Podunkian Brunch, Sunday, May 15, 2010

A variety of items to browse over with your Sunday coffee today, from a favourite Television show heading off to its final reward, a look at why enlisted men never think their officers have a clue, to a TV chef who clearly had too much time on his hands and much much more, all part of the brunch.

One of the most familiar themes on television will be silenced to degree next fall, as NBC announced that the original Law and Order will be cancelled, closing the Law books on the program which for twenty years has followed the stories of New York City's criminal justice system. The New York Times offered up the sad advisory examining the impact that the cancellation will bring the city's entertainment industry and much like the old Brooklyn Dodgers, it seems that yet another iconic New York institution will make a new start of it in California, NBC while shuffling Law and Order off of stage left announced that a new version of the old format will debut next fall, LOLA, Law and Order Los Angeles, try as they might we suspect they'll never find  characters like  Briscoe and Logan in California...


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Keeping with the NBC theme for the moment, The Daily Beast offers up an interesting view of the creator of Saturday Night Live, Canadian Lorne Michaels. The feature story takes us into the backstage and backrooms of the long running show, as well as provides some thoughts on the most recent Leno/O'Brien skirmishes.
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Over in the world of reality TV, a once upon a time cuisine star from the Food Network was clearly cooking up more than dinner in his spare time and had a little item called Murder in the recipe book. Juan-Carlos Cruz, a one time television host of the 2004 show Calorie Commando on the Food Network was arrested last week on suspicion of solicitation to commit a murder. No word on what his preferred method might have been, but his defence may be that he was trying to help out the unemployed, Cruz apparently solicited homeless persons to carry out his proposed evil deeds. A good chef as they say is only as good as his support staff.

For 100 years Canada's Navy has been protecting our shores and fighting our battles on the seas, so it seemed with more than a sense of bad timing this week that the Government of Canada announced that a large number of ships would be tied up or mothballed for the foreseeable future. A swift kick in the shin for the nation's proud maritime service and one that would have probably taken the morale down more than a few notches as word spread. But as is the case when it comes to government, it was just another SNAFU, and as things turned out not all decisions are long lasting and this one didn't even make the 24 hour  news cycle before the order was rescinded, a strange little about face that more than likely once again confirms for the men and women in the enlisted ranks that officers and politicians really don't have a clue how to run a navy.


A 1000 point unexplained plunge? Ah nothing to worry about, The National Post takes us to the thoughts of Forbes magazine as they bring together a group of investment guru's to help us understand these funny ways that the stock market has to scare the living heck out of us. Though they don't offer up much of an explanation on that mystery drop and sudden bounce back, some stories it seems are best untold...

Satire's favourite subject, Glen Beck offered up another target this week with his random thoughts of how the world is going all Nazi on Arizona and its rather peculiar approach to civil rights in the state, Beck who frequently provides much in the way of comedic material (inadvertently we imagine) found his thoughts the subject of a review from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as the ever bombastic Lewis Black put a few things in perspective for us. The Comedy Network has the video for our review.

British Columbian's looking for a bit more background on the events of the province can find some perspective from Public Eye online, in addition to their wide ranging examination of politics in the province they offer up the Public Eye podcast for those that really, really wish to get further into the issues.

And on this day back  in 1966 the Beach Boys released one of the most innovative recordings of that era, with Pet Sounds. It went on to define the Beach Boys sound for years and provided for years of discussion on the musical direction and public life of Brian Wilson.