Pop Culture Junkette

Olympics 2010, Saturday, Feb. 27

2010-02-28T03:03:00.002-05:00

Today I watched:
Speedskating, women's pursuit, semifinals and finals
Speedskating, men's pursuit, finals
Snowboarding, men's parallel giant slalom, qualifications
Skiing, women's cross-country 30,000m mass start
Ice hockey, Slovakia vs. Finland, bronze medal match
Skiing, men's slalom
Bobsled, men's four-man, runs 3 and 4
Figure skating, champions gala
Curling, men's, Canada vs. Norway, gold medal match
Curling, men's, Sweden vs. Switzerland, bronze medal match

Most exciting event of the day? Cross-country, of course. It amazes me that the skiers are racing for over an hour and a half and yet the race still ends in a sprint: the gold and silver medalists were separated by just .3 seconds at the end of the race. Perhaps more surprising is that the bronze medalist was more than a minute and a half behind the first two finishers. It seems that almost every cross-country and biathalon event in these Olympics has had a dramatic finish, and this was no exception.

The bronze medal hockey match was exciting as well. Slovakia led 3-1 in the third period when Finland scored three unanswered goals, gaining the lead. With three minutes left in the game Slovakia went on a two-minute power play and by the end of the power play they had pulled their goalie, meaning they had six skaters on the ice to Finland's four. Despite several great scoring chances, Slovakia came up one goal short for the second night in a row, and Finland earned the bronze.

The speedskating pursuit events were exciting, even if the US didn't win, and the figure skating exhibition was entertaining, although not something I would have aired in HD instead of hockey.

The bronze medal curling match turned out to be more entertaining television than the gold medal match. The Canadians won the gold pretty easily. The bronze medal game was 4-3 in the ninth end when Switzerland had four stones in the house and Sweden had one stone left. They managed to knock all four stones out of the house, retaining their 4-3 lead. The tenth end was dramatic, since the score was separated by just one point, and Sweden made a mistake with its last stone, leaving the door open for Switzerland to score two points with the final rock of the match. Switzerland came through by just inches, winning the bronze.

Tomorrow is the final day of the Olympics, and there is very little left to watch, but that which is left is great: the men's hockey gold medal match between the USA and Canada, and a final men's cross-country race. Of course, the Olympics will end with the closing ceremonies, and I hear that my Olympic Boyfriend will have a special role as the games are passed from Vancouver to Sochi. Then he can return to DC and we can start watching the NHL again.

Olympics 2010, Friday, Feb. 26

2010-02-27T02:18:00.003-05:00

Today I watched:
Ice hockey, men's, USA vs. Finland
Ice hockey, men's, Canada vs. Slovakia
Curling, women's, Sweden vs. Canada (gold medal)
Speedskating, men's team pursuit, quarterfinals, semifinals
Speedskating, men's short-track, 500m quarterfinals, semifinals, final
Skiing, women's, slalom
Speedskating, women's short-track, 1000m quarterfinals, semifinals, final
Speedskating, men's short-track, 5000m relay
Bobsled, men's four-man, heat 2
Snowboarding, women's parallel giant slalom
Biathalon, men's 4x7500m relay
Speed-skating, women's team pursuit, quarterfinals

Today I watched two of the most exciting finishes of the Olympics. First was the gold medal curling match between Sweden and Canada, which went to extra innings and came down to the last stone of the eleventh end. I feel like the sentence I just typed was in a foreign language. I will call that language Canadian. The second exciting moment were the last seconds of the Canada-Slovakia hockey game. Canada was up 3-0 with six minutes left in the game when Slovakia scored two goals in very quick succession. Slovakia tried to tie it up and had a number of good chances in the last three minutes, with a few notables in the last 20 seconds. It would have been great to see them come up with an upset, but it wasn't going to happen.

The USA-Finland game was not a close one--the US won 6-1. When the US scored their fourth goal halfway through the first period, Finland goalie Miikka Kiprusoff pulled himself. Nikolas Backstrom replaced him and promptly gave up two goals fifteen seconds apart. Absent injury, I don't think I have ever seen a goalie pull himself out of a game, but I give Kiprusoff credit for realizing he wasn't helping his team at all and deciding to do something about it. I only wish Nabokov had done something similar after letting up his fourth goal against Canada two days ago.

This produces the Canada-USA gold metal game that Gary Bettman has been praying for. Bettman actually did a spot with Al Michaels and was his usual annoying and moronic self. I do not understand how he has retained his job--no commissioner has done more to ruin his sport.

As for the rest of the day's events: Gobo thinks that Apolo Anton Ohno is a dirty speed-skater. Of course, the Koreans have been saying this for years, but Gobo wasn't aware of their allegations (he completely ignores the pieces done before and after the matches), yet after watching Ohno's performances, he has come to this conclusion. Is thinking such a thing unpatriotic?

I don't understand why NBC couldn't show us more parallel slalom. I really enjoyed the semi-final matches that they showed us, and wish they could have aired more. The coverage on NBC's secondary networks has not been extensive--surely they could have added an hour to one of the daytime slots on CNBC or MSNBC.

The high point of the night might have been finding out that there would be more biathalon. I thought that the sport had seen its last race days ago, so this was a wonderful surprise. It was great to hear the name Ole Einar Bjorndalen one more time. Maybe I should have made him my Olympic boyfriend. (Just joking, Ovi!)

Just two days of Olympics left. Tomorrow is the bronze medal match in men's hockey, which will be aired on the non-HD MSNBC so that the figure skating exhibition can air on NBC. Good work again, NBC, thanks for the coverage!

Olympics 2010, Thursday, Feb. 25

2010-02-26T01:57:00.002-05:00

Today I watched:
Skiing, women's cross-country, 4x5000m relay
Ice hockey, women's, USA vs. Canada, gold medal game
Skiing, women's giant slalom, run 2
Nordic combined, men's large hill
Skiing, men's aerials
Figure skating, women's free skate

Wow. The Olympics are quickly drawing to a close, and I guess there aren't all that many events left. I have mixed feelings about this--one the one hand, I love the Olympics, but on the other, I am becoming absolutely exhausted. It's difficult to watch so many events on a daily basis.

Today was an easier day than most. The women's figure skating was the main event, and the top competitors all skated pretty clean programs. It's always so nice when everyone lands their jumps and they are all judged on their best performances. Canada's Joannie Rochette was the story of the night (and perhaps the entire Olympics), as she skated her short program two days after her mother's unexpected death and her long program just two days after that, earning a bronze medal. Japan's Mao Asada might have been the saddest story of the night, as she looked absolutely devastated after winning a silver medal. She reminded me of Midori Ito after the 1992 Olympics, apologizing to Japan for getting a silver rather than a gold.

I was expecting to watch the entire gold medal women's hockey game, but I wasn't home in time to catch the beginning and had forgotten to record it, so I only watched the third period. I fear the men's gold medal game will have the same competitors and the same outcome, but I guess we can hope otherwise.

I think it's interesting that the scores for the two runs in aerials are added to determine placement, while in half-pipe only the best of two runs counts. I would have thought the scoring would be similar between the two events. I prefer the half-pipe scoring system, because it doesn't discourage the competitors from trying a riskier, more exciting program. I was glad that Jeret (oops, I mean Speedy) Peterson went for the more difficult jump in his second run, even though doing so four years ago may have cost him a medal. It was great that this time he was rewarded with a silver.

Tomorrow is a slightly more active day: slalom, speedskating, curling, bobsled and, of course, the hockey semi-finals.

Olympics 2010, Tuesday, Feb. 23

2010-02-25T02:20:00.002-05:00

Today I watched:
Ice hockey, men's, USA vs. Switzerland
Ice hockey, men's, Russia vs. Canada
Ice hockey, men's, Czech Republic vs. Finland
Curling, men's, Great Britain vs. Sweden
Cross country, men's 4x1000m relay
Skiing, women's giant slalom, run 1
Bobsled, women's two-man finals
Skiing, women's aerials finals
Ice hockey, men's, Sweden vs. Slovakia
Speedskating, men's short-track 500m qualifiers
Speedskating, women's 3000m relay
Speedskating, women's 1000m
Speedskating, women's 5000m

I already shared my thoughts on the hockey in my very long earlier post, and I don't have the energy to have an opinion on much of anything else. I did think that Julia Mancuso needed to control the crying a bit. Sure, I'm sure she was upset that she was stopped in the middle of her giant slalom run, and it does suck. But the non-stop crying certainly wasn't going to help. And she's won two medals in this Olympics already--ones no one was really expecting her to win.

The US women's bobsledders (USA2) won a bronze medal today. Normally I wouldn't really care, but the brakewoman for the team, Elana Meyers, is the friend of a friend. Pretty cool.

Tomorrow...no men's hockey. The one women's hockey game I have been planning to watch, USA vs. Canada, is tomorrow, as is the women's figure skating long program.

Russia loses, Mike Milbury remains an idiot

2010-02-25T01:44:00.003-05:00

The Russia-Canada game tonight was awful. Russia got behind early, failed to gain any momentum, and didn't play well. Other than Bryzgalov, no one looked great.

The loss was disappointing, but not entirely surprising. I have been saying since the beginning of the Olympics that the Russians have looked disorganized on the ice, and that disorganization finally came back to haunt them. The team has appeared to be poorly-coached from their first game against Latvia. After the shootout loss to Slovakia, the Russian coach, Bykov, admitted that he hadn't had a plan in place for the shootout and randomly chose his shooters.

I can't fathom how the coach of a team in the Olympics can begin the tournament without a plan for the shootout. The game is three periods long, and if it is tied after those periods there is a five minute overtime. If it's still tied, it goes to a shootout. Thus, it would seem that having an idea of what you want to do when the shootout comes would be a good idea. The fact that Bykov was so unprepared in such a basic way did not bode well for Russia's chances.

Bykov's biggest mistake today was not pulling Nabokov earlier. Nabokov gave up four goals in the first period, a few of which were very weak. The team might not have been playing incredibly strong hockey, but the goalie really needs to stop the easy shots--and the hard ones--to keep his team in the game. Nabokov looked horrible. Rather than pull Nabokov after the first period (or earlier--many coaches would have pulled Nabokov after the third goal), Bykov put him back in. Soon after the start of the second period, the Canadians scored a fifth goal, but Bykov still refused to pull Nabokov. This was particularly shocking because Bryzgalov looked strong in the game against Slovakia (despite the eventual loss), and I actually thought Bryzgalov should have been the starting goalie from the beginning of this tournament. It was only after the sixth goal, when the Russians had pretty much no chance of getting back into the game, that Bykov pulled Nabokov.

Not one Russian skater had a good game, but if I had to pick out the player with the worst game, I think it would be Malkin. Malkin had a great game against the Czech Republic after having two poor games against Latvia and Slovakia, so I was hopeful he would be able to create some offense. Instead he allowed for a turnover that directly lead to Boyle's breakaway goal, and lost the puck throughout the game.

Of course, the Mike Milburys of the world would prefer to blame Ovechkin because it's easy to point to the biggest star (and in Milbury's case, because he clearly dislikes Ovechkin). Mike Milbury is a total idiot. In his commentary after the game he said he was disappointed in Russia for playing a "Eurotrash game." The fact that Milbury, who adds no valuable insight in his commentary, has a job with NBC Sports is ridiculous. But NBC seems to like Milbury doing racist things like calling the Russian game Eurotrash--I guess they think that it creates press, and they don't have a problem with commentators continuing to espouse the view that the way the Canadians play the game is somehow "pure," while the Europeans have defiled it in some way. (In the past, the Europeans failed the play hockey properly because they weren't passionate, weren't physical, didn't finish their checks, and didn't really care about the outcome. Now that the biggest star in the league is a European who exuberantly celebrates goals, wants to win more than anything, and is not only the best scorer in the league, but also lays down some of the hugest hits, the complaints are that they celebrate too much, and they are too physical.)

Milbury also defended Boyle's slew-footing of Semin. He claimed that Semin deserved it (despite slew-footing being against the rules) because of Semin's "dangerous" check on Boyle. I looked at the check several times, and I don't think it was illegal. Even if we give Boyle the benefit of the doubt and say the check was illegal (that it was late or that it was high), it was at the very least a play that could have been ruled either way. To slew-foot in response is not an appropriate retaliation, but Milbury applauded Boyle's actions.

Of course, the idea that the worst general manager in the history of hockey--the man who traded away Roberto Luongo (who looked pretty great in goal for the Canadians), Zdeno Chara and Tim Connolly--is providing commentary on hockey is ridiculous. He completely decimated the Islanders in his ten year reign of terror. That CBC and NBC think he is worthy of talking to anyone about hockey is misguided at best.

The other hockey games of the day were far more interesting. Switzerland and the US were tied at 0 for the first 50 minutes of the game, the Czech Republic and Finland were tied at 0 for the first 50 minutes of the game, and Slovakia beat Sweden 4-3, with Sweden having a few big chances in the closing seconds of the game. I'm really shocked that Sweden lost, and the road to the gold medal just became much easier for Canada. I know a lot of USA fans are hoping for a Canada-USA rematch, but I don't see the US beating Canada twice in this series. Miller had to stand on his head for the first win, and repeating that will be difficult.

I always love seeing teammates shake hands at the end of the game, and Lunqvist and Gaborik didn't disappoint, really looking like friends when the game was over. Not so much for Crosby and Malkin, who just gave each other a cursory handshake, as if they were total strangers.

Today started with five Capitals in the Olympics, and ended with no Capitals left. The big positive: no more worries about Ovie, Semin, Backstrom or Fleishmann getting injured in a game (I wasn't worried about Varlamov, since he has been hanging out in the team's box with Tretiak). Another big plus: all five of those players get a full week to rest. There's still a lot of NHL hockey left, and the less worn out and tired they are, the better.

Olympics 2010, Tuesday, Feb. 23

2010-02-24T03:05:00.002-05:00

Today I watched:
Curling, women's, US vs. China
Ice hockey, men's, Switzerland vs. Belarus
Ice hockey, men's, Canada vs. Germany
Skiing, women's ski cross
Skiing, men's Nordic combined, team
Speed skating, men's 10,000m
Figure skating, women's long program
Bobsled, women's two man
Skiing, men's giant slalom
Ice hockey, Czech Republic vs. Latvia
Ice hockey, Slovakia vs. Norway
Biathalon, women's 4x6000m relay

After a relatively light Olympics-watching day yesterday, I was very busy today. I have to admit I haven't finished watching the women's biathalon relay--I am watching it as I type.

Today was a pretty exciting day in the Olympics. The most emotional moment was clearly Joannie Rochette's short program in women's figure skating. Rochette's mother had a heart attack and died at the age of 55 two days ago. Rochette still managed to skate a clean program and ended up in third place going into the long program. The US figure skaters were a disappointment. Apparently they both skated as well as they have in the past, it's just that their best isn't as good as the rest of the world's. The US has had great female figure skaters my entire life, so it's sad to see a competition where no one even expects our skaters to be serious medal contenders.

When NBC switched over to the final pair of the men's speedskating 10,000m race with seven laps left, I wondered why they even bothered to show us the skating at all. The lead skater in that last pairing was Sven Kramer, who was comfortably in the lead and on pace to break the Olympic record. When he finished his race the commentator declared Kramer the winner and said that he was "a short few seconds before celebrating officially." Those few short seconds never came. Kramer was disqualified because he ended the race in the wrong lane. Watching replays, it was clear that his coach had erroneously instructed him to switch lanes, costing Kramer the medal and Olympic record. NBC was, shockingly enough, airing the end of the race live, so watching Kramer learn he had been disqualified, and his angry reaction, was fascinating television.

I hadn't expected to watch all four hockey matches, but I ended up doing exactly that. I watched Switzerland vs. Belarus in its entirety. I ended up watching the third period at the gym, and had to extend my workout because the game went into overtime and I couldn't leave before the game was over. I watched the first half of Canada vs. Germany, changing the channel when the score was 4-1. I thought Germany did a really good job of challenging Canada through the first period, but they just couldn't sustain the effort. It was nice seeing Crosby miss a penalty shot.

Slovakia vs. Norway and Czech Republic vs. Latvia were both shocking games. The Czech Republic game went to overtime, with Latvia letting up a goal about six minutes in. Slovakia was tied with Norway until midway through the third period, when they finally scored to lead by one, and then barely held onto the one-goal lead for the rest of the game.

Tomorrow: Russia vs. Canada. I'm sure there are a lot of other events as well, and I'm sure I'll watch them, but all I can really think about is Russia vs. Canada. I'm worried for Ovi and friends, and it particularly concerns me that Ovechkin has said that he had trouble scoring on Luongo when Luongo played for the Panthers. (And speaking of Luongo, every time Mike Milbury says his name I feel hatred. Thanks again, Mike, for making the worst moves ever when you were Isles GM.) Game is at 7:30 on CNBC (no HD for hockey, yet again).

Olympics 2010, Monday, Feb. 22

2010-02-23T01:22:00.002-05:00

Today I watched:
Ski jumping, men's team, large hill
Skiing, men's aerials, qualifiers
Figure skating, ice dancing, free dance
Cross country, men's team sprint
Cross country, women's team sprint

Today was a very light day for watching the Olympics. I just wasn't in the mood to watch curling today, and you know my rule about no women's ice hockey until the gold medal match, and those were the only other sports offer. NBC just did not have a lot on the roster today.

I don't have much to say. I have come to realize that ski jumping might be my least favorite winter Olympic event other than bobsled, luge and skeleton. It's just not very exciting.

I enjoyed tonight's ice dancing. I decided to skip the cellar dwellers NBC showed at the beginning, and just watched the better teams. Once I cut out the weaker teams, the competition lost its tedium and became far more interesting. I personally enjoyed the free skate of the silver medalists, USA's Davis and Charlie White best, but I'm not an ice dancing expert.

Tomorrow should be a more active day. All of the hockey elimination round matches are going on, so that's four hockey games. Three of the four games are foregone conclusions (Belarus vs. Switzerland is the only game with some suspense regarding the victor), although I guess we can all hope for Germany to pull off the biggest upset of the tournament by beating Canada.

I'm not feeling good about the Russia-Canada quarterfinal match, but that's not until Wednesday. Also on Tuesday is speed skating, biathalon (yay!), Nordic combined (double yay!!) and the women's figure skating short program.

Olympics 2010, Sunday, Feb. 20

2010-02-22T02:40:00.003-05:00

Today I watched:
Ice hockey, Russia vs. Czech Republic
Ice hockey, USA vs. Canada
Skiing, men's ski cross
Skiing, men's super combined
Skiing, men's biathalon, 15,000m mass start
Figure skating, ice dancing original dance
Speed skating, women's 1500m
Bobsled, men's two-man
Ice hockey, Sweden vs. Finland
Skiing, women's biathalon, 12,500m mass start

I already shared some of my thoughts about the ice hockey in my previous post, so I'll keep the comments here brief. After the USA-Canada match, one thing that struck me was the interaction between Blackhawks teammates Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane in the handshake. Kane, who plays for Team USA, broke into a smile when he saw Toews, who plays for Team Canada. Kane gave Toews a hug and said something to him as they shook hands. The look on Toews' face, however, was of someone completely shell-shocked. Contrasting the expressions of the two teammates was pretty dramatic.

