Grab bag
We've just witnessed an ugly example of what big money can do for you: It can take away your peace, even after death.
If Anna Nicole Smith hadn't married J. Howard Marshall, a billionaire 63 years older than she was, the cable news networks might have actually had to cover the Iraq War today. Instead, we were treated to a spectacle so ludicrous you had to laugh out loud, and then shake your head, embarrassed that you were finding humor in a woman's death.
In Logical Land, there should never have been a doubt about where Anna Nicole should be buried. Sure, at 39, she was probably not thinking about her final resting place, but once her 20-year-old son Daniel died shockingly early, and she (or her companion, Howard K. Stern, or her entourage, or whoever) decided to bury him in the Bahamas, that should have been the end of it. Naturally, a mother, especially one who, according to Stern, rarely left her room and was certainly never the same after her son's death, would want to be buried next to her child. CONTINUED >>
Jolita posted and asked if I could re-link some of the Multi-link Monday favorites from past weeks in the new format, and it sounded like a good idea to me.
Here are a few of the sites I liked best, or that earned the most vocal response from readers -- if I'm missing a favorite of yours, post it here, or describe it and I'll try to find it. (Some sites, sadly, are no longer around.)
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• All the seasons of "The Brady Bunch" are already out on DVD, but TVShowsonDVD.com reports that the complete series will be out in one giant astroturfed package come late March. Which inspires me to ask, one more time: Why was this classic sitcom given such a shoddy DVD release as far as extras go? The first season had three episode commentaries -- one with Sherwood Schwartz (yawn) and two with cast members Barry Williams, Christopher Knight and Susan Olsen. The cast member commentaries were fun and engaging, and really, it's not like fans are buying the DVD sets for episodes alone when they can see those on almost every channel in existence. Also, how busy can Susan Olsen be these days? The cast members closed the final commentary by saying something like "see you again!", so they seemed ready to record more, but none of the other seasons had any extras that I recall.
• A lovely Ella Fitzgerald stamp comes out today. Other commemorative stamps coming up for 2007 include a very cool triangular stamp honoring the settlement of Jamestown, elegant Pacific lighthouses, a Jimmy Stewart stamp, Marvel superheroes, a breathtaking Louis Comfort Tiffany stamp, cute series of Disney stamps and more. Weirdest stamp of 2007? Contenders include "Mendez vs. Westminster School District" (marking an anti-segregation lawsuit in California in 1944) and a series honoring vintage mahogany speedboats, but the weirdness winner has to be the Jury Duty stamp. Jury Duty? On a stamp?
• Maybe this should have gone with the TV commercial post above, but readers are always asking about songs in certain TV commercials. AdTunes is a good place to start your hunt, and PromoGuy.net is a Weblog that discusses songs in ads, too. AdTunes is currently leading with a post rounding up their picks for the best music used in ads in 2006.
One of the best things about this new format: It's easier for me to update more often, and to toss up interesting links of the moment. (Alan Boyle does this admirably in Cosmic Log, calling it "Your Daily Dose of Science on the Web.")
Here's what I'm reading online at the moment:
• Want to know exactly when "American Idol" will get down to the final 12, or when the Smoking Gun will first discover a new contestant has a rap sheet? TV Guide has the schedule. Learn it, love it, live it. (Thanks to co-worker Paige for the link!)
• Australia, may I just say on behalf of the entire United States that we are sorry in advance. "The Real World" is heading to Sydney. Yeah, because the London and Paris seasons were such thrillers back in their day. The London season was the one that actually featured Mike and Jay sitting around on the couch at 3 a.m. reading a ketchup bottle and musing about whether ketchup was made in the U.K. Gosh, I miss those days. Now it's all "drink drank drunk FIGHT OVER ROOMS drink drank RACIAL SLUR drink more APOLOGY go to bar HOT TUB HOOK-UP drink everybody cries and goes home." (Link via MSNBC.com contributor Andy Dehnart's great Reality Blurred.)
• Speaking of awful reality shows featuring undeserving kids, I caught "I'm With Rolling Stone" Sunday night. It looks to be focusing on six aspiring writers who can't spell "emo," much less write about it. The six were all given a first assignment, to write about their hometown music scene. Almost all of the assignments were dreadful -- you can read them online here -- and one kid, Peter, blithely confessed to his new editor that he was drunk when he wrote his.
And not to be a big ol' prude, but I didn't notice any of the contestants thanking editor Jann Wenner when he called to tell them they were on the show. Even if the call was staged, and no matter how goofy Jann Wenner is, come on, be gracious and thank the man for the opportunity! Yeah, some days I do wonder when I turned into "Crankshaft," but still.
