Where movies and sports collide, and I don't mean Seabiscuit
Unfortunately, Yahoo doesn't have an Oscar pool this year, but ABC has stepped into the fray, which makes sense as the network actually airing the damn thing. I've also got a couple of friends running pools, but I'll save them the trouble of having to deal with entries from people they've never heard from.

So will this new drink taste like Boo-Yah! or will you have the urge to drink it every hour on the hour from 6 a.m. until the middle of the afternoon? And will I be able to secure samples of this from my insider at the company?

Reality check
I was already sick of Dream Job before it even came on, but thanks to a lack of quality TV options, we got to see the train wreck not once, but twice. If I'm not a big fan of most of the current anchors, how is a show about people trying to be like them going to be any good.

The show really screamed Fraught, at least from the outset with Stuart Scott hamming it up even more than usual and the first three awful finalists each doing a set of highlights.

And talk about filling all the stereotypes of people trying to find a sports broadcasting job. The first three guys were a Missouri j-school student (lots of them around), a Stuart Scott wannabe crossed with Don "No Soul" Simmons, and a fat guy who I've wanted to slap since those ads started playing ad nauseum. Lots of forced references, bad flubs and general awkwardness from those guys. Tony Kornheiser nailed it with the fat guy, comparing him to Chris Farley doing a SNL skit about SportsCenter.

The panel was reasonably sharp, although Kit Hoover could fill in for Paula and LaVar Arrington (what the heck was he doing there anyway?) as Randy. Having the main ESPN talent guy was also a plus since they are hiring someone off the show for SportsCenter (while ESPNews guys like Michael Kim continue to wait their turn).

In between, they wanted to make use of the leftover 2-Minute Drill equipment from the studio, so they forced an identifcation quiz that made everyone long for the days of Hearsay.

Back to the contrived highlights and the reasonably solid contestants. There was the half-Asian/half-Jewish kid from Stanford who was sharp and could have a future. (He's my early pick to win it all.) After that was a girl from Chicago going to Brown who eerily looked a lot like Annika Sorenstam but seemed to hold her own. Finally, there was the comedian who figured ESPN needs even more funny guys who may or may not know sports.

The voting-off process was pretty straightforward, although I couldn't get on the site to cast my vote. It was funny that it came down to a special red phone tiebreak vote to eliminate Stuart Scott-lite. It's too bad we couldn't vote off the actual Stuart, or the worst anchor/reporter/special guest after each SportsCenter.

I am curious to see what else they're going to subject them after the first couple of weeks. They've already had them do highlights. I guess stuff like interviewing, reporting, doing ads for Tylenol or TGI Friday's, etc.

I suppose I'll watch a bit of next week just to see Ogre (or a hobbit, take your pick) try his hands at highlights. Thankfully, there will be other things on next Sunday (just that Oscars thing) to distract me.

One last note on this show. You wonder if anyone was giving out or reading copies of this book during the casting call?

And then we're going to Burninate California and Texas and New York. And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan ...
Surely, this couldn't be the first time Trogdor won elected office in an institution of higher learning. Of course, if this trend continues, would Strong Bad be considered on the same level as a Roger Ailes or James Carville as a campaign genius?

Back in college, a bunch of us ran a fake character for write-in votes for Northwestern's student government president. It had some legs for a couple of years, at least within our dorm, before being taken over by a more successful write-in candidate that actually blossomed into a winning campaign.

Jennys around the country can relax. Those eBay auctions have been canceled, although the one in Manhattan was going for more than $200,000.

By George
OK, which is scarier: That the Grill Man is coming out of retirement or that he has his own inspirational album?

The madness of King George Steinbrenner
Honestly, I'm still a bit numb over the fact that A-Rod is a Yankeee (with another photo to prove it). Of course, with this team, just about anything is possible, so it almost shouldn't be a surprise. Remember that The Onion even predicted the A-Rod trade last year (he's on the far right).

As a Yankee fan, it is great to see the move, although after a while it does feel a bit tiresome that they can get just about anyone they want. And it does create some ridiculous expectations. If they don't win the World Series, heads will roll, and it's worse if they're eliminated by a team like the Angels or Marlins from the past couple of years. Say what you will about teams like the Pirates or Tigers having no shot at the World Series already, how odd is it to think you've failed if you got to the Series and lost. (Only the Braves can say something similar.)

While this latest move makes even more people hate the Yankees, remember that they haven't won the World Series since 2000. Plus, those teams that won all of the World Series in the late '90s were created much differently than today's All-Stars at every position. There was a lot more of a team concept then. Sure, Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera were the superstars (and to a lesser extent Andy Pettitte), but could you really say the same about Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius or Paul O'Neill (solid players who showed up at the right time)? Joe Torre will have to use a different way to make this team work, otherwise it could be his last season in the Bronx, whether it's his choice or not.

