Trio Trophy - DAY ONE RESULTS

Turn On bracket:

(18) It's Your Move d. (15) American Gothic, 7-2

Quote of the Match: "It's when America first fell into its confusing love/hate relationship with Jason Bateman." - Craig

(17)Idiot Savants d. (16) Gideon's Crossing, 6-3

Quote of the Match: "Why didn't you say 'the one with the brain?'" - Greg

(Answer: because I am not that smart.)

South of Sunset bracket:

(18)QED d. (15) Relativity, 7-2

Quote of the Match: "This one is really a push. But I figure if I'm going to vote at all, then I'm not going to cop out." - mingusmonk

(Note: this may have also appeared on a pro-Clinton message board)

(17)Bakersfield PD d. (16) Skag, 7-2

Quote of the Match: "Skag, I guess. It gets the hometown discount." - Dwight

Trio Trophy - Day 3

We're into the field of 64. Woo!

From the Turn On bracket:

(3) Homefront v. (14) Legend

Homefront mined the aftermath of World War II for drama and sudsiness, depicting the lives of GIs freshly returned to River Run, Ohio from the battlefields of Europe and Asia. Each of the three main veterans faced their own set of challenges, be it a wife who no longer loved her husband to an African-American vet who returned home to face the same discrimination he had before going to war.

The unique post-war setting set Homefront apart, and fans and critics touted its ability to maintain focus over all the characters without getting too confusing. The period detail and ability to create nostalgia in viewers who weren't alive in the 1940s didn't hurt, either. It just didn't do that for enough viewers.

The show ran on ABC from 1991 to 1993, airing 42 episodes.

Here's a clip from the show, featuring Kyle Chandler.

Legend commbined The Wild Wild West with Remington Steele. Ernest Pratt is a dime novelist whose best-known creation is Nicodemus Legend, who uses a variety of ingenious contraptions to foil bad guys. He winds up assuming Legend's identity at the behest of Dr. Janos Bartok, who is able to provide many of the fanciful inventions that Legend uses in the books for actual use in fighting crime.

Of course, you can also say that there's a dash of MacGyver in the show, as Pratt/Legend is played by Richard Dean Anderson, his first starring role after that series. Bartok is played by John De Lancie, best known as Q from the Star Trek universe.

The show had the misfortune of airing during the inaugural season of UPN, and did not survive the change in network suits that saw every show but Star Trek: Voyager get the axe at the end of the season. Apparently, steampunk didn't work for them. 12 episodes aired during the spring and summer of 1995.

Several Legend clips here.

(6) Black Sheep Squadron v. (11) Boomtown

Black Sheep Squadron, also known as Baa Baa Black Sheep during its first season, followed a unit of less than spit-and-polish Marine flyers stationed in the Pacific. They were led by "Pappy" Boyington, played by Robert Conrad. Pappy chose his unit based on ability and results, giving many of them reprieves from prior mishaps. And, like the 4077th on M*A*S*H, the unit often got out of trouble based on its successes (it was also based on a book about a real-life unit).

Along with the expected blend of drama and comedy, producer Stephen J. Cannell used stock footage from other projects and a new technique of filming inside a single-seat aircraft to give the action scenes a quality not usually seen on TV. Even so, NBC cancelled the show after one season, only to bring it back when most of the following year's new programming tanked. With its new name, the show racked up 37 episodes from 1976 to 1978.

Some longish clips from the show can be seen here.

Boomtown applied the Rashamon style of story-telling to crime in present day Los Angeles. Each episode focused on a particular investigation, telling the story from the viewpoint of a variety of characters involved in the proceedings. Story lines about the personal lives of the main cast also cropped up, from the failing marriage of deputy DA David McNorris and the suicide attempt by the wife of detective Joel Stevens.

Critics raved about the show, but the often depressing reality of the plots didn't attract a wide audience. Low rating caused NBC to move the show from Sunday to Friday, and then to end its first season before May sweeps. They renewed the show, but revamped it considerably, making it more of a procedural. That pretty much chased the die-hards off, and the show wrapped after 24 episodes over 2002 and 2003.

