I Have A Blog?!?!?

I'm a bad blogger. I tell myself every day, a lot has been happening that the world needs to know about. I'm not upholding my commitment to the world. The world needs me to post. Here are things that I may or may not write blogs about:

• Jeremy & Irene FINALLY got married. In the Florida Keys. And it was awesome. The best part of the entire weekend, by far, was Irene singing Tina and Aretha at the reception. She was amazing. As the wedding singer put it, "She's going to Hollywoooooood!!!!"
• It was Thanksgiving, which you probably didn't know. I love how Thanksgiving has become food + shopping. How is that not everyone's favorite holiday?
• Nilda got me a watch for my birthday and I love it, even though it doesn't have a calculator on it. I haven't worn a watch since I broke my wrist twice in high school, and apparently I am capable of wearing one. Score one for Team Brian.
• I turned 35 and did NOT do well with it. I got heartburn the day before and thought, "Here we go, it's all downhill from here."
• I'm now ridiculously into Boardwalk Empire. My favorite parts are the references to World War 1, with all these soldiers coming home from a quiet war that no one has to talk about. It's the best representation of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars I've seen on television.
• Within five days, I went to an Eagles game, a Knicks game and a Rangers game. Here's what I learned: The Eagles game was the most fun, which is probably because I went with my sister Caryn, though football makes more sense on tv. Basketball is a boring sport and I was bored by halftime. I still love hockey and wish the Flyers were on tv in NY. Maybe I should buy the Time Warner hockey package once football is over. Nilda would love that. Here's a video on how they switch MSG from basketball to hockey in less than 24 hours.
• The biggest news of the last 20 minutes is that I got a new phone. I got the Droid X and, shockingly, I love it. I was convinced that I'd go through iphone withdrawal and mourn my apps (though I do miss my pinochle app), but I'm surprisingly happy with the Droid. The iphone has much better graphics and is far more intuitive, but the droid offers more control and is far more reliable and consistent than AT&T ever could ever be.
• This was not an easy purchase. I started out by just asking the guys at the Verizon store when the Verizon iphone will come out. They said they didn't know, but also said that the rumors about a January 2011 date are not possible, since Verizon is setting up a new network platform that won't be ready until April 2011. I couldn't imagine another six months with that terrible iphone.
• Oh, and I like that my phone can make actual phone calls.
• I got the phone thinking I'd switch as soon as the Verizon iphone came out, but now I'm not so sure. It's like when I moved in with Nilda at 498th Street in southern New Hampshire. I made it very clear that we'd move as soon as her lease was up in 6 months. But once all my stuff was there and I realized how much less my rent was, the place didn't seem so far away. I stayed 4 years.
• My parents got me an ipad for my birthday, and it's amazing. Apparently, turning 35 means you get good stuff this year. It's more than I thought it would be. At first, everyone criticized the ipad for being just a big ipod touch. What I didn't realize was that that's the best part.
• Andrew is still a huge disappointment to the family.

Twins

When I see twins, I think two things, in this order:

1. That's weird.
2. Which one is Andrew and which one is me?

The responses are, respectively, (1) yes and (2) I'm the cool one.

More Freakin' Politics

• People are making way to much of this election. The only lesson here is that Obama is still the Democratic MVP.
• The Republican victory is going to make things easier for Obama. He'll be able to respond to arguments, where he's better. Instead of trying to push through his own agenda, he'll be able to point out that the Republicans have no actual ideas other than to claim they don't like Obama's. Obama always looks better in comparison, and there's finally an orange man to compare him to. Obama is going to become much more popular over the next year. This election all but confirms an Obama victory in 2012.
• Sarah Palin keeps me up at night. Who out there really supports a candidate who has commercials for her reality show during Sister Wives? Nilda, why are you making me watch Sister Wives?? Don't you tell me you don't watch Sister Wives, it was on for an hour after I got home!
• The real lesson from this election is that bi-partisanship is impossible. Obama's crucial sin was compromising. It killed him with the left, who saw that Obama was not the progressive they thought, and it didn't stop the conservatives from labeling him as a liberal, which was always inevitable.
• But he really had no choice but to at least try to forge a coalition for health care reform and financial regulation. His mandate was to change Washington and create a new tone.
• Another lesson is the power of the media. The administration kept its head out of the cable news cycle and focused on legislation, but didn't realize that the rest of the country only saw the debate. As soon as there were talks of death panels, the content of the health care legislation was lost.
• Maureen Dowd had a pretty good column comparing this Republican victory to the 1994 victory.
• For some reason, I miss Bush. Is it bad that I want to read his crappy memoir? It seems like an easier read than Harry Potter, with less big words.
• Everything I write is true and you have to believe it. It's The Rules.

Gimme A Break

April was telling me the facts of a potential case. It sounded remarkably similar to an episode of Gimme A Break. April says, "What's that?" Putting aside how I remember the plot of an episode of Gimme A Break, how can you not remember Gimme A Break? The show Joey Lawrence was on before Blossom?



Generational lines are drawn with sitcoms. I was too young for Barney Miller, WKRP In Cincinnati, Benson and Alice. I was just in time for Silver Spoons, Family Ties, Perfect Strangers, Mr. Belvedere and Just The Ten Of Us. But I was too old for Family Matters, Sabrina The Teenage Witch and Sister Sister. I barely qualified for Full House. Here's Alf in Spanish.