Cold Sunday

Cabin fever must be kicking in, sooner or later.

“Joan of Arcadia” from this past Friday was quite good, with a nice mix of laughs and sadness. Kevin, Joan’s wheelchair user brother, is slowly moving on with his life. The writers did a nice job of wrapping up the Joan and Adam storyline. Joan’s father, the ex-Police Chief Girardi, got to lose his job unceremoniously (he’s a hero for exposing the corruption in the government of Arcadia; but the dissolution of the government meant no more city police department for him) and so he’s offered to be the under sheriff in charge; but declines the offer to be head of the detectives, now “Detective Girardi” – but isn’t that a demotion? Why not Lieutenant or Sergeant? I know, I know, it’s only tv.

Yesterday’s figure skating was awesome. Johnny Weir is the new U.S. men’s figure skating champion; is it a passing of the baton, when Michael Weiss is still around (yet none of the men did the elusive quad). Michelle Kwan is re-crowned the U.S. women’s champion; an amazing performance. Dick Buttons, ABC’s color commentator (and former multiple champion himself) got very enthusiastic and warm about the performance – his commentating was itself an amusing thing to watch/hear.

New episode of “Alias” tonight! Will Sydney finally remember what she did during her two missing years?

NFL playoffs continue with its drama – personally, I don’t get a kick on watching football players and their coaches and fans overcoming frigid temperatures. Was it merely a display of machismo when these football players walked on the field of Massachusetts (3 degrees, I believe, at night), with short sleeves? How smart was that?

What has been amusing with the NFL: the commercials promoting the NFL playoffs, wherein actor Don Cheadle is Big NFL Fan who’s telling the tv viewer that there is absolutely nothing bigger than the NFL playoffs. Cheadle’s enthusiasm is infectious (he is a good actor, after all, and maybe he really is a football fan): in one ad, here he is doing a run against a real running back and saying, “Yeah, I can run” (no, actually, you can’t, but it’s all for good); then, here he is running around in fake snow (with the fan on screen blowing the fake snow), demonstrating the drama of recreating playoffs games of yore in snow; and there he is, showing the glorious ring in his hand, what these players are all battling for. Hmm. Yeah, Cheadle’s making me want to watch the playoffs (well, no, I haven’t watched them with great attention, but I know they’re happening at least).