Also, a bit of criticism about NBC. I haven't really complained about the broadcasting of these Olympics, because I would rather just focus on the fun of the Games. But I have to wonder why NBC even bothered to break into the USA-Canada game when they did: after the USA scored its empty net goal, the score was 5-3, and there were only 20 seconds left in the game. What was the point? The three minutes immediately before that had been incredibly exciting: Canada scored to bring them within one goal of a tie, and then proceeded to control the puck, shooting at Miller mercilessly. They had so many chances to score; it was truly edge-of-your-seat hockey at its best. Yet NBC didn't cut over for any of that--at the very least, I would have thought they would have shown the final three minutes after Canada scored. Total miss on the part of NBC. Big shock.

As for the other sports: Biathalon is exciting! I'm sure you're shocked. Really, I love biathalon and any other sport that has cross-country skiing. Biathalon is my favorite because of the added drama of the shooting and penalty laps, but cross-country has not bored me once during this Olympics. To think that at the beginning of this Olympics I didn't even know who Magdalena Neuner was. Now I feel like I've known her forever.

Today was the debut of skiing cross, and I loved it. It's just like snowboard cross, but on skis! I love watching the skiiers race head-to-head.

If I weren't so tired, I'm sure I could say an awful lot about the original dance competition in ice dancing today. Alas, I'm tired. Suffice it to say, the costumes were quite special. After the compulsory dance round, my favorite team was Russia's Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin. They are now in third place, and according to the LA Times, they probably can't catch the first place team. I'm not really sure why that's the case, since they were in first after day one, didn't make big mistakes, but fell to third. Seems that the same could happen to the other teams tomorrow, but what do I know? I did think that the teams in first and second did skate the best today, Canada's Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue and the US's Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

Looks like I might get to bed before 4 a.m. today, which I now consider an early night. Tomorrow is a hockey-free day (well, women's hockey semi-finals, but as I have written in the past, I'm only going to watch the USA-Canada gold medal game because the other teams are horribly overmatched and the games just aren't fun to watch). Tomorrow: more cross country and ice dancing!

The nightmare scenario

2010-02-22T02:03:00.006-05:00

Today was an absolutely great day in Olympic hockey, and was particularly wonderful if, like me, you were cheering for Team Russia and Team USA. It was also great day for fans of the Capitals, as Ovechkin had a great game (and leveled Jagr--a player most Caps fans loathe--mid-ice, which led to Russia's third goal of the game), as did Backstrom, who had a hand in all three of Sweden's goals, with a goal and two assists. But then I started thinking about the elimination bracket and how that would play out through the rest of this tournament. And then I wasn't quite as excited as I had been.

Russia and the USA won important and dramatic victories today: Russia against the Czech Republic, and the US against Canada. Both teams secured byes in the next round of play and will go directly to the quarterfinals. All was wonderful until I realized that as the number 3 seed, Russia will face the winner of the Canada-Germany match in the quarterfinals. Germany is a pretty weak team, so unless Canada completely collapses, that means that either Russia or Canada will not make it out of the quarterfinals. A lot of people thought that Russia-Canada would be the gold medal match, and Russia will certainly be facing the toughest opponent in the quarterfinals.

However, even if Russia wins, they then face the winner of the Sweden vs. the winner of Slovakia vs. Norway. My guess is that Sweden will face and defeat Slovakia. If Sweden doesn't manage to win, I can't imagine Russia will fold to Slovakia twice in this tournament. But if Sweden does advance--which I strongly suspect they will--Russia will have to face the *other* most dangerous team in the tournament. That would mean that before making it to the gold medal round, Russia will have to face the two teams everyone thought would be their most difficult competition.

And then even if they do win, they could very well be facing Team USA in the gold medal match. I have been talking about cheering for Team Russia in the Olympics for over a year, but now that the games are here, I feel guilty cheering against Team USA. I would rather avoid having to deal with conflicting loyalties in a gold medal match.

Interestingly, the Czech Republic, the team that Russia beat today to earn the bye, has what is probably an easier road to the finals. They will have to face Latvia in the next round, which is as close to a free pass as a team could have hoped for, and they will then play against Finland (not an easy match by any means, but I would rather play against Finland than Canada), and then the winner of the US vs. the winner of Switzerland and Belarus (in other words, the US). Not a bad road at all.

Among the top four seeds, Russia certainly seems to have the most difficult road ahead of them. The US has a far easier path. They should be able to handle the winner of the Switzerland-Belarus match with relative ease. After that, they will compete against the winner of the Finland-Czech Republic match (to be precise, I should say the winner of the match between Finland and whoever wins the Czech Republic-Latvia match, but that's just not one I have any question in my mind about). That will give the US a lot of trouble, and if I were a betting woman, I would bet against the US in that situation, although I wouldn't be surprised if they did win. But it is still a more favorable scenario than facing Sweden, Canada or Russia. But I guess the number one seed having the easiest road is way it should be.

The rest of the hockey in this Olympics should be very interesting. An update on the rest of my Olympic Sunday coming up soon.

Olympics 2010, Saturday, Feb. 20

2010-02-21T02:36:00.002-05:00

Today I watched:
Ice Hockey, Norway vs. Switzerland
Ski jumping, men's large hill, finals
Skiing, women's aerials, qualifcations
Cross country, men's 15,000m pursuit
Speed skating, men's 1500m (long track)
Two-man bobsled, men's
Skiing, women's Super G
Speed skating, men's short track, 1000m, quarterfinals, semifinals, finals
Speed skating, women's short track, 1500m, heats, semifinals, finals

We're more than halfway through the Olympics!

I don't think I have ever watched aerial skiing in the Olympics before, which is difficult to believe, since my research tells me it has been an Olympic event since 1994. I really loved the event and am excited for the finals.

The cross country was, yet again, exciting! The race featured a Swedish skiier, Johan Olsson, who took off during the freestyle portion of the 15,000m pursuit, which the commentators said was unheard of. They said that the field usually remains tight until near the end of the race. Apparently skiing at the front all alone is more difficult than skiing with the pack. Olsson did get tired near the end of the race, and ended up with a bronze, but he seemed thrilled with the result.

The Super G was less crash-filled than the women's downhill was a few days ago, which was good for the competitors, but not quite as good for the drama. Today also featured a lot of speed skating, which is always fun and easy to watch.

I wasn't planning on watching hockey today, but am really glad I caught the Norway vs. Switzerland game, which was far more exciting than I had anticipated. It went to overtime, with Switzerland winning 5-4. It was great to see two of the weaker teams in the tournament play so well.

Today's events were exactly what I needed after being so exhausted yesterday and having a big day ahead of me tomorrow. I liked everything I watched, other than the bobsledding. And it's not that I don't enjoy the bobsled, but as I have said before, races like luge, skeleton and bobsled can get boring to watch after awhile--they are all going down the same track of ice and there is no way to really know how they are doing compared to the field.

Tomorrow is going to be a huge day. There are three major hockey games: Russia vs. Czech Republic, Canada vs. USA, and Sweden vs. Finland. The first match features two great teams, and the Russians really need to pull out a win so they can get a bye in the first elimination round of the tournament. I also just read an article that says Malkin is being moved up to Russia's first line to play with Ovechkin and Semin, and Datsyuk will be playing on the second line with Kovalchuk and Afinogenov. I was actually thinking that the team should do that during the game against Slovakia, because Datsyuk didn't seem to be fitting with Ovi and Semin, and the Malkin line was going absolutely nowhere. Canada vs. USA is obviously going to be huge--the two teams are the only ones that are made up exclusively of NHL players. Sweden vs. Finland is a rematch from the gold medal game in the 2006 Turin Olympics (Sweden won the gold, Finland settled for silver). That's 7.5 hours of solid hockey.

But there's more than just hockey tomorrow: there's more ice dancing, the men's Super G, women's speed skating and women's cross country. Additionally, the event of ski cross makes its Olympic debut. I loved the snowboard cross, so I'm sure I'm going to love ski cross as well.

I'm going to rest up for a very big day tomorrow!

Olympics 2010, Friday, Feb. 19

2010-02-20T01:50:00.005-05:00

Today I watched:
Skiing, cross-country women's 15,000m pursuit
Ski jumping, men's normal hill, qualification round
Skiing, men's Super G
Ice dancing, compulsory dance
Curling, men's, USA vs. France
Snowboarding, women's half-pipe final (taped on Thursday, watched on Friday)
Skeleton, women's, 4th (final) run
Skeleton, men's, 3rd run
Ice hockey, Finland vs. Germany
Watched clips only: Ice hockey, Sweden vs. Belarus

Watching the Olympics is hard work. I'm officially exhausted. I have been planning my days around Olympic viewing, and when I couldn't devote my entire day to the Games yesterday it really threw me off. Regardless, I am caught up and am hoping for a good night of sleep so I can start out strong tomorrow.

Yet again, cross-country skiing was really exciting. Today was the women's 15,000m , cross-country women's 15k pursuit, which is a race that starts using the classical technique, and at a point during the race the skiiers change skis and ski using a freestyle technique. The race came down to a photo finish for the bronze medal, with Justina Kowalczyk of Poland just edging her Norwegian competitor. Gobo and I were cheering for Kowalczyk because she was the only racer wearing short sleeves. It was over 50 degrees today in Vancouver and the race looks really grueling, so I'm surprised others didn't opt for the cooler option. Gobo and I creatively called Kowalczyk "short sleeves" throughout the race.

The commentary during this Olympics leaves much to be desired, and today featured a classic line during the 15k pursuit. The announcer said "it's funny how you always ski to the limit of a race. If it's a 10k you're still fried at the end. If it's a 15, you spread out the energy." Wow, what a concept. When you race, no matter the distance, you race as quickly as you can for that period of time. When the distance is longer, you pace yourself a little more slowly so that you exhaust yourself at the end of the race, as opposed to before the end of the race. Who would have thought it? I'm so glad it was brought to my attention during the Olympics.

The repetition of the same ice dancing song and routine for each team was a bit tedious. Ice dancing is by far my least favorite figure skating event because it lacks jumps and excitement. It was interesting, however, to see how different teams dancing the same steps to the same music could differ so much. I don't know much about ice dancing, but it was obvious to me that the Russian team currently in first had the best dance--they seemed to glide more effortlessly than the other teams and they exuded charisma that I didn't get from anyone else.

More than any other Olympic sport, I cannot understand why anyone would ever want to compete in the skeleton. Could there be anything scarier than riding down a huge ice course face first, stomach down on a tiny sled? Terrifying.

In addition to watching the actual events, I also watched about 15 interviews between Bob Costas and Evan Lysacek. Does Team USA mandate that Evan wear his gold medal everywhere? It is so big that it looks a bit silly. Today I found out that Evan is part-Greek. I can't wait to tell my dad tomorrow, I love telling him when I find out some new random person is Greek. Opa!

Tomorrow seems like a pretty easy day: ski jumping, freestyle skiing, women's super G, 1000m short track speed skating and my new favorite sport, cross-country skiing. The hockey matches are Norway vs. Switzerland, Belarus vs. Germany, and Latvia vs. Slovakia, so I'm thinking I will skip those. Sunday will be a huge hockey day, so I should probably take it easy tomorrow and rest up a bit.

Olympics 2010, Thursday, Feb. 18

2010-02-19T17:01:00.003-05:00

I was going to post this last night, but when I finally finished watching the Olympics after 4 a.m. and realized I needed to be awake in less than five hours, I decided to wait.

I didn't have as big a day yesterday as some of the others, despite staying up until very late. I didn't get started until late, and then messed up my entire schedule. It also didn't help that two hockey games went to shootouts.

I watched:
Biathalon, women's 15,000m
Snowboarding, women's half-pipe qualifying round
Skiing, women's super combined
Ice hockey, men's, United States vs. Norway
Ice hockey, men's, Canada vs. Switzerland
Ice hockey, men's, Russia vs. Slovakia
Figure skating, men's long program

There were actually a number of events on yesterday that I didn't get to watch because the time got away from me. No worries--they are recorded and I will finish watching them today. Between the hockey games and figure skating, it was an exciting Olympic-watching night for me. I was disappointed that Russia lost to Slovakia (as I said in an earlier post, Slovakia should not be counted out). Russia just didn't have the firepower that they should have in the game. Also, I was flabbergasted that Russia's coach gave Ovechkin so many shootout chances. For those who don't know, in the Olympics, if a hockey game is tied after regulation it goes to sudden-death overtime for five minutes. If it is still tied, it goes to a shootout. Each team must choose three different players to shoot. If the score is still tied after each team has players shoot, the shootout continues with one player from each team shooting in each round until the tie is broken at the end of a round. I absolutely adore Ovechkin (really, I totally worship him), but the one thing he is not great at is shootouts. This is pretty common knowledge in DC. Despite this, Ovechkin was chosen as one of the first three players to shoot for Russia. Again, not totally surprising, because he does have an incredible shot. He did score, but so did someone from Slovakia, so the score was still tied after the first three players from each team went. At that point, Russia had Ovechkin shoot again. At that point they hadn't tried Kovalchuk, Malkin or Semin, so I was surprised. He didn't make it in, so they gave Kovalchuk the next chance. When he didn't make it, they again had Ovechkin try (he missed again). I found it confusing.

Canada's game also went to a shootout. In their case, Sidney Crosby (although I'm not a fan, I will be fair and say he is very good at the shootout) missed on his first try. But after both goalies blanked the three shooters, they put Crosby back out there and he scored for a Canada win. Boo. Canada did not look great against Switzerland at all, Russia lacked firepower against Slovakia, and although the US won, they looked anemic for much of their game against Norway. It will be interesting to see if Sweden looks strong today on their second game of the tournament or if they falter as well.

It was nice to see Evan Lysacek win the gold in figure skating. I have never been a huge fan of Plushenko, and I thought that Lysacek actually skated a more exciting program. It does seems odd to me that there are still men competing who don't have any quad jumps in their programs, let alone that there are men winning Olympic gold medals without quad jumps. I think the most impressive thing about Lysacek was his spins. I know that Todd Eldridge was always known for his spins, but I prefer Lysacek's. I was never a fan of Eldridge's (he seemed very whiny), but I don't think that is biasing my opinion.

I'm going to take a short rest before watching more Olympics and catching up on what I missed yesterday.

Olympics 2010, Wednesday, Feb. 17

2010-02-18T02:31:00.003-05:00

Today I watched:
Skiing, women's cross country 1500m sprint
Skiing, men's cross country 1500m sprint
Curling, men's, USA vs. Switzerland
Ice hockey, men's, Sweden vs. Germany
Speedskating, men's 1000m
Snowboarding, men's half-pipe
Speedskating, men's short-track, 1000m qualifying heats
Skiing, women's downhill
Speedskating, men's short-track 5000m relay semifinal round
Curling, women, Sweden vs. Great Britain
Speedskating, women's short-track 500m qualifying heats, semifinals and final
Doubles luge, men's

Between Lindsey Vonn's run and Shaun White's half-pipe, today was a dramatic day for Team USA. I get sick of the White coverage, but today's showing was really phenomenal. Even to someone like me, who only watches half-pipe every four years, it was obvious that he was far better than his competitors. Impressive.

Vonn's win was impressive too, and the event was dramatic. I don't think I have ever seen so many falls in an Olympic race, and the falls all looked awful.

I was confused about something the commentators said today. When discussing the men's 1000m (long-track) speedskating field, they said that they thought Canada's decision to prohibit non-Canadians to train with their team hurt Canada's speedskater. I'm curious as to why Canada decided to force its skaters to train without foreigners, especially if it worked to the detriment of the Canadian skater. Of course, the announcers didn't explain the reasoning at all.

As I said yesterday, I enjoy watching curling. Today I decided that since the commentators couldn't coherently explain anything about how points are scored, I would ask a Canadian friend. So now I understand how to get a point in curling. For anyone else interested, here is what he says: You get as many points as you have rocks nearest the target and inside the rings before the other team has one. So if the order of stones nearest the center is AAABBA, then A gets 3 points and B gets 0. If it's ABBBBBB, A gets 1 point and B gets 0. The trick is that if you score a point then the other team gets to go last in the next "end", which is a big advantage. So teams will usually try to avoid scoring only 1 point if they can; 0 points is often better than just 1.

Doesn't that help? Tomorrow I will try to figure out what "the hammer" is and how it fits into the rest of the game.

One thing I have found that I don't like about curling is that it is a very, very slow sport. I watched some of the USA-Switzerland at the gym today. I spend an hour at the gym, and when I got there the match was in the fifth end (an end is like a round or a set within a larger match or game--you score points after each end, and there are ten ends in all). When I left the gym an hour later, the match was in the...eighth end. I was at the gym for an hour and saw less than a third of the match? That seems ridiculous.

I watched a period of the Sweden-Germany game (would have watched more, but because of the endless curling match, CNBC didn't show the first period of the game, and I was recording too many things during the third period to be able to watch). Capital Niklas Backstrom had a very pretty pass to set up the second goal of the game, which Sweden won 2-0. Germany actually put up a good fight against a team that is considered far better. I'm so happy that former Islander Uwe Krupp is now Team Germany's coach--it's great to see players from my youth resurface.

I thought Sweden looked really good--their passing was nice and they didn't look sloppy. They really just looked like a team that had played together before. I thought the same of both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I watched that game in its entirety, and thought both teams looked strong. Jagr, in particular, looked great for the Czech Republic. As for Slovakia, no one even the team when discussing medals, but I think that's a mistake. Slovakia has Chara, Gaborik, Hossa and Halat, and that's really not a bad team at all. Tomorrow Russia plays Slovakia, and it will be interesting to see if Russia plays a more organized game than they did yesterday, and it will be interesting to see how Halat and his team handles the Russian firepower.

I really don't know why anyone would want to be a member of a doubles luge team. I wouldn't want to be on the bottom, having someone else sit on top of me, but I also wouldn't want to be on top--I would feel like I was crushing my teammate, and your body is more open to injury. Does anyone see an upside to this sport?

Russian hockey player or Wonder Woman?

2010-02-17T14:49:00.007-05:00

I can't get over the atrocious socks that the Russian hockey team is wearing during the Olympics. The vertical stripes down the front make them look like Wonder Woman. Take a look for yourself:

The fact that some players (like Ovechkin) secure their socks with colored athletic tape makes the look even worse, because the horizontally-applied tape cuts the line of the stripe, making it look like there are two segments of striping on the sock. It's just not a good look.

A few other quick thoughts after the hockey game. As I said in my previous post, Russia looked sloppy, despite winning 8-2. The aspect of their play that worried me the most was the number of no-look passes the players were dishing out. A no-look pass can be great at the right time in a game, but it doesn't make sense to make a pass like that when there are several players from the opposing team between you and your teammate. Hopefully the team will look at the game tape and decide that they don't need to be as fancy when moving the puck.

What bothered me the most, however, was a discussion the announcers (I believe it was Kenny Albert and Joe Micheletti) had about Sergei Gonchar's wife. They mentioned that Gonchar had met her at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, where his wife was an ice dancer for Armenia. They then noted that Gonchar's wife came in last in that Olympics, which was 24th place. They were clearly laughing about her last place finish. After listening to Bob Costas talk about how for most athletes just being part of the Olympic experience is an accomplishment, it was disappointing to hear two announcers laughing about someone who went to the games and competed, even if she didn't do well. They did end the discussion by saying something like "at least she made it to the games," but even that wasn't all that great, and their comment that "at least she found a husband!" was off-putting at best.

