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• There was some big news in the Twins blogosphere this week, as John Bonnes, Seth Stohs, Nick Nelson, and Parker Hageman launched a new site called TwinsDaily.com that combines their four blogs into one mega-blog and offers a platform for other writers to find an audience. I'm not involved with the site, but it's a great project and I'd encourage everyone to go hang out there (after you're done reading everything here, of course). Check out TwinsDaily.com.

• In which Craig Calcaterra reveals our private conversations and says Ronald Belisario bought drugs from my mother.

• Raquel Welch has to be the best-looking 71-year-old person ever, right?

• Seems like Elijah Dukes misunderstood the whole concept of edibles.

• Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com Mila Kunis is beautiful and talented.

• Two great tastes that taste great together: Tom Scharpling and Marc Maron teamed up for a fantastic podcast that was about five hours too short.

• Twins beat writers aren't afraid to show plenty of leg at spring training.

• Sometimes perception and reality are a perfect match.

• Nobody puts Niese-y in a corner.

• This week's "Gleeman and The Geek" episode was taped at Smalley's 87 Club in downtown Minneapolis, which closed up shop literally a day later. And if you've listened to the episode, that probably seems fitting.

• Ricky Rubio, Kevin Love, and the Wolves sing (sort of) "Tearin Up My Heart" by NSYNC:

If you can make it to the end Nikola Pekovic steals the show, as usual.

• Sebastian Pruiti of Grantland broke down some video for a very detailed, interesting analysis of Love's low-post game.

• "Googly oogly oogly baby!"

• David Price taped a commercial with Kate Upton, but his Rays teammate Evan Longoria is dating an actual Playboy playmate, Jaime Edmondson.

• Speaking of the Rays, this is the first ballpark giveaway guaranteed to cause nightmares.

• Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Novak in the same photo.

• Bob Wickman's sexiness did not come naturally.

• Hell hath no fury like a baseball writer scorned.

• Friend of AG.com and Minneapolis Star Tribune writer Phil Miller was named one of the top 10 beat reporters in the country by the Associated Press Sports Editors.

• Daniel Von Bargen, the actor who brilliantly played George Costanza's boss on Seinfeld and was also good in the highly underrated movie Super Troopers, attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head.

• As if Louis C.K. writing and producing a sitcom for CBS wasn't confusing enough, apparently Ashley Tisdale has been cast as the star.

• One of my favorite shows, Community, is coming back on the air next month after a long layoff and threat of cancellation.

• Fear not: Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com candidate Kate Beckinsale is still great looking.

• I hope Greg Oden can find some happiness after basketball, because otherwise life isn't fair.

• And speaking of Oden's latest setback, Joel Przybilla is back in the NBA.

• Congrats to former "Gleeman and The Geek" guest Lindsay Guentzel for making the MLB Fan Cave's final 30 candidates. She's now headed to Arizona for spring training.

• Bonnes and I are planning a get-together for March 5 to watch the Twins-Red Sox spring training game on television. We'll have all the details next week on the podcast and our blogs, but in the meantime mark your calendar and start preparing your liver.

• Finally, in honor of Dukes' latest brush with the law this week's AG.com-approved music video is "Young, Wild, and Free" by Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa:

• If only I could have paid off my losing Super Bowl bet the same way as Maria Menounos.

• This post-Super Bowl column in the Boston Globe is everything wrong with sportswriting.

• I wrote a guest column for Baseball Prospectus, which has been my dream for 15 years.

• KFAN is the eighth-highest rated sports talk radio station in the country.

• I sometimes feel guilty about Link-O-Rama being sexist, so here's something for the ladies.

• I'm starting to think some of these "parents groups" should be more parenting.

• Finally, conclusive evidence that I've spoken to a woman.

• This week's "Gleeman and The Geek" guest, Lindsay Guentzel, was chosen as a finalist for the MLB Fan Cave contest, so go vote for her a few thousand times.

• Jose Reyes' dreadlocks sold for $10,200 on eBay. Seriously.

• I'm actually kind of surprised it took this long.

• Obviously the solution is to start using books as toilet paper.

• Just in case you need a pep talk after a long week, Coach Taylor is always here for you:

Can't lose, obviously.

• I've been watching the Starz series Boss on Netflix. It can get a little too cheesy at times, but Kelsey Grammer is great in the lead role and the show is definitely worth watching.

• And after mentioning Boss on Twitter one of the supporting actors randomly replied to me.

• We're doing very important things at Hardball Talk.

• Ozzie Gullen, mocking Baseball Think Factory regulars since 2012.

• Old habits die hard, even when your entire writing career has been spent on the internet.

