A 16 year old stole a bus and ran in to 15 cars. It’s actually a sad story after reading about the troubled kid. The first images from reading the headline were of a kid, barely big enough to handle the steering wheel rolling down the street bumping into cars on both sides of the road. My first question was, ‘Did he keep making all the stops?’
I got upset for a split second when I saw it wasn’t Seth & Amy. Then I thought, ‘Jerry who?’ Maybe Seinfeld, he’s been around lately. Yep, it was, and it was spectacular.
This week on CBS Sunday Morning they covered a couple of inventions/companies people have come up with. Things like pancake batter in a spray can and a traveling shoe shine business. The last one was a pan that is designed to maximize edges when making brownies. I’d seen this item before on random cable channel commercials. I never understood it, but I figured there must be a small market for it. That market just wasn’t me.
While they were interviewing the inventor, he threw out this stat: 80% of men like edge brownies, women are split 50/50. What?!? I thought I was completely normal as a middle brownie person. Apparently I’m in the minority, big time.
I’m curious to find if the stat is true. I want to find out if there are some other traits that determine an edge person or middle person. I also want to know if this is a ‘you complete me’ situation. Meaning that, since I’m a middle, perhaps my perfect mate is an edge person. In that case we wouldn’t get in to fights over brownies. But, thanks to this invention, we’d get into fights over which pan to use.
The Marriage Ref finally debuted on Sunday. After endless promotion during the Olympics that gave me no sense of what the show was going to be like. The only thing I got out of those ads was that Seinfeld was involved. The ads made it sound like it was all him, all the time. I knew he was just a producer and would appear on a few of the episodes. But that doesn’t sell tickets.
I didn’t actually DVR it on purpose. I was just in my habit of recording everything after the Olympics, just in case something ran over. Last night I finished the Closing Ceremonies and decided I’d rather watch How I Met Your Mother (it was an outstanding episode and is a topic in itself, if I wasn’t scared to analyze myself). I had seen that Megan posted how horrible The Marriage Ref had been, so I didn’t think it was pressing to watch. Shortly after starting HIMYM, my sister txt’d asking if I had watched it. She then said that it was good and was something that Evan and I could handle hosting. Well, I had to watch it then.
I watched it, it was good, I really cracked up a few times. Still, I felt like it had some issues that could be easily addressed.
Tom Papa – The Host. I saw him open for Seinfeld at PSU and I’ve seen him on many a late night show. At least with the late night shows, I can skip over him. I was actually surprised that he was decent. However, I’m not entirely convinced that a host is needed apart from the panel.
The Panel – In this format, with little time, and lots of cuts back and forth, three is too many. This could easily be accomplished with two people. Or have the host be part of and leader of the panel, rather than him lurking off to the side.
The Topics – If you watched, the topics were just outlandish. They weren’t things that might happen to any couple. These were issues where there was no question who was correct. I was hoping for some serious discussion to go along with the funny. Instead it was joke after joke. I was struggling to come up with an alternate viewpoint to at least make it interesting. Seinfeld hit on my point for the first one but he did it quickly and at the end. Sure, these topics are funny, but you have a panel of very funny people that could make a toothpaste cap issue hilarious. These topics didn’t need help being funny.
Now I’m upset. They settled for a good show but it could have been great. They did show clips of future shows and I’ll be in with guests like Larry David and Ricky Gervais. I also think it will usually be an hour long, which hopefully will allow for more depth. However, with a different panel every time, they won’t get a chance to settle in.
Audio: mp3
Running Time: 51:51
Hosts: Evan and Mike
Topics
Olympic Recap
Evan Welcomes Canadian Couch Surfers
Listener Mail – Mike’s friend who has never met Evan, has comment about Evan
Evan’s Parents Join Church Band – Bandmates are from a former One Hit Wonders
Evan travels to Austin and may have made a dream come true
Start to plan this summer’s stadiums
Mike & Mike are writing a book of rules for sports and life.
Update: Evan found that US Bobsledder Steve Mesler is a UF Grad, which was the reason for the Gator flag we saw on TV. Oddly, the link Evan sent me about this only mentions this in the headline. I saw no mention of Mesler or UF in the article.
I have yet to travel outside the country. I’ve had my passport for a few years, just in case the chance came where I might go to Canada. It’s not a pressing issue, as there are plenty of places inside the country that I have yet to visit. Still, with the Olympics I am reminded of all the places I want to go.
1. Egypt – I’m a sucker for history, museums, and shiny things. Egypt gives me all of these in one place. I’ve also never ridden a camel.
2. Rome – See Egypt. For some reason Egypt just beats out Rome.
3. Scotland/Ireland – Maybe a surprise choice considering the first two things I thought of to do are golf and drink. I’d be curious to find some relatives. Oh, and castles!
4. Australia/New Zealand – Have you seen it? It just looks amazing. Kangaroos, reefs, and if I’m ever going to see an opera, shouldn’t I go to the Sydney Opera House?
5. Antarctica – Cooold. I can’t get enough of the cold, so I might as well really put that to the test. I’m not sure there is much going on down there but there must be something good.
If chocolate peanut butter eggs had a short catchy name, I think it would replace Lent.
I don’t know how I hadn’t seen this commercial before. This YouTube clip says it’s 2 years old.
I started DVR’ing CBS Sunday Morning a few weeks ago. I know, when did I get so old? My parents have DVR’d it for a while and I’d usually catch an interesting story or two each week and then just burn through the other stuff.
I wasn’t aware of this guy, Steve Hartman, who threw darts at a map of the US, then would travel to that city, get a phone book, and randomly point to a name and do a story on this person. It’s very cool and disappointing at the same time. I had this almost exact idea not too long ago. It had been a while since he did that, this time around he had NASA find spots on the globe and he did the same thing all over the world. He went to three places: India, Latvia, and Oman. All three were amazing stories. I guess this proves his theory is true all over the world.
