As Heard at Miller Park

"Go back to Chicago!"

-- Man, presumably a Brewers fan, wearing a hat reading "CHICAGO IL" shouting at an obnoxious Cubs fan.

As Heard at Miller Park

"Mom! Sober up long enough so you can enjoy the game!"

-- Teenage daughter to her mother, as mom lead them up, then down, then almost back up and finally down the staircase leading to the wrong section for their seats.

I really hope she was giving mom a hard time, otherwise this is a sad, sad statement.

Singers Out

This opinion is not 100% formed, but I'm pretty sure that singers shouldn't be allowed on America's Got Talent because we already have American Idol.

How can you judge between a magician and a singer as to who is better? Or a singer and a fire breather, etc.?

I suppose this could go for any talent vs. different talent matchup, but without the singers we'd at least be left with the wacky, original and oddball performances.

Oh...but you get an exemption on the whole singing thing if you have a mullet.

You're Revived

Trump was fired from NBC's fall lineup and now he's re-hired. Something tells me this is gonna be hu-uuge.

AP:

Apprentice' to return with celebrities

By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Check your publicist at the boardroom door — NBC is inviting celebrities to try to wow Donald Trump in the next version of "The Apprentice." And while it would make for a marquee matchup, don't expect Rosie O'Donnell to be among them.

"It will never happen in this lifetime or beyond," said Cindi Berger, O'Donnell's spokeswoman.

The network announced Monday that the game show will be back in the middle of next season with the celebrity twist, the winner donating proceeds to charity instead of going to work for The Donald.

Huh?!? So the show that is supposedly the ultimate job interview doesn't end with someone getting a job?

I guess this just means one thing, Trump doesn't want to give K-Fed a job either.

More Popular Than Ever

According to Site Meter, Spaulding averages one visitor per day! Thanks to everyone who has helped make this possible. Rest assured, we will continue upgrading Spaulding to better serve the 0.0000000000161290323 percent of the global population who depend upon this site for their news, entertainment and sports needs.

Breaking News

Los Angeles Times:

IHOP buying Applebee's for $2.1 billion
By Daniel Yi
Times Staff Writer

Pancake chain IHOP Corp. will aggressively franchise Applebee's restaurants under a $2.1-billion acquisition plan announced today.

Glendale-based IHOP, which offered $25.50 per share in cash for the Overland Park, Kan., restaurant chain, said its main strategy would be to franchise the majority of the 508 restaurants currently owned by Applebee's International Inc.

Applebee's franchises about three-quarters of its 2,000 restaurants. In contrast, 99% of IHOP's 1,319 eateries are operated by franchisees. IHOP believes the strategy will save money and help boost Applebee's laggard financial performance.

Finally! Riblets for breakfast!

Two of the Good Guys: Buehrle and Nocioni

From Rick Morrissey and ChicagoSports.com:

...Something happened this past weekend that doesn't happen often in the world of professional sports. Two athletes in the same town looked around, decided their lives weren't going to be enhanced by more money and chose to stay put.

Presumably independent of one another, the White Sox's Mark Buehrle and the Bulls' Andres Nocioni came to the conclusion that a fellow could live quite comfortably on a huge, multimillion-dollar contract if he were frugal and kept his Maserati collection down to a workable number of, say, 10.

But when Buehrle accepted the above contract and when Nocioni agreed to a five-year, $37.5 million contract with the Bulls, it at least meant that sanity had established a tiny beachhead, that heart mattered and that happiness levels don't necessarily increase as salary numbers spin upward.

Players who view themselves as part of and are willing to sacrifice for the team. Geez, inbetween the quacking duck player of the game, the MVP awards, Gold Gloves, All-Star teams and other awards that honor the individual over the team, you would think that there might be an award recognizing these (albeit incrediably rare) types of players. Oh yeah, that's right there is...fan respect. That, and championships. Buehrle got his (with more to come); Noce, it's your turn.

Let the Boredom Resume

Well, the New York Times moved its offices, so Spaulding decided to do the same. One move, a new Internet service provider, a bunch of procrastination and -- bam -- Spaulding is back. Apologies to anyone who missed this blog during its hiatus. Here's hoping our one reader hasn't found anything better to do yet.

It Starts Off Normal. And Then...

Any manager can get tossed out of a game. This manager reminds us that you should at least make it worthwhile.

TSSCBOT: Money

TSSCBOT: Food

TSSCBOT: Cell Phone

Letterman's Great Moments in Presidential Speeches: The Ol' Microphone Cord Trick

Grey's Anatomy

Grey's Anatomy lost me when we had to sit through a two night season finale last year to watch all of the young doctors participate in (ultimately) helping to kill a guy under the premise of moving him up the heart transplant list. When those doctors were not reprimanded, stripped of their medical licenses and thrown in jail at the start of the next season I wrote it off and have not watched an episode since.

Since then I've been telling everyone how much Grey's Anatomy sucks. I just had no idea how much of a feminist I am.

New York Times:

The New Modern Woman, Ambitious and Feeble

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: May 5, 2007

It’s time to play the blame game.

Everything wrong with “Grey’s Anatomy” and its soon-to-be spun spinoff is the fault of “Ally McBeal.”

