- Which has a bigger gravitational pull on the University of Connecticut men’s basketball program: a Sweet 16 victory over Purdue or a potentially nasty recruiting scandal that could result in severe NCAA sanctions for them? On the one hand, there’s the hard-fought 72-60 win in a West Regional semifinal game, propelling the Huskies into the Elite 8. On the other hand, there are allegations that the UConn men’s basketball staff committed numerous violations in the recruiting of Nate Miles, a high school star from Toledo, Ohio who was kicked out of school before playing a single game in Storrs. The allegations against UConn are: former UConn student manager Josh Nochimson, who later became an agent, provided Miles with lodging, transportation, restaurant meals and representation between 2006 and 2008, that one of UConn's assistants knew about the relationship between Miles and Nochimson and that phone records show UConn coaches may have exceeded limits on phone calls and text messages to Miles and others close to him during the recruiting process. Teams are allowed one phone call per month to a recruit during his or her junior season, a limit UConn is alleged to have severely exceeded. The benefits provided to Miles by Nochimson would obviously be against NCAA rules, as Nochimson’s connection to UConn makes the program complicit in his rule-breaking. The NCAA is now investigating all of these allegations and UConn head coach Jim Calhoun isn’t exactly denying the allegations. He keeps referring all inquiries in the direction of the university’s administration and hasn’t refuted any of the claims. Fact is, if there are indeed a string of violations stretching between 2006 and 2008, there’s no way to hide that and UConn is screwed. The phone records showing thousands of calls and text messages between the school's coaches and Nochimson are pretty damning, but the real irony here is that UConn will have reaped zero benefits from Miles in the end and may end up paying a steep price for even recruiting him in the first place. He’s now a student at the College of Southern Idaho, a bastion of college basketball excellence to be sure. The Huskies are still contending for an NCAA championship without him, but the possible sanctions on the program once all is said and done could hurt the prospects for any subsequent title pushes in the next few years……
- Magic was in the air on tonight’s Smallville - literally. As Chloe celebrated her birthday at the Ace of Clubs in Metropolis, the mysterious Zatanna showed up at the club. Zatanna, a magician with a mission, was at the club looking for Oliver because she felt he could help her with her mission but when he had to leave in a hurry (not good because Lois had to do the same and Clark couldn’t make it to the party, leaving Chloe to celebrate alone), Zatanna offered Chloe one wish come true. Looking across the room, Chloe spotted the departing Lois and wistfully wished for her old life back, working at the Daily Planet and being Clark’s ever-present sidekick. Under the conditions of Zatanna’s spell, a person gets the one thing they want most, so the next morning Chloe wakes up in Lois’ body. The real Lois is off in Mexico, reporting on a story for the Planet, but Chloe is running around as a dead ringer for her cousin back home. No one notices and everyone at the Planet treats her as if she is Lois, even Clark. When they go out to cover a story together, Clark begins to notice something is different about Lois but can’t put his finger on it. Chloe is hesitant to reveal her actual identity, partly because she’s enjoying living the journalistic life once again and partly because she’s interested to see how Clark really sees Lois, which she determines to be with a pretty serious crush. It isn’t until the two arrive at the scene of the police standoff they are to cover and find an antique store owner ranting in Latin from a third-floor balcony that the truth about Chloe/Lois’ condition surfaces. After a police officer sees them, approaches and chats up Chloe because he thinks she’s Lois, Chloe is able to understand some of the Latin that the crazed store owner is yelling and makes out exclamations of a book that brings death and also the name Zatanna, which immediately strikes a chord with her for obvious reasons. It’s then she reveals to Clark that she’s really Chloe, a fact Clark has a hard time believing until Chloe rattles of a string of facts only she would know from their past, including about Clark’s true identity. Their next move is going to the downtown theater where Zatanna is performing and talking to her, but the magician refuses to lift the spell from Chloe and tells her that it will lift on its own when the things she wished for - Lois’ life in this case - is no longer what she wants the most. Zatanna then turns her attention on Clark and offers him the same wish-granting spell she offered Chloe. Her eyes sparkle the same way they always do when she casts a spell, but nothing appears to change - until Clark and Chloe step outside the theater. Nearby, a woman is attacked by a mugger and rather than use his superpowers to help, Clark instead dials 911. It seems his wish, as stated to Chloe prior to meeting Zatanna, was to be a normal guy who lived a normal life and didn’t try to save the world. Chloe is in disbelief that Clark has completely forgotten his super-powered half, but he seems perfectly content with it. Zatanna isn’t as content and she follows up on her encounter with Oliver the previous night by dropping by his top-floor office in the LuthorCorp building. She strides right in, tells Oliver she needs his help and in so doing, admits she doesn’t need his money or affluence because she’s wealthy on her own thanks to the estate of her late father, John Zatara. Oliver recognizes the name immediately, as John Zatara was a world-famous magician. Zatanna reveals that in spite of all her father left her, she’s missing one key item that is very important to her. That item is a book, containing spells and other family history, and Zatanna claims that Lex Luthor bought the book at auction after her father died. She wants it back and tells Oliver that if he retrieves it for her from the LuthorCorp storage