No more Jericho. CBS has canceled my favorite show (Ok, favorite after Lost and The Office and Grey's Anatomy and Brothers and Sisters--but I liked it a lot. It's way better than a poke in the eye from a tick or a sharp stick).
First they fired Imus. Now they canceled Jericho. They are so in my dog house.
Tonight, I'll stay up past my bedtime to watch The War Zone Diary on MSNBC.
Richard Engel graduated from Stanford and knowing he wanted to be an international news journalist, moved to Cairo, Egypt with $2,000 in his pocket and a plan to learn Arabic. He figured he'd somehow find a job. In 2003, he became NBC's bureau chief and lead reporter in Iraq, just after we started shocking and awing.
Judging by the trailers and teasers, The War Zone Diary is graphic, personal and raw. It doesn't look to be "fun" viewing. It includes the suffering of our troops and the Iraqi people.
We're a nation at war. We're in a war that's lasted longer than the Korean conflict and both of the previous two World Wars. An hour of "not fun" viewing to better understand this situation is just the first step in what I should do.
If you taped Grey's Anatomy and don't want to know what happened, stop reading immediately.
Otherwise, is anyone else doubtful that one of the hottest shows on TV is going to kill off the lead (and title) character?
Note that I've said doubtful, because Meredith Grey spent most of the hour in the frigid waters of Puget Sound. Then she spent the rest of the show not breathing on her own, with a body temperature of 81 or thereabouts and in the final minute of the show, she flatlined.
Instead of ending the show with a flatlined Meredith, we see Meredith with Denny and the policeman who was blown up in that terrific cliff-hanger last season. When she asks if she's dead, Denny answers "Damn right you are."
Ok so anybody want to weigh in with thoughts on whether or not they've really killed off Meredith? I can't stand the suspense.
Oh, and if they do, will they have to rename the show?
UPDATE: Just spent some time checking other blog posts on this episode. Now I'm convinced that Meredith is dead because everyone seems to think that it's against the rules of TV to kill off a character like Mer......could this be the time for the show to finally break some new ground?
The state of Maine will have 14 dogs participating in the 131st Westminster Kennel Club Dog show (today and tomorrow with live coverage on USA network from 8-11 pm tonight and tomorrow night), including Patrick a black standard poodle from Phippsburg and Higgins, the Welsh Corgi from Dover-Foxcroft, ME.
The kennel club invites the top five dogs in each breed and then fills in the rest of the slots with other dogs who have been named champion.
There's a blog for the show and you can find breed information here.
I've promised Mac that I'll make him a nice peanut butter kong and let him stay up late to watch.
Did anyone else happen to watch Friends of God, the Alexandra Pelosi documentary on HBO last night? (If you didn't, it's re-running all weekend on HBO and is available on demand. I recommend it. I think it's a good attempt to try to understand the more fundamental segment of the Evangelical nation).
So I have just one question for anyone who happened to watch: when Ted Haggard asked his two church members how often they had sex with their wives, and the first guy said "EVERY DAY!" and then the second guy said "Twice a day!" did you think "9th Commandment! You shall not bear false witness"? I sure did.
And then my follow-up question to you is when Ted asked them how often their wives climaxed during sex and they both said 100% of the time, did you think, oh, their wives are liars, too? I sure did.
Based on my upbringing there were one or two surreal deja' vu moments for me--the sex discussion was not one, I assure you, although I can also assure you that the born-again kids in my hometown (me for one) were having just as much sex as their heathen peers (but the Christian kids' pregnancy rate was much higher. Abstinence education does NOT work). And I need to state for the record that my parents NEVER expected their kids to believe in creationism vs. evolution, nor do they believe that dinosaurs walked the earth with Job.
Now I'm not even going to discuss the creepy factor of the conversation given what we now know about Ted.....
UPDATE: I've added the video clip.
Friends of God: a Road Trip with Alexandra Pelosi, January 25th @ 8 pm on HBO.
It will re-air on HBO2 on January 28th.
Yes, Alexandra is Nancy's daughter. You might remember her from her first documentary "Journey's With George", which was an inside look at W's 2000 campaign.
It features Ted Haggard, who according to Pelosi, was instrumental in making this film a valuable documentary (and I write this without any irony, whatsoever). He took her into his family, he introduced her to Jerry Falwell, and showed her Christian subcultures like Christian Wrestling (again, no irony. Not a drop.).
Begin Irony here--Pastor Ted has this little moment in the movie:
“You know all the surveys say that evangelicals have the best sex life of any other group,” Mr. Haggard says slyly to the camera, to which the effusive Ms. Pelosi responds, “No way.”Oh. My. Goodness.
Mr. Haggard then asks a parishioner at his 14,000-member church how often he has sex with his wife. The man says: “Every day. Twice a day.” Pastor Ted then asks, "How many times a day does she climax?"
“I believe in the culture war,” she said. “And you know what? If I have to take a side in the culture war I’ll take their side,” meaning the Christian conservatives. “Because if you give me the choice of Paris Hilton or Jesus, I’ll take Jesus.”She might take Jesus, but more and more I wonder if Jesus would take most of America's current Evangelical Christians (you know, like the ones who singled Ted out as their best and brightest and then conveniently denied that he was even a Christian after his little indiscretion).
