New Year’s Messages for Ryan Seacrest and Christina Aguilera

According to this story, Ryan Seacrest wants to celebrate the New Year by kissing Christina Aguilera. Apparently, he kissed Mariah Carey last year, and wants to continue his New Year’s tradition of kissing beautiful female pop artists. Although they may be too busy today to read this post, I would like to send a message to both Seacrest and Aguilera.

Dear Ryan: While I can understand why you would like to kiss Christina Aguilera to begin the New Year, don’t do it. She’s a married woman and probably does not want to kiss you. Her song "Ain't No Other Man" is not about you! It's about her husband. You have a great gig by taking over New Year's Rockin' Eve for Dick Clark; don’t embarrass yourself more than usual.

Dear Christina: When you see it is 11:58, run and hide!

Saddam

As everyone knows by now, Saddam Hussein has been executed. The news of his execution broke just before 11:00pm Eastern time yesterday. As I was clicking through numerous television stations, I was shocked that the four major networks, ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, did not have any coverage of this. The local DC stations all started their newscasts with the story, but then went to the usual local news and weather. Repeats of Letterman and Leno were both aired without interruption. The cable news stations such as CNN and MSNBC provided all-Saddam coverage, but that's what the cable news stations do.

Here's my question: why were the four major networks not covering the execution story? Where were Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams and Katie Couric? Even if they're all on vacation, shouldn't someone else have been available? This is a huge national and international story. The United States has gone to war with Iraq twice in the past two decades. After weapons of mass destruction were not found, the spin provided by the Bush administration was that the U.S. got Saddam out of power. It seems to me that the news of Saddam's death should have been covered by the major networks. At least Anderson Cooper was on CNN.

I Feel Bad for John Edwards

Trying to get attention away from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, John Edwards picked this week (specifically yesterday) to declare that he is running for President. Edwards picked this week to announce his candidacy because his campaign believed that the week between Christmas and New Years would be a slow news week. So what happened? Gerald Ford died, James Brown died and Saddam Hussein may be executed any day now. Plus, there's always news regarding the war in Iraq. So much for a slow news week.

The Next Level

Sean’s Ramblings is coming up on its 2-year anniversary and I feel like I’m at a crossroads of what to do next. I’ve recently discovered DC Blogs and an entire DC blogger community. There is a DC Blogger Summit hosted by washingtonpost.com and I’ve seen information about blogger happy hours. I’m debating whether or not I truly want to be part of this community. On one hand, it would be cool to branch out and meet new people. Conversely, I’m comfortable being somewhat anonymous and as I’ve recently discovered (confirmed?), I’m a sloth. I could be way off base, but it seems like many of DC blogger "cool crowd" can post information during the day. I refuse to even check my blog at work since I’ve heard stories of people being fired for posting work or personal information at the office. Therefore, I limit my writing to evenings, weekends, and sometimes early in the morning.

I am also trying to decide what to do next with this site. Should I focus more on sports, TV, music or things going on in the DC area? Should I add more (or less) about my personal life? Can I take this site to the next level? I’m really not sure.

In reality, I probably won’t do anything new and just stay with the status quo. That seems to have worked for me the past 2 years.

Leftovers

Did you ever want to know how to say Sean’s Ramblings in other languages?
French: Ramblings de Sean
German: Ramblings Seans
Italian: Ramblings del Sean
Portuguese: Ramblings de Sean
Spanish: Ramblings de Sean

OK, Sean’s Ramblings doesn’t translate very well, but the Google Language Tool is pretty cool.

Thanks to everyone for providing names of songs with state titles. I actually found the following link with names of songs for all 50 states. It is typical that the list does not include a song with D.C. in the title.

This is a few days late, but Mondesi’s House has a fantastic list that ranks the best Pittsburgh athletes by uniform number. For example, Dave Parker narrowly edges out Willie Parker for the best Pittsburgh athlete who wore the number 39.

After driving 1345 miles on the hockey roadtrip, I have only put 35 miles on my car since I returned last Tuesday.

Yes, I’m still upset that I started Tim Rattay over Trent Green or David Garrard. I am also not very happy with Sammy Morris.

Fantasy Blues

I know that no one cares about hearing or reading about someone else’s fantasy football teams, but I need to vent. Thanks to LaDainian Tomlinson, I reached the championship game, which took place this weekend, in both leagues.

In my 16-team league, I have reached the championship game in three of the four years of the league’s existence. This year marks the third time in four years that I have LOST in the championship game! The worst part about this year is that I lost by two points.
Freakin’ Sammy Morris had a whopping 14 yards rushing and 23 yards receiving (3 total points) to give my opponent the victory. If I started Trent Green or David Garrard instead of Tim Rattay, I would have won. If I started the Cincinnati Bengals defense instead of the Jacksonville Jaguars defense, I would have won.

In my 10-team league, I lost in week #2 but have not lost since. Well, that was until I lost this week. I’m not that upset about this loss since I was soundly defeated. Congratulations to regular reader Messiah on his big win.

I think I may need to quit fantasy sports. I put so much time and energy into fantasy football and baseball and never win. Between various leagues, I have been in fantasy baseball and football leagues for the equivalent of about 30 seasons. That’s a long time without a championship. I feel like the Cleveland Browns! This is probably just frustration and the fact that I’m tired since I watched the end of the Dolphins-Jets game to see how Sammy Morris played. However, it may be more than frustration.

New Quiz

I'm a little depressed since the Ravens destroyed the Steelers earlier today and my fantasy football teams are not doing very well in both of my championship games. Therefore, I've been searching the web and found the Seven Deadly Sins quiz through Talking Budgie on DC Blogs.

Here are my results:

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Low
Sloth:	High
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Low
Pride:	Medium

A sloth? I'm a sloth? I even looked up sloth in the dictionary for a definition - habitual disinclination to exertion; indolence; laziness. I guess I need to be not so lazy. Am I alone in my slothiness? (Is that even a word?) Take the quiz and please let me know!

Big Day

Happy Sunday everyone! I plan on sitting on my couch for the next seven hours or so watching football. I have no interest in going to any stores, especially after picking up a few items at Giant yesterday, and being attacked by Cub Scouts and the Salvation Army.

The first item on today's agenda is the Steelers-Ravens game at 1:00 Eastern. According to my source in Baltimore (my brother), Ravens fans are already making plans to buy Super Bowl tickets. To quote ESPN's Lee Corso, not so fast my friend!
Although the Steelers are hanging on to slim playoff hopes, and while a win over Baltimore will not determine if they make the playoffs, it would still be a great to see it happen. The Ravens totally dominated the Steelers a few weeks ago, winning 27-0, but today should be a much better game.

I know no one cares, but I am in the championship of my two fantasy football leagues. I'll be watching the statistics of my players and my opponents' players very closely throughout the day. There's a certain running back on San Diego that I will especially be rooting for in a 4:15 game.

More later today...

Songs with States in the Title

During last week's road trip, we were trying to think of songs with states in the title. There are many songs with California and New York (even though many New York songs are about New York City), so we skipped these states. Here's what we came up with (please note that I looked up some of these when I returned):

Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Pennsylvania Polka – Andrews Sisters (I had to look up the artist)
Carolina in My Mind – James Taylor (this could count for either North or South Carolina)
Mississippi Queen – Mountain (I had to look this up too)
Kentucky Woman – Neil Diamond
Tennessee – Arrested Development
Country Roads – John Denver (West Virginia isn't actually in the title, but I'll give "West Virginia, Mountain Momma" the benefit of the doubt.)
Stop in Nevada – Billy Joel
Ohio – Neil Young
Georgia on My Mind – Ray Charles
Blue Hawaii – Elvis
New Mexico – Johnny Cash
Deep in the Heart of Texas - many versions including Perry Como and Bing Crosby
Nebraska – Bruce Springsteen

Since many of you are probably taking your own road trips for the holidays, try to think of some others. The only rule is that you can't use an official state song. For example, Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma" is the actual state song for Kansas (just seeing if you're paying attention).

Please feel free to add other songs you can think of in the comments.

Boo to Barnes & Noble

I went to Barnes & Noble this evening to buy some last minute gift cards. I had an American Express gift card that I was going to use to pay for the B&N cards, but the American Express card didn't work. The woman working at B&N told me that they have had problems with AmEx gift cards and went to speak to her manager. The manager quickly said that they don't take AmEx gift cards, but they would definitely take American Express. I said no thanks, went to Target, and used the AmEx gift card to buy Target gift cards instead.

Therefore, this message is to Barnes & Noble. You are losing business by not taking American Express gift cards! You might want to fix this.

Road Trip Recap

After driving 1345 miles and visiting 6 states over a 107-hour period, I’m back home. Hockey Road Trip 2006 was a huge success as we attended three games in four cities and were able to see friends and family at each stop. Here are some notes from the trip:

In case you were wondering, the Penguins defeated the Islanders 7-4 on Friday night, the Senators won 3-1 at Buffalo on Saturday and the Blue Jackets upset the Red Wings (in a battle of colors) 4-3 last night.

I haven’t shaved since Friday morning, which is probably the longest stretch I have gone without shaving since college. I’m thinking about growing a beard again (which I have not done since college).

If you’re in Buffalo, I highly recommend the Pearl Street Grill and Brewery. Not only are the food and beer (especially the amber beer "Trainwreck") delicious and the atmosphere great, apparently, it is the ONLY restaurant in Buffalo (we ate there on both Saturday and Sunday evenings).

