February 2010 Archives

Today's cuppa: PG Tips tea (brewed super-strong, 'cause I'm feeling cranky!)

As I write this, the USA/Canada gold-medal hockey game has yet to be completed, but I am still basking in the USA Team's glorious four-man bobsled victory, using NASCAR legend Geoff Bodine's amazing Night Train sled.

By the way, what a cool convergence of utterly divergent sports on the common ground of speed -- in NASCAR, thanks to the internal-combustion engine, and in bobsledding, thanks to gravity and the dynamics of steel on ice.

It was one awesome moment in a series of awesome moments from this year's Winter Olympics, when, as I've pointed out before, NBC wasn't killing them dead with useless blather, self-serving tape delays and pointless interruptions.

Many people are unhappy, especially those on the Internet. Since many of these folks represent the consumers of the future, it behooves the broadcasters to take note.

In the digital age, these people want what they want, when they want it, the way they want it. And if they can't get it from you, they'll get it somewhere else. And they can.

One offshoot of the Industrial Revolution and especially the assembly line has been the idea that humans can be herded like cattle, that merchants and distributors and broadcasters and generally anyone that provides goods and services can treat their customers like a bovine mass to be directed and manipulated according to advertising and marketing principles.

That only worked when there were gatekeepers, when goods and services could only be obtained from a limited number of places, in a limited number of ways.

The Internet has blown all that sky-high. Information travels at the speed of electrons; goods and services can be contracted over states, nations and continents; video, audio and still pictures can be digitized and shared in the blink of an eye.

NBC may have controlled how the Games were broadcast over American network and basic-cable television, but the Peacock sure didn't control Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and a myriad of other ways that the images and results of the Games were shared in real time, often hours and hours before NBC would deign to offer them to the viewing public.

Yeah, the ratings have been high -- because the Games were amazing. NBC is no doubt happy with the numbers, but it should also consider how much ill will has been generated among frustrated viewers who felt their patience being unnecessarily abused. The more tech-savvy among them probably abandoned the TV viewing altogether and sought out live coverage where the 'Net could provide it.

So, NBC built it, and they came, but many left grumbling and unsatisfied.

Digital distribution has put consumers at odds with all media providers, as providers desperately try to keep control over information and entertainment, and consumers constantly find ways to circumvent those controls.

Princess Leia's warning to the Grand Moff Tarkin in the original "Star Wars" becomes very appropriate.

"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

If people have choices, they take advantage of them. Just because they never had choices before doesn't mean they didn't want them. And few things are more irritating than when people know there are alternatives, but also know they are being forcibly prevented from pursuing them.

Before the Summer Olympics in London roll around in 2012, it would benefit NBC to do some serious thinking about coming to grips with the new reality and finding a way to broadcast the Games that satisfies the network's needs while not pissing off millions of viewers.

There is hope. Today's hockey final is being broadcast live in all time zones -- even the West Coast, where, by the way, it's actually happening.

Better late than never, NBC.

Today's cuppa: PG Tips tea

Click here for my Zap2it story with Captain Sig Hansen of Discovery's "Deadliest Catch," in which he makes his pitch to get on a future cycle of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

(As you know, HCTV has been pushing for this for a while now).

Hansen and I met for brunch on Friday (the pictures are mine and were shot after brunch) and did an interview to be released closer to the "DC" season premiere on April 18 -- and of course, we talked about the late, beloved Capt. Phil Harris.

More on that later, but right now, I'd like to share a bit more of our "Dancing" conversation, in which Hansen discussed the dancing prowess of Harris and fellow crab-boat captains Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand of the F/V Time Bandit, and Capt. Keith Colburn of the F/V Wizard.

Told he could prove he's the best dancer among the captains, Hansen said, "I already know that. Phil couldn't even lift a foot to dance. I've seen that action on the dance floor in Dutch Harbor. Keith, not happening.

"Johnathan, he just kind of picks a girl up and does that" -- Hansen mimes shaking a girl up and down and then side-to-side -- "throws her around. The only competition would be Andy. He would be good. John, not happening. He'd step on toes and hurt people."

Asked if he'd intimidate the other captains with his fabulous steps, Hansen said, "I don't think I'd intimidate them. I think I'd be the butt of jokes.

"I would never live that down, would I? (Executive producer Thom) Beers would have a heyday with my a--."

As for his fans, Hansen said, "Well, that's the thing, would they see you for what you are, which is Captain Sig, or would they see you as a sell-out? But even if I did it, I'm still going to go fishing. That's my job. This is just a little perk."

Tonight's cuppa: Typhoo decaf tea

On Saturday, Feb. 27, HGTV's "The Outdoor Room With Jamie Durie" takes the Australian horticulturalist and gardening expert to a large backyard in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles, where he teaches a family of four how to create an edible organic garden.

Durie took his hands out of the dirt long enough to answer a few questions...

How are you adjusting to life in Los Angeles?
 
I love living here in America, I've really settled into the L.A .lifestyle. I miss my dog but I like the fact that I can grow pretty much anything I want here in California.

 

What are the gardening pros and cons of the L.A. climate (and microclimates)?

L.A. can be extremely dry which is great for succulents or plants that are prone to rust or fungus. However, tropical plants can also do extremely well, provided they have the right microclimate. You can create a wonderful tropical oasis by providing the right mix of moisture, nutrients and soil structure.

What are the biggest mistakes backyard vegetable gardeners usually make?
 
One of the biggest mistakes I see, especially with novice gardeners, is the lack of soil preparation prior to planting vegetables. Because they are expected to be productive, vegetables require a rich and fertile soil, high in organic matter and biological activity. Most gardeners I talk to who are disappointed with the productivity of their vegetables have planted them directly into the site soil -- regardless of where they live.

This means that as well as relying on applying large amounts of liquid fertilizer and water, the plants will not perform to their full potential because there is generally not enough nutrients in unimproved soil to support vegetables.

Before planting, organic matter needs to be incorporated into the soil, dug through thoroughly and left to settle for a week or two. When planting, follow the spacing and depth guidelines on the seed packets. Once the plants have emerged, you can mulch around the plants with a nitrogen rich mulch such as lucerne hay. This helps to retain water and also breaks down to form a lovely, rich compost.  

What's your vegetable planting guide for Southwest region? Lettuce in January? Tomatoes in April?

This is a tricky question as you really need quite specific local climatic information to grow vegetables successfully in a given area. For a specific planting guide for your local area I would suggest going to your local nursery and talking to the staff there. They should be able to give you locally appropriate information to ensure you are planting the right vegetables at the right time.

Do you have a position on upside-down tomato pots?

I think its a great idea.  What I like about the concept is that you can grow your tomatoes almost anywhere -- as long as there is enough sunlight. You do not need to have a massive garden, you can just hang the bag off your balcony or patio.  My biggest concern with the idea is that they require quite a bit more water than growing the plants in the ground as they are confined to a small bag and dry out very quickly in summer.

Also, weight can be an issue, especially after watering. Make sure the pot is fixed securely to a post, beam, etc., from the beginning, as it will only get heavier as the plant grows.  

What do you think are the most beautiful edible plants?

One of my favourite edible plants is Artichoke (Cynara scolymus). I love its bold silver/gray foliage and big purple flower heads that emerge in spring. The best thing about Artichoke is that it is a perennial, meaning you do not need to replant it every year.

Which ones get the ugly-but-tasty award?

As a plant lover, its difficult to find any plant ugly. I suppose root vegetables like potatoes are not particularly beautiful. Dirty, brown and strangely shaped ... but imagine a world without potatoes? It is impossible to comprehend. So the moral of the story is, when it comes to vegetables -- beauty is more than skin deep...

