Blog

Recipe for what sounds like a tasty BLT. And, an article on the return of those amazing little appetizers: pigs in a blanket (apparently, actually little beef franks in pastry, since pork isn’t kosher).
The sad reality that there’s a decline in women in as law clerks in the US Supreme Court, Linda Greenhouse analyzes. Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick discusses it further.

For anyone who ever wondered whatever happened to the ex-“Night Court” judge, Harry Anderson: he moved to New Orleans, opened a club, and in the post-Katrina era, finds that he can no longer stay. Sad story, really.

Tuesday night: Tavis Smiley had a great interview with Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Tulane, regarding his latest book on the first week of Katrina. Brinkley criticizes the feds and the mayor of New Orleans, on the air and, apparently, in his book. I think it was amazing that he managed to get his family out of New Orleans and then immediately got cracking on preserving stories for history.

“If you’re stupid, don’t vote.” An argument against letting the non-informed from voting.
Summer reading: Neil Degrasse Tyson’s companion book to the Nova series “Origins” (with co-writer Donald Goldsmith). Some physics and astronomy stuff that flew over my head, but very well written and very genial voice – kind of like a having a good friendly guide trying to set you on the right direction in appreciating Space, the Final Frontier (apologies to the Star Trek folks).

Sundance Channel ran Mardi Gras Made in China as a counterpoint to our Katrina rememberances. The documentary maker interviews Mardi Gras partiers and the Chinese people who make their beads – both being completely ignorant of each other. The beads might as well have been dropped from Mars; when the workers were shown what was done with the beads, they thought they came from Mars. Who is being indicted here?

One year later. The posts from last year, on it dawns on us that this was something.
NBC’s Brian Williams tonight with a retrospect. The pictures are still hard to grasp.

Trying to plan out the trip to San Francisco coming up in September. Five days there. Hmm. Can’t guarantee blogging while there, but I got a month to figure it out.
Blogging the Emmies. Wasn’t even sure I’d watch, but apparently I am watching. And blogging it. If you don’t want the results spoiled for you, turn away!

Conan O’Brien’s opening gag – a la Billy Crystal’s Oscars thing where he plods through the movies – Conan’s running through the tv shows – well, it ran a little long to me.

Best Supporting Actor to Alan Alda, West Wing. Great for Alan Alda, but he wasn’t even there to accept the award!  And, too bad, Gregory Itzin, the wacked out president of “24.”

The Sheens presenting the Best Supporting Actress in a Drama. Umm… Blythe Danner?! Who the heck watches “Huff”?! The Emmy voters, I guess. But, apparently, they don’t watch “24”! Poor Jean Smart – her First Lady on “24” was great and kicked like that by Emmy voters? Ugh!

They’re cutting people off in speeches. Very bad. The gag that they’ll suffocate Bob Newhart in a vacuum tube with only 3 hours of air to force people to stay within time – funny idea and Newhart’s being a good sport – but the gags are looking to be what’s long, not the speeches.

Jeremy Piven! Yeah!

More unnecessary gags.

Fancy Feast cat food commercial – very nice looking food, apparently inspired by the gourmet restaurant stuff. Not that I’d begrudge cats or dogs, but when they eat food that looks better than what I’d eat, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to think.

Ads for NBC’s upcoming season are making me feel a little displeased.  Then again, I’m not sure how much of NBC I’ll be watching.

I am all for honoring Dick Clark. Do we need Barry Manilow? Clips to honor Clark’s work in general and specifically his old “American Bandstand” were more than enough.

The Ernst and Young gag – introducing them as the auditors – along with Kareem Abdul Jabaar. Funny.

Poor Newhart.  Still stuck?!
So far, “24” hasn’t won the acting awards, but a directing one. Ok.

Tony Shalhoub for Leading Actor in a Comedy. Umm. Okay. Poor Jason Bateman and Steve Carrell. And, yeah, I guess Larry David too (I don’t have cable; can’t speak for David).

Keifer Sutherland! Yeah! “24” gets an acting Emmy. And, his dad Donald in the audience. And, he thanks everyone, plus the FOX network.

“The Office” winning the best comedy award. Guess NBC had to get something. Maybe I’ll start watching the show; seems funny. Sorry to “Arrested Development.”

“24”?! Best drama! Considering that this was the ultimate 24 season – well, yeah, sure!

Bob Newhart freed from the vacuum tube.

And, ending right on time!

Hmm. The definitions of nerd, geek, and dork. Dork is apparently not a good thing.

According to my Nerd Purity Test Result:

You answered “yes” to 18 of 100 questions, making you 82.0% nerd pure; that is, you are 82.0% pure in the nerd domain (you have 18.0% nerd in you).
Your Weirdness Factor (AKA Uniqueness Factor) is 13%, based on a comparison of your test results with 576688 other submissions for this test.

