The songs from this year’s much-hyped The Muppets isn’t up to its predecessor’s quality, but it does try hard, with earnest offerings like “Life’s a Happy Song,” “Pictures in My Head and “Muppet or Man,” the last of which is more memorable for its cute celebrity cameo than anything else.

That same earnestness carries over to The Muppets — a trait that has clearly endeared many a film critic.  I, too, found the affair sweet and sincere — but also flat.

The movie pays tribute to a beloved part of a pop culture, and plays as a refreshing alternative to the humor of irony, sarcasm and snark. But The Muppets sags under the weight of reverence for its characters. Anyone who watched their TV show knows the Muppets endeared themselves through the irreverence that their game guest stars afforded.

Here, Kermit comes across as a bit of a wet rag. Miss Piggy isn’t quite the diva she used to be, a trait that made her all the more sympathetic when she’d cover her “Kermie” in kisses.

Of the two high-profile, kid-friendly nostalgia acts that I caught this year,  Winnie the Pooh was the more enchanting of the two — and a much better film. It told its story with wit and charm, staying faithful to the spirit of the original Pooh shorts of the mid-’60s while arguably improving upon the template.

I appreciated The Muppets, but I didn’t enjoy the film as much as I was prepared to. In light of all the resounding praise, I kept expecting it to reach another gear of inspiration. The Muppet Show was filled humor both silly and sly. The telethon-themed revival that concludes this film lacks something no Muppet movie should – energy and a sense of madcap fun.

Beady Eye (Different Gear, Still

Both of the boys come up with songs that are as familiarly melodic and riffy as you’d expect, which would be nice if they weren’t so forgettable. They have nothing to say, and don’t even realize it. That was OK when Oasis briefly ruled the world with its brashness and swagger and stupid, hooky tunes (at least for the first two albums). How neither of these siblings have written a song titled “Y’know, Y’know, C’mon, C’mon” remains an enduring mystery.

At midnight Tuesday, the St. Petersburg Times announced it will become the Tampa Bay Times to ring in the new year, 2012.

The column attributed to CEO Paul Tash offers a lengthy defense of the change. As Tash explains it, the new name was needed because most readers of the paper reside outside of the St. Petersburg area. While acknowledging the significance of messing with a respected brand that has been established for over 110 years, Tash offers a few justifications, among them the common denominator of “Tampa Bay” among the area’s professional sports teams, “Tampa Bay” as the listed destination for flights to Tampa International Airport, and the newspaper’s history of philanthropy throughout the region.

He even provides a cute, nostalgic anecdote about Orlando ridiculing St. Pete while competing with the area for a Major League Baseball team over 20 years ago.

My initial thought was that money is the driving force  behind the change, and perhaps it is. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this is about nothing more than getting more eyeballs in order to move businesses to spend their advertising dollars with the Times (assuming enough is out there to be made in this economically distressed period we’re suffering through).  Tash noted the St. Petersburg Times is already the region’s most-read newspaper, so I’m not sure swapping out a name will have that much of an impact in the short term.  Most likely the upper brass isn’t expecting it to, and this could be just part of a larger overhaul of the paper’s infrastructure. As recently as this month, the Times has been dealing with its financial hardships through layoffs and furloughs.

It was another passage, however, that got me to thinking the Times could be trying to change more than just its fortunes by swapping “St. Pete” for “Tampa Bay”:

But like other citizens and civic leaders, we recognize that all our communities have a stronger future as part of a dynamic Tampa Bay region, rather than a constellation of towns and cities jockeying for advantage against each other.

This sure sounds like Tash editorializing about the alleged rivalry between Pinellas and Hillsborough (not without significance regarding the paper’s financial interests). While I’m not convinced that dynamism and competition among municipalities are at odds with one another, the point Tash is making about the benefits of cooperation comes through. Personally, I’m looking forward to the Tampa Bay Times, and to see whether something as simple as a name change could be the catalyst to something far more important — an area’s revival and growth as it alters its self-perception.

What’s in a name? We’ll see.

They are the work of designer Ron Reason in collaboration with the Atlanta staff.  When you click in the link above, see if you agree that the bold, active-voice section headers are both eye-catching and inviting.

Just as impressive is the new table of contents page, now named “START.” Instead of trying to pack every story teaser onto one page, Ron and the Atlanta team included just the big stories and the sections that readers traditionally look for (such as music listings). By doing so, they were able to use a large, readable font size and make good use of both color and white space. In short, it’s easy to read, and the page breathes.