Hey ladies???
It was a pretty disappointing morning/afternoon with USA's Olympic coverage with both the U.S. women's curling and hockey teams falling in dramatic fashion, and taking the air out of both competitions (curling is pretty much out of the medal hunt, a bronze medal is the best hockey can do).

Nice comeback by Cassie, Jamie and the gang (although they had their chance for four in the 10th end to win), before yet another extra-end loss. It was interesting, though, that the AP story mentions how popular the team has gotten during the Games (OK, so it's not just me). But when you get some cute-looking competitors not overly made up (see figure skating) or bundled up (see snowboarding), it's easy to get some attention.

As for hockey, at least the talk of just two teams dominating that competition can stop for now. The U.S. blew a 2-0 lead to Sweden, then failed to convert on a bunch of other opportunities, before falling in a shootout (where just about anything can happen). However, Sweden's goalie was brilliant, and might give Canada fits (assuming it advances to the gold-medal game). Now I wonder if the men will even be in medal contention.

And before the U.S. women's teams crashed and burned, there was Lindsey Jacobellis pulling a Leon Lett in the snowboard cross (a cool addition to the Games -- nice to have an "extreme sports" race, instead of yet another variation on figure skating) with one of the hills playing the role of Don Beebe.

While there appear to be two medals coming out of it (Jacobellis did win silver; U.S. women likely to win bronze), just doesn't seem like a good day for the ladies.

I say Turin, you say Torino
I can be an Olympics geek when need be, and so it is that I've done a decent job trying to follow the Winter Games (despite the lead-up columns to the Games that we had pretty much saying the Winter Olympics suck -- great, we're not even waiting to be snarky).

If anything, I get my quadrennial interest in curling revived. It helps that there's usually a match on one of the NBCU networks at 3 a.m. when I'm getting home from work and/or trying to get to bed. And for a bigger plus, the U.S. women's team, or at least the Johnson sisters, is a rather photogenic bunch; however, the early returns are rather disappointing, and we really can't give them medals for just being cute. That could explain some of the saturation coverage, albeit during off-hours. With that said, it's fun picking it up again, and like Cooch mentioned, we pretend to be at least reasonably informed viewers rather quickly. I think part of it has to do with the announcers, and part of it comes with having an open mind (and not quickly mocking it).

As for the rest of the Games, I'm getting ready for "real" hockey to begin, although the U.S. women did have a scare against Finland, trailing 3-2 going into the third before winning 7-3. At least now, most of the games blanketing the coverage on the non-network arms will seem meaningful, as opposed to any women's game featuring non-North American teams.

All the cool speed events like luge, speed skating, skiing, etc., lose a bit of its magic in NBC's tape-delay format, mainly because any competition where you're competing against the clock, you have to edit out some of the spontaneity that comes from hoping if an early competitor's time can hold up. Unfortunately, I have to manufacture my own "live" drama by refreshing the results page on the Web. (NBC sorta tried that years ago with the Triplecast, which was a flop for the most part, by my brother enjoyed watching tapes of some of those events since you got to see everybody.)

What is intriguing to me with the ratings for the Games (naturally, down from Salt Lake City) is figuring out what the public's TV-viewing patterns are these days, and how to appeal to each of these different demographics:
-- First off, you've got sports fans like me who want to watch things live, and so the packaged stuff and tape-delayed drama does nothing for me, especially if I already know what happened.
However, the numbers of fans who watch "mainstream" sports who are also interested in the Olympics seem to be waning. If some of the pre-Games stuff that was written is an indication of the sports-viewing audience today, it's not even worth "expanding our horizons" to watch luge, speedskating, etc. (Maybe it's more magnified during the winter since there is more of a disconnect between sports and reality. We've all run a race or taken a swim in the pool. Not as many of us have ridden a bobsled.)
-- The extended coverage of curling and hockey might be showing that there is a market for The Ocho or Obscure Sports Quarterly. And with those two sports, it's much harder to show the event without showing a full game. Highlights work, to an extent, but it's not like other speed events where you can show a gold-medal run rather quickly.
-- Figure skating, for the most part, draws in a crowd that's not sports fans. But since it has the potential to draw the most ratings (mostly because of the often mutual exclusivity between sports fans and Olympics fans), that's where the bulk of the value of the Games comes from. So it's interesting that while Michelle Kwan's withdrawal does put a damper on things, there hasn't been as much hype over Sasha Cohen (especially if that picture is any indication, and even Shaun White mentioned he really wanted to meet her after he won his gold). Are we to think that just the thrill of the competition is enough to draw people in those extra viewers, or have they just given up on getting the male demographic (who's probably watching 24 anyways)?

