humor to demonstrate that the love for Bud Light crosses any cultural boundary." Lesson learned: never let your... more ›

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*The views expressed in The Laurie Show are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole.* -ed. note Hello, sports fans! I was going to make a lame Super Bowl joke, but my knowledge of the sport is nil to be truly witty about it. One of the more shameful remarks I was heard to utter this week was, “Um…what teams are playing?” Nice. I think I’ll stick to radio. One... more ›

As the world holds its breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning. Austinist was in a musical frame of mind as they listened to the new Shins album, updated the SXSW band listings and got called "punk rock" for their efforts by MTV. Bostonist said goodbye to John Kerry's plans for running in 2008 but hello to some... more ›

For a young man whose collegiate career was defined by putting up 6s while leading his team to a national championship, it is certainly ironic that the same number now haunts Vince Young. Leaked reports coming from the NFL combine in Indianapolis indicate that the Maxwell Award Winner and Rose Bowl hero scored a paltry six on the Wonderlic test. But in all of our years of watching football, we have never seen a quarterback have to pass a multiple-choice mental aptitude test to win a Super Bowl. more ›

A couple of years ago, some people were quietly rapping Vince Young for not having the intelligence to play the position in football that is most demanding on a player's smarts. All of those concerns seemingly went out the window as Vince took the Horns to an undefeated season and National Championship last year. Well, the doubters are back. Apparently (or allegedly) Vince scored a miserable 6 (out of 50) on the Wonderlic test... more ›

We have a confession to make. We kind of want to be Andy Greenwald. He interned at Spin magazine in college, which led to a full-time editorial job and interviews with emo heroes like Dashboard Confessional and Jimmy Eats World. His first book, Nothing Feels Good, was an in-depth exploration of the kids and culture that centered on those bands. Now, at 28, his second book is out, and he’s freelancing for Spin, hanging out with Chuck Klosterman in Brooklyn. OK, fine, we really want to be Andy Greenwald. more ›

• Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crow have made the split official.
• There were more building fires over the weekend and this morning-displacing entertainment venues, KOOP radio (again), artists and local residents. With all the madness, our local Fire Department could use some help.
• Suburbia is closing in on Downtown neighborhoods. Might those huge homes in our quaint neighborhoods soon be a thing of the past?
• We're glad we didn't have to sit through the Super Bowl, but we did get to see the commericals and drink our neighbor's beer.
• Capital Metro may have diverted a strike last Monday, but someone might want to balance their checkbook before promising commuters more transportation options.
• This study claims that college athletes are more likely to graduate than most.
  

With the deluge of radio ads promising "drink specials!" and "the biggest screen in town!", it's tough to know which Super Bowl parties might actually be worth getting off of your ass for. We've read the ads, asked around, and looked for a few parties that have something better than average going for them. Our five selections (and the reasons why) follow: - Antone's: Doors at 4pm. Food by Mangia Pizza and Rudy's BBQ.... more ›

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