Saturday

Bachelor Jason Turns Bad, Newt and Steele Enemies of the Week in Thoughts, American Idol 09-Top Spots Awarded, Celebrity Apprentice 09 Begins.

We've got a TV post here with a Bravo Top Chef Winner and some insight into Trump's 09 Celebrity Apprentice, the contenders and thoughts on the celebrity culture and who the hell cares.

All with video and pics you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.
Whew.

Everyone loved Bachelor 09 Single Dad Jason Mesnick. He was affable, truthful, cute, a fine father…what's not to love?

Except last week he became public enemy #1 for how he handled his choice of a wife.

Scripted, scripted, scripted…and I'll tell you why.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.
I've got a rant that will blister conservative eyeballs, liberals best stay away.

Enemy of the Week and totally unforgiven, Michael Steele.

Plus Good Guy of Week", a runner-up for Enemy of the Week, some nostalgia on old phones and much more in this Thoughts of the Week.

American Idol 09 fills the top slots and soon this contest will capture the public's fancy.

Yes some think this a bad thing but hey a)it's a fair, square contest won by the voting public b)American Idol contributes to the economy by filling stadiums and selling TV commercial time and c)it's good ole American talent and ingenius success at its finest.

We've got pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.
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Guest writer Michelle writes of Disneyland and new kittens.


Pic of the Day
cheetah with cubs




The Repubs Get Caught Again, This Time the Chair of the National RNC

RANT header


Though the Democrat party is filled with scoundrels and thieves who don’t pay taxes like us peons, who pee upon our feet and tell us it’s raining as they rob the U.S. Treasury and call it a “stimulus” bill, who cultivate a dependent and poor citizenry that will forever keep them in power, so too do they create “enemies” to fool us idiots that, lookit, over there, THAT’S the guy bringing you all the pain and angst.

It’s a familiar pattern. Every son of a camel Poohbah who could not lead a fox out of a hen house yet pretends to lead a country does the same thing by pointing to, hey…over there, big, bad Israel. It is the Joooooos causing you all the poverty and grief, not this pathetic life you must live while quashed under an oppressive religion as we live fat cat lives and enjoy the oil wealth that is also yours.

The Democrats are only following time-honored political tools to win and keep power and in a blackish sort of way, I admire them. James Carville, that political operative who resembles a bald serpent who will hiss and drag dollars through trailer parks to besmirch any female citizen who should point out that ole Bill Clinton is a pornographic sleaze bucket, follows the lead of the Arab sons of camels and creates enemies that the Palestinian Americans can look to that makeshift enemy as source of all pain.

Except the conservatives amongst us have only the poorest of soldiers to fight out battles. Which is, specifically, that sad excuse for a political party called, once affectionately, the GOP. The GOP, or the Republican party, is filled with booth-tanned, nail-polished, wingtip-wearing, reaching-across-the-aisle, “my friend”-calling namby-pambys that are little challenge against the mighty and well-practiced likes of serpent Carville, Begalia, and Rahm the ballerina of the Democratic party.

Every hair on the heads of the pubbie Lords in America’s House of Lords must lay perfectly in its anointed place, DC cocktail party invites should fill the mailboxes, the aisles across should always be filled with “friends”, even the kind who would stab in the back and smile while doing so.

So Eric Cantor, sometimes regarded as an up and comer in the pubbie party, and no less than the freaking CHAIR OF THE NATIONAL RNC both get caught in the cross-hairs of the Democrats on a roll, God help us all.

For the fine political team of Carville, Begalia, Emanual the Ballerina and the impartial Steponallofus have stepped up to the plate and following the sons-of-camels inhabiting the sands across the planet, have appointed a NEW enemy that the fools out here in la-la land, which would be us, while we carry this country on our backs as we raise the citizens and soldiers of tomorrow, can target our hatred at the enemy they have properly appointed as we ignore the Democrats behind the curtain.

I speak of Rush Limbaugh, who, in the interest of fair and balanced, I happen to adore. Still I don’t think anyone on this planet, nary a soul, should be forced to sit and listen to Rush and, indeed, anybody who forces such a thing on another citizen should be promptly jailed for false imprisonment.

But the team of Carville, et al, have now named Rush the enemy that we all must regard with hatred much like the Palestinians and the Jooooos. It is Rush, so we must believe, who is causing us all our grief and pain, who brings us nightmares deep in the night, who causes our arches to fall, who single-handedly brought down the stock market, who makes us go bald and who forces our spouses to cheat upon us.

Michael Steele


It used to be, not so long ago, Karl Rove who was appointed by the Dems as our enemy. Heh. Karl Rove, a pudgy squeezable fellow who resembles more closely the Pilsbury Doughboy than Jack the Ripper. James Carville is, frankly, way more scary looking than either Karl Rove or Rush Limbaugh.

Karl Rove is now a Fox news pundit and he’s an innocent looking guy with a bunch of kids, soft-spoken, my goodness, the Dems made a career of demonizing this guy who I’d doubt would ever hurt a fly.

The Dems also made an entire company the spooky enemy, remember Enron? It didn’t matter what was happening in the world in the mid-90’s, it was Enron that caused global warming, the tsunami in Thailand, earthquakes across the planet, pollution of our rivers and mass impotence across the fruited plains of our new castrati brethren.

Which would all be well and good and I’ll not even not go so far as to suggest that like we all play Monopoly and Candyland on an even footing that maybe the pubs should take a page from this playbook and too garner up a pretend enemy…James Carville would make a great one and he looks the part even. No. All I ask is that pubs fight back against this kind of nonsense, maybe, well doing like I do, saying right out loud in a public place just what is going on. Of course the pubs would not be as articulate as The Wise I, smirk, or capture the fine art of sarcasm quite so smartly. But they could, throwing it out there, when given a platform, risk that head hairs might move from their appointed places and FIGHT BACK against this tactic.

