Oprah has now joined the Forbes magazine list of billionaires.

Why does this make me nervous?

The passing of Fred Rogers seems ripe for comment, especially given that Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood started about the same time I did, thus qualifying as some sort of generational touchstone. To be honest, though, it was not a staple of my childhood TV viewing (I actually watched precious little PBS kids' programming, though I did enjoy The Electric Company).

So while not going on about how Henrietta Pussycat shaped my worldview, I can lament losing one of the more rational voices in the TV wilderness. It's rare to find someone, in TV or not, who has such a singular passion, especially at a time when the trend was away from his message and methods for getting that message out.

I was lucky enough to be working the day that Rogers got an honorary degree from BU in 1992. I did not attend the baccalaureate service he officiated - Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister - and now wish I had. He didn't give the main address that year (the honor going to Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, who went on forever), but he did get the entire crowd to sing "Won't You Be My Neighbor," which is pretty impressive when sung by 20,000.

Anyway, one hopes his trolley ride to the Land of Make Believe is smooth and enjoyable.

Just read the news today, oh boy: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is going off the air at the end of the season, closing off a seven year run on the netlets. While this kind of saddens me, at the same time I've been way out of touch ever since Buffy went off to college.

I started watching the show near the start of its run, and mostly by accident. One night I was flipping through the stations, came upon it, and thought to myself, "great, more teen twaddle." But I stopped for the cursory moment, planning some sort of mockery that never came. Turned out I liked the show. Liked the writing, liked the acting, liked the darker tone, really liked Sarah Michelle Gellar. Allyson Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter weren't bad, either. But it really was about the show.

Like many post-collegians who liked the show, there was a certain stigma related to watching. Part came from the movie that preceded the show, and part came from the teen-focus of the WB, making it seem like any show there was suitable only for those not yet legally allowed to drive (unlike those of us who just never got around to it). But I soldiered through, and found soon enough that there were others like me who liked the show. As with many things that aren't well understood, having a growing community of fans made it seem less odd to like the show. I don't mean to make it sound so dramatic, but it was an interesting process to be a part of, even in my very small way.

And then the show just blew up. It never got the sort of ratings of Friends or the top shows, but in terms of cultural (and generational) cachet, you couldn't get any better. Then came the inevitable "slump" (real or imagined, based on how much of a fan- or fanboy- you were) after it became popular. The glamming of the cast didn't help, especially when Gellar's movie career started to go places. So it could be just the right time to wrap it up, rather than try to milk another season out of it (unlike some other shows that are seemingly impervious to the axe).

Even as a nominal fan now, I'm sad to see the show go. I suppose this means we may see new Buffy movies, which would be pretty cool.

And so it goes: the last American Idol semifinal. Simon predicted last week that tonight's octet would outshine last week's. It didn't. But it didn't fail, either. It was pretty much a push.

For the first time, though, the guys were clearly better than the women. Sylvia started off, and was OK, but she has a very unusual sound to her voice which didn't help her. Simon also noted she sang with her mouth open too wide, which she denied, but at times she looked like a Muppet. Juanita brought thrice the attitude and none of the vocal skill that Frenchie, who she replaced, would have. She stunk, and had the temerity to tell Simon and Randy they didn't know anything. I may not like the acts those two have produced, but you can't argue with results.

Nasheka had a similar problem as Sylvia, having an unusual tone that didn't work well with the piano alone. Ashley mostly got comments on her looks and how she could get into modeling or acting, which tells you how the singing went. Sarah says she sounded like Baby Spice, which is probably comment enough.

So, to the guys. The first guy out was Chip, who I thought sounded pretty good but according to the judges was lacking in emotion and character. I must not have the eye for finding that, because most of the guys look pretty much the same. Some manage to appear more emotional than others, but I can't see such dramatic difference.

Anyway, next up was Patrick, the "rocker" who sang a song either by Damn Yankees or Bad English; I can't tell them apart. I would like to see him get through just for some variety, but I think Simon was on to something when he called him a "wolf in sheep's clothing." If you look at Patrick's bio, what musical act does he mention the most? Michael Jackson. An odd choice for someone who's only hand gesture is the horns.

That leaves us with Joshua, the Marine, and Corey, one of the party guys from the Glendale auditions who, upon forgetting the words to "Kiss From a Rose" during the group portion, made up words and got next to Paula to flirt his way to her vote. I'd have to say that these guys will most likely get through. Joshua sang "I'll Be," kind of funny given Edwin McCain's appearance on last week's audition special pleading people to stop butchering his songs. Joshua did pretty well, comparatively.

Corey was a big surprise for me, given that I was set to dislike him based on the events in Glendale. Apparently it was a growth moment for him, as he was probably the best of the night.

