CBS Sunday Morning Power Rankings

Having just finished the post for the Forever Young special, I'm on a roll. So let's head straight into the Christmas episode of Sunday Morning . For an intro, I'd just like to say that I love Christmas music. I was raised listening to Christmas records by the Osmands, Julie Andrews, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on a Fisher Price record player. At some point, I digitized most of our records, but since I've been so busy traveling for work, I haven't had a chance to bust out the records or MP3s and sustain myself on pure Christmas nostalgia, so that's probably my plan for this week. I just realized that I could do that while I write, so I have just put on the Osmonds. In a few minutes, I'll be really rockin' out to Sleigh Ride. The truth is that the record player I recorded all the music from a turntable that ran a bit fast so all the music I recorded is pitch shifted up a little and of course the crackle of record player is prominent. I didn't lea...

I really do have a goal of having a recap posted for every episode by the end of the year. However, my job decided that I needed to travel to Phoenix, St. Louis, and this week East Hartford in a span of 5 weeks. Not to mention several other visits to spots local-ish to our office  - meaning within an hour's drive. I somewhat disagree with the assessment that I am required for all these trips. Maybe I shouldn't complain. I'm not sales so these are really the first work trips I've had since Februrary 2020. Then something pandemic-y happened in March 2020. There's still an ongoing pandemic, so if I come back with COVID (managed to avoid it thusfar) I'm going to be pissed. I'm not that worried - I'm boosted and whatnot, but the proximity to Christmas is such that any quarantine now has the potential to start interfering with holiday plans. I always think I'm going to have enough downtime to knock out a recap or two during one of these trips, but it never...

So this will probably be a short post. I don't know why I didn't get around to a recap last week. Here is a short list of possible reason: I am lazy. I needed a break. I was busy. The episode wasn't the most compelling. Sports. I.e. preoccupied with tennis (Wimbledon), baseball (All Star game), and basketball (NBA Finals). The power rankings committee was tardy in tabulating and submitting the results. Some combination of the above. Anyway, the finals are over, the Reds are losing again and nothing important happens in tennis until next week, and even then I'm more interested in the prospect of seeing some live tennis than I am in watching a spectatorless Olympic tourney where only about half the top players are attending. How far has American Men's tennis fallen when I have to Google one of the 4 entrants into the singles draw because I've never heard of them? (Apologies to Marcos Giron, who is apparently #64 in the world.) The CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS...

I really am going to try and keep it short this week. Doubt me? Watch. Wimbledon quick hits Mens Final Prediction: Djokovic vs. Matteo "The boy every mother wants their daughter to bring home except he's already dating Ajla Tomljanović" Berrettini. Berrettini has a 35% chance of making it interesting (> 3 sets) and lets a 15% chance of winning. I know those numbers are too high, but this is why we play the game. Women's Final Prediction: Oh my, is this a crapshoot. For posterity, Barty vs. Jabeur. Jabeur in 3. Alexandra Stevenson: An appreciation In 1999, two women's semi-finalists were expected and two were not. The two expected competitors were Lindsay Davenport and Steffi Graf. (Short aside: This was close to the end for Graf, after she had somewhat unexpectedly just won the French Open over Martina Hingis in a match that was as memorable for the French booing and jeering Hingis as it was for the level of play. She had just started dating fellow surprise Fr...

 I know I said I was going to Australian animal rankings this week. But we're just going to jumpt straight into it. Also I go on about the Flaming Lips for awhile somewhere in there. That kind of feels like the intro had it come at the beginning.   The CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS 1) David Pogue Quality goes while quantity remains. -Michel Gondry Thus spake Michel Gondry in 2003 in the introduction to his music video compilation DVD. (What an obsolete sequence of words...) I don't know if David Pogue is a fan of Michel Gondry, but he's certainly heeded the wise (?) words of the French auteur.  (I mean he's not Truffaut or Godard, but he's definitely got a distinct cinamatic perspective. And shouldn't we just natural assume that all French directors, whether of stage, cinema, or music video, are auteurs? If not, why bother being French in the first place?) I do believe Monsieur Pogue has been the most prolific Sunday Morning contributor since I start this ...