Quick hits today.

Kelly wins American Idol Leaving an entire nation to wonder: all this hoopla and her first single is going to be that song?

If you've not heard "A Moment Like This," you will. Soon. Too soon. Diane Warren may be off the hook, at least until the next Oscars.

The final show was two hours long and contained more fill than Love Canal (and was slightly less toxic). More importantly than announcing the winner, the final show marked the time where we could finally assign Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman to the dustbin of history. I look forward to seeing them on late night TV hawking Son of Paint Stick.

NBAers lose to Argentines This would be a real story if the US team at the Worlds included Shaq, Kobe, Iverson, Vince Carter, Jordan, Ray Allen, Jason Kidd, Kevin Garnett, Steve Francis, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Gary Payton, Wally Szczerbiak, or Chris Webber. Not that the US has a bad team, but most of the players lack the experience and maturity that's so helpful in international play.

I still expect the US to win gold.

Shakira Charo for the new millenium?

I suppose I root for Minnesota I'm not writing off the Sox just yet, even with Pedro's groin problem, but they're 8.5 back in the East, 6.5 back in the wild card race. Numbers which give me some impetus to choose my baseball post-season rooting interest. Went with the A's last year, and that almost worked. I tend to not go NL, with some exceptions (1998 I rooted for a Sox-Cubs series, but picked up the Padres when that went bust). No one in the NL really interests me this year (unless Jimy can get Houston in somehow), so I'll stick with the AL.

Oakland would be the trendy pick, but I'll go with the Twins for sticking it to the man purposes. I am Mariners-curious, and could root for them. The Angels? Nah.

Interesting thing about '98 Looking over the Sox-Indians divisional series, all the runs in Game 4 came from home runs. Nomaaaaahhhhhhh had a 3 run job, while the Tribe had four solo shots- Thome, Lofton, and two from Manny Ramirez.

England update Got our plane tickets. We're sitting in rows 56 and 61 for the flights. I didn't know there were planes that had that many rows. OK, I did, but damn.

Still trying to figure out what to see when we're over there. Sarah's aunt Joyce and uncle Chris are staying with us currently, and they aren't making it any easier. I hadn't even considered places local to them in Wales. I'd mused earlier about going to Normandy to see D-Day stuff, but that may have to wait for another trip.

London is in, of course, but after that...