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Miami 7, New England 36.

Yeah, that's what I expected.

We lost Cameron Wake to a knee injury, so it looks likely we'll backslide on the progress we appeared to make in the past two weeks.

You may recall that before the season began, I predicted the team would win 8 games. In hindsight, that appears to have been an overly optimistic outlook.

Sorry. I'll try not to do that again.

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I'm thinking about painting my bedroom. This is the approximate current color:

Disclaimer: I did not choose that color. I never met the person who chose that color. I'm terrified of the person who would choose that color.

If it was up to Mom, the walls would be beige. Or tan. Or eggshell. Or ecru. Mom loves her neutrals.

If it was up to Dad, the walls would be white. Dad, a former real estate agent, would paints all walls white. It's almost a mania.

(How they could live in the same house long enough to have two children remains a mystery to me.)

Obviously, I don't want more green. To prevent clashing with the big red Georgia flag on my wall, pinks, lavenders, and oranges are out as well. Personally I'm thinking blues. Something like:

If I can ever make up my mind and paint the room, I'll provide pictures. In the meantime, don't hold your breath.

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So... Three weeks ago, the Miami Dolphins replaced their coach. They've since won two football games in an impressive fashion that reminds me of the Marino days of yore. Still, I remain hesitant to be enthusiastic.

The two wins have come against two really terrible teams. Sure, we would definitely have lost those games under our last coach, but beating bad teams only proves you're not the worst team.

If new coach Dan Campbell wants to demonstrate that his Dolphins' squad is actually as good as was advertised in the offseason, let's see how competitively the team plays against the reigning Super Bowl Champions (and currently undefeated) New England Patriots on Thursday night.

If the Dolphins can play the Patriots tough, I'll buy a ticket for the Campbell bandwagon. If they can win, I might even stop hating on Ndamukong Suh.

Hmm. Better hold off on Suh. Let's not go crazy.

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The remainder of the movies list for September:

160. (907.) Going In Style (1979)
When I was young and VCRs were new, my father used to record movies off HBO for us to watch. I don't know who's HBO feed it was or how the movies were selected, but it seems there were a large selection of George Burns movies. Oh, God, its sequels, and Just You And Me, Kid were always options. Somehow, this film in which Burns robs a bank with Art Carney and Lee Strasberg, slipped by. It has a lot in common with Harry and Tonto, and I'm sure I wouldn't have appreciated it as a child. But it's pretty good, especially the ending.

161. (908.) Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)
Esther Williams plays one of her under-water movie predecessors in this biopic. I looked up the true story of Annette Kellerman, and let's just say they played fast and loose with some facts. Any excuse to get Williams in the pool, I guess.

162. (909.) The Stranger (1946)
I read after the fact that Orson Welles hated this film, but I thought it was great. Very suspenseful, partly thanks to the director (Welles himself) and partly thanks to a great cast that included Edward G. Robinson. If you like Welle' The Third Man or Touch of Evil, I think you'll enjoy this. Recommended.

Best way to make friends with a stranger? Offer him a Coke!

163. (910.) The Last Hurrah (1958)
Another biopic, this time about a Boston politician. The politics depicted in this movie are underhanded every step of the way, but it's left to the viewer to decide if they are inappropriate or unethical so long as they work for the greater good. A good think piece.

164. (911.) The Steel Trap (1952)
The odd twist of this film is that you, the viewer, accompany a bank manager turned bank robber through the suspense of whether he will succeed at a task he knows is ethically wrong. I was never quite sure whether we're supposed to hope he gets away with it. I liked it once, but it's too thin to sit through twice.

I told you it was a light month. More to come in November.

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At 4:29 PM Pacific today, Doc Brown and Marty McFly will arrive in modern day Hill Valley. So said Back to the Future Part II in 1989.

Back in the day, Back to the Future Part II was not nearly as popular as its predecessor or its successor. Mainstream audiences considered Part II too dark, too cerebral compared to the others. Frankly, I always thought most people didn't understand the movie's internal logic of branching timelines. It seemed strange to me that audiences would embrace one time-travel movie and reject its sequel. In hindsight, I don't think they love the travel as much as they loved the time.

