A double-dose of karaoke tonight on American Idol as the kids sing a '60s song and then a song penned by Neil Sedaka, tonight's guest judge. So I guess the live band night is out this time around?

The singing goes about as you could expect. Josh does much better than last week but is clearly the bottom of the group. Trenyce uses hair and costume to the greatest effect possible, but can't seem to crack the top three of Ruben, Clay, and Kim Locke.

Assuming a bottom three, it'll be Josh, Trenyce, and Kim Locke. Kim will be spared, Josh will most likely go. It wouldn't surprise me if Trenyce went, I suppose, but I'll stick with the Corps' finest.

Neil Sedaka, by the way, makes an excellent judge. Good comments, and he even takes notes! They should get rid of Paula and her nonsense and keep Neil around.

In unrelated TV viewing, I would highly suggest the PBS reality show Manor House, where they take people and make them live as in Edwardian times. It's very interesting watching the people in both the upper and lower portions of the house (elites and servants, respectively) try to cope with what was commonplace just a century ago. Better than the usual reality crap, for certain.

Things That Disturb #433: A Mary Kate and Ashley poster on the wall of a college residence hall suite that houses six male seniors.

Spent the weekend at the College Bowl, Inc. National Championship Tournament, an event that I imagine most of you know at least a little about, but sufficiently few of you care about deeply enough for me to bust into full recap mode. Drop me a line if you're interested in my perspective.

Of more interest is that I got to ride the SEPTA blue line, filling my public transportation jones. It was also Penn Relays weekend, so there were a goodly number of people about, but not as crazy as I expected. I also got to witness the aftermath of Hey Day, a UPenn tradition related to juniors becoming seniors and hat biting (scroll down for the relevant info).

At least one participant at the NCT also took on a culinary challenge by eating at Masaharu Morimoto's restaurant. I'll have to see if I can get a review from her or her husband.

The main problem of the weekend: traffic. 95 was horrific around NYC both coming and going, adding at least an hour to the trip on each leg. It was a great combination of volume, construction, too many EZ Pass lanes at the GW Bridge tolls, and accidents. I don't know if the Tappan Zee would have been any faster, but it couldn't have been worse. Unless the bridge collapsed in mid-transit.

Five overtimes and a 6:30 wake up call makes Mark something something.

Seriously, if you've not been watching the NHL playoffs, do so. There's been some amazing hockey.

What's odder: that the Mighty Ducks are undefeated in the playoffs while playing Detroit and Dallas, or that the Kansas City Royals are 16-3?

Oh, real quick, those commercials I was going to mention:

GOOD

Snapple, "Pamplona": Must be seen on a full-size TV for maximum effect, but is also available on Snapple.com. Seriously, this is the hardest I've laughed at a commercial in years.

Coors Light, "Wingman": Not on the same scale as above, but an actual good commerical for them after the horrors of the twins and guy's night out. Yes, it's a sliding scale.

BAD

The Ford Focus ads where:

1. The guys drives like an idiot to keep his from getting wet. God knows the drop of rain would probably eat though the hood.

2. The woman gets the Focus tattoo. This is easily the stupidest ad on air currently. Including beer commericals.

While it shouldn't be surprising, I've finally be accused of being anti-Mormon. A reader writes:

You should proably back off the mormon tiff you have going on on your web site. i.e. "(Perhaps I should institute a daily Mormon update? I've got a couple days covered by Carmen Rasmussen, and as long as the Mavs keep playing Shawn Bradley is available.)"


If you knew anything about the religion then maybe we someone could listen to your opinion with some respect. However, since you know nothing of the religion or it's people, your views are entirely jaded and totally incredible. You should learn about your subject matter before you try to bash it...it might make your website posting sound more intelligent and be more interesting.

Apparently, Carmen Rasmussen can spread her evil power even after getting drummed off of American Idol. Seriously, though, three notes:

1. Some things I write here are serious, the rest isn't. I assume that you can tell the difference. Most people can, but some clearly cannot. Knowing me helps, but isn't required. Also, not everything I write is comedic gold (please control your horrified gasps).

