So busy!

Before the weekend was tying up loose ends before starting the new job. This was domianted by a media rating project involving foreign-language articles which took a lot of time, given that (a) most of the special characters were stripped, requiring some work to replace with the letter minus its accent, and (b) we used a translator program that gave "gisted" translations, meaning more literal and less idiomatic. So it was a lot of the European equivalent of Engrish.

The weekend brought us up to Maine, which was pretty restful until Sunday morning, when I went with the wife and the sister in law for a hike in the Camden Hills State Park. We did something between 3 and 4 miles on rocky, tree root-infested trails. I also got to give a quick course in reading terrain maps which boiled down to "close lines=steep climbing."

Even with the leg-shattering climbs, we weren't all that sore afterwards. Perhaps more hiking in the future, though perhaps on gentler, clearer trails.

Today was my first day at the new job, which went pretty well. The commute was pretty smooth, though if we are going to stay in our current weather pattern I may risk taking the Green Line given that I'd spend less time walking through humidity. As for actual job stuff, it was the usual first day experience where you get a ton of information and hope a quarter of it sticks. We're about two week away from the biggest graduation ceremony (due to co-op requirements, though there is a smaller May ceremony), so I'm getting in at just the right time to see how things work in practice. Even better, my first graduation is in February, which is the smallest of the three (it doesn't even get its own ceremony).

Everything else is good so far - like the work environment, and the people are great.

After work, the wife and I had a birthday dinner at The Continental on Route 1. For those of you planning your SNL joke for the comments, don't, because this place is pretty much what you'd get if you transmogrified Christopher Walken in an ascot into a restaurant. The whole place feels like it's from 1973, from the decor to the very traditional menu. That being said, we both enjoyed our meals and the prices extremely reasonable. We've paid more for less at chain restaurants. I don't know if we'd go there regularly, but I could see it being in the rotation. Especially if we're with the in-laws.

Not too much else to report. Sad to see Peter Jennings go (we were an ABC household), but perhaps not unexpected with the lung cancer and all. Think happy thoughts for the Discovery crew, and hope that that thermal blanket thing isn't too serious. Really, it may be time we either build some new, less problematic Shuttles or bring back more traditional rocket-based systems. It doesn't do you much good to have a re-useable space plane if you have to keep grounding them or spend half the mission making repairs.

Time for a variation on the "fun with iTunes" meme that was kicking around for a while. For the following 20 musical artists, you must name the one song I have of theirs in my iTunes. Some of these should be pretty easy, others less so. Put your guesses in the comments, and I'll make notations as the songs are correctly identified.

Time's up, here's the lineup:

1. 10CC - "The Things We Do For Love" (Greg). Heard it at lunch one day at Babson and it got stuck in my head until I got my own copy.

2. Aaron Neville - "These Arms of Mine," which I seem to have gotten from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. No worries; I do not have a copy of "She's Like the Wind."

3. America - "Sister Golden Hair" (Matt).

4. Annie Lennox - "Why" (Greg). It's an unplugged version, not sure if it's "official" MTV Unplugged or not.

5. Badfinger - "No Matter What" (JQ). I also got mine thanks to the Outside Providence soundtrack.

6. Bill Withers - "Lean On Me" (Greg).

7. Buckner & Garcia - "Pac Man Fever" (Scott). Though I was more of an Asteroids fan, really.

8. Carbon Leaf - "Life Less Ordinary" (Craig).

9. The Cure - "Close to You," from Craig's tournament.

10. The Dave Brubeck Quartet - "Take Five" (Scott).

11. Dixie Chicks - "I Can Love You Better." Like I said, the wife put this one on.

12. Englebert Humperdink - "Lesbian Seagull" (JQ).

13. Frank Sinatra - "Somewhere Beyond the Sea."

14. General Public - "Tenderness" (Greg).

15. Jewel - "You Were Meant For Me" (James). Off of the Live on Letterman CD, credited as Jewel with Flea. With that pairing, I had to keep it.

16. Living Colour - "Cult of Personality" (Matt).

17. Michael Jackson - "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" (Greg). Ironic, don't you think?

18. Rufus Wainwright - "April Fools" (Greg).

19. The Scorpions - "Rock You Like a Hurricane" (JQ). Ja!

20. Strawberry Alarm Clock - "Incence and Peppermint" (Matt). Not sure why I have this or where it came from. I suppose it's my music for freaking out squares, given that I have no Billy Joel.

Enjoy!

Our long national nightmare - OK, my long personal nightmare - is finally over.

I am once again employed in a full-time capacity.

Starting Monday, I'll be an assistant registrar at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, a tech/engineering/design school in Boston next door to Northeastern. The main focus of the job is all things graduation, though I'll have other duties as well, of course.

It was a long wait - a very long wait - but I think it'll be worth it. Though I may sing a different tune once I've gotten into commuting again. Thankfully, it's a pretty easy trip on public transportation, with options of taking the Green or Orange lines on the T, which is better than being beholden to the Green line.

I should give special thanks here to the wife, whose patience and support during the non-working bordered on the superhuman at times.

Interesting note: I'll be starting at Wentworth on the same day as I did at Babson: August 8. That's also my birthday, which makes this all the more... interesting? Unusual? Notable only to me? Do with it what you will.

For all the time I lived in Boston, there are any number of things I never did or saw that I probably should have. Today, I got to rectify one of them by taking a day trip out to the Boston Harbor islands.

We boarded the first ferry out and were dropped at Georges Island, which is kind of the hub for all of the activity on the islands. The sister-in-law arrived a little later on a ferry from Quincy. At that point we decided to wait for the guided tour of Fort Warren, which is the island's dominant feature.

The only problem is that the scheduled tour never seemed to have happened. There was a ranger at the info booth at the given time, but he disappeared and, as far as we could tell, never inquired as to whether or not anyone was waiting for the tour. The woman at the information booth was pretty clueless about the tours, which suggests that maybe they want to coordinate these things better.

(Perhaps this isn't surprising, as the islands are a national park, but administered by some other body. This just begs for little problems like this.)

In any event, we took the self-guided walking tour. It was OK, though there was little attempt made to guide you from place to place. We were able to muddle through, but I'd have liked clearer directions.

The fort itself has elements going back to the War of 1812 (and there was a previous fort from the Revolution), and it was interesting to get to see it up close and personal. At times it was a little too up close and personal, as there were an abundance of open nooks to explore without much by way of lighting or even ground to walk on. Which is more of a problem now than it was back in the day.

After taking the once-around we decided to take the inter-island ferry to a neighboring island to have lunch. We took the boat over to Lovells Island, or as it will be known from this point on Mosquito Island (or the Island of the Damned, for the campers stuck out there). Within 4 minnutes of disembarking we were swarmed by the winged bloodsuckers, forcing a retreat back to the dock. We spent the rest of the hour there, and then took the inter-island ferry back to Georges (with other visitors who had similar insect experiences).

Once back on Georges we hung out under a tree, had some slush from the snack bar (located in a building that used to test mines), perused a monument erected by the Boston chapter of the Daughters of Confederate Veterans (that there is a Boston chapter was more surprising than the news that Confederate POWs were housed at the fort), and then left. I'd have liked to have seen some of the other islands, but that'll be for a later time.

And for all the city folk who flock to the beaches, the islands are a pretty good alternative. The ferry ride is $10, and while there aren't any sandy beaches, there is plenty of space for sunbathing and the like (I assume you can swim; whether or not you want to is an open question). The snack bar does offer fast foodish options, though it's pretty easy to bring your own (you just have to carry your trash off with you).

I'd happily go back. I just have to remember to pack bug spray with the sunblock.

The oddest encounter of the day, though, happened on the drive home when, traversing the narrow streets of Lynn, we had to get around a guy on a unicycle dribbling a basketball and wearing headphones. Had the camera only been available.

I got an email from NHL.com today asking to fill out a survey regarding the return of the league. At the end of it they had a link to share with friends.

As I consider you all my friends, if you'd like to sound off about the NHL, or just like filling out surveys, click here.

The NHL released the 2005-06 schedule yesterday (or was it Tuesday?). Anyway:

Good: "rivalry" scheduling. While I hope this isn't taken to the extremes of baseball (19 games against a divisional opponent is too many, especially if it's the Devil Rays), it should help to revive interest that was diluted when teams spent more time playing everyone. Speaking of dilution, though:

Bad: there are still 82 games in the regular season. This number needs to go down, though the league's worrisome financial status makes it impractical. Hopefully, they'll get some TV money and be able to pare back to something in the high 60s.

Speaking of TV, I'd read yesterday that OLN might wind up with NHL games, apparently at the behest of the network's owner, Comcast. That would be interesting.

Good: there is a break in February so players can compete in the Olympics. After missing the most recent Worlds, I look forward to this tournament.

Bad: the new NHL logo color scheme. I sincerely doubt that anyone will become more interested in the league now that the NHL shield is black and silver instead of black and orange. But I do think it'll further irritate long-time fans who still pine for the days of the named conferences and divisons. Like me.

So on my post last week about the dentist, I should have said "next week" rather than "next month," as I was back in the chair today to tackle a couple of cavities, the identical cousins to the ones on the other side of my lower jaw.

Thankfully, there's a good chance I won't need a root canal for the tooth with the deeper cavity. Still a possibility, but at least it wasn't like the last time when we jumped right to root canal. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

I did something yesterday that, even up to a couple of months ago, I was very unsure about trying.

I took the two tests I'd need to pass to get a teacher's licence in Massachusetts.