So okay, maybe tans would fade to think the pubs would accuse their friends across the aisle of creating fake bogeymans and horrors at the feelings that would be hurt. How about this?

HOW ABOUT THE PUBS DON’T GO ALONG WITH THIS TACTIC AND NOT FOLLOW THE DEMS’ TALKING POINTS?

So here’s Michael Steele, a fine man who I used to admire coming from the state of my birth and everything. And he’s on some show being interviewed by a nobody rap star and, of course, the rap star followed the Dems’ tactic because they are all born knowing this stuff.

Rush Limbaugh, this CNN rap star said, WANTS President Obama to fail.

Besides the appointed enemy tactic, the Dems are also adept at taking a talking point, a perfect one that must suit rigid requirements, and saying it over and over again until even if a lie, it becomes the truth.

Rush Limbaugh has stated, repeatedly and proudly, that he DOES want Obama to fail. He’s explained it over and over that he does not agree with Obama’s socialistic policies and just like he wanted the team playing his beloved Steelers to fail, so too does he want Obama to be unsuccessful in implementing an agenda that Rush thinks would be harmful to the country.

Now we understand, of course, that the explanation is way too many words for many Obama voters and we grant the tanned pubs some leeway here. And the talking point of Rush wanting Obama to fail does meet the Dem rigid requirements that the collective words be few, simple, and have many meanings, nuances and that to the discerning, cries for further disclosure. Which means most of the voters the Dems wish to fool won’t get it and will fall, lazily as is their wont, for the simplest interpretation of the talking point. Which is that Rush Limbaugh is some sort of deranged right-wing maniac who wants the U.S. President to fail even if the President expresses a desire to bring about world peace, millions in riches for every American, a United States protected forever against foreign attack and an America beloved by every inhabitant on the planet.

Again I throw it out there that the suntanned pubbies could use any pulpit the Lamestream gives them to explain this very thing to the American public. After a while even the Obama voters might get a clue and figure somebody was trying to fool them.

Oh no because when the CNN rapper throws out there that talking point so cleverly culled and crafted by Carville, et al, how does Michael Steele, our new head of the RNC and representative of conservatives left alone in the desert by the likes of John McCain and others who consider reaching across the aisles and calling the Dems their friends the ultimate in political success, respond?

He calls Rush an “entertainer” and says that Rush’s rhetoric is “ugly” and “incendiary”!

THANK YOU MICHAEL STEELE!

Eric Cantor too responded lamely that Rush was an entertainer and no one evidently told these suntanned, perfectly coiffed pubs that the dismissal of Rush Limbaugh as a mere entertainer was yesterday’s Democratic talking points. Because, as I must explain everything to those with head hairs that never leave their appointed places, the Dems are now trying to paint Rush as a dangerous Demagogue who wishes failure on our president and is now the de factor leader of the Republican party. It would not due to dismiss him as naught but the court jester.

The pubs, they just can’t handle it all and get in tanning booth time and then there’s the DC cocktail party circuit. Although they do have Rush, and hell even this humble Blogger, to help keep it straight.

Rush did respond back the following day. Within 15 minutes Michael Steel was abjectly apologizing to everyone, even strangers on the street.

Well I for one do not forgive.

I am quite sure Michael Steele is a very nice guy. And while Steele probably doesn’t need much time in the tanning booth I am sure his head hairs remain in their appointed places, his fingernails are perfectly polished, he would never sit and demonize an innocent person as the Dems love to do, or, gasp, lie and try to fool decent citizens all busy leading lives without time to read the Wall Street Journal from cover to cover. Which might be his, and Eric Cantor’s, hell the whole bunch’s, problem.

The pubbies would sit and play a game of Monopoly with the Democrats and would smile sweetly and agree with great joy that of course they should only get half of the money distributed at the beginning of the game and no problem that all properties double in value when landed upon by a Republican.

The notion of demanding a fair playing field might rumple the head hairs and maybe the Dems won’t consider them friends any more.

The conservative base of the Republican party is sick, SICK, of being peed upon and told it’s raining. We sit out here in la la land and we watch the Democrats run roughshod over these wingtipped morons and we watch our presidential nominee call everyone his friend until we could puke.

We have mourning doves fighting for territory against crazed hawks.

Good Guy Header


BADGUY HEADER


Michael Steele is this week’s bad guy of the week. Rush Limbaugh is this week’s good guy of the week.

And above is my fine, perfectly polished rant. Read it and weep.

Gift Gaffes

Folks, if the pubs screwed up as badly as the Democratic leadership did last week, we’d have James Carville on CNN spitting and hissing about the millions about to die in a nuclear holocaust launched by the insulted, Steponallofus would be pretending to be impartial while he lamented on his weekly political show the shame and horror of it all that the pubbies couldn’t find anything else but dollar store bling to gift to our allies as they visit, and Begalia, AKA The Skull, would be sobbing to wolf Blitzer that diplomatic relations are thrown back into the dark ages with the shame of it all.

As of this writing, late Saturday 3/7/09, I have not heard one pubbie poke fun at the gift gaffes of this past week.

So I shall once again do their job. Besides I find it incredibly revealing and funny as all get out, yes I do.

So what does President Obama present to our British allies during PM Gordon’s first visit?

