(I am just going to apologize for the rambling below. I'm sleep deprived and fighting a cold. I'm also a little crazy because I return to the road tomorrow and have 592 things to do before my 7:45 a.m. flight.)

I’ve mentioned that I have a love-hate relationship with our local paper. I used to work there and have several friends who still do. The paper does a good job covering local sports and a decent job covering local news. But Gannett has run it into the ground and it is, for the most part, a bad paper. Despite this, I still read it daily for reasons I can't entirely explain.

So the centerpiece art in today's sports section is a large photo of Steelers’ QB Ben Roethlisberger lifting his arms in celebration after yesterday’s game. The caption reads…

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger waves his AFC championship ‘Terrible Towel’ after helping lead Pittsburgh past Carolina and into the Super Bowl for the first time since 1995…

Seriously, there were two football games yesterday. The brain trust over there couldn’t keep straight who played in each game? And that was the early game – it’s not like it ended at 1 a.m. and they were scrambling to get it in the paper on deadline. As an editor, I completely understand that mistakes happen, but that is just ridiculous.

That said, I was happy to see the Steelers advance, because I loathe the Broncos (see: The Drive; The Fumble; their lumberjack QB) and I'm a sucker for the sentimental angle in sports, which Bettis provides. I didn't care who won the NFC game. I was sorry Steve Smith didn't get a chance to bust out any new celebratory tricks, because I did enjoy last week's goal post shimmy.

In other sports news, the Mets traded pitcher Kris Benson to the Orioles. Since the Mets are still dead to me, the only reason I’m mentioning this is because it also means the Big Apple will henceforth be without the entertaining antics of his wife, Anna Benson. This causes a small quandary for me, as my fantasy league team is currently named Anna Benson’s Revenge. Do I need to make a switch? Probably not, since I'm sure she'll keep up the shenanigans even after she leaves NYC.

The Evil Empire is apparently close to signing a deal with the always approachable and friendly Barry Bonds to star in his own reality show. That's going to go well.

And finally, I made my first-ever visit to the Bendix Diner in Hasbrouck Heights Saturday morning. I'm embarrassed to admit I'd never been there before. I think it might be the ultimate Jersey diner. I'm going to have to make a few more visits before I can offer a full description. Fortunately, my cousin lives a mile from the establishment, so I'll have plenty of opportunity.