Metallica, Green Day and Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah song seemed to be popular choices by bars, radio stations and arenas. In a related note, I have now lit the menorah (but not with the late Dinah Shore-ah) in four different states (Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Virginia).

Thank you to the fine folks at Nationwide Arena in Columbus for not having the "Kiss Cam" which was featured in both Buffalo and Pittsburgh.

I was briefly embarrassed being a Pittsburgher on Friday when Penguins fans started the wave at the Civic Arena.

When did West Virginia change their motto on the signs when you enter the state? I like "Welcome to Wild and Wonderful West Virginia" infinitely more than "West Virginia Open for Business."

There is so much more from the trip that I’m missing, but I’m a little tired. It could be rough going back to work tomorrow. If I’m dragging I can think about planning for Hockey Road Trip 2007. The early candidates are Chicago-Detroit or Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto.

More tomorrow...

Hockey Road Trip

If you could go on vacation anywhere in mid-December where would you go? Would Buffalo make the top 5? Maybe not, but that’s where I’m heading this weekend as part of Hockey Road Trip 2006. It starts tomorrow in Pittsburgh where the Penguins will face the New York Islanders. I’ll be in Buffalo on Saturday for the Sabres-Ottawa Senators game. Monday is the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets in Ohio’s capital city. I haven’t done a road trip in several years, so I’m really excited about the vacation. Plus I’ll get to spend some time with good friends and family and see three hockey games in four nights. Including the Capitals-Penguins game I attended on Monday, it will end up being 4 games in 8 nights. What a nice way to start Hanukkah and the holiday season!

I’ll try to post some updates from the road, but I’m not sure if it will happen. We’ll see.

Much, Much Lighter Topics

I attended my first Penguins hockey game in almost three years (stupid lockout/strike) last night as the Pens defeated the Capitals. What a fantastic game! The Penguins were kind enough to spot the Capitals a four goal lead before tying the game and then winning in the shootout. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for the Pens and Alexander Ovechkin for the Caps are a lot of fun to watch and will be for many years to come.

Here are some leftovers from the Jacksonville trip:

* I need to apologize to Dan Reeves, who I saw in the Jacksonville airport. When talking to the guy next to me in the security line, I said that he does Cialis commercials. He actually does commercials for Zocor, a heart medication. That's a big difference.

* I don't care if they have been around for 40 years. Huddle House has to be a knock-off of Waffle House, right?

* Parades are nice. You can see marching bands, some celebrities, mascots and more. With that said, unless there is a special "light" parade (like the parades at Disney), a community should not have a parade at night.

Sad News

I did not sleep well last night and it had nothing to do with worrying about my fantasy football team. Yesterday, I learned the tragic news that a former co-worker had committed suicide. I worked side-by-side with this person for several months and my colleague was always available to answer any of my many questions. More importantly, this person was instrumental in my training and truly helped me become a better professional. When this individual left the company, I was devastated because of how closely we worked together, and I was not sure I could handle the additional responsibilities. I found an e-mail I sent about a week after this person started the new job wishing this person luck, thanking this person for all of their help and letting this person know that the new company was lucky to have this person. I received a quick reply that said that my company was fortunate to have me as well, that this person was not surprised to hear that things were going well and to let this person know if any assistance could be provided. That e-mail meant a lot as I felt like I got the reassurance that I could do my job well.

I think like most people I am wondering why. It just doesn’t make sense. It feels like there must have been some kind of reason, but even then, something was so bad that suicide was the only option? I am still stunned and shaken up although you probably wouldn’t know it if you saw me. I don’t want to turn the focus of this post to me, but I rarely show my feelings (with the exception of sporting events) and can appear to be stoic or even cold. You may even be thinking this since I have been referring to my former colleague as this person or this individual as opposed to he or she. I’m trying to create some type of anonymity if at all possible. This blog has been therapeutic for me and a great release to get things off of my mind. I already feel like this is helping, although I’m sure that I will continue to think about what happened and what if for the days and weeks and even months ahead.

Peyton Manning = Prima Donna

Peyton Manning caused a major delay for all flights in and out of Jacksonville, Florida on Sunday! Here’s what happened:

I was in the Jacksonville airport yesterday not long after the Jaguars-Colts game. Dan Reeves was actually in the security line, though I’m not sure what is connection is with either team. Anyway, when we arrived at our gate all the way in essentially the airport basement, there was a secured section where we saw dozens of people going through. I went up to a guy wearing a Colts jersey and asked him if that was the team.

Guy: The players’ bus already arrived. These are the team doctors. Peyton Manning’s over there eating dinner.
Me (trying to be funny): Is he filming a new commercial?
Guy: Not after today’s game (the Colts lost 44-17).

Sure enough, Peyton Manning was standing by the monster Northwest airplane eating and talking to someone who I assume works for the Colts. No other players were in sight since they had already boarded the plane. A few minutes passed and all of the Colts staff had boarded the plane, but Peyton was still talking on the tarmac. Finally, Peyton walked towards a dumpster, threw away his bag about 30 feet away from me (but on the other side of the window) and then boarded the plane. For anyone wondering, I think he was eating Popeye’s.

Therefore, Peyton Manning caused a major delay for all flights in and out of Jacksonville by eating on the tarmac while his teammates and coaches were on the plane. The flight attendants, trying to get him on the plane, were furious when he started chanting “cut that meat” over and over again! OK, the entire thing about Peyton causing a delay or using catch-phrases from his commercials is a bit of a stretch (and not at all true). However, he really was eating while everyone else had already boarded the plane.

As I’m typing this, I keep thinking about the classic hit “Rumors” by Timex Social Club:

Look at all these rumors surroundin' me every day
I just need some time, some time to get away from
From all these rumors, I can't take it no more
My best friend said there's one out now about me and the girl next door

Maybe I’m just really tired.

G'day Mate

I went to an event at the Australian Embassy tonight, the first time I have ever been to an embassy. While the event and embassy were great, I was disappointed by the men's restroom. I think I was expecting to see a koala bear, kangaroo or Kylie Minogue in there or at the very least pictures of these or the Sydney Opera House. Nope. It was just a plain bathroom with sinks, stalls and urinals. In fact, the urinals were made by American Standard! That doesn't seem right.

Small World & New Links

I've mentioned this before, but I really enjoy being able to share my thoughts on what's going on in my own little world. Therefore, I'm always amazed that random people from across the U.S. and around the world find this site, and although they may quickly hit the back button, at least they checked this out for a second or two. Within the last few days, I've had visitors from Beijing, London, Argentina, Rotterdam, Singapore and Tehran. I wonder how many of these international visitors clicked here searching for Steelers or Flavor of Love information.

---

Through DC Blogs, I have found a couple of sites that are now on my list of sites I visit daily. I have added Bee Log and Ar-Jew-Tino to the links section on the right side of this page. They are cool sites, so check them out.

Unfortunately, to make room for the new links, I had to make a difficult decision. Therefore, Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor's Face Me Ike website has temporarily been benched. It has nothing to do with how he has played on the field this season. It's just that the site has not been updated as much as it was during last season. Maybe his blog was playing for a new contract. We will still have him playing in the nickel and dime packages and hope he earns his way back to the links section.

Tenacious D Review

You have all been waiting for it, so here's the review of the Tenacious D concert from Sunday night at The Patriot Center on the campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Fortunately, The Washington Post was kind enough to do the review for me. Wait, you wanted to know what I thought of the concert? OK.

First off, parental discretion is advised for the lyrics of many Tenacious D songs. I generally prefer my music more PG-13. As for the performance, it was more of a rock opera than a concert. There was never a "How Are You Washington?" question (until the encore) or any interaction with the audience by Jack Black and Kyle Gass. The dialogue was exactly from the CD or to set up to the next song. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing; I just don't recall ever seeing this at a concert before. The first set featured JB and KG playing acoustically while the second half included a full band. The band was really, really good!. The Post mentioned this already, but probably my favorite part of the show was D's brief cover of "Pinball Wizard." I was disappointed that D didn't play "Pick of Destiny." Because of the movie commercials and video on VH1, this is probably the song best known by casual D fans.

Overall, I enjoyed the show more than I expected (I should have prefaced this by saying that I had low expectations since I knew only a few songs). If I had to rate the show on a scale of 1 (Norm McDonald at Ithaca College in '95 or '96) to 5 (Rolling Stones and Santana in San Diego in 1999; Adam Sandler at IC in '93), I'll give Tenacious D a 3.3.

The Greatest Canadian Musicians

Last week, I wrote about the 100 top American albums as voted by the listeners of a Pittsburgh radio station. The more I thought of the results, the more frustrated I became since so many artists were missing. Therefore, I decided that I would create my own list of the top 100 American albums of all-time. This idea lasted for maybe 2 minutes when I realized that I didn’t have the time or energy to do this. That’s when I decided to do a list of the Top 25 Canadian musicians. I figured this would be a lot easier.

1. Neil Young
2. Rush
3. Joni Mitchell
4. Barenaked Ladies
5. Celine Dion
6. Shania Twain
7. Alanis Morissette
8. Bryan Adams
9. Paul Anka
10. Guy Lombardo
11. The Guess Who
12. The Band
13. Sarah McLachlan
14. Anne Murray
15. Gordon Lightfoot
16. Nelly Furtado
17. Nickelback
18. Tom Cochrane
19. Avril Lavigne
20. k.d. lang
21. The Tragically Hip
22. Sum 41
23. Michael Buble
24. Diana Krall
25. Corey Hart

Others Receiving Votes: Daniel Powter, Our Lady Peace, Simple Plan, LEN

To me Neil Young was a no-brainer. He has so many hits as a solo artist and as part of groups such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Buffalo Springfield and Crazy Horse. Maybe equally important is his influence as the "Godfather of Grunge" in the early 1990s on artists such as Pearl Jam and Sonic Youth.