2. Remember that to assume makes an ass out of you and me, except in this case where it's mostly you (I can make a perfectly good ass out of myself, thanks). While I will never claim to have a deep or true understanding of the Mormon faith, neither would I use the above words, "knowing nothing of the religion or it's people" to describe what I know about it.

In my current job, I work with Mormon students. Not many, but more than one. Between the most recent Winter Olympics and Mitt Romney's election as governor of Massachusetts, I've done some light reading on Mormonism, both web-based and the book Mormon America, which may not be the best book about the religion out there, but is more than "nothing." Oh, by the way, if you really want to find people in a "tiff" with Mormonism, check out some of the reviews for the book.

Did it ever cross your mind that what I said wasn't exactly meant as an analysis of the religion?

3. Reading is fundamental, hyperbole is not. I've not declaimed against the evils of the Mormon faith, tried to prove it in error based on the Bible, poke holes in its history, muse about the undergarments, etc. At worst I've been insensitive in where I've found humor. I don't think so, but I can see where some may think it. Where nothing I've written was a specific attack on the religion, you may want to dial down the "bashing" talk. People take you more seriously when your complaint actually makes sense in a proportional fashion to what you deem offending.

Oh, yeah, one other thing. You stated "your views are entirely jaded and totally incredible." That's a bold statement, especially when I've not expressed a single "view" on the topic. Though I'm sure a humorless approach to religion mixed with the assumption that I can't even spell Mormon allowed you to come up with whatever "views" you think I had.

So much for talking about my favorite and least-favorite current TV commercials.

Tonight's American Idol recap is dedicated to the U.S. Marine Corps, who have proven that they can outlast both the Republican Guard and Carmen Rasmussen.

I must say that I've rarely been so happy to be wrong. I'd pegged Josh as tonight's victim, and he did wind up in the bottom three (with Carmen and Trenyce, as predicted). But, finally, common sense prevailed and a young woman almost singularly unsuited for the job of pop singer was shown the door. But not before she got to sing us out with a reprise of "Love Will Lead You Back" which I imagine to some sounded like a promise of a future return in singing form. From my viewpoint, it's a threat, and a public one at that.

We also got a group sing from the kids of a Diane Warren original penned just for them, I think called "Shine," about how people are going to pick on them but they'll still shine like stars. Or some crap like that.

So I'm a little confused at how the current administration couldn't have predicted that Iran would get involved with the regime change in Iraq. Consider that:

a. Iran is run by a motivated Shi'ite government that's been agitating for Islamic rule in the region for decades.
b. Iraq has a Shi'ite majority that's been oppressed by Iraq for decades.

I suppose the administration is more surprised by the speed of things than the actual occurance, but did they expect that Iran was sitting quietly by, not building connections with Shi'ites in Iraq? It's this sort of thing that further suggests that we may not be the best group of people to muddle around in the Middle East.

I would also point out that just as Tom Clancy played Nostradamus in Debt of Honor with the use of a commerical airliner as terror weapon, he may have presaged the current situation in Iraq in Executive Orders, where the assassination of Saddam leads to Iranian intervention in Iraq and the formation of a combined Islamic state. In the book Iran had to get rid of the ruling generals first, giving them all assistance in getting out of the country. Given that the US military has performed this role in real life, perhaps Iran will find the formation of a United Islamic Republic easier in real life than in books. If the president of Turkmenistan dies in a suspicious car crash, I'm moving to a cabin in the north woods of Quebec.

Conisdering this is the third time I've written this recap, losing the first two to my own stupidity, I will be brief.

- Diane Warren was the guest judge, and the kids sang her songs. Showing that the power of evil multiplies arithmetically when joined, Carmen has what was probably her best night so far. Which, on the objective show scale, is on par with Clay expectorating during an especially bad cold.

