Nerd Alert: television

We have been absolutely bonkers over this season of Battlestar Galactica, and we were able to catch Friday’s season finale away from our TiVO. Here is some excellent play-by-play of the episode. My jaw literally dropped at the end of the finale. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. AV immediately made the Planet of the Apes connection, but I was confused and stunned at once.

The writing on BSG gets better over time, and the last five or so episodes have been really top-notch. I’d argue that it’s up there with The Wire and Deadwood in terms of the pacing, the total coherence of the story, and the uncanny response to the viewer’s need for pieces and parts to be urgently revealed. It’s something. 

Cue Weird Al Yankovic!

I’m pleased to say that I re-lived my Jeopardy! loss last night among family and good friends while ingesting Guinness and (courtesy of a kind husband) Jameson.

Unless they have a tournament for people who got creamed but had a good time anyway, I won’t be on the show again.

Weird this week.

Here’s something ridiculous from the internets.

In other news, it is the most wonderful time of the year. I’m hoping the thrice-weekly regimen of SportsCenter will pay off in the bracket I’m constructing. 

I try to get AV (the basketball non-watcher/carer) to fill out a bracket as an experiment showing the futility of knowing what you’re doing. AV always picks according to the winner in a fight between mascots. It’s effective, since a friend of mine used to pick her weekly NFL picks for the office pool that way. Also useful for the NCAA tournament, where things don’t often go according to plan. I’m still mad at Bryce Drew (you know, from Valparaiso … that buzzer beater in 1998?).

I admit to having some odd picking habits, including always picking Jesuit schools over their competitors in the early rounds, and always picking Vartabedian alma maters over competitors in early rounds. In a demonstration of family loyalty, when it’s a Vartabedian alma mater vs. a Jesuit school, I go with Vartabedian. I don’t think I have that problem this year. (FINAL: North Carolina vs. Memphis; Memphis 86, North Carolina 70.)

This week’s episode of LOST is all about Michael, and I’m looking forward to seeing if my discussion of Michael and prima facie duties holds. I’ll write about it on Friday.

Local fellow makes good

Ben Kronberg recently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel. Watch his bit here. Ben and I were classmates in high school, notably as members of the raggedy bunch called “The Pascal Center for Independent Study.”