warehouse, she’ll grant him one wish. Zatanna isn’t totallt truthful about why she wants the book, but nonetheless Oliver dons his Green Arrow gear, breaks into the warehouse and gets the book. He barely makes it out the back door when Zatanna greets him and asks for the book. Oliver, having taken a peak at what’s inside and seeing how dark and dangerous some of it is, is hesitant to hand it over. When he tries to throw the book into a fire burning in an empty barrel in the alley, it flies right to Zatanna instead and she uses a spell from the book to bind Oliver to some scaffolding in the alley, using heavy metal chains. She leaves him there, unmasked, and goes on her way. Around the same time, Clark and Chloe/Lois are visiting the antique store owner in the hospital and finding out exactly what he told Zatanna about the book. He explains that she offered to grant his wish - a deeper knowledge of “dead” languages - in exchange for information about the book’s location. The exchange was made, he got his wish but he also realized that Zatanna wanted to use the book to bring her father back from the dead. To do so, she would need a soul and body to exchange for his, “a body for a body, a soul for a soul,” is how it was worded. Clark and Chloe/Lois realize that something very bad is probably about to happen and their fears are confirmed when they see a glowing light and bizarre clouds gathering on the roof of the Daily Planet. It’s the same spot, ironically, where Chloe/Lois had taken Clark hours earlier and attempted to convince him that he did indeed have superpowers in order to snap him out of his Zatanna-applied trance. Those attempts failed, but this time Chloe prevails on Clark that he is indeed a superhero and needs to use his powers immediately. In so doing, she manages to snap herself out of her own trance and return to her own body. Seeing her change back causes something to click inside Clark and he reaches deep inside, finds his inner superhero and super-leaps up to the roof. He gets there in time to stop Zatanna from completing the spell and tries to win her over with arguments about whether her father would really want her sacrificing her own life to bring him back after he died to keep her alive. Just as it appears Clark is about to win her over, Chloe arrives on the roof the conventional way (the stairs) and is zapped inside the weird warp-like door Zatanna has opened with her spell. At Clark’s urging, Zatanna ends the spell and releases Chloe. She reluctantly agrees that she won't bring back her dad and the next day she tells Oliver the same thing when she visits his office again. She also warns him that there are others in the world with a firm grasp on much darker, more dangerous magic than her and if he runs into trouble with them, he can call her and she’ll be on his side. As for Clark, he’s forced to deal with a returning Lois, who has gotten some of the details of the past day from Chloe. She has fun needling Clark and demands to see the “List of Reporting Rules” she gave him on his first day at the Planet that he framed and put inside his desk, something Chloe spilled the beans about. At the end of the conversation, Lois reveals she’s off on a date with a guy she met on her flight and tells Clark that after he stood her up last week on their coffee date to discuss what is going on between them, maybe it’s best if they leave the personal side of their relationship alone. No Doomsday this week, no Tess Mercer and no Jimmy Olsen, although when Clark thought Chloe was actually Lois, he did talk about how he believed that both Chloe and Jimmy shared the blame for the problems with their marriage. But there will be plenty of Doomsday next week, so be sure to tune in for that one……
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! This is a big one too, so I’m understandably pumped. In Bangkok, Thailand, some 20,000 angry anti-government demonstrators surrounded the Thai government headquarters today and set up camp in a bid to oust the prime minister. Yes, twenty freaking thousand! All afternoon long, protestors streamed into the area, setting up camp outside Government House. Already, they’ve erected a stage and tents in front of the building. This is a well-organized, well-run act of social dissidence and you have to credit the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), which is responsible for the thousands of red-shirted protesters gathering to make their voice heard. This isn’t anything new for the group; they’ve been protesting since December to oust Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his government. And according to UDD core leader Jatuporn Prompan, also a member of parliament from the Opposition Puea Thai Party, the group's anti-government efforts will go on for at least a month and the protest could last for up to a year if they wish. A freaking yearlong protest? Sounds like the world’s best and longest party to me! The action kicked off last night, when the demonstrators gathered at Bangkok's Sanam Luang plaza before marching to Government House on Thursday afternoon. In one of the more awesome protest tactics I’ve ever seen, they then broke out a freaking crane to take apart police barriers so they could gain access and surround Government House. I’m not kidding, they brought their own heavy equipment and removed police barriers. Freaking awesome. Now, protestors are blocking several roads and have set up a stage so they can get their message out. In response to the invasion of dissidents, civil servants working at Government House were asked to leave in the early afternoon. You might be asking yourself whether I’m down with the quest of the dissidents to return former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to power and the answer is…..I have no answer. I don’t give a rat’s ass who is in charge in Thailand, I just wants me some riot and protest action. I loved the sit-ins by opposition groups in Taiwan last year, just as I was down with the occupation of the headquarters of the government and the blockading of Bangkok's major international airport. That’s what’s great about being a riot lover; no matter who wins the dispute, you win because you get what you want most……..
