It's a Halloween rant, Charlie Brown

Happy Halloween from Bethany and myself, but I would guess anyone above the age of twelve celebrated the holiday over this past weekend. We’ve never really been big Halloween people and while I enjoy looking at the assortment of creative costumes people put together, I always find myself too lazy to put something together myself. The odd thing is, the last time I went out to celebrate in 2002 I went through all the trouble to dress like Britney Spears and I have to give mad props to all you ladies out there because those high heels hurt like hell. I didn’t really have a poor experience that evening, but I haven’t been motivated to do anything since.


Is it me or did people start decorating for Halloween this year like it’s Christmas? I’m used to the occasional pumpkin on the front porch, but we have candles, string lights, inflatable pumpkins, and dioramas in our neighborhood. It’s not like I have a problem with the ramped up celebration of ghouls and ghosts, but it appeared to come out of nowhere. In addition, are you aware all of the Halloween candy and costumes went on sale Friday which if my math is correct (carry a 7, multiply by Pi) would be three days before the 31st. This makes little sense to me because 85% of the people out there buy their candy on Halloween because the ingenious plan to purchase it early always results in it being eaten in three hours.

The big kicker here would be that all of the sweets, masks, and makeup have been pushed to the side for drum roll please…..CHRISTMAS IN OCTOBER????? Can someone please explain to me who decided the holiday season now needs to be celebrated over the parts of four months? I have enough decision to make in my life without having to choose between the Frosty wrapping paper or the bag of Snickers bars with Dracula and the Wolfman on it. So I guess this would leave Thanksgiving as the forgotten son of the holiday family because his younger brother started averaging 30 points a game. I think the conversation would go like this:

Easter Bunny: Hi Santa, how are your children doing?

Santa: Great, you have to come to one of Christmas’ games. He has malls decorated in his honor and staying up late for people to come see him. He has hundreds of songs written about him and people spend thousands of dollars to bring a piece of him into their homes. And did I mention he hit the game-winning jumper last night against Jefferson High?

Easter Bunny: That’s nice and how about your oldest, Thanksgviing?

Santa: Thanksgiving? Yeah, I think I took a nap that day.


Don’t worry because I’ll always love you Thanksgiving and will be sure to have a an extra helping of mashed potatoes and apple pie just for you.

Champions Collide

Congratulations to the 2005 World Series Champion Chicago White Sox who dominated their way through the playoffs with an 11-1 record after leading their division for most of the season

Next up for the White Hose will be the Galactic Series where they will face off against the Neptune Knights who won a hard fought battle with the Bespin Blue Tigers in the Milky Way Invitational. Will Chicago’s starting staff match up with the Leia Organa-Stottlemyer coached rotation of trading deadline acquisition Chewbacca(8-0, 1.69 ERA since August), Optimus Prime, Gordan Shumay, and Small Wonder? Tune in this Tuesday on ESPN 8: The Ocho for all the action live from Triton, Neptune’s largest moon..

A Glimpse of the Future

We may be in the middle of wedding planning, but I caught a glimpse of my future on Saturday when we attended the Jack and Jill baby shower for one of Bethany’s colleagues. I expected to blend into the background of this affair with some mild conversation, but I did not prepare myself for the four children under two who would be present and instead found myself thrust in the middle of my first party where my peers have families. Truthfully, I enjoy being around children so my shock value wore off quickly as I high fived a toddler, played with toys, and mooed like a cow into a plastic cup without missing a beat. Things turned out to a great afternoon and the woman who hosted the event assembled one of the most delicious lineups of food I have ever witnessed.

The lesson for the weekend would be that I am one step closer from all of my parties not beginning after nine at night and having seventy five percent of the people drink beer until two o’clock in the morning. While the thought may be scary to some, I am not ashamed to say I think Bethany and myself look forward to our future lives with a family with much more enthusiasm than we do our wedding day. Over Columbus Day weekend, we had a brief taste of what it would be like to be responsible for a child as Bethany’s brother and sister in law asked us to baby sit their eighteen month old son, Nick, so they could go out to dinner with some friends. Nick behaved like a champ for us, but he’s constantly on the move so you have to watch him as he jumps from toy to toy, wanders into dark closets, and tries to dish out hugs while you’re boiling water on the stove. You end up playing games you never knew existed, shrug it off when he decides to signal the end of dinner by sweeping his ravioli onto his clothes, and did I mention the running? At the end of the night, I gave my first bubble bath and then the three of us settled down for an alphabet book about a surprise party for a spider before putting the little guy to bed. We had a few quiet hours to ourselves, but the cuteness begins again the next morning

I’ve heard coworkers discuss the lack of sleep and work put into having children, but that one single day put it a little more in perspective for me. A baby requires a certain level of dedication and a mindset significantly different than being a single guy with hockey season tickets. Another person depends on you for everything and I can easily see how it can be overwhelming for some people to handle. On the flip side, it’s exciting watching a baby discover and learn from the world around him even if it does require some banging. My best days of spending all of my weekends watching sports and drinking will be behind me in a few years, but I look forward to the fun, excitement, and sleepless nights in store for me and our future children.

Of course this opinion could easily change after I change my 100th diaper.

Takeout Tuesday

It’s Take out Tuesday everyone and since you made it through the beginning of the work week, it’s time to celebrate like we do by giving yourselves a night off from cooking and ordering in. Open that drawer full of menus from restaurants you could never find if your life depended on it and select from Chinese, Mexican, BBQ, chicken wings, pizza, or whatever else you find yourself in the mood for. The only thing that matters is your meal will arrive in an environmentally hazardous Styrofoam container, the plastic fork they gave you broke on your first bite, and you don’t have to do any dishes. Enjoy and feel free to share what you went with.

Personally, I usually go with a toasted chicken salad sandwich with lettuce, cheese, and pickles while Bethany hops around the menu.

Hey Mr. DJ, Part II

In part I, we reviewed our reasoning behind deciding to locate a DJ instead of hiring a band or attempting the probable failure of coordinating our own music for next July. Now that we know the direction we’ll be heading in it’s time to review some of the key points we’ll be trying to communicate during the interview process.

For starters, there will be a large amount of dancing scheduled for the reception and I think if anyone has ever attended a party or wedding with us they know we’re usually one of the first people out there hopping around. Most of our prospective guests also have been known to flash some sharp moves on the dance floor and we’re expecting the same excitement and energy level featured at the world famous Beach Parties. There’s nothing like a good buzz leading up to a party where people begin talking about how much of a good time they will be having weeks in the future. I hope people take this approach to our wedding and Bethany and I want to be sure the DJ we select understands our vision, our guests, and our ideas for the dance floor.

We would like to locate a DJ who will be open to the idea of working with us and not claiming he can’t make any promises because he needs creative license to play the Electric Slide if the party needs it. I will freely admit I know nothing about music, the appreciation of music, or what qualifies as brilliant works of art. I do, however, understand what types of songs people get excited for so they will stay on a dance floor for three consecutive hours. I used to build play lists with popular songs mixed in with some of my personal favorites, but this usually resulted in people getting fired up for a few songs before leaving to talk to their friends when an unfamiliar artist came on. I then ended up alone and it would be difficult to get people up again so last year I carefully choreographed an entire six and a half hour play list beginning with some mood music before knocking everyone’s socks off for the final few hours. After the formalities have been laid to rest we want that dance floor hopping for the final ninety minutes to two hours like the end of Back to the Future when Michael J. Fox introduces Johnny B. Good to his future parents and their classmates at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance except there will be no time traveling.

How do we achieve this goal? By hiring an individual who will be open to sitting down with us to discuss a suggested group of songs and the ability to comprehend the tone we hope to set for the evening. Our music range will include Oldies, Soul, Rock, and Hip Hop as we request a good ten songs we expect to hear at our reception without being Song Nazis and demanding a lengthy list of must haves. We will ask for classic songs we dislike(see Mustang Sally) not be played while requesting really bad songs we would like to hear(Queen of Hearts). There will be Barry White, The Jackson Five, and the Four Tops. You may be asked to Shout with Jessie’s Girl or Come on Eileen. The opportunity to say you Shook Me All Night Long as you Bust a Move to some Good Vibrations could present itself.

In a nutshell, after doing the meet and greet with all of our guests, we’re looking forward to closing things down in style and hope all of our friends and family will be out there with us.

How I Met Your Mother

I find one of the better new television shows of the season to be How I Met Your Mother on CBS (Monday nights at 8:30). The plot revolves around Ted (Josh Radner), a twenty seven year old, who finds himself worn down by the dating scene and ready to find the woman of his dreams. Bob Saget provides narration as Ted from the year 2030 as he relays to his son and daughter what events led to the meeting of their yet to be identified mother. Jason Segel (Freaks and Geeks) and Alison Hannigan (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, American Pie) play Ted’s recently engaged friends who assist him in his quest while Neil Patrick Harris (the artist formerly known as Doogie Howser) portrays their hilarious friend Barney whose obnoxious antics channel the television spirits of Steve Sanders and Michael Mancini. Being in the same age range of the characters, I find the nostalgia humor to be right up my alley and I support this claim by asking is there really ever a bad time to use a “Sloth loves Chunk” joke? Check it out and I guarantee a few laughs.