Numbers 4 through 7 was a toss-up. Celine, Shania and Alanis are all similar. They have all had massive albums, multiple hits and extremely successful careers. However, as a matter of personal preference, I just couldn’t put Celine ahead of BNL. (Thanks to my friend Jason for providing me with this moment of clarity.)

Guy Lombardo was the toughest artist to place in the countdown. He could actually be #1 because he and his Royal Canadians sold over 100 million records and his version of "Auld Lang Syne" is played everywhere on New Year’s Eve. After Happy Birthday and possibly a few Christmas songs, Auld Lang Syne may be the most played song of all-time! On the other hand, how many people under the age of 40 have ever heard of Lombardo? Guy Smiley – yes; Guy Lombardo – probably not.

Corey Hart had to make the Top 25 just for "Sunglasses at Night."

I should also note that if there is a recording Mario Lemieux singing the "Stanley Cup Shuffle," he would automatically make the Top 10.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments.

Tenacious D and the Hamburgler

Wish me luck. Tonight, I'm going to see Tenacious D, "The Greatest Band in the World" at The Patriot Center. I honestly have no idea what to expect. I like the song "Pick of Destiny," but that's the only song by Tenacious D that I know. I'm just going to assume that the concert will be entertaining.

Opening for Tenacious D is Neil Hamburger, who I believe is not related to Meat Loaf or the Hamburgler. Based on his website, it looks like he is a comedian. Should be interesting.

College Football Saturday

This Arkansas-Florida game is amazing. Whoever makes the least mistakes is going to win. I have only seen the third quarter since I watched the second half of the USC-UCLA game. In that time, Florida Quarterback Chris Leak (who I like) has thrown two interceptions, including one silly shuffle pass returned by an Arkansas defensive lineman for a touchdown; Florida coach Urban Meyer has used all three time outs; and the Arkansas punt returner decided to try an over-the-shoulder catch, which he drops on the 3 yard-line, and is recovered by Florida for a touchdown. What an ugly game!

I have been against an OSU-Michigan rematch, but after UCLA defeated USC today, I think it's going to happen. Even if Florida ends up winning against Arkansas, they don't deserve to play for the national championship.

I can't believe I'm even writing this. There should be a playoff system like there is for Division II and Division III college football.

My Will

We met with a financial planner earlier this week and one of the suggestions we received is to create a will and a living will, especially after the Terri Schiavo case. Although this blog probably does not count as a legal document, if I’m in coma with no chance of recovering, pull the plug.

As far as a non-living will, there are some items that I feel really need to be included. My money (or lack thereof) will go to my wife. My baseball, football, Desert Storm, hockey, Garbage Pail Kids and basketball cards will go to my brother. However, some others items are a little tougher. For example, who will get the following:

* A bottle of Big Ben’s (as in Roethlisberger) BBQ Sauce.
* My Kordell Stewart jersey.
* Senior Class of 1997 Commemorative Wine – Ithaca College Blues and Ithaca College Blush – produced by Lucas Vineyards.
* My ticket stub collection. Where else can you have ticket stubs from Pirates, Penguins, Padres, Nationals, Ohio State and Steelers games along with ticket stubs from Dave Matthews Band, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Debbie Gibson concerts?
* A bag of Snyder of Berlin’s Pittsburgh Steelers Wavy Potato Chips (I’m scared to open the bag).
* My shot glass collection (I’m using collection loosely; I probably have 8 shot glasses).
* A Donald Duck kazoo.
* My collection of "rare" coins such as 1910 penny, 3 1/2 franc coins, 1 Israeli Shekel, a $2 Canadian coin and a 1990 Chuck E. Cheese token.
* Dancing flowers. When you press the button, a Glen Miller Orchestra song comes on and the flowers dance. It’s a big hit among 2- and 3-year olds. Not so much for their parents who don’t seem to like the song playing over and over again.
* This blog! Will I bestow the honor of upholding the history and tradition of Sean’s Ramblings to just anyone?

These are some difficult decisions.

The Light Where?

I'm on the mailing list for The Kennedy Center and recently received information about the musical "The Light in the Piazza," which won six 2005 Tony Awards. Maybe I should have heard of the musical before and I'm probably not the first person to say this, but my initial thought upon seeing the title was that Broadway did an entire musical about a light in San Diego Padres (and former Mets, Dodgers and briefly Marlins) catcher Mike Piazza! Is Piazza like the aliens in the movie "Cocoon" in which they have skin but are actually a giant light under the skin? Is this musical metaphor of a light that went off inside Mike Piazza's head? Does Mike Piazza have a cameo appearance? The baseball season has been over for a month a Spring Training is still a few months away, so he could probably do it.

Big East Basketball

Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline (who I've never heard of before today) wrote an article that really upset me, and I have no idea why. Basically, he wrote that the Big East conference is really good at the top and really bad at the bottom. The more I think about this, the more I think that he's probably right. Pitt, Syracuse, Marquette, UConn and Georgetown should all have great seasons. Meanwhile, Rutgers basketball has been terrible, DePaul has been disappointing and St. Johns is down at the moment. With 16 teams in the Big East, you can't expect all of them to be great.

With that said, how is the Big East different than any other conference? Every major conference has some elite teams and others that are not. Please show me a conference with no bad teams. You may say the ACC. Well, Miami is 4-3 with losses to Northwestern (who lost to Cornell!), Buffalo and Cleveland State. Who has Virginia Tech beat?

That's my rant for today. Thanks for reading.

Random Thoughts

* When did Britney, Paris and Lindsey Lohan all become such good friends? And who is watching Britney’s kids while she is out partying? I cannot see K-Fed taking on the responsibility of babysitting his kids.

* Is anyone going to see "Apocalypto," Mel Gibson’s new movie? I have heard no buzz about this movie except for seeing a few commercials.

* You heard it here first. Barring injuries, Robert Morris’ men’s basketball team is going to make the NCAA Tournament. A.J. Jackson, who is currently averaging 24 points and 10 rebounds a game, is a really good player. I’m looking forward to see how he matches up against Pitt’s Aaron Gray, Levon Kendall and Tyrell Biggs on Wednesday night.

* While it’s not a new show, I’ve recently discovered "Criminal Minds" on CBS. I’ve liked the storylines the few times I have watched the show, and Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) and Greg (Thomas Gibson of Dharma & Greg) work well together. Plus, I don’t feel completely lost like I (partially) do with "Lost" and "Heroes."

* I’m somewhat famous! I was featured (I’m generously using that term) in Blog 'N' Gold on the Post-Gazette website. Thank you Blog 'N' Gold!

Season Over

For once, Steelers fans cannot blame a loss on Ike Taylor, special teams or turnovers. The key to the game was the offensive and defensive lines where the Steelers were totally dominated by the Baltimore Ravens. Offensively, the Steelers had only 21 yards rushing and Roethlisberger was sacked NINE times. Ben was probably pressured another dozen times. Defensively, the Steelers never pressured McNair and didn’t force any turnovers. The finals score was 27-0 but it wasn't even that close.

At 4-7, there is no hope for the playoffs. Five straight wins are not enough in a very competitive AFC. I also do not want to hear any discussion about trying to get a high draft pick. Although the Steelers have not played well much of this season, they are not going to have a Top 5 draft pick…Arizona, Tampa Bay, Detroit, Cleveland, Houston and Tennessee are all teams that are worse than the Steelers.

So what can the Steelers do to improve next year? The obvious answer is for Roethlisberger to cut down on interceptions and for the Steelers to get back to running the football. When Parker runs well, the Steelers win. The offensive line has to get better. Hartings may be at the end of his career, so the Steelers need to determine if part-time rapper Chukky Okobi is the answer at center. Defensively, the linebackers have not made as many plays as you would hope or expect. I think an outside linebacker may be on the Steelers wish list. While Ike Taylor has struggled this year, I still think he can be an effective corner. However, depth at corner is a must. I also hope that Willie Reed can stay healthy to be the answer as a kick and punt returner. Punter Chris Gardocki is probably done as well.

I’ll still watch the season’s final five games but my sports focus is now on the Penguins and Pitt basketball.

The 100 Greatest American Albums

On Thanksgiving Day, Pittsburgh radio state WYEP (91.3fm) had a countdown of the 100 top American albums as voted by the listeners of the station. Since we were listening to part of the countdown, my brother and I debated various albums and artists that should be included on the list. As a countdown of only American artists, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Police, Celine Dion and MC Snow are not included. Our initial thoughts were that Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys would be at the top (we were right). We didn't count Jimi Hendrix because we thought that some of the members of The Jimi Hendrix Experience may have been British. We also decided that we would only choose one album per artist; therefore, we had Nirvana and Pearl Jam in the top 10 (in actuality Nirvana was 11; Pearl Jam 12).

There are many problems with the list, but I'll share just a few. Tori Amos is at #30 and Ben Folds Five (who I like a lot) is at #40. Fleetwood Mac is at #65 with Rumors, but half of the group is British. Even if you do count them as American, how can Tori Amos be 35 spots ahead of them? Michael Jackson is missing from the list as are many Motown acts and artists such as Whitney Houston, Madonna and Mariah Carey. Oh, I have no idea why the Grateful Dead would ever be in the top 10.

