Cubtracker is dead. He no longer exists. No longer can I, will I, be associated with that bunch of choking pathetic losers. 38 years have I followed them faithfully, religiously, unconditionally. Nothing fair weather about me.

Since tv.com will not allow me to change my username, I must fold up shop once and for all...here. I have created a new account and will now be Les_Nessman. Les will continue to bring you the NFL Pick 'em Awards, plus insights on various isues of the day. I have no idea how long it will take before I get the full use of the blog toolbar. Right now the text is pretty small over there. Maybe when I get to Level 2!

Join me, please and oh yes, may the good news be yours!

It's great to be back with my tv.com family. I almost slipped once by clicking on the wrong bookmark by mistake but caught myself in the "ta da!" nick of time.

Here's some changes I would like to see addressed by the folks in charge.

1. Address the white space issue. As it stands now, I am blinded by the contrast.
2. The regular font, especially on people's blogs is so faint I have to go to MovieTome to read. Bigger and wider would be good.
3. Accept banners from my computer when the specs fall within acceptable parameters. I have a wonderful Cubs banner all made out but every time I try to install it, it keeps going back to my Dark banner.
4. People's avatars seems out of proportion now. Please fix that.
5. increase the number of tracked blogs to ten as it was before. Four make it hard to know what friends have been writing.

Weak 4 NFL Pick 'em Awards

A brutal week for me. I went 6-7, besting NYBrian by just one. According to Yahoo, I finished 21st out of 22. that places me from tied for third last week to tied for 7th this week with good pals Brandi and T_Brennan. At least I'm in good company! A four-way tie for the top spot makes this a very competitive league this year. A long way to go.

Ricky Williams Award

Five players were high this round, going 9-4 and RevBucky won the tie-breaker so he gets crowing rights, I guess. But doing just as well in their prognostication was IndianaMom (Dad has been noticeably absent this year but Mom has enough chops of her own), xboxliveguy, El Paquillo Loco and jokipper. The correct strategy this week was staying away from the upsets and play it safe by choosing the favored teams. Three of the five went with that strategy an it paid dividends.

Outhouse Award

Like I said before, I came within an eyelash of winning this dubious honor. Only NYBrian120 did worse, going 5-8.

McCain Award

Two players went maverick on us this week, paying off for

tuckgraph who foresaw Washington besting Dallas. Brandi went out on a limb in that Oakland game but the Chargers were just too tough so it cost the speech and debate teacher from Austin.

For the second straight week no one wins the Obama Award as everyone chose either Philadelphia or Pittsburgh or both. And no Copycat Award. But for the league this was a good thing.123home123 (one of four overall leaders) and I split on a single game but he nabbed that one so he increased his lead over me to three games.

Comeback Award

Pickachu2121 didn't bail as I speculated last week. So I take back his Vilsack Award and I'll just hang on to it in case someone does drop out.

Cubtoberfest

And so it begins. Last year the Cubs made a quick exit from the Playoffs but are expected to go further this year. If they can pitch around Manny Ramirez I like their chances. Philadelphia should be able to dispatch the Brewers without breaking much of a sweat while over in the junior circuit the upstart Rays should eliminate the White Sox fairly easily (tho a subway series has a nice ring, doesn't it?) The Angels should be favored over Boston but I see this series going five and it's anybody's guess who will face the Rays for the AL pennant.

Sweets: You know, a sane person would regret murdering someone more ... than being taken in by a line of crap.
Zack: Define crap.
Sweets: Drivel, blarney, nonsense, uh, balderdash, twaddle, bull, bunkum, hooey. Like that.
Zack: Now I realize it was drivel-blarney-nonsense-balderdash-twaddle-bull-bunkum-hooey. Then I perceived it as logic.

And thus my return to Bones is complete. I mean not just my body but my heart as well. I guess they haven't jumped the shark as I had previously feared. The Perfect Pieces in the Purple Pond was the best episode in quite awhile and perhaps Eric Millegan's best. Ironically Zack wasn't given this much attention in a storyline when he was a regular member of the cast. Now that he's an occasional guest star, he gets the best scenes. Go figure.

The above dialogue takes place very early in the episode and the printed text fails to capture the essence of th moment when Zach repeats Sweets' words they are in rapid machinegun fashion. I searched YouTube but failed to find the scene.

The other bright spot of the episode is Hodgins and his struggles adapting to a world where he has lost his girl and his best friend. Thanks T_Brennan for not giving up on me. Let's hope there are many many more good Zack episodes and because of the way the script was manipulated, possibly opening the door for Zack to return permanently. Until that day arrives we will continue to watch a different squint every week, much like we did when Murphy Brown had a new secretary every week. Wendall was good as the sub in this episode and the week before , The Practice's Michael Baddalucco was exquisite.

There will be a scheduling conflict Wednesday night as there will be three shows I want to watch and/or record at the same time and my dvr can only handle two of them.

1. Bones - TW's favorite show. It's not going anywhere.
2. The Cubs' first post-season game vs. the Dodgers. No way I'm going to throw the guys under the bus. Not when this just might be "the year."
3. That leaves the Season opener for Pushing Daisies. Afraid Ned the Pie Maker will lose out this time around. Anyone know where I might catch it online?

Hey, this happened back a week or two ago and I never mentioned it amidst all the site changes and my vacation but I have achieved Level 20! Don't ask me what a cow bell has to do with television but I'm sure there is an obtuse SNL or Seinfeld reference in there somewhere.