I enjoy the setup for this sitcom because it transcends the stereotypical Dumb Dad (footnote to Bethany for the joke) genre where incredibly dorky and massively overweight men somehow find themselves married to beautiful woman willing to put up with such antics as spending the grocery money at the racetrack. The premise relates to a characteristic that is part of every single relationship out there as everyone had that first look, the first sense of attraction, and the first date. Whether it lasts one month, one year, or a lifetime every couple had a point where they were together for two weeks and their friends all gossip about whether they think the personalities will be a fit for each other. All couples have their story and while you hear a great deal about the dating scene, the experiences of most my friends seem to occur in circumstances when you least expect it. I’ve had blizzards, theme parties, chance encounters, and saline solution all contribute to the development of a wedding.

For Bethany and myself, the 411 goes a little something like this. Old friend and roommate Nick had met his current fiancé, Katie, at a party we attended in April 2001. On Sunday, May 20th my brother, Chris would be graduating from Providence College and the night before Katie and her roommates(including Bethany) planned a margaritaville party. I figured I’d show up have a few drinks, keep it low key, and head out somewhere around midnight to prepare for the drive to Providence the following morning. Our first look occurred when Nick and I walked in the door holding a 6-foot tall inflatable palm tree and if my memory serves me correctly, Bethany stood just off to my left as we entered the Brighton apartment. After some introductions and a bite or two of her candy necklace, I moved on to do my own thing, but it very quickly became eleven o’clock and I assumed I would be leaving within the hour. At this point a group of people I had been speaking with unveiled a bottle of Captain Morgan and I realized the question wasn’t if, but when I would end up making myself a drink so I decided to get things out of the way. After making my way to the bar area (which I believe was the stovetop), I grabbed a cup and had tilted the bottle to the point where the rum began running down the neck when Bethany came around the corner and asked me to do a shot of tequila with her. After putting the Captain down, I explained my case of how I needed to leave soon and could only do one more drink, but she didn’t want to hear it. After some negotiating, I agreed to do the shot of Cuervo and I would say the rest is history….or for a select few sworn to secrecy. And in the year 2027 the name of that story will be “How I Met Your Mother”

Page 36: October Edition

After some slow traffic on the entertainment front I think we’ve had some good pieces of info over the past few weeks so here’s a quick recap with contributions from both of us:


Nick and Jessica-In or Out: US Weekly broke this story, but I bet you don’t know People isn’t touching it. So she forgot her wedding ring a few times, I guess we’re not engaged anymore either. And have you heard about the nineteen year old girl who said Nick picked her up at a high school football game in Ohio and took her back to his hotel room. That’s a pretty good line when you meet girls foolish enough to think successful celebrities have nothing better to do on a Friday night than watch high school football. I’m pretty sure Lachey doesn’t stay at a Motel Six and drink Crazy Horse either

Super Baby: Nicolas Cage’s wife Alice gave birth to a baby boy and they name the child Kal-el Coppla Cage. For those of you who don’t know, Kal-el is Superman’s name on Krypton before Marlon Brando jettisoned him to earth. Now while it may be surprising I somehow managed live with a woman with all of my useless pop culture knowledge, keep in mind Cage convinced someone to have sex with him and give their child the name of a comic book character. With that being said, we proudly announce the names of our children will be The Greatest American Hero, Captain America, and Wolverine. At least Britney and Kevin managed to give their baby, Sean Preston, a normal name and speaking of which…

Sex Tape Scandal III: Rumor has it Britney and Kevin have a sex tape of their own and do we really need to discuss how exciting this is? The only sad note would be that it comes during her white trash, trailer park, inbred stage and not her cutsie, cherry bomb ass “I’m a virgin(wink wink)” Justin phase.


I’ll see your sex tape and raise you three broken relationships: Break out the smelling salts because love has no chance of making it after the end of Paris Squared. Hilton reportedly could be seen dancing on nightclub tables and working the boyfriend of Mary-Kate Olsen the night of her breakup. In addition, rumors this week also indicate Paris the Blond could be responsible for the end of the six month marriage of One Tree Hill stars Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush. Word is Murray never saw it coming.

