Redbox Rage

Perhaps you have seen these Redbox machines at your local grocery store or McDonalds. The idea of Redbox is brilliant in its simplicity; rent a DVD for just $1 and you can return the DVD to any Redbox location. Just within 5 miles of my zip code, there are 10 Redbox locations which makes renting DVDs extremely convenient. The price of a Redbox DVD rental is much cheaper than Blockbuster, and you can select movies immediately without waiting for your Netflix DVD to arrive through the mail. Although Redbox does not have the selection of Blockbuster or Netflix, they do have most, if not all, of the new releases. As someone who does not rent enough movies to make Netflix worthwhile, Redbox makes sense financially. I don’t feel nearly as bad renting a terrible movie for $1 rather than $5 at Blockbuster.

I’ve been a little reluctant to use this giant red machine, but I finally did so recently. I wanted to rent Michael Clayton (I’m embarrassed to write that I have not seen it yet - sorry Jason), but it was completely out at Blockbuster. Although it was also out at the closest Redbox, we ended up renting another movie. The process of choosing a movie was easy. You just go through the movies, touch the screen, swipe your credit card and the movie appears out of the slot. The process of returning the movie is much more difficult. You would think it would be easy as all you need to do is slide the movie back into the slot. However, there is no separate slot to return the movie quickly; you have to wait for idiot people who are already in line to complete their transactions.

I’m sure that this has happened already but there has to have been some Redbox confrontations, particularly among people trying to return their movie just before 9:00pm. If you don’t return a movie by 9:00, you are charged for an additional night, or another $1. My personal experience in returning my DVD in the middle of the afternoon was extremely frustrating. I hoped to run into the grocery store, return the movie, and leave quickly since we were meeting some friends for dinner. I had no such luck as there were two people already ahead of me in line. The first guy was trying to select a movie and the guy next to him kept commenting on every single movie out there. I’m sure that the first guy really did not care about the second guy’s opinion of Lake Placid 2. After maybe 3 minutes, the first guy picked his movie and left. I wish the second guy moved as quickly. It took him at least 5 minutes to choose a movie even though he already saw most of the films listed. Then, he tried to swipe his credit card but it did not go through. Instead of trying to swipe it again, he stood there staring at the machine. After another 90 seconds, he repeated the same process. I was getting more and more angry watching him since I had somewhere to be. I almost yelled at the guy to swipe your "f-ing" card again. It must have been a full 10 minutes for the guy to complete his transaction. It took me only 15 seconds to return my movie.

So if anyone associated with Redbox happens to read this, please install a return slot in all of your new machines. Otherwise, I can see someone getting hurt in a case of Redbox Rage!

Life Without the Internet

From Monday at 11:00am until Wednesday at 10:00pm, something was missing in my life. That something was internet access. I wasn’t in the remote wilderness; I was in New York City. I even had a computer, although I could not justify paying $17.95 a night for internet access in my hotel room. I even considered paying $8 for internet access at LaGuardia airport (cheers again to Albuquerque Airport for having free wireless internet), but I didn’t think it was worth it. Instead, I had to learn about what was going on in the world through the USA Today and the limited time I had in my hotel room watching TV.

Over the last few days, my life has been incomplete. I couldn’t check my e-mail or visit my usual website for news and information including the Post-Gazette, Washington Post, Deadspin and Google Reader. For example, I didn’t know that Sidney Crosby returned to the Penguins until after the game ended. I couldn’t see if people had excellent best man speech ideas for me based on Monday morning’s post. I did not learn about Brett Favre’s retirement until many hours after the announcement. I also didn’t know that Lindsey Lohan’s mother and sister were going to be on an E! show titled Living Lohan.

Now that I’m home, things seem right. I can see how many people visited my blog (only folks searching for "why I hate Hillary Clinton" on Google); I can read other blogs again (OK, I haven’t done this yet); I can check my bank account balance (an extra $1000 did not magically appear); and I can read my e-mail again (I received mostly spam messages and junk mail). Actually, I did receive the following eight news alerts from The Washington Post within a 24-hour period:

Inside Decision Tuesday
Obama & McCain Win Vermont
McCain Wins Ohio
Clinton Wins Rhode Island
McCain Wins GOP Nomination
Clinton Wins Ohio
Clinton Wins Texas
Bush, McCain at White House

So McCain winning Texas wasn’t important? Why wasn’t there a news alert about Ben Roethlisberger’s $102 million contract? It doesn’t matter now since I can find everything that I need from the comfort of my home and office.

Best Man Speech (Happy National Procrastination Week)

Did you know that this week (March 3-9, 2008) is National Procrastination Week? It is also Newspaper in Education Week (March 3-7) and National Sleep Awareness Week (March 3-9). Reading newspapers, being aware of sleep and actually sleeping more are all perfect ways to procrastinate. I know this from personal experience.