• How many episodes of a new television show should you watch before you give up on it?

• This is the best decision rabbis have made since expelling me from Hebrew school.

• I'd love to have sat in on the meetings where this horrendous idea was approved.

• It took one week for former Harvard point guard and NBA journeyman Jeremy Lin to become every Knicks fan's favorite player.

• I'm not really the target demographic for Smash, but I look forward to running into Katharine McPhee at the NBC holiday party.

• Kendrick Perkins needs to learn that the key is being the source of the negativity.

• I moved out of St. Paul at age 17, so obviously this happened.

• And to think, this man dated Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com Mila Kunis for many years.

• Something tells me Terry Ryan won't be joining Twitter any time soon.

• Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video is Basia Bulat signing "Before I Knew":

This week's episode of "Gleeman and The Geek" was recorded at Wild Boar in Hopkins and our special guest was FSN on-air talent and "MLB Fan Cave" hopeful Lindsay Guentzel. She drank vodka, I drank beer, and John Bonnes drank ... water. Topics included the good and bad sides of female baseball fandom, Ron Gardenhire's preferred lineup, the lack of veteran relief help, John's payroll chat with Dave St. Peter, my nerdiness, and pursuing a career in sports media.

Not included: Lindsay becoming our first guest to sing karaoke after the podcast was over.

UPDATE: MLB has chosen Lindsay as a finalist, so go vote for her several million times.

Gleeman and The Geek: Episode 27

In addition to the direct download link above you can also subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.

• Much to the delight of The Wire fans, Omar Little got arrested in Baltimore last week.

• Simon Konecki may not know it yet, but someday he'll be the subject of a No. 1 album.

• Adrian Peterson didn't let career-altering knee surgery ruin his New Year's Eve celebration.

• Howard Stern used Twitter to drunk dial a bunch of his fans on New Year's Eve.

• This week's 60 Minutes had a segment about someone who ran a scam charging kids to take the ACT and SAT for them, and I'm proud to say the homepage on his computer is Rotoworld.

• Having two kids cost Jessica Alba the Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com title, but she's staging a helluva comeback.

• This week's "Gleeman and The Geek" episode featured me chasing scotch with beer, pitching an idea for a podcast recording my blind dates, and ultimately concluding that "this podcast is completely off the rails." Oh, and we talked Twins too.

• I turned on the Nuggets-Kings game Wednesday to see rookie Kenneth Faried get garbage time action and this immediately happened:

And then moments later he did this too.

• Alex Rodriguez, nerd or hipster? You decide!

• Brandon Warne's lengthy chat with Twins hitting coach Joe Vavra is well worth reading.

• Aaron Rupar of City Pages raised an intriguing question in relation to the start of my age-29 season: Prime age for baseball players is typically around 26-30, but what's the prime age for bloggers? In terms of producing content I'd say prime blogging age is 20-24, but in terms of producing good content it's probably closer to 24-28. Either way, I'm over the hill.

• I'd watch a lot more soccer if all the goals were like this one.

• I never watch hockey, but I've never missed a second of HBO's great 24/7 series on the NHL.

• Old friend Carlos Silva has found a new home after making $48 million to throw 297 innings with a 5.82 ERA since leaving the Twins.

• I know I said not to get me anything for my birthday, but I'm still kind of disappointed that no one got me Lizzy Caplan. Maybe next year.

• Brad Miller hasn't played for the Timberwolves yet because of microfracture knee surgery, but he's already had a significant impact on the team.

• As you'd expect, Charles Barkley is even better when he thinks the microphones are off:

Something tells me TNT won't exactly be thrilled with Kevin Harlan either.

• Because of her divorce Zooey Deschanel's finances went public and I'm kind of surprised she doesn't have more money. Her eyes alone should be worth at least $1 million per month.

• I'm ashamed to have missed Portlandia until now, but immediately watched every episode on Netflix and the new season starts tonight on IFC. Until then, watch their take on baseball.

• Aimee Teagarden has maintained her adorability since Friday Night Lights ended.

• Latest podcast recommendation: "Throwing Shade" with Bryan Safi and Erin Gibson, whose various great podcast appearances have made her my favorite Erin/Aaron, including myself.

• I picked against the spread for every NFL game this season and my final tally was 129-119-8 overall, but only 69-69-4 on my favorite picks each week. That may not look bad, but if you bet $100 per game going 129-119-8 would equal a $190 loss with the vig. Gambling is hard, kids.

• In case you were wondering, this is what a 29-year-old adult eats for lunch on his birthday.

• Friend of AG.com Lindsay Guentzel is auditioning to be this season's MLB Fan Cave resident and could use your help to win the contest.

• Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video is Vika Yermolyeva doing a piano cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana (and there are a bunch more where that came from):

• You'll have to wait until Monday morning for my analysis of the Twins signing Jason Marquis, but in honor of today being Festivus this week's Link-O-Rama is super-sized ...

And here's a little more about my favorite holiday:

Coincidentally, today is also the 100,000th time Seinfeld has been referenced on this blog.

• I'm only into Minka Kelly for her memorabilia collection anyway.

• "Survey finds most people go online for no particular reason" explains my entire career/life.

• If you've seen Pulp Fiction as many times as me you'll love watching it in chronological order.

• Albert Pujols made headlines, but this was by far the best moment of the winter meetings.

• I've been getting into Johnnie Walker black label lately, and that was before seeing their new advertising campaign.

• Whomever suggested White Castle should sell beer and wine is a genius. An evil genius.

• Headline of the week: "Man eats cocaine from brother's butt, dies."

• Louis CK skipped the middle man and sold his new comedy special on his website for $5. Not only was it great and easy to buy, the numbers should encourage others to follow suit and he donated $280,000 to charity.

• CK also called himself the Orlando Hernandez of stand-up comedy and was a great guest on Bill Simmons' podcast, although ESPN had trouble deciding which bad words to bleep out.

• Terry Ryan's taste in sweaters is similar to his taste in proven closers.

• As this intense video clearly shows, taekwondo is no joke:

My favorite was the spinning back kick.

• Chris Ison is a Pulitzer Prize winner and was one of my favorite teachers at the University of Minnesota, so his writing about my career path for the journalism school magazine is surreal.

• I used to dislike Bill Conlin as a columnist, but now that couldn't matter less. Yuck.

• David Brauer of MinnPost notes that Judd Zulgad and Joe Anderson quadrupled the ratings on 1500-ESPN after replacing Colin Cowherd.

• Hopefully throat surgery will at least allow Adele enough time to get into a relationship and have an angry breakup she can use for material. And if not I'll just try to break this record.

• If a judge sentenced me to 30 days of house arrest I'd laugh maniacally like Roberto DeNiro in Cape Fear and then take a nap.

• Probably the best (or least bad) thing Nickelback has ever done.

• Reminder: Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com candidate Kate Beckinsale is a 38-year-old mother.

• As an NBC employee and longtime Howard Stern fan this shouldn't make me so sad.

• Tony Levine, who used to referee my JCC basketball games, has replaced Kevin Sumlin as the University of Houston's new football coach.

• Amare Stoudemire was on Sesame Street teaching Hebrew. Obviously:

He probably would have been pretty decent in that JCC basketball league.

• Al Jefferson has a 38-year-old girlfriend and she got arrested for allegedly biting him.

• My online love affair with Chantel Kendall from Baseball Wives was fun while it lasted, but all good things must come to an end.

• Not to be outdone by Jacque Jones becoming the Padres' new Single-A hitting coach, Doug Mientkiewicz is the Dodgers' new rookie-ball hitting coach. Luis Rivas is still out of work.

• My favorite quote from Anthony Bourdain's predictably terrific appearance on Marc Maron's podcast: "I was regularly vomiting publicly and happy about it."

• Paz de la Huerta should be at the top of most lists, but this one in particular makes sense.

• Anyone wanna back me for this poker tournament?

• My childhood gets super confused looking at a 44-year-old Pamela Anderson.

• Local reporter Jon Krawcynski and the Associated Press reached a settlement with the NBA.

• On this week's "Gleeman and The Geek" podcast we discussed what the Twins' lineup looks like with Josh Willingham and Ryan Doumit replacing Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel, the difference between Christmas and Hanukkah, and first impressions of Ricky Rubio after seeing him in person. We also recapped one of my rare party-going experiences, as shown here:

From left to right that's me, Lindsay Guentzel, John Bonnes, and Parker Hageman.

• There's also photographic evidence of Bonnes dominating at quarters. Made a co-host proud.

• Sports Business Journal named my boss as the most influential person in sports business.

• So far so good with the Minneapolis Star Tribune's switch to a metered paywall.

• It turns out no one wants to read about actual baseball on a baseball blog.

• From now on I'll be referring to Kelly Oxford as a co-worker.

• Hey girl, how about some drunk history?

• Brandon Roy's too-short basketball career got the eulogy it deserved from Jason Quick.

• Melanie Laurent in Beginners might be the most attractive person ever. Good movie, too.

• On a related note, I carry around this list in my pocket, just in case.

• Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video--as quoted in Monday's post--is "Yesterday Was Hard On All Of Us" by Fink: