If you think Kansas is the flattest U.S. state, you’re plain wrong

From a proud Kansan ...

Congratulations, Florida, you are officially the flattest state in America.

And Illinois, as we long suspected, really is a state of flatlanders.

Now we know.

Letterman v. Blagojevich

You bet I watch Rod Blagojevich on Letterman last night. Typically I let the DVR do the work and I catch the show later, but last night was worth every bit of it live …

I chuckled just at the site of Blago appearing on the stage. And I chuckled even more when the band played “My Way” as Blago took his seat …

Of course, the former Gov. wasted no time going into his I-did-nothing-wrong schpeal and arguing his case -- all stuff we’ve heard coming out of his mouth for weeks.

But the real fun was seeing Letterman peck and poke at him: “The more you hear a guy say, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong,’ and the more you hear a guy say, ‘I didn’t have a chance to defend myself,’ the more you begin to think, ‘Eh…something wrong here.’ ”

Pretty much.

Watch it all here / Read a review and the transcript here.

Ding Dong, Blago's Gone

So Rod Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois, was impeached today …

There was an interesting vibe in our office this afternoon as the proceedings played out on the television … No one cared. We’d watched enough of the insanity the last couple weeks. And I’m thinking we were about as unanimous as the Illinois Senate in that we thought he was done.

I could hardly bare watching more than a few seconds of his media blitz blabberings earlier this week …

Yet after I arrived home tonight, I couldn’t get to the TV fast enough to watch his reaction to today’s vote. We stood in front of the TV, mouths agape, watching the live coverage of him blabbering again to news cameras about all the things he accomplished as governor. The more it continued, the more I couldn’t keep from laughing at his foolishness. As one TV newsman noted, he was giving the same campaign speech over and over …

Laughing stock of the country. Though I'm really going to miss every anchor person outside of Chicago mis-pronouncing his name ...It's not that hard people!

And to think I supported his election when I was an Illinoisan in 2002.

Sunday reading

A collection of reads that caught my attention during the last week or two ...

Have fun.

Sports ...
a Taking another look at instant replay
a Baseball salaries should outrage, but don’t
a Unconventional wisdom: How to improve Hall of Fame voting
a Baseball Hall of Fame Needs to Change 5 Percent Rule ... I think I agree more with this philosophy then the one floated in the story above.
a It's the offseason of hope
a From the Phillie Phanatic, a Family of Mascots
a Chris Ballard reads athletes blogs
a Watching Favre From Baghdad Evokes Memories

Music ...
a Carly Smithson's post-'Idol' blues
a Hootie And a Hollerin':Rucker Finds Unlikely Success In Country Music

TV ...
a Role is a Joy for Jaime Pressly
a Denny Ghost Story Twist Revealed
a Leno decision shows retreat from 10 p.m. dramas
a Jay Leno to prime time: Why NBC is doing it

Politics ...
a On weekend before Jan. 20 inauguration, Obama to arrive in Washington by train ... Very cool.
a Games by Gov. Blago ... Yes, Rod duped Illinois. But if I remember correctly Judy Baar Topinka wasn't exactly a solid public official either.
a The Rules, Washington Edition
a Chicago's Karma
a Friends Say Kennedy Has Long Wanted Public Role
a The Young Know Caroline’s a Kennedy, but Which One? ... A good read about the different perspective people have of the Kennedys.
a Between Obama and the Press
a For Obama, Job First
a The Obama Speechwriter: Helping to Write History

Media & the Internet ...
a 20 years in the making ... I sent a resume to The Onion a few years ago. Never got the call.
a CNN Ticker, 2001-2008 -- R.I.P.
a ESPN Strives to Eject Clutter From Its Site ... 'Bout time.
a News About News, in 140 Characters ... I've been slow to get on board with the whole Twitter thing (I don't have that much time on my hands ...) but the site described here is really great ...
a Mr. Obama’s Internet Agenda
a Life on Blago's enemies list
a Advertisers Face Hurdles on Social Networking Sites
a MediaNews Sees Bad Timing on Newspapers, Not Bad Bets

Life & other stuff ...
a To Teach, They Reach For Obama
a Plane hits cow on emergency landing ... From my friend Raechel, with accompanying video.
a Sometimes, Fists Fly at Chuck E. Cheese's ... Also from my friend Raechel.
a Dad afraid his daughter will be Drew's next wife ... From the 'You've got to be kidding me!' file ...
a Wait a second: 2008 gets extended by timekeepers
a When Mommy takes the hit

Sunday Night Recording

(Updated 12.15.2008)

... Kates and I just finished watching the latest episode of our "Sunday Night 'Saturday Night Live.' "

... And I have to say ... Last night's SNL might have been the best all-around SNL I have seen in a long time. (Mo Ryan disagrees.) I had good, hearty laughs on multiple skits (Which I don't recall happening during the Tina-Fey-as-Sarah-Palin Era). I thoroughly enjoyed the entire show ...

