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Close but no cigar could be the post-theme of Super Bowl XL as far as a record Las Vegas Super Bowl handle is concerned.

Pittsburgh defeated Seattle 21-10 Sunday -- easily covering the spread --- the total went way under 47, Bill Cowper finally won a Lombardi and the Bus finally rolled a stop, while on top.

The $6,064,000 Question in the Land of Odds -- besides "Did you win or lose?" was "Will the handle surpass last year's standard of more than $90 million?"

"I won't know until sometime Monday when I see all the numbers and things come together, but it's going to be close," said Tony Paonessa, race and sports book manager at Sam's Town.

"Last year was close."

Rich Baccellieri, race and sports director at the Palms, used the C word too.

"It was amazing how close everything was," Bacellieri said, pointing to a differential of 50 in the number of tickets written on the two Super Bowl combatants among thousands sold.

"Right now I couldn't tell you what the city's handle was, just how we did here and our business was up 65 percent.

"That creates so much juice.

"But I'll tell you this: we needed Pittsburgh."

Many Vegas Valley sports books kicked off at Steelers minus 4, but 4 1/2s were available throughout the wagering period (including at the Las Vegas Hilton) and 5s were spotted here and there.

The Palms dove in at 3 1/2.

"We got money from every Seattle fan in the world," Baccellieri said, acknowledging he took "several" six-figure bets.

"We had a lot of late money on the Seahawks, but the money line was fairly balanced."

The Hilton also took a bundle on the Far Northwesterns -- until just before wagering windows were shuttered.

"We had lots of Seahawks backing until a last minute rush on the Steelers," said oddsmaker/supervisor Jeff Sherman.

He also reported a win for the house.

"Parlay cards had a good handle and average win, while props did very well," Sherman said. "It just took awhile to grade them."

SuperBook boss Jay Kornegay had a strong opinion on Pittsbugh going into the game.

The Palms broke even on parlay cards, while Sam's Town reported a "small winning day."

"The important thing is we didn't lose," Paonessa said, adding that the Boyd Group was a loser on the total.

All three resorts reported heavy traffic as Sin City circumvented the NFL ban on Super Bowl parties by offering food and drink specials and showing the game on regulation-sized TVs throughout the casinos.

"We were busy, but I've seen better," Paonessa said.

"We were busy all day," said Baccellieri, a veteran Caesars Palace employee who hadn't been in Vegas for the Super Bowl in five or six years

"Always before I saw it from the perspective of a major Strip hotel," he continued.

"It was fun, different, to view it from an off-Strip one.

"I'd call it a decent day."

Not even close.

Cyberspace has certainly shrunk the margin of error ...

Colloquialisms used to take quite a while to become embedded in a local vernacular. For example, the Americans expunged the British from the colonies in 1789, but based upon personal letters exchanged between the two countries which have been noted by historians, it took until the 1830s before comments were made noticing a distinct difference in accents between them.

Local dialects will always be a fixture in geographical cultures. However, as more and more of us traverse both cyberspace and the real world, basic pronunciations are becoming a bit of an issue.

I just noticed this again in the world of sport, when a national broadcast featured the recent darlings of NCAA basketball, Gonzaga University from Spokane, Washington. The locals there insist that the name be stated as 'Gon-ZAEG-ah,' but inevitably, sports announcers from elsewhere defer to 'Gon-ZAHG-uh' until corrected by the locals.

However, the Gonzaga name has been a part of Italian history since the 1300s, and anyone who has studied it or been exposed to it from that much deeper context knows that the correct pronunciation is 'Gon-ZAHG-uh.' Ludovico Gonzaga not only established his family's dynasty over the Italian state of Mantua in 1328, but his family became a cultural and military force in that area for the better part of five centuries.

You'll even note that the Spokane university has an extension program in Italy and still steadfastly maintains its preference for the colloquial pronunciation. Trust me, in Europe, it's called 'Gon-ZAHG-uh.' However, alumni from the Spokane campus, from Bing Crosby to John Stockton, learned to refer to their alma mater as 'Gon-ZAEG-ah.'

This raises the age-old question of proper pronunciation etiquette, of course. Do we go with the traditional and accurate version of a proper name if we are aware of it or with the colloquial preferences which, for some reason, took hold in a certain area?

Another classic example is Ntre Dame. The correct French, of course, is 'Noht-ruh Dahm.' Use the Americanized version anywhere else in the world at the risk of being castigated as a hayseed. And yet, the Jesuit university based in South Bend, Indiana, obviously prefers the local pronunciation.