Following the Closing Ceremony of the Winter Olympics on Sunday, Feb. 28, after 16 days of competition involving figure-skating judges, ski-jumping judges, hockey referees, freestyle-skiing judges and officials of all sorts (and probably a controversy or two ... or three), NBC has determined that what viewers want to see is more refereeing - this time of marital disputes rather than double-footed quad axels.

But NBC could use a winner right now, and it's betting on a proven champ. Jerry Seinfeld is executive producer of "The Marriage Ref," and it comes from his Columbus 81 Productions, along with Ellen Rakieten Entertainment.

After a half-hour sneak peek on Sunday, the show premieres in its regular one-hour Thursday slot on March 4.

The host is comedian Tom Papa, who has long acted as Seinfeld's stand-up comedy opening act. Seinfeld and Papa have been pals for about 10 years and got married (not to each other) about the same time, also about 10 years ago.

According to Seinfeld, the idea for the show was born in his New York apartment one evening when he and wife Jessica got into an argument.

"I can't even remember what it was," Seinfeld recalls, "but it was one of those where you just know this is going to go on all night. And a friend of hers happened to be there, and the friend got a little uncomfortable and said, 'You know what, maybe I should go.' I said, 'You know what, I'm glad you're here. You stay here. We're each just going to tell you our side of the issue. You decide who's right, who's wrong - binding. We will accept it, whatever you say. And we'll be done with this in five minutes.'

"And that's exactly what we did. So I said my side, and she said her side. I believe I lost, but that's not the point. The point is it was better because it was over. That's the idea of the show, right? To shorten the fight."

As for calling it "The Marriage Ref," Seinfeld says, "We're going to make a call in favor of the husband or the wife, very similar to the way it's done in sports, because we felt the sports simplicity is what's missing in marriage."

During the early days of their respective marriages, says Papa, he and Seinfeld discovered that their unions weren't exactly special little snowflakes.

"We'd never been through marriage before," he says, "and we would ask each other, 'Did your wife ever do this ...?' The other one would just fall out laughing, because we thought naively that our marriage was completely unique and had its own set of problems.

"Then we realized, no, we're all exactly the same."

In each episode, candid video is shown of a couple having an argument, very likely an argument they've had many times before. The topics vary, but according to Papa, they won't be the sorts of things that lead to marriage counseling or divorce court.

"We don't want raw," he says. "We don't want hurtful."

As to the subject matter so far, Papa says, "We've had a guy that loved his dog, and it died, and the wife hated the dog. She was so happy to have it gone. Then he stuffed it and wants to display it in their home.

"There was a cigar store Indian that the husband wanted to keep in the foyer, greeting people when they walk in the house. She, of course, wanted it out.

"We have a woman who flosses in bed, and the husband is constantly dodging little flying specks of whatever comes out. ... When we do that one - we haven't done it on the show yet - but when we do it, it would have to be a really good argument for me not to go with the guy."

After the argument is shown, Papa throws it to a rotating panel of actors, comedians and sports stars who weigh in with their opinions.In the first show, they are Seinfeld, Alec Baldwin and Kelly Ripa.

But there are no experts. You may ask, why not?'

"Because experts are helpful," Seinfeld says. "This is a comedy show."

According to Papa, the sneak-preview show features the taxidermied dog and "a guy who wants his wife to have an exercise pole installed in the house. He swears it's an exercise pole. Her argument is, 'We can install it if you're the person using it, because I'll have no part in it.' "

After the celebrity judges deliver their opinions, Papa makes the final call. The winning spouse then gets a prize, and Papa believes that no prizes will be later hurled in the losing spouse's direction.

"Not one of them hasn't been laughing with us as we make the decision," he says. "They're having a blast."

Today's cuppa; Texas Turtle coffee (that's for Vogel)

Today, Feb. 22, is the real birthday of George Washington, Revolutionary War hero and first president of the United States. In his honor, a third group of TV stars (click here and here for the previous ones) share their picks for favorite Founding Father (and yes, Mr. Washington makes an appearance, though some of their other picks may surprise you) ...

John Walsh of Fox's "America's Most Wanted," developer turned father of a murdered son turned activist turned fugitive-hunting TV host: "Thomas Jefferson. He was a renaissance man. He has such great side interests -- architecture and farming, all the different things he was involved in. The dichotomy, of course, was that he owned slaves, but he was conflicted about that.

"He sorta got drafted into (the Revolution). I'm not making a parallel between myself and Thomas Jefferson, but sometimes you do what you have to do. Life takes you in the strangest, strangest ways. There's no real plan."

Sean Casey of Discovery's "Storm Chasers": "I'll have to say John Jay (picture below), because he doesn't get any publicity. He was the mayor of New York. I guess also Benjamin Franklin. He was an inventor, a renaissance man. He was the first reported storm chaser. He saw the phenomenon of a tornado. He was on horseback, and he rode after it, following its path. He went through trees, couldn't find it and came back."

Dana Delany of ABC's "Desperate Housewives": "I would say Jefferson just because I like the fact that he was an oenophile. Also, people criticize Jefferson now, but I understand the whole thing, that he came from an elite class, was and wasn't. He saw the value of his education, but he was also a man of the people. It was an interesting combination."

Mike Vogel of CBS' upcoming "Miami Medical": "Jefferson, his ideals, the conservatism that he espoused, at least as I know it, Jeffersonian democracy. Also, I like James Madison. When you look at the checks and balances that they had to go through just to get these guys to show up at a federal meeting, like of the federal government. They had to take it through every level of their state governments, to make sure their state would be OK with them showing up.

"They were so adamant about maintaining the rights of the states before turning it over to the national, federal level of government. Now, it's completely reversed. We're the little puppy dogs, looking up to big Mama, saying 'Feed me, feed me.' We've gotten it all backwards. Hopefully it will turn around."

George Duran, host of TLC's "Ultimate Cake-Off": "Some of my biggest accomplishments in life tend to be hidden commuter secrets during the NYC rush hour, and Francis Lewis Blvd. (or 'Franny Lew') is at the top of my list. This time-saving road was named after Francis Lewis, a governmental delegate from Queens who was once taken as a prisoner to France (shipped in a box!) and eventually signed our Declaration of Independence. This is a Founding Father who suffered for our liberty and continues to un-suffer my daily commute!"

Jon Seda of HBO's upcoming World War II miniseries "The Pacific": "George Washington, just because, to me, that was the foundation to all the rest of the foundation. It was new. It wasn't anything that was seen before -- starting out together, how the United States is one big family, and we're going to to through everything together. For me, he was the Founding Father of that."

James Badge Dale of "The Pacific": "John Hancock -- he was the jerk who signed his name bigger (HCTV: So, he said, King George could read it without his spectacles). No, Thomas Jefferson. I find him a very interesting man. The interesting thing about these men, the original band of brothers, is that they all had completely different opinions of what America is and what it should be and what is important and not important, and they were still able to come together and work together. I think there's a real important message in there."

Joe Mazzello of "The Pacific": "Piggybacking on what Jon was saying, I think what was amazing about George Washington was that he had this crazy idea -- 'I'm going to give up power.' They called him the king of America. No one thought it was real. They thought, 'If this man gives up power, he's the greatest man in the world. It's just such an amazing thing.

"Now, we take that for granted, yeah, every four, eight years, presidents go and then we get a new one. But up until through (Franklin Delano) Roosevelt, it wasn't even a rule. Men just did that. He started that off. That can't be overlooked, how amazing it was for him to say, 'I'm going to do this. It's my job, and I'm going to go back home and be a private citizen.'

