LR 1, nWa 0:Little Rock's Evanescence debuts at No. 1 on Billboard hot 100 album chart

A Little Rock band is the hottest thing going in the country according to this week's album charts. Evanescence's album debuted at No. 1 after selling 447,342 copies in its first week to push out the Killers from the top spot.

In other news, Fayetteville's Cate Brothers are breaking up.

What's going on with Hogville?

Hogville has been built into a pretty incredible site, but since the start of the football season, it seems like it's become dominated by newbies who hate Houston Nutt and are obssessed with worshipping at the altar of all things Malzahn. This continued demand and obsession with the hurry-up no-huddle offense -- even after the success at Auburn with the running game -- borders on psychotic. Just take a look at this latest thread as Exhibit A. Also, you rarely see posts by old-school guys like hSv (the board owner) and WilsonHog. At some point, someone handed the keys over to "mikeirwin" as THE admin of the board, and he's gone to work deleting and moving many opinions that contradict his own or the cult's.

LR 1, nWa 0:Snyder best, Boozman worst

Found this item in the Pat Lynch newsletter...

"A national environmental group Wednesday named Rep. Vic Snyder of Little Rock among lawmakers with one of the best voting records for protecting the environment and Rep. John Boozman of Rogers among the worst. The annual scorecard from the League of Conservation Voters showed Snyder with votes matching the league's pro-environment views 92 percent of the time. Boozman's score was 8 percent."

Enough about 'Year of the Dog'

These threads keep popping up on Hogville promoting the upcoming release of this book about Springdale High School. It's become obvious someone connected to the author is using Hogville to hype this book and sell a few copies to these people who salivate over Springdale High. Reading some of these posts, it's like they are anticipating the release of a Playboy or something. And to make it worse, they gleefully look forward to any criticism it might contain of Houston Nutt. This is the kind of discourse that the admins of Hogville have come to endorse these days. Just don't dare to post anything negative about Malzahn in the thread, and notice there aren't any negative posts.

Wally's column today: It's Houston's game plan

Wally Hall writes today about how Houston Nutt was the mastermind behind the game plan that beat Auburn and vetoed two of Malzahn's pass plays. That's no surprise, and thank goodness Nutt's taken control of the offense. They might have had a better shot against USC had that happened earlier.

But it's funny how the Cult of Malzahn claimed before the Auburn game that Nutt was holding Malzahn back, yet after the game they are claiming Malzahn is responsible for the win. You guys can't have it both ways.

Did anyone see Malzahn's on-field interview after the Auburn game? Something was weird about it. Malzahn didn't seem happy about something. Very strange.

Little Rock, don't embarrass Joe Johnson

According to a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Friday night's NBA preseason game at Alltel Arena between the Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets has only sold 2,000 tickets so far. They attribute this in part due to competition from the opening of the Arkansas State Fair and high school football.

But the real problem is the high ticket prices for the product that shows up on the floor. Ticket prices are $12, $25, $35, $45, $50, and $100. That's a lot to pay for a game where the starters last less than a half. People who have been to these games at Alltel for so many years have probably gotten tired of paying that when you can drive two hours once the season starts and watch the Memphis Grizzlies in a regular season game.

Still, we can't embarrass Joe. Buy a ticket and show up.

LR 1, nWa 0:Travel Channel's 'Taste of America'features Little Rock and River Market

Mark DeCarlo rolled into the River Market in Little Rock to do a segment for his "Taste of America" show on the Travel Channel. Little Rock's featured dish was fried green tomatoes, as cooked at an American Legion hall during a square-dancing get together.

If you missed it on Tuesday, the show will run again at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14. Set your DVRs or whatever the kids call it.

NCAA tournament final standings

Congratulations to No Love for Starbury, who ran away with this tournament to become a repeat champion. He wins the $180 pot, the traditional year's subscription to Slam magazine, and the coveted Escobar Cup. His bracket is posted above, and you can click on it to get a larger version of how it's done.

