Charlie Batch must be the most fragile man on Earth. He's like the anti-Favre.

What's not explicitly stated is whether he hurt himself during the twelve seconds he was in the game. But I assume he must have. Punching something in anger doesn't seem very Batch-like.

Though if he did, I hope it was Bob Ligashesky.

Anyway, much like Peanut Butter Jelly Time, it may be Dennis Dixon Time!
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• In NYC we saw the revival of Ragtime (enjoyable) and, as I'd hoped, Next to Normal (amazing). I have to restrain myself from playing the N2N soundtrack nonstop on the Pod to avoid burnout. We might have to make another quick trip soon, because Emily wants to see the Catherine Zeta-Jones/Angela Lansbury revival of A Little Night Music. And I still totally want to see Rock of Ages.
  
  
• After spending a couple of days out of town, and two days hanging around vacationing without watching any news, I have realized something: I am a much happier, much calmer human being when I have absolutely no idea what is going on in the world. This is rather unfortunate.



• Am I the only person who had never heard of the 2012 prophecy thing before this movie came out?



• Completely caught up on the Big Bang Theory. I reiterate that it is hilarious.



• 74 days until LOST, per yesterday's announcement!



• Isn't 15 years a freakishly long time to be a major league hitting coach -- particularly with one team? Seems like Rudy Jaramillo could've tried for a managerial job given his great reputation. And is he related to Jason Jaramillo?

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I'm sure I'm far from the first to post this on the Internets, but perhaps some of you have not seen it. Apparently the condiment bar at Roy Rogers is owned by a guy named "Fixin."

I first noticed this error probably 15 years ago, when I had a temp job downtown and would eat at Roy's (Or "Roys").

How can they not correct this after so many years?? Maybe it's too expensive, and the majority of people probably don't notice anyway.
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Such a post-filled six weeks or so, and then I fell off the wagon. But not really. I was in NYC over the weekend, and then took an extra couple of days off of work. So I should have a healthy-sized News and Notes shortly.
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But there are always exceptions. And this week the plug was pulled on Heroes in the DanNation household.

For the last year or two, it's been the show that's piled up on the TiVo. It started to feel like an obligation, and that's just silly. It's not that it's an awful show. It can be entertaining. But it just feels... rudderless. It's going in circles. And that's not good enough for a one-hour investment.

I guess the bottom line is that I feel like I've already seen the best of what they can do. And unlike other shows that have jumped the shark, I'm not attached enough to the characters to continue to see it off into the sunset.
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We're headed to NYC this weekend, and plans are to make the most of our time there by doing a day-night Broadway doubleheader on Saturday!

I never buy tickets in advance, instead relying on the trusty TKTS booth, or a spur of the moment box office decision.

The show at the top of my list is the critically-acclaimed Next to Normal.

Beyond that, it's a wide open race. Could go for a long-running hit like Wicked or the Best Musical winner from a couple years ago, In the Heights.

Then there's Rock of Ages. I originally thought this looked like something that wouldn't be worth it, since it's just 80's songs recycled into a silly plot. But it actually got a strong review from the Times, and it's supposed to be a pretty fun time.

If anyone has any suggestions, fire away.
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I know I have some Hulu enthusiasts out there, so maybe one of you can explain this to me.

How can Hulu consider charging for content, when it's nothing more than an aggregator of other sites' content?

Not to denigrate the site, but it doesn't seem to do anything except bring free stuff that's available elsewhere into one location. For instance, all of the ABC shows and clips that they provide are the ones on ABC's website (where the player is actually better). When they expire on ABC, they expire on Hulu.

So presumably they will only charge for some sort of additional premium content that isn't available now, or will make episodes available for longer periods of time. Because I doubt the networks will stop providing basic free content on their own sites just because Hulu needs cash. And I can't believe people would be so dumb as to pay Hulu for content that was still available on network sites for free.
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For ex-Squirrel Hillers who may be interested and haven't heard, here are a couple of real estate updates:

1) Barnes & Noble announced a few weeks ago that they're closing their Murray Avenue store. This pisses me off, though not quite as much as the closing of the B&N right across the street from my work a few years ago.

2) Boston Market hung in there at the high-profile corner of Forbes and Shady for about... 16 years? But it closed over the summer, and it's just been replaced by a juiced-up Dunkin Donuts. It has a coffee shop/lounge type atmosphere, complete with bookshelves and board games and a TV. I've never seen one like it.
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I was over at my parents' house, and my Mom wanted to show me an episode of ABC's The Middle, which is her new favorite show.

The show stars Patricia Heaton, "Janitor" from Scrubs (don't know his real name) and Chris Kattan, plus three kids (see below).

