11.29.2006

Boys will be boys

... So it was like 73 degrees this morning when I left for work. It was raining. But it was 73 degrees. On November 29. Crazy.

... Then I get to work, and my cohorts start talking about the warm weather. A couple of people actually pulled out the short sleeves ...

... But my cohort Bill had to ruin all our fun by telling us the temperature was supposed to drop steadily this afternoon and it might be snowing tonight. And suddenly the talk turned to shoveling heavy snow. And starting up snowblowers. And wishing your neighbors would shovel your snow for you and ...

I hate winter.

* * *

... A few of us got a look today at a couple of the entries for our Christmas coloring contest ...

... Liz remembered doing the contest when she was a kid and said she always felt screwed because she'd see the winners and their entries in the paper. And they were never as good as hers. She says she actually glued cotton balls to her coloring for Santa's beard ...

... I remembered entering a coloring contest when I was a kid too. And I remembered how I was so upset and jealous when I found out my brother had won the contest that I started throwing out my coloring supplies and trashing my colorings ... then my parents had to settle me down and tell me that I was just as good as my brother ...

* * *

... I watched "My Boys" over my lunch break ...

Eh.

The new show, which premiered last night and will air on TBS every Tuesday, is about PJ, "a twenty-something sports reporter for the Chicago Sun Times. At first glance, she’s a typical young single woman-- smart, attractive, outgoing, personable. Her boys are her family, which sometimes hinders PJ's dating life, as the men she tries to date don't know how to react to her unconventional interests and the all-important men in her life."

... In the first episode, PJ meets up with the new sportswriter in town, Bobby, and the pair promptly hits it off. But Bobby gets freaked out by PJ's guy-like approach to things ... and later she tries to clear things up with him, in the Cubs locker room, with a bunch of hard-to-interpret analogies suggesting they keep their relationship on the down-low, somehow comparing their relationship to having hamburgers at the Billy Goat Tavern ...

The show is littered with references to Chicago neighborhoods, landmarks and culture, not to mention the Cubs and the Bears. And Jordana Spiro is adorable to watch as PJ. Plus the hilarious Jim Gaffigan plays her brother Andy ...

...But, in last night's two epiosdes at least, the acting isn't spectacular and PJ isn't so believable as a sports writer, much less a tom boy playing poker with a table full of guys. Plus the narration used throughout each episode, a la Carrie Bradshaw, doesn't work; in fact it's annoying ...

... The show comes off as a "Sex In The City" for guys, with PJ and the whole sports angle being the vehicles to keep us watching ...

... And though the show isn't great, I probably will keep watching because 1) There's nothing else I watch on Tuesday nights 2) It's about a sportswriter covering the Cubs for the Sun-Times 3) it's littered with references to Chicago neighborhoods, landmarks and culture 4) Jim Gaffigan's in it and 5) Jordana Spiro is adorable to watch ...

(The Seattle Post-Intelligencer gives it a decent review here ...and TVsquad reviews it here.)

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