Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  How are you?  I'm sorry we missed you this weekend.  I got my booster and flu shot on Friday, and the combination did a number on me.  Saturday was a complete loss, and Sunday was better, but it still wasn't enough for to be able to focus very well.  Not really at a full 100% today either, but BDH and Little Buddha were dying to say hi to you, so I said we'd give it a go.  The guys made coffee, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Monday Clutter.

The January 6 House select committee is scheduled to have another public hearing this Wednesday.   It's believed at the moment that this will be the last such hearing held by this group.  Members are being guarded about the topic, but the idea of criminal referrals keeps being mentioned, and it sounds like the committee is leaning in that direction.  The biggest question will be if they include Donald Trump, which would further increase pressure on the Department of Justice.   It also sounds unlikely that the committee report will be out before the midterm elections, with Rep. Jamie Raskin saying the end of this session of Congress in January being more likely.

What new information will the committee reveal on Wednesday?  (pic via npr.org)

U.S. officials are warning Russia that there will be "catastrophic" and "horrific" consequences if Vladimir Putin uses nuclear weapons in his invasion of Ukraine.  Putin has been making that threat repeatedly as he faces increasing humiliation due to the recent successes of Ukraine's military.

Troubling news out of Italy, as the country has chosen a fascist government to lead them.  Giorgia Meloni's rise to likely be the country's next prime minister is bad news for immigrants, the LGBTQ community, anyone who thinks Italy should remain a cooperative member of the EU, and anyone who knows anything about World War II.

If we could only eat one candy for the rest of our lives, it would be M&M's by a country mile.  They've been our favorite for decades, and it's not a close contest.  However, we admit that we didn't know what the initials actually stand for until a minute ago, and now you can know as well.  (If you ever use this information to win a bar bet, please feel free to send us a portion of your winnings for our coffee budget.)

The Boston Red Sox lost 2-0 to the New York Yankees in six innings yesterday and were officially eliminated from playoff contention.  (Kinda feels like that happened about three months ago.)  The 72-80 Sox would have to go on a 10-game winning streak to end the year with a winning record.  That's feeling pretty unlikely, so, what can we feel good about here? 

    1) The Red Sox kept Aaron Judge from setting a new AL home run record against them.  It would have been fitting if Judge hit #'s 61 and 62 over the weekend, since Roger Maris set the current mark against the Red Sox in 1961, but cheers to all of the pitchers for keeping history from repeating itself. 

    2) Rookie pitcher Bryan Bello continues to impress.  He was the hard-luck loser yesterday, but he only gave up two runs in six innings and maneuvered out of several tight spots.  As the linked article points out, Bello has a 1.65 ERA in five starts this month.  The 23-year-old looks like he just might live up to some of the hype.  Hopefully his upward trend will continue in 2023.

Next up:  The Red Sox start a home series against the Baltimore Orioles tonight, with Connor Seabold taking the mound for Boston.

We want to wish Albert Pujols a belated congratulations for hitting his 700th career home run last Friday.  The St. Louis Cardinals legend joins an elite group (Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, and Babe Ruth) as the only players with that many dingers.  Pujols reaching this milestone may be the best story of the 2022 MLB season.  There's probably little to no chance the Cardinals will be able to talk him out of retiring to make a run at Barry Bonds' all-time title, but no one would object if he decided he wanted to give it a shot.

If we had been here on Sunday, we would have predicted the New England Patriots would lose their home opener.  Thus, the fact that they lost 37-26 to the Baltimore Ravens wasn't surprising.  What was unexpected was that the Pats scored 26 points, after scoring just 7 and 17 in their first two games, respectively.  New England was competitive for much of the game yesterday, but four turnovers was too much for them to overcome. 

The much bigger problem than the score is that Mac Jones was injured on New England's final play of the day.   There's nothing official yet, but the current belief is that the quarterback has a high ankle sprain, which would likely keep him off the field for an extended period of time.  If that's the case, the Patriots could be cooked for the season.  Longtime backup quarterback Brian Hoyer may be a terrific extra coach for Jones, but the idea of watching him lead this still-developing team against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers next week sounds about as entertaining as starting our taxes early. 

New England sports fans have had a great run over the past 20 years, but these are some serious storm clouds overhead.

Look at that - the Miami Dolphins beat the Buffalo Bills 21-19 to remain undefeated.  Do we need to pay attention to Miami this season?  It's impressive that they were able to beat Josh Allen and company, especially after having a "butt punt" returned for a safety.  That's a challenge you don't see many teams have to overcome often.

The Las Vegas Raiders lost 24-22 to the Tennessee Titans yesterday to fall to 0-3 on the season.  History says that means the Raiders' odds of making the playoffs are now close to zero.  It's too early to say new head coach Josh McDaniels may be on the hot seat soon, right?  Yeah, it's probably too early.

Rihanna confirmed that she'll be performing during the halftime show of Super Bowl LVII next February. 

Newly-released texts show that Brett Favre hounded the Mississippi government for money for both a volleyball and a football facility for the University of Southern Mississippi even after he'd repeatedly been told it would be illegal to use state welfare funds for that purpose.  This comes on top of Favre receiving over $1 million from these funds for speeches that he never made.  The guy has a estimated net worth of $100 million, and he's out there trying to steal money from people who need help in a state that won't properly maintain the water system in its capital city.  That's repulsive.

We have the first teaser trailer for the upcoming Netflix movie, The Mother, starring Jennifer Lopez as a retired assassin who comes out of retirement to save her daughter.  Thoughts?

There's also a trailer for the upcoming Enola Holmes 2, starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter.  The movie comes out on November 4.  This looks promising:

Netflix also announced that the fifth season of The Crown will premiere on November 9, 2022.

The article's headline feels a little clickbait-ish, but Neil Gaiman does have an interesting explanation for why Netflix hasn't already renewed The Sandman for a second season.  You can read the specifics by clicking on the link, but as usual, it's a battle between business needs and creative desires.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Let's have Rihanna ease us into the new week by closing things out with, "Kiss it Better" for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  Enjoy the rest of your day, be good, and we'll catch up with you again soon.  Until next time, that's today's Clearing out the Clutter, and we are outta here.