- Ruben and Clay were good as always. Kimberly Locke did better than last week and may be starting to push those two guys. Trenyce was good but unspectacular. Josh uncountrified, got reamed by Simon for getting out of his box, and wasn't that good. Carmen was Carmen, but perhaps only 95% so.

- Clairol became a new in-show product placement sponsor when the tonsorial equivalent of Steven Cojocaru went to the house to give the kids highlights or other colorings. Ruben, thanks to his closely-cropped hair, was spared the indignity.

- My bottom three: Carmen, Josh, and Trenyce. I'll guess that Josh goes off, pray that Carmen gets sent packing, and will probably see Trenyce go thanks to people using the method from The Weakest Link where you keep the lame and try to send off the competition.

- Idle musing during the show, when Simon told Carmen that she could not win the competition: what if she does? What the hell are they going to do with her? I can't think that there's enough studio magic in all of Hollywood to make her bleating sound good. I will say that someone is doing what they can to keep her around, as Seacrest continued to pimp for votes for Carmen, and made sure she was front and center (and given a softball question to answer) during the wrap up in the ready room.

Real quick: call 1-866-IDOLS-01 to help get Carmen Rasmussen kicked off of American Idol. It's the number of Kimberly Locke, who was very good tonight but is prone to being in the bottom three. More on the show later.

A couple things of note:

1. CNN posed this question during American Morning: can Scott Peterson get a fair trial given the media coverage of the case so far? My guess is that Jack Cafferty doesn't have a strong grasp on irony.

In a related note, Paula Zahn is no longer hosting the program, but rather is haunting Connie Chung's old time slot as host of Live from the Headlines. This may be one of the stupidest titles for a news show I've ever heard.

2. In an attempt to thwart file-sharing, Madonna and company downloaded a bunch of files that purported to be cuts from her latest album to Morpheus, Kazaa, etc., but were actually dummies. "Hackers" then posted the real song files to Madonna's web site in retaliation. Truly the revenge of the nerds.

It's Patriots' Day here in Massachusetts, the day we pause to remember those who fought to make our country free. To that end, a small group of people get together in Lexington to watch a re-creation of the British-colonial skirmish that took place their, the opening salvo (so to speak) of the Revolutionary War.

For millions of others, though, it's a day set aside for the Boston Marathon, an excuse to get drunk and watch beanpoles in short-shorts bleed from the nipples due to shirt chafing. Personally, I think you'd have to be drunk at the get-go to run those 26.2 miles, but admittedly my few attempts at distance running saw my knees protest vehemently after about a half mile.

Reading what I just wrote, I come off more negative on the marathon than I actually am. After years of mild fascination with the race, I now view it with passing interest, watching the start, flipping around for a couple of hours, and then going back to coverage around 2 pm to catch the names of the wheelchair winners and see who wins among the elite runners (I did used to watch the wheelchair finish, too, but the retirement of Jeannie Driscoll and the Swiss guy who won a lot - something Neilsbach, though I've probably misspelled the name - has reduced my interest in that segment of things).

For most of my adult life I've lived within walking distance of the course - close to Beacon Street while at BU, and now along Route 16 in Wellesley - but I've never been keen on watching for any length of time. I've passed a couple of marathons in Kenmore Square, once after a Sox game where I was pretty much stuck there, and once with friends, killing time before dinner at the Border Cafe in Cambridge. When I was living on Mountfort Street I could walk from my apartment to Beacon Street, see the elite runners pass, and walk home in time for the finish. I can't be bothered to watch the race here in Swellesley - it'd be like only tuning into the middle five minutes of a hockey game.

I have ultimate respect for the runners, given that they're doing something I could never do. This extends to those who run the race not to win, but to raise money for a charity, in memory of someone, or just to prove to themselves that they can indeed do it. Whether or not I'm there to witness it doesn't change matters. Better that I stay out of the way and let the more willing to hoot and holler be roadside for their anonymous encouragement.

Now I wish we'd gotten up early to see the reenactment. Though, as the schedule shows, I'd have been better going over on Saturday.