So my brother is getting married this weekend, and I have known that I am the best man for many, many months. With this much time to prepare, many people would have a brilliant speech prepared and rehearsed by now. I have nothing. In my search for ideas, I decided to write on my blog (another great way to procrastinate) and hope that folks have advice and suggestions about what to say.

In the meantime, I figure that I should share my one idea and try to get some feedback about it. I would love to start the speech by quoting “The Office” episode when Michael Scott speaks at Phyllis’ wedding. He said, “Webster's Dictionary defines wedding as the fusing of two metals with a hot torch.” This line will likely bomb which would set me up perfectly to tell another joke that perhaps 1/3 of the room will get. Therefore, 2/3 will think that I bombed my first two lines and probably tune out or stand up and go straight to the bar. This may not be a good strategy on my part although I could probably come back with a zinger about the bar being open or something.

As you can tell I could use some help or suggestions. If you don’t feel like providing a comment or e-mailing me at seanramblings at yahoo[dot]com at this time, I understand. It is National Procrastination Week.


Update: The speech has been written and is posted here.

Myron Cope 1929-2008

As every Pittsburgh Steeler fan knows, legendary broadcaster Myron Cope passed away this morning at the age of 79. I don’t have much to add to everything that has already been written (see the links below), but I do want to share a few memories. Besides listening to him during Steelers games and his radio shows, I loved watching Myron on WTAE perform his annual Christmas carol, make his weekly "Cope-ro-scope" prognosis, and of course, his "U Can’t Touch This" and "Achy Breaky Heart" parodies. I also saved a copy of the December 15, 2000 USA Today sports section because they ran a piece about Cope. There’s a great quote from the story:

When I did my first broadcast, I was shouting because it seemed impossible to me that people miles away driving on the parkway could hear me. I’ve been screaming ever since.

While it is a sad day for Steeler nation, there are a lot of great stories and memories out there inlcuding:

- The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette featues Myron's obituary by Gene Collier and a readers forum where fans share their Myron memories.

- WTAE (there are also links to Cope’s music videos on the right side of the page, but they aren’t working for me)

- Deadspin

- January 15, 2005 New York Times article

- Doubt About It

- Joey Porter’s Pit Bulls

- Tidbits and the Angry Consumer

Finally, this site has dozens of Myron’s sound bites through the years.

2008 Pitt Football Schedule

The University of Pittsburgh’s 2008 football schedule was released on Monday:

August 30 – Bowling Green
September 6 – Buffalo
September 20 – Iowa
September 27 – at Syracuse
October 2 – at South Florida
October 18 – at Navy
October 25 – Rutgers
November 1 – at Notre Dame
November 8 – Louisville
November 22 – at Cincinnati
November 28 – West Virginia for the Backyard Brawl
December 6 – at Connecticut

Overall, I like Pitt’s schedule. I’m glad that Pitt is playing Notre Dame again, and I think the series with Iowa will be good. Personally, I haven’t been to a Pitt football game in several years, so I am excited for the likelihood of going to the Navy game in Annapolis. My only real complaint is the fact that Pitt-West Virginia is not the final game of the season. The Backyard Brawl really should be the last game for both teams.

More on the schedule at the Post-Gazette, Pitt Blather (here and here) and the official athletic website of the University of Pittsburgh.

2008 Oscar Predictions

The 80th Academy Awards are only hours away, and I wanted to share my predictions now so that if I’m correct, I’ll look like a great movie analyst. Unfortunately, tonight’s winners will not have the opportunity to drive the Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile. (Get it, OSCAR! Nevermind.)

Best Picture – No Country for Old Men

Best Actor – Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood

Best Actress – Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose

Best Supporting Actor – Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men

Best Supporting Actress – Ruby Dee - American Gangster

Best Director – Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men

Adapted Screenplay – No Country for Old Men

Original Screenplay – Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton

Best Foreign Language Film – Beaufort (the Israeli film)

Best Animated Feature Film – The Simpsons Movie I don’t care if this movie wasn’t nominated; I feel like there may have been a strong write-in vote for Homer and family. Of the actual nominees, I guess Ratatouille.

Jason, one of the stars of Michael Clayton, has predictions for every single category at his site.

Unlike the Grammy Awards, there will not be a live journal as I just returned from a weekend in Pittsburgh and need to be at work early on Monday. Enjoy the ceremony and feel free to leave your picks and any comments about the show!