So I'll say Corey and Joshua get through, with the third finalist being one of the women, though which one is pretty much a toss-up. I'm holding out for Chip as a dark horse, at least so he can get on the wild card show.

I know that the keyboard is an integral part of the computer, but I think my work machine is taking things too far.

When the plug comes out, the CPU starts to beep. A lot. Even worse, if you're hitting keys trying to figure out what the problem is, it seems like that makes things worse. Which is impossible, as the thing isn't plugged in.

So I go to restart. Except that my computer, when it can't find the keyboard, won't boot. I then have to hit the F1 key to run the setup, and am then told that the operating system is nowhere to be found. Suffice it to say that gets one's attention.

I called the help desk here, and started to explain the problem. I started to read one of the more heart-stopping lines, and the woman on the other end finished the sentence for me. I was happy to see this was common enough that she knew what I was talking about, but felt like one of those idiots who think the CD-ROM drive is a drink holder when I was told to check the keyboard plug.

I'll blame it on over-engineering and think warm thoughts about my Mac.

Bill Simmons may have written one of the worst pieces ever in his Grammy log. Never mind the overt and covert sexism, he's just wrong in a number of places.

1. Joe Pantoliano has been wearing Kangol hats for years. Perhaps not less disturbing, but it's not exactly recent.

2. It's Tito PUENTE.

3. "A Thousand Miles" isn't a new song. It's not even the most recent single from Vanessa Carlton's album!

4. Apparently Bill doesn't read columns by his fellow ESPN.com writers in regards to a Tyson reality show.

5. "...Nothing but good things to say about Avril Lavigne"? It's qualitative rather than factual, but come on! I assume he didn't have the sound up while casting lecherous glances at his TV.

6. Apparently, Simmons missed the point that the band The Roots was backing up Eminem, not just a drummer wearing a Randall Cunningham jersey. How much of this show did he actually watch?

7. Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow have a single out now. I don't like it, but it's popular; it's even in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. That may explain their pairing here, don't you think?

8. Simmons seems to think that Joe Strummer played the drums for The Clash. I don't even know where to begin with this. Let's see...

a. His stage name was Joe Strummer. You don't exactly "strum" the drums.
b. Simmons fails to note Strummer by name, even though he was the last person in the death montage,
c. AND WAS SHOWN PLAYING THE GUITAR.
d. A cursory check of the All Music Guide shows that The Clash had two drummers, Terry Chimes and Topper Headon, who both appear to be very much alive. Heck, that may have been one of them playing last night. You'd think someone with network credentials (even if it is for Jimmy Kimmel's show) could have gotten a press release.

Considering that Simmons alludes to The White Stripes and The Strokes as having "jumpstarted the garage/punk sound again," you'd think he'd have even a basic grasp on who Joe Strummer was. Otherwise he's talking out of his ass... oh, wait a minute.

To be fair, in the original version I referred to Simmons as "Brian," apparently channeling the linebacker from the Bengals. There's apparently a Blue Jays player by this name, too, but I've not heard of him. Nobody's perfect, but I'm still seven mistakes behind Simmons, at least.

Fred Durst just made an anti-war comment! God help us all!

If it's an awards night, I'm watching, though with the Grammys there's some trepidation. Two main notes so far:

1. Coldplay won both of the awards they were up for (presented earlier), and then performed "Politik" with the NY Philharmonic under the direction of Michael Kamen (natch). Pretty good, would have liked a little more out of the orchestra (based on Kamen's work with the San Francisco Symphony and Metallica, but he probably had less time here, and I don't think it was the full orchestra). Nice to see Coldplay win, though!

2. While not as Biblical plague-bad as at the Billboard Music Awards, Avril Lavigne was still pretty horrific in her performance of "SK8R Boi." Which means she's probably a shoo-in for Best New Artist.

Let's see, what else? Harvey Fierstein came out in drag (from his role in Hairspray) and presented the best comedy album award with Rod Stewart, who looked incredibly hammered. Robin Williams won, did an OK speech/schtick, but interestingly gave props to Chris Rock for prodding him to get back out on the road. Justin Timberlake presented an award that Britney was nominated for, but didn't win, thus avoiding the drama. Then again, the Grammys are getting about as bad as the AMAs in terms of the award going to someone who just performed.

Puff Daddy and Kim Cattrall presented some award, and he couldn't stop looking at her breasts. Apparently he thought wearing shades would hide the fact- even though he had to turn his head and move it up and down to get the full look he apparently craved.

The show is performance heavy, a ton of awards you'd think would get live coverage didn't. Very odd.

The show's a bit of a celebration of New York City, and to that end Simon and Garfunkel opened with a very off rendition of "The Sounds of Silence." That was too bad.

So it only took 11 years, but BU finally won a CBI regional title.

