End of the Week: 07/25/10- 07/31/10

END OF THE WEEK:

The fifth and final member of the blog's inaugural Hall of Fame class will be officially announced tomorrow. And while I'm sure you're just filled with excitement for the announcement, making interesting hypotheses as to who or what it will be in the meantime, here's another edition of "End of the Week" to keep you busy. As always, the following are my picks for the week's biggest and most memorable people and moments. Enjoy:

Lesson of the Week: Cleveland Still Hates Lebron James

Case in point, this story of a fan in the left field bleachers during Wednesday's Cleveland Indians home game against the Yankees. The fan in attendance, later identified as Matthew Bellamy (no relation to this Matthew Bellamy), was at the game with his girlfriend wearing Lebron's new Miami #6 jersey to the game. During the sixth inning, other fans in the left field bleachers began shouting obscenities to Bellamy. Hundreds joined in before securities finally had to escort him out of the stadium and even more joined in as he was leaving the gates with his girlfriend (who was in a confrontation as she was leaving with him). Seriously, check out the video right here and see for yourself.

Remember, this guy was getting yelled at for WEARING a Lebron James Miami Heat jersey. Imagine what will happen at Quicken Loans arena this season when James comes back to Cleveland to play the Cavaliers. My feeling is that it will be like when Terrell Owens returned to Philadelphia as a Dallas Cowboy in 2006, only ten times as worse.

Stories of the Week:

-The Actual Story of the Week: WikiLeaks Releases Tens of Thousands of Documents Online

War is hell, plans go wrong...yawn. Call me when something new comes out.

- The Tiger Woods Saga of '09 Memorial Story of the Week: "Jersey Shore" Star Snooki Arrested For Disorderly Conduct

And what a coincidence that this all took place around the same time the show's second season premiered! If I didn't know any better, it almost seemed like this was just a ploy for free publicity. But, then again, maybe I'm just overthinking this.

Video of the Week: "Woman Wakes Up to Find Intruder in Her Bedroom"

I was about to give this award to the Iceland soccer team that made that really creative celebration. But then I clicked on YouTube this morning and happened to find this video, the day's most popular video on YouTube. If you watch this video, you notice that everything appears to run like a normal news report. That is, until the 1:00 minute mark when the news reporter introduced the world and myself to Antoine Dodson. Let's just say the Internet will never be the same again.

D-Bag of the Week: Matthew Bellamy (no relation to this Matthew Bellamy)

And this isn't just because of him wearing the Lebron James Miami Heat jersey in a Cleveland sporting event simply to provoke something and maybe get some fame out of it all, though it was a big reason why. How about the fact that he wore his Ohio State University hat backwards? How about his girlfriend? Or how about the fact that he wore an Under Armour shirt-red shirt-basketball jersey combination on a warm summer night in Cleveland? Either way, it was a pretty douchy thing for Bellamy to do regardless of the actions by Indians fan at the game.

"Well, Duuuuh" Quote of the Week: Spencer Pratt on his marriage to Heidi Montag:

"I love Heidi, but our marriage was just a show- it was part of 'The Hills' world."

Good thing he didn't say that before "The Hills" had their final episode, or else that definitely would have complicated things.

Person of the Week: Fans of Fall

Everywhere you look, it seems the season is getting closer and closer. Stores are giving out back-to-schools sales on school outfits, technology and supplies. Contenders in the MLB playoff hunt are desperately trying to make their team better before this year's non-waiver trading deadline ending just a few hours ago. NFL players and teams have begun training camp for this upcoming season (and have slowly made their way back among the top stories in the sporting world with things like the rookie signings, TO going to Cincinnati and Tom Brady's contract). Speaking of football, the world's major soccer leagues like the EPL, La Liga and Ligue 1 are about to get underway very soon. In television, "Mad Men," one of the best shows on TV and the best late summer/early fall show on TV period, premiered this Sunday with a stellar episode. And of course with the release of "The Expendables" on August 9th, it should mark the unofficial end of the summer movie season.

Yes, even though it is a full month away until September and even though the weather is still much like summer, signs of fall is starting to creep up all over the place. And if you're someone who loves fall, those are some great signs.

And that's the way it is! As mentioned in the previous post, enjoy the rest of your Saturday.

Sincerely,

Your pal: mj15

If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

The mj15 Blog Hall of Famer: The 2010 Tonight Show Conflict

Due to some technical difficulties, it's a tripleheader weekend of posts here at The mj15 Blog, featuring the final two inductees into the site's inaugural Hall of Fame class and this week's installment of "End of the Week". First up, we're honoring our fourth and second to last inductee of the Hall of Fame class. Ladies and gentleman, I give you...The "Tonight Show" conflict back in January 2010.

