You gotta start somewhere
I know it can't be time for people to start summer jobs, especially when I see a ton of back-to-school sales already (way to spoil some kids' summers in mid-July!), but I guess it is time for people to go after "regular" jobs after being served twice by trainees/working interviewiees today.

Seeing one trainee, especially in sales, is nothing new -- it was fun to get the team treatment as they were selling me a new cell phone. But being the guinea pig for someone interviewing for a hygienist job was a bit strange -- although all it meant was that she followed the script a lot more closely, which isn't a bad thing.

Of course with seeing this stuff, it makes me feel better that I've been doing what I've been doing for so long and not having to start completely from scratch.

Remember me?
Got a note recently from an old friend who stumbled across this site thanks to a good old Google search (at least it's better than the one search that's been dominating my hit counter lately). So if she happens to stumble across this post, hello again.

With that said, it's funny how the World Series of Poker has somehow brought out some vestiges of my past despite the fact that I'm very late to the party. While looking over the early updates and the other bracelet winners, I came across this guy who probably is related in some way to a friend from college (it will especially be a kick for those NU people from my time who read this blog).

And since I'm not that plugged into the poker community, I had no clue that this infomercial star of the early '90s was now a high-stakes player and was eliminated along with Greg Raymer and Phil Ivey on Day 6 of the Main Event. I'd really be interested to see how much air time he'll get on ESPN's coverage. It now really has me thinking what those "three little words" are.

All in
Like seemingly everyone else, I've picked up the poker bug, although not as intently as many of my friends -- I haven't read any books, still don't much about strategy, etc. And I'm definitely not competing in the World Series, like a couple of quizbowl colleagues (both eliminated in Day 1C).

However, it has been interesting following along with the action, something I would never had considered even last year. We have one guy covering the action on our site, and Fox Sports has some good stuff as well. But I've discovered Card Player has some great up-to-the-minute information on the action -- especially the big names who have been knocked out. (As I write this, Chris Moneymaker has been knocked out -- just hours after watching the 2003 WSOP final table on ESPN Classic.)

Which gets me to the most compelling part of this year's World Series Main Event, is that the 5,619 competitors are truly a mixed bag of personalities. There are tons of guys like Nate and Fred hoping to follow the Moneymaker or Greg Raymer path from anonymity to poker stardom. They're sitting next to ]and lasting longer than legends of the game (some of whom were famous even before there was poker on TV 24/7).

And while you have the "famous for playing poker" people and the "want to be famous for playing poker" folks, there are the "we're famous and we're playing poker" celebrities. Looking over the photo wires at work and keeping up with the WSOP logs, among the celebrities competing include Jennifer Tilly (who won a WSOP bracelet), James Woods, Mimi Rogers, Tobey Maguire, Brad Garrett, Wil Wheaton, Shannon Sharpe, Shannon Elizabeth and Anna Benson. It's a bit jarring for me to see this because I've also seen a bunch of them on Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown and all of a sudden they're in the Main Event. It seems akin to the Rock-n-Jock or NBA Celebrity league players all of a sudden suiting up for the Pistons, or the old Battle of the Network Stars competitors heading to the Olympics. (Although I guess Gabe Kaplan did move from BotNS to the WSOP, but that's another story.)

Finally, while it really isn't strange that there's a ton of coverage on the World Series these days, what is odd is that the stuff I'm keeping up with right now won't be on ESPN until later this fall. (Their 2005 WSOP coverage does start next week with some satellite tournaments earlier this year.) In a way, it's like Jeopardy! or WWTBAM? in that the winners will have known for months that they've won all this money -- except that now we all have access to when you actually win, unlike the vow of secrecy that surrounds the game shows. And despite it all, the ratings for those shows (especially the Main Event ones) will probably be through the roof -- very strange for something for which we'll have known the results for months.

It's not like ESPN Classic where we want to relive an old game we've seen before, this stuff will be new for lots of people -- but with months of lag time. I would say that it's the antithesis of today's live sports culture especially in Bristol, but then again, the Olympics still often works on the tape-delay system for many events (often to squeeze in profile pieces -- like ESPN does for the WSOP) and grabs big ratings. I wonder if whoever gets to the air the NHL after the lockout will try a similar system of extended time-shifting to increase ratings?

Musical toots
For those interested, the top 1,000 alternative music countdown will be replayed starting Monday and run every day between 10 a.m. and midnight until it's over. The original countdown ran 24/7 over the July 4th weekend, and the top 100 started as I was coming home from work on the 4th, so I'm sure a lot of people would like to hear it during normal hours. For those not in Atlanta, you can listen online.

I've also come across a couple of other interesting musical lists as well. One is a 150 song journey through the 50 states via Minnesota Public Radio. The other is the 13 most overrated songs of all time -- many with which I actually agree, oddly enough.

I spent a good part of the July 4th weekend listening to the Top 1,000 countdown on the local alt-rock station. Timing was weird because they weren't too sure when it was going to end (after starting on Thursday evening). It ended up finishing about 11:30 a.m. on the 4th, then did a replay of the top 50 later in the day since the bulk of the top songs would've aired in the middle of the night/early morning on a holiday.

It's an interesting list, and supposedly driven by listener votes, which may or may not explain some of the placement of some of the songs. The last part of the lineup (about the top 50 or so) seems like a "standard" list for top alternative songs ever, but it gets very random trying to figure what should go at 544 or 219 or 930. (For instance, how is "Everybody Hurts" ranked behind "Your Woman" or lots of other random bits like that.) I do know that they did one last potshot at The Darkness by putting them at No. 1,000.

I'd be interested to see your comments about the list. It did make for some fun listening because of utter randomness of it, plus the resurrection of songs that haven't been played on the station in a few years.

While I'm on a roll with posts here ... It's good to see radio stations actually opening up their library a little bit with a Top 1,000 countdown. I've heard plenty of Top 500 Classic Rock countdowns in my time, but a Top 1K alternative one has actually been a pretty fun listen since it covers as much ground as any classic rock one. I'll post the list when the station puts it up next week. (Maybe it will make for some fun wagering at the July 4th BBQ -- much like I used to do at school around Memorial Day.)

As many of you know, I own a lot of baseball caps (although I don't necessarily wear them as much as I used to), but I think I've discovered that outside of a couple of my favorite teams, I'm more drawn to the novelty of getting stuff of teams I wouldn't see anywhere else. Hence, that's why I have a bunch of minor-league caps and retro caps (thanks to Distant Replays).

It hit me this week in California when my brother was looking around for some stuff of L.A.-based teams at WalMart. He ended up with $5 hats of USC and Chivas USA, while I went more coastal and got Gonzaga, Washington State and San Diego State. Granted, the $5 price tag each was too hard to pass up -- but I also realized that if confronted with the same deal at a WalMart down here, I don't know if I'd be as quick to jump on, say, Florida State or Tennessee. (Or for that matter, other Big Ten school besides Northwestern; on the other hand, a former co-worker and Penn State alum made it a point to have a hat from each conference foe, so to each his own.)

