Galley Friend and Fourth Slave C.L. understands my obsession with the real estate bubble and has sent, in an attempt to drive me over the edge, this amazing link.

Go and be sure to read all the way down.

Update: But this post might even be better. Put Burbed in your RSS today.

If I were to tell you that the April game console sales numbers were in and that Sony’s much-vaunted PS3 was tied with a certain Nintendo console, you’d think that was good news, right?

Except that the console the PS3 is tied with for the month was Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance–a last generation handheld. Also, the PS3 wasn’t actually tied with the Game Boy Advance, it was slightly behind it. Seriously:

Specifically, the NPD statistics supplied to Gamasutra by the firm reveal that the Nintendo DS dominated the month’s hardware sales, with 471,000 units sold, closely followed by Nintendo’s Wii console, which sold 360,000 units in April, despite continuing console shortages.

The Xbox 360 sold 174,000 units for the month, slightly behind the PlayStation 2, which managed 194,000 for April, and the PlayStation Portable, which sold 183,000 in the month. However, the PlayStation 3 again slumped, with just 82,000 units sold in April, again behind the Game Boy Advance, which sold 84,000 copies.

The conventional wisdom in Philly is now that this will be Donovan McNabb’s last season as an Eagle. Which is bad enough. Now comes Don McKee with a more depressing theory:

A few observers have opined that McNabb will be moved after the coming season. But here’s a scenario that has him moving before September.

The Chicago Bears are ready to win the Super Bowl. They might have won it last year except for a glaring weakness at quarterback. Before the ever-popular “window” closes, the Bears need a quality QB to kick them over the hump.

This scenario obviously depends on two things. One, that McNabb is physically ready to play on Week 1 of the 2007 season. Two, that Chicago is convinced McNabb is their best available QB option.

(The fact that McNabb is from Chicago is, in my mind, irrelevant. The Bears would be just as interested in an available quality veteran if he were from Portland, Tucson or Montreal.)

But the key to this scenario is Bears linebacker Lance Briggs, who has said publicly that he will never play for Chicago again and who refused to report to minicamp on Friday.

Briggs is, arguably, the best weakside linebacker in the game and is only 26.

The question most Eagles fans are asking right now is: Why would the Bears make that deal?

Ummmm, that’s not the first question that comes to my mind, actually.

If Warner Bros. were to send me a placard of this:

I’d be a very happy camper. It would go right up in my office. Mind you, I don’t have very high expectations for The Dark Knight, but I’m a big Two Face fan and Tom Jane is one of my favoritist actors, ever.

Bonus: That’s just for you, S.B.

P.S.: I know. That’s what makes it funny.

Okay, so I am still recovering from last night’s tumultous episode of the Sopranos. (And if you have yet to see it, you might want to skip this.) Just a few thoughts:

As I guessed, the crooked-eyed Butchie Deconcini will play a potentially lethal role in the final two episodes of the show. (Actor Greg Antonacci simply exudes creepiness.) Of course the coming attractions are always deceptively spliced, but it seems Tony and Phil will face-off–the latter giving the order to wack the former. If not, the order would be to hit someone close to him, like Bobby. As Carmine Lupertazzi so eloquently put it, “We are at the precipice of the crossroads.” (And speaking of Bobby, don’t be surprised if his gift to Tony, the AR-10 assault rifle, makes an appearance.)

As Galley friend S.B. said, “If this is the last we see of Anthony Jr., I am fine with it.” In other words, that story arc, like Uncle Junior’s and Christopher’s, has basically been resolved. But at the hospital, as A.J. is being wheeled away, was anyone else distracted by Tony’s shirt? Was that velvet or velour?

Another splendid Carminism is “alteration”–as in the “alteration” between Phil and Tony leading to the most graphic curbjob I’ve seen on film.

And finally, the biggest question of all: Has anyone really had a Lincoln Log sandwich lately?

Spurred on by Galley Friend A.K., I’ve been going through the back issues of Blogzarro and this site a real find. Check out, for instance, this seminal post exploring the end of a young comic collector’s innocence:

The best lame comics have lame origin stories. “US 1? came into exist not through the inspiration of a writer or artist; it was born in a marketing office. In the early 1980s Tyco created a line of electric trucking toys. A few years later they approached Marvel about doing a comic based on the toys. And Marvel bit.

Then, in 1983, in a lame reverse merchandising move, the “US 1? comic hit the stands. And I bit. I was nine years old and excited to own a first issue of a series. This was an investment, I thought, that would pay off when I was in my early 30s, leading to an early retirement. Twenty-four years later “US 1? comics are worth about six cents a copy and I am about 45 years away from retirement.

The hero of “US 1,” Ulysses Solomon Archer (U.S.A, get it?), graduated from college magna cum laude with a degree in computer program design and electronics engineering, among other things. He was quarterback of his football team. So, what does this athletic genius want to do with his life? Get hemorrhoids and drive a truck. Sounds like this guy shoots real low when it comes to career goals.

Immediately after graduation, U.S. joins his big brother, Jeff, as a gypsy trucker. But the life of a truck driver isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially when there’s some demonic lunatic in a black 18-wheeler looking to play road hockey whenever it rains. The Highwayman, as he’s called, sends Jeff and U.S.’s truck off a mountain for fun. U.S. is thrown from the wreckage and survives; Jeff’s body isn’t recovered. Now we step further into lamesville.

U.S. is in bad shape after the accident. His skull is shattered. But, wait, there’s hope. There’s this new, experimental surgical “technique.” The doctors replace U.S.’s skull with a special metal alloy — which gives him at least two special powers: he has a really hard head now (which he uses for his devastating head-butts) and he can pick up CB transmissions in his head.

Responding to this post on the proliferation of randy super-heroine statuettes, Galley Friend A.K. sends us this link to pure awesomeness: It’s totally safe for work and features covers of Wonder Woman comics so fabulous that you won’t believe the artists got away with them. Each is a giant F.U. to the Comics Code.

What are you waiting for? Go take a look!

Remember Sissy Fight?

Well here’s the Transformers movie tie-in version. And it’s kind of awesome.

I’m not saying The Transformers is definitely going to win BP this year. I’m just saying that Criterion better start working on the platter for this classic right now.