November Referrals

I don't want to watch the Madonna concert special or pack for my trip home, so I though I would share this month’s referrals with everyone. For the new readers out there, I borrowed this referral idea from Sarah. These are real searches (usually from Yahoo or Google) that people used to find and visit this place.

dave wannstedt los lonely boys
I don’t see the connection unless Wannstedt is recruiting the Los Lonely Boys to play defense. Maybe they can stop the run.

lip incompletion surgery
Wouldn’t you want lip completion surgery instead?

star of quaker
I’ll go with William Penn since he is the most famous Quaker I can think of. It’s good to know that I remember something about Pennsylvania state history from elementary school.

lyrics crocodile dundee down under
That’s not a knife!

Who is shorty in Las Vegas
I think this is a reference to the mother of Flavor Flav’s next child. I guess what happens in Vegas…

jamal lewis's amusement park
Watch the roller coaster go up and up and up as Lewis runs for 2,000 yards in a season. Uh oh…Jamal Lewis goes to jail, so the roller coaster plummets downward.

tone loc funky col medina lyrics
I think it’s actually Funky Cold Medina, but that’s OK. The one line I remember was "I went up to this girl. She said Hi, my name Sheena. I thought she'd be good to go with a little funk cold medina." Plus there was something about the Love Connection.

Why football coaches don't wear suits
According to Bill Cowher, "I'm not a trendsetter with fashion statements." That doesn’t seem like a good reason. Cowher also said, "I just wear what they put in my locker." That seems more like it.

sitting on a woman's lap
I got nothing. What were you trying to find?

bendick olds
Don’t say Olds say Bendick Olds!


Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Tabloid Fantasy League

ESPN.com's Bill Simmons wrote an article last year with an idea about a fantasy celebrity league. I learned last week (thanks to the Washington Post Express) that this type of league now really does exist. According to the site, www.tabfl.com, the "celebrity fantasy league games follow a photo-based scoring system using TABFL's "Big Four": People, Us Weekly, Star and In Touch. Celebrities with the most photos will score the most points and help you win prizes. Each week we tabulate the pictures and record them in Tabloid Fantasy League's Celebrity Box Scores. Score with your favorite celebrities every week at TABFL. If your celebs are in, you win!"

I actually want to try this. I haven't done much research other than just visiting the website, but if you're interested in joining a league with me, let me know.

Prison Break, Heroes and Football

That's a pretty good Monday night! While I know that Prison Break is extremely unrealistic, the story is good and you become invested in the characters. And who doesn't like a little government conspiracy? Plus the show is easy to follow...unlike Heroes. It doesn't help that I've missed the first few episodes, but I have no idea who is who and how everyone is related. Who are the good guys and bad guys? I'm guessing we're not supposed to know. Over the past few weeks, Heroes has become a must-watch show for me. Are there other people who read this who watch the show and can fill me in? Is this like X-Men where the people are mutants who are misunderstood by everyone else? The person responsible for the tagline "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World," which has been featured in ads for weeks, deserves a lot of credit. I'm guessing that more than a few people tuned into the show just to see what that means.

While I'm sure some of you are expecting me to write about the Steelers, I'm going to wait until next week. To me, next Sunday's game at Baltimore will define the season.

It's halftime of the Jaguars-Giants game. I'm rooting for David Garrard and the Jaguars defense to have a good second half and hope that Jeremy Shockey does nothing. Here's how you (well, me) know that you have a fantasy football problem: I'm going to go to bed soon, but will not sleep well tonight because I'll be thinking about whether or not I won this week.

TiVo Questions

I've talked about TiVo for months, and I think we're finally close to getting it. I do have a few questions for any TiVo folks out there. There's a current offer for a free 80-hour TiVo Series2 DVR. For $70, I can get the same thing except with the ability to record two shows at once. There's also a 180-hour series for $170. We can probably get by with the 80-hour model, but is it worth $70 for record two shows at once?

I'm also weighing the costs/benefits of the monthly versus prepaid plans. The prices for the monthly plans are: $19.95 per month with 1-year plan; $14.95 per month with 2-year plan; $12.95 per month with 3-year plan. The prepaid plans are: 1-year for $199; 2-years for $299 or for a limited time offer, 3-years for $299. If you use TiVo, what plan do you have? Any recommendations?

Feel free to post a comment or email me at seanramblings [at] yahoo [dot] com or my personal e-mail if you have it. Thank you!

Ohio State-Michigan

I'm having a hard time with today's game. I received my graduate degree from The Ohio State University and attended about ten football games when I lived in Columbus. Granted, I was OSU the last two years of the John Cooper era, so the team was not as good as past and present Buckeye teams. Therefore, as an OSU alum, I am rooting for the Buckeyes.

On the other hand, I really like Steve Breaston, the leading punt returner in Big 10 history (I believe), who went to my high school as did Michigan's Ryan Mundy and Ohio State's Devon Lyons, but as a sophomore, Lyons does not play much. Besides Breaston, I'm kind of rooting for Michigan because of the passing of Bo Schembechler yesterday.

Well, I guess I'll just watch the game and appreciate some (hopefully) really good college football.

Oh, I want to thank ABC for showing Ohio State's marching band (TBDBITL). You have to get goose bumps watching them do Script Ohio.

Random Ramblings

* Did you know that Ohio State and Michigan are playing each other on Saturday?

* For years, I have seen NFL coaches on the sidelines and thought they looked ridiculous wearing sweatshirts and track suits. It's actually refreshing seeing Joe Paterno and Jim Tressel wearing a tie on the sidelines. Apparently, there's a reason why NFL coaches don't wear a coat and tie anymore; the NFL has a rule requiring coaches to wear apparel from NFL-licensed suppliers on the sideline. According to Mark Maske of The Washington Post, San Francisco Coach Mike Nolan has been permitted to wear a suit this weekend as a tribute to his dad. That's very kind of the NFL. Just a prediction: you'll see Nolan wearing a 49ers hat or tie.

* This is a few days late, but Andy Katz of ESPN wrote a nice article about the Duquesne basketball team. The team and entire university have gone through so much over the past few months when five players were shot. Sam Ashaolu is making a remarkable recovery. You can't help but root for the Dukes and although it was only one game, it was great to see them win.

* We ate at a restaurant next to a Best Buy tonight, where we saw people camped out in tents for the PlayStation 3, which goes on sale on Friday. Is it really worth it?

* After losing to Cortland last Saturday in the Cortaca Jug game in overtime, Ithaca College football ended the season 7-3 and did not make the Division III playoffs. Surprisingly, Cortland (9-1) also did not make the Division III playoffs. Anyway, the Bombers ended their season with a 7-3 record and only one school at any level of college football has a longer streak of winning seasons than the 37 Ithaca has recorded. I don't know what school has more than 37 straight winning seasons.

Links Part Two

I'm a little disappointed that no one else posted a comment about their celebrity matches or if the accent thing worked. Please feel free to add your comments.

I've also written about Chunky's Click for Cans. A few weeks ago the Steelers were in first place just ahead of the Bengals. The Packers have now taken a commanding lead with over 558,000 votes, almost 100,000 more than the second place Steelers. Great job by the Jets fans in having a whopping 3,228 votes. That's about the same number of Kevin Federline CDs sold.

Fun Links

Here are some fun links if you are looking for something to do besides (or during) "Dancing With The Stars."

What American accent do you have? Click here, answer about 15 questions and get your result. Apparently, I have a Midland accent, which means I am from Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois or Missouri. That is true. One flaw in the quiz...there is not a category for a Pittsburgh accent.

Have you ever wondered who is your celebrity match? All you need to do is enter your birth date and the site gives you five matches. Here are my celebrity matches:
- Miriam Pielhau (No idea who she is)
- Christina Aguilera (I always thought we had a connection)
- Lisa Snowdon (The name was familiar but I didn't know why. She was the host of VH1's "Rock the House" and the BBC's "Top of the Pops" so that may be it. I guess she was also involved with George Clooney.)
- Cat Deeley (No clue)
- Amy Jo Johnson (She was the pink Power Ranger and I always thought she was cute. I don't think she's done much since leaving "Felicity" except for being on the pilot of "What About Brian." If she was still on the show, maybe the ratings would be better.)

I love fantasy leagues. I've written endlessly about fantasy baseball, football and television. Here is a new league that I probably won't enter: Fantasy Congress.

Follow Up to I Am An Idiot

Despite a 4:15 kickoff for yesterday's Steelers-Saints game, I was at the stadium by 1:30. I just wanted to make sure that there was no problems with the tickets. I made it to the specific gate and window as instructed and hooray the tickets were there. I handed the person at the ticket window my credit card and was told that it was cash only. Therefore, I had to go to the ATM where I had to pay the $2 service fee.

(Just as a side note, I really hate ATM fees and never go to ATMs other than those of my bank. Al Franken wrote a very funny book called "Why Not Me?: The Inside Story Behind the Making and the Unmaking of the Franken Presidency" where Franken's entire campaign platform was eliminating ATM fees.)

I paid the money, received the replacement tickets and entered the stadium. About 45 minutes before kick-off, Heinz Field security came by the seats to check the tickets. They wanted to make sure that the tickets we had really were the replacement tickets. If they were the real tickets, I'm not sure what would have happened. Maybe we would have got ejected or maybe the season ticket holder may have had his tickets revoked. I'm not really sure.

