Today's Update

It's my errand running day. Math project due tomorrow and rough draft of English paper due today. Then, I need to stop by the Communication department to grab my quiz results from telecommunications in order to study for the final. Also, I need to contact the DLC with regards to the convention because I'm not sure if I should have recieved my invitation by now. I know the dates and location but haven't rceieved an official invitation yet--and I don't remember what address I used.

Comedy Central is expanding their talk shows. Was Jon not enough?

The cable network has picked up D.L. Hughley's half-hour talk show pilot, ordering 39 episodes of the project hosted by the actor-comedian and executive produced by late-night talk show veteran Robert Morton, who has worked with David Letterman since his NBC show.

Tentatively titled Weekends at the D.L., the talker will run at 11 p.m. Friday-Sunday for 13 weeks.

The show, which will be unveiled officially at Comedy Central's upfront presentation Tuesday in New York, complements the network's The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, which runs in the time slot Monday-Thursday.

No decision has been made on a companion piece for the Stewart-hosted mocu-newscast to run at 11:30 p.m., with several projects, including a talk show hosted by Adam Carolla, in the running.

Al Franken is making the move back to Minnesota. Ah, Senator Al Franken. I like the sound of it. He may be a comedian, but he is an intellectual.

"I'd rather be part of [the process] than commenting on it," he insists. But he pauses, shrugs indecisively, a boyish chuckle follows. "I think. I don't know. That might be part of the calculus of whether I go for it or not." Whether Franken will "go for it" in 2008, against freshman Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, remains to be seen. "I can tell you honestly, I don't know if I'm going to run," Franken continues, as we now sit 41 floors below his studio, in the skyscraper's courtyard. "But I'm doing the stuff I need to do, in order to do it."

That stuff includes moving home to Minnesota after three decades away. He's buying an apartment in Minneapolis, and moving his radio show to the Twin Cities. He's talking about political action committees and fundraising with key state and national Democrats, looking to raise money for candidates in the 2006 elections. After years of stumping for Democrats nationwide, he has some chits to cash in. "He has national reach; his name and who he is will attract small contributors and large contributors from all over the country, so a lot of little folks too," says Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, who managed Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. "In that way he's like the Dean campaign because he's really somebody that can energize not just Minnesota but around the country, to get involved and contribute."[...]

You could see both the promise and the risk of Franken's comic background when he did his friend Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion one Saturday night early in April. Keillor is one of those who originally asked Franken to consider entering politics. At the New York studio broadcast, Franken did a long, moving monologue about his working-class dad. "My dad loved comedians, especially George Jessel, and he loved Henny Youngman and Buddy Hackett," Franken says. "We're Jewish, OK?" The crowd is cracking up.

Travis Ford will pay $150,000. That's more money than I can even imagine.