The Friday Hot Sheet

When you take part in a contest on Tuesday night with your buddies to decide which of the chosen five brands of Tequila is the best by taking repeated shots of all of them -- the rest of the week can only pale in comparison. But that didn't stop ish from happening, and happening hard all over the world.

At the same time, when your daily routines are largely defined by the ebb and flow of the corporate workplace, and that tide has swung hard towards the "not much going on" side of the equation -- it's hard not to get pulled down into the mire of it all. In other words, it's been one of those weeks where a big part of my workday was consumed in trying to figure out how not to sleep through the middle of it -- and that was all before me and the boys went all El Toro on ourselves with the agave.

So before I go to the records library for some ..uh, research -- here are this weeks risers and fallers, and the buzz as it looks from here.

	Charlie Gibson	When word came out that republican VP nominee Sarah Palin would not be made available to the press for interviews it suggested that her party was worried how she would fare against some of the hard hitters out there who were surely dying to get a crack at her. When they later announced that her first official interview would be facilitated by infamous soft-baller Charlie Gibson, those of us who are flabbergasted over the way people seem to be fawning all over her despite the fact that she appears to be a total whackjob collectively let out a groan, because short of Larry King there are few journalists who have gained a better reputation for not asking real questions than the Gibster. Well I guess he got tired of hearing that mess -- because not only did he open up on her with both barrels, but at times seemed to be openly annoyed at some of her answers (here's a hint -- guess how she pronounces "Nuclear?)."
	Sarah Palin	You picked the interviewer. You set the time. Hell, your team probably wrote the majority of the questions. This was a real opportunity to shut up a bunch of your critics, and thus far all you've done is give them more ammunition. You looked bad up there, honey. Shaky, under-prepared, and at times flat-out amateurish. Remember Dan Quayle? Remember James Stockdale? Yeah, the rest of the country doesn't either.
	Barack Obama	Dude, where the hell are you lately? I mean honestly -- Skeletor hands off to Family Values Barbie, she straight-up fumbles the ball all over the press and the best you've got to show for it is a couple of minutes on Letterman? Look, taking the high road is admirable, but all this letting the screwballs hog the mic business is getting kind of old. I mean, have you seen some of the attack ads they're throwing at you lately? Are you just gonna sit there and take that?
	The Denver Broncos	Big ups to my boys not only for beating the crap out of the hated Raiders, but also for not taking their collective foot off Al Davis and his team's throat even when it became clear that they were vastly overmatched. Hopefully you can carry that momentum into this weeks matchup against the Chargers, who might have looked bad in their opener, but have a pretty strong history of eating our lunch.
	Project Runway	Honestly, this season has really been kinda blah. The challenges are boring, the talent of the designers is kinda questionable, and outside of the fact Kenley's knowitall attitude makes me want to kick her in the throat, the lack of a villain in the cast has really sapped the energy out of a show that I still really want to like.
	Jezebel.com's Project Runway Fashion Show Coverage	Once again the correspondents from the site that were sent to cover Fashion Week in New York have attended the show that will help decide the eventual winner of this year's competition (every year the show's schedule overlaps the actual finale) -- which is fine, seeing that Project Runway is always a hot topic of discussion; but once again those of us who still want to watch the competition unfold have had their thunder stolen by articles that blatantly give away the names of the finalists weeks before the show actually reveals who they are! This has happened a few years in a row now, with Jezebel writers claiming that their priority is covering the events in Bryant Park regardless of who might be sponsoring it, and that if you don't want to know the names of the finalists then simply don't read the articles -- but when you put those names in the effing TITLE it sort of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? Seriously, it's like giving away the teams from the Superbowl in October. Not cool, Jezebel. Not cool.
	Holiday Hill Elementary School's Lunch Menu	My son Curren is the coolest, cutest little kid I've ever known -- but he cut a fart in the car the other day when I picked him up from school that I was seriously worried was gonna melt the paint off the interior. He's all of 8 years old and I was rolling down windows and shit. Look, I'm not expecting five-star cuisine from an Elementary school or anything, but just what the hell are you putting in the food?

             

[Listening to:  Nonpoint – "The Wreckoning" ]