Thanks to those of you who peeked in during my day of IM. I think I'll have to do this more often.

In reasonably unrelated techie news, I'm involved in the beta test for Gmail, Google's web mail application. It's now the address mail from here goes to, so feel free to drop me a line so I can actually try the thing out. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get some stock for my trouble. Right.

Played my first round of miniature golf of the season tonight. though unlike some people, I didn't get a trophy for it. I did manage to eke out a win over the missus by one stroke. Like Jon in his recently reported round of golf, I was bitten by a couple of lip-outs (including the 18th, no free golf for me). But there were plenty of other times where I just stank. We played at this place called the Village Green on Route 9 in Natick, which has a New England/colonial theme. If you ever wanted to putt through the Massachusetts State House, or under the Bunker Hill monument, this place is for you.

We then rented a couple of movies, first watching Something's Gotta Give, which was OK for something whose plot was derived mainly from a sitcom-type contrivance. Keaton was pretty good (Oscar nod-worthy, not sure), though Frances McDormand was great for the 10 minutes or so she was in the thing.

I've never used IM very much. When I have used it, it's mostly been for a specific reason, like talking with folks not on site during a fantasy football draft.

But I had it open by accident the other day, and had the opportunity to share some words with the Champion of the West. The unexpected conversation was a nice change, so I figured I would give it a more consistent try.

Given that, I'll be leaving my Yahoo Messenger open all day tomorrow. If you've got an account, feel free to find me and say hi.

As part of a surprise presidential holiday, Sam and Heidi from The Apprenctice are on campus, currently in the theater next door talking about the show and so forth. I thought it might be interesting, but didn't go because of a 1:30 appointment with a student.

As you might guess from the time I'm writing this, he never showed. You can imagine how the meeting is going to go if he blew me off to go to this thing.

In other iTunes related news, the service is giving away downloads to celebrate its first birthday. I was very excited to see that the Foo Fighters were today's featured band. I was less excited upon learning that the free download involved The Colour and the Shape - which I own and have already loaded onto my iPod. Dang.

And I think our next free artist is Avril LaVigne. Double dang.

Even with his youthful air and pasty charm, weeks of dismal vocal performance finally caught up with John Stevens on American Idol, as he got the gate. Even so, he tallied over 4 million votes. Many, I think, from viewers who can't see or hear well enough to know he's not Clay Aiken.

Next week, the kids sing the songs of Jethro Tull. OK, not really, but I'd like to see Diana DeGarmo tackle "Locomotive Breath."

For all you iTunes users out there, a chance to get another free song!

Go to the Ben & Jerry's website and take their Oath to Vote. The first 50,000 to take the oath get a free song download.

Just remember that once you take the oath you'd better vote. The last thing you want is Ben and Jerry on your doorstep on November 10.

Gloria Estefan brought her Latin beats to American Idol, along with the Miami Sound Machine to back the kids. Which at least meant that the music was pretty good. The singing... not so much.

No one really stood out tonight, though the usually less crappy singers were, as you'd expect, less crappy. Which means any one of them could get the axe this week, freeing us up for another week of John Stevens: Ghost Vocalist. Man, I think he gets paler every week.

This may be the week he finally gets shown the door, though I'll guess Jasmine Trias, for no good reason other than she's stopped wearing a flower in her hair. That was her gimmick for being from Hawaii, which the image folks on the show have finally beaten out of her. Now that she's lost the source of her power, how can she go on?

Oh, and there's another live tour planned for this summer. For your own safety, you should remain at least 500 yards away from any possible concert venues at all times.

Today's phrase that bodes poorly: Olympic cancellation insurance.

The IOC's taken out a $170 million policy in case the Games are cancelled by war, terrorism, earthquakes, landslides, or flooding (among other things). I'm sure the Greek tourism board is thrilled.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said getting the insurance was a case of using sound judgement rather than lack of trust in the Athens organizers. That this is the first time such insurance has been taken out makes me think otherwise, at least to some degree. I mean, if you didn't take out insurance for all the possible natural disasters that could have hit during the LA Games in 1984, what would you be waiting for?

Turin and Beijing will have their own policies as well, so if there's an outbreak of SARS or a bad batch of meatballs they're covered.

Turns out that the proposed EU flag design is a couple of years old. Thanks to Dwight Kidder for pointing that out. Clearly, I have to remember to read the dateline and not get sidetracked by the colors.