This link will not only give you Boomtown clips, it also has the video for "I Don't Like Mondays" by the Boomtown Rats. A little bonus for you.

From the South of Sunset bracket:

(3) The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles v. (14) Undeclared

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles were just that - stories about the youthful adventures of the big screen's favorite archaeologist, as told by his 93-year-old self. George Lucas maintained his feature film mentality for the series, plotting an extensive timeline that would have accounted for 70 episodes, as well as shooting in roughly a dozen countries.

The stories featured one of two young Indys, one about 10 years old, the other a teenager (played by Sean Patrick Flannery). Several episodes built on the movies, including the relationship between Indy and his dad and the search for the Eye of the Peacock.

The show developed a devoted following and reeled in 10 Emmys, but couldn't quite pull of the transition from the movies. The show lasted for 28 episodes, with some originally airing on USA rather than ABC, which had the show in 1992 and '93.

Plenty of clips here.

Undeclared was Judd Apatow's attempt at a college-based TV show, mindful that it's nearly impossible to show what actually happens at college. He did his best, though, following a group of freshmen at the University of North Eastern California as they made the transition out of high school.

And while the show couldn't quite go into the depths of collegiate excess, it did capture enough of the college experience to get beyond the American Pie expectations you'd have with a show about college students that aired on Fox. The show debuted to strong ratings, but they dropped over the run of the series, unhelped by Fox's handling of the show. Critical acclaim and a strong cult following didn't help it avoid the axe after 17 episodes in the 2001-02 season.

Some clips for the show are available here.

(6) TV Nation v. (11) The Associates

TV Nation brought Michael Moore's particular brand of muckraking to the small screen, as he and his correspondents took stories into their own hands, doing things like invading a private beach in Greenwich, Connecticut by sea and buying - and then emancipating - slaves on the day that Mississippi finally banned slavery.

Many of the stories followed Moore's interest in corporate shenanigans, as seen in the running series where CEOs were challenged to use the products they made and the introduction of Crackers the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken.'

The show had an admirable set of correspondents, including Janeane Garofalo, Karen Duffy, Rusty Cundieff and Louis Theroux. There were also a number of special guests, both intentional (such as Yaphet Kotto competing against an ex-con to see who could get the most cabs to pick them up) and unintentional (such as the ambassadors from Serbia and Croatia, who Moore visited in an attempt to bring peace to the region).

The show's two seasons were split between NBC and Fox during the summers of 1994 and 1995, and even won an Emmy for Best Informational Programming after the 1995 season. When it came time for a third season, though, Fox blinked and declined to pick it up. A group of international networks put together funding for a third season, but the lack of US distribution put the kibosh on things.

A number of TV Nation segments can be seen here.

The Associates did something unique for a show about lawyers - it portrayed their work in a realistic and somewhat humorous setting, rather than in courtroom set-pieces. The associates of the title were a group of young lawyers at Bass and Marshall who ranged from the self-centered Elliot Streeter (who planned to take the firm over someday) to Tucker Kerwin, a midwesterner who was always a little out of step with his Ivy-educated colleagues.

The show was produced by the same folks who gave us Taxi (James Brooks et. al.), a group with some skill at workplace-based shows. It was also the first starring TV role for Martin Short, who played Kerwin.

ABC only aired 9 episodes of the show in the 1979-08 season, thanks in part to some questionable scheduling decisions (it debuted with a declining Mork and Mindy with its lead-in, for starters), an unfortunate end to one of the year's best-reviewed new shows.

No real video out there, other than the show's inclusion in this ABC preview.

The Trio Trophy - Day Two

Welcome back to the Trio Trophy, a tournament to determine the best TV show that died of view lonliness or was buried alive under an avalanche of network notes.