Oh, a quick Blogalicious note that Nina Simone, jazz musician and favored musical performer for the wedding I attended in England back in December, passed away today.

A weekend of mostly sitting around the house leads me to make the following TV recommendations:

A big up for Breed All About It, the Animal Planet program that introduces viewers to a specific dog breed. Saw back to back episodes yesterday; the one about the Labrador family wasn't that enlightening (they spent a lot of time talking about Labs as helper dogs), but the one about cairn terriers was very interesting (they've very cute, but require a lot of exercise). It appears to be a weekend morning show, so if you're up at 9 am and thinking about dogs, tune in.

Tenative ups for Lucky the fX series about a compulsive gambler in Las Vegas. I'm not a huge John Corbett fan, but he plays the part well. It's only a half hour, which is probably for the best (an hour could get really tiresome). I was surprised at the language (apparently "shit" is in play for basic cable, but then again hasn't South Park used it in episodes?), but for the most part it's not swearing just because they can swear. Dan Hedaya (best known, to me at least, for playing Nick Tortelli on Cheers and The Tortellis- which, as I think of it, also set in Vegas) has a recurring role as a loanshark.

Not such big ups for the continuing Scott and Laci Peterson case. I suppose this is one of those times where I don't get the public appeal of what's passing for the big news item. I'm not doubting if it is news, I just don't think it's the biggest news story going on right now. To quote Don Henley: "It's interesting when people die/ Give us dirty laundry."

(For a song that came out when I was in high school, it just gets more and more relevant)

I took Greg's advice and tuned in to the curling coverage on NBC and was highly entertained. Sadly, there is no suggestion section on the Wheaties website.

Not much else on. Sarah's mom and sister are here, and I've been spared a huge run of Trading Spaces as they've been showing the same three episodes all weekend. I have trouble watching an entire hour of the show, but keeping tabs on it during the hour isn't bad. Paige Davis is annoying, but I'm sure I'm not telling anyone who watches the show regularly something they don't already know.

For what I think is the first time this season, my pick for who'd be kicked off of American Idol was the actual victim.

Damn.

We were SO CLOSE to ending the national nightmare that is Carmen Rasmussen. It was down to her and Kimberly Caldwell, the final two. But, as past experience has taught, Carmen just won't go down. Which means yet another week of listening to her butcher music. Ugh.

To this end, I am announcing a service. Every week, after the show airs, I am going to post the phone numbers here of the contestant who, in my estimation, could use a few extra votes to avoid coming in last. Vote, don't vote, it's your decision. But remember that you are commiting a crime against the arts if you don't do your part to silence Carmen as soon as possible. Don't think I won't call The Hague on you.

Not much else to note about the show, other than the expected mention of Kelly Clarkson's album not appearing. Could it be that someone at the show finally fears overkill? And if so, what the hell took them so long?

In other news, I got to see the end bit of Michael Jordan's final (well, third final) NBA contest, a lame affair that saw the Sixers drop the Wizards by something like 20 points. If that's not a metaphor for His Airness's final go-round in the league I don't know what is. He made a crappy team barely mediocre, adding a largely forgettable coda to his career along the way. I suppose I'd be more laudatory if he weren't the Ross Perot of hoops, coming and going as the whim strikes.

If nothing else, Mike can now focus on what I've always believed to be the next step: the Senior PGA Tour. He'll just have to lay off the high-stakes Nassau (well, during tournaments at least).

I also got around to watching the season ending episode of Ed, and will be pissed if it winds up being the series finale. It wraps up a lot of things nicely, but also suggests promise for the future. The show's apparently doing well on Fridays, so perhaps NBC will stay the executioner's hand. I mean, what the hell else are they going to show on Friday nights? More Dateline?

Interesting sports and TV note - saw on Yahoo! earlier today the results of a study saying that heart attack deaths seem to lessen in countries just after they win soccer's World Cup. You'd think the stress of the game would thin the herd, but it doesn't seem to be the case. I suppose that's another argument for further work on developing the US side.