Before answering this, let’s look at what Mr. Brown bought for President Obama and First Lady Michelle. From Hotair.com:
Mr Brown’s gifts included an ornamental desk pen holder made from the oak timbers of Victorian anti-slaver HMS Gannet, once named HMS President.

Mr Obama was so delighted he has already put it in pride of place in the Oval Office on the Resolute desk which was carved from timbers of Gannet’s sister ship, HMS Resolute.

Another treasure given to the U.S. President was the framed commission for HMS Resolute, a vessel that came to symbolise Anglo-US peace when it was saved from ice packs by Americans and given to Queen Victoria.

Finally, Mr Brown gave a first edition set of the seven-volume classic biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.

President Obama gifted Gordon Brown with a collection of “classic American films” on DVD.

Yeah, the kind you can get on Amazon.com for twenty five bucks.

Furthering the insult, Mrs. Brown gave the Obama children dresses designed by a British designer as well as several children’s books written by British authors.

The Obamas sent the Browns back with two toy replicas of Marine One, the kind, as has been described, sold in the White House gift shop.

Now you can take what I know about such as diplomatic gifting and shove it up the behind of a flea and it would still rattle around like a beebee in a box car. But I sure do know a slight when I see it.

Besides the cheap, thoughtless gifts, Obama did not grant a press conference with both he and Brown in attendance and pictures of Michelle with Mrs. Brown show the two ladies hidden behind a giant vase of peonies with Mrs. Brown looking as comfortable as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Then there’s the story of Secretary of State Hillary. Heh. And here’s a woman that was First Lady for eight years, Senator from New York and Presidential contender.

So she shows up in Russia with some sort of classless button type of thing. The idea was to give the Russian diplomatic corps a “reset” button, a swat at the Bush administration with the implicit meaning that American and Russian relations start anew with the Obama administration.

Which assumes that the Russians were dissatisfied with its relations with the Bush diplomatic corps, a big assumption I think in view that Bush looked into Putin’s soulful eyes and saw a good man.

The Dems, heh, they think everybody sees the world like they do, with makeshift enemies and political games that cover the reality.

Only problem was, the word used for the “reset” button was wrong. Instead of the word “reset”, from Politico.com, the genius’ at the state department came up with the Russian word meaning “overcharge”.

First, even a diplomatic dummy like me thinks giving the Russians any sort of button type object to be in poor taste. It wasn’t that long ago that words “finger on the button” meant one who could blow up the world. It’s not farfetched to envision a concept that handing a button to what was once our nuclear enemy embodies the notion that the U.S. was handing over the nuke button to Russia.

It also shows a lack of class for one American administration to poke such fun at another administration and I daresy even the dummy Bush as the Dems liked to portray him would not have done or implicated such a thing on the Clinton administration.

It was in poor and thoughtless taste, nevermind the mistranslation is what I’m saying here.

The pubs, however, have no mussed head hairs, their tans remain, and they do not mention this gaffe that would have had the Dems all over the pubbies were the situation reversed.

Heh. Sometimes a Pic Says It All

old lady smokes bday cake


QUIP header


This week’s quip of the Week comes from my very own husband. His thought might not be exactly new but it did give me pause.

For another fine example of hope and change, President Obama will now allow stem cells to be harvested from embryos that currently exist. The dismissive expression is “they would only be destroyed any way.”

Such an offhand dismissal of these fertilized eggs, embryos in fact, is meant to downplay the notion that these things are really human lives that have simply not been gestated to a full live birth.

Husband said, with passion for a normally quiet fellow…”THEN WHY HAVEN’T THEY BEEN DESTROYED?”

Well?

If someone is sitting around saving these things and if the libs tell us that they will be destroyed anyway…why is someone hanging onto them?

Could be because these embryos can, in fact, be implanted in a womb and grow into a viable baby? Maybe the embryos will bring in money or be a child for a sad, childless couple. Whatever the reason…THEY HAVE NOT BEEN DESTROYED SO WHY NOT?

Why do the libs keep saying this?

Interesting Tidbit

The famed pilot of that “Miracle on the Hudson” flight, Chesley Sullenberger, chose to cash in on his fame by testifying before congress about the problems airlines have keeping skilled pilots for the restrictions on the salaries they pay them.

I’m not at all sure how the salaries of airplane pilots is determined. I thought the airline industry was unregulated and such as salaries was determined by the marketplace. Somewhere I heard it explained that airlines are regulated in that there are certain destinations that must be serviced even though they are losers in terms of profits.

With no editorial commentary whatsoever, I learn that Sullenberger can, if he chooses, boost his salary by double:
Richard Branson has offered US Airways pilot/hero Chesley Sullenberger double his salary if he comes to work for Virgin Air. - The Week Magazine, 2/13/09


March 2009-In Like a Lion

It’s no mind how the ground hog made out with his shadow because the blockbuster snow storm that came roaring in the first of March 2009 said plenty.

Although as of this writing the outside temperatures are reaching the mid-70’s and it’s now just March 8. Hardly six weeks of winter is what I’m saying here.

This March storm was a scary one, at least here in the swamps of Delaware. The winds howled at for an hour we lost our electricity. Husband was not feeling very well that day and there was concern that he might suffer a seizure.

We got nine inches of snow and the stuff stayed stubbornly around for four days before this warm spell now upon.

birds in march 09 snow storm on deck


Ending With a Smile

Maybe only those over 40 amongst us might understand the pic below.

Heh.

where old phones go


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 Posted by Hello


Jason Turns From Cute to Public Enemy Overnight

From mlive.com:
Monday's two-hour season ender was the highest-rated program of the night with 15.45 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. It's the most-watched "Bachelor" finale since November 2003, when Bob Guiney picked Estella Gardinier.


