I guess this could explain some of the Mets' woes this season. The picture really makes this story work.

Virtual reality
I've been a major slacker with this blog. And I suppose this and this are the reasons for it. I've been meaning to get one for a while, and it does kill two birds with one stone -- game console and DVD player that isn't my computer (it's already taking enough of a beating). Maybe I'll have updates on my electronic seasons when I feel like it. Oddly enough, I think I've been playing as well as Northwestern, which means not all that great -- there's a bit of a learning curve, I suppose.

Welcome to the nest
As for other things, I was at this barnburner and lucked out even more when our group won the drawing for an upgrade to a suite. It was very helpful for our alumni group, so we could meet a bunch more people. It was fun seeing our group split 50-50 rooting for the Bears and the Falcons. The crowd was a sellout, which is good, but for some reason I wasn't impressed with the crowd noise despite all the people. Then again, the Georgia Dome is not that great a facility, although the dome came in very handy because it was raining the whole day.

Note to self: Stock up on Windex
As I continue to catch up on movies, I finally got around to seeing My Big Fat Greek Wedding over the weekend. Somehow, it's emerged from indy hit to $100 million-plus in box office gross. It's a very funny and cute movie, and as the ads go, you could probably replace Greek with a multitude of different ethnic groups and get the same effect. Nothing special or earth-shattering, it was just a good time, especially when you could relate in one way or another. It helped in my case that I was watching with a friend of mine from a Greek family, so she really could relate. I wasn't keeping too close tabs on the film as it shot up the charts, but Lainie Kazan seemed to be the perfect person to play the mother. John Corbett for some reason looked like John Travolta with less slick hair, and I couldn't help but bust out laughing when Joey Fatone showed up on screen (and not because of his comic timing). At least he wasn't going nuts with the dances.

Notes from the ad critic...
--As odd as it was seeing Jamie Lee Curtis selling cell phones, it's even crazier to see Catherine Zeta-Jones taking over the ad campaign once the name changed over to T-Mobile. However, those ads actually make her feel a lot more accessible, especially those print ads where she comes off as cute as opposed to the elegant, aloof air she's had pretty much since burst onto the mainstream. Seeing how this ad campaign has turned out, maybe that's why the big stars don't usually show up in ordinary ads -- it strips away some of the air of star power they've got.
--Does Alyson Hannigan have a sister, or did she just lighten her hair for this newest UPS ad? Either way, it really does look like Willow doing business for skater dudes.

Game show reviews
Monday was premiere day in the game show world, starting with revamps of Hollywood Squares and Family Feud and the debuts of the syndicated Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Pyramid. I don't have much of a reaction or review of the first two, but Steve Beverly's Game Show site has good reviews of those two.

As for WWTBAM and Pyramid, which are on during the 4 p.m. hour on the NBC affiliate here (and right after Dr. Phil), I was impressed with both. Outside of the elimination of fastest finger, which was becoming irrelevant with regards to contestant searches, everything seemed the same. Meredith Viera is fine replacing Regis. Nothing out of the ordinary yet not too bland, either. It'll be very easy to get back into the swing of things watching this show if you were a fan before.

Pyramid underwent a few changes since its glory run during the '70s and '80s, which I still adore watching. Donnie Osmond seemed fine as a host (I had the sound down at work so I wasn't paying that close attention) and the tweaks to the game format (get six right in 20 seconds now, compared to seven in 30) weren't anything drastic. The set does take getting used to, but it's 2002, so changes were expected -- although the laptop setup to give clues as opposed to the hidden TV monitor in the desk was very funky. One thing I've noticed in both the first episode and in past episodes in the Dick Clark era, categories where all the answers are famous people are a bad idea. One really notable celebrity in a list of everyday words/terms is fine (ex. "Things that make you cringe when you hear it" had an answer of Lewinsky), but a whole list becomes a tough trivia contest (ex. celebrities who wear glasses; Drew Carey and Larry King caused many problems as answers). For this show, it will take some getting used to, but it's still got much of the charm of the old days.

All of the reality shows are back soon. Honestly, the game play factor of Survivor gives me just enough incentive to look at the pretty people eventually wilt away in the wilderness. As for The Amazing Race, I don't watch it, but I was intrigued to find out one of the contestants this time around was in my graduating class at Northwestern. The name and face were familiar, but I didn't know her. ESPN may have something interesting with Beg, Borrow and Deal, although it seems like it will either be a blast or a tremendous bust (and speaking of which, was it their intention that being a cheerleader had to be a prequisite to get one of the female slots?).

Going on the TV tangent, I might as well plug my entry in the Alison LaPlaca Open -- a pretty good TV dead pool.