TomKat prepares to hatch their egg: Can someone please explain to me how Tom Cruise managed to convince Katie Holmes to have his baby within six months of dating? I apparently could’ve used this scientology material back in college because my cracks about Melrose Place and singing the Transformers theme didn’t get me anywhere.


Stay tuned for our next report when we post the results from Lindsey Lohan’s driving test

Hey, Mr DJ, Part I

I received my first homework assignment over the weekend as the wedding team captain designated me to prepare for our future meetings with DJs for our reception. This will be a task I welcome and look forward to working on because I’ve tried hard in recent years to understand what makes good music for a party and some of you have even inquired as to whether we would be outsourcing the music. While programming the iPod to play all of our favorite songs would not be difficult, we would still be responsible for locating all the necessary equipment so everyone wouldn’t be dancing to a radio I received during my sophomore year of high school. This arrangement would also require one of our guests to press pause when necessary and MC the event so we have decided not to ruin anybody’s time and locate a professional for the job although I will acknowledge trying to make it work would probably be an amusing disaster for people to observe.

Asking whether we would be having a DJ or a band turned out to be very popular question within days after our engagement and we had discussed this topic long before we decided to walk down the aisle. While I appreciate the value and enjoyment of live music, I personally feel it would be much easier to fix a poor DJ then clash with the egos of a band. If things aren’t going well on the turntables you can walk up with a list of five or six songs and tactfully get them played quickly. If a band struggles to motivate your guests to shake their tail feathers, they may not be willing to or know how to string together a requested play list. In addition, you’re stuck in the mud if they’re simply having an off night and no one’s feeling their vibe. The human element plays much more of a factor with a live ensemble and that’s a chance we’re not looking to take. We also feel music selections become limited with a band since both Bethany and myself appreciate the hip-hop genre and simply put, I want to shake it like a Polaroid picture at my wedding. With that being said, I know there are people reading this who have had or will be having live music at their weddings and I want to make it very clear I do not think you made or will be making a mistake with your decision. I’m not lobbing bombs, it’s just the choice we’re making and why.

More to come.

Red Socked

Friday night marked the end of the 2005 Red Sox season with a three game sweep by the American League Central Champion Chicago White Sox and I can’t say I’m all that surprised. This team has been battling injuries all year and has looked worn down since the end of August while giving up a relatively healthy lead in their division before clinching the Wild Card berth on the last day of the season. To be honest, this team had zero shot at winning the World Series and while most fans and obnoxious radio personalities would disagree with me, this they entered the playoffs with no one pitching above a third starter level and a plan to hit their way to a championship. The problem is no team has EVER hit their way to victory let alone without one dominant starting pitcher. Some people counted on pitcher Curt Schilling leading the team but, he battled injuries all year and performed as a shell of himself upon his return. A player may be a superstar, but circumstances occur to change his ability and just because he’s on the field doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed a gold star outing. Injuries become the most overlooked development in baseball because people think when a player takes the field they will always get 100% of his talent. Usually the player whose ability has changed is not a bum, but is recovering from some ailment he may need a good solid year to recover from. It can be applauded when players don’t simply mail it in, but Schilling clearly has not recovered from his problems. If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably disappointed with my negativity and may be surprised to know I barely watched this past series because this team no longer rests high on my priority list.


I became a devoted baseball fan after watching the All Star game in 1988 and receiving a box of discarded baseball cards the following day. I learned about the Red Sox from listening to the radio call of the game while doing my homework or waiting to fall asleep. Once the game was over I would change my dial a quarter of a turn to catch the all sports WFAN out of New York and learned a great deal about the game in general as opposed to being restricted to the hometown team. During games on the West Coast, I would actually set by alarm to wake me up at one in the morning so I could catch the final inning out in Oakland or Seattle. One on my most memorable stories involved losing power in our house for a couple of days during Hurricane Bob in 1991 so I broke out an old battery powered radio to listen to a game and if I remember correctly Wade Boggs hit a home run. During the summer of 1994, my friend Mike and I attended at day night double header which turned out to be the last game at Fenway before that year’s strike and we were at the park for over ten hours as we watched our beloved Sox split with the Cleveland Indians with about two hundred people remaining in the stands by the last pitch of the twelve inning nightcap.


