Whoopi Goldberg on The View says "African-American Berry". What's that?

Whoopi Goldberg

I just watched the talk show "The View" which is a guilty pleasure of mine and a great way to get the pop culture news pulse of the day, when I heard show host and comedian Whoopi Goldberg say to Joy Behar, "Your African-American Berry is OK." Or words to that effect.

A bit of backstory.

Earlier in the show one could hear what sounded like a cell phone saving a voice mail message - the kind of sound a Blackberry generally makes. Then as the show was ending, the sound came on again. This time Whoopi Goldberg was on the spot: she said "Did someone break wind!" Then she looked at Behar and asked if that was her. Behar said it was her cell phone and Goldberg responded, saying "I'm glad your African-American Berry is OK."

OK. For the record, I'm not complaining about this so much as I just find it strange, so I looked up the term.

The only listing I found was in something called "The Urban Dictionary" where it refers to "President Obama's Blackberry" and says that's the politically correct definition of a Blackberry cellphone.

Well, that's stupid and not politically correct.

The Blackberry has been around for years but just because we have an African American President who uses one - for the first time in POTUS history - someone has to give a racially-based name to the device. Why?

It's another way of American society essentially marginalizing blacks - and yes, blacks like Whoopi Goldberg are doing this. It says "Ok, now that someone Black's using a Blackberry we have to somehow give another name or designation for the cellphone."

OK. When I started writing this blog post, I was curious; but now at the end I'm just plain mad. I will be happy to see the day when African Americans like Whoopi Goldberg don't feel so out of mainstream American society that they have to "color" life in the way they do.

As far as I'm concerned it's a Blackberry and it has nothing to do with my skin color, and yes, I use one.

Geez!

Jimmy Clausen punched; Notre Dame QB in bar fight

According to ESPN, Notre Dame Quarterback Jimmy Clausen was "sucker-punched" by an angry, sociopathic so-called fan Sunday morning in South Bend, Indiana.

But that's not the right report; it's not what happened at all.  Clausen was not "sucker-punched."

The South Bend Tribune reports that the place where it all took place was a bar and restaurant called "C.J.'s Pub", and that Clausen had left initially without incident, but his female friend left her purse in the establishment, and as she went to get it at 2 AM with Clausen, she was pushed by a man outside the bar.

Then words were exchanged between Clausen and the man. The QB pushed him away placing his hand to the man's neck; the man punched Clausen in the eye and the two started to wrestle on the ground before the fight was broken up.  

(Reads like the man may have been a jealous ex-boyfriend of Clausen's female friend or something.) 

Police were called to the place, and reportedly in part because of the Clausen fight but also because other "skirmishes" were going on.

What kind of place is "C.J.'s Pub"? The Golden Domers must go there to fight after a home loss. As of this writing, Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis has no comment (but the press conference is later this week; just wait.)

As of presstime Clausen will play against the Stanford Cardinal this Saturday. However, if Clausen cannot go, the job would fall to fifth-year senior Evan Sharpley, who has not thrown a pass yet this season.

Clausen brings a 156.45 passer rating to Stanford Saturday; he's thrown for 3,382 yards and 23 touchdowns and four interceptions.

Monday Night Football Titans v. Texans tied in 4th quarter

The NFL's  Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans are tied in 4th quarter at Reliant Stadium in Houston and in a game that's burning up the Internet. 

With 5:14 to go, it's 17 to 17 and possibly headed to overtime, this game's not without its great plays, players and dirty play.   

Houston's star wide receiver Andre Johnson had over 100 receiving yards. Texans Quarterback Vince Young was effective both running and passing (he ran completely around Texans Rookie Linebacker  Brandon Cushing) as was Texans Quarterback Matt Schaub.

It's one of those game where just when you think one team's going to score and pull away, they don't.  The clock's running down; now under 3 minutes. 

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Titans 20, Texans 17 with :47 seconds left.

UPDATE: Titans win as Houston Texans missed a 42-yard field goal with six-seconds left.