I had no idea this series was so popular! I am a reality show junkee of sorts but The Bachelor has never been anywhere near my fave. “American Idol” will forever hold that title. But the finale of the Jason/Melissa/Molly drama was the highest rated program of the night on Monday, 3/2/09.

They have to work hard to keep up interest like this in a reality series that is a)hard to believe in its premise and b)a little boring, truth be told.

Which brings me to the base of my assertion that this show and its ending was so scripted and by me it was quite obvious.

I shall, as expected, explain.

Bachelor 09 finale montage


The concept of The Bachelor/Bachelorette series is that one single person will be given a pool of 25 fine and pretty folk from which to choose their future mate from. It’s not supposed to be a dating game. The show’s script calls for the episodes’ stars to be looking for a mate. To ask an audience to sit through yay many shows so the contender of their affection can get a date is asking too much.

In the early 2009 episode of The Bachelor, we had Jason Mesnick, a cute and physically-fit divorced Dad who has custody of his cute little boy. Jason had been a contender for DeAnna Pappas’ hand in the prior series featuring DeAnna as the Bachelorette seeking a permanent relationship. DeAnna had been rejected herself by the formerly most-hated Bachelor, Brad Womack who, even though he had 25 females vying for him, could not find one worth his fine self. Womack rejected them all!

Jason truly love DeAnna and asked her to marry him. She turned him down for a bowtie-wearing snowboarder, what a hoot. Jason was cute and beloved by the mostly female viewers so he came back to find a replacement for DeAnna who would heal his broken heart.

In fact DeAnna did make a reappearance on this series. Supposedly she wanted Jason back, realizing that a joke-cracking snowboarder was not the stuff of fine husbands. Folks, there really is such a thing as over-exposure. DeAnna needs to move on. Her entire act did not look real at all. DeAnna is no actress. Of course Jason turned her down flat because, read on, Jason had enough problems deciding on his future mate without throwing DeAnna, who’d already rejected him, into the mix.

Up until this season’s finale, Jason came off as intelligent, affable, truthful, pragmatic, kind and gentle.

Bachelor 09 finale montage


He chose Melissa, a DeAnna lookalike, for his future wife, telling her he loved her, giving her a beautiful engagement ring and celebrating with her and his son Ty. It left the viewers in tears that this lonely, sweet and cute single Dad, rejected so ruthlessly by publicity hound DeAnna the prior season, finally found someone so cute and loving such as Melissa.

Next came the “After the Rose” show and we knew something was up when show host Chris Harrison told us that the ending we were about to see was so shocking that they did not have an audience on set for the sensitivity required.

I could not imagine how what seemed to have already been a fine and happy finale could have turned so dire.

Jason comes out to greet Chris and he’s got tears in his eyes. “Oh-oh”, the viewer should think.

It would turn out that in the short amount of time since Jason chose Melissa as his future bride that things had gone sour in the relationship. I’m not sure when this series is taped but my guess is in the Fall of 2008, maybe late summer. There needs to be time for around eight to ten episodes, the “ladies’ night”, the big finale, and the “After the Rose” thing. Jason mentioned that he and Melissa spent some of the holidays together, we should assume he meant Christmas 2008.

So hey, it’d only been about three months or so. Melissa is from Dallas and as I understand it, the show paid for Melissa to see Jason every other weekend but this is just scuttlebutt. The thing is, once the Bachelor or Bachelorette pick their mate, they don’t get married the next day. Time is required to arrange moving and such. Or so we are expected to assume.

But Jason not only no longer wanted Melissa, he wanted MOLLY BACK!!

Heh.

Well that’s one of the main stumbling blocks in the show. For here’s a person totally fawned over by a bevy of opposite sex folks, all struggling to win their love and devotion. In real life we kind of stumble upon a potential mate. We must then build a relationship, slowly allowing it to grow to where it will go. In this series it’s no genius to figure out that a person with about a dozen others vying for their affection might not have the patience, forbearance and forgiveness to build a relationship. It’s easy to move on to another dreamer out of the contender pool.

I don’t believe this year’s ending for a second.

The first huge clue here is that we never met Melissa’s parents. Supposedly they had objections to being on a national show about a subject so personal.

I think this whole ending was scripted before this year’s series even began. I think the show’s producers chose a sweet young thing out of the pool of contenders who sort of resembled DeAnna, as the loyal viewers might note.

I think Melissa was given the script as the ending would happen. I think the show’s producers desperately needed a shocking ending to keep audience interest.

Melissa even has a brother! You mean even HE wouldn’t meet Jason and get time in front of the cameras? They did script in a phone call by Jason to Melissa’s parents but you never heard anyone speak a word. Instead Melissa took Jason to meet her “friends”, who I also think were actors, frankly.

What I’m saying here is that Jason chose Molly right along. Melissa had been recruited to act out this “shocking” ending. Jason was maybe given some monetary or reward compensation to go along with being the bad guy at the end. What would he care? He’d have the money and Molly of his dreams.

I don’t think for a minute that any self-respecting woman would agree to go on national TV and get the heave-ho in front of fifteen million people. And not for one minute did Melissa look upset. I think she acted out that ending and she was pretty good at it, frankly.

I’m not mad. Reality shows are almost always scripted on some level. I kind of enjoy finding the scripted parts, it’s part of the allure.

Melissa’s getting something out of this, exposure perhaps, to a future in acting or such. It would not do to have her parents or brother on the show because they’d have to ACT too. That would have been too much to pull over on the viewers.