Who knew I could be such a snob for scarcity and uniqueness? Could that be the reason that I'd be more likely wear a Rome Braves or Myrtle Beach Pelicans hat to an Atlanta Braves game than an actual Braves one?

Oh yeah, after a bit of recovery from a long flight back from Ontario (nice and convenient to get to if you live in that part of the area, but hell to fly to if you're not in the West), I ended up having to crank out this NBA Draft/fantasy impact piece finding a way to sneak in the fact that the newest Laker is from my high school.

Another California adventure
Spent last weekend out in California for a family reunion on my maternal grandmother's side, reprising the successful get-together from three years ago. But we got to see a bit more this time around.

This time, we were closer to civilization the whole time, forgoing the mountain cabin for a park just down the street from Santa Anita Park (although there was no racing that weekend). In fact, the town of Arcadia where we stayed was an interesting mashup of chain restaurants galore and "real" homegrown businesses in downtown. It seemed a bit odd to me that there were walkable towns in the L.A. suburbs, but there they were.

The trip itself was moderately memorable in that we were all going to connect in Houston for our flight to Ontario on Thursday night, but my parents and brother nearly missed the connection because of issues getting out of Newark. They did make it, although I was having flashbacks to when a former co-worker (who was also supposed to drive us around town) nearly missed a flight we were booked on to Chicago because he got caught up in security. It's good to travel in groups, except when the person with a lot more idea of what's going on misses the flight.

We had plenty of time on our hands Friday during the day before the reunion officially kicked off, so my parents and I started by a little driving around downtown L.A. after dropping off my brother for an appointment at USC. I finally got to see the L.A. Coliseum up close (the parking/traffic schemes have to be hell), and we drove by the Staples Center, Dodger Stadium, and the Bonaventure Hotel, prominently featured in this film. We also saw the Cathedral, which didn't look like it from street level. That was the extent of the actual city of L.A. tourist experience, which wasn't half-bad for ad libbing in the morning while waiting for my brother.

Later we met my mom's godmother, which was really nice, and I started to wonder if my goddaughter would try to track me down years from now. (FWIW, my godmother lives in the L.A. area as well, but didn't get a chance to meet this time around.)

Friday night came the reunion itself, which was good as always, seeing a lot of familiar faces (some armed with new or older kids) and meeting some new ones, which included a handful of cousins from London -- complete with the British accents. They were pretty cool and very excited to be in the U.S. actually meeting other members of the family. The accents also threw off the Filipino stand-up comic who performed and naturally brought down the house. After some bonding over drinks Friday night, it was off for part two on Saturday.

For part two, we went to another part of the park for all the basic picnic-type activities that included me actually doing a halfway decent job at horseshoes. Later on in the day, a bunch of us started an impromptu poker tournament. And somehow all that time playing online poker paid off as I was the last man standing and came away with $110. Still trying to figure out how I won, but I don't think you'll be seeing me at the World Series anytime soon, though. There was more reunion stuff Sunday and I ended up with a ton of macadamia nut-based foods thanks to my cousin who lives in Hawaii and brought a ton of that stuff stateside for prizes.

Starting Sunday night, I really started to get a good feel for how massive Southern California is driving-wise. While my brother did all the driving, I did much of the navigating for a side trip to San Diego to visit a couple of my dad's friends Sunday night. A mad criss-crossing of the Southland came on Monday that included a trip to the Reagan Library, a stopoff at the Rose Bowl, shopping for Filipino pastries and then visits to an aunt's house and cousin's place before taking the red-eye back to Atlanta (and thus reprising my Jack Bauer travel/sleep schedule ... just picture Kiefer having to chase around an 18-month-old or looking at Clippers t-shirts at WalMart).

It was a fun weekend for sure, and I'm already looking forward to the next get-together, probably in another three years -- this time in San Diego. I'm thinking there will be a lot more changes (especially among us young adult-aged folks) when that comes around. But for now, I guess I'll see a few more of them at a wedding next month in Canada.

Joe had an interesting bit about Joe Namath being the most overrated player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which actually few people will dispute given his career numbers.

But it got me thinking, with the way people throw around numbers (especially when it comes to baseball), that one day will there be an official "statistical" Hall of Fame for the different major-league sports?

For instance, Hideo Nomo reached the Meikyukai, a Japanese version of a stats hall of fame, earlier this week after winning his 200th combined game between Japan and the U.S. (They also have a "traditional" Hall based on voting.) And the LPGA has a stats-based criteria for entry into their Hall of Fame.

Would going completely to numbers make a Hall of Fame fairer? I suppose it would remove bias (other than from the group determining the statistical milestones) from the selection process, but how do you measure less tangible attributes like charisma, leadership and historical significance (outside of numbers).

Now that I've started getting nostalgic about ECW, I might as well bring out the video that showed how my buddies could incorporate wrestling angles into student government.

The hardcore nostalgia gap closes in
If a nationally-known retro radio show can have a '90s edition, I suppose we can also be very nostalgic for a wrestling organization that reached its peak about 7-8 years ago and where many of its members are still very active today.

Yes, I ordered the ECW PPV, the first time I've watched a wrestling PPV, never mind order one, in a long while. But when I heard about this event, I was more than happy to find out I was going to be off that evening so I could watch it -- and had JD over to see the festivities. It seemed like the "olden days" of oh, 1996. Not only was the action pretty solid, a handful of the shoot interviews were spectacular, which then prompted the crowd to react in kind.

It was a great show, but I also hope that it lives up to the name of "One Night Stand." While I enjoyed watching the old guys back for another go-around, it seems like it's best appreciated now in short bursts instead of trying to spin it off into a real organization again. I think it'll be hard to match the emotion and passion of this revival on a regular basis. (Plus, you can't be having the Oscar-like "those we lost" montage on regularly, can we?)

Besides, it would take a lot to get some of these guys back into shape, because honestly, some of them just didn't look all that good. On the other hand, bringing these guys back at this time worked better for the combined nostalgia/revival/reunion aspect than the gimmick battle royale at Wrestlemania a few years back.

But it was nice to be "hardcore" for a few hours at least. Now where's that cheese grater?

Everybody's free to steal sunscreen
Oddly enough, I believe this edition of Rhymes With Orange was produced long before this principal was caught plagiarizing two graduation speeches -- including the famous sunscreen speech written by Mary Schmich just days before my own college graudation in 1997. (I've mentioned this before, but I posted that column on the Trib's Web site -- just not in the format linked above -- during my brief internship there.)

