STICKY DOORKNOBS

Idol Thoughts with Teri Carter: Semifinal week

Final Three

 

It's the semi-finals and I thought it was "hometown week" but I guess that you can't fit that in with 9 songs. It's probably for the best.  The performances this week?  I was completely underwhelmed.  Maybe I'm growing tired of American Idol?  No scandals.  Paula was surprisingly lucid.  Simon was Simon.  Randy was wearing his big watch.  And so it goes....

 

Round One-Judge's Choice

   David A-"And So It Goes"  Not a Billy Joel song that I'm familiar with, but I thought he did a good job.  Fairly predictable.

   Syesha-"If I Ain't Got You"  I liked the song.  I liked the performance.  And she does look great.    David C-"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"  What was Simon thinking?  This is not the rockin David that the judges so love.  Just ok.
   I'll give round one to Syesha.

Round Two-Contestant's Choice

   David A-"With You" I don't know Chris Brown because I'm like 112 years old, but it wasn't a bad song.  It was just awkward for him. He shouldn't dance.  I can't tell you why, but not the best choice.

   Syesha-"Fever" Hello, lighting department?  I couldn't see her face for the first minutes and 20 seconds and I'm not sure that would have helped.  Why choose such an old song?  Again, bad choice.

   

David C-"Dare You To Move" Switchfoot?  Huh?  Do they sing this badly?  I'm sorry, but that was more than "a little pitchy".  The end bordered on screechy.  Ow.  My ears. 

   Round two goes to David A, but by default.

 
Round Three-Producer's Choice

   David A-"Longer"  A safe song and he sang well, but didn't do anything original with it.  I do agree with Simon.  It was gooey.

   Syesha-"Hit Me Up"  Why did they choose a song from a kid movie for her?  Is this corporate sabotage???

   David C-"I Don't Want to Miss A Thing"  He for sure got the best song choice and other than the shouting at the end, he did a decent job.
   Round three goes to David Cook. 

   Simon declared at the end "David Cook wins the night!" which sounded like what the producers wanted to hear.  Did you see the "Cougars for Cook" sign?  Ewwwww.

    Should I even bother to watch tonight?  Syesha goes home.  Place the tiara on DC's beanhead.

   Listen to Teri Carter Friday at 6:40 a.m. during The Morning Drive on NewsTalk 550 KCRS.

Four generation photo

You've no doubt seen the four generation photos that show the great grandmother, grandmother, mother and daughter? We had a similar occurrence this afternoon at the office when four of the past five MRT sports editors convened for a short time in the sports department. Pictured are former SE Stewart Doreen (2002-05), current SE Len Hayward (2005- present), Ted Battles (1953-88) and Terry Williamson (1988-2003, and an MRT employee since 1972). Ted shared with us today that one of his former sports department employees was Larry L King, author of "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."

Why today's baseball is not like yesterday's (Reason No. 453)

Because Monday afternoon on ESPN Radio, Sports nation cohost Orestes Destrade said this, when asked who he thought will be the next 300-game starting pitcher in Major League Baseball:

"It's generally accepted in today's game that the new 300 is widely considered to be 250ish."

Huh?

The Big Rock

I will just say this about Enchanted Rock:

If ever you plan to go there and try to climb atop the nation's second largest chunk of granite, make sure you are in good health, do not forget water and do not attempt to hike in the middle of the afternoon, especially if you are unaccustomed to dealing with something called humidity. Unless you are a seasoned experienced hiker, this rock has the potential of kicking your backside bigtime. If a hiker were to ever pass out on this thing, there is the potential to literally roll off the rock to an untidy death in the brambles below.

Don't be fooled by the Ranger Station info that the trail to the summit is just 6/10ths of a mile. Heed instead the information that in that very short distance the elevation change is 426 feet.

Otherwise it's beautiful.

As good as food gets

It's not the easiest place to find, but once you get there and sink your teeth into pretty much anything on the menu, you'll forget about any misadventures you might have had along the way.

If you don't recognize the place on the left, you haven't driven 11 miles north of Fredericksburg on Texas 87. If you have, your mouth is likely waterin' in a big way by now.

The Hilltop Cafe is one of those must-see stops in the Hill Country, a fascinating place for a number of reasons. Owned by Guitar Johnny Nicholas, who just happened to be on the road with Asleep at the Wheel when we stopped in, the Hilltop is a visual and aural treat. There are more antiquities, oddities and unique signage hanging from the walls and ceilings than any place I've ever been to (my favorite: "Rage Against the Corporate Culinary Machine: Support Family Owned Restaurants).

As one-of-a-kind as the decor and the background music is here, the food trumps everything else, and that's frankly a tall order. The menu has plenty to please no matter what you're in the mood for but officially, this is Cajun fare. The pan fried pork chops with rice gravy was delish, as was a little something called the Blind Pig Sandwich. With fresh hot house tomatoes on top it looked like little more than a bacon pizza, but going down it was about so much more.

As for dessert, the manager told us the same woman has been baking pies for the Hilltop for 20 years. It's no mystery why they'd keep her around: the Blackberry Pie was as good a dessert as I've ever had and the missus said the same about the Pecan Pie.

Check out the Hilltop the next time you're in the Hill Country.  If you're lucky, Guitar Johnny might even sing you a song. And thanks to Teri Carter for the recommendation.

Apocalypse now?

I keep hearing this is gonna happen. I just didn't know it was gonna be this weekend.

How dumb do spammer thieves think we are?