A strange aura around American Idol last night, as the kids sang Billy Joel tunes, while the Piano Man himself was nowhere to be found - other than on pre-taped clips, talking about each song chosen for the night's performances. Unlike last year, when Burt Bacharach worked with the kids and could talk about each song and how it fit the contestant, Joel was more or less setting up an hour-long karaoke contest of his music.

Stranger still was Smokey Robinson acting as guest judge. Not so much because of who he is, but because there is almost no connection between him and the musical theme (other than he and Joel both being famous singer-songwriters).

The performances were less strange. Those who were usually good were good and those who were usually bad were bad. Kimberly Locke had perhaps her best performance yet with "New York State of Mind," but she'll probably still wind up in the bottom three. Josh Gracin was not particularly enthralling as he sang the chorus to "Piano Man" 2 or 3 times, but he'll be safe. Carmen was horrid as always, got panned across the board by the judges, and had to have Ryan Seacrest pimp for votes like nobody's business. Now that Simon's abandoned her, I wonder which of the producers is trying to keep her on the show.

In any case, look for both Kims and Trenyce in the bottom three (she did a good cover of "Baby Grand," but will slip to the bottom three given the sinister forces that seem to be propelling Carmen and Josh along) and for camera whore Kimberly Caldwell to get her farewell after her uninspiring performance of "Still Rock 'n Roll to Me."

In related news, Kelly Clarkson's album came out yesterday, and was surprisingly not mentioned on the show. How unlike them to miss an opportunity to pimp a product! I'm sure we'll get some mention tonight, at least in passing. Also, Monday sees a special show somehow related to being at the halfway point. Reality programs that run clip shows make the baby Jesus cry.

Just as with Joe Millionaire, I got suckered into watching the final episode of Married By America last night (at Sarah's behest, though she'd not been watching it, but rather wanted to see if anyone went through with it). Turns out, no one was married, by America or otherwise, at the end of two pointless hours of TV. I can only be thankful that I killed a large chunk of the time reading the ESPN magazine baseball preview issue and continuing through The Rascal King, a biography of legendary Boston mayor and scoundrel James Michael Curley.

Perhaps I should just watch the final episode of all the reality shows. Nah.

Apologies for not posting lately, but I was involved in the sixth edition of TRASHionals this weekend (of course, many of you were there; for those that weren't or have no idea what I'm talking about, it's a pop-culture quiz event that attracted teams from coast to coast, Boston to Vancouver!).

I think it went pretty well, but from my position doing stats it was hard to get a real sense of things. What people I did talk to didn't complain to my face, at least. I'm sure there will be various kvetching in the Yahoo! quizbowl group, but I've not been much of a reader of that lately, either. I suppose I should at least take a peek.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who attended, played, etc. for their contributions to the tournament. I'll make special mention here of Matt Bruce, Matt Boggie, and Jon Couture for giving their time to help out. I'd especially like to thank the Matts, as they traveled various distances to attend. I should also note that Matt Bruce is a fine house guest!

The time put into the tournament over the last week has added up to me getting a cold. It's been mostly head, but has been making moves towards the chestal region. Given the month or so I spent with a cold at the end of December and beginning of January, I'm hoping this one doesn't settle in for a similar period. If nothing else, I'd like to be in good voice for CBI nationals. I think if I'd tried to read this past weekend I'd have made myself hoarse by round 4.

There are various sports things I should note, but am too lazy to backtrack. I will note Mike Weir's win at the Masters yesterday, making him perhaps the greatest lefthanded Canadian Mormon golfer in history. There's a trash bonus in there waiting to happen - lefty, Canadian, Mormon, combination, or none of the above?

(Perhaps I should institute a daily Mormon update? I've got a couple days covered by Carmen Rasmussen, and as long as the Mavs keep playing Shawn Bradley is available.)

