So how was your week?

I was in Orlando from Sunday to very early this morning, and will be writing up some sort of travelogue for all to enjoy, as it were. The short version is that it didn't snow and I'll be very happy not to see another theme park until 2007.

In non-vacation related items of note:

* Both the BU men's ice hockey and basketball seasons ended while I was away, and interestingly enough it was the hockey team that was the more interesting of the pair. They upended BC in the quarterfinals of the Hockey East tournament, but bowed to Maine in a 1-0 semifinal contest. The basketball team got to play at URI in the first round of the NIT and got smoked.

* I was slightly saddened to see that Sean Fields didn't get a Hobey Baker nod, given that his play was about the only thing that kept the Icedogs from a 5-28-2 season. But it's hardly a snub of any proportion.

* I'd meant to leave a quick note about the vacation before departing, but wound up spending all my free time installing OS X on my Mac. This required a memory upgrade, which went fine, and some software upgrades, which did not. In the end, though, I was able to get it in and going in time to load up my iPod for the trip, which was key.

* With the travel I was not able to run my usual March Madness pool, which I'm only partially upset about. There may be something lurking for the Sweet Sixteen. I'll also probably run my usual gentleperson's wager pool for the NCAA division 1 men's ice hockey tournament, more on that when the bracket is out.

* As part of my vacation plans I've finally started The DaVinci Code, and I think reading all of Dan Brown's other books first (OK, there are only three) was a mistake. He's got a definite pattern to his books, which I'm hoping he's gotten out of for this one.

The big conflict on The Apprentice the last couple weeks or so pitted lazy megalomaniac Omarosa versus potty-mouthed Heidi. After yesterday's episode, though, it's time to find a new conflict, as both women are now out.

Omarosa bit the bullet last week, as her continued shirking of duties after getting hit in the head with some plaster (which led to a "concussion") and continued irritation of everyone involved with the program added up to put her in a cab and out of Trump Tower. If you're still jonesing for some psychotic goodness, feel free to wander over to her official web site (which I won't link to, but it's obvious what the URL is if you think about it). It doesn't appear to have been updated since her ouster, but I'm sure she's working on some sort of nefarious scheme to relaunch.

Oh, I forgot to mention Omarosa's breakdown during the boardroom, where she went back in to plead her case before Trump summoned the group back in. She judged poorly (but, sadly, didn't turn into dust and skeleton before our very eyes).

Heidi, on the other hand, got the boot this week after her team lost and she, for the umpteenth week in a row, didn't seem to do all that much. Generally liked by the other contestants and a good team member, the assembled brain trust didn't seem to think she'd shown much initative or leadership, so adios.

This week's episode was strange, as the teams had to manage a pedicab business. Pedicabs, for those not in the know, are bicycle-powered rickshaws. It was probably the least interesting competition to date, though it did help to set up the new conflict pair of Bill and Katrina, who've been sniping at each other going back to the apartment challenge (where Katrina, the real estate person, had Bill handle the rental negotiations for some reason).

I continue to enjoy the show more than I thought I would, but the lame challenges make me fear for the sequel. It's going to wind up being televised virtual stock challenges or something.

So who'd have thought that my trip to the dentist to get a cleaning would be the bright spot for Tuesday?

I was dreading the appointment, given that I've not had a cleaning since... well, I'm not sure, but I can pretty safely say it was before we started letting anyone in the Bush family be President. I know that tidbit will shock, amaze, and possibly nauseate you, but there it is.

Things didn't get any better when the hygenist started to explain the procedure for cleaning if there was too much stuff, a process that apparently involves a specialist, multiple appointments, jackhammers, and the medical application of Semtex. But as fate would have it, the governor called. Not only was I spared the invasive cleaning, it appears that my dental hygeine is good enough that the hygenist thought I flossed regularly, which I do, if by regularly you mean semi-annually.

Props to my parents and the staff of Manchester Memorial Elementary School for their making me a twice a day brusher.

I can't say I was thrilled with the scraping and the variety of metal instruments used in said scraping, and the end product of all the rinsing was not particularly what I wanted to see at 9 am, but I'll take it. The polishing was kind of gross, too, given the consistency of the paste and the way the gritty material lingered over the course of the day.

But there was still one more step to my visit - my first meeting with Dr. Ochoa, my dentist. Oddly enough, I worked with a guy with the last name of Ochoa at the Daily Free Press, and for a second I expected him to come around the corner (while he wasn't a dental student when I knew him - far from it, in fact - his career path seemed flexible enough that an entry into dental medicine wouldn't have surprised me).

In any event, Dr. Ochoa shows up (not the person I knew) and starts to go over my x-rays. He's pretty methodical about it, and I'm thinking that the boom is about to be lowered. With every added moment of scrutiny, I'm expecting an even greater list of exotic treatments whose financial implications will prevent my children from ever attending college - even if I'm still working at one.

He finally stops looking, and pronounced things OK. He did ask if I was interested in orthodontia, but the way I look at it is if I start moving my teeth around now I'd just be asking for trouble. So I pass.

Dr. Ochoa then takes an actual examination of my mouth, and that's when the actual trouble starts. I apparently have a number of pockets of "decay," though none of them are all that big. Most of them are on inside back surfaces, which I think relates back to my lack of flossing.

In any event, I'm going to have those taken care of at some point, though I'm going to have to build up some serious nerve to enter the arena with the whining and the drilling and everything. Of course, if I dally too long, Sarah will just make the appointments for me, so I figure I'll bite the bullet (so to speak) and take care of it as needed.

I know you're dying to know who the four wild cards are for American Idol, so here they are.

Randy chose Jennifer Hudson, good choice. Paula failed to resist the dark side and chose Leah (and hopefully had buyer's remorse when Leah put forth an even limper, vocally distressed version of "Let's Stay Together" - there should be a clause that the judges can change their mind at any time before the person finishes singing), and Simon came around to take George, thus ending the worst chain-yanking in show history (unless George is the first person voted off).

The American public provided further proof that democracy just doesn't work by selecting Jon Peter Lewis, the Elvis of the Shire. Susie did indeed get passed over.

The show was an hour, which was about as pointless as the usual results show lasting a half hour, though they did a better job filling the hour until the results, which brought a lot of commercial breaks. I know that's a huge surprise.

Yesterday was wild card night on American Idol, and it was, well, not so wild.

They started off with 12 contestants, but cut four in an extended bit where they showed clips from a week-long workshop, then brought everyone out one by one to tell them if they were cut. The most surprising cut was Lisa Leuschner, even though Randy said she may have the best voice out of the remaining contestants. But's she's a little bigger than they'd probably like, and her wardrobe is still a little scary, so she's out. I have to say we were a little ticked off at this, given some of the stiffs that got to remain in the competition.

I'm also not sure why they even bothered to do this. The show was 90 minutes, why not let everyone sing? And if you're not going to let everyone sing, why not just pick 8 and have a normal show? Or make the cuts prior to broadcast? It was not a very satisfying process.

Out of the 8 that remained, three - George, Susie, and Jennifer - performed pretty well. Leah also got props from the judges, but I'm still not sold on her. Given the way she sucked the soul out of "Let's Stay Together" and made it into a cheery up-tempo pop song, I think she's now my official enemy for the rest of the season. Even so, she's a pretty blah choice for the role, certainly not of the Kimberly Caldwell level. And really, if I made every 17 year old girl who thinks she's owed a shot at singing stardom my enemy, I'd be outnumbered pretty heavily.

The other performers - Jon, Matt, Elizabeth, and Katie - didn't do so well. Jon went over the top (for this show) in performing "A Little Less Conversation," and perhaps will get some votes for his attempts at dancing. Katie is expected to get a lot of votes from guys given her pulchritude. Matt and Elizabeth could get similar support.

So no one's really safe, and should one of these four get voted in by America, the judges will have to pass over one of the other four. And while I'd like to think it'll be Leah, I'm thinking more it'd be Susie.

America's Next Top Model was a clip show recapping the previous episodes while showing as yet unaired footage, so the extra half hour of Idol didn't cause us too much concern. On top of that our local UPN station bumped it for a Red Sox spring training game. Not sure when it'll air, but we're not exactly scouring the listings to find it.

In quasi-reality programming, E! is trying to rip off VH1 by doing an I Love the '80s style show on the '90s. We watched about 20 seconds of it before being driven off the channel by Kathy Griffin. Egads, she's horrible.

I'm in a bit of a melancholy mood as I've gotten bad news over the past few days about people who, while not close friends, are people I'd rather still have around than not.

The first is a former high school classmate who passed away over the weekend from stomach cancer. He was actually one of the few classmates I was able to find an email for during a spirited round of Google searching a while back, and we traded an email or two. I'd heard about his illness a few weeks ago from another classmate who was looking to do something to help defray costs of treatment that weren't covered by insurance. In the process of helping her I did come into contact with some of the other members of the MHS class of '87, which I suppose is a good thing to come out of something so sad. Though I have a feeling we'll all retreat back into our lives until our 20th reunion, which will hopefully be better attended than our 5th or 10th.

The other case is a woman I met only for a weekend during a quasi-professional training session. She was on that water taxi that capsized in Baltimore harbor, and while she was rescued her injuries were too severe to overcome. I'm amazed sometimes at how events and people intersect; I know a few people who live in the Baltimore area (one of whom is also someone I graduated from high school with), but the person I know involved in this tragedy isn't from the area at all.