Not sure you ever saw this in Bexley, Ohio
Finally, I'll end my blogging catch-up with the stunning news of Bob Greene's resignation from the Chicago Tribune after he admitted having relations with a teenager more than 10 years ago. I've never been a fan of Greene's while I was in Chicago, instead sticking with Mike Royko and following along with Eric Zorn, and I'd often make fun of whatever piece that was on his head that he probably bought from the same place James Traficant shopped. However, he was an institution there, and the paper does lose one of its most distinctive voices in a controversial way.

I'm not sure Greene deserved to be fired (he officially resigned, but you get the picture), although his ethics in this instance were very much in question. However, this isn't an R. Kelly situation, the girl was of legal consent. And it does sound somewhat that this relationship took place after he finished reporting on her for a column way back in the day, although it is definitely frowned upon to be taking advantage of such a situation in a personal manner. Plus this happened while he was married (but for some reason in this case, it has little importance professionally although it's a huge thing morally). I still don't know the details about what the woman wants now out of this situation, if anything, so that remains to be seen. But in the case of a nationally known columnist who's written about family, children and other such issues along with his myriad topics over the years, it puts him under a much bigger microscope and stuff like this can take him down.

While catching this funny but average movie last night, it dawned on me that the Farrelly Brothers actually are vastly underrated when it comes to their movie soundtracks. I guess most people are distracted by the sick sight gags and such to notice the music. If you're looking for just slightly off the mainstream pop, the Farrellys are good for that. They're also solid with '70s stuff -- the Outside Providence soundtrack was just a collection of '70s pop/rock stuff.

In Me, Myself and Irene, there are a couple of decent tracks by Pete Yorn and Wilco, not to mention some Steely Dan covers, including "Do It Again" by Smash Mouth. (How many covers have they done for movies anyways? I smell a question brewing there.) Kingpin featured Freedy Johnston, whose "Bad Reputation" from about '95 or '96 I liked a lot. There's Something About Mary had Jonathan Richman in a funny recurring role, not to mention resurrecting "Build Me Up Buttercup" from the scrap heaps of the oldies stations. Shallow Hal wasn't as memorable music-wise, but it did feature Lucinda Williams and Cake, not to mention a fun tie-in with "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)."

One heck of a first weekend for the NFL, even if it was spoiled a little bit by that ridiculous opening ceremony concert, etc. in New York. I wonder if I really think having DirecTV and Sunday Ticket is worht my time since I'm already flipping like mad between the two games going on, never mind the 8-10 early games at once. Besides, it's better to have all of the numbers in front of me, no matter how slow the Web sites were updating them early (still hard to simulate so many people logging in to check box scores for fantasy purposes).

I won't bore everyone with all of my fantasy teams, but I will say it seemed fortuitous that I have Charlie Garner and Marty Booker on a bunch of them.

And in between it all, it was fun watching Agassi and Sampras slug it out again in the U.S. Open finals. For some reason, that match was more compelling coming in, no matter how many times they faced each other, compared to the Williams sister final, which is actually becoming very repetitive with four of the last Slam finals being the two.

It's so wrong, it's right
Well it looks like Salon had the same idea I had, given I had and still have some strange reactions and feelings about 9/11. And a First Person account in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution does reflect more people's views about this than you might believe. Hopefully this will be one of very few posts on the subject as the anniversary approaches.

First, the "proper" reactions: I was stunned by the whole thing, and knew it would be absolutely crazy at the office, if not for us, but for the rest of the company. There was lots of confusion whether we should've been there at work or gone home. I was worried for friends and relatives in New York and Washington that day but got word reasonably quickly that everyone was OK, and that I was fine as well. I ate up the CNN coverage, and being very impressed with new superstar hires Aaron Brown and Paula Zahn stepping up big time in their first considerable time on air for the network. I was very curious to see what non-news cable networks were doing that day (switching to other news feeds, altering schedules, going off the air or status quo). I was doing a lot of thinking about how the media was covering the day -- although from the perspective of covering a true disaster, as opposed to all the causes, etc. that would come up later (and is/was good or bad, depending on your point of view. The book of newspaper front pages from 9/11 and 9/12 by the Poynter Institute is an amazing collection.

Now the "improper" reactions: I was thinking of all those people who hate New York who might've rejoiced in seeing the towers attacked and seeing something bad happen to the city. (That attitude probably comes from dealing with anti-New York fans, especially those against the Yankees.)
-- Thinking how many people not living in New York would've cared less about the attacks (and having that indignant "Nooo York City???" bit from the Pace Picante ads swirling in my head). The fact that three of the planes originated in places other than New York probably debunked some of that.
-- All of those people screaming about a New York bias in the media (tangentially related to the anti-New York sports stuff): The instant images generated by local news helicopters, plus the dispatching of tons of reporters trying to get the many facets of the events that day doesn't happen in most places. Obviously everyone felt the impact of the events in some way or another, but the depth and urgency was felt a lot more because, oh yeah, it happened in the main base of the media. (Compare that to Oklahoma City, for instance.) Somewhat related to the New York media bias -- How come New York is getting all of this attention? What about the folks at the Pentagon or those who died in central Pennsylvania? Damn New York bias again.

