So Anyways

The Greatest American?

I forced Ed to watch the Discovery Channel series, The Greatest American, over the last few weeks. They started out with a list of the 100 greatest Americans, then viewers narrowed that list down to the top 25, then the top 5, and finally to the single greatest American.

If you didn't see the show, you didn't miss much. It was way cheesy - especially for a show on the Discovery Channel hosted by Matt Lauer.

But, as cheesy as it was, it was kind of fun to see the list of great Americans, put them in order in your own mind, and see how your list compared to the list as chosen by the viewers. I had a feeling mine would definitely not agree with the viewers' list, and boy, was I right.

The top 5 greatest Americans according to the viewers:

#5 - Benjamin Franklin
#4 - George Washington
#3 - Martin Luther King
#2 - Abraham Lincoln

and...

Are you ready for this?

The #1 greatest American in the history of the country was...

Ronald Reagan!

Excuse me, but...huh? My feelings for Reagan softened a lot after his death. I no longer despise the guy. In fact, I think he accomplished a few good things (although I stop short of agreeing with Ann Coulter, who proclaimed in one of the GA shows that "Iran-Contra" was the greatest accomplishment of Reagan's presidency...").

He was at most an "OK" president. Maybe even a "good" president, if you're from Jesusland. But to call him not only the greatest president, but the greatest person in the history of the country? Give me a break.

Even among just presidents, there's no way Ronnie would qualify as one of the 5 greatest. He didn't win the Revolutionary War against incredible odds; he didn't preserve the union and abolish slavery during the worst conflict in American history; he didn't guide the country through a Great Depression or a World War; he wasn't one of the Founding Fathers who crafted the form of government and stood up to foreign powers in the name of independence and freedom. Sure, you can credit him for helping to end the Cold War, but really, in comparison to the hell those other great presidents lived (and guided the country) through, Reagan's greatness is really not all that "great."

Oh, and don't get me started on the whole "Oprah Winfrey is the 9th greatest American, just ahead of FDR" thing...

Bitter as Folk

Is it just me, or is Mel on Queer as Folk just a complete, raving lunatic this season? (Or, am I even the only person still even watching the show?)

It's almost gotten to the point where I laugh anytime she's in a scene. I mean, just how pissy can one person be and for how long?

I suppose she has a right to be grumpy since her lovah' bedded a man sometime last season (seems like eons ago to me), but come on. It's not like she was sleeping around with every lesbian in Philadelphia. She got the urge for a little man action, and she let her urges get the better of her. Big deal. Get over it and move on.

Even if she's justified in holding a mondo grudge over Lindsay's one-time weakness, would any sane person really break up a home and a family over it?  Maybe I'd react the same way if the issue ever came up, but I can't imagine I'd hold a power grudge like Mel has. (Note to Ed: don't test me!) :)

I don't think she's said a friendly word to anyone all season. Every. Single. Thing. Out. Of. Her. Mouth. is vile and bitter and hate-filled. It's just laughable at this point.

Not that I watch QAF for anything other than a good dose of naked Brian and Justin, but still. It'd be nice if it had even a hint of realism.

This Week's TV

It's late on Friday and I have to post something, but I can't think of much to talk about. So, as if anyone cares, here's my list of what we watched on TV this week:

• The Gayest Thing I Watched: Rob and Amber Get Married - I just love Rob and Amber, from Survivor and Amazing Race fame. Rob is kind of hot for a straight guy even though he's managed to put on a few pounds since his Survivor days. I think it's his smartass attitude that I really like, and he and Amber seem to really be a good couple. Since they're some of my all-time favorite Reality TV stars, I thought we should watch their wedding on TV. But as I was sitting there watching it, I quickly came to the conclusion that this has got to be proof, in case anyone needed it, that I'm a big ol' queen. What straight guy would spend 2 hours watching a wedding on TV?
• The Worst, But Most Fun, Reality Show I Watched: Hit Me Baby One More Time - This show was just plain awful. It was obviously meant to be cheesy in a big way, with old washed-up acts "competing" against each other by singing their biggest hit and a cover of a current song. Loverboy, A Flock of Seagulls, CeCe Penniston, Tiffany, and Arrested Development performed last night and pretty much proved the theory that no matter how hot you might be when you're young, you just get fat and bald and lose any ability to sing when you get old. It was so bad, it was fun.
• The Best Season Finale I Watched: Lost - We finally caught the season finale this week, thanks to TiVo. While it may not have quite lived up to its billing as the most stunning cliffhanger ever in the history of television, I thought it was a very well-done show and I'm sure I'll tune in for the first episode next season to find out what The Others did with Walt, what exactly was in the hatch, and whether Hurley will ever quit using the word "dude".
• The Most Fascinating Show I Watched: Larry King Live with Woodward and Bernstein - I could watch these guys talking about Watergate and Deep Throat for hours and not get bored. It's such a fascinating subject - how a president attempted to protect himself with nearly complete disregard for the law - that even 30 years after it occurred, I get all excited anytime the subject comes up.

