Sideline chatter

Hotter, please

Temperatures in the lower 48 states averaged 55.3 degrees in 2012, the NOAA announced, making it the hottest year on record.

"You're kidding, right?" asked a Houston Astros fan.

No wonder she kept dropping her gloves during the

evening-gown competition

Sophie Laboissonniere -- previously voted Miss Congeniality at the Miss Coastal Vancouver pageant -- has pleaded guilty to rioting after the 2011 Stanley Cup final in the B.C. city.

Police say her beauty background made her an easy mark to identify.

Headlines

-- At SportsPickle.com: "Report: Lance Armstrong weighing admitting that he dated that one Olsen twin."

-- At Fark.com: "RG3 wins the Theismann Trophy."

Tide 42, Irish 14

Snippets from Monday's BCS title game:

-- Michael Rosenberg of SI.com: "Possible NCAA violation here in Miami: Alabama is holding its spring game in January."

-- Swimsuit model Kate Upton, via Twitter: "It's okay Notre Dame this happened to the Jets every week."

-- Tuesday's headline in the Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News: "Four-leaf clobber."

Pass the popcorn

The Impossible, which opened in U.S. theaters last month, is a movie about:

a) the 2004 tsunami wreaking havoc on a family's Thailand vacation.

b) a non-SEC team winning the collegiate football championship.

Hold that line

This year's Puppy Bowl IX, Animal Planet's antidote to the Super Bowl, will debut hedgehog cheerleaders this year.

Can't wait to hear Brent Musburger's take on that one.

More wings, please

Spartans football players out-ate their TCU counterparts -- by an average of 33-20 -- in a wing-eating contest before the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl.

What, did Michigan State show up in the double wing or something?

Physical Cliff Dept.

Turns out RG3 -- not Stephen Strasburg -- was the D.C. hurler who should've been working on a strict pitch count.

Talking the talk

-- Jim Barach of WCHS-TV in Charleston, W.Va., on why Lance Armstrong is having trouble owning up to illicit drug use: "He just isn't used to backpedaling."

-- Brad Dickson of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, after the Senate voted 89-8 to approve the fiscal-cliff deal: "Normally when you see numbers like that this time of year, it's the score of a Big Ten team playing in a bowl game."

-- Brad Rock of the Deseret News, after Jose Canseco listed reality TV appearances and getting elected to public office among his New Year's resolutions: "Is it just (me), or does Jose Canseco always seem about one pitch short of a full count?"

-- The Seattle Times

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