As for the game itself, it was nice to see the Steelers win. They really needed it. Fast (but maybe needs to be a step faster) Willie Parker had a huge game with over 200 yards rushing, but was tackled twice after 70+ yard runs. Yesterday really showed what happens when the Steelers have success running the ball and don't turn the ball over.

The Saints are a legit team. Marques Colston looked like Jerry Rice. I can't believe he is only a rookie. With Drew Brees, Colston, Deuce McAllister, Joe Horn (when healthy) and Reggie Bush, the Saints could make a nice playoff run.

I Am An IDIOT

I may have done the dumbest thing ever in my life today. In fact, they should feature me in a commercial where I would get hit in the head by a Vonage box with the tag line "one smart decision among many, many stupid ones." I was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike less than 50 miles to Pittsburgh and 3.5 hours into my drive when I realized that I LEFT THE TICKETS TO THE STEELERS GAME IN MY KITCHEN IN VIRGINIA! My only thought was that #(&%, I'm going to have to turn around and drive back to Virginia. Of course, being on the PA Turnpike, I had to drive another 15 miles to actually get to an exit.

When I reached the exit, the phone calls began. I called my parents, who suggested that I call the Steelers. Fortunately, Joey Porter was not answering the phones. The ticket office asked if I was a season ticket-holder. Nope. However, the tickets were from a season ticket-holder. (Specifically, the tickets were a gift and came from a season ticket-holder. Does that make sense?) After about a dozen phone calls, the season ticket-holder (how many times can I use this phrase in a paragraph?) contacted the Steelers and I am OK. I have to go to a specific ticket window at Heinz Field, pay for the tickets, and when I get home, I will mail the original tickets for a refund.

The morale of the story is that I made a dumb move, but things will be OK. At least I realized the tickets were in Virginia today and not on Sunday.

Updates

In case you were wondering (or even if you were not), here are some updates of things I have written about in the past few months:

- I finally switched my shampoo from Pert Plus to Vive pro for men. This is a "daily thickening 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner." After only a few weeks, I can already feel that my hair is approaching the fullness of Fabio's hair. OK, maybe not.

- In my first year as part of the Alison LaPlaca Open (fantasy TV league), I am currently in 2nd place out of approximately 100 entries. I've mentioned this before, but the purpose of the open is to pick 10 TV shows that will be cancelled. Of the four shows that have already been cancelled this season, I picked three (Runaway, Kidnapped and Happy Hour). Of my other picks, Seventh Heaven has received a full-season order and I'm worried that FOX will never cancel The War at Home.

- My fantasy football record is 8-1 (1st place) and 6-3 (2nd in points out of 16 teams). Having LaDainian Tomlinson in both leagues has been helpful.

- Joey Porter must know that I'll be at Heinz Field for the Steelers-Saints game on Sunday. In today's Post-Gazette, Porter is quoted as saying "We will come back with a victory on Sunday." The Steelers have not lost a game I attended since the AFC Championship Game in 1995. They are unofficially 10-0 (I don't remember how many games I have seen in person the past 10 years) in games I have attended since.

- The referral entry I have each month is taking a short hiatus. I save all of the "cool" referrals in a Word document. When my computer died over the weekend, the files were also destroyed. I'm sure you are all disappointed in missing the latest ways people find this blog by typing Suzy Kolber, Flavor Flav or "How Can I Get You Alone" statements.

Election Night

According to MSNBC, with 1% of the votes in, Ben Cardin will defeat Michael Steele for the open Senate seat in Maryland. While the result may not be a surprise, Steele is currently LEADING 55% to 43%!

With millions of votes still to be counted, I'll predict that the Democrats will take over the House while the Republicans will hold the Senate but only by a slight margin.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans are equally concerned as to who is the better dancer: Mario Lopez, Emmitt Smith or Joey Lawrence.

2-6

I feel somewhat fortunate that I missed most of the Steelers-Broncos game yesterday. I do have some comments from what I did see.

* Ben - It's OK to throw the ball away when you are being pressured and don't have anyone open. The interception Roethlisberger threw when the Steelers had the ball inside the 20 at the end of the first half was terrible.

* Coach Cowher - It's OK to run the ball. Steelers football is all about running and defense. We tried the air attack offense with Tommy Maddox a few years ago with poor results (6-10). I know the team was down much of yesterday, but only 19 rushing attempts compared to 54 passing attempts! The running game was actually decent averaging 5 yards per carry.

* Based on Miami’s win over Chicago and Detroit’s win over Atlanta, I think it’s safe to say that the only team in the NFL worse than the Steelers are the Arizona Cardinals.

So now what? This season is over, but what can the team do to return to the playoffs next year? This is a fairly difficult question because the Steelers self-destruct more than their opponents beat them. What personnel moves should be made? Is Willie Reed the answer to return punts and kick-offs? Will Cowher stay?

Vail Updates

* When I departed from northern Virginia on Thursday, I was excited to leave behind Jim Webb and George Allen advertisements as well as the Ben Cardin and Michael Steele commercials. While I haven't watched much TV, I already hate Marilyn Musgrave and Angie Paccione, who are running for Congress.

* I am staying at a beautiful hotel and have a comfortable king-size bed. However, is it really necessary to have 10 pillows? TEN! Four of the pillows are decorative so I just throw them on the floor. That leaves six pillows which are just way too much.

* The good thing about being in Vail this particular weekend is that the Steelers game is the local TV game. They really need to beat the Broncos today, especially since I'm going to the Steelers-Saints game next week, and I don't want to watch a 2-6 team.

* This just in...Vail Village has many ski shops.

Greetings from Vail

If I ever write that I am about to go mountain climbing, please stop me. When I arrived in Vail, Colorado yesterday, I had a headache and was nauseous. Apparently, I had altitude sickness. I took some Bayer and didn't leave my hotel room from 5:30 last night until 7:00 this morning. I feel much better today and am drinking gallons of water, which is supposed to help.

In case you are wondering, there is some snow on the ground, but the ski slopes don't open for another few weeks. The current temperature is in the low 40s.

Two quick items from today's Vail Daily. The front page discusses two bear cubs that were captured in West Vail. The cubs' mother was killed after repeated home break-ins and apparently the cubs are learning from mom. Yes, this is the front page.

The other highlight is that Sara Fisher is running for Commissioner (I don't know of what). Her ad features a fish with the slogan "Fish for Commish." Nice catch phrase.

Truly Reality

Flavor Flav is expecting his seventh kid and I am shocked that the mother is not Deelishis, the winner of Flavor of Love 2. Fortunately, the mother is NOT New York. According to People, all Flav would say is that the mother is "shorty in Las Vegas." Maybe it is Celine Dion.

In the article, Flavor Flav insisted that his relationship with Deelishis isn't over, and said he recently met her family in Detroit and they loved him, despite his reputation as "the black Hugh Hefner." I have never heard that reference before.

Anyway, good luck to Flavor Flav, and I hope that his new album does well. I think he's going to need the money.

Flight Restrictions

As part of today's Halloween celebration, I received pre-packaged cookies made by Cheryl & Co. They are really, really good cookies. Anyway, I'm flying on Thursday and would like to take them on the flight. Am I allowed to take the cookies on the flight or will they get confiscated by airport security?

Happy Halloween!

Today, I pulled out my old Blockbuster shirt and name-tag, and went to work as a Blockbuster employee. I was surprised at how few people dressed up for Halloween. I guess everyone wears a costume for parties the weekend before Halloween and not the day of. I only saw several other costumes on the Metro today; one person was dressed in a Cubs uniform and three other people were dressed in military uniforms (although there's a 99% chance that they actually WERE military officials going to and from work).

I also celebrated Halloween by finally having a vanilla Frosty from Wendy's. I highly recommend the vanilla version. Mmmmmm....Frosty!

Wentworth Miller - Pittsburgher?

Anyone that knows me knows that I am proud of my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and of people from or related to Pittsburgh that do well. People like Dan Marino, Michael Keaton, Christina Aguilera, Jonas Salk, Gertrude Stein, August Wilson and Fred Rogers among others. So when I recently learned through a WQED magazine article that Wentworth Miller, better known as Prison Break's Michael Scofield, was from Pittsburgh, that made me happy. My question after reading the article is whether or not Miller considers himself a Pittsburgher. He moved to Pittsburgh during his senior year of high school, went to Princeton for college and now only visits Pittsburgh once a year. Wentworth, if you're reading this and want to consider yourself a Pittsburgher, I'll certainly support you.

Oh, and if you're looking for someone to be in a future Prison Break episode, I'm your guy. According to the article, you were the star of Quaker Valley High School's "Lil' Abner" in 1990. Well, I was in the Woodland Hills High School version of "Lil' Abner" in 1992. Maybe I wasn't in the title role but my 10 lines as Government Man were essential to the show. Plus, due to my performance (according to the judges), Woodland Hills won the best musical at The Gene Kelly Awards for Excellence in High School Musical Theater among Pittsburgh high schools. Woodland Hills won again in 1993 when I starred as Twin #2 in "Peter Pan." Did Quaker Valley win any awards when you were there? No. TAKE THAT SCOFIELD! (Wentworth, please note that although this doesn't convey well in print, I am displaying my range as an actor. I also know that the first year of the Kelly Awards was 1991.)

Future Ralph Kramden

From today's USA Today, a 15-year-old boy, Ritchie Calvin Davis, stole an Orlando city bus, drove it along a public transit route, picked up passengers and collected fares. He was charged with grand theft auto and driving without a license. While I certainly do not condone stealing a city busy, I admire the initiaive. I also appreciate that Davis made all the appropriate stops on the route. I'm rooting for Davis to get community service and/or probation and be able to become a bus driver some day.