Geez, Canada, like you really needed to encourage him. Let's see what Don Cherry has to say during Hockey Night.

I'm not sure why you'd want Jenny's phone number when you could buy Tommy Tutone's career for 10 bucks. Still, if you are the lucky winner of the number, you'd better get yourself a good answering machine to ward off all those curious callers.

Help wanted
Anyone in L.A. looking for a job? Maybe you'll like this one.

Gotta thank JD (happy 30th, BTW) for this article. I guess if he wanted to get back in the business, he could be an evil conductor, maybe have the inevitable roll of subway tokens as his secret weapon.

One bright spot to working the night shift is that there'll be nights (like tonight) where I'll get to see my favorite anchor muppet do the news. What's more fascinating is that Richard Quest either jars people in the middle of the night (when his regular show airs in the U.S.) or first thing in the morning (since his show is during European breakfast hour). Either way, you'd be scared to go to sleep since he'll find a way to infiltrate your REM cycles.

Here's your fantasy football
OK, so I only know of one person who watched the Lingerie Bowl, but somehow that's enough to form a league. That would mean L.A. would have no teams in the NFL, but entries in the Arena and Lingerie Leagues. At least they should have plenty of choices for players. I'd be interested to see who comes out for the Chicago team, though. And maybe we'll actually get nipples this time, especially if they're playing outside in Chicago or New York.

Further proof that anyone can be famous for little to no reason at all.

Dunk you very much
OK, so LeBron James won't be in the slam dunk contest. But what the hell is this guy doing there? This could have some humor value to it.

Embarrassment of niches
I'm both scared and intrigued that my cable digital music service now has blocks of '90s music on the Showcase channel. While each decade has plenty of disparate music that only shares a common timeframe, the '90s may have gone to the greatest extremes, especially among its biggest hits. And since radio got so specialized by the '90s, it's even more jarring to hear all these things at one. Within the time I was listening, I got some "superstar" artists of the decade (Pearl Jam, Nirvana, TLC, Notorious B.I.G, Mariah Carey), stuff stuck in the '90s but not bad (Fastball, Duncan Shiek, Savage Garden), and stuff from the early part of the '90s that you can hardly believe was part of the same decade (Londonbeat, Tara Kemp, Mr. Big, that Meat Loaf song). It will make for a freaky boxed set in a few years when Rhino decides to put one out: hmm, Ace of Base next to Soundgarden next to Whitney Houston next to Smashing Pumpkins next to Tupac.

But I leave it up to all of you. If you had to put together a CD that best covers the entire scope of popular/influential music '90s, what would be on it?

In the end, it doesn't really matter
The inevitable finally came yesterday with a number of my co-workers officially getting the ax after the company gave them their two-month notice. It was a very sad day, but I think they went out in style as we all got a chance to hang out for a few going-away drinks. Plus, we had a lot to talk about: Our new boss decided to send out his monthly report, talking about all the strides we made in January, minutes before a few people were going to shut down for the final time. Exquisite timing. Couldn't he have included it in the severance paperwork?

Now we've got a new world order with the way things are done down here, and that includes me moving back to the night/weekend shift on a full-time basis. Yes, it's not going to be the best thing in the world, especially after seeing the things my church group has planned in the next few months. I would complain about having little time to go out on dates with the new schedule, but it's not like I had much to begin with. Plus, there are some things that open up given what has just happened (I'll let those in the know figure out what I'm talking about -- let's just say not everyone was given a full sendoff last night).

On the positive side, I can hit matinees all the time now (if there's anything good to see at the movies) and get more errands done during the day (we'll see how long that lasts).

And to go along with my life as an f'd up sitcom, it seemed only fitting that last night was also the series finale of Ed. It ended on the same sweet and quirky level that was tone of the entire show. Naturally, it ended with Ed finally marrying Carol, but with a bunch of silly twists in between. And hey, Phil was actually not annoying in the finale; that would be left to Warren Cheswick.

The show had run its course, in my opinion, but it was good to see to NBC give it one last hurrah of a season, albeit reduced to 17 episodes. They weren't necessarily quitting while they were ahead, but I didn't feel like they were dragging things along for a few more seasons. There was no blatant "shark jumping" moments -- the writers found a way to make the Ed-Carol engagement a lot more interesting than I would've ever thought.

Now the show goes into minor TV history with a flicker of hope that it might show up somewhere on cable in a few years or on DVD like just about mildly successful TV show nowadays.