Courtside Recap: George Mason vs. Delaware

Would it have been rude of me to have asked George Mason basketball coach Jim Larranaga to sit down during Wednesday night’s game against Delaware? He was blocking my view for much of the second half! You see, I lucked into VIP tickets where I sat two rows behind the Mason bench. With the exception of my brother’s JCC basketball games when he was in elementary school, this was the closest I have ever been to the court. I wasn’t even this close watching my high school’s basketball games, which featured an awkward center named Jason Taylor who I don’t remember scoring more than six points in any game. Apparently, he’s now dancing with the stars or something.

Anyway, being a VIP wasn’t just about being close to the court. It also meant free food and drinks! I felt a little out of place given that most of the VIPs probably donated thousands of dollars to the university. I was just a guy there with some friends that happened to have a connection for the night. Did I mention that sitting directly in front of me was former Washington Redskins and Houston Texans General Manager and current CBS Analyst, Charley Casserly? At least I knew the names of the Mason players and some of the team cheers, so I wasn’t completely out of place.

Since I do not get the opportunity to sit this close often (or ever), I thought I would share my experiences, thoughts and observations here.

- Being close to the bench certainly had its advantages. During time-outs, I could hear coach Larranaga give instructions to the team. For example, he told John Vaughn to switch to a different defender. I also heard Larranaga talking with the team about paint so they must be doing some renovations after the game. Maybe it’s a Habitat for Humanity project?

- There are many pressures in being a Division I basketball coach. Just ask Kelvin Sampson, the head coach at Indiana. Your career is fairly or unfairly defined by wins and losses. However, there are certain advantages. During the game, Larranaga simply looked at a student manager, says water and instantly receives a cup. By the second half, all Larranaga had to do was look at the kid, and a cup of water immediately appeared.

- In his program, Charley Casserly circled each of the Mason starters and also put numbers next to the substitutes when they entered the game. This is the inside information that you just can’t get anywhere else!

- The game started at 9:00pm because it was aired on the Verizon Fios network. Does anyone actually have cable through Verizon? What does Verizon show at 7:00 at 8:00 so that the game didn’t start until 9:00?

- Verizon Fios did have a sideline reporter who alternated between standing behind the Delaware and Mason benches during time-outs. I would love to know what she said after listening to the discussion. It was probably something like "play good defense" or "pass the ball to Will Thomas." Maybe she could hear the paint discussion better than me.

- Freshman guard Isaiah Tate entered the game with about one minute remaining in the game and a victory already secured for the Patriots. I don’t know if he knew, but there was a lot of suspense and pressure on him when he was fouled and went to shoot two free throws with only 25 seconds remaining. George Mason had 68 points at the time and 70 points are needed for everyone to receive 5 free chicken wings restaurant. Fortunately, Tate hit both free throws and the crowd rejoiced. Unfortunately, you could only get the wings on the day of the game or the day after the game. Since the game ended around 11:00pm, Thursday was really the only chance to get the wings.

- As for the game itself, Mason won 70-58 with Will Thomas leading the Patriots with 24 points and 14 rebounds. Although Thomas is probably too short to play in the NBA, he is an amazingly solid player on both ends of the court and can play on my basketball team any day. Thomas is now 3rd in the Colonial Athletic Association in scoring (16.5 points per game); 1st in rebounding (10.6); 2nd in field goal percentage (63.5%); and 4th in minutes played. Recaps of the game are available at The Washington Post and at the Mason sports website. This was also Larranaga’s 400th career victory.

- I hoped to take a physical memento from my experience of being close to the court besides the pictures of the back of Casserly’s head and the view of my seat when Larranaga was standing in my way. As I walked out, the team’s water bottles were just sitting there seemingly calling my name. Each water bottle was specifically labeled so I didn’t want to get Vlad Moldoveanu in trouble by taking his bottle. There was also a security guy standing 20 feet away.

If I attend next week’s Mason game, I’ll be sad to return to the cheap seats.

Excellent Sports Posts

There have been some terrific sports-realted posts recently that I wanted to share in case you have not read them:

- The Pensblog created a mock trial between Ty Conklin and Marc-Andre Fleury. The winner gets to start for the remainder of the Pittsburgh Penguins' season. Erin Brockovich and Marty the Chicken serve as the attorneys with witnesses including Marc-Andre Fleury's former water bottle.

- Deadspin's Will Leitch was online for a discussion at The Washington Post.

- Kissing Suzy Kolber welcome back Tony Kornheiser to the radio.

Enjoy!

Get Away From My Office

Perhaps you have heard about John McCain’s relationship, or lack thereof, with lobbyist Vicki Iseman. I personally don’t care about the story and feel like it has already received way more attention that it deserves. I guess sex or the potential of sex sells.

