What does it mean that if you were looking for signs of the Apocalypse this week you'd have found them not on Revelations but on American Idol?

On Idol this week we had BOTH a contestant sing the Donna Summer version of "Macarthur Park" and a "rocker" now fully marked as a poser come out and perform in eye makeup. Which would have been fine if he were in full Ziggy Stardust mode. But he wasn't.

The sign, though, is that both of them made it through to next week. In a fair and just society looked after by a loving God, things would have gone much differently. Then again, in such a society I don't think we ever would have been subjected to "Macarthur Park" in the first place.

Revelations, FWIW, did have its own sign of the Apocalypse: Fred Durst in a credited role. The story of the actual and supposedly looming Apocalype? Surprisingly turgid and expositional.

Oh, and I'd be remiss not to mention that Paula Abdul has finally gone public to explain that her bizarre behavior on Idol isn't due to drugs, but rather the joy that comes at the end of a long and too boring to explain series of mishaps where either pain or drugs put her in a mood where she didn't want to dance or talk all over Simon Cowell. Inasmuch as it's good to celebrate feeling good, she doesn't have to be a tool about it. Just saying.