My very long day of standardized testing started with me needing to be at Lynn English High School by 7:45 am. This wasn't so bad, though I was a little irritated to learn that Beverly High School about three minutes from where we live, was also a testing site (on the other hand, someone I know from Manchester-Essex who I ran into at Lynn Enligh has a classmate who lives in Danvers but had to go into Arlington to take her test). As it was I got in, found the room I needed and my numbered seat.

The morning test was on "communications and literacy," basically a reading and writing test to make sure that prospective teachers have a reasonable command of the English language. The reading part wasn't too bad; 30 multiple choice reading comprehension questions and something like 6 to 8 vocab questions where I had to define given words (mine included homogeneous and deviate).

The writing section was much different that I expected from the practice tests I took. There were 44 multiple choice questions, 30 of which were based on five six-sentence paragraphs. For each sentence, I had to tell if it had a spelling error, capitalization error, punctuation error, or no error. A couple were on the subtle side, but others mentioning "breckfast" and Susan B. Anthony going to "cast a Ballot" made up for things. The other 14 were more focused on the grammar and mechanics of a few short readings.

After that, I had to define three grammatical terms and rewrite three sentences to make them more grammatically correct. I thought there would be more of these, but I'm not complaining. I was a little nervous about the grammar definitions, as it's been a good 20 years since my last serious study of grammar. Thankfully, I had to define exclamatory sentence, imperative sentence, and adverb.

After this were two open-response writing questions. One basically asked you to re-write a selection to demonstrate its main points, a practice which kind of confuses me given that the selection was pretty well-organized to begin with. For the persuasive essay, I surprised myself by writing in favor of a nationwide 55 mile per hour speed limit. I think I found it easier to write from that perspective given that I grew up during the days where 55 was pretty much the rule. I certainly don't drive in favor of such a speed limit.

I had about an hour and 15 minutes for lunch. There's a pizza place across from the school, but I feared it would be crowded with test takers. When I was at the car behind the school, I saw a sign for a sub shop beyond the playing fields. So I walked on over. It was closed. I then walked down to a supermarket, thinking they may have prepared sandwiches. They didn't. So I walked back across the playing fields, around the school, to the pizza place I feared would be packed. I was the only person there.

They don't take debit cards.

They did point me towards a convenience store up the street, where I got money. I went back, finally got some food, and ate lunch under a tree (the pizza place not having any tables, oddly). I had about a half-hour left, so I tried to get in a little last-minute studying.

Which seems like a good point to mention that the afternoon test was a subject test for health education. When I decided to take this test, I spent a little time trying to sort out what to take. I figured I had several options from the listed subjects:

* political science, which made sense given that I'd majored in it. However, I've never seen a school here looking for a poli sci teacher.
* history, given the classics degree and general interest in history. There were even test materials that would allow me to coach myself up prior to the test. But I figured that was a reach, so I passed.
* library, given that I'm a dork and like libraries. But I have little experience and no education in library science, so it seemed like a bad idea, career-wise.
* speech, based on my debate career. Then I thought about my success as a debater and speechie. Pass.
* health, based on having a MPH. Seemed like the best option at the time.

The question of how to study was a hard one, given that there aren't any test prep books and the published test objectives are very general. So I wound up borrowing a health textbook from a teacher at Manchester and outlined it.

In any case, the health test was interesting. I'd expected more questions about "factual" information (in fact, I feared questions asking details about what foods contain what vitamins and the like). The questions tended to be more situational, and there was a definite focus on the problem-solving sorts of things that seem to be the new focus of health education (or at least new to me, compared to my last health ed class in 1985). I then had to write a couple of essays, one about things that cause cardiovascular disease and ways to prevent the illness, the other asking me to discuss the information you'd find on nutrition labels on food products, how a consumer can use that information to their advantage, and three special cases or circumstances where reading the labels would help (I went with someone trying to lose weight, people with allergies or sensitivities, and religious/ethical dietary restrictions).

So how'd it go? With the communications and literacy test, I can't help but think about the line FX uses in promos for King of the Hill.

You're failing English? Bobby, you speak English.

I'll be very unhappy if I don't pass.

With health, I think I did pretty well, but it was more of a crap shoot.

I'll know August 26. By which point I could already have a job and this all is more or less moot. We'll see.

So the NHL is now officially back, as the owners and players have all agreed to the new CBA. I got to catch the tail end of the press conference on this, and much of the talk was around rules changes. Many of these will feel familiar to fans of the college game (no red-line offsides and the introduction of no-touch icing), while others are directed at the net (changes in standards for goalie equipment and changing the location of the nets).

One rule change, however, stands out as polarizing: shootouts to determine a winner after OT.

I've mentioned the one glorious year of the Hockey East shootout in the past, and if you didn't catch it then I should point out now that my wistfulness wasn't exactly genuine. Not that the shootout didn't have entertainment value, given its relationship to the most exciting play in sports (the penalty shot), but as a method to determine a game winner it's not optimal. But I do understand that in order to attract more fans it helps to actually have a winner and loser for each game. Because, apparently, the average American can't handle the concept of a tie.

Though if it means an end to four-column standings, I'm back on board.

There was also some talk about the NHL working out their schedule in 2006 and 2010 to allow players to compete in the Olympics. NHL commish Gary Bettman kind of put it in the players' lap when asked about it, saying they had to sign off on some stuff to make it a reality. While hockey is one of the few team sports at the Winter Olympics, I'd hope that what happened to baseball at the last IOC meeting serves as a bit of an object lesson.

After the news conference was a league-wide draft lottery to hand out positions for next week's entry draft, done because (a) there was already an entry draft where teams were ranked according to their 2003-04 finish, and (b) most teams have very few players under contract, so team quality may really change over the next few weeks.

Anywho, the draft lottery show was great TV - if you ever wondered what it would sound like to hear Bettman count backwards from 30 to 3 (and then up from 1 to 2). The actual draw was held in a "secured location" (was Dick Cheney there?), and Bettman read the positions from envelopes. Each team had one, two, or three balls in the drum according to a poorly-explained system involving considerations of recent team history with the playoffs and, well, other stuff. Four teams had the maximum number of balls, and one of them - Pittsburgh - landed the top pick, which they'll use on phenom Sidney Crosby.

Most screwed were the Florida Panthers, the only non-playoff team from 2003-04 to land a pick in the bottom 10. They'll select 29th. Out of 30.

Hope that free agency thing works out for them.

And, like a good fantasy draft, the picks will snake; Tampa Bay has the last pick of round one, and follows it with the first pick of round two. No word yet on whether or not it's a keeper league or if teams will accumulate fractional points.

Anyway, NHL hockey is back October 5th. Please watch. They can use the exposure.

A little life and style asterisk-style for you all:

* After an initial taste-testing, I am undecided as to the potability of the latest flavor (so new that it's not even on the web site) from Polar Beverages, a local producer of sodas, mixers, and such: pomegranate dry. The wife found it too sweet (even for being "dry" and the diet version to boot), while I was finding the intensity of the flavor differing from mouthful to mouthful. All in all I'd try it again, but I wouldn't invest in a 2 liter.

* Both the lo-cal and NBC news had stories tonight on the popularity and new status of flip-flops, given their appearance on the feet of several Northwestern women's lacross players during their recent visit to the White House. What's surprising to me is that this is considered a recent fashion trend given that it's been commmon on campus for years. I suppose working in higher ed gives me an inside perspective on this. I can remember being surprised at the prevalence of flip flops in, say, 2002.

I don't really blame the players, though I'd think even an average level of maturity for a college athlete would suggest that if you're going to see the President of the US, you probably shouldn't wear footwear that also works in the locker room. I do wonder what the coaches were doing when they should have given the players a once-over for appropriate attire, but they could be so used to flip flops that it didn't register.

Even so, if W invites me down for photos and finger sandwiches, I'll be sure to wear shoes. I'll even wear socks with them.

* In the space of a week, the Red Sox seem to have turned over about half of their active roster. I tuned into today just in time to see Tony Graffanino register his first hit and RBI for the team, at which time I registered that Graffanino was actually on the team. I also didn't know that we'd had to trade someone to get Adam Hydzu back. I assumed he was in Pawtucket waiting for Kevin Youkilis to get sent back down. Again. Which he was when Graffanino came on board.

I feel badly for Youkilis, who can't seem to catch on in Boston. Expectations may have been raised by his mention in Moneyball, where his ability to get on base made him a prime target of Billy Beane, who couldn't pry him away from the Sox for love or money. I now wonder if it would have been better for the Greek God of Walks if he went to Oakland.

(I know, this is sports rather than life and style, but work with me.)

* Speaking of life and style, the Boston Globe has now come up with something it calls "Sidekick" (tagged with the line "Your Guide to a Better Day") which combines the comics, crossword, TV listings, horoscopes, and things to do into a small tabloid-format pull-out section. I'd think this was in response to the Metro Boston, a "newspaper" that packages AP wire stories in small bits so that it can give you "24 hours in 20 minutes," except that the Globe now owns 49 percent of that publication.

Meaning that the Globe would be competing against itself.

I am actually fairly sad over the state of Boston newspapers. The Globe hasn't been the same since the New York Times folks bought them out, the Herald is trying to be the local, more sedate cousin to the New York Daily News, and then there's the Metro, which could be subtitled "The Newspaper for Illiterates." I used to read a paper every day. Now, I rarely even bother to check any of them out on-line.

I suppose that saves me money.

Eight months and three days after first being told that it was a likelihood, my root canal experience finally ended today when I got my permanent crown. It was kind of anticlimactic, as I spent all of 35 minutes in the chair while the new crown was adjusted to match my bite.