While there's usual amount of hand-wringing and "everyone's plagiarizing, so what" reactions, it was interesting to get Mary's reaction to her work being attributed to yet another person besides herself. I am curious that someone could pass that particular speech off as his or her own given it was turned into a book, there was that Kurt Vonnegut urban legend, and last but not least, the Baz Luhrman song which originally reminded me that of the column in the first place.

Then again, awareness of pop culture isn't everyone's cup of tea, as evidenced by the confusion brought about when Napoleon Dynamite invaded the National Spelling Bee.

The music update
A few disjointed thoughts only connected by musical notes:
-- While at Friday's Braves game, I passed by this guy, which was only a surprise because he was in the upper deck with a few kids and other friends. But no one seemed to bother him, so maybe being up there was a good thing.
-- I'm now part of the iPod world, and now I'm wondering how quickly I'll fill up the 20GB model I've got.

A couple of more notes on the JACK radio format that's now taken hold in Chicago and New York (replacing the beloved WCBS-FM):
-- Eric Zorn over at the Chicago Tribune has a somewhat ambivalent take on the loss of the oldies station there. I guess like Atlanta, the "good times and great oldies" turned into something a bit repetitive. Nuking the format isn't the way to go, but that's the way a lot of radio types think.
-- Speaking of JACK (which in theory is an OK idea), there's now JILL radio? So what exactly makes that broader than a lite-FM station? At least HANK-FM makes some sort of sense -- all country, all time periods.
-- And linking this back to my new iPod -- if JACK were really like my iPod on shuffle, it wouldn't just be classic rock + pop/alternative rock. I'm as middlebrow and mainstream as they get, but even I have a bit more eclectic tastes than even a JACK station can muster. Just thinking of a few songs off the top of my head -- would a station play Lil Jon, Yes, Morrissey, Cameo and a mashup of In Da Club and the Benny Hill theme song in a row?

Finally, I guess I could've easily predicted a very rainy weekend, given it was Music Midtown, which was moved from early May to early June to avoid weather. Whoops.

24-hour quizbowl people

The following takes place between Noon Friday and 3 p.m. Monday …

I knew this weekend was going to turn into a cross between Insomniac and 24, given the very quick turnaround between the end of my shift Friday night and my very early Saturday morning flight to Chicago for the NAQT high school nationals. But in the midst of the trip, an episode of Airline got tacked on.

After a usual night at work that ended at 2 a.m., I did kill off a couple of hours at a couple of places before an early-morning stop at Waffle House en route to the airport. (Typical Dave Attell-type stuff.)

The tournament itself was, in the Donald's terms, "yuuge" with 96 teams and nearly 500 players (makes giving all-star awards to the top 10 scorers seem a lot more meaningful). It was also good seeing most of the usual suspects, some old foes from my undergrad days and matching names to faces of other people I've been meaning to meet. Oh yeah, I got to hang out for a little bit with $5 million moderator team of Ken Jennings and Kevin Olmstead as well.

I did wonder how they were going to fit 96 teams when there were only about 20 ballrooms and meeting rooms at the hotel. The answer: Converting nearly an entire floor of hotel rooms into game rooms by replacing beds with tables. You usually don't find a need to fit at least 10 people into a regular-sized double, and now we know why. (On the other hand, it wasn't much worse than my Myrtle Beach experience that involved squeezing everyone into an empty administrative office.)

You could call some of this the most boring episode of 24 ever since much of it was just spent reading questions and hanging out with people between rounds. On the other hand, that's what everyone, except Jack Bauer, seems to do during those 24 hours, so maybe just I'm just one of those revolving-door analysts, but unlike Chloe, didn't have a need to fire a gun at a charging assassin.

Saturday night, there was a side trip (just down the street to the former Rosemont Horizon) to see Game 2 of the Calder Cup Finals between the Chicago Wolves and Philadelphia Phantoms. It was nice to see some future Thrashers such as Kari Lehtonen for Chicago (and oddly enough, the Panthers' top prospect Jay Bouwmeester), but it was a sloppy, penalty-filled game that makes you long for the NHL if you cared to miss it. Philly won in the second overtime (we left after the first one).

The finals of the tournament on Sunday were an interesting sight to see as eventual champs Thomas Jefferson (who had slaughtered everyone the whole weekend) negged 10 times and still won the whole thing. Then they challenged a bunch of moderators to a match. With much of the quality moderator corps having written most of the questions, finding those blind to the question were few and far between. I thought I would've been drafted to play (meaning they'd really scraped the bottom of the barrel). But I had a flight to catch -- or so I thought.

My mid-afternoon flight Sunday was delayed when I got to O'Hare. No big deal, I thought. Just more time to grab something to eat (the Billy Goat Tavern has a stand at the airport -- same attitude and so-so food as the original place). But then came a second delay, then the official cancellation about the time the original flight would've landed in Atlanta. Thus came the mad dash from the gate to the United customer service center where my agent seemed to treat it as if everyone had just missed their flight and told us to go standby for the final flight of the day. However, whereas the canceled flight was on a 737, the last flight was on a modernized Buddy Holly plane. It's not a good sign when the gate agent says your chances of getting on are "very slim." Eventually I got a voucher to stay at an O'Hare area airport and got a standby seat on a late morning flight (instead of an early afternoon one I was rebooked on) and finally getting back home about 18 hours later than I expected. The one time I don't fly Delta or AirTran, and this is what I get.

Oh yeah, my cell phone died in the midst of this, but finding an outlet in the terminal was like trying to find the needle in the haystack. Now I know how cool it is that at least one terminal at the Atlanta airport has a bank of outlets designed for people to recharge cell phones and laptops.

Zoom, zoom, va-voom
Great line from some sports radio guy about Danica Patrick's impressive showing at the Indy 500: "I always wondered what happened to Winnie Cooper."

You sure Puddy wasn't responsible?
If you're looking for reasons why we so many corporatized, bland or the singular-type team nicknames, maybe you blame this guy, who says wants the New Jersey Devils to change their name -- despite the fact that it doesn't refer to Satan, but rather a state legend that I would learn about in social studies class just after the team took to the ice.

I still remember the contest to name the team, and god forbid had the Meadowlanders been chosen as the nickname.

What is interesting is the state politician proposing the name change represents the district where the new arena will be built. Wonder if it's an early "We really don't want you here" type of talk.

A bunch more assorted thoughts and links (as I develop a pattern of not developing any regularity to these postings) ...

• The streaming audio file of The Shins mini-concert I attended at the local radio station is available for downloading.

• Is Atlanta required to have a kooky criminal on the lam seemingly every month? First, it was the Fulton County courthouse shooter, then the runaway bride and now the fugitive on the crane. Any guesses on what the next wacky criminal will be coming through here?