I know that there are many, many people who see doing this being roughly the same as winning a beer-league softball title, but I still have a soft spot for CBI. It was always our best format when I was a player, and I like that there's still a place in the world for a QB competition where speed and a sense of the world around you matters for something (NAQT also does this, but has to balance the more academic side of things as well, so they get props to a point).

I was also very happy with the Babson team's performance, especially as they were playing as a three person team. The fourth, who very well could have made a difference, decided he didn't want to go. I have trouble abiding that level of flakiness.

There's a better than average chance that I'll go to CBI nationals as a BU "volunteer." It'll be interesting to see how my experience meets with the round of stories that seem to come from the NCT.

One change CBI's made over the last couple of years was to institute a four team double elim playoff structure. I kind of wish they'd done this about 8 years ago, as I'd have liked our chances in any playoff format which didn't guarantee playing Harvard in the semis. I'd also like to think that string of third and fourth places would have been dotted with a second place here or there, and perhaps even a wild card berth.

Speaking of which, CBI's gotten rid of the wild card berth at nationals. That sucks. They should look to expand their field rather than contract it.

So the problem may not have been Blogger. I may have had the wrong pasword to FTP into the server here. Pretty smart, huh?

Publish, dammit!

OK, the thing says this last published today at about 11:30 am, but nothing's showing up on the actual page. Let's try this again.

Blogger is having trouble accessing template files, meaning yesterday's posts are still languishing here. Let's see if I can publish now.

Go figure that on a day where I post about my dad, both he and my mom got mail today. Mutual of Omaha wants to give dad life insurance of up to $10,000 - no health questions asked! I'm tempted, but I can see where I could get into trouble real quick with this.

As for my mom, AARP would like her to sign up as a member. Unless they've made some radical changes to their eligible membership, that's not going to happen.

Interestingly, both used my parents' names and the Babson forwarding address as their actual address. So I can look forward to this for the duration of my stay, I'm sure.

So I've had my dad in my head the last couple of weeks, partially from an email, and part from ongoing bureaucracy.

The email included three pictures of my dad, one of which you can see here. Don't know what else I can add to it and my captioning, other than to say his manner of dress did improve over time, though he never lost his taste for bright colors. I was pretty young when the picture was taken, probably no more than 12.

The bureaucratic part of things came in the US mail, as I got both his reapplication for his driver's licence and his new AFSCME membership card. How he's still a member in good standing without having worked in a couple of years is beyond me, but then again what do I know about how unions work? I did contact the AFSCME local to straighten things out, but haven't called the registry yet. It may be better just to let things lapse given how helpful the RMV usually is.

Another Wednesday, another American Idol recaplet and handicapping.

The third group of eight semifinalists was much different from the first and second, in that there were no truly stand-out competitors and no truly mockable ones, either. The group as a whole brought a high meh rating, even though they seemed to think of themselves as pretty hot stuff.

That declaration was made by Equoia, who was the best singer of the night. Sadly, not much which passed before her performance (or afterwards) would back it up. That being said, there's a pretty tight race for the other finals spot, as there was not much difference among the other seven.

Having said that, I'm discounting Kimberly Kelsey (yes, another Kimberly- is there one for every semifinal group? Sadly, no.), George, and Louis off the bat. Just as some animals are more equal than others, some contestants were more lame than others. I will second Cooch on the notion that there's something about Louis that isn't quite right. It could be youthful exuberance; he is just 17. Could be some burgeoning mouthiness. Who knows?

That leaves four contestants - Rickey, Jordan, Vanessa, and Samantha - who were all about as good as each other. Vanessa is part of the unskinny, big voiced sisterhood, and may wind up getting the spot in memory of Frenchie. Samantha fits into the faux-soul tramp position that Julia has as a finalist, and it would be a shame to have the two of them fighting for the same niche (unless Jell-o is involved). Jordan and Rickey are pretty similar to every other male contestant, trying to wring as much soul out of songs as possible. I'm leaning towards Rickey, as the producers have worked to make him a favorite (more face time, including his Nutty Professor-themed outbursts) and he did tackle a Brian McKnight song which may have been better left untackled. When in doubt, reward the person who was able to push themselves without sounding ridiculous (hereby dubbed the Smith-Fuentes Law).

So I'll go with Equoia and Rickey, with Vanessa coming in third. Don't be surprised if those last two change positions.

In other news, I'm kind of confused at how, after a four day weekend, I am this tired on my return to work. I didn't get the best night of sleep last night, but it's not like I did anything. Heck, there was a goodly span where I didn't even leave the apartment other than to sweep out the deck and back walkway (not having a proper shovel, not being able to find our improper shovel, and using the light and fluffy quality of the snow to my advantage). Last night's added snow wound up being brief and not much to worry about.