With apologies for the ESPN.com Page 2 rip-off, it's time for Makin' it Better: the European Union flag:

OLD



The classic EU flag, its 12 stars don't represent member nations (there being 15 current members, 10 "new" members, and another three with applications out), but rather the "number twelve is traditionally the symbol of perfection, completeness and unity," this according to the EU website. By using numerology and not the number of states, the EU website claims that "[t]he flag will therefore remain unchanged regardless of future EU enlargements."

Which brings us to:

NEW



This prototype for a new EU flag is by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, asked to come up with a new flag at the behest of EU president Romano Prodi. Koolhaas was going for a single image to represent Europe's diversity and unity, and thought of using all the EU member flag colors in linear form. To me it looks like a UPC representation for an acid trip, but then again I've never won the Pritzker Prize.

Thoughts and votes, should you be so motivated, are welcome via email.

While I didn't get to see either of tonight's episodes (opting for the conclusion of Prime Suspect 6 on PBS, which was solid as usual), I did want to weigh in on Iron Chef America. This is not to be confused with the Iron Chef USA shows that UPN put together a few years back. The Food Network version of things tries to stay closer to the Japanese original, but where the UPN version embraced the over the top nature a bit too much (Shatner as Kaga), the Food Network version is a little too staid.

Let's start with the Chairman, who in the new series is Kaga's nephew. He's a martial artist who has equal passion for food, and with the uncle's OK sets up a Kitchen Stadium here. The new Chairman is about a tenth as flamboyant as Kaga, and to make up for it he's given extra mouthfuls of verbose dialogue, which doesn't fill the bill. In watching IC America I realized that much more what Kaga means to the original. There's also no build up to start the episode - the new Chairman announces who's fighting, what the ingredient is, and off we go. And the chefs don't even have to run up to the ingredient stand - they're standing right next to it when the ingredient is announced! The Food Network folks have completely missed the boat on all of the things, major and minor, which gives the original version its spark.

Keeping in the staid category there are the new Iron Chefs: Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, and Wolfgang Puck. They make great food, but seem a little restrained, especially in the face of the Japanese Iron Chefs who come over to do battle. I mean, Sakai made ice cream with trout! You'd never see any of the new Iron Chefs do that. I do think the new Iron Chefs are probably the right ones for the job (especially as they all have shows on Food Network, nice synergy there), but perhaps need a little extra schooling as to the originality that the original Iron Chefs put into things.

The judges are also pretty dull, though we don't get to hear enough of their comments to really judge. Most of the celebs are c-list to boot (J. Peterman and the guy who plays Gunther from the coffee shop in Friends, for example).

On the plus side, Alton Brown does a good job filling in for Dr. Hattori as color commentator, but he's also expected to do play-by-play. That's no good, too much is going on for him to fill both roles. The floor commentator, whose name escapes me, is no Otah. In the first episode he couldn't recognize foie gras, while in the second he thought tomato paste was sun-dried tomatoes. Perhaps hiring someone who knows something about food would have been a first step for the floor guy.

So while I can't say I'm crazy about Iron Chef America, I do give the Food Network props for the attempt, and hope that they have a chance to tinker in making future episodes.

More genealogy today, as Sarah and I wandered over to the state archives. It actually turned out to be a pretty good trip, as we were able to confirm a bunch of information about by grandfather's family. We were also hoping to find some information regarding where my great-grandfather came into the country, but to no avail.

We also confirmed something Sarah's mom told us based on her years of genealogy: expect dates to be all screwed up. There's definite confusion where my great-grandparents are concerned. It also doesn't help that their names keep changing their spelling (my great-grandfather's first name alternates between Myles and Miles, while his wife's maiden name is Kell(e)y, with the second 'e' seeing to crop up with every other official entry).

While I usually don't post whole news stories, this one struck me funny:

(with thanks to Yahoo, the AP, and whoever else was involved.)

Louisiana May Ban Low-Slung Pants

BATON ROUGE, La. - People who wear low-slung pants that expose skin or "intimate clothing" would face a fine of up to $500 and possible jail time under a bill filed by a Jefferson Parish lawmaker.

State Rep. Derrick Shepherd said he filed the bill because he was tired of catching glimpses of boxer shorts and G-strings over the lowered belt lines of young adults.

The bill would punish anyone caught wearing low-riding pants with a fine of as much as $500 or as many as six months in jail, or both.