Not that I don't appreciate the smoothness of things. Early in the visit the dentist noted that in case the crown slipped (it being slick from saliva and such) I should endeavor not to swallow it. That idea hadn't occurred to me prior to that; I couldn't get it out of my head for several minutes afterward.

So while I can look back on this process and relax, there is an ugly reality on the horizon: I may begin the whole process again next month when I go to get a couple of fillings on the other side of my lower jaw. Oddly enough, the likely candidate tooth is the same one (on the other side) as the first. I'd chalk it up to nature's love of symmetry if it weren't for all the sugar and lack of regular check-ups.

Let me take this opportunity to add to Craig and the Bruce's endorsement for The Road From Bristol, a tournament to find the most annoying ESPN personality. Needless to say, there is no shortage of deserving entrants.

In other news, I am currently reading The $1 League, which I imagine is the definitive history of the USFL (as it may be the only one; if there are others, please let me know). I was hoping the book would be like Loose Balls, Terry Pluto's fantastic history of the ABA, but it's not. It mostly follows ownership issues, which isn't surprising as the author was the USFL's director of communications. It's not too bad, but I have to think the best stories were in the locker room rather than the boardroom.

Two other books that I've read and would recommend:

The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber by Julian Rubinstein, the story of a minor-league hockey goalie who becomes a folk hero in post-communist Hungary when he takes to robbing banks while drunk.

Ponzi's Scheme by Mitchell Zuckoff. A very well-done account of both the history of the swindle and Ponzi's life. I hadn't realized just how much money he'd made (enough to buy a bank and take a stab at legitimacy), or how he managed to engineer his own downfall.

While I think we've heard this before, the NHL may finally be back. The league and the NHLPA have hammered out an agreement that, if ratified by the players, will put the teams back on the ice.

I should care more about this than I actually do, but college hockey has pretty well eroded my interest in the NHL. Even so, I ranked it fairly high on ESPN.com's poll where you had to rank 16 "sports" (more like a combo of sports and leagues). The NHL was doing pretty well, fourth out of 16, though I'm sure there's some sort of self-selection bias at work.

Unrelated to hockey, I'm a little surprised that after 2 and a half years of retooling, the Space Shuttle folks didn't notice that Discovery's fuel gauge didn't work. If they'd only subcontracted work out to Mr. Goodwrench.

In less serious news, the IOC voted today to drop baseball and softball as sports for the 2012 Games in London. They then managed to not add any sports to replace them; from a list of five possible sports they selected two for a vote (squash and karate), neither of which gained the two-thirds support needed to add a sport. Rugby, golf and "roller sports" (not sure what all was included there) were passed over without a vote.

All the balloting was done in secret (though the AP apparently came up with vote totals for the squash and karate votes), which was pretty controversial. The given rationale was to prevent embarrasment for the international sport federations if their given sport failed to gain many votes. Other people suggested it allowed for a lack of accountability. It seems kind of fishy to me, but there isn't much involving the IOC that doesn't.

The loss of baseball isn't all that surprising. The lack of MLB talent and the spectre of another drug-tainted sport sealed the deal. The softball result was more surprising, though from what US national team players have said it was a combination of anti-Americanism and the personal view of IOC head Jacques Rogge.

As for the proposed new sports, I'm pretty meh about squash, but thought karate had a chance given that martial arts are some of the newer sports (judo was added in 1964, taekwondo in 1988). I was very non-plussed about golf (for the same reason as tennis - it's not that big a deal compared to the major tournaments) and "roller sports", but thought rugby would be a nice addition. Sports Illustrated had an article in the last month or so which pointed out how rugby (seven a side for this purpose) would be easy to run and not add many athletes.

(Personally, I'd like to bring back pankration, but that looks unlikely.)

Which is kind of the root problem here - the Summer Games have gotten too big, and the IOC would like to find a way to hack them down a bit. One thing that would really help (and may be in the offing, I think) is more of an event-by-event approval process rather than by sport. For example, if you wanted to get rid of, I don't know, synchronized swimming, under current rules you'd have to vote out all of swimming. Which, of course, isn't going to happen.

Interestingly, you can apparently add events to existing sports without such drama (which explains how synchro got into the woodpile in the first place). There's already talk about that for 2012, most notably expanding the women's soccer tournament by two teams. Which, as a trade-off for softball, seems like a net loss.

I still think it'd be better if some of the weather-neutral sports were moved to the winter. I know, the Winter Games traditionally only have events that involve ice or snow. But not only would moving some of these sports help with logistics, you could also get more face time for sports lost in the summer shuffle. Not sure which ones I'd move, but my short list includes weightlifting, table tennis, and volleyball (there's a dearth of team sports in the winter).

At least the IOC gave the 2012 games to London. They did one thing I liked this week, which is kind of a miracle.

Thing that I learned yesterday that makes me unsettled: post-9/11, the US has spent $18 billion to secure air travel. On public transportation, we've spent $250 million.

In the course of her daily commute, my wife rides a commuter train twice, a bus, and the subway. I'd like to think that, on some level, there is more than the occasional video camera and a MBTA official handing out leaflets reminding passengers to report things that look funny standing between her and a repeat of Madrid and London.

Public transportation is an incredibly soft target, and doesn't appear to be getting any harder. So much for "never forgetting."

On this day where we say Happy Birthday, America, the wife and I returned home from an event that was a slice of today's America: an Indian wedding in south Jersey.

I won't go too deeply into the details, other than to say it was an incredible time, I got to see the wife in a sari, and I learned that there is a particular spice/herb/flavoring used in some of the food that I just cannot tolerate. I find roughly 98 percent of Indian food delicious; the 2 percent that uses this specific item I can't even swallow.

The day before the wedding we got to go to the Phillies-Braves game at Citizens Bank Park. Good game, nice park, though I think I like PNC better. Sorry, Chris.

We did manage to avoid all of the Live 8-related nonsense. Unlike Cooch, I saw significantly less of the new shows than of the original. I'll leave it to the reader to determine if that's a good thing or not (though I think I know Greg's answer).

The worst part of the trip was, unsurprisingly, the beginning, as traffic from NYC to central Jersey was not good at all. Coming back today was a breeze, a definite argument for getting on the road early. We got back here in plenty of time to rest, watch The Crossing on the History Channel (Jeff Bridges Daniels as Washington? Surprisingly entertaining), and even figure out where to go to see fireworks.

Hope you all had as fun of a Fourth weekend as I did!

Had the chance to watch a goodly portion of today's Williams-Sharapova semi at Wimbeldon. It may have been the loudest tennis match I've ever watched. At one point an official requested quiet from the crowd, which made the NBC commentators chuckle given that neither woman would likely hear the chatter over their own grunting.

Somewhere, Melanie Hutsell weeps.

I don't watch as much tennis now as I used to, and I think it's related to something Sports Illustrated noted recently: the death of the serve-and-volley player. With all the baseline play, matches take on a certain Pong-like quality. And really, Pong isn't much of a game for spectating.

I know there are a couple of tennis fans among the (semi)-regular readership here. Thoughts from them are welcome, even if it is just to tell me I'm talking out of my blowhole.

Unrelated to tennis, I was amused by recent news that a guy in California wants the town of Weare, New Hampshire to seize Supreme Court Justice David Souter's farm house so the man can turn it into an inn - the Lost Liberty Inn. The inn will also reportedly feature the Just Desserts Cafe and an informational display on the loss of freedom in America. Just in case you didn't get the point from the name of the inn.

Sadly, I don't think Weare is close enough to anything to make the project enough of an economic gain to warrant the seizure. The town isn't all that close to the major ski areas or lakes to bring in the outdoor crowd. I suppose it's reasonably close to Concord, which might bring in folks who have business in the capital but want to avoid the hustle and bustle.

Entering the town into Citysearch brings back the closest attraction as Santa's Land USA. Which is in Putney, Vermont. Almost 40 miles away. The other two attractions that came back are located in Amesbury and Concord, Massachusetts.

Something tells me that the Weare Chamber of Commerce hasn't quite caught up with the Internet.

In any case, this officially makes Souter the Zeppo of the Supreme Court.

As odd as the saga of Robert Kraft's Super Bowl ring is (my theory: Putin pocketed it thinking it was a bribe), leave it to the folks in northern New England to raise the bar.

A Maine man was arrested in New Hampshire yesterday for peeping at women while they were going the bathroom. What makes this odd is the man's vantage point - inside the toilet. It was apparently some sort of latrine-like fixture big enough for him to hunker down in (rather than going the Moaning Myrtle route, which would have made it hard for the authorities to apply handcuffs).

Now if we could just have gotten Vermont into the story...

An article on Yahoo noted that we are in the midst of the greatest movie box office slump in history (so to speak), as we've now gone something like 17 or 18 weekends in a row where ticket sales failed to better those of the same weekend of the previous year. While theories abound as to why this is happening, I do have a theory.

IT COSTS TOO DAMN MUCH TO SEE MOVIES IN THE THEATER.

Or, perhaps more accurately:

IT COSTS TOO DAMN MUCH TO SEE THE MOVIES WE'RE BEING OFFERED IN THE THEATER.

Why, for example, am I going to shell out $10 to see something like Bewitched in the theater when I can bide my time and see it for less than half of that (or less than a quarter if you consider I'd be seeing it with the wife) in the comfort of my own home. I can even use Netflix or on demand services to make the viewing experience that much more convenient.

(That being said, Bewitched still made over $20 million this weekend.)

I'm more likely to see "event" movies in the theater, but even then I've learned from past experience that they are likely going to disappoint me, so I'm only going to see a select few of them.