The universalization of products broaches the same issue. For example, the German beer 'Lwenbru' is pronounced 'LUH-ven-broy' everywhere except in English-speaking countries and the Swedish furniture store, IKEA, is universally stated as 'ee-KAY-uh.' Try pronouncing those in the proper way and it's odds-on you'll be met with a blank stare or looked upon as a snob. But, what have you done except say the name accurately?

Of course, in commercialism, it's the bottom line that dictates pronunciation. There is no better example than the legendary German shoe tycoon, Adi Dassler, who used his own name as the basis for his corporate image. While most of the world refers to his sporting footwear as 'AH-dee-dahs,' Americans somehow found a way to call it 'Uh-DEE-duhs.' Go figure. Dassler never minded, though. Dollars spent just as easily as any other currency.

Other famous names have been subject to colloquialization in their own right. In hockey, Teemu Selanne is a Finnish star who has been in the NHL for quite a while. He may have come to North America as 'TAE-moo SAY-lah-nuh,' but any hockey fan on the continent will know him only as 'TEE-moo Seh-LAH-nee.'

Sometimes, we even see the metamorphosis from universal to colloquial pronunciation occur before our very eyes. In baseball, Bill Mueller has been a solid major-league baseball player since his debut with the San Francisco Giants in 1996. At that time, he went by the traditional German pronunciation of his surname of 'MYOO-luhr.' However, somewhere along the line, he decided and subsequently announced that his surname was best said aloud as 'Miller.' Who knows why? What does one do then? Correct someone on how to state his own name?

Actor Jake Gyllenhll has Swedish roots. His surname literally means 'Golden Way' and should be stated as 'YEE-lehn-hole.' North Americans find it easier to say 'JEE-lehn-hall.' I've never seen anything that indicates where Jake stands on the issue. He's probably too busy being talented and rich.

This is why I find it difficult to criticize anyone who uses either pronunciation. It's a matter of context as to who's right. Like the famous breath-mint commercial says, they both are.

My rule of thumb is simple. In any situation, if there's more of them than there are of you and pronunciation becomes a volatile issue, they're right. Otherwise, universality prevails.

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So there we have it. The previous articles provided a brief snapshot of The Antiques Roadshow, US style, through the lens of the viewing public. One may not consider them the most discerning bunch but they speak from the heart and they represent a reasonable cross section of this audience. Nevertheless, there are a few sharp and pithy observations camouflaged within this site that deserve more than just an acknowledgement in passing.

I have not watched a moment of this show since that woman came on with her hideous folk art jug that she got at a garage sale for $25 and it was worth over $50,000! The only bigger idiot than someone who would pay $25 for that ugly piece of yuck is someone who would actually shell out FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS for it! This show makes me realise just how money orientated our country has become. When some wealthy collector out there will pay $50,000 for a jug or $800,000 for a side table I just have to think of the things that money could have done for a sick or needy person. The Antiques Roadshow, though interesting at first, merely reinforces our societys obsession with stuff.

The Antiques Roadshow is a wonderful insight into the differences between two cultures. The antiques business in the UK is fuddy duddy, full of eccentric characters and gullible but polite people who just nod pleasantly, saying yes a lot when told their piece is a load of junk etc. The US show is dominated by really annoying presenters, most of whom are flagrantly homosexual, and just plain dull. Also, in the US show there is much more emphasis on price than in the British version where the history of the piece is more important.

A cross between a museum and The Price is Right.

Take equal parts Game Show, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Falcon Crest stir vigorously, pour over ice (into a rare 18th century pewter mug) and, voila, you have The Antiques Roadshow.

There is a sense that the US market is much more financially orientated so far as art, antiques and collectables are concerned. The major driver in the various message boards is for an affirmation of the monetary value of an item. This doesnt mean that its intrinsic value, nor its history, are irrelevant but the attention span of the typical consumer in the US is very short. Although there are many educated and informed viewers on US television, it is almost impossible to contemplate a programme with the intellectual rigour of Going for a Song appearing on a mainstream channel. Interestingly, there has been an attempt to resurrect the aforementioned show with the formidable Anne Robinson in the chair though this just seems a ruse to replicate a successful formula without establishing whether there is any latent demand. These television executives really do have to work a bit harder. I reckon you and I could do a better job half the time.

Part four in a series of articles by Howard Lewis.(Read the first three parts in the www.invaluable.com blog).