It’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

For posterity, a remix of the highlights of the finale of Bachelor 2009 below.


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Celebrity Apprentice 2009-The Worship of Celebrities- Begins

On 3/1/09, Donald Trump, AKA “The Donald”, began his series “Celebrity Apprentice”. The Donald once had an extremely popular series known simply as “The Apprentice”. This series kind of fizzled out so The Donald revamped his idea, stealing the notion of having celebrities looking for exposure as do contenders from “Dancing With the Stars”.

Like “Dancing With the Stars”, “Celebrity Apprentice” will generally choose a couple of over-the-hill or retired sports stars, a few singers with a small following, some sort of beauty queen/model type, and a former Olympic medal-holder. Throw in a few celebrities in need of more exposure and boom, you’ve got either the roster for “Dancing With the Stars” or “Celebrity Apprentice”.

The list of contenders for this year’s “Celebrity Apprentice” below:
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-Jesse James-founder of West Coast Choppers
-Dennis Rodman-5 time NBA champion
-Andrew "Dice" Clay-once dirty mouthed comedian-sent home 3/1/09
-Joan Rivers-talk show host
-Herschel Walker-Retired NFL player
-Khloe Kardashian-the Kardashian without the nice ass
-Tionne "T-Box" Watkins-R&B singer
-Natalie Gulbis-Professional golfer
-Tom Green-Actor, comedian
-Claudia Jordan-Actress, model
-Clint black-country music star
-Brande Roderick-Actress and Playboy model
-Brian McKnight mutli platinum R&B singer
-Melissa Rivers-daughter of Joan Rivers
-Scott Hamilton-gold medal olympic figure skater
-Annie Duke-professional poker player, motivational speaker

I am not going to follow this show week by week on this Blog but will post a report every three weeks or so.

“Celebrity Apprentice” is a reality show, my fave TV genre, and a proper and believable amount of scripting is necessary. The Donald does a pretty good job with the premise. But I sure would like to see the original Apprentice come back with the favor it once had.

The Donald, as I understand, is part and parcel and sunk in deep in the celebrity culture. He loves to hobnob with those of fame. He loves the camera, he loves the attention, he thinks it makes him special. “Celebrity Apprentice” reflects that love. For almost each and every challenge has a segment that will reflect on the contenders’ place in the “in-crowd” and who they each may contact for money.

Not that there’s anything wrong with this, but make no mistake it happens and is part of the scripting.

The premiere show had Joan Rivers and Herschel Walker as the Project Managers. The female team’s name is “Athena” and the men call themselves “KOTU”, abbreviation for “Kings of the Universe”. Their assignment was to bake cupcakes then sell them on the streets of New York. Whichever team brought in the most money won the challenge.

Cupcake Montage CA 09 premiere


Let it not be overlooked that The Donald does not miss an opportunity to insert lots of advertising in this series. In this challenge, we had the cooking school getting some commercial exposure as their cooks helped the contenders prepare the cupcakes. Later in the challenge, another bakery got some airtime by judging each team’s finished cupcakes and giving a big contribution for the one they judged best. The bakery name was Crumbs and they paid a price for this real time commercial, I am sure.

The scripting involves some conflict, a mess-up and, of course, drama in the boardroom. The ladies had some real problems with Annie Duke, the famous female poker player. I’d heard of her before in that daughter and son-in-law are poker players of a sort. Anyway, Duke was very bossy and a few scenes and the vignettes of the other female contenders played up Duke’s somewhat hostile takeover of project manager duties from Joan Rivers.

people montage premiere CA09


Joan’s daughter, Melissa, who would, I’ll insert here, be pretty much a nobody were it not for her mother, is also a contender. This fact begs for scripting of conflicts or other drama between mother and daughter. This year it seems that Joan tends to favor her daughter even over her own choices. For example, Joan designs the flyer for the female’s cupcake sale. Soon after Melissa practically re-designs the entire thing and Joan says not a word. Vignettes of the other players have them shocked that Joan Rivers allows her daughter to run roughshod over her.

Meanwhile, over on the men’s team we have Dennis Rodman and right there you’ve got some kind of storyline that will keep the viewers coming back for more. On this premiere show, Rodman remained in the guys’ cupcake truck instead of going out on the street and mingling, thus attracting, cupcake buyers.

Dennis Rodman is kind of a bad guy, full of himself and not one to take orders easily. He said, during a camera vignette, that he felt that if he went out on the street that the public would be coming to see him and NOT buying cupcakes. Further, Rodman argued, it’s best to bring in cupcakes buyers AFTER they’ve made a purchase, into the truck for a pic with him. Other members of Rodman’s team disagreed with this notion, of course. If nothing else, look for Dennis Rodman to create much dramatic conflict during this series and I suspect he won’t be going home soon.

Another obviously scripted event was a major disaster with each team’s cupcakes. Folks, how damn likely is this what with all baking being overseen by professional cooks in a cooking school? The disasters added to the drama of the show and it was effective, if not totally believable. The females evidently used baking soda instead of baking powder, or visa-versa, or maybe left out any sort of leavening ingredient. All of their cupcakes collapsed into themselves. The ladies solved the problem by topping the collapsed cupcakes, which tasted fine or so the storyline went, with a chocolate ganache, producing cupcakes that would appear for all the world to have been planned this way.

sale site montage cupcake task CA09


The guys forgot to put sugar in a huge batch of their cupcakes. Of course there was not enough time to make a completely new batch so the fellows dissolved some sugar in liquid and poured a little of this liquid into each cupcake. Obviously this did not do the trick as Crumbs Bakery pronounced their cupcakes as inedible.