Have a great weekend!

Introducing the Next President of the United States...

I think I just read a spoiler. And i'm not sure how I feel about it.

It probably comes as no surprise to anyone who's ever read this blog that The West Wing is one of my favorite TV shows. I like it for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being that President Bartlet is a Clinton-esque Democrat without the sexual addiction. All of the other main characters have won their way into my heart over the years as well, particularly the current Chief of Staff, CJ Cregg (played by Allison Janney). She's pretty much a rock star in my world.

As much as I like the show, I've wavered a bit over the course of the current "season of change." It's election year, and a lot of the show's attention has been focused away from the White House and more toward the Democratic (and to a lesser extent, Republican) primaries. This is all in an effort to transition the show to a new life with a new administration (this is year eight after all, and it just would be so, like, unconstitutional for President Bartlet to serve another year or two). In the early part of the season, entire episodes would go by with nary a glimpse of anything actually happening in the White House. Instead, all of the attention was focused on the candidates in New Hampshire or Iowa or California.

At that point, I had my doubts that the show would survive. Even though it had already been committed for next season, it seemed like it was losing focus and losing my attention quickly. (And if it was losing my attention, there's little hope that normal people would keep watching.) I stuck with it, though, weathered the primaries, and am back to thinking it just might survive.

At this point, we already know that the Republican nominee is Senator Arnold Vinick (played by Alan Alda) and we're pretty sure the Democratic nominee will be Congressman Matt Santos (played by Jimmy Smits). Supposedly, one of these two will win the election and will replace Martin Sheen as the next president. Next season will be focused on the general election, with the new president being inaugurated next January.

I actually find myself watching and trying to decide which one would be the better president. I know it's just a TV show, but I admit I can't watch it without thinking that even though he's a Republican, Alan Alda would make a decent president because we all know Hawkeye Pearce was a good guy and it's just hard to be against Alan/Hawkeye. Then again, I find myself thinking that Matt Santos would be better because he's a Democrat, after all. Either way, the suspense has had me going and I can hardly wait to find out who wins.

And then, I read the spoiler. Apparently one of the two (Alda/Smits) has signed a deal to star in a new show, which essentially eliminates him from the running for the White House. Even though the article had a spoiler warning, I read it anway to find out who the lucky winner is going to me. So now I know the outcome - like 10 months early.

I hate when I do that.

Lost in Lust

I've been thinking it all season, but I haven't said anything about it until now. Lost's Ian Somerhalder is a fine specimen. If I ever am stranded on a tropical island, I want him there with me.

The fact that we learned last night that he's a bit of a perv, lusting after his own (step-) sister doesn't really change my feelings for him. In fact, it's kinda good to know that he's willing to be a little unconventional.

Yeah, I know it's just a TV show, and he's probably straight as an arrow in real life, but a boy can dream, can't he?

I'm a Genius!

I just took the "What's your TV IQ?" quiz on MSN and scored 9 out of 10 - good enough for a "It's time you turn your TV off" comment. Check it out.

I missed #4.

You Lost Me

Warning: Possible "Lost" spoilers below:

I hate to admit it when I don't get an episode of any of the shows I watch, especially one of the shows that has been consistently good. But, I have to admit, I just didn't get last night's episode of Lost. Maybe I was just distracted or not in the right frame of mind, but this episode didn't seem to live up to the high level of plausibility that it normally does - at least they make it seem plausible most of the time, even though I still have a hard time buying the whole "man-eating polar bear" story line.

What didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me last night was Kate's fascination/determination to recover the contents of the brief case she and Sawyer found under the waterfall. After building up the suspense through the entire episode about what was really locked up in that case, we find out it was a toy airplane! Woo hoo! Like...OK, it apparently belonged to your dead boyfriend, but still...why go to all that trouble for a toy airplane?

I could accept that she wanted to have something of sentimental value (if there can be anything sentimental about killing your boyfriend), but that doesn't really explain why she went to all of the trouble of setting up a bank heist with some apparently new loverboy just so she could get her hands on the key to the lock box that contained the airplane.

And, is it really all that smart to take time for a quickie in the back room with loverboy/bankrobber while the heist is underway? If it were me trying to rob a bank of a toy airplane, I'd try to get the business done as quickly as possible and save playtime for later. And I certainly wouldn't kill several people in the process.

I know there are lots of good story lines out there that they can follow - I just hope they let the toy airplane wash out to sea.

Hera Today, Gus Tomorrow

It was truly sad to see my favorite team eliminated from The Amazing Race last night. The father and daughter team, Gus and Hera, were by far the most "real" of the teams this season, with the possible exception of "Team AARP", Don and Mary Jean.

G&H are certainly not flashy, nor are they models or specimens of athletic excellence. They were, though, pretty entertaining. Their running around in the Berlin beer garden, asking the customers if they had seen pictures of black people, was one of my favorite TAR episodes ever. Gus couldn't resist taking a few extra chugs of beer (and judging from his rotund belly, he loves his beer!), and Hera couldn't resist being embarrassed by her dad. And who could help but be at least a little moved by Gus' strong reaction at the "Door of No Return" in Africa, where slaves were loaded on ships for their journey to the new world?

But, alas, TAR doesn't seem to reward the "real" people very often. It seems that you have to be fairly athletic, competitive almost to a fault, and ruthless to have a chance. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed, though, that "Team Psycho", Jonathan and Victoria, will be the next to be eliminated. Not that I have anything against Victoria, but the guy she's married to just has got to be the worst reality "character" I've seen. Watching him slap his wife around when they were beat to the finish line was bad enough, but it got even worse last night when Jonathan kept accusing Victoria of being a "drama queen" as she was violently vomiting spicy soup one spoonful at a time. I know Jonathan is now claiming his behavior was amped up for the cameras and that he's a victim of unfair editing, but I think it's pretty clear, he's one of the biggest jerks ever on reality TV.

Now, we just have to keep Aaron and Hayden in the race. Hayden is more annoying than chalk scraping across a chalkboard, but Aaron is just too cute. They need to stay around so I have something to look at.

Last Letters Home

Against my better judgment, being that Sunday nights are always depressing enough without any outside influences (especially the last night of a 2-week vacation), we finally watched HBO's Last Letters Home last night.

In case you've never heard of it, this is a documentary that features several families of soldiers who died in Iraq reading the last letters they received from their fallen family members. I knew going into it that it would be tough to watch, but I thought it would be worth it.

Tough to watch is the understatement of the year - we both were complete blathering idiots by the time it was over with tears everywhere - but it was well worth the difficulty. I suspect everyone, especially me, tends to forget sometimes that those casualty numbers we hear actually represent real people with families and hopes and dreams. When we see their names scrolling across the screen, or hear of their deaths, I think it's easy to forget just how much pain their deaths have caused someone somewhere and what a void has been left as a result of their passing.

This film makes it abundantly clear just how big a loss each one of those deaths really represents. The letters the families read were incredibly moving - some poignant and very personal, others short and to the point, but with an overriding sense of foreboding that made it clear just how terrifying the war is for soldiers. They each seemed to know that they would likely not make it back home alive, and they said the kinds of things to their family members that people normally don't say but which are incredibly important to say.

The families also talked about how they learned of the soldiers' deaths and how their lives have changed since. Each story was completely heart wrenching.

I found myself thinking that every American ought to watch this film. No matter whether you support the war or not, it's important to keep in mind just how huge the price is when people start dying in the course of the war. 1,300+ lives lost in Iraq may not sound like much when compared to Vietnam or World War II, but when taken down to a personal level, the loss is incredible.