I was out with Drew at O's last night. No Po' Boy. but they cook up a mean Sloppy Joe sammie there. Anyhow, it's time for some catch up:

Blaine is a tool. "President done messed me up."

I do like one Suzanne Vega song, for sure. "Tom's Diner".

The rise and fall of "Chappelle's Show".

The top movies from "Seinfeld". Including "Rochelle Rochelle", “A young girl’s strange, erotic journey from Milan to Minsk.” Also, “Ah man, we’re missin’ the death blow!”

"Every nineteen minutes, the place goes crazy clean!"

Big-Time Football Catch



Two new shows are in trouble. "Do Not Disturb" is already gone.

JPMorgan buys WaMu. No bailout necessary there. Jamie Dimon is the Wall Street Man of the Year, thus far.

"I can't handle my kids, you take 'em."

Fox news does not want to talk about the Keating Five.

Bush prefers the Paulson Plan. But he has zero cred, while McCain says virtually nothing at his photo-op.

This is a Penthouse Forum in waiting.

Meal of Links

"Palin makes George W. Bush sound like Cicero". Remember when folks actually said Biden should be worried about his debate. With each interview, she leaps exponentially into the ether.

Sarah Siverman begs Jewish people to make "The Great Schlep". That is, get to Florida and make sure your relatives vote for Obama.

Austin City Limits festival is on the AT&T Blue Room. Best streaming day looks like Sunday.

Exercise Yard

Do you have the stones for a "Women in Curling" calendar? Who's got the hammer?

Visitor

57 Across: Maria's mom (6 letters) Answer: Eunice

It's so tough being Becks.




























































Although it appears to be from two different time events (venues? years?), he has that, "Oh, Christ! How much is this gonna cost me?" look going on at the end.

Well, the Olympics are finally over. I'm typically not a fan of the closing ceremony. You know, the athletes all come in as one under no flags and everyone's supposed to be happy. Just gives people an excuse to look stupid in front of the cameras. But, it was nice that NBC finally aired boxing on the big network today and showed the finals. And they even showed a "Teddy's Corner". Cool.

Meal of Links

Here is a woman who has 200 orgasms a day. This was from an article a while back, there doesn't appear to be an update. She was probably busy.

Blaine is back! This time, he's hanging upside down on a highwire for 60 hours and obviously the finale is on TV.

Check out SI's series on what their writers will remember about the Olympics. Nice stuff under the "Olympics Memories" header. Great quote from a Chinese soccer player: "We play soccer like the Brazilians play ping-pong."

This is so funny, you would think it's fake. Fox News sends a reporter into the middle of a protest at the Democratic Convention in Denver. Reporter: "Hey, that's not necessary." after "Junior Melendez" swears at him. He keeps saying, "Don't you believe in free speech?". Yeah, they have the right not to talk to you, clown. And nothing like asking masked protesters, "What's your name?". Then a "Fuck Fox News" chant starts.



Exercise Yard

I happened to catch the USA-Spain game for the basketball gold medal this morning. Not live, but on the HD Olympic Basketball channel when I woke up. It was a surprisingly close game, at times, in the 4th quarter until Kobe Bryant took over.

But what I take away from the basketball tournament was the medal ceremony. The Argentina team with their bronze medals and Spain with their silvers, and both squads looking absolutely tickled with their medals. No disappointment there. And the U.S. team, all of those mini-corporations, looking like little kids who just won their first prizes of any kind. Makes you wish for the good old days in a way, when sports was not run like the big business monster it has become.

Visitor

None, perhaps the laziest day of the year.

I'm trying to catch up on some things I have been told about or directed to.

Here is a month-old snippet from Cleveland Magazine on the guy we call "Pink Hat". Mind you, I am not a fan. He has no philosophy about wearing hats, except "Look at me! I'm an Attention Whore!"

Catching up with Guy Lafleur. His son is in trouble, but they really love Guy in Quebec.

Tim Goodman talks about whittling his satellite channels to a workable number. He got it down to 284.

We all know Barack Obama bowled a 37. But I did not know that his bowling partner, Sen. Bob Casey, threw a 71. How did he escape scrutiny?

The Collegiate Nationals Eating Champion is a Canadian. Smoked meat was not on the menu.

Mick Jones wrote a tune called "Don't Tase Me, Bro". I hope he puts those "Whoo!"s in there like "The Globe".

Meal of Links

Chef Ramsay stops yelling long enough to cook the perfect scrambled eggs. Hey, where's the bacon fat?

TV's Best 50 Comedies. "Green Acres" yes, "Beverly Hillbillies" no? Idiots.

David Blaine holds his breath again for a try at a world record. This time, he made it! Unfortunately, he didn't explode.

Exercise Yard

The Cavs suffered through another game they could not close at home and lose to the Wizards. The fact remains, bravado aside, Washington has now played the Cavs tough in Games 1 and 5 here, and Game 4 there, winning only one of those games. Toss the blowouts. If they somehow win at Washington on Friday, things will get dicey for the return trip on Sunday. Poor shooting and rebounding killed the Cavs tonight.