Anyway, when I arrived at work today, I noticed two cameras on tripods outside my building. There was a gentleman crossing the street that I thought they were filming for some strange reason. When I went out for lunch, there were about four or five cameras on the corner. There were two or three cameras at the same place when I went home. It turns out that, apparently, Ms. Iseman works in the building across the street. Therefore, about a half dozen cameras stayed outside the building hoping to get film of Ms. Iseman. I imagine that they were hoping that she would need to buy some medicine at CVS or grab lunch at COSI or California Tortilla. What a thrilling day for these guys to stand in the cold on an Arlington, Virginia corner for 8+ hours! I wonder if they’ll be back on Friday if we get the snowstorm that is expected.

Trivia Night

Over the past few months, I have become a regular at Monday night trivia. I am part of an excellent team, which is a good thing since I provide very little in terms of quality answers. Last night, our team finished in second place just one point away from victory. I feel somewhat responsible for our first place loser status since I dissuaded our team from answering a question correctly. The question was something like what woman’s dress sold for over $1.2 million at a 1999 auction, the most expensive auction dress ever. I’ll give the answer in the comments, along with what I said to convince my teammates. If we got that 2-point question correct, we would have won.

Anyway, since I don’t have much else to write today, I thought I would share one of the rounds to see how you can do and if you are worthy to join the team if you happen to be in Bethesda, Maryland on a Monday night.

Find the following “before and after” answers where the last part of the first clue is the first part of the second clue. For example Goldie Hawn character and an author who writes about child rearing would be Private Benjamin Spock.

1. Bengals wide receiver’s nickname and Mexican holiday.
I'll give you help for this one to get you started: Ocho Cinco de Mayo
2. “Peggy Sue” singer and Charmed star.

3. 2005 Best Picture winner and Bull Durham character.

4. Chicago Bulls player and British claymation figures who like cheese.

5. Fertile Broncos running back and Turn of the Screw author.

6. Good Will Hunting star and REM single.

7. 1990 gangster film directed by Coen brothers and Jill Hennessy TV show.

8. NBC comedy with Alec Baldwin and one of the Pillars of Hercules.

9. Original MNF commentator and Today show co-host.

10. Big Midwestern city newspaper and NYC landmark.

Feel free to provide your answers in the comments. Oh, the questions are from Stump Trivia, which runs an excellent trivia game.

Sandwiches and Edgar Snyder

Esquire created an unranked list of the best sandwiches in America which included Primanti Bros. and Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor. I never thought Esquire and Primanti Bros would be used in the same sentence. Chick-Fil-A’s chicken sandwich and McDonald’s McRib also made the list. The McRib? I thought it was a good list until they decided to add a McDonald’s sandwich.

According to Forbes, Boulder, Colorado is the smartest city in America followed by Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, Maryland and Ithaca, New York. Other cities on the list included Washington, D.C.; Arlington, Va.; Alexandria, VA at #13; Charlottesville at #17; and State College, Pennsylvania at #18. The biggest problem I have with this list (besides the fact that Forbes makes you click from screen to screen without providing one single list) is that Bethesda, Gaithersburg and Frederick are listed together. Frederick isn’t even in the same county as Bethesda and Gaithersburg.

In last week’s Grammys journal, I wrote "when Beyonce introduced Tina Turner earlier tonight, she called her The Queen. No offense to Tina Turner (I’ve written this way too many times tonight), who I think is an amazing artist, but Aretha is the queen." Aretha must have read this and agreed with me as she’s unhappy with Beyonce.

In response to my "pointless" post on Friday, HDKart sent me more pictures of people pointing:


I am honored to have a picture of Attorney Edgar Snyder on my blog!

What's The Point?

At Wednesday’s Congressional hearing, Larry Breuer, one of Roger Clemens’ attorneys, seemed pretty upset at how things were going and showed his displeasure by pointing at someone as pictured here.



So who was he pointing at? It couldn’t have been Giuliani since Rudy is a Yankees fan (I think).



Maybe they are both pointing at John Kerry was who is a Red Sox fan (I believe). Is that why John Kerry is ready to fight only to be held back by Barack Obama?



There is only one who can stop this senseless pointing!




I admit this was a pretty stupid post. I just saw the picture of Breuer pointing (courtesy of Jonathan Newton, The Washington Post) and wanted to share other pictures of people pointing. Have a nice weekend!

Thoughts on the 2008 Presidential Election

Just before the Iowa caucus (doesn’t that seem like years ago?) I posed a question to Rob at Bluey Blog as to why people hate Hillary Clinton. This led to probably the most comments I have ever received (that doesn’t really say much) and inspired another post about Clinton at the landmark site, Smart Bitches. (I am being completely serious about this statement; SB discovered that a major author plagiarized material in her books, and the site was referenced in stories by the AP, New York Times and Newsweek. Conversely, Sean’s Ramblings has been mentioned on Star Trek and WVU fan message boards.)