Pixar's “Partly Cloudy" heads international list of 10 animated shorts for Oscar

On Friday, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that 10 films were named to advance in the voting process for the "Animated Short Films" category for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards to be held March 7, 2010 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center and televised on ABC (in case you weren't used to going to ABC to see The Oscars every year).

It's an international list with movies representing production companies from Australia, France, America, Canada, and other countries.

Emeryville, California-based Pixar's “Partly Cloudy" is the American entry and is considered by some to be the front runner for the awards but only because its the most high-profile entry. Frankly, this awards category has been almost impossible to predict in the past, so anything could happen.

That said, here's the list of competitor films:

“The Cat Piano,” Eddie White and Ari Gibson, directors (The People’s Republic of Animation)
“French Roast,” Fabrice O. Joubert, director (Pumpkin Factory/Bibo Films)
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty,” Nicky Phelan, director, and Darragh O’Connell, producer (Brown Bag Films)
“The Kinematograph,” Tomek Baginski, director-producer (Platige Image)
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte),” Javier Recio Gracia, director (Kandor Graphics and Green Moon)
“Logorama,” Nicolas Schmerkin, producer (Autour de Minuit)
“A Matter of Loaf and Death,” Nick Park, director (Aardman Animations Ltd.)
“Partly Cloudy,” Peter Sohn, director (Pixar Animation Studios)
“Runaway,” Cordell Barker, director (National Film Board of Canada)
“Variete,” Roelof van den Bergh, director (il Luster Productions)

The next step is for the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee to select five nominees from the 10 titles on the short list above. The Academy reports that the movies will be screened for members in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in January of 2010. (No specific date was given as of this writing.)

For more information, visit Oscars.org

AMA Music Awards: Taylor Swift tops Michael Jackson; Adam Lambert, Lady Gaga go off

The American Music Awards gave talented singer Taylor Swift another massive round of fan voted awards to take home this year, as the country pop star took home honors for Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, Favorite Country Album (for Fearless), Favorite Female Pop/Rock Artist, and Favorite Country Female Artist.

This is Taylor Swift winning for Female Pop/Rock Artist:



But what was shocking was that Taylor Swift beat the otherwordly legend that is the late Michael Jackson for Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist. But even with that Michael Jackson took home awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist, Favorite Pop/Rock Album (for Number Ones), Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist, and Favorite Soul/R&B Album.

But the news of Swift beating Jackson caused controversy on Twitter, with a large number of tweets of protest like this one:

FeeshaD I can't believe Taylor Swift beat out Lady Gaga & MJ @ the AMA's! People have gotten so lame. less than a minute ago from mobile web

But then there are a lot of repeated tweets in anticipation of the 2010 Grammy Awards, like this one:

_Julia13 just voted "TAYLOR SWIFT" on "WHO WILL MOST LIKELY WIN A GRAMMY 2010????" vote too ➔ http://bit.ly/6MER36 3 minutes ago from POLLpigeon

Regardless of the tweet, it's clear that 20-year old Taylor Swift is having a year that one could only dream about. And all Swift had to do was sing, oh, and surround herself with the right publicist. But for some, creating nutty moments at the AMA gave their publicity hacks easy work: Adam Lambert and Lady GaGa.

Adam Lambert decided he was going to let is loins get the best of him and do some sexually provacative things during his singing number that really he could have done it without. I'm not going to give those actions video airplay.

Lady GaGa's bottle breaking spell during her number was less controversial but still questionable - and the piano was on fire, too!

It's as if the show producers decided to conspire with the performers to create as many Internet-viral-producing moments as possible just to keep us talking about the AMAs long after the show is over.

That strategy is very much like what I believe was done for the halftime show at Super Bowl 38 in Houston, when Justin Timberlake took off Janet Jackson's bra. It proved the impact of the Super Bowl on American culture because it was the pop event conversation for all the rest of 2004 and just at the time when the NFL was renegotiating its television contract.

To me, that was no accident, just as the AMA events of Sunday night were no accident. Both actions were created for the media and both actions worked to generate buzz. Look for more of this approach in the future and perhaps at The Grammys.