More hockey tonight, with Sweden, the Czech Republic and Slovakia being the most notable teams. Russia plays again tomorrow.

Olympics 2010, Tuesday, Feb. 16

2010-02-17T02:56:00.005-05:00

Today I watched:
Ice Hockey, men's, USA vs. Switzerland (missed about half of each period)
Ice Hockey, men's, Canada vs. Norway (only a few minutes)
Figure skating, men's short program.
Curling, men's, USA vs. Germany
Curling, women's, USA vs. Japan
Snowboard cross, women's quarterfinals, semifinals, finals
Biathalon, women's 10,000m
Biathalon, men's 12,500m
Ice Hockey, men's, Russia vs. Latvia

Some thoughts:
If I didn't already have an Olympic boyfriend, I might have chosen Swiss figure skater Stephane Lambiel. I loved the sleeves of his outfit, the pant/boot combination, and he's pretty cute. (The photo doesn't do his face justice, but you can see his outfit in all its glory. His wasn't even the most outrageous--not by a long shot. I should do an entire post on men's figure skating costumes.) On the other hand, I cannot stand Johnny Weir. His whole attitude about fur makes me dislike him; of course it's wrong that people are threatening him, but his complete lack of consideration or introspection about the fur issue disturbs me.

Curling continues to confuse me. I like watching it, but I really don't understand how the scoring works. I watched today's match between the US and Germany from the beginning, hoping the announcers would explain the sport to me. But no. I understand a little, but not much. Regardless, I was happy to see that my Olympic dream is not over; some of the curlers are over 30 years old!

Biathalon was exciting today! So much so that Bailey sent me an e-mail that said, in its entirety, "biathalon is exciting!" Both the men's and women's races came down to shooting in the last lap; it was all full of suspense.

I was shocked to see Lindsey Jacobellis go down in her semifinal. She has been such a big story at the Olympics, and I always figure that the big stories will somehow succeed. But not Lindsey. However, it was really nice seeing someone who grew up right outside of Vancouver win.

I have a lot of thoughts on the hockey--so many that I think I'm going to hold most of them and try to write a post devoted to hockey tomorrow. But in case I don't (quite likely), a few quick thoughts. I didn't watch very much of the Canada-Norway game, but I saw about half of each period of the USA-Switzerland game and Russia-Latvia game, and I didn't think USA or Russia looked great. The US won 3-1 and Russia blew out Latvia 8-2, but the Swiss and Latvians were not considered great competitors. The US seemed to lack firepower, and Russia just looked sloppy. It often looked like the Russians were trying to make pretty plays rather than trying to score. I realize the teams are getting used to playing together, and have only been doing so for a few days, so hopefully things will improve. It was nice to see Ovi score twice (bringing his Olympic total to 7 goals in 9 games).

Tomorrow there is more hockey cross-country skiing, snowboarding halfpipe, downhill skiing and speedskating. Speaking of speedskating, my television's online guide said I would be seeing women's speedskating (500m), but I didn't. What happened there?

Olympics 2010, Monday, Feb. 15

2010-02-16T01:47:00.003-05:00

Today I watched:

Skiing, women's cross-country 15,000m
Skiing, men's cross-country 10,000m
Snowboard cross, men's qualifiers, semi-finals and finals
Skiing, men's downhill finals
Speed skating, men's 500m
Figure skating, pairs long program
Luge, women's, run 2

This was a great Olympic television-watching day for me. I loved watching the snowboarding--it's so fun watching them speed down the hill, and it's always so exciting when there are four snowboarders going head-to-head(-to head-to head).

Pairs skating is one of my favorite Olympic events, so watching the long program was great. I have to admit that some tears may have sprung into my eyes when Shen and Zhou won the gold medal. NBC has been shoving their story down our throats for two days now (they are 31 and 36 years old, have been skating together for 18 years, are married, and came out of retirement for one last chance to win the gold--the one goal they hadn't accomplished in their skating career), and it is compelling! I also thought they had chemistry on the ice.

The commentary that accompanies the skating, however, leaves much to be desired. Dick Button is clearly far past his prime, and his comments can sometimes seem non-sensical, awkward, or slightly incoherent. He talked with Al Michaels some of the issues he has with the grading system, and Al could not have looked more bored. Way to put on the game face, Al.

Some of the stories are not quite as moving. During the downhill, we were told that one of the skiiers had broken his thumb two weeks before the Olympics. Yes, that sucks. But I don't think it's quite the story of bravery against all odds that the commentators made it out to be. Hockey players have played through entire playoff series with a broken thumb, and they really need to use their hands at all times in moving their stick and controlling the puck. Does a downhill skiier really use his thumb all that much? Is it a shocking story when one decides to race through the pain for the few minutes the race lasts? I'm not saying the racer wasn't impressive, but the NBC coverage was hyperbolic.

Tomorrow is the premiere of hockey! USA vs. Switzerland at 3 p.m., Canada versus Norway at 8 p.m., and Russia versus Latvia at midnight. USA, Canada and Russia should win the games pretty easily, but it will be fun to start watching some hockey. The Washington Post ran a photo of the skates Ovechkin will be wearing during the Olympics.

Question

2010-02-15T20:07:00.002-05:00

Can Steve Nash be my Olympic boyfriend? I love him so much, and he did carry the torch in the Opening Ceremonies, so that's something.

Otherwise, maybe Johnny Spillane or Bode Miller (even though he's a jerk). Maybe I should have a new one every day.

Olympics 2010, Sunday, Feb. 14

2010-02-15T02:03:00.002-05:00

Today I watched:
Nordic combined, men's
More men's luge
Biathalon, men's
3000m speed skate, women's
Moguls, men's
Figure skating, pairs, short program

I learned what the Nordic combined is: ski jumping and cross-country skiing. I thought it was really interesting to watch, and every time I saw the athletes take another stride with the skis, I thought about the ten minute maximum I can handle on the gym's cross country machine.

I watched the luge for a second day in a row, and although I like watching their speed going down the course, after watching a few athletes go down, the sport can get kind of boring to watch. It consists of four rounds, so there is a lot of repetition, and there isn't any way you can really tell who is faster and who is slower, except for the clock running on the bottom of the screen. I think it would be more exciting if there were head-to-head competition as they go down the course, but I realize that would be impossible.

I also enjoyed watching the biathalon; it's an interesting event because not all of the competitors start at the same time, which means that short bursts of bad weather can hurt a small number of athletes who have the misfortune to be competing at that moment. That happened today, as there was a short period of time when a pretty heavy snow was falling.

Speed skating and moguls were both a lot of fun for the second day in a row.

As I mentioned yesterday, pairs skating is one of my favorite events (I still remember Gordeeva and Grinkov winning the gold in 1994). I was confused by some of the scores during the competition: teams that flubbed a good bit were scored above teams that skated cleanly. The commentators seemed confused as well. Tomorrow is the long program, which should be interesting because there are a number of teams within a very small point range after the short program.

Tomorrow: snowboarding, speed skating, cross country skiing, pairs figure skating.

Olympics 2010, Saturday, Feb. 13

2010-02-14T01:32:00.004-05:00

Just keeping track of what I watched today:

Ski jumping, men's normal hill final
Speedskating, men's 5000 m final
Women's biathalon qualifiers
1500m speed skating, men's 1500 qualifiers and final
Moguls, women's qualifications and finals
3000m short track speed skating relay, women's qualifiers
Luge, men's qualifiers
Ice hockey, women's round robin, Sweden v. Switzerland

I only watched a few minutes of the hockey game, and women's ice hockey is the one sport I think I might skip a bit. I'm planning on watching pretty much all of the men's hockey games (or as many as I can manage), and at two hours per game, with 2-3 games a day, that's going to be a lot of hockey. And it's not like hockey is all I have--I also have to keep up with all of the other events as well. I expect I'll still watch the medal matches for the women's hockey tournament, and maybe catch a few minutes here and there, but that's about it.

I don't have any big thoughts from today. I love watching moguls, and I love hearing about the million injuries all of the competitors have overcome. I guess when you really love a sport you don't think to say something like "Six knee surgeries is enough, I'm going to stop competing." (Oh, and Gobo thinks Michelle Roark looks like Olive Snook.)

I'm excited for tomorrow: more speed skating, luge and biathalon, the Nordic combined (I have to admit, I'm not sure what this is, but I'm eager to learn), and one of my absolute favorites: pairs figure skating. Tomorrow is the short program.

The photo is the first gold medalist for the US, Hannah Kearney, who won in moguls. The outfits the US mogul competitors wore were absolutely awful, with all of those stars. But Kearney was pretty great!

Olympic Boyfriend

2010-02-13T15:15:00.003-05:00

Some of the Junkettes have gotten into a tradition of naming an Olympic boyfriend at every games. Mine during the summer games was Marian Dragulescu, the Romanian gymnast who was also my Olympic boyfriend in 2004. Bailey's was Aaron Peirsol.

Gobo just asked me who my new Olympic boyfriend would be for this Olympics. The answer was obvious (so obvious, I was shocked he asked). Obviously my Olympic boyfriend is Alex Ovechkin. How could it possibly be anyone else? I wonder if Bailey and Holt have Olympic boyfriends this time around.

A Professional Olympics Watcher

2010-02-13T01:24:00.002-05:00

I just realized that there is no better time to be unemployed than during the Olympics. I'm a huge Olympics fan and I just realized that I will be able to watch pretty much everything NBC (and its affiliated channels) has to offer.

I think I'm going to put together an Olympic-watching schedule tonight. Coverage generally seems to start at around 2-3 p.m., and ends between 3-5 a.m. I guess I might have to become a daysleeper for two weeks.

Fun fact: this blog started four years ago during the Turin Olympics. (I can still remember debating with Holt over whether it should be called Torino (my choice) or Turin (hers). I can now say I was wrong and she was right.) I know no one has posted on this blog in a long time, but I thought it would be nice to have somewhere to record my viewing, and I can't think of a better place.

AI

2009-05-20T21:25:00.002-04:00

Something about the American Idol finale tends to turn my brain to mush, but were the Black Eyed Peas actually, sort of . . . good? What is this strange feeling I'm having?

Also, was it just me, or were there several seconds missing?

American Idol: Top 2

2009-05-19T20:42:00.004-04:00

American Idol, final two. Okay, I actually like Kris a lot, but has there been a more obvious victor? Okay, Kelly-Justin and Fantasia-Diana were pretty obvious too. But regardless, I'm excited to see what they five us.

Adam Lambert. "Mad World." This was such a smart choice for Adam to make. Not only was this widely considered his best performance of the year, but most of the East Coast didn't even see it the first time around.

Kris Allen. "Ain't No Sunshine." I am not a fan of this song--at all--but I thought Kris killed it. I honestly think that might be the best I have ever heard that song sung, and I think this is the best Kris has sounded. I was really impressed with him, and I thought he sounded great on the piano too.

Adam Lambert. "Change is Gonna Come." I thought Adam did a great job with this. As for the judges: what is wrong with Paula's skin color? Has she voluntarily done that to herself? And Gobo wondered what the occasion was, to get Simon to get dressed up. He asked the question about ten seconds before Ryan pointed out Simon was "wearing buttons." And, shockingly, I actually found Ryan funny for those five seconds.

Kris Allen. "What's Going On?" It seems unfair for Simon Fuller to give Adam "Change is Gonna Come" and then give Kris this song. It's just inferior and is boring. I thought he sounded fine, but boring. It's a good thing he did so well on the first song. I hate that Randy's critique was about the song choice, and he made it sound like it was Kris' option.

Adam Lambert. "American Idol original song." God, I hate these. I hope they make them sing the same song. I hate the seasons where they give the contestants different songs. It was fine. He sounded good, but the song definitely wasn't great (not that we expected otherwise). Gobo thought Adam's performance was "very '80s." (Gobo is a big fan of the '80s.) Oh my god. I didn't realize Kara wrote the song. Yuck. I hope Simon rips the quality of the songwriting, because that sucked. Well...he did take a small jab. I guess it's something.

Kris Allen. "American Idol original song." Same crappy song. Kris is tiny. He is smaller than Ryan, and no one is smaller than Ryan. He sounds off-key at points. Oh well. And if Kara thought the song was too high for Kris, why did she write it that way? Kris must really be a nice guy, because not one of the judges had the heart to come right out and say he sounded awful (although it was pretty obvious).

You know what? I take back saying it was so obvious. Kris did a fantastic job on the first song. Adam is still the clear winner, but on that first song, Kris made it a bit of a race.

Brush With Fame -- D.C. Style

2009-05-17T12:58:00.001-04:00

I just saw Barton Seaver at the farmer's market.

Also, peonies! Yay.

American Idol: Top 3

2009-05-12T20:47:00.004-04:00

Okay, American Idol, top three, without Alison. :( Let's go.

Danny Gokey. "Dance Little Sister." Danny has never sounded more like Michael McDonald than he does on this song. Anyone who consistently reads this blog (hi Wilder) knows that I don't think this is a good thing.

Kris Allen. "Apologize." I am not a fan of this song, but Kris wasn't as good as the original. The high notes seemed to high. I do hope he advances instead of Danny.

Adam Lambert. "One." There is no question that Adam has a great voice, but I just didn't like that interpretation of the song.

Danny Gokey. "You Are So Beautiful." This song always makes me think of "Three's Company." I think there was an episode where Larry sang it to some woman he met at the Regal Beagle (maybe Greedy Gretchen?). Anyway, I don't remember the episode all that well, but I do associate the song with the show. As for Danny, I thought he sang it well, but it was really boring. Bleh. I don't get the intense amount of love from the judges.

Kris Allen. "Heartless." I don't know this song (does that make me uncool?). But I liked Kris' rendition. Gobo thought the high note was off, but I thought it sounded like it was probably right.

Adam Lambert. "Cryin'." I absolutely loathe the backup singer on the song--she's taking a ton away from Adam's performance, and their voices do not work well together. The arrangement also sucks--they cut and paste so many portions of the song together that it doesn't work cohesively at all. I thought Adam sounded good, although there were some points where he didn't sound as good as he normally does. But at the end of the day, there's no question that he should win the competition.

Seriously?

2009-05-12T11:39:00.002-04:00

Okay, first off, I'm really embarassed that I still watch Grey's Anatomy. I pretty much hate it, and I hate myself for continuing to DVR it, but I just have a real problem giving up on shows once I start them (see, e.g., Heroes). In my defense, Grey's is pretty much the last show I watch--I only turn to it when I have exhausted all other possibilities.

Last night I watched the most recent episode, and as the Meredith, Izzy or Christina would say, seriously? Spoilers ahead, but Izzy is dying, and so Meredith decided to allow Izzy and Alex to replace her and Derek at what was supposed to be their wedding. Okay, a little unconventional, but fine, I can buy that. But Izzy then fit into Meredith's dress? There is no way in this world that Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo wear the same size. It was particularly obvious, because the ballgown dress was totally filled out on top. Was Meredith planning to stuff socks into her bra?

Ridiculous.

American Idol: Top 4

2009-05-05T21:25:00.002-04:00

I can't believe Slash is the celebrity mentor this week. I rarely watch the celebrity mentors, but I am obviously watching all of the clips with Slash. Unbelievable!

Adam Lambert. "Whole Lotta Love." If Adam ever did well in one week, this would be it (same for Alison). This should be interesting. Actually, it wasn't as great as I thought it would be. Sure, he sounded good, and I can't think of any other Idol contestant who could have pulled it off, but it was such a faithful rendition that it didn't really do much for me. The thing about Adam, is that he totally should have been on Rock Star. Can they bring that show back? Surely Slash needs a lead singer.

Alison Iraheta. "Crybaby." How cool is it for the singers that Slash plays guitar with them when they are practicing? At this point, I don't understand how there can be any question that Alison and Adam belong in the top two. Her performance wasn't super exciting, but I thought she did well.

Kris and Danny's duet. This is something new! I have about zero interest in a Kris and Danny duet, but I think that Alison and Adam together will be great. Kris and Danny didn't sound bad at all, and they harmonized well. (Were the backup singers helping?)

Kris Allen. "Come Together." Kris sounded good--he has a nice voice. But it wasn't at all exciting. Kris' best trait is that his voice would probably be very pleasing on the radio.

Danny Gokey. "Dream On." I love that Slash said it could go either way. Gobo said that he thinks Danny's vest tells us everything we need to know about how this song is going to. (And he is not a fan of the vest.) I would have loved Adam to have sung this song, but alas we are stuck with Danny, and it just isn't that good. He was absolutely awful on the high note, and the rest of the song was no good either--they seemed to be dropping octaves when they normally wouldn't, and it was just bad. Bad, bad, bad. Randy said this isn't Danny's genre, and Gobo asked what Danny's genre is. Answer: Michael McDonald and songs about dead lovers. What is Kara smoking? She told Danny to sing early Aerosmith, like "Crazy" and "Cryin'." Does she think that "Dream On" came after those songs?

Adam and Alison duet. It actually wasn't as good as I was hoping--they certainly didn't harmonize as prettily as Danny and Kris, but it's not like they are pretty singers. Nonetheless, it was entertaining, and I think Alison is surprisingly comfortable on stage for someone of her age.

And yet again, the show stopped short for me. Isn't Ryan in charge of making sure the show runs on time? Why can he not do his job properly?

Top two: Adam, Alison.
Bottom two: Kris, Danny.
Going home: Danny.

Important Question

2009-04-29T10:08:00.001-04:00

I have 21 unwatched episodes of Heroes on my TiVo. Is there anything worth watching in there?

Feeling Good

2009-04-29T00:12:00.003-04:00

In honor of tonight's American Idol, I thought I'd post this awesome video of Nina Simone's "Feeling Good." Clearly, she kicks Adam's ass, but I don't know how she'd look in a shiny white suit.

Feeling Good, Nina Simone
by mrfnk

American Idol: Top 5

2009-04-28T22:51:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the Idol absence the past few weeks; I hadn't been watching on the day of the episode. But tonight, I decided to cap off a fabulous night of watching the Caps beat the Rangers in game seven by watching Idol, so I'm back.

Kris Allen. "The Way You Look Tonight." Didn't like his version of the song. It was too slow and drawn out, and it wasn't anything we haven't heard before. From the judges' table, I hadn't realized this before, but Kara really sounds like she is reciting something from memory. I'm sure she is, but couldn't she act less wooden?

Alison Ireheta. "Someone to Watch Over Me." I really liked Alison's rendition. It was a little bit different, but still faithful to the song, and her voice sounded great. She did a really, really good job. And Randy's right, she does look like Brittany Murphy.

Matt Giraud. "My Funny Valentine." This should be a night that is good for Matt. Unfortunately, I think this pales in comparison to Melinda's version two years ago. And I hate the glory note at the end.

Danny Gokey. "Come Rain or Come Shine." I'm just not a Danny fan. I thought there were uneven parts, but I actually thought the ending was strong.

Adam Lambert. "Feeling Good." Except for the really high note, I thought it was off-night for Adam. And Randy saying he's sounding like a broken record was pretty funny. He's always a broken record. His vocabulary consists of about 12 words.

I hate Versus

2009-04-21T22:10:00.002-04:00

Who at Versus decided it would be a good idea to stop coverage the Devils/Hurricanes game, when it was tied 3-3 with four minutes left in the third period, to switch over to their studio show "Hockey Central," billed as "[h]ighlights and updates on the day's NHL action." The intro to hockey central was footage of the fans walking into the stadium for the Ducks/Sharks game, scheduled to begin a half hour later. And then when Carolina scored, they didn't even break into their coverage.