"That notion, it's amazing. It was walking the walk. All of the guys, Jefferson and Adams and all of them, said, 'We don't want your tyranny. You can have it. Leave us alone. Let us be free.' Then George Washington walked the walk by saying, 'I'm giving up power and handing it over to the next man,' and just started that tradition -- something that is so mind-boggling."

Today's cuppa: PG Tips tea (it's British, so Olly might approve)

Everything in the "Indiana Jones" movies is true. OK, not every single thing, but chunks of it, and British journalist Oliver "Olly" Steeds wants to tell you all about it.

At least this investigation didn't require hallucinogens.

Airing Wednesdays on Discovery Channel since January, "Solving History With Olly Steeds" has seen the investigating adventurer, who also reports for the U.K.'s Channel 4, tackle several ancient mysteries, from the lost gold of El Dorado to the Nazca Lines in Peru - and that's where the pharmaceuticals came in.

To understand the mystical significance of the mountaintop carvings, Steeds downed a solution made from the San Pedro cactus.

In an earlier expedition in the Amazon, Steeds had tried another intoxicant and wound up spending eight hours attempting to live out the "Monty Python's Flying Circus" sketch "Confuse a Cat."

"I saw hundreds and hundreds of domestic cats in the jungle, who were being led by my old pussycat, Octopussy," he recalls. "I was convinced that these domestic cats were the keepers of the holy truth. ... If only I could confuse them, they would reveal to me this knowledge."

Steeds can't remember if he succeeded, but his Peruvian experience turned out a bit differently.

"I ended up tripping for a lot longer than we thought," he says. "There was a group of transvestite hairdressers in Nazca, at about 4 o'clock in the morning, who I ended up drinking with, who looked after me, strangely.

"And I wasn't imagining it; they actually were there. It was quite surreal."

Anyway, back to Indiana Jones. As fans of the first movie, "Raiders of the Lost Ark," may recall, the Nazis were hot on the trail of the Ark of the Covenant (the picture below shows Olly near a church in Ethiopia on his own Ark search) because Hitler was obsessed with the occult.

And then in the third movie, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," archaeologist Jones and his father, archaeologist Jones the elder, were trying to head off Nazis eager to gain immortality from the Holy Grail.

According to Steeds, who's been called a real-life Indiana Jones, the Nazis actually were mad for the occult, as shown in the Wednesday, Feb. 24 episode, "Hitler's Mummies."

"Mummies, not his mum," Steeds says, "His mum was called Clara, actually. She had nothing to do with this but spawning the devil.

"We look at it in terms of these mummies that were missing during World War II. They were being used as part of the whole physical anthropology, eugenics movement.

"We explore the role of the Ahnenerbe, this wing of the SS, this group of scientists and academics whose job it was to basically rewrite ancient history. They had expeditions all around the world. They sent an expedition to Tibet in the '30s to go measure the heads of Tibetans.

"Hitler and Himmler and others believed that there was this original master Aryan race, and they believe Tibetans were some of the last. In fact, Buddha was an Aryan."

As to whether it bothered Hitler or Himmler that Buddha was likely not a blue-eyed blond, Steeds says, "That was one of the problems they had. Someone once mentioned to Himmler, 'Hold on a minute; you're not blue-eyed, blond-haired, super-Nordic.' He's like, 'No, but I have an Aryan mind, an Aryan brain.' Then he promptly shot the guy for asking the question.

"So we look at the role of the Ahnenerbe and how they rewrote history to present this ridiculous justification for their racial policies that led to industrialized murder."

Also upcoming on March 3 is an episode looking at the truth behind tales of escapes from the infamous Devil's Island penal colony off the coast of French Guiana, such as the one portrayed in the movie "Papillon."

No mind-altering substances were required to investigate this tale, but Steeds did have to swim across a river.

"Not a good idea," he says. "I swam it, and it was full of crocodiles.

"To be an adventurer, you need to be deluded," Steeds continues, "and have a very bad short-term memory. Then you've got a chance of surviving, and you continue to be motivated to carry on and do stupid things."

Also on the docket is an episode, shooting next month and airing in May (coinciding, probably by design, with the release of the Russell Crowe movie, "Nottingham," directed by Ridley Scott), in which Steeds tries to track down the real Robin Hood.

"There's a kernel of truth in all these stories," Steeds says. "We've just started looking, and it looks like there is a connection to a Crusader archer who came back and was p---ed off about something. He kicked off and started to rob the rich and give to the poor.

"There's a theory that he was actually the Sheriff of Nottingham in his alter ego."

As revealed on "Dog Whisperer" Cesar Millan's Twitter page today, his beloved pitbull Daddy died on Friday the 19th, at the ripe old age of 16. He originally belonged to rapper Redmond, but officially became Millan's while just a puppy.

After the initial Tweet (with a link requires a little patience, probably because of the volume of traffic) Millan tweeted: Thank you for your messages of condolence. They mean so much to me and my family during this time.

As Millan's constant companion and chief helper, Daddy acted as the role model for good canine behavior to many of the troubled dogs (and humans) Millan worked with on his hit show. In recent episodes, young pitbull Junior has been training to take on Daddy's duties (click here for an article on that).

I'm more of a dachshund than a pitbull girl, but I got to meet Daddy and scratch him behind his ears -- such a calm, sweet dog, a credit to his breed, his species and his owner.

Below find a tribute done by National Geographic Channel:

Today's cuppa: Iced green/peppermint tea tossed in the blender with a frozen banana and frozen berries. Smoothie!

Click here for a story I posted yesterday on Zap2it.com in which "Deadliest Catch" producer Thom Beers talks about the late Capt. Phil Harris (seen below with son Josh) and the plans for the Discovery Channel show, which returns in April, and the crew of his Bering Sea crab-fishing boat, the F/V Cornelia Marie (seen above, other son Jake is in the red cap).

After you're done with that, come back here and look below for an extra tidbit from Beers...

"Phil had his passions," said Beers, "his birdhouses and his motorcycles."

Birdhouses?

"He built birdhouses," said Beers, "really exquisite houses that it took him a long time to make. Yeah, that was his strange little hobby. It's a wonderful little hobby. That's what he was. If you look, the guy was very successful. He went through a couple of marriages. He didn't have much of a high lifestyle. He lived on a nice piece of property, but it was kind of a mobile home.

"He'd say, 'This is my life, and I'm going to live it.' And that's what he did. I respect that. None of this changed him.

"You know what's my favorite story? Remember the crab party at my house a couple of years ago? Phil shows up, and there's great guys there, hosts of other shows. ('Survivor' host Jeff) Probst is there. And the women, they all wanted to meet Phil.

"It wasn't like they all wanted to jump his bones, but the guy, he could be your ultimate companion for the rest of your life. He's almost like a soap-opera star. They got to know him so well, they just wanted to be with him."

UPDATE: "Deadliest Catch" narrator and past "After the Catch" host, Mike Rowe of "Dirty Jobs," pays tribute to Harris.

Today's cuppa: Irish breakfast tea

Boy, it's lucky I didn't write this last night.

It would have been a rant, full of "SHUT UP!"s directed at almost every NBC Olympic host and commentator (except Dick Button. I would never tell Dick Button to shut up, but I do rather he was IN the skating arena instead of pontificating afterward. But Dick Button is awesome, not least because he used to be part of ABC's Olympic coverage, which was also awesome).

Rather than lay out the many and varied ways the yapping heads at NBC Sports make me want to chase them down with the business end of a ski pole -- I'll just let Slate do it for me -- I'll instead keep my blood pressure down and focus on why the Winter Olympics are amazing and thrilling, even if it doesn't always -- scratch that, nearly never -- come across on NBC.