During last year’s dream season, the Red Sox broke their eight six year drought by beating the St. Louis Cardinals in four games to win the World Series and while most people thought I would be ecstatic with the news I had already given up on the team or as Bethany likes to say, “You broke up with them.” Things unraveled for me in the first game of the American League Championship series against the New York Yankees as once again, the Red Sox didn’t show up for an important playoff series against their archrivals. An embarrassing Game One performance had them without a base runner until the sixth inning and a follow-up, uninspired Game Two led me to turn the TV off in the seventh inning and I did not watch one more pitch of this series. I followed the story in the newspaper and heard the drama recapped by every other breathing person in the Boston area, but I had peaked and realized I had become way to emotionally invested in something that should not have that much importance in my life.

The question I have posed to myself is, “What happened?” and after not designating all of my free time to following this year’s team I realized watching the Red Sox stopped being fun for me. The peak of my loyalty occurred in college where I could walk out my door and be in my seat within a half hour. A bleacher seat only cost ten dollars and I rarely had that ticket before walking up to the box office window the day of the game. Once inside the park, you could sit wherever you wanted in the bleachers because no one seemed to care and only the diehard fans made it to the park on a Tuesday in April. I’ve seen Pedro Martinez strike out thirteen or more batters on three different occasions in such dominant performances it’s insulting the media would corrupt the fan base to run him out of town. Two or three years ago all of this changed. It became impossible to get a ticket on game day and the worst seat in the Fenway costs a laughable amount of money compared to other cities. I feel relegated to telling my grandchildren, “In my day” stories of how baseball was once a game and not an over hyped business model with a media circus for a background. My own personal obsession found me staying up well past two in the morning when I had to be up for work the next day and I found myself going through weeks of emotional stress during the playoff run. The adrenaline rush from this effect ceased to be a source of enjoyment for me and I had an epiphany during the greatest run in playoff history to reconsider my direction in life. Perhaps in a few seasons, a youth movement or a mediocre record will slow down Red Sox nation, but until then I will be nothing more than a casual observer.

Color Guard

While talking on the phone with my cousin the other night, she inquired about the colors of our wedding. I did not have the faintest clue what the answer to this question could possibly be so I asked Bethany what to say and ended up in a situation reminiscent of my high school and college French classes. People were talking and appeared to follow the conversation while I pretended to know what was going on and didn’t follow a single word. This became a reverse form of interpretation as I found myself repeating the comments with no meaning to me so the ladies could interact on this topic. Taupe? Chambord? Celadon? Azalea? What in the heck was going on here?

After my usual calm reaction and snide remark, I was informed these words describe colors to which I respectfully disagree with. The color Apple isn’t even a logical description because this fruit comes in many different varieties although it would be cool if you could get that reddish greenish combo of some of the Macintosh apples I have eaten. If that’s not your thing and you’re still hungry other options include plumberry, truffle, and bisque. Perhaps, you’re watching your figure and would like to downgrade to a beverage themed wedding so please check out Latte, Sangria, Tea Rose, or Champagne. A sense of adventure? Then go with the Hunter tracking the ever elusive Calypso while a Sea Mist forms over the Oasis. I know what none of these colors actually looks like, but I can’t imagine going into the office and saying, “We’ve decided to go with banana as our wedding color.”

For the purpose of standing up for men everywhere I would like to explain to the ladies we know nothing, but ten colors and they are red, yellow, blue, green, purple, pink, orange, black, white, brown and gray. If you want to describe a particular idea to us the statement should go as follows, “I’m thinking of buying a new shirt and I’m trying to decide between blue, dark blue, or light blue.” The analysis of these colors goes like this: Blue would be the uniform of CapN Crunch, the dark blue would be a Yankees hat, and light blue would be my favorite underwear of yours. We can all understand this language as well as that outside of these hypothetical circumstances you will probably buy all three. Hah, I kid because I love.

Here’s my take on some of the other nine colors out there:


Red: I HATE the color which is a notorious fact in my office because it really bothers me to look at someone in a red shirt. On the flip side, I can wear a red shirt because I cannot see it on myself. One classic story involves our entire auditing team a few years ago all coordinating to wear red shirts to annoy me which did not end very well because I decided to drop a few jokes how Arthur Anderson would soon not exist and they wouldn’t have jobs. You can call that story, “The Time I was Kicked in the Groin” or “How I was Fired.”

Orange: When I received my First Communion in the second grade, I insisted I wear an orange shirt and my mom had to drive everywhere before finding one. I also think people with red hair should wear orange more often just because it would look awful.

