Then the butterflies appeared, and all hope seemed lost.

If you get outdoors between now and Monday, cast a gaze in the general direction of Philadelphia. You'll see something that looks like a cross between a tornado and a nuclear blast. Is it global warming? A shift in the tectonic plates? No, the Eagles lost today.

Not only did they lose, but they lost in such an ignominious way that fans were seen in the stands, gazing dumfoundedly at the sky and wondering, "How did that just happen?" A team with one of the worst offenses in the NFL - the Bears - drove the ball 97 yards with less than two minutes to go and scored the winning touchdown.

A team with one of the worst defenses in the NFL - the Bears - held the Eagles to 3 field goals and a touchdown, and followed that with some questionable offensive and defensive calls that Eagles fans are probably filling out weapons permits right now. They're serious.

When that hazy cloud hovers over the greater Delaware Valley tomorrow, you know what's going on. Fans around here get overly excited when the Eagles win and overly down when the team loses. They're as manic as they come. It's great when they're winning, but it gets ugly when they lose.

They're grumpy, open to ridicule by transplanted fans of other teams, angry and generally mopey for days, until the next loss or win.

I'm not willing to give that much emotional power to something that I neither control nor profit from. It's also the reason I don't get all that excited about work, either. Because, when you add it all up I really don't "profit" from work. It creates more problems than it solves. But that's beside the point.

Judging from what I could see on the TV, the football field at Lincoln Financial Field appears to be painted dirt. From the ground-level shots it looked like they were running on the beach. What's interesting is that it hasn't been that cold here, so I wonder why they can't grow grass.

But the dirt field didn't gross me out as much as analyst Brian Baldinger's crooked right pinky finger. It isn't just kind of crooked. It's crooked to the extent that it is L-shaped. A real L made out of a person's finger. Out and to the right. I noticed it when they had that little booth shot before the start of the second half. I couldn't stop looking at it and I couldn't have been more repulsed. That's a strange combination.

Of course, I watched the entire Eagles game, too, and that was equally repulsive.