Taking “Busted Brackets” to a Whole ‘Nother Level

As a sports fan, March is one of the most exciting and frenetic times of the year!  With March Madness winding down though, I must admit that my brackets were busted LONG before the Final Four Teams were established (although one of my teams is still in the running, and I have them listed to win the whole shebang).  Still, I will venture to guess that the majority of basketball fans are just like me in looking at their brackets and longing for what woulda, coulda and shoulda been.

You see, with the average college basketball fan’s lack of strategy in creating a winning bracket, coupled with those few Cinderella Party Crashers who come out of nowhere and steamroll top-seeded teams, it always seems next to impossible to ever win that coveted office jackpot, right?  But what if I told you that while I am sympathetic to your bracket plight, I think that another potential bracket busting mechanism should be in place come NCAA Tournament time next year?  Please, don’t throw me the side-eye until you’ve heard me out.

There is currently a proposal in the works designed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, to prohibit men’s college basketball teams from engaging in postseason play if they fail to graduate at least 40% of their players.  And just like some of you (I can actually hear your murmurs and complaints), this idea certainly did not go over smoothly with the NCAA and the hundreds of coaches and staff currently in the throws of March Madness, and for obvious reasons.  Think about it if you will; if this proposal were to be accepted this year, nearly a dozen men’s teams would be ineligible to play in the NCAA tournament, including the recently defeated No. 1 seed Kentucky powerhouse that I am sure everyone (me included) had in their bracket line-up to go to the big show, which only graduates 31% of its players.  Other tournament participants that would be barred based on graduation rates if this proposal were enacted this year would’ve included:

Maryland = 8%

California = 20%

Arkansas-Pine Bluff = 29%

Washington = 29%

Tennessee = 30%

Baylor = 36%

Missouri = 36%

New Mexico State = 36%

Clemson = 37%

Georgia Tech = 38%

Louisville =38%

These findings are based on a Diversity and Ethics in Sports study out of the University of Central Florida. 

Of the remaining tournament contenders however, the Duke Blue Devils fair the best, graduating 92% of the men in their basketball program.  And because of their rate, and the majority of men’s programs that are above the proposed minimum graduating rate, Arne Duncan remains optimistic that it is a good standard by which to assess colleges and universities.

“Frankly, that’s a low bar, and not many teams would be ineligible,” Duncan, who played college basketball at Harvard, said. “Over time, we should set a higher bar. But it’s a minimum, a bright line, which every program should meet to vie for postseason honors.”

The minimum rate was not the only focus of Duncan’s concern though.  He was quick to point out the troubling disparities between graduation rates for black and white basketball players who attended these colleges and universities.  The annual Diversity and Ethics in Sports study found that 45 teams graduated 70 percent or more of their white players, but only 20 teams graduated at least 70 percent of their black players. The two teams with the most deplorable graduating rates – Maryland and California, graduated none of their black players who started school from 1999 through 2002 (EPIC FAIL). 

I know that as fans we tend not to focus too heavily on players’ academic accomplishments in comparison to their athletic prowess on the court, but to ignore these staggering numbers is like telling these young men that it is acceptable to be used physically to generate millions of dollars in proceeds for their schools and athletic programs, while allowing their own education to become and remain an afterthought.

Now before I’m accused of aiming all the blame at colleges and the NCAA, let me point out that NCAA spokesman Bob Williams says that the NCAA sports governing body does share Duncan’s concern about low graduation rates of some tournament teams.  Because of this concern, they have for the past six years, used a formula called the Academic Progress Rate that measures factors such as athletes’ academic eligibility, progress toward graduation and staying in school. According to Williams, a school faces sanctions and even scholarship losses if it fails to achieve a certain score for two consecutive years.

Is that truly enough though?  I will be the first to admit that I’ve known more than a few collegiate athletes who probably would not have gotten into school, had they not had some sort of athletic ability and been awarded a scholarship for said talent.  But to commit several years of athletic service to a program, while a school allows an athlete to do the bar minimum (in class) to stay eligible in the first place is simply beyond my comprehension.  No, I am not saying that we should deny a young man who could be an asset to a university’s athletic program the opportunity to attend college simply because he is not academically prepared for secondary education.  What I AM saying however is that there ought to be some reciprocity in the relationship; a little more give and less take. 