You knew what was the weirdest thing about all of this? All of that madness back in January last only a short time, nearly fifteen days. That's all it took for all of this to take place. From the moment it was first rumored that NBC wanted to move "The Jay Leno Show" back to 10:35 p.m. and "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" to 11:05 p.m. to Conan saying farewell to television (at least until November) by playing Lynryd Skynyrd's lengthened version of "Free Bird" with his band, ZZ Top, Will Ferell and a few others, fifteen days. But as we saw, fifteen days was all we to give us the biggest must-see moment in late night TV history since the Jon Stewart-Stephen Colbert-Conan O'Brien "fight" during the '07-'08 writers strike as well as one of the year's most talked about stories of the year. Consider the following:

1. Besides Leno and O'Brien, almost all late night comedy shows and hosts in America had some involvement in the situation. Jimmy Kimmel used the opportunity to spend an entire show impersonating Jay Leno, then (as a follow up) going on "The Jay Leno Show"'s "10 on 10" segment to personally mock Leno while bashing the show and him for what he was doing. Jimmy Fallon, following each of Conan's show on "Late Night," played the conservative rout and followed Conan's very last show by singing "It's Hard to Say Goodbye" where Conan's stint on"Late Night" was taped. Craig Ferguson used it to express disgust in the whole situation. Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and "Saturday Night Live" among others also were involved.

Yet no one had more of an opinion on the topic than David Letterman. Every night during those two weeks, he used it to bash Leno and NBC for the whole situation while showing his support to O'Brien. Like Conan, Letterman was also pushed out of "The Tonight Show" hosting gig by Leno way back in 1992, and he used all that anger for this situation. So it wasn't just an issue discussed on two late night talk show, but EVERY late night talk show.

2. Conan O'Brien's final show was watched by 10.3 million and earned a 7.0 rating. Not only was this one of the highest late night show ratings all year, but it was also better ratings than any primetime programming that night and the night before. This is really ironic, considering that the show's low ratings was the reason this whole controversy began.

3. Was heavily influenced in me deciding two "Person of the Week" winners, one "Story of the Week," one "Video of the Week," and three awards in January 2010's "End of the Month."

4. This story, along with the earthquake in Haiti, were arguably the biggest story in January. Every major news network and TV station across the country reported the event. Nationally televised morning shows like "The Today Show" and "Good Morn ing America" had it as one of their top stories. It was one of Twitter's hottest topics. Basically, you couldn't go a day without hearing or reading at least one update on the story.

5. It made people so enraged at NBC and Jay Leno that fans and supporters of Conan O'Brien actually had rallies across the country from cities like Chicago, LA and even New York to show their support of O'Brien. This support also was the inspiration behind the now famous "Team Coco" or "I'm With Coco" campaign of which millions took part of.

6. This controversy was the last thing NBC needed. They were already a fourth place network, the last thing they needed were to be embarrassed by this bad public relations moment. So what did the Peacock network do to get revenge on O'Brien? Eliminate as much episodes, clips or evidence of the show on the network's website and all over the Internet as they possibly could. Just search the show or even "Conan O'Brien" on NBC.com if you don't believe me. All you will get is a blank page with "No matches were found" written all over it. "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" Hulu videos? Nowhere to be found (although you can find full episodes of "Lipstick Jungle" and "Knight Rider" anytime you like). And just like the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction clip, it should be harder to find as time passes. Now that's a counterattack!

Now, we are approaching August, over six months past those glorious fifteen days, and a lot has changed since then. Jay Leno finally got his hosting gig back, but with a price since it's now losing ratings to "Nightline" and at times has had lower ratings than O'Brien had hosting "The Tonight Show." NBC president at the time of this controversy, Jeff Zucker, is reported to leave the network once Comcast acquires its 51 percent ownership of the network. As for Conan O'Brien, he has been pretty much all over the place since leaving the show. In February, he started his first Twitter account which is now followed by millions. This spring, he starred in his Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour, a variety show featuring several member of his staff. Then, in April he announced that starting this November he will return to late night television as the host of his new show on TBS. But no matter what happens from this point on to Leno, O'Brien, Zucker or anyone else in this Late Night War, we will always have those awesome fifteen days of late night TV madness in our memories for a long time.

Four down, only one more to go. Who or what will it be? Check back either tonight or tomorrow to see. Otherwise, enjoy your Saturday!

Sincerely,

Your pal: mj15

If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

About the Delay in Posts...

'

I have two computers in my house: one desktop and one labtop. The desktop was infected with viruses and is being cleaned as we speak. The labtop's power chord didn't work, so for two days the labtop had zero batteries. Up until just now when I bought a new power chord, my main source for the Internet was through my iPod touch. Therefore, I just could not post anything yesterday and today.

So be sure to come back tomorrow for a tripleheader of posts, featuring the last two inductees into this year's blog Hall of Fame class and "End of the Week" to wrap things up. Goodnight, everyone.

Sincerely,

Your pal: mj15

The mj15 Blog Hall of Famer: Matthew Clemmens

Along with the story of the horsef***** from South Carolina, this one was easily one of the most memorable "Stories of the Week" from the first year of this blog. Not only because it was an awful story, but because never in my life would I ever have thought something can go as low as Clemens did on that fateful April 15th night in Citizens Bank Ballpark. Here's the entire original report from Vince Lattanzio of NBC Philadelphia that came out the morning of to explain it all:

"A man is behind bars after allegedly assaulting an off-duty Eastonpolice captain and his two daughters at Citizens Bank Park.