Shows are grouped into four brackets of 18 shows. Each day will present four match-ups, from which you will choose the best show in each match-up (or abstain if you so choose). Voting is open for 48 hours from the time the match-ups are posted. There'll be new match-ups every weekday.

Today, the "play-in" games from the other two brackets.

From the Co-Ed Fever bracket:

(15) Now and Again v. (18) When Things Were Rotten

Now and Again is your average story about a guy who is killed in a subway accident, but has his brain put into a body the government created for espionage work. The government hasn't been able to build a brain for the body (there's a metaphor in there somewhere), and haven't completely reformatted the one they have, as the newly-brained agent finds himself longing for a home he never lived in.

Pretty good cast here, with John Goodman playing brain donor Michael Wiseman, Dennis Haysbert as the government scientist in charge of the program, and Eric Close as the new and improved Michael Wiseman.

This was another attempt by CBS to shed it fogey image, and another one that didn't stick. CBS cited the cost of the show as the main reason for dumping it after 22 episodes in the 1999-2000 season. Those three Saturn Awards apparently meant nothing.

Plenty of clips from the show to be found here.

When Things Were Rotten is best thought of as a very early version of Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Almost 20 years before that film, Brooks recast the Robin Hood story as the triumph of the dim over the slightly more dim, with the usual assortment of Brooks' trademark humor.

The cast included some very familiar TV names, such as Dick Van Patten as Friar Tuck and Bernie Kopell as Alan-a-Dale. Throw in Dick Gaultier as Robin and you can see a bit of Get Smart in the show, too.

Critics enjoyed the show, but it was a little too different for TV audiences, who never quite tuned in. It probably didn't help that it aired opposite Little House on the Prairie. ABC stuck with the show for 13 episodes in 1975 before sending it off to the dungeon.

Not much by way of video out there, but perhaps the opening credits will give you a taste of what the show was about.


(16) Maximum Bob v. (17) Upright Citizen's Brigade

Maximum Bob was based on the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name. Beau Bridges played "Maximum Bob" Gibbs, a judge in Deepwater, Florida, whose heavy sentences for minor infractions (such as the death penalty for drinking in public) served to highlight the strangeness of everyone else, from his wife (a former water attraction mermaid turned channeler) to the swamp-living, possibly inbred Crowe family.

About the only sane person in the bunch was defense attorney Kathy Baker, who stayed on in Deepwater to both protect people from Gibbs and help put deserving criminals behind bars.

A summer series for ABC in 1998, they declined to pick it up after a 7 episode run that won critical acclaim but few viewers, even though it aired in NYPD Blue's regular time slot.

Can't find video for this, which is odd. It seems like the kind of show that would be out there.

The Upright Citizen's Brigade started out as a Chicago-based improv troupe, and on the way to going national they got their own show on Comedy Central. Styled as a group dedicated to creating and supporting chaos, the UCB would go into action any time it detected high levels of normalcy.

Each episode rotated around a theme, and every episode in a season mentioned something that would become the focus of the season's final episode (for example, the second season finale was a mockumentary about a drug called supercool). Episodes also featured cast members interacting with real people, such as the UCBer who tried to get a convenience store clerk to post a flier about baby fights.

Interestingly for a show that didn't trade in pop culture references or impressions, cast member Amy Poehler would go on to a show that seems to only trade in them, Saturday Night Live.

The show had three ten-episode seasons on Comedy Central. Apparently a fourth season would have prevented the network from showing PCU five times a day.

Plenty of video available, and to mix it up you can see clips here.

From the Public Morals bracket:

(15) Keen Eddie v. (18) Miss Guided

Keen Eddie was a fish out of water police drama starring Mark Valley as Eddie Arlette, a NYPD detective who goes to London to work with Scotland Yard to bust a drug ring and accepts an offer to keep working for them. He is partnered with Monty Pippin, whose variety of sexual misadventures become a focal point of their partnership.

Eddie also has to deal with a surprise roommate, Fiona Bickerton (Sienna Miller). Fiona is living in the flat that Eddie rented from her parents while pretending to go to university. They strike an uneasy truce, which slowly became more of a friendship as the season progressed.