In Gay news, two professional singers have recently come out of the closet. The first wasn't unexpected, the second a big shocker. Hey everyone, Clay is Gay I've always liked Mr. Aiken and thought he got the shaft when he didn't win American Idol. Now...., oh forget it, it's too easy.

The other singer to announce publicly his orientation is fellow Hoosier Christian artist Ray Boltz, 55, who is perhaps best known for his megahit Thank You seen here on YouTube. My personal favorite of his tho is Watch the Lamb, seen here.

This news made TW sick. Me not so much. In an interview with The Washington Blade, a gay magazine, Boltz, who sold about 4.5 million records before retiring from the business a few years ago, said ""I'd denied it ever since I was a kid. I became a Christian, I thought that was the way to deal with this and I prayed hard and tried for 30-some years and then at the end, I was just going, 'I'm still gay I know I am.' And I just got to the place where I couldn't take it anymore ... when I was going through all this darkness, I thought, 'Just end this.'"

Political Question. Given Sarah Palin's performance on the public stage thus far, how will she do Thursday in her only debate with Joe Biden?

1. Biden will chew her up and spit her out.
2. Palin will send him back to Delaware wimpering and licking his wounds.
3. The debate will result in a draw. Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann will declare victory for the Democrats while Sean Hannity will pronounce a knockout on the Republican side.

Finally, this space will go dark now til Wednesday. I encourage you to find something else to do tomorrow so we can catch the eye of CBS. (Clever, huh?) Me? I'm going to probably work on a new post for Wednesday. My Week 4 NFL Pick 'em Awards, f'rinstance. Plus, a new banner for the Baseball Playoffs will materialize.

Go Cubs!!

Only MovieTome renders the above exclamation as submitted.

This line from Worf in "Star Trek: First Contact" is one of the film's better moments. I was thinking about that scene yesterday as I read Glenn's courageous post about the blackout he's organizing in response to the changes here at tv.com. I fully support his cause and will comply and urge you to do so as well. Next Tuesday, September 30th, I will not be logging in on tv.com or even MovieTome, even tho Tuesdays are the day I post my NFL Pick 'em Awards. They will not come out next week til Wednesday.

I am legally blind. I have difficulty reading certain web pages (including the new format) and even tho I have the capacity to enlarge the text it is not always that easy.

But this isn't my main complaint regarding the changes. I would be selfish to expect the powers that be to design their site solely to meet my individual needs. My concerns go much deeper.

The wonder and majesty of tv.com, the attraction for me and I suspect most of us is in the capacity to express our own individual s.t.y.l.e. and creativity through the various features. The first thing to catch my eye on any of my friends' blogs is their banner. Next is the blog itself, the text, the font, color, size are all ways we have to stand out and be recognized for that identity we project through our pages. The banner is there (I have deleted mine) but it is now dwarfed by the mind-numbing white space around it.

What I see so far is that we are all being made to be little more than Borg drones, conforming to a single format of listless unimaginative space, void of color, life and breath.

When Glenn said "Enough!" the Borg Queen and her cohorts responded quickly and decisively with a TOS violation. I can hear them hissing now, "Resistance is futile."

Time will tell if Glenn's (and now mine) crusade will bear fruit or not. That is out of my control. What is within my control is whether or not to log in next Tuesday, September 30th, and thereby sending a necessary message.

And now, it is up to you as well.

Week Three of the NFL season had more upsets and weird outcomes, setting up this season to be one of the more interesting and unpredictable NFL campaigns to date. There are no Copycat, Timex, Outhouse or Obama Awards this week so I came up with three to take their place.

Good Samaritan Award

I wish to publicly thank the lovely and gracious IndianaMom for helping me out in a pinch. As I was on vacation last week and away from computer access, she at my request went in and edited my picks. Actually it was just one and you'll never guess which one it was? The Colts! I had the Colts losing all week to Jacksonville and just a few short hours before the deadline I had I-Mom switch and so I end up looking pretty foolish. If only I was in a dead zone so my cell phone was inoperable but noooo, I had to go get "the network". Next time I see that geek with the black glasses, I'm firing projectiles into his general direction.

Vilsack Award

Named for Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, the first candidate to withdraw from the presidential race after officially announcing his entrance. Now I don't know if pickachu 2121 is out or not but he/she has only submitted picks in the first week so I have my doubts of his/her continued participation.

Edsel Award

This award goes to fishzone for choosing the 0-3 Detroit Lions all three times. I know they are his team but when does loyalty finally give way to sensibility?

Ricky Award

Named for Ricky Williams, this award goes to the one with the "highest" score of the week. And going into Monday night my pal Bobby (Finalsequel) had it all sewed up. But then he went and took another sip of the Favre Kool-Aid and so picking the Jets to catapult the Chargers to a 0-3 wasteland. That rare lapse enabled perennial hotshot Mike (123home123) and myself to a 3 way tie at 12-4.

In the words of Dr. Gregory House, "Snap!"

At the end of Week Three, I find myself tied for third with 31 points, still two behind Mike and one behind Bobby.

McCain Award

For his Maverick picks of Jacksonville over the Colts as well as Green Bay over Dallas, tuckgraph wins this award. Of course the outcome was a wash but this fella has the stones to take a chance and go against the field. Since Pittsburgh and Philadelphia played one another there is no Obama award this week.

And since no one finished worse than 8-8, I can't really give out an Outhouse Award.

Finally, my apologies for no colorful pictures that usually accompany these awards. For some reason that feature isn't working. Worse than that, my commands for text size are routinely ignored.

Oh well, at least we have a lot of nice headache-inducing white space to look at!