I'll Just Have a Salad

Saturday night, AJ and I cuddled up in one of Mom's easy chairs to watch a couple episodes of "Veggie Tales," a somewhat odd cartoon featuring stories about plant life as metaphors for biblical teachings. The kid won't eat any veggies, but loves these cartoons. The theme of these particular tales was the Golden Rule...

All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.
Matthew 7:1

...more commonly read as "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," but I'm more of an old-school guy and relish any opportunity to use 'ye.'

Of course, we've talked about this tenet before, usually after AJ got in trouble at pre-school for pushing some girl (even though she deserved it the little skank) or head-butting a classmate. But the vegetables brought it into sharper focus with their parable of the fueding villagers who alternately wore shoes and pots on their head. I told you it was odd.

At the end, a little vignette reinforces the message and I further reinforced it as we walked back down the hall to join Mom. I asked AJ to tell her what lesson he'd learned from the show and he replied, "Be nice to other people even if you don't feel like it."

Gawd, I love that kid.

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I'm a total Heroes geek. Not as much as some people, but it's become a destination for me and this from someone who can never remember when shows are on. Thankfully, I have the TiVo and marked this before the season to give it a chance. I had four episodes saved before I ever watched one and by the second, I was hooked. I'd watch it for Hiro alone, though I'd like to get my hands on Ali Larter. If you sleep with someone with a split personality, is that considered a threesome? I like how it moves forward (even while going back in time!) with every episode, none of this tease shit that goes on for weeks and makes me wanna headbutt one of AJ's classmates. I like not knowing which side some people are on, the conflicting loyalties (or lack thereof), and that's a credit to the nuance of the creators.

I also have a huge heterosexual Man Crush on Aaron Sorkin. Hell, I liked Sports Night (where have you gone Sabrina Lloyd, you doe-eyed minx?) and I was positively Jonestownian over The West Wing, so I naturally highly anticipated Studio 60 and found myself curiously disappointed a few weeks in. The snappy dialogue was there as was the intelligent plotting. But it just seemed too surface to me. I opined that a sketch comedy show just didn't offer the same opportunities for true dramatic tension that the Oval Office does.

But I've pulled back from that. The two-parter with John Gooodman was fantastic, so much so that, not knowing I was gonna get a "to be continued" after the first hour, I flipped my TV the bird when the message popped up. The actors are finding their rhythms and starting to mesh better. I'm a little unsure about some of the casting choices (still having trouble with Chandler Bing as neurotic sage, but not as much) and Jordan's flippancy annoys me. I still hate Harriet, but find myself wanting more of Tom and Simon. All in all, I look forward to Monday nights in front of the TV like I have not in many, many years. And '24' starts in January.

Speaking of things that start in January, the 6th season of "The Shield" is coming. I've not yet seen Season 5 (as I've lamented here a million times), but now know when it's comeing out on DVD. Late March! Yippee! Do you people have any idea how difficult it will be for me to have 6-8 episodes backed up on TiVo and resist the urge to watch them out of order? Nigh impossible. I'm addicted to many things and Vic Mackey is one of them.

My latest DVD selection is "The Wire." I'm not able to go through it as quickly as I did "The Shield" with AJ's homework and my own self-rehabilitation projeccts taking up a bunch of my free time, but I'm better than halfway through the first season and am blown away by the quality of this show. It's so intricately woven, so perfectly paced and the inter-relationships amongst co-workers and superiors--on both sides of the law--are filled with genuine affection and tension. Just fantastic.

I've also been watching a lot of porn.

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The Mookie tonight! I have carved out a few hours from my busy schedule to play this the last few weeks. I've thoroughly enjoyed it and encourage you fence-sitters to get in the game or at least stop by, if only to see Waffle hang a bunch of bad beats on kind, well-intentioned people.

What: Mookie -- Fish Soup $10+$1
Where: Full Tilt
When: 9 pm CST
Who: A bunch of really good poker-playing bloggers and some crappy, lucky ones
Why: Why?!?! You have to ask why?!?! Tourist.
Password: vegas1