Originally intended as a midseason replacement, it was bumped back to run in the summer of 2003 on Fox. The delays, combined with the horrific lead-in of American Juniors, led to the show's cancellation, with the last few of the show's 13 episodes airing on Bravo.

You can watch clips of Keen Eddie here.

Miss Guided was the latest show to walk in the footsteps of Welcome Back, Kotter, with Judy Greer playing guidance counselor Becky Freeley. She returns to work at her alma mater, Glen Ellen High School, only to find that the faculty now includes Lisa Germaine (Brooke Burns), a former classmate who is as attractive and popular now as she was in high school. Both have their sights set on Spanish teacher Tim O'Malley, who seems oblivious to the struggle. The stand-out in the supporting cast is Chris Parnell, who plays the clueless - and slightly creepy - Vice Principal Bruce Terry.

The show came from Ashton Kutcher's studio, explaining his appearance as a subsitute teacher and Rumer Willis' bit part as a student.

The show premiered after an episode of Dancing With the Stars, but after moving to its regular Thursday timeslot (where it ran back-to-back episodes), ratings tanked, leading ABC to cap things at seven episodes and not renew it for 2008-09.

Clips for the show to be found here.

(16) The Slap Maxwell Story v. (17) Call to Glory

The Slap Maxwell Story is pretty well described by its opening credits. In them, we'd see Slap get, well, slapped, by someone who has taken offense at something he wrote, said or did. A sports writer whose best days were behind him, Maxwell would spice his columns will all sorts of rumors and unprovable claims, whose seriousness never seemed to quite get him fired for good.

His working persona was not that far off from his private one, as Slap was pretty much insensitive to everyone, most notably his ex-wife, Annie, who you think wouldn't have to put up with it any more. Slap did have a kind-of relationship with his newspaper's secretary, which was on or off depending on how much of a jackass he'd been.

Slap was the sort of character who could only be played by Dabney Coleman, who has made a career of playing cantankerous louts. And, as in pretty much every case where he's done so, the viewers didn't quite see what the critics were raving about. The show put in a 22 episode season in 1987-88 for ABC.

This clip gives you a taste of Slap's charming personality.

Call to Glory set the tone for The Wonder Years and pretty much all of NBC's '60s nostalgia programming with its combination of topicality and period music. Craig T. Nelson plays Colonel Raynor Sarnac, an Air Force pilot whose professional and family lives intersect with many of the historic highlights of the decade.

As forward-thinking as the show's concept was, and as successful as it would be for others, the show may have tried a little too hard to cover all the highlights. ABC had high hopes for this show in the 1984-85 season, but it only lasted 19 episodes.

The only clips of Call to Glory I could find were on YouTube, and had little to do with the show (one was a clip of a SR-71 Blackbird, the other actual footage of JFK's funeral that was used in an episode).

The Trio Trophy - Day One

Welcome to the Trio Trophy, a tournament to determine the best TV show that, through the incompetence of network suits or the pedestrian taste of the masses, deserved a long run but did not get it.

Shows are grouped into four brackets of 18 shows. Each day will present four match-ups, from which you will choose the best show in each match-up (or abstain if you so choose). Voting is open for 48 hours from the time the match-ups are posted. There'll be new match-ups every weekday.

To start, we've got four of what amount to play-in games between the lower-seeded shows.

From the Turn On bracket:

(15) American Gothic v. (18) It's Your Move

American Gothic lived up to its name, if nothing else. Set in Trinity, South Carolina, it followed young Caleb Temple (Lucas Black) in his struggle against his biological father, town sherriff Lucas Buck (Gary Cole), whose bloodthirsty reign was apparently backed up by some level of supernatural power. The pilot episode saw Buck kill Caleb's sister and manipulate his legal father into killing himself, unusual stuff for a CBS drama.

