Have you noticed that everybody who almost dies these days floats over the operating room and sees the scene from above? It's becoming the modern version of the alien abduction description, complete with large eyes and anal probe.

I like The Cleveland Show because much like Family Guy throws in pop culture references from my era, it will use sports references from my era--from Scottie Pippen guest appearances, to a business called Webster's Slughterhouse.* And, of course, the main character is named Cleveland Brown. Another show I need to be watching religiously instead of sometimesously.

For some reason, I missed Planes, Trains, and Automobiles in the 80s--it's been on TV a lot lately, and I can't get enough. I miss John Candy a lot.

Do you watch Metal Mania? It's a block of hair metal vids on VH1 Classic. Kim and I try to watch it every Saturday night. It's so funny how you can guarantee a Maiden, a Dio, a Scorpions, every single time. Always the same vids, too: Run to the Hills/The Trooper, Holy Diver/Rainbow in the Dark, Big City Nights/Rock You Like a Hurricane/No One Like You. But we'll tune in for them every time. It's like we're minions in some kind of Logan's Run-esque Metal World, and at the end of each week we have to check in with Ronnie James Dio or we'll be executed by that guy who smelts the sword in the Holy Diver video.

Does anybody plead guilty anymore? I feel like even if that guy who crashed his plane into the IRS building had lived, even he would've gone the "no contest" route. The woman in NYC who killed her son and tried to commit suicide, leaving a note saying why she killed the kid, pleaded not guilty! Maybe that guy who hates when I talk "law" instead of "Red Sox" can explain this to me.

Did you know Clay Buchholz is number 11 now? The middle area of his road uni is gonna be very symmetrical now.

It was Kurt Cobain's birthday on Saturday (I used the date as my e-mail address when I first got e-mail 15 years ago, and I'm still using that address!), and it got me thinking back to the "newsgroups" days. I was a regular at alt.music.nirvana, tradin' bootlegs and Bush-bashin'. That's Bush the band in this case. I went back and found all those posts--Google Groups has archived it all. The mid-90s: underrated!

I've known for years that Three's Company came from a UK show called Man About the House. But I never thought to look into the original. Until now. Look at the character names! Tripp, Crissy, Larry...the Ropers! It's like looking up your ancestry...

I promised yo a Smiths of Baseball three weeks ago. Maybe this week...we'll see.


*Webster Slaughter was a wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns back in the 80s.