And just where are the Mulkey brothers these days?
I'm not as rabid a fan as years ago, but I figured it was worth checking out the WWE Raw show since it was downtown, and the whole scene (both in and out of the ring) is always an interesting sociological experiment.

I will say, though, that the experience really deserved having Crow and Tom Servo, or at least a Sklar brother next to me. Nonetheless, it was still an entertaining time, if only because I think at times, it turned into I Love the '80s and I Love the '90s (even though Chris Jericho wasn't around).

The '80s part came in the form of this Peter Gabriel song being the theme song for the upcoming Wrestlemania. Very strange, since it's usually some hard rock song by a band who was in nursery school when the above song hit the charts. The other part came when this guy suddenly appeared, and the middle schoolers nearby looked on in utter confusion, whereas I was getting a tad nostalgic.

The '90s part kicked in a bit when the crowd was surprisingly lively for this guy, who was on the "other" show that no one ever sees. There were a lot of the usual suspects as well who have been with the company for a while, plus an ECW chant when this guy wrestled (he also got the second-best pop of the night). Plus, he showed up at the end of the program to set up next week's big matchup (and wish everyone a nice day).

The matches weren't anything spectacular for the most part, but the Triple H-Ric Flair showdown was fun for nostalgic purposes -- thankfully it was a clean finish and no sledgehammers were involved. And the whole idea of a tournament was good, if only because there were at least the concepts of solid matchups.

Finally, I got to see for myself the oddly mixed reaction for the current WWE champ, the proof that most rap music is bought by kids in the suburbs. A good portion of the crowd went nuts for him, but there was a good amount of booing for him as well. He does have charisma, but he still pales in comparison to The Rock, for instance.

One last note, I guess today's kids don't need cigarette lighters to produce light when the arena is darkened. Instead, I saw a ton of backlighting from everyone's cell phones. A rather surreal look, to be sure.

Some observations and linkage:
-- A letter to the AJC actually brought this up, but the Thrashers have embarked on their latest losing streak after announcing they wouldn't sell opposing teams' jerseys in the arena store and offered an exchange of some other team's sweater for one of those blue jerseys (I think). Karma might be at play. Earl Hickey would be so proud.
-- I suppose when you're now on the outside looking in, you can be a little harsher on the state of journalism these days. That's what Aaron Brown and Ted Koppel are doing here. Interesting stuff, although Koppel seems to think there's actually hope for the business, whereas Brown seems to blame the viewing public. Me, I sometimes wonder why anyone gets into the business when you hear everything is so horrible.
-- And for a little bit of fun, here's a site that's tracking Jack Bauer and poking tons of holes in the continuity of 24 in the process. And of course, it's using Google Maps (Double True).
-- Speaking of Lazy Sunday, somehow real New York bakeries have propelled themselves into the national conscience lately. First, it's the Magnolia Bakery (with all the bomb frostings). Then the Buttercup Bake Shop shows up as a major plot point in How I Met Your Mother -- although the episode in question takes a lot after another movie that also prominently features a scene where baked goods are consumed.
-- One of these days, I might compile a side page or blog with music charts, but for now, here's a link to Blender's list of the 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born (i.e. 1980-2005). My ABD teammates and I were playing K-Tel Hell with it on the way back from Michigan after the tournament. Interesting stuff, although obviously tons of questionable choices, but that's what these things are supposed to do. Right now, I've got 143 of the songs on an iPod playlist, with a few more that I never ripped from my CD.

That long-awaited article on the quiz-bowl phenomenon seems to have finally made its appearance (at least in some form) -- albeit on a site that's about to go dark today, although everything should still live on until they let the registration on the domain name lapse.

I guess the LaPlaca Open will get slightly tougher next season now that UPN and the WB will merge into one network, meaning you'll have a pretty decent lineup by combining the best of the two netlets -- in fact, my DVR does have a handful of shows from those two in regular rotation. But it is a boon this year for the flotsam and jetsam that's on the network right now (although Smackdown is sticking around, likely, killing my hopes of winning the contest this year).

(However, I'm still trying to figure out why, in Atlanta, the local UPN affiliate decided to show this movie at 3 a.m. the other night. Is that going to be the future of the channel should it not get chosen to take on the new network?)

What day is it anyway?
So in a weekend full of great playoff games, I saw only significant parts of just one contest (Broncos-Pats) primarily because I was traveling for my apparently every-other-year appearance at the Ann B. Davis tournament.