I Forgot One Team

After writing about the lack of success of certain teams I follow yesterday (and the success of IC football), one team stood out and said "What about us? We're good." Unfortunately, that team is not the Pittsburgh Steelers, after an embarrassing 20-13 loss to the Raiders. More on the Steelers momentarily. The team I'm referring to is the Pittsburgh Penguins. After an 8-2 victory against the Flyers Saturday night, the Pens are 6-3 and in second place in the Atlantic division. The combination of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin has been fantastic and should be great for years to come.

OK, back to the Steelers. While the defense and Jeff Reed played well today, Big Ben threw four interceptions (two returned for touchdowns) and was sacked five times. No touchdowns in four red-zone trips equals a loss. The Steelers have now been unofficially eliminated from the playoffs. There are nine teams in the AFC with at least four wins. Unless the Ravens and Bengals both choke, the Steelers will probably need 10 wins to make the post-season. I don’t see how this team can go 8-1 in its remaining nine games with two games against Baltimore, games at Cincinnati and Carolina and home games against Denver and New Orleans. Therefore, Go Penguins!

Ithaca College Athletics

Since the Steelers are 2-4, Pitt football lost to Rutgers last week (and probably will lose to West Virginia and Louisville within the next month) and even Woodland Hills was defeated last night for the first time in nearly two months, I thought it was about time I wrote about the success of Ithaca College teams. Earlier today, the 20th-ranked (in Division III) Ithaca College Bombers defeated #14 Springfield 24-7. IC is now 7-1 with a very good chance to make the Division III playoffs. In addition, IC's women's cross country team is currently ranked 23rd in the nation and IC's women's soccer team is ranked #18. Go Bombers!

Don't forget to vote everyday for Campbell's Chunky soup's "Click for Cans" to fight hunger. There is quite a battle for first between the Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals.

Nothing To See Here

I'm just playing around with Firefox 2. I haven't used anything other than Internet Explorer since Netscape probably 8 years ago. Don't mind me. Just testing. Have a nice weekend!

Dear Political Candidates:

You can stop calling me, showing ads on TV and sending me mail. That’s because I voted yesterday. It feels nice to be done. Now, if anyone calls or stops me on the street, I can just say that I voted, now leave me alone (of course, I wouldn’t actually say the last part...probably). I may wear my "I Voted" sticker for the next two weeks.

What Is Wrong With Me?

This is really bad that I'm addicted to The Duel, the latest version of the Real World/Road Rules Challenge on MTV. Before I get started, there are a few things wrong with the title. There hasn't been a Road Rules in five years and I think there is only one person (Tina) on the Duel from RR. Plus, there are all these random people that weren't on either; they were on the last version of the challege called Fresh Meat.

As for the show, Tina may be the most useless person in reality history (Tucker Carlson is a close second). She's not competitive in any of these challenges and all she does is yell and pick fights. She's also not very bright. In last week's show, she got kicked out and lost her chance at $150K by punching the almost as useless Beth. Not that I condone violence, but for a chance at $150K, the punch should at hurt the target. Stupid show and I'm sure I am dumberer for watching it.

The Heat is On

It is currently 42 degrees in Northern Virginia and it is expected to go down to 36 tonight. It's cold! Therefore, even though we were hoping to wait a little longer, we turned on the heat. No sign of the loud squeaking sound yet, but the heat has only been on about ten minutes.

I'm Not Writing About the Steelers

41 points allowed...to Atlanta! Even worse was giving up most of those points to the Falcons' passing attack. OK, here's some non-Steelers stuff:

I'm glad that Sonic has so many commercials. However, I don't think I have ever seen a Sonic. Where are they located?

So it appears that Jay-Z's retirement is over. That didn't last very long. It's nice that his new song uses the sax sample from the classic Wreckx-N-Effect song "Rump Shaker" from the early 90s.

Is the band Hinder popular? They have a song "Lips of an Angel" that seems to be all over the place. All I think about when I hear the song is that the lead singer sounds like BoB ice and they are preparing to be the next Creed. I really hope they don't become the next U2 or Bon Jovi because I don't want to hear them for the next 20+ years.

OK, I will talk about the game. The red zone defense was poor as was the Special Teams. The bad turnovers really have to stop. While I still feel that the Steelers can turn the season around, I'm not confident that they can go 8-2 the last 10 games, which is probably what they need to do to reach the playoffs. At least Pitt had a good weekend. Maybe not. OK, at least Ithaca College and the Penguins won on Saturday.

Click for Cans 2006

In my attempt to use this site for good and not for evil, here's something good.

Campbell's Chunky soup is again having its Click for Cans to fight hunger. Visit the Chunky website and vote for your favorite NFL team (hopefully the Steelers) everyday. Only 57 days left to vote, so vote early and vote often (there's a limit of one vote per day).

By the way, the Steelers are currently in 2nd place behind the Bengals. We can't let Cincinnati fans win!

Entertainment Round-Up

Congrats to Flavor of Love for having 7.5 million viewers (including me) for its season finale Sunday night. That’s a lot of people! Even though Flav picked Delishis, New York is going to be OK. Apparently, she's getting her own spin-off called “Flavorette” where she gets to pick a guy. I don’t think I can take an entire show of her.

Random thought: Do you think Kirk Cameron ever looks back on the Growing Pains days and wonders how Leonardo DiCaprio is a major movie star now and he isn’t?

Tom DeLay is having a bad few days. When he resigned from Congress, he said that he would continue "to engage in the important cultural and political battles of our day." Apparently, the important cultural and political battles of our day is "Dancing With the Stars," or more specifically Sara Evans against Jerry Springer. (This is all from Lisa de Moraes, the fantastic TV writer of the Washington Post.) "Shortly before the show debuted, DeLay sent out a blast e-mail, asking his supporters to vote for Evans on the dancing competition series because she had been a strong supporter of the Republican Party and "represents good American values in the media" while "ultra liberal talk show host Jerry Springer" does not. At the time (and maybe until last week), there was speculation DeLay's endorsement of Evans had something to do with her husband, whose résumé includes chairman of Craig PAC, a national political action committee dedicated to electing Republicans at the federal and state level. Anyway, Evans left Dancing With the Stars because she is divorcing her husband, who she accuses of cheating on her and verbally abusing her. Nice guy. Anyway, I like Evans and I wish her the best. Oh, and Jerry Springer is still on Dancing With the Stars.

Sports Round-Up

What a great football weekend! The Steelers and Pitt both had impressive wins on national TV. Woodland Hills won again with its third straight shutout, while Woodland Hills grad Steve Breaston had five catches for 79 yards in leading Michigan over Penn State. The Big East also had a nice weekend since every team playing a non-conference opponent was victorious. The only thing missing was an Ithaca College victory (they had a bye).

The Oakland A’s fired manager Ken Macha even though the A’s advanced to the American League Championship Series. In four years, Macha was 368-280. Oh yeah, Macha was interested in managing the Pirates when the position was open last winter, but he didn’t even get an interview (maybe he did and I just don’t remember). Anyway, according to the A’s "genius" general manager Billy Beane, it wasn’t Macha’s fault; just that a "disconnect was there and it was something [the A’s] needed to address as
soon as possible." While there may have been some internal disagreements, I think some of the blame for not making the World Series goes back to the GM. The A’s have little speed (no individual player had more than 11 stolen bases during the regular season) and not as much pitching depth as they’ve had in the past when Hudson and Mulder were there. I hope Macha gets a good managing job just like Jim Leyland. Go Tigers!

Thanks to LaDainian Tomlinson, I’m now 5-1 (2nd place out of 10 teams) in one fantasy football league and 3-3 (7th out of 16 but 3rd in overall points) in the other.

Flavor of Love Finale

If you haven't seen the episode and plan on it, don't read this message. For everyone else, here's a quick summary:

Although I haven't watched Flavor of Love 2 as much as the original version, I caught most of last night's finale. Congrats to the winner: Deelishis. However, the real winner is all of us because Flavor Flav did not pick New York. The last 15 mintues focused on the highly entertaining argument between the two after he rejected New York for a second time. Deelishis (yes, that's how it is spelled on the show) was somewhat of an afterthought.

My opinion: Hoopz, the winner of first season, was much better than anyone from season two.

Annoying Parent

After a soccer game today where I was the center referee, a parent walked on to the field and said, "You're the type of referee that gets kids hurt." I stared at him and nonchalantly replied, "Thank you," turned around and quietly said "I guess." The players that heard me laughed. Now that I've had a little time to think about it (and of course I couldn't say this at the time), I would have liked to have said F-you. Get the F off of my field. While you're at it, get a new sweatshirt since the one you are wearing is probably 15 years old (just for the record, I have no problem with old sweatshirts since I probably have some that are at least 10 years old) and think about shaving sometime.

If there was a foul during the game, I called it. If there was a foul but a team that got fouled had the advantage, I didn't call it but yelled play on. Back to the guy, soccer is a physical sport. If you don't want your kid playing soccer, encourage him to play chess. (Although I once helped instigate a fight in an eighth grade chess tournament, but that's for another time.) You know what else? Although two players were shaken up during the game, they were back on the field three minutes later, so everyone was fine.

I'm fired up now for Steelers football!