And let's not even get into the gougetastic world of movie concessions. I now pay more for popcorn and a soda than I did to get a movie ticket not all that long ago. That's not helping to being me into the theater.

I don't know if the only answer is lower prices, but I tend to think that'd be a good start.

So when the mercury starts climbing towards triple digits (the car thermometer hit 99 at one point today), what do you do to keep cool?

You go pick strawberries.

We made an impromptu stop at Russell Orchards in Ipswich while taking a drive to nowhere. I'd not been there in roughly 30 years and one owner ago, going back to a kindergarten or first grade field trip of scant memory. I didn't even know they did strawberries there, though as you can tell from the website they grow quite a variety of produce. I don't think they did back in the day.

In any case, the wife has fond strawberry picking memories (as opposed to the forced labor of blueberry raking), so we decided to stop in. It was a bit warm for the walk out to the fields (for some reason we bypassed the tractor ride out), but we did get a couple of nice quarts. Much better than the agribusiness-developed berries, and you get the chance for some pre-sale sampling.

Not that I did that. No siree.

In any event, if you're ever in the neighborhood it's worth a stop. Though you may want to wait for cooler temps.

Two things I like:

Sunshowers Got caught in one yesterday, and it was pretty cool. At an earlier point, though, it was more of a sundownpour. I would not have liked that.

The March of the Penguins A new film from Warner Independent and National Geographic that follows the mating cycle of the emperor penguins. Given what they go through, it's hard to believe they've not been wiped out yet. I know if humans had to walk for a week to get to the mating area, go for four months without food, and spend winter huddled together outside while holding their future young between their legs and on top of their feet, the earth would belong to the dolphins.

Morgan Freeman narrates, which didn't hurt, either.

Two things I don't like:

Jimmy Buffett He's here for his annual run of shows, and every radio station that'd even possibly play his stuff was crapping themselves about it. I don't mind the occasional encounter with "Cheeseburger in Paradise" or "Margaritaville," but the whole Parrothead thing is a little befuddling. If that lifestyle is so appealing, move to the Keys already.

"Hollaback Girl" After running across this song at least a dozen times between here and Maine last weekend (I stopped counting at 12), this becomes the first song since high school that I've officially considered overplayed. No mean feat given how little I listen to the radio.

The other problem, of course, is that the song is awful. But it's also awful popular; looks like I'm playing the iPod in the car for now.

Cavalcade of Questionable Decisions

Brought to you by Bad Idea Jeans: "I didn't use protection, but I figure, 'Hey, when am I getting back to Haiti?'"

I'll Never Use the Guest Bathrooms Again

An artist has attempted to make a wry statement on Italian politics and prime minister Silvio Berlusconi by making a bar of soap out of fat removed from the PM during a liposuction procedure in Switzerland.

According to the artist, Gianni Motti:

Berlusconi had face lifting and liposuction operations in a clinic in Lugano, where I have good connections that provided me with some of the fat. It was jelly-like and it stunk horribly, like butter gone off or old chip pan oil.

I came up with the idea because soap is made of pig fat, and I thought how much more appropriate it would be if people washed their hands using a piece of Berlusconi.

Those of you who've always dreamed of attending to personal hygeine using materials made from leaders of G8 nations can obtain the Berlusconi Bar for roughly $17,000.

(Special thanks to Laura DeVeau for the heads up.)

Bad sense of direction? Let's send him camping!

Brennan Hawkins, an 11 year-old who is described by his parents as having a bad sense of direction, was located five days after wandering off at a Boy Scout camp in Utah. He apparently got lost while walking down a dirt road. I suppose he was confused not having the middle yellow line to follow.

Seriously, I'm glad he's OK, but when he does attend his first Boy Scout meeting let's get him some basic hiking training before he actually does meander into a snowmelt-engorged waterway.

I hope no one watches Question Time on CSPAN-2

Senator Joe Biden of Delaware is talking about making a run at the Presidency in 2008. While his 30 year Senate tenure and position as ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations committee are selling points, his failed 1988 run, which ended when he was caught using quotes from British politician Neil Kinnock without attributing them, will likely come up again at some point.

He's given himself to the end of the year to decide. He also has to decide if he'll run for re-election to the Senate, which may save the Dems the grief of calling him out on plagarizing from a Laborite who couldn't unseat Margaret Thatcher. He at least could have stolen from a winner.

One channel and nothing on

If you tuned in to NBC tonight to watch Katie Couric interview the "runaway bride," grab a fondue fork and jam the pointy part into your left eyeball. Then remove it, and jam it into your right eyeball. Twice.

If you followed that up by watching the Hilton mere's new show, well, I can't say too much as I was asked to tape it for future viewing. You may pity or mock me as you wish.

But they at least get all the animal testicles they can eat

The Writer's Guild of America wants to get writers and other staffers from unscripted TV into unionized contracts, saying that work on those shows requires longer hours and results in less pay and no benefits for those who toil to bring us such fare as Average Joe: The Joes Strike Back and the aforementioned Hilton production (which wouldn't be the first time a Hilton business venture made money off of exploiting non-union labor, I'd have to think).

The guild called used the term "telecommunications sweatshop" to describe working conditions on unscripted programming. One can only hope that, like call centers, these shows get outsourced to India or somewhere similarly distant. Look for Aishwarya Rai to star in Dancing With the Stars 2: Revenge of the Frug.

I suppose it'd be a good thing to make it more known that reality programming is actually highly structured and not, as I like to refer to the genre, unscripted. On the other hand, it may be the impetus for the networks to show even more cheaply made footage, like security camera tapes or PAX originals.

So much for going Hollywood

Winn Dixie, the supermarket chain whose name graced a recent movie featuring, among others, Dave Matthews (something for the haters to latch on to), announced that iwas closing over 300 stores and giving the pink slip to 22,000 workers in a post-bankruptcy re-organization.

Even though they filed for bankruptcy protection in February, they managed to land at number 182 on the 2005 Fortune 500 list. A kid with a well-sited lemonade stand could apparently crack the top 100.

We can only hope that the Piggly Wiggly is safe, to forestall a good haunting by Jessica Tandy.

Oh, and we can have swimming in the East River

In an attempt to revive its flagging Olympic bid, New York City announced that they'd replace plans for a Manhattan-based Olympic stadium with a Queens-based venue that would eventually replace Shea Stadium. Assuming they can get any concrete from the new Yankee Stadium project.

If this does come to pass, can you imagine what John Rocker will say about the 7 train?

All bidding cities pitched to African IOC delegates looking for support. Paris officials noted that they should get support given "long-standing relations between France and Africa." Which included owning most of west Africa, a bloody colonial war in Algeria, and a popular rightist political party that would like to deport anyone who currently lives in France who is more cafe au lait in skin tone than peche.

London reps noted that they'd use temporary venues that could be donated to African countries after the Games, while Madrid supporters noted an Olympics there would be the closest held to that continent ever. Even though for it being so close, they might as well be on Neptune. Moscow, at least, didn't try to fashion some rationale for African support like "You like our guns" or "We thought enough of you to use you as proxies during the Cold War." For that alone they'd get my vote.

Up to Maine this weekend, not much to report from it. Had a bit of a family cookout last night, which allowed me to sample a fine locally-produced beverage or two.

We did stop to eat at the Friendly's in Augusta, and got to see a very strange selection of restaurant art. There were a variety of New England scenes - beaches, lighthouses, harbors, etc. - and in each there was a Friendly's product trying to look like it belongs there. I've never seen a Happy Ending Sundae walking along the brick townhouses of Beacon Hill, but I now know what that might look like.

Got to end the day checking out my sister in law's new apartment, which was fine except for the round trip on the Southeast Expressway. I hate that road. I would rather run my left arm through a wood chipper than drive that regularly. Makes it a good thing that I don't live on the South Shore. We also stopped for dinner at Polcari's, a local institution for Italian food that has a location on Route 1. It was OK, the glacial service being its biggest downfall. I can only imagine how slow it would have been if it were busy.

Be careful what you wish for: after complaining about the heat being in the 90s to start the week, we are likely not heading out of the 50s today. Expect snow for the weekend, then a month of three-digit temps and crippling drought. Frogs to follow for the last week of July.

More irritating, though, is the teacher who tells their students that the work they'll be assigned when the sub is in won't be collected. You might as well give them a free pass to do whatever they want. On the plus side, the impending finals period did give many of these kids something to do, even if it wasn't the assignment I had for them.

Can someone get me the section of the California penal code that calls for not guilty charges in cases involving famous people? It's a little flabbergasting that between OJ, Robert Blake and Jacko there's not a single conviction on any charge, felony or misdemeanor.

I suppose Winona Ryder's case suggests a lack of application if your transgression is actually captured on video.

Not that I was expecting Jacko to do time, but I thought he'd get hit with one of the misdemeanor charges.

I've also been struck with some of the juror comments, which suggest that juror nullifaction is now a self-starting process. I heard more about the alleged victim's mother than I did about evidence.

For reasons I still can't explain I watched the verdict come down on CNN. Wolf Blitzer tried to instill some fake meaning into Jacko's arrival at the courthouse by getting everyone to shut up and listen to the reaction of the arrival. All we got was some guy repeatedly yelling, "M! J! IN! NO! CENT!"

I can smell the Peabody Award from here.

Wolf didn't help himself by accidentally identifying LaToya as Janet. Should we be concerned that LaToya apparently had her nose re-done to look like Michael's? And that it looks a little, uh, snout-like on her?

I had recent posts by Cooch and Craig collide today, as I got to experience our instant summer in several sweltering classrooms at the lyric bandbox that is my high school alma mater today.

