On Tall Kids, Family Trees, and Zebra Racism...

I read today that the tallest living American (a 7 feet 8 inch man) was 5 feet 4 inches tall at age 9. That seemed incredible to me until I realized that my son is just about 5 feet tall and he is 8. He has a full 6 months before his birthday and then another year of being 9. Seeing as he has grown 5 to 6 inches a year he may just be 5'9" before his 10th birthday. GULP! I'll keep you posted on his height and how it directly corresponds to our monthly grocery bill (don't forget there are three more potential circus freaks coming up behind him as well).

Let's Roll...

TV

Entertainment Weekly and TVLand got together and listed the Top 50 TV icons of all time. I've got a few issues with the choices of course but overall it's a decent ranking. I'm pleased to see Dick Van Dyke and Homer so high, but can't believe Mr. Rogers didn't even make the top 50. Why is the original cast of SNL ranked #15 as a group but Jennifer Aniston singled out of the Friends cast? Shouldn't Mulder and Scully be on here somewhere as well (even as a team)? James Gandolfini strikes me as a bit of a hot iron pick, especially as high as he is, and I know it may not be an easy pick right know but if you make this list in 20 years I'm guessing Jeff Probst might be a good choice. The only two names I didn't recognize were #68 Don Cornelius and #82 Ted Knight. 10 Rollin' points to the first person who can tell me who they are, and while you're at it, how they both ranked higher than Jerry Mathers? 86?! The Beave is 86th?!

Movies

I just voted for the People's Choice Awards. I always love it when the People's Choice noms come out, because they are the exact opposite of the Oscars, ie movies a lot of us have actually seen and enjoyed because they were fun. This year's noms are no different. Best movie noms? Bourne 3 (YES!), Pirates 3 (uh... no.), and Transformers (ok) Another great example, how about this category; Favorite Leading Man: Jamie Foxx; Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson; Joaquin Phoenix. The day you see "The Rock" up accepting his Oscar give me a call, so I can come make sure the LSD wears off before you jump from the roof. Somewhere between Oscar snobbery and the PCA tom foolery someone needs to produce a nice balanced award show.

Music

In a recent Project 86 blog from front man Andrew Schwab he mentioned that they just recorded a Christmas song, and that we should be scared to know such a thing. Scared? I'm pumped! The more modern rock Christmas tunes around the better the Christmas playlist for The Fuse will sound in a couple weeks. Just hurry up and get it to me so I can get it on the air.

Gaming/Tech

The Check Mii Out channel debuted this past weekend on my Wii and I've already downloaded Mii masterpieces like Charlie Brown, Miss Piggy, and an incredible version of Chicken Little. I know it may not sound like much to you, but remember these people are creating these characters from a very limited amount of options. It's astonishing to me what people can make. I can't wait to vote in the different contests the first of which is already up challenging Mii artisans to craft "Mario without his cap". As Mario would say, "It'sa Mii, Mariooooooo, Woo- Hoo!"

Faith/Culture

Snopes (the go to place to see if that email forward you got is true or not) posted today the story of Lowe's Christmas catalog renaming Christmas Trees, Family Trees. Lowe's says it was a misprint, but as careful as stores have been recently to be "inclusive" it seems a bit fishy. At the Dicer house we used to use a fake family tree but this year we are going straight to the family tree farm to cut our own down. Hmmm, doesn't seem to work for me. By the way, if you want my full opinion on the supposed "war on Christmas" just ask. I think it's ridiculous that we get wrapped up in whether or not the greeters at our local Wal Mart say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays". In fact, if I owned a store, I'd likely instruct my employees to keep it pretty generic as well. But even I can see that calling it a "family tree" is a bit over the top.

Randomness

Is a zebra white with black stripes or black with white stripes? 90% of people asked in a recent poll (on the Wii) said white with black stripes (as did I). Upon further review I think we are all wrong. I discussed this with a friend recently, who was the first to challenge me on it to the point where we Googled some pictures. I never realized how evenly stripes were distributed across a Zebra's body. In fact, the only distinguishing parts (nose, tail, mane) are BLACK. Is this some sort of Ethno-centric mindset that led me to picture these animals as white with some black striping? Does the Zebra exist solely to point out these racial tendencies? Probably not, but I must admit if asked again I would change my answer. A Zebra is a black animal with white stripes.