I also must give propers to the only two entrants -- Eugene's Nash and Haji and Mr. Reeves -- to make the genius pick of Florida as national champ, and to have them as a moneyball team all the way.

Below are the final standings with real names. Feel free to explain your tournament name by clicking the "Comments" link below this post. Thanks to everyone who entered, and I hope this pool enhanced your NCAA tournament experience.

176 - No Love for Starbury (Mike Beranek)
141 - Revival with Pastor Dick Rubin (Lee Davis)
137 - Vincent Young owes me $500 (Robert Shields)
125 - Big O (Oscar Davis)
120 - Purple Alligator Posse (Scott Pacheco)
120 - Chief Thunderbottom, the Panderer's Friend (Chris O'Brien)
120 - H.H. Holmes and friends (Gary Fambrough)
120 - Eugene's Nash (Jeff Dailey)
118 - Swamp Donkeys (Hunter Hauk)
117 - Daddy O (Alex Orsini)
114 - DJ Jazzy Josh and the Get Fresh Brew (Trip Miller)
113- Wild on Maumelle (Jerry Wild)
112 - DVH for Arkansas Head Football Coach (Joe Chu)
112 - Darkwing (Broderick Smith)
111 - Mean Gene (Gene Lu)
111 - Mya Flunt (Luis Rivero)
110 - Haji and Mr. Reeves Sidewalk Cafe presents Vinegar Bend Mizell with the Doobie Sullivan Orchestra (Matt Dishongh)
109 - D Romeo (Ron Rainey)
109 - V for Vratsinas (Darren Schlapkohl)
106 - Karl Pilkington's Knob at Night (Trey Davis)
106 - Father Bronco's Cowboy Priest Ministries (Kirk Wilson)
105 - Petunia Pickle Pants (Kevin Kilpatrick)
105 - Sapientior (Steve Straessle)
105 - Ain't nuthin' more evil, than a damn Boll Weevil (Ryan Harris)
103 - Vincent (I got your Heisman trophies) Young (Sal Chavarria)
103 - Stella by Starlight (Eileen Dishongh)
100 - ATMP (Allen McNutt)
94 - Zebra (Larry Brannan)
91 - Smitty and Hoppy (Eric Sims)
89 - The Teacher (Mr. Steve Wells)
86 - Bird (Christie Hamaker)
86 - nWo Doug's Book of Haiku (Doug Virden)
82 - Captain Caveman (Tim Bichlmeier)
81 - The "O.C." Factor (John Vratsinas)
80 - Rock Chalk (Jennifer Chavarria)
77 - The Yuen Wo-Ping Fight Team (Kate Dishongh)

Doug's Book of Haiku: Season Finale

I'd rather be watching wrestling
Rick Schaeffer has diarrhea of the mouth
Gentle Ben also has it

NBA bonus points round-up

I always like looking at these stats at this time of year because it gives you a really good indication of what teams are hot going into the playoffs. Here are the top five NBA finishers with entrants who picked them listed underneath each team. No one picked the team with the best record, so no one gets the bonus points, just as no one will get any bonus points for correctly picking the women's champion.

1) New Jersey Nets - 9-0

2) Cleveland Cavaliers - 8-0

3) Detroit Pistons - 8-2
No Love for Starbury
Daddy O
Wild on Maumelle
DVH for Arkansas Head Football Coach
Mean Gene
D Romeo
Karl Pilkington's Knob at Night
Father Bronco's Cowboy Priest Ministries
Sapientior
Ain't nuthin' more evil, than a damn Boll Weevil
Eugene's Nash
ATMP

4) San Antonio Spurs - 7-2
Vincent Young owes me $500
H.H. Holmes and friends
Haji and Mr. Reeves Sidewalk Cafe presents Vinegar Bend Mizell with the Doobie Sullivan Orchestra
Captain Caveman
The "O.C." Factor

5) Memphis Grizzlies - 7-3