Green: I wear lots of green with Bethany’s favorite shirt being my Neon Green Scooper Bowl shirt that runs on a car battery


Yellow/Pink: Is it me or every time you see a guy wearing either of these colors do you wonder what the hell they were thinking when they bought it. Seriously, these colors do not look good on men and if someone told you otherwise they are lying or dressing you. It’s called a mirror, use it.

Live From New York

This weekend featured the season premiere of Saturday Night Live with host Steve Carell (The Forty Year Old Virgin) and musical guest Kanye West and after a slow start I can truthfully say two or three sketches could be rated an “A”. I’ve always been a huge comedy fan and have regularly watched SNL since the eighth grade. I remember my first episode on New Year’s Eve 1999 with host Matthew Broderick and I have seen almost every show since that night. Most people can attest to the fact I have seen some of these episodes too many times as I can reenact several skits based on having taped several seasons and then watching them again to see how the skits faired the second time around. For the particularly great episodes (Jim Carey and the first Britney Spears come to mind), I would make it a point to ensure all my friends could enjoy these great comedy moments.

The show has suffered through its ups and downs over the years and I mainly feel you can attribute success to the talent of the cast. Personally, I feel the greatest group of actors combined the final years of Mike Myers and Dana Carvey with the early years of Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and Rob Schneider. This ensemble performed dead on impersonations, memorable musical numbers, and had the creativity to develop their own characters. Things fell apart during 1994-1995, but producer Lorne Michaels rebuilt the cast with Will Farrell, Chris Kattan, Cheri Oteri, and Ana Gasteyer to string together another run of successful shows. I would like to add a quick comment regarding the original cast containing Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtain, and Dan Akroyd by saying I find these episodes to be atrocious. Saturday Night Live’s debut served as a groundbreaking event in television history because there was nothing else like it and while the episodes of this era receive much acclaim, I find them to be awful. The development of the impressions, writing, and characters has come so far it would be like saying a horse would be as good of a way to travel as a car. This group may have been considered a sure thing at one time, but there's a reason most of them have not been successful. With that being said, I feel the current state of the show could also use a makeover

Presently, Tina Fey who took over duties during 1999-00 and began co-hosting the news segment, Weekend Update, the following year, supervises the writing for SNL. I initially found myself to be a huge fan of her clever, sharp-witted style, but my opinion significantly changed after Fey began promoting her movie Mean Girls. With each passing interview, I observed a person who didn’t really seem to have much life experience and based her writing on a keen sense of knowing what would make people laugh. She would talk about being a social outcast and it began to strike me this is a person who spent her high school and college careers vicariously living through other people. I envision her cracking a joke and gossiping about some freshman being stuffed into a trash can. because she spent her days at lunch eavesdropping on the tables around her. While she tried to play it off, she struck me as someone who spent her life being angry and jealous of never being a member of the in crowd while trying to pretend staying home with her friends and mocking the popular kids was a good time. This isn’t a good time for anyone and while being denied by your peers during your teenage years can be tough, you still have to find your niche. The world doesn’t only include cheerleaders and quarterbacks and other pockets of people exist where one can go to develop an identity. Based on her media appearances, I feel this is a person who not only lacked any depth to their personality while growing up, but continues to not quite get everyone has a difficult time as a teenager and that most people get over it. All her jokes about hip hop and pop culture only occur because she has witnessed other people laughing at them and I began viewing her work differently.

While riding the success of her movie, Fey appeared to have been granted more power last season in the content of the programming and I feel NBC ended up showing 20+ episodes of her personal ultra democratic political agenda. This led to some badly performed political comedy from someone thinking they were making a point and so much time would be devoted to the political humor the rest of the content suffered. There were few original characters developed and there was little to no skill with regards to impressionism. With Fey currently out on maternity leave, I looked forward to watching last night’s episode because I hoped she wouldn’t have much influence. The program opened, however, with a George Bush skit concerning reaction to Hurricane Katrina and the big crowd reaction punch line they used about “Who is in charge” completely ignored the legal ramifications of why the federal government couldn’t go in and say they now ruled Louisiana. After yelling at the TV and lamenting another painful season, I survived a mildly amusing skit about the JetBlue emergency landing before falling asleep. This morning Bethany and I watched the rest of the show over breakfast and laughed on several occasion with the highlight being a cameo by Mike Meyers with Kanye West. In addition, Bill Hader of Punk’d fame has joined the cast and nailed some dead on impressions including Al Pacino. It’s too early to give a full verdict, but I hope the Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite, New Reese Witherspoon Ghost/Romantic Comedy) hosted episode next week continues to build on this week’s promising start until the college democrat returns to sink the righted ship.