(To be honest, the school is much less like the lyric bandbox of Fenway than the upholstered toilet that was Foxboro Stadium. Both were built on the cheap and in a hurry, and had resultant issues in their decades of operations. Sadly, people still have to face the issues at my high school.)

Given all the jerking around going on about building a new high school, I think a conclave to settle the matter, taking place in the room where I got to spend sixth and seventh periods, would wind up with a result within 24 hours.

I'd subbed for this teacher before, and can say without hesitation that the students seem more happy about this teacher's absence than any other that I've subbed for. There is one other teacher who is close, and not surprisingly they share several students. I leave what this says about the teachers - and the students - as an exercise for the reader.

And when I was done in the sauna, I got to the car and noticed that it had changed from its silvery-gray color to more of a yellow-green. The trees I'd parked under are apparently dropping pollen now. Given the wife's reaction to tree pollen earlier in the year, I then got to hose the car off in the heat, which worked out OK when the wind was right.

We also gave in to the heat and bought an air conditioner, which is working pretty well. The bedroom is nicely cooled, and while it's a small one it does help keep the temps down a bit in the rest of the apartment. I'm actually comfortable in the front room, which in heat like this is unusual. Two cheers for cheap small appliances!

A couple of personal shout-outs:

* Welcome back to Scott Monty, on his first post in over three months. Even if it is more of his reactionary claptrap. :)

* Congrats to the Michigan softball team for bringing the NCAA title to the Eastern time zone. I got to see a few games in the WCWS (including about half of last night's title game), and was highly entertained. Considering that college softball is pulling ratings similar to NHL regular season games on ESPN, I expect to see more of the former, even if we eventually get the latter back.

An added shout-out here to Burger and all the other Michiganders whose strong (rabid?) interest in the WCWS got me watching.

Proving once again that there is no limit to the things I'll talk about without actually being right, it appears that the New York City bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics is dead. My prediction that they'd win dies with it.

Technically the bid is still alive, but the odds that NYC will win are nil given that plans for an Olympic stadium on the west side of Manhattan have fallen through. This also impacts the New York Jets, who were going to be regular tenants. Not that I care about them so much.

I imagine that New Yorkers are both saddened and elated at this result; they don't get to be even more of the world's focus, but they also get to avoid the seven year disruption that would come from hosting.

Articles about the process suggest that it's down to London and Paris. I suppose I'm rooting for London given the technical feasibility of going and staying with Sarah's relatives, though if I couldn't get to Salt Lake, what are the odds that I'm getting across the Atlantic, even with seven years to plan. Now if the Crowleys are still in Vancouver in 2010...

There's something that sits oddly between GM's "employee discount" sales offer and their announcement of major layoffs. I'm not sure if it has something to do with the company making more individuals who can enjoy the discount without having to get a check every week, or the strange feeling that, as someone who can now get this discount, GM may have some control over firing me.

Either way, I can't imagine the proximity of both announcements is something the PR types are thrilled with.

Got to spend the weekend in Chicago helping out at the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament, which was a good mix of quizbowl excitement and seeing friends. Most notable tournament moment was watching the eventual champs put up 885 points in a playoff game. For those of you who don't play, top teams will generally score in the 300 to 400 point range. So 885 is pretty mind-bending, especially in a playoff against another top team.

Quick recap, outside of tournament stuff:

Friday saw me fly ATA to Midway. It was the first time I'd flown ATA since a Florida-bound charter a good decade to 15 years ago. It's a little less sketchy now, and given the code-share agreement I do get a distinct cousin to Southwest vibe.

I'd flown into Midway under the impression that the tournament site was nearby. Turns out it was actually near O'Hare. Thus ends the lesson on actually reading information before making flight plans. I thus got to ride the CTA from one airport to the other. It's a pretty easy ride (one well-marked line change), but a long one (in the 75 to 90 minute range). On the plus side, I got to see a lot of the city (the trip takes you from the south into the Loop and then up to the northwest) and knocked out a goodly chunk of Dark Tide, a very interesting volume on the Boston Molasses Flood.

Mostly did tournament stuff Friday night, but did cap it with a trip to Superdawg, which you should build into your itinerary if you visit Chicago.

Saturday was pretty much all tournament during the day. Night entertainment was taking in the second game of the Calder Cup finals, pitting the Chicago Wolves against the Philadelphia Phantoms. For what is currently the highest level of professional hockey in this country, the game was awful. Philly won in the second OT, but we'd left after the first. My personal game highlight was seeing former BU player Freddy Meyer plying his trade with the Phantoms. He did not have a game to remember, picking up four penalties, including a cheap shot at a Chicago player as they were going off ice and a closing the hand on the puck.

The game was followed by another trip to Superdawg.

Sunday had the playoff portion of the tournament, which I only worked for the first three rounds. I spent a lot of time hanging out, talking a bit, reading, and catching the end of the French Open men's singles. Nadal is primed for stardom, but he has to lose the Capri pants.

Mid-afternoon saw me back to the CTA and back out to Midway. The flight back to Boston was delayed an hour or so due to weather. Once in Boston we were delayed on the taxiway when an idiot decided to get up and use the bathroom just after landing. When repeated requests from the flight crew for people to remain seated with belts fastened didn't register, something happened that hadn't happened to me since the third grade.

The pilot pulled the plane over to the side of the road.

OK, not literally, but the pilot did stop and explain that we were cleared to dock but couldn't if everyone wasn't seated. And as there was a guy in the can, we were going to sit tight until he decided to join the rest of us in the main cabin. That finally did the trick. Idiot.

So while this was my longest trip to Chicago to date, I still have only seen most of the city in passing. I really need to stop making this a "one of these days" sort of thing.

Based on today's news, I'd have to say that Mark Felt will likely be the 2006 Rookie of the Year in a lot of dead pools. Based on his being 91, he may also wind up being MVP.

The news on NBC had a very interesting bit of tape between Nixon and Haldeman where the latter tells Nixon that Felt is the leak, and that John Dean says there's nothing they can do about him (which makes Dean's last-minute attempts to cloud Felt's naming as Deep Throat a bit mysterious). While I don't consider myself an expert on Watergate, I do wonder how widely-known this tape was prior to today. Haldeman presents Felt as the leak in no uncertain terms.

Nixon's biggest concern (well, after the question of putting Felt in irons) seemed to be Felt's religion. He asked Haldeman if Felt was Catholic, and sounded very concerned when Haldeman responded that Felt was Jewish. That Nixon, what a scamp.

In an attempt at balance, NBC did run a clip of an interview with Pat Buchanan, who stated that Deep Throat was a "snake" rather than a hero. I assume he speaks from experience. I'll grant that Felt's motivation wasn't solely altruistic (having been passed over for the FBI top job), but Buchanan just seems even more out of step here, which is saying something given his general lack of rhythm, so to speak.

As you might have noticed, I've made a bit of a reorganization at left, with one notable inclusion: Tube Boob, my new TV-based blog. I kind of missed writing about TV at length, and figured why not create an outlet for it? First entries include a bit of a recap of Hell's Kitchen, the Fox unscripted show featuring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

While the course of subbing at the old high school has gotten progressively less odd, I did have a bit of a deja vu moment getting to do something I'd not done before this year: lunch duty.

The concept is simple: monitor lunch to prevent food fights and other threats to democracy. I had duty for the first and third lunch periods, getting to avoid the dreaded middle school lunch (which I did catch for the last five minutes, at least four minutes more than necessary).

To be honest, I didn't do much. While I wasn't one for aimless roaming, I often wanted to use part of my lunch for other purposes but was not allowed access to the parts of the school needed for such purposes. So when students asked to go somewhere with whatever issue sprung into their heads, I tended to let them go. My apologies to any teachers whose classes were disrupted. On the plus side, a few students said they were going to their locker and actually came back to the cafeteria.

The afternoon announcements, unusually, included a run-down of all the students in detention. A common practice in my day, it doesn't happen usually now (damaging to the student's self-esteem or the like, I imagine). When I was a student, we had one teacher who, if a certain student's name was read off as being in detention, would have his entire class cheer. Given that he was in detention a good three days out of five each week (at least it seemed that way), it was notable when you were in the library and didn't hear a cheer during announcements.

The wife had the judge shows on for a while this afternoon, and while there's always an interesting slice of humanity involved in these programs, the least comprehensible part of the viewing experience was an ad for DirecTV.

For the most part, the ad was straightforward - touting various aspects of its service, hardware, and price. What made it odd was the appearance of this woman who was just... dancing. She had no relationship to the message of the ad (other than dancing in reverse and forward again when they were talking about the joy of using a DVR), she was just there, dancing.

I'm curious what ad genius came up with the pitch, though I'm sure it was fueled by the dancers Jerry Springer used (still uses?) on stage during his show. The DirecTV Dancer wasn't dressed as provocatively, though her level of attractiveness and dancing ability was on par with Springer's Steppers. As you can imagine, neither of those comparisons is a compliment for either woman.

I didn't think there'd be an ad campaign more stupid than that for the Local Phone Company, but there you have it.

So I got to be in a parade and watch a parade today.

OK, I wasn't in a parade as much as a procession. It being the feast of Corpus Christi, we had a procession from our church to the nearby church school as part of its observance. I'd never been to a church that did this, and even here I think this is the first time they've done the procession (or at least the first time in a while). The last time I got to walk down the middle of a street like I did this morning was during our biggest blizzard of the past winter.

Then this afternoon we happened upon Beverly's Memorial Day parade by accident - we were trying to cut across downtown and there was the parade going down the street we needed to cross. We stopped to watch; pretty typical Memorial Day parade, a couple of bands and various groups of veterans. There were some current soldiers, and even a howitzer.

