An Apology...

My post from yesterday, "CSI: The Real World", was meant to poke fun at the recent slew of TV shows based around "crime scene investigators" such as "CSI", "Crossing Jordan", and "Bones". These shows typically portray the evidence technicians taking center stage and, for the sake of drama (or melodrama), show them (unrealistically) risking their lives while on the case.

While they're certainly an important part of the law enforcement process, REAL crime scene folks typically take a backseat to the lead Homicide investigators on a case and seldom (if ever) face any true danger (HINT: if they pull out their gun, you know it's fake).

However, based upon the feedback I received, that really didn't come across in the posting.

People passed along such comments as:

"...it was unclear"

"...I was confused"

"...you stink"

"...your blog sucks" (actually, I said the last one myself)

I'm sorry.
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CSI: The Real World

(script idea for a new cop show)

Announcer: Previously on "CSI: The Real World"...

Falconi: HEY STENKLE, I'm the Homicide investigator on this case, you're just the CSI team. Bag the evidence, give me the report and get out of my way!

Theme Music Leads Into Scene One...

Yellow crime scene tape is draped across the door of a prefabricated home in a "low rent" subdivision of Toledo, Ohio. The remains of a heavyset, middle-aged divorcee lays in the middle of a small living room cluttered with beer cans and old National Enquirers. She has apparently met with foul play. Stenkle and Jones, wearing latex gloves, investigate the area around her body.

Stenkle: Looks like a partial print on the whisky bottle.

Jones: Yeah, and I think there might be saliva on that cigarette in the ashtray.

Stenkle: We better let Falconi know, I think that's him pulling up right now...

Fade Out...

Announcer: Next week on "CSI: The Real World"...

Jones: Hey Stenkle, we're out of latex gloves and Q-tips.

Stenkle: DAMN!

End Credit Music Out...
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Say What You Want, She's Funny

Amusing Ann Coulter column on "girl-power" and other things

Particularly humorous section:

Mrs. Clinton's acolytes are floating the idea of Hillary as another Margaret Thatcher to get past the question, "Can a woman be elected president?" This is based on the many, many things Hillary Clinton and Margaret Thatcher have in common, such as the lack of a Y chromosome and ... hmmm, you know, I think that's it.

Girl-power feminists who got where they are by marrying men with money or power — Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Arianna Huffington and John Kerry — love to complain about how hard it is for a woman to be taken seriously.

It has nothing to do with their being women. It has to do with their cheap paths to power. Kevin Federline isn't taken seriously either.

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At Least the Burger King Guy is "Alive"

Interesting article from "Advertising Age" on the latest Orville Redenbacher ad. Soon to be a series of ads.

It IS creepy. However, last year, when they dusted off the 1976 Redenbacher ads, popcorn sales increased. So, this isn't as crazy as it looks (I guess).

Can new Dave Thomas ads be far behind?

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ZZZZZZZZZzzzz

Of these over-rated events, which is the least boring to watch:

a) The State of the Union

b) The Oscars

c) ESPN Classic's replay of the 1974 Grey Cup Championship game.

Answer: c
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It's Not You...It's Me

Just checking out Tom Walsh's Free Press article on the Pfizer shut downs.

I love the exchange between Granholm and Kindler. She really wants us to know it wasn't her fault.

"He was very clear," Granholm told me. "This had nothing to do with Michigan's taxes or business climate. He said we were tremendous partners.

"He stated repeatedly, 'There is nothing Michigan could have done,' because I kept asking him, 'What can we do?' "

She almost sounds like a jilted lover sharing the news with her girlfriends.

Well, at least she didn't blame Engler (yet).

BTW, good job Free Press and News for having the same play on words ("Bitter Pill") in their respective headlines for today.

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The NEW Battlestar Galactica

I think that people who enjoy intelligent television (not the reality/game show crap) should consider adding the NEW Battlestar Galactica to their TV portfolio (that's right I said "Battlestar Galactica").

Sundays at 10pm on the SciFi Channel

Season 3.5 just started last night.

Top 10 Reasons to Give the NEW "Battlestar Galactia" a Try:

1. BSG turns the old, banal 70's Star Wars rip-off on it's ear (BSG's angle is to try to present the storylines as "real")


2. BSG is often more believeable than "Desperate Housewives"


3. The art direction that creates BSG's unique "personality"


4. Tricia Helfer


5. BSG's subtle and even-handed approach to the contemporary political issues it raises


6. Great dialog


7. Adult/mature storytelling


8. Ensemble cast of complex characters


9. Tricia Helfer (yes, I listed her twice!!)


10. The SCI/FI Channel is FREE

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Hitchens on Jefferson and the Church/State Issue

Jefferson's Quran: What the founder really thought about Islam.
The always interesting Christopher Hitchens discusses our third president's views on religion and its role in government.
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Rocky Balboa

I caught "Rocky Balboa" with the boys over the weekend. It was a MUCH better movie than we expected. Nice character development that avoided some of the stereotypical "Rocky" elements.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS:
The final fight at the end was slightly disappointing. Obviously, this is Hollywood, but it's fair to say that the match would have been stopped in the first round.

BTW, could it be that Rocky is supposed to be dead at the end (even though it's NOT explicitly depicted that way)?

It would be fun if "Rocky is Dead" turned out to be the new "Paul is Dead" game -- as people compile clues pointing to Rocky's death scattered throughout the movie. For instance:

• The last shot of the movie is at a cemetery and Rocky sort of dissolves into the background (rather then walking away).

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Biden vs. McCain

Joe Biden announced his candidacy for president in '08 on "Meet the Press" last Sunday .

The Democrats are absolutely crazy if they don't nominate him.

Right now if it's McCain verses any of the current Dem frontrunners in a national election (Clinton, Obama, Edwards), my money would be on McCain. I think the only Democratic candidate who could beat McCain would be Biden.

On the other hand, it's conceivable that the GOP would nominate a "true conservative" instead of McCain. So, if it's Clinton or Edwards vs. the GOP's Mitt Romney (or Newt Gingrich), then all bets are off (and I'm voting for myself as a write-in).
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Bond IS Back

I caught the new Bond flick, "Casino Royale" the other day. This is a welcome restart to a series that was starting to showing its age.

It's about 30 minutes too long and could have lost one of the "action" sequences (you see one guy hanging from the top of a speeding gas tanker, you've seen 'em all).

However, Danial Craig does a good job of making the character his own. Matt Damon should take "tough guy" lessons from him (to be fair, I don't get why Matt Damon is a star in the first place).

The plot is interesting and surprising follows the original 50's novel as much as a story taking place in 2006 can.

Great ending.

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Paris 1919

Great book..."Paris 1919" by Margaret Macmillan.

Description from Amazon.com
For six months in 1919, after the end of “the war to end all wars,” the Big Three—President Woodrow Wilson, British prime minister David Lloyd George, and French premier Georges Clemenceau—met in Paris to shape a lasting peace. In this landmark work of narrative history, Margaret MacMillan gives a dramatic and intimate view of those fateful days, which saw new political entities—Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Palestine, among them—born out of the ruins of bankrupt empires, and the borders of the modern world redrawn. (end description)

Get the CD set, not the book itself. Although, since I went to public school, it helped to have a map handy during the descriptions of how Europe got cut up after WW1.

Amazon Listing
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