What On Earth?-Column #32, January 2005

Well, here we are in 2005. I tell you, 2004 was one heck of a roller-coaster ride some of us would like to (although some would never like to) forget.

I'll begin by telling you that at this time on New Year's Day, it's all about the Rose Parade, and the college football companion (Rose Bowl), and the other major Bowl games as well (Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange), and some minor ones too (Gator, Citrus, Music City, Cotton, etc.) Although the Cotton and Fiesta Bowls also do parades, it's the Rose one that attracts the most attention. The Bowls then continue with the Super and Pro Bowls of the NFL. Have a good time if you plan on partying with the chicken wings and soda pop, and remember to hand over the keys if you've been partying a little too hard.

Speaking of the Super Bowl, the HEADLINE NEWS is where I begin my Year In Review. (This is not to be confused with the CNN network of the same name, which debuted in 1982, 2 years after CNN was born. Originally called CNN2 in its early heydays, this channel was all about the top news of the day at :00 and :30, Business at :15 and :45, Sports at :20 and :50, and Entertainment at :25 and :55. They dropped this format 20 years later to accomodate a younger viewing audience.) Remember the Super Bowl halftime show involving Janet Jackson, and Justin Timberlake, where Justin pulls off a part of Jackson's clothing revealing one of her breasts? Well, that's where we got the term "Wardrobe Malfunction." And unfortunately, for those who were watching (me included), they did NOT censor it out. So, as a result CBS got hit by the FCC with a $550,000 fine for that shocking incident. There have been similar incidents like this one, such as the one involving "Desperate Housewives" star Nicolette Sheridan and Philadelphia Eagles WR Terrell Owens on Monday Night Football (they were playing the Cowboys, who won, fortunately!), where she accidentally drops a towel she had draped around herself. And, if you're keeping up with the war in Iraq, well, we handed sovereignty back to the country, and later THIS month, they will vote on the new government. We fight, while they vote. Even after the elections, don't expect the insurgency to let up, though. Also at the beginning of the year, we focused on the criminal cases of Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart, and Kobe Bryant. Eventually, Kobe Bryant was cleared of sexual harassment charges, and has returned to his basketball life with the Lakers (who are now Shaq-less, as they traded Shaq to the Miami Heat, the other Florida NBA team. The one he played with previously was the Orlando Magic). And speaking of which.....

I'll go to SPORTS next. Besides the Wardrobe Malfunction, and the NJ Devils taking home the Stanley Cup, and the Detroit Pistons taking the NBA Finals, I'll focus on the best (and worst) in sports. Speaking of those Pistons, I'd like to talk about the most recently talked about event in the news. In November of last year, a brawl broke out at the 11/19 game of the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers. A fan through a cup at Pacers forward Ron Artest, which led to Artest charging at that fan, and all hell breaks loose after that. When the dust cleared, Artest was suspended for the rest of the season and hit with a huge fine, and other players were given smaller suspensions and fines. If you want to see for yourself what happened, click HERE. I must warn you, though (as they say on many TV shows): Due to the graphic nature of the site's videos, viewer discretion is advised. Now, moving on from that, if you're a baseball fan, you just witnessed something 86 years in the making: THE BOSTON RED SOX FINALLY WINNING THE WORLD SERIES FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1918 ("The Curse of the Bambino", when they traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees). They did it in 4 straight games, knocking out the St. Louis Cardinals. And speaking of the Yankees, when it came to the final four, Boston knocked NY out. And, while 2004 marked the 10th anniversary of The Ballpark In Arlington (The Rangers' new ballpark, which opened in 1994 and replaced the 22-year-old Arlington Stadium, which was torn down and made into a parking lot in Arlington), it got a new name: Ameriquest Field In Arlington. This makes it the first ballpark to have an official sponsor. This comes as the Anaheim Angels may be contemplating a name change to the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles. They say GOOD. We say TOO LONG!

Obviously, WEATHER made a big role in 2004, as Florida got hit with 4 huge hurricanes (Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne). You can imagine how much cleaning up they had to do down there, and it was a mess! If that's not bad enough, the day after Christmas, most of Southeast Asia had a huge tsunami, and while they're cleaning up, we're bringing aid, and plenty of it, too. Donate, donate, donate, if you can!