Mary Tyler Moore and Marlo Thomas were early prototypes of the quirky but lovable career girl. David E. Kelley’s hit series about a deeply neurotic lawyer named Ally McBeal marked a turning point in the devolution of women’s roles in television comedy — the moment when competent-but-flaky hardened into basket case.

...The HBO series “Sex and the City” made light of female insecurity and let its flighty heroines come out ahead. Here even the most successful women are left behind in life.

It wouldn’t matter, since the show is admittedly over-the-top escapist fantasy for women, except that it is troubling that even in escapist fantasies, today’s heroines have to be weak, needy and oversexed to be liked by women and desired by men.

...Shonda Rhimes, who created “Grey’s Anatomy,” also came up with the spinoff. Somehow, even in the hands of a woman, a show about female doctors finds humor and solace in their distress. Self-deprecation has been replaced with self-denigration.

People complain that hip-hop stars use obscene lyrics and lewd music videos to demean women. Sometimes, so do even the most bourgeois women’s television shows.

And This Is How You Would Choose to Present America to the World?

The Republican presidential candidates held another debate Tuesday night. All of the "top tier" candidates and the "soon-to-be also rans" were there.

The guy who many Americans don't know what he's really about but who enjoys headliner status on the GOP side due to his fundraising prowess is former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

And what did we learn about Romney from the debate? Well, if you are worried about America's increasingly diminished respect on the global stage resulting from repeated policy and moral failures, then Romney isn't your guy.

Why's that? -- here's the New York Times' coverage of the debate:

The scenario presented to the 10 Republican presidential candidates was chilling: Three American shopping malls had been bombed, producing scores of casualties. Terrorists with detailed knowledge of another imminent and deadlier attack had been captured and taken to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The question: How far can the authorities go in interrogating the terrorists to get information to avert a fourth attack?

...Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts said he would support “not torture but enhanced interrogation techniques." And taking a tougher line than President Bush and Mr. McCain, who have said they would like to shut down the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Mr. Romney said he wanted the facility doubled in size.

...As they went through the doomsday terrorist scenario presented by the moderators, the candidates did not offer precise definitions of what they considered terrorism, though their nuanced responses suggested differences about how far they thought it was appropriate for interrogators to go to avert a terrorist attack.

Enhanced interrogation techniques, which Mr. Romney said he would support, refer to methods outside those allowed by the Army’s code of justice or the Geneva Conventions. The most publicly discussed technique that has reportedly been used on terrorism suspects involves what is known as water-boarding, where a prisoner is strapped down, head beneath his feet, as water is poured repeatedly on a cloth covering the mouth until the person thinks he is about to drown.

Voters will have to decide what type of America and what image of America they want in the world.

For Romney, he's probably fortunate that 99% of the country didn't even know there was a GOP debate Tuesday night.

This News Is LEGEN-wait for it-DARY!

After watching this week's How I Met Your Mother -- which will hereby be referred in this posting as the Best Sitcom Currently On Television (BSCOT) -- I was certain the show was cancelled.

The episode had all the little endings, references to the pilot, and storyline conclusions one would expect if the writers of the BSCOT were told that there would be no next year and were forced to prematurely bring conclusion to the show. (A faithful reader of this blog had even heard a report on E! that the BSCOT was on the bubble).

And just as it appeared that primetime television was going to losing its most consistent source of laser tag references, Variety (well, more accurately CBS) saves the day:

Eye skeins getting better news this week include "How I Met Your Mother," which has been picked up for a third season. Eye's most buzzworthy laffer might seem to be a no-brainer for renewal, but CBS execs make producers sweat it out until the last minute.

Thank you! (It just wouldn't have been fair if we didn't get to meet the mother).

Season three -- suit up!

According to This Guy, Wii Are Out of Luck

Nintendo's Wii is, as Mugatu might say, "so hot right now." The white video game console the size of a hardcover book has been harder to find than Waldo since it launched and things haven't gotten better post-holiday shopping.

But, hey, the holidays have been over for months. The Wii supply should be meeting demand in no time, right?

What do you think industry analyst #1?

Punchjump:

"I believe the Wii will continue strong growth although supply continues to be a problem," said Billy Pidgeon, video game analyst, IDC. "I’d like to see Wii hardware shipping in larger quantities or mass market consumers may cool on it. Having said that, I don’t believe supply will meet demand for the Wii until 2009."

2009?!?

Guess that is just in time to get your Wii before a Wii 2 is launched.

Letterman's Great Moments in Presidential Speeches: It's uh...

Wii Are Still Waiting

This "report"from Play.tm:

Reports filtering in from across the information motorway reveal that Wii stocks are on the up in the UK, with large shipments flooding into starved retailers in the last week or so. News in suggests that the arrival of fresh supplies has already seen Wii sales soar in the charts.

..."Nintendo chose to release quite a large supply of Wii stock last week, meaning that those eager to get their hands on the innovative new system would finally get their wish, thus impacting greatly on the UK charts," read a statement from Chart-Track, compilers of the official UK charts.

Ahem! Middle of the U.S.A. still waiting here...

World Series of Uno

Hard to believe this isn't airing on NBC...