Without knowing what more to say, I'd ask that you include these folks in your thoughts or prayers or what have you.

Remember when I said it was unlikely that Northeastern was going to take all 4 points from UMass this weekend? Yeah.

But for what could be the first time all season, the BU men's hockey team showed some heart. Down a goal late when they heard of NU's win, they rallied to tie UNH and then won the game in OT. Thus preserving their streak of making the Hockey East playoffs every year since the legaue's inception (BC and PC being the other teams in that group). BU does indeed take on BC in the first round. BC got swept by Maine, which means we'll either get a reeling team or a very angry team.

I'm betting on the latter.

Apparently the Icedogs used up all the BU athletic good karma, as the men's team lost their opening round America East tournament game to Stony Brook. Stony Brook! No NCAAs for the Terriers. Look forward to them participating in the race for 66th place in the NIT.

And on top of it all, my seat at the movies last night was defective, with some pointy bit putting a hole in my pants. That's the sort of thing that would only happen to me.

(The movie we saw was Girl with a Pearl Earring, which was OK. Not worth a pair of pants, though. We saw Miracle on Friday night, which I enjoyed more but was also not worth a pair of pants.)

I made my triumphant return to the dentist today. In case I haven't mentioned it, I tend to avoid the dentist as I tend to view the profession as a medievel torture guild. I know, it's not fair, but irrational beliefs often aren't fair.

In any case, today was just x-rays, so no pain involved. Though I did kind of gag at one point given how the device used to hold the film in place was located (and how it made me hold my mouth). Thankfully, no heaving (wet or dry) resulted. I did feel badly for the technician, who had to walk in and out of the room every time. She must walk 10 miles a day, six feet at a time.

Speaking of gagging, the BU men's ice hockey team had their final home game of the season last night, and managed a 3-3 tie with UNH, which is sadly an achievement given how this season's gone. They could have actually won the game, but gave up a ridiculous first goal (a mid-ice dump went off a BU player's skate and into the net, as the goalie had moved out to collect the dump).

Merrimack and Lowell tied, meaning that BU cannot move up to seventh place, even with a win at UNH. They can still miss the Hockey East playoffs, but Northeastern would have to take all four points from UMass. That's not quite as impossible as it may seem, given that the Minutemen are on a 0-4-1 tear (NU is 1-2-2 in their last five games, the lone win a 6-3 decision at BU).

In some ways I don't even think BU deserves to go to the playoffs, but as they'd be playing at BC in the first round, it's not like their tenure in the tournament would be great. Our last win at BC: January 18, 2002.

Big surprise on American Idol, as John Stevens, the red-headed Rat Pack crooner whose attempt to sound more contemporary was a very mediocre performance of "She's Always a Woman to Me," grabbed a place in the finals as the top vote-getter from the last semifinal group. Ladies and gentlemen, we've found our Clay for this season (or, perhaps more accurately, our R. J. Helton).

To no one's surprise, the other finalist was Jasmine Trias. Showing why he makes the big bucks, Simon actually predicted this. Randy and Paula both went with Jasmine and George Huff, who wound up in third.

But not all hope is lost, as the 12 wild card participants were announced. Who are they?

George Huff, who given how weak the male contingent is has got a real shot at making the finals.

Susie Vulaca, whose performance wasn't as good as Lisa Leuschner's, but like her was caught up in apparent fan favorites getting voted through.

Tiara Purifoy, who needs to learn that less is more if you don't have more. Sarah and I also think she's the love child of L'il Kim and Penny Johnson Jerald from 24.

Marque Lynch, who was meh in the first group.

Katie Webber who was OK in the first group, but is perky and willing to flaunt her, uh, assets. That helps, especially in Simon's book.

Matt Metzger, also from the first group, who brings looks and not much voice.

Jennifer Hudson, a first grouper who reminds me a little of Kimberly Locke, but not enough to make me think she'll finish third.

Lisa Leuschner, who didn't get of the second group for reasons as yet unknown (though they apparently have something to do with "potential," which this show defines as being young, pretty, and satisfactorally able to sing).

Elizabeth Letendre, who is kind of an East Coast Katie Webber. Like I said before, she's from Sturbridge, so I have to root for her. Woo!

Eric Yoder, who is so not like Clay Aiken that he has to remind you of that fact at least three times a minute. All he has to do is sing to prove that he's not like Clay.

Jon Peter Lewis, who is Middle Earth's best known singing pen salesman.

Leah LaBelle, who dresses like a reject from Flashdance and used to go by her real last name, Vladowski. She's also in the "potential" brigade, which combined with the name change makes her my official enemy for this season. Which also makes her a lock for the finals.

No wild cards who didn't make the semis (the last 4 are from last week, BTW), apparently Carmen Rasmussen taught us all a lesson.

A week before any of them actually sing, I'm going to guess that our four finalists from this group of 12 will be George, Jennifer, Leah, and Lisa. But it's pretty much a crap shoot, especially if (as I believe will happen) America gets to pick one and each of the judges gets to pick one. I suppose I should actually wait to hear them sing to figure this out.

So after my plea yesterday to go out and vote and support your candidate regardless of what we're being told, my candidate quits before the polls even close in my state. Thanks a lot, democracy.

My other interesting voting moment came in a special election for state senate, where I wrote my wife in as I didn't know squat about either candidate. Turns out their race was decided by something like 300 votes. Yes, it's jerks like me that cause this sort of thing to happen.

I caught a ride to the polls with my officemate, and it turns out we were the second and third people from the college to vote. We went at 5:30 pm. I can only hope that we have a lot of absentee voters here.

In other news, Tony the Tiger was in the dining hall today promoting Kellogg's cereals. And with apologies, he's grrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat. Though he had a huge head.

The last semifinal group warbled their way through American Idol last night, and while no one stood out, there were participants who were clearly better than others.

Susie Vulaca may continue the trend of lead-off singers making the finals (Matt Rogers and Diana DiGarmo were both lead-off singers for their groups), while Jasmine Trias is likely to double the number of Hawaiians currently in the finals. George Huff, who got a fair amount of camera time early in the season for looking "too old," will also challenge for a finals spot. Which is ironic, given that he's a replacement semifinalist (the original guy was involved in some legal trouble and summarily dumped from the competition). I'd be surprised if one of the other five singers made the top three, but it's possible.

I'll go with George and Jasmine as the finalists, though I think Susie was a little better than Jasmine.

On America's Next Top Model, the girls were shipped out to Milan to get some experience in go-see meetings (which are basically short interviews for modeling jobs) and do a photo shoot for sunglasses. All five seemed to be getting along - until Camille intimated to the group (including Tyra!) that Yoanna was in the bathroom throwing up after dinner. Camille tried to play it off as her simply noting that Yoanna disappears a lot, but given the sort of body issue stuff that Yoanna's neurotic about, a five year old could have connected the dots.

And in the end, Camille was dropped, as much for her personality (or lack thereof) as for her transparent attempt to shank Yoanna. Though in a confessional scene Camille said she was going to kill Yoanna with kindness. Clearly, Camille's definition of kindness differs from what you'd find in Webster's. Mercedes survived the final cut, but is looking like the next drop not that she's been tagged as being "too commercial."

The show ended with a juicy preview, as putative front-runner Shandi, uh, "takes the cannoli" from an Italian hottie and then has to 'fess up to her boyfriend about it.

I don't know why, but the death of Marge Schott and reports that Baby Doc Duvalier is thinking about returning to Haiti are interconnected in my mind. Maybe I fear the possibilities of voodoo tonton macoute baseball owners. On the other hand, labor negotiations would be more entertaining.

I wanted to take a second to remind all of you readers who live in Super Tuesday states to go out and vote today. Don't be complacent because you've been told that the presidential primary race is over. To quote future US Senator John Blutarsky, "nothing is over until we decide it is."

In Massachusetts, all 9 Democratic candidates are on the ballot, as is Lyndon LaRouche. Certainly, there's something there for everyone between those ten. The GOP has one candidate (surprise), while the Libertarian and Green (or, as they're known in Massachusetts, the Green-Rainbow Party) have 5 and 4, respectively.

Poking around the Massachusetts Secretary of State's website I also learned that just under half of all Bay State voters are unenrolled. Meaning that they can go to the polls today and vote in any of the primaries (though they then have to unenroll again, as you get assigned to the party in whose primary you vote). Anyone who fits into that category should doubly come out to the polls today, as you've got the most choice. It's not that hard to unenroll again.

Anyway, go vote!

So I got 14 out of 28, which is about right for what little I knew about most of the movies. There are a couple of picks I wish I had back (most notably The Barbarian Invasions, which I think I would have gotten had I thought about it for another minute). I didn't expect the clean sweep for Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but as others have noted it was hardly surprising.

Both Greg and JQ have more in-depth comments on the night, but I'll add a few.

* The awards were deadly dull. I wound up reading most of the latest issue of Sports Illustrated during the middle of the telecast, stopping when there was something of relative interest. It was the sort of night where grouping the song nominees worked against them, as including them over the course of the evening would have livened up the dead spots.

* I continue to agree with Greg that they should jettison the host. Billy Crystal was OK, but nothing surprising. I'd much rather give winners more time to talk (and perhaps say something interesting, rather than try to ram all their thank yous into 45 seconds or whatever). It's a dicey proposition (Renee Zellweger would have passed out if she had to talk any longer) but worth the possible added drama.