As much as I enjoyed the original — I can still quote most of that movie from memory — I preferred Part II. It was easier for me to relate to the sequel's future of 2015 than the original movie's past of 1955. Nineteen Fifty-Five passed 20 years before I was born. It might as well have been 1885 or 1555. The original movie presented an artificial world, like a museum display come to life. People didn't really dress/act/live like that, did they? My parents definitely never made out in parked cars.

It wasn't until Part II came along and treated the 1980s with the same level of nostalgic reverence that its precursor had reserved for the '50s that I could understand what the franchise was really selling. I knew the '80s. To see the decade venerated by the people of the future, that seemed appropriate. No doubt that's what my parents' generation must have appreciated in the 1950s references of the original. I still couldn't relate, but I could understand.

Now to think that Marty McFly's "present" is 30 years in my past! I can look back and still see the 1980s as clear as though I was living in them. That means that kids today have just as hard a time relating to my past — with its coin-operated arcades and Zubaz striped pants — as I did to my parents'. It's almost too bad they won't be getting a Back to the Future Part IV to help them understand me. You kids get your flying cars off my lawn!

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Only one week after his season-ending knee injury, and boy, do the Georgia Bulldogs miss Nick Chubb already. It's time to stop pretending this 2015 football team is remotely good.

Missouri 6, UGA 9. Nothing but field goals. Quite frankly, UGA didn't really deserve this, as their game-winning kick came only after the officials gifted the team with a truly mystifying pass interference call on a play that Plastic Man couldn't have cought. Greyson Lambert's 3rd-down pass was characteristically awful, and I have to assume that the officials assumed that a pass 5 yards out of bounds was as on-target as he could make it. Maybe they just wanted this terrible game over so we could all get home before dawn.

I probably should have expected this sort of game. UGA was missing Chubb, and Missouri suspended its starting quarterback two weeks ago. Add in the terrible games UGA played back-to-back in the past two weeks against Alabama and Tennessee, and I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that NONE of the season ticket holders beside or in front of me came to the game. You know it's sad when the regular fans don't care to show up for a homecoming night game against the reigning SEC East Champions.

Anyway. I hope the team enjoys this ugly victory. UGA heads to Florida in two weeks, and 9 points won't win anything in Jacksonville.

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From the Bees Are Colorblind Department:

Michael, "the buzzing, stinging insect pet" bee, is well trained at stinging people holding guns. He's apparently equally adept at stinging people holding oars.

Hit Comics #18, December 1941

The mobsters on that dinghy deserved the stinging of their lifetime. When the boat's owner, Mary Jellcoe, refused to tell them where her imprisoned father hid his fortune, the mobsters decided to loosen her lips by tying her to the boat and sinking it! Not the best plan, but at least they had one. That places these crooks among the smarter of Red Bee's foes.

More importantly than any stupid kidnapping, theft, or carjacking in this story is the first appearance of the Red Bee's autogyro, which as you might expect is painted . . . blue.

Before you get bent out of shape that the Red Bee's secret identity can't be worth much if he keeps an autogyro on the roof of his own apartment, know that it only lasts four panels before he crashes the copter/plane hybrid into the river in front of a boat. Never underestimate the Red Bee's dedication to the job.

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It feels like sacrilege to say this, but I'm not in love with Stephen Colbert's new Late Show talk show. It's been just over a month now, and it still isn't quite comfortable for me. Maybe it's uncomfortable for Stephen, too.

He starts each episode with a goofy dance like Ellen before transitioning to a largely disposable monologue like Leno. When he finally gets behind the desk, the comedy bits are generally insightful and funny, but either by design or circumstance, they've lost most of the Letterman-like sarcastic bite The Character delivered on Colbert's previous show. Even the guests don't feel right: the Fallon-style of showcasing too many celebrities and politicians with pre-established talking points leaves little leeway for Stephen's improv skills.

To sum up my problem in a nutshell: Stephen and his crew look to be trying too hard to fit themselves into the "late night talk show" format instead of the other way around. So far, it seems like a waste of Colbert's talents.

I'm hoping they'll settle in to something better. My current favorite late night host is Seth Meyers, and it has taken him well over a year to sand off the rough edges of his show. When he started, Meyers was one part Conan O'Brien and one part Wendy Williams. It's gotten better now that Seth no longer feels compelled to deliver a Carson-style monologue or tell me so much about his personal life.

I'm not giving up on Colbert or his show yet. I'm disappointed, not devastated. Stephen is a man of amazing talent. I hope he finds a way to showcase it.

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