Of those scholarship athletes that I knew both before and during college, I can recall in almost all of their cases, the stories of how various coaches had come to visit their homes to sell the glitz, glamour and recognition associated with being a star athlete without once committing to getting any of these guys prepared to walk down the aisles in a cap and gown in four years (And as it stands now, three of them have degrees, and only one has made it into “the league”).

I mean really, If a young man is going to commit several years of eligibility to growing and enhancing a team, there has to be some better preparation in getting him educated with the understanding that a college degree is an invaluable asset to have as he continues his life, be it as a potential NBA prospect later in life, or outside of the realm of sports altogether.

 Now don’t get me wrong, I am not naïve enough to believe that the NCAA or colleges and universities around this country could ever strongly encourage all of their athletes to not only graduate from college, but to spend their entire four (or more) years careers there in the first place.  Especially not when they have the John Wall’s of the world playing for them with talent in spades, and so many people buzzing about how easily entering the draft after freshman year would be, thereby making them overnight NBA sensations.  What I do believe however, is that a 40% graduation rate is not too much to ask of schools that use these young men to enhance their own enrollment, recruitment and overall collegiate illustriousness.

Like I said before, I am all about this proposal coming to fruition, although the likelihood that it actually would is slim.  By law, the federal government cannot mandate a minimum graduation rate of collegiate athletes.  That remains a decision of the NCAA; a decision that I am sure will remain as is. Personally however, I think that it is high time that athletes are encouraged to be more than simply bigger, stronger and faster.  We need to strive for these kids to be astute, cultured and scholarly as well.   That is truly how one creates a well rounded student-athlete. 

But hey, I suppose until we find more coaches who care as much about winning on the court as off (obliterating side-eye to the Terrapins coaching staff) or until the parents/potential recruits learn to leverage their skills and talents to truly benefit themselves both athletically and academically, you all won’t have to worry about the graduation factor jacking-up your brackets any time soon!

The Thirty & UP Crowd

I’ve chosen to dedicate today’s blog post to my friend Dee. She gets this acknowledgment, not because of her big sister-friend advice and tell-it-like-it-is insight (though she has all that at the ready for my consumption whenever I need it), but instead because she refuses to acknowledge the fact that I’ve chosen to maintain my “twenties” status for the rest of my life.

For reasons unbeknownst to me, Dee refuses to accept that I refuse to accept (stay with me here) being thirty-something. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being older. I look forward to aging gracefully and living to a ripe old (mature) age, I just intend to remain in my twenties while I do it. Impossible, you say? Well, I beg to differ. Case and point, as of yesterday, I turned “twenty-ten” years old; ten years from now, I’ll be twenty-twenty. When my kids put me in a “home”, I’ll be twenty-seventy…see how that works? 

To my way of thinking, this is a completely logical age progression strategy. To Dee, not so much. She believes that I’m SO delusional that she felt it only proper to remind me of the subtle differences between the over thirty crowd in comparison to this young microwave generation that we see before us today.

Check out the email that she sent me this morning:
 
If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!       

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning…Uphill…Barefoot…BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yadda! And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was NO WAY I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they’ve got it!       

But now that I am over the ripe old age of thirty, I can’t help but to look around and notice the youth of today: You’ve got it so easy!  I      mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a dang Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don’t know how good you’ve got it!       

I mean, when I was a kid we didn’t have the Internet.  If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves; in the card catalog!! There was no email!!  We had to actually write somebody a freaking letter – with a pen! Then we had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Plus, stamps were 10 cents!       

Oh, and Child Protective Services didn’t care if our parents beat us.  As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to whoop my tail! Nowhere was safe! 

Also, there were no MP3’s or Napsters or iTunes!  If we wanted to steal music, we had to hitch hike to the record store and shoplift it! Or we had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and even then, the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and jack it all up! There were no CD players!  We had tape decks in our car.  We’d play our favorite tape and “eject” it when finished, and then the tape would come undone, rendering it useless.  Cause, hey, that’s how we rolled, baby!  Dig?       

