ALL OF US WERE ORDINARY, COMPARED TO CYNTHIA ROSE: Because unlike Isaac, I do not make it my goal to creep you out, let me take you back to September 1997, when The Artist Then Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince (or ) appeared on the short-lived series Muppets Tonight. He played some songs. You'll like this.

ANOTHER WEEKEND GIFT TO YOU: Last week's gift was the creepiest G-rated photo album I have ever seen. My analyst/therapist says that to excise a traumatic event from one's mind, one must undergo an even more traumatic event. He says he can help me with that, whatever that means. On that note, this week's gift is the creepiest G-rated video I saw this week. I know that once Sports Guy has mentioned it I must be the last one to the party, but still, there must be some dance fans, and maybe some Little Hercules aficionados, out there who haven't seen this.

JAZZ FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE POP MUSIC: I do not recall that there has been much (any?) discussion of jazz on this blog, but I figured I would offer two suggestions that should appeal to all of us who love pop music. Both of these CDs feature piano trios.

Heralded pianist Brad Mehldau's "Day is Done" features covers of two Beatles tunes, "She's Leaving Home" from Sgt. Pepper's and "Martha My Dear" from The White Album, Radiohead's "Knives Out", Nick Drake's "Day Is Done", and Paul Simon's hit "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover". A comment on amazon sums things up:

“It's not merely that he has chops to burn, although that is certainly the case; it's that he finds unusual and serendipitous musical contexts to unfold and display his genius that other pianists fail to locate.”

I may in fact prefer a similar CD by David Hazeltine called “Modern Standards”, which features versions of “Yesterday”, “For the Love of You” by the Isley Brothers, and a swinging version of “How Deep is Your Love” that will make you rethink the original. While Mehldau has an occasional tendency to play in an astringent manner, I find every one of Hazeltine’s performances emotionally satisfying.

DID YA MISS ME? Having returned from Disney World, I will not offer a lengthy list of Hot Disney Things or a list of Top Seven Must-Sees at the Walt Disney World Resort (shut up, Stacy--you know what I mean if you've been there in recent years). A few thoughts:

• Animal Kingdom is a nice concept, but isn't really a full-fledged park right now-it's a zoo (though a very well done and designed zoo) with a few rides tacked in. Not being a roller coaster person, I didn't ride the Everest ride, the park's big attraction, but really not a lot to do, especially since the hot show at the park is a Lion King inspired show that mixes Taymor's Broadway production with more than a little Cirque du Soleil, managing to strip most of Taymor's theatrical magic from the show.
• Epcot has some brilliant stuff (Soarin' is just extraordinary--possibly the most innovative ride design I've experienced, and Mission Space (at least the "green" version) is well-done without being excessive), but World Showcase continues to need work. Yes, the food and shopping is top-notch throughout, but there are only so many "look at the beauty of my country!" films one can experience (and the Canada one really needs to be updated--it's from the 70s). One note--once the new Nemo-themed attraction opens in the Seas pavilion, it's going to be a nightmare in there--lines for the Crush show were 30-40 minutes at times, and that's without any ride or anything to draw folks in.
• Even though I didn't do Tower of Terror or the Rock 'N' Roller Coaster, MGM may well have been my favorite--lots of little details pitched to adults. One problem--why doesn't Disney leverage ABC at all? Replace the Indiana Jones Stunt Show (fun, but dated) with Sydney Bristow. Give us Dr. McDreamy's Emotional Roller Coaster (first you go one direction, then the other, and you conclude by leaning against things and being shouted at by the voice of Miranda Bailey), the Craphole Island Adventure (dodge polar bears, The Others, and Lostzilla!), and a walking tour down Wisteria Lane. Also, the night show at MGM, Fantasmic!, is excellent. Also, sure to impress friends of the blog, I was within 10 feet of Dan Zanes (whom I recognized solely because of the promotional photos all over the park for his conert) at one point, who was signing autographs for an adoring fan.
• The Magic Kingdom was generally excellent, though a bit odd. While ordinarily, the long lines build at the "Mountains," because of the time I went, preschool attractions, like Winnie The Pooh and Peter Pan, had the long waits (40 minutes). Best ride? The Buzz Lightyear one, which takes the classic "slow-moving vehicle on conveyor belt" ride, and mixes it with a shooting gallery and a score display. A little too day-glo, but still a ton of fun.
• Two fashion notes. Tim Gunn would be horrified by just how many pairs of Crocs I saw. Also, unacceptable both on the Amazing Race and at Disney World? Custom-made matching/coordinated t-shirts for your party. (Everyone wearing the same color t-shirt? OK. Custom-made shirts with extensive monogramming and infringing graphic designs? Not OK.)
• Finally, there's a fine fine line between adorable, disturbing, and annoying. I am still attempting to figure out in which of those sectors the spontaneous rendition of "We Will Rock You" from a bunch of 7-9 year olds in the Italy Section of World Showcase falls.

NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH, I MADE YOU RUN A CORRECTION: I complain, the Times responds in the Magazine today:

CORRECTION: An article on Sept. 17 about the abundance of satire in American culture referred incorrectly to an episode of "South Park." In it, the character Cartman tricks another child into eating his own parents in a bowl of chili; Cartman himself does not eat them.

No apology yet from Bill Carter, however . . .

AT THE DOOR: There's a flipside question to our "who's the youngest pre-written obit?" question from yesterday that we've been discussing over at Immodest Proposals: whose obituary is, at present, the most stale? By which I mean -- the person's obituary was pre-written a long time ago; the subject remains alive; and there hasn't been anything new in the person's life for years which would require an update of the obituary. Essentially, we're looking for people for whom active public engagement has long since passed, and for whom they just need to insert a "died today following . . . " at the end of the first sentence in order to have a publishable piece.

On that, Lady Bird Johnson sprung to mind, but I imagine you have some thoughts on this one as well.

DRIP, DRIP, DRIP . . . What if a team's playoff hopes ended, but no one stayed up late enough to watch?

The Phils-Nats game didn't start until 11:32 pm because of a 4 1/2 hour rain delay, and I made it up until about 1 am (saw Burrell's gunning of Church) before crashing -- not that I stayed up for the Mitch Williams 4:40 am doubleheader in 1993 either. But what an odd, spirited little crowd of Phillies fans who stood by the Phightins at RFK:

[I]t was more of a carnival than a funeral. A crowd of a couple of hundred endured - and almost all of them were Phillies fans, it seemed. For most of the night, they had no problem entertaining themselves. At one point, they booed the Nationals' pathetic excuse for a mascot and chanted, "You're no Phanatic." Later, they booed the pathetic excuse for Thomas Jefferson who fell down twice in a race of big-headed presidential mascots - after, that is, they greeted the big-heads with a serenade to the Phillies' expert on all races of mascots: "Ran-dall Simon ... Ran-dall Simon ... "

The hour lent itself to all such goofiness, even as the stakes for the Phillies were beyond serious. If you want to compare atmospheres of big games that ran past 2 a.m, this was nothing like the five-overtime Flyers playoff game against Pittsburgh in 2000. That was all sweat and tension until Keith Primeau finally scored for the Flyers. This was different. This was, well, an adventure. Only in the last couple of innings did the import of the outcome really trump the scene.

At 2:07 am last night, the Phillies season just about ended. Again.