Sienna Being Sienna

I'm a few days late with this story, but Sienna Miller had an "incident" at a Pittsburgh bar earlier this week. Apparently, she didn't have her ID and tried to play the "I am Sienna Miller. I am a famous actress!" card. Didn't work. That's never worked for me either.

Rogan's Corner Closes

Almost a year ago, I wrote that Rogan's Corner, my favorite pizza place of all-time located in Ithaca, New York, was essentially gone. At the time, I heard that two guys took over the restaurant and the pizza was not nearly as good. Anyway, Rogan's Corner apparently really is gone, at least temporarily. The store abruptly announced it would close last week and apparently had an "everything must go" sale. There were huge discounts on beer, Red Bull and even posters on the wall. According to The Ithacan, the two guys who were leasing Rogan's hadn't paid rent in four months! They must have really screwed up the pizza because that place was a goldmine being less than a mile from a college campus of 6,000+ students.

Stop the Blame Game

I don't get political much here, but things like this really upset me. Senator John McCain, who is someone I like for speaking his mind and not always going with the party line, is blaming President Clinton for the current North Korea situation. While the Yahoo article does not give the entire transcript of McCain's statement, he said, "I would remind Senator (Hillary) Clinton and other Democrats critical of the Bush administration's policies that the framework agreement her husband's administration negotiated was a failure." Whether that's true or not, the Bush administration and a Republican Congress have been in power for SIX YEARS! At the six-year mark, you really should have some type of foreign policy plan for North Korea.

Why not blame Harry Truman for going into Korea too? What about Eisenhower's post-Korean War strategies? I understand that the only reason McCain is saying this is for his 2008 Presidential bid. It's just frustrating.

How I Met Your Mother

I watched HIMYM last night for the first time this season. (I'm addicted to Prison Break which is on at the same time. Yes, I have started looking into TiVo.) I've missed a few episodes, but when did Ted and Robin get together and what happened to Marshall and Lily? Yes, I realize that these are fictional characters.

Weekend Sports Questions

What's wrong with the Steelers? (I could write more here, but it's 12:22 AM, so maybe tomorrow/today.)

Why do people make Terrell Owens out to be the worst player in the NFL? Yes, he's selfish and I would never want him on the Steelers. However, he's never been arrested for domestic violence, weapons charges or worse like other NFL players.

Florida Gator fans: Why do you hate Chris Leak? Is it just because you want Tim Tebow to start?

Did you know Pitt had a running game?

Why is Bill Walsh doing these annoying Coors commercials? Does he need the money?

One more that I forgot last night: If you were the General Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, would you trade Zach Duke and a relief pitcher (Matt Capps, John Grabow or Salomon Torres) for Alex Rodriguez, assuming the Yankees would cover much of A-Rod's salary?

Cleaning House

I found a box at my parents' house that never made the trip to my home in Virginia. The box includes some old newspapers that (at the time) I thought would be cool to keep. Here's what I found:

November 9, 2000 - Columbus Dispatch: Headline: Waiting, wondering. Florida, Oregon and New Mexico are all too close to call. Gore leads Bush in the total popular vote by 100,000 votes. The recount is underway. I think we're still a few weeks before "hanging chads."

September 9, 1998 - San Diego Union Tribune ("U-T"): Mark McGwire breaks Maris' home run record.

September 17, 1998 - U-T: Sammy Sosa hits home run #63; I was at the game, but not mentioned or pictured in the story.

May 21, 2001 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: I think I kept this because there's a feature story about food vendors and beermen at PNC Park (at the time, I was working part-time as a "Beerman" in Columbus. The top story is President Bush's remarks at Notre Dame University where he called for an "assault on poverty." I haven't heard much (or anything) about this in the last five and a half years or so.

December 15, 2000 - USA Today: An article about NFL radio announcers featuring Myron Cope.

June 20, 2001 - Baltimore Sun: Cal Ripken retires.

September 28, 1998 - U-T: McGwire ends the season with 70 home runs. I don't think that record will ever be topped!

October 15, 1998 - U-T: The Padres are the National League Champions defeating the Atlanta Braves. Unfortunately, the World Series did not go as well against the Yankees. There's a quote on the front page by the late Ken Caminiti. Baseball was fantastic in 1998. Eight years later, that season doesn't seem quite right.

Now I have decide which papers to keep and which papers to throw away.

Burnt Sienna

Burnt Sienna is a type of Crayola crayon in the brown family with personality traits including simplicity, comfort, quality, harmony, home, and down to earth. Based on her comments to "Rolling Stone" magazine, Sienna Miller represents none of these characteristics. If you haven't heard, Miller refers to my hometown as something that starts with "sh" and rhymes with Pittsburgh and said "Can you believe this is my life? Will you pity me when you're back in your funky New York apartment and I'm still in Pittsburgh? I need to get more glamorous films."

Excuse me, but who are you? What movies have you been in? The only reason you're famous is because you dated (are dating?) Jude Law, who cheated on you with the nanny. Oh, and now you're famous again for trashing a city that you've only seen from your hotel room. This is the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's article where I first saw the story this morning. Miller quickly came out this afternoon to say that her remarks were taken out of context. So what context were you trying to use? In a statement issued by her publicist, Miller said was referring to the fact that the production was shooting mostly at night and she had not had a chance to fully explore the city. "What I have seen of it is beautiful. I came once before to visit The Andy Warhol Museum whilst researching a film and found both the city and its inhabitants warm and gracious," she said. Keep working on that spin (and don't use the word whilst in an apology). 

What I find really ironic is that Miller's father is from Meadville, Pennsylvania, only about 1.5 hours from Pittsburgh. Her dad is planning to show her around Pittsburgh this weekend. I recommend the Aviary where maybe some birds will "Pittsburgh" on her head. That's not very nice of me. That's not at all like a Pittsburgher. Sorry Sienna. For this weekend the Warhol Museum is great; take the incline to Mount Washington; stop by the O for a hot dog and fries and/or go to Primanti's; the Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning are always interesting; the Carnegie Museum has dinosaurs and more; and catch a Steelers game while you're in town (I'm sure you can use some connections). 

 For more comments by regular folks, check out Rolling Stone and ThePittsburghChannel.com.

Wednesday Wrap

Is it bad to have bagels, cream cheese and lox for dinner three straight nights? I say it's fine!

Does anyone realize that the hockey season starts tonight? I didn't either until about two hours ago.

Speaking of hockey, here are some of the players that made the Penguins roster: Nils Ekman, Dominic Moore, Jarkko Ruutu, Karl Stewart, Chris Thorburn, Mark Eaton (not the 80s basketball player) and Kris Letang. Who are these guys? I remember knowing every single player on the Penguins roster and now I'm lucky to know a third.

Not that many of you care, but my primary fantasy baseball team had a terrible final week of the season causing me to go from 5th place (in the money) to 7th place (not in the money) out of 12 teams. However, I really like my chances for next year. I have a solid nucleus and just need a #1 starter and a good power hitter. I think I sound like the Pirates.

The Music of 2000

I spent the summer of 2000 in England where I got to enjoy the pop music scene. The British seemed to have the best American songs at the time as well as the hits from throughout Europe. Before I returned to the U.S., I bought “Now That’s What I Call Music Volume 46.” I recently listened to disc #1 and thought I would share some thoughts about the featured artists.

The first song on the CD is “Oops!...I Did it Again” by Britney Spears. Who would have thought that six years later Britney would have two kids, chew gum in national TV interviews and be married to a guy named K-Fed?

Samantha Mumba – Her song actually made it in the U.S. and she was in the movie “The Time Machine” with Guy Pearce, which bombed. Maybe she’s still big in Europe, but I haven’t heard from her in years. At this point of her career, I thought she would be the equivalent of someone like Ashanti or Christina Milian.

Louise – Just one name like Cher or Madonna, only you probably haven’t heard of her. She had a catchy song called “2 Faced” and was also famous for marrying a soccer player named Jamie Redknapp. Think Posh Spice & David Beckham only not famous.

Aaliyah – Now she definitely would have been a superstar. She died much too young.

*NSync / Backstreet Boys – We are all grateful that both groups are not still around. Six years later, I’m going to compare which band was better:
*NSync – Justin Timberlake has one of the top selling albums in the country; JC Chasez dated Eva Longoria; Chris Kirkpatrick got mentioned in an Eminem song; Lance Bass was on the cover on “People” earlier this year and Joey Fatone was in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”
Backstreet Boys – Nick Carter dated Paris Hilton and is the older brother of Aaron Carter who at one point had Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff fighting over him. Aaron Carter was also engaged to one of Nick Carter’s former girlfriends but he broke off the engagement. What a nice family! Perfect for a reality TV show! I have no idea who else was in this group.
The winner: *NSync

Kylie Minogue – Besides Steve Irwin, is she the best known Australian? (Before answering this question, please note that Nicole Kidman was born in Honolulu and Russell Crowe was born in New Zealand).

Richard Ashcroft – You may not know the name but he was the lead singer of the Verve. Maybe the band doesn’t sound familiar but you probably know their song “Bittersweet Symphony.” I thought the band would be bigger but that didn’t happen.

Coldplay – There’s a song call “Yellow” on the CD. I wonder what ever happened to them.

Bloodhound Gang – Even when the song “The Bad Touch” came out, you knew they would be a one hit wonder. You may remember this group for the famous lyrics “Let’s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel.” Shocking that they couldn’t come up with another hit.

Other artists on the CD include Moby, Tom Jones, Shania Twain and Mary Mary. It’s a very eclectic CD but great for a road trip.