Coming in with zero expectations, I was shocked at how funny it was. Some critics are comparing it favorably to Malcolm in the Middle, but I've never seen that show. So I can just say it's funny, and worth the 21 minutes to try it out at ABC.com in your office when you're supposed to be working. I mean, at home on your own personal computer.

Even if you generally don't like family comedies and "real life"-derived family humor (see Everybody Loves Raymond), you'll be hard-pressed to not find Atticus Shaffer hilarious. He plays Brick, the brainy, undersized, "socially challenged" youngest kid in the family. Possibly the funniest, weirdest sitcom kid ever. Here's a Hulu clip of an ABC promo:



I've watched four of the five episodes in rapid succession, and in every episode that kid cracks my shit up. I've been walking around the house whispering to myself for several days.

ABC clearly has faith in the show, as it was picked up for a full season after just two episodes. So I'm doing my little part to help the word spread.
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According to the Old Farmers' Almanac, tonight is the Full Beaver Moon.

Now, if you're actually interested in more than just the cheap lowbrow chuckle I've just served up, here is the significance of this particular night:

This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.

So don't be shut out! Trap your beaver now.
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• Football yesterday can kiss my ass. As if the Steeler bye week isn't enough of a downer, I boycotted watching any more games after it became apparent I was going to lose my fantasy matchup and get a 1 (out of 7) in the work pool.


• I was in a crafts store helping select material for Halloween costumes when I found my new favorite product name. Stiffen Quik takes the title away from AnuIce.
  
  
• While I always vote, I'm not always the most informed voter in "off" years. Apparently I voted for an unqualified judicial candidate in this past May's primary (He always seemed like a decent fellow to me). The fact that I've moved out of the city makes matters worse. I'm really clueless about who's on the ballot in my tiny burg, and I don't want to accidentally vote for Edgewood Sarah Palin.

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...maybe Coolio will.


Reserve your copy today, and prepare yourself for a fantastic culinary voyage. Slide, slide, slippity slide.
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This picture is on the front page of the PG's Food section today.

I really don't think they look like what they're supposed to look like.


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I just saw an ad in the margin of my Facebook page for the product pictured at left.

It's a hemmorhoid treatment called ANUICE.

Am I missing another medical abbreviation, or is that supposed to be like Anus Ice? If not, it's a ridiculously bad choice of lettering and letter-coloring.

Why not just go ahead and call it Anus Ice? Everyone's going to think that anyway, and you might get some publicity out of it.
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You can apparently change your Facebook language settings to "Pirate."

It changes absolutely everything, and the results are pretty amusing.

Examples of the translations: "Settings" becomes "Adjust ye riggin's." "View my Photos" becomes "Spy me Portraits." And "Like" becomes "Arr, this be pleasin' to me eye."

Ha! Good times.
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Community, NBC

Episodes Watched: 4.

Still Watching: Nope, just pulled the plug.

My take: I thought the pilot was promising, but it seemed to go downhill from there. The characters weren't quite interesting enough, and the yuks weren't quite frequent enough. I'll repeat my 2007 remarks: Wake me if it gets better and becomes a hit. Of course, on NBC the word "hit" is relative.

Crystal Ball Prediction: Like I said, it airs on NBC, so it could run for decades.

This concludes the reviews of my Fall TV samplings. Just one show picked up among the six pilots (Modern Family), plus the happy addition of The Big Bang Theory once we're caught up on Netflix.
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(Ok, now that might be my favorite post title ever).

Stephen King's next book, Under the Dome, comes out Nov. 10. It's about a town that becomes "inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world" by a force field bubble.

As you can see in the wraparound cover art.



No word on whether the town is called Springfield.



Actually, King first conceived of the tale in the 1970's. Still, if there's a character named "Spyder Pigson" in it, I smell a lawsuit!
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This is really weird. You can send a regular text message to Blogger, and it instantly posts to your blog. I am doing it right now. The only oddity is that the post appears without a title. I don't like that.
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I think it's safe to say that if I read a book about eating well and saving the planet, it will not be written by Alicia Silverstone.


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The Cleveland Show, FOX.

The Family Guy spinoff has come out of the gate as one of the top-rated new shows of the season. I'm obviously a huge FG fan, but the pilot was just OK. I already mostly keep up with American Dad, which is woefully inconsistent. Not good enough to pick up.

Bored to Death, HBO.

I kind of was. I watched the pilot and that was it. Jason Schwartzman creeps me out a little. I can see how it could develop into something useful (and it will get the chance, as HBO already renewed it). But I'll pass.
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What can we take away from the non-suspension of Steeler kicker/resident douche Jeff Reed after his run-in with police on Sunday?

In the past year, we've learned that if you are a Steeler who's stopped by a cop, have a joint in your car, point it out to the officer, and cooperate fully, you are benched/suspended.