Last night we went and saw Revenge of the Sith, which I'd say is the best of the first three episodes, but not as good as any of the middle three. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, so I've not tried to delve as deeply into the story as over in Craig's blog. What I can say is that the action was pretty good, large chunks of the dialog were crap, and I'm still not sold on the how or why Anakin became Vader.

As for trailers:

Fantastic Four looks like it'll finally make it into a major motion picture of reasonable quality. Michael Chiklis (BU alum) makes a good Thing, and there's nothing wrong with getting to see Jessica Alba for extended periods of time.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe looks promising, though I'm sufficiently removed from reading the Narnia books (or book; I don't know that I ever got past this one) that seeing this in the theater isn't a priority.

Sharkboy and Lava Girl, which I really wish was actually a live-action Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl.

I think that was it. Kind of a paltry collection, considering the usual nine preview buffet that gets thrown at you.

Also perplexing - the local megaplex is now charging $10 a movie. Gee, I can't wonder why the box office is off this year.

So barely a week after presenting all of next year's new shows, there's already a bunch of tinkering with casts. Shannen Doherty is no longer starring in that UPN sitcom version of Miss Match, Rachel Leigh Cook is gone from the Fox show about mental patients, and Laura San Giacamo is no longer in whatever Sex and the City knock-off the WB had going. While I can't imagine anyone bought ad time based on these specific people, there's got to be some people considering whether or not they should stop payment on the check.

On the positive side, Julie Bowen (of Carole Vessey on Ed fame) will be joining the cast of Boston Legal. Not sure if that'll get me to tune in, but if her character starts working out of a bowling alley...

My job search continues at a frustrating pace, though with my somewhat mismatched combination of work and educational background and interest in even a moderate course change career-wise, it's probably not surprising.

Still, there've been a couple of recent incidents that just seem wrong.

Back in March, I had an interview with a local public health consulting firm. Pretty basic job, entry level, but a good place for me to start over. The interview seemed to go pretty well, and it ended with a timeline that I would hear from someone else within a week. That week passed, and then another. I dashed off a quick email to the person I interviewed with to see if the timeline had changed.

To date, I've gotten no response. It's only been within the last week that the job posting was removed from their website. I've half a mind to send a sarcastic follow up email congratulating them on the hire, based on their need for someone being so desperate that they couldn't send a one-line reply to my email saying thanks but no thanks.

But of course I won't. They'll have other openings. Just hopefully interviewing with someone else.

Well before this, going back to the fall, I'd applied for a law school student affairs job at a local university. I got the regulation automated response to my email. Then nothing. That wasn't all that surprising; it's fair to say that at least half of my inquiries get, at best, the simple acknolwedgement email.

What was surprising was the automated email I got a couple weeks ago saying that my candidacy was no longer being furthered. I suppose I should be happy that the system works in such a way to let you know that their search is over, but perhaps if your application is more than six months old and has languished without more than the automatic acknowledgement, it should just be purged. In this case, perhaps better the void than the negative voice from a dimly-remembered past.

The danger of web polls: with AC Milan leading the UEFA Cup final 3-0 over Liverpool as the second half started, ESPN puts up a question asking if Liverpool can come back.

Five minutes and three goals later, the poll is moot. But I'd love to see how many people voted "no" before this huge momentum shift.

So to make matters worse with the American Idol finale, the two original songs, one of which will be the first single by whoever wins? Complete ass. I mean, makes "A Moment Like This" seem the paragon of the songwriting art ass. Ass enough to give posteriors everywhere a bad name.

Thankfully, the trend seems to be that the singles sell a lot but don't get wide airplay. Keep your fingers crossed.

I'd been meaning to wrap up all of last week's TV posts, but I'll point you over to the TV Barn instead for Aaron Barnhart's wrap up. Most notable bit there is that My Name is Earl, which I'd mocked for its casting and premise, appears to be well-liked based on clips shown at the upfront presentation. That's why it's good to read stuff from people who were actually there. In addition to my own posts, of course.

The last week or so of finales has been OK, though I've been pretty let down by the results on the various unscripted shows I watch (note that I'm using 'unscripted' instead of 'reality' from here on out given the negligible amounts of reality involved in unscripted programming). America's Next Top Model was fairly predictable, as Naima, who had won every single Cover Girl-sponsored fan vote, also won the Next Top Model title. Given the heavy involvement Cover Girl has with the show (big contract plus heavy advertising presence), Naima's win seems pretty calculated, although she was someone seen as a front-runner at the start.

American Idol wraps tonight, thankfully, as it's not that much fun watching an entire season of foregone conclusion. Carrie, the countrified Oklahoman, was being touted as the eventual winner by Simon back in semifinals. Bo, the rocker, also enjoyed front-runner treatment, especially when Constantine was outed as a poser rather than a rocker. The final at least seems like more of a contest than last year, though they could have held the final in March.

The worst, though, was The Apprentice finale, which was both anti-climactic and a mess from a production standpoint. Which is why I'll go the Dinan route and offer:

MAKING IT BETTER: The Apprentice finale.

1. We do not need 15 to 20 commercial-free minutes to recap the entire season at the start of the finale, especially when the finale is only an hour long (which it should remain). Five minutes giving an overview of how each contestant got to the final, and a recap of the final tasks, should be fine.

2. Interview the firees who help the finalists in a private boardroom, not as part of the finale. I think the producers were hoping for more recriminations, but the time lag allowed Tana to mend fences with her team, resulting in little dissention (and what there was was colored by the fact that the person who uttered them, Chris, is now working with Kendra on outside business projects). The teams will give more honest feedback fresh from the occasion.

3. The bit where the boardroom walls slide back to reveal that they're actually in an auditorium for the finale? That was cool. Bring it back.

4. Either end the show with the hiring or give some time to let the new apprentice introduce family and friends. Kendra got to hug some strangers who I assume were family and/or friends, but we never got to find out.

5. No more Omarosa. Granted, she was only the focus of a crowd shot rather than having input, but her relevance to the show drops dramatically with each new season. Let her crawl back under whatever rock she calls home.

And finally, U!P!N!

THE NEW

UPN created a new Thursday night of comedies, and seems very proud of being the only network with a full two hour block of sitcoms on that night. It'll lead off with Everybody Hates Chris, a show inspired by Chris Rock's childhood (Rock will also narrate). While it sounds like most other sitcoms - main character tries to deal with fitting in at school and issues at home - I'd like to think that Rock will be able to do something with it.

Love, Inc. is at the other end of the comedy block. Shannen Doherty and Holly Robinson Peete star as dating consultants who help men and women put their best foot forward when trying to land a significant other. Of course, Doherty's candidate can't find a man for her own self.

The only new drama for the fall is Sex, Lies & Secrets (I suppose videotape is passe in the age of DVD). It sounds like The O.C. for an older crowd, as it follows the relationships between a group of Hollywood-area friends who, as TV dictates, often find that the best way to preserve friendships is to keep things from each other. Denise Richards stars, though sadly not opposite former hubby Charlie Sheen.

Midseason will offer us the J.Lo. produced South Beach, which has two guys moving to Miami, one who follows his ex-girlfriend into the glitz, the other enticed more to the underbelly. Really, I couldn't care less.

THE OLD

Kevin Hill is the most notable new cut, while Veronica Mars gets its old slot after America's Next Top Model. UPN seems pretty reliant on its fashion-focused unscripted show, as a rerun of the previous week's show will air on Tuesday. WWE Smackdown! ships out to Friday, in preparation of it moving to USA for 2006 and beyond.

Suffice it to say I only watch one show on UPN, and that'll likely continue.

Fox announced its lineup for 2005-06 this morning, and nearly gave me a stroke when I couldn't find 24 among the listings. Turns out the rundown I was reading had fall '05 and January '06 schedules, where Keifer and company reside.

THE NEW

Prison Break has already started airing promos. The show revolves around a guy who gets himself thrown into prison to bust out his brother, who's on death row. It's in 24's time slot for the fall, which may make Monday at 9 eastern the most violent time slot in television next season.

Bones is about forensic anthropoligist and author Dr. Temperance Brennan, whose skill is, you guessed it, looking at bones to figure out what happened to their former owner. It's billed as a "darkly amusing drama" and is apparently based on a real-life forensic anthropologist and author. The always-brooding David Boreanaz is cast as a special agent who finds himself working with the good doctor when the need arises, even though he's skeptical of science and scientists when it comes to solving crimes. Because, really, where did DNA testing get us?

This airs before House, which seems like a pretty good fit.

Head Cases is about a pair of lawyers who are both recovering from mental problems, played by Chris O'Donnell and Adam Goldberg. They create their own offbeat, slightly disturbed practice while O'Donnell's character tries to reconnect with his son and maintain a connection with a woman (played by Rachel Leigh Cook) he met at the "wellness center" he stayed at post-breakdown.

Lots of star power, which it'll need for its Wednesday at 9 eastern slot.

Reunion follows six people from their high school graduation to their 20th reunion. Each episode covers one year of their lives, but there is reference back to the current day, when the death of one of the friends is being investigated.

There's not that much star power here, which is a real problem with its Thursday at 9 eastern slot. I fear that, unless the death actually occurred in 1992, we may never learn what happened.

The Gate - which is still listed as a working title, concerningly - follows officers of the San Francisco Police Department's Deviant Crime Unit. The duo at the center are a cop who went AWOL for a year after the death of his partner and his new, by the book partner who may have a vested interest in making his return a failure.