But first, a little background. My mom grew up in Saranac Lake, N.Y., right next to Lake Placid, so I spent my whole childhood in and near this Adirondack hamlet that was host to the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympic Games.

I even have a Roni the Raccoon mascot (seen above at the left), bought at the J.J. Newberry's on Main Street in Lake Placid just before the 1980 games (Do you believe in miracles?? Yes, I do!).

I've also seen winter events live. I attended ski-jumping competitions in Lake Placid (winter and summer) and covered a freestyle-skiing championship there, even standing on the hill next to the jumps, watching the skiers pencil their aerials right in front of me.

While I've never been down the bobsled run, I've seen other people do it up close. I also spent a weekend watching a regional figure-skating championship at the Olympic Arena in Placid.

There were not Olympic-level events, but they demonstrated to me just how exciting and exhilarating the Winters can be if you get the full experience.

The Winter Olympics are about frigid temps, snow, ice, sharpened steel and waxed wood. Athletes fly through the air, rocking nothing but gravity and muscle-powered acceleration, landing not in deep piles of sawdust but on bone-crushing hard-packed snow or arena ice.

As we saw with the tragic fatal luge accident, there is a very small margin for error when you're rocketing down an icy chute. Who in the Summer Olympics goes 80-plus miles an hour, lying on their back on a very small sled, with no padding? The only thing more nuts than luge is skeleton, where you do about the same thing, only headfirst.

In bobsled, you have a bobsled, which is great, unless it flips over and lands on you.

Snow sports -- whether freestyle and alpine skiing, or snowboarding -- are insane, breakneck madness, a rush into thin air and then gravity's hard embrace with no brakes, shoulder pads or wings.

And even if the sport isn't inherently life-threatening -- such as cross-country skiing -- it's still contested outdoors in the sometimes biting cold, wind, sleet, rain and snow. OK, it sometimes rains on marathoners, but it's usually balmy out, and it doesn't sleet.

As a bonus, you don't have to look at lots and lots of sweaty people in sports bras, tank tops and shorts (OK, sometimes that's fine, but it gets old). Winter Olympians may be sleek or baggy, but they're neon-bright against the snow and ice. Few sports allow as much artistic creativity as the graphics on the second-skin jumpsuits or the elaborate spangles on skating costumes.

All of this could be awesome, and sometimes that manages to bust through despite NBC's best attempts to talk it to death.

(Side note: Why is Bob Costas wearing suits and ties? What is this, CNBC? Put on a sweater, for Pete's sake, nice turtleneck with the Olympic rings on it, something.)

I had my heart in my throat during the men's snowcross last night (I'm now officially a snowcross fanatic), and even though the pairs figure skating turned out to be fall-on-your-butt night for almost everyone, there were gorgeous moments (after I struggled to stay awake through the yapping to see them).

I have vowed to not watch another moment of the Winter Olympics live, as I just can't take it anymore. The fast-forward button is my friend. You've beaten me, NBC, and my only choice is to mute or zap you (except Dick Button, of course).

But I'll still watch, because I have the need for speed and the desire to fly.

UPDATE: Let me amend my above vow to say I'll never watch another moment of primetime Olympics on NBC live. I was watching the women's curling today on CNBC, and those commentators were fine -- informative and not in the least intrusive or annoying. Other NBC commentators, take note.

UPDATE FROM ABROAD: Even the UK takes a swing at NBC's Olympic coverage.

CLARIFICATION: In response to some confused folks in the comments -- when I say I'm watching "live," I mean watching the broadcast as it unfolds in real time, rather than time-shifting and watching it later on the DVR, when I can fast-forward it and stuff. I'm well aware that most of the sporting events are on tape (a fact which further irritates us West Coasters, since the Games are taking place in our time zone, and we have to wait until after the East Coast to see them on TV).

AND IN CONLCUSION: If you want to learn more about the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, check out this new documentary, 'Small Town, Big Dreams: Lake Placid's Olympic Story," airing on local PBS stations.

Today's cuppa: French Vanilla coffee

Yesterday afternoon I fought rush-hour-style traffic -- on a Saturday, fer cripes' sake! -- to get from West L.A. to Pasadena to see the "Bold & Fresh Tour 2010."

If you're not familiar with this event, it features Fox News Channel established commentator Bill O'Reilly ("The O'Reilly Factor") -- whose memoir, "A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity" gives the tour its title -- and rising star Glenn Beck, whose 5 pm. ET show, "Glenn Beck," has been on about a year and has proven a ratings powerhouse, at times nearly rivaling the numbers for O'Reilly's 8 p.m. ET broadcast.

While O'Reilly is keeping his audience in primetime, it's obvious that Beck is on the rise. Since O'Reilly has long been FNC's tentpole personality, Beck has come to call, making regular appearances on "The O'Reilly Factor" (I'm double-checking on this, but I don't believe O'Reilly has yet returned the favor, at least not on a regular basis).

Anyway, rather than having this turn into a cable-news "All About Eve," somebody -- I'm not sure who, but I wouldn't be shocked to hear it was FNC honcho Roger Ailes -- decided that the two should team up and go on the road.

As you see in the picture above, performances have also been rebroadcast in movie theaters.

(Just a side note, I wonder what FNC middle child Sean Hannity ("Hannity") thinks about all this. He does his own successful stage tours, but even so ...)

I showed up for the 4 p.m. show at the lovely Pasadena Civic Auditorium. I've heard of protests at other shows on the tour, but I didn't see or hear any. The crowd was capacity, generally jovial and definitely there to cheer on their favorites. And I do believe I saw Ann-Margret at the ticket booth, and I must say, she looked fabulous.

Inside, I saw one yellow Gadsden-flag "Don't Tread on Me" t-shirt and some red-white-and-blue apparel, but there was also a smattering of well-dressed folks (some of whom I heard discussing going out to dinner in Pasadena after the show, a good choice, as the town has many excellent eateries).

In truth, the whole affair reminded me of nothing so much as panel discussions I have attended at science-fiction conventions. The crowd was knowledgeable about the speakers' work and history, eager to hear familiar talking points, hip to the lingo, and generous with applause and occasional shout-outs, and one even brought a sign ("Glenn Beck for Truth Czar").

I've always thought that if you get a thorough understanding of one kind of fandom, you'll get a general understanding of all fandom. Of course, the topics discussed at your average SF panel don't have to do with the future of the the nation (unless you count the United Federation of Planets or, now, Pandora), but the basic principles remain the same. Fans are fans.

As for the show, the staging was dead simple, just a painted stage-door backdrop, a lectern or chairs. Beck talked first, then O'Reilly talked, then, after a break, they came out together -- and Beck talked some more.

Beck is a consummate showman, likely a result of many years spent in rock and talk radio. He has several funny voices -- from a snooty Ivy League drawl, with pipe clenched firmly in teeth, to high-pitched squeals for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (whom, he surmises, has had so much plastic surgery that it now hurts to blink ... "ow, ow, ow, ow" ... and so on).

His persona is like that of an Old Testament prophet (albeit a chubby one that giggles, tears up and wears sneakers without laces), not so much predicting the future as warning of the bad consequences of past and present actions.

He's an enthusiastic autodidact whose main area of study these days centers on the ideas and perils of early 20th-century progressivism and its proponents, from historical ones like Teddy Roosevelt (whom Beck doesn't seem to like very much) and Woodrow Wilson (whom Beck likes not at all), right up to modern acolytes, among which he numbers John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

His talk started on the current financial crisis in California and Democrat domination of local politics, including a line about how being a conservative in L.A. is like being at a perpetual AA meeting, where you occasionally are surprised to run into folks you didn't know were like you (appropriate, since Beck is also a very public recovering alcoholic).

