Yea, it's survivor night and I'm not talking about my filght home. Last week on Survivor, the guys seemed to be distracted by the charms of some of their challengers and lost the immunity challenge. Who'd a thunk it. This is obviously going to be a much closer match than the guys anticipated. The guy tribe did build a better shelter than the women which will probably come into play when it rains. As some of them haven't figured out, they're in a rain forest. My guess is that the place will make Seattle seem like a dry oasis. Also unlike Seattle, there isn't a Starbucks within 10 miles; maybe more. The guys lost the immunity challenge because they couldn't seem to master the
balance beam that they had to walk across as part of an obstacle course. The men kept falling off while the women all seemed to make it across on their first try. I think it was because men have a natural fear of balance beams. I wonder why. Just one of many gender differences that we're likely to see in Survivor: Amazon.
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I watched American Idol last night; probably the second best reality series. After Survivor and American Idol, it's like stepping off a cliff to reach number three. I still haven't been blown away by any of the finalists. They did show a woman who did a decent rendition of Sarah MacLauchlan's Angel. Of course, if you have one Sarah do you really need a second? I don't know. It's funny that last week I was thinking about where the next great singers will come from, since they didn't seem to audition for American Idol. I watched David Letterman and saw Rufus Wainwright; son of Louden Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle. He sang Funny Valentine because it was Valentine's day. When someone can take a tired song like that and punch new life into it, they're destined for greatness. He had control of his voice that you rarely hear on American Idol. Definitely someone to watch.

Joe Millionaire ended on a high note. In fact, it turned out so well that it makes you wonder if the whole thing was scripted. Out of 20 women, he found the one who seemed to be the least impressed by money. She works as a substitute teacher and helps with the elderly in a small town. They showed how she used the stove for heat one time when the heat was shut off. Most of the other women worked in jobs such as loan officers or assistant mortgage brokers in big cities where their futures would be on the upswing and money would be increasingly important. If it was for real, I wish the couple well. I don't think it was necessary for him to go to France and lie about his wealth to find love, however. It would have been much easier to just be honest from the beginning.

It snowed in St. Louis yesterday. Luckily, there isn't nearly as much snow here as in states out east. I heard that some places like West Virginia got as much as 27 inches. Here it was more like 5 or 6 inches. It's a good thing that today is President' s Day. A lot of people don't have to work or go to school today.
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In the past, I always thought that were so many accidents in St. Louis because the people don't know how to drive in the snow. There may be some truth in that, but they also do a poor job of plowing the streets. I was out driving for about 45 minutes yesterday and I only saw one plow. That would never happen in Chicago. If they didn't clear the expressways, the mayor would be out of a job faster than you can say Jane Byrne.
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Is is just my imagination or do a lot of natural disasters in the USA occur on slow days. I think that the last really big snowstorm in Chicago occurred on New Year's day when few people needed to be outside. The last big earthquake in San Francisco happened when the Giants were playing the Cubs. Since a lot of people were at home watching the game, there weren't that many people on the bridges that were collapsing. Something to ponder.
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I'm always amused at how quickly schools close do to snow in today's world. When I was going to school, I think that we had one snow day in 12 years. That was the time in 1967 when we got about 29 inches in 24 hours. I remember walking all the way to school through snow dritfs that were over my head and being surprised to find the school closed. Of course, when I was going to school we had to walk five miles to and from school, uphill both ways. We were tougher back then.