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Just when "The Matts" (Matt Ryan of Atlanta and Matt Schaub of the Texans) looked about ready to eclipse Aaron Rodgers of the struggling Packers among the "next generation" (as in, post-Manning/Brady/Brees), here comes Rodgers and the Pack with a 42-24 shredding of Houston.

Rodgers: 24-of-37 for 338 yards, 6 TDs, 0 INT.  QB rating of 133.8 was the best of any NFL QB in Week 6.

Schaub was held to 232 yards and no TDs and was picked off twice.

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The other Matt managed to keep his Falcons as the only unbeaten team left (the Texans had been the other), but Ryan and Atlanta didn't get many style points.

The Raiders out gained the Falcons, 474 yards to 286, and dominated time of possession as well.  But Asante Samuel got a key "pick-six" interception return and Matt Bryant nailed a 55-yard field goal as time expired to get Atlanta to 6-0.

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And often people wonder ... why isn't Philip Rivers ever included in the Manning/Brady/Brees talk?  Well ... Super Bowl rings for one ... and playing for a Chargers team that loses 35-24 after taking a 24-0 lead into halftime.  Yikes.

Fourth quarter drives for San Diego: interception, interception, interception, fumble.

So it was Peyton Manning and the Broncos asserting their position in the AFC West, despite being 3-3.  They are tied with the Chargers, but have to have the upper hand now.

Manning: 24-of-30, 309 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT.

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The Jets may have plenty of drama with Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow and Rex Ryan and the New York media (when it's not covering A-Rod drama), but just when they needed it most ... here comes Shonn Greene.

Greene pounded out 161 yards on 32 carries, with 3 TDs against the Colts, leading the Jets to a convincing 35-9 win and a 3-3 record.

Sanchez was a game-managing 11-of-18 for 82 yards and 2 TDs, and Tebow added one completion for 23 yards.

Believe it or not, the Jets are tied with the Patriots.  Believe it or not, the Dolphins and Bills are tied with them as well ... a four-way tie at 3-3.

As a long time Minnesotan, I’ve long had an affinity with Canada, our neighbors to the North. In fact, when I was younger, I traveled to Canada freely and I didn’t really consider Canada as a different country. It seemed more like it was a collection of different states to my child’s mind. In that spirit, I consider the book Victim, by Catherine Astolfo, to be almost an honorary Minnesota book. 

This richly textured novel drives its story using a third person perspective of a minor character of Ojibwa heritage, and the first person perspective of the heroine, Emily Taylor, a non-native local high school principal with a secret past. This technique renders both worlds vividly to the reader. 

The story begins with the apparent capture and kidnapping of First Nation hunter by the fabled Walking Bear. The hunter was well-grounded in Ojibwa traditions, yet she had wandered from her culture’s teachings and had become greedy. When the story switched to Emily’s viewpoint, the transition between the two worlds is stark, and to me, Emily’s world seemed somewhat bleak. 

I found the book’s characters to be realistic; their virtues offset by flaws, as is often the case in real life. I also appreciated the sensitive presentation of the First Nations people’s culture; the rich spiritual connections of the Ojibwa teachings contrasted to Emily’s feelings of disconnection because of her past. 

The author makes excellent use of foreshadowing, which creates the tension so desirable in murder mysteries. She also leaves some questions unanswered, and as a reader, I can’t wait to ready more of this series. I found myself caring about the characters, and being very interested in what happened in the past, and what will happen next. 

Something occurred to me the other day that really disturbed me and made me rethink the way we teach children about their safety. We took our daughter to meet a fireman who was very funny and charming. He gave a wonderful presentation about how to be safe regarding fires. When we got home and discussed it, my daughter revealed that she thought fires were started by kids—and that was that.

What! Immediately I set to righting this misconception, teaching her about electrical fires, cigarette fires and other ways fires can be started. I insisted that yes, it’s not good to play with matches—but grown-ups make mistakes, too! Many fires are caused by grown-ups, which just astounded her. Do we really think ourselves gods so much that we have to instill this sense of responsibility and foreboding upon our children? Do we need them to carry that much guilt and worry in their lives?

Do me a favor and talk to your child about fires tonight—about how they’re started, how to prevent them and how to react if there’s one in your home. Have a home fire drill and engage your children in checking the smoke detectors. Practice your fire drill routinely to be sure they are safe.

My husband’s home burned down due to an electrical fire when he was seventeen (before we were married, of course) and his family lost much—including nearly every photo of him—but they all thankfully made it out alive. If we can prepare our kids adequately, hopefully they, too, will survive any accident that they encounter. But we also need to teach them the full story—to use caution while cooking, for example, rather than simply, “Don’t play with matches!”

We can also teach them more specifically about stranger danger, police officers, and so much more. Because when we teach them that every stranger is a monster, we are creating a more cynical, hateful world—and possibly not even protecting our kids in the process, since many attacks result from people we already know.

And when we teach kids to blindly respect authority—such as making adults in power seem godly, as in the example above and as we do in so many other roles adults have—without knowing personal safety boundaries, we fail in preparing them to fight off abusers who would use their power to hurt children, too. Kids are not alone in making mistakes, and they need to know that not only do adults also make mistakes, but that some adults may even be dangerous. They need to be told that they will not get into trouble for reporting an inappropriate grown-up—and that they should trust their own instincts as well.

I am utterly addicted to young adult literature right now, and among my latest reads is the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. One of the greatest differences between this book and the others I’ve been reading is the fact that it isn’t supernatural in any way; instead, it’s a book about serious teen issues. Another way it’s different is that it’s by a male author. I don’t think I’ve read any other books by male authors this year.

Asher did an amazing job of combining teen angst and true hard issues with an absolutely riveting mystery. A classmate commits suicide and leaves behind 13 stories recorded on cassette tapes to be passed around to the 13 people who had some role in the decline of her life and, ultimately, her death. The issues that teen girls face is especially made accessible to teen males, as the story is told from a male perspective.

This is the story that needs to be read in every junior high class. I love Ponyboy and Sodapop as much as the next English ed major, but The Outsiders isn’t nearly as relevant as 13 Reasons Why. In a world where 1 in 3 females will experience sexual violence in her lifetime, we need to be focusing on ways to prevent such atrocities—which essentially means teaching boys to not harm girls. We tend to focus on the girls—build your self esteem! No sex until marriage! And plenty of other catch phrases—when we need to focus on guiding men to be not just nonviolent, but respectful beings. I don’t mean to say that all men will be violent, but many will as they are raised to be.

I didn’t like the whole man as a hero line of the story, however, which is the note that not only wove the story together but also that it ended on. I think I would have liked it better had the violent boys in the story received their comeuppance—but then again, that’s not life, either; less than 10 percent of rapists see jail time.

At any rate, I think this book is so important that I would definitely teach it in my classroom—and once the kids in my co-op are this age, I may do just that. It’s also a very quick but moving read—I read it in a couple of hours—so I think that it’s also at a level most teens would be able to understand.