This show was best known at the outset for being created by Shaun Cassidy, who was apparently compensating for all the sunny musical numbers his brother did on The Partridge Family. It lasted for 22 episodes (18 of which aired) during the 1995-96 season.

Watch various clips of American Gothic here.

It's Your Move pitted scheming high schooler Matt Burton (Jason Bateman) against his mom's writer boyfriend Norman Lamb (David Garrison), whose experience as a kid like Matt allows him to foil Matt's various plots.

Low ratings dictated a change, and 14 episodes into the run one of Matt's schemes is busted by his mom, who previously was pretty much clueless. Not surprisingly, this conversion to a conventional family sitcom did nothing to jump start the ratings. The show lasted 18 episodes during NBC's 1984-98 season.

Watch clips from It's Your Move - and its apparently seminal two-part episode "The Dregs of Humanity" - here.

(16) Gideon's Crossing v. (17) Idiot Savants

Gideon's Crossing suffered from being ahead of its time in two respects. First, as it followed Dr. Ben Gideon (played by the always excellent Andre Braugher) in his work running an experimental cancer treatment center and teaching new doctors, it missed being the House of its time. Even if Gideon didn't use a cane or have patients who regularly bled out of orifi better left unbloodied.

(It should be noted that both shows were produced by Paul Attanasio, who also worked on Homicide with Braugher.)

In the other respect it had Eric Dane playing a doctor, but apparently not to the level of McSteaminess that has helped Grey's Anatomy suds its way to longevity.

So even though it had the cast and the critical acclaim, it didn't have enough Vicodin abuse or pretty surgeons. 21 episodes were aired during the 2000-01 season on ABC.

This is the only decent clip of Gideon's Crossing I could find, and it features Eric Dane.

Idiot Savants was MTV's best attempt at an actual game show. Four contestants answered questions over the course of a week, with the leading point-scorer for the week winning a car or some such "major" prize. Interesting features of the show included the Dunce, who had to sit out rounds but could steal points when no other contestant knew the answer, and the Grand Savant round, where contestants had to correctly answer 10 questions on a subject of their own choosing while ensconced in the Cylinder of Shush.

The show was hosted by Greg Fitzsimmons, who managed to cut through some of the usual emcee shmaltz with his particular brand of sarcasm.

Less gimicky than Remote Control, the programming geniuses at MTV decided that what the youth of America really wanted to watch was 100 hours a week of Real Wolrd/Road Rules Challenge (which, sadly, probably wasn't far from the truth), leading to the show's cancellation after five weeks in 1996.

Watch a variety of clips from Idiot Savants here.



From the South of Sunset bracket:

(15) Relativity v. (18) QED

Relativity opens with Isabel Lukens, played by Kimberly Williams, doing the only sensible thing when offered a proposal of marriage from her long-time beau: she runs off to Italy. There she meets and falls for Leo Roth, who just happens to be a fellow Los Angelino. The series then follows them as they return home and try to deal with their new relationship, Isabel's old one, and the various lives and loves of their families.

This is one of the several family-based romantic dramas created by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, who also gave us thirtysomething, Once and Again, and a show we'll be hearing from later. Clearly, they really know how to hit one specific audience. Unfortunately for them, it's never quite big enough.

Relativity was also one of the first shows whose dedicated/psychotic fans sent foodstuffs to network brass as a sign of devotion, as they sent cans of Campbell's soup to protest plans to cancel the show. It failed, making Relativity one of the 800 or so shows cancelled during Jamie Tarses' reign at ABC. It did last 17 episodes, which is something, I suppose.

Watch clips of Relativity here.

QED were the initials of Quentin E. Deverill, an early 20th century Harvard professor whose forward-thinking inventions were scoffed at by his peers. This led him to leave the ivory tower for London, where his inventions coupled with his sleuthing abilities to make him a bit of a steampunk Sherlock Holmes.

The show marked Sam Waterston's first foray into TV. It was a brief one, lasting for six episodes on CBS in 1982. We'll hear more from him later.

Watch a clip of QED here.