* While I don't generally watch the Oscars for the dresses, I was a little disappointed at the lack of color. Even more black would have been nice. Points here for Scarlett Johannsen and her green dress and Marcia Gay Harden and her blue maternity dress (a small part of me wishes she'd won for the possibility of the surprise inducing labor).

* Is it me, or did Shohreh Aghdashloo look like a future version of Catherine Zeta-Jones?

* JQ suggested turning off the microphones during the section where we remember all the departed Hollywood types, which is a good idea. I'm not a fan of the Postmortem Barometer of Popularity. I also wonder how John Ritter gets the biggest cheer when, let's be frank, his movie career peaked with Americathon.

* What was Oprah doing there? I mean, other than being Oprah.

Time to display my ignorance and predict the winners of this year's Oscars:

Picture: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Director: Peter Jackson

Much as how the Heisman can sometimes go to a player to celebrate a career rather than a single season, awards going here would really be for the entire trilogy. The one caveat here is that they could split the thing and give the Best Director award to Clint Eastwood for Mystic River. Splitting's all the rage lately (3 of the last 5 years, including last year), so we'll see.

Actor: Bill Murray

Now that's a line I'd never imagine I'd type. I'm not really confident about this one - look at how many nods Robin Williams had to get before winning - but I'm thinking that the Oscar folks are a little too conservative to go with Depp (based on the role and perhaps lingering dismay over those US=puppy comments) and a little too stuffy to go with Sean Penn given that he doesn't attend these sorts of things. That being said, Penn's like my 1a choice here. But I would like to see Murray win this. That'd be cool.

Actress: Charlize Theron

Now that's another line I'd never imagine I'd type. Who'd think that the girl who falls in love with her dentist in That Thing You Do would win an Oscar for playing a serial killer? But it's probably the closest thing to a lock this year. Crazy!

Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins

This would never have happened last year, what with all the war hoopla and Robbins being a communist or something (then again, Michael Moore still won an Oscar in 2003...), but with things being less heated and Oscar voters looking for a way to honor Mystic River may go with him. If they suck it up and go with Sean Penn... maybe Alec Baldwin finally gets to tell his wife how to go about polishing her statue? Don't know. I'm going to stick with Robbins.

Supporting Actress: Shohreh Aghdashloo

You've never heard of her, even if you are one of the few people who saw The House of Sand and Fog. But this is the category where the double obscurity whammy works in your favor. We've had a couple years in a row with "normal" winners (Catherine Zeta-Jones for Chicago and Jennifer Connelly for A Beautiful Mind), so it's time for the pendulum to go the other way. Which is a pity for Renee Zellweger. Sadly, this is like the first time in five years that Julianne Moore isn't nominated; I think this is the sort of year she'd finally win. (OK, to be fair, last year was the first time since 2000 she'd been nominated, but she was nominated twice).

And now the rest of the picks, with minimal content given that I'm especially pulling them out of my ass now (and while I know most of these awards go to people, I'm going to just give movie titles, sorry):

Adapted Screenplay: Mystic River
Original Screenplay: Lost in Translation
Cinematography: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (No LOTR nod. Huh.)
Art Direction: Girl With a Pearl Earring (OK, I chose it because the movie is about art. I'm an idiot.)
Costume Design: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Sound: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Editing: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Sound Editing: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Their token award.)
Visual Effects: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Make Up: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Original Song: Sting, "You Will Be My Ain True Love" from Cold Mountain

I have to stop to comment here. If a song from Cold Mountain has to win, I'd prefer it to be the other one only because Elvis Costello is involved. I know many people will be pulling for the song from A Mighty Wind, even if the movie was mildly disappointing in comparison to Christopher Guest's other recent work. But I'll go with Sting, even if he's now more like Phil Collins than Bob Dylan (both of whom, BTW, have won in this category in the last 5 years).

Original Score: Danny Elfman, Big Fish
Animated Short: Destino (It took 60 years to make and involved Dali. How can it lose?)
Live Action Short: Two Soldiers
Short Documentary: Chernobyl Heart
Feature Documentary: Capturing the Friedmans
Foreign Language: Zelary
Animated Feature: Finding Nemo (A popular choice which will enrage fill buffs who are pulling for Les Triplettes de Belleville.)

OK, so while last night's board room session on The Apprentice was scrappy, it wasn't the brawl NBC promoted. Surprise surprise. I also think they should be enjoined from further hyping the Nick-Amy thing unless there's actual physical contact of a horny nature.

Even so, it was fun to watch, though I think the wrong person got canned (at least based on the specifics of the task). I'm being purposefully vauge given that my wife hasn't watched it yet, and she'll probably read this before doing so.

More surprises with the American Idol finalists, though in this case it was with someone who didn't make the top three: Leah LaBelle. As expected, Latoya London was in the top three, but the other two spots went to Amy Allen and Jon Peter Lewis, who is best known for taking a comment from Simon about looking like a pen salesman and turning it into a gimmick that got him camera time earlier in the season.

Latoya and Amy wound up going through as finalists. We were treated to several shots of Leah in the aftermath of her rejection, and while I think they were trying to evoke sympathy given her crying, it didn't work. She had this pissy teenager look to her face which makes me hope (in vain, I'm sure) that we don't see her and her "potential" in the wild card round.

It's Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent for those who care, and as usual in the Lenten season I'm giving something up.

As with most Catholics, this isn't always the easiest thing. Long-time readers undoubtedly remember 2002, when I kept a running count of the number of times I cursed after giving it up. It topped out at 23, though I think I just gave up at that point. Last year bacon took the heave-ho. That was much easier.

This year I'm kicking dessert out to the curb. Sarah, as usual, had some concerns over my choice, though this time I think it centered more about how it would impact getting dessert when we eat out. I am making one caveat, in that I'm exempting the occasional non-meal related serving of frozen treats. I've got an unopened half gallon of sherbet in the freezer, after all. It's kind of a cop-out, I guess.

So this week's group of American Idol semifinalists was much better than last week's. But I see an eerie similarity on the horizon, as there was:

1. A contestant who clearly outperformed the others (Latoya London)
2. A young and pretty contestant in who the judges see some sort of "potential," even though her actual performance was OK at best (Leah LaBelle, she of the Bulgarian pop star parents)
3. A guy who gives an OK performance buy may get by for other reasons (Eric Yoder, who is compared to Clay Aiken due to looks and a vague Southern accent)

Even with this, I can't see Latoya not making it. The gap between her and the other contestants was too big. Leah and Eric weren't all that different from anyone else, though I could see Amy Allen (and her purple hair) or Elizabeth Letendre (who is from Sturbridge - woo!) going through as well. But I'll say Leah for now and see how well my predictive powers match the whims of a nation of 14 year old girls tonight.

On America's Next Top Model there was a lot of dancing. The connection between modeling and dancing is a little tenuous - until you realize that the task this week is related to the burgeoning music career of Tyra Banks. All the girls appear in her video and get judged on that and other dance/movement related stuff. If you ever wondered what synergy looked like, you needed to see this episode.

Anyway, when the fog machine cleared Sara was sent packing, which was too bad. She was a fave in the Coen household, and not just for name purposes.

They also premiered Tyra's video after the episode, and it's pretty much the usual music video nonsense. Tyra already sings better than J. Lo. or Britney, though that's not exactly a high bar to cross.

I'm not sure which I find most disturbing:

1. The existence of this "Presidential candidate."
2. That the "candidate" has been "endorsed" by Stripperella.
3. That the "candidate" may outpoll Ralph Nader. You have to think they share some key demos.

So I have to say I liked the initial airing of Super Millionaire. The new lifelines are pretty good (though they should give the "Three Wise Men" the whole 30 seconds to talk), too. I did find myself wishing that some of the questions from last night would have found their way into my appearance, which I suppose isn't unusual.

I also took some delight in Regis sounding like Peter Brady in the "Time to Change" episode of The Brady Bunch, as it was funny in a "I hope he doesn't have pneumonia" sort of way.

I'm happy to report that the 2004 College Bowl regional tournament for Region 1 (New England) is in the books. I'm especially happy given that it was up to me to serve as tournament director.

(A quick digression on College Bowl for those of you not part of the cult.)

College Bowl, or CBI, or the College Bowl Company, is what most people think of when you first mention college bowl (either when referring to it or speaking more generally about quiz-type competition). Between the GE sponsored series in the '50s and '60 and various TV revivals and the like, it's kept itself in the public mindset to some degree. The questions are short, the games are timed, and the subject matter is most like what you'd see on Jeopardy! and the like, if just a touch more academic.

Ironically, the people who play a lot of quiz bowl don't often like College Bowl specifically because of that. These folks prefer longer questions, untimed games, and a more rigorously academic - specifically liberal arts and sciences - question base. I won't go into more detail here, as the people who know it are probably sick of it, and those of you who don't know are likely better off not knowing. The curious can email me for further info.

In any event, I've always liked College Bowl because I like the challenge of timed play and appreciate the combination of quick recall with knowledge. So when the former tournament director asked if I'd take over for him, I was a little unsure but eventually caved.

And while I've run a number of tournaments, this one is very different. It requires a lot more preparation, a huge number of staff, and a lot of the details that just don't get attention at the average tournament. It made me a little nervous, to be honest.