I'm also a bit confused about the burgeoning field for the 2004 Democratic presidential primary. On top of the six already in the race (Kerry, Edwards, Lieberman, Dean, Gephardt, and - yikes! - Al Sharpton), it looks like we're getting US Rep Dennis Kucinich and former US Senator from Illinois Carol Moseley-Braun. Kucinich led Cleveland into default in 1978, making me think he's less the FDR Democrat he calls himself as much as he is a neo-Hooverite. Moseley-Braun had a pretty challenging term as a senator, from allegations of an improper loan from her campaign to a visit with a Nigerian strongman. She did get to ride out Clinton's term as ambassador to New Zealand, which is pretty cool.

And the field may just keep growing, with overtures from Joe Biden, Gary Hart, Bob Graham, and Chris Dodd. Heck, I'll be 35 when Inauguration Day rolls around. Hmm...

In any case, as much as I like the idea of a big field with lots of variety, there's a point to which this gets silly. My personal hope is that someone goes completely off the reservation and decided to take the Reform Party over from Pat Buchanan, forcing Patty-Pat to take over the US Taxpayer's Party or something. My alternate idea would be someone finally giving the Green Party a candidate with campaign experience, but my fear is that it'd be Sharpton. Everyone else is too ensconsed in the Democratic party.

I suppose it'll make fun TV.

The final tally at Logan was 27.5 inches, which is just slightly more than what we got back in '78. Inland locations got a little less; here in Swellesley we probably got in the 20 inch range. Though once you get over 18 inches, why bother counting? Could be worse; one town in Maryland recorded 44 inches of snow.

We're supposed to be getting another 2-4 tonight, just enough to keep the road crews out and further tax the snow removal bugets, which in most towns had already been blown before this storm. With the looming cuts in local aid, expect any state income tax relief to be taken up by local property tax overrides (local property taxes are capped as to how high they can rise in any given year, but localities have the ability to vote for either general or specific overrides to make up funding gaps).

This may all be rendered moot later in the week, as temps rise and we may get some rain. But then it may snow again on Saturday. That would, I think, be the second time we've gotten snow on a day where Bentley College is hosting the CBI regional tournament. An argument for not letting them host anymore, though I don't think the regional coordinator (a Bentley person) would buy into that.

Yeah, it's snowing here.

A couple days ago, it was 3 to 5 inches. Now we're looking at upwards of 30 inches, with most folks getting in the two foot range. I suppose it's better than them saying 3 to 5 inches this morning.

The current snowfall should trigger some sort of reverie on the Blizzard of '78, but to be honest I don't have a ton of memories from that. I do remember taking a family walk around the neighborhood to see all the snow as the storm was dying down, and that the snow was up to my head in places. We got some time off of school, too. Otherwise, I think I was just young enough to not have the sort of memories that were being paraded all over the damn place last week when the silver anniversary of that storm passed.

The other big storm that's been getting referenced was the April Fool's storm in 1997. The most notable thing there was that we lost power, and I thus had to try to listen to the Arizona-Kentucky NCAA tournament final on the radio. As you can imagine, that met with little success.

I have to admit a bit of a blase attitude regarding blizzards. I'm not one who runs out and stocks up on bread, milk, or wadded beef. I know, it is serious weather and could be dangerous if there's a lot of wind or if I have to get to the hospital or something, but by and large blizzards are more inconvenient than anything else.

Except that I'm getting tomorrow off thanks to this one. Thanks, Mother Nature!

You'll be glad to know that the Boston-area was not forgotten in today's worldwide protests for peace. About a half-dozen women with hand-made signs instructing us to "honk if you want peace" were on the corner of Beacon and Harvard Streets in Brookline when we went by at about 1 pm. I suppose the first string was down in NYC.

We didn't honk, but given our horn they'd have probably thought we were taunting them. Our horn is craptacular.

In other news, the final Valentine's Day as a single person has come and gone. As I've told Sarah, from here on out she's getting household items (she's already looking forward to her mop for 2004). I suppose the watch I got her this year wasn't so bad. And she did get me the Schoolhouse Rock DVDs I asked for (or so I assume; they aren't here yet). Nothing says love like "Verb, That's What's Happening!"

For anyone looking for a good compare and contrast exercise related to sports journalism, please compare Steve Rushin's most recent Air and Space column for SI with this report on Bill Murray's performance at the Bing Crosby pro-am. There's a reason why the NBA may be seeing a shrinking fan base while Caddyshack continues to be popular.

Went and saw The Recruit last night, and it was OK. Al Pacino kept the scenery-chewing down, Colin Farrell had a little trouble fighting his brouge, and Bridget Moynihan is highly toothsome (the second day in a row I've used that word, go figure). Considering he could have made an on-set love connection, I am not sure why Farrell decided to go on skank patrol, though the publicity couldn't have hurt. He's apparently also been mixed up with Demi Moore, hopefully after he made Hart's War with her ex-husband.