- Lighten up, city of Hartford. Connecticut’s capital city has gone overboard in looking to stamp out noise, enacting a new law in the city that makes it illegal for anyone to make noise that can be heard more than 100 feet away, unless they have a permit. That’s a distance equivalent to the span between two city light poles. “We have heard loud and clear from community over the past few years about the importance of dealing with this issue,” said Jim Boucher, of the Hartford City Council. And just what could a citizen do that would violate the new ordinance? Actually, it could be as simple as a car muffler, loud motorcycle, or blaring music from a car or home. Yes, Big Brother is looking to govern every area of your life when it comes to noise. Heck, better not use an air horn in your own backyard, that might earn you a citation too. Personally, if I lived in Hartford I’d either be looking to move outside the city limits or at least heckle Mayor Eddie Perez and Police Chief Daryl Roberts in their campaign to educate the city about the new ordinance. I’m not buying the bulsh*t explanation of trying to improve the quality of life for residents; this sounds like a blatant cash grab to me. Heck, police officers who respond to noise complaints won't even carry noise meters like other cities have. Instead, the law will place far too much power in their hands by allowing them to simply issue a citation if they can hear the noise 100 feet from the source. So apparently they’re going to be walking around with tape measures? Residents of Hartford, I urge you to ignore this idiotic new law and if you are cited and hit with one of the three possible penalties - community service, a $90 fine or 25 days in jail - ignore that too…….
- Not sure what’s more disturbing: Robert O'Ryan’s psychopathic insistence that he was going to be with Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson "no matter what" and showing up at the Dancing with the (D-List) Stars studio with two loaded guns in his car or the fact that anyone is so interested in anyone who is appearing on Dancing with the (D-List) Stars in the first place. I’ve never once been inclined to watch that crap-fast featuring barely famous people doing one of the most boring activities in the world - ballroom dancing - while wearing ugly, fruity, bizarre-looking costumes, so it horrifies me that some people are so tuned in to the show and those appearing on it. These are people like Robert O’Ryan, who was arrested as he tried to enter the DWTDLS studio, according to a successful request for a restraining order filed by Johnson. She claims that she feared for her life after O’Ryan jumped the fence Monday afternoon and was detained by security at the CBS Studios lot where Dancing tapes. When police searched his car later on, they found "a loaded .45 handgun, a loaded shotgun, and materials classically used for kidnapping including duct tape, zip ties [and] a map.” Yeah, that is creepy, very creepy. Not only is this whack job looking to kidnap someone he doesn’t know because he believes they are destined to be together, the girl is underage. Dude, have kidnapping and romantic fantasies about chicks over the age of 18. Actually, Johnson’s family also sought protection for Johnson's Dancing partner, Mark Ballas, but it was not granted. As for O’Ryan….this lunatic is actually from Yullee, Fla., so he literally traveled across the country to hatch this plot. My man, crazy astro-nut Lisa Marie Nowak and her Houston-to-Orlando drive in adult diapers to kidnap and kill a romantic rival look sane by comparison. O’Ryan has been charged with one felony count of stalking and two misdemeanor counts of carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle. If convicted, he would face up to four years in state prison. “He packed all his belongings, permanently left Florida to drive across the country because he believes the petitioner is speaking to him personally through the television and via ESP and that he will be with her no matter what,” Johnson's petition said. Yes, that is every bit as scary as it sounds, it’s not just you. This is one of those days when I’m glad not to be a famous person. Oh, and just as an advisory for all of you out there: no one on the television is speaking to you. They are a person on a small screen inside of a box, many miles away and often not even live. Do not act on their words and do not sell your belongings, travel across the country and attempt to kidnap anyone…..
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