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.

Well, that was quick.

I'll admit to some surprise that Ratzinger was chosen as Pope. I didn't think we'd have a non-European, but I was expecting someone less obvious. You hear about how people go into the conclave as Pope and go out a cardinal, and it makes the most obvious choice seem less so.

It's been interesting listening to the analysis about his election, especially as they try to peg where Ratzinger is going to fall in terms of orthodoxy. Most everyone says he'll be in line with John Paul II, though there's been some talk about him as a moderate, especially in his choice of Benedict as a name, given the moderate role of some of the more recent Benedicts. The name also suggests the understanding of a shorter papcy, as Benedict XV served for under a decade.

Speaking of the name, I am kicking myself a bit with regards to the Tournament of Popery, as I made a last-minute change from Benedict to Leo. Not sure why I did this; in retrospect Benedict is the perfect name for someone serving as Pope at this juncture.

This did leave the door open for Chris Rosenberg, who wins the Tournament of Popery with a score of 20 points based on his selection of the election happening tomorrow. Craig Barker and I tie for second with 15 points (we both had Thursday). Our last two entrants - Anthony De Jesus and ML Kingston - scored no points, as they both went for a longer conclave. Chris will pad his win by 5 or 10 points depending on whether or not it was the fourth or fifth ballot.

As you might have picked up from the discussion above, none of us got the cardinal or name correct.

Funnily enough, I learned about the election today not through the usual 21st century means, but from the bells of my church. Go figure.

Probably won't get much of a chance to post this weekend, so I just wanted to remind folks that there is still time to enter my Tournament of Popery. Instructions are in the April 12 post.

(Quick note on an irritation with Blogger: the link for each post doesn't take you to the post, but to the comments for the post. What's the point of that?)

The savior of otherwise postless days: television recaps.

Reality bites: On American Idol we're in an interesting situation where there's no real stand-outs. The annual competition between talent and image is a push at best. Even more confusing is the run of Scott Savol, who combines a pretty good voice with (what appears to the layperson) as a borderline sociopathic aspect. The sex appeal of Constantine Maroulis - he of the greasy shoulder-length hair and Chiclet-style yellowish teeth - is also hard to get a grip on, other than noting that he looks more dangerous than he actually is.

Over on America's Next Top Model Tyra Banks took a full-on nutty on a contestant last night, the capper to a double elimination. The judges hope this'll get the remaining contestant going, but it may just shake them more. The contestants have also shown an amazing lack of fashion knowledge (not knowing what haute couture is and being unable to pronounce designer names) and general knowledge (similar problems pronouncing 'magenta' and 'chartreuse.'). It's ugly.

Missed The Apprentice last week, though I've gotten the gist of things elsewhere. Big news is of course the arrest of hot-head Chris, which will only be a concern if he makes the finals. I don't see that happening. No real stand-outs here, either. Many more people who seem to be coasting, which will prove interesting now that the small teams should prevent such things.

Missing last week also apparently allowed me to miss an ugly product placement for Domino's new cheeseburger pizza. So much the better.

A modicum of praise be for Revelations, the short-run NBC series about the looming end of the world. The pilot was a little confusing, as it took some time to develop the background. Atmospherically it was all sorts of dramatic, although not so stupidly heavy-handed as Point Pleasant.

Anyway, Bill Pullman (a UMass grad according to a new ad running here; who knew?) plays a Harvard prof whose daughter was killed by a Satanist. He goes to Chile, captures the Satanist, and is now engaging in some sort of Starling-and-Lechter dialog with him (I'm calling pre-emptive shenanigans if they run off together to sacrifice more kids).

Meanwhile, Natasha McElhone plays a British nun with an Italian name who is investigating religious phenomena trying to prove that the end of days is nigh. She, of course, crosses paths with Pullman's character, which has the usual rational scepticism versus higher power face-off. The something happens to rattle the prof's beliefs, and we're off.

There's also a baby who was the only survivor of a ferry sinking. The baby may be the second coming. Or he's been sent to lead us astray. We'll be finding out later.

Smartly, this is only a six-episode run. So if it tanks, NBC can cut and run. If it doesn't, we can expect more eschatalogical wackiness next season. Either way, Aaron Barnhart pretty much nails the show in his review.

And finally I've been enjoying the USification of The Office, possibly because I've not seen the original yet. Tuesdays at 9:30 on your local NBC station.