But as it turned out, I was bailed out by the staff. They're the key piece of the puzzle, the public face of the tournament, and we're lucky to have a solid core of veterans up here. I also had phenominal help by the host school, Providence College, and my host director Sharon Hay, who runs the student center. I think the average person doesn't consider that there are people who work full time doing things like overseeing residence halls or managing campus centers. And if that's the case, they certainly don't consider the hours involved, especially those outside of 9 to 5. Keep that in mind the next time you come across someone who works as staff at a college.

There were a couple of fun moments. The first was finding out that Shawn DeVeau and his wife stayed at the same hotel in Providence as me and my wife last night. They'd gone to a concert and stayed in the area rather than drive back and forth. So we all got to experience the Radisson, aka the Brownwater Inn. Turns out a water leak and the resultant fire department response led to a lot of sediment in the water. It's harmless, just not very pleasant to look at.

The other entertaining moment was when I saw that last year's tournament director, who was back to help out, was dressed pretty much identically to me. Neither of us are exactly slim, either. I'm sure there are some confused people out there wondering who the brothers were.

There were many other funny moments, all of which I missed as I sat in the tournament room hunched over a laptop. I know, cry me a river.

Tonight's episode of The Apprentice saw Tammy take the collar after her team lost the apartment renovation and rental challenge. It's been a long time coming for Tammy, who may not be getting enough oxygen on a day to day basis. Let's recap the highlights:

* When the other women of Protege were skipping food to sell lemonade, Tammy takes an hour lunch.
* Her negotiation with Carson Daly for the charity auction centers mostly about trying to arrange a golf outing with him and Tiger Woods.
* Her half-baked ideas irritate a contracting crew who is doing a lot of work for short money.
* And let's not forget her voice, which is kind of a Valley girl/mental patient combo.

Katrina was the project manager, and showed the skills she developed as a real estate pro by having the guy who runs his own cigar store negotiate the lease with prospective renters. Her defense is that she saw herself more as being in charge of the renovation, which I suppose only makes her project semi-manager.

The winning team (I don't even know which one it is anymore) had its own issues, primarily around Omarosa's use of a knock on the head to do no work outside of playing basketball with neighborhood children while everyone else was painting. The rest of the team didn't catch this, which is too bad. Then again, we've been promised an especially combative board room next week, so maybe it'll come back up.

Oh, and can I say that the rewards for the winning team have taken a bit of a nose dive? One week we're flying the winning team to Boston for dinner at Figs. The next week it's a picnic at Trump's Westchester estate. Granted, it's a nice house and a good looking spread. I suppose his continued use of Trump properties is tax-deductible somehow.

The American Highway Users Alliance released a report today that lists the 24 worst bottlenecks in the US. I was pleasantly surprised to see that none of them are in the Boston area. I suppose the umpteen billion dollars spent on the Big Dig is helping - for now.

The most notable bottleneck listed was the I-95 interchange in Providence. I've actually been stuck in that one, and it does suck mightily.

The alliance, you may be surprised to learn (but probably not) is made up of representatives of oil, automotive, trucking, and construction industry types, and representatives from state highway departments. Truly not surprising is that they're using the study to push for more money to "correct" these problems by building more/better roads. I'm not sure if that's going to work; it seems that demand for roads increases when capacity does.

Also not surprising is that there was little to no call for increased public/mass transit or incentives to carpool or otherwise dissuade one person one car. There was some talk about hiking the federal gas tax, though you can imagine how that's going over in an election year.

So while the Bruce and Cooch have posted various things about the band The Darkness, I have to admit to being a little ahead on the curve on these guys. Though through no fault of my own.

Back in October, when the wife and I were on our honeymoon and trying to navigate the roadways of Ireland, we noticed that there were a few songs we always seemed to catch. One was this horrible pop song "Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex" by Rachel Stevens, a song whose only good performance came when some local band did an acoustic cover live during some late morning show. The other was "I Believe in a Thing Called Love."

And while I didn't know the whole karaoke version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" story, I did think to myself that there was a passing resemblance (in sound) to Queen. I just didn't know that there was a passing resemblance (in dress) to your average hard rock/hair metal band of the early 1990s, or a passing resemblance (in general appearance) to Spinal Tap.

But I have to admit I thought it was OK then, and wouldn't mind hearing it on the radio (real or Launch) again. I suppose if you can't have any more new Queen songs, you take what you can get. Either way, it's still better than Rachel Stevens.

A bit of a surprise tonight on American Idol. Camile made the finals, which was expected given her reasonable performance and the pump job done by the judges. The other finalist, surprisingly, was Matthew Rogers. Not sure which theory to go with: females wanting a guy in the finals, or Washington State alums working the phones.

Lisa Leuschner came in third, and could get asked back for the wild card. I still think she gave the best performance of the night.

The only other notable thing (though it's not that notable) was Simon taking the whiny bitch route, as he professed to not care who else qualified for the finals after predicting Camile. I think he's just mad over the continued failure of his pro-eye candy agenda. I can't wait to see what sort of pulchritudinous, tone-deaf former cuts he brings back this year.

A glimmer of hope for Sox fans and other detractors of US Steel (Baseball Division) is that A-Rod is on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated. With our luck, he'll hit 75 homers or bat .410. Or both.

I was mildly amused yesterday that A-Rod's pinstripe tie didn't mesh with the pinstripes on the Yankee uniform. It's not like he couldn't afford to get a tie that got things right. Either way, though, pinstripe ties are ugly. Though I fully expect to see P. Diddy, Ashton Kutcher, or whoever the It Boy of the moment is wearing one at the Oscars.

Speaking of the Oscars, I can't seem to find an Oscars Pick 'Em game. If you know of one on the web that's easily entered and doesn't require some sort of onerous registration process, let me know.

Rather than wait until tomorrow, here's today's reality stuff today!

On American Idol, the judges didn't seem to care for anyone, not giving a positive review until the fifth singer, Lisa Leuschner. For my money she was the best of a weak night.

The judges also liked Camile Velasco, but more for her potential than for her performance. They also seemed to favor Marisa Joy, but with mixed feelings.

I thought the judges gave Matthew Rogers (the football player) a tough time, especially given what came after him. I think they'd have been more positive towards him if he'd gone later. He didn't wow me, but he was solid. Which is more than I can say for either of the Roman brothers (who've gotten a lot of camera time), who were both horrifically off key.

Oh, the Angry Girl (Briana Ramirez-Rial) was on, too. She sang something by Norah Jones, which fit her voice more than her look. It was OK, I thought. There was also some woman named Kara Masters, who I don't think I saw before tonight.

Anyway, my guess is that Lisa will make the top two with either Marisa or Camile. One of the Romans may pull some of the same votes as Matthew Metzger, but they could cancel each other out, too. I don't think Matt Rogers would sneak in, but it's possible.

Over on America's Next Top Model it was all about the combination of acting and modeling, as the women did a scene with some soap opera guy and filmed some sort of Matrix-themed ad for a fake brand of chips. There was some sort of glamor photo shoot, too.

April, who's been really self-critical, took to the acting really well, as did Shandi. The rest did OK, with Catie and Camille being the least adept (cue the foreshadowing music).

Catie couldn't act her way out of a paper bag (which is funny, given how easily she can reach her emotions - at least the ones that let her cry), and Camille seemed to think the whole thing was beneath her. Camille actually started doing some ad lib stuff, adding lines to the scene she read and doing some voice work in a fake accent.

In any event, it was Catie and Camille who made the bottom two. The judges still don't seem to care for Camille, but can find enough to keep her around. Catie got the heave-ho and pledged that she was going to LA to work her ass off and make it on her own. Expect to see her in infomercial crowds marveling at the latest time-saving kitchen gadgets sometime soon.

I should mention that the lack of posting for the last few days was due to a weekend trip to Newport that the missus planned as a surprise (not the trip as much as the location). We had a very nice time, and enjoyed some great weather on Saturday to take in the best known Newport "cottage," The Breakers.

For those of you who don't know, The Breakers is a 70 room mansion built by the Vanderbilt family for their use during the summer. Yes, a 70 room mansion that got used 8 weeks out of the year. And not even every year, as family crises and other issues kept the Vanderbilts away some years.

If nothing else, I now know where Donald Trump gets his decorating ideas. Though I will say that the Gilded Age was much more successful at coming up with something that was incredibly expensive without looking cheap.

We also took our usual trolley tour, which was fun. I'd have to think that during the summer it's one of the few ways to get around without driving yourself crazy with traffic and parking. Actually, you could probably walk most of the city, including the mansions, though it could be a long walk depending on how much you want to see.

We also got lucky in that it was Newport's winter festival, so some things were open that might not have been otherwise during the off season. In any case, it was a fun trip. Going in the summer probably brings out the best in the city, but it's also tricky with all the boaters and other events.

Otherwise, quiet weekend. I actually wound up watching a lot more of the Daytona 500 than originally planned (that being almost none outside of the finish), as a friend of my boss's dad had a car in the race, the number 23 Whelan car driven by Dave Blainey (who usually drives the 77 car). The team usually only does Busch races (and even then only part time, and as the 31 car), I'm not sure how they wound up at Daytona but it was a nice result for them. They were flirting with the top 5 for a while, which was even better, but they apparently got hung up in the pits and never recovered (this according to my boss, who actually follows racing).

