A second personal post in one week is something I’d normally avoid around here. Why should you care about my life, especially when the internet is full of prettier and faster-moving people who blog exclusively about about their lives?
But if the United States Congress can indulge itself by spending a day lobbing softballs at their favorite hardball players, then I don’t see why I can’t indulge myself too. I am, after all, prettier than most Congressmen. I’ve got that going for me.
So - my day, which has been more “Hollywood” than most, and makes me feel like I may be getting the hang of this “west coast” thing:
- Early this morning I showed up in Culver City to tape this week’s Wait Wait. It’s a good one, I think, and it features a brand new panelist and an appearance by Dan Rather’s replacement, “interim anchor” Bob Schieffer. And unless it gets edited out, you may well get the chance to hear me sing “Freebird.” It’s hard to resist when Sagal holds up his lighter like that.
- From there it was on towards the ocean, where I turned in my cell phone and bid farewell to my pals at “The Apprentice”. Naturally, I can’t tell you a single thing about what I did there. Even we gigantic Hollywood mover/shakers dare not step outside the bounds of our non-disclosure agreements. I can say this much, though - I’m not likely to be a contestant on any upcoming seasons of the show, let alone the overall winner. So if you’ve already placed a bet on me… my apologies.
- The next stop was to visit “Wendy” on her last day of production for the Cartoon Network’s new smash-hit, “Robot Chicken.” Interesting fact: “Stop motion” animation doesn’t involve stopping time at all. Instead, they stop the camera while they manipulate the models - conventional motion continues. It’s not the approach I would have taken, but it seems to work. Live and learn.
- This afternoon, I’ll be continuing work on another Secret project, which I’ll now reveal: “Trippin” with Cameron Diaz. I’m sure she’ll be talking all about it on “The Tonight Show” next Thursday, so I’ll let her fill you in - the aforementioned “prettier people” rule applies here. [So if you’re scoring at home, the correct order of prettiness so far is: Cameron Diaz, me, Congressmen. I’ll fill out this list a bit as it occurs to me…]
Anyway, it’s an exciting project, and its goals are downright noble. What am I doing for it? I’ll tell you after it premieres.
- Finally, tonight Jeanne and I will be in the audience of Real Time with Bill Maher. If you’re not watching this show, I heartily recommend it. Beyond being funny, it also has the kind of fresh, honest, interesting debate that you don’t get on… those “fresh honest interesting debate” shows.
So there it is - a Hollywood day featuring me, me, and me. Sorry about that. We will now return to our regularly scheduled knee-jerk snarkiness…
Fanny Roborat
18 comments
PC Pete
March 18, 2005 at 7:50 pm
1Trippin’, eh? So the Beauty Order grows longer… Cameron (Oh, Princess Fiona!), then Eva, then Drew, then……. then (finally!) Adam, then the congressmoles. Way to go, dude! You’re way ahead of the Grumps. I do hope you still find time to visit your poorer relatives and virtual friends… (remember, we were here first).
And if you and your new close personal friends ever need someone to carry your bags, I’m here for you, bro. For everything else, there’s steroids.
PC Pete
March 18, 2005 at 7:52 pm
2Oh goody, I wuz first! Woo hoo. What do I win, Auros? Murray? Hello, is this thing on?
Murray
March 18, 2005 at 8:02 pm
3Adam,
Finding you in the audience of Real Time with Bill Maher, is like going to a dinner theatre and noticing that sitting at the table next to you is Tom Hanks.
When is Bill going to put you on stage? As far as pretty goes you are heads and shoulders better than his guests two weeks ago. Janet Reno, who said almost nothing, Whoopie who talked as if she were being monitored by the FCC, and a painful section with Professor Churchill who seemed very out of it, so much so that Bill had to feed him his own lines.
This is the only show that my wife will stay up until 11:00 to watch, but after that show she wasn’t sure.
Murray
March 18, 2005 at 8:06 pm
4PC Pete,
You were first only because I sent everything through spell-check, to keep from looking illiterate.
(It’s a virtual prize).
Auros
March 18, 2005 at 10:48 pm
5You do not win me. I’ve already been won, by a cute girl that Adam met in Pacific Grove. I’ll let Murray speak for himself.
PC Pete
March 19, 2005 at 9:01 am
6Rats. I are iliterit. I knew that.
