mad kitty disease

also known as bird flu.  d'oh!

mr. lewis

unfortunately, my cutie for this week did not survive this round, but, honestly, he didn't really deserve to.  adios, jon peter lewis!  we hardly knew ye...

thus far, matthew rogers is the only lustworthy candidate in the top twelve so i'm not sure how much of a reason i have to keep watching.  i mean, i know the show is supposed to be a contest of singing ability, but my eyes need to be entertained as well!  i demand cute men on my television screen! 

attention, fox execs — don't make me have to start watching everwood or whatever other crappy wb teen dramas are on now!  help a boy out!

john big?

well, thank goodness that's over! 

i have to say, this whole season felt like a little bit of a coda — the extended pause right before the fanfare finish.  i wasn't really feeling the carrie-aleksandr thing, so i didn't really care about how that was (or wasn't) going to end.  the sub-plots were definitely more interesting — samantha's struggle with breast cancer, charlotte's adoption process, and even miranda and steve's wedding — so i was happy to keep watching. 

of course, we all knew that carrie belongs with big — he the aloof and distant egomaniac, she the neurotic and needy fashionista — so no surprise there.  my only wish was that the writers would leave his name a mystery forever, but, alas, they succeeded in disappointing me in even that regard.  ah, well.  so it goes...

mr. rogers

apologies for the delayed posting of entries.  i was having technical difficulties which i have since resolved.

anyway, now that dean is out, let's move on to a completely different voting exercise...

matthew rogers, matthew rogers, matthew rogers.  as a former rose bowl champion and current american idol contestant, the man inspires many a fantasy, especially when he sings well. 

matthew reminds me of the former v.p. of online at my company, on whom i used to crush madly from afar.  like him, matthew is tall, friendly, burly, funny, has a great smile and is just a teensy bit scary.  he's like a big sexy teddy bear.

matthew didn't sing all that well in the last round, so, in addition to voting for him, i also voted for the two women whom i thought actually deserved to go forward.  for better or for worse, the viewers voted matthew in to the top twelve, edging out at least one much more qualified singer.  while i do feel a bit guilty, i still have to say — hooray for my hottie!

next week:  more cuties!

ok, i lied...

Howard Dean quits US presidential race

a moment of silence, please...

yowza!

i watched cat on a hot tin roof over the weekend, and — hoo-BOY!  that paul newman was definitely a hottie back in the day. 

oh, the movie was also good, too...though, honestly, i'm now tempted to read the actual tennessee williams play.  i suspect that the original ending is not as warm and fuzzy as the movie's, and i'm hoping that the relationship between brick and skipper is made a little more ambiguous, if not plain explicit.  elizabeth taylor is very beautiful, but i suspect that paul newman's character loses interest in hers not solely because of her supposed infidelity.  we shall see.

the long hot summer has now jumped to the top of my required viewing list...

good luck, howie

all right.  i've been checking howard dean's blog every day, scrolling through the readers' comments for hours on end.  i've spoken with friends over the phone and on instant messenger about the primaries nearly every other day, and i've been reading and watching as much online dean-related content as i can for almost a week now.  i even made a $100 donation to the dean campaign, helping him raise $1.4 million in seven days.  i can honestly say that i have never been so engaged in any political campaign in my relatively young life.

however, i'm feeling a little lopsided as a result.  i have lost energy and focus on many of my other interests, and i certainly have not been writing about anything else here (other than the patriots).  on top of that, i feel like my ability to talk about other topics, like music, movies, or literature, has dulled noticeably, and i really don't want to become a one-note johnny.

of course, other factors are also in play — football season has ended, and yankees' spring training has yet to begin.  the only interesting thing left on television these days is american idol.  no, sex and the city has not been very interesting at all, unfortunately.  the oscars are coming up, but...well, please, i'm so tired of talking about them.  i mean, billy crystal hosts again?  why?

in short, this is my last entry about howard dean and politics until...well, until the presidential election, i guess.  howard dean is still my choice for commander-in-chief, but we'll see how far he goes.  i really do not like john "scary" kerry, but i promise to vote for the democratic nominee come november, come what may.  we really really really need a new president in 2005.

in the meantime, i'm going to finish the margaret atwood book that i'm reading and try to watch the airing of cat on a hot tin roof i saved to my faux-tivo.  hopefully, by monday, i'll have something interesting to say...