I guess a lot of my reaction comes down to this: Many people despise New York in some way because of the power it wields over the rest of the country in different ways. And yet everyone seemed to run to its aid and give its sympathy (and continue to do so today) after the attacks. Hmm, this could be a lot like unhappy employees rallying around a tyranical boss after he suffers a heart attack or some other major illness/injury and then still kissing up to him when he returns, even though he's pretty much the same SOB he's always been.

I'm always finding new and different things with my cable that actually please me (although if I had my way, I'd probably have done satellite by now). In this case, it's the expansion of the digital music channels at the end of the dial. They've actually spun off the '80s channel into a separate New Wave channel, which really rocks (although I guess it depends on how much you really want to hear The Smiths, Depeche Mode, etc.). They've also got the Party Favorites channel, which I suppose is just more mainstream dance-pop/hip-hop songs.

I'll admit I'm a product of commercial radio, although I'll also agree most of it today does stink, so it's fun to find other outlets that are still somewhat mainstream yet slightly off the beaten path. That my explain why one of my favorite radio programs is Organic X, which airs Sunday mornings on the local alt-rock station here. It's definitely softer than what normal alt-rock stations usually play, although they'll pluck out some of the "lighter" current hits, but has enough of an eclectic edge to it to make it something out of the ordinary, even for an "alternative" station.

I wonder if Charles Oakley would be proud of this setup job in California, especially when you consider the most important parts of this story are buried at the bottom -- almost like a surprise ending in a movie.

I won't pass too much judgment on Brits who can't spell because us Americans have problems doing so as well. When you read enough stuff, especially online, you come across some things that are down right annoying. So here are a few things that I come across a lot which are WRONG WRONG WRONG:

-- That championship game in the NFL is the Super Bowl. It says so on the ticket, program, etc. Not Superbowl. It ain't the game of steel, although there could be Steelers if you're lucky. The game got its name partly because of those other football bowl games like the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, etc.
-- Those things that Barry Bonds hits a lot of are home runs (two words). When contracted, they become homers (one word). Sure it's hard to figure out with the abbreviations and all.
-- When you don't win, you lose a game. You might play loose in losing the game. You can't loose anything, you can loosen something, though.
-- There is no such word as definately. You definitely need to check your spelling if you use definately in your writing. Think of it this way, have you heard of a defination of a word?

How a nondescript night becomes ridiculous
As a bunch of us returned to work from our annual office fantasy football draft, we get smacked in the face with a couple of big-time games that no one would've expected to draw much attention months ago. First off, the U.S. basketball team showed it is vulnerable after losing to Argentina. Baron Davis even admitted not taking them seriously. You have to wonder if USA Basketball will rethink its use of NBA stars, especially when many of the true superstars weren't there. Of course, the Americans could bounce back in the knockout round and absolutely clobber everyone now that they're mad (or should be).

As for that A's streak, it was impressive seeing them pile up the runs early, and just as astonishing seeing the Royals bounce back to come back from an 11-run lead. But to quote Alyson, an unabashed Royals fan, "They'll find a way to lose it." And they did it most dramatic fashion, although it was very spooky to see everyone pretty much expect Oakland pull it out in the bottom of the ninth after letting Kansas City tie it. You've got to wonder, though, if Billy Koch will blow up in the postseason with some of those blown saves and late-inning flare-ups that would eventually lead to the late dramatics. As much as it would be neat to see the A's set the major-league record (and there's a long way to go), you've got to think it ends during one of those games in Minnesota. Besides, despite this huge streak, Oakland still has a brutal schedule down the stretch.This only serves to keep them in the pennant race.

Baaaa...
When it comes to all of this blog and blog accessory stuff -- like the new guestmap on the left nav -- we're all just sheep. I saw the idea on Craig's site, then didn't follow up until Kristin did the copycat thing. And among all of the quizbowl folk, you could trace a family tree (or maybe it's a chronology) of blogs -- who started it when and who inspired others to start their own. It's fascinating and yet somewhat demented and sad.

A co-worker brought this up when talking about Distant Replays and the number of rap artists wearing vintage jerseys, hats featuring old logos, etc. How many of these guys actually know and/or appreciate what they're wearing or do they have them because they look cool? Hopefully there are some old-school basketball or baseball fans among them that can at least appreciate the kitschiness of some of these uniforms/logos or at least are familiar with the uniform of the player they're wearing. Honestly, do you think Bow Wow really knows about the SuperSonics and the hat he was wearing on Leno the other day?

I suppose all of this old-school stuff is much like all the rockers and rappers wearing hockey jerseys back in the day, which then spawned such abysmal products as hockey jerseys with the Yankees and Lakers logos. I guess in a few years, we'll see some artists wearing XFL stuff without any irony.