Thunderstorms and tornado warnings got in the way of my Idol watching tonight. Now, I did get to see tonight's episode, featuring the gorgeous Jennifer Lopez, but I had to wait out the bad weather and a few minutes on the treadmill.

Lightning knocked out the TV at 7:52 and didn't restore until 7:57, which means I did not get to hear Sanjaya Malakar.

Damned shame because I heard he was brilliant! Kidding. However, a very interesting column on msnbc.com this week suggests that Sanjaya's survival on Idol is actually a good thing.

And, I can see what the writer means. His survival means fans of the show have something outrageous to gab about all week in lieu of really great performances, and again tonight, none were great.

However, I do think the lightning that magnetized by Sony Wega briefly is a sign from the Idol gods that Sanjaya's time on Idol will end tomorrow night.

More fallout over Imus

Man, all this hub-bub about a guy who, to me, isn't that entertaining or relevant, at least in terms of pop culture. I watched the Rutgers press conference and found it to be much ado about nothing. We have collectively gone off the deep end of the political correctness cliff.

One of the Scarlet Knights players said that Imus' remarks completely ruined her experience of making it to the finals of the NCAA women's basketball tournament.

That's just stupid.

I have no doubt that being called a "ho" by some morning show host might tweak my feelings a bit. Personally, if I were them, I'd be more offended by the nappy-headed part of the barb. See, white society has spent more than a century telling black women how to be "less black."

Straighten your hair. Kill the curl.

I love it when black women in the public eye deign to go natural. Nevertheless, if we're looking for the real insulting part of this whole thing, it's in the term "nappy-headed."

However, two quick points:

1. If Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are going to make it their crusade to squash speech that insults black women, they need to start with rap music, which lyrically is typically more offensive than anything an old sourpuss like Imus said.


2. For me, this whole thing is a slippery slope. Free speech, even that which doesn't please Al and Jesse, is more valuable than any offense a good group of scholar athletes might take. Frankly, if we as a society cave to this, we'll be policing speech and ending careers everyday, and last I checked this was a country that values free speech about all else.

As for Tuesday's food:

For breakfast, I had a pair of breakfast sandwiches -- one egg and sausage on a croissant and the other egg and bacon on a croissant. Small sandwiches they were from Jason's Deli, and they were mmm, mmm good.

For lunch, I had a tuna salad sandwich on whole grain white bread (toasted), just tuna, a bit of tuna-salad spread and bread. I had that with a bowl of Progresso chicken corn chowder.

As a snack, I had an 80-cal glass of cocoa and a 210-cal bag of Chex mix.

After a 15-minute workout, I finished off the second half of my bowl of chili with part of a baked potato in it. It was really, really good the day after, and I highly recommend just crumbling up the baked potato and mashing it into the chili. Good.

Then, check this, I microwaved a piece of pumpkin pie (a small piece) and put it on top of a bowl of fresh fruit. Greatness.

I'm likely to have another 80-cal cup of cocoa while I'm watching Colorado-Los Angeles on mlb.tv. Love listening to Vin Scully, and watching the Dodgers kind of fulfills my secret wish to live in Los Angeles, where I someday hope to be, honestly.

Hell, I'd like to visit, at least.

On a final note

My new desktop wallpaper is of Maria Menounos, who I think might be the prettiest woman on Earth. Might be.