Capt. Michael Vangelo and his 16- and 11-year-old girls drove down from the Lehigh Valley to watch the Phillies take on the Washington Nationals Wednesday night when the alleged assault occurred, police said.

Vangelo, 43, says from the moment his family took their seats, a group of unruly men starting disturbing anyone near them.

"They were yelling vulgarities, obscene language," Vangelo said Thursday.

Vangelo and his older daughter asked the men to stop, but that seemed to just cause more trouble, he said.

"I had beer thrown on me and water and then one individual started spitting at the back of my daughter's chair and he actually spit on my 11-year-old daughter," he said.

Vangelo went to report the men to ushers, who promptly ejected them from the game. The man says everything seemed fine until another fan got involved.

That fan -- identified by police as Matthew Clemmens of Cherry Hill, N.J. -- was sitting with another, unrelated group of fans who were also disciplined for acting out when he allegedly did what Vangelo describes as the "most disgusting thing" he's ever seen.

Clemmens, 21, positioned himself behind the 11-year-old's chair, stuck his fingers down his throat and vomited on the girl and her father, police said.

"He leaned forward, he projectile vomited all over me and my daughter," Vangelo said with a look of hurt splashed across his face.

Clemmens then began wailing on Vangelo after he pushed him away from the girl -- hitting the off-duty officer in the head and neck, causing his ear to bleed, police said.

Surrounding fans jumped in to help subdue Clemmens before he was arrested.

"He was still vomiting on the other fans that were holding him down," Vangelo said.

“It’s unfortunate that one fan could impact the perception that thousands of Phillies fans have anything but a positive experience when they come out to Citizens Bank Park," said Phillies Vice President Bonnie Clark. "We are sorry that the officer and his daughters were subject to such treatment. We are in the process of reaching out to them to express our concerns personally.”

Clemmens faces several charges including Aggravated Assault, Simple Assault, Harassment and Resisting Arrest.

There was no answer at the door of Clemmens' Cherry Hill, N.J. home Thursday. But his uncle did speak on Friday, saying that Clemmens would never do something like that intentionally.

"He's not a monster! He's a kid," said Dave Clemmens. "I think he just had a couple of extra beers that might have got him a little sick, and he accidentally vomited, putting put his hand in front of his mouth and vomited on the person in front of him, which was the picked the wrong person."

After all the disruptions and vile acts, the 11-year-old was able to come out of the game with a smile, her father said. A nearby fan caught a foul ball and gave it to the girl. "

Yes, you read it right. A man actually felt like he needed to throw up on an off-duty police officer and on an eleven year old girl for...well, no good reason at all. Ladies and gentleman, I have seen and heard some terrible s*** from sports fans during games. There's the two William Ligues, who went onto the field during a game and beat up a first base coach. There were the Indians fans at the infamous Ten Cent Beer Night and the White Sox fans at Disco Demolition Night. There were the Eagles fans who cheered when a player got injured. And then there's the weird stuff that soccer fans have done, from seat clearing brawls to throwing flames at the field. Yet nothing I have ever heard done by Philly sports fans or any other sports fan comes close to this.

And for that, I salute you Matthews Clemens. In fact, this is what I would write on your Hall of Fame plaque if there was one:

Matthew Clemens

Philadelphia Philles Fan

Puked on off duty cop and his daughter

Reached new low of disgustingness ("The Clemens")

Showed world new realm of sports fan douchebaggery

Only two more inductees left in the blog's inaugural Hall of Fame class. Be sure to come back tomorrow and Friday to see who or what they will be!

Sincerely,

Your pal: mj15

If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

The mj15 Blog Hall of Famer: South Carolina

Over the years, plenty of states have joined the ranks of biggest laughing stocks in the nation as well as the easiest targets for comedians and late night talk show hosts much easier. There's my home state of Illinois, you have the Cubs, one of the biggest debts in the country and politicians so corrupt that it has become more likely for you to go to jail if you're the state's governor then a murderer. Then there's Arizona, where bad laws have been passed left and right to the point that you can carry guns into bars while arresting people just because they look like illegal immigrants. There are the easy targets like Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and the home to Facebook McPro-life, Alaska. Of course, there's Florida, the state that messed-up the Presidential election in 2000 and made George W. Bush president. And then there's New Jersey, the home to gay governors, rabbis arrested for organ dealing and "Jersey Shore."


Yet, none of these states have made quite a run to join these states as South Carolina have the past thirteen months.


Now, South Carolina is nothing new to being home to the most unique of people. Let's not forget Miss Teen South Carolina 2007 when she made her infamous answer to a question given to the Miss Teen USA pageant about Americans not identifying countries on map. Let's also not forget that this is also the first state to succeed from the Union in the 1860s, named their university's team the Gamecocks, and once made a law stating that people under eighteen cannot play the pinball machine. But since June 2009, it seems that there have been more than one unusual story to come out of the state. Here's a quick timeline of those storylines:


mid-June 2009: It all begins. Just a month before I began this site, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was nowhere to be seen around Father's Day weekend. No one even knew where he was: his wife, his kids, his office or the state's Law Enforcement Division. The only one who knew where he was was one of his staffers, but lied and made the infamous "hiking up the Appalachian trail" excuse that will now be associate with the governor for the rest of his life. Turns out Sanford was just in Argentina, meeting with his lover. Despite using state tax
es on such an expense, becoming another laughing stock politicians and scaring his family, Sanford amazingly did not resign.