But don't worry, Versus. The game ended with the Hurricanes scoring with .2 seconds left on the clock, ending the game and tying the series, while Martin Brodeur went nuts on the officials and smashed his stick into the boards. That doesn't sound like it was worth watching at all.

American Idol: Top Eight

2009-04-07T21:01:00.004-04:00

I'm just going to jump to this week's critiques.

Danny Gokey. "Stand By Me." Oh no. We're five notes in and I know this is going to be very, very wrong. The judges thought it was great, and I feel like I'm on a different planet. Simon said it was good?! I'm at a loss.

Kris Allen. "All She Wants To Do Is Dance." This was really bad too. It's kind of sad, because although I have been thinking Kris is really bland and forgettable, he has been better the past couple of weeks, and then this week was terrible. Paula continues to be her erudite self, describing the song as "the most melodically same notes song."

Lil Rounds. I just remembered this week's theme. Songs from the singer's birth year. And here's Lil singing "What's Love Got To Do With It." I cannot believe this song came out the year she was born. Wow. Lil is interesting to me. I feel like she has a really good voice, but she has been picking the wrong songs.

Anoop Desai. "True Colors." I'll be unhappy if he ruins Cyndi Lauper. Guess what? I'm unhappy. Yet the judges aren't. This is so weird.

Scott MacIntyre. "The Search." My mom's favorite song. Yes, seriously. Oh my god--this is one of the more hysterical things I have watched in a long time. This was a perfect choice for Scott because it's so over-the-top cheesy and he can sing all over-the-top cheesy and it will seem okay.

Alison Iraheta. "I Can't Make You Love Me." I have never liked this song. I really like Alison, though, and think she is really talented. As I say every week.

Matt Giraud. "Part-time Lover." No. He was not born the same year as "Part-time Lover." How old is he? 12? I really like Matt and I really hate this. I mean, I don't understand what he was thinking and don't know what to say. Of course, on this absolutely bizarre day, the judges adore it and think it's the greatest thing ever. I'm just floored.

And...that's it. My recording stopped at one hour, but Adam hasn't sung yet. Which means I can't watch. And they gave him the pimp spot, so he probably kicked ass. It's been six minutes since I wrote the previous sentence. I called my parents and they confirmed that Adam did, in fact, kick ass. And that Simon gave him a standing ovation. And yet the video is not available on youtube. I can't believe youtube has failed me.

Okay, it took an hour, but I found it. Adam Lambert singing "Mad World," by Tears for Fears. I thought he was good, but I didn't think he was amazing enough for Simon to actually stand. In my internet search for Adam's performance, I found that the show did go long, and anyone on the east coast who taped the show missed Adam. How does that impact Adam's votes? I would think that having all of the DVR viewers in the eastern time zone missing the performance would have a pretty significant impact. Will they just give everyone a reprieve and go into next week? Will the judges just use their save on him?

Top two: Adam, Alison (this was a pretty weak week)
Bottom two: Anoop and Danny

Who will be in the actual bottom two: Scott and Adam (if they actually count the votes and don't make an exception)

Going home: Scott

Odds and Ends

2009-04-07T11:45:00.002-04:00

1. In news to make Red Fraggle very happy, both Sydney and Michael are coming to the new Melrose Place. While I may have watched the original for a time (you will have to hook me up to a lie detector to know for sure), I have no plans to watch the remake.

2. A poignant and funny tribute from Keith Olbermann to his mom who died on Saturday.

3. As I previously mentioned, we are currently in the best sports week of the year. Well, the NCAA Championship game was a dud (no disrespect to the Tar Heals), but baseball is back and the Masters starts in 2 days. After watching Tiger at Bay Hill, it is hard not to think he will win again; of course, we always think Tiger will win, and he amazingly does it about 30% of the time. Now, if the Yankees can start playing better . . . .

American Idol: Top 9

2009-03-31T23:13:00.006-04:00

Okay, so I am late watching tonight. What sucks is that Bailey suggested we watch together tonight, but I couldn't make it. It would be really fun to live blog this together. Alas, I am stuck doing so alone.

Anoop Desai. Some Usher song. What IS this?! It's just absolutely terrible. Is this even a song? It was just awful, although maybe it's just because the song is terrible? Gobo tells me this is an Usher song, and I don't know it at all, but I hate it. Yuck. And why can't Paula speak without hesitation? Gobo is happy that "the old Simon" is back and he's being "hateful."

Megan Joy. Some Bob Marley Song. I keep waiting to hear the Megan Joy that the judges just adore. But...this is not it. Gobo started laughing about 15 words in, saying "if I saw this in a karaoke bar I would think it was a joke."

Danny Gokey. "What Hurts the Most." Okay, you know I'm not a fan of this guy, although I do believe he is superior to Taylor Hicks. And Michael MacDonald. But that's not saying much. I actually thought this was one of his better performances, but I still ddn't find it at all appealing. Gobo thinks he has a good voice but is a terrible singer who needs lessons.

Allison Iraheta. "Don't Speak." I really like Allison. Gobo is yelling at her to "make it your own," and he's right--this is a pretty faithful version. But she's still better than the people who went before her. It was probably my least favorite performance from her, but at least she doesn't sound bad.

Scott MacIntyre. "I Love You Just the Way You Are." When I was a kid I remember a bitterly divorced couple whose wedding song was "I Love You Just the Way You Are." That pretty much shaped my vision of this song. And the stories that Billy Joel wrote this for his ex-wife--the one he left before he married Christie Brinkley--didn't help. However, as much as I generally don't like Scott and don't think he is a strong or interesting singer, I did think he did a good job with this. It was a good choice for him.

Matt Giraud. "You Found Me." Oh, Matt's singing what I would call a Grey's Anatomy song. Regardless, I liked it from him. I do think he's a good singer, and I could hear him on the radio. I don't get the judges ripping him apart so much. Does Simon really think Scott and Danny were better?

Lil Rounds. "I Surrender." Hm, Lil is wearing an evening-type gown. I guess that means we'll be hearing a serious love ballad. And we are, with I Surrender! I'm worried I sound too much like Randy, but "it started off a little rough, but it came through at the end."

Adam Lambert. "Play that Funky Music." He's pulling the modified Moz look this week. In the beginning I wasn't loving this, but I totally came around. Every week I want to hate Adam, and I just cannot. I don't know if it makes me a teenybopper, but I really think that Adam is great. His rendition was very Freddie Mercury.

Kris Allen. "Ain't No Sunshine." I think that Kris' biggest problem was that I knew this was the top 9, and therefore there had to be someone who was going to come after Adam (since he was just singer 8) and I could not think of who would be singing. He's just not memorable. Having said that, I think this was Kris' best performance thus far.

Bottom two: Megan Joy, Anoop.

Top two: Adam, Matt (despite what the judges said).

Going home. Megan. Please.

Are You Ready For Some More Football?

2009-03-31T09:49:00.001-04:00

Two more seasons of Friday Night Lights!

LaFleur

2009-03-26T11:30:00.006-04:00

There are too many sites that spend way too much time analyzing the fantastic show that is Lost. (Doc Jensen at EW and Sepinwall are two of my favorites.) It is great that the show's writers really seem to know where they are headed with only 22 episodes left. And I think we are going to learn a lot more about how time travel works in the weeks ahead.

But on a much lighter note, I just want to point out that every time I hear Sawyer's new name, LaFleur, it reminds me of my favorite commercials of all times: Ladies and gentleman, the McKenzie brothers and hockey legend, Guy Lafleur.

Jason Dohring and Minka Kelly on the same show!

2009-03-26T10:54:00.003-04:00

This is so exciting. Minka Kelly (I know some of you hate her, but I love her, even if she does date Derek Jeter in real life) and Jason Dohring (aka Logan from Veronica Mars) are going to be co-starring in a CW show called Body Politic. And according to a random poster from the Reliable Source's chat yesterday, Brian Austin Green might somehow be involved. (A sidenote, but I'm a little sad that it appears the Reliable Source women did not watch Veronica Mars. For shame.)

There is no question that I'll be watching.

American Idol: Top 10

2009-03-25T21:01:00.005-04:00

This week is Motown week, which should be a welcome change after country week. Since Wilder told me she likes reading these posts, I'll continue to write them. So let's jump in.

Matt Giraud. "Let's Get It On." Although I wasn't big on him last week, I generally do like Matt. I think he's talented and appealing. But I'm not sure anyone can really do justice to this song. But I think he sounded pretty good.

Kris Allen. "How Sweet It Is." What's up with the numbers on the shoulders of his shirt? Is he supposed to be a prisoner? And what's up with the triangular patch with the two swords on his left sleeve? It looks like some kind of military-Star Trek cross. I actually thought Kris sounded okay until the overblown last note, but I just don't find him as appealing or talented as Matt, and they're very similar. I think that's Kris' major downfall.

Scott McIntyre. "You Can't Hurry Love." I just can't get into this guy. I'm sick his ballads, so at least he tried to mix it up. But it just doesn't appeal. (I bet Wilder loves him.) His piano playing seemed good, though. And what is up with Paula's ring? It's like they Bedazzled a golf ball and stuck it on her finger.

Megan Joy (Corkrey). "For Once In My Life." Smokey said she is one of the most original contestants the show has ever had, but I just don't see it. I don't see what's special about her--she seems bland and mediocre to me. Honestly, can someone explain it to me? And I didn't like her version of this song at all--I thought she sounded terrible. At least the judges agreed with me, but they all--including Simon--went on about the "other" Megan, who is apparently a good singer. I really don't get it.

Anoop Desai. "Oh, Baby, Baby." Gobo asked if it could be any worse, but I didn't think it was terrible.

Michael Sarver, "Ain't Too Proud To Beg." Michael, aka The Bully. As I told Gobo, "yeah, the kid you're beating up on the playground "ain't too proud to beg." Gobo came back with "he also ain't too proud to beg for that second cheeseburger he ate today." He makes a good point--he looks a little beefier than usual. I thought it was awful--he slaughtered a great song--and I'm so sad that Alexis went home last week and he's still here.

Lil Rounds. "Heat Wave." I feel so sorry for Lil because everyone is now calling her "Little." I'm sure her name is short of Lillian or Lily or something. Unfortunately, even though I usually really enjoy her, I didn't think she sounded good on this song at all. She is off-key, straining, flat and screechy all at once. It's really unfortunate.

Adam Lambert. 'Tracks Of My Tears." Adam's hair! Is he trying to channel Moz? I hate liking Adam, I really do, because I feel like such a sell-out, but I think Adam is really good. Singing pretty much the whole song in falsetto seems like it would be difficult. It looks like the judges liked it as well, but why did Kara pull such a Paula? "One of the best performances of the night," is eight words, not six Kara. Gobo is wondering whether Randy is trying to be Caribbean island vacation with the beads.

Danny Gokey. "Get Ready." So let's see if he veers into Taylor Hicks/Michael McDonald territory. This song is just crying for Taylor McDonaldisms. I did think he was way better than Taylor would have ever been, but I didn't think it was great.

Allison Iraheta. "Papa Was A Rolling Stone." I think that Allison is really talented. And the fact that she is so young just makes her more impressive.

Best 3: Allison, Adam, Matt.

Worst 3: Michael Sarver, Megan Joy, Lil (which really makes me sad).

Going home: Really, a toss up between Michael and Megan, and either way it's not a loss, but I'm going to guess it's Michael.

American Idol: Top 11

2009-03-17T22:36:00.004-04:00

There won't be any Gobo comments tonight. Why? Because he realized it was country week and decided he would rather not watch. I'm optimistic because Bailey sent me an e-mail earlier tonight with the subject line "Adam Lambert." The body of the e-mail: "what the fuck." I'm excited, so on to the episode.

Michael Sarver. Some Garth Brooks song that sounds like "Ain't Going Down 'Til the Sun Comes Up." Blech. He totally has the look and sound of country, but I really don't like it. The problem is, I don't like country music, so it's tough to know where the problem lies.

Allison Iraheta. Blame It On Your Heart." I like Allison--she has character, she's cute, and her voice is good.

Kris Allen. "To Make You Feel My Love." Before Kris sang, Lyle Lovett said that Kris really didn't copy the Garth Brooks version, but rather made it his own. But now I'm listening to him sing, and it sounds a lot like Brooks' version to me.

Lil Rounds. "Independence Day." I remember Carrie Underwood doing this twice, and I didn't like it either time. But I like Lil's version a lot. Her voice is really good--strong but never screechy or shouty.

Adam Lambert. "Ring of Fire." Oh wow. First off, I have been fast forwarding through a lot of this, and thought that the celebrity mentor was Lyle Lovett. But it's actually Randy Travis. When did that happen?! Back to Adam, I knew I was in for a special treat because of Bailey's e-mail. And...I don't even know what to say. I really, really want to hate this guy, with the hair and the eyeliner and everything that would imply he's totally gross and phony, but I can't help myself. I like him!

Scott MacIntyre. "Wild Angels." Blech. I am just not a fan of this guy. He's going to be one of those guys who does love ballads every week, except for the weeks that he does inspirational songs.

Alexis Grace. "Jolene." I didn't think it was her best vocal performance, but I find her very likable.

Danny Gokey. "Jesus Take the Wheel." I don't like this song, and I don't like Danny's performances that much either.

Anoop Desai. "Always on my Mind." I just didn't think that came close to the original and wasn't that good. And I'm totally blown away, because the judges completely disagree with me.

Megan Joy I Dropped My Last Name. "Walkin' After Midnight." Yuck. She seems like she's totally acting, and and she pronounces her vowels oddly--like she was putting an accent? I don't get how she made it to this point in the first place.

Matt Giraud. "So Small." I liked Matt a lot the past two weeks, but I thought this was just a bad song--too sappy.

Bill Clinton's shaky thumb: an update

2009-03-12T15:27:00.003-04:00

A few months ago I posted about Bill Clinton's thumb shaking (seemingly uncontrollably) during a Daily Show appearance. Commentors had noticed it, but no one knew if there was a problem, although some posited that it might be Parkinson's.

Looks like Bill Clinton has been tested, and he says that it isn't Parkinson's. Rather, it's just something that happens when one ages.

Battlestar goes to the U.N.

2009-03-11T16:32:00.003-04:00

Apparently everyone can take some lessons from Battlestar Galactica. The U.N. is hosting a panel discussion (invitation-only, unfortunately) to examine how the show dealt with issues that are relevant and pressing on actual Earth. The discussion is March 17--three days before the series finale (which I didn't realize was so soon). So say we all.

Veronica Mars movie? Rejoice!

2009-03-11T14:39:00.001-04:00

Maybe the other Mars fans who (used to) write for this blog have already heard, but there are serious talks to bring Veronica back as a movie. I'm so excited!

Exciting News

2009-03-11T14:20:00.002-04:00

It looks like Friday Night Lights will be alive and well, and if the deal goes through, we are looking at two seasons.

And the Arrested Development movie looks like a go.

All in all, very, very, very good news.

American Idol: Top 13

2009-03-10T20:55:00.006-04:00

I know the blog has been pretty much dead, but I'm wondering whether my American Idol posts can bring it back. I find that I'm far more likely to post if I feel like others are actually reading, and I'm honestly not sure whether anyone still is at this point. So if you're reading, comment please! Then I'll keep writing.

Lil Rounds. "The Way You Make Me Feel." First off, her name cracks me up. Gobo thinks it is a stage name, but I don't think so. As for her performance, I actually think she's really good and talented, but I thought she uneven--some really good moments, some not so good ones.

Scott MacIntyre. "Keep the Faith." I don't even know this Michael Jackson song. I understand not really wanting to deal with the the fact that you will be compared to a well-loved song, but this song was just crappy. Plus, I didn't think he did a very good job of it. It was so blah and boring. And with what Kara says it sounds like he has a great career in inspirational singing. Again...boring.

Danny Gokey. "PYT." So I kind of get a Taylor Hicks vibe from him, but I also think he can be pretty entertaining. It will be interesting to which side (Taylor Hicks vs. Pretty Entertaining) wins out. Gobo says that Paula must be really drunk tonight if she's already crying and we're only at the third contestant. Interesting that Simon said he reminded him of Michael MacDonald. You know who reminds me of Michael MacDonald? Taylor Hicks.

Michael Sarver. "You Are Not Alone." And we have our first official terrible performance. Gobo says "he looks like a bully, doesn't he? Doesn't he?" I don't understand the judges' critique at all. I thought he was horrible. Gobo also doesn't like how we have to listen to four judges now. We think they should have just replaced Randy with Kara, because at least she can provide more than just three catchphrases. Randy should have to watch the finale season of "Extras." Is he having a laugh?

Jasmine Murray. "I'll Be There." I thought she had some trouble with the highest notes--she sounded flat--but I actually like her and would want to see her stick around for another try. I think with some more training she could be good--she sounds young. Gobo's comment: "Randy's looking much thinner."

Kris Allen. "Remember the Time." I hate this song. Is plaid back in style? On the one hand, it would be great because it would mean we had moved past the '80s and into the '90s. On the other hand, I'm not so sure I want to live with all the accompanying flannel. Gobo says if plaid is back he can go shopping in his storage unit.

Allison Iraheta. "Give It To Me." I usually don't like the deep, smoky-voiced women on Idol, but I think I like Allison. I think she did a good job with the song (another one I didn't know). And I'm shocked that she is 16. I would have thought she was 26. I think she looks kind of like a chubbier Rachel Bilson.

Anoop Desai. "Beat It." The jacket is cracking me up. I wish I would do the dance from the video. I actually kind of enjoyed it. Gobo: I'm so glad somebody sang "Beat It." Someone needs to do "Bad." I can't believe the judges thought it was horrible, and yet liked Michael Sarver. Sure, it wasn't the original, or a great performance, but I thought it was fun.

Jorge Nunez. "Never Can Say Goodbye." Gobo: "Who's this cretin?" It sounded like he was straining the entire song. I did not like it. Simon really did have a great response to Jorge's "I wasn't going to sing 'Bad' by Michael Jackson." (Simon: You sort of just did.)

Megan Joy Corkrey. "Rockin' Robin." Yuck. I don't understand why the judges have pushed her through to this point in the show. The 3/4 sleeve tattoo is so incongruous to me--she looks like a Mormon high schooler, and then you see the tattoo.

Adam Lambert. "Black or White." I cannot get past his wanna-be Pete Wentz hair. But to be fair, I can't get past it on Pete Wentz either. Despite all that, I thought he was pretty good! Or as Gobo says: "Where was he when INXS needed a new singer?"

Matt Giraud. "Human Nature." Matt is one of the few who stuck out in my mind from the last round--I actually liked him. And I liked him again tonight.

Alexis Grace. "Dirty Diana." I know the judges said it was a little indulgent, but I really liked it. I liked her in the semi-final round too.

I think this year might be more interesting than the past few--there are a few singers who seem to be legitimately strong this year.

The Times Needs A New Headline Editor

2009-03-05T13:19:00.002-05:00

"Obama Taps Clinton Ideas but Not Clinton Herself"

--NY Times, A21 (March 5, 2009)

I Live!