This time, I teamed up with Team O'Reilly and continued my winning streak from Trashmasters (and Big Lots/FOGHAT, for that matter), taking this title as well. It's a crazy run that I can't totally figure out (winning two of the big three trash tournaments, with two completely different sets of teammates, going undefeated both times) -- especially since I somehow also took home a neg crown in addition to leading my team (a very balanced one, in my opinion) in scoring. Mike and Craig ran an excellent tournament, although I had wished to see a few more heavy hitters from the region take part as well.

It was fun to see some of the usual suspects again, and messing around with the iPod both ways made the car ride a lot more fun.

One other note -- Atlanta has a new classic rock station, which is somewhat similar to this station. So similar that at the same time this afternoon, both stations were playing this song. It was a tad freaky when I switched stations realizing I had the same exact song on.

Do you have a problem with that?
So fresh off Atlanta's silly rebranding campaign (Every day is like Opening Day? Does that mean we'll have our hearts broken six months later?), now comes New Jersey's new slogan. It seems fine, although a bunch of the rejected suggestions were pretty good too, even if they might come up short for even those snarky t-shirts. Of course, I'm still waiting for this ditty to be the official state song -- inspiring something actually funny from Robert Wuhl (i.e. not Arli$$).

I missed this a little earlier, but here's an interesting list of the most played song on a variety of different radio stations in Atlanta in 2005. Not a lot of surprises, save for the Blue Merle song and, oh yeah, "Sara Smile."

Happy new year
For the first time possibly in a long time (and possibly ever), I actually spent New Year's Eve working. It was interesting trying to sample the variety of New Year's Eve celebrations on the tube:
-- Happy Boo Year (ESPN): Looks like a decent year-in-review show mixed in with Stuart Scott (hence my name for the show) and Little Steven (what, no Clarence Clemons?) introducing some musical acts.
-- Regis Philbin (Fox): Seemed like a train wreck. If Fox wanted to draw a younger crowed, why did you have Regis sing?
-- Anderson Cooper (CNN): Decent stuff, plus some decent musical cut-ins (James Brown, Kool and the Gang, Barenaked Ladies).
-- Carson Daly (NBC): Not too shabby, plus Melissa Stark was the on-the-ground reporter in Times Square. Plus, they got in and out quickly -- do the ball drop, then off to an SNL rerun.

Then there was the return of Dick Clark to ABC, and boy it seemed like watching Ali light the torch at the Atlanta Olympics (10 years ago! Yikes!). It was great to see him there, but boy, it was slightly uncomfortable to watch. He seemed to be in good spirits, but the stroke has taken its toll on him. At least we know he's mortal now, I suppose.

ABC also did a good job in keeping the show focused on the live stuff and then going to that hokey musical revue taped a couple of weeks earlier (still best lampooned in a Friends episode) after midnight. I guess having Mariah Carey perform live was a huge coup -- and it was fun seeing Ryan Seacrest trying to get her to kiss him when the clock struck midnight. And later on in the studio, I would've sworn she was getting ready to work at Scores after the show was done.

As for the canned musical stuff, I wasn't paying close attention except for when they brought The Bangles out of nowhere to perform. Susanna Hoffs still looked really good (and she'll be 47 in a few weeks); the rest of the group, not so much. And at least they avoided "Walk Like An Egyptian."

It did get interesting leaving work at 2 a.m. as it appeared the Widespread Panic show was letting out as we finished up -- we could smell the pot smoke wafting up to the walkway from the office to the parking lot.

I was also intrigued that my local alt-rock station opted for a top 99 party jams of all time (perfect for that New Year's Eve party) instead of a top hits countdown. So while the Beastie Boys were there no matter what, there were other songs you would never, ever hear on the station. Then again, with their recent "Shuffle" weekends (the music director's iPod goes on shuffle for the weekend), anything goes -- I've heard "Billie Jean" and "Piano Man" along with some deep Death Cab for Cutie tracks, for instance.

Happy, merry
The holiday season went pretty well, although I'm now in the midst of a long stretch of days in a row at work, but I guess it's fine since it's also coinciding with bowl season.

The time back home in Jersey was fine. Had XM on both ends of the AirTran flight, which is always nice. Hung out with the family (and future family members, as the case may be). Had a sort of "Jeopardy victory tour" visiting friends and relatives over the holiday season, but also dealt with a very wonky wireless connection from somewhere in my old neighborhood -- renovations in my parents' house limited some of the cable access.

Also got hooked, slightly, on Deal or No Deal, which seemed to be an overdone version of a Price Is Right game or even the old Treasure Hunt game show, replacing that creepy butler guy with 26 hot women -- nice upgrade.