07/28/09: You'd figure the Mark Sanford story would be enough of a diversion from the state. Well, it turns out to be just a beginning as the very next month, around the same time I was writing my second official blog post back in late July, I mentioned the story of a South Carolinian named Rodell Vereen, who was sent to jail for having sex with a horse. And even though it was only the second "Story of the Week" I ever gave out to, it's still one of the few stories that still stick out in my mind. Two reasons why:


1. Duh, he had sex with a horse! Hearing stuff like will always stay in your memory bank.


2. It wasn't the first time Vereen was arrested for this crime. The year before, he was arrested for doing the same thing! To the same horse! Either Vereen is a very sick man, or that is the most attractive horse on the planet.


Vereen was convicted of the charge months later. But that's not the point. In about a two months span, we had a state that was home to a lying, cheating governor AND a horsef*****. Quite a combination if I do say so myself. Now, you'd figure that would be enough, right? Well, you would be wrong. After all, this is South Carolina we're talking about.


09/09/09- Turns out Governor Mark Sanford wouldn't be the only embarrassing news to come out the state. Not even close. Nearly three months late, in a speech to Congress on the controversial topic of health care reform, President Obama mentioned that the proposed reforms would not include any single reform on illegal immigration. In response, state representative Joe Wilson interrupted the president mid-speech, simply declaring "You lie!" Wilson eventually apologized to the president, but not before doing enough damage to his nationwide reputation.


Late May 2010: Sarah Palin approved Tea Party candidate for the state's gubernatorial race Nikki Haley was accused of having an affair with two guys while she was still married. Apparently, the cheating bug catches female South Carolina politicians too. Despite all that, though, Haley did eventually win the GOP primaries, which brings up the question: what the hell kind of scandal does it take in South Carolina for a politician to quit or not win an election?


06/03/10: Speaking of Haley, her affair wasn't the only big story she was involved in. During a radio interview on a political talk show, state senator Jake Knotts had this to say about Haley:
"We already got some raghead in the White House, we don't need a raghead in the governor's mansion."
Damn! Da-da-damn! Makes no sense though. After all, "raghead" is a term for Arabs while Haley was born Indian and raised Sikh and Obama was born in Hawaii and raised in Indonesia. Still, though, that's the fourth big story made by a South Carolina politicians not involving actual politics in nearly a year. But it surely can't get any worse...can it?



06/08/10: I stand corrected. Ladies and gentleman, I give you...the Alvin Greene story:







To recap: in a year, we have seen a state home to a cheating governor, a cheating Tea Party candidate for governor, a racist slurring senator, a rude state representative, a guy who ran for senator despite not running any ads or campaign rallies beat every other candidate to become the state's democratic nominee for governor...and a horsef*****. Either it's really that crazy of a state, or it was getting really jealous of all the laughs states like Arizona and Kentucky were having. Or it just wanted to give people a distraction from the two wars and the BP oil spill. It's also the home to two of my 2009 people of the year, one of my quotes of the year, one story of the week and receiver of a person of the week in June. Kind of remarkable that a state could have so much of these kinds of stories in so little time. And for that, I salute you South Carolina! And so does Jon Stewar, apparently:


http://http//www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-3-2009/thank-you--south-carolina-

http://http//www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-7-2010/thank-you--south-carolina---the-race-to-replace-disgrace



Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15








If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

The mj15 Blog Hall of Famer: The Tiger Woods Sex Scandals

(Ed. note: Originally, I had just Tiger Woods as the Hall of Fame inductee. But after realizing that the only reason he was so discussed worldwide the past eight months was mostly due to the whole Thanksgiving car crash/sex scandals/ break from golf/sex rehab story, I just had to revise this post to honor it. The following is that revision.)

You probably knew this was coming from the minute I announced this "Hall of Fame" last night. And you were right, for good reason. Nobody was so talked about, so speculated, so heard about, so read about, so criticized and so joked about in such a little time as the world's number one ranked golfer and this story was from Thanksgiving day on.

Now, to give you a full recap on the events beginning on that fateful Thanksgiving night in Woods's mansion in Orlando, Florida would be pointless since everyone from the old and the young, the rich and the poor, has heard at least something about it. Well, it actually didn't begin on Thanksgiving. It began a few days earlier when the National Enquirer was the first to report of Woods having an affair, with 34 year old NYC nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel. But you get my point. So instead I'm going to just list the reasons as to why Woods was a no brainer inductee:

1. Helped me select Tiger Woods as the blog's 2009 Person of the Year.

2. His Thanksgiving car crash/sex scandals/ break from the game of golf in late November to the middle of September was so big that I specifically changed my "Story of the Week" category on every "End of the Week" into two sections, one that is truly the big story of the week called "The Actual Story of the Week" and one that is not as big as "The Actual Story of the Week" but is so interesting, so awesome so talked about or so weird that it must be acknowledged, title "The Tiger Woods Saga of '09 Memorial Story of the Week."