clark bows out

retired general wesley clark decided to run for the democratic presidential nomination last fall — fairly late in game for any contender, especially a newcomer to the political scene.  from what i understand, he entered the race at the behest of the clintons, who were more than a little disturbed by howard dean's early front-runner status.  the common "wisdom" at the time was that howard dean was a danger to the democratic party — he was against the war in iraq, an unpopular position back then, and was deemed "unelectable" were he to go head-to-head with the president in a national election.  kerry was not even a blip on the radar.

almost immediately following his announcement, wesley clark was deemed the party's saviour — he could steal dean's supporters by taking an anti-war platform, but he would also have the military experience to back up his credibility on the subject.  he thus had carte-blanche to attack george w. bush's military service, or lack thereof, which is something that howard dean, having never served, was not free to do.  also, clark, again unlike dean, was a southerner and would thus, in theory, have the same appeal that past democratic presidents (like clinton and carter) had in more conservative states.

when i watched him on the debates, general clark gave off a very parternalistic vibe, pledging to keep america safe in these perilous times.  other than that, i had no idea what to make of him.  he had no record of political accomplishments and he seemed to offer contradictory statements on various positions, from the war in iraq to abortion.  going into the primaries, with howard dean as the candidate to beat, clark decided to forego the iowa caucuses and head straight to new hampshire, where he would supposedly disrupt dr. dean's flow.

this decision, along with his lack of political experience, ultimately hurt the general's campaign.  kerry, a washington insider and himself a vietnam veteran, won iowa and new hampshire and began building his present-day, seemingly unstoppable momentum.  clark suddenly had little to offer as any kind of alternative or opposition candidate.  today, having won only oklahoma's primary and having come in third in both virginia and tennessee, general clark has decided to bow out of the race. 

i can't say that i'm sorry to see him go — even before he declared his candidacy, i always figured he, as a democrat and a general, would best serve the party as someone's vice-presidential running-mate.  who knows — that may yet still be in the cards.  myself, i'm rooting for a dean/clark ticket, but i have no idea what will happen.  i'm betting, though, that we haven't heard the last from the general.

stand by your man

from a reuters article on yahoo! news:

No one would argue that John Kerry doesn't have a great deal of momentum right now.  [But] at some point — I know from my own experience because I had all that momentum in December — people are going to say, 'Now, wait a minute. Let's take a closer look.'  If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.  I've said clearly that I'm going to support John Kerry or whoever wins the nomination because we need to beat George Bush.

on february 7th, kerry won 138 delegates and brought his total to 412.  dean won 53, bringing his total to 174 — still a strong second, albeit a distant one.  edwards only won 6 delegates, bringing his total to 116, and clark didn't win any, leaving him still in fourth place with 82 delegates to date.

i know it doesn't look good, but i'm hopeful.  i can't wait for the new york primary, when i can have my say.  i'm tired of listening to the media's anointing kerry as their favored son and predetermined nominee.  i also can't stand how they seem so eager to publicize the pressure others are putting on dean to drop out of the race. 

can anyone tell me what makes edwards and clark such strong candidates — the fact that they were never front-runners?

from the same yahoo! article, dean says:

We need Democrats who stand up when it matters, not just when it's popular.

i also think we need people who will stand by dean when it matters, not just when he's popular.

if dean ends up being the last alternative-to-kerry standing, then i think things could get very interesting...

update:  cnn says that it overplayed howard dean's scream and diane sawyer investigates how the scream was misrepresented by the media.

janet's cupcake

from the amateur gourmet.

the daily show with john stewart also had a great segment about miss jackson's breast, or at least the media's coverage of it.  too funny.

still faithful

the results of last tuesday's primaries were definitely very discouraging, and i've felt a bit listless politically over the past couple of days.  granted, my support of dean isn't entirely based on the issues, but i really do believe that he is my choice for a candidate — he is very well-spoken in the debates, has a clear, strong and forceful message with which i agree, and he doesn't back down.  he also seems to have a great sense of humor.

after doing some more research online, and even just checking out dean's website, i realized a few things.  these are the facts as i see them:

• it's too early to jump ship.  although i share some doubts about whether or not dean will win the nomination, i still support him as long as he stays in the race.  i will only say quit when he does — and, thus far, he hasn't.  wisconsin is a must-win, he says, and i now believe he has a good chance.  all i can do is contribute my money and then wait and see.
• dean is doing well in the primaries.  while dean hasn't "won" a single state, he still has the second-most number of delegates (121).  granted, kerry now has twice as many (260), but edwards and clark, whom people seem to think currently has a better chance than dean, actually have fewer delegates (107 and 81, respectively).

