Phresh Select - that’s a name of a dance crew. The name really amused me. I pictured these break-dancing boys and hip-hop guys sitting around trying to come up with a name for their crew, “Well, what about Phresh Select with a P-H?”

Does the p-h used in lieu of f show brilliant creativity? But why does my mind still turn to thoughts of produce or orange juice when I hear it? The problem is that phat means something completely different that fat. Whereas phresh still retains a similar meaning to fresh - something new and original. The problem relates to the coupling of Phresh with Select.

I once read a book (just once) which featured a character whose sole job was to name “things” - products, events, businesses. It sounded like a great job. I wish I could recall the book and/or author…

Has a person selected the best forum to announce (brag?) to the world that they rarely watch television while appearing on prime-time TV in a game show (not Jeopardy!) where they ask trivia questions? Even Jeopardy! features questions related to pop-culture of which television is a major player. Tool-hardy behavior.

Speaking of TV. Here is a fond law school memory. So one day in Torts we were discussing negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress and third party recovery. Certain jurisdictions have ruled that for third party recovery a person must be a member of the immediate family and in the case we studied, be related by blood. A kid raised his hand to express dissatisfaction with such a rule and posed a hypo using this example, “Well, what if he was like the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?” It was pretty f-ing funny, the class chuckled, but he had the right idea as Will, although in residence with the Banks, was merely a cousin. However, the even funnier moment came when the professor responds, “I’m not familiar” in a tone suggesting clear ignorance of such a program. Now, it would be one thing if this had been our Con Law professor making such a claim* or my seven-year-old niece, but this was a professor who had shown us a YouTube clip depicting a scene from “Scare Tactics” which served as a basis for litigation involving one of the “victims” of the scare tactic. So, for her not to have at least heard of the Fresh Prince seemed somewhat hard to believe, thus, the dead silence after she said “I’m not familiar.”

JM passed this link on to me: television tunes game. Warning, the site has sound so if you are at work either do not visit or turn down sound.

* Although that presumption of the aforementioned academic may prove completely erroneous as she has spoken of her fondness for “The Colbert Report” and discussed the growth she has witnessed in the SXSW during her residence in Austin - clear invocations of some pop-culture interests, but still — her not knowing of the Fresh Prince would not have been so surprising and would not have elicited the same shocked response.

Reviewing CNN’s headlines, I saw an article titled “What happened to Stephen Colbert’s face?.” I clicked on it because I happened to see him point out his marred face during a recent episode of “The Colbert Report” and figured a) he was either punched in the face or b) he ran into a door. In either case he was obviously wearing his glasses which caused the laceration between his eyes and I wanted to read to see if he he faked it all or admitted to the cause of his facial issues.

I also felt it was another weird coincidence because just yesterday I used that phrase and Googled “what happened to Uma Thurman’s face.” I did so after seeing a picture on People’s website with some blond lady with Will Smith. Initially I thought it was either some publicist or a representative for some charitable organization, but the caption informed me it was Uma Thurman. Seriosuly, what the hell happened to her face…(View picture.) Actors have recently become so unrecognizable..

I had to go to IMDB recently to find the name of one of the actors starring in the mini-series The Andromeda Strain (great book*, but the series was so boring, my watching was limited to staring at the actor discussed in this paragraph). I felt this character sounded just like Kate from “The Drew Carey Show”, but she sure didn’t look like that actor.IMDB.com informed, though, that it was the same person and she had obviously undergone some drastic surgery. Actually, it appears there is some nerve damage going on with her mouth, so that must suck for her.

But back to Mr. Colbert. So I browsed to the story and what do I see? A link to another article titled:
“Just who is this ‘Stephen Colbert’ character?”

Ha-ha! ( For those not in the know I wrote a paper for one of my Islamic studies classes and titled it “Who is this Mohammed?” It has become a joke of sorts. And I believe the paper is still in my Public Storage space and I think our professor is still at that school - we share a common first name - weird what I remember, like that she use to wear plastic baggies over her shoes on rainy days. JAF, I bet you remember this as well? Yes?)

Fear Itself on NBC is pretty much a take on “Twilight Zone” with a dedication to the horror theme. The “Twilight Zone” was one of the most creative, innovative shows of its time. I even enjoyed the remake with Forest Whitaker taking over Rod Serling’s narration duties.