Thing #7 6 That I've Done That You Likely Haven't

Organize a prediction game for an upcoming Papal election.

To play, you just need to email me with your responses to the following four questions:

1. Who will be elected Pope? While it's possible that the new Pope will come from outside this group, it's most likely that he'll be selected from the voting membership of the College of Cardinals. For those of you looking for more guidance, you could peruse this list of favorites. Or this one. There's also this article that details some dark horse candidates.

2. What day will the new Pope be elected? Note that the conclave will start on Monday, April 18.

3. On what ballot will the new Pope be elected? If what I've read is correct, there will be one vote on the first day of the conclave, with four votes per day after that.

4. What name will the new Pope take? For a look at the past 264 names, check this list here.

Scoring: each question is worth 25 points. For questions 2 and 3, you will lose 5 points for each day or ballot off you are. For example, if you said the new Pope would get elected on the 100th ballot, and he actually got elected on the 98th ballot, you'd get 15 points.

For question four, you'll get 10 points if you get the name or the number, but not both. You'll also get mocked if you pick the name but have the wrong number; I did post a link to that list, after all.

Entries are due by 11:59 pm on Sunday, April 17. No money, of course; this is already borderline on speeding my way on the Hell Express.

First, to tie up loose ends, congrat to Brian Hight for winning this year's Frozen Four pool. He correctly tabbed Denver University (or is it the University of Denver - none of the announcers seem to agree, even with themselves, on the name of the place) as the latest repeat champ. You final tally:

Hight - 50 points
Bruce - 42
Boggie - 30
Coen, Harper-Nixon - 26
Sorenson - 20
Barker - 16

Moving on to today's festivities, I got to hear when both the radio and TV guys got their rings at today's Red Sox opener. The TV guys took it pretty well, while Troop and Joe were in various states of awe, glee, and speechlessness. I suppose it's hard to call a game with that much bling on. It was actually pretty funny to listen to, as I think in that moment what those guys were covering on the radio became much more real, if that makes any sense. That and, for the homers they are, getting rings must have put things into overdrive.

It didn't hurt that the Sox won, either.

Watching news coverage tonight we saw a woman that the wife used to work with. It was hard to tell at first as she was wearing a hat and had sunglasses on, but it was cool to see her being interviewed about Opening Day.

Not much else to report on currently. I'm beginning to peel after getting burnt on Friday during a riverboat cruise, but it's pretty minor.

Greetings from New Orleans, where I'm helping out with the NAQT ICT. We got down here a little early to sightsee, fuller recap to follow. Suffice it to say that if you've not been here you should visit.

Keeping up with the meme:

Thing #5 That I've Done That You Probably Haven't

Read a baseball book a week from spring training through the end of the regular season.

This was, I think 1996. I'd fallen out with baseball before the 1994 strike, which caused me to fall out even more. Cal Ripken's streak brought me back a bit, and I decided to give it a chance by reading up on things. It worked; I now enjoy baseball quite a bit. Not as much as football. Or hockey, I suppose. Still, it's back in my good graces, which I'm sure is a load off of Bud Selig's mind.

Thing #4 That I've Done That You Likely Have Not

Blogged about my honeymoon while still on my honeymoon.

I doubt that I'm alone on this one generally, but as far as people I know go most of my friends who are married wed in pre-blog times.

Had we not been trying to follow the ALCS I don't know if I'd have blogged. Then again, public internet locations in Killarney are cheap and plentiful. So perhaps I would have just blogged less.

Thing #3 That I've Done That You Probably Haven't

Sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" duing a blackout at Fenway Park.

OK, there is one person who reads this semi-regularly who did this (hi Paul!).

I think I've mentioned this, but if not here's the skinny: it was a 1991 game against the White Sox, transformer blew in Kenmore Square. While we were waiting for the lights to come back on, Sox PA guy Sherm Feller leads us in song. Or sings the first verse with us, leaving the rest of us to finish while he gets another Scotch.

The Sox would lose in extra innings, but it was a great game all 'round.

I wrote a post about John Paul II, but it wound up getting eaten. Which probably isn't a bad thing, as I don't think it was very good. Suffice it to say I'm pretty conflicted, as for every positive you can point at something that doesn't sit so well.

So I'm not even going to bother to recreate the post. Were I a better Catholic (or a better person, for that matter), I'd make some commitment to being more involved in my faith. Knowing who I am, though, I'll just continue to feed that typical (or stereotypical) divide American Catholics have of appreciating the Pope while not caring as much for all of those faith and morals issues where he says things that clash with our secular American values.