• dean still stands up for me.  the massachusetts supreme court ruled yesterday that the state constitution requires that gays be allowed to marry, and that creating an alternative, such as civil unions, would still be a discriminatory and thereby unacceptable solution.  according to a new york times article, kerry, himself a massachusetts senator, stated:

  I oppose gay marriage and disagree with the Massachusetts court's decision.

  contrast that with dean's statement:

  As Governor of Vermont, I was proud to sign the nation's first law establishing civil unions for same-sex couples.  Today's decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court represents a different approach to the same goal.  One way or another, states should afford same-sex couples equal treatment under law in areas such as health insurance, hospital visitation and inheritance rights.

  i have yet to see anyone else take such a bold stand in support of gay marriage in massachusetts.

• the dean campaign is still going strong.  early this morning, dean announced that wisconsin could be his last stand and that the campaign needed $700,000 in order to fund an advertising and media blitz in that state.  between 8 and 9 am this morning, campaign supporters donated, via the internet, about $27,000.  in the hours following that, supporters contributed $46,360, then $53,998, then $55,222, each of them record-breaking fundraising hours.  in half a day, the dean campaign has raised over half a million dollars from individual contributions averaging less than $75 each.
• dean is electable.  despite the media's portrayal of dean as an angry liberal, dean's record as governor shows that he is a fiscal conservative and a centrist.  moreover, dean stands up for what he believes in and could easily defend himself while also going after bush on the iraq war (which he never supported) and the economy.

despite no longer being a media darling, dean has not given up the fight and his people still believe in him.  make all the dot-com comparisons you want, dean's internet campaign is still viable and, from what i can tell, more successful than any other candidate's.  his supporters haven't gone anywhere, which means he still has a chance. 

if you believed in him before, don't let your "anybody but bush" alarms scare you off — he is electable and has a good, perhaps the best, chance of beating bush.  howard dean is my man, and i'm standing by him.

dreamy dean

last night, i had a series of dreams, broken up by moments of waking, in which i was having an affair with howard dean.

except i wasn't exactly me — at various points, i was either a twenty-three year old version of myself or a young woman with long brown hair working on the dean campaign.  howard and i would rendezvous in empty offices, storage closets, and, at one point, the master bedroom at my parents' house, always in danger of being found out or caught in the act. 

in the last dean-inspired dream, howard and i were sitting next to each other in the back seat of a lincoln town car, driving along what appeared to be the taconic parkway.  i remember reaching over and lightly caressing the back of his neck, at which point he turned to me and smiled warmly.  (awwww!)

yes, i have a little crush on howard.  what more can i say?

boobilicious

all the boys from the city
look at my tittie
shiny big thing like you
never did see...!

i don't think anyone was ready for her jelly.  (or is that silicone?)  if anything, the fcc should be offended that miss jackson abused us with songs and choreography from over two years ago — hell, nearly two decades ago for a lot of it!  alas, the bureaucrats are too distracted by her breastesses to care.  where are their priorities?

anyhoo, thanks to everyone who attended my first-ever superbowl party.  despite the fact that i was outnumbered by haters who were rooting for the wrong team (blinky-blink!) and the lack of a token britney pepsi commercial, i had a lot of fun.  in fact, i think my living room was the best place to be for colorful commentary on the entire proceedings — game, commercials and all.

so who's up for an oscars party...?

vinatieri

back in january of 2002, after superbowl xxxvi, peter king of sports illustrated wrote:

Walking outside the Superdome Sunday night, in front of a gaggle of Pats fans, I happened upon a revival preacher holding up a Jesus sign and shouting into a bullhorn.

"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NEXT SUNDAY WITH NO FOOTBALL?" he kept yelling.  "TURN TO THE LORD!  NO FOOTBALL!  WHAT WILL YOU DO ON SUNDAY?"

One of the New England fans -- and I can't be sure of this, but I believe he had been drinking -- screamed, "I'm going wherever Vinatieri goes!  For the rest of my life I will follow him!"

amen, brother!

delhomme

as happy as i am that the patriots won, i want to express my admiration of carolina panthers quarterback jake delhomme, who did an amazing job against the patriots' defense.  when you look at how delhomme played and compare it to peyton manning's performance at the afc championship game two weeks ago, he did an incredible job — 323 yards gained, the amazing record-breaking 85-yard touchdown pass, and 29 points on the board.  on top of that, his cuteness rivals my boy vinatieri's!

an article i read online somewhere likened delhomme to cajun gumbo compared to tom brady's new england clam chowder.  i'd say both are pretty tasty...

superbowl xxxviii

as i said, agony and ecstasy...though not necessarily in that order.