Hmmm...you wouldn't finally be writing that Book while you're gone are you King?

we can hope =)

I usually agree with King about most things involving sports, but not on Dick Button. Maybe it's because I'm so very young (27), but Button sounds to me like an old old man who's wandered up next to you at the rink and starts talking to you about things you didn't care about. His near constant comments during the pairs competition that skaters were not sitting low enough in their spins was agonizing to the point that now whenever he speaks, my wife and I yell at the screen "Shut up, Dick Button!" I get the sense that Button doesn't really like any of today's skaters, hearing only random positive comments, like those last night in praise of skater who had fallen at least once (I can't recall who), but Button said he really just enjoyed watching him skate for some reason. Other skaters who appeared as good or better, he tore to shreds. Hamilton can be ridiculous, but at least he seems to find the skating exciting to watch.

What I find most interesting about these games is how it seems NBC has chosen to ditch their usual feel-good stories and instead gone for the harsh, angry coverage of rivalries and failure - I guess with American skiing bottoming out and American Idol kicking them in the ratings, they've got to do something...

But look at this: In the red corner it's Apolo Anton Ohno VS all of South Korea in the blue, if you look to the right, you'll see the Italian ice-dancing team shooting laser beams from their eyes at each other, while in the middle ring it's the walk of shame for Lindsey J, and for our grand finale, Shani Davis and his mom take on the entire USA Speed Skating team!

2 things though - the Davis situation doesn't seem manufactured by NBC, but they certainly are doing everything they can to make it worse with their coverage. I keep expecting them to cut back to Hendricks and say "and here you can see Chad staring down Shani, and you'll notice the 'anger steam' we've digitally added coming out of his ears..." Also, in their story on Davis's mom, they mentioned some bad blood regarding the Speed Skating Federation, but didn't elaborate...what's up with that?

Finally, on poor Lindsey Jacobellis - this made me sick. NO ONE seemed willing to point out that she only did what I saw EVERY OTHER snowboarder doing when they came to the finish with a big lead, both male and female. They all grabbed their boards after the last jump - Lindsey just didn't land the trick. That's what makes all the criticism so crazy - it barely counts as showboating - it would have looked weird if she didn't do it, if she had just coasted to the end. Ah well - they have to talk about something.

As one of the 18-30 crowd that Oscar was desperately trying to get to watch this year with it's pick of Stewart, I can say they succeeded. I haven't had an Oscar party in years, but this time we all gathered around to see what Stewart and his Daily Show writing crew would produce. We were not disappointed.

Cintra, I have to ask, do you know anything about comedy? Do you know anything about Stewart's comedy? Yes, he bombed several times - and HE LOVES BOMBING! It's part of his routine on the Daily Show - if a joke hits, it makes a laugh and its gone, if it bombs, he has the chance to pull himself up and make more jokes and self-depreciating comments.

Oscar this year set up a tension between ratings and their theme 'a return to glamor;' they wanted the kids and they wanted to protect themselves, so it ended up being weird...and often funny. The opening montage of past hosts was great and a tad creepy (Letterman with Steve Martin's kids), Stiller making a fool of himself and loving it in the leotard, and even the stupid little animation segment procaiming an end to pants ended up being funny.

The bad has been mentioned - audience members who were too afraid/uptight to laugh and get into it, the orch playing people off even as they stepped up to the mic, and the multitude of montages - usually I love them, but they were terrible this year. A salute to noir?..um, ok, but use better clips please. Jon had it right when he said they ran out of clips.

All in all, a fun Oscar night - hope they ask Stewart back.

Twenty-five pages of posts on this article and my brain is melting out of my ears.

Nevertheless, I still found it fun.

Polytheistic Agnosticism still works for me.