Anyway, I check out Bluey Blog occasionally and was extremely surprised to discover that Bluey voted for Barack Obama in Tuesday’s primary. You see, Rob is the director of the Center for Media & Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation, serves as a contributor to a prominent conservative blog, writes weekly columns for sites including The Conservative Voice and is a contributing editor to Human Events, the national conservative weekly. These are not quite the credentials of Dennis Kucinich. So why the heck did Rob vote for Obama? He gave a few reasons including that he’ll "do whatever it takes to avoid another Clinton in the White House, even if it means crossing over to vote in the Democrat primary." He also stated that

[Obama’s] lack of experience makes him even more vulnerable. It is for this reason that I would give McCain the edge in a head-to-head matchup with Obama. I’m not so sure the same is true against Hillary.

I don’t buy that second theory and here’s why. As I lifetime Democrat, I openly wonder who I would vote for if it came down to Clinton vs. McCain. This has less to do with politics than it does the people themselves. I really liked McCain when he ran in 2000, and although he seems to be criticized heavily by Rush & Coulter (more on them momentarily), he stands by his convictions and has sincerely worked with his Democratic Senate colleagues on some controversial topics for folks on the right such as campaign finance reform. I don’t agree with McCain on a lot of issues, and I think he’s changed significantly since 2000, but I think he is an honorable person. Actually, just the fact that Rush and Coulter seem to dislike McCain right now as much as Clinton is a reason for me to like him. By the way, is there anything more asinine than Ann Coulter being anti-McCain because he’s against torture? Hello, McCain was a POW who was tortured. I’ll take his opinions on torture over just about anyone. Folks like Rush and Coulter will end up coming around on McCain as they’re not going to vote or support Clinton or Obama. However, if Clinton does get the nomination or even elected, that's great business for them. Think about it: four plus years of high ratings in criticizing Clinton. The ratings and listeners won't be nearly as big if McCain wins.

Back to Hillary, while I would tend to agree with her on most issues, I think she would have an extremely difficult time working with Congress and getting the support of a large majority of the American public. There are just so many people out there that hate her and that's not going to change. As an aside, I would love to see Bill Clinton as the first man. I think he would do a fantastic job as an ambassador to the world traveling from country to country. Could Bill serve in this role during the entire term and only return to the U.S. for holidays?

As mentioned above, Rob gave McCain the edge against Obama. I don’t buy it. The knock against Obama is his inexperience and that may be valid. However, he can put good people around him. (Bill Richardson as anything would be great. How about Al Gore for Secretary of the Interior?) More importantly Obama is inspiring. I think it’s fair to write that there has not been so much hope for/by a presidential candidate since JFK or Reagan depending on your political views. I also don’t think you can discount age. The youth vote would certainly migrate towards Obama (born in August 1961) over McCain (born in August 1936).

So what do you think? If this is too deep, you can always go over to Kissing Suzy Kolber who wrote a post titled Vote for Barack Obama And Receive A “Get Out Of Racism Free” Card.

This entire post may be too deep for me too. I’m going to play Madden now.

Election Day Parties and Events

Tuesday is the Potomac Primary/Chesapeake Primary/whatever you want to call it where voters in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia go to the polls to vote in the Presidential Primary. What to do once you cast your ballot? Well, here are some suggestions for the rest of the day.

- California Tortilla is giving customers a free taco. Just stop by your local DC, MD or VA's Cal Tort on Tuesday, February 12th proudly wearing your “I VOTED” sticker or with your sample ballot, and they will give you a free taco.

- IHOP’s National Pancake Day Celebration - From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., IHOP will give you a free short stack (three) buttermilk pancakes. All that they ask is that you consider making a donation to support locale children’s hospitals through Children’s Miracle Network, or other local charities. This really has nothing to do with the election, but it’s free food!

- Obama fans? Watch the DC/Virginia/Maryland results come in at James Hoban's in Dupont Circle on Tuesday, February 12th. They promise good company, good drink/food specials, and good results for Obama. In return, they’re asking for a minimum donation of $25 per person, all of which will go directly to the campaign.

- Come out to show your support for Senator Obama with the gay and lesbian community as they watch the primaries for the DC, VA & MD at Nellie’s Sports Bar in DC.

- McCain fans? The Virginia Election Night Party takes place at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites in Alexandria. Will John McCain be there?

- Nothing says election night like Drag Bingo at Chaos.

- Al Jarreau performs at the Birchmere, but tickets are sold out. You may have better luck with Disney’s High School Musical at the National Theatre.

