Had I Carried Out My Plan, I'd Have Alcohol Poisoning About Now

Twittered earlier before watching tonight's LOST 2-parter:

Proposal for a LOST drinking game: Stabbing=shot, Shooting=2 shots, Matt Fox looking constipated=finish glass (could get real drunk)

Even sober I lost track of how much alcohol consumption those instructions would have caused. I believe the technical term is "awholehellofalot". I had assumed the last instruction would be the killer, but turns out the first two would have caused the consuming of mass quantities (and without a native of Remulak's constitution, that could be dangerous).

Must reformulate the rules before actually engaging in any LOST drinking games, fun is fun, but proceeding with a bit of prudence can prevent a lot of pain.

Also, that episode did not suck. It did not suck, hard.

(I'm assuming it's understood that using 'hard' as a qualifier in this context means that this episode did not suck even more than just plain not sucking, and if I trusted that this show wasn't going to go off the rails again in a few episodes, I would be inclined to say that this two parter was quite good)

Examining the Election by Way of Pop Cultural Allusions

Jeff Greenfield, writing in Slate, examines all the elections since 1960 and suggests that many of them have come down to a choice between Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and the American electorate in its wisdom, always sides with Bugs.

In the spirit of that article, I think it's time we examine the last three remaining presidential candidates in terms of their resemblance to certain characters on Lost.

(some spoiler-ish comments will follow, so if you aren't caught up on the goings on, don't read this)

Sen. John McCain = John Locke

Sure he's crazy, sure he's cranky, but he can certainly kick some ass. Occasionally he puts his faith in the wrong people, but even when he does the wrong thing, it's for the right reasons. It's easy to picture Sen. McCain following a vision from "Tall Walt" and killing a stranger. Is that a bad thing for a President? It's for the voters to decide.

Sen. Barack Obama = Dr. Jack Shephard

I know that's a cruel comparison to make, but I think it's valid. Graceless under pressure, somewhat self-pitying, people put faith in him where it isn't warranted. Gives all the outward appearances of being a great and natural leader, yet has no proven track record of any accomplishments that would suggest he's fit for the task, and every time he's been tested has failed miserably. Also, his proudest moments seem to be when he's making his most boneheaded decisions. One other point of comparison, really, really bad taste in women.

Sen. Hillary Clinton = Ben Linus

Always reinventing himself, always scheming, always trying to work some sort of advantage. Seems to do best when put in positions of seeming powerlessness. You can have him bound, beaten, bloodied, and bruised, and yet that's when he has you right where he wants you. Favors manipulation over leadership, yet is thrust into a leadership position through sheer lust for power. Will do anything and everything and works his shadowy connections to manipulate everyone else on the island.



Not a great choice with any of them, if it were up to me, I think we should go with Sayid (I guess the real world equivalent would be Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an able leader, who unfortunately is unqualified because of nation of birth) or even Hurley (sure he's crazy, but he's sweet and usually right about stuff, no real world analog I can think of) but they aren't running for President, so we are stuck with our choices.

I Suppose If a Little Person Shows Up on Lost Island, We'll Get All Sorts of "Fantasy Island" Speculation As Well . . .

. . . over at ALOTT5MA, the speculation regarding last night's LOST gets into some serious discussion of why the 70s sucked so hard.

OK, not really that, more about whose boat the boat in the show might be, and someone snarkily suggested that it must be "The Love Boat", which then led to more snark along these lines:

Matt poses this question, "I'm wondering what cruise ship worth its salt has one and only one bartender."

Jenn answers knowingly, "It was a different time, Matt. People were accustomed to waiting for things. Phone calls? Only if you were home or at the office. Mail? USPS. Drinks? Only when Isaac had time to help you."

Yes kiddies, the 70s did really suck as hard as all that. As far as LOST goes . . .,

(I guess, I have to admit, some aspects of the 80s sucked pretty hard, too)

TV Night

Woohoo! South Park. Cathy Seipp has thoughts.

I'm seriously getting over Lost, too much Bambi. Jack is fluffy like a bunny, and his flashbacks are generally the most boring.

The Nine doesn't cut it either. All the big surprising twists they seem to be setting up for the rest of the series are just going to get annoying.

Nothing breeds mediocrity on TV like the occaisonal offbeat hit.