Leave it to a film critic to sort this out

Matt's turned us on to Alan Mutter's "Newsosaur" blog, but this entry from the man who -- with his former rival, the late Gene Siskel -- made a half-hour show of movie reviews possible, is also great reading on the celebrity-obsessed culture we have:

Roger Ebert: Death to film critics! Hail to the CelebCult! (click for link).

-JDE2

Number Four, (or Two, if you're in Oshawa)

Any chance I get to mention Robert Gordon Orr isn't a bad thing, unless it's referring to the thieving agent who robbed him (and other players) blind.

Orr's junior league team, the Oshawa Generals, retired his number last night.

Two questions jumped out at me about this story: (1) What took the Generals so freakin' long to retire the number of one of the five greatest players ever? and (2) Is Bobby Orr really 60 YEARS OLD? Wow.

-JDE2

Ah, memories. . .

Allow me this diversion from the bad news of the day to something incredibly frivolous: Remember when there were only three broadcast networks?

That's when stuff like "Battle of the Network Stars" aired. The show pitted stars from the three networks in "athletic" competition. I most vividly remember the "Simon Says" battles.

Bill Simmons at ESPN remembers, too. Here's his take on the joy of a recently discovered YouTube video featuring a match race between Robert Conrad and Gabe Kaplan.

-JDE2