3. Only story to have a full "End of the Week" dedicated specifically to it. (http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vYmxvZ3MubXlzcGFjZS5jb20vaW5kZXguY2ZtP2Z1c2VhY3Rpb249YmxvZy52aWV3JmZyaWVuZElkPTIxNjY4MDIxNCZibG9nSWQ9NTIxMDk0NDgx)

4. The sex scandals were so famous that it made mistresses Rachel Uchitel and Jocelyn James household names. Speaking of Uchitel, she became so famous that not one, but two reality TV shows ("The Celebrity Apprentice," "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew") offered her to be on it. You know you're part of a sex scandal so big that it made your mistress a reality TV star!

5. With the exception of Lebron James, never has the public perception of one man changed so dramatically by one story as Woods's was with this one. Before the fiasco, he was one of the biggest role models in sports who was only hated for his impolite cussing, temper tantrums on the course and all the winning (you know, the green eyed monster effect). Now, he's hated by millions for a bigger reason, a much bigger reason.

6. How often can you talk about a story that was so big, it was heavily covered on ESPN, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC and TMZ at the same time? Not many.

7. The sex scandals, despite being first reported in late November, was easily one of the biggest of 2009 in sports and in all of news. Some went as far as to call it the biggest sports story of the decade. Now that's something!

8. The story still hasn't officially ended, with Tiger still struggling since coming back from his break from golf and with the divorce proceedings between Tiger and wife Elin Nordegren still going on. Who knows, for all we know this won't really go behind us for a while.

I have much more to say on this issue. But, like I said, it's pretty pointless to do so since you probably get the idea by now. Just know that out of all of the possible nominees for this year's Hall of Fame class, none was more of a no-brainer than this one. It was the first nominee to come out of my mind and to first to get the stamp of approval. Basically, the story was like a great athlete like Michael Jordan or Jim Brown when they were inducted to their respective sport's Hall of Fame. It was so good that you knew it was a no-brainer going into the Hall of Fame selection process.

One down, four to go. Be sure to come back tomorrow to see who will be joining Mr.Woods in this year's inaugural Hall of Fame class.

Sincerely,

Your pal: mj15

If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

Random Thoughts: 07/20/10- 07/26/10

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

Sorry for the late post. I was busy watching Matt Garza's no-hitter. Three thoughts:

1. It's about time that the Rays had a no-hitter of their own. After seeing them allow three no-hitters/perfect games in less than a year, you'd figure that they needed one at some point to cancel those three embarrassments out.

2. The"That Could've Been Me!" look on Armando Galarraga's face watching it all unfold was like seeing the runner-up on "American Idol" seeing the winner sing their celebratory song after the announcement. Priceless, yet sad at the same time.

3. Those umpires were desperately trying to not become the next Jim Joyce. I can recall at least half a dozen occasions where the home plate umpire gave some questionable calls to Garza's favor. Especially in the Brennan Boesch at bat in the eight.

Anyways, let's get to the regularly scheduled programming. The following were on my mind between Tuesday, July 20th and Monday, Jul 27th:

- Apparently, Mark Buehrle loves to pitch on July 23rd. Not only have his last two complete games taken place in July 23rd of this year and last year, but they have been the only two complete games he has thrown since July...of 2007! And let's not forget that one of them was that perfect game. I would watch out if I were a team playing him on that day from now on.

- I love watching The Open Championship. You wake up, watch it for a couple of hours if you have nothing to do, and if you watch it to the very end you still have plenty of time left in your day since the telecasts stop around 1 p.m.-2p.m. It's just like watching the World Cup in European or African soil, only more relaxing.

- You know it's a slow newsday when a rookie not holding a veteran's shoulderpads is one of the day's top sports stories. (http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vY29udGVudC51c2F0b2RheS5jb20vY29tbXVuaXRpZXMvdGhlaHVkZGxlL3Bvc3QvMjAxMC8wNy9jb3dib3lzLXJveS13aWxsaWFtcy1kZXotYnJ5YW50LXJlZnVzaW5nLXRvLWNhcnJ5LXBhZHMtaXMtbm90LWEtYmlnLWRlYWwvMQ==)

- Why are seemingly all news reporters 40 and up so inclined to talk on air to 11-14 year old as if they are mentally challenged?

- By season seven of "Mad Men," I predict that Sally Draper will get so messed up by Betty's awful parenting and her parent's divorce so badly that she will become the new Jenny Curran. Speaking of the show, how great was this burn by Don to Henry Francis:

Henry: "Don, this is only temporary." (about him and Betty still living in Don's house)

Don: "Believe me, Henry, everybody thinks this is temporary."(refering to their marriage)

or this one by one-line delivery extraordinare Roger Sterling to Don about his upcoming date to wife Jane's friends Bethany (who really looked like a 1964 version of Betty):

"You hit it off, come Turkey Day, maybe you can stuff her."

On the episode as a whole, it was a good start to what should be another great season. You had Peggy looking more mature then ever, some nice funny moments on an episode that needed one, new characters, a cool new setting and some new challenges ahead for Don and the guys at SCDP.