I'm not sure why, but I find it significant that I was reading Moneyball when I heard about the A-Rod to the Yankees trade.

There was clearly some significance when I heard yesterday that Paul DePodesta was named GM of the Dodgers. He gets a lot of ink in Moneyball, most of it depicting him sitting behind his laptop.

Going back to A-Rod, I should feel more anything than I do about the deal, but on some basic level it's the Yankees doing what they do best. I'm not going to get in a snit about the money, though I would if I were one of Big George's heirs. I don't know if I'd want my inheritance playing third base.

Going into last night's episode of The Apprentice, I asked Sarah who she though the lovebirds would be, and she picked Amy and Troy, also for no particularly good reason.

Turned out we were both half right.

In what turned out to be a small sidelight to the episode, Nick and Amy were caught in their mutual admiration for each other. If that sounds tame, well, it was. Outside of a kiss on the cheek from Amy to Nick, it was all talk. Which, in my book, is fine. The last thing we need is Real World-style hook ups messing up a pretty entertaining show.

The bulk of the episode was centered around a charity auction and the work each team did to get special guests to offer up their time and/or services for auction. In the end, Jesse took the fall for her team's loss, though she got canned more for not defending herself against Omarosa, who was her usual unpleasant self. I think if Jesse had not tried to play nice Omarosa would have gotten the boot, as she seemed to really offend Trump with some of the things she said about her teammates.

Before I forget, there's supposed to be some corporate love on The Apprentice tonight. My money's on Nick and Ereka, for no particularly good reason.

And for anyone who really wants to plumb the depths of boredom, Mark Across America has been updated with, believe it or not, commentary on state quarters. Hey, I had to jazz it up somehow given how many of the states I still have to visit.

Today is one of the more notable days to anyone who subscribes to a certain magazine.

The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue was waiting for me in my box today.

This year they celebrate the 40th anniversary of the issue, and name a group of models to their swimsuit edition hall of fame. It's a solid group, though I'll go Bill James for a second and rue the omission of Carol Alt. Maybe next year.

While I've not been able to peruse the issue fully (hey, I am at work), I was struck by one picture of a bikini-clad woman riding a bull. That can't have been comfortable.

In other news, anyone looking for more "proof" that Nipplegate was planned (outside of all the press releases and other pre-show claims about the coming shocker) can take a gander at Billboard, where Janet Jackson's new single makes its debut in the top half of the Hot 100. Timing is everything.

Speaking of the presidential match-maker, turns out the wife got results not too different from my own. Funny thing is, she claims to be a Republican.

My guess is that she's socially moderate to liberal and fiscally conservative to moderate, with the social issues skewing her towards the Dems.

In other news, the first two American Idol finalists turned to be, as expected (and as predicted by all three judges) Diana DeGarmo and Fantasia Barrino. Third place went to the telegenic but very average-voiced Matthew Metzger, which means we'll see him in the wild card round taking the place of someone who probably deserves it more.

For those of you who came up with Wes Clark as your presidential dream date based on yesterday's link, you may want to check who came in second. Turns out the general is fading away from the Democratic primaries. He shall not return.

I had my brief interest in Clark, but got turned off early when he started bringing in the Clinton folks.

Howard Dean is now trying to save his campaign by assailing soft money ads that targeted him during his front-running days. On the one hand, it's further example of how money (be it individual, corporate, or union) can shape things. On the other hand, if the figures I've seen are correct, Dean's spent a lot more money over time than was spent trying to cut him out at the knees. True, a big bunch of that money had to be spent to get Dean noticed, but $41 million's worth?

Not surprisingly, the names linked to this story are Gephardt and Kerry, but what makes it worse is the appearance of former Senator Bob Torricelli, the New Jersey Democrat who is as crooked as the day is long. Just as with my feelings about Wes Clark, you often get judged by the company you keep.

Tonight was the first semifinal show for American Idol, and we had 8 fresh-faced youngsters try to sing their way into our hearts. Or at least into our dialing habits, as it's back to phoning in votes.

Sarah and I agreed that the best two from the night were the first and last performers - Diana DeGarmo and Fantasia Barrino. They were the strongest, and did the best job of bringing in the now smaller audience (I also liked that Fantasia lost her facial jewelry, it was distracting). The other six were good, but were all kind of the same, kind of in that karaoke/cruise ship level that Simon keeps on about.

The only one that really stood out in a negative sense was Matthew Metzger, who did this up tempo version of "Walking in Memphis" which bleached those blue suede shoes white. The judges liked him, though.

There were other old faves from earlier in the show. Jennifer Hudson, who looked like she was wearing aluminum foil during her Pasadena tryout, was back and did OK. Katie Webber, the cheerleader, was back, and did a pretty good job with a jazz number, which was a nice change of pace from the ballads. Erskine Walcott lost the hat and the cornrows, but also seemed to lose a bit from his performance.

Over on America's Next Top Model, there were a variety of personality and image-related exercises, where we learned that everyone thinks Camille is ruthless and everyone's pick to get axed. Then again, if you've watched more than 10 minutes of the show, you'd know this.

They then paired this up with some sort of underwater photo shoot, which seemed out of place. One of the guys associated with this brought along his little dog, who was wearing a rain hat and pink ribbons on each leg. He was a judge later in the show, and brought his dog there, too (sans hat and ribbons). Got to love high fashion.

We also learned some things about contestants this week. Sara is competing without her father's knowledge, as he's pretty traditional and she fears his reaction. Mercedes finally confesses to having lupus, and everyone is supportive. Shandi has both a record and a past history of drug use, fueled by what appears to be the least supportive family in America.

In the end, Camille gets to the final two but survives, as we send Xiomara into that good night due to general lack of success over the week.

There's a part of me that thinks MSNBC or Fox could make a good show out of Camille and Omarosa from The Apprentice. They're very similar in both looks and personality, and I think their combination of self-assurance and borderline psychosis would give Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly a run for their money.

If you're still trying to sort out who to vote for, here's a little Presidential match-maker just in time for Valentine's Day and Super Tuesday.

I've taken it twice, and both times my top match was Dennis Kucinich. John Kerry came in second both times, too. There's a section about how important you think it is that a candidate have military and/or elected experience, and some minor changes there moved the other four around a bit, though if we were to average it'd be Dean, Edwards, Sharpton, and Clark.

W is a possible inclusion, and in the only run I included with him he finished last, and not surprisingly by a wide margin. That I'd take him over Sharpton (except in rare cases) gives the proper perspective that issue matching isn't foolproof.

Given the way things are shaping up, I may get to vote for Kucinich yet. He may be the only person on the ballot other than Kerry by the time March rolls around. Tonight will certainly help tell.

If nothing else, last night's 2-1 OT BU loss in the Beanpot has taught us something important. If you only take 13 shots in roughly 70 minutes of hockey, it is unlikely that you'll win.

We can also take some consolation that Sean Fields was named tournament MVP, the first from a losing team in the history of the tournament. Without his unconscious play last night, the final would have been 5-1 at least. It didn't help him that after taking the 1-0 lead three and a half minutes into the game, the team played like they wanted to kill the last 56 and a half minutes of the game. They almost got away with it, too.

I watched about half of the Grammys last night, and only have one real comment.

"Dance With My Father" won Song of the Year. The award was shared by Richard Marx and its performer Luther Vandross, who is recovering from a stroke. Marx and Vandross's business manager accepted the award, and gave some very heartfelt comments regarding Vandross. It was perhaps the most genuine set of remarks given the entire evening.

And then comes NARAS boss Neil Portnow, who at first calls out for more support for music education, but then craps on everything that happened in the previous five minutes by going on about downloading. While this year's call against downloading was more focused on education (which is how Portnow tied it into his earlier remarks) and much less strident (RIAA lawsuits against 11 year olds apparently put you on higher ground) than last year, it still ruined what should have been a nice one-two in support of a fallen artist and for embattled music education programs nationwide.

And now I just want to download songs to be a jerk. Thanks a lot, Portnow.

Here's a shock - various media outlets think they overplayed Howard Dean's Iowa scream. A Yahoo article on this topic mentions one group's count of 633 plays over four days by national media alone. Yes, that might be excessive.

Blame, of course, isn't being doled out by those media outlets. They see it as the natural progression of things in our world of multiple 24 hour news outlets and instapunditry. My favorite quote on this is from Andrew Heyward, the president of CBS news, who said that the damage came from "not so much showing the speech again and again, as the kind of collective wisdom that suggested that it was extremely damaging and, to a degree, became a self-fulfilling prophecy."

In other words, we think it's damaging, so we'll run it to the point where everyone else thinks like we do. Apparently, the problem with the media isn't liberal or conservative bias, but idiot bias.

After all that, though, let's accentuate the positive:

* The BU men's basketball team is 17-4, and will look to avenge their only conference loss a week from today when they play at Vermont.

* The BU women's team is 7-3 in conference (tied for second) and is on a five game winning streak.

* The BU wrestling team has won 11 straight dual meets. I have to admit to some confusion on college wrestling, given that in the same season BU has grappled against Iowa State and Bridgewater State. Huh?

As Cooch mentioned, BU dropped a 2-0 decision to Providence on Friday, and it was (lucky me) the first BU game I've been to in some time.