• With the flood of reality shows coming out this summer, I guess it's safe to say that the major outlets to catch missed episodes of favorite shows are on DVD or TiVo. Of course, many shows now lend themselves to watching it in order so as not to get confused (24, Alias, Lost); but there's still room for one-off shows that will work well in reruns and syndication, although most of them are variations of CSI or Law and Order.

• Speaking of the reality shows, there's celebrity versions of almost every TV competition, whether it be Jeopardy!, The Mole or bowling. But how in the world did they come up with celebrity ballroom dancing (featuring among others, Stacy's Mom, TV's J. Peterman and Evander Holyfield)? And what does ETC think of the whole thing?

• Saw Star Wars: Sith the other day. I'm not a big geek for the series, but I have seen them all and thought this was a good way to wrap up the prequel and lead to the trilogy we know well. It's better than the other prequels, but it's not saying much. I guess I really liked the darkness of the movie -- Order 66 was especially evil. That reminds me: How much was George Lucas inspired by real-life politics for this film?

• Now that he was dethroned in rather impressive fashion in the UToC, how well received will the KenJen board game and potential Comedy Central game show be?

• While many of us are saying that this photogenic young athletic star isn't the same thing as this one, remember that Anna seemed destined for success until we all started ogling her. We're just doing the double-admiring now to cover all our bases. That said, Indy becomes relevant for the first time in years.

A little catching up ...
Didn't realize until recently the last post was on the third anniversary of the start of this thing. Oh well, it comes, it goes, I continue to blather on.

I was home in New Jersey a couple of weeks ago, primarily to attend a wedding of a former two-time college roommate. Good times all around, and it was interesting meeting a few more people from the alma mater (the other set of friends from school). Also good to see Gobo and wife at the wedding, as well as Steve and Melissa.

Also saw The Producers on Broadway (that TKTS booth is actually not so bad if you're going just before the start of the Wednesday matinees). I also learned why I don't drive in Manhattan when I don't have to since it took me 2 1/2 hours to get from midtown out to my brother's place in Connecticut. It also seems weird when you say you got a great parking deal when you paid $11 for an afternoon.

Oh yeah, it's way early for football, but here's one of three mock drafts I've done the past few weeks. Hopefully that's it for a few more weeks, until the next set of magazines come calling. (Oh yeah, also met the rest of our New York staff on the trip -- I guess it's a positive that I match my mugshot; something you can't say about everyone.)

A few notes and observations before heading home to New Jersey ...
-- If you see some of those fantasy football magazines later this summer with my picture and picks in it, just realize that I'm providing some of the information it right now. I'm in the midst of three straight weeks of fantasy football mock drafts just a month into the baseball season.
-- I followed Greg's lead and downloaded this band quiz. Without resorting to researching yet, I've gotten about 130 of the 270 bands on the test so far. Eventually, I'll look up the answers.
-- Rob has a good review of Songs for Silverman. But one thing I noticed is that the first single, "Landed," sounds a whole lot like this song. As Craig put it, maybe it's a Carolina vibe going on. On the other hand, I was really happy to hear Landed on this station driving into work on Sunday.

Maybe the reason it's taking Barry Bonds so long to come back is that he's being operated on by this guy, who may be confused with this guy.

It'll change your life
I guess we surprised even the local radio station with the turnout for a small concert with The Shins that will be aired on the radio (and posted online) in the near future. It was a nice little set -- running through the two songs I already knew (thanks, Zach Braff) plus a few other tunes from their albums. Nice stuff and good way to pass about an hour.

The setup for the "concert" was interesting. It was just a large conference room minus any tables and chairs, but with a few instruments in the middle, plus a mixing board to the side, and the producer in an adjoining booth. However, they found a way to get in about 100-150 people into this small room just sitting on the floor and standing against the wall -- supposedly it was the largest turnout for any of their mini-concerts at the station itself. It reminded me of an event at my dorm in college.

Say goodbye to ...
-- Atlanta's oldies station, part two. It was a tad incongruous to hear an oldies station call itself "new," especially when it was around for two years at the time of its demise.
I'll miss the oldies station here in town, if just for a change of pace. Unfortunately, that station was slipping back to "Good Times and Eight Oldies," which is not a good sign. It's even more sadder that the station actually showed a lot more variety (for an oldies station, that is) in its final hours with their weekly "Atlanta Graffiti" show. Why does it seem that some of the most interesting and varied music on mainstream commercial radio comes on specialized shows?
You can check out more of the revolving Atlanta radio scene through my friend Rodney's radio blog.
-- Chris Candido, one of New Jersey's greatest wrestling talents who, unfortunately, is following a trend of younger performers of dying early. However, it should be said that he appears to have died from complications following an injury last week, and not from drugs, which is often the case. In fact, it makes his whole story all the more tragic.
-- My quizbowl colleagues (save a Mr. Jennings -- whatever happened to that basketball guy anyways?) in the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions. I was at a local bar to share in Mark's first-ever defeat, and then watched Brian's loss at home a couple of days later. Great runs by both guys, it's just too bad they couldn't advance any further.

600 and 14
Sure, the runaway bride story may have been a bit overdone, but that's what happens when you're dealing with a society-page type wedding. I'm not sure there will be 14 combined bridesmaids or groomsmen in the multitude of weddings I have attended or will go to over the past year. Still, at least we can have a bit more fun with it now.

That's where my local alt-rock station comes in. My favorite Sunday morning show went thematic to close out the show, playing these songs in honor of this week's events:

Nellie Mckay: I Wanna Get Married
Liz Phair: Polyester Bride
Collective Soul: Run
Jack Johnson: Sitting, Waiting, Wishing
Dave Matthews Band: Where Are You Going
R.E.M.: All the Way to Reno
Bethany Joy Lenz: If You're Missing (Come On Home)
Sheryl Crow: Leaving Las Vegas
Fiona Apple: Criminal
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds: People Just Ain't No Good

Who says regular radio is a complete waste of time? Besides, it's offering me a chance to sit in on a private Shins concert next week.

Feeling a draft
For those interested, here's my column on the top fantasy prospects from the draft (mostly focusing on this year with a little nod to keeper leagues).

A few other notes and thoughts that didn't make the column for a variety of reasons:
-- Because he's from the alma mater, I will support the Luis Castillo pick, although the steroid charge is still a giant red flag, although I'll have to believe it's a one-time thing. At least you can't confuse that Luis Castillo with this Luis Castillo.
-- I wasn't sure where to put in a line about the Lions taking UConn's Dan Orlovsky since he's probably not a fantasy prospect for a few years, but it is worth noting that Detroit teams have done well with UConn alums, just ask the Pistons (Rip Hamilton) and the Shock (Swin Cash).
-- It's curious to see that Ohio State, Michigan and Northwestern all had the same number of players drafted. Michigan's three picks were among the first 33 and that was it; Ohio State finished its haul with Maurice Clarett; and Northwestern finally reached three with Noah Herron going to the Steelers (their second NU pick of the draft).
-- It may be just me, but Aaron Rodgers looks a lot like John Heffron, one of the Last Comic Standing winners.
-- I like the Jets taking a kicker where they did. Doug Brien was going to be run out of town on a rail, so why not take the best kicker there. Besides, they still got a solid corner in Justin Miller a few picks later. However, with all the big kicks that he had, the Nuge did miss a key one in the Buckeyes' loss to Northwestern, so he's not perfect.