Maybe the question should be: how dumb are spammer thieves? Those behind mass emails who try to get unwitting Internet users to give up their personal information for illegal gain. Some of these emails, granted, are quite conniving, clever and, moreover, dangerous. Others, like the one I received Wednesday, come from people who really and truly must be as dumb as a plastic bag. I have attached, word for word, exactly what came to me in yesterday's email. See if you can find the bevy of errors and then ask yourself: Would I ever want to be conned by the criminal mastermind behind this missive?

Dear grandecom.net Email Account Owner,

This message is from grandecom.net messaging center to all grandecom.net email account user. We are currently upgrading our database and e-mail account center. We are deleting all unused grandecom.net  email account to create more space for new accounts.

To prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below so that we will know that it's a present used account. (You are to send the information below to enable us

RECONFIRM YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT and for Upgrading)

Email Username : (***********)
EMAIL Password : (***********)
Date of Birth  : (***********)


Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account within 24 hours of this warning notice we are afraid you will have to lose your account permanently.

Thank you for using grandecom.net!

Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ

Thanks
grandecom.net
Support Team

Umm, where to start. I don't know, if my objective was to excel at online identity theft, I might become just a littttttle bit more familiar with the English language so as to sound somewhat more believable:

Account owner that refuses to update his/her account within 24 hours of this warning notice we are afraid you will have to lose your account permanently. (

Who wrote that, Yoda?

It also might be somewhat helpful for would-be online pirates if they could correctly identify the singular from the plural:

This message is from grandecom.net messaging center to all grandecom.net email account user. We are deleting all unused grandecom.net  email account to create more space for new accounts.

It would also be more convincing if these brainiacs could somehow distinguish between adverbs and just your run-of-the-mill adjectives: 

To prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below so that we will know that it's a present used account.

Also necessary: remembering to include all words in a sentence, and maybe even proper sentence-ending punctuation so we could tell when you're done with your train of thought. Further, unnecessary line breaks can also be a pretty good sign of an amateur driving the keyboard:

(You are to send the information below to enable us

RECONFIRM YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT and for Upgrading) 

And finally, follow through. Threatening to discontinue service in 24 hours is only effective if you actually discontinue service in 24 hours.

Account owner that refuses to update his/her account within 24 hours of this warning notice we are afraid you will have to lose your account permanently.

Internet theft is real and serious. So is sounding like an idiot. Don't fall victim to any Internet scam. Be watchful of them all but particularly ones run by total bird brains.

Thursday's Idol Thought with Teri Carter: 25,000 down, three to go

Let's see where was I?

Jason-Thank God and Greyhound he's gone!  Even my hubby (the ultimate Aggie) said it was time for him to go.  Now I get one more week of Syesha before the coronation.  Question is...will I be sucked in again next year????? And Paula, SIT DOWN.  or is she dancing like there's no tomorrow??  And does she look in a mirror before she leaves the house?  Enough with the prom dresses!!

Listen to Teri Carter Friday's at 6:40 a.m. on The Morning Drive, KCRS 550 AM

Eddy Arnold dies

I may date myself with this one, but has country music ever given us a purer, more beautiful voice than Eddy Arnold, who died today at 89.

The story does not say what brought on Arnold's death but reports seem to hint a broken heart may have had something to do with it. Arnold's wife of 66 years, Sally, died in March.

Arnold's most memorable songs were "Make the World Go Away" and "What's He Doin' in My World."

Idol Thoughts with Teri Carter: The Final Four-Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

500 songs to choose from!  Where to start?  Ryan is ready to rock!  And so am I!

 Round One:

David C - "Hungry Like The Wolf" OK, I was around in the 80s and there were some good songs.  I'm just not sure this was one of them.  Mr. Original sang the karaoke version.  Sorry to break it to you DC lovers, but this was in the words of Randy Jackson "just ok for me."

Syesha - "Proud Mary" This girl brought the house down.  She was having some kinda fun tonight.  Good for her!  Simon thought it was a bad Tina impression. Obviously, he never saw Oprah's version.  I thought it was pretty darn good.

Jason - "I Shot the Sheriff"  Good Lord.  That was beyond awful.  I heard songs during the audition rounds that were better than this.  I'm afraid even the faithful Aggie network can't save you now.  Somewhere, Reveille was howling.

David A - "Stand By Me"  I would rethink the t-shirt, but otherwise a great song choice and another good performance by Lil Davy.  Even Simon called it the best so far.

Round Two:

David C - "Baba O'Reilly"  Once again, everybody but me thought this was just so awesome.  First of all, not a Who fan.  And Bret Michaels sang it better two weeks ago on "Don't Forget the Lyrics".  Relax, you're so safe.  And that AC on the guitar?  Archuleta/Cook.

Syesha - "A Change is Gonna Come"  I wasn't blown away by this song.  I tend to agree with Randy.  I thought she over sang a little.  But, Simon showed he really does have a heart when he didn't criticize while she was in tears.

Jason - "Mr. Tambourine Man" Just absolutely hideous.  There.  I said it.  Now, pack those dreds and get outta town.

David A - "Love Me Tender"  I've had bad experiences with Elvis songs this year.  I'm a little afraid.  But, he doesn't disappoint.  He brings a whole new vibe to the song.  He "Cooked" it!  You heard Simon.  He crushed the competition.

Bottom Two: Syesha and Jason.  If there is any justice in the world; Jason goes home.

Listen to Teri Carter on Friday at 6:40 a.m. during The Morning Drive on NewsTalk 500 KCRS.