(16) Skag v. (17) Bakersfield P.D.

Skag was the nickname of Peter Skagska, a foreman at a Pittsburgh steel mill. His life isn't easy; he's on his second wife, neither of his sons seem interested in following in the old man's footsteps to work at the failing mill, and his disabled dad is living with the family. And, in the show's first episode, Skag suffers stroke.

It's probably no wonder that a show as dour as this didn't catch on, even with a strong cast (featuring Karl Malden as Skag and Piper Laurie as his wife) and writing. NBC got five episodes out of the show in 1983. The three hour pilot, though, landed six Emmy nods, so it wasn't a total loss.

Perhaps not surprisingly, I can't find online video for Skag.

Bakersfield PD followed the exploits of some of that California city's police officers, most notably recent transplant Paul Gigante, who had a little trouble fitting in with his redneck partner Wade Preston, given that Gigante is African-American. Gigante was played by Giancarlo Esposito, better known as Michael Giordello, son of Al Giordello on Homicide. Ron Eldard played Preston.

Shot with natural lighting and no laugh track, it didn't quite click with the fart and single-entendre crowd at Fox, lasting 17 episodes during the 1993-94 season.

You can see a clip from Bakersfield PD here.

Reminders and updates:

1. The Brilliant But Canceled tournament (still to be renamed) will commence Monday. If you have suggestions, please comment or send them along. Thanks to all of you who've given input so far, even if I've been lousy at emailing you back.

2. Next week also sees the start of Euro 2008, so if you've not joined my Euro Pick 'Em group at ESPN.com, get the lead out. Password is cornerkick.

3. While it's in one of the more, uh, "transitional" parts of the South End (SoWa, or South of Washington Street), I'd recommend Gaslight if you're looking for a casual semi-fine dining experience. The food is French bistro, and is very good if not great, but there's a good-sized parking lot next door where you can park for free. That makes up for a lot.

I won't comment on the SoWa name. You can guess what I think.

Book Log 2008 #24: Schultz and Peanuts by David Michaelis

I'd always heard that Charles Schultz was not the happiest guy, and this book confirms that in voluminous detail. And for what could be depressing reading, given how often we hear about Schultz feeling depressed, isolated, or powerless, the story of how Shultz achieved his one life's goal - the creation of a daily newspaper comic strip - and the impact that had on the world at large helps to balance out the gloom. It also helps that several strips are reprinted that reflect how Schultz mined his life for story ideas.

Set aside some time and dig in.

Book Log 2008 #23: In Spite of the Gods by Edward Luce

With all the focus recently on the growing economic clout of China, I was interested to delve into this book, which examines similar growth - and the myriad challenges to it - in India. The book starts by looking at India's growth in the tech sector and lack of growth in manufacturing, comparing it to China's more traditional growth path, and then starts to deal with the problems that could derail India's success.

Luce is a long-time India journalist and has married into a local family, so he's able to bring professional and personal perspectives to the issues, which helps to give greater depth to the discussion. Most of the book dwells on the problems, which by the end makes you wonder how India managed to get as far as it has. I wasn't crazy about the ending, which uses four particular issues as measures by which one could chart India's progress (such as how the country will address a growing HIV problem). I'd have appreciated something more conclusive. Even so, this book goes a long way towards explaining modern day India for those of us who only get the occasional piece on the news.

So I'm mulling running a tournament here over the summer. The basic idea is Brilliant But Cancelled: The Tournament.

(Note to any NBC Universal legal counsel: I'll change the name when it starts, save the cease and desist letter for someone else.)

I don't have much of it planned, but it would generally follow the format used by Craig (among others) - each day would feature a number of match-ups (likely four to start, fewer as we move along), with multiple days allowed for voting in the comments and by email. At this point I'm thinking of limiting it to broadcast network prime time shows that lasted no longer than two seasons or 50 episodes (to cover older shows that had longer seasons or ran more than once a week), but am open to argument for including cable and/or non-prime time programming. Field size is open, too, but would likely be 64.