Next topic, FINANCE. Well, this past holiday season was worse than 2003, as you can expect. But not for the stocks, however. The Dow's been toying with 10,000 ever since 2003, and we're getting close to heading back up to 11,000; which we last saw in 1999. But, in the post 9-11 world, anything can happen. And, of course, anything can happen to Gas Prices, Dairy Prices, any kind of Prices. Obviously, Gas Prices went through the roof, with some cities having prices of $4 a gallon or more. Dairy Prices are about close to $2 a gallon or more. Don't you just hate it when prices go through the roof? I certainly do.

Next category, HEALTH. The diet medications Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra were all pulled from the market after people experienced heart complications. Obviously we know this means, for those who suffered: If you've been experiencing these complications, you could be entitled to cash for your injuries.

Next category, ENTERTAINMENT. We lost many TV shows (Friends, Fraiser, Sex and the City, etc.) and personalities (Ronald Reagan, Fay Wray, Janet Leigh, Julia Child, Jeff Smith, Jerry Orbach, etc.). And speaking of inspirational movies, we will remember this year for one inspirational movie: THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, starring Mel Gibson. As you know, this was a very controversial movie. While many knew this was going to tell the story of Jesus Christ, nobody knew it was gonna be violent, so it got the R rating. Moving on from that, in the process of losing our favorites in the entertainment world, we gained some new TV shows, like NBC's Joey (Friends spin-off), CBS's Listen Up (with Jason Alexander), and of course: Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition; 3 of ABC's ratings hits. Also, 2 news personalities in Tom Brokaw of the NBC Nightly News and Barbara Walters of ABC News' 20/20, have left their respective shows, but not the organizations completely. But for those who want to remember 2004 for TV, I've got 2 words for you: YOU'RE FIRED. Yep, Donald Trump and his new NBC reality TV show "The Apprentice" made those 2 words the newest catch phrase in television today. Many of us know him for his 15-year old board game (which recently got a makeover, and you can find it in many stores), and his books on The Art Of The Deal; and even his hotels and casinos, which attract hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. But now, it was HIS turn to give hundreds of thousands of would-be moneymakers, THE DREAM JOB OF A LIFETIME: A $250,000 salary plus the opportunity to work as one of his assistants at some of his future projects. It's basically the same thing each week in the Big Apple (NY), as 2 teams are assigned a task by the Trumpster, and the objective, you guessed it, MAKING MONEY, AND LOTS OF IT. Winning team got a reward, losing team heads to THE BOARDROOM, where they must put 2 of their own up to send them home. After a few minutes of talking it over, one of the members of the losing team was booted with the Donald's catchphrase "You're Fired!". It goes like that until 2 remain. At this point, they're all working with huge tasks (which involve the previous bootees), and then they make one final speech as to why they should be hired. It's a tough decision for the home viewers to make, but all you have to do is watch each week, and judge for yourself how the teams are going to do. I do that often, and sometimes, my predictions win. Survivor fans, well, remember the Amber Brkich and Rob Mariano from Survivor: All Stars? Well, they were in the final two, with Amber taking home the million. During the reunion show, Rob proposed to Amber. The wedding should be coming up soon. After THAT, CBS decided to let the viewers choose who else goes home with a million bucks. That honor went to Rupert Boneham, from Survivor: Pearl Islands. He is, next to Richard Hatch, a popular player among Survivor fans. And speaking of television.....

