Going home!

Finals are finished and now that I'll be going home to the slowest internet system ever, blogging will be slow for me.

Yesterday marked the anniversary of the ending of Lou Gehrig's streak. The streak ended on May 2, 1939. It began on June 1, 1925. The great slugger would later die of Lou Gehrig's disease in 1941.

Jon Stewart has company. John Sergeant is hosting a comedy show in Britain.

The respected newsman is recording a pilot episode of Not Tonight With John Sergeant in West London later this month.

The show, scheduled for Sunday nights, promises to mix real news footage with commentary from comedians and ‘correspondents’.

The whole thing, which appear to ape Jon Stewart’s successful American satire The Daily Show, takes place in a ‘virtual studio’, similar to the one the real ITN News uses.

Sergeant is no stranger to comedy; before embarking on his distinguished 30-year career in TV news he appeared with in the Oxford University revue at the Edinburgh festival, where Alan Bennett recruited him to appear in the acclaimed 1966 BBC satire On The Margin.

Why? Is Mitch Daniels wasting the money of the taxpayers?

Daniels has, however, been throwing himself at voters every week in an unusual campaign encore, bouncing around this fractious state in a big blue RV and preaching virtues one might not expect from a prominent alum of the Bush administration - a balanced budget, higher taxes, even publicly admitting mistakes.

Daniels has enraged some and bothered many in the public school community because he is advocating a two-year freeze in education funding. This move, he argues, is unavoidable.

The Day of the Signing of the Treaty of Constantinople
Wednesday, May 4th , 2005, STUDY DAY
8PM for 2 bucks
Hartmann Center Mainstage

Nothing like a shamless promotion of the improv/sketch comedy troupe from where I attended last year: Bradley University.

We are unprepared. This is not good enough. We must fund the first responders.

Some good news.

Laura Bush: Comedian? I don't think so.

She ribbed the President about his wild youth, his chain saw habits at the ranch, and claimed he even tried once to milk a male horse. Laura Bush was brave enough to poke fun at her mother-in-law Barbara Bush saying "People think she’s a sweet grandmotherly, Aunt Bea-type. She’s more like Don Corleone."

The First Lady’s routine earned her a standing ovation from the crowd, which included such celebrities as Goldie Hawn and Richard Gere. Mrs. Bush even upstaged Cedric the Entertainer who had to follow her Saturday night. He deadpanned, "I thought I could follow the President. The First Lady is something different."

Shimon Peres has made the decision to side with religious activists with regards to the opposing of a gay parade that has been planned for Jerusalem.

If I knew her, I'd certainly interview her.

It seems that your transition from child roles to adult ones, worked out seamlessly?
It's interesting because my generation of female actors is largely made up of people who started out acting as children. If you look at Kirsten Dunst, Scarlett Johansson, Christina Ricci, Claire Danes, we all started out when we were 11 or 12. I don't know what it is about our generation but I obviously have some good peers and we keep pushing each other I guess.[...]

Are you keen to direct yourself?
I definitely admired what Zach did. You meet him and he's smart and confident and funny and usually I think I could never do something like that, I'm not smart or focussed enough. And then I look at him, and he's definitely extremely talented but it's not like he has some magical gift of focus. It seems like something attainable, something that I could do too. It did give me confidence to watch him and hope. But I hate talking about that, because I can remember as a 12 year old saying in an interview that I wanted to be an astronaut and people sometimes ask when I'm going into space. So I shouldn't talk about anything until I do it. If I do it then I'll tell you about it, but Zach is definitely inspiring.

Well done, Natalie.

In other news, Virginia Senator George Allen is being wooed by the religious right's Pat Robertson.

The senator is to give a commencement address Saturday at the Robertson-founded Regent University, a Christian school. Robertson's conservative followers would be important to Allen if the senator seeks the Republican presidential nomination.

Chuck Hagel is also in new Hampshire. This is heated already.

My St. Louis Cardinals have had a historic season: Mark Mulder threw a shutown during a 10 inning complete game, Mark Grudzielanek hit for the cycle, two 2,000 win managers matching up, and the largest come-from-behind 9th inning win. LaRussa needs 12 wins to tie up Whitey Herzog (822) for second all-time as a Cardinal manager.

Evan Bayh is in Cincinnati this week but I'll be home...I think.