From Jason Sudeikis playing the foul-mouthed Blago in the opening sketch, to the return of "Bronx Beat" to a Weekend Update that nearly had my side hurting ...

And this weekend we really did have to say good-bye to Amy Poehler ... I'm not sure if I missed something, but we swore she was done when she had her baby a few weeks ago. Then, she popped up on last week's show (HA-larious! by the way ...), and the word was that it was a one-time deal. Then, she popped up again last night -- and we cheered briefly that she might not be going away, only to watch her choked-up farewell at the end of Update ... We'll miss you Amy ...

In case you missed it, here's the opening sketch ... (And here's what Phil Rosenthal had to say about it. I get his point, and OK, the accent didn't work ... But I still thought SNL's take was funny ...)



Here's Weekend Update ... (Apparently people didn't like the take on David Paterson either. Again, I get their point ... But it's SNL. And it had my side hurting ...)





And while I'm at it, here's my favorite bit from last weekend's SNL -- Obama: Cool. (Kates and I were actually singing this around the house after we finished watching last weekend's show ...)

* * *

In other news tonight ...

Kates was putting Phoebe to bed as I caught this on the Nightly News ...

So amusing to watch I called Kates back to the living room ... and we watched it probably three or four more times ...

Sunday reading

OK ... So my Bearcats didn't put on a very strong performance yesterday.

Sheesh, if they would have played as well the rest of the game as they did in the fourth quarter, they would have been golden ...

That fourth quarter was going so well, I was having visions of those "Cardiac 'Cats" making another legendary comeback ... Then -- don't even get me started on that botched call after the onside kick.

So now they've lost four straight championship games. Never mind the fact they've been there four straight years (on top of winning two straight in '98 and '99).

Bring on the awkward comparisons to the Buffalo Bills.

Some of the reads that caught my interest during the last week ...

Sports ...
a Cubs fans denied ... again.
a Baseball Executives Face the Odds
a As Money Tightens, Scaling Back On Jobs and Fun
a Red Sox unveil new club logos and uniforms ... Not a fan of the change.
a From the Phillie Phanatic, a Family of Mascots
a Oklahoma case shows system isn't OK

Music ...
a Letters to Cleo reunion blasts from its past

Politics ...
a Obama Worked to Distance Self From Blagojevich Early On
a The Real Obama: A Centrist? No. A Transformer
a Two Cheers for Rod Blagojevich

Media & the Internet ...
a Pressing the Question
a YouTube Videos Pull In Real Money
a Advertisers Face Hurdles on Social Networking Sites
a Governor sought to withhold Wrigley Field funds unless Chicago Tribune fired editorial writers critical of him, complaint says ... Sickening.

Technology ...
a Apple's iPod Problem ... As my iPod continues to run smoothly -- knock on wood -- I've often pondered the notion of this story.
a The day TVs die

Life & other stuff ...
a Publishing books about the Great Emancipator is a recession-proof business
a Surviving the dark winter solstice

When it rains ... it snows

It's snowing today.

I don't need to say anything else.

(Ok. I hate it. The whole far-reaching slushy mess. We've only got a couple inches, but it's the worst slop you've ever driven in and the roads have been turned into a giant skating rink)

* * *

I was driving Phoebe to the daycare this morning when the news was announced on the radio ...

Feds take Gov. Blagojevich into custody

In unison, myself and the morning show hosts I was listening to let out a long "Whooooooooaaaaa."

I think we spoke for the state of Illinois and all of Chicagoland.

* * *

I've been on a pretty good Ingrid Michaelson kick this week ...

Part of it stems from downloading her new album a couple weeks ago. It's a wonderful and beautiful collection of new stuff, acoustics, covers and live takes -- a lot of which we were lucky to hear when we saw Ingrid last summer. "The Chain" is one of those songs that will melt and warm your heart all at once; I remember loving it at her show and it's great to hear it on the album.

Reason No. 2 for my Ingrid kick: I can't get "Be OK" out of my head ... along with the Borders video she did for the song. So cool!

I played it for my friend Laura last week, and a couple minutes later she announced, "Yeah, now I can't get it out of my head."