"I'm sick of seeing it," said Shepherd, a first-term legislator. "The community's outraged. And if parents can't do their job, if parents can't regulate what their children wear, then there should be a law."

The bill would be tacked onto the state's obscenity law, which restricts sexual activity in public places and the sale of sexually explicit items.

Joe Cook, head of the American Civil Liberties Union's Louisiana chapter, said the bill probably does not meet the U.S. Supreme Court's standard for the prohibition of obscene behavior under the First Amendment.

"What about a woman who is wearing a bathing suit under her garment or she has something like a sarong wrapped around her and it's below her waist," he said. "I can think of a lot of workers, plumbers, who are working and expose their buttocks ..."

There's just something about the intersection of civil liberties and plumber's butt that makes me chuckle.

Here's a nice quote for the post-9/11 era:

In written testimony submitted to the House aviation subcommittee, Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin said Transportation Security Administration screeners and privately contracted airport workers "performed about the same, which is to say, equally poorly."

His report, as well as a study by the consulting firm Bearing Point, portrayed the TSA as an unresponsive, inflexible bureaucracy that is failing to provide an adequate level of security at airports.

I can't say this is particularly surprising, but given all the rhetoric that flew a few years ago it's disheartening. Not sure what the answer would be - you can't trust the airlines given how they've handled things in the past, but clearly the new government set-up is leaving a lot to be desired. There's a small part of me that wants to call out some sort of existing law enforcement or military police unit, or maybe state police for each airport location, but I don't know if that would work, either. Asking cops or soldiers to spend the day staring at a screen or pawing through underwear seems like a waste. So you could create a new branch of these existing bodies, but then you're back to doing something like the TSA.

Or maybe we keep the status quo and bring back the guys with the M-16s to wander the terminals to scare bad guys off. Frustrating.

High drama on American Idol tonight, and like Comic Book Guy I've taken to the Internet mere minutes afterwards to register my disgust (well, OK, I'm not disgusted, just surprised).

Similar to what they did a couple of weeks ago, the kids are herded into two groups. The three "divas," Jennifer, Fantasia and LaToya, are in one group, while the leftovers (John, Diana, and Jasmine) are in the other. George, who is the last one called, is told he's safe and is instructed to join the top group. Note that he is not told which group that is.

After a little hesitation, George wanders over to the diva group. Somewhere, the producers smile. For you see, he's made the same assumption the rest of us have, and in the words of Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend!". The leftovers were the top half this week. Which means it's time to lose a diva.

(Apropos of not much, I would like to see a week where the ESPN College Gameday trio switch places with the AI judges. Corso would have to be Simon to Herbstreit's Paula.)

Turns out we lose Jennifer Hudson, who in a previous week had been the top vote getter (I'm guessing the Elton John week). Reaction from the leftover group is more muted than in the past when they were spared. John looks somewhat less bewildered at cheating eviction for another week, while Diana has apparently learned something about winning gracefully, not being quite so much Miss American Idol when she finds out she's safe.

So there you have it, an even split between reasonably talented and utter crap. And I think I just might start rooting for the crap.

Good news: our luggage finally came back from its impromptu vacation in Memphis.

Bad news: the book I left on the plane looks like a lost cause. The Wellesley public library's going to take away my card, I can feel it.

Taking a page from Julie's blog, I've had several sightings of carpenter ants lately. Unfortunately, they've all been on my desk at work. And I'm not the only one in the office that's seen them.

And while I know this isn't Julie's preferred method of dealing with things, we did get some bait put down that will send many of them to ant heaven. But, judging from the 2 or 3 I've seen today, not all of them.

I'm not much of a Barry Manilow fan, which made tonight's episode of American Idol pretty dull. Barry was in the house as guest judge, and didn't add anything too insightful. He did work with the kids during the week, setting up personal arrangements and such.

This seemed to work for most contestants, but it worked really poorly for George, who oversang things. Thanks, Barry. Oh, glory notes were required for all female contestants as well. Thanks again, Barry.

Even with the overall better female performances, I expect Diana and Jasmine to go back to the bottom three. Not sure who'll join them. Maybe John, who did a reasonable cover of "Mandy" (reasonable for him, really)? Sure, why not.

