I saw the movie The Aviator earlier this week. It was good, although quite overlong, and now I know who to blame for the fact that I have to fly places: Howard Hughes. "We can fly over the weather" my ass Howard, it was bumpy as hell at 30,000 feet yesterday, although we do have him to thank for the fact that our planes no longer have crash-inducing propellers.

The weirdest part is here's a guy who was afraid of germs, crowds, shaking people's hands, and such, yet in the movie he got into two gruesome plane crashes in a span of half an hour but still continued to go up in the air in planes with propellers, planes made entirely of wood, and planes in various stages of being built. Perhaps you should have been afraid of flying, dude.

Throughout the movie I couldn't help but think of the Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns buys the casino and then locks himself in the hotel room in a Hughes-esque descent into madness. It's very distracting.

Lucas and I pasted Brian in NFL picks last week, so it looks to be a 2-horse race going down the stretch.

SF at NE: Even resting every single one of their starters (who are actually 2nd-teamers on most other teams), the Pats should still be able to handle the hapless Niners. NE

CLE at HOU: Houston had a huge upset last week and is actually a respectable team. Cleveland is not. HOU

GB at CHI: The Packers don't really impress me this year (sorry Lucas), but the Bears still aren't starting Jeff George and that makes me sad. GB

NO at CAR: The winner of this game will probably make the playoffs in the NFC. That's just sad. CAR

PIT at BUF: Now we'll really see if Roethligsburgererger is really the difference-maker in Pittsburgh. BUF

MIA at BAL: And the 6-3 final score goes to...BAL

MIN at WAS: The Vikings are primed for another colossal choke, but I just can't do it. I can't pick the Redskins to beat anybody right now. MIN

DET at TEN: The Lions don't win on the road or outdoors. TEN

NYJ at STL: Both teams could fall out of the playoffs if they lose, and since this week both teams actually have something play for, the Rams will once again revert to true form. NYJ

CIN at PHI: Wow, it's Jeff Blake against his old team. Will Carl Pickens make an appearance as well? CIN

ATL at SEA: The Seahawks have a chance to complete their destiny and collapse again, but they're playing an Atlanta team that probably won't let Michael Vick even make the trip out. SEA

TB at AZ: It's Lucas' "game I don't care about of the week", no matter what he says I'm nominating this one. Now the only question is what will win the prestigious Most Hat-centric Movie of 2004? TB

KC at SD: The Chiefs have really put it together lately. This will be a tough test for the Chargers, and a good indication of how well they will do in the playoffs this year. SD

JAX at OAK: Oh Jagwires, you were so overhyped this year and you had your chance to make all those preseason Super Bowl predictions come true, but they Fragile Fred returned to his old home the injured list and you lost to Houston. JAX

IND at DEN: A real defense, outdoors, on the road, this has all the makings of...a Peyton Manning embarassment. DEN

DAL at NYG: Finish it off Eli, you've singlehandedly cost your team the playoffs. DAL