Lakishas on TV

Last night, after braving the snow to get to the grocery store to replenish my food supply (really needed milk so I can continue to support my latte addiction), I sat down to watch some TV. I flipped on American Idol, and frogged, or ripped, a sweater while listening very carefully to the ladies sing. (Frogging a sweater is basically when you unknit something. You "rip it" - get it? Like a frog. Hey, I didn't make the term up! I had made a sweater with lots of very pretty, very expensive yarn, and it was just too funky looking and ill-fitting, so I decided I'd have to do something else with the yarn, so I frogged it. I usually hum or sing the Devo song, "Whip It" changing the words to "Rip It" when ripping a knitted item back to the original balls of yarn it once was. When a sweater is too long/You must rip it! You know those sleeves look very wrong/You must rip it!)

Once again, I liked Lakisha, and Melinda. Melinda seemed a smidge better to me last night. I also like Jordin and Stephanie. Sorry, but all you white girls are not hitting it, in my professional opinion. Whoops! Keep forgetting, I'm not a professional.

After A.I., I stayed firmly planted on my ass on the couch, and watched "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" I watched this on Tuesday night, as well, and both nights the answer was sadly, "No, I'm not smarter than a fifth grader." For the contestants, at least. I might be able to hold my own.

This show is one of those, like American Idol, that makes me feel guilty for watching TV. Guilty pleasures -- definitely. The idea is that an adult contestant is asked a series of 10 questions, from first grade to fifth grade level of difficulty, on a variety of grade school subjects. The "class" of 5 of so fifth graders on the show can provide help three times if the contestant needs to cheat. Though there are some questions that had me second-guessing myself - Wait, are fiction books in the Dewey Decimal System? - most of them just had my shaking my head in disbelief at the stupidity of the contestants. Now, last night's contestant, named Lakisha, did pretty well, earning over $100,000. But that's with cheating off the fifth graders on questions like, "How many sides does a trapezoid have?" She had no idea what a trapezoid is. I guess they probably have a special test before allowing contestants on the show. If you do well, you're automatically disqualified. I have to admit, the first night I was stumped on a question about the area of a triangle. For the life of me, I couldn't remember the equation for figuring that out. It's not pi R square, I know that much! I finally remembered after the show that it's A = 1/2 b x h, but really, those things are hard to remember, buried in the vault of my brain as they are. I seriously could have kicked some ass on that show if I were a fifth grader, back when I was smart! The fifth graders they did have on the show -- the "class" that the adult contestant can use to cheat on the answers if they don't know -- were very smart.

Off to change a poopy diaper. Oh yeah, it's a snow day today. We have several inches of the purty white stuff, but I was really looking forward to spring. My bulbs were all popping out, and are now buried. It's supposed to get warmer again this weekend. Let's hope so, or school will still be in session in July.