Everyone always laughs at my irrational fear of flying. "It's much safer than driving," they say. That may be true, but how many times have you ever had to drive around in circles for 3 hours because your wheels got stuck sideways and when you stopped the car there was a good chance you'd die?

The worst part of this story is that not only did the passengers have to sit on a plane for 3 excruciating hours wondering whether they'd survive a landing, but they had to watch CNN's rampant fearmongering about it the entire time. From the same production company that brought us "Katrina will cause widespread fuel shortages, everyone go fill up your tanks now!" came "This plane full of people is going to explode!" So much for the flight attendants trying to maintain control of the plane. "Everything will be fine people, stay calm...good lord there's Greta van Susteren babbling about a computer model of a plane bursting into flames, everybody panic!"

I can just see if one of our famous disaster movies came true what CNN would say. "Giant asteroid heading towards Earth...Only hope is Ben Affleck...We're Screwed!" "Large green lizard lizard attacks Tokyo...Carl Everett still doesn't believe in dinosaurs...Everybody run through the streets pointing and shouting!" "Giant volcano rises up in the middle of Los Angeles...Oh who are we kidding, this is too ridiculous even for us"

And now for a quick round of NFL picks...

ATL at BUF: They just lost to Seattle and Michael Vick is hurt. What do you think? BUF

CIN at CHI: Bengals, meet a real defense. Upset special. CHI

TB at GB: I can pick up a game on Lucas every week just by picking against the Packers. TB

CLE at IND: Could this be the game Peyton Manning finally gets on track? It sure looks that way. IND

TEN at STL: A matchup of the two most consistently overrated teams. STL

CAR at MIA: Carolina didn't actually play very well last week, the Pats just made constant mistakes. Mini upset-special. MIA

NO at MIN: I will continue to pick against Minnesota as long as Daunte Culpepper continues to look like he belongs in a high school game. NO

JAX at NYJ: The Jets may have won last week, but Pennington still looks awful. JAX

OAK at PHI: In the battle of loudmouth receivers, the team that actually has a defense will win. PHI

DAL at SF: Remember when this would have been considered an NFC championship preview? So long ago... DAL

AZ at SEA: OK, ok, I get it, Arizona is terrible. SEA

NE at PIT: I just can't bring myself to pick against them, no matter how bad they looked last week. NE

NYG at SD: Don't let those records fool you, just look at the schedules. SD

KC at DEN: I have no idea, but the Chiefs can't really be this good can they? DEN