I wanted to mention how it doesn’t make any sense that I can easily find the clip I want from CBS Sunday Morning, but when I see something hilarious on Letterman that I want to share it’s no where to be found. Wouldn’t want people to easily promote The Late Show.
NBC opened their afternoon coverage talking about how terribly Norway was doing. Great. I’m not sure if Norway is rubbing off on me or we were both meant to be miserable this week.
I decided I want to visit Vancouver. That isn’t new, I’ve wanted to go to Vancouver for a while. Now I want to go there in two weeks. Right after the Olympics. With Spring Training starting up I’m growing concerned that winter is going to be over soon. I want to take a trip, but unlike normal people going south for Spring Break, I want to go north. Although, Vancouver is warmer than it is here, it’s still wintery if for no other reason than it hosted the Winter Olympics.
I’m disliking figure skating more and more each day. NBC seems to love it. They love it enough that they show almost everyone live and push speed skating to late night. Here is my idea to move things along. With widescreen I think you could show 6 skaters going at the same time. As each one stumbles or falls, they get dropped from the screen. By the end, you only have 1 or 2 on the screen. How much time would this save? Would you miss anything?
Biathlon – Women’s 10k Pursuit
Are there any other olympic events where you are rewarded by your finish in a previous event? I feel like the second medal should only be worth half as much.
5. BERGER Tora – Started 33rd, made up almost a minute.
8. FLATLAND Ann Kristin Aafedt – Started 10th.
Biathlon – Men’s 12.k Pursuit
7. BJOERNDALEN Ole Einar – Started 17th. Made up 50 seconds.
8. SVENDSEN Emil Hegle – Started 2nd but struggled in the standing shooting.
17. HANEVOLD Halvard – Started 24th.
23. BERGER Lars – Started 46th.
Boarder X
4. Helene Olafsen – She made it to the finals and was getting a lot of chatter. In typical Norway fashion, she slipped up and fell and finished last in the finals. No medal.
Curling
Men lost 7-6 to Canada but in the late session, beat the USA 6-5. To top things off, have you seen their curling pants? http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/newsid=41700.html
Hockey
Trouble against Canada, losing 8-0.
Day 6 has 7 medal events scheduled:
Women’s Downhill
Cross-Country – Women’s Individual Sprint
Cross-Country – Men’s Individual Sprint
Speed Skating – Men’s 1000m
Luge – Doubles
Short Track – Women’s 500m
Snowboard – Men’s Halfpipe
Thankfully, Norway does not have any team events.
Today is going to be difficult. I need to avoid finding out about the Downhill. Then the Halfpipe finals don’t start until 10:15.
538 has been doing medal projections. They expect 17.4 more medals for Norway, which would be good enough for 4th.
I tried avoiding results yesterday, which is nearly impossible. I would go to MSNBC and see a picture that looked like the olympics and panic before letting it sink in. In my panic, I’d go to my homepage, which is SI. So I’d have to panic again. I made it through work but while I was at home I managed to see the USA finishes for the two events I cared about (Downhill and Boarder X) before I got to watch. I should have made it to the Downhill but NBC didn’t put that on until primetime, even though it started at 1:30. Hopefully today will be better. I think NBC only has 2 hours of coverage this afternoon. I imagine that will cover Biathlon and Boarder X Qualifiers.
Cross-Country – Women’s 10k Individual
The announcers kept talking about the disappointing day for Norway.
3. BJOERGEN Marit – 3rd Olympics. Silver in this even in 06. Also a Silver in the 4×5k Relay in 02.
8. STEIRA Kristin Stoermer – In 06, had 3 4th places and a 5th. So close. Hopefully a medal for her this year.
22. SKOFTERUD Vibeke W
49. KRISTOFFERSEN Marthe
Cross-Country – Men’s 15k Individual
What a disappointing day for Norway in Cross-Country. They have the #1 in the world, and the best finish was 28. It wasn’t even him!
28. GJERDALEN Tord Asle
33. JOHNSRUD SUNDBY Martin
41. NORTHUG Petter – #1 in the world.
42. HAFSAS Ronny
Men’s Downhill
A 2nd Silver for Norway.
2. SVINDAL Aksel Lund – Competed in 06. Best finish was 5th. Finished 21st in Downhill.
These two tied for 31st. Kind of crazy for two from the same country to tie. The top 3 were a record for how close they are, so ties can happen.
31. JANSRUD Kjetil
31. MYHRE Lars Elton
46. KARLSEN Truls Ove
Boarder X
I will continue to call this Boarder X. Norway had 2 qualify for the quarters, but it doesn’t look like they made it out of that.
No Norway in Speed Skating or Pairs. Speed Skating got all screwed up because of the ice yesterday. Pairs wound up being the first event I skipped over most of. Figure Skating is looking to be my least favorite event. I don’t think I’ll watch any Ice Dancing. We’ll see about the singles.
Norway Totals: 2 Silver 1 Bronze
Day 5
Norway’s Men’s Curling debuts with a morning match with Canada and a night match with the USA. They also start up Men’s hockey, facing Canada this afternoon. Norway has 0 NHL players. Ole-Kristian Tollefsen was traded by the Flyers last week to the Red Wings. The Red Wings put him on waivers and no one picked him up. So he’s in the AHL now. I don’t feel a good day coming on for Norway’s team sports.
6 medal events scheduled for the day:
Biathlon – Women’s 10k Pursuit
Women’s Boarder X
Biathlon – Men’s 12.5k Pursuit
Men’s Super Combined
Women’s Luge
Speed Skating – Women’s 500m