(BTW, if you've ever read Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism," a lot of Beck's stuff will sound familiar. Just a plug there for another Tribune Media Services writer.)

He then segued into the threats featuring the nation at large, from debt levels to taxation to national security. Was he funny? Despite the subject matter, very.

Was he scary? No.

Were the things he said scary? Well, if you agree wholeheartedly with him, yes. If you don't and worry that his views are are reaching millions of viewers a day, yes. At this point, I'm not too certain there are many Beck agnostics among those familiar with his show -- and I sure don't think there were any in this crowd.

Then out came O'Reilly, who's really, really tall. Unlike the casually dressed Beck, O'Reilly sported a blue jacket, tan pants and a tie. He doesn't do funny voices (unless you count occasional singing), but he does tell a good joke and an engaging story.

In my experience, O'Reilly has two major modes -- dominant attack and reasonable assertive. He had reasonable assertive on this night, playing the wise old sage, full of faith in "the folks," in contrast to Beck's apocalyptic message.

It may be my imagination, but it seems that in the age of Beck, O'Reilly has been working on re-establishing his independent bona fides, casting himself as an experienced observer keeping a wary eye on both sides of the aisle. He's holding his audience, so the strategy seems to be working.

Beck also attacks on both sides of the aisle (any Schwarzenegger fans in the crowd couldn't have been thrilled), but he's a strong libertarian and pushes hard for his ideology.

When the two came together, the contrast -- whether actual or manufactured or some combination of the two -- became clear.

Beck tries to convince O'Reilly that the world is going to hell in a handbasket unless Americans wake up and do something (like meet him on Aug. 28 for a rally at the Lincoln Memorial).

O'Reilly says he believes in the reasonableness of the folks, that the country won't fall off the edge, that we don't need to collect food and gold (like Beck, he says), and that the process will eventually right itself.

It's sort of like watching your cranky, opinionated uncle square off against a pudgy combination of Cassandra and Robin Williams.

There was at teeny bit of rushing of the stage at the end, but the principals exited quickly, as they had a second show at 8 p.m.

Outside afterward, I saw, again, no evidence of protest and only one news crew -- from, of all places, Current TV, which counts Al Gore among its founders. I haven't seen the edited version of the report, but the interviewer (seen at right) did seem to go out of his way to encourage and agree with the interviewees and with the crowd, urging them to chant "USA USA."

I don't know whether he was truly a partisan or just hoping to get some good video. Any of you who catch the clip on Current, feel free to drop the URL in the comments.

All in all, an enjoyable night of political theater. I don't know if CNN or MSNBC are considering pairing up any of their personalities and sending them on the road. Again, if you have ideas for future match-ups, please share.

There are more of these to come, but today, in celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday (and of the catch-all President's Day on Monday -- it's more than just an excuse for a sale!), here is the second installment of the Favorite Founding Fathers series I began here.

We start with three guys I contacted on Facebook:

Stephen Collins ("7th Heaven"): "I think my favorite is the little-known Caesar Rodney, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Delaware.

"Delaware has three delegates to the Continental Congress: Rodney, Thomas McKean and George Read. According to Wikipedia, 'Rodney was in Dover attending to Loyalist activity in Sussex County when he received word from Thomas McKean that he and George Read were deadlocked on the vote for independence. To break that deadlock, Rodney rode eighty miles through a thunderstorm on the night of July 1, 1776, dramatically arriving in Philadelphia "in his boots and spurs" on July 2, just as the voting was beginning.'

"Since the vote on independence had to be unanimous, Rodney's ride to Philadelphia was essential to bringing Delaware into the about-to-be-born United States."

(In this clip from the musical "1776," Rodney is the fellow with the dark bandage strapped to his jaw, who remains seated while everybody else is jumping up to sing at John Adams. In real life, cancer scarred Rodney's face. And if you've never seen this musical, I highly recommend it -- not least because "Bones" writer/producer Stephen Nathan plays the part of the beleaguered soldier delivering Gen. Washington's dispatches. And he has a great song -- and sits in Rodney's chair at the beginning of the clip.)

Gary Graham ("Alien Nation," contributor to BigHollywood.com): "Stephen -- you gotta love that commitment (Caesar Rodney's)!

"And though I am tempted to say Jefferson, Franklin or Madison ... I think I'll chose Patrick Henry (at left), for so eloquently stating the grave consequences at stake: 'I know not what course others will take, but as for me ... give me Liberty or give me death.'"

Matt Iseman ("Clean House," "Sports Soup"): "I'm going with someone I consider to be an underrated Founding Father -- James Madison. I'm a big fan of the Federalist Papers, where he convincingly lays out the argument for our republican government as we know it today (relax, politicos, that's republican with a small 'r').

"Yes, I might've gone with Alexander Hamilton, but I prefer to picture my Founding Fathers like Clint Eastwood in 'The Outlaw Josey Wales,' and Hamilton lost in a duel with Aaron Burr, so he's out.

"Madison is also considered the Father of the Constitution, which, in my mind, means he slept with Lady Liberty and gave birth to a lil' democracy known as the U.S. of A.

"Furthermore, his wife, Dolley Madison, inspired delicious pastry snacks. And, he went to Princeton, so I like to think I might run into him at reunions -- If I have enough beers."

(Replied Graham: "Matt -- HAAAAA! Fantastic post. I'm with you on Madison. I'm a HUGE fan of his ... as well as the Federalist Papers. Should be mandatory reading in schools.")

And lastly, a guy I got to ask in person...

Tom Papa (comedian and host of NBC's upcoming "The Marriage Ref"): "Wow, my favorite? I like Ben Franklin. I love Franklin, because he seems to be beating his own drum there. He was really intelligent. He was a real character. He was the wacky neighbor of the Founding Fathers. Everybody's reading books and working on their fields (of expertise), and he's coming up with experiments, going to France. I like him."

This dropped into my email tonight from a friend who forwarded it from a friend who forwarded a Boy Scout newsletter.

The letter below appears to be from a couple of years ago and has no doubt been well circulated by now, but it never hurts to share good advice. It's also linked at www.mikeroweworks.com.

Enjoy (and keep watching "Dirty Jobs," Tuesdays on Discovery Channel -- and while you're at it, read this tribute by "Jobs" producer Dave Barsky to the late Capt. Phil Harris of "Deadliest Catch"):

SCOUTMASTER'S MINUTE

Dirty Jobs Mike Rowe letter

  Mike Rowe, an Eagle Scout and the star of cable TV show Dirty Jobs responded to a dad's request for help in convincing his son to finish scouting with only a year and half left to go. I thought you'd be interested in his reply:

Quote:

Kelby, Your Dad asked me to drop you a line and say something inspirational that might persuade you to dig down deep and find the determination to make the rank of Eagle Scout. It's a reasonable request, from a father who obviously wants to see his son succeed. But here's the thing - The Eagle Award is not really meant for people who need to be dragged across the finish line. It's meant for a select few, and I have no idea if you have the guts to see it through. Statistically, I suspect you do not. Only one out of a hundred Scouts make Eagle, so if you fail, there will be lots of other people with whom you can share excuses. Quitting now might disappoint your Dad, but I doubt that he or anyone else will be overly surprised. Anytime 99 out of 100 people do the same thing, it's not exactly a shock. I'm not trying to be cute with a bunch of reverse psychology. When I was 15, there was nothing that anyone could have said to me that would have inspired me to do something I didn't want to do, especially a stranger with a TV show. So I'm not going to assume you're any different, or pretend that I have some influence or insight that you haven't already heard from a dozen other people who actually know and care about you. I'll just tell you straight up, that doing something extraordinary can be very lonely, and most people simply aren't cut out for it. Being an Eagle Scout requires you to be different than most everyone around you, and being different is really, really hard. That's why the award is called "an accomplishment." Personally, and for whatever it's worth, the best decisions I've made in my own life, are those decisions that put me on the outside of being cool. Singing in the Opera, working in home shopping, starring in the school play when the entire football team laughed at me, and especially earning my Eagle, were all choices that required sacrifice, hard work, and delayed gratification. I have no idea if you possess those qualities, or even envy them. But I can tell you for certain, that NOT getting your Eagle, will be one of the easiest things you've ever done. Whatever you decide to do Kelby, it's important to remember that the decision is yours. Not your Dad's, not your friend's, and not your Scoutmaster's. And you'll own that decision for the rest of your life. Good Luck,            Mike Rowe

It is with sorrow that I heard tonight of the death of Capt. Phil Harris, 53, of the F/V Cornelia Marie, one of the featured crab fisherman in Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch," who suffered a stroke at the end of January (click here for details from an earlier blog post).

