Saturday, March 19, 2011

Saturday morning coffee

- The March Madness "experiment" is a success. I like the multi-network coverage from CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV. The games are staggered enough that it's easy to watch games in their entirety or easily switch from network-to-network, particularly in a time period like Thursday afternoon where there were plenty of close games and upsets. My one beef with the coverage is the networks' insistence on using an overhead/baseline camera angle from time-to-time--it's as if they're saying "we've got cool technology and multiple cameras...let us prove it to you." (For March Madness coverage, check out The View from Section 10, section10.blogspot.com.)

- Guess what was voted "the most tear-jerking scene in movie history?" In a survey of 2,000 fans, the farewell scene in E.T. was given the honor. Really!?

- Another sign of the apocalypse: A New York couple is suing the lawyers they hired to help them adopt a baby boy. Why? The couple says that the child is "defective," and if they'd known that the boy had serious neurological problems, they would not have adopted him. They want $5 million for medical costs and emotional distress, saying "He is a wonderful little boy, but this has been hard."

- Speaking of tear-jerking movie scenes, it's been revealed that the child actor who provided the voice for Bambi was tricked into thinking that his real mother was in danger when he recorded the movie's heart-tugging, core scene. A Disney executive told Donnie Dunagan, then six years old, "Your mother's in trouble, we're going to put you on the speaker--call for your mother." The result was Bambi's plaintive cries for his mother--a scene which truly provided tears for generations of moviegoers. Dunagan said he has since forgiven the Disney exec involved in the trick.

- Here's a word of warning to my peeps in San Francisco. Tests on the seats of the San Francisco BART trains found nine different types of bacteria, including some found in fecal matter. Yikes!

- What is it about celebrity and misguided behavior which makes us craving more, more and more? Wrote Joanna Weiss in The Boston Globe about Charlie Sheen, "The Charlie Sheen I'm watching seems to be enjoying himself immensely. By every measure of pop-culture currency, Sheen's claims that he's 'winning!' are pretty accurate." As proof, Weiss cites Sheen's Twitter account, which set a new record for how quickly he gathered one million followers. Would Sheen behave in this manner if no one paid any attention? Just askin'...

- It's been a month since Valentine's Day and I figure that a few of you are dealing now with a breakup with your "sweetheart." As a public service, check out PinkKisses.com. The website assists those going through a post-breakup period with a variety of offerings--a $10 a month action plan delivers a daily advice e-mail, and you can upload a photo of your ex for free and "watch it burn." Wow...the things you can do on this thing called the Internet.

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