While many of the games this season have been difficult, this one was especially irritating given that we not only took a lot of shots, but had a decent number of quality shots as well. Any combination of the usual suspects - lack of a go-to scorer, goaltending, defense - could be blamed for the result (though I'd go more with the lack of offensive punch than anything else this time around).

Looking at the last five years, BU has three 25 win seasons. The other two, though, were 14 win seasons. Making things worse is that getting 14 wins this season would be an accomplishment. Hitting that mark in the regular season would require winning 6 of our last 9 games, which include Monday's Beanpot final against BC (which I'm least worried about, with history and all) and home-and-home series against UMass and UNH.

It's bad enough that I have to list the UMass home-and-home as worrisome. Even worse is that a late season home-and-home against Northeastern will most likely tell if BU even makes the playoffs this year.

(The dark horse in the hunt for the bottom is UMass-Lowell, who had to forfeit 9 games earlier this season for using an ineligible player. On top of some conference forfeits, they still have home-and-homes against UNH and BC and a two game home set versus Maine.)

And then there's the icing on the cake, so to speak - BU is hosting this year's Frozen Four at the FleetCenter. As least we won't have a title run to distract from our hosting duties.

While Monty is touting Reagan's 93rd birthday, I'll offer Mike Farrell's 65th birthday for you lefties out there. Farrell's preachy, moralizing liberalism helped kill M*A*S*H, among other things. Still, he never argued that ketchup was a vegetable.

So it looks like Ed will take its final bow tonight, as our titular bowling alley lawyer finally ties the knot with Carol Vessey, completing the master plan that brought Ed back to Stuckeyville, Ohio after his life went to crap.

I've always been a fan of Ed, even though there was a long interval there where the show was infuriating, mostly in the way it handled the uneasy blooming of "America's romance" (that's NBC's phrase; perhaps marketing the show like a Harlequin romance wasn't the best idea) during the second and third seasons. The entanglement between Carol and then-Stuckeyville High prinipal Dennis Martino was incredibly forced and hard to watch, even though Dennis had some interesting sides to him.

But this season was going pretty well, nothing outstanding, but pretty solid. The folks at TeeVee and TV Barn both pretty much highlight the other pluses and minuses of the show, and I'll leave it to you to read up if you so desire.

There's a little part of me that thinks NBC could spin the show off to Bravo a la Keen Eddie, but I doubt that'll happen unless they can recast Ed and Carol with two of the Queer Eye guys.

Why do the shows I like always die young, while ER continues unabated?

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.

If you're like me, you have a hard time resisting any ESPN.com fantasy game. And even if you're not like me, why not give a fantasy NASCAR game a go? It's not like most of the regulars know what they're doing, either.

Group Name: Maude Flanders Memorial
Password: tshirt

First race is the Daytona 500, which is next week.

Reality TV update!

American Idol brought 117 young'uns to Hollywood with plans to whittle that number down to 32 at the end of a five day audition. Day one saw the kids do basically the same thing they did at the initial tryout - answer why they want to be the next American Idol and sing a bit. For the second day, each contestant had to write an original song with an original melody based on one of ten song titles they were given. Needless to say, day two had a lot of pauses and occasional curses. It was also full of contestants missing the point of the exercise - to test musical ability and see how the kids do under pressure, if you believe Simon - and focusing on the lights and nerves. Because those won't be issues when you're on TV, will they?

We're still at the stage where individuals are better known for their persona than their name. So we have Male Model, Scooter Girl, Angry White Girl in Army T-Shirt, Former College Football Player Who'll Allow Us to Reuse All of the Ruben Size-Related Gags If He's a Semifinalist, and so on.

In the end, they cut about a quarter of the group after day two, including a 16 year old from Texas with a Lone Star State-sized ego (which was unchecked by her parents, who were standing with her during her tirade). The remaining contestants then had to do that group song presentation thing where they get into groups, make up dance steps, etc. That'll start tonight's coverage, which is supposed to get us down to the 32 semifinalists.

America's Next Top Model was all about personal style this week, as the contestants got advice from a design guy from Barney's and trash chic designer Betsey Johnson. Highlights include the Barney's guy telling Catie she was dressed in "ho style," causing Catie to cry, and Johnson telling Jenascia that she needs six months of modeling school. Shandi wins some sort of competition that allows her and two of the other contestants to have dinner with last year's winner Adrianne Curry. She gives them some pointers, talks about her career, and smokes the entire time - literally.

After all the talk about personal style, the women then have to copy someone else's style, as they all do photo shoots where they pretend to be someone famous. Xiomara is assigned Grace Jones, which makes her mad at first, and she gets a stern talking-to from Tyra about Jones being a fashion icon, etc. Xiomara pulls it of quite well, actually.

Oh, we also learn that Mercedes has lupus, and the medication is making her hair fall out. She's also pretty fatigued, which is beginning to show.

In the end, it comes down to crybaby Catie and Jenascia, who is now completely neurotic about being "short," thanks no doubt to the constant reminders. Jenascia is let go, meaning at least one more week of Catie bursting into tears if someone looks at her cross-eyed.

The Apprentice doesn't air another new episode until tomorrow, but I've developed a habit of calling the show The Associate when talking about it with co-workers. I'm sure The Donald would love to know I'm confusing his show with a crappy Whoopi Goldberg movie.

Who Wants to be the Democratic Nominee for President? rolls on, with John K. winning five of the seven states up for grabs. John E. wins his home state and almost wins Oklahoma from Wesley. Al isn't the spoiler he thought he could be, while Howard passes all the contests to make a stand in Washington and Michigan. Joe quits, and has anyone heard from Dennis lately?

Joe Leiberman is finally waking up to reality, as he's planning to drop out of the presidential race if he doesn't pick up a win today. I think I speak for everyone, Joe, when I say thanks for playing. Take this campaign debt as a lovely parting gift.

My real fear coming out of today's round of primaries is that by the time we get to Super Tuesday we'll be down to just Kerry and the minor players. I'm voting for Kucinich if that happens.

But I figure Clark will stick around a bit (especially if he wins in Oklahoma today and Wisconsinites remember his visits while everyone else was in Iowa), and Dean will probably remain if he can get more cash from his support base. Edwards keeps saying his continued presence will depend on today's results in South Carolina, and one hopes that a one or two percent loss won't drive him out.

But hey, I'm a registered voter in Massachusetts, so I think I know where most, if not all, of the delegates up for grabs in our primary will go.

So I'm listening to the rally rather than going out front to watch it. I figure I'm not missing much, and there'll be news coverage galore. And it's not like anyone is saying anything that unusual. Everyone loves the fans, loves winning the Super Bowl, and would like to do it again.

While I'm wary of going back into this whole halftime show issue, it now seems at least one FCC commissioner (Colin Powell's son) is saying that he was dismayed by the entire affair, not just the boobie. Which makes me wonder how much TV this guy actually watches, given that for what I saw of the show it wasn't too out of place with other similar over the top televised music presentations. Not that you'd mistake the average halftime show for Evening at Pops.

And on a related note, am I correct in hearing that Jessica Simpson was supposed to be some big-time surprise performer in this debacle? What's so big about that? That she'd be doing something on TV that's not primarily designed to make her look like an idiot?

Having already been to one, I've passed on today's victory parade in Boston for the Pats. It's not as sunny today, but it's warmer than 2002, not that it matters when you're pressed together as tightly as we were. At some point I'll probably rue the decision not to go, but then I'll remember that there's little chance of me getting trampled while sitting at my desk or watching the parade on TV (where, not surprisingly, I'll be able to see more of the parade than if I was there).

Speaking of watching things on TV, I was relegated to doing so for last night's opening round of the Beanpot (stupid work), meaning that I did not get to revel in BU's 5-2 win over Northeastern in person. I have already cleared things to attend next week's game (good thing they won; I'd have hated to go through all of that for a consolation game I wouldn't go to anyway). We now get to play BC; last year we were 0-3 against them but beat them in the Beanpot. This year we are again 0-3 against them. There may or may not be a conclusion to draw here. Given the current BU team, they could follow last night up with a 7-1 loss to Providence and then beat BC. Or they could lose by another 7-1 score. You can't tell with this year's model.

You know, just once, I'd like to be on winning end of a Super Bowl blowout. Then again, we did win, so I should just shut my yap. I guess I'm just surprised that we won a game where we could run on Carolina and they could pass on us. If you told me that was going to happen ahead of time, I'd not have expected a win.

What the second half had in football the commercials lacked, as none of them were really great. There were some good ones, but what does it say that one of the better ads of the second half was the NFL Network promo using "Tomorrow"? I also never want to see another ad for AOL's high speed service, especially as for all the ads they did show, they were all pretty much the same (it would have been better if the ads all had a little twist like the car one, where the driver goes back in time). If forced to find other decent ads, I'd go with the two Dale Jr. ones, and I know there was one other I liked at the time that I can't think of now, which is $2.2.5 million well spent. It wasn't the Truth ad with Shards O' Glass popsicles, but that was OK, too.

I really should be writing more about my team's win than the ads, but I suppose everything I write will turn up somewhere else eventually. I will say that given all the problems the Pats had kicking the ball, it was ironic to think that a bad Carolina kick led to the one good Pats kick. Though I should give Ken Walter props for his 52 yard punt, which I think outgained his two prior punts combined.

Tom Brady as MVP is solid, but I was thinking that Mike Vrabel would be a good second choice. Two sacks, a forced fumble, and a TD catch make for a pretty good game.