His sons issued a statement:

Sent on behalf of Jake and Josh Harris:

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our dad - Captain Phil Harris.  Dad has always been a fighter and continued to be until the end. For us and the crew, he was someone who never backed down.  We will remember and celebrate that strength.  Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers.

As did Discovery Channel:

Discovery mourns the loss of dear friend and colleague Captain Phil Harris.  He was more than someone on our television screen.  Phil was a devoted father and loyal friend to all who knew him.  We will miss his straightforward honesty, wicked sense of humor and enormous heart.  We share our tremendous sadness over this loss with the millions of viewers who followed Phil's every move.  We send our thoughts and prayers to Phil's sons Josh and Jake and the Cornelia Marie crew.

I was lucky enough to dine twice with Phil Harris, once with some of the other crab captains, and the second time with his sons.

At the first dinner, held at a swanky restaurant in Marina del Rey, the waiter was beside himself with excitement to have met Capt. Phil of the Cornelia Marie. He asked for and received an autograph, which he was eager to take home and show to his brother. At such an eatery, I suspect that waiter saw lots of celebrities, but I can't imagine that he could be any more excited than he was to meet the crusty fisherman (who ate steak, by the way).

The second time was a lunch at a hotel in Beverly Hills, on the day of the Discovery Channel upfront presentation to advertisers. After surviving a close call with a blood clot, Phil was downing sliders and enjoying life with his sons at his side.

I cherish my memories of Phil, who was as irascible and boisterous as you might expect from watching the show, but also funny and kind-hearted.

I'll let you know if I hear of any special programming tributes.

Fair winds and calm seas to you, Capt. Phil.

God grant that I may live to fish,
until my dying day,
And when it comes to my last cast,
I then most humbly pray,
When in the Lord's safe landing net,
I'm peacefully asleep,
That in his mercy I be judged,
As big enough to keep.

Author Unknown

Welcome to my eGuiders page, where I've been laboring away, finding the best online video for you.

For your viewing enjoyment, we have a weatherman losing his mind over the Washington, D.C. "Snowpocalypse"; a surprisingly gorgeous music video that casts the Founding Fathers as an '80s hair band (rock it out, Ben Franklin!); a young woman doing strange things with a baby (keeping it clean here, folks); Sawyer's many pet names for his "Lost" companions; a scene from "The Big Bang Theory," sans audience laughter; a "Glee" parody from "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon"; a long but deeply satisfying evisceration of "Avatar"; and a very, very old videogame commercial.

But wait, go to the next page, and there's more! There's a guide to producing the news! There's a movie made by chimps! Reality stars who don't want to make friends! Economic philosophers rapping! "The Late Night Wars" as a Ken Burns documentary! And cars, cars, cars and "Top Gear"!

Whew. I need a hot cuppa now.

Thank you! Good night!

Tonight's cuppa: peppermint tea

When NBC's superhero drama "Heroes" ends its fourth season (and 5th volume, "Redemption") on Monday, Feb. 8, with an episode called "Brave New World," best buddies Ando Masahashi (James Kyson Lee) and Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) will be right in the thick of it, as they are called on to avert a disaster.

Both Japanese, Ando and Hiro spend a lot of time conversing in their native language. That's fine for Oka, who was born in Tokyo and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 6 and is still fluent in Japanese. It's a little more complicated for Lee, who was born in Seoul, South Korea, and moved to New York City at the age of 10.

He speaks Korean along with English, but while that might help him on ABC's "Lost" -- which has two Korean characters -- it's not much good on "Heroes."

"I went to Hawaii for the first time this year," says Lee, "and I actually hang-glided off the North Shore. We were up in the air for about an hour, and we actually flew by the set of 'Lost.' I was joking to the instructor, 'Why don't you drop me off here, and I'll do a guest episode.'"

Lee has also watched "Lost" star Daniel Dae Kim -- born in Korea but raised in Pennsylvania since the age of two -- work on scenes in Korean with costar Yunjin Kim. who has worked in both American and South Korean productions.

"I do speak Korean," says Lee, "so I was able to tell he was working on it when the show started. I could definitely relate to trying to master a new language."

(Incidentally, with "Lost" ending, Daniel Dae Kim has booked a new job, as Detective Chin Ho Kelly in CBS' re-imagined "Hawaii 5-0." Click here for more.)

As it turns out, while Lee didn't speak Japanese, he has a connection to the island nation.

"My dad," he recalls, "was one of the few people who went from Korea to study engineering in Japan back in the '50s. Then they brought him back to Korea to help rebuild the country after the wars. He lived in Japan for about five years, studied there and worked as an engineer there.

"And then, now, here I am, playing this character. Life has a strange way of working itself in."

Starting out as Hiro's (on right in picture) work buddy and sidekick, Ando has evolved into a hero in his own right, with his own superpower, the red lightning, which can amplify the power of other superhumans he meets. It also can affect electronic devices.

"Looking back," says Lee, "the relationship has really progressed nicely in the past four seasons, starting out in this adventure together, and then developing our own powers and our own identities.

"I see Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson; I see Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer; Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. I feel like we're carving out our own nice little legacy in a way."

Asked if Ando's Luke or Han, Lee says, "I feel more of the Han Solo. Ando's definitely more of the happy-go-lucky sort of fellow. He has a knack for romance."

And, in the "Star Wars" saga, Han Solo wound up with Luke's sister, Princess Leia, and in "Heroes," after a little reworking of the past, Ando is engaged to Hiro's sister, Kimiko.

"I think they were meant to be together," Lee says, "and that's why Hiro had to go back to the past to fix his mistake. Now they're getting ready for a wedding. We'll see if it happens on the show, maybe next season."

As of today, there's no word from NBC on whether "Heroes" will get a new season. With Jay Leno abandoning his self-titled 10 p.m. ET/PT show to go back to "The Tonight Show," that does leave five hours of primetime to fill on the fall schedule, but there's no indication yet what will occupy the open slots.

Whatever happens, Lee has kept up his movie career, and continues his involvement with the Hollywood Knights, a celebrity basketball team that works for charity and entertains the troops through the USO.

"I just got back from Italy with my basketball team," says Lee. "For the Italy trip, we had a couple of the 'American Gladiators'; Ryan Cabrera, who's a singer; and Travis Van Winkle, who's an actor. It was a mixed bag.

"We were out there doing a USO tour, visiting the troops and playing exhibition games for the Air Force, Navy. It was pretty awesome. I got to visit the Air Force base and see F-16s. They brought us on the Naval ship, got a tour. And seeing the sights of Italy -- it was a blast."