So after all that typing, I'm vaguely dissatisfied with the results. That's probably a metaphor for something.

Thing #2 That I've Done That You Likely Have Not

Waited bascially a lifetime between taking the driver's test to get a driver's license.

Took it the first time when I was 17, and the second time when I was 34. I won't rehash the details here; interested parties can check the archives for the summer and early fall of 2004 for more.

I will say that I have found, in the six months or so that I've been driving, that I do enjoy it. I still don't understand the impulse that leads people to drive to work if they have a useful public transit option. Though the vagaries of the T (especially the Green Line) can lead to very similar irritation as rush hour traffic.

I've not had much to post about the last few days. Life's been pretty uneventful and we don't have any more college hockey until next week. In order to fill the gaps until something more interesting comes along, I'm going to pick up the "10 things I've done that you probably haven't" meme, but post them one at a time. Which will fill that longing for a week and a half of annotated personal navel-gazing that many of you have.

Thing #1 That I've Done That You Probably Haven't

Lost a playoff round at a debate tournament to an opponent who arrived at that tournament prepared for the wrong topic.

The year was 1987, the location Lexington (MA) High School. It being the bicentennial year for the Constitution, the LD debate topics for the year were all going to be Constitutionally-themed. Unlike policy debate, where there was one topic for the year, LD topics changed on some regular basis (monthly or bimonthly, though a handful of tournaments had one-off topics).

In any event, some wires got crossed somewhere and the folks from the Bronx High School of Science show up thinking that the topic being used was something other than it actually was. Bronx Science is a pretty good team, but I figure that this is going to hamstring them.

But I wind up getting paired against one of their folks in the quarterfinals. Clearly, they were better debaters than I gave them credit for. And, naturally, I lose a 3-2 decision. I don't remember much about the round, though I do have a memory of getting stumped on a cross-examination question that I'd answered with relative ease in other rounds.

In a way this round more or less summed up my performance as a debater. I averaged about one piece of hardware a year, generally at that level. My best performance, at least based by nomenclature, was a semifinal berth at the very first debate tournament I ever participated in. My partner and I (in novice policy debate) had to forfeit based on team policy, as our semifinal round was against another team from my school with a better record.

The closest I ever came to a national tournament was via student congress, where participants get to vote for other participants. Being the only person from my school who competed in student congress didn't help.

So there's more than you ever wanted to know about my debate career.

Two rounds done, and we've got our all-WCHA Frozen Four. Pool standings, with number of teams left and national champion pick in parentheses:

Coen - 26 points (3/Colorado College)
Hight - 26 (3/Denver)
Boggie - 22 (3/Minnesota)
Sorenson - 20 (2/CC)
Bruce - 18 (2/Denver)
Harper-Nixon - 18 (2/BU)
Barker - 16 (1/Michigan)

A couple of people have noted how this pool is the ying to their March Madness bracket yang. Not sure it's reached that level for me yet, though Kentucky's impending loss isn't going to help me in Barker's pool (it was the one thing that differentiated me from the other folks who have Illinois going all the way). In the Bruce's weighted competition it appears that my fortunes are tied with Louisville's.

For something completely different, Easter was pretty uneventful. The in-laws were down for the weekend, and we had an early dinner at restaurant that's part of a local yacht club (we'd briefly looked at the place for our wedding reception, but they wanted way too much for a room rooted in the 1970s). Church was a zoo, of course, as the C&E folks packed it to standing room only. The priest made a pretty funny reference to the need to show up more often, using the phrase "same Bat-time, same Bat-channel." We'll see how it goes.

After the first round of the Frozen Four:

Coen, Hight - 14 points
Sorenson, Barker - 12 points
Boggie, Bruce, Harper-Nixon - 10 points

Upset points work a whole lot better when there are, you know, upsets. The only one that's happened - North Dakota over BC - was picked by no one. Not surprising given the people involved, various upsets involving BU were picked but obviously came for naught. Harvard and Maine got their share of upset picks, with similar results.

Without giving too much away about the second round so far, yesterday did bust someone's bracket pretty seriously. So much for a repeat of the 1998 final.

