Weekend Wrap-up 2-24-2007

Has it already been two weeks since I last did one of these? That's too long, buckaroo!

The Oscars
In recent years, I haven't cared one whit about the Oscars. So far, that hasn't changed. And despite this headline, I doubt the ratings will increase by THAT much - if at all. They're SO long and SO boring that it's hard to watch it until the very end. And rarely is it a surprise who wins in the various categories. I'll just read the paper on Monday morning to see who won. YAWNNNN... Wake me up when it's over.

Heroes
Now THERE'S a show worth watching! I hope you folks have been keeping up. Coming Monday, Mr. Bennett is facing all those super-powered folks and what he knows of what was done to them to make them that way! At the end of each episode, I'm left waiting for next week's episode! Someone at work had called it a "soap opera for nerds."

Okay, I'm a nerd. ;-)

The Teaching Company
I recently got a catalog from The Teaching Company that has pages and pages of college level courses on numerous topics. For a Master of Liberal Arts graduate like me, it's like Nerd Nirvana. Check out their website and see what kinds of topics they cover. I bet you'll find something that you'll like. As you might have guessed, I found several. If I had a ridiculous amount of money like many of the nominees in tomorrow's Oscars, I'd probably buy nearly all of the topics they have listed. I wanted to list one that I'd like to buy right now, but just looking over their list, there's too many for me to mention just one!

But one that I might get first is the one titled "Science and Religion", since that's so frequently an issue that comes up on the news. There's easily several more that I want to get as well. By the way, if anyone wants to know what to get me for my birthday in April - drop me a line and I'll send you my list from that site. ;-)

Critters and creatures in the news
This was the week for critters in the news. First was a gigantic squid worthy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. You can almost imagine that squid grabbing the Nautilus, couldn't ya? Next is something a little smaller, but you have to wonder just how slow a news day it is in New York City when a beaver makes the news. Granted, it's been 200 years since the last beaver was in town, but with all the traffic in NYC in recent days, can you blame the little tree gnawers for being a little late?

Next is something even smaller, but definitely gross-out - maybe more than the giant squid. Rats were running wild in a Taco Bell/KFC restaurant in NYC. Be sure to click on the video clip to see the images that were captured - and prepare to be creeped out! This must be NYC's week for critters to be in the news or something. Meanwhile, in nearby New Joisey, the city of Clifton is going to set a time limit on how long dogs can bark. How do you make a dog shut up anyway? All I can think of is to knock it out in some form or fashion, but that would get PETA on your behind faster than a rat at KFC.

Last bit of critter news is actually a "dumb burglar" story, but a dog's involved, so it qualifies as critter news. Apparently, a burglar in Canada tried to break into what turned out to be a facility to train police dogs, but when he tried to split, he ran into a snow bank (how many of those does Canada have anyway?), and a police dog caught up to him, slapped the cuffs on him, and read him his right. Yep, that's one smart police dog. Just don't tell him any "donut shop" jokes. He hates those.

Sports
Okay, football's over, and baseball hasn't started up. For guys, this time of the year is known as the "2 months of hell". Fortunately, there's basketball going on, which helps things - especially when the college basketball season rolls around. The "Road to the Final Four" March Madness format for college basketball is exactly what college football should adopt. In this format, any given team can go all the way. That, my friends, is the classic American sports story, and the football Bowl Championship Series is robbing us of that classic American tale. Whoever came up with the BCS system should be made to eat at a KFC restaurant in NYC.

Yeah, yeah, technically there's hockey, racing, tennis, and - erk - golf also going on, but we all know that the U.S. is built around football, baseball, and basketball. If it weren't for basketball going on right now, I'd be going nuts - or I'd be writing to my blog a whole lot more.

That's it for now, folks. Have a great week!