O.J. Simpson, angling for a deluxe sweet in the place of eternal damnation

- From the “Bad Career Moves 101” handbook…..Mike Nifong, the district attorney who so vigorously and wrongfully, it would appear, led the prosecution of the Duke University lacrosse players charged with the rape of a stripper they hired for a party, has now been removed from the case and could see things swing the other direction very quickly. He could potentially lose his license to practice law and be disbarred over the many errors and mistakes he made in the case, which itself has fallen apart and been taken over by the North Carolina Attorney General. Most of the charges have been dismissed and honestly, the three players are going to get off with a slap on the wrist at most. There’s no real case against them, and Nifong pretty clearly pushed this case forward in the hopes of it boosting his chances for reelection. Well, he was reelected, but maybe he should have saved himself the trouble and not run, because he’s going to be out as district attorney soon anyhow.

- What a week for Virginia Tech’s men’s basketball team. The Hokies took down two of the three or four most storied programs in college basketball history within a week’s time, downing Duke (at Duke, nonetheless) and then stunning top-ranked North Carolina at home in Blacksburg. Yes, the Hokies nearly blew a 22-point second-half lead to Carolina, but they held on and won, and now they are in first place in the ACC. Don’t expect it to last; the ACC is a meat grinder of a basketball conference, and no team is coming out of there with less than three conference losses, but I don’t think this is what anyone had in mind when Va. Tech joined the ACC a couple years ago. It was a football-first move, made to give the ACC 12 teams and thus the ability to hold a conference championship football game (see here $$$$). But head coach Seth Greenberg has done an amazing job and now he’s given the Hokies and their fans a week that has to go down as the best in the history of Va. Tech hoops.

- Count me out as a fan of 24, the show that apparently the entire world was waiting for the new season of. I hadn't really watched much before now, but in between a few reruns and bits of the season premiere, can’t say I am at all impressed. First of all, enough with the friggin’ multi-frame screen, when you divide the picture up into two or three frames and have separate action in all of them. That was so distracting and diversionary that I lost interest within a minute or two. Pick one scene, devote the whole screen to it and don’t bastardize things with two small windows and one medium-sized one all at once. Second, the acting was….um, not good. I don’t know how this show wins so many awards, maybe the storylines and scripts are good enough to carry what I saw as mediocre to subpar acting, but I’m not intrigued enough by what I saw to keep watching and find out. Just goes to show once again that shows which win awards and have the biggest ratings aren't necessarily the best or close to it, and shows like Veronica Mars, which struggle to build a substantial viewer base, can still be ten times the show that a series like 24 is.

- Not an inspiring weekend at the box office. Stomp the Yard, a movie about step dancing at a fictitious black university, was the top earner at $22 million gross, followed by A Night at the Museum, the kid-oriented comedy featuring Ben Stiller, and The Pursuit of Happyness coming in third. Seems like we’ve hit a post-holiday, pre-summer lull, where there are very few movies that you’re even motivated to see and virtually none that you can get excited about. When I can scan the entire listings section of local theaters and not find a single movie that would be worth $8.50 to go see, that’s bad news. Time to break out the DVD collection and hit up some Seinfeld and Everwood reruns, maybe mix in an old Western or two. Or, and I’m guessing here because it’s been so long that I’ve forgotten…..maybe the TV shows that have been on hiatus for weeks and weeks now will be airing new episodes again some time this year….maybe, but don’t bank on it.

- Not content yet with his special place reserved in hell, O.J. Simpson is continuing to angle for a deluxe suite there by peddling excerpts from his “how to” murder book and continuing to claim that it is a total work of fiction. The Juice says a chapter on the grisly murder of his ex-wife Nicole and her boyfriend Ron Goldman is entirely from a ghostwriter’s research and is not at all factual. All of the bloody clothing, the bloody knife, the evidence against O.J., is it all fictional too? And for someone who maintains he did not commit a crime, Orenthal seems awfully knowledgeable about said crime and seems hung up on it. This all has to be very healthy for his kids, too, hearing how Dad would have murdered Mom, if he did it. O.J., Pete Rose finally admitting he gambled on baseball in order to sell his book thinks you’re a terrible guy. Just admit you’re a double murderer, pay the Goldman family their money and stop insulting your wife and her friend’s memory by debasing them and their deaths in order to make a profit. You’re the worst guy ever, and honestly, they ought to make a one-time exception to the double jeopardy rule so you can be tried for their murders again and get the electric chair. You suck, Juice, and here’s hoping karma finds you out and evens the score.

- Need some laughter in your day? Try this quick hit: W. thinks the Iraqi people owe the U.S. a “debt of gratitude” for what we’ve done in their country. Yes, we’ve thrown your country into turmoil, made it one nonstop military battle and divided the country up amongst warring factions continually killing people. Yes, you have no real leadership and no one holding the country together outside of foreigners who shouldn’t be there and will have to leave eventually, but you should thank us. Why? I have no idea, but then again, no one ever has any idea what W. is talking about, so this is nothing new for him.