Not much else going on, not surprisingly. I'm on call again, thankfully for the last time this academic year. Being in a two person rotation is not fun. I found myself acting like I was on call on the weeks where I wasn't. Thankfully, our third person will be joining the rotation in a week or two, and we're looking to add two more people for next year. Now my fellow RD and I just have to find some way out of the summer on-call rotation...

As it turned out on American Idol, Rickey Smith got shown the door on the Wednesday night show. This was a little surprising; I had him in my bottom three, but he's clearly better than the one person who has no demonstrable skill (Carmen) and perhaps more versatile than the one person who has reasonable talent if he can deep fry the song and drown it in country gravy (Joshua).

Getting back to Carmen and whatever shadowy force is keeping her in the competition (*cough*Mormons*cough*), the subtext with her and Clay that may have breached last night took up low earth orbit when, at the end of a horrific group sing of Lionel Ritchie's "All Night Long," it looked very much like she and Clay had a big ol' smooch. Hard to say given that they took a quick pan away from the group at the end. Arguments for lip lock include the pair not being shown in a closer group shot a little later and a rather animated discussion between Randy and Simon. OK, the latter part is speculation, but it's not like they'd be marveling over the singing on display.

Maybe Carmen thought she was getting canned and thus figured what the heck. As it turns out she didn't even make the bottom three (Kimberly Locke was the only returnee from last week and got sent back to the couches, while camera whore Kimberly Caldwell got to play the waiting game with Rickey). I have half a mind to write the Utah attorney general on this.

Even more frightening was the in-show Ford commerical where Ruben is forced to sing "Get Out of My Dreams, Get Into My Car" to a dozen Carmens. It was like The Boys From Brazil meet Heathers, but with less vocal ability.

Kelly Clarkson was on, too, pimping her new single and her album, which comes out next week. The song is pretty forgettable Britney/Christina pop, and from what Sarah said Ms. Aguilera has a hand in some of Kelly's songs. It would also explain Kelly's hair, which is somewhere in the early stages between Christina's hair in the "Genie in a Bottle" video and her skankalicious 'do of more recent vintage.

Only a half hour tonight, which was perfect. We'll probably get another 3-5 weeks of this before the results show becomes some extravaganza where the few remaining finalists sing even more. At least we'll be through with the Up With People bits.

It's late (well, really early), so a quick recap of festivities on American Idol last night.

It was Billboard #1s as the theme, which gave the kids a chance to go to Billboard HQ and ask a real suck-up question about how their group sing of "God Bless the USA" might chart. Surprise, the Billboard folks see it going to the top! Lionel Ritchie was the guest judge, and I have to go back to Deathtongue and agree that running him over with a tank would be a good idea. Though he did give some modest criticism of the kids, which is more than we've gotten from others.

The kids mostly stuck to recent (within the last 10 years or so) songs, and did very well generally, much better than last week's disco march of death. With the carry over of votes from last week, it is possible that Kimberly Locke and Trenyce will wind up back in the bottom three, but doubtful if last night's performances have anything to do with things. Camera whore Kimberly Caldwell may wind up at the bottom after getting dissed for singing "Everything I Do" from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Go figure that she takes the comments from last week about doing the same thing all the time, actually listens and attempts something different, and gets crapped on for it. For once she sang rather than yelled the song, and it'd be nice for her to get a little bump for it.

I'll put Rickey in the bottom three as well, as his falsetto on "Endless Love" didn't do much for me. Hmm, second week in a row Rickey did a song the guest judge was involved with. Suck up!

Rounding things out is Carmen, whose flat and dull rendition of Blondie's "Call Me" made the baby Jesus cry. She did almost hold a short note, though, so good for her! The subtext between her and Clay breached the surface during a Nokia-AT&T placement bit where she took a photo of herself blowing a kiss and sent it to Clay. Hope there was something to that picture, as I have to think she'll be moving out of the house after tonight's results show.

Ruben, Clay, and Joshua did fine. Ruben did give the biggest surprise of the night by not wearing a 205 jersey. But he was still representin'.

