My One Favorite Thing this week is Raspberry Sorbet-flavored Ice Cubes gum from Ice Breakers. It's a fucking party for your mouth every time you pop one of these babies in.

1) How sad is this photo below? Charles Rogers was a former star Michigan State wide receiver and a first-round pick of the Detroit Lions just a few years ago. Like most of the Lions picks over the past decade, Rogers was an unmitigated disaster; doing very little on the field except suffering season-ending injury after season-ending injury. He was quickly out of the league, and apparently has since experienced only trouble. His latest arrest was for violating probation stemming from an assault and battery case in September.

I certainly hope this Hamlet-inspired edition of the question column pleaseth the millions (or at least the hundredths of daggers) and not be caviare to the general ... (btw, it's caviar, not murder, that is most foul, both in concept and taste).

1. Something is rotten in the state of [Dagblog]?

2. A dream itself is but a shadow?

3. O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain?

4. When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions?

5. To be honest as this world goes is to be one man picked out of ten thousand?

Found this kind of interesting. Apparently, the NFL will be experimenting by broadcasting tonight's NFL game between the 4-8 San Diego Chargers and the 3-9 Oakland Raiders live in 3-D in theaters in LA, New York and Boston. Nothing like watching a supreme battle of Who's the Suckiest AFC team as overpaid behemoths play crappy football right on your lap.

So I still happen to be digging Geo Challenge - I don't even want to think about all the hours I've spent on Facebook Playfish games this year. I think they somehow figured out how to put crack cocaine in their code and time-capsule release it over the wires on the Interweb and through the speakers on my computer. I think in some states, Playfish and I would be common law married about now.

Since I'm home for the Thanksgiving weekend, I figured I'd compose a bunch of questions relating to childhood and hometowns. Many of these assume you have parents who are still alive and a 'normal' upbringing (you know, nuclear family and all), so please accept my apologies if this isn't the case and feel free to adjust the question if at all possible (by going back in time or thinking about your own children perhaps) to fit your situation.

1. You are getting sleepy?

2. First crush?

3. Regress much?

So my girlfriend and I decided a couple of months ago to surprise my parents with a trip home. The folks knew my brother was coming in, but I had told them that the flights were too expensive, especially since we had just seen them in August out in California for a cousin's wedding. But I changed my mind and bought the tickets soon after, and then continued to tell repeated lies about our plans for the holiday .

Welcome to the first installment of My One Favorite Thing. This will be a regular (maybe weekly) post on the one thing I'm really digging at the moment. It could be a game or activity, an album or song, a movie or TV show, a person, a food, or just about anything at all.

Genghis wins: Full questions in comment section ...

1) I am thankful for pleasant memories?

2) I am thankful my mom knew she couldn't cook and we mostly went out to eat?

3) I am thankful for innocent childhood diversions?

4) I am thankful for innocent adult diversions?

5) I am thankful for working at home (and for the fairer, less hirsute sex)?

6) I am thankful for moral consistency?

7) I am thankful that I won't be seeing any more new banks in my neighborhood?

8) I am thankful for free but fair trade?

Sometimes, there can be no words. It's ... just ... too ... surreal ...

So Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader (or maybe its no. 1, if rumors of Osama's demise have any credence) released a taped message today, redeclaring war on America and calling its new President-elect a 'house negro.'

Because on this question column, we try out Genghis's proposed suggestion to write the full questions in the comments section to make it even easier for you to answer them ... Also, I was eating bitter herbs while I wrote this ... Man-eesh Ta-Na ...

1) NHL Hockey?

2) Bobbleheads?

3) New Music?

4) Tivo additions?

5) Laundromats?

6) Shopping?

7) Avant-garde parenting?

8) Corporal punishment?

9) Sterilization?

10) Liberal arts education?

Bonus Qs) Column? New Format?

It's bad enough the government will soon be doling out billions and billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out the bloated, mismanaged U.S. auto industry.

But please, please, do not give any of that money to the nation's car dealers.

The day after Obama won the election, a Republican friend of mine on Facebook joined a group that planned on getting together on Inauguration Day to mourn 'The End of Capitalism as We Know It'*.

Members of the group were waxing bitter in the message board, complaining about how Obama was a socialist who was going to destroy the U.S. economy.

I had to laugh ... and cry.

Ring the bell, school's back in, break it down ... Stop. Question time!

10) Ok, several days have passed. Are you still smiling and dancing, or do you find yourself suffering a bit from some sort of post-partum-like depression?

9) Not that I would know anything about this, but which is a more important element of looking good on the dance floor: Rhythm or self-confidence?

8) So I turned 35 this week. Is it lame that one of the things that most annoys me about this age is that I can no longer check off the 18-34 age group in surveys?

Looks like Prop 8 is going to pass in California. It's a shame that on a historic night in American politics, the voters of one of this country's bluest states may have decided to take a step backward for civil rights. Hate to throw out anything negative out there on a day like today, but the lack of leadership on gay marriage by leading Democratic politicians, including our President-elect and Vice President-elect, is probably one of the reason the progress has been halting at best on the issue.

Genghis and I both turned a year older at midnight tonight, about the exact same time Obama began his acceptance speech in Chicago. I think it's fair to say that we couldn't have received a better birthday gift. I will never forget this night.

You should have seen the love and camaraderie being displayed in New York, between and among complete strangers who like me just couldn't stop smiling. If a night like tonight doesn't make one proud to be an American, and hopeful for the future, I don't know what could.

Oh yeah ... It feels so good.

Today I read an article on the Web that I wanted to share because it jibes pretty much perfectly with my vision of the near future for this country, particularly in relation to its economic, social and political status. It's not a pretty picture. But it's what I see ahead.