AMAZON continues to discount box sets of Blu-rays and DVDs. I was motivated to buy the first four seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars by the discount: the $59.99 list price was discounted to $24.99. If you have a Star Wars fan on your gift list, they’ll love these episodes. I found the story-telling more sophisticated than the average animated feature. Great stocking stuffers!

Rookie QB E.J. Manuel is injured for the third time this season so Practice Squad QB Thad Lewis gets to start this week against the Dolphins. This game has Playoff implications for the Dolphins while the Bills are just playing out the string. Bills fans were hoping for a blizzard to intimidate the Miami Dolphins, but instead both teams will be playing in cold rain. The temperature should be around 50. This game didn’t sell out (shocking!) so it’s blacked-out in Western NY. How is your favorite NFL team going to do today?

For the political junkie on your gift list, there’s this wonderful box set of House of Cards on sale at AMAZON.COM for $19.99 (list price is $65.99). That’s a 70% discount! You get 4 disks (674 minutes!) of political shenanigans at a bargain price! If you haven’t seen House of Cards, buy a set for yourself! Kevin Spacey is astonishing in this NetFlix original series. It doesn’t get much better than this!

Robert Barnard makes fun of academic life in Death of an Old Goat. An elderly visiting lecturer from Oxford University has his throat slit in his motel room. The police suspect that the murderer is a member of the Dummondale University faculty. Barnard shows the professors to be catty, jealous, and constant drinkers. If you’re interested in a satirical, acidic academic mystery, Death of an Old Goat delivers.

I’m just about done with grading and correcting for this semester. Freedom is just a day away! My theme song at this time of year is the wonderful “Get Me Through December” by Allison Krauss & Natalie McMaster. It’s a poignant song that captures just where I’m at in the waning days before Christmas. You can find “Get Me Through December” on both Allison Krauss’ A Hundred Miles Or More and Natalie McMaster’s In My Hands. Both albums are full of great music!

‘GET ME THROUGH DECEMBER”
How pale is the sky that brings forth the rain
As the changing of seasons prepares me again
For the long bitter nights and the wild winter’s day
My heart has grown cold, my love stored away
My heart has grown cold, my love stored away

I’ve been to the mountain, left my tracks in the snow
Where souls have been lost and the walking wounded go
I’ve taken the pain no girl should endure
Faith can move mountains; of that I am sure
But faith can move mountains; of that I am sure

Just get me through December
A promise I’ll remember
Get me through December
So I can start again

No divine purpose brings freedom from sin
And peace is a gift that must come from within
I’ve looked for the love that will bring me to rest
Feeding this hunger beating strong in my chest
Feeding this hunger beating strong in my chest

Get me through December
A promise I’ll remember
Get me through December
So I can start again

I read Fred Vogelstein’s excerpt from Dogfight in the New York Times Magazine a few months ago and knew I wanted to read the whole book. My students are obsessed with smartphones and Dogfight tells the story of how APPLE and GOOGLE started out cooperating (their mutual competitor was Microsoft) but then became competitors in the smartphone market. Readers will come away with plenty of understanding of how the iPhone was developed (a fascinating story!). But the development of the Android operating system is even more amazing. Vogelstein keeps the complicated stories moving and seldom gets bogged down in techie details. I’ve decided to use Dogfight next semester in my MARKETING MANAGEMENT course. It’s a wonderful case study of how consumer products are developed and marketed. If you have any interest in APPLE and GOOGLE, you’ll find plenty of stories in Dogfight to ponder. GRADE: A-

For that Bruce Springsteen fan on your gift list, here’s the perfect present: a music documentary full of great music and rare footage of the Boss in action. Bonus Material includes “Thunder Road,” “Because the Night,” Shackled And Drawn,” “We Are Live,” “When I saw Her Standing There” (with Paul McCartney) and “Twist and Shout” (with Paul McCartney). If you’re a Springsteen fan, you’ll love this!

Judi Dench is marvelous in Philomena. But, her co-star, Steve Coogan, is terrific, too. Steve Coogan plays an out-of-work British journalist who reluctantly takes up Judi Dench’s character’s search for her missing son. The director, Stephen Frears, takes the Steve Coogan/Jeff Pope script and turns it into a plot pretzel. I loved the unexpected twists. The chemistry between Judi Dench and Steve Coogan is special. Coogan’s foppish journalist learns some Life Lessons from Philomena. But the journalist is relentless and discovers key clues about Philomena’s missing son. Philomena is one of the Best Movies of 2013. GRADE: A

The woeful Buffalo Bills were blown out last Sunday in Tampa Bay, 27-6. They failed to score a touchdown. Rookie QB E.J. Manuel threw FOUR interceptions. The Bills defense gave up an 80-yard TD run on the second play of the game! The Bills stayed in Florida after the Tampa Bay game this week because they’re playing another Florida team today. Whether that strategy works out…we’ll find out. How is your favorite NFL team going to do today?

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug continues the story from the first Hobbit movie. A band of Dwarves accompanied by Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit and Gandalf the Wizard resume their quest to reclaim Erebor, the Dwarves’ homeland, from Smaug the evil dragon. Bilbo Baggins has a mysterious magical ring that allows him to be invisible. Director Peter Jackson cleverly keeps all of the subplots spinning for the film’s two hours and forty minutes. Tolkien purists will quibble about the addition of the warrior Elf, Tauriel (played by Evangeline Lilly), but not me. I have a weakness for feisty redheads wielding a deadly bow. Of course, the conclusion leaves the audience hanging…and yearning for the third and final installment of The Hobbit. GRADE: A