It probably hurts me more than it hurts you to do one of these Larry King style columns, but I've got too much stuff coming at me to do anything but a few quick hits. So here goes.

1) Many, many congrats to Greg Rolnick and Mary Jo Lippman on their two pieces of amazing news this weekend (at least it was news to me this weekend - if you heard it before that, well, super). Yessir, Greg and MJ are with child AND closing on a new suburban manse in Glenview, IL. Yes, MJ is the same woman whose bachelorette party included "Naked Boys Singing". Yes, Greg's bachelor party included . . . ahem, law of the schoolyard prohibits me from saying.

Couldn't be more excited for the two of them. But since they're both writers and creative types themselves, you should hear about it from their mouths - or their collective Internet presence. So check out their baby and suburbia blog at:

http://www.rolnick.net/blog.html

Again, so many congratulations to both of them. The house looks really great.

2) A busy schedule has prevented me from getting to the comix store over the past couple of weeks, so I've decided to take a serious look into the art form. Right now, I have on loan most of Time Magazine's 10 Best Graphic Novels of all time. For a serious comics head like me, it was pretty disheartening to realize that I'd only read a couple of them. So look for reviews of these things in upcoming Tuesday Top Fives.

If you're interested in the Top 10, these are they: Berlin: City of Stones,
Blankets, Bone, The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, The Dark Knight Returns, David Boring, Ed the Happy Clown, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories, and Watchmen.

Of course, I've read Watchmen and Dark Knight, and I love Jimmy Corrigan. I'm making my way through the rest. David Boring (by Daniel Clowes, he of Ghost World) is pretty disturbing but interesting. Bone is laugh-out-loud fantastic.

3) After a college football season with few surprises, this weekend delivered a bunch - and it probably saved the infamous BCS from getting a bunch of egg on its face come bowl season. Just three unbeaten teams remain - USC, Alabama, and my Mighty Mighty Longhorns, with Texas and USC controlling their own destinies for the national championship in the Rose Bowl.

Cool, I guess. I can breathe a sigh of relief, since I worried that Virginia Tech might overtake the Horns before the season was out. Heh. First time I've ever rooted for the Miami Hurricanes.

But here's something particularly striking as we close in on the bowl season. What's old continues to be new. Seriously. Imagine this: if things go as they are now, the automatic bids to the BCS are likely to be USC, Texas, Penn State, Alabama, West Virginia, and Miami. Is it 1981 again? Consider, even, some of the teams likely to be in the running for the at-large bids: Notre Dame, Ohio State, LSU. Rip van Football fan could have gone to sleep in the early 80s, just gotten up, and it might have taken him a good three weeks to figure out he'd been out for a while.

4) Two other football notes: Bengals and Northwestern Wildcats. Post-season play on the horizon. Huzzah. In multiples!

5) The in-laws are coming to LA this week - Steph's father and step-mother. Our Man in LA's father-in-law has been described by astute observers as a cross between Tony Soprano and Clark W. Griswold. It's apt. Neither he nor his wife have been to LA. He still blames the City of Angels for stealing his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers back in the 50s.

So the challenge is on to prove that LA is not all that bad. Much of the weekend has included a frantic search for the right set of restaurants. Activities are set - we're doing LACMA, the Getty, Venice Beach, Malibu, drinks at the Bev Hills Hotel, and they're staying less than a block from the Walk of Fame, so we'll probably get there, too.

But food's been a question. Bossa Nova or Palomino? Mexico City or Home? The Lobster is a definite, but should it be Gladstone's 4 Fish or Moonshadows? One wrong move and both Our Woman in LA and I know that we skirt disaster.

What will we do? Stay tuned, true believer. This week's sure to have its share of thrills, chills, spills and excitement.

See you tomorrow.