I mention this not to half-heartedly note a movie or spread celebrity dish, but rather to note that this is the fourth movie I've seen in a row where I was on-call and got paged. This started way back when with Wolf, and to be honest the interruption was welcome. I can't recall what the other two movies were, which perhaps speaks for their quality as well.

I initially begged off the movie, but the other RD, Brian, said he'd hold the pager for me. And, true to form, it went off with about 10 minutes left in the film. Such is the power of this thing.


I know, you may be thinking four movies in nine years, what's the big deal? I suppose it could be worse- I could be getting paged with things that would force me to leave the theater- but it's just another sign of what passes for luck in my day to day life.

Anyone trying to follow the Frenchie Davis link from yesterday probably noticed the rather hasty replacement page Fox has put up. That's because Frenchie got bumped from the program, as she admitted to working for a porn website in the past. Not a lot of details out there, and I suppose that's for the best.

I'd be interested to see the morals clause in the agreement these folks sign to be on the show. I'm sure it's something out of the 16th century.

OK, you're getting my American Idol handicapping now because I don't know what sort of time I'll have to do it tomorrow.

As a group, they were better than last week. Suffice it to say that either of last week's winners would have been hard pressed to make the top three this week. Speaking of which, the three people I highlighted in my earlier post- Clay, Ruben, and Kimberly- would be my choice to make the top three. Clay overpronounced words, but not badly, and he even made Journey somewhat less cringe inducing. Ruben was smooth, no problems. Kimberly got into some sort of sass contest when Simon ranked her low on personality, but sung very well.

I tend to not like the contestants who talk back, but tonight wasn't so bad. Those that did talk back were generally rational. Kimberly looked like she was having more fun than anything else, though I think she relished the opportunity to give Simon lip. Jacob, who would probably rate in the bottom two (along with Jennifer, who was God awful), actually spent more time kissing ass than talking back, but incurs the wrath anyways.

Three of the women- Candace, Rebecca, and Hadas- were OK, but didn't seem competitive. They'd have all challenged last week, I think. Candace has a very unusual tone to her voice, which some called smoky but which to me sounded more like she wasn't getting enough air. She sang "Take Another Piece of My Heart," which probably wasn't for the best, either. Hadas sang "You Light Up My Life," and didn't kill (who'd have thought, singing Debbie Boone and all). Rebecca sang something by Anita Baker, which didn't help her get out of the jazz/cabaret box that Simon put her in during the first tryouts.

I'm predicting Ruben and Kimberly. I'm hoping for Clay and Ruben. I think the reason I pull for Clay is that he looks so un-Idol like. There's nothing plastic about him. He does have an oddly shaped head, but I assume it's all natural.

Spent last night at the Fleet Center, watching BU maintain its death grip on the Beanpot by outlasting BC 3-2, making it the third 3-2 game they've played this season, and the first the good guys have actually won. Just to give you some perspective on BU's domination of this event, there are three things you should know:

* This is BU's 9th title in the last 10 years.
* BU played in its 19th title game in the last 20 years last night.
* In the 51 year history of the Beanpot, BU has appeared in 42 championship games.

If the ESPYs had an award for Least Flow in a Game, last night would be a finalist. Not a highlight reel game for either club, unless you're Sean Fields, who walked away with the goaltending and MVP trophies.

Coolest thing: the new video ad boards around the balcony level of the Fleet Center. Very cool, especially by being able to add motion to ads (such as Harvard-Pilgrim's logo stick-figures doing the wave, or the Flonase bottle that shoots... other Flonase bottles).

Next coolest thing: Seeing Jon Couture on the big screen over center ice, and him not knowing it until Meg whacked him on the arm.

Third coolest thing: Watching BC's team stand on the ice and watch all the Terriers taking away hardware. There wasn't even a runner-up trophy presentation. I think there used to be.

Least cool thing: The 20 minutes we spent just sitting in the parking garage before having to back up and join another line of traffic to have any movement at all. That and the $21 we spent to park there.

In other news, another episode of American Idol is on tonight, and to give you even more of what you've not been asking for, here's a preview.

Of the 8 semi-finalists tonight, I can honestly say I've not heard of five of them. Hadas, Jacob, Jennifer, Rebecca, and Candace are as familiar to me after a month of the show as any five 18 to 24 year-olds picked randomly off the street. At least once site that hopefully pays more attention mentions Candace as being one to watch, but I really can't place her. Then again, she is from Toledo, so perhaps I've just repressed her.