I was happy to see that Robert Kraft gave a marginally more comprehensible speech after getting the Lombardi Trophy, even if it ran too long. At one point I thought Belichick was going to start laughing. Not that he has much to laugh about - his failure to wear a hoodie on the sidelines nearly cost his team the game! Really, when was the last time he didn't wear one?

And while Houston seems like a good location for the game, what was the problem with the field? There was a lot of slipping for a game played under a closed roof. I'm sure there'll be a good technical explanation tomorrow, but perhaps they should look into getting a full-time turf guy.

So let's see, we had 27 minutes of football that were the equivalent of two guys wailing on each other with two by fours, and then 3 minutes of Arena Football. I don't think I'll feel any less tense during the next 30 minutes. Vinatieri being 0/2 doesn't help. The block, well, OK, but the miss from 31 yards? They should be advertising more stomach remedies and fewer cures for erectile dysfunction.

For once, I agree with Phil Simms. I hate the squib kick. Nothing like giving the opponent free points and momentum.

The ads haven't done much for me. The focus on the male anatomy is a little off-putting, although fitting for the most testosteronic day on the American sporting calendar. My personal favorite to this point was the H&R Block ad featuring the Willie Nelson advice doll. I did like the Budweiser ad with the donkey that wanted to be a clydesdale, too.

I'm sure the lumpen proletariat will favor the Bud Light ad with the dog who bites the guy in the gonads. As Homer Simpson can testify, everyone loves a good display of a man getting it in the family jewels (to be fair, I did mention a while back that I found entertainment in a Cheaper by the Dozen trailer where Ashton Kutcher's character get similar treatment, but I think most folks would forgive me that one).

Oh boy, I can go watch Janet Jackson lip-synch now. Whoopie.

Oh, I should mention that I finally got to see Master and Commander the other night, and enjoyed it thoroughly. There's not much about a well-made movie featuring a battle on the high seas that I wouldn't like. That being said, I don't know if it's 10 Oscar nods good. But I'll happily go see a sequel if one gets made.

Combining movies and items of local interest, you are all hereby ordered to see Miracle next weekend. I don't care if you don't like hockey. It's your duty as an American.

I've been reluctant to talk about today's Super Bowl - oh, excuse me, "Big Game" - given that, as a Pats fan, I find myself in uncharted territory. For once, we're a favorite.

In the other three games, there was a farily strong feeling of unreality, as if the Pats' presence was a mistake. I know, last time out the Pats were a number two seed - but so were the Chicago Bears.

This time around, we were a top seed and did what the top seed is supposed to do most of the time - take care of things at home and win their conference title.

I don't feel threatened by the Panthers - they're a good team and it should be a good game - and I don't think there's some sort of other-worldly phenomenon that'll cause problems (I assume whatever paranormality that's attached to the Red Sox stays solely with them). But I still didn't feel comfortable musing about this year's Super Bowl.

Not that you needed my input, as you could go just about anywhere over the last two weeks and find some talk about the game. I made a point of avoiding as much of that as possible as well, but that would have been true regardless of the teams involved.

And really, what more do I have to say about today's game than I hope the Pats win? I really don't care if it winds up 55-0 or 12-10 or whatever, just so long as the Lombardi Trophy makes its way north. I will say that should this come to pass, I'll skip on the rally, at least the Boston one. I don't think I need to come that close to being trampled or squeezed to death again. If the team goes on their New England capitals road show as they did before, maybe it'll be in Augusta at a time where we can see it on the way to visit Sarah's folks.

So while six of the seven remaining Democratic presidential candidates were in South Carolina, Joe Lieberman took a different approach and decided to campain in another of the seven states voting on Tuesday.

Delaware.

I did a quick Yahoo check to see if there were any polling numbers, and I did come across some, though undated. I'd have to assume they're pretty old, as there's no mention of Kerry and Dick Gephardt was in fourth place, just in front of Lieberman.

I was also amused to see the precognisant Freudian slip, as Howard Dean is mentioned at the start of one paragraph as "Dead."

As far as Lieberman campaigning in the First State, I can only assume that's the farthest he could get in one day on Greyhound. "Hi, I'm Joe Lieberman. Can you move so I can sit with my wife? Thanks."

You may remember a few weeks back I mentioned that the Boston archdiocese is going to undergo some "reconfiguration," including some parish closings. In an unprecedented step, the church released attendance figures for all churches in the area (apparently they collect figures during October and do a year to year snapshot) as a tool for use in each region. They also have numbers for the sacraments bestowed for what I think is the whole year. I'm not sure how they plan to proceed, but given that the statistics also show a decline in Mass attendance over time (compared to 2000), it's the odd vicariate that won't lose any parishes.

Here in the Natick vicariate, the church we've been going to, St. Paul in Wellesley, is one of the larger churches in the area, and isn't going anywhere. St. James the Great, where we used to go, has numbers that are 2 to 3 times lower than the other two Wellesley churches (although their confirmation number isn't that much lower than St. Paul's, which is interesting). The good news for St. James is that one of Natick's three churches, Sacred Heart, didn't report an attendance figure and has sacrament numbers lower still (and no confirmations in 2003).

Speaking of churches named Sacred Heart, my home church is one of the smallest in its vicariate. We didn't report attendance, and sacrament numbers are small compared to the churches in Gloucester and Beverly. However, those towns each have four churches, and the ones with the lowest numbers are equal to or lower than Manchester's lone Catholic church.

These numbers aren't the end all and be all to this discussion, of course. There are financial considerations (cost to run versus donations), location relative to other parishes, and how these numbers trend from year to year. It'll be interesting to see how transparent this discussion becomes.

It's been interesting looking at the numbers, but the parish names are fascinating in their own right. For example, you'd probably not expect to see a church Our Lady of Czestochowa in South Boston (Sarah actually works with a woman who grew up in Southie who says that there is a small but strong Polish community among all the Irish). There are also two churches called Immaculate Conception in Cambridge, which to me suggests a formatting error (though a quick check of the Yahoo yellow pages leads me to think there are actually two different churches).

And for those of you keeping count, there are:

36 St. Marys (Assumption, Immaculate Conception, Magdalen, and so on)
23 Sacred Hearts
17 St. Johns (mostly Evangelist and Baptist, with some being neither and one Chrysostum)
8 St. Patricks
7 St. Francises (de Sales, Assissi, and Xavier)
7 St. Peters
7 of the various St. Thomases
5 St. Pauls (I'm not counting St. Vincent de Paul in Southie)
5 using some version of the phrase "Star of the Sea"
Matthew, Mark, and Luke only have one each, Gospels or no

While I would like to think that John Kerry isn't so clueless that he'd think he could get Botox injections in the middle of his high-profile resurgence, I will say that his forehead is looking less, well, furrowed. And his wife is a fan of the Botox. Maybe she got her guy to hit him up while he was asleep.

For whatever business acumen the male team on The Apprentice may have, they lack a certain level of common sense. Let's look back on the four week history of Versacorp:

Week one saw the men try to sell lemonade to empty streets. They had a good location - for rush hour. Setting up where one might find people, such as Central Park, Museum Row, Times Square, or even by Lincoln Center, didn't seem to occur to anyone. Sam's strategy of trying to sell a glass of lemonade for $1000 didn't help, but at that point in the game it didn't really hurt, either.

Week two presented the novel idea that you can sell a product or service without ever talking to the leadership of the company that provides said product or service. Then, after a pep talk from a major advertising exec about how they should "swing for the fences," the guys make a TV commercial with all the novelty and pop of local cable.

Week three proved that none of these guys know how to shop, as they try to haggle for items in boutiques and high-end spas. They were on the right track at first, but decided to blindly follow their project manager rather than, say, split up to cover both Chinatown and wherever they were supposed to go to buy gold. Given that the project manager was Sam, you could guess where this was going to end up.

Week four saw the guys try to run the Planet Hollywood in Times Square, but prove the only marketing strategy they could think of was the same time-honored plan used by strip clubs and nudie bars: stand outside and hustle passersby. Given that most folks know that your best profits come from the bar, you think they'd have considered a drink promotion or two.

And so it is now that Versacorp will be plowed under, as the ragtag survivors of that corporate train wreck are mixed in with the women. The women, of course, got the stern lecture from The Donald about the consequences of using sex to sell all the time, though it probably won't sink in until someone goes to jail.

I was reading earlier that a judge ordered R. Kelly not to have contact with Michael Jackson at the Grammys next month. I'm not sure what he was most concerned about: that they'd trade notes, perform a duet, or make out a la Britney and Madonna.

The idea that Jacko will be at the Grammys is kind of interesting. I thought a low profile might make sense, but I guess going about with life as normal (or as normal as his life can get) suggests a lack of guilt.

On a more personal topic, if you've read Shawn's blog recently you know that yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the Info Blizzard, a BU Office of Residence Life training night whose initial edition included both of us on the planning committee. It was an interesting time, as it was kind of a combination old home week and return of the prodigal son. I've not done well in keeping up with former colleagues, and in some cases I saw people for the first time since I left BU in 2001.

Funnily enough, the first person I ran into was my old boss (who is still at BU but in a different capacity), and about three minutes later we ran into the other director from our area, who is now in charge. And as I chatted with various people I used to work with, I did feel a pang of remorse at my having left. Part of it was the familiarity of the situation, and part of it is the feeling that even though I've made a number of changes since leaving, in some ways I'm in the same place. I'm doing basically the same job, making basically the same money, and dealing with basically the same problems. Part of my decision to leave was based on doing something other than residence life, and I think that's still where I'm headed eventually. The question is how soon that eventuality happens.