2009-02-12T12:09:00.002-05:00

Okay, you haven't heard from me in way too long, but I thought I would let any of you still out there know that if you haven't seen Joaquin Phoenix's "performance" on Letterman last night, well, what are you waiting for. I'm trying to figure out if (a) he is in desperate need of rehab, (b) pulling a Borat, or (c) both.

Coming soon--my Oscar thoughts. I'm sure you will check back hourly to see when they are available.

Frak Earth

2009-01-17T14:07:00.002-05:00

The title of this post refers to some graffiti on a wall in the Galactica, and seeing it was one of my favorite moments of last night's great but confusing episode. So without further adieu, spoilers are ahead.

Before last night's episode of Battlestar, Bailey, Holt and I e-mailed regarding the identity of the final Cylon. Bailey said she didn't think it would be Starbuck, because that was too obvious. Holt and I agreed. I said I wanted it to be Lee, because it would be so confusing (since presumably Admiral Adama remembers the birth of his son). Holt was hoping it would be great if it were Gaeta, since the final four tried to execute him for being a Cylon collaborator (before they found out they were Cylons, of course).

But none of us guessed Ellen. Ellen?! Where did that come from? Despite thinking Starbuck was too obvious, I assumed it was her when she found the her dog tags on the dead body. But no. Ellen. Ellen seems such a minor character to choose for the final four--I was expecting it to be someone who really mattered, like Lee or Starbuck or Roslyn or Adama. But Ellen? And where is she now? I guess the Cylon love triangle of Ellen-Saul-Six could be interesting, once Ellen returns (as I assume she will).

Of course, I am totally confused about Starbuck. As she herself asked, what is she? She could lead everyone to earth, she paints weird pictures, and her dead body has been sitting on Earth? I'm totally confused.

As for the rest of the episode, the other major surprises were that the Final Five had lived on Earth 2000 years ago (I loved, loved, loved that Sam was some kind of rock star back in the day), that the 13th tribe was a Cylon tribe, and that Dee killed herself. I was actually really shocked when Dee pulled out that gun--I wasn't expecting it at all.

I also wasn't expecting President Roslyn to just shrivel up and refuse to deal with reality. That's not the Laura Roslyn I love. (As a sidenote, when Sarah Palin was first chosen as McCain's VP candidate, Gobo began calling her President Roslyn. Although there is a slight resemblance, this made me very upset and I had him stop.) I was, however, happy to see Adama turn to Tigh. Although it began with anger, it was clear he really just wanted to talk to his best friend.

And since I'm on the topic of best friends...where the hell was Starbuck's best friend, Helo? We saw him for about two minutes when he and Athena left Hera with Dee, and that was it. I hope this isn't a sign of a diminished role through the rest of this season, because I really love Helo. And Starbuck needs a friend right now anyway.

Last night, just before watching the episode, I watched the webisodes, which were about Gaeta. They ended with a total cliffhanger--Gaeta telling his boyfriend that he was going to talk to Adama and cryptically speaking about what might happen if it didn't work out. The boyfriend was just as confused as I was. And the boyfriend (I'm sure he has a name) seemed shocked that Gaeta would talk to Adama "of all people." I was totally confused, and last night's episode didn't help to clear anything up. I'm sure that will be resolved in episodes to come.

I realize this is a totally disjointed post--really just a ramble of my thoughts after the episode. I'm so glad that Battlestar is back, and so sad it will soon be over.

Oh My God

2009-01-15T20:33:00.003-05:00

Stringer Bell is going to be on The Office! I guess I'm going to have to start watching!

I have really enjoyed seeing the actors from The Wire show up on other shows. Marlo on Heroes! Frank Sobatka on Life on Mars! Avon Barksdale on House! They're like old friends. Old friends who used to be criminals, that is.

Set Your TiVos

2009-01-15T17:21:00.002-05:00

America's Best Dance Crew is returning for season 3 tonight (at 10 on MTV).

And Friday Night Lights returns tomorrow at 9.

And Battlestar Galactica returns tomorrow at 10.

An embarrassment of riches.

Annoying Things about Last Week's Grey's Anatomy

2009-01-09T13:42:00.003-05:00

1. Sloan and Lexi have no chemistry whatsoever and that whole storyline is laughable.

2. Derek's holier than thou attitude to the death row guy was annoying. If you hate your patient so much that you can't act professionally maybe you should recuse yourself. I realize that he's like the only neurosurgeon at Seattle Grace, but surely there are other ones in Seattle.

3. Denny. Why oh why do they continue this storyline? By all rights, they should just try to forget that the whole thing ever happened, but they can't leave it alone. I can't think of any reason except to make people hate Izzie and Katherine Heigl even more.

That is all.

Who are these people?

2008-12-11T16:48:00.002-05:00

According to a new poll, there are approximately 900,000 people in Illinois who still approve of the performance of Governor Blagojevich. Okay, so that translates to a whopping 7% approval rating, but how can anyone (except for his family and the president of the Hair Club for Men) possibly approve of this clown?

Worst acting ever?

2008-11-29T20:02:00.004-05:00

Jennifer Aniston in a St. Jude's commercial. It's just bad. She just seems really uncomfortable with the kid on camera. I'm sure part of this is that the Us Weekly reader in me sees Jennifer Aniston in a charitable commercial and thinks "I'm sure everyone thinks she is doing this because of Brad and Angelina." But even with an uncynical eye, the acting is really wooden. (The kid, a St. Jude's patient, is really adorable.)

Here's the link.

Wow

2008-11-05T14:25:00.004-05:00

After getting a total of about 7 hours of sleep over the past two nights, I should catch my breath. But there is something palpable today in Washington (and it's not simply the inability to find a newspaper). How long this excitement can last is unknown, but the opportunity the election of Barack Obama offers is something that we have not seen in a while. Remember, this is the first time since 1996 that we have known the winner of the presidential election on election night. George W. Bush never got to celebrate until the next day in 2004 and (painfully) weeks later in 2000. And this is the first time a party has taken control of the White House with over 50% of the vote since 1980. I pray the Democrats use their power wisely.

A few thoughts:

1. For all the talk about GOP dominance in presidential elections, over the past 5 such elections, they have only won the popular vote once and none of their candidates received more than 286 electoral votes (both Bush '04). The Reagan coalition has long passed.

2. Barack Obama is George W. Bush's greatest achievement. Only with a presidency so disastrous would America be ready to elect an African-American named Barack Hussein Obama. To be sure, Obama could only have won because of his awesome political and oratorical skills and the running of a near flawless campaign, but Bush laid the groundwork to make this all possible. (He also made it virtually impossible for McCain to win.)

3. Nate Silver has entered my personal pantheon. He called virtually every state right.

4. Shortest meeting in history--this year's conclave to name Time's Man of the Year.

5. Should the other cities just drop out of the competition for the 2016 Olympics now? The odds of it not going to Chicago are pretty, pretty low.

6. Speaking of Chicago, does Obama's election mean it will get the 2012 Democratic Convention? It would make sense although Illinois is clearly not a swing state and using Denver this year was a boon in Colorado (although Obama would have won it anyway). Other possibilities--how about St. Louis--it borders Illinois, and Missouri was the one real swing state that Obama seems to have (very narrowly) lost. Charlotte? Atlanta? Heck, what about Phoenix--without McCain on the ticket, Arizona will be in play. Okay, I will now stop worrying about 2012.

7. I've mentioned it before, but I look forward to hearing Obama speak on February 12, 2009. No, I don't expect him to be wishing me an early birthday greeting. It is the bicentennial of the birth of Lincoln, and President Obama speaking on such an occasion in a sense says all that needs to be said of our greatest of presidents. (Obviously, the inaugural address has the potential to be an all time great.)

8. A shout out to one unsung hero of the election--Joe Biden. Sure he had a few gaffes, but you knew those would happen. But this sober choice served in marked contrast to McCain's selection, and Biden seems to have helped electorally in certain working class areas. Obama outperformed Kerry in Scranton and throughout NE Pennsylvania as well as in SE Ohio. (Did you know that Biden was from Scranton?) Biden spent a lot of time campaigning there, and it seems to have worked. And Biden will offer none of the drama Hillary would have had she been VP. There will, of course, be Biden putting his foot in his mouth from time to time, but right now he looks like the happiest man in America, and he has good reason to.

As I have been writing for the past few weeks, the implications of the election of Obama are amazing. Moreover, Obama has shown throughout this campaign and well before, a steely temperament, a deep intelligence, and a desire for justice that this nation needs. He offers such great potential not because of his race, and yet the historic nature of his presidency offers him even greater opportunity. Once again, America represents to the world an idealized image a world an which any person can become president and where all men truly are equal. Sarah Palin liked to talk about Reagan's shining city upon a hill. (Reagan was quoting John Winthrop, but I'm sure Palin knew that.) But it was Obama's election that has again made it so. Now, he must act to keep that shine.

Yes we did.

The Whole World Is Watching

2008-11-04T22:28:00.002-05:00

In the past 40 years, the meaning of that phrase has changed, but tonight the eyes of the world are truly on Chicago. Yes we did.

Tomorrow

2008-11-03T12:40:00.003-05:00

November 4, 2008, may well be one of the most significant days in our life. Indeed, other than the worst day in my lifetime--September 11, 2001--tomorrow, a day in which the United States of America will, in all likelihood, elect an African-American as its President will be be long remembered but for much different reasons. From the Constitutional Convention to the major crises of the first half of the nineteenth Century culminating in the Civil War to Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Movement, the issue of how this nation treats African Americans has been the central problem it has faced. (Over the past 230 years, the US has faced numerous international threats, from Britain to Germany to the Soviet Union to Islamic fundamentalism, but no one international threat has lasted the way the question of race has plagued the United States.)

The election of Barack Obama will spell in many ways an end to this American dilemma. No, tomorrow (assuming the polls are accurate) will not end racism or magically end the socio-economic problems minorities disproportionally face, but it will erase any doubts, both here and around the world, that the promises made in this nation's charters are not mere words on a page. That we will seemingly witness this, well before many thought that this nation could take a giant step, is something that deserves to be long celebrated.

Yes we can.

Thought of the Day

2008-10-20T12:02:00.003-04:00

First, let me make a major caveat that I am not counting any chickens before there is any hatching. However, if Obama wins in 2 weeks (as I think will happen and is looking more likely by the day), is there any precedent for such an event in world history? You will have someone who is a member of a minority that was not only enslaved but was disenfrachished and otherwise discriminated against in much of this nation at the time Obama was born. In fact, his parents' marriage was illegal in many states when it occurred in 1961. And yet, Obama is at the cusp of being elected president despite African-Americans constituting only about 13% of the US population. (Yes, I know Obama's mother is white, but I don't really think that matters in this analysis.)

Has there ever been another situation where a member of a minority group that was disenfrachised and otherwise discriminated against and been at the lower part of the socio-economic ladder been elected to the highest office in that nation? Mandela in South Africa doesn't apply because blacks are the large majority there; once they were enfranchised, a black leader was predetermined. (In some ways, the election of a white South African president would be an interesting albeit imperfect comparison.) There has never been an aboriginal leader of Australia or a Maori in New Zealand. A Catholic elected to lead Northern Ireland (if they had such elections) would present numerous similarities but it too hasn't happened nor has an Isreali Arab becoming the PM of Israel? Can anyone come up with a parallel that has actually happened?

The seeming uniqueness of what the election of Obama would mean is a small but real reason to support him. His election would represent perhaps the final triumph of the idea of America. The nation has not always lived up to its ideals, but it has (often) aspired to them, and over the centuries moved closer and closer to them. My favorite quote from Bill Clinton is “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." This election will hopefully reinforce that point, and the election of an African-American president would be in many ways the final overcoming of America's original sin. (I should stress that this alone is insufficient reason to support him, but Obama's intelligence, vision, and temperament provide ample additional bases to support him.)

Finally, I point out that the day before the inaugural (which is on a Tuesday) is MLK Day. Something quite fitting in that. And 3 weeks later is the bicentennial of the birth of our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. The idea of a President Obama presiding over such an event would, one imagines, have brought some sort of smile to Lincoln's face.

And one more time: Knock on wood.

Well, I Guess This Was Inevitable

2008-10-14T19:29:00.003-04:00

When you select as your running someone whose foreign policy experience is based upon her state's proximity to Russia, whose executive policy experience is running an administration like Boss Hogg ran Hazzard County, and whose energy expertise, at best, makes her qualified to serve as King of Saudi Arabia, but who looks good, you only encourage this. Had McCain picked Lieberman, this movie would never have been made. (Of course, if he picked Charlie Crist or Lindsay Graham, it would have been in a very different genre.)

Quote of the Day

2008-10-02T22:54:00.002-04:00

"John McCain has already tapped me."
--Sarah Palin

Well, I guess we now know why he picked her.

A Good Omen?

2008-10-01T17:59:00.002-04:00

For the first time in 102 years, both Chicago baseball teams have qualified for the post season. (For those who don't remember, in 1906, the "Hitless Wonders," the nickname affectionately given to the 1906 White Sox, pulled off one of the greatest upsets in World Series history beating 4 games to 2 the Cubs of Tinkers to Evers to Chance and who had gone 116-36 (the best winning percentage in baseball history).) And who is from Chicago, you ask--Barack Obama, of course. (He's a Chisox fan.)

McCain's favorite team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, had a 4 1/2 game lead on August 29, only to collapse and lose the pennant to the Dodgers.

I'm not saying it means anything (and all the polling is a little more important) but . . . .

TAR

2008-10-01T14:05:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone! Remember me? I missed you all!

Anyway, just wanted to make a plug for everyone to watch this season's The Amazing Race because I personally know one of the contestants. Sarah of Sarah and Terrence is my best friend's sister-in-law. Go Sarah and Terrence! Apparently they are heavily featured on this coming week's episode.

Random Fact

2008-09-30T13:39:00.002-04:00

Hello internets! It's been a while.

So, I just learned that the guy I sit next to in my Spanish class is one of the 50 most beautiful people on the Hill. (He's the one on the motorcycle.) Interesting, huh?

Yes, I'm taking Spanish, and I'm such an obnoxious show-off in class that it's ridiculous. But I can't help myself.

Hasta luego.

Separated at birth

2008-09-28T14:16:00.012-04:00

The CW, past and present: Buffy's Sarah Michelle Gellar (okay, I know it wasn't the CW back then, but the show aired on both WB and UPN, so it's close enough), and Privileged's Joanna Garcia.

Thursday Musings

2008-09-25T13:21:00.004-04:00

1. The baseball season is reaching its climax with most races decided, but a couple of thoughts. First, I have readily admitted my Yankee fandom, but I am really growing to hate the Red Sox more and more. Their performance on Tuesday night was pure bush league. This is a team that has made the playoffs 5 of the past 6 seasons and, much at it pains me to say it, won 2 of the last 4 World Series. And they have a full throttled celebration for clinching a wild card birth?!? Act like you've been there before . . . because you have. Papelbon is the biggest idiot of the bunch, and annoys me to no end. (I will say that as much as I fear Ortiz, I certainly respect him, and I would love to have Youklis on my team.)

2. In contrast, the Rays, who are about to finish ahead of the Red Sox, showed more restraint in their celebration. This is a team that has never won more than 70 games until this year. They could have had a massive celebration on Saturday night, but instead they have remained focused on winning the AL East ensuring that the Red Sox and Angels meet in the first round while they host the White Sox/Twins winner. Go Rays!

3. Mrs. Bartender and I attended our final Nats game of the season last night. Disappointing year for the Nats--riddled with injuries, they are going to lose 100 games for the first time in franchise history. (That includes the 36 years spent in Montreal.) Attendance at the new stadium was mediocre, but as long as the team improves, the attendance will as well. If, however, nothing happens in the off season, tickets won't be hard to come by next year (except when the Red Sox come to town in June).

4. I ran into Marc Lerner at the game (his family owns the team), and had a nice chat with him. He was very interested to talk particularly once he knew I had been to about 20 games this year. I made a bold suggestion of adding lights to the out of town scoreboard to indicate how many outs there were in other games, and he immediately had someone looking into the possibility. So if this happens next year, you can thank me.

5. Ah, politics. Every day I ask myself, what the hell was John McCain thinking in picking Palin. She is so far out of her depth, it is truly sad. She has neither knowledge nor intellectual curiosity, and while no one seems to want to say it, she just is not very bright. That she cannot, after having weeks of tutoring, be able to answer straightforward questions about the economic crisis our nation faces with anything other than the most basic platitudes is shocking. I certainly do not believe that a first class mind is required to be a great president--indeed, of the 4 most successful 20th century presidents (TR, FDR, Truman, and Reagan), only Teddy Roosevelt was a first class mind. But there are limits, and she is so far from what is required, it is shocking.

6. As for the McCain attempted time out yesterday, did it make any sense? Was his advertising somehow affecting the economy? If anything, it helps as it spends money! And do all of his campaign workers need to devote time to the meltdown (of the economy, not his campaign)? Was it anything more than another desperate gambit and an attempt to prevent Friday's and next Thursday's VP debates? In the end, McCain it seems is going to have to blink and show up in Oxford tomorrow, and the "suspension" of his campaign will be little remembered.

7. Finally, a little pop culture--isn't that what we're supposed to do around here? As I mentioned a while ago, we have been watching the Heroes DVDs. We have 1 episode left from season 2 before the season 3 premiere from Monday night. Season 1 was very good until the last episode; season 2 (and I don't yet know how it ends) sputtered with extraneous heroes that we cared nothing about, stories that dragged on way too long (Hiro in Japan), annoying actors (West and the black tear wonder twins), and characters who constantly act like idiots (see Mohinder). To its credit, the final few episodes were an improvement, but to compare this show to something like Lost is a joke. It's fine but not great television. (I think one friend likes it because it is providing employment to numerous former Star Trek actors. Too bad Bones and Scotty are both dead.)

8. Very excited for The Office but am sad that 30 Rock isn't back for another month. I do need some Michael Scott back in my life.

Bill Clinton and the shaky thumb

2008-09-24T21:26:00.003-04:00

Last night Bill Clinton was a guest on the Daily Show. It was pretty great, but I noticed Clinton's thumb shaking, seemingly uncontrollably, throughout his first segment on the show. When he came back after the commercial break his hand was off-camera, so there were no more sightings of the shaky thumb.

I was curious about what might be wrong, so I did an Google search for "Clinton shaking thumb" and "Clinton shaky thumb," but alas, all I found were articles about Bill giving a thumbs up, or Bill shaking hands with others.

Am I the only one who noticed this? Does anyone know if there's a problem?

Attention, CNN: Don't Criticize What You Can't Understand

2008-09-23T14:32:00.005-04:00

Okay, we've been way too quiet for a while, and I just wanted to put up a short post on the CNN created controversy of the day. (With the economy tanking, this is thankfully getting little play.) CNN.com has a link up to a discussion about what it calls Saturday Night Live's "Palin Incest Spoof." If, however, they actually watched the entire skit, CNN would understand that the point of it was not to attack Palin but to mock the New York Times and the mainstream media for knowing nothing about Alaska and being willing to say anything about Palin. Heck, Kathryn Jean Lopez, a crazy right winger at National Review Online, liked the skit, writing that Al Franken, who contributed to the opening skit attacking McCain, "has my apologies if he had anything to do with the New York Times skit." She got the joke (such as it was), and CNN didn't.