I'd probably start this in early June, though I'd really want to end it by August 1, so it's finished before our big graduation that month.

I'm working on shows to include now, but nominations are more than welcome, especially as I may miss some of the more recent shows that the kids watch.

I survived my brush with jury duty yesterday, getting excused about mid-day. I went farther this time than when I did state jury duty a number of years ago, as this time I actually went to a courtroom. There were only two trial starting yesterday, so they took fairly large groups to both. I made it through the judge's initial questioning in voir dire, but did not survive the peremptory challenges.

We were asked a few times to not discuss the case with people until it's over, which I'll honor here until I see news of a verdict (it should make some level of local news, and the way the judge was talking it'll likely wrap this week).

Generally, there would be many worse places to serve jury duty than the federal courthouse in Boston. Between the waterfront views and the well-maintained courtrooms, there's a lot to like. The only negative I can come up with is that the bathrooms were clearly not designed to handle large groups of jurors on a break.

Book Log 2008 #22: New England White by Stephen Carter

I really enjoyed Carter's first novel The Emperor of Ocean Park, so I was very happy to tuck into his follow-up effort, which takes two of the first book's minor characters - Lemaster and Julia Carlyle - front and center.

Julia is the main character, a dean at an unanmed Ivy's divinity school, while Lemaster is the school's new president. An economics professor at the school - a former lover of Julia's - is killed near their home in a nearby town, and she becomes wrapped up in solving his killing when it is linked to the death 30 years earlier of a teenager, a murder that Julia's daughter Vanessa has become obsessed with, either a cause or a sign of some underlying mental health issues.

As with the first book, the mystery that frames New England White is at times secondary to any of the book's various themes, from mother-daughter connections to the internal politics of academia to the inter- (and intra-) relationship of the "paler" and "darker" nations.

It all comes together in a pretty engrossing whole. I actually missed a subway stop while I was reading this book, which I don't think I've ever done before. I've read some complaints that the book is too long and that there are too many ancillary characters and subplots to keep things straight, but I'd have to disagree. These can be challenges (I'll admit to some flipping to remind myself about certain characters), but without all the detail I don't think the book would have been as complete. If you go into it expecting some complexities of detail (and if you read the first book, you were probably going to do this anyway), you'll be fine. Recommended, but not for a casual browse.

Fans of the beautiful game (and people who like to choose winners in international sports based on flag colors or whatever) are welcome to join the group I set up on ESPN.com for their Euro 2008 pick 'em game.

Group Name: Go England! Wait, what?!?
Password: cornerkick

So first, the good news. It appears that federal jury service does get you excused from state jury service, as I got my postcard from the state yesterday telling me I was excused. That was a nice surprise.

Now for the bad news. I actually do have to go to the federal courthouse on Monday. However, this does work out a little bit for me, as the missus and I have a pass to see a preview showing of the new Indiana Jones movie, which means we'd probably drive in to work. Now the feds are going to pay for me to drive in and park. So there's your silver lining.

Sorry for the hiatus, work picked up quite a bit with our May graduation on Sunday, where we added 108 new alumni to the rolls. It went quite smoothly, but given all the other stuff we have to along with graduation it's a tough week to do anything extra.

This week isn't much better, but I have found a little time to blog about the network TV upfronts on Tube Boob, which should now be linked on the right. I've posted there more this week than I have in the last three months.

Not much else to say right now, sorry to say.

Book Log 2008 #21: The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America by Joe Posnanski

In a way, I liked this book for the same reason I enjoyed Let Me Tell You a Story: there's a wealth of entertaining anecdotes, which in this case are all the more interesting given that they take place at a place and time that most Americans couldn't have been given their skin color. But I think the more valuable part of the book comes from seeing how Buck O'Neill took the discrimination and missed opportunities and turned them into a powerful, positive driving force for Negro Leaguers and baseball in general.