That leaves three who made a name for themselves early on. The first is Clay, who was notable during auditions because his voice completely does not match his look, which is about as dorky as it comes. Simon and even Randy were all over his image during auditions, and at least by his photos here I don't know how much change he's going to undergo. Hopefully not much, just to stick it to 'em.

Second, we have Kimberly, who had to do a duet with Frenchie during the group performance phase of the audition because (according to them) the other girls didn't want to have to compete with their voices. And Kimberly does have a big voice. It'll be interesting to see if she tries to overpower people tonight or showcase some hidden range.

Finally, there's Ruben. He's already been pigeon-holed into the Luther Vandross category, and does have that sort of style, though he brings in a little more jazz and gospel. Ruben almost always wears jeans and a backwards baseball cap, so it'll be interesting to see him dress up. He's also probably the largest guy they've had on the show, which is cool. Nice to see someone more like my own body type getting some air time where slight, almost sexless pin-ups often rule.

Tonight should be a pretty clear indication of what will rule: sound or style. It could be that the ones I don't know are quite good and will be able to score in both categories, but I'd be surprised.

OK, I'm posting more or less to see if my blog comes up as "NEW" on the Bruce's webroll. That'd be cool. Thinking about the new alphabetical listing over there, I'm half-tempted to rename this AAAA Blogalicious and Bail Bonds.

What else can I tell you? We had the NAQT Northeast Sectionals at Babson today, but it was run by BU. For those you who didn't hear/see, BU couldn't get rooms for free, so rather than pay they came crawling back to me (mwuhahahaha). Which works out well for Babson, as by our figuring bailing them out in such a fashion means we shouldn't have to pay for any BU-hosted tournaments this year. Seems like a fair trade.

And I will say that I think this is something we could do at Babson again. We're a fair ways off based on the size and experience of our team (suffice it to say some of them scorekept for the first time ever today), but from a logistical standpoint things went pretty well. The one issue is travel, as not having a car makes it tough. Commuter rail works, but only if you have a van to shuttle people... which we didn't, as one school van had been towed, leaving the one available for the group with the prior reservation to ours. It all worked out, but was more of a pain.

I once again offer a public invitation to join me in an ESPN.com fantasy game... the Stock Car Challenge. You have $100 million to spend on a stable of five drivers.

Look for the group Going Around in Circles. Password is daytona.

Two news items of note today:

* Genetically-altered pigs possibly sold as food. I am generally not that afraid of altered foods, though I do worry that we're going to royally screw up biodiversity and face something along the lines of the Irish potato famine, but a hundred times worse. The one issue that does worry me is when food that's not supposed to be sold to eat is. I suppose if nothing else this raises the odds that my next barbeque meal will feature genetically-modified ribs with a side of altered cornbread.

Now there's a genetic alteration we need- pigs with meatier, leaner rib meat.

* Internement camps are AOK! Some knucklehead from North Carolina (US Rep Howard Coble, apparently looking to inherit Jesse Helms' mantle) seems to think that it was fine that the government locked up people of Japanese ancestry during WWII. Part of his argument is the familiar "some of them were going to try to sabotage things here, etc." but Coble also makes the argument that the internment was for their own good, protecting them from reprisals. I'm sure the Japanese-Americans in the camps were happy to have such loving protection.

Coble does not seem to think we need to do the same thing now with Arab-Americans, which I suppose is something. Thank God Coble's not in a position of power, say as the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.

Oh, wait.

Depending on the coin flip, I would have gotten one American Idol finalist right for this week. Charles went through, but Kimberly (who actually sang "Come to My Window," and obviously did a memorable job considering I said she sang something else) was shown up for the camera hog she is, getting rebuffed for Julia. One only hopes her mom has more velour for future shows. Trenyce didn't make the cut at all.

I at least did better than Randy and Paula, who both had Kimberly and Patrick (the guy who's dad came out to defend his clothing choice). I actually did better than Simon, who had Kimberly and J.D., the latter based more on looks, I think.

In non-Idol news, we have houseguests. Sarah's sister and her sister's fiance are staying with us as they relocate from the Richmond area (after relocating there from Farmington, Maine about six or seven months ago). They've both already found jobs, which is pretty amazing given the way things are. This probably means a short stay rather than a long one, which is a good thing given that our apartment isn't made for four adults.

Now, what none of you have been waiting for: my American Idol handicapping!

Last night saw the first group of 8 semifinalists. The public votes two of the eight on to the finals. This year you can vote by text message as well as phone, meaning that the results, now more than ever, are going to be decided by those slack-ass 16 year olds in the Verizon Free-Up ads.