Visitor

15 Across: Onetime Astaire partner (3 letters) Answer: Mop (I think they meant Gene Kelly)

This business about smoking in the movies bugs me. I can't believe we've arrived at a point where the amount of smoking in a movie may result in a harsher rating. As I said the other day, some of those old Bogart films would have garnered an NC-17, because of heavy smoking.

Next time you're watching a film or something on the tube, watch how many people wear a seat belt. Maybe that should determine a rating.

Meal of Links

I have really tried to ignore those David Blaine ads for the NBA playoffs. But I can't. They stink.

Bruce Campbell for Old Spice, singing "Hungry Like The Wolf". Now that's funny.



More Blaine. He's gonna jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. Doesn't seem hard.

It's the NBC fall lineup. Lots of unscripted shows at 8:00. They seem to be punting a lot.

Exercise Yard

OK, how did the Cavs win that game? I guess it was the Nets scoring only three baskets in the fourth quarter. I hate to say it, because I'm bullish on LeBron, but Michael would have never missed those crucial fourth quarter foul shots.

But, it's 3-1, with Game 5 here on Wednesday. Let's make it a quick one again.

Visitor

11 Down: Longtime Miss USA pageant host (9 letters) Answer: Bob Barker

I saw the movie "Bobby" yesterday. It's eerie that in a week where Robert Altman died, Emilio Estevez tries to be Altmanesque with his flick. The idea of people gathering at a certain place and we get to witness why they are there and their respective outcomes. First of all, it ain't Altman. There are too many characters you don't give a hoot about. Easily 5 to 8 of these people could have been dumped.

The story is what takes place at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles the day RFK dies. A Republican nowhere in sight, it seemed. It is very ham-handed in its approach to parallel some events of 1968 to modern times. Immigration, racism, an unpopular war, etc. And they have the historical context offscreen of Don Drysdale setting the scoreless streak record the very same night with the Dodgers and Andy Warhol getting shot the previous day. Drysdale got more play in this movie since the time he was on "The Brady Bunch". Only a few performances really shine through, because the real star is Bobby.

(As an aside, I just got a whiff of my turkey from the roaster. Mmmmmm...turkey.)

They have some video clips and voiceovers of RFK that I'd say make up about 15, maybe 20 minutes, of the movie. By far, these are the best parts, because it was the last great campaign in this country. When RFK came to town, everybody showed up. Take a look at some of the news items from those days, it's a mob scene. Black, white, hispanic, old, young. Didn't matter, they flooded the streets. And if you listen to the words, there was a lot of hope for lots of people in those messages. After watching the movie though, I wondered if a documentary about RFK would have been the better way to go.

Meal of Links

Crap. David Blaine stopped spinning. I'm glad those kids can go to Target and buy knitting needles to thrust into his temples.

Baseball-Reference has added every box score from 1957 on. Play-by-play, as well.

50 mistakes men make when having sex. Read the comments.

Exercise Yard

I was at my uncle's for Thanksgiving yesterday and we were thrilled to learn he had the NFL Network, a channel he was unaware he had. He has the WOW service. There was a certain "Grey's Anatomy" faction brewing, so we didn't know how it would play out. When it was gametime, a crawl appeared on his screen that said if you were in the US of A and you were not in the local area of the teams playing, you won't get the game. So, lemme get this straight. You have the network, but can't get the games? I thought that was the idea of having the network.

It's so confusing.

Visitor

13 Down: Mr. PiBB and Dr. Pepper (5 letters) Answer: Sodas

I've watched some "Seinfeld" reruns since Kramer's meltdown, and I think I can handle it. (And that is part of the problem, we can't think of the guy as Michael Richards. Even when he's apologizing, we are waiting for Kramer to deliver the punchline.) Oh, it's there in the back of your mind that he's a racist hipster doofus, but a few more viewings of the "pinky toe" episode and I believe it will be somewhat normal once more.

Meal of Links

The Bargainist looks around for some deals. Some interesting items have popped up on sale.

David Blaine spins for kids. Come on, even if he doesn't make it, he should take the kids shopping.

All about "A Christmas Story" house. I don't know, will this be a tourist attraction? Hard to figure a snowy February day makes this place a destination.

Exercise Yard

Kind of a time waster at the CSU game last night. Except that I got a free t-shirt! Using a method honed at many an old Cavs game at the Coliseum to get one of those small basketballs. Yes, it was the rebound method. First of all, female cheerleaders can't throw very far and when they do, it's of that high arc variety. Inevitably when the shirt comes back to earth, multiple sets of hands go for it.

It worked to perfection. The shirt sailed directly over my head, not worth the leap, and I positioned myself as Wes Unseld, waiting for the rebound, and it happened. Four hands in the row behind me collide, it pops back up in the air and lands gently in my hands.
The game was fugly. Too many fouls, we even saw three technicals and an excessive contact foul. Had a flow to it much like the Chagrin River when it thaws. CSU beat the Blue Streaks of John Carroll, 84-65

Visitor

5 Down: Nancy's pal, in comics (5 letters) Answer: Sluggo (What a creepy comic strip)