Hello, I'm Kip Kyrgyzstan
You, too, can have your own Michael Vick Experience with the Ron Mexico name generator.

Boom goes the dynamite
Lest I be the one to judge someone's public speaking prowess in front of the camera, but after seeing a few too many iffy quizbowl moderators, this clip is just too funny. I figured it's the next Dream Job winner, but my friend called it the ESPN version of William Hung.

More TRASHiness
For those interested, the stats can be found here and here. Oddly, IE renders it properly, but Firefox displays it in Kanji. It's been fun seeing some of the writeups from the competitors -- and noting what I wrote.

Any other remarks and stuff from the weekend are more than welcome in the comments.

Emerging from the TRASH heap
OK, I think I can sort of return to reality after working on TRASHionals stuff in between some non-stop stretches at the real job. After getting home late last night, I got a lot of much-needed sleep and a chance to just veg out today -- thankfully.

It was good to all the usual suspects again, including many of you on the left-hand rail who have already posted their results. (To the NUQB alums reading this, yes, I made sure to set up your matchup and read for it -- it's fun to have the power to do that.)

Actually, I wish I got to spend a little more time with a bunch more of people since there were others I barely got to see, but when you're running around and pulling the strings, there's only so much that you can see of the competitors other than the one round I read per team (if I see the team at all). In fact, other than people who know me very well, I'd realized most of the people involved have zero idea who I am (in the grand scheme of the organization) or what I do. For now, I'm OK with it, especially since a lot of the stuff I do are the small details that aren't so obvious -- the scheduling/bracketing/room flow stuff.

Nonetheless, the whole tournament worked amazingly well. We were ahead of schedule for a good part of the weekend and I saw a nice spread of competition and met some nice new people along the way. I think the questions were solid, although there are some hitches of course. (Yes, we may have overdone the Sideways stuff.) I have to tip my hat to the Pitt/CMU people who provided tons of support and did a good job of putting up with me as I directed people around.

Congrats to Brian, Jeremy, Mark and Dave for winning it all (undefeated no less plus a thrilling final match) -- I suppose the belt will travel pretty much in a straight line from Wisconsin to Barrington to Columbia to Norman.

Pittsburgh was a very nice city from what I saw this weekend -- and I suppose it will give me a sneak preview when I get around to visiting the Groces when they move up there later this year. PNC Park was very nice for one of the neo-retro parks and it helped that it was just a few blocks away from our hotel (which also hosted an event that so lent itself to a bonus question).

The Cathedral of Learning was an impressive site from the outside and very nice enough inside for hosting a large tournament -- although it would've been cool if we could've had matches in "The Italian Room," "The Armenian Room," etc. Plus, from a logistical standpoint, it was nice that there were a ton of eateries just down the street. I finally got my chance to try out Primanti Brothers, although I wasn't as overwhelmed by it as much as I thought I would -- the fries in the sandwich were nice, but the steak part was a disappointment. FWIW, it was interesting that there was only a slight markup in the price of the sandwich at PNC compared to the restaurant itself.

Finally, on the way home, I finally got my chance to test out the XM Radio on the AirTran flight. It was pretty cool since there were plenty of listening options, compared to the preprogrammed stuff that usually shows up on in-flight entertainment, although it's still not the Dish Network stuff I got on Song. But it at least it give me something to look forward to the next time I fly the airline.

It's been a week full of deaths, and now you can add Mitch Hedberg to the list. He was a guy I started warming up to (I can dig the hippy/stoner version of Steven Wright), and I know at least one of my co-workers was a big fan (heck, he might've gone to see him just before his passing since he died in New Jersey, ostensibly after doing a set). I really did want to see the double tour with Stephen Lynch, but I ended up having to work.

Here are some of his best lines.

The next time I do a covers audio round, you'll thank me for this; otherwise, just be warned that I enjoy finding the least essential covers ever recorded.

Self-indulgence in a different form
Yesterday was a day of discovering my personal connections to the sports and pop cultural worlds (as tenuous as that might be).

First off, congrats to Craig for his appearance on the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions, my second friend to show up in the competition (with at least a couple of more acquaintances to show up soon). But I'll let Craig tell the story and give away any spoilers for those who haven't seen it.

Secondly, it was good seeing the most prominent alum from my high school who didn't resign in disgrace calling the McDonald's All-American Game, which featured another fellow Falcon. The guy was a beast on the inside for the time I saw him. (And when the heck do we get 7-foot, 300-pound centers to my high school?) I guess I'll be following UConn for the next couple of years.

Oh yeah, I was just as surprised as anyone else watching the work site was advertised during the game.

Just a couple of links to share for now while I'm working on TRASHionals questions:
-- The local alt-rock station celebrated Easter with the countdown of the Top 25 Songs That Laid the Biggest Eggs. Surprisingly, I only own less than half of the list, but seven of the top 10.
-- My friend Steve may have let his regular blog fizzle away, but now he's got a wedlog going.

-30-
I now find it quite amusing that this is the symbol for "the end" in much written copy, especially since I just hit that magical number today. I don't feel all that much different, although there is this nagging feeling that I should be more "grown up" at this age. Then again, knowing some of my other friends and colleagues that are older than me, I guess I shouldn't worry too much about it -- age really is just a number. Plus, I'm sure I can still pass for much younger, so I don't necessarily have to worry about lying about my age for a while (no need to be perpetually 29).

It is also amusing that I'm now hitting the first real round number age people care about and make cards for. For instance, how did 18 and 21 become such landmark ages, while 20 is rather inconsequential?

More madness
Would've had an earlier update, but technical issues at work kept me even beyond some of my latest late-night posts. Finished the first round 26-6 and tied for first in a couple of pools, but I lost three of the last four games and an elite eight team in the mix (Kansas). However, my out-there Final Four pick Georgia Tech is alive, much to the chagrin of GW alums JD and Tim. But Bucknell was my only big buster so far -- and my Sweet 16 surprise Vermont made me look good (if only Bill Raftery were calling the game to scream "Onions" on T.J. Sorrentine's ridiculous 30-footer).

I didn't pick both upsets, but Stewart Mandel did and he found someone else at a bar who also picked Bucknell, making for a fun watching experience.

Commercial appeal
After a while, most of the ads running during the NCAA Tournament just meld together, but I'm still trying to figure out who the girl is in the McGriddles ad, although I think it's Hilary Swank's sister in Million Dollar Baby.