So I wound up doing the radio show by myself today, which makes it very hard to do the PTI thing. On the other hand, for all the vague sports and other talk I stuffed into 50 minutes, I actually felt like I did a show, as opposed to the past few weeks where things degenerated into me playing sound effects clips while my co-host and a friend of his reintroduced me to the level of discourse common to 20 year old males.

I picked Kansas to win the NCAA hoops title, which they did not. I wasn't strong for Kansas, left it at their experience besting Syracuse's youngsters. This even after I noted SI's use of that theory wasn't proving too useful. Sometimes my idiocy astounds me.

On the lighter side, I did note that today was Russell Crowe's birthday, and that he was getting married at some point. I did not note that he was actually getting married on his 39th birthday. Which makes the anniversary easy to remember. In a related note, my boss's sister is getting married on Valentine's Day, which also has an easy day to remember. I also wonder if the presents for such a day are additive, exponential, or have a cost-saving synergy to them. I suppose it varies from case to case (I shudder to think what it would mean for me!).

Life is reasonably busy with TRASHionals prep, and will step up as we get closer to the date. I've got to get a bunch of copying done, and handle some goodies mailed to me, and play host to Mr. The Bruce. I would be concerned that our humble home is too messy for him, but then I remember his place on Bay State Road.

On the TV front, I found it odd last week when the NBC announcer guy noted that this week's episode of Ed would be the season finale. I assume there's been the normal number of episodes for a season (just checked, it's 22 like past years); I can only assume that the network's burned through them all in rapid fashion. The move to Friday was similarly vexing, and chilling given that such a move often means a show is one step away from getting the heave-ho. I'm not sure if Ed's the best lead in for Law & Order SVU, but it's not like The West Wing was such a great fit, either.

Just skimmed a few articles, and it seems like the producers are in good spirits about things (what are the odds they'd gripe in this situation?), and hopefully NBC will give the show a chance to develop in the new time slot (and isn't that what network suits are known for doing?). It would be ironic for the show to get canned just as it's finding itself again, but not surprising.

It's a crappy Friday afternoon. What's it time for? ESPN.com fantasy games!

Fantasy Golf Challenge:
Group: Gunga Galunga
Password: gopher

Hockey Playoff Challenge:
Group: Mission 4W
Password: slash

Miller Lite First Round Forecast
Group: Palmer and 14 Other Guys
Password: fumble

Still time to join the Baseball Challenge group before the season gets too far underway. Especially as one team hasn't apparently picked any players (Matt Harper-Nixon, check your roster!).

If you keep me from getting to Starbucks before work, the terrorists have won.

I can't take something this asnine seriously. Though I'm sure the author of the bill does, which is more the pity. I am looking forward to his next piece of legislation, which will send unregistered door-to-door petitioners to Camp X-Ray.

For this week, American Idol was like that season of Dallas that was all one of Pam Ewing's dreams.

Given the booting of Corey Clark, the decision was made not to boot anyone off of the show this week. Votes will carry over to next week, just adding to the painful tease of getting thatclose to sending Carmen back to Bountiful. On the other hand, we do get another week of reading the subtextual hints that she and Clay have something going on.

Related to that, we got a half-hearted, back-handed confirmation tonight that camera whore Kimberly Caldwell is dating semi-finalist J. D. Adams. Is he trying to ride her coattails of pseudo-fame, or is she trying to latch on to his Presidential heritage?

There were more group sings, and the contradictory announcement that the producers wanted to capture the "magic" of the live rendition of "God Bless the USA" from last week that they had the kids re-record it in the studio. Whatever machine makes everyone sound on-key apparently can't travel. Oh, odd note here: Corey and Julia, last week's victim, were both in-studio to sing this, but Kimberly Locke wasn't. Pinko!

Getting back to the booting that wasn't, the other two in the bottom three this week were Trenyce and Kimberly Locke. I'm not sure if this is proof that most of the 13 year olds who watch are morons, or if there's some sort of Weakest Link-type plot by fans of Ruben and Clay to pick off the competition by voting for the deficient.