We didn’t have fancy crap like Call Waiting!  If we were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that’s it!  There weren’t any freakin’ cell phones either. If we left the house, we just didn’t make a darn call or receive one. We actually had to be out of touch with our “friends”. OH MY GOD !!!  Think of the horror…not being in touch with someone 24/7!!!  And then there’s TEXTING. Yeah right. Please!  You kids have no idea how annoying you are. And we didn’t have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, we had no idea who it was!  It could be our school, our parents, our boss, our bookie, the collection agent… We just didn’t know!!! We had to pick it up and take our chances, mister!       

Hmm, what else? Oh, we didn’t have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Asteroids’.  The screen guy wasn’t even a “guy” but a little square!  We actually had to use our imagination!!!  And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen… Forever! And we could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until we died; Just like LIFE!     

For scheduling, we had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! We were screwed when it came to channel surfing! We had to get off your tails and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!!  NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what’s the world coming to?!?!     

There was no Cartoon Network either! We could only get cartoons  on Saturday Morning.  Do you hear what I’m saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks! And we didn’t have microwaves.  If we wanted to heat something  up, we had to use the stove!  Imagine that! 

AND our parents told us to stay outside and play… All. Day. Long. Oh no, no electronics to soothe and comfort.  And if we came back inside…we were doing chores! And car seats – oh, please!   Mom threw us in the back seat and we hung on for dear life.  If we were lucky, we got the “safety arm” across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if our head hit the dashboard, well that was just our fault for calling “shot gun” in the first place!

See!  That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You’re spoiled rotten!  You guys wouldn’t have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!     

Regards,       
Dee, of The Over 30 Crowd

Yeah yeah, I’ll admit it; all of that WAS true! Clearly, this is Dee’s subtle way of telling me to embrace thirty, short of hitting me in the face with a piece of my birthday cake, huh?

Okay Dee, I get it: “I am thirty, hear me roar!”

Happy Born-Day To Me!

On this date, some three decades ago on the tropical island of Oahu, yours truly sprang forth full of life, exuberance and two lungs full of hot air.  Not a lot has changed since those many years ago, huh?

 My outspoken bravado notwithstanding, please excuse me for the remainder of this day, while I forgo the customary Fanny Pack blog post to instead celebrate another wonderful year of being blessed with life, family, friends and OF COURSE the gift of wordsmithery (yes, that’s right…and no, don’t bother looking it up, it’s got my trademark).

So, in honor of this special day, let’s all take a commemorative picture walk through a few of my “life and times” moments.  The way I see it, today marks another fabulous year, another fabulous outlook on life.  I’m alive and well when many people weren’t granted the opportunity to continue this walk.  The fragility of life has never been lost on me, and being given another day to try to “get it right” keeps me humbled and grateful.

With this in mind, I will always celebrate my special day with all the extra-ness I can muster…and what could possibly be more EXTRA than a Yo Gabba Gabba birthday serenade from the Ting Tings (you can thank my two-year old for my addiction to this show)?

*Woooo Hooo*  Happy Born-Day To Me! *Throws Confetti*

~Tiff

            

Newest Member to The League of Extraordinary Superwomen

In a world; where Speakers of The House are disrespected, rouge Governors willfully play as pawns on a gender-biased chess board and Secretaries of State forgo La Perla and instead don Hanes shorties to “play ball” with the big boys, there is a protagonist who hears the call for representation, and answers in earnest.  Move over Hillary and Sarah, “Female Force” has a new heroine.

Oftentimes when we think of a politically reforming “Champion of Common Sense” leader-of-the-free-world, we envision at his side a strong, well spoken woman with presence, poise and an unabashed sense of diva-like style.  Enter Michelle Obama.

It’s been a year since the First Lady was introduced to the world as a feature character in the “Female Force” comic series, created by Bluewater Comics.  And while Lady O may not have had a Lasso of Truth or bullet proof bracelets in her comic book debut, she did have the type of staying power to warrant an encore.  In the sequel entitled “Female Forces: Michelle Obama, YEAR ONE”, our super woman’s story is brought up to date.  The second installment starts off with the inauguration of her husband last January and chronicles her transition into the White House .