I don't have too much to add to all the punditry over yesterday's New Hampshire primary, though in good Craig Barker form here's my thoughts on candidate momentum in five words:

John Kerry - In front, not nominee yet.
Howard Dean - Needs a win very badly.
John Edwards - Sneaky momentum going to Carolina.
Wes Clark - Back if lands Arizona, Oklahoma
Joe Leiberman - Denial isn't just a river...
Dennis Kucinich - Any momentum would be nice.
Al Sharpton - South Carolina, Super Tuesday spoiler?

I was thinking earlier today that Howard Dean, who took some heat for his description of the "NASCAR voter," still could be a threat by implementing a NASCAR-type strategy of consistency. I don't know if he could win the nomination by continuing to finish second, but thrown in with a win here or there things could get interesting. It's just looking less likely he'll get a win. You think he could have talked the folks in Vermont into holding their primary before Super Tuesday; as it's in there with the likes of California, New York, and Ohio, Vermont's going to get lost in the shuffle.

In a related note, I find it kind of funny that Puerto Rico is not only having a GOP primary, but they're having it on February 29th. This means something, though I'm not sure what.

In an unrelated note, I have very little to say about the Oscar nods, as I've only seen the Lord of the Rings movie. I used to do much better at seeing at least all the best picture nominees, though the last year I actually managed this was 1997. I saw all but The Cider House Rules in 1999 (which is odd, as I really liked the book, but I may have been scared off by other poor John Irving adaptations - I'm looking at you, Simon Birch). I saw three of the 2001 nominees (Gladiator, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and Traffic), just A Beautiful Mind and LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring for 2002, and just Chicago and LOTR: The Two Towers last year.

I am still owed seeing Master and Commander from going to Love, Actually, and I think local ordinance will require me to see Mystic River. Sarah's dad has Seabiscuit on DVD, which isn't the same as the theater but may have to suffice. They actually showed Lost in Translation on campus last weekend when we were away, though I think it's still playing around here somewhere.

On the flipside, I will whole-heartedly agree with Greg's analysis of the Razzies. I was a voting member for a couple of years, and can confirm that the awards seem much more focused on going after the expected targets and less after true cinematic badness. Not that they don't find badness in their usual targets, it just gets old quick.

To that end, I had considered starting something called the Love is Nice Awards (after an episode of The Simpsons where the new genius Homer goes to see a movie called Love is Nice and notices the plot holes and pointlessness of it all) to recognize Hollywood's most mundane/least essential movies, but I figured I didn't have the time. It may make an appearance anyway, just as something I do unilaterally rather than call for votes and such.

As a postscript to this morning's early voting, it appears that Hart's Location may not be the interloper on the midnight balloting tradition that I thought.

Locals claim that Hart's Location started the early voting in 1948, given the number of residents who worked for the railroads who couldn't vote during usual polling times. They stopped doing it in the '60s because they were tired of the publicity (which seems like an unusual reason in these media-saturated times), but brought it back in 1996.

Not that it really matters, I suppose. It's just one of those things I find more interesting than it probably is.

For those of you who didn't stay up for the early-morning votes, I've got you covered.

Wesley Clark won in Dixville Notch with 8 votes, which is one more than all his opponents combined. Kerry had 3, Edwards 2, and Leiberman and Dean tied with one each. There was a pretty good crowd on hand - for the 20something voters in the town, there were at least five times as many on hand from the press and various campaigns. Ironically - given his vote total - there were two guys in the crowd wearing Dean t-shirts.

And as the only candidate to make the trip, Wes Clark showed up to make some comments after the totals were given. Not that I could tell you much of what he said, given CSPAN's cracker jack coverage. They seemed to have a stationary camera and a shoulder camera, with no audio feed outside of whatever microphones are on the cameras. They also had lousy locations, to the point where a guy who raised his hand to ask Clark a question blocked the mobile camera's view entirely.

They also had someone phone in results from Hart's Location (still trying to get a piece of the early voting pie), and they had similar results, though with less of a spread. Though I did notice that Leiberman didn't get any votes here, while there was one write in. That's got to make him feel good.

I should note for completeness sake that Bush won the Republican primary in both towns with 100 percent of the votes.

All in all a very satisfactory exercise of the franchise, which will descend into the morass tomorrow with all the vote grubbing and exit polling and such.

For those of you looking for a little democracy in action, tune in to CSPAN at midnight tonight (or tomorrow morning, depending on your semantic preference) to see live coverage of the voting in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. Dixville Notch is the traditional first town to vote in New Hampshire's presidential primaries and general elections. Others have tried to horn in on the act (Hart's Location, for example), but this year it appears Dixville Notch has the spotlight to themselves.

An added wrinkle this year is that the resident who has cast the first vote over the last 40 years, Neil Tilotson, passed away in 2001. There's going to be a lottery to decide who gets to assume that honor. No word on if that'll be televised.

And before anyone starts to read too much into whatever results come from the town, Bill Bradley won the 2000 Democratic primary. Of course, Bush won on the Republican side, so feel free to spin away.

Notes from the weekend:

Went to Penn Bowl Me and the missus went to Penn Bowl, a large (perhaps too large) college bowl tournament held at UPenn. Sarah went because she had to chaperone the BU team (all three people!), I went in the name of marital solidarity. For those of you who've been before, it was Penn Bowl. You know what that means. For everyone else, you're not missing much.

Golden Globes We didn't watch them. I don't particularly care for them, as even for awards they're silly. You may also want to read this TV Barn piece which further lowered my interest in them (sadly I don't get Trio any more - I used to when I had the dish - so I've not seen the special mentioned in the article). If you want a recap, go click on Shawn or John.

Holy rabble rousing, Batman! Church was unusually political, as the priest took the occasion to speak out against this whole gay marriage thing. I was less than impressed with the moralistic end of the argument, as the priest went slippery slope on us and said the current ruling would eventually allow for group marriages, etc. He also actually read the dictionary definition of marriage - right from the dictionary! It was like bad high school debate at times.

I have a little more sympathy for the other argument made, that the court was unduly acting in a legislative capacity, and that the timeline to allow gay marriage is too short. I tend to think that more time would be better (perhaps a year rather than six months), though I know in the Church's case they want more time to fight the ruling.

All in all it was hard to tell how it went over with the congregation as a whole. No one walked out (as had happened the first time the subject came up last year), but I did see a couple people stiff the first collection, whose money goes to support the parish. I'm sure we'll hear more about this as we go, which will be even less comfortable for me. Sometimes it's hard being a heretic.

That's the highlights for the weekend, sad to say. I didn't even get to see BU's 1-0 hockey triumph over Maine, which combined a big win and brawling. Damn!

Two things I've been pondering in the aftermath of the Iowa caucuses.

1. The "power" of the union vote. Dick Gephardt and Howard Dean both went into Iowa with the lion's share of union backing, with Gephardt having more of the traditional labor backing. They both fall, Gephardt to the point of dropping out of the race. Inasmuch as the labor vote was ever a monolith (kind of like any of the racial or gender-based voting blocs that are always mentioned as if they're an offshoot of the Borg), it's not now.

You could see this coming a little bit in 2000, when W was able to fracture West Virginia's usually strong pro-Dems union vote by campaining heavily on the theme that Gore was going to take everyone's guns away (among other things; this was the angle that most stood out to me at the time).

Speaking of 2000...

2. Bill Bradley + four years = Howard Dean? While the power of the Internet is one of the major stories from the Dean campaign, Bill Bradley should get the real credit for melding electoral politics and on-line support. Dean's been able to get more mileage out of it given some of the new tools, like blogging, Meetup, etc.

This similarity is playing itself out a little in results, as Bradley (like Dean?) peaked too early. Bradley never recovered. I don't think it's necessarily that dire for Dean, but it's not looking good. It's probably too early to say it's a trend, but clearly heavy reliance on the Internet is only taking candidates so far. It may be that each successive election will take the Internet candidate a little farther, though I think demographics may be what ultimately allows the Internet candidate to succeed (unless our gains in health care mean that we have a bump of elderly baby boomers who will vote but not use a computer when they are 110).

While I am nowhere near ready to say I've made up my mind, I find that my thinking is beginning to look eerily like the Bruce's where the Democratic presidential candidates are concerned. It's mostly based on gut feeling and news reports, which strikes me as sub-optimal. Were I to rank them today, it'd probably be like this:

1. Edwards, more for his optimism and a hoped-for ability to attract southern voters.
2. Dean, though he may have moved from "good crazy" to "too crazy".
3. Clark, but his "junior officer" comments aimed at Kerry make Clark seem like the most insecure general ever. He's also been getting help from some of Clinton's folks, and I'd like to avoid bringing them back.
4. Kerry, mostly for being the local fave.
5. Kucinich, who may take the "good crazy" mantle from Dean. He'd actually be an interesting Green Party candidate.
6. Lieberman, who I've never really cottoned to. My boss is a Connecticut native and Dem, and she doesn't like him. And he was Gore's running mate. Strike three.
7. Sharpton, I mean, really. I fear that he may wind up as the Green Party candidate.