The show reads kind of like it was made in the TV drama chem lab - a pinch of The X-Files, dashes of the various Law & Orders, etc. It's buried on Friday.

There are two new sitcoms. One, The War at Home, gets the Sunday slot between The Simpsons and Family Guy. Though I don't know why - it reads like a cross between Malcolm in the Middle (now airing Fridays after The Bernie Mac Show) and Grounded For Life.

The other new comedy is Kitchen Confidential, based on the great book by Tony Bourdain. My main concern here is that the show will in no way live up to the book, whose exploits, while often comical, can be a little too edgy for network TV.

Nicholas Brendon becomes the second Buffy alum to wind up on Fox, playing one of the chefs that Jack Bourdain hires when he's given a shot at turning around a top NYC restaurant - in 48 hours.

I'll probably watch, and will likely be slightly disappointed.

Midseason offers little - The Loop is about a guy who is the first of his circle of friends to land a serious job, but who also wants to keep up with their serious social lives. Free Birds is kind of a burnout variant of Ed, where a guy returns home after spending his college years partying. He may wind up with the hot girl from high schoo, or he may continue to drink his life away with a former high school BMOC.

THE OLD

A lot of surprises among sitcoms, as both Arrested Development and The Bernie Mac Show got picked up. The former is Kitchen Confidential's lead in on Mondays until House takes their spot in January to accomodate American Idol's normal Tuesday slot. The latter leads in to Malcolm on Friday.

Stacked got picked up as well, a rare mid-season success. There was no listing for The Simple Life, perhaps the only meaningful result to the Paris Holton - Nicole Richie feud. There's talk Paris will be back with Kimberly Stewart (who appears to be even more blonde and vacuous than Hilton), though if we all think happy thoughts, we might be spared.

Both Trading Spouses and Nanny 911 aren't scheduled, either, but are likely to return as holes need plugging.

CBS presented its fall lineup today. To wit:

THE NEW

Threshold joins Fathom and Invasion in that oddly popular genre of aquatic-based paranormal drama. I was only partially kidding yesterday when I said that the first two shows were actually shot at the same time. Now, considering the economy of scale, I firmly believe that all three shows are being made in some sort of joint project involving NOAA, SETI@Home, and various branches of the US military. The one difference is that I've heard of a number of the actors involved in this project: Charles S. Dutton, Brent Spiner, and Carla Gugino.

Data or no Data, I'm still not going to watch this show about the discovery of a UFO landing in the Atlantic Ocean. Even if CBS had the good sense to use a body of water that actually exists.

Ghost Whisperer has nothing to do with Nicholas Sparks novels, thankfully. It does star Jennifer Love Hewitt, though, so we don't get off that easily. She apparently can hear the pleas of the dead, asking for help or things she cant' quite figure out. Kind of a Tru of Arcadia, but without the God or the need to make up actors as cadavers.

Both of these shows air on Friday before Numb3rs, which should be cold comfort indeed for Rob Morrow.

Close to Home is a prosecutorial drama set in the 'burbs, kind of a Law & Order: Desperate Housewives. Jerry Bruckheimer ends his run of vaugely sexual-sounding titles with this one. The prosecutor is a new mom who takes on the toughest cases, "fueled by her passion to protect her community and her family." In other words, a soccer mom with the keys to the electric chair. Yikes.

Criminal Minds is yet another show about criminal profilers, but the involvement of Mandy Patankin leaves hope that at least some of the serial killers they'll hunt have a love for over-the-top Broadway numbers. Thomas Gibson co-stars, as the first part of CBS's plan to bring back Dharma and Greg without actually bringing the show back comes to pass.

Oh yeah, this gets to air opposite Lost and E-Ring. Good luck!

The first of the two new sitcoms is How I Met Your Mother, which is set in flashback as man tells how he met his spouse. Good: Allyson Hannigan is involved. OK: Bob Saget only does the voice-overs. Egad: Neil Patrick Harris plays the wacky friend of the main character, kind of a grown Eddie Haskell for the 21st century.

It gets the gift of the time slot between The King of Queens and Two and a Half Men, so we'll at least get one full season of the show.

Out of Practice is an ensemble piece about a family of doctors. PAULA MARSHALL ALERT!!! She's in a cast that includes Stockard Channing and Henry Winkler, both of whom have their most recent experience playing medical types (First Lady Dr. Abagail Bartlet and the dentist who had the bug-crusing fetish on The Practice).

(Correction: Winkler has more recently been seen as the Bluth family attorney on Arrested Development and as a hotshot pathologist on Crossing Jordan. Kudos to Craig for the catch.)

It airs in-between Two and a Half Men and CSI: Miami, so we'll see how strong Marshall's show-crushing power really is with this one.

Mid-season brings two shows, most notably Everything I Know About Men starring Jenna Elfman. She plays a secretary trying to sort out men, completely unlike that woman Heather Graham is playing over on ABC. I'd love to see these two get scheduled against each other, for chaos purposes. In addition, it's apparently based on an awful British sitcom. Did they run out of good ones to filch?

(Oh, and to feed into my David Mamet comment yesterday, he's involved in the other mid-season replacement, the special ops drama The Unit.)

THE OLD

Among the shows getting the boot are Joan of Arcadia (quite a crash and burn there), Judging Amy, and Listen Up! (too bad PTI is pre-empted today). Some movement among returning sitcoms in the wake of Everybody Loves Raymond, but nothing major.

I hope the presentation lived up to standards (Les Moonves apparently puts on quite a show), because on paper these all sound pretty unremarkable.

Today's other upfront: ABC

THE NEW

Commander-in-Chief stars Geena Davis as the first female President of the US, who assumes the office from the Vice Presidency after the elected President dies of some illness (but not before asking her to step down so someone "more appropriate" can take her place).

Cast includes Donald Sutherland and Kyle Secor (among others), and may just be interesting enough for me to watch. Until they make that first "joke" about nuclear weapons and POTUS's Aunt Flo, at which point I will stop watching and not return.

The first contender for becoming the Tony Danza of his generation is Freddie Prinze, Jr., thanks to his sitcom Freddie. He plays the title character (though wouldn't it be great if he didn't?), a chef who take in various generations of female relatives when his brother-in-law dies. Send it back!

Those sea creatures from Fathom may be involved in Invasion, a drama about a Florida park ranger whose daughter sees lights on the ocean during a hurricane. When his ex-wife turns up naked and without memories of where she was during the storm, his curiosity picks up. Turns out rather than riding the storm out on a bender, she may have been on the front lines of a battle for humanity.

Like Fathom, I've never heard of anyone starring in this show (though William Fichtner, who plays the local sherrif, looks familiar). Are we sure this and Fathom aren't the same show with slightly different edits? Would anyone notice?

David Cassidy continues his interest in freakiness with this show, while Thomas Schlamme may be suffering from some sort of post-The West Wing trauma.

The Night Stalker is a reprise of the 1970s show about a reporter named Carl Kolchak who investigates the supernatural to help solve his wife's killing. The original is supposed to be great, a kind of proto-The X Files, though I've never seen it. Given ABC's treatment of this kind of show, expect L.A. Night Stalker to anchor Saturday nights for three weeks in September 2006.

Unless its Thursday at 9 time slot proves deadly (giving CSI the chance to investigate a death it caused).

ABC blew up it's TGIF line-up - again - moving Supernanny to the first hour, keeping Hope and Faith and putting in new show Hot Properties, aka Sex and the Listings. It's a sitcom about four Manhattan-based women who work in a non-cutthroat real estate office. I am praying for David Mamet to take over the show for a sweeps period. Gail O'Grady and Nicole Sullivan star.

Two new show will debut when Monday Night Football makes its swan song: Emily's Reasons Why Not, aka Heather Graham's Diary, and What About Brian, a drama about a guy who is the last single man standing among his married friends. Rather than Jonathan Silverman, we get 7th Heaven's Barry Watson as Brian.

There are several listed mid-season replacements, most notable The Miracle Workers, aka Extreme Makeover: Terminal Edition. Every week, doctors use cutting edge medicine to save a patient with some sort of serious condition. Over/under on the number of episodes next season dealing with conjoined twins: three.

THE OLD

Hard to tell what was more surprising: the dumping of Eight Simple Rules and My Wife and Kids or the pick-up of Jake In Progress. Stamos must have some dirt.

It's easier to note what shows didn't move on the ABC schedule: current Sunday nights stay the same, and Lost stays in its Wednesday slot. Otherwise, check local listings.

The Bachelor will return in January - why? - and Less Than Perfect is slated for mid-season as well.

Outside of President Davis, none of the new stuff is really appealing. And it's a good thing I mostly watch ABC on Sunday; I won't have to go hunting for shows.

Today's first upfront: The WB.

THE NEW

Just Legal sounds a little too much like Barely Legal for my taste; I'm assuming it's Jerry Bruckheimer, as he's involved with both this show and with E-Ring. A better title would be Doogie Howser, JD, as this show is about a kid who graduates from law school at 18, and finds the only job offer comes from an ambulance chaser played by Don Johnson.

Woo hoo.

Supernatural is a cross between The X-Files and Route 66, as two brothers cross the country in their '69 Impala trying to do what their father can't: silence the supernatural forces that led to the death of their mother 20 years previously.

The show stars two "breakout" stars, one each from Gilmore Girls and Smallville, though I have no idea who they are. Hey, I'm a 35 year old male. I've not been in The WB's target demo for years, if ever.

This could work, and probably won't be hurt by airing after Gilmore Girls.

Related explores relationships through the lives of four sisters living in NYC(kind of a familial Sex and the City, no surprise as the WB show's creator also worked on this). I can't imagine this being better than the TBS re-runs of Sex and the City, but I suppose they'll do the best they can.

