Real life has gotten in the way slightly the past week, which is why we've been offering fewer ruminations that usual. To make up for lost time, it seems reasonably to revive Argo Notes. No, not the delightful pep band, which remains alive and well - just a roundup of a few things that don't quite merit full items, in this case extending beyond Argoland and into the broader CFL:

•  It always seems weird to describe CFL players as overrated, considering we're talking about a league where players work in big-box stores in the off-season. But as good a quarterback as he is, Dave Dickenson might be getting there - as evidenced by this TSN feature, which puts him atop a list of Most Offensive Player candidates. "Say what you want about Buck Pierce," TSN tells us, "but the Lions' offence kicks into another gear when Dickenson is behind centre." We see their point - Pierce's QB rating of 111.7 is embarrassingly low next to Dickenson's 112.5. So low, in fact, that it completely negates the fact that his completion rate is 5% higher, and that he's actually capable of finishing a game once or twice a season.

• Speaking of TSN, we spent a quiet Saturday night last weekend watching the double-header - Ticats/Eskimos on TSN, and Als/Lions on CBC. Incidentally, the brief overlap between the two was the first time we can remember ever flipping between two CFL games. But that's not the point. The point is this: How is it possible that Khari Jones, who as far as we know had never worked as a colour commentator before doing the late gane, was already more professional than Leif Peterson, who does it as a career?
  

• According to Ed Hervey, "There's a difference between playing football in the CFL and playing Eskimo football." We'd suggest the difference this year is that everyone else plays 60 minute games and the Eskimos only show up for the first 59, but according to Hervey it's that "Eskimo football is everyone sticking together" and "check(ing)  your ego at the door," whereas  everyone else is "playing for the money...playing for the bonuses...playing for the glamour."  Now, it's pretty well-established that we love the CFL to something approaching an unhealthy degree. But if you're playing in this league for the money or the glamour, you've got some serious problems.

• We're not style experts, by any stretch. But we're pretty sure this is officially the weirdest fashion campaign out there. Pinball Clemons, Ted Danson, and Malcolm Gladwell? For the uninitiated, Malcolm Gladwell is this guy. If we can find a way to work him into this week's bonus question, we'll truly have achieved perfection.

• We've avoided trying to get clever about the Miss Argo contest, because they all seem like nice girls (even if they haven't quite brought it like the exemplary Blue Lightning.) But we're highly intrigued by Shannon K's explanation that "to be on a professional cheerleading team with a football organization of this calibre still shocks me every day after working with minor football leagues for many years." Cheerleaders work their way up through the minors before hitting the big time? We had no idea. And do cheerleading farm teams follow the usual pattern, with a few promising rookies and a bunch of journey (wo)men on the downswings of their careers, drinking a little too heavily and quietly resenting their younger teammates as they stretch out their careers for as long as possible? Because we had kind of assumed those cheerleaders just went to Hamilton.