There was one segment from the house, but no sign of show correspondent Kristin Holt. Maybe she's been embedded with a military unit to give the Texas cheerleader perspective to war.

I will say that watching the recap show on tape is a huge boon. I would like to skip more of the padding, but even just missing the plentiful commerical breaks is time-saver enough.

OK, this is odd. Blogger says the publish request for my last post was sent on 4/1/03 at 6:49:51 pm (west coast time). The tag on the post says it was logged in at 4/2/03, 2:48:49 am. Which might be the case if I was in, say, Britain. If only I were!

I have a greater appreciation for disco music tonight. Given the butchering that a selection of disco hits took on tonight's episode of American Idol, I've clearly underestimated the difficulty of the genre.

The show started off with word that Corey Clark, he of the ear-shredding "upper reigster" that Randy and Paula seemed to love, had been booted off the show for not telling the producers about a pending legal case where he was charged with beating up his sister, resisting arrest, etc. In a taped segment, he denied the charges, apologized to anyone and everyone who may not have made it on the show due to his being there, and promised that he'd keep trying to abuse our hearing for years to come. It may have had more of an impact if he'd apoligized to his family, given the embarrasment of the whole thing.

(As of about 5 minutes ago, Corey is still in a group shot on the show's main web page. Whoops!)

In any case, the show did go on, complete with guest judge Verdine White, who everyone except Mike Hoey-Lukakis has probably not heard of. He's the bassist for Earth, Wind and Fire, who I've not thought of as a disco outfit but they did record some stuff that'd fit. He wore Seinfeld's puffy shirt and shiny pants, not sure if they were leather, pleather, vinyl, or whatever.

Quick hits on the kids, even though the memory is painful at times:
Rickey sang something (the song list isn't up and I can't remember) that had him hitting notes as high as the backup singers track. Not good.
Carmen proved that she cannot hold a note to save her life. Also not good.
Clay sang something and sang it well, but he's not disco.
Camera whore Kimberly Caldwell wasn't that bad, I thought, as she has power enough to get through the song. Paula actually made a negative comment, noting that she thought Ms. Caldwell was a little off and may be getting complacent. It's all meh to me.
Kimberly Locke sang "It's Raining Men" (how does thatsong stick when the rest haven't?) and took a second to warm up, but she did well. Her disco look was good with the hair, not so much with the dress.
Ruben sang "Can't Get Enough" by Barry White, but he's nowhere deep enough. Kimberly Locke has a deeper voice than Ruben. Sang it well for not being Barry, though.
Trenyce was OK, not her best but she's got enough voice to get through.
Joshua was God-awful singing "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang. He's gone all country, making disco a bit of a reach, but he could have done much, much beter.

(An aside: over the weekend I caught bits of Nashville Star on USA and, though I'm not a country fan, I thought their performers were better overall. It helps that some of them are a little older, and have thus been able to mature. They all play instruments, too, and play with a live band. That helps a lot.)

As for American Idol, it isn't exactly groundbreaking, and my attraction to it is formed, at least in part, by the train wreck aspect of things. Which should have made tonight's hour sit much better than it did. I'd rather watch Bill O'Reilly go a full hour with Peter Arnett than watch this show again.

The overall crapitude makes picking a bottom three difficult, but as I've been so off in the other weeks I suppose it doesn't matter. I think Joshua gets into the bottom three as he has the whammy of going last and being really underwhelming. I have to think that Carmen will finally lose whatever protective coating she has and will enter the bottom three (unless the Mormons have a well-organized phone tree). Rickey will round the group out; being the bottom three last week gives the public a taste of booting him out.

And, pressed for a loser, I'll go with Joshua. I know, he's a Marine and we love him for it, but the performance was really not good at all.

Be sure to tune in next week, when the theme is polka and our guest judge is the reanimated corpse of Lawrence Welk! (Not really, of course, but wouldn't that be cool?)