In any case, last night proved that the NFL may not be the only people out there in search of parity. Of the 8 performers, only two were quantifiably bad: Bettis and Meosha. None of us watching knew what the hell Bettis was singing. The judges didn't know what he was singing. It's a good bet that he didn't know, either. As for Meosha, all you have to know is that (a) she's trying to look like Ashanti, (b) she was wearing what appeared to be one of Alicia Keys' hats, and (c) her name is close enough to that of Brandi Norwood's best-known TV character that UPN lawyers have to be giving it a second look. I can't remember what she sang, either, but it wasn't good.

Of the other six, I lump them into two groups: the three who were least average, and the three who were more average.

LESS AVERAGE:

* Charles sang something by Stevie Wonder (it is a show rule, I think, that all men have to sing a Stevie Wonder song before they get eliminated). The judges loved him, I wasn't so sure. He was very quiet.

* Kimberly sang "I'm the Only One" by Melissa Ethridge. She did OK. Her voice is deeper than average for a woman, which helped, but she wasn't growly enough. Too much pop. She's a camera hog, too, as she did everything she could to get on air after going first. She's also from Roger Clemens' hometown, but I won't hold that against her.

* Trenyce sang "Love Sneakin' Up On You". Simon hates the song (I don't care for it, either), but she sang pretty well. Probably the best of the night, but that's not saying much. That we now have an American Idol contestant going by one name is sad but not unexpected.

MORE AVERAGE

* J.D. He's related to the Presidents Adams, and perhaps should consider politics rather than singing. He's my R.J. Helton dark horse for making the finals, as he's very non-threatening, both in looks and vocal style. I can see thirteen year old girls voting for him in droves. I have no idea what he sang, as his performance was an auditory analog for Chinese food.

* Julia sang "Son of a Preacher Man" and did OK with it, trying to be alluring but only succeeding in showing off that she has massive gums. I at first was going to lump her into the "big teeth" pool with Ben Affleck, but it really was more gums than anything else. She's kind of a cross between Britney and Carmela Soprano in looks, and her family dresses the part, too (her mom was wearing, hand to God, a purple velour track suit).

* Patrick sang "Unbreak My Heart," and truth be told may have sung it higher than Toni Braxton did. If you just heard the vocals, you would be unsure of the singer's gender. I suppose that doesn't really matter. In any case, Simon spent some time ragging on his suit (we thought it was OK), which led to Patrick's father coming from the ready room to defend his son.

(As the last two notes suggest, family is now back in the ready room with the contestants. This is not a good thing.)

Anyway, if I got to choose I'd go with Trenyce and flip a coin with Charles and Kimberly. Any of the six could go through and it wouldn't make much difference (to the extent that any of this makes a difference).

Wow, I was reasonably correct about both Beanpot games last night. That may be a first.

BU won 2-1, a well-fought win over a solid opponent. Sean Fields' skate save in the third period was the play of the game, as the Terriers notched the game-winner not much later (which, I suppose, most would argue as the most important play as it won the game, but I'll argue cause and effect). As much as I think Harvard is getting some benefit playing in the ECAC, they're a NCAA tournament caliber team. This was their first loss after scoring first (they were something like 14-0-0). BU is now 5-0-0 in games tied going into the third period.

Our loathed rivals from up Commonwealth Ave. took the nightcap 5-2. Northeastern took a 1-0 lead into the locker room after the first period, but didn't score again until BC tallied all 5 of theirs. I was at the computer for about 10 minutes during the second period, and BC scored twice. Bruce Crowder, the NU coach, will be lucky to have a job after the end of the season, given the lack of growth NU's exhibited during his tenure behind the bench.

Which sets up the 16th BU-BC final. Which I will not comment on, my superstition overriding my penchant for making claims.

Oh, one other thing. I've added Julie Stahlhut to my list of non-BU related bloggers at left. Julie is a recently-minted Ph.D. in something bug related (from the Biological Sciences department at Western Michigan). Julie does a much better job than I do in getting to the point in a way that's both an economy of language and entertaining to read.

That and she's named her ovaries. How can I pass that up?

My other item for today was on two TV shows I've been catching on Sunday nights. Go figure that Cooch and the Bruce have mentioned them first. I wrote something up anyway, only to lose it when I screwed up on which browser window I was on. So now you get the shorter version with no links.

The Dragnet revival on ABC (10 pm Sundays) is OK. Ed O'Neill is a pretty good Joe Friday, even if he seems to be even more job-focused (he's now street smart and reads relevant criminal justice literature on top of being a dogged detective). At no time did I picture Friday at home, off-duty, with his hand in his pants. Ethan Embry as Frank Smith is kind of a cypher, hopefully he'll become more than young and dedicated as we continue.

It's pretty plot-driven, being a Dick Wolf production. The intro says that the story is "inspired" by actual events. As long as I don't have the NBC voice-over guy intoning "ripped from the headlines" yet again, I don't care.