And that's about it. More random thoughts to come on Monday. The announcement of the blog's first Hall of Famer will come shortly.

Sincerely,

Your pal: mj15

If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

Happy Blogiversary To Me!

Sunday, July 26th, 2009. 1:00 p.m. central time (that's right, I even remember the time)...

It was a much more simpler and innocent time back then. In the wide world of sports, Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehlre was still celebrating his perfect game thrown three days before and Ben Roethlesberger was accused of rape for the very first time. In television, a young red-head by the name of Conan O'Brien was into month two of what was sure to be a long career as the host of "The Tonight Show." A little device called the iPod was continuing to revolutionize the way people listened to music. Six twenty-somethings were filming a show from the Jersey Shore that would become an overnight situation really soon. And in a film studio in Los Angeles, Academy Award winning director James Cameron was working on the finishing touches of a movie that would soon capture the world's attention, imagination and wallets.

It was also the same time when a young white male from the south side of Chicago began working on his first post for a blog in which he announced the creation of three days earlier. The blog, named after one of his various AOL usernames, was created for three purposes: to share the young man's thoughts on various of topics ranging from television to sports to his hatred of the state of Minnesota, to entertain the people reading his posts, to cure his summer vacation boredom and to become a overnight sensation on MySpace and the entire blogging world (fact: only one of these things came true). Then, five hours later, it happened. The young man posted his first blog post centered mostly around predictions of that year's upcoming Emmy awards, and "The mj15 Blog" began.

Now, just over one year, 150 posts, 1,000 views (1,000!) on both MySpace and Blogger combined and several misspellings, this site is still going strong! So, to celebrate this one year blogiversary, we're going to spend the entire week honoring the top people, places and things that highlighted the blog's first twelve months. In other words, it's the first Hall of Fame Week on The mj15 Blog.

So, here's how it's all going to go down: starting this Monday and continuing every day through Friday, I will announce five of this year's Hall of Fame class to you, the reader. Each of the selected "Hall of Famers" will be selected after they have met all three of the criterias:

- The "Hall of Famers" must have been written about in at least two separate posts on this site and mentioned at least once in either "End of the Week," "End of the Month" or the 2009 edition of "End of the Year" (if you appear in all three, chances are that it will probably be one of the five selected).

Examples include: Brett Favre, John Terry, Jon Stewart, The 2010 Winter Olympics and this year's World Cup.

- The person, place or thing must have done something so big or was so interesting to watch unfold, read about or hear about to mj15 that he just had to write about on this site.

Examples include: Ron Artest's postgame speech in game seven of the NBA Finals, Lebron James making his decision on July 8th, Chicago's failed bid for the 2016 Olympics, everything Tiger Woods did in the winter and the New Orleans Saints

- The "Hall of Famers" must have been fun for mj15 to write about. This is kind of like the second criteria, except it involves me finishing writing about the person, place or thing and feeling satisfied doing so.

Examples include: "Avatar," the season finale of "Mad Men," NFL Network Red Zone, Bill Simmons's dumb thoughts and columns and Cubs fans

And there you go. It's as simple as that. Now, because obvious reasons, The National Football League, The Primetime Emmy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards cannot be included in the Hall of Fame. Otherwise, almost anyone or anything that I wrote my thoughts on the past 364 days is up for a nomination. Now, since you have been such a loyal reader to this site, I'm open to any nominees that you might have. Just make sure it at least meets one of the three requirements, and you're good to go. You should already know my e-mail address by now. I write it at the end of every freakin' post!

So, be sure to come back tomorrow and find out who was lucky enough (or unlucky enough) be selected as the first inductee into The mj15 Blog Hall of Fame, though I'm pretty sure most of you loyal already know who or what it will be. Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your weekend! If you don't mind, I'm gonna get myself ready for the season 4 premiere of "Mad Men." It's been nine months too long since the season finale last year.

Sincerely,

The man who's still your pal after all these months (I think): mj15

If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.

The 2010 Emmys (Part Three), "Glee" vs. "Modern Family" and a 40 Ton Whale

It rained cats and dogs in the Chicagoland area last night as well as early this morning, causing floods all around the area. Add that to the high humidity outside now that it's sunny with temperature in the low nineties and it's just become impossible to do anything outside. In other words, it's the perfect time to do some blogging. Here now is a bonus edition of my 2010 Emmy predictions. It might not have predictions for the big awards, but it does have some good ones ranging from categories such as best writing to best directing. For parts one and two, click here and here. Let's begin:

OUTSTANDING COMMERCIAL

Will Win: "Coke Finals"-Coca-Cola

This one took too much time than it should have. Personally, I would vote for Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" a million times. But I know that the Emmy committee will be going in-depth at the commercials before picking a winner, meaning they'll look at things like the message, the writing, the directing, the acting, etc. So while the Old Spice commercial is funny and Isaiah Mustafa is awesome in it, it sadly won't get the award. Neither will the Snickers' commercial with Betty White or the Audi "Green Police" commercial. So, that leaves three: Coca Cola's "Finals," Nike's "Human Chain," and Absolut's "Anthem."