The biggest problem with the skit (and with the opening skit about McCain for that matter) was that they weren't very funny. Neither of them. I may have more sympathy with the skit that opened the show on a political level, but it wasn't that good and neither was the one attempting to skewer the Times. In fact, the only very good SNL skit in the first two episodes has been the Tina Fey as Palin skit.

Thoughts

2008-09-11T21:00:00.005-04:00

You know what makes me sad? The fact that this blog is so inactive. We have had only two posts this month (both by Isaac, mine will be the third). Last month we had six total posts, with Isaac drafting four, and Holt and me drafting the other two. Bailey hasn't posted since June and Wilder hasn't posted since December 2007. I have barely been writing. Very sad.

I have seen posts like this on other blogs. The blogger then says that s/he misses blogging and will be better about keeping up with the blog. It's the kiss of death--the blogger rarely returns, and the blog eventually dies.

So I won't say that I'm going to be better. But I will share some thoughts:

1. I hate the Republicans. I can't even talk about the extreme hypocrisy and utter ridiculousness of their tactics (and the frustrating that they seem to be working). It consumes my thoughts way too often.

2. I'm watching Runway right now, and in anything between Kinley and Liane, I'm on Team Liane. I really like her best, but Korto is growing on me. Gobo is really fond of Kinley. He agrees with me that Liane is the best designer of the bunch, but he just has a warm spot in his heart for Kinley.

3. We watched the entire first season of Mad Men over the past month, and are catching up on Season 2. Gobo calls Peggy "Kinley."

4. Also on the Runway topic, I really hate it when Suede talks about himself in the third person. Who does that? Oh! And Heidi just said "...two of you, will be out." She's never said that before.

5. I started watching Big Brother again this summer. I'm pathetic. Luckily, there wasn't all this talk about god and evildoers like last season.

6. In addition to Mad Men, Gobo and I watched season 1 of both How I Met Your Mother and Burn Notice. We're about to start season two of both of those shows.

7. Fall television is starting. I'm really excited to see Pushing Daisies and the Amazing Race again, and I'm sad that I have to wait so long for Friday Night Lights. If I didn't have such an aversion to talking to customer service reps and waiting during a four hour window in the middle of a workday for technicians to install things, I would probably just sign up for DirecTv.

JMac's Spread

2008-09-04T23:38:00.004-04:00

So, first, the important thing: Giants 16, Redskins 7. After watching that impressive performance, I turn to McCain's speech. He had his moments, he handled the idiot protesters well, but it was a fairly disjointed speech and leaves him wide open to the point that he and the GOP offer little in the way of policy. (They do like to distort Obama's plan, however.)

More importantly, the opening visual struck me. After McCain got slaughtered for his ridiculous performance the night Obama clinched the nomination and, in particular,his standing in front of a green backdrop, it happened again. Now here it was grass, and when the full visual was revealed, it led to Mrs. Bartender's line of the night: "Is that one of his houses?" That's all for now.

Update: As was subsequently reported, the picture was of Walter Reed Junior High School in Los Angeles. It seems a staffer meant to put up a picture of Walter Reed Hospital in Washington but screwed up. Heckuva job!

Thought of the Day

2008-09-04T12:10:00.004-04:00

As the GOP has completely descended into an angry, bash Washington, bash the press, bash elitism party, I have to ask myself if John McCain regrets the path he took. Senator McCain, at his best, is a proud member of the Washington elite, someone with great relations with the press ("my base," as he has rightly joked), who has cared about some aspects of governing, and has left the culture and class wars to others (or, as was the case in 2000, was its victim).

Yet over the past year, he has had to reverse his position on god knows how many issues (the Bush tax cuts, the estate tax, the environment, offshore drilling, immigration, etc.), and he has now been forced to pick as his running mate someone who has not shown the slightest bit of interest in what McCain clearly (and perhaps rightly) believes is the most important issue this nation faces, the war(s) in which it is currently engaged and the threats it faces from terrorism and, in a very different way, the Russians. Yes, the base loves her, and maybe the Hail Mary will work, but this is not John McCain; picking Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge wuld have been. The result is--in a way the Obama campaign perhaps never realized--the third campaign of George W. Bush.

And so I wonder if John McCain ever asks himself if he should have said yes to John Kerry 4 years ago. I believe had he done so, he would currently be the VP of the United States. (He would have been a much more effective VP candidate than John Edwards--I have never been a fan of his even well before the latest misadventure.) And the nation would have had a type of bipartisan leadership that McCain, at his best, was the epitome of. Now, that is gone, perhaps for good.

Thankfully, Obama has in many ways taken over the mantle of this type of leadership. Yes, he's well to the left of McCain, but his instincts are for consensus and moderation. Not just with the safe selection of Joe Biden, but there is no doubt that certain Republicans will be very influential in an Obama administration--Chuck Hagel, Richard Lugar, Colin Powell, and Robert Gates all come to mind. Heck, had he lost the GOP nomination, John McCain would have too (and may try to reinvent himself during an Obama administration).

That being said, the election is certainly not over; however, even with the media's ridiculous overreaction to Palin's speech in the past 18 hours thanks to the attacks on the media from the McCain campaign--this election is becoming more and more Obama's to lose. The fundamentals all support him, he shored up his support in the party last week, and his message and Joe Biden are much more suited to the voters in the middle than the GOP's and Sarah Palin's. And if I'm right and McCain loses, hopefully he'll manage to keep some of the dignity that had made him so popular with those his party not only derides but it has basically made such derision its sole raison d'etre. (And yes, by using this French phrase--French, egad!--I am certainly one that would be at the center of their attacks. I am one of those cosmopolitans, that the former mayor of New York City derides.)

Apocolypse Saturday Night

2008-08-19T16:04:00.002-04:00

Mrs. Bartender and I once again got out on Saturday night to our local cinema in order to see Tropic Thunder. Bottom line--this is a very funny movie that manages to send up virtually all of Hollywood. It is extremely well acted, and I am sure that I missed a good chunk of the inside Hollywood jokes. MINOR SPOILERS:

1. The use of the fake commercial/trailers coming without any warning after the real trailers was fantastic. Very, very funny, and I'm sure Eddie Murphy did not appreciate Jack Black's.

2. Whoever came up with the name Alpa Chino deserves an Oscar.

3. Steve Coogan is, I think, about to become big. The New Yorker ran a long piece on him several months ago, right around the time of his brilliant appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm. And then there was another long piece in Sunday's Arts & Leisure section of the New York Times. Certainly makes me want to see Hamlet 2.

4. I wish I hadn't heard all the hype about Tom Cruise's role in the movie. He was very good, and the role was much bigger than I expected--I thought it would be 1 or at most 2 scenes--but I wish it had come as more of a surprise (probably impossible in today's world). I realize that these things get out and help drive the movie (and the studio did everything possible to block pictures), but if I hadn't known . . . .

5. I need to touch on the primary controversy with the movie . . . . no, not Robert Downey, Jr., brilliantly playing an Australian actor playing an African-American in "blackface" or "pigment augmentation," but Ben Stiller's character's starring role as a mentally challenged individual Simple Jack and the repeated use of the word retard. I don't know if other than numerous NY Times articles on the issue, the "boycott" has had any real impact as the movie had a strong opening. Nonetheless, the joke is not on the mentally challenged, other than the mentally challenged actors and the academy that rewards them for playing certain types of characters (Forrest Gump, Rainman), but not others (Sam in I am Sam). A tempest in a teapot if you ask me.

All in all, well worth seeing.

Aaaaaaaand goodbye, everybody

2008-08-15T11:53:00.003-04:00

No, this is not a farewell from your trusted bartender, but a somewhat sad farewell to the one and only, Mike and the Mad Dog. Mike Francesa and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo essentially invented modern sports talk radio, having done it for the past 19 years on WFAN in New York. It was officially announced that the duo is no more with Russo moving on to newer (and certainly greener) pastures.

Having grown up outside New York City, I have listened to them intermittently ever since they started. And whenever I'm back near the big city, I would often tune them in. They were the best and worst of sports talk radio. Usually entertaining, often funny, very opinionated, and a wee bit full of themselves (particularly Mike). Mike was a huge Yankees and Bill Parcells fan; Russo, a nut for the SF Giants. I still fondly remember listening to them in the summer of 1993 as the Braves came storming back to overtake the Giants . Russo was beside himself, and Mike loved playing the HR calls of McGriff et al. from a huge series the Braves swept to torture Russo. Good times. Heck, when the Yanks were in the 2001 Series and pulled off the miraculous wins in Games 4 and 5 (as far as I remember that series ended then and there), I listened to a static filled broadcast of the show from my car in Virginia to listen to Francesa's excitement at what had transpired.

The worst part about the split--I could never handle listening to them when either one was on vacation. Mike needed Russo to keep his ego slightly in check. And Russo on his own was just painful. I hope Sirius, his supposed destination, knows what it's getting, because there are any number of sports radio guys I would listen to before tuning into a Russo solo show. And with satellite radio, the options are there.

So, farewell, Mike and the Dog. I know I am not alone in saying that even with all of your flaws, I will miss you.

If Things Happen In Threes . . .

2008-08-11T16:51:00.002-04:00

On Saturday, I read the sad news that legendary Hollywood producer/manager Bernie Brillstein had passed away. A short time thereafter, I saw on CNN that Bernie Mac was gone as well. When I commented to Mrs. Bartender about their deaths and that things often happen in threes, she pointed out that Doc better watch out. For those non-Love Boat fans (how dare you!), that's Bernie Kopell. Or it could be Bernie Kosar. Or Bernie Goetz. I'll stop now.

Don't forget the hats!

2008-08-06T23:00:00.004-04:00

I know I haven't blogged about this season of Project Runway yet. It's unfortunate I haven't, because there are a lot of things to say. Like how much Suede and his third-person references annoy me, and how Blaine's whole "girl-licious," "diva-licious," and "everything-else-licious" is not only annoying, but a sad and transparent attempt to create a Christian Siriano-esque buzz phrase, and how Leanne's skirt from last week should have been the clear winner, and I'm still disappointed it wasn't.

I kept meaning to blog about this season, and just didn't get around to it. But when I saw that the designers would be creating outfits worthy of an Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, I knew I had to pull out the computer.

As you all probably know, I love the Olympic Games. In fact, when this blog started, it was during the Winter Olympics, and Bailey, Holt and I could not stop writing about them. I'm so excited that the Olympics start in two days (and yes, I will be watching, despite the fact that they are taking place in China), and I'm really sad that I won't be working with Holt and Bailey during as the Games take place--I'll miss our discussions about who our Olympic boyfriends are. Yes, I know. We're grown adult women. But honestly, life got pretty boring at work.

Anyway, back to Runway. I won't go through every outfit, because it's really not worth it for the most part. Most glaring was the fact that the large, large majority of the designers just did not seem to understand what the opening ceremony looks like. The most glaring omission: hats. Seriously, where were the hats?!?! Hats are always worn during the opening ceremonies. It's almost like a rule. By far the biggest disappointments was the almost complete lack of headwear.

Two contestant did include a hat, or at least a hat-like covering. First was Joey, who clearly should have been the winner. I'm not sure exactly what his model had on her head--a swimcap, perhaps?--but his outfit really looked like it belonged in the opening ceremony, and he was the only person who used the letters "USA" on his costume. I'm not a big fan of wearing your patriotism on your sleeve, but it's the Olympics! It's the opening ceremony! If ever there were a time to be decked out in red, white and blue with the letters USA on your clothes, this is it. (As a disclaimer, I am pretty much always against skorts. But I made an exception here because the outfit was just so right for the event, and nothing else came close.)

The other person who used a hat ended up in the bottom three. And although I agree that Jerrel's outfit was all over the place, I kind of loved it. Or, as Gobo said, "he shouldn't go home. Some countries actually wear stuff like that during the opening ceremonies." Sure, those are from countries that were probably former Soviet republics, but really, that's not the point. His outfit could be worn on opening day. And he included a hat. The importance of that cannot be underestimated.

As for the rest...there really isn't much I want to say. Daniel's choice not to add the cape to his outfit was clearly idiotic and, like so many of his fellow competitors, just showed a complete lack of understanding of the challenge (and since Kenley--who didn't manage to incorporate red in her outfit--was advising him, she should share some blame as well). Terri and Korta both made nice outfits and I had no issue with them being in the top three, but I definitely felt Joe should have won, with Terri coming in second. I just didn't think Korta's was as appropriate as either of the others' for the games.

Jennifer was eliminated, and rightfully so. I just didn't understand why she chose to make her outfit yellow, white and navy blue. It's the US Olympic team, for heaven's sake! Even Stella managed to incorporate the flag's colors in her design, even if it was mainly black. And speaking of Stella, how she remains in this competition is beyond me. I thought she deserved to be out in the first episode, when she chose flimsy black garbage bags as her "fabric" for the grocery store challenge. She is completely one-trick--all leather and fur and biker sensibilities--and it's completely boring.

Of course, I'm incredibly excited to see what the actual Olympic team will be wearing on Friday. I'm going to bet that there will be hats.

I Love Dolly!

2008-08-05T10:13:00.002-04:00

Dolly Parton is so fab. Here she is on giving the young'uns a break:

"Poor little Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. Ain't it awful? If those little girls slept with as many men as they say in the tabloids, why their little butts would have more fingerprints than the FBI!"

Friday Thoughts

2008-08-01T16:51:00.003-04:00

1. In light of John McCain's constant complaining for the past 2 weeks, Mrs. Bartender wisely commented, "well, we are a nation of whiners."

2. Saw The Dark Knight last week. Perhaps the biggest complaint I have is that either I'm going deaf or there is something kooky with the acoustics at the Uptown Theatre. Both Mrs. Bartender and I had trouble hearing a good chunk of dialogue because of the music in the film. The same thing happened with Iron-Man. My parents, who also saw the movie last week (at a different theater) had no such problem. I am thinking of popping in to watch a few minutes of The Dark Knight when we next hit the movies at a different cinema to confirm that the problem is with the Uptown. Or else I better get a hearing aid.

As you probably know, the movie is very good and Heath Ledger is amazing. But don't miss the underrated Aaron Eckhardt--he is terrific although I wish much of what happened to his character was saved for Batman III. (Am I right that the Michael Keaton/Val Kilmer/George Clooney Batmans never happened when we count what number film we are up to in the Christian Bale Batman's? Actually, the Clooney Batman never happened. Period. I think Clooney had all copies destroyed.)

3. We also went to see the Eagles on Saturday night--a very good concert. The band--all now around 60--still sound great. They interestingly wore black suits and ties (it ain't the 70s any more) and played a little too much new stuff. However, there was about 3 hours of music (not counting a 15 minute intermission), so you got your money's worth.

Glen Frey is the emcee while Don Henley sticks more to the music (and Joe Walsh is the jester). I have a connection with Glen and have met him and had heard for years that he referred to his first wife as "Plaintiff." Nonetheless, I didn't realize that he always dedicated Lyin' Eyes to her. That get a particularly loud chuckle from me. (He dedicated Take It to the Limit to his current wife and her credit cards.) I was also surprised by the amount of solo material Don and Joe performed (including some James Gang stuff from Joe). They wrote a lot of really good music, and Joe Walsh is one hell of a guitar player.

4. Had dinner at Proof before the show, which was excellent. The servers were fantastic and very friendly, the food (we stuck to the charcuterie, cheeses, and small plates) was very, very good, and when the bottle of Pinot Noir we ordered was unavailable and I asked for "something similar," not only did we get a great bottle of Pinot, it was actually a few dollars cheaper.

5. Mrs. Bartender and I finally started to watch Heroes. We've seen the first 15 episodes and definitely enjoy it. It's certainly not Lost, but it is quite obvious why Hiro and Claire are the break out characters (along with Claire's "dad"). Looking forward to the climax of season 1, and while we realize that season 2 is not going to be close to as good, luckily it's short!

Have a great weekend. Mrs. Bartender and I are dining with Red Fraggle and Gobo tomorrow night, so perhaps will have some new stuff for next week.

Burn Notice: pretty hot

2008-07-29T20:42:00.005-04:00

I know it's been quite some time since I last posted, and I apologize. Like Junkettes Holt, Isaac and Bailey before me, I have left my job. It's crazy to think that when we started this blog all five Junkettes worked at the same place, and now only Wilder is left there. In addition to leaving the old job, I have started a new one, so things have been hectic. (Perhaps you can forgive me for the cheesy post title because of my major life upheaval?)

But not too hectic to watch some television. Of course, there isn't much on these days, so I decided to rent season one of Burn Notice. I made this choice because, as I previously blogged, I now love Tricia Helfer and she has joined the cast for season two. I didn't have high hopes for this show, since it is billed as a spy show. Sure, I loved Alias, but this is a spy show without Sydney Bristow.

After watching two episodes, however, I now officially love this show! Unlike so many other spy shows, it's not heavy. The lead is really good looking, there is an underlying mystery (why has our hero been given a burn notice, blacklisting him from all intelligence agencies?), and he solves the problem of some poor sap in each episode. Plus, Sharon Gless (last seen playing a psychotic teddy bear maker on Nip/Tuck) does a great job playing his very annoying mother. I'm not sure how I feel about Gabrielle Anwar and her ever-changing accent as our hero's ex-girlfriend, but I'll give her a chance.

It's a pretty show--it takes place in Miami so there are a lot of bright colors and ocean shots--and is an easy, fun watch. I'm glad I added it to my Netflix queue (and I'm already DVRing season two, so I can begin watching once I'm done with season one).

Is There Something Wrong With John McCain's Head?

2008-07-21T14:35:00.002-04:00

No, I'm not questioning either McCain's intelligence or is sanity, but for the past several days, where McCain seems to be, he is wearing a Navy hat. Is he hiding something on the top of his head? Or am I just not seeing him without it? Just asking.

Update: And, of course, as soon as I post this, I see a picture of McCain and Bush 41, and McCain is hatless. He was wearing the hat at a campaign event in Maine a few minutes ago, and when I saw footage, I was inspired to post. Never mind.

Help For Your Thinning Scalp

2008-07-21T13:48:00.005-04:00

As the two readers of this blog are aware, I am a big baseball fan. This includes purchasing the MLB Extra Innings package which enables me to watch virtually every game including, most importantly, those of my New York Yankees. About a year ago, I started seeing a commercial for a product to help those of us with thinning hair. No, this is not an endorsement. Instead, this is just an encouragement to watch the ad, linked above, featuring Mr. Giuseppe Franco.

The picture above does not do justice do this man who resembles an aging Derek Zoolander with too much plastic surgery. The first time I saw the ad I thought it was a fake, particularly when the celebrity client at his Beverly Hills salon that appears in the commercial is none other than the legendary Gary Busey. Every time I see the ad, I get a chuckle (just like when I drive past the "George Bush Center for Intelligence" on the GW Parkway; it's the CIA HQ named for Bush 41 in case you were confused). Next time I'm in LA, I am going to need to stop in at Franco's salon. If I meet him, I'll be sure to post a report.

Hello, AT&T. It's Time for a Better Ad Agency

2008-07-16T10:26:00.003-04:00

So AT&T has a commercial I keep seeing for its laptop connect card. In the ad, the pitchman appears to be on a remote desert island in the Pacific in front of plane wreckage with Amelia written on it. (Ha Ha.) Essentially, the point of the ad is that with the card you can get the internet anywhere.