Most notable star is Laura San Giacomo, formerly of Just Shoot Me.

All of The WB's sitcoms are on the weekend now, and the lone new one is Twins. Beauty versus brains is the theme here, as a pair of twins (one book-smart, the other a lingerie model) take over the family undergarment business from their parents, who also embody the conflict (parents played by Melanie Griffith and Mark Linn-Baker; I'll let you decide which person embodies what quality).

Sara Gilbert plays the brainy twin; now if we can only get the kid who played DJ Conner a gig.

There are a bunch of mid-season possibilities, of which I'll only mention Misconceptions, a sitcom about a single mother (Jane Leeves) who finds out that her daughter wasn't the product of the Ivy League Sperm Bank, but some slacker who got his boys into cryo somehow. Will Ming Na get sued for malpractice?

THE OLD

Pretty much all the hour long shows are back, expect for Jack and Bobby. Living with Fran got picked up, for those of you still coasting on memories of The Nanny. Everwood gets moved to Thursday at 9 (eastern), putting it up against CSI, The Apprentice, and The OC. Ouch.

While the new stuff doesn't sound awful, I stopped watching The WB when Buffy moved to UPN, and I don't see myself going back.

As Dinan mentioned a few days ago, this week brings us the network TV upfront presentations, where the new fall lineups are trotted out in the hopes that advertisers will buy up as much air time "up front" as possible. Given their announced schedule for next season, NBC better hope the open bar works in their favor, at least where the new shows are concerned.

THE NEW

Fathom posits what it would be like if a new oceanic life-form was discovered by a bunch of people played by actors you've never heard of. Seriously, this could be the fake show on Joey. I'm also worried that the promo blurb on the NBC website mentions something called the "South Antarctic Sea," which I'm pretty sure doesn't exist.

My Name is Earl is a sitcom about a low-level hood who wins the lottery and tries to go straight. The blurb promises a show with "a voice and style all its own," which is about the best thing you can say about the combination of Jason Lee and Jamie Pressley.

The Apprentice: Martha Stewart shouldn't be a surprise, but what was surprising to me is that this will run along with the Trump version (but the day before and an hour earlier). I'd have much rather given The Donald a half-season off. That would be a good thing.

E-Ring sounds like it should be about a sex toy, but it's actually about intrigue within the Pentagon. It stars Benjamin Bratt and, in what may be the strangest casting ever, Dennis Hopper as military types trying to keep the military-industrial complex from crashing and burning. I suppose this is NBC's attempt to atone for/get the fans of JAG back on board.

Speaking of sex toys, Inconcievable is a drama set at a fertility clinic. The blurb suggests that the drama will be more personal than natal, which to my mind makes it sound like a fairly typical medical drama, but without the gore. Ming Na furthers her reach into the sub-specialty of medical acting by starring alongside unknown people deemed insufficiently awed by the majesty of the ocean to be in Fathom.

Finally, NBC jumps on the personal makeover bandwagon with Three Wishes, hosted by Amy Grant. She and her team go to small town America and change the lives for people who need help, blah blah blah.

Mid-season will bring two sitcoms: Thick and Thin about a newly thin and single woman, and Four Kings about four young people on the cusp of adulthood, aka Friends: The Next Generation. Seth Green stars in the latter, which may or may not help.

THE OLD

Most notable change here is that The West Wing gets moved to Sunday at 8 pm, making all sorts of ripe cross-marketing potential with the installment of Dateline that'll air before it. E-Ring gets its old slot.

Most notable omission from the schedule is Scrubs. From what I've read elsewhere, it and Fear Factor will return mid-season to plug holes.

While theoretically new, NBC is returning to an old practice of showing movies on Saturday, though they also mention airing reurns of current shows to give them more exposure. Good luck with that.

Canada will be facing the Czech Republic in the finals of the world hockey championships. Not that you'd know this if you lived in the US. Seems that no one here is airing the tournament, even though (according to Sports Illustrated) the broadcast rights were offered to American networks for free.

I know we're all on the outs with hockey because of the NHL lockout and all, but c'mon. Would we rather have the 2983rd airing of the 2003 World Series of Poker

(OK, based on ratings, "we" probably would.)

Still, this irritates me. Time to dash off some emails (Dear Sir: I am not a crackpot...)

I was a little surprised to learn yesterday that one of the churches we used to go to in Wellesley, St. James the Great, has had a vigil going 24/7 since last Halloween. Given how often we went only to see the place a quarter full, I don't think I'd ever have suspected that they could pull this off.

What brought this to my attention was a lawsuit brought against the archdiocese of Boston by the wife of the man who sold the land that St. James sits on to the archdiocese. The interesting wrinkle in this lawsuit is the claim that the sale was conditional on the property being used as a church. The plaintiff wants either a church open or her land back.

I can't imagine the archdiocese is too thrilled about this - they bought the property in 1948 for $12,000 and it now has an estimated value of $10 million. Given that there were a few closings where the likely value of the property seemed to play a little more heavily in the decision-making, this could be a case of the archdiocese getting caught with it's hand in the wafer jar.

In a completely unrelated bit of news, it looks like neighboring Salem is getting a statue of Samantha Stevens, the witch played by Elizabeth Montgomery on Bewitched. TV Land is apparently behind this, seeing it as a natural link between honoring the show and Salem's witch-filled history.

Personally I think it's one of those reasonably harmless but stupid things, given that the show had nothing to do with Salem. It'd be like putting a statue of Marcus Welby at the entrance to Mass General because doctors work there.

While griping about the amount of pre-Super Bowl coverage is almost as cliched as "only watching the game for the commercials," I think I've found a new champion in pointless pre-event coverage: the Kentucky Derby.

Thanks to the combined efforts of ESPN and NBC, you could have watched a minimum of eight hours of pre-race programming for an event that takes roughly two minutes. ESPN did pretty much the entire day from Churchill Downs, only stopping when NBC started.

Twenty horses ran the race this year, which means that each horse could have gotten 24 minutes of pre-race coverage. Which only makes it more entertaining that the horse that did win, second-biggest-ever upset-winner Giacomo, got about 12 seconds of pre-race coverage.

I'm also a little irritated that they've pushed post time to after 6 pm. After all the pointless pre-race filler, the extra time for pointless post-race filler is just piling on.

Which of these car names is worse: the Ford Aspire or the Suzuki Esteem?

I've generally been of the notion that the Aspire was the worst car name in recent history, as it suggests that the owner should aspire to a better ride. But the Suzuki entry goes even farther, suggesting that owning the tiny car with this name is some sort of path to personal betterment. When, in truth, the opposite is likely true.

In an unrelated note, much has been made of the crazy eyes of "Runaway Bride" Jennifer Wilbanks, but I'd also like to direct some attention to her carbon copy smile. It's not unusual for someone to put on a smile for a photo, but she has the same exact smile in every picture. That she seemed incapable of generating honest happiness when posing for snaps with her beau should have been a warning sign.

Then again, he's still ready to make with the matrimony, so he may need larger, more neon-laden signs than the average guy.

I wasn't surprised by much of W's speech yesterday on energy "policy," outside of one thing - the call for more nuclear energy. What I'd have liked to hear were the answers to four questions:

1. How will nuclear energy be cost-effective: given the great cost of building these things, and even if the feds foot the bill for "risk insurance," won't consumers just get stuck with more expensive electricity?

2. How will anyone be convinced to put on of these things in their neck of the woods?

3. Who's going to hold on to the waste the plant generates for the however many thousand years it'll take to decay?

4. Will the NRC actually regulate, or are they just going to play ball with the industry? Again.

It'd have been nice to hear W push other solutions, such as this one by Climate Energy. Actually, it also would have been nice to hear any suggestion that we could use greater efficiency to save oil. God forbid.

Of course, all of this got pushed to the side of my brain when news came across that Tom Cruise is dating Katie Holmes. Wha?

For the third weekend in a row we got to travel out of state, though this past weekend's trip was merely a jaunt into New Hampshire to my youngest nephew's first communion service. It was not particularly impressive. I got the sense that there wasn't a whole lot of planning involved, or perhaps I should say a lot of useful planning. Still, my nephew came through about as well as can be expected of anything that leads you to wear a white suit.

Got to watch bits of the NFL draft afterwards, which wasn't much to talk about other than watching Aaron Rodgers free-fall his way through the first round (though landing in Green Bay isn't so bad). The Pats' draft was even less noteworthy, though they did get to pick Mr. Irrelevant, William Penn TE Andy Stokes. The Pats got pretty good mileage out of their last Mr. Irrelevant, Marty Moore, which hopefully gives the new guy some hope.

Not much else of consequence to mention from the weekend. Got to spend way too much time at the mall yesterday, which prefaced an irritating pair of visits to Cingulair stores where we learned that we'd have to pay a migration fee and upgrade both our phones just to replace the wife's phone, which took an inadvertant bath last month. That being said, if anyone has an old Motorola V60 lying around, or knows someone who is looking to part with one for cheap, let me know. We're combing eBay as well.

Oh, of passing interest to the trivia nerds among us: we wound up playing NTN on Friday and Saturday, and I managed to land in the top 10 for a couple of games of Countdown (4th and 8th, respectively). These were interrupted by a long foray into NTN's NASCAR game, where we got to make a bunch of predictions on yesterday's race, none of which I remember or actually care about. In any event, it'd been some time since I'd done that well, so perhaps I'll have to goad the wife into playing more often (though, oddly, we played both nights at her behest).

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

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

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

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

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