September Referrals

With the Steelers on a bye this week, I figured now would be a good time for this monthly feature. For the new reader(s) out there, I am “borrowing” this idea from Sarah. Again, these are real searches (usually from Yahoo or Google) that people used to find and visit this place:

suzy kolber tattoo
Are you asking if Suzy Kolber has a tattoo or if someone has a tattoo of Suzy Kolber? Sorry, but I don’t know the answer to either question. Is this Joe Namath?

How to catch a punt
I would suggest using both hands and keeping your eye on the ball. Is this Ricardo Colclough?

"sean hannity is hot"
Really? This must be Sean Hannity “Googling” himself.

worst moment pittsburgh sports history
In no particular order, I’ll go with the recent Duquesne shootings, Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS – the Sid Bream game, Game 7 of the Penguins-Islanders series (1993?), every Steelers AFC Championship game loss – especially the loss to the Chargers, Roberto Clemente’s plane crash, the last 13 years of Pirates baseball.

refrigerator diaries
Today, the door opened and they took out the milk. Two minutes later, the door opened and they returned the milk.

lyrics "how can i get you alone"
I get this search or a variation of it all the time. I don’t have the lyrics but this song is better if you think Heart is singing “How can I get you a loan?” My suggestion is a bank or credit union.

Booker Stallworth
I went to high school with this guy. I remember when he got in a fight with Greg Martin in 7th or 8th grade. Apparently, he’s now working for a conservative think-tank in the state of Washington.

yom "bob kipper"
Bob Kipper, the greatest Pirates pitcher of all-time with the last name Kipper. Since Yom Kippur starts tonight, I thought this would be an appropriate way to end today’s referrals. For those of you observing Yom Kippur, have a meaningful fast.

TV Review

Since I write about TV so much, I thought I would share my thoughts on some of the new shows this season.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
I liked Sports Night and the first few seasons of West Wing, so naturally, I like Studio 60 too. Matthew Perry is extremely underrated as a comedic actor, so it’s nice seeing him in a role other than Chandler.

Shark
After Grey’s Anatomy last Thursday, I had a choice between Shark and Six Degrees. I’m a fan of James Woods, so I thought I would give Shark a shot. Woods is perfect as an arrogant trial lawyer. While I’m not sure how often I’ll watch it, I recommend Shark especially since it seems like the type of show where you won’t be lost if you miss an episode (unlike many new shows this season).

Smith
I’ll always like Ray Liotta for being Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams, one of the greatest movies of all-time. The combination of Liotta and the first episode being partially filmed in Pittsburgh made Smith a must-watch. While I didn’t think it was as bad Sarah thought it was, it wasn’t great. I thought I would give the second episode a try last night and again was under whelmed. Here’s my problem with the show. Liotta leads a group of thieves which includes Amy Smart. You want to root for the bad guys, but the show doesn’t let you. In the first episode, Smart tazered a random woman who thought she looked familiar and the group killed a security guard and possibly some other people (I think this happened but I was on the phone for a few minutes). Last night, Smart and two other guys pulled off a major theft of computer files. Yeah, like I’m going to root for people who pull off a major identity theft.

Conversely, you root for the guys on Prison Break (except for T-Bag, but at least he’s an intriguing character) because they all have redeeming values or were incorrectly imprisoned. While Prison Break is still great, I have no idea how long this show can continue.

Flavor of Love
Not a new show, but I thought I would mention it. I didn’t think the first season could be topped but the second is definitely making a nice run. I actually haven’t watched Flavor of Love much this season, but caught a repeat last night. New York is back. Oh last night, Flavor kicked out a girl because she’s a “pole dancer” and he couldn’t bring her back to meet his kids. I’m sure that his kids are very proud of their dad over the past few years.

Book Suggestion

I'm looking for a new book to read. If you have any suggestions, post a comment or e-mail me at seanramblings@yahoo.com.

Thanks.

A Real Roaming Gnome

A friend forwarded me this article about a stolen garden gnome that attended the Steelers' home opener and has previously been arrested and requested bail money. Travelocity is a big fan of "Gnomey." Seriously.

Sunday Notes

I wore my Louis Lipps jersey and Heinz pickle watch with my Terrible Towel today but that alone could not overcome the five turnovers by the Steelers against the Bengals. What a frustrating game. If you told me before the game that Willie Parker would run for 133 yards and two touchdowns, the Steelers defense would force three turnovers and have six sacks, Chad Johnson would have only one catch for eleven yards and Rudi Johnson would have 47 yards rushing with neither Johnson scoring a TD, I would have thought that would be an easy Steelers victory.

Domino’s “Fudgems” character is really disturbing. I don’t know why, but he/she/it kind of freaks me out.

Why does a high school football team with Michael Vick, LaDainian Tomlinson, Brian Urlacher, Troy Polamalu and coached by Don Shula and Jimmy Johnson (I assume he’s an assistant coach as well as a teacher) need a last second trick-play to win the game in the Nike commercial? With that much talent, and playing against high school kids, they should dominate. I really blame the defense for giving up the last-second touchdown. Did they really expect a running play with only 15 second left and Vick’s team down by more than a field goal and on around the opponents’ 40 yard-line? The safeties should have been on their own 10 yard-line!

Congrats to Woodland Hills High School on a big win against Central Catholic and Pitt on defeating The Citadel. Ithaca College, ranked #11 coming into the game, didn’t do so well against St. John Fisher.

Sean’s Ramblings welcomes the first ever (and probably last ever) visitor from Bishkek City, Kyrgyzstan!

To all those who are celebrating it out there, L'Shana Tova!

Attention DC Radio Stations

From Thursday, September 21 to Wednesday, September 27, I am extremely important to you. I am part of the Arbitron radio ratings which helps measure radio audiences and produce the ratings reports. I'm also probably in your most important age demographic: 18-34. So if you're a radio station or program looking for a boost in ratings, I'm here to help (for the right price)!

Coup Coup for Cocoa Puffs

Earlier today, the Thai military launched a coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra while he was attending the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York and have successfully taken over Bangkok. I should mention that, as long as no one gets hurt, I really like coups. It's probably because "coup" is a cool word, and not one that seems to fit with a military takeover. (Yes, I know coup comes from the French phrase "coup d'état.") Anyway, my favorite part of this coup is the quote from the Thai military, "We ask for the cooperation of the public and ask your pardon for the inconvenience." Doesn't that sound like something you would hear if your flight or Metro is delayed? I just hope that this remains peaceful since and I quote Murray Head, one night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble and the tough guys tumble.

For more serious details about the story, click here for The Washington Post's article.

Apology

I want to apologize for the Steelers loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars last night. Some people might credit the stifling Jacksonville defense and the effective Jags offense who, although only scored 9 points, dominated the time of possession (37:25 to 22:35) and seemed to convert on nearly every big third down. Some people may criticize the Steelers defense for giving up 362 total yards or the offense for only getting 26 rushing yards and 153 total yards. I'm sure that's what you will hear on talk radio today.

In actuality, it's my fault. I wasn't wearing my Louis Lipps jersey or any other Steelers geaer. I wasn't even wearing my Heinz pickle watch. Apparently, just having my Terrible Towel isn't enough. Lesson learned, and I'll be more prepared next week.

Monday Night

I will not be watching the following tonight (even though I would like to):

* The 2nd half of "Prison Break"
* The season premiere of "How I Met Your Mother"
* The series premiere of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"
* "Finding Nemo" on Disney
* "Wife Swap" and "Supernanny"

OK, I really don't care about "Wife Swap" and "Supernanny" but what a great night of television! Of course, the Steelers on Monday Night Football trumps all of these.

I realize that ABC and ESPN are all in the same corporate family, but don't you think they would rather be showing Monday Night Football over Supernanny?

Funny Bumper Sticker

I saw this on a bumper sticker on I-95 in Delaware today. Regardless of your political persuasion, this is funny.

Fantasy TV League

Two of my favorite things are fantasy sports leagues and television. Thanks to JQ, I learned that both of these interests can be combined through The Alison LaPlaca Open Television Death Pool. Now in it's seventh year, the LaPlaca Open is a contest to see who can guess how many TV shows will be cancelled during the 2006-2007 season. To be eligible, a show must air sometime between September 1, 2006 and August 31, 2007 on any of the big five commercial networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW), and presumed not to air a first-run episode after August 31, 2007.

Here are my picks:

10-pointer: What About Brian (ABC)
9-Kidnapped (NBC)
8-Happy Hour (FOX)
7-The Singles Table (NBC)
6-Men in Trees (ABC)
5-Runaway (WB)
4-The Knights of Prosperity (ABC)
3-The O.C. (FOX)
2-Seventh Heaven (WB)
1-The War at Home (FOX)

What About Brian had 6 episodes in the spring and had poor ratings. However, since this show is produced or created by J.J. Abrams (of Lost), I think ABC decided to give it another try in part to keep Abrams happy. I think the ratings have spoken, and there is no chance it will make it to the 2007-2008 TV season.

Of the picks above, I'm a little worried about Kidnapped and The Knights of Prosperity. Kidnapped looks exactly like the movie "Ransom" with Mel Gibson but NBC seems to be hyping the show and it looks decent. The Knights of Prosperity was originally going to be called "Let's Rob Mick Jagger" (or something like that) and still has a terrible title. The show stars Donal Logue (who I like) and, in seeing a preview tonight, looks funny.

I really, really, really hope The War at Home gets cancelled. This may be the worst show on TV.