- Don’t Spend a Dime has a list of free food and drinks (again, not election-related, but free food!)

- Koji Kakinuma is at The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage at 6. It’s a free show, but I doubt that Kakinuma will have much election analysis (since the polls haven’t closed yet, of course).

I could not find any election evening events for Hilary Clinton, Mike Huckabee or Ron Paul, but I’m sure there has to be something. If you know of any other events or discounts for Tuesday, please leave them in the comments. Oh yeah, don’t forget to vote!

Live Grammy Awards Journal

Welcome to my live coverage (from my couch) of the 50th Grammy Awards. I will be writing about the Grammys throughout the evening or until I get bored or tired. Kanye West leads all artists with eight nominations and I expect him to get a few wins tonight. The big story of the evening will probably be Amy Winehouse, who has six nominations, but will not be in attendance since she was denied a visa.

This is usually about the time when I make predictions, but I really have no idea who will win. Seriously, who do you think will win Record of the Year between Beyonce (Irreplaceable); Foo Fighters (The Pretender); Justin Timberlake (What Goes Around…Comes Around); Amy Winehouse (Rehab); and Rihanna featuring Jay-Z (Umbrella)? You can probably make a case for any of these five. Actually, the bigger question is who does Jay-Z support for this award: himself or his girlfriend (they’re not married yet?) Beyonce?

In case you were wondering, Barack Obama has already won a Grammy today for the Best Spoken Word Album category. Obama defeated Maya Angelou, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Alan Alda. No offense to Alan Alda, who has won several Emmys and been nominated for an Oscar, but he really didn’t have a chance.

I’ll be back with updates later, but in the meantime, I leave you with this. 18-year-old Taylor Swift is up for Best New Artist. Swift may be best known for her single, "Teardrops on My Guitar," which features the line, "The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star." Wishing on a wishing star? Who would use wishing, or a variation of wish or wishing, twice in the same sentence? The great Terence Trent Darby would never do such a thing.
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- I have to applaud CBS and the Grammys for a great get to open the show. I don’t know how they convinced Frank Sinatra to come out of, um, retirement, to perform.

- Alicia Keys had a nice little duet with Sinatra and then came out to welcome the crowd. Does the Grammys not have a host? Was Ellen DeGeneres not available? (I’m anti-Ellen at the moment. I stayed home from work on Thursday because I was sick and caught the beginning of her show. She opened by dancing around the audience, taking people’s purses along the way. Then, she went through people’s purses making fun of the contents. I decided right then that no matter how sick I felt Friday morning, I was going to work.)

- Before I forget, how many commercials do you think we’ll see tonight for the latest edition of Big Brother? I’ll guess at least three.

- Carrie Underwood had a nice performance of “Before He Cheats” with the people from Stomp (I think). She dedicated the song to Tony Romo. (This is completely untrue, but why not start a rumor.)

- Prince presented the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Prince is probably 50 by now, but he’s still cool and always will be. The winner: Alicia Keys, who looks very good tonight. However, I hope that this doesn’t start a trend of an artist performing and then winning the award while being on the side of the stage.

- Next performance, The Time, but part-way through the performance, out comes Rihanna. I really like "Please Don’t Stop the Music," but can do without "Umbrella." Now it’s The Time and Rihanna together. I never would have predicted that combination.

- Tom Hanks presents a lifetime Grammy Award to The Band. I put them at #12 in my list of the Top 25 greatest Canadian musicians (4/5 of the band is from Canada). Then, he quickly segues into this little band called The Beatles and Cirque de Soleil performs part of its show “Love.” It’s Tom Hanks! You didn’t expect him to introduce Plain White T’s, did you?

- I didn’t mention this before, but as always, feel free to share your own comments below. In addition, you can see who has already won awards at Grammy.com. It looks like very few awards are actually going to be presented on the air.
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- An actual award! Cyndi Lauper and Mylie Cyrus present the Best New Artist. Lauper gushes all over Cyrus saying something about Cyrus lassoing the moon and that we’ll see her in this category next year. In a surprise (not at all), Amy Winehouse wins.

- I’m going to pretend that the Jason Bateman thing didn’t happen. He looked a bit out of place.

- Back to performances. Kanye West was terrific with “Stronger” featuring Daft Punk and then received a standing ovation for “Hey Mama.” Fergie then sings her song “Finally” with John Legend.

- It’s only 9:00pm Eastern time, and I’m already tiring. If you’re looking for other TV options, a new episode of Rock of Love 2 is airing on VH1, Family Guy is on Fox (not sure if it’s new or not), and we’re part-way through Office Space on Comedy Central.
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- It’s Beyonce; then Tina Turner; then both of them together for “Proud Mary.” I have nothing witty to write except that seeing Turner perform reminds me of the New York Post’s (I believe) headline from a few months ago: “Ike Beats Tina to Death.” Keep on dancing Tina! Another standing ovation.