Barack Obama remained neutral regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling today regarding gun ownership. Completely unsurprising as he has been careful with the gun issue. I recall a few years ago reading an article in Newsweek and even then he refused to un-straddle that line and made mention of a few people he considered friends belonging to the NRA. It’s a powerful lobby and boys like their guns…

Now, although I am aware the Constitution gives citizens the right to bear arms, in my Utopian world there is no need for guns whatsoever, as no one eats meat and no one is of such an intellect that he/she would consider the shooting of an animal in the creature’s natural habitat, an animal who lacks the ability to reason and maneuver and strategize, using a weapon unavailable to said creature and even if one was available the beast would not have the capacity to use it, a sport. Good going, guy, you shot a deer foraging for food with a high-powered rifle - what a man.

*But I am a Michael Crichton fan and have read most of his books, so impartiality may be at play.

Stephanie from Chicago won Top Chef Chicago. CB was rooting for her while I kind of liked Richard as I felt he seemed more passionate about the craft than Stephanie.

How Lisa made it to the top three I am not sure unless the judges knew her attitude and behavior would create vital conflict for the reality series. I can be defensive and when I think I am being too defensive I think of Lisa and figure she would easily beat me in defensiveness. Her defensiveness is so unbecoming and nasty I have vowed to try and think of her if I feel a bout of defensiveness coming over me. Aversion therapy of a sort. I picture her with her arms folded, chin raised, legs slightly spread in a defensive posture while standing in front of the judges and I can’t help but feel the judges are much better people as I would find it hard to allow her to continue, ratings be damned.

And then there was the time when she told on a fellow contestant. Oh-my-damn* - B-I-T-C-H. Andrew, the one on whom she tattled, was livid and I do not blame him at all.

* Can any one tell me from which show and which character used this catch phrase which I caught. CP?????

Last weekend I attended a showing at the Emerald Theatre in Chicago. It was a recital of sorts put on by students in various acting classes. My niece was in one of the shows. (She’s the best niece EVER! - and I am saying this as I pretty confident she will be my only niece.)

I should be more specific, these are very young kids whose parents have paid a fee for them to learn the art of acting and in some cases, singing.

It was warm in the theater and there were many different performances, once again put on by young amateurs, so I needed to devise a strategy to make it through the event.

1. The intitial anticipation for the performance in which my super-great niece was to perform got me through half of it and then
2. willing and wishing and hoping that all of a sudden a star would break out. A Stomp the Yard, Drumline, Bring it On come to life in Chicago, Il. One musical act had a student I thought had this potential. She moved more rhythmically than the others, swayed a bit more than the others and facially acted more than the others, but, there was no break out song, no break out performance, no spotlight appeared to shine down on her as she was simply yet another young, amateur, wanna-be, but probably won’t be American Idol. I was disappointed because I wanted this to turn out to be a live version of some Disney show where the most unlikely kid all of a sudden breaks out from the pack, lets her her break free from its ponytail, rips the mouth brace from her face, tears off her long skirt to reveal a producer-preferred mini-skirt and then gives a moving, eye-tearing, performance ending in a standing ovation.

I fault TV, movies and Nancy Drew novels for raising my middle class expectations - Ms. Drew, I really can’t be anything I want to be, do anything I want to do, but thanks for the insincere encouragement.

The Love Guru

Verne Troyer is to Mike Myers as Rob Schneider is to Adam Sandler.

The other day Barack Obama gave a speech in Minnesota.

Michelle Obama wore a purple dress.

The politics of calculated, yet subtle, manipulations - Winning friends and influencing people - let the games continue.

Speaking of Prince…

Most of us are aware of Windows and Mac Operating systems. As end-users we are limited to these options. Or so we think. But there exists an free and open-source operating system called Debian. The project developer, Ian Murdock, was dating a Debbie. He named his system Debian by co-mingling his name with his girlfriend’s who later became his wife. Awwwww.

They are now divorced.

How many times does someone need to be warned about naming an operating system after a significant other?

I think I would be a good stand-in for David Spade.

Last year I wrote a post about LOST’s season finale. In the episode Jack was reading an obituary of an obfuscated name, which we now know was “Jeremy Bentham.”

Last year I had never heard of Jeremy Bentham. A few months later I found myself in Criminal Law class which introduced me to the great philosopher and non-practicing lawyer. He was truly a forward thinking man. He was influenced by the philosopher John Locke (John Locke was the dead guy in the casket on LOST’s season finale).

Jeremy Bentham would undoubtedly not be caught watching a cock fight.

I think I would like to listen to Jeremy Bentham orate.

Thanks to CP and later MI for inviting me to play Scrabble with them at http://www.scrabulous.com.
Go ahead, challenge me.