Oh yeah, there was also that Sun Bowl game today, which was fun to watch with the local alumni club (and even running into a guy who used to live in my dorm) but then seeing what I thought might happen (defensive collapse) and even some weirdness (NU returning two picks for scores and UCLA returning two onside kick attempts for TDs to make sure the game covered the over).

That game, and the subsequent Independence Bowl, rode my bowl picks losing streak to six, although LSU is helping matters in the Peach.

I'm back home in New Jersey for "Holiday," and interestingly enough stumbled across public-access TV coverage of the town's tree lighting, featuring the most famous celebrity to grow up there. BTW, never saw her around town growing up. (For what it's worth, I'd imagine, this guy is the most famous to die there.)

Oh yeah, despite some major inefficiences in the check-in process (checking in baggage after using the kiosks needs to be much faster), AirTran does do a good job of making flights go fast when there's XM Radio on the plane. At least you don't have to shut that down during takeoff and landing (like I'd have to do with my iPod).

Speaking of transportation, the current New York City transit strike may end up affecting trips to see friends in the city, although I always wonder what people in other cities think about this strike -- especially in places reluctant to install mass transit.

The rest of the story ...
Since I've got the platform at work, here's Part 1 and Part 2 of the Jeopardy! experience.

And speaking of offbeat stories landing on the site at work, here's how longtime SI hoops writer Alex Wolff bought an ABA franchise. At least he seems to be more with it than a bunch of other teams that came and went without playing a game.

I think I did a good job in picking this game for my first foray into live NHL action since the lockout. Just a ridiculously fun game. Oh yeah, there were chants of "Fire Millen" late in the third period.

One last quick Jeopardy note before I end up concocting the grand write-up: The last show of the week/taping session, which I watched in the audience with my parents after being deposed as champ, features the categories "Bizarre MLB Injuries" and "Chicago." Serves me right for taking a guess on carnauba, eh?

Couple of other notes:
-- As I pointed out to Craig, the World Cup draw actually features the Continental Soccer Association battle between Mexico and Portugal.
-- And on another Simpsons note, this is a brilliant comparison between college football teams and the denizens of Springfield.

TPS ... in song!
Too bad it sounds like the Office Space musical will be done by mid-January, when I may be coming through town.

One hit wonder
Hope I'm not spoiling it for my West Coast friends, but I'm one and done despite playing a much better game than my actual victory. But them's the breaks, I suppose. Eventually I'll have some major long wrapup thing. But thanks to all those people that have contacted me since my shows have aired (and who I didn't prod into watching in the first place).

Trebekie Monster
To those of you searching for me after appearing on Jeopardy!, welcome, yup, this is the guy you're looking for. I'll have more thoughts on the war of attrition later, although I will say it's amusing that the J! site started putting pictures of contestants appearing this week on the front (instead of just on a special page) and, well, I'm not one of them. Then again, that shouldn't be a surprise -- who wants to see my mug front and center?

The countdown continues
Just hours before the Jeopardy airing (unless you're in L.A., San Francisco and Seattle). As I've mentioned before, check your local listings. Be there. Aloha.

On a completely unrelated note, you can tell how different some of today's churches are when they're going to be closed on Christmas. On the other hand, it'll be tough to find a seat at the Catholic church on Christmas with the twice-a-years showing up.

The waiting
Just a couple of more days until my brush with TV fame, but for now, you can see everyone who taped the same week with me over here.

I guess I head into this interesting week on a roll by winning my third Trashmasters title, teaming with JD, Julie and Rebecca, and going undefeated in the process. Not sure how we did it, but I guess we were sharp all weekend long, and I think I'm even more surprised to lead the team in scoring. But it was cool to get Julie her first TM title after so many years of playing the event. And as usual, it was fun seeing all the usual suspects.

Oh yeah, I also took my second K-Tel Hell title. When Charlie makes things "more accessible," it means I've got a fighting chance with the speed. Of course, having to battle Craig down the wire for it was both fun and nerve-wracking. Now waiting to get the belt back, although I wonder if it looks like Cena's belt.

Couple of a movie reviews here as well:
-- Walk The Line: Solid film, and I guess I'm really buying both Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon singing (I believed Reese first). I think Reese has better Oscar odds than Joaquin, but both are solid.
-- Jesus Is Magic: After going to matinees for long films for stuff like Walk the Line, Harry Potter, etc., I suppose what goes around comes around as I pay full price to see a 70-minute film that probably could've worked as an HBO special. But it was you expect from Sarah Silverman, along with some silly musical montages in between (although she did look pretty good in the '60s get up).