And so, my "Women's Murder Club" has been canceled by shortsighted ABC. %%$@&* But I kind of expected that; once I saw that they brought it back up against "Law & Order: SVU," severely splitting its similar audience, the writing was on the wall.

What I did NOT expect was that CBS would cancel "Moonlight"--?!? YES! WTF?! I was really just starting to get into it! I just knew they were going to keep that one.


Other crazy headlines coming across the wire (beyond the cyclone and the earthquake and the bomb and the food shortage and the election):

World number one (professional tennis player Justine) Henin retires at 25

(Neil) Diamond scores career first with No. 1 album

Comcast acquires social network pioneer Plaxo

Jackson's Thriller A National Treasure

Just a brief annotated bibliography of three novels written by Agatha Christie. If the upcoming Doctor Who episode, "The Unicorn and the Wasp," makes you very curious about her and her writings--and if it's written well, it should!--check your library for this book:

Sanders, Dennis, and Len Lovallo. The Agatha Christie Companion: The Complete Guide to Agatha Christie's Life and Work. New York: Delacorte Press, 1984.

Aaron knows he is crazy--!

Was introduced to the 2006 "Skinny" music video from the UK just today -- lovely large ladies in lingerie (I keep forgetting I can be sexy) (sexy for whom is still up for grabs, but well, one step at a time--!)!!

And also, say what you like, but don't ever say I didn't warn you about the Schnuffel Bunny from Germany! You'll either think it's just the cutest thing alive--or you will gag. Repeatedly. Yes, it's just that simple--!

It's No. 71 on the USA iTunes music video chart as of this writing.

No, I don't know when Germany started adding Lithium to its drinking water--!

Flipping TV channels, I just noticed this last night. So now, not only are Tennant and Myles broken up, but their respective TV shows, "Doctor Who" and "Moonlight,"  are now on up against each other, airing at precisely the same time in the USA (8 pm CT/9 pm ET)??! SO really and truly backing off now...!

SO not what I was expecting--where's my John Stamos result!!?

Your 80s Hunk Is

Jason Bateman

Just dropping a line that I recently joined the UK MySpace/Facebook equivalent, bebo.com! As I mentioned in the Doctor Who group, it's the only way to see some the longer previews for this year's episodes, as the official BBC Doctor Who web site blocks access to anyone not in the UK.

http://www.bebo.com/ValerieH161

If you're over there, feel free to friend me :)!

I thought this one would off base because of the questions asked, but the results are way on target.

What's Important to You... And What Isn't:

For you, entertainment is usually your number one priority. You find getting things done to be incredibly stressful. You don't like having things to do. You attend to almost every priority in your life. You don't neglect much. You want money to be a high priority, but you don't often get around to it.

You've probably seen the 30-second version. But HERE is the FULL 90-SECOND OPUS!

That's a line from "The Wizard of Oz," the line Dorothy says to the Wizard after he's handed out a diploma to the Scarecrow, a ticking valentine clock to the Tin Woodsman, and a medal to the Lion--all tangible representations of the qualities they wanted that they never realized they already possessed (yeah, there's a metaphor in there--the whole book's a bleedin' metaphor!--but I digress). But I really don't think there's anything in that black bag for me. Home wasn't in the bag for Dorothy--although, yeah, it turns out the shoes had the power to carry her home. I certainly don't have any kind of secret weapon like that--and if I do, I'm sure it lost any power it had long ago.

My friends seem to think that someday they'll be dancing at my wedding. I don't see that coming. At all. Not in a year. Not in a lifetime. I think that's why I've been winning these various little contests lately--to help soften the blow.

So that's it, then.

(a timelord younger than me--what is the world coming to?!? ;> )

David Tennant in Blackpool David Tennant in a scene from the "Blackpool" BBC miniseries, in which his character nonchalantly walks past Blackpool's Doctor Who Museum--!

Live way too south of the city to have felt anything.

There might be a metaphor in there somewhere...

Cool interview with Patrick Stewart in USATODAY today--which put this crazy song in my head all day! I love this Sims 2 video version :)!

OK, we in the USA couldn't get the cool David/Freema/John commentary on the concluding episodes of the last DVD set because of America's desperately-in-need-of-an-overhaul music rights stipulations. But you know what? BBC America is there for us; BBC America understands!

Funny banter amongst the three of them, and the deejay!

Oh, and I completely forgot about the specialness of the date that Doctor Who premieres here in the USA; April 18 will be Tennant's 37th birthday.

ETA: Correction!

Or rather, on certain cell phone users. Mo Rocca's story was broadcast on CBS Sunday Morning this morning, and the transcript is here. Video is forthcoming, I guess.

The video embedded below is the actual news story on this, mostly taking place in the UK. Mo Rocca's story is a funny commentary on it. I'll post that when it's available.

No, not strictly blackfolk (to which this is cross-posted, with mistaken video embed and all!)--but you'll know if you resemble these remarks. I don't; in fact, I've watched the ever-growing reliance with ever-growing alarm. Pretty much my feeling is this:

PUT THE CELL PHONES DOWN, PEOPLE!

(And nobody gets hurt--!)

Before she died (which was ten years ago as of February), my grandmother told me about what she did the morning after Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered. 

She got on the train to head to work (she was someone's maid). And there was hardly anybody on it. The other people in the neighborhood were clearly not heading in to work that day. She remembered exchanging glances with one guy who made it pretty clear that going in to work the day after that was just... just not right. So you know what she did--? She got off at the next stop and got on the train heading in the other direction, back home, and when she got home, she called the woman she was working for and told her that she would not be coming in to work that day. She just... wasn't. (The woman completely understood.)

I know other people probably have more militant-sounding stories, or have first-hand accounts of all the rioting and looting. And everybody knows about James Brown and Boston (I always think--wish?--it's Detroit).

So ask your family members today: what did you do that day?

 

John Legend performs PRIDE (In The Name of Love)