According to the AOL newsfeed, the captured al Qaeda guy is known as “The Brain.”

I’m sorry…I can’t pass it up.

Bin Laden and the Brain

Bin Laden and the Brain

One is a genius, the other’s insane.

Send people to their graves

While hiding out in caves

Osama…bin Laden and the Brain brain brain brain brain

They run and run and run

And run a little more

By the dawning of the sun

They’ll cause a major war

Bin Laden and the Brain

Bin Laden and the Brain

Their terror campaign

Is easy to explain

There’s no ifs, ands or buts

The guys are nuckin’ futz.

Osama…bin Laden and the Brain brain brain brain brain brain brain brain (narf!)

I think it safe to say we can guess as to precisely when in the production the creators of “Farscape” learned about the cancellation. It was when they were preparing the credits for the episode that just aired. “We’re So Screwed, Part 1” (the subtitle being “Fetal Attraction.”)

As are we all. The previous season of “Farscape” was exceptionally dodgy. Meandering plots that didn’t seem to go anywhere, combined with a seeming obsession over bodily functions. It was getting more painful to watch than a last-season episode of “Lexx,” which is saying something. Then this season started out with a bang and has just gone from strength to strength.

I’m guessing “Supergirl” and “Farscape” fans can sympathize. They’re both enjoying storylines that most say are some of the best they’ve seen in a while, while feeling that the plug was prematurely pulled. When something is creatively weak and goes away, it’s a mercy killing. When something is creatively strong and is yanked in spite of that, it’s just kind of depressing.

PAD

I keep reading about the splintered UN security council, and how the Bush administration is trying to pull the fifteen countries together to agree on a resolution.

And all I can think is that they could redo “1776,” call it “2003,” and have it be about this. Songs could include, “Sit Down, George,” “Cool Considerate Blix,” and “The Saddams of Iraq.” You know, like:

For I’m Saddam Hussein

And Bush says I’m insane

But I still will not explain

Where my weapons are.

Yeah, Saddam Hussein

And I will not refrain

From refusing to explain

Where my weapons are

Y’see it’s here a bomb, there a bomb, everywhere a bomb a bomb…

And so on.

PAD

Tom Galloway sent in the following link to an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution regarding a principal named Jester (it just doesn’t get more Dickensian than that) who is terrifying personnel with this stated obsessions over “ridding the school of demons” and threatening to shoot people.

Although the name might encourage people to falsely conclude that this is the Joker in disguise, I think it’s pretty much proof of something that many in DeKalb county would immediately concede: DeKalb County is situated on top of a Hellmouth. Faculty and administrators are reportedly unsure of what to do about the situation. I wouldn’t be concerned. By the end of the school year, the principal will probably have been eaten. That still leaves the matter of getting rid of the Hellmouth under DeKalb, but perhaps by the end of this season we’ll see how to attend to that as well.

PAD

Understand, I didn’t actually watch Misterrogers much when I was growing up. In later years, I happened to see his show now and again if my kids happened to have it on. Always seemed very nice, very gentle. So much a part of the culture that Willow Rosenberg’s mother could crab about King Friday dominating the other puppets that everyone would get it.

What I remember is two things: First, many years ago, he was on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. When he came out, yes, he didn’t have the sweater, but his demeanor was exactly the way it was on the TV show. And you realized, this was how he *always* talked. This calm, gentle manner that made you feel like a comfortable five year old, even if you were forty five. And Carson desperately wanted to laugh, because it was just so funny, but he didn’t want to be insulting. So Rogers smiled and said, “You want to laugh, don’t you? It’s okay.” At which point, of course, Carson lost it. Rogers, meantime, was unflappable.

The other thing I remember was years and years ago, I wrote an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times about my fruitless endeavors to get a Cabbage Patch kid for Shana, who was about six at the time. And I mentioned Misterrogers in the context of the piece. So the piece sees print, and the next thing I know, I get a package in the mail from the office of Misterrogers, addressed to Shana, with a signed picture and a Misterrogers T-shirt.

Ðámņ. If only we could have sent *him* in against Saddam. This whole thing would’ve been settled in no time. Actually, now that I recall it, Dana Carvey said his George H.W. Bush and Misterrogers impressions were almost interchangeable.

PAD

From Chris over at Interesting Times:

I was planning to discuss “Smallville” anyway; just didn’t want to do it the same time as “Buffy.” But a Smallville discussion seems to have broken out over there anyway. Maybe I should just start doing double BLOG entries after Tuesday nights. (Hey, Glenn, any way to move the “Smallville” related posts over here?)

Anyway…one hëll of an episode. Spoilers to follow…

PAD

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