Of Obama and her super heroine likeness, Darren Davis, President of Bluewater Comics had this to say:

“Even before the first issue on Michelle Obama, we realized we were following a dynamic, continuing portrait of history. I foresee several more chapters as she creates her own agenda and makes her own mark as a “female force.”

In the first edition, Mrs. Obama’s background and life’s story was  showcased, beginning with her childhood in Chicago’s South side, her years at Princeton, and then her husband’s election to the presidency. 

For those ardent comic readers and collectors who are looking to learn more about Michelle O. or who simply seek to own a commemorative item detailing one of the most interesting and unique First Ladies in this country’s history, book two certainly won’t disappoint.  Readers will explore her first year in the White House: her travels around the world, including her pitch for Chicago’s 2016 Summer Olympics bid and her (highly publicized) visit with the Queen of England.  The publication even highlights her new initiative to end childhood obesity.  All this, and she manages to seamlessly maintain her home-life with her beau, their young daughters and her “Bo”.  Clearly this is yet another shining example of a woman who CAN do it all. 

And Bluewater Comics certainly seems to think so.  Their reps say that the first issue of Mrs. Obama’s comic sold out a week before it even hit stores last year.  With her style, finesse and ever-increasing popularity, there is no doubt that Bluewater can expect a repeat of those super sales figures. 

Talk About GIRL POWER!

He WOOD Come Back!

I am not as angry as I was on Tuesday, but I am still vexed enough that I could spit fire right now!!

A few months ago, when it was reported that Tiger Woods would be taking a self-imposed hiatus from golf, my honey and I were at odds regarding the amount of time that Tiger would be away, and if he was truly looking to reconcile with his wife at all costs, or if he was simply bowing-out temporarily as a way to get the media off his back until he found the right time to resurrect his career.

Now, optimisstic Tiff was of the belief that El Tigre had seen the light and would truly be staying away from golf to spend valuable time making amends to Elin, Charlie and Max, but my honey was for certain that his disappearing act would hold just long enough to get the PGA salivating and would strategically end with his re-emergence at The Masters. We were so at odds over Tiger Watch 2010, that we decided to make a wager; a wager that ultimately cost me a valuable third of a tank of gas (a crisp $20 bill, hence my fire-spitting).

By the resumed media circus and anticipated tournament ticket sales for the great date at Augusta, it would seem that there are lots of folks who, while not necessarily “excited” about the return of Tiger Woods, seem to at least be anxiously awaiting his return.

“After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I’m ready to start my season at Augusta. The major championships have always been a special focus in my career and, as a professional, I think Augusta is where I need to be, even though it’s been a while since I last played,” Woods expressed in a statement on Tuesday.

But for as many people who are looking forward to Woods’ return, there are those who don’t necessarily wish the world’s #1 Golfer well.

“I hope they boo him off the course,” golf enthusiast Alice Kohn of Miami proclaimed when asked by the local media about Woods’ return. “He should be booed for the same amount of time he spent cheating on his wife. I used to love Tiger but now I can’t stand him. I still love golf. I still watch it on TV. But I won’t be happy to see Tiger on the golf course. Not anymore.”

It seems that for every “anxious” person, there are just as many people who have the same sentiments as Alice when it comes to the way that Tiger’s infidelity impacted his career. Lots of folks would rather vilify and disavow any knowledge of him rather than embrace the notion of forgiving and forgetting.

For me, I am admittedly pretty hot under the collar that Tiger lost me some precious petro, but I don’t wish him any ill will. I realize that an idle man who doesn’t work, doesn’t eat, so if he is ready to get back to work, then by all means, he should. What I am NOT however, is sorry for the man. I think that everything that he is going through right now is a manifestation of his arrogant, flippant and blissfully ignorant behavior, and he deserves every minute of it. With that said (and with $20 down the drain), I WILL likely be contributing to the Neilsen ratings spike in April that is projected to make the Masters one of the most-watched sporting events in recent history though.

