Since Jerry Orbach finishes the latest trio of celebrity deaths along with Reggie White and Susan Sontag, are we obliged to find some disparaging comments Orbach made to use in his obit? (Dan's latest post just had me thinking that about that.)

While I'm home in New Jersey for a late Christmas, here's a bit from The Black Table about the Garden State from some guy who's from the same area as me (seeing his innate knowledge of certain exits -- thus getting back at all those "What exit?" jokes).

To follow up the Fountains of Wayne/NFL post comment from before, the band has the commercial available on its site. Enjoy.

I'm still not sure what VH-1 wants to be, especially since they keep trotting out more snarky attacks on music they might actually play and another I Love the '90s (yes, I'll watch, but aren't we really tapping the well dry at this point?).

However, in between all the shows that are telling their viewers are fat, I stumbled across John Mayer Has a TV Show, which turned out to be really damn funny. As he proves in this mish-mash of a variety show, he's not just that guy who writes all that "rock for chicks." In fact, he's just another goofy guy who can have a little fun by mocking his own fans. Then again, you knew he had a good sense of humor when he appeared on Chappelle's Show.

Strangest talk show sight in a while: Joe Buck, filling in on The Late Late Show before Mr. Wick (a.k.a. Craig 2.0) takes over, discussing marriage with Ludacris. At least this seems a bit more on the level than those interviews with Leon.

More snarkolepsy
What does it say about the VH-1 talking head and countdown shows that there's the 20 Most Awesomely Bad Songs of 2004 before I've seen any Top 20/50/100 countdown of the best songs of the year. And am I so out of it that tuning into the second half of the show that I only recognized about half of the songs?

Plus, what exactly merits you to be on one of these shows? Descriptors such as "writer/comedian" are a bit suspicious to begin with, but at least there's some facade of being in the entertainment industry, which is what's needed for these shows. But when one guy is listed as "writer/editor," well, dude, you might as well just get me to crack wise since that's my job. At least put a fake name for a magazine or blog, for crissakes. Otherwise, you'll be overrun with tons of young'uns at magazines throughout New York begging to get on the show.

Ad watch
Since I don't have a TiVo or similar device yet, not to mention that we don't have any at the office, I actually do subject myself to a lot of ads. Surprisingly, there are a few that are worth watching (or at least you don't mind getting drilled into your head from constant viewing):
-- I only caught it during the Jets-Steelers coverage (and not on any other NFL game Sunday), but the NFL Network just rose to the top of my list for using this most appropriate song featuring footage of just quarterbacks.
-- Not surprisingly, Office Max has a special site for its Rankin-Bass-inspired Rubberband Man holiday commercials. That's how you do the holiday ads right, unlike the Old Navy ones where you just want to smack those carolers.
-- Peyton Manning plays a pretty good goof at cheering on guys at regular jobs. "Cut that meat!" is now burned into my brain. But how do you play fantasy accounting?

A few rambles ...
-- I've already sent out a report to those who need to know about this place. I suppose I would've been dangerously close to the meat sweats, but the salad bar with some freakishly large vegetables can either save your or hurt you. Put it this way, if asparagus spears are roughly the size of a No. 2 pencil, these things were like the jumbo souvenir pencils you'll never use and are probably a pain to sharpen.

-- Just noticed Jeff Probst is wearing an Under Armour shirt during the promos for the Survivor finale. Will we hear cries of "We must protect this tribe!"?

-- I've never seen a film use meta as well as this one. The film was a fun ride, although there seemed to be too much pretzel logic and non-linear storytelling just for the sake of doing so. Plus, they made a couple of nice additions in Catherine Zeta-Jones (who looked amazing), Vincent Cassell (who looked like Quin Snyder) and Eddie Izzard (in men's clothing, for once).

-- Does Ed Hightower officiate every major college basketball game?

-- That NCAA Football 2005 can be very accurate. Going on a whim, I decided to lead UConn. Two seasons later, I was offered Notre Dame and took it; I was surprised that job was available so quickly. Cut to reality and the Huskies' Randy Edsall is trying to quash rumors of him going to the Irish. Go figure that I'd only be a year off.

-- There's a lot more all-Christmas stations than I'd ever imagined. It's also sad that WNEW went all Christmas last year, and now WPLJ is going that way now.

I don't have too much of a problem with it now in mid-December. It was a bit much when stations were going that way around Veterans Day. Plus, most of these stations play it way too safe with their selections. On the flip side, the local alt-rock station tosses in a few holiday nuggets that probably won't see the light of day on the other channels but probably should, like "Christmas Rapping" by The Waitresses. Just because it was released in the past 20 years doesn't mean it's not suitable for all audiences.