If there is a season five, Lee hopes to see more of the "Andocycle," a Harley-Davidson V-Rod Muscle motorcycle given to Ando by Hiro in the season-three episode, "A Clear and Present Danger."

"I had to learn to ride for that episode," he says. "It was a three-day course, and I had different instructors each day. They were all women, so go figure. I had a really fun time. I'm hoping next season I get to do some more riding and some more action stuff."
 

Please welcome today's guest blogger, the estimable Tia Cupps, my mentor in all things tea, who's been kind enough to weigh in on today's "Puppy Bowl" action from the lair back East, from which she conducts black-tea ops for the federal government (with the help of some kitty pals).

Take it away, Tia!

It's Super Bowl Sunday and that means it's time for "Puppy Bowl VI"!

 

I've settled down to watch with a lovely cup of Constant Comment -- the blogger's favorite tea.

 

Yet another bunch of cute puppies takes the field at Animal Planet Stadium -- I certainly hope this wasn't live since I'm not sure anyone could have gotten to Silver Springs in all this snow. But it's always sunny for the Puppy Bowl.

(HCTV: "Puppy Bowl" is taped in October in beautiful, then-autumnal Silver Springs.)

 

This year, I'm loving the (wagging) tailgaters in the parking lot, complete with barbecue grill with goodies on it and an antique TV with rabbit ears. And speaking of which: bunny cheerleaders this year -- fuzzy and literally laid back. I'm surprised they didn't go after the pom poms.

 

Piloting the Twizzlers' Blimp are scruffy-looking hamsters that look more distracted than the half-time kittens. I must say the addition of rodents has put some real teeth into the game this year. Now they need to add some reptiles in a sports bar watching the game and we'll have all bases covered. Yes, I mean lounge lizards!

 

The puppies are on the field and it's every dog for him- or herself. Why are there no penalties for humping? Note to Animal Planet: 86 the slippery plastic logo since there seem to be a lot of skidding puppies today.

 

This year's batch of commercials is a lot of fun. I thought the Subaru commercial with the dogs trying to park in the parking lot was well done (and so true). A big shout out to Bissell and Pledge -- I can most certainly vouch for the efficacy of the Pro Heat II as well as the Pledge pet hair remover (which would be a perfect addition to my arsenal of cleaning supplies if only it were refillable).

 

But the commercial that made me laugh out loud was the Pedigree one with doggie dentures! Very well done and only slightly creepy.

(HCTV: Any opinions or product endorsements from Tia Cupps do not necessarily reflect the purchasing habits or preferences of HCTV, especially since HCTV does not have furry pets -- but would be grateful if anyone has an extra Num Nums the Zhu Zhu pet hamster lying around. Bonus points for including the hamster ball.)

 

Kitten Half-Time was as adorable as usual and I'm glad they've added moving toys to the "stage." As I was cooing over the kittens Tetley, one of my own charming cats, suddenly appeared and suggested it was dinner time. I convinced her to wait for the next commercial which she did with great reluctance and a lot of petting.

 

The pups seemed to run out of steam in the second half, with several penalties for napping in the end zone, puppy substitutions and a great deal of sloshing about in the water bowls.

 

All in all a satisfying game. I noticed that the puppies were from a variety of shelters, most outside the area. I don't remember seeing a disclaimer about where the puppies go from here.

(HCTV: We hope that all the puppies have been adopted by now. But we do know for sure that Jake and Duncan have new homes.)

 

Ah well! Another "Puppy Bowl: is in the record books and ...

(HCTV: SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!)

... the MVP, Jake the Chihuahua-Pug mix, truly deserved his award for showpuppyship if nothing else. He's one speedy boy!

 

Off to warm up the kettle for another cuppa and try to watch the Super Bowl to see if it can measure up.

Today's cuppa: more French Vanilla coffee from the Tassino

It wouldn't be Super Bowl Sunday if I didn't do a syndicated feature on "Puppy Bowl," and here's this year's (and yes, I will be watching on the phone with my pal and mentor in all things tea, the estimable Tia Cupps, sequestered in her lair somewhere back East, working on black-tea ops for the federal government. Hmmm...maybe we'll liveblog. Whaddya think?) ...

Andrew Schechter has his dream job - donning the striped shirt as referee for the sixth edition of Animal Planet's "Puppy Bowl," airing Sunday, Feb. 7, across from that other big football game.

 

Airing in rotation through the afternoon and evening, the two-hour special features puppies romping on the gridiron at the Animal Planet Stadium in Silver Spring, Md.

 

Of course, Schechter's dream job also involves picking up puppy poo, but he's OK with that.

 

"When the opportunity arose," he says, "I couldn't say no. If you are told you have an opportunity to pretty much work with puppies all day long in the cutest job available, I think anyone would raise their hand and say, 'Hey, it's time to really take advantage of the job.' "

 

Three years ago, says Schechter, he was working at Animal Planet as an associate producer and, in that capacity, was attending a planning meeting for "Puppy Bowl IV." The idea of who should be the referee came up.

 

Recalls Schechter, "I whispered to my boss, Melinda Toporoff, who's the executive producer on the show, and said, 'I want to be the ref. I want to be the ref.'

 

"She knows that I have an acting background. I grew up doing a lot of theater, from when I was little. I still do theater. She brought up the idea, 'Andrew actually would love to be the referee.'

 

"At first the entire room started laughing, because they didn't think I was serious. They said, 'Wait a minute, are you serious? You really want to do this?' I was, like, 'Yes, I want to do this.' That was my first year doing it. Three years later, 'Puppy Bowl VI,' I'm proud to say, I'm still the seasoned ref."

 

Schechter is eager to reveal that there are a few new elements to this year's broadcast, and it involves broadening the concept to other members of the animal kingdom.

 

"For some reason," he says, "if you're not a dog person, and if you're not a cat person, this year, we've upped the ante. Are you ready for this?

 

"For the first time ever, flying high above Animal Planet Stadium, you have the Twizzlers blimp, which is being flown by hamsters.

"And if this wasn't enough for you, on the sidelines this year, cheering on our puppy players, the world famous bunny-rabbit cheerleaders are donning the pompoms."

 

And of course, the Kitty Halftime Show also comes back.

 

"We give the kittens a nice stage to play on," Schechter says. "We give them a little burlesque music. It's always surprising when you see how much action they show on the field when it's their time to perform."

 

Last year, Pepper the Parrot performed the national anthem, but for this year's "Star-Spangled Banner," Schechter says, "We just have a nice version of the national anthem, with some beauty shots of all the puppy players. It will bring a tear to your eye again."

 

In past years, the puppy players were a mix of dogs from shelters and purebred pups from breeders. This year, it's all shelter puppies.

 

Asked what the "Puppy Bowl" has against breeders, Schechter says, "Safe breeding is always something we support, but although the 'Puppy Bowl' is cute and fun, and we always have fun, we do try to have a message, which is that shelter dogs need to be adopted.

 

"We really support Petfinder.com, and they help us find a lot of the puppies."

 

While Schechter already knows the identity of the official Most Valuable Puppy, there's also the one that the viewers will choose on the night of the big game.

 

For that, Schechter's money is on a black-and-white French bulldog from Oklahoma with a marking on one side that looks like an upside-down heart.

 

"She's a lover, not a fighter," Schechter says. "That will be a fan favorite."

 

Also in the running is Jake, a Chihuahua-pug cross - or "Chug" - from New Jersey.

 

"This Chug," Schechter says, "has pretty much the most energy of any dog I've ever seen on the Animal Planet Stadium field. He doesn't always have the ball, but the key is running up and down the field.

 

"He was giving our cameramen whiplash, to be honest with you."