One big problem--when you watch the ad, quite visible in the background is Honolulu. Most noticeable is Diamond Head. So if the point of the ad is that this card works in a large city, I'm not too impressed. Next time, remove the buildings and other landmarks. Call Iran--they seem to be good with photoshop.

Did They Have Something Better To Do?

2008-07-16T10:20:00.004-04:00

Just to continue the All Star Game theme, the following Hall of Famers were not present last night for the wonderful ceremony at Yankee Stadium: Johnny Bench, Tom Seaver, Sandy Koufax, Joe Morgan, Nolan Ryan, Stan Musial, Carlton Fisk, and Carl Yastrzemski. What is up with that? This plan has been known for months, and these guys should have been there. Maybe Musial is ill, but I bet he will be at Cooperstown in a few weeks playing his harmonica; I also am sure he will be at the All Star Game next year in St. Louis. And Koufax is notoriously reclusive, but he is a New York guy originally. Seaver used to work for the Yanks and is the greatest Met of all time. Bench had one of his legendary performances against the Yanks in the '76 World Series. Ryan is president of the Texas Rangers. Joe Morgan calls Sunday Night Baseball for ESPN. Heck, Yaz is from Long Island, and Carlton Fisk could have been booed along with other Red Sox. Those guys better have a damn good excuse.

Update: there were some others not in attendance. Sparky Anderson, Jim Bunning (US Senator from KY), Bobby Doerr, Monte Irvin, George Kell, Red Shoendienst, and Bruce Sutter. With the exception of Sutter, these guys are all very old, so I cut them more slack. In addition, I just saw a list of attendees of the Hall of Fame Induction and Musial is not on it. If he is ill, I send him my best. He is one of the last legends of his generation.

Finally, as much as I used to hate Steinbrenner ("How could you trade Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps!" --Frank Costanza), it is tragic to see him as a shell of his former self. I assume it is Alzheimer's, but I prefer to remember him in all his insanity.

Frustrating

2008-07-16T01:39:00.003-04:00

As a fan of a National League baseball team that is usually in the playoff hunt, the All-Star game has become an incredibly frustrating experience. Since Bud Selig announced the league that, beginning in 2003, the team that won the All-Star game would have World Series home field advantage, the National League has won exactly zero games. Up until today, that meant five games that actually mean something, and five loses. I had no hopes that this year would be any different, and after 15 innings of baseball, I was, unfortunately, correct. Six games, six losses.

What's most frustrating was that it seemed to me that if the NL could have just held on, eventually the AL was going to have to forfeit the game. (And no, I would not have been upset if that's the way the NL got the win.) Yet at the end of the game the announcers stated that the 2002 All-Star game had ended in a tie, and the 2008 almost did so as well. I just don't get it. Terry Francona did a bad job managing his bullpen and was stuck with just one remaining pitcher--someone who had started two days earlier and shouldn't have been pitching at all. Why would his poor decision-making result in a tied game, rather than a forfeit? Are the announcers simply incorrect (it wouldn't be the first time), or am I missing something (if so, I'm sure Isaac will set me straight)?

Excitement in Shreve-wood

2008-07-15T14:11:00.002-04:00

As I may have mentioned at some point, Mrs. Bartender comes from Shreveport, Louisiana. When I tell people this, I am frequently asked either (a) so you must get to New Orleans a lot or (b) was her family affected by Katrina. This is based upon the mistaken impression that everything in Louisiana is fairly close to the Big Easy. In fact, Shreveport is in the NW Corner of the state, about a five hour drive from New Orleans. (It is closer to Dallas.) Thus, in my annual trips to Shreveport over the past decade, I have been to New Orleans exactly once. And when Katrina devastated NO, it didn't even get cloudy up in Shreveport.

Katrina did, however, have one major effect on Shreveport--the relocation of the movie industry. A number of years ago, Louisiana enacted an number of financial incentives to get Hollywood to the Pelican State. Originally, movies came to NO, but after Katrina, a new location was needed. Hello, Shreveport. While I have yet to see any of the stars when I'm down there, I do hear stories from all the locals about Kevin Costner or Oliver Stone or some other major figure who is in town and where they ate or what they did.

This weekend, we had our first public "incident." No, nothing as good as a drunken Lohan or Britney, but not bad either. Oliver Stone is filming W, his Bush biopic, in Shreveport, and Josh Brolin (Bush) and Jeffrey Wright (Powell) managed to get arrested following a bar fight. This was, my in-laws reported, huge, huge news down in Shreveport including a banner headline in the Shreveport Times. Just makes me even more excited for my next visit.

Big News

2008-07-09T11:55:00.002-04:00

The one and only Joe E. Tata will be back on the new 90210 as, of course, Nat Bussichio, the incomparable owner of the Peach Pit. (Bet you didn't know his last name.) Perhaps his character can date Brenda and then dump her for Kelly. (Both Kelly and Donna Martin (she graduated!) will be on, and it looks like Brenda is coming on board as well. What about Dylan? Or perhaps the Walshes can return from Hong Kong!) Oh, the drama.

Spooks/MI-5

2008-07-07T17:10:00.003-04:00

I have this slight obsession with movies based on Jane Austen novels. Shut up. Anyway, I recently Netflixed the newest BBC version of Persuasion, (which is COMPLETELY fabulous by the way) and fell hard and fast for the beautiful blonde man who played Captain Wentworth. As soon as I'd wiped the last tear from my eye after Capt. and Mrs. Wentworth danced on the lawn of their new/old home, I got on IMDB and looked him up. And it turned out he was on the later seasons of some British spy series called Spooks/MI-5 (Spooks is the name in the UK, but it's marketed as MI-5 on this side of the pond.) Hot spies with British accents? Sign me up! I Netflixed the first season, and was promptly hooked. (I'm well into Season 2 and Capt. Wentworth still hasn't turned up. But the Jane Austen eye candy quotient is currently being filled by the lovely and talented actor who played Mr. Darcy(!) in the excellent 2006 version of Pride & Prejudice. (The one with Keira Knightley and her fubar wig).)

Ahem, anyway, apart from the hotness of its stars, I'm enjoying MI-5 for what seems like its semi-realistic (I'm guessing, no personal experience here) depiction of spy life. There are no Alias-like glamour missions in wigs and lingerie. The spies are more likely to go under cover as IT technicians or cleaning ladies. And they mess up. ALL the time. In ways that humans mess up, and that increases the amusement factor. And the danger they face due to their cock-ups never seems trumped up, but always very real. And I can't fail to mention the pleasure this anglophile is experiencing from the sheer British-ness of it all. In one scene in the first season, a spy meets an informer in the middle of an empty field, and both spy and informer are wearing, completely unironically and with no pretense whatsoever, WELLIES! Because apparently that's what British (and Irish) men wear when they're walking in an empty field! I love it.

Farwell, Old Friend

2008-07-07T16:05:00.001-04:00

On Saturday afternoon, I, along with Mrs. Bartender, Isaac, Jr., and the latest addition to the Bartender family, went to see the Yankees and Red Sox do battle at the Stadium in the Bronx. The game was a terrific one, with the Yankees prevailing 2-1. Mussina pitched perhaps his best game of the year (6 shut-out innings), and the great Rivera came in in the 9th, promptly gave up a run and loaded the bases with none out, and proceeded to work his way of the self-created jam. Good times.

And yet as the game ended, I was left with a touch of sadness. I have been attending Yankee games at the Stadium since I was 5; in that time, I have seen hundreds of games there including 12 playoff and 4 World Series affairs. I have a lot of terrific memories of attending some classics including Chambliss homering to put the Yanks into the '76 Series, Brett homering 3 times in '78 only to have Munson win it in the 10th, Reggie sticking his hip out in '78, Mel Hall hitting a 3-run walk off homer to beat the Sox in '91, Donnie Baseball and his first postseason game in '95, Chad Curtis beating the Braves in Game 3 in '99, and Paul O'Neill working a walk and tying the game off perenial choke artist Armando Benitez in Game 1 of the '00 Subway Series. Since moving to DC, I have only attended a handful of games in NY, and in all likelihood this was my last one at the Stadium I grew up going to, attending games with my father who grew up 6 blocks from the Stadium. Now I have taken my sons, and while they won't remember it, at least they will get to know they were at this legendary ballpark.

I understand why the new stadium is going up, and I am thrilled it will be next door to the current one and called not Addidas Field but Yankee Stadium. It may not be the House that Ruth Built, but at least it will be close. Yet with a fond adieu, I think the old Stadium for so many memories.

Road Trip: Day Four -- More Mississippi

2008-06-25T22:50:00.003-04:00

So, Mississippi is really great, and you could easily spend a couple of weeks there. For real. (Note: I would recommend not doing this in the summer months.)

Monday morning I drove from Jackson to Natchez on the Natchez Trace. The Natchez Trace was a really old road, originally used by native americans, and then by frontierspeople that went from Natchez to Nashville. Those of you who read "Undaunted Courage" may recall that Meriwether Lewis died -- possibly of suicide -- while traveling on the road in Tennessee. It's now a national parkway. I have this bizarre fascination with roads, and with old roads in particular, so this was pretty cool for me. Also, it was just a really pretty drive, with stops every few miles to look at historical sites like Indian mounds, old houses, etc.

Natchez sits on some bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. It has a bunch of well-preserved old houses and apparently there are times in the spring and fall when you can go around and tour the houses. I read somewhere that the reason the houses are so well-preserved is that the economy was devastated by the boll weevil epidemic and so the houses did not get renovated.

I drove from Natchez up highway 61 to Vicksburg. Vicksburg featured more old houses and more bluffs -- it was seriously so hilly that I was sort of nervous driving on some of the streets, lest I have to stop at a stoplight (my car's a stick shift). Of course, it was also the site of an important civil war battle in which the city was under siege for six weeks, and fell on July 4, 1863 (the same day that Lee lost at Gettysburg). Blame it on highway hypnosis, but they were selling this U.S. Grant counted cross-stitch pattern at the visitor center, and I seriously thought about going back to the car to get my credit card so I could buy it. WTF?

From Vicksburg, I drove to Clarksdale, where -- legend has it -- Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads of highways 49 and 61 to learn to play the guitar. The town has a certain seedy charm and still has an active blues music scene, including a club owned by Morgan Freeman. The place I stayed was so great. It's called the Shack Up Inn, and it's a bunch of shot gun shacks (basically sharecroppers' cabins) furnished with a random collection of junk, mardi gras beads, and thrift store finds. I was a little wary, because it sounds like the ultimate in slumming, but it was really comfortable and had this random charm.

Bottom line: Go to Clarksdale and stay at the Shack Up Inn.

Aaron v. Aron

2008-06-25T22:40:00.002-04:00

There's actually a whole footnote on this in Wikipedia:

Note a: Presley's genuine birth certificate reads "Elvis Aaron Presley" (as written by a doctor). There is also a souvenir birth certificate that reads "Elvis Aron Presley." When Presley did sign his middle name, he used Aron. It reads 'Aron' on his marriage certificate and on his army duffel bag. Aron was apparently the spelling the Presleys used to make it similar to the middle name of Elvis' stillborn twin, Jesse Garon. Elvis later sought to change the name's spelling to the traditional and biblical Aaron. In the process he learned that "official state records had always listed it as Aaron. Therefore, he always was, officially, Elvis Aaron Presley." Knowing Presley's plans for his middle name, Aaron is the spelling his father chose for Elvis' tombstone, and it is the spelling his estate has designated as the official spelling whenever the middle name is used today. His death certificate says "Elvis Aron Presley." This quirk has helped inflame the "Elvis is not dead" conspiracy theories.

So You Think You Can Dance?

2008-06-25T22:20:00.002-04:00

First, where's Wade Robson? I developed a mild obsession with him last season. He better be back. He did choreograph a group number in the first week, but I hope he comes back as a guest judge.

Okay, this week's top three:

Courtney and Gev -- I really liked their contemporary routine last week and this week's rumba was good too.
Chelsie and Mark -- really good. As with week one, one of the Tabitha and Napolean's routines was so-so and the other one was really good. Is it the performances, or do they only have one good routine in them? Also, you hear that song "Bleeding Love" like once every hour on Sirius.
Joshua and Katee -- I was worried about Joshua, but he was really good. He certainly doesn't have the typical body type for male dancers on this show.

Middle three:

Twitch and Kherington -- it wasn't bad, but they didn't "hit it" very hard, as they say.
Jessica and Will -- a few mistakes and they looked like they were thinking too hard, but I think disco is hard to pull off in this setting.
Kourtni and Matt -- I could definitely see the technique, but the costumes were really off-putting. It made the whole routine seem just ridiculous.

Bottom two:

Comfort and Chris -- I blame this on the choreography. It would be sort of nice to see the dances done by other people so you can see what the dancers bring (or don't bring) to it. Was anyone else bothered by the repeated use of the word "animalistic" in the judges' comments? Because you can't really do African dance without being animalistic apparently.
Chelsea and Thayne -- yuck. It was weird because the music did not seem to go at all with the dancing, which is pretty distracting. Also, they both looked uncomfortable.

(I would like to note for the record that the names on this show are ridiculous.)

Who's going home? I think Chelsea or Jessica and Thayne or Chris.

People I love: Tricia Helfer

2008-06-25T16:39:00.003-04:00

Last night I was bored and couldn't really find anything that interested me on the DVR, so I decided to see whether there was anything available on Comcast On Demand that might be of interest. After watching an episode of Party of Five--the one where Bailey goes to LA to find drug addicted Jill, Julia befriends a guy with HIV, no one has time for Claudia's birthday, and Charlie is whiny (yes, I realize Charlie was always whiny, but I loved him anyway)--I decided to see what was available under the heading "Pets." It appears there is a series where a photographer takes photos of celebrities with their pets. All of the celebrities profiled had dogs, except one: Tricia Helfer, better known as Six on Battlestar Galactica.

It turns out that Helfer has five cats. The first two were rescued as two-day old abandoned kittens, then she got another from a shelter, and then a fourth from a shelter to be friends with the third. But when she and her husband went to the shelter to get cat number four, they saw a 13 year old senior cat at the front of the store and decided to get her too, because she deserved to have her last years be happy.

What's more, Helfer rescued a cat in Baton Rouge and took it home with her, adopting it out to a friend. She donates all of the proceeds from items on her website to a cat rescue group and said that her dream in life is to have her own cat rescue. When asked why she liked cats so much she said that cats get a bad rap and are actually quite loving and affectionate.

I want to open a cat rescue! I think cats get a bad rap! I now love Tricia Helfer.

Road Trip: Day Three -- Tupelo to Jackson

2008-06-23T22:54:00.003-04:00

I woke up on Sunday in Tupelo, Mississippi, the birthplace of one Mr. Elvis Aaron Presley. I frittered away a fair amount of time on the Elvis Presley driving tour, which mostly consisted of looking at the outside of a bunch of buildings -- like Elvis's elementary school, his high school, the public library (?), and the Tupelo Hardware Store where his mom bought him his first guitar. There's also the Elvis Presley birthplace and museum, where for $4 you can see the two-room house where Elvis grew up. Small! Luckily, I got in and out before the people from the giant tour bus.

I drove over to Oxford, home of the University of Mississippi. The campus is really beautiful -- it's almost enough to make you forget the ugly history and the fact that they call themselves the Rebels. But not quite. Oxford is a really charming college town, with a lot of nice old houses, including Rowan Oak, William Faulkner's house. Unfortunately, all of the cool-looking restaurants on Courthouse Square were closed on Sunday night, so I drove out to Taylor Grocery, a little catfish restaurant about 10 miles out of town, for dinner.

Then I drove down to Jackson, home of a lot of unattractive sprawl.

Road Trip: Day Two -- Drivin'

2008-06-23T22:34:00.003-04:00

Saturday was a long day of driving -- through western Virginia, into Tennessee from Bristol, to Knoxville, to Chattanooga, down into Birmingham, Alabama, where I ate dinner at Dreamland Barbecue, and over to Tupelo, Mississippi.

Except for the last stretch, it was all on the interstate, so there is not much local color to report. Did you know that U.S. 78 is the "Appalachian Highway"? I didn't. A lot of bingo parlors on that road.

In honor of being in Tennessee, I ventured down into the country music portion of the dial -- yay Outlaw Country! I'm so happy to have satellite radio in my car. And, having driven about 1600 miles in the past few days, I'm finally able to distinguish some of the channels other than the 80s channel and First Wave.

Road Trip -- Floyd, Va.

2008-06-23T22:10:00.002-04:00

Greetings! I'm currently on day 4 of a road trip from D.C. to Minnesota via Mississippi (aka "the long way"). I have a lot to report.

The trip started in earnest on Friday, where I spent the day at my sister's neighborhood pool in Greensboro, North Carolina and head pretty much due north to a small town in Virginia called Floyd. It was a two-hour drive through winding country roads. Floyd is just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in southwestern Virginia.

My destination was the Floyd Country Store, which hosts a Friday Night Jamboree. For $3, you can hear three bands. I had heard a little bit about it, but I was not quite prepared for how awesome it was. The first band I saw was a bluegrass gospel band, which played old-timey music. The main singer had that whiny style of singing. It was pretty cool.

But then the second band had a fiddle player and from the first song everyone started dancing. On the fast songs, they did this weird dance -- it was sort of like Riverdance with people standing upright with straight backs and sort of jumping up and down stomping their feet. I don't know what it's called -- maybe a jig? And the regulars had some sort of special shoes so that when they jumped up and down it sounded like a tambourine. It was really strange, but cool. There was also square dancing.

The town is apparently some sort of center for bluegrass music, because on the streets outside the store there were a bunch of street musicians singing and playing guitar. It was a strange crowd -- probably more than half locals, a bunch of tourists, including two guys from Saudi Arabia who were dancing up a storm, and a fair number of hippies who were hard to place.

I highly recommend it. In fact, I've already begun my campaign to convince my friend J. to go back there with me when I'm back in D.C.

Another Endorsement

2008-06-17T10:08:00.004-04:00

In the sad days following the death of Tim Russert, conversation inevitably turned to who should take over for him on Meet the Press. (While things like this are too often said when someone dies or retires, no one can replace Russert.) Although NBC/MSNBC has a number of familiar faces, most seem to lack the appearance of nonpartisanship and moderation to try to fill that huge chair. Joe Scarborough and Keith Olbermann are both very good at what they do but lack the temperment and balance to run the show. Chris Matthews is certainly knowledgeable enough but is just a bit too much for that role. (I don't think Russert has ever been challenged to a duel.) I know he would love to have the job, but I just don't think it works. David Gregory is certainly a possibility (and perhaps the front runner), but he too has ideological baggage.

Because of all of this, I declared over the weekend that Chuck Todd should be the new host. Over the past year, Todd has proved indispensable in providing information about the ins and outs of the primary season. His knowledge of delegate allocation was invaluable, and he knew the days of the primary (if not earlier) what the ultimate results would be. (Heck, if he worked for Hillary, I'm sure she would have won the nomination.) He came across as completely unbiased, and unsurprisingly I have no idea what his politics are. Moreover, Russert seemed to think so highly of him and view him as a protege; he clearly worshiped Russert and viewed him as a father figure. Heck, he could barely keep himself together on Friday. I am pleased (and unsurprised) to see that Todd has support on both the right, from Jonah Goldberg, and the left, from Kos and Yglesias. I think that says a lot about why he should take over this position. He would be a worthy successor to Russert. (One option if NBC wants a bigger name in the short term: have Brokaw and Todd co-host for the rest of the election season and then have Todd take over afterwards.) NBC, the ball is in your court.