Oakland Raiders' Bruce Gradkowski posts awful 73.529 passer rating

Bruce Gradkowski

Oakland Raiders' Quarterback Bruce Gradkowski has become the darling of the Bay Area mainstream media because he replaced JaMarcus Russell and the Raiders won 20 to 17. Because of this, the commonly myopic mainstream media types have fallen all over themselves in praising Bruce Gradkowski. 

Time for this blogger to add a dose of much-needed sanity.  

Bruce Gradkowski was 17 of 34 for 183 yards, two touchdowns and one interception and posted an awful 73.529 passer rating according to the Quarterback Passing Calculators anyone can use online. I didn't have to use it to tell you the Oakland Raiders passing game is still terrible.

Let's get down to the basic fact that this is an under-performing passing game. If Bruce Gradkowski had attempted 34 passes and completed 26 for 270 yards and 3 touchdowns with no interceptions that would have been a passer rating of 128.3, and then we could pop the corks.

But the design of the Oakland Raiders passing game, and the way it's coached, does not offer a snowball's chance in hell of a quarterback hitting that passer rating objective. 

By contrast, Cal Head Coach Jeff Tedford's passing attack has produced several quarterbacks with excellent passer ratings over his career.  The latest example being quarterback Kevin Riley with a 133.49 rating for the season thus far and was 17 of 31 for 235 yards and one touchdown and one interception against Stanford (he was at just 54 percent and I know why), giving him a 122.71 rating for the 27th Big Game. (And thanks to Tedford and Cal Offensive Coordinator Andy Ludwig for using the Big Game to install the short passing game surgical strike I've called for all year long.)

But I digress.  

Yes, the passer rating formula does have its problems and that's another blog post, but one can't argue that throwing more completions as a percentage of attempts and for more yardage helps the achieve a solid victory, rather than a three-point win.

The Oakland Raiders must understand how to first throw short, timed passes that can be ran again and again and second, drill the passer to throw to a specific point at the receiver depending on the route, third, move the "launch point" of the pass using rollouts, sprints, and play action passes, and finally use the hashmarks and throwing points and route landmarks.

I've blogged that point again and again. So much so I'm tired of doing it. It does not matter who's placed at quarterback for the Oakland Raiders, the result - a poor or less than stellar passing attack - will always be the result.

This is nothing personal against Ted Tollner and Paul Hackett who are the passing game architects; it's professional. These two men have seen a lot of passing attacks and posted a lot of years of coaching. They must be held to a higher standard than what's being produced to date.

The Oakland Raiders' passing game is terrible. Bruce Gradkowski can't fix what's broken by design.

Modern patriotism isn't so different

To be a true patriot, a pro-republic American, is to recognize the role of civic virtue, of participation in the public affairs of the community, and to be among the men and women of whom future generations of Americans will say, "They were worthy of their city and their nation."

Gary Hart, in a recent Op-Ed, said:

"No single step would revitalize our fearful national spirit than a new era of civic republicanism. The single best vehicle to achieve this goal is the proposed Serve America Act sponsored by Senators Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch. It is a genuinely bipartisan response to President Obama’s challenge to Americans of all ages to serve the national community."

It would be refreshing to see the media focus less on the whining of political wanna-be pundits and apologist politicians whose goals have obvious resonance to special interests that have overhwelmed the relationship between elected officials and those they represent, and more on the inspirational leadership exemplified by the late Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch in authoring that bill.

Reporters, and news producers, love controversy - it's good for ratings, and the coverage of "news" is clearly a business in the 21st Century. There's never been a sexy sound-bite to be found talking about, VISTA, Habitat for Humanity, or the Peace Corps - you have to work much harder to tell these compelling human-interest stories.

But the country I want to leave to my son and his generation is much better when we take the time, and initiative, to help our neighbors and give to our communities - and so, too, are my son and his peers better when they join us in those efforts. The dangers of debt-fueled consumerism have become old news, as the pundits have led us on a hell-bent ride to blame whoever makes the best target in terms of their ad revenues, without any investigation into how best to recover.

A great way to start as we mark the quintessential American holiday, Thanksgiving, is for each of us to look within ourselves, to recall the lessons we've learned, to recall that our community matters -- to give a little.

Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, journalist, and political analyst who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.