Archive for February 6th, 2010
Congratulations Redeye!
After shoveling several hundred cubic feet of snow for the Basenjis this late night/early morning, we didn’t attempt to go to sleep.
Instead, we did what we often do when working on a project late into the night; we turned on Redeye on Fox News.
If you haven’t heard of it, it’s on at 3:00 AM Monday — Friday (actually Tuesday through Saturday) and hosted by blogger Greg Gutfeld, of TheDailyGut.com.
It is by far the funniest show on television: topical, irreverent, acerbic, teasing, and sometimes mean-spirited.
Besides Greg, there are two other regulars, panelist, Bill Schulz, and ombudsman, Andy Levy.
Each night, at least two other panelists-guests appear, and most of those guests are regulars – appearing every week or every couple of weeks. A few of those guests are Fox News anchors and reporters and a few are comedians and a few are from other professions, e.g. a priest, a coroner, a Congressman, etc.
We’d describe the show analogously in two different ways. Neither which may make sense to others, but then it’s our little-read blog; so, we don’t care.
First, if televisions shows were like people, it’s what the early, adolescent Saturday Night Live would grown into had it matured and stayed funny. Note that we use the word ‘matured’ very precisely. We mean had the show’s format matured from skit-based to news panelly, and had it’s world-viewed matured, from something for teens and twenty-somethings to something for forty-somethings who have been mugged a bit by reality.
We certainly don’t mean mature with respect to the behavior or demeanor of the hosts and many of their guests. That generally remains adolescent and juvenile but in a good way, and that’s the second way we think about it. If you, dear reader, hung-out with smart, witty, funny, and occasionally mean kids in high school – you know, before those kids became self-conscious or serious or moody or thought that others cared about what they thought – then you may like it for the same reason. It’s what hanging out with those kids would be like if those kids grew up, became educated, learned a bit about the world, and (generally) had something worth saying, but didn’t lose their sense-of-humor or rudeness.
So, if you hated those kids in high school, you’ll hate the show; however, if you were one of those kids in high school, you’ll likely love the show. If you wondered where some of those kids went, well it seems that few are on television at 3:00 AM and haven’t changed very much. If your schedule isn’t as flexible as ours, you probably won’t want to stay awake for it, but it is definitely worth recording and then watching the next night when the supposed comedians are on television.
Check out various segments on the show’s web site. The robots are consistently hilarious, and the priest, Father Morris, gives amazing answers to very difficult and pernicious theological questions. Lately, those questions have been posed by the robots. (Don’t ask.)
Today is the show’s third anniversary, so to Greg, Bill and Andy, congratulations on your success and on your new table and keep up the good work.
P.S. The Daily Gut web site really sucks. We could do much better.
The Blizzard of 2010
The Bane of Basenjis
We usually work late into the night, but rarely shovel snow at 3:00 AM.
This morning is an exception.
The snow has been accumulating for the past eleven hours, and we’re not sure of the official measurement – we’d guess at least a foot so far – but when we threw our Basenji bitch into the night, she splayed her legs and her paws didn’t hit the ground. (Don’t worry, other dog lovers, we quickly retrieved her and found our boots and coat and began shoveling. Also, being Western Pennsylvania, nothing is flat, and there is immediately two steps down so the depth was difficult to estimate.)
Our other Boots, Our Poster Boy for the Credit Crisis, didn’t make it outside the first time. When we opened the door, they both stood there staring at the vast, cold whiteness, and when we grabbed her, he made a run for it – in the opposite direction.
They (and we) hadn’t been outside since the snow began to accumulate, and we figured that there would be about six inches on the ground – not easy for a Basenji, but not worth shoveling until the morning.
Boy, were we wrong!
So, while everyone slept, we shoveled the walkway from their exit door to their entrance door and a bit of the patio. With drifting, it is already 18 — 24 inches in places, and according to the weather radar there is no let up in sight.
Fortunately, we live on the top of a hill and even when the temperature is in the high twenties, the snow is light and fluffy – well, as light as two feet of show can be. (For some reason, a few hundred feet of elevation makes a HUGE difference in the consistency of it.)
If you live near the East Coast, good luck and be careful on Saturday.