GAME SHOWS is my next category. ABC brought back Regis AND Millionaire as a whole, in Super Millionaire, with a $10 million top prize, and 2 new lifelines in Three Wise Men and Double Dip. As for regular Millionaire, well, AOLers can now join in on the Audience lifeline, and at the top level, you get a new lifeline, appropriately titled Switch The Question. And the money tree is the same one that we've all come to know and love, but with a few tweaks (Question 10 was $32K, now $25K; Question 11 was $64K, now $50K; and Question 12 was $125K, now $100K). But this year, as you may expect, it was all about Jeopardy! and its juggernaut in 74-game and $2.5 million winner KEN JENNINGS. Thanks to the rule change on dropping its 5-game winners' limit, Jennings made the most out of the rule, until he was finally defeated at the end of Novemeber by California realtor Nancy Zerg. Well, it HAD to come, and at the end of November, it DID. Its companion show, Wheel Of Fortune, beefed up its main game wheel with 2 Gift Tags instead of one, made the Mystery Wedges $1,000 each (with the same rules applying), and beefed up the bonus wheel with the same lighting used to create the new puzzleboard and main game wheel (introduced last season). They even had some new graphics for everything, and even new categories (Fun & Games, Best Seller, etc.) As for The Price Is Right, it was worth the wait, but we have a new permanent announcer in RICH FIELDS, succeeding the late Rod Roddy. And while we're on the subject, most of you have Game Show Network, or GSN for short. In March 2004, the channel was simply known as GSN-The Network For Games, the reason being that they wanted to go beyond traditional game shows (which they WILL continue airing, don't worry). And they did just that, by adding in casino and reality programming. Remember, they're calling the channel The Network For Games. That basically means the channel's programming is all about Games, whether it's the traditional Game Shows, Casino Games, or Reality Games. Visit the site HERE.

My next category, as you may expect it to be, is POLITICS. After Election Day, the votes were still being counted in Ohio, which would eventually be called "2004's Florida" (Florida was the state in 2000 where the votes were counted and recounted, etc.). Eventually (and unfortunately for Democrats, including me), George W. Bush would beat out Massachusetts Senator John Kerry to win a second and final term in the White House. This time, I'm willing to work hard with those Democrats to make sure the Republicans don't get their way, and that we don't go partisan on anything (And if we have to, it oughta be bipartisan). Luckily, for me, we've got company in newbies like Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada (Tom Daschle of South Dakota became the first Senate Minority Leader in half a century to be voted out of office). As usual, the top issue, was of course, GAY MARRIAGE. California was the first legalize them in February, only to have them nullified a few months later. Massachusetts won full legalization of them in May. As usual, President Bush is still calling for a constitutional amendment banning it (and in addition to define marriage as a one man-one woman union). I, as well as many other Democrats and gay rights supporters, will not sit back and watch him do that. We will work TOGETHER, and defeat this legislation ONCE AND FOR ALL. This country was built on equality principles, regardless of what party you support. Equality, not morality, is what counts, and I have a message for the Republicans: If you think you're gonna make us bow down to you and force us to support anti-gay legislations like this one, THINK AGAIN. You WILL fail, AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS SUPPORTERS WILL PREVAIL. WE will not be stopped. YOU, the anti-gay movement (including the Republican Party, aka NOT the GOP), are the ones that will be stopped, and WE, the pro-gay movement (including the Democratic Party) will be the ones that stop you.

Last category is MUSIC. It was 2 years ago THIS MONTH, that the A-Teens released their 4th album, "New Arrival." This album features a few tracks from the 3rd album "Pop 'Til You Drop", along some newbies in "A Night In Bangkok", and "A Perfect Match". But the death musicians and music lovers are grieving is that of Ray Charles, who died at 74. He wrote wonderful songs (ranging from "Georgia On My Mind" to "Hit The Road Jack"), even though he was blind. And his life was forever immortalized in the movie "Ray", with Jamie Foxx in the title role. As a matter of fact, Foxx actually GOT to meet Ray Charles just before he died. It was an inspirational meeting, I might add. And I'll continue with the Lip-Syncing. Many of us saw Ashlee Simpson's performance on Saturday Night Live, where, during her performance, she ended up lip-syncing, and instead of continuing where she left off in her singing, she did a little dance. Was I shocked? Like everyone else, you bet I was. And it happened again, when Lindsey Lohan sang on Good Morning America. I don't know about you, but if this were to happen on American Idol, I'd bet you that Simon Cowell would have some harsh words! And can he be harsh. And, of course, for those who are Idol fanatics, Fantasia Barrino and Dianna DeGarmo are your winner/runner-up pair for 2004.

Well, that wraps up my Year In Review. This is John Lee saying "Go HOME!