In Memoriam: Tim Russert

2008-06-13T22:05:00.003-04:00

Like I'm sure all of us, I was stunned to hear this afternoon that Tim Russert had passed away at the age of 58. I had the good fortune to meet him last year at NBC's Washington Studio and spoke with him, Charlie Cook, and Chuck Todd (admittedly, I had no idea who Chuck Todd was at the time) for about 15 minutes. Although these three individuals are (and today the verb is sadly "were") 3 of the best political journalists in America, the conversation revolved almost entirely on the Washington Nationals. Just from that brief meeting, I saw the passion that Russert had for the game; his passion for politics was obvious for anyone who watched Meet the Press, just as he made quite apparent his love of the Bills and his family. At the time of this conversation, I was three days away from having a minor heart procedure; now, almost exactly one year later, Russert is gone seemingly of a heart attack.

Watching his colleague react to this devastating news, it was apparent how much he meant to them. Olbermann and Todd were near tears; Chris Matthews (in Paris in the middle of the night there) in shock. Brokaw will be hosting a tribute this Sunday on Meet the Press about his friend and colleague. He was not a perfect journalist, but he was undoubtedly one of the best. Sunday mornings will never be the same. For lovers of politics and, more importantly, by his friends and family, he will be missed.

Fact of the Day

2008-06-12T17:09:00.002-04:00

I was looking at the vote at the 1968 Democratic Convention (don't ask) and discovered that none other than Paul "Bear" Bryant, the legendary Alabama footbal coach, received 1.5 votes. Too strange.

Famous for DC: Two Sightings

2008-06-11T12:03:00.002-04:00

On Monday, I happened to be in cafeteria of the D.C. Superior Court and who was sitting at the next table? John McLaughlin. He was wearing a badge that said "petit juror" and boy was his hair orange.

Today, I'm at the internet cafe near my house and Peter Bergen came in for coffee.

Exciting, right?

I Don't Think I Want to Watch That Debate

2008-06-04T11:57:00.001-04:00

Last night listening to election coverage on POTUS08 (XM130), a commentator observed that the debates would be interesting because Obama has "about 7 or 8 inches on Senator McCain." Really, quite a poor choice of words.

Recipe Blogging

2008-06-04T10:30:00.002-04:00

I made this recipe for Stir-Fried Shrimp with Black Beans last night and it was really good. And super easy if, like me, you use pre-minced garlic and ginger and pre-shelled shrimp. It's a great way to use the bok choy that I'm sure will be coming in the CSA box soon. (Now, if only I had a good recipe for kohlrabi.)

Sex, the City, and Me

2008-06-02T16:05:00.002-04:00

So along with about 14 other guys and a few hundred women (including Mrs. Bartender), I went to see Sex and the City on Saturday night. First, let me state that I had taken her to see Iron Man and Indiana Jones over the past two weeks (and for the record, she loved the former film), so she was owed a chick flick. Second, I had watched with her a lot of the series, so I didn't gripe about seeing the movie.

And for the most part, it was a decent film. First, the stars (no, not the shoes, the actresses) are quite good and make the film enjoyable. There are a number of genuinely funny moments as well as some touching ones that the actresses pull off with aplomb. And there are even a few self referential jokes that work pretty well.

The negatives. Well, start with the length--this movie does not have to exceed 2 1/4 hours, but it does. Connected to this is that three spontaneous fashion shows break out throughout the film. I don't mean, what is Carrie wearing; I mean real or pseudo fashion shows. Third, the plot is pretty simple and obvious where it is, for the most part, heading. Finally, the men are really relegated to the background in a way well beyond what, I recall, they were in the series. Indeed, they are given virtually no life of their own.

So, in sum, if you are guy, you can certainly make it through the film and even enjoy it. It's no classic, but you can make your wife/girlfriend/significant other happy and attend without true pain. And for women, I guess most of you are eating it up as it opened huge this past weekend. But what do I know.

Hey numbnuts! (aka the spelling bee: a running diary)

2008-06-02T10:15:00.004-04:00

I know that the spelling bee was Friday and I'm not posting this diary until Monday, but I took photos at the bee and wanted to include them with this post. Then I neglected to upload the photos onto my computer all weekend. I didn't want to put off this post any longer (my public awaits!), so here goes. I will include the photos later. Also, for your reference, the first time a type a word used in the spelling bee that is my guess of how it is spelled, unless otherwise stated in the post.

-----

I'm sitting in the Main Concourse at the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. I wasn't sure if I would make it. When Isaac figured out that I could attend the bee by getting press credentials through Junkette I was excited, but wary that I would end up rejected for some reason. As I walked to the press credentials desk, hoping for the best, the nice people there offered me a form to fill out. As a prepared Junkette, I already had a filled-out form with me. They immediately gave me my press pass, but then one looked askance at the blog name. Regardless, they let me in. They also give me press materials which include background information on the top 12 spellers. How exciting! I went through a metal detector and was wanded. Both security men complimented my shoes. A good start!

As I walk in I see that there were some interesting fashion choices among those in the audience. One woman is wearing an American flag shirt, visor and blue crocs. I want to take a photo of her, but don't know how to do so subtly. Damn. There is also a woman wearing a "do I have to spell it out for you" tee-shirt. She is a grown adult.

I take my seat near the back of the room and the members of the audience are told we are only allowed to applaud on the disembodied female voice's cue. Unfortunately, I am sitting so far in the back that I can't see her cue. My cue is that it is okay to clap when other people do. And the first speller is up. (By the way, this entire post is being written on Blackberry.)

Samia Nawaz. She has to spell "vogelrize." Oh dude. This is going to be really hard without the tv telling me the proper spelling. The screen that shows the correct spelling is so far away I can't see it. I will have to actually listen and type while the spellers spell. This could be a long night. I have no idea how the word was properly spelled because I didn't realize I would have to be transcribing her every syllable. I'll do better for our next contestant.

Tia Thomas. She gets shamaturism. I feel good about my spelling on this one. Oops. I missed an "e." It is shamateurism. I should have known better.

Austin Pineda. This kid has the same Buster Brown haircut I had when I was three. His word is trowliticious. It means "handed down." Oh, the reader didn't do a great job. Austin asked for the language of origin and the reader repeater the word. Austin was polite about it, asking for the language of origin again. Trallatitious. Oops. Tralatitious. My press sheet tells me Austin likes "watching television" and "eating confections." I feel like I could have been friends. Alas, he is already out of the competition.

Justin Song. His word is aurelion. Damn. I was wrong again. It is aurelian, and Justin got it right. Spelling Bee kids: 3 for 4. Red Fraggle: 0 for 4.

And now for some behind-the-scenes action. We are in a three minute commercial break and when we return there will be a feature segment, according to the disembodied voice. I assume the feature will be on our next speller, 12 year old Kyle Mou. Unfortunately, I will never see this segment because they don't show them to the audience. I can, however, tell you that Kyle likes reading, drawing, playing chess and playing computer games. His best subject is science and he is a member of his school's scholastic team and robotics team. This kid goes to Dunlap Middle School in Peoria. They have a robotics team? I wonder if the team consists solely of Kyle.

The commercial break must be ending because a different disembodied voice is telling us to sit.

Kyle is up with cryptorythym. He begins spelling cryptar...I don't know what Kyle spelled (he was too fast), but he was right and I was wrong.

Rose Sloan is up next. Her word is hemerolopia. Her voice sounds confident as she spells hemeralopia. Damn me! Rose is right.

Sameer Mishra. He has to spell basenji. I TOTALLY know this one!!! Glad to know my animal rescue work comes in handy. Seriously, I have found homes for dozens of cats, but don't know that I have ever been prouder of the results of my rescue work than I am at this minute. Sameer also knows how to spell the name of the dog breed.

Kavya Shivashankar. Dude! I remember this girl from the last bee. And...I'm right. My handbook says she came in 8th last year and 10th the year before. She has to spell empyrion. Initially I was going to spell it empirion, but Kavya asked if it came from the Greek word "pyre." It does. Good question, Kavya. I have now replaced that "i" with a "y." Of course, I am still wrong, and Kavya gets it right. It is actually empyrean.

We're on commercial break again. In looking through my press materials, it appears only one of these children is homeschooled. Is this possible? Perhaps the information I have received is incorrect? This might be the most shocking moment of the night.

Sidharth Chand has to spell tautological. Yay! I know this one too! Woo hoo! Sidharth and I were both right!

Catherine "Cat" Cojacaru. I wonder if she is related to that celebrity reporter Steven. It doesn't mention him in the press materials. She has to spell Heugonot. Which, having taken eighth grade history, I should totally know. Except...I don't. It's Huguenot.

Scott Remer. Scott is from Beachwood, OH, which is right next to where Gobo grew up. Does this mean I should be cheering for him? He has to spell digerati. Yay! I got it right. If I only knew how to spell Huguenot I would have spelled three words in a row correctly. Oh, and Scott got it right too.

Jahnavi Iyer. She has to spell caduseius. Really, I have no clue on this one. Apparently, it is caduceus.

We're done with round one. Only poor Austin, the lover of eating confections, was eliminated.

In looking at my press materials I see that there are prime seats, front and center, reserved for the media. Dare I try to snag one? I dare! I'm getting up and checking it out. Except...it is really scary. The seats are separated by a barrier and I don't know how to get in. Maybe not.

We're back. Samia Nawaz. Monogoneutic. By the way, because I got up to find the press seats I picked a new place to sit. I am now sitting next to a spelling bee family. (Actually, the large majority of the people here are spelling bee families.) They seem normal. Well, the only person I see right now is the mom. She says her husband and child are outside, the husband will be returning soon, and the daughter will not come back until later. Samia is given monogoneutic to spell. Yay! We're both right.

Did I mention the press people in the special section have headphones on? No one gave me headphones. They also have camera people. I only have my digital camera, so I guess I am my own crew.

Tia Thomas. Tia's bio says her highlights as a speller include meeting Gov. Schwarzenegger and Laura Bush. I think Tia might be a Republican. Her word is brancursen. She starts spelling brank...damn. She went too fast. But she was right and I was wrong.

Justin Song has Rorschacht. I should totally get it right. But I don't. It is Rorschach.

Kyle Mou. Trochiline. Kyle sped through so quickly I couldn't even guess a spelling. I am sure I would have gotten it right.

Rose Sloan. Alcarraza. Rose has a large cheering section. She was fast too. No clue how to spell the word.

The husband of the woman I was sitting next to returned and seems annoyed I am sitting in the chair that is his daughter's, even though she is apparently outside watching television. I think I'm going to go back to my old seat at the next commercial break. Spelling Bee Dad is also writing the spelling of each word on a piece of paper. I don't think he is blogging.

Sameer Mishra. Numbnut. Seriously. Sameer was all "numbnut?!" The entire audience is surprised and laughing, including Spelling Bee Dad to my left. Once Sameer got the definition he was all "oh, numna.!!" What kills me about this is that Sameer actually appears to know the word numna at all. I am guessing this might be the highlight of the evening. By the way, the word is spelled numnah.

Another break. I am going to try to get to the bottom of this press thing. I walk by the forboding press box, but realize the people there are wearing credentials that say A. Mine has a B on it. I can't find the meeting place for the Bs. Maybe I will try to find out at the next break. Three minutes isn't a lot of time to figure this out.

I am in the back of the room again.

Kavya is up and has epidyctic. Except that it is epideictic.

Sidharth Chand. Amateil. I don't think my spelling can be right because the word comes from Greek, and my spelling does not look at all Greek. The spelling is ommateal.

Cat is back up. She has boulangerie. Except I guess I am too excited about my trip to France. The word was not boulangerie (which is the correct spelling for a French bakery...yum...baguettes), but was rather boulangere.

Scott from the mistake by the lake. He has ranunculatious. Which is actually ranunculaceous. I feel like I am improving.

Jahnavi Iyer. He has Neitzchean. Nie...oh wait. He asked us to hold on. Starting over. Nie... He is having problems. Starting over again. Nie... tzchean. A roar goes up in the crowd. Damn me for flipping the i and e. So close. Oh, and I just looked up to realize Jahnavi is a girl. The 12 year old boys tend to have high voices, so when I heard her I thought she was male. Sorry Jahnavi. Seriously, as soon as I looked at her I knew I had been wrong.

Three minute break. Don't feel like looking for the press. The woman at the end of my row seems annoyed because I keep getting up, like I have ants in my pants.

Round three. Still only one eliminated contestant. I could be here all night! Someone else complimented my shoes!

Samia. She has escaveche. It is a cooking word. I guess I shouldn't be surprised I don't know it. And yet, Samia spells it the way I did. We win!

The Republican. Probalium. Or, as Tia spells it, propylaeum.

Justin Song. Sotiagraha. The reader has flubbed the word more than once. Justin spells it sattyagraha. Alas, we were both wrong. It is satyagraha.

Kyle the robotics fan. He spells lapiz so quickly I don't have a chance to guess. He's wrong--it is lapes. Two in a row go down. It is obvious when a speller gets the word wrong because the ding takes a few seconds to kick in, and the audience sits completely quiet. When they are right everyone immediately applauds. I am not sure how the audience knows the word is right, except that my guess is most of the people sitting here have been homeschooling their kids in spelling for three hours a day for the last six years and know how to spell all of these words themsleves.

Rose. Fumagellan. Or, as she correctly spells it, fumagillin. I had originally guessed that but decided it looked stupid and changed it. Oh well.

Sameer. He has chorian. The outermost membrane the envelops the fetus during birth. He asked for the word in a sentence and they gave him the definition again, but added the words "is the chorian." Boo spelling bee. It's like the South Park spelling bee episode ("Hooked on Monkey Phonics") where Kyle gets a word and asks for it in a sentence and they give him"[Word] is a really hard word to spell." The correct spelling is chorion. I didn't get it right, but am proud of myself for adding the "h." It was silent.

Kavya. She has martilato. Kavya "writes" her words into her hand. My brother told me before the competition that she was the favorite. She correctly spells it martellato.

Sidharth. Zearuth. Sidharth is 12 and has quite the moustache. Hercule Poirot would be proud. He spells the word ziarat. Wow. I was way off.

Cat. Bogateur. She is asking a lot of questions, including "can you give me any more help?" Laughter. She spells it bogater. Nope. Bogatyr. Bye Cat!

Scott from Beachwood. He wastes no time in spelling lemel correctly. I guess he didn't let Cat's elimination rattle him.

Jahnavi. She gets tarflesh. It is French so I am sure I am wrong. Hell, it's a spelling bee so I am sure I am wrong. Jahnavi is spending a very long time up there, silent. Parflesh. Nope. Cheers for Jahnavi, which interrupt the reader giving us the correct spelling. It is parfleche.

Three and a half minute break. Seven spellers remain.

I went on another quest for the press box. The materials claim there are 84 seats, front and center, for people with B press credentials. And yet I cannot find these coveted seats. I have moved to a different seat, which allows me to see the correct spelling of words. Oh, I am also next to the TV commentary. It is the best of all world.

Samia. Wakongo. It is a Mexican folk dance. Wapango. Nope. It is huapango. Poor Samia. That seems particularly tough.

Republican. She has ryton, which she correctly spells rhyton.

Rose Sloan. Sheitl. I know this word. It is a wig Orthodox Jewish women wear. The sentence they gave was classic. "Rachel was excited to shop for her first sheitel." I am so sure she was. She spells shetl. Nope. Sheitel. I was closer than Rose.

Sameer. He has nackarat. Except it is actually nacarat. He gets it right.

A FOUR minute commercial break?! Who knew? I am too tired to look for the press box. Just five spellers left, with three of them yet to go in this round.

Kavya. Ecraset. It means a crushed fabric. A clothing word I have never heard. Interesting. She tries ecrasee. Nope. Ecrase. Poor Kavya looks devastated. She does improve on her place each year, though.

Sidharth. Hosounah. Except it is posaune. Not only can I not spell, I cannot hear.

Scott from Cleveland. Thimile. Another Greek word. My people certainly know how to make spelling bee words. He spells thymale. Nope. Thymele. Poor Scott. He should have known it wouldn't end in -ale, right? Must be the substandard Cleveland public school system to blame. Aw, and did you know that Scott is socially conscious, volunteers regularly, and is deeply concerned about global warming and human rights? Well, he is! The press materials say so. I will miss Scott.

And then there were three.

The Republican lover, Tia. Last year Tia tied for 8th place last year. She started competing in the Bee at age 9. She gets oxylophytic correct. I was too busy typing to spell it (although I would have been incorrect).

Sameer. He gets synesthize, which means "to modify by a Chinese influence." Hm. The word is actually sinichize. I would have never gotten that one, even if I had actually caught on to the connection between Chinese and the sini- prefix.

Sidharth. Atielism. It is an absence of saliva. I wonder if he feels like he has atielism right now. Except the word is aptyalism. I'm guessing he knew it all along.

Oh yay! We're in our FINAL commercial break. And there are 22 words to go. I don't get it. What happens if we run out of words? How that we have a break, I will tell you a little more about our final three. You already know about Tia the Republican. Sameer loves to read, enjoys playing computer, video and board games, plays the violin and rides his bike and hangs out with friends. I am unsure when he finds the time for friends, considering he competes in Spell Bowl, Academic Super Bowl and the Indiana State School Music Association. Sameer's sister was a three year spelling bee competitor and coaches him. Apparently the student eventually surpasses the teacher because Sameer is in his fourth year of competition. Sidharth plays chess and soccer. He is also an avid philatelist. None of the interests of these kids are at all stereotypical of someone who might compete in a spelling bee. Nope. Not at all.

The Republican. She gets another word I have never heard of, apithiceur. She seems confused for the first time. Epificer. Oops. It is opificer. She gets a standing ovation. Except I remained seated. Sorry, but my back hurts.

Sameer, our competion-loving student. He gets hiferesis, which he spells correctly hyphaeresis.

Sidharth, the stamp collector. He gets coultourcom, and immediately asks if it is German. Kulturkampf.

Sameer. Tallegio. It is a soft cow's milk cheese. Tasty. Never heard of it, though. He gets it right with taleggio.

Sidharth. He gets something that sounds like entrouvavle. It is actually introuvable. Oh. I should have gotten that, since they said the meaning was "impossible to find," and the word was French.

Sameer. Esclandre. Yay! We both got it right.

Sidharth gets proscopia. He spells it prosopopoea, but it is actually prosopopoeia.

Although any good spelling bee follower knows Sidharth still needs to spell another word correctly some people seem confused.

Sameer gets the word gerden. It was actually guerdon. And Sameer wins. Sameer gets his trophy and when they ask him how he feels, he says "weak." I guess the trophy is heavy.

The bee is over. The press has been invited to ask Sameer questions, but I don't know what to ask, so I just file out with everyone else. But not before noticing that a kid has taped up letters at the back of the room that read "Siddarth Rules." Poor Siddarth. I wonder if he was letting his moustache grow as an homage to hockey players who don't shave in the playoffs. Perhaps tomorrow his upper lip will be bare.

Things One Doesn't Forget

2008-05-29T14:15:00.003-04:00

According to Scott McClellan's new book, What Happened, President Bush told a political supporter in response to a question of whether Bush had ever tried cocaine, "We had some pretty wild parties back in the day, and I just don't remember." I guess that was some pretty good coke.