In related news, I got an email back from Comcast regarding my question on ESPNU. My inquiry was passed along to the marketing department, and did I know that there is a sports package that I could buy? Not that any of those channels would have helped me yesterday, either. I'm not sure that sort of answer is one they wanted to append a link to a customer service survey to, but I was happy to comment on the "helpfulness" of their canned response. I don't expect a reply.

Good early games on the road to the Frozen Four today. Maine took Minnesota to OT in Minneapolis, and Denver also had to go to an extra frame to knock out Bemidji State.

Not that I got to see either game.

No local cable - NESN, FSNE, or CN8 - carried either game. Now, if lived in college hockey hotbeds like Kansas City, Memphis, Tulsa, Wichita, or Mason City, Iowa, I'd have had some luck. But in suburban Boston, we don't get a game being played in our own state or one involving a Hockey East team.

Not helping is that Comcast hasn't added ESPNU to its offerings. It's not even available as part of their sports pack. Hopefully, other college hockey fans have sent along an email similar to my own, asking when it may join our lineup. Too late for this year, of course.

So the BU men's ice hockey season ended last night with a whimper rather than a bang (well, it was more like a whimper and a thud) by way of a 4-0 loss to North Dakota. If you saw the game on TV, take my word that it was worse in person. If you didn't watch the game, consider yourself lucky. Nothing worked for BU at any end of the ice, though their 0 for 10 on the power play especially stands out.

Last night was also the second - and hopefully last - appearance of the third jersey. They need to be encased in cement and sunk in the Charles.

The DCU Center (former the Centrum) is an OK place to see a game, though the NCAA component was odd. We got a lot of random clips of "exciting" moments from past championships - just not from hockey very much. We saw Notre Dame stay in the 2002 College World Series, Wake Forest win their second field hockey title in a row, and several basketball moments. We did see clips from 2001 (which we shall not speak of again) and 1996. I don't mind this, though they could have cut the number of clips in half and shown more hockey content.

I also know now the dates and locations of several NCAA championship events. Were I to be in Annapolis, College Station, Sacramento, or Houston over the next couple of months I'd make the trip. Note to Cooch: the NCAA team bowling final will be on ESPN2 in mid-April. Set your TiVo.

The BC-Mercyhurst game was much more fun, as a 5-4 final for BC would suggest. We knew something would be up when Mercyhurst scored on their first shot. Both teams looked like they were playing at three-quarters speed, while Mercyhurst's approach to defense was, shall we say, nonchalant? Still, they put forth a better performance than BU did. Erie should be proud.

In any event, if you're looking for 2 tickets to tonight's BC-North Dakota game, drop me a line.

As for the Frozen Four pool, only one person got all of yesterday's games right. He is, I think, also the most objective entrant of everyone given that UVa doesn't have hockey:

Hight - 8 points
Barker, Coen, Harper-Nixon, Sorenson - 6 points
Boggie, Bruce - 4 points

Only one person with a real bracket-busting loss; going with BU all the way was a bold choice for someone (not me!).

And after the serious post, more sports.

I've set up a group for ESPN's Baseball Challenge:

Group: Wait Until 2091
Password: fenway

What with the Schiavo case all over the place this past week, no time like the present to suggest to one and all that you set yourself up with a durable power of attorney for health care decisions.

Unlike a living will, the durable power of attorney designates someone to make medical decisions for you in the event that you can't. It also includes a section that, like a living will, allows you to make clear indications of what you want and don't want based on your assumed future condition and available treatment options.

The durable power of attorney does require a little more work than a living will. You'll have to have it witnessed and notarized and such, but doing this will help head off problems that could arise if you just filled out a living will and stuck it in a drawer.

NOTE: You should try to find a form specific for your state. A Google search with the terms "durable power of attorney," "health care," and your state's name should lead you to something useful. There are several sites that will try to sell you a form, though between your state bar and the helpful people at your local library, you should be able to find what you need at no cost.

(It should also be noted that nothing in this post should be construed as legal opinion or lawyerly advice. It's one guy [who is not giving you advice as a lawyer or with any guarantee of accuracy] putting out there for you to use as you see fit, as is, at your own risk.)

That being said, here are some decent links:

* The Missouri Bar offers a useful form and informational booklet, as well as a handy HIPAA waiver that will allow medical providers to discuss information with your designee.

* The University of Michigan provides this general form, as well as a link to the Michigan Bar's PDF version.

* This page from the Lifespan hospital network in Rhode Island also provides links to the proper forms and other information related to the topic.