BTW, is it a good idea to even compare a woman to a McGriddles sandwich? Given my experiences with said sandwich, I don't know if it's the comparison you want to use to grab a guy on the rebound.

And speaking of ads, how in the heck does three seconds of a Pepsi ad get a girl her own fan blog and subsequent radio interviews and Maxim spread? But at least it's not a blog about this Pepsi girl.

You'd think that with all the weird notices that appear on my cable box that they would've mentioned there was a second channel for NCAA Tournament games (channel 999 in this case). It's not like having all four games at once, like on DirecTV, but having two to flip to (plus having the score panel at the top of the screen), makes it a decent watching experience.

So now through 20 games, I'm at 17-3 -- losing with Minnesota today. I guess I should've come up with an easy way of picking some midrange games -- if they lost to Northwestern, I shouldn't pick them. But if they have a former Northwestern player, go with them -- Ed McCants of Wisconsin-Milwaukee being the latest ex-Cat to light up in the tournament.

Fantasy becomes reality?
I suppose if the stats-based guys are starting to run major league front offices, why not give a job to an astute fantasy player?

Yahoo's contest with the Giants is very intriguing, since it does show that the fantasy world is being more accepted by baseball bigwigs (although there is that new deal with MLBAM that's causing quite a stir among those running fantasy games -- and why nothing launched until mid-February).

A couple of thoughts come to mind with this, though:
-- The one-year contract is nice, but while being in the front office could be a dream job for many people, is $30K (plus an extra $15K cash prize) enough for the winner to move the Bay Area?
-- Which type of fantasy baseball is better training for this type of job -- a draft league or an auction league? Given the nuances of salary structures, wouldn't a good auction player have a leg up on succeeding on this type of job over a draft player? On the other hand, I'd be waiting for those bizarre bidding wars you'll see in an auction ($29 for Shane Andrews is still my all-time favorite).
-- Depending on demeanor, would said winner be in constant contact with Bud Selig trying to change rules or challenging trades?
-- Finally, one last tangential note: On the cover of Baseball Prospectus, it says something to the effect of "The Bible for Fantasy Baseball." While it provides plenty of great analysis, how much can you consider it a "bible" if it doesn't provide any wins or RBI stats in the player profiles when it's a critical part of most leagues? (Yes, I know about the flaws in emphasizing individual wins and RBIs. On the other hand, can I get in on a fantasy league that provides VORP as a category?)

More madness
So I finished the day 14-2, one of my best first-round performances in a while, although having just three "upsets" overall helped, but I did hit all three of them -- UAB, UW-Milwaukee and Nevada. I whiffed on UCLA (Bob Knight is starting to win in the first round again) and Iowa (sometimes riding the hot hand doesn't always work).

That means I'm going to get obliterated tomorrow, especially since I do go out on a limb with a few of my picks. Early prediction -- I go 9-7 and lose a Sweet 16 team or two.

On another note, here's a reason why the Catholicism Wow bracket strategy isn't that great an idea after all.

Early tournament blogging
I'm not going to be as detailed as Bill Simmons for obvious reasons, but here are some thoughts from the first few hours of the madness:
-- I went 4-for-4 in the first slate of games. The 12 seed strikes again as UW-Milwaukee beat Alabama -- one of the easier upsets for me to pick.
-- Thank goodness I don't live in Lexington anymore. I wonder what the buildup for the UK-EKU matchup was like there?
-- I like the running scores stripped across the top of the screen, even if it is a bit much in the sensory overload and sometimes forgetting the score of the game I'm actually watching. The scores help out when you don't have a satellite package, for instance, but CBS has been good in switching from game to game.
-- Eventually I'll get around to ripping the CBS commercials like everyone else, but I'm barely paying attention right now.
-- It looks like I made a good choice in not taking the Ivy League team for the first time in ages. But Iowa is making me look a bit bad, but it's hard to pull for Bob Huggins. UTEP could be a nice team, but why did they go with the shade of Tennessee orange for the jerseys?
-- Geez, how many guys are named Jason Williams in college hoops these days? And is Duke's J-Will going to be doing any NIT games? (I doubt they'll give him a tournament game, but it is the one time out of the year I get to hear from Jim "Mister" Spanarkel.)

If you get 30 points ... you're welcome
Been working on TRASHionals stuff, along with other things for work, which explains the lack of posts (plus the usual laziness).

Charlie has his set of "Travels With ..." bonuses, but I think I could match him based on my most bizarre set of three "celebrity" encounters in one day (especially for someone not in the entertainment business or covering the Super Bowl) ...
-- First off, while at the doctor's office for a checkup, I ended up having some tests done at the same time with S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-Fil-A.
-- Then it was off to the one encounter I knew I'd have -- watching my friend Mark win his Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions game with him and a bunch of others at a local bar. (Since the show airs at 4:30 here in Atlanta, we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.)
-- Finally, while out and about later in the evening, I stumbled across this guy, who may not look that big in the ring, but is a pretty big guy in person, which was a main reason why not to go up to him -- just let him be.

Oh yeah, this is my new desktop image at work. Too bad I only caught the last couple of holes of the showdown everyone wanted to watch.

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.

While I'm not at work having to monitor the Australian Open men's final, I'm still up watching it while winding down for the evening. So I was a bit befuddled to why Chris Fowler was quoting lyrics from this song (recently seen on my quiz). Then all of a sudden, there's Olivia Newton-John singing the song just before the match. Surprisingly, I think both she and the song have held up well over the years; although my feelings about the song are probably skewed because I actually got a surprisingly warm response when I threw it on a mix CD.

Ice, ice baby
Just survived the Great Ice Storm of 2005, which was very similar to the Great Ice Storm of 2000 -- same nasty conditions, same part of the year (late January). I think the conditions this time around were worse for me personally, mainly because I drove through the slop three times (twice coming home from work, once going to the office), probably averaging no more than 25 mph the whole time. And yes, that includes the school zone that I-85 became Friday night. I had one instance of skidding on the highway, but corrected myself and pulled over in time not to cause any problems -- it helps that it was 2:30 and only a few cars on the road. But at least I got home -- another co-worker had to stop at a motel on 85 overnight because of the conditions. And I nearly took up a friend's offer to stay at the hotel adjoining the office tonight before deciding to gut it out on the road. I had to think about it given the massive de-icing I had to do with my car this afternoon -- but at least I had a scraper. I lent it out briefly to one of my neighbors, while another used a spatula to cut through the Magic Shell the ice created on our cars.

The coverage of the storm was a bit odd to say the least. With CNN in Atlanta, it was very easy to get a photo of the weather -- just walk outside and take a shot of the street and the building you work at. With The Weather Channel also in the Atlanta area, it appeared that the reporter covering the Atlanta angle of the storm barely had to leave its headquarters to get a live shot.