Auros? You snatched a Felber groupie from under Adam’s nose in Pacific Grove? There’s a story there, I’m sure…
So. Bill Maher. Please explain (in small words so an Aussie can understand) who Bill Maher is? We’ve only just started getting Jon Stewart down here (on the non-commercial station) but it sounds as though Bill is big enough to attract the names without being too big for them to feel uncomfortable talking to. Like Jim Lehrer. Or Robert Segal. Right? Wrong? Better hair?
David
March 19, 2005 at 9:07 am
7Completely, utterly, and totally off topic.
In an e-mail, I referred to the Bush administration’s enthusiastic, insane pursuit of the weaponizing space. When I hit spellcheck, the suggestion came up that I change weaponize to caponize. Guess my spellcheck feels the same way I do about those nutcases.
hedera
March 19, 2005 at 8:28 pm
8Spellcheck blows me away. I don’t normally use it, being a better than average speller; but I have a recently upgraded laptop at work and haven’t bothered to figure out how to turn it off in Outlook 2003 (now stop cringing, it wasn’t my decision). It’s amazing watching it trying to cope with (a) Indian names (we had an Indian fellow on the team until recently and his name spellchecked out as “Macho Norseman” which charmed us so much we had a badge made for him that read that), and (b) the computer geek acronyms. I’ll admit that “caponize” for “weaponize” tops anything I’ve seen.
David
March 19, 2005 at 10:53 pm
9I never use spellcheck for the same reason. I still pick up the dictionary if it’s one of those words I want to be sure about. I’m also one of those people who, when I open a dictionary, is there for about five minutes. I think the spellcheck, which I’d never used, took possession of me so it could suggest de-cajonated the Yellow Rose.
David
March 19, 2005 at 10:54 pm
10Decajonating (I’m trying to watch the tournament and think at the same time…)
Wendy
March 20, 2005 at 1:43 am
11I feel so honored to have been considered as part of your Hollywood day. It was nice to see you again. We should “do lunch” somewhere fabulous soon.
Murray
March 20, 2005 at 9:21 pm
12PC Pete
I didn’t say that UNLIKE you I spell check to keep from looking like an illiterate.
I just do it because I don’t want to appear more stupid than my ideas would betray.
If I were smarter I would have written clearly enough to not be misunderstood.
For me spell-check is a lobstersend.
Steve
March 20, 2005 at 10:22 pm
13Adventures with Spellcheck: Blogger’s spellcheck when confronted with “Chalabi” suggests “Caliph”. Oh, I hope not.
hedera
March 20, 2005 at 11:07 pm
14Scary, Steve, very scary. I hope not, too.
On an only marginally related note: the Economist this week starts off an article on the reform of the Intelligence Community in the U.S. (if that isn’t an oxymoron) with this FABULOUS (possibly apocryphal) quote from Petronius Arbiter, the 1st century Roman satirist:
“We tend to meet any new situation in life by reorganizing. And what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization.”
It worries me that the Romans had the same problem we seem to have, and look what happened to them. (No, not Islamic armies; they took another 8 centuries or so.) But this quote is SO apt for the organization where I work that I think I’m going to make a poster of it, and put it up in my cube.
David
March 21, 2005 at 8:56 am
15Regarding the question of ability to spell re intelligence, my experience is that there is not a strong correlation. Besides, as Twain remarked, it’s a pretty poor person who can only spell a word one way.
And I guess it’s El Cajon and cojones.
Mary
March 21, 2005 at 11:36 am
16Adam, not only are you prettier than the congressmoles, you are far more literate. I’d snark at them except they are now WAY below contempt. I have to have some standards.
tess
March 21, 2005 at 8:13 pm
17Crap, wake up late and I miss a post! Okay, so I’ve pretty much been asleep for the whole weekend . . .
I still can’t tell if Adam really was a contestant on “The Apprentice” or if he’s being facetious. I’m hoping he’s being facetious because I hate that show. Then again, I hate almost all tv these days after Buffy and Angel ended. So, yeah, if you got fired, Adam, more power to ya — it only proves you’re far too good for those schmucks, even if they’ll earn gobs and gobs more money than all of us collectively will see in our lifetimes.
PC Pete
March 22, 2005 at 4:34 pm
18No, Murray, my obtusity prevailed.
I hate spellcheck. Hate it. I’ll leave it as an exercise for the bored reader to try spellchecking my surname. Naus. (I’m gonna change it to Smith, I swear).
On the other hand, I try to like grammar check, just that my grammar ain’t the same as it’s grammar. Sigh.