- Andy Williams? I’m amazed that the Grammys were able to get both him and Sinatra since they both, you know, are no longer with us. Oh wait, Andy Williams is really there with Nelly Furtado and someone else. I’m a terrible person for even writing this paragraph.

- Another Amy Winehouse win for Song of the Year. Everyone keeps mentioning that Winehouse will be around later performing live via satellite from London. It’s going to be after 2:00am in London by the time she performs. I hope she’s not taking Vivarin or something illegal to keep herself awake.

- Jason Bateman is again awkward introducing the Grammy moment winner. Fortunately, Foo Fighters are there with an excellent performance of “The Pretender” with the Grammy moment winner, an orchestra and John Paul Jones to bail him out.

- I don’t think Kristy Jo is going to make it through the end of tonight’s Rock of Love 2. She has been one of my favorites, but she’s having a rough time.
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- Kanye West wins Best Rap Album and says that if he doesn’t win Best Album, Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson (the producer) should win. In an unprecedented award show moment, he also gets the telecast to stop playing the music they play to get an artist off the stage to say something about his mother.

- Ludacris introduces Aretha Franklin as the Queen of Soul. When Beyonce introduced Tina Turner earlier tonight, she called her “The Queen.” No offense to Tina Turner (I’ve written this way too many times tonight), who I think is an amazing artist, but Aretha is the queen.

- Kristy Jo is staying since another girl decided to go; however, it turns out that the other girl was going to be sent home anyway. Why do I watch this crap?

- Back to the Grammys, another Canadian, Feist, is on stage. It may be too soon to add her to the list of top Canadian performers, but she at least gets an honorable mention.

- I am getting sleepy.

- Kid Rock and Keely Smith sing together? That’s even more random than The Time and Rihanna. They then present the Best Rock Album to Foo Fighters. I’m pretty sure that Dave Grohl kissed Keely Smith on the lips.
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- Alicia Keys is not the queen. Stevie Wonder calls her incomparable. By the way, how many times is Keys going to perform tonight? Is this like a few years ago when Justin Timberlake seemed to be on stage for the entire show? Is Timberlake even there tonight?

- Ringo Starr and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics come out to say that “my country send me to United States to make movie-film. Please, come and see my film. If it not success, I will be execute.” Actually, Ringo says that he likes country music. Vince Gill wins something, makes a joke that involves Kanye (I missed it) and gets a laugh from the crowd and Kanye.

- I zoned out for a few minutes, but Rihanna won something, and now Cuba Gooding Jr. is live in London to introduce Amy Winehouse.

- Amy Winehouse performs and then wins Record of the Year. She thanked a few people, including her parents, but not her husband. Is he still in jail?

I'm done. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who made it this far!

Update 2/11 @ 7:00am: Here's a recap of the Grammys from Yahoo. Apparently, Winehouse did thank her jailed husband, but I missed it.

Election Day Suggestions Needed

I am compiling a list of free or discounted activities for Tuesday’s “Potomac Primary” that I will publish on Monday morning and am looking for suggestions. For example, California Tortilla is giving customers a free taco to anyone wearing an "I Voted" sticker. Are there other restaurants or businesses that have similar promotions? In addition, I want to include election night parties, and while I have found events on Tuesday night for Barack Obama and John McCain, I have had no success in finding parties for any other candidates. (Where are the Fred Thompson and Joe Biden parties? They are both on the ballot!) If you know of any events in the DC area, please leave the details in the comments or e-mail me at seanramblings at yahoo [dot] com. As I mentioned, I will publish this list on Monday morning.

I’ll be back Sunday night for a live blog of the 50th Grammy Awards!

Traveler IQ Challenge and Referrals

Over the weekend, I mentioned my addiction to the Traveler IQ Challenge. The same site also has about a dozen other quizzes including the USA Challenge and UNESCO sites. I earned a score of 113,735 (Level 8; traveler IQ of 126) on the USA Challenge and 587,525 (Level 10; traveler IQ of 102) with UNESCO sites. In full disclosure, I failed miserably in my first attempt at the UNESCO quiz as Henderson Island, UK is not even near Europe.

I haven’t done this in a while, but here are real searches (usually from Google) that real people used to find and visit this place.

Do the Spice Girls mention the Packers in a song?
Unless David Beckham joined the Packers, I’m going to guess no.

Did Debbie Gibson go to Ithaca College?
I wish.

"What is wrong with Katie Holmes"
Tom Cruise is too easy of an answer, right?

