Random thought post.

* Howard Dean is now the guerilla candidate. He keeps dropping back and finding a new line in the sand - New Hampshire, then Michigan, now Wisconsin. I suppose we have some comfort in him saying he's out if he doesn't win the Badger State. I imagine he's going to spend most of his money by then, so even if he does win how far could he go?

* I'd like to know what makes John Kerry "electable" other than knee-jerk reactions to primary results and poll numbers. If pushed I can come up with a message for most Dems, but for Kerry I can't get too far past "I've been in the Senate for a while and am thus most qualified to be President." I also have trouble coming up with a Clark message, though I imagine it's wearing the sweatshirt of your most successful local sports team.

* While I can understand why Janet Jackson is reluctant to attend a concert honoring Luther Vandross, I don't know why she's thinking about passing up the Grammy Awards. She might as well be there to take the jokes in person. Heck, CBS may even pay her to go given the ratings boost if she attends.

* I can't quite understand why they cancelled JC Chasez as the halftime entertainment at the Pro Bowl, given that there may be more people tuning in for that than the game. I mean, really, who cares about the Pro Bowl if no one is kicking million dollar field goals at halftime?

* While I can't say I care one way or the other over ESPN's cancellation of Playmakers - though I'll be glad to not have to see another promo for it again ever - I was struck by Ray Lewis' comments about it. He said that his kids have cable and can watch ESPN, and that they shouldn't have to see such things as offered in the show. You can fill in your own comment about parental responsibility here.

* Having now seen some courtroom illustrations from the Martha Stewart trial, I can now confirm that she's difficult to draw. Woof.

* What is it with Ohio and sports gambling? Art Schlichter, Pete Rose, now Maurice Clarett (granted, it's more innuendo than anything else in his case, but still). Someone check the water!

* On a related note, if Maurice Clarett does get to enter the NFL draft, you know he's going to become an Arizona Cardinal. When this comes to pass, Dwight better up his fraught rating to high.

* As hyped up as I am to see Miracle, I probably won't get to see it this weekend. It's not so much other obligations as my being on-call, which I've noted previously always results in trouble when I try to see a movie. Remember that the last time I tried to mix the two, my fellow RD held the pager - and got paged with 10 minutes left in the film.

* I'm sad to see that Tower Records is filing for Chapter 11. I enjoyed my trips to the Boston branch, though there was a bit of a Championship Vinyl vibe at times. I've been in the Virgin Megastore that replaced it exactly once, and only then because I was too slow to order what I needed on-line.

* While I don't know how it'll go, I am happy to have Ellis Burks back in the mix. I always liked him during his first stint with the Sox, though I did feel like his leaving was good for his career.

* They're down to the final 32 on American Idol, and while Male Model, Angry White Girl, and Former College Football Player made it, Scooter Girl missed the cut. The first eight semifinalists try to sing their way into our hearts next week, and I'll be there to bore you about it.