Special Forces: World's Toughest Test

In looking for something to watch on Wednesday evening, I stumbled on Special Forces: World's Toughest Test on FOX. 

I had no idea what this was, so I checked my TV guide (but not TV Guide for those of you over 35), which gave the following description of the show:

Household names really jumped out to me. When I hear the phrase household names, I think of the most famous people in the country. We're talking presidents and first ladies, Hall of Fame athletes, and A-list actors. Obama, Trump, Clinton, Bush, Biden, Brady, Smith (as in Will), Winfrey, Knowles (or Knowles-Carter), Swift, and Hanks are names that first come to mind. So who are the celebrities on this show? Let's take a look.

Danny Amendola - As a sports fan, I certainly know him, but if you asked me to name 50 current or former wide receivers who I thought could be on this show, Amendola wouldn't be one of them.

Mel B. - The Spice Girls were huge and arguably the biggest musical group in the world 25 years ago.. I'll give this one a pass.

Hannah Brown - No idea who this is.

Tyler Florence - I think he might be a chef. If you want a chef with a household name, you go with Gordon Ramsey or Rachael Ray.

Kate Gosselin - Jon and Kate Plus 8 was definitely a show I heard of before. Household name is debatable.

Dwight Howard - He's probably going to be in the NBA Hall of Fame. Not as well known as LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Steph Curry, and others, but definitely known by sports fans. Now would my mom know him? I don't think so.

Montrell Jordan - Everyone loves "This Is How We Do It." Household name is definitely a stretch though.

Gus Kenworthy - No idea. Sounds familiar, but I don't know why. 

Nastia Liukin - Oh, she was an Olympian gymnast who is not Mary Lou Retton or Simone Biles who I would consider household names. She won a lot of medals though.

Carli Lloyd - US soccer superstar. Household name in my book. And yes, I have a book with a list of people I consider to be household names!

Beverly Mitchell - An actress that I don't know. I do know Beverly D'Angelo and Beverly Hills.

Kenya Moore - A real housewife name but not a real household name. 

Mike Piazza - I mean, he's in the baseball Hall of Fame and more importantly made an appearance on Baywatch.

Dr. Drew Pinsky - He's had a long career on TV and radio and also famously downplayed COVID originally. I think he counts.

Anthony Scaramucci - He's really parlaying those several days working in the Trump administration into 15 minutes of fame. 

Jamie Lynn Spears - Now her sister Britney is a household name. Saying Britney's sister might be enough.

I'll give FOX a little credit in that their website simply describes the show as "Sixteen celebrities face challenges from the playbook of the Special Forces selection process." No mention of household names. While I'm not going to watch the show, if FOX really had a Special Forces edition with household names, I would definitely be in. If FOX is reading this, here are my casting choices in no particular order:

Beyonce

Taylor Swift

Hunter Biden

Donald Trump Jr.

Sasha or Malia Obama

Larry Fitzgerald

Ryan Reynolds

Regina King

Tom Brady

Jeff Bezos

Jennifer Lopez

Justin Bieber

Drake 

Selena Gomez

Keanu Reeves

Lady Gaga

Who would you like to see?

Photo by Pete Dadds/FOX

How Will We Get Our Britney News?

You may or may not remember that during Passover, we managed to buy an empty box of matzo. The sealed matzo box sans matzo is still in our kitchen because I like to show this off to our guests. (However, now that I wrote this, there is a 95% chance that my wife will throw out the box this week as I haven’t displayed the empty box to any visitor for months.)

Why am I writing about the empty matzo box now six months before Passover? Well, this week my wife received her weekly People magazine in the mail. You can imagine her excitement to read about Nicole Richie’s life as a mom, Angelina Jolie’s body and new tattoos after kids and the exclusive story about Dancing With the Stars’ Cheryl fighting back against people thinking that she’s fat. Imagine her surprise when she noticed an entirely new format to this week’s People and no pictures of either Britney or Jamie Lynn Spears. Instead of celebrity news and pictures and brief reviews of movies, books and television, she found, um, celebrity news and pictures and slightly more detailed reviews of movies, books and television. While the cover of the magazine was People the rest of the magazine was actually Entertainment Weekly. Sorry Angelina; instead we get an article and pictorial of Zac Efron as this week was EW’s Photo Issue.

I called People to ask for a replacement issue, and the customer service representative did not sound very surprised about this situation. They are going to send us a replacement later this week. In the meantime, I guess we’ll have to look at pictures of Emile Hirsch on the set of Ang Lee’s upcoming film, Taking Woodstock and Tina Fey on the set of 30 Rock.

Look for Trivia Tuesday later this afternoon.

Pittsburgh Wins, Five Year Olds Lose

Thursday was a huge day for Pittsburgh sports as the Steelers, Penguins and University of Pittsburgh Panthers all won. I felt like my remote control skills were pretty good switching between the Pitt and Steeler game (the Penguin game was not available); however, I was late in clicking back to the Pitt game and missed seeing Levance Fields hit a 3-pointer with 4 seconds remaining in overtime to defeat Duke. During Fields’ shot, I was watching Ben Roethlisberger grab his knee after being awkwardly sacked. Roethlisberger finished the game, but he can’t continue to take these types of hits if the Steelers want to advance through the playoffs, especially with Aaron Smith and now Willie Parker out for the year.

Here are a two fun links to get you through the day:

Did you ever wonder how many five year olds could you take in a fight? Probably not, but this is fun nonetheless. I can take 17. (from Arjewtino).



If you played for Brazil, what would your name be (found on Deadspin)? Mr. Sean Ramblings would be Sea. That's not a very exciting or intimidating name. Here are some other "Brazilian" names:

Denzel Washington – Roberto Washingtidas
George Bush – Georgildo
Jamie Lynn Spears – Speundo
Kris Kross - Krson Pau
Myron Cope – Copito
Troy Polamalu – Polamalaldo
Ben Roethlisberger - Roethlisbergaldo
Hines Ward – Hinaldo