On the flip side, if you are drunk and disorderly, harass and threaten police officers, and resist arrest, you're good to go.

Are they just sending the same old ridiculous American message that drugs are about the worst thing you can do?

Are Coach Tomlin and the Rooneys playing into the, um, racial "preferences" that Pittsburgh sports fans have sometimes exhibited?

Or is it as simple as the fact that he's a kicker, and therefore it's that much trickier to fit a replacement onto the roster?

I don't really know. But it struck me as a little odd.
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FlashForward, ABC.

Episodes watched: 1.

Still Watching?: No.

My take: I liked the concept. And... that's about it. The cast was populated by a strangely large number of British actors, including star Joseph Fiennes, who were obviously not that comfortable faking the American accent. In fact, the acting overall struck me as stilted. The writing was uninspired. We TiVo'd the next few eps but despite an intriguing final scene in the pilot, we just could never get excited about pressing PLAY. The only real highlight was Seth MacFarlane popping up in an uncredited role as a random FBI lackey!

Crystal Ball Prediction: Well, it got a full season pickup. I won't speculate beyond that. I think interesting concepts can lead people to overlook other flaws. And besides, I only watched the pilot, so it might have improved. But until LOST is gone, I'm spoiled. It's ruined me for every other show of that ilk.
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As the New York Times will tell you, The Big Bang Theory is exploding in its third season.

Spurred on by a bizarre summer rerun ratings spike, it's risen from 59 to 42 to 19 in the overall Nielsens, and it's now the fifth-most-watched show in the coveted 18-49 demo.

Back in '07, I watched the pilot, and told you all that it was just okay. "Wake me if it improves and becomes a hit," said I. Well, thanks to all the buzz and repeated urgings from two friends, I was awakened. (It also helped that we needed a way to make our Netflix subscription worth it, since we just aren't watching movies anymore).

Three Netflix discs later, I can say it's a fun, smart show. And we're only up to the 13th episode of the first season. By most accounts, the show and the characters didn't really hit their stride until the second season.

So I think it's safe to say we'll be caught up in the next month or two, and will join the regularly scheduled third season, already in progress.

As an aside, mad proppage to formerly elderly-skewing, stodgy CBS for having the patience to let Big Bang and How I Met Your Mother find their way.
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(This "Really Grinds My Gears," but I'm too lazy to find the picture)

Very few "little" things in life can piss me off like a hard boiled egg whose fucking shell won't come off easily.

I'm talking abnormally, road ragey, call-it-names-and-throw-it-across-the-room ticked off. I don't know why this bothers me so much. Probably because I don't like spending a day and a half peeling a food item, only to make one false move and end up with half of it wasted.

So I can either devote half my morning to doing a perfect job, or it can turn out like this:



Look at that thing! It looks like a fucking hand grenade exploded next to it.

Experts (eggsperts?) always say you should submerge them in cold water to help with shell removal. I always do this, and yet I still end up with bad batches. Emily thinks it has more to do with the freshness of the egg at the time of boiling, which definitely could be the case. And I've never seen a correlation between shell removal and overcooking or undercooking.

It just seems to happen sometimes. And then I am sad.
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As longtime readers know, I like to play Unpaid TV Critic by taste-tasting new television offerings. I didn't watch a single new show last year, but in prior years I did reviews here on the blog.

This year, I'm back in the bidding. I sampled six new shows and one returning show. I had no specific plans or desires to add any of them to my rotation. Purely curious.

So let's get to my laboratory findings so far.

Glee, FOX

Episodes watched: 1.33. (Yes, really).

Still watching?: No.

My take: Everything about this glee-club-centered show screams says "Dan should like me!" Music? Good. High school premise? Good. Broadway star Lea Michele as the lead? Good. And yet I found it to be, for lack of a more sophisticated word, dumb. I turned it off 20 minutes into the second episode, right around the time the really white teacher was painfully leading the group in a full-length version of Golddigger.

Crystal Ball Prediction: It's already been picked up for a full season and seems to be doing fine in the ratings. But I have a nagging feeling that people may tire of it. It could still be riding all the hype and critical praise it received after its unusual "teaser pilot" back in May. A backlash isn't out of the question. That said, I could've given it the hook too quickly. If someday enough people tell me it's great, I'll give it another chance (as happened with another show, which I'll get to tomorrow.....)
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I don't know if anyone else picked up on this closing sentence from the Prez during his Rose Garden health care remarks this afternoon, but it made me chuckle as I was listening to it live:

"In this final phase, I hope that we will continue to engage each other with the spirit of civility and seriousness that has brought us this far and this subject deserves."

And then, undoubtedly, he threw up in his mouth a little.



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