Super thanks!

I'm watching the Super Bowl while blogging.  I don't much care who wins. 

But I'm very proud of my adopted hometown of the last 23 years.  I think we "done good" in putting this thing on.  (I say "we"; my sum total contribution was in politely chatting with a small handful of visitors I've run into in gas stations or drug stores, but I did make sure to "put my smile on" and welcome them, per Mayor Bill's instructions.)  I'm thankful to everyone who has worked to make the event a success —

• I'm thankful to those who put on the pregame tribute to the heroes of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

• I'm thankful to Houston native Beyonce for not overdoing the artistic styling of the Star Spangled Banner, and to everyone in the stadium who cooperated in the patriotic flash-card display.

• I'm thankful to all my fellow Houstonians who've shown hospitality, and especially to the hundreds or maybe thousands of volunteers whose work has made this shindig possible even though they didn't get complementary game tickets and maybe even are missing seeing the game on TV.

But most of all, I'm thankful to everyone — from Houston to Kabul and Baghdad — who've literally put their lives on the line to make sure that some crazy bastards who hate America and hate freedom haven't been able to crash an airliner into Reliant Stadium, or sneak a fragmentation bomb onto one of our new lightrail trains, or otherwise deliver some tragedy into the midst of the festivities.

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Update (Sun Feb 1 @ 9:30pm):  And hey, it turned into a heckuva good football game too!  Grats to the Pats; and grats to all those who took Carolina and the points.