What is Your Favorite Record of the Decade?

Pathetic Plea For Attention #152 is online and you can listen to it here. In today's episode I discuss my favorite album of the decade. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast by following the links on the right side of this page.



Yikes, that is pretty but it sure does look cold.



I find this to be an odd story, Floyd Mayweather Jr wants very strict drug testing for his next fight. Manny Pacquiou does not? Why not?

Mayweather seeks strict drug testing for bout with Pacquiao

By Lance Pugmire
Los Angeles Times
December 23, 2009

Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants Manny Pacquiao to submit to Olympic-style drug tests, including a blood test within days of their tentatively scheduled March 13 bout, and failing to agree to these terms could threaten the fight, Mayweather's camp said Tuesday.

Pacquiao has expressed reluctance to submit to a blood test within 30 days of the proposed world welterweight title fight, which will be staged at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

"As management for Floyd, we're insisting this Olympic-style, random [blood] testing take place to assure it's a level field before the biggest fight in history," Mayweather's advisor Leonard Ellerbe said. "We're definitely at an impasse."

Mayweather's promoter Richard Schaefer said a Pacquiao promoter told him the Filipino superstar would not agree to a blood test within 30 days of the bout because of his superstition against testing.

Pacquiao and Mayweather have previously submitted, and passed, urine tests for performance-enhancing and illegal drugs supervised by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said a blood test can allow testers to detect use of energy-boosting synthetic EPO, human growth hormone and "a number of potent performance-enhancers not detectable in urine. . . . With a [30-day] window like that, you could dope to the gills and get away with it."

Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, said Mayweather's push for blood testing is a ploy to avoid fighting Pacquiao, who has won back-to-back fighter of the year awards and has battered world champions Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto.

"I knew Floyd wanted a way out of the fight," Roach said.

Time to Unveil My 2nd Favorite Album of the Decade

You know you've been waiting for it, it's been 2 whole days without a podcast, well, worry know more - Pathetic Plea for Attention #151 is online and you can listen to it here. Remember, if you'd like to have every episode downloaded to your iTunes (and your iPod) without having to do anything, just click the subscribe to podcast link on the right side of this page.

The 2nd Half of the Countdown Begins

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I'm on a Roll

Look at that, 3 podcasts this week, I'm on a roll. Pathetic Plea for Attention #149 is online and you can listen to it here. Don't forget you can subscribe to the show following the links on the right side of this page.

I'm Glad it's Not 12 degrees in Dallas Right Now

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Overall this has been a pretty successful fall tv season. I have to say, we've been impressed with a few of the shows.

Fall season spawned some winners for the networks

By Gary Levin, USA TODAY

Though cable TV has been grabbing the spotlight in recent months, holiday cheer is spreading at the big broadcast networks.

The good news: More new shows are sticking than in recent years; just a few have been yanked because of low ratings. The bad: Another fall has come and gone without producing a blockbuster cultural phenomenon.

"There's a lot of good, not a lot of great," says CBS program planning chief Kelly Kahl. "But given where we've been, a lot of good is a good thing," he says. With last fall plagued by the lingering effects of a writers' strike, "there was a void of quality shows coming out of last season."

Overall TV usage is down slightly from last fall, when the election heightened interest and drew crowds to cable news. But the overall picture for the big broadcast networks has brightened: Combined, the five are up 3% from last fall, slowing years of steady erosion. Big growth for NFL games and the World Series also helped.

CBS' NCIS: Los Angelesand The Good Wife, paired on Tuesdays, are the top newcomers this season. Fox's Glee and ABC's Modern Family, FlashForward and V opened strongly, though ratings for the two fantasy dramas have trailed off in recent airings.

Fox won its first November sweeps race among younger viewers and is up 18% this fall.

"It's generally a stronger season," says John Rash of Minneapolis ad firm Campbell Mithun.

Only ABC's Hank, CBS' Three Rivers and CW's The Beautiful Life were canceled after a handful of airings, though ABC's Eastwick and Fox's Brothers are on their way out. "You're looking at fewer cancellations than you've seen year-to-year," says Brent Poer of ad firm MediaVest in Los Angeles, but few shows "are reaching the cultural zeitgeist" on network TV.

The new ratings math is that shows considered modest successes would have been canceled a few years ago. "It's far riskier to replace them than to stick with something you know," Poer says. Networks need "to put time and investment into some of these shows to build an audience, because there's not a lot in the pipeline to replace them," a function of cost-cutting at CW and NBC, where The Jay Leno Showis faring poorly compared with the dramas it replaced.

Holy Crap! A Podcast For You!

Pathetic Plea For Attention #147 is online and you can listen to it here. Don't forget that you can subscribe with the button on the right, it is free!