In the end, I felt that the Coke commercial was the best. It's creative and really well done. Not to mention that it has quite a lot of fun things jammed into a minute.

Should Win: Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like"

Come on! The guy's on a horse! And it's awesome!

OUTSTANDING MADE FOR TELEVISION MOVIE

Will Win and Should Win: "You Don't Know Jack"

I didn't watch the movie until some late Sunday morning re-airing in early June on one of the many other channels HBO gives. And I gotta say, it was a pretty good one. First of all, it helps that the actual Jack Kevorkian was as colorful as he was, making Al Pacino's and Barry Levinson's respective jobs in the movie much easier. Besides that, everything seemed to be in ti top shape, from the acting to the writing and everything else. So, I give this a really good chance.

Other Thoughts: Another reason why the best miniseries and best movie category should be combined that I forgot to say on Sunday: every other minseries/movie category is combined, so why not this one? How about make it a new category, like "most outstanding fictional non-series"? Once again, it's a little too outdated at this point to separate the two.

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

Will Win: Ryan Murphy: "Glee"- "Pilot"

I could have been an a-hole and just gone with "someone who directed a pilot episode" since the last time this category has been won without someone directing a show's pilot episode was in 2001. But that would have been lazy and an abuse of this column. So, I'm just gonna go specific and go with Murphy for the director's cut of the "Glee" pilot. Murphy featured numerous covers of songs and was a great job done with worse acting than the "Modern Family" or "Nurse Jackie" pilot. Also, I don't know why, but I think the fact that it's a director's cut has to be big...right? Right?

Should Win: Jason Winer: "Modern Family"- "Pilot"

This pilot had better acting and more funnier scenes than the "Glee" pilot. But does it att

ribute more to Winer, or just that the writing and acting was just that good?

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

Will Win: Jack Bender: "Lost": "The End"

While the ending of the show will have fans arguing about it for years to come, I'm pretty sure that if you just base the episode on just what it is, a single episode, that even the most casual viewer can agree that it was pretty darn good. And you got to give it up to Bender for leading the way to making it that good.

Should Win: Agnieszka Holland: "Treme"- "Do You Know What it Means" (Pilot)

I fell in love with "Treme" from the very beginning. One big reason was the great pilot, probably one of the best episodes on TV I've seen this year. I loved everything about it: the visual effects, the music played, the cinematography, you name it! And since the director (Holland) had a big say in what to do with the pilot, I'm gonna root for her to get this award.

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

Will Win and Should Win: Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd: "Modern Family"-"Pilot"

There are two big reasons why "Modern Family" went off to such a great start. One, as I wrote about on Sunday, was the heavy promotion over the summer by ABC who desperately wanted a good comedy to rival CBS's comedies in ratings and NBC's comedies in hilarity. The other, of course, was the pilot. It's why critics loved the show immediately and called it the best new show of the season and how it hooked millions to watch it weekly.. And what was the big reason behind it being such a good episode? First, the acting, which I can never praise enough. Second, and most importantly, was the script written by Levitan and Lloyd. Not only was it the best written pilot of all the other new shows this season (and that includes shows like "Community" and main competitor for this award "Glee"), it was also the funniest. Not bad for the guys behind "Back to You."

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

Will Win and Should Win: Matthew Weiner and Erin Levy: "Mad Men"- "Shut the Door, Have a Seat"

Come on, do I have to praise this episodes any more? I'm starting to get annoyed about writing how good of an episode it was, and that includes the writing. Let me just say that it would be a damn shame if the two weren't winning this award. It really was that good!

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SERIES

Will Win: Steve Bodow, Rory Albanese, Kevin Bleyer, Rich Blomquist, Tim Carvell, Wyatt Cenac, Hallie Haglund, JR Havlan, David Javerbaum, Elliot Kalan, Josh Lieb, Sam Means, Jo Miller, John Oliver, Daniel Radosh, Jason Ross and Jon Stewart: "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"- "#15040"

It's the one where Stewart spends fifteen minutes doing an awesome Glenn Beck impersonation. 'Nuff said.

Should Win: Mike Sweeney, Conan O'Brien, Chris Albers, Jose Arroyo, Deon Cole, Josh Comers, Dan Cronin, Kevin Dorff, Andres Du Bochet, Michael Gordon, Berkley Johnson, Brian Kiley, Rob Kutner, Todd Levin, Brian McCann, Guy Nicolucci, Matt O'Brien, Andy Richter, Brian Stack and Andrew Weinberg: "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien"- "#146" (a.k.a. the last episode)

Same reason as why I think the show should win most outstanding variety, music or comedy series: the possibility of O'Brien winning an Emmy on NBC? Priceless. Plus, it wasn't a bad episode either. Not the best out of the last two weeks of the show, but still great...with an awesome ending to go with it.