On the other hand, the local stations that usually would go wall-to-wall with that type of stuff were noticeably absent. With a rather sparse Saturday afternoon of network-televised sports, there were plenty of infomercials instead of news. Granted, the weather started overnight, making it difficult for anyone to move around Saturday morning, but you'd think that if they are willing to preempt Jeopardy or Dr. Phil for thunderstorms, they might bump Ron Popeil for ice.

Going back to the Ice Storm of 2000, though, I think I was slightly less cautious driving -- zipping along I-75 on the way back from Chattanooga wasn't wise, and I'm still trying to figure out why we had an AAJA meeting in those conditions. Plus, I lost my power for a couple of days around the AFC and NFC title games (no issues this time, although I was a bit scared seeing a bunch of traffic lights out just outside my complex) but felt smug seeing all the people in town for the Super Bowl having to deal with the cold and ice.

Mmm, sweetened carbonated beverage
Not sure why the AJC ran a story about the linguistics of cola on the business page (guess it's that Coke connection), but it makes for some fun reading, especially the map that puts Red vs. Blue county maps to shame. Plus, you can register your vote on the ultimate debate.

Lyrics results

Here are the final answers. Another quiz in the next couple of days, maybe.

1. Cracker – Get Off This
2. Aztec Camera – Jump
3. DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince – Nightmare on My Street
4. Carole King – It’s Too Late
5. Johnny Cash – A Boy Named Sue
6. Great White – Once Bitten Twice Shy
7. I Am the World Trade Center – Call Me
8. Hall and Oates – Out of Touch
9. The Donnas – Who Invited You
10. Drivin and Cryin – I’m Going Straight To Hell
11. Psychedelic Furs – Pretty In Pink
12. Aqua – Barbie Girl
13. Olivia Newton-John – Magic
14. Kylie Minogue – Love at First Sight
15. The Replacements - Alex Chilton
16. Liz Phair – Turning Japanese
17. Motley Crue – Girls, Girls, Girls
18. Missy Elliott – Get Your Freak On
19. Sarah McLachlan – Dear God
20. Snoop Dogg – What’s My Name?

From Bill Simmons' latest column:

Things have gone so poorly for Jets fans over the years, they were actually expecting something painful to happen down the stretch, just like Red Sox fans back in the day.

That pretty much sums up being a Jets fan. Actually, it helps being a Yankees fan and a Jets fan at the same time in these days -- you can't be too insufferable during baseball season because it will come back to haunt you during football season.

Oh yeah, the Elimidate-Super Bowl analogy was amusing, although it has me longing for that craptacular show that I haven't seen in a few years (and has to be a candidate for I Love the '00s -- probably 2000 or 2001).

And oh BTW, from the I Love the '90s: Part Deux shows I've seen so far, Simmons seems to be used only on sports topics and usually as the straight man. He's got more range than that; if Stuart Scott and Rich Eisen can be used on any topic, so can Simmons, right?

For some reason, I could fathom the idea of Jerry Springer, the Opera, but a musical version of The Apprentice seems just way too ridiculous.

Return of the snark
Yes, I'm eating up all of I Love the '90s Part Deux, but I'll get into some of the topics later. However, I'm always intrigued by who they pick up to do the commentary (and I'm still waiting for my chance to get on any of the talking head shows).

Yes, we have the usual suspects, but how did Juliette Lewis become a regular? Plus, it's good to have Bill Simmons on board since he damn well deserves to be on here. However, how did they convince the U.S. swim team to get snarky? (Not that I'm complaining about seeing Amanda Beard or Kaitlin Sandeno.)

One thing that both bugs me and entertains me is the use of '90s music to accompany the bits, but that many of the songs were released years after the nugget they're being snarky about. For some reason, I don't think I should be hearing Beck or Chumbawumba for stuff about the early '90s.

Other observations from the shows so far:
-- So that's what the lead singer of the Cranberries looks like without the really chopped hair.
-- Good to see DJ Jazzy Jeff getting some work.
-- How many redheads are panelists on the show, or is it just the lighting?
-- My goodness, Baby Spice has grown up nicely.

Allez cuisine
It's weird when Iron Chef morphs away from the campiness of the Japanese version to the competent American version. Alton Brown actually does sound like a combination of the guys who do the voices of Fukui and Hattori, and he does incorporate some of his Good Eats stuff into the show. On the other hand, I already picked up some looping of his commentary, although it's not as bad as some of Donald Trump's fixes on The Apprentice that sound a lot like "Mr. Black" on the Kamp Krusty episode.

It's also interesting that I'd actually heard of the first challenger, although partly because he's the brother of the guy's that not Woody Paige.

Plus, it was one of the few times I was actually hungry watching the show. It probably helps that the secret ingredient was something exotic but not too rare (i.e. I've had it a few times), not to mention they made seemingly accessible dishes.

They did keep some of the traditions of the original Iron Chef -- an over-the-top Chairman (allegedly Kaga's nephew, but in reality, just this guy) and Julie Chen, reprising the role of the guest giggling female judge.

Suck, suck, suck

Let's keep it simple on the Jets' loss: Herman Edwards turned into Marty Schottenheimer after the last Big Ben interception. Sure, you can rip into Doug Brien (like Peter King did), but it's hard to get too upset over a kicker missing a field goal over 40 yards. On the other hand, I got a tad too overconfident after the Reggie Tongue TD, which probably sealed my doom. I should've been expecting the worst, as usual, and then I would've been fine.

As for the other games, the Falcons beat the Rams sorta how I play on NCAA Football 2005. They do have a chance against the Eagles, who looked just fine against the Vikings. Of course, getting this far hasn't been an issue for Philly. Finally, I love how all the weather reports looked favorable for the Colts leading up to the game, but come Sunday, there was a winter storm warning -- and that was that.

Concerning the coverage, I was amused that Fox used a bunch of the music from Madden 2005 leading into commercials. Plus, that Fountains of Wayne ad was played a few times, but not too much for people to get sick of it.

OK, my turn
I guess I'm a tad late with the lyrics quiz thing. Or I'd like to say I'm waaaaay early since I ran a couple of lyrics quizzes on rec.games.trivia back in college (although not as regularly as Greg or Mark did back in the day) when it wasn't as easy to look up all the answers.

Anyways, here are the 20 that came off my shuffle the other day (before I loaded in my other MP3 CDs on to my iTunes library). There are five songs that are covers of well-known songs (yes, I collect plenty of covers). Those will be marked with an asterisk. I'll have the full answers up sometime next week, I guess.


