Please excuse the interruption...

It's finals time again, so that means that I'll probably be posting sporadically or not at all for the next couple of weeks. December 14th or bust! In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thursday Thirteens - Teen Angst Edition

Today, Thursday Thirteens will offer you thirteen tidbits about My So-Called Life, since it's just (finally) come out on DVD, and because I loved that show as an angsty thirteen-year-old. Really LOVED it. I was convinced that Angela Chase was the coolest person ever. So, umm, on that embarrassing note:

1. A.J. Langer, who played Rayanne on the series, is now "Lady Courtenay," having married Charles Peregrine Courtenay, Lord Courtenay. Someday, they plan on living in England, although the Lord is currently a lawyer. Kinda funny, since she played a drunken product of a broken home on the series.

2. Wilson Cruz, who played "Rickie," didn't come out until he was 19, and was thrown out of the house by his father, just like Rickie was on the series.

3. The series wasn't picked up for a second season partially due to low ratings. Hard to imagine when it was competing against such powerhouses as Martin and Living Single.

4. Set in a fictional suburb of Pittsburgh called Three Rivers, the series was actually shot at University High School in L.A.

5. Cameron Crowe included a scene in Jerry Maguire that was taken from a scene in the pilot, along with using several actors from the show in the movie.

6. Devon Odessa, who plays Angela's estranged best friend Sharon, actually lived in New Orleans for a time before moving to L.A. And, bonus observation, there are two Devons in the series, Devon Odessa and Devon Gummersall, who plays Brian, Angela's neighbor. Additionally, A.J. Langer's husband, Lord Courtenay, is the son of the 18th Earl of Devon.

7. Winnie Holzman, the show's main writer, is a prize-winning poet and previously worked on thirtysomething, which I'm guessing is about pre-middle-aged angst as opposed to angst of the teen variety.

8. Angela's hair color on the show was the fictional "Crimson Glow."

9. TV Guide is apparently as obsessed with the show as were most teenage girls at the time that it aired, having named it #16 on the Top 25 Cult Shows Ever, ranking Jordan & Angela's hand-holding moment one of the TV's Most Romantic Moments, and ranking Angela's father Graham as #49 on the list of 50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time.

10. Alicia Silverstone was first considered for the role of Angela Chase, but was apparently too self-possessed for the part.

11. Tino, who was referenced many times on the show, and reputed to love the maternity ward of hospitals, never actually appeared on the series.

12. In the episode entitled "The Zit," the listing of the hottest sophomores featured the names of female crew members.

13. The pilot episode is the only episode in the series in which the school cafeteria is shown. The English class, on the other hand, is shown repeatedly, and figures prominently into several of the episodes.

And I'm pretty sure this list makes me the biggest nerd ever. Like, awesome.

From an article on the Hollywood Writer's Strike:

"The networks are expected to augment the inevitable reruns with brand-new fare that doesn't need a script from anybody (at least, not a WGA writer). News programs will likely swell in number. Look for new game shows. And an explosion, so to speak, of reality shows."

Oh my god, just give them what they want.

How Edward McClellan annoyed the hell out of me

I hate this guy. His name is Edward McClelland, and I hate him. I want him to fall off his mile-high, pompous horse, and shut the hell up. He wrote this article, the one that's linked to above, entitled "How Oprah ruined the marathon," which, if you don't feel like reading it, basically says that amateur runners, who are running for any reason other than competitive glory are ruining the competitive spirit that America used to have, that the elite runners who are there for said competitive glory are being dragged down by "the pack," and that all of our fancy gear has turned us into a bunch of slow, lazy couch potatoes who have no business on the road.

This article pissed me off so much, in fact, that most of the time that I was reading, I was basically sputtering incoherently at my screen. Since when is it not okay to run for your personal best, or to achieve a lifetime goal? Since when are the accomplishments of the few in any way taken away by the desire of the many to participate in what is basically the holy grail of running? Did Paula Radcliffe ruin her pace by running in the same race that Jane "I used to be a couch potatoe" Doe did? No, of course not. The fact that the New York marathon is now more popular in no way diminished the fact that she ran it in 2 hours, 23 minutes (between a 5 and 6 minute mile, for 26.2 consecutive miles). So why, exactly, does McClelland feel like a "middle-aged woman hauling her flab around the District of Columbia" has destroyed the marathon (by the way, that is his characterization of Oprah. I don't really know anything about the woman beyond what everyon else knows, but that's a douchey thing to say)? Well, aside from ruining America's competitive spirit and destroying the times of our elite runners, apparently the glory of the marathon is somehow diminished. Sure, that makes perfect sense. Something like 1/10 of 1% of all people have run a marathon. So, if you run one yourself, I'm pretty that this particular statistic ensures that you're still pretty glorious for doing so.

And another thing, because I'm not done ranting yet, how is it wrong to get up and move your body when so many people in this country are obese, or diabetic, or just plain out of shape? Isn't that a good thing? Isn't the "hauling" of "flab" therefore a noble goal? And do you know how much money is raised for charity by all of the "normal" people running marathons? I don't either, but it's a lot. Edward McClelland, how dare you criticize anyone for doing something good for themselves. If you're so damn concerned that America's running elite aren't making such fantastic times anymore, that they're wearing wicking fabric and shock-proof sneakers instead of "cotton T-shirts, drooping socks, and Tiger racing flats," take it up with them. Leave the rest of us to run to our own versions of panting, red-faced, sweaty glory. Last I checked, you yourself admitted to being on the "wrong" side of 4 hours in the very article in which you criticize everyone else for trying. When you try again next spring for a little competitive glory of your own, I hope that you don't drag everyone else down with your pace. So, here's to you, and your bum knee. Break a leg.