What's going on with Joe Hardy from 84 Lumber
Last I heard, the 84-year-old Hardy (he may be 85 at this point) divorced his third wife, 23-year-old Kristin Georgi, after only four months of marriage. I really thought they would make it.

Why do people hat Hillary
You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Clinton wear a hat. Maybe a lot of people dislike Clinton because of the vast right-wing haberdasher conspiracy against her.

Why are people so hard on Clinton
This seems like an inappropriate question.

Jaguars Mating
I think this aired on Animal Planet after Puppy Bowl IV.

"looks heavier" Tom Brady
So that’s why the Patriots lost the Super Bowl!

Finally, how exactly did Sean’s Ramblings end up on a Star Trek message board debate about Hillary Clinton?

Super Bowl XLII Notes

Everything has already been said and written about this year's New York Giants-New England Patriots Super Bowl, but I want to add my two cents anyway.

If you were tired of Peyton Manning commercials, prepare yourself for many Eli Manning commercials or more advertisements featuring both Manning brothers.

David Tyree's amazing catch was Swann-esque. (Swann as a wide reciever; not as a candidate for Pennsylvania's Governor.)

In the third quarter, the Patriots had a 4th and 13 from the Giants 32 and decided to go for it. Why not try for a 49 or 50-yard field goal? If you have that little confidence that your 2nd year kicker can't make a field goal from that distance in a dome, you need to get a new kicker.

Bill Belichick's short-sleeve sweatshirt looked silly.

Earlier this week, Plaxico Burress predicted a 23-17 victory for his Giants. Tom Brady's response: "We're only going to score 17 points?" No, you only scored 14 points.

When NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell came to the podium to present the Vince Lombardi trophy, I thought he was going to say, "To Arlen Specter, I'll call you in a few days. Please get off my back."

Congratulations to the New York Giants! A nation is extremely happy that you defeated the Patriots!

Super Bowl Weekend Links

Are you just sitting around your home waiting for the game to start? Here are some things you can do to pass the time:

Take the Traveler IQ Challenge. The objective is to click locations on the map as quickly as possible. I made it through level 6 where I scored 29255 points on World Capitals – Medium (30000 points are needed to advance to the next level). My overall score was 195,932 points. Warning: this is very addictive.

Great recaps of Thursday night’s Lost episode by Kassy K and Liz Kelly/Jen Chaney at The Washington Post.

Speaking of the Post, Kevin Mohs, vice president for production at Animal Planet, was online on Friday answering questions about the Puppy Bowl.

Reebok is making Kool-Aid shoes! (via Deadspin).

Finally, Happy Groundhog Day! Unfortunately, this is another year that I am not in Punxsutawney for the celebration. Hopefully, I’ll be there next year. (I seem to say this every year!) Yes, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so that means six more weeks of winter. For all of your Groundhog Day coverage, visit the official website of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

Really Random Thoughts

This is going to be all over the place so bear with me and enjoy:

* The starting line-up for Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl IV has been announced. I hope Harry Kalas does not get Jack, Jack and Jackson confused. The always entertaining Puppy Bowl airs at 3 on Super Bowl Sunday and then replays at 6, 9 and midnight.

* I am getting very excited about the season debut of Lost tonight. Unfortunately, there’s a decent chance I may miss the episode since I’m flying to Dallas.

* Speaking of Dallas, I’m going to be there for five days and neither the Mavericks nor Stars have a home game. Since they share an arena, how is this possible?

* I hate admitting this but I have started watching Rock of Love 2 on VH1 (see the note below before clicking on the link). My favorite two “contestants” are Ambre and Kristy Jo. They seem the most real and the least “slutty” if either of these is possible on this ridiculous show. By the way, if you click on the show’s link above, which is PG-13 and may not be suitable for work, Bret Michaels looks almost as feminine as some of the cast members at least in the hair and face.

* Is it just me or does it seem that all of the current and former Republican presidential candidates have a strong dislike of Mitt Romney.

* After the New Hampshire primary, I wrote, “I am really intrigued by Rudy Giuliani’s strategy. He punted Iowa and New Hampshire and is hoping to win in the bigger states like Florida. It doesn’t seem like a very good strategy, but what do I know?” Apparently, I did know something! You can’t essentially sit out six states (well five if you don’t include Wyoming) and then show up part-way through. I’m guessing that no candidate will attempt Giuliani’s strategy in the near future. There may be candidates that enter the race late, but not those who enter but do minimal campaigning in the first few states.

* Interesting post and comments in The Washington Post about Bill Richardson and whether he’ll endorse Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. I really like Richardson and if a Democrat wins the White House, he should be the Vice President or a member of the Cabinet.