Day 91

Why is it that I enjoy watching American Idol so much? These audition episodes are straight train wreck television. Thanks to Tivo, I could condense the three hours of auditions into two over the last two nights and I have come to a conclusion - there are way more freaks and strange people in this country than there are normal people. I saw some serious misfits on this show. First off, when you know you cannot sing, why would you spend 8 hours outside in the freezing cold waiting in line to audition when you know you have no shot? How diluted must your thought process be? Last night, two people absolutely took the cake. The first guy came in calling himself "Flawless." He was wearing a yellow and black squared short sleeve button down, with matching long shorts and baseball hat tilted to the side. He also was missing a tooth. The saddest part of it all is that this guy actually thought he had a chance to go on to Hollywood. The second "person" walked in and you literally had no idea if this was a boy or a girl. I couldn't even watch this was suck a nightmare. Randy Jackson actually asked this person if it was a girl or a boy. The singing was terrible, but the freakish looks were even more disturbing. Hey, i'm all for this person wanting to let their freak flag fly, but after they told him no, he came out yelling at the cameras that this show is a microcosm for this country as being racist and sexist. It was truly disturbing.

I am not a big reader of books. When I do read books, usually when I travel, it usually (surprise surprise) is a sports book. If you get the chance and you saw the movie Munich, make sure you read the book "One Day in September" by Simon Reeve. This is an amazingly in depth look at the tragic events at the 1972 Munich Olympics and the stories behind the Black September terrorist group. It was an amazing read that I could not put down and gives you a much better perspective on what happened that day and a true account of the Israeli response, not the distorted version in Spielberg's movie.

Anyone catch Drew Barrymore at the Golden Globes the other night? To quote the great Thornton Melon: "If that dress had pockets, she'd look like a pool table."

Big weekend on tap here in Chicago. This is a run of solid weekends we have in a row. Leah and I are going to Joe's Stone Crab tomorrow night for dinner. Saturday night is the big 30th birthday party for the great Mark P at the Kerryman. I expect to do some heavy drinking that night, should be a great time. Next weekend is the big trip to San Francisco and the following weekend is The Dude and Julie's triumphant return to the Chicago. Finally the weekend of the 10th is Sean's bachelor party in Lawrence, which I am also very much looking forward to. The only good news about Kansas's 10-6 record this year is that with every loss, the price of our game tickets for that weekend drops.

Song of the Day: "Money in My Pocket" by Dennis Brown