 

While Schechter says that "Puppy Bowl" should remain special and not be spun off into other sports, he does warm to the idea of a Wiener Dog Derby to counterprogram the Kentucky Derby horse race.

 

"I like that," he says. "Little dachshund derby? Well, hey, if it's promoting adoption, you might be on to something there."

 

But it might have to be done as interstitials, since one wouldn't want to tire out those little legs.

 

"A wiener dog can only go so far," Schechter says.

UPDATE: Click here for a slideshow of the puppy-player lineup.

Today's cuppa: French vanilla coffee from the Tassimo

This Q&A with Bill Klein, the male half of TLC's Tuesday-night reality hit "The Little Couple," doesn't appear in print until next week, but, because I appreciate my loyal Cuppers, and because the show has been a good friend to HCTV, here you go...

(BTW, there'll be more to come to coincide with the show's season finale on Feb. 23) ...

Q: The show has a fan page on the social networking site Facebook. Do you visit it?

 

A: I'll tell ya, Facebook is one of those addictions we (Klein and his wife, pediatrician Dr. Jennifer Arnold) have. We're addicted to seeing what we did wrong, from the fan perspective. So far, it's been really benign, great comments: "You guys are really inspirational, down to earth," all those things. I'm thrilled that the good stuff that we've been hoping would resonate, has.

 

Q: So, despite being both under 4 feet tall, you're just regular people?

 

A: That's really it. There really isn't much to it. There's no magic, unfortunately.

 

Q: What's it like being reality TV celebrities?

 

A: From our perspective, one of the things that's unique is we're really, really uncomfortable with the idea of being a celebrity. So when we walk through the airport, it's really flattering when people come up to us and are asking for pictures and stuff. For instance, last night, we were on our way to L.A., we're walking through the airport, and it was every other person. It was a 45-year-old man with a business suit on, somebody that moves baggage that happened to be walking through the same hallway, some gal that's 22, some guy that's 33. Am I lying? Am I exaggerating at all? It was the weirdest thing.

 

Q: To what do you attribute the show's success?

 

A: That's a good question. My wife's wonderful, big smile, if I had to guess.

On Friday, Jan. 29, Capt. Phil Harris of the F/V Cornelia Marie, one of the featured Bering Sea crab-fishing boats on Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch," suffered a stroke and had to be helicoptered to a hospital in Anchorage, Alaska, where he has been undergoing treatment. According to some reports,this included surgery.

Fans of the show know that Harris has had physical problems in the past, most memorably a serious incident with a blood clot in 2008.

According to a posting today (Feb. 3) on Facebook, there are some positive developments. Here's what his sons, Josh (below, right) and Jake (below, left), had to say:

Today, dad showed some good signs of improvement, squeezing our hands and even summoning his trademark Captain's bluntness by telling the doctors and nurses, "Don't f*ck up." We are encouraged but still very cautious. It is a long road ahead, but its made more bearable and comforting knowing your thoughts and prayers are with us. We are strong because of you -- our fans. Thanks and we will continue to update you as best we can going forward.

-The Harris Brothers

For more information and updates, fans can click on the official site for the Cornelia Marie, the show's Discovery Channel fan page, or check out this story (and its embedded links). Those on Facebook can also subscribe to updates from the official fan page.

Get-well cards for Harris can be sent to the address below, where a good friend of his will compile them and deliver them to Harris at a later date.

Captain Phil Harris
PO Box 32466
Amarillo, TX  79120-2466

Of course, good wishes, thoughts and prayers will no doubt also be welcome.

The next season of "Deadliest Catch" is expected to premiere in April.

UPDATE: Sadly, on Tuesday, Feb. 9, Harris lost his fight. Click here for more info.

Today's cuppa: coffee from the Tassimo

Below find the full text of my syndicated feature story for today ...

It's early January, and "Lost" star Jorge Garcia is back in Hawaii after spending Christmas in Wisconsin. He still has a little time before filming begins on the final group of episodes of the island castaway drama's last season - which begins airing on Tuesday, Feb. 2, on ABC - but thoughts that the end is nigh are creeping in.

"It feels good still," he says. "We know that sadness is on deck, but we're not going there just yet. But you're starting to see the list of lasts. It's like, 'This is the last New Year's on the island.' "

And, of course, there's the packing. Says Garcia, "Now, you're starting to look around the house, thinking, 'How am I going to pack up all I've amassed over six years?' "

Since this is true for many of Garcia's fellow cast members, one wonders if there might be a "Lost" garage sale.

"There might definitely be some Craigslist-ing," Garcia says. "I don't know. It's a lot. I'm just looking at my bookshelf. We're talking about possibly a bunch of us going in on one of those shipping containers. Everyone gets a fraction, and we all start filling it up."

Before "Lost," Garcia was best known for doing 13 episodes of the CBS series "Becker," so his role as unlucky lottery winner Hugo "Hurley" Reyes has not only changed his career but also his life.

"Totally, completely," he says. "When I got the pilot, I didn't even have a script yet to read. I just knew it was (producer) J.J. Abrams, and it shot in Hawaii. So I figured, if anything, I'd have a little Hawaiian vacation out of it, and that was good enough for me."

In the years since, Garcia has also made forays into social media, starting out with a MySpace page, a move that soon became unmanageable.

"I just found," he says, "with all the personal messages and stuff, that the workload got really big. I'm still not at a place where I'm comfortable hiring someone to answer mail and send it for me. So it started getting where I'd spend two hours answering messages."

Instead, Garcia started a blog called "Dispatches From the Island," which has included such gems as photos of the show's 100th-episode cake; "Nunu's Advent Calendar of Stuff She Likes to Chew," featuring Garcia's tiny Chihuahua-dachshund mix; and the epic, seven-part YouTube video series "Jorge and Beth's Rat Incident," featuring a rat and the hysterical reactions to it from Garcia's girlfriend, Beth.

"I think I'll have to come up with a new one with a different title," Garcia says, "when I'm not on the island anymore. It's been fun. I'll definitely keep doing it in some way."

Although "Lost" became a worldwide hit, Garcia says that remembering that isn't always easy far across the sea.

"We're kind of protected shooting in Hawaii, in a way. You can convince yourself that you're just doing a little show that you and your friends do, and you don't think about the huge phenomenon it's become worldwide, until you start doing international press, or if you go to ComicCon or things like that. You begin to see the level of the fan base.

"It's going to be interesting, because there's this idea of coming back to Los Angeles. It's like you went away to make your fortune, and now you're returning home."

Of course, this wasn't exactly planned, especially on the part of the show's producers.

"Originally," Garcia says, "I remember seeing an old breakdown where Hurley was in his 50s and wasn't going to survive the pilot. So I'm glad I was able to change their minds.

"They had a rough list of some people to put in the show, but when they were casting us - and it was late in casting season - they ended up really concentrating on finding actors they wanted to work with and not worrying too much on how it's all going to fit just yet.

"So they ended up creating the part for me, after they met me. I had read for Sawyer, and they chatted with me for a little while. They ended up writing scenes for me, when I actually tested for the role.

"So, in that sense, because I was the only Hurley that they tested, as far as I know, that makes you feel pretty good."

Asked what will change immediately after the director calls the final "That's a wrap!" Garcia says, "I probably will give a nice close shave. Periodically it's just nice to feel real clean in the face."

As to whether co-star Josh Holloway, who plays Sawyer, will also lose the scruff on his chin, Garcia says, "He said he was going to shave his head when it was all over. He probably could be talked out of it."

UPDATE: To learn more about Garcia's early days with pal Lana Parrilla ("Swingtown," "Boomtown" and the upcoming "Miami Medical"), click here.