Fun time-wasting links
-- Back in the Hall of Initech ...
-- You deserve a bathroom attendant today.
-- Yup, we're always thinking about it, even when playing seemingly harmless video games. Let's blame Ring King for all of this.

We do the mash
My friend Rodney wrote about the mashup craze in the AJC today, but the plus about this column is that there are some links to a bunch of places to download lots of mashups. One good place is my local alt-rock station that seems to have replaced "Mandatory Metallica" with a "Mandatory Mashup" at 8 p.m.

And oh yeah, Rodney is right, the mashup of "In Da Club" and The Benny Hill Show theme song is a riot.

Channeling my inner Safire
When looking at Matt's recent thesis/antithesis post, it dawned on me that the somewhat derisive term to describe one half of the debate (or could be construed that way) isn't limited to the thesis or antithesis.

In the baseball debate, scouts are just that -- scouts. But for the number crunchers, "statheads" is a common term, and that can be looked at in a couple of ways.

In the media debate, bloggers are that -- bloggers. But today "mainstream" is now often construed as a bad thing, especially when it comes to media. Mainstream music, movies and news all mean it's for geared for a large audience, and therefore it must suck. If it's not serving a niche, it must be bad. (But I guess it plays to the general feeling on both sides of the debate that "people are stupid.")

And in another language bit, I always wondered when tolerance was considered such a bad word that people would rather have zero of it, especially in schools. According to this piece, it's always been a less than positive word that can be spun in a brighter light if done correctly.

Songs in the key of suck
As if we needed more piling on the Grammys, here's another analysis piece from the AJC about how the awards stink. But a couple of things from that column and other leftover notes from the ceremony:
-- One thing this piece mentioned is the "gorgeous obscure records that didn't get nominated." Just a thought -- is a piece of music gorgeous because it's obscure?
-- On the other hand, would the AJC give that much love to "Yeah!" if it wasn't made by a bunch of guys with Atlanta ties? (And if you listen to the song on this station, you wouldn't even know Ludacris was on the record, and thus any jokes about "Urshur" would be lost.)
-- And one thing that I haven't seen anyone mention: If Ray Charles hadn't died last year, would he have gotten the nominations, much less any Grammys? From what people have said about the album, it's about on par with Frank Sinatra's Duets album, which spawned a great SNL skit but didn't win Album of the Year.

Wow ... I just realized that at work last night, my TVs were tuned to the two most irrelevant major entertainment and sporting events -- the Grammys and the Pro Bowl. Heck, this event that I was watching on CBC around 1 a.m. was more compelling.

Just wondering ... Is being anti-romantic on Valentine's Day so hip that it's unhip? Three of the stations I listen to here in town had their lunch hours dedicated to being against the sentiment of the day -- at least two of them played this song (meaning that for at least one day out of the year, there really is another J. Geils Band single not about photography).

I thought it was a bit of overkill, then I turned on VH-1 Classic and saw that Brian McKnight was playing the Casey Kasem role of running video dedications. And some of the other stations were laying on the romance pretty think. Finally, I realized that some of the stations I usually tune into have a heavily male demographic, while some of the others are targeted toward women; hence the difference in tone today.

By the way, I guess it's good that the New York Times is running marriage announcements. Otherwise, we might not have seen this interesting pairing. At least one Texas-based wrestling champ seems to be settling down the right way.

With pitchers and catchers reporting soon, we'll hear even more about baseball's version of red vs. blue states -- traditionalists vs. statheads). But before the debate gets too heated, be sure to check out this post from John Sickels' blog about uniting the two sides.

The best line is probably this:
The key to good judgment about anything is avoiding hubris. Never assume you have all the answers. Never let your ideology, whatever it is, trump good judgment.

I guess I've been beaten to the punch on reporting my own news, but I did pass my Jeopardy! audition (after failing the last two times I took the test) and think I did OK with my interview, even bringing up this article and subsequent interview with this place.

For what it's worth, there were about 50 people in my audition slot, including one guy from Athens State who I'd read for last week in Chattanooga, but only six of us went on to the next step. I actually think finding someone else I knew (and could relay information about the whole process) calmed me down a bit, so I wasn't trying desperately to plug major holes in my knowledge base.

The highlight of the tournament at UTC today had nothing to do with any quiz questions, instead it was seeing all the "Ann Coulter for Mayor" signs. No, not her, but her. I think a few teams picked up a sign or two along the way.

But maybe an even weirder sharing of the same name in similar arenas is this Bill Simmons who just won the infamous Wing Bowl, and that occasional I Love the '90s contributor.

Whoa, Canada
Forget about the old Dysfunctional Family Circus, this blog gets snarky on everyone's favorite preachy Canadian comic strip.

And speaking of Canadian pop culture, Kevin Smith gets to crash Degrassi and even snuggle with one of the original cast members. Forget the Next Generation, where's the DVD of the original series? Kevin Smith and I aren't the only ones who liked the show, right?

Cookies are bad for you
Well, the kids may have been out a bit late delivering unsolicited cookies, but an anxiety attack and a lawsuit coming out of it?

I think the key bit in the article was this: "... perhaps they were burglars or some neighbors she had tangled with in the past." Seems to say a lot about her, huh?

I got a fever ...
It's nice to see that Blue Oyster Cult are such good sports about the famous cowbell sketch.

That also reminds me that I need to do more work on a cowbell compilation, although Jeremy has done a good job with a great mix on his iPod.