There were celebrities in this premiere episode but no Hugh Hefner even though one contender was a Playboy bunny of the year or some such. I suspect Hef will make an appearance sometime this season and, in fact, I think The Donald will tease the audience with such an implicit promise. The celebrities who did show up to pay outrageous prices for cupcakes were third, even fourth, string. The Donald, however, will insert this celebrity adulation into every episode no doubt although Hugh Hefner, what’s he…70..80 years old? Can there be anything less appealing than an over-the-hill Playboy covered with wrinkled skin and shot up full of Viagara?

Andrew Dice Clay was once a foul-mouthed comedian, although he still may be but he’s no longer on network television using public airways, and he shouldn’t be. This guy used to make me ill with his dirty jokes and denigration of women but hey, my husband loved him. Clay buckled under to the public onslaught to shut him up although I’d have been okay with him taking it to cable, free speech and all that.

He turned out to be a big blubbering new castrati, as Limbaugh would call him, and, indeed, Clay offered to quit the show in the Trump boardroom, all contrite and noble in offering his body that others might continue on.

What hooey.

I give The Donald credit in that, when all was said and done, he fired Clay anyway because his use to the show was done. One can only take so much Andrew Dice Clay.

Below a video montage of the show’s highlights with my own fine commentary spliced in.



NBC’s Home Site for “Celebrity Apprentice”.

Top Chef Winner and Fan Favorite

Bravo’s cooking reality series, “Top Chef” ran the course this year and the winner is Hosea with fan favorite Fabio.

I watch each Top Chef episode religiously but consider it not for everyone. Food Network’s “Next Food Network Star” is a way better cooking contest for an average everyday cook such as myself. I can’t imagine I’d ever make anything like the top notch chef contenders do on Top Chef but a)I like reality shows and b)I like cooking shows and c)well, hell, I like to expand my horizons as much as the next guy.

Anyway, couple of comments on this year’s contenders and the regulars on this series. For what it’s worth.

Padma is the hostess for this show and here’s a woman so full of herself she needs to be seriously slapped. She wears short dresses, poses provocatively, tilts her head just so her pouty lips and wind-blown hair overwhelm us with their beauty.

Remember folks, this is a damn cooking show. Padma annoys me. Samantha Harris co-hosts “Dancing With the Stars” and wears beautiful gowns every week and Samantha is not near in love with that camera as Padma.

Tom Colicchio is a professional chef judge as well as a co-host. Tom knows his stuff and is tough as required but fair as one could hope. I have respect for Tom but wonder how the hell he can stand Padma.

Hosea, the winner of this year’s Top Chef, has an extensive cooking resume behind him. He’s worked with Wolfgang Puck and is executive chef at a Boulder restaurant. He’s a man who loves cooking and it shows.

Fabio is an Italian contender and he was voted fan favorite. I’d have picked lovable and quirky Carla in a second but Fabio was funny, personable and hey, good with the sauce pan.

Which brings me to Carla, who is my favorite Top Chef contender of all time. I’d love to meet Carla someday, maybe have her cook for me.

Bravo to Bravo TV for a great series and we await next year’s contest eagerly.
Top THIRTEEN Slots Filled?

First, out the way- the particulars. On the third round of the top 36 eliminations for “American Idol” 2009, the top three voted to move on were:

Jorge Nunez
Scott MacIntyre
Lil Rounds

top three round 3 top 36 AI 09


These three join the following…

Alexis Grace
Danny Gokey
Michael Sarver
Adam Lambert
Kris Allen
Allison Iraheta

…to comprise the top nine.

BUT…we have a top 13 and I know this is AI’s eighth season but somewhere along the line I missed this bit about wild cards and 13 finalists.

Three of the wild cards are chosen by the judges, maybe all four wild cards, I don’t know. Because if you search that bloated Americanidol.com site you can’t find how this selection process works for nothing and my DVR quit before the show was over, likely because the show ran too damn long but who’s bitching?

I didn’t know that Jennifer Hudson and Clay Aiken were both wild card contenders, as Simon Cowell informed us all.

The eight chosen to go on and compete as wild cards included:

Von Smith
Jasmine Murray
Ricky Braddy
Megan Joy
Tatiana Del Toro
Matt Giraud
Jessie Langseth
Anoop Desai

round 3 montage top 36 ai 09


Of these, Jasmine, Megan, Matt and Anoop were selected to be in the top thirteen.

Best I can figure, having thirteen finalists allows for three eliminations during the first week, giving that elimination show a more normal number, and leading evenly into the vaunted top 10, when the American Idol season really begins and America takes a more keen interest.

wildcard AI 09


So in the interest of neatness and closure, the Top Thirteen 2009 American Idols are:

Jorge Nunez
Scott MacIntyre
Lil Rounds
Alexis Grace
Danny Gokey
Michael Sarver
Adam Lambert
Kris Allen
Allison Iraheta
Jasmine Murray
Megan Joy
Matt Giraud
Anoop Desai

Right now I don’t know how many are eliminated in each show leading up to the grand finale, which usually happens in early May. I’ve calculated there’s about nine weeks until early May but there’s some flexibility here.

At any rate, who do I favor so far?

Thought you’d never ask.

I do love that Megan Joy, such a beautiful girl, so hip and current. I don’t like her music even but I know that Simon Cowell likes her and with good reason. She’s totally marketable and the judges did, in fact, bring her back as a wild card.

I don’t think she has a chance to win that title, unless looks weigh heavily on the voters. But she’s tickled my fancy and I will watch out for her.