I guess we will have to see whether Tiger returns as a bold jungle cat or an aloof athlete come tourney time. And if it just so happens that he DOES get booed and pelted with prophylactics, I’ll be the first to admit it, I will chuckle giddily and ask my hubby to pass the popcorn!

Flash Forward

 

I had every intention of lambasting Kitty Cat Woods for the briefest exile known to man, but he can kindly thank ABC for thoroughly distracting me with their Tuesday Night Primetime Line-up (oh, but don’t worry Kitty Kitty, I have a draft simmering on the pot just for you tomorrow)!

Anyway, after deciding to be fully indoctrinated tonight into the phenomenon that is LOST (that I first glimpsed in passing a few weeks ago and have since totally driven my hubby bonkers, as I keep asking questions at pivotal points during the show to try to make sense of the series without actually having to watch the previous seasons), I also stumbled upon a show called Flash Forward afterward.

Initially when the show was slated to premiere last year, I thought it would be pretty interesting, but I found that between a full-time job, my OTHER full time job (where they affectionately call me mommy) and my host of activities and committments, Flash Forward simply did not make it on my list of things most important (or things that would pay the bills for that matter). Besides, while the idea of losing conciousness and seeing my life six-months into the future would seem like a wickedly novel idea, I’ve always been of the mind to accept each day as it comes and to try to live with the least amount of drama and anxiety as possible.

But those Sci-Fi writing geniuses ruined me this here night. Having compiled the entire first season of Flash Forward into an hour-long recap, not only am I caught-up with the season in 8 less weeks than it took my husband, but I am now an ashamed addict that cannot wait until Thursday night’s two hour premiere episode!

I really don’t know how to feel about this newfound tv show excitement, because aside from Celebrity Fit Club or Let’s Talk About Pep (when I just feel like slumming it) I am not a big television watcher. I guess I will just have to accept this weakness and move forward since I have every intention of being glued to the boob tube two nights from now.

But don’t fret you Pack faithful; by the time Thursday rolls around, I will have fully penned and executed my tirade on Tiger, permanently retired him as a topic in The Pack and have moved on to perhaps critically analyzing that poor unfortunate fool in South Korea who married his pillow.

Yep, by then things should be back to normal.

On to the Next: 3-D Television

It seems that movies like Ice Age 3, My Bloody Valentine and of course the box office leviathan Avatar has gotten people eager about the prospect of bringing three-dimensional images home.  Manufacturers like Mitsubishi, JVC, Panasonic and Sony have apparently seen the writing on the wall and are all currently working to release home 3-D television entertainment systems before the end of this year.

 Now while I know that the progression of the television set as we know it has resulted in the development of this entertainment hybrid, I cannot help but wonder if such an innovative brainchild is an imprudent and unwise creation.  Why, you ask?  Instead of one reason, why not five?

1. As recently as 20 years ago, the United States Ranked #1 amongst industrialized nations for the largest gains in student achievement and high school graduations.  This number has recently dwindled to #7 in the world (behind countries like Finland, Korea, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada and Belgium).  For as much as the United States spends on education, this achievement ranking would suggest that our national school systems are somewhat inefficient.  Add to this daunting news that the U.S. also ranked 6th in the world for weekly hours spent watching television (19.0), and you will understand why I am concerned about yet another media-stimulant for our kids to get all giddy over.

2. Another fancy little statistic to think about is our beloved country’s #1 ranking in both the most overweight (39%) and obese (30.6%) population aged 15 or older in the world.  Do you think that going outdoors to play or going to the gym to work out sounds more enticing to this nation of biggums than vegging out in front of a shiny and new 3-D television would?

3. In case anyone forgot, we are still very much in the throws of an ugly little recession.  There is no way in the world that this first generation 3-D entertainment system is going to be affordable enough that I won’t have to part with an arm, a leg and the relinquishing of my first born.

4. 3-D Glasses Look Dumb. Always have, always will.

5. The last, and I believe one of the most important reasons why I am adverse to this new system is that I don’t need the likes of NeNe Leakes with her “eyes poppin, lips bussin” or Dwight Eubanks bouncing around in his man-onsie assaulting my eyes in the third dimension! 

