Thursday night news, notes and thoughts

Item 1: Unlike a year ago, with four weeks remaining in fan voting, not a single Bengals players is listed as the leading vote-getter at his position or among the top 10 in the AFC.

Item 2: My mid-week thought on the Bengals game Sunday is that fans should fasten their seatbelts. I'm looking at two struggling defenses and a pair of dymanic balanced offenses. I see both teams reaching the low 30s or high 20s, though after last week's 90-point game, both of these teams could get into the 40s against the opposing defenses. I see the Saints winning a high-scoring, but close game.

Item 3: Some fans are having a lot of fun with my inability to correctly predict the winner of a Bengals game straightup -- let alone against the spread. I was 2-0 and then 0-6 before getting close to the margin of the Chargers game. I picked San Diego by 10. It won by eight. Of course, I picked 27-17. Not 49-41.

Item 4: I'll be posting some more lyrics (though some of this blog's more conservative readers and total football heads don't like that feature). Sorry, I like my job, I love my craft, but I can't take more football than what I have to process for my job. So, in my music world, I really like the relatively new self-titled Tim O'Reagan record on the Lost Highway label, as well as the somewhat new "Another Fine Day" by Golden Smog. The common denominator is their link to the sadly now-defunct Jayhawks.

Item 5: Several readers have asked, since I wrote than I had been asked to write and deliver my mother's eulogy, if I would post it. I will, as soon as I can finish typing it in. I wrote by hand in a notebook in the lobby of the Comfort Inn on the south end of Dixon, Ill., from 5-8 a.m. on Oct. 31, the morning of her funeral.

Item 6: Thank you for the feedback, bad and good. At least you're reading. I value this blog right now as much as anything I do as a writer. It's a chance to talk almost personally to you and to (again, sorry to those who don't like it) stretch into some sometimes unrelated material.