Allison Iraheta has the best voice of the top 13, at least as I see it. She’s not likeable and doesn’t interview well at all, however, Let’s face it, at this point in the competition, every one of these singers have great voices. It’s the nuance of a difference in the voices, their personalities, their look, their hipness and appeal that will make the viewers of America call in their number. Allison has the voice but someone needs to coach that child on how to talk and maybe work on her attitude while at it.

Jasmine Murray is this year’s youngster, much like Sparks and Archuletta were in their season. Americans love to vote on that young and vibrant singer in the mix.

Lil Rounds is a real contender here. She’s Fantasia with class. NO I don’t think Fantasia has a whit of class. She has been foreclosed on a big mansion she overspent and bought and she bad-mouthed American Idol, inferring they took all her money. Fantasia would be just another single mother in the ghetto were it not for American Idol. Lil is married to her babies daddy, she’s got three little ones. She’s got a voice to rival Whitney, she’s attractive, she’s personable…watch out for Lil.

As for the guys, I don’t have any great attraction to any except possibly Anoop. First, he’s born of Indian parents although he’s as American as Bobby Jindal. He’s cute, he sings well and he’s…er, different. I’d call him a long shot and Jorge from Puerto Rico is different too but Jorge really has an accent and struggles with English.

Finally, I wouldn’t cut Nathaniel Lambert out. Yes he’s very light in the loafers and quite obvious about it. But Nathaniel is too different and he’s bound to garner a lot of attention. He’s also a great singer and showman. This could well be the year that American Idol embraces an openly gay contender.

 Posted by Hello


Cat and Disneyland

My last Drivel was in mid-September, and then I apparently fell off the planet. Since then, my mom came to visit, Harry and I went to Disneyland, and got a kitten. Where did all those details go?

I don't remember much of my mom's visit, just that it happened. Three or four days, I think, and I took that Friday off. Oh, yeah, we went to the local pet store and bought kitten stuff: a big cage, pet bed, a bowl, scratch thingie (it's not a post, looks like a wave with a little bell ball underneath the upper wave side); kitten chow... So her visit was before the end of September because Harry and I went to Disneyland on September 26. We had hoped to get the kitten the following Monday.

So, Disneyland. I said I wanted some of Harry's time in October and he said he'd give me the week of October 1, but we should go somewhere, how about Disneyland? We decided to do that and wanted to stay at the Disneyland Hotel this time (it has its own entrance to the park). So we thought about it, checked out some prices, and quickly decided the Disneyland Hotel was way too expensive ($800 a night). We made reservations at a nearby Best Western.

I got off work early on September 26, and Harry had spent that week scrambling to get everything at his work situated so that he could leave for a few days (so much for my week, eh?) and things would continue without him.

We left here around 2:30 in the afternoon. The information on the hotel said it was a block away, but in reality it was a bit further but there was a shuttle. Parking at Disneyland is expensive and vast.

We arrived at the Best Western around 9pm. The room was nice, roomy and clean, and downstairs in the non-smoking section. After I unpacked some stuff, though, I found that the Internet advertised as "high-speed wireless in every room" didn't work so well in this one.

There was a tent paper on the television about it, with an 800 number to call for help. So I did. The guy walked me through some things but also told me the wireless transmitter was in a different building (smoking, no doubt). After what he tried didn't work, he called the front desk for me. While I was still on the phone with him (using one of our two cell phones), the front desk called our room.

The only thing they could do, the woman said, was move us to an upstairs two double bed room. Ick. I said I didn't want to move and asked who I could talk to in the morning. I was given a name which I
now don't remember and we said goodbye. No ‘Net for me the first night.

The next morning we were up early. I had printed a list of current attractions for both Disneyland and California Adventure and we'd battle-planned what we wanted to hit, what we might like to hit and what we could ignore. The park opened at 8am and we wanted to be there as early as possible. We snacked at the hotel's continental slim-pickings (not really good enough to be "breakfast") and caught the shuttle. We were in the park by 8:20.

The crowd was light and the park had been decorated just the day before for Halloween. We got through several of the rides we wanted to hit, the first major one being Splash Mountain. I don't do those kind of rides, but Harry does and he got the front seat on his "log." We got the picture the park takes and he looks really cool with his shades on.

He got really wet, though, and the cool of the morning meant he stayed that way for a few hours. I don't remember which rides we hit in what order, or the attractions from which day, except that the first day, Saturday, was only spent in Disneyland, and the second day we started in Disneyland at Haunted Mansion and then went to California Adventure.

The rides are as I remember them from the last time we went; fun with decent to long lines, though a few rides were surprisingly short-lined. The Tiki Room, for instance, as well as Star Tours and Pirates of the Caribbean, we either didn't have to wait or the line was really short.

The Haunted Mansion had such a long line by the time we got to it on Saturday that we just decided to do it first on Sunday. I found it interesting that Pirates of the Caribbean sparked the movies with Johnny Depp, and now Johnny Depp as a pirate appears in the Pirates ride.

We had dinner outside the park and footsore and weary we were back at the hotel by 5, I think. At that time I talked to the desk clerk and asked for the person whose name I was given the night before. She told me that the Internet sometimes doesn't work right in the rooms (sometimes?) but it always works fine in the lobby and I was welcome to bring my PC to the lobby if that was possible. In fact, one man was then sitting in the lobby with a laptop. Oh, well that works, then. I
wondered why the person the night before didn't tell me that, but didn't ask.

I got my laptop and brought in my email while sitting in the lobby. When I got back to the room, Harry was in the bathtub. Odd for him, but good to see him relaxing. Actually, he took two work calls on the ride down to Los Angeles (I did a bit of stitching when I wasn't driving) but after that, there was no work stuff at all during the trip.