Even though I jest here, and am not naïve in believing that the above figures are a sole result of television watching, I do feel that many Americans have poor life habits (with respect to the above stats) that are only exacerbated by television watching.  I mean really, what ever happened to reading a book?  I guess some folks would much rather forgo intellect and instead move “on to the next” big thing.

 

Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Oscar

Just because I don’t watch the Academy Awards anymore, doesn’t mean that I don’t follow and later view (via the wonderful invention-slash-downfall-of-mankind known to all as the internet) the interesting acceptance speeches and quirky, unscripted happenings that are guaranteed to be shocking but entertaining each and every year without fail.

 Such was the case with Sunday’s live broadcast during the announcement of the award for Best Documentary Short.  For those who aren’t familiar with the story, filmmakers Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett won the honor for their work on the fantastically moving film “Music By Prudence.”  Due to The Academy’s strict “single speaker” acceptance speech rule however, only one of them was actually allowed to recite their perfunctory thank you’s and other “enlightened” oratory.

 When I initially saw the footage of Roger Ross Williams jogging to the stage to accept the Oscar, my first inclination was that his excitement was the cause of his unorthodox trot down the aisle versus a winner’s customary acceptance stroll or saunter to the stage that we’ve all witnessed in the days of old.  His soft spoken “oh my god” further solidified in my mind that he was functioning on shock and exhilaration, and that was reason enough for him to have the opportunity to share his 2-minute spiel with the world.  Unfortunately, those 2-minutes amounted to about a 35-second acceptance speech synopsis when his colleague Elinor forwent graciousness and civility and stormed the stage to issue her own rambling appreciation list.

 To the average onlooker, this exchange was jarringly similar to Kanye West’s speech-commandeering of Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards, except that there wasn’t shock and embarrassment that lay beneath the faux smiles on the faces of these two producers, but instead a nasty little impasse between them that went deeper than a simple speech.  Apparently, they’ve disputed about the direction of the film for more than a year; so viciously that a lawsuit was filed (but later settled amicably between the two). 

So if you think about it, uncouthness notwithstanding, Elinor Burkett had just as much right to be on the stage as Williams did, (*Aha moment*) and his excited sprint was not the mad dash of a anxious winner, but actually a foot race between he and Elinor to reach the stage first.  For Shame!

 Now, as ridiculous as I find these two for not coming to some sort of compromise BEFORE the Academy Awards and instead diminishing the compelling win for themselves, for the world and for their inspiration, a disabled Zimbabwean singer named Prudence (who witnessed this buffoonery from the audience), I feel like they both knew their chance for an acceptance speech was “up in the air,” and therefore should have planned out the events leading up to that moment a little more precisely: 

1. I realize that a full-on Sprint in a tux (or muumuu-esque purple get-up) would have seemed strange…but then again so was their speech duet, so surely one of these glory hogs should have at least tried a little harder to move expeditiously to the stage.

2. I am not suggesting that either of these producers should have tried to harm the other, but a strategic “chair push” would have served as a reasonable obstacle in impeding the progress of the other to the stage.

3. Once on stage, the speech should have been short and sweet (think Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam closing, “God Bless and Good Night”).  From the podium, Williams had to have seen Burkett coming. He should have used those 35 seconds more judiciously.

What I find completely laughable about all of this though, is that the Academy Awards debacle has made media darlings of them both; one even scoring an interview with Larry King.  On Tuesday’s “Larry King Live”, the Suspendered-One gave Roger Ross Williams the opportunity to deliver his acceptance speech uninterrupted to his millions of viewers.  Knowing that he’d be delivering the very same speech from only two nights before, and without the anxiety of another ambush, you’d have thought that Williams’ additional spotlight would have been stimulating and provocative.  Instead it was wrought with nervous stammers, long-winded accolades and yet another interruption, this time from Larry and his producers as the segment was running out of time.  And as much as I want to be sympathetic to Williams, I just can’t.  He was given a 2nd opportunity to make his words twinkle like Ursa Major, but he instead fizzled out under the pressure.