The average purity for this test is 73.8%.

I kind of figured that would be some kind of nerd in me, particularly when the survey whether I could name at least 10 titles of Star Trek episodes. I figured that meant for Original Trek and the spinoffs (in which case, yeah, I probably can name more than 10, or at least 10).

And, according to the Geek Test, I have Geekish Tendencies (which I already knew).

I scored worse on the Geek Purity Test (if only because their questions were… less scientific):

You answered “yes” to 10 of 129 questions, making you 92.2% geek pure; that is, you are 92.2% pure in the geek domain (you have 7.8% geek in you).
Your Weirdness Factor (AKA Uniqueness Factor) is 2%, based on a comparison of your test results with 191614 other submissions for this test.
The average purity for this test is 80.1%.

Guess I’m more nerd than geek. Well, go figure.  [pardon the bad formatting   – it’s looking like italics and blockquoting in parts where they should be either…]

SSW mentioned this fall’s 4-way apartheid Survivor: Cook Islands today. City officials are appropriately outraged, but the question ithat occurs to me is whether there were this many Asians applying for the previous 12 seasons? Amazing Race has 2 Asian teams this year, apparently also to address the reality of the situation. The only Asian American to win a reality show was Dorothy Hui in Anderson Cooper’s The Mole 2 – the Next Betrayal.

The subway nerds ride the entire system in 24 hours 2 minutes. One of them is a U.Mich law student. More people would consider doing it if there were more restrooms than the measly 70 rooms out of 469 stations currently available. Maybe the people fighting over the above-ground street furniture could also do the subways and save everyone a lot of aggrevation.

Umm, yeah, sorry, the official announcement’s out: Pluto is the (Dwarf) Planet.  Not a planet (or at least of the major ones of our solar system).  Lots of corresponding videos on the story too – loved how CNN has as its space correspondent Miles O’Brien on the story (CNN.com has video where O’Brien talks to Hayden Planetarium’s own Neil DeGrasse Tyson on the topic of Pluto’s demotion – which Tyson had got on the bandwagon long ago).  As crazy as it sounds, the Trekkie in me would say – “Ohmigod, Miles O’Brien?” – which I’m sure this non-fictitious O’Brien has to put up with from Star Trek fans.  But, come on, Star Trek’s Chief Miles O’Brien was a great guy!  And, I’m sure he liked Pluto… or would like Pluto, anyway.
The gimmick of this upcoming season’s “Survivor” – wherein team’s are initially set by race/ethnicity (that is, before the presumed merger, where one tribe is made to determine the ultimate winner) – well, it just gives me pause.  A long pause.

Ah – “Scrubs.” As a tv show, it makes me both laugh and cry. So sweet and fantastic.

Caught most of the re-airing of the season premiere of “Prison Break” on FOX. Looks like Wentworth Miller’s Michael Scofield has an opposition that actually is on his level of cleverness. Michael’s love interest, the prison doc Sarah is left in a rather bemused mood (well, who can blame her?). His brother Lincoln’s ex-girlfriend/lawyer… well, let’s just say… poor Veronica.

An article on the man behind Elmo. Cool:

Mr. Clash, a six-foot-tall African-American puppeteer, created that bright-red Muppet monster from “Sesame Street.” You know, the one with the falsetto and constant laugh. Although Mr. Clash, 45, has been Elmo’s constant companion for 20 years, he has not been nearly as identifiable as most celebrities. So a common reaction from some black adults — children ignore him and talk directly to Elmo — is “Elmo is a brother!” Mr. Clash said.

“It’s pertinent,’’ Mr. Clash said of his racial identity, during an interview in his small Sesame Workshop office near Lincoln Center in Manhattan. He has just started promoting his book, “My Life as a Furry Red Monster: What Being Elmo Has Taught Me About Life, Love, and Laughing Out Loud” (Broadway Books). It goes on sale Sept. 5. [….]

Elmo was born in 1983, Mr. Clash writes. Mr. Clash was a Muppeteer in training when a “Sesame Street” colleague tossed him “a shapeless, soft bundle of red” — the show wanted a red monster — and challenged him to come up with a voice for the thing.

“His voice couldn’t be too primitive,” Mr. Clash recalled the other day. “He wasn’t as articulate at first. I’d used that falsetto voice in my characters before. When he gave me the puppet, I knew that was the voice.”

There is now a veritable Elmo empire, with dolls, puppets, videos and books, among many other products. [….]

Comic strip follow up: So, Mary Worth got mad at her stalker and slams the door on him. Yeah, that’s right.