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

Will Win and Should Win: Neil Patrick Harris as Bryan Ryan in "Glee"

(Note: this took me an hour to decide as I had to watch all of Harris's and O'Malley's scenes in the episodes they were nominated for). Being a guest star on "Glee" was a smart move by Neil Patrick Harris. If you can't win one Emmy, try winning another one. And that's what is probably happening to Harris on Emmy night when the outstanding guest actor in a comedy series award will be presented. After all, he had more airtime than 4/5th of the other nominees since "Glee" is an hour long and was in more scenes than fellow "Glee" nominee Mike O'Malley. He was able to show much of his talents in the episode like singing, dancing and the funny one-liners. It was a great performance by him and in the perfect setting. And it's also about time he gets an Emmy, too! After all, 20 years on TV is a long time without an award.

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

Will Win and Should Win: Betty White as a guest host on ""Saturday Night Live"

The host on one of the show's top three episodes of the season (the other two being Jon Hamm and Tina Fey). Not only was she supported by great writing but also a stellar cast of guest stars that included Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph, which didn't give her a lot of pressure to do a great job. She also exceeded the expectations of what many thought the 88 year old's performance would be. Finally, the Emmy committee loves her. This is already the 20th Emmy she's received in a fifty year period, and I think she wouldn't received the nomination if she just gave half as good of a performance she did last time. And to think, none of this was possible without a Facebook fan page...

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SPECIAL

Will Win and Should Win: Louis J. Horvitz: "The Kennedy Center Honors"

The Kennedy Centers is the king of the variety, music or comedy specials. Year in, year out, it's always nominated for the top awards in this category. A big reason why is because of the yearly directing. And this year's show is not an exception as Horwitz and crew did another great job preparing and showing the show to the viewers watching on CBS.

So there you have it. In three separate posts, I have given you prediction on nearly thirty of the categories. And congrats to all nominees on all of the Emmy categories. Even though there were some that I think should not have been nominated, the Academy saw something that I didn't and that's all that matters. Be sure to check back to these post after the awards ceremonies to see which of the categories I got right (and by right, I mean if one of my "will wins" or "should wins" take the prize).

Now, to wrap up Emmy predictions week, here now is this week's edition of "End of the Week," featuring Lindsay Lohan, a humongous whale and an ex-USDA employee. Enjoy:

END OF THE WEEK:

Picture of the Week: 40 Foot Ton Whale Jumps on Top of South African Couple's Yacht

The fact that a person would have the camera ready and quickly take a 1 in 1,000,000 picture like that of the whale is remarkable. Nice job by the photographer.

Video of the Week: Proof That the 40 Foot Ton Whale Did Jump on Top of South African Couple's Yacht

You know, just in case you wanted to know if this was photoshopped. By the way, how terrifying must it have been for the couple? Not only did the whale just come at you, but you also had to scramble out of the way in time to survive. I think I would have been traumatized for life if it was me.

Stories of the Week:

-The Actual Story of the Week: U.S. Aircraft Carriers Ups Pressure on North Korea

Yawn. Wake me up when WWIII is near. As of now, this is nothing new.

-The Tiger Woods Saga of '09 Memorial Story of the Week: Man Dressed As Darth Vader Robs Bank in Long Island

As you can see, he has not done well financially since allowing the Death Star to blow off.

Jailbird of the Week: Lindsay Lohan

,who was sent to jail on Tuesday. She's only expected to be at the Lynwood prison for only 13 or 14 days of her 90 days sentence, thanks to prison overcrowding and with her crowd being non-violent. But one thing out of this will last forever...her mugshot. Behold!




Person of the Week: Ex-USDA Worker Shirley Sherrod

for redeeming herself (while earning her fifteen minutes of fame) this week after being forced to resign her job by the White House. The whole story began late in March when Sherrod, then about to wrap up year one of her job as Georgia director of Rural Development, was caught on tape speaking to a local Georgia NAACP chapter and telling them that she did not give a white farmer "the full force of what I can do" after he asked her for assistance. After the tape was leaked, most people thought that Sherrod said that a person of power such as herself not giving aide to a farmer because of his race. The White House immediately went into action demanded that the USDA contact her and force her to resign. Sherrod did so on Monday after talking to USDA deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook, which she did by pulling over and submitting her resignation via-Blackberry.

Now, here's where the so-called racial controversy becomes interesting. Sherrod claims that her statement was taking out of context, saying that she said it to prove a point that working with the farmer showed her that it wasn't a black-and-white thing, that it happened all the way back in 1986 and that she ended up working with the farmer for two years to avoid foreclosure. The wife of the farmer ended up confirming that story to CNN, saying that Sherrod even ended up saving her family's farm. So, big mistake by the White House.

The White House did end up apologizing her removing Sherrod before she was even proved guilty of her actions. So, there you go. In less than a week, Sherrod went from being just a Georgia USDA employee to one of the top names talked about by the media. She also went from being bashed by the right and the NAACP as well as fired by the White House to getting apologies from all of them (in the White House's case, it came after a reporter said that Sherrod was watching it live on CNN). Not bad. It just also goes to show you how little people use "innocent until proven guilty" while judging people and stories.

Runner-Up: Nerds (Comic Con took place this week)

And that's the way it is! Enjoy your weekend, and don't forget about the season premiere of "Mad Men" on Sunday!

Sincerely,

Your pal: mj15

If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you want to suggest anything to mj15 for his next blog entry (tips, perhaps?), e-mail him at mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.