Super Genius
Not only is Regis back for Super Millionaire, so is the phone-in qualification. The tapings are at a bad time for me, but I may take a crack at the test for a few of those days.

I still think that the elimination of the phone game led to the demise of the show the first time around, more than the multiple airings and countless celebrity editions. Much of the fun of the game was that if you called and got the answers right on the phone, you could be on TV a few days later playing for the big money.

There was a lot more spontaneity to the whole endeavor, as opposed to the numerous game show auditions I've been to. There isn't any hoping a game show would hold tryouts in your town, there's no casting/interview process. You win, you could be in. It may not produce the most diverse crew, but if you're looking for "reality" TV, this is it.

Geography for $200

Yes, I'm giving in and posting one of those map things:



create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

I guess I've got the Blockbusters chain across, if barely. Surprisingly I haven't been to Alabama, given how close it sort of is to me right now. I'm thinking that will change sooner or later.

Also, it's interesting that we mention states on this map, because given the last couple of places I've lived, states aren't a true reflection of where I live, it's cities instead.

It's strange when people ask me, "So how's living in Georgia?" Yes, Atlanta is in Georgia, but I don't consider myself living in Georgia. There's a much different mentality from that area compared to say, Macon or Valdosta.

The same goes when I was in college and was living in Chicagoland. Yes, it's Illinois, but if someone asked me how it feels to live in Illinois, that's just odd. Springfield, Champaign or Kankakee is much different than that mass of land that covers the Chicago area.

Those are probably the two biggest exceptions to the city-state dynamic, but it's something to keep in mind. There isn't always the same attachment to a state like, say, New Jersey. And remember that even within states, there are different mentalities to people living there. Just think of the state of Northern California mentioned in this movie.

Phil Simms' favorite show
Yeah, the Super Bowl announcing crew probably cringed at all the promos they had to do for Survivor All-Stars, but it was a ton of fun as expected. It helps when you're already familiar with the characters, and Mark Burnett got the right mix of winners, entertaining characters and eye candy.

It's all so familiar (to at least reasonably regular watchers of the show) that you can't help but see how it will all unfold. It's fantasy or fan fiction Survivor come to life. And it's damn entertaining to get them all shaken up. Of course why all of these people wanted to do it again is beyond me. Some of them already have pseudo-careers based of the show, but hey, if they want to move the clock back to 14:45, more power to them.

I'm surprised that the Thailand show only produced Shii Ann, but hey, there's some diversity! Then again, I'm glad to see a bunch from the Australian one since that's the one I followed the most closely. I think the only one I didn't see on the cast who might not have been considered was Kelly from Africa, but I guess you can only have so many psycho women, and Jerri perfected it first.

And I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the past winners would be targeted first. At least I was right in thinking that Tina wouldn't have a long stay. Being nice can only go so far the second time around.

They're Super, thanks for asking
Going Larry King here with a bunch of Super Bowl observations:
-- Of course it was going to be a close game, and it's no surprise Adam Vinatieri was going to kick a game-winning field goal. That's the way the Patriots are. I figured it would be a close game and since we all expected a low-scoring game, of course it was going to turn out 32-39.
-- If both teams played offense the way they did tonight, they would've gotten a lot more respect much much earlier. And heads up to the Eagles, you don't need to have superstar receivers, but a few halfway decent ones would be nice. No one would confuse Smith-Muhammad or Branch-Brown-Givens with Holt-Bruce or Moss-Carter, but they're at least capable.
-- Speaking of the offense, it was surprising to see both teams stray away from their usual game plans yet still made it work. The Patriots did a lot more pounding on the ground, plus longer passes, as opposed to the "gnat attack." The Panthers abandoned the run but did fine with their receivers. (Did I mention how much I've been a fan of Ricky Proehl since he was with the Cardinals and would throw to him constantly on Madden for the SNES?)
-- I avoided almost all of the pregame stuff, except for the trashy-looking cowgirl dancers during Toby Keith's performance, and Josh Groban looking like this guy. Beyonce was a good anthem singer. I missed halftime -- figured it was the best time to drive home from work. Unfortunately, I missed this.
"It's unlikely that MTV will produce another Super Bowl halftime." -- Joe Browne, NFL executive vice president. Ya think?
-- TMQ will have a field day with both the blitzing (the Pats' big blitz led to Proehl's TD) and the two-point conversion strategy (which was dicey, but at least it was in the fourth quarter).
-- The ads were pretty dull, but Budweiser had a couple of nice ones (the wife screaming at the ref, for instance). But, AOL spent all that money on those ads?
-- Patriots fans, before you get all worked up about talking dynasties, remember how much you hate Yankees fans and how they act after they win. Do you really want to be like them?