1. Well the guitar player stayin’ out in hollywood and sayin’/He’s just trying to get some sleep, but everyone’s complainin'. (Cracker, "Get Off This"; Chris Hyde)
* 2. You got to roll with the punches and get to what's real. (Aztec Camera's cover of "Jump"; Greg)
3. He wears the same hat and sweater every single day/And even if it’s hot outside he wears it anyway.
4. One of us is changing or maybe we've just stopped trying. (Carole King, "It's Too Late"; Tyler)
5. Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July/And I just hit town and my throat was dry,/I thought I'd stop and have myself a brew. (Johnny Cash, "A Boy Named Sue"; Greg)
* 6. Woman you're a mess gonna die in your sleep/There's blood on my amp and my Les Paul's beat. (Great White, "Once Bitten Twice Shy"; Chris/Matt; Ian Hunter did the original, but most people probably remember the cover.)
* 7. Roll me in designer sheets/I'll never get enough. ("Call Me" is the song, still need the cover band.)
8. Broken ice still melts in the sun/And times that are broken can often be one again. (Hall and Oates, "Out of Touch"; Brian W.)
9. Face it dude, you can't beat me/In your Charlie Brown shirt and Cavariccis.
10. The black widow and the ladies man/Met down at the laundromat and tried to make me understand.
11. The one who insists/He was first in the line/Is the last to/Remember her name.
12. Imagination, life is your creation. (Aqua, "Barbie Girl"; Miguel)
13. And if all your hopes survive/Destiny will arrive. (Olivia Newton-John, "Magic"; Greg)
14. And everything went from wrong to right/And the stars came out to fill up the sky. (Kylie Minogue, "Love at First Sight"; Miguel)
15. Checkin’ his stash by the trash at St. Mark’s Place.
* 16. No fun, no sin, no you, no wonder it's dark. (Liz Phair's cover of "Turning Japanese"; Greg)
17. Dance for me. I'll keep you overemployed.
18. Listen to me now/I'm lastin twenty rounds. (Missy Elliott, "Get Ur Freak On"; Greg)
* 19. Your name is on a lot of quotes in this book/And as crazy humans wrote it/you should take a look. (Sarah McLachlan's cover of XTC's "Dear God"; Greg)
20. Long Beach is the spot where I served my cane. (Snoop Doggy Dogg, "What's My Name?"; Tyler)

Take me to the river
Besides the oversaturation of ads, ESPN took advantage of the lack of quality sports viewing options to finally shove Tilt down our throats last night. I didn't think it was all that bad, or all that good, either. Michael Madsen plays the tough just fine, and you had the requisite walk-ons from some poker stars (Daniel Negreanu and T.J. Cloutier in this case). But I think Slate hit it on the head with the one thing it was sorely lacking: not enough dumpy Asians. Otherwise, it's just another Las Vegas show with just a bit more poker in it.

I guess it's time to catch up, eh? You can thank a combination of being busy and being lazy -- no real excuse here.

-- Congrats to Kristin and Justin on their wedding. I'll let Kristin handle much of the narrative on it (plus links to photos since most of mine pretty much suck). However, I will say I had a fun time in Baltimore (with the hotel two blocks from Camden Yards), seeing many familiar faces and meeting some cool new ones. Plus, it was fun to be hanging out with friends on New Year's Eve. Thanks for letting me be part of all the fun.

-- Yes, there was lots of football on my plate, although I got to watch the Orange Bowl rout in peace at home. No arguments about the results, but one thing that kinda struck me about the debate over a playoff -- if people are so adamant about the regular season being the real deal, then why are there conference championship games (which are, in my opinion, precursors to a playoff)? That's where the no-playoff argument seems to ring a bit hollow.

-- I went 3-for-4 on playoff picks this week, missing only the Moonesota Vikings' win at Lambeau. A couple of those upsets probably is weighing heavily on one of my friends in our playoff fantasy league, who was autopicked Daunte Culpepper and Curtis Martin because of computer issues that forced us to redo the draft. Whoops. Somehow, my team is heavily dependent on either the Rams or Eagles reaching the Super Bowl (although we can do waiver claims throughout to replace eliminated players).
My team was, in draft order (picking 9th in odd rounds and 4th in even rounds):
1. Donovan McNabb
2. Plaxico Burress
3. Steven Jackson
4. Rod Smith
5. Ryan Longwell
6. L.J. Smith
7. Rams defense
8. Terrell Owens
(We start 1 QB, 1 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 D; plus one bench spot.)

-- I was pulling for the Jets to win, but wasn't comfortable enough in drafting them in a playoff league (although I did get beat out for Justin McCareins toward the end, thus prompting my last pick of Owens, just in case).

-- With a slow Sunday night after the playoff games (and after watching the 24 premiere -- starting the season with four hours over two nights is a good thing), I ended up spending a lot of time watching the second most useless major awards show, hosted by fake Kornheiser and Wilbon, otherwise known as George Costanza and Theo Huxtable.

While it was good to see them using online voting as a component, thus eliminating the question: "Do you know anyone who might have actually voted for the Peoples Choice Awards?", I swear they were making up some categories along the way or at least stealing them from the MTV Movie Awards. Favorite Movie Sequel? Yikes. Favorite Remake (aka Best Cover of the Year)? Are you kidding me?

There was even a big deal about Fahrenheit 9/11 winning "Best Picture of the Year," except that given the way the movie categories were set up, it's probably best to call it "Best Picture of the Year -- Other" since The Passion of the Christ and Shrek 2 also won movie awards for drama and comedy, respectively.

Yes, I've spent way too much time analyzing these awards, but hey, it's fun to figure out what the "people" have to say, although at least this time the "hipness" quotient was slightly above square thanks to the online voting. God forbid it was another Gallup poll or something determining these things. Plus, it's a good runup to the Golden Globes, where things will get even goofier I'm sure.

-- Speaking of films, I did see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou the other day. I guess I'm surprised it was a "big budget" Wes Anderson film, since it looks and feels like anything else he's made. It was entertaining enough, but nothing overly impressive or negative about it. I did enjoy the goofy set design, but otherwise it was just weird for the sake of being so -- including such things as the Filipino pirates, the guy singing David Bowie songs in Portugese and Bud Cort.

-- One last review, the Seinfeld Season 3 DVD set is amazing. I think you can figure out why it took them so long to put them out on DVD -- they went the extra mile in piling it on with featurettes on a number of episodes, plus the usual commentary tracks (some better than others, especially those not featuring the actors or Larry David).
But the kicker is the "Notes About Nothing," the pop-up video bits that you can activate and run throughout the episodes. There are some boilerplate bits like the first table reading/filming dates as well the original Nielsen ratings, but they go beyond the call of duty in reciting the credits of every guest star, whether it was an Oscar nominee like Katherine Keener or well-known character actor Philip Baker Hall, or a receptionist whose other credits were as minor guest roles long-forgotten and short-lived sitcoms. And then there's all the other trivia, including some great baseball rundowns when involving the Keith Hernandez episodes.

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.