 Having watched that painful occurrence (with mouth agape for the entire speech), it left me thinking that just maybe Elinor Burkett was the better choice for acceptance speech maker.  I mean, they couldn’t shut her up at the actual awards show, so it’s pretty likely that she’d have gotten her entire 15-minutes of fame in with Larry, and probably some of the sponsor’s time too! 

 And while it’s true that I’ve found much of this fiasco humorous, I think that it’s a shame that much of the attention has been taken away from the actual concept and subject matter behind the film itself.  I truly hope the distractions will right themselves and eventually lead people to discover the gripping story that originated in Zimbabwe, not in the production studios of two entitled filmmakers.

You Probably Think This Post Is About You Too, Huh Lindsay? Well It Is!

I think that this foreign but tingley feeling that has overcome me this evening is sympathy for the actress formerly known as Lindsay Lohan. Long gone are the wholesome days of “The Parent Trap” twins and the cute but impressionable not so “Mean Girl” Cady Heron.

Instead, left behind is a self-destructive and self-absorbed young woman who thinks that it’s all about her. Whether she is strung out, checking-in or walking out of rehab, roaming the streets as a publicly drunk hot mess or tearing up her luxury vehicles with the aid of a curb, Lindsay seems to relish the fact that so long as people are talking about her, she is somehow still relevant.

This apparently was her thought process yesterday when she had her attorney file a $100 Million lawsuit on her behalf against E-Trade for “infringing upon her civil rights.” Now jog your minds if you will, back to Super Bowl Sunday, to that witty little E-Trade commercial where the ever savings-savvy toddler had his girlfriend on video chat and apologized to her for not calling. When she accused him of having set up a “play date” with “milkaholic Lindsay,” the accused, non-to-discretely popped into the picture and whined, “milk-a-what?!”

Well, in all of her narcissistic obtuseness, Li-Lo seems to think that the milkaholic in question was named Lindsay in the commercial as a way in which to parody her life. Her attorney was quoted as saying that “Lindsay deserved the same single name recognition as Oprah or Madonna, and that her name was used for commercial benefit and she was not compensated fairly for that.”

Um, Lindsay dear, I’m sorry to break this to you boo, but 1) E-Trade (and about 92 percent of the population) is not thinking about you or your civil rights and 2) as apple-pie-American as your name sounds, it is not unique or solo-moniker worthy. There are about 265 million Lindsays globally (give or take a few) and while I am sure they all cringed upon seeing their name associated with a lactose-influenced toddling boyfriend stealer, none of them thought so much of themselves as to believe that the use of their name would warrant a multi-million dollar payday.

Coincidence or not though, if Lindsay didn’t spend so much time getting tore up, down and sideways all the time, then she wouldn’t be worried that someone was (or wasn’t) poking fun at her more-times-than-not inebriated behind.

It is for that reason that I am REALLY going to need Lindsay Lohan, anyone who told her that this commercial was loosely based on her life and her attorney who suggested that this lawsuit was a good idea, to SIT IT ALL THE WAY DOWN, and don’t get up until either Lindsay is sober or she goes back to “work” and stars in a critically acclaimed, bankable movie!!!

The “Colorful” Side of the 82nd Academy Awards

Technology is a beautiful thing! Thanks to all my “live-tweeting” cyber friends, I don’t have to wait for tomorrow’s USA Today to discover the results of the Academy Awards!

Like I said yesterday, I did not engage Oscar this evening, but a little “twitter bird” told me that congratulations are in order for the writers of the film Precious, which won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay and for Mo’Nique, who won the award for Best Supporting Actress! I strongly believe that these wins will give credence not only to lesser known filmmakers, but will also open up Hollywood’s eyes as to what is considered truly relevant in the movie industry.

But what about you? Are you surprised by this outcome? Excited? Satisfied? Disappointed?

If nothing else, take a good long look at Mo’Nique (above) and tell me with a straight face that you don’t buy her as Precious’ meaner-than-the-devil, abusive mother.

Exactly. And THAT’S why she won.

So, again I say congratulations Mo’Nique and the Cast and Crew of Precious (based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire).