Starting Five

1. Sunday Masses

More than one million people gathered for a unity rally in Paris yesterday. Meanwhile, last week Boko Haram reportedly massacred 2,000 people in one town in northern Nigeria, but that was in Africa, sooooooo…

Still, it was heartening to see 40 world leaders (but no one from the USA) link hands and join an estimated 1.6 million people in Paris for the rally. Overall, an estimated 3.7 million people took part in rallies across France yesterday.

One warning note: I hate to be the buzzkill here, but if I’m Al Qaeda or ISIS or whoever, and I see that an act of terror can draw that many people –including so many important figures–together in one place, well, I’ve got my next two-fer planned. A follow-up attack with a sucide bomber at this rally would have claimed far more lives.

2. “Overthromaha!”

A pair of teams that went a combined 16-0 at home this season, Green Bay and Denver, hosted playoff games on Sunday. The Broncos lost and the Packers survived.

Denver, except for an astoundingly gritty 4th-down run by C.J. Anderson in the third quarter, looked anemic. Peyton Manning overthrew too many receivers and then when he didn’t, on short bubble screens, they dropped his passes. Andrew Luck was seldom pressured. Jim Irsay looks like a genius now. An alcohol-fueld and drug-addled genius, but a genius.

“This might be, my finaaalll game.” (Peyton, “Nationwide” voice).

I mean, it would be poetic if Peyton allows a loss to Andrew Luck and the Colts to be his final game,  no?

Meanwhile at Lambeau, it was also Dallas’ first road loss of the season. The Cowboys looked to be in position to take the lead late with Dez Bryant’s balletic catch on fourth down that brought America’s Team to the Packer 1, but it was overturned on review. The Calvin Johnson rule.

I get the rule and I get why Bryant and Dallas are upset, but here’s what I wish were different: Okay, Bryant failed to “complete the process,” but the ball popped out of his grasp and then back into his grasp before it ever touched the ground again. If you consider it as the ground causing the fumble, well, he recovered before the ball struck the ground again.

Because I’m old, my mind immediately returned to Super Bowl XII and former Cowboy Butch Johnson’s touchdown catch. Did Butch “complete the process?”

3. Wifetime Achievement Award

Best speeches at the Golden Globes: George Clooney, Michael Keaton and Kevin Spacey. Funniest intros: Ricky Gervais, noting how he will not insult those in attendance because America doesn’t want to hear it (“Ordinary people at home don’t want to hear how you’re better than ordinary people; you know it, they know it…”) ; and Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig reciting “famous” movie lines (“Not today”).

The only thing missing from the Hader-Wiig riff were cameras panning to a pissed off Tommy Lee Jones not enjoying himself one bit. They should have just panned to Frances McDormand or Matthew McConaughey, neither of whom seemed to be enjoying the evening a-tall.

The big winners last night were homosexuality and cleavage, and I know you’re asking, “So how was this different from any other awards show?”

J-Lo definitely showed nip, which inspired Jeremy Renner’s nip quip: “You sure have golden globes.”

And here’s Tina Fey and Amy (Check out my new Golden Globes) Pohler on Bill Cosby…

Best Motion Picture Drama was Boyhood. I like that Jack Black noted it was filmed IN 12 weeks over 12 years, “so let’s pump the brakes on that a little.”

4. Mangia

This is old, but I’d never seen it before. Yesterday I overhead a dude mentioning it as he stood outside a bar smoking, and I was intrigued. So here it is, “Anthony Bourdain’s 13 Places to Eat Before You Die.” 

Spoiler Alert: Olive Garden did not make the list.

For you out-of-towners: For a memorable cheap eats experience, I recommend Burger Joint in midtown Manhattan. You’ll have to search a little to find it, but these days that just means plugging the name into Google.

5. 1,000 on Hold

No. 2 Duke lost its first game of the season yesterday at nearby North Carolina State –your AAU team may have traveled farther for its game–but don’t weep for Coach K, who remains “stuck” on 997 career wins.

Had the Blue Devils won, Krzyzewski would have been on pace to win his 1,000th on the road, at Louisville (no easy task). Instead, if Duke can get past the No. 5 Cardinals, then he’ll be slated to win No. 1,000 at Cameron Indoor, which would be more fitting, against Pitt on Jan. 19. If Duke loses another before then, it’ll most likely come AT St. John’s at MSG.

Also losing yesterday: No. 7 Arizona at Oregon and No. 4 Wisconsin at Rutgers. Bad day for the ranked against the file.

Remote Patrol

Ohio State vs. Oregon (Kind of a Big Deal)

ESPN 8:30 p.m.

The scholarly, soft-spoken Heisman Trophy winner versus the guy who said, “We’re here to play football, we’re not here to ‘play school.'” Joey Bosa’s shrug. O Faces aplenty. I’ll take Urban Meyer for the win, not just to cover the shrinking spread…