Super Bowl Halftime...

I'm a fan of The Who. Always have been. I saw them in 1989 at Foxboro in the rain. Great show. John Entwistle was still alive and Daltrey was still in good voice.

But let me be clear: I in no way want to see Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey prance through 15 minutes of My Generation, Baba O'Reilly and Who Are You this Sunday. It will be painful to watch and judging by last year's Springsteen performance: tedious.

All the songs I want to hear, such as My Wife; 5:15 and Join Together, will not be played before the masses.

Given their ages, Townsend (65 this May) and Daltrey (66 in March) would be better served talking about the relative merits of BHO's health-care overhaul. I've said it here many times: the legend is always better. Long live rock...(which by the way, they won't play either.)

Spring Cleaning Comes Early For Blueshirts

Editor's note: In an effort to salvage a disappointing season, the New York Rangers traded Ales Kotalik and Christopher Higgins to the Calgary Flames for Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust. Will it work to propel the slumping team or does it amount to rearranging the Titanic's deck chairs, our author examines the trade.

By Joe D'Angelis

According to hockey maven Stan Fischler, the New York Rangers have received something for virtually nothing in return. Let me explain.

GM Glen Sather packaged expensive defensive liability Ales Kotalik (3 years $9 million) and scarce goal scorer Chris Higgins to the Calgary Flames in return acquiring forwards Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust. Jokinen, 31, a powerful forward will collect plenty of assists skating on the top unit with Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal, is playing out the final year of his contract; consider it an up-close audition for 2010-11.

In Prust, the Rangers surely get someone who doesn't mind dropping the gloves. This should help erase the embarassment of the Marion Gaborik fight with Daniel Carcillo. To date, Prust ranks second in the league with 18 fighting majors; one has reason to believe Slats' interest in Prust has little to do with his puck handling abilities, and that's a good thing.

This trade accomplishes several things, it frees the Rangers of Kotalik's ridiculous contact; Jokinen will surely be motivated to boost his value with production as he becomes a free agent at seasons end; and they receive that much needed enforcer Prust; it will be interesting to see how coach John Tortorella uses him perhaps skating alongside the feisty Sean Avery.

If nothing else, the Rangers made an uneventful trade that can only propel their efforts for a playoff berth, that cost them, in Fischler's words, virtually nothing.

Joe D'Angelis, a lifelong NY Rangers fan, lives in New Jersey. This is first piece for The Daily Del Franco.

Priceless Picasso Damaged

For the record, this is something which might happen to me. Here's the story from USA Today.....

An important Picasso painting accidentally damaged by a visitor last week will be repaired in time for a large exhibition of the artist's works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in April, the museum said Monday.

"The Actor," a painting from Picasso's rose period, will be restored at the museum's conservation laboratory, the Met said.

The accident has also led museum director Thomas P. Campbell to request a review of relevant policies and procedures, spokeswoman Elyse Topalian said.

The museum described the damage as an irregular 6-inch tear to the lower right-hand corner of the painting. Conservation and curatorial experts "fully expect" that the restoration "will be unobtrusive," the museum said in a statement Sunday.

The artwork is nearly 6 feet by 4 feet and depicts a standing acrobat in a pink costume and blue knee-high boots striking a pose against an abstracted backdrop.

The restoration will be done in the coming weeks, and the piece will be displayed as planned in an exhibition of 250 Picasso works drawn from the museum's collection, from April 27 to Aug. 1, the museum said.

The accident occurred in a second-floor gallery of early Picasso works when a patron participating in one of the museum's art classes lost her balance and fell on the canvas, the museum said. She was one of 14 people in the guided group.

It happened during regular visiting hours when other visitors were in the gallery. People who attend the art classes typically roam through the museum in a group stopping in front of works of interest.

"The Actor" was donated to the Met in 1952 by art patron Thelma Chrysler Foy, the elder daughter of auto magnate Walter Chrysler. The museum said it had been included in many major exhibitions of Picasso's works both in the United States and in Europe.

Picasso painted the work in the winter of 1904-05. It marked a transition from his blue period of tattered beggars and blind musicians to his more optimistic and brighter-colored rose period of itinerant acrobats in costume.

In 2001, another Picasso was accidentally damaged during a private showing of the artist's "Le Reve." The artwork's owner, casino mogul Steve Wynn, was showing the work — a portrait of Picasso's mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, to a group of friends in Las Vegas when he inadvertently poked a thumb-size hole in the canvas with his elbow.

The accident occurred just after Wynn had negotiated a deal to sell the painting for $139 million.

Note: See? The Daily Del Franco can play cultural, too.