"Jennie's getting-- what?!"

Did anyone else see that SNL retrospective on Sunday night? Nothing exactly groundbreaking, but it's a treat to see all of those brilliant people in one listing on my channel guide! I read a good piece on the program, and you can read it here. (You can find more from this writer, Ryan Vaughn, at his great and somewhat NSFW blog.) It was interesting to learn that Andy Samberg is responsible for what I think is the best segment of Weekend Update. I tend to skew towards the Andy Samberg-is-overrated side of the spectrum, "Dick in a Box", "Mother Lover", "I Ran (So Far)", and "Lazy Sunday" notwithstanding. But, as Lorne Michaels reminds us, SNL has to cover a lot of bases. Comedy is subjective. Ahem, "Two and a Half Men", cough-cough. For me, just me, "Really?! With Seth [and Amy [and Tina]]" is the best of SNL: snarky, timely, irreverent, and wickedly smart. Link time...

Kanye West

Michael Phelps

Gov. Blagojevich

Eliot Spitzer

Alberto Gonzalez

Goldman Sachs

Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and DADT

Sen. Craig

Times Square

Michael Vick

I think that's all of them. I want to declare, here and now, that my blog may not have any real merit, whatever, but at least the links to every "Really?!" sketch are in one place. So...you're welcome.

So, what else...

Oh, balls. I committed a friendship faux-pas. BFF Molly and I had been pretty out of touch since the holidays, and we just had a good catch-up on the phone. I'm prattling on about my goings-on this weekend, and I made some reference to helping my sister find a wedding venue. And Molly didn't even know that Jen was engaged, which is news from, oh, a month ago. I broke a cardinal rule of bestiehood. That does not sit well with me.

Yes, Sister Jennie got rocked up a few months after Sister Carrie got knocked up. There shall be a new niece and a new brother in Danaland, and there will be much joy in Mudville.

I'm a big believer in dreams-- paying attention to them, savoring the great ones, learning from the bad ones, etc.-- and I had my first niece dream the other night. It was entirely kick-ass. There wasn't a whole lot of detail, but the general thesis of the dream was that I was with my siblings, and little nieceface started crying. I picked her up and calmed her down, and she fell asleep on my shoulder. And then I woke up to hear Big Daddy Doug talking very loudly on his cell phone and my day began. (It was the 3rd time in 2 weeks that I've been really resentful of whatever wakes me up in the morning-- 1. was a dream that involved a glass helicopter and fireworks [yeah, it was THAT awesome] 2. was a dream that involved a certain attractive reality-star-turned-decent-TV-actor and some sort of geographical hybrid between the Greek islands and the beaches of northern Michigan. My subconscious has been kind to me!)

In other news, OscarQuest 2011 begins this week. For loyal readers, this is a return to last year's activities in which I saw a bunch of nominated films in the last days before the Academy Awards. This year should be just as fun except-- and I hate to even mention this-- not drinking a cold Diet Coke while seeing a movie is going to be uncomfortable. It'll be like eating Cheez-Its without Diet Coke. Or eating pizza without Diet Coke! Or taking a road trip without stopping for a fountain Diet Coke!! Sweet Christ. Old habits run deep or die hard or whatever. (I'm 8 days clean though, despite the efforts of a certain Catholic school teacher/Glee fan.)

Lastly, on a more serious note, there are some ridiculous things happening both home and abroad. If you haven't been paying attention, then now is a good time to start. History is being made in some cases and ignored in others. You can expect some commentary from me and possibly from BFF Katie regarding what went down in the House last week. Spoiler: current events in Libya will be taking a backseat on WTF!?.