The Best Western had one other big issue; smokers were occupying other downstairs non-smoking rooms, and would smoke outside, right in front of their doors. This meant we had to walk through smoke to get back to our hotel room. Ick!

It was actually a very nice time away. Even though Disneyland isn't the place I would choose for a "vacation" - noise, people, not being home, people, unknown restaurant food, people, lack of computer time, and people - Harry was right in that if he didn't get physically away, the work wouldn't really stop. Plus it was really nice to do something together, sort of like last year's trip to the foothills.

splash mountain and quote from guest post 3/09


For Sunday in Disneyland, all the literature said the park didn't open until 9 am, so we killed time by eating breakfast at the Coco's next to the hotel and relaxed a bit. When we got to the park, though, it had apparently been open for awhile; probably since 8. I was disconcerted, since we now had more people to contend with than we would have if we'd been there earlier. One person passed us, telling someone else "I've been on ten rides already!" Sigh.

Still, we got to all the things we wanted to and none of the lines were terribly long. Though I would have done Soaring Over California a second time, if the wait hadn't been forty minutes. That ride is way cool; you're on what looks like a giant front porch swing with a bunch of other people. The lights go down, the thing lifts and swings forward and you're dangling, apparently over the state. A film plays, the screen wraps around and below you so you can't see the edges. Wind and scent flow over you so it feels like you're really soaring. When the film shows you brushing the treetops, you instinctively pull up your legs!

The Tower of Terror was in the Hollywood section of California Adventure, and Harry got in line to ride it. When he came back (with a picture) he told me he hadn't known what it was about but it was pretty good (though he didn't want to ride it again) and he was now deaf from the two girls screaming behind him.

He had gotten in the ride's staging area and they all were in a room listening to Rod Serling tell them they were about to enter the Twilight Zone (similar to the talks in the Haunted Mansion). Then they
all got on this thing, a big container with a bunch of seats. That then moved, and suddenly dropped quite a ways. Harry says he said something bad but no one could hear him over the screaming.

I would not have done well on it.

On Sunday night I told Harry if he was awake early in the morning and
wanted to get on the road to just wake me up and we'd go. I was thinking 3 or 4 am, his normal time to be up and around. Instead, he
woke me at 1:30!

Wow. We did get up and get out, though, and traffic was light since it was so early. Then we ran into a snag; the freeway was closed for construction. (Now that they've done that for Sacramento this year, all areas are doing it.) The detour signs shuttled us off to some other road. We kept expecting to be led back, and the man's voice on our GPS kept telling us to turn. Then the road we were on became not-a-freeway. Ack!

We found an AM/PM and got directions. I figured the CalTrans folk were having a big laugh: put up detour signs and no return signs and see what happens...

When we got home, we checked in with the ones with our kitten, but they felt the kitten was too young to leave its mother, so we wouldn't get the cat until the end of the week. They'd deliver it Friday evening. They sent several pictures of him, though, so I still had photos of him really young.

Friday finally came and I was eager. They brought the kitten in a huge orange purse! He had a ribbon around his neck and wasn't too eager to stay in the purse, but he was so cute. Bounty was interested in the new addition, and the kitten took the big hairy beast in stride.

Kona was something different. Her first words were, "Sssssssss." And then she ran away. It didn't look good for being buds.

But I'd read a lot about getting cats to work together and everything said it takes a lot of time. So I told myself it was early yet and to be patient. We locked the kitten in his big cage (set up in the computer room a couple of days before) and went to dinner with our friends.

My life changed for awhile after the kitten came. Since he was very little, and locked up all day while the household was at work, the first thing I did on getting home was let him out, and then sit with him in the Fox Room for awhile. Kona was interested, and wanted to always be able to see him, but not at all interested in being buds. She still hissed whenever he was near, but followed him at a private investigator distance. Odd.

Each day, they got closer together, and I held my breath when the little guy would run around playing and almost run into her by accident. Gradually, she stopped hissing. Eventually, she started to
play in mirror image.

Kona would be on the pool table, safely watching from above. The little guy would be on the floor, chasing something. Kona would roll sideways, mimicking movements. But she still wouldn't play with him.

Each day I'd be excited by the progress and dismayed by the progress. It seemed like they should be buddies faster, and I was impatient. Still, progress *was* being made, and for that I was grateful. The
biggest thing was whether they would share a litterbox, and I never found Kona's leftovers anywhere else so I guess that was okay. The
kitten began using Kona's box as soon as he discovered it. (And eating
her food, too.)

Then Kona began trying to touch him with her paw, playing with him a little bit, until he got too close or they actually made contact. Then she'd be back on the pool table, cleaning herself as if to say he'd contaminated her. This went on for a couple of days, and then they finally began to rough and tumble together. That's when I started letting them play without chaperoning.

It's also when she started sitting on his face. I'd hear frantic mews coming from the Fox Room and I'd go see and there he'd be, pinned down. I'd make Kona let him up, he'd shake his head and pounce on her. Well, if he was going to instigate, I wasn't going to rescue him.

She still sits on him when he's being aggravating, and the pool table is no longer a safe haven because he can - just barely - get up there.
He's bigger now and more able to hold his own and I don't worry so much about him getting somewhere he can't get out of or Kona hurting him. Bounty is still a threat because of his size and weight, so it'll be a little longer before the kitten has the run of the house when we're not home. But at least the cats get along okay.

We named him Zeker (zay cur) which is Dutch for "certain." Nothing fazes him. Noises, people, objects, nothing. Sigh.

Michelle
winebird@winebird.com
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