FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH

•Here it is almost Thanksgiving, and the Pats probably have to beat the Dolphins to keep the dreams of this season alive.

They should be thankful.

In this season — in which Tom Brady went out in the first game, the season that was supposed to be a disaster after that — the Pats are still very much alive in an AFC race, and who would have thought that back in mid-September?

And it’s not like they have to beat the Giants to keep this season alive. Not like they have to beat the Titans. They have to beat the Dolphins. And if they lose to them twice in one season, maybe they deserve to have their season in peril.

•You know you’ve seen too many games, Bunky, when they talk about bailing out the Big Three and you think they mean Pierce, Garnett and Allen.

•And you know that a little slice of old Rhode Island still lives when we’ve talking all week about “Joe Onions.”

•And you know it’s a different season for Randy Moss when some guy named Zach Miller of the Raiders has more catches over 25 yards than he does.

•Yeah, Dustin Pedroia deserved the MVP, but you could also have made a strong case for Kevin Youkilis, who played two positions very well last year.

•Quiz of the Week: Two NFL football players also have been Rhodes Scholars. Can you name them? (Answer near the bottom of the column, and your hint is that one was in the late ’30s and became famous outside of football, and one was in the mid ’70s and is currently a TV analyst.)

•Line of the Week is from Hal Steinbrenner, officially taking over the Yankees from his father: “My dad, needless to say, is a tough act to follow.”

You think?

•There’s no truth to the rumor that they held a funeral for the state Republican Party the other day and nobody showed up

•Or that you might have a better chance of seeing God than getting a job in this state anytime soon.

•Marshon Brooks has the potential to be the next Friars star.

•Could there be a quieter 10-0 than the Titans?

•The sound you heard was Adolph Rupp rolling over in his grave when Kentucky lost to VMI.

•From the “Don’t Have A Clue” Dept: the corporate auto honchos showing up in Washington in private jets to ask for a bail out.

•Which only begs the question, which has been mismanaged more in Detroit, the car companies or the Lions?

•Joey Accouie, the former St. Andrew’s star from Lincoln, is the starting point guard for Vermont.

•The world might run out of oil, but it will never run out of vampire movies.

•Remember when St. John’s were the Redmen? The other night against Boston College they were wearing black uniforms.

•And the Pistons were wearing red uniforms Thursday night against the Celtics. Tradition? It checked out.

•Rhode Islanders Ben Crenca and Sammy Martin — both at Worcester Academy — have been recruited to play basketball at Vermont and Yale respectively.

•The best novel I’ve read in a while is Revere Beach Boulevard, by Ronald Merullo, which came out about a decade ago.

•The Yankees need Manny’s bat, and they have unlimited money to spend.

•Golf is going to get hurt by this economic tsunami — both the local courses and the professional tours.

•But free-agent baseball salaries are still Monopoly money, so go figure.

•And you know it’s a different academic world when nearly 51 percent of the grades given out at Brown are A’s and only 4 percent are C’s.

•Did you see where Texas Tech beat some team called East Central, 167-116?

•The word is that Matt Ryan’s brother, John, also a quarterback, is coming to Brown next year.

•Allen Iverson couldn’t guard Rajon Rondo the other night.

•Do yourself a favor and see The Secret Life Of Bees, a movie my scouts say is a little gem.

•Both Bob Carlino and PC strength coach Ken White have written in to say they have a Sports Illustrated cover dated March 28,1988, with a head shot of Tom Garrick on the cover, so add Garrick to the list of Rhode Islanders who have appeared on SI’s cover.

•Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Let them grow up to be catchers, of which there is a dearth.

•Kind of like leadership in the state.

•Quiz Answer: Byron “Whizzer” White in 1939, and Pat Haden in 1975.

•There’s no truth to the rumor that Rhode Island is going to hire James Bond to try to get out of this mess.

•R.I. P. Pete Newell, the former great college basketball coach and teacher of big men, at 93.

•If I were the Yankees, I’d be having no more to do with Andy Pettite, who ended this past season on fumes.

•Just when you started to forget him, here comes Joey Porter and his big mouth again.

•The very definition of a “Full Rhode Island”? The mug shots of pinched mobsters on the front page the other day.

breynold@projo.com