So Smallville has gotten off to a fairly good start this season. And since it's Clark's senior year in high school, someone at the WB corporate office has decided to up the nakedness level by a factor of five. It's nakedness, ahoy! on the USS Smallville.

I'm neither for nor against the nakedness, but it's an abrupt change and far more interesting than my senior year of high school.

I have to say I've been thoroughly impressed by the girl playing Lois, Erica Durance. I don't know if it's the scripting or the actor or the combination of both, but they seem to have finally breathed enough life into one of Clark's potential romantic interests for me to believe Clark would actually dig on her. From the publicity stills, I admit, I rolled my eyes and thought... "ah, another WB ingenue." But this dame is okay.

Unfortunately, Clark's previous romantic interest, Lana, has now been to Europe. And if high school and college taught me one thing: beware the folks who've just been touristing in Europe, for they will now spend endless hours (1) insisting they are now more cultured and refined and no longer recognize Mequite, TX as their place of origin (2) telling you stories that are exciting only to them (3) not seeing the irony that much of what they tell you about would seem silly if the exact same situation had happened in the States, insisting it's better because That's How They Do It in Europe (4) affecting some idiotic accent that's not really from the US, but it's not identifiably European, unless there's a secret land of Pretentiovia, and that's the secret accent of all who dwell there.

I'm being a little harsh, because The League never had funds to make it to Europe, and The League is, admittedly, a little bitter about that one. But The League has decided when he finally DOES go overseas, he's going to Tokyo. He thinks he's seen most of Europe on TV now and he's ready for some Japanese fun. And, Leaguers, I wanna eat a squid.

In addition to Lana's post-vacation sure-to-be-silly-and-who-cares-? subplots, she's now ditched pink for a more continental black. Actress Kristen Kreuk has decided that the new Paris-infused-Lana is going to be cranky. Whiney-Lana was bad enough, but now we've got three years of whiney under our belt, so I'm not sure dumping cranky on top of that is going to win me over as a viewer. Especially if we're to understand being a tourist in Paris justifies a turn to crankiness.

Anyhoo... after Smallville, I watched Nova from beginning to end. I know. Nova! I hardly ever watch Nova unless it's Sunday afternoon and I'm avoiding homework.

This episode was about the likelihood of finding intelligent life out there somewhere in space. And, unlike the video we watched when I was in 8th grade science with the the evil Ms. Napper, this video was actually fairly encouraging about our chances of finding intelligent life. You know... eventually.

The show's producers didn't suggest we're going to be palling around with awesome aliens tomorrow, but in the past 15 years, it appears that astronomers and astrobiologists have come to some new conclusions based upon mounting evidence that there could be many more planets out there like our own Earth than they once believed.

Using our own planet's history, they did plug a lot of reality into the situation, and did point out we ARE the only iPod slinging species on the planet, so I can see why the presence of life on a planet might not necessarily suggest that every planet teaming with life is going to sprout a SETI dish. Nonetheless, this program was better than that video in 8th grade which basically said: we are alone on our dinky little rock. We're a cosmic hiccup. Quit looking, you morons.

Luckily, Virgin Galactic will be there to take us to our new friends when we find them. (thanks to RHPT.com for the link)

Hey! Guess who just tracked me down? High school and college chum Madi "Mad Dog" Hinojosa.

God bless the magic of ego-driven/ self-delusional weblogging for making me dangerously easy to locate.

Last I saw of Madi, she was an English Major at UT. Well, I also thought I saw her once at a movie a few years later, but the movie was just about to start, and I didn't want to yell across the crowd. I also always think I see people I know, but then I'm wrong. It's invariably a complete stranger.

Madi is most famous for:

-reading a lot more than me (she reads those books WITHOUT pictures of people in tights)
-actually joining Amnesty International, and not just because she thought she might meet Bono
-Having a peculiar love of the original art from the AA Milne Pooh books
-Locating booze for me in college more than once
-Being the single most patient human being alive
-Is somehow related to Tish Hinojosa
-Having a perfectly formed plan to overtake North America which she just hasn't enacted yet

It's good to hear from Madi once again! Let's hope she replies to MY reply, and I get to catch up with my pal.

Smallville may tell the story of a young Clark Kent as he comes to terms with his destiny as Superman, but it also tells the story of a young Lex Luthor on his way to becoming a criminal mastermind.

For a quick look at WHY Lex turned evil, let's review from the pages of Superboy comics...



Yup. For years, Lex's early hairloss was the entire motivation for his criminal activity. Prior to that, he'd been Superboy's pal. I'm not really sure a lot of thought went into that one.

All you Wallace & Grommit fans will be happy to hear that Shaun the Sheep is getting his own show!

Yay Shaun! -- Mrs. League

Today will see the release of Smile, the lost Brian Wilson/ Beach Boys project.

It's taken 37 years, but the album is finally available.

How about them Cowboys?

Damn you Monday Night Football. You have swiped my Monday night away from me once again.

Mrs. League here. If you have a cat, you might be interested in:

The Infinite Cat Project

The most bizarre thing I've seen in quite a long time, and I have *got* to get Jeff the Cat involved. I wonder what they would do with a Mel picture looking at all of the kitties?