Another Trashmasters has come and gone, and it was another fun experience, although I guess I was slightly disappointed in not reaching the K-Tel Hell finals (damn you, Foreigner -- guess I needed Carl's belt), but our team did relatively well with a fourth-place finish that we sealed only by rallying from a 310-145 deficit with five questions remaining to win by 10 points. That was a rush, especially since it came against a bunch of regulars I've both played with and against.

Something a couple of people mentioned independently this weekend is how much this tournament (more than most other trash events) is like a family reunion. Not only do we have a handful of teams from the area always playing, but we bring a regular contigent from Michigan, DC, Chicago, Wichita, Boston, etc. every year, not to mention folks from New Mexico, California and Minnesota from time to time. (BTW, nice to see you take the Trashmasters plunge, Brian.)

It's nice to see all sorts of people, and then play some intense, yet fun competitions with one another. I think that's why a lot of the trashy competitions retain some many veteran players and hopefully draw in newer ones -- there's a sense that we're all in this together for some fun and fellowship (as strange as that sounds). Besides, how else to explain why people would spend lots of time and money to travel to Chattanooga to play an intense competition where the prizes were taken from the best discount racks. Remember, we actually think it's plausible that everyone's favorite Jeopardy! guy might actually play one of our tournaments soon despite all the fame and fortune he's won this year; not to mention, the former all-time game show money winner was reading the above-mentioned crazy comeback match.

Buzz, buzz
I got some nice seats (just a couple of rows behind the scouts and media) for Georgia Tech's obliteration of Michigan in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, although I missed the banner ceremony trying to find decent parking near the arena, which seems impossible when you also mix in regular rush-hour traffic.

The Yellow Jackets moved the ball nicely around the floor, and they were unconscious from the floor, nailing threes left and right. Michigan may be good, but Tech is amazing, especially during a 20-0 run in the first half that brought out my inner Vitale on a couple of sweet shoots.

What's even more interesting is that while there were a bunch of scouts on hand, I can't really see anyone on Tech, as good as they are, be a huge contributor on the NBA level. I can't put my finger on it, and I hope I'm wrong, but instead I see a bunch of solid players who work well as a team as opposed to individuals.

Oh yeah, there were some "A-C-C" and "Big Ten sucks" chants during the game, but even Big Ten followers could tell you that the ACC was going to clean up. Remember, Duke and Wake drew big games in Michigan State and Illinois, respectively. But North Carolina and Tech, among the top 10 in the country got matched up with Indiana and Michigan, respectively, but both would've been good games about 10 years ago. (At least Northwestern didn't draw Florida State again, and Virginia is at least interesting.) In fact, during one of the preseason tournaments, the ESPN guys flashed the preseason first team All-ACC and All-Big Ten squads -- it was no contest for the ACC. They also matched the ACC second and third teams with the Big Ten first team, and it was still no contest.

It's all over
Well, Ken's run on Jeopardy! is over -- and now the show's ratings can level off (at least after tomorrow to see how the new champion does).

Obviously, Final Jeopardy did him in, but he seemed slightly reckless on the Daily Double bets that hurt him going into the final. Plus, Nancy seemed to beat Ken on plenty of the higher-value clues, which at least put her in striking distance of the win. And, it was a bit aggravating (and I'm sure many sports-types will be snickering) watching everyone flub the sports venues category, which everyone avoided like the plague.

Still, it was fun while it lasted, and I'm kicking myself for not watching Nightline's coverage of it, since Ken wasn't going to be on Letterman until the last segment of the show (instead, I had to sit through Alec Baldwin and a Top Ten list from Kurt Busch, who really doesn't look like a typical NASCAR driver -- in fact, he probably could've been a teammate of Ken's on the quizbowl circuit).

And in the end, it did seem a bit anticlimactic since everyone knew it was coming for a while. It was just a matter of how (which I didn't know until actually watching it -- partly so I could witness it myself, and partly because those who knew kept it secret).

Now, if he actually shows up this weekend in Chattanooga, that would be one cool "victory lap," so to speak, especially since a couple of other Jeopardy! high rollers will be playing. And I'm pretty sure Kevin Olmstead will be around as well as a reader. Way too much game show money flying around some dingy classrooms at UTC. Then again, we could be repeating the process in Pittsburgh in April.