With my nose I knows and with my scopes I scope. What I live I write and that is strictly rope.

Quick Hitters and Random Thoughts

--Just please, please no Mike Brown or Mike Woodson for that matter. I mean I’d rather have Clyde Dr…well maybe I'm just overreacting.

--Pretty opening credits. Some type of scary ass, mysterious enemy. Beheading. Nudity. Beheading. Nudity. Winter is coming. Incest. Nudity. Game of Thrones is off to a good start.
Nice little cheat sheet for the characters.

Only thing creepier would have been if she whispered, "It's. On. Me."

--The Borgias put its best foot forward last Sunday. Then again a good eye stabbing always seems to pick a show up. I think it also helps that we’re four episodes in now so you’re not thinking “okay, who is this character and his motivations?” nearly as much. We also had the Pope and Cardinal Rovere clearly laying out their plans which helped spell out the endgames for each. We simple-minded folk like having things spelled out for us. Well things except rape-y scenes. That was an uncomfortable ending.

--An understatement to say it doesn’t seem like much fun to be a female in Borgias or Game of Thrones.

--Hot in Cleveland spin-off with Cedric the Entertainer. I couldn’t think of a less funny sentence if I tried and even asked Dane Cook to help me out.

--It’s not like we didn’t know The Killing was going to toss out a lot of red herrings, but it was kind of a letdown to see how quickly those punk ass kids were let off the hook.
Always nice to see Alan Dale although any character he ever plays should be known as Charles Widmore.

--I’m going to assume the rest of this article doesn’t go on to rip Angel Sanchez, but you can't tell from the below blurb that appeared on the front of Chron.com’s sports page. Oh and Angel Sanchez plays shortstop for the Astros. Yes, baseball season started.
“Angel Sanchez wasn't the Astros' first choice at shortstop. He wasn’t anybody's first choice as a major league shortstop last season, either.”

--Chron.com Headline of the Week I saw on Tuesday: “Statistics show moms killing their children a problem.”
Hmmm, interesting. Wouldn’t have thought killing children would be considered a problem, but apparently I was mistaken.

--Link of the Week is to Cracked and its list of 8 Move Special Effects You Won’t Believe Aren’t CGI. Though its #8 probably would have been my #1.


--Dog The Bounty Hunter bailing Nicolas Cage out of jail was the least surprising news of the weekend. This GQ editor just happened to be at Stella! when Cage was just getting warmed up. Funny read.

--How only now am I coming across these outtakes from Abed and Troy at the Halloween party?


--Congratulations Shane Battier. On both accounts.

--I haven’t watched a lot of Iron Chef America lately, but looking at the names who will appear on season four sounds good. Michael Chiarello, Alex Guarna-the woman judge on Chopped, Marcus Samuelsson and Spike from Top Chef. Of course the new season doesn’t start until October so why we’re finding out the names now is beyond me.

--Nice stat that combined with the Spurs and Lakers losing sums up the first weekend of the NBA playoffs. Last postseason there were 11 games in which a team trailed by double-digits only to come back to win. This weekend alone it happened five times.

--My proudest moment of the weekend had to be when I wanted to click to the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Versus and immediately remembered what channel it was. Teemu Selanne still plays for the Mighty Ducks?!

--Best part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is that you always have something to turn to when TNT goes to its Franklin & Bash and Falling Skies breaks.

--A restaurant that only serves Thanksgiving dinner 365 days a year? Awesome.

--Okay AMC you’ve been pretty much bulletproof as far as I’m concerned so do you really have to start making reality shows?

--Evangeline Lilly dated Dominic Monghan for about six years until around the time Charlie was killed off on Lost. Charlie’s loss was a Lost’s production assistant’s gain. Evangeline is expecting, and judging from the last picture I’ve seen of her, any moment now.

Sorry Charlie.

--I finished up Joshua Foer’s "Moonwalking With Einstein" over the weekend. Very interesting read on the declining role of memory in history. I’m intrigued enough to try to find the time to build some memory palaces and set up a system to attempt to memorize a deck of cards. Not that I will actually find that time. I would like to watch the U.S. or better yet the World Memory Championships so make that happen Versus.

--HBO Go for iPad? Do tell.

--Don’t go away mad Natalie Portman ballet double in Black Swan. Just go away.

--Twin Peaks on Netflix Watch Instantly? I’m down.

--Saturday was a helluva night for boxing that was simply expected to be nothing but one-sided affairs. Have to start with Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz. Ortiz opened the fight as aggressively as he could with zero regard for Berto’s power. Victor knocked him down twice in the 1st although the first knockdown wasn’t ruled so, though I think it was legit. Either way Berto was never the same in a slugfest that rarely slowed down. The 6th round Berto smacked Ortiz to the canvas and didn’t stop throwing haymakers until Ortiz countered with a few hooks to drop Berto with just seconds remaining in what is probably the round of the year thus far. Great stuff for 12 rounds with Victor Ortiz walking out of the ring the new champ.
Amir Khan faced some dude named McCloskey. He won via a stoppage due to the tiniest cut over McCloskey’s eye that wasn’t even bleeding into it. Weak.
Finally Showtime gave us Juan Manuel Lopez who like Berto went into the weekend undefeated and also like Berto did not leave that way. Juanma was doing his thing against Orlando Salido early on, but the Mexican didn’t go away and then started connecting. A lot. Juanma was still landing some nice punches of his own, but they didn’t have the starch behind them like Salido’s did. The referee agreed and stepped in for the defenseless Lopez. Really entertaining night of free boxing and bonus! Gus Johnson on the Showtime call.

Questions, concerns or if you were babysitting and enduring some Elmo’s World when out of the blue Bill Irwin (Hal Brennan from Lights Out) showed up as Mr. Noodle…