In any event, it's better than the laughable 1989 revival, and less grating than the self-hating purveyors of jurisprudence on The Practice.

If cops aren't you're thing but you're still looking for some bloodshed, tune in to the History Channel for Mail Call and Conquest. Mail Call is hosted by former D.I. R. Lee Ermey, who answers your questions about military life while using phrases like "numb nuts" and "grab ass." It's actually pretty informative, giving historical perspective and even some hands-on examples (such as when he had some guys dig foxholes, showing it ain't easy).

Conquest focuses mostly on the Middle Ages, as the host puts some average guys from today through the paces in how to wear armor, use a sword and other period weapons, and otherwise underscore that soldiering was no picnic. There's a certain level of humor here, too, as our modern-day Lancelots try to figure out how to use a mace without falling on their ass.

For those of you who want to try these shows but not wait another six days, both are on tonight from 8-9 pm (EST).

I got this in the email yesterday from the ticket manager of the North Shore Spirit, a new minor league team going in at Lynn's Frasier Field:

"When you registered, you said that you planned on attending less than 10 games during our first season. We are happy to know that you are looking forward to the season and plan on being at nearly all of our games."

Which, on first blush, makes me think they've got a highly abbreviated home schedule if I could go to, say, 8 games and be making almost all of their homes games.

But then I see the next paragraph, where they tout their full-season ticket plan with 46 games.

I'm not sure I'd equate less than a quarter of their home games as "nearly all," but perhaps the team's optimistic that I'll buy more tickets after I spend a few nights marveling at Northeast League baseball, which I'm sure will be fan-tastic.

If you take the time to go to the team's web site you can enter the competition to name the team's mascot... except you can't. The competition closed January 23rd, even though they've kept the link to it on the front page.

Perhaps the best thing about this team (other than their home, Frasier Field, was once condemned) is that the bench coach is Rich Gedman. Great news for those of us (though it may just have been me and fellow RA Paul Crowley) who used to call him Mr. Potato Head.

I'm not going to go into full analysis mode of the space shuttle Columbia disaster, as to be honest there's not much I could say right now that's not being said by a reputable (or even non-reputable) on- and off-line information sources. Instead, I have an odd personal parallel between Columbia and Challenger.

I found out about both at lunch.

Flip back 17 years ago. I was at lunch during our school's ridiculous "split shift" lunch, where you went to twentysomeodd minutes of class, had lunch, and then went back for the rest of class. It was OK for my intro BASIC computer course (it gave the teacher some time to try to learn enough to keep ahead of us), but for an honors European history course it didn't help with discussion or flow.

In any case, I got to lunch and the lunch ladies had the radio on, which was unusual. It was often on in the morning when they were cooking, but they generally had it off when we were there. I noted it was talk, but didn't really pay attention. It wasn't until I got to a table that someone mentioned that Challenger had exploded on take-off. I originally had the same reaction I had today on hearing of Columbia: someone was yanking my chain.

But, sadly in both cases, that wasn't so. We could hear the radio in the cafe (the subdued atmosphere that allowed this should have told me something), and listened to the coverage. We were all pretty stunned, which should probably go without saying.

It was the reaction of teachers that most surprised me, though with Christa McAuliffe on board perhaps that surprise should have been muted. Our history teacher, Ernie Shepard, spent the second half of class in the small storage and office area in his classroom, unable to compose himself to face us. He merely wrote what had happened on the board and took his leave. In retrospect, one of us should have checked in on him, but the teenage fear of embarrasment (both for the person who undertook the task and for Mr. Shepard) was probably too high. That and none us really knew what to do in such a situation. So we sat quietly.

Quiet discussion also marked my English class with Tim Averill, who had applied for the program that put McAuliffe on the shuttle. He had made it into some level of the program beyond application and summary rejection, though not too deeply. I'm not sure how the "there but for the grace of God go I" aspect of things weighed on him. He was pretty well composed in class (all things considered), perhaps because as an applicant he may have actually considered the dangers.

Both incidents made me think of my own nascent dream of becoming an astronaut, one which I never held very deeply past, say, fifth grade, but one that lay dormant for some time. I've always been a fan of space exploration, highly enjoyed the coverage that seemed to sprout from National Geographic as Voyager made its trip, and even had the space motive for starting the application process for the Air Force Academy (derailed pretty quickly due to asthma). I suppose to some level I'm a wannabe, not so bad that I'm contacting NASA about the need for putting more bulky higher ed administrators in space, but enough so that I perhaps become a little too self-involved when things like Challenger or Columbia happen.

In any event, it's been pretty grim following things today, and once I heard about the recovery of "body parts and personal effects" I figured it was time to tune in to something else. But I needed to write something about this, so thank you for your indulgence in reading along.