Oh, and after weeks with Barry Manilow, Elton John, and Motown, I fully expect the song book of Sammy Cahn or Gilbert and Sullivan to be upcoming themes. Or maybe just a night of music in the public domain; I imagine someone would clean up wailing out "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

The most entertaining part of the night was the first 4 or 5 minutes, when the audio and video didn't synch. The kung-fu dub effect is only second to a man getting hit in the crotch by a ball in terms of funny media gags (OK, the thing where you play tape at double time forward or backwards is pretty cool, too).

Apologies for the hiatus, spent the last few days in Chattanooga and Atlanta on a combined quizbowl/sightseeing long weekend. Not much to say on the tournament end, other than it appeared to go well and most folks I've talked to expressed that it was a good time (and these are folks who aren't afraid to say what's on their mind).

On the travel front, I did get to do something I'd never done before: fly first class. On the way to Atlanta (via Detroit in the backwards logic of more flights costing less money) we were offered a relatively low-priced upgrade on the Detroit to Atlanta leg. We figured what the heck, and bought in. It did make that part of the flight less irritating, though I think there were limits to what Northwest could do in putting a first class section in a DC-9 (I'm still a little stunned that anyone still uses DC-9s). I got to spend that part of the trip sitting next to a very pleasant woman who is some sort of regional player with Amway (and no, she didn't try to sell me anything).

Coming home, we were booked to go from Atlanta to Memphis to Boston, the first leg on Delta, the latter on Northwest. We started boarding a little late, everyone got into place, and then the announcement from the cockpit: thanks to three "discrepencies," we're going to be leaving a little late. Two of the three were fixed no problem; the third - a faulty harness for the pilot's seat - was proving more difficult.

Time passed. Our new intended departure time of 6 pm came and went. More time passed. We started to come hard upon 6:30, which even if we'd instantly went from gate to air meant that we'd miss our connecting flight. I asked a flight attendant about this, and she referred me to a gate agent.

The gate agent was very helpful, and got us on a later direct flight home. We wandered over to our new gate, and Sarah thought she'd ask the gate agent there about an upgrade. After hearing our story, he gave us one free of charge (my guess is if I'd been the one who'd gone up to ask, we'd have gotten nothing and liked it).

Unlike the DC-9, the Boeing 757 has a very nice first class cabin. I don't think I've ever been more comfortable on a flight anywhere. And now I have to go back to flying coach - what ever will I do?

The downside to all of this was that our bags wound up spending the night in Memphis - didn't have time to get them off the original plane, and there weren't any other flights that would get our bags to Boston last night. So they'll be coming today. Not too big of a deal, except that I had to shave this morning using soap and a Venus razor. While you'd think that'd end with spurting and suturing and such, it actually went very well. Not that I'm going to switch to that all the time.

As far as the sightseeing portion of things went, Sarah and I took in the CNN tour and the World of Coke (with a walk through Atlanta Underground) before heading out. More on that later.

There's sadness in Bag End tonight as Jon Peter Lewis, the hobbit emissary to American Idol, failed in his quest and was voted off the show. Clearly, he could have used some ass-kicking elves. At least he can now go back to romping through the fields shoeless and, well, doing whatever else his people do. John Stevens was in the bottom three as well. Rounding out the group was Diana DeGarmo, who was the contestant sent back to safety. From her reaction you'd think she'd won something other than public acclimation that out of the 8 contestants, she's only the 6th best liked.

Warning: next week will apparently feature Barry Manilow tunes.

On The Apprentice, Trump went with Bill Rancic over Kwame Jackson, which seems like the right choice. For his trouble, Bill now gets to oversee the construction of a 90 story building in Chicago, an interesting case of serendipity given that Bill is from Chicago. Hmm...

The live portion of the show wasn't that great. There wasn't enough time to really answer questions - Omarosa got called out for being a liar, but was able to skate by giving some BS/joke response that got followed quickly by other contestants seeking their brief time in the sun. Even when Trump got to mention someone - Tammy, for example, is having a baby - there wasn't much time for follow up. We did learn that Amy and Nick dated briefly after the show, but to no avail. Trump pretty much spoke for everyone when he noted that their "romance" may have been the lamest TV fling ever.

There was also a brief "preview" for next season, which was just Trump talking about how next season's tasks would be harder, with shorter deadlines, and involve Fortune 500 companies (who are getting into the act now that the show's a hit - why take a risk?). I don't even think the show's been cast yet, so no intros to new contestants or anything like that. Trump even mused that he might bring some of this season's folks back, giving us shots of Sam, Troy, and Omarosa. As they say, two out of three ain't bad.