The writing flows freely and often puts O'Neill's words into poetic form, which more often than not enhances the quality of what's said. It's also clear that the author has a demonstrable love for his subject that is refreshing at a time when sports biography tends towards the sycophantic or the combative.

At some point soon I'll have to read I Was Right On Time, O'Neill's autobiography. In the meantime, I'd highly recommend this book.

Book Log 2008 #20: Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

If you've read any of Russo's other works, the themes here - the clannish nature of small town life, the regret of advancing age and the difficulties of intergenerational family life - will be familiar. But it says something about his skill as a writer that he can continue to mine these topics (as well as the setting of upstate New York) without being repetitive or dull. That he does this while writing what is his grandest novel in scope - it covers three lives in depth over the span of 60 years - is icing on the cake.

That being said, the book does unfold in a very conversational way that doesn't have the sort of concrete resolution that may be expected. In that way it's actually more like life, which rarely has the sort of denoument that allows things to wrap up nicely. But it also makes it a little harder to feel like you can get your head around what the book is actually about. The shifting of time in the narrative can also cause a little whiplash, but it's a small price to pay for a novel this endearing.

It's probably one of the best novels of the year, but I can't help but think that some folks will find it disappointing.

It's things like this that make me think that maybe we should never count Florida's votes for anything ever again.

Book Log 2008 #19: The Overseer by Jonathan Rabb

Very disappointing conspiracy thriller, whose premise - a 16th century text that provides a blueprint for world domination is being implemented by a trio of powerful men under the direction of the titular figure - is interesting. Its execution, however, is not.

The Overseer is one of those thrillers where everything happens or is described in some sort of superlative fashion, hoping that a litany of things that happen at the last second or involve the best or worst of something will provide a sense of motion or energy that aren't actually there. The characters are pretty standard - evil old men and young, relatively attractive protagonists who develop the required romantic interest in each other - and not particularly interesting. The sinister plot itself is never fully explained, which isn't necessary but would have helped given the fragmented and vague references to parts of it (though I was amused by the repeated referenced to the first trial, thanks to it being constantly put in italics).

It's never a good sign when you consider giving up on a book when you're three-quarters or more of the way through. I fought the impulse to do so expecting a payoff that never came, and really wasn't likely given the several hundred pages that came previously. Save yourself the trouble and don't bother picking this one up.

Book Log 2008 #18: Civil War Fantastic by Martin H. Greenburg (ed.)

At first I was pleasantly surprised that this collection of Civil War alternative history stories didn't include some of the familiar favorites like "Bring the Jubilee," but I should have taken that as a sign. None of the stories here come close to that story's level, and only a handful were particularly interesting.

It's not really worth seeking out, but if you come across it and have need for a reasonably diverting book of short stories, it's worth a browse.

So a while back I mentioned that I'd been selected for federal jury duty, and that I was trying to get a deferment as it fell right during our May graduation. Turns out my concerns were adjudged reasonable, as the feds have allowed me to push things back by a couple of weeks. It was a quick and painless sort of deal, quite unlike the stereotypical bureaucratic nightmare.

So, of course, the state judicial system had to jump in and ruin the moment by summoning me for jury duty in July.

It may not be all that bad, as one of the categories for dismissal from state service is currently scheduled jury service. It just wasn't clear if federal jury duty counts, but I'm going to give it a go. I'm not expecting much.

Book Log 2008 #17: Instruments of Darkness by Robert Wilson

While I can't make the claim the publisher does that this book echoes Raymond Chandler (note to self: read some Raymond Chandler), I did very much enjoy this book, Wilson's first novel.

It's the start of a four book series featuring Bruce Medway, a professional middleman working in West Africa whose more usual work - brokering trade deals of varying legitimacy - intersects with his less usual work - finding people - with the sort of results you might expect from working with such dubious characters.

It's a lot less introspective than Wilson's later works - especially the Falcon series, where the crime is often second fiddle - though there's room for that to open up over the next three books. It was a solid beach read if you need something more than the standard vacuous thriller.