Almost quitting time

Did y'all have a nice weekend? Good, 'cause mine sucked. Mostly because I twisted my foot on Saturday morning. It was entirely me being dumb, and if I hadn't been home Friday night with an upset stomach, I wouldn't blame you for thinking I was drunk and tripped over myself. Which I kinda did, except for the drunk part. My foot was asleep, like really, really asleep, like I could step on my own toes and not even notice because my foot was so numb. But I decided to walk on it anyway, and made it about three steps before my foot bent completely in the wrong direction and something went snap crackle pop. To be followed by me immediately falling on the floor, only to have to hop to the bathroom so I could dry heave in the toilet (see aforementioned upset stomach.)

It's pretty much fine now, after a couple days of ice and not moving from the sofa. Okay, a day and a half, because by Sunday afternoon I was not only stir-crazy, but I also had serious grocery shopping and laundry to do, and not even my shuffle-hop was gonna stop me. I did have a nice black-and-blue bump for a while, but I can walk on it now with only a little twingy pain.

Sidebar: I think Blink may be my new favorite episode of Doctor Who, although I'm now adding statues to my list of irrational fears, right below clowns and fish. Seriously creepy, yo. That has nothing to do with anything, but I watched it for like the third time on Saturday while I was sacked out on the couch.

Anyway, just a few links with absolutely no connection to one another:

First, the Presidential candidates' proposals for how to deal with the mortgage crisis reveal what kind of President they will be. Or something like that.

Also, a list of the top 43 moments on Battlestar Galactica. Definitely contains spoilers, but you should be watching it anyway! (Marathon on Sci-Fi Channel going on RIGHT NOW.)

And finally, my favorite reality show (okay, the only one I actually watched), The Mole, is coming back. Minus host Anderson Cooper, but hopefully also without the celebrity cast. This was one of the few reality shows where the premise was engaging, the challenges were difficult, and the contestants were actually intelligent and cared about winning the game rather than becoming a reality TV personality.

Lots of newsy goodness

I was away from my computer all day at a symposium on crime and violence, so I've got some catching up to do.

First, the Jericho series finale was Tuesday night. The ending was obviously rushed, as they had to condense an entire season into 7 episodes, and tie up as many loose ends as they could, but I think they did a good job. We have the specter of civil war ahead, which could make for a potential season 3 if by some miracle they get picked up on cable, but there's also the satisfaction of knowing that they saved the town and exposed the conspiracy and we can all assume the good guys win the war and everybody lives happily ever afterish. Besides, Jake and Hawkins are made of awesome, and that's really all that matters. Plus - surprise appearance by George Mason! (That's the guy from 24, played by Xander Berkeley... the only person I've ever heard called "Xander" in real life.) It was cool seeing him again, even if it was only a brief role and he shot awesome Hawkins.

Now I'm catching up on Battlestar Galactica before season 4 starts on April 4th. I have to admit, I wasn't a big fan of the whole settling-on-a-planet thing - I felt like it threw a lot of things out of whack, and I'm really glad everyone's back in space. If you want to catch up, there will be two TV specials this Friday night on Sci-Fi, and for the truly dedicated, there's also a marathon all next week, leading up to the premiere.

Speaking of BSG, Helo is gonna be on Dollhouse! Cool beans. Don't really know who the rest of those people are, although I think I saw Fran Kranz in a movie once. He was playing a bad actor, though, so it's hard to judge his actual ability. Still waiting to hear about those Buffy alums...

How many pilots can Rob Thomas make? Well, at least three, apparently. This one is another remake, of a New Zealand show called "Outrageous Fortune."

I'm super excited that one of my fave guys is coming back to Heroes next season, but if you're afraid of spoilers, don't read the article. I'm also a tad concerned about TWELVE new characters. Um, didn't we learn our lesson with the Mexican wonder twins? Unless they're only being introduced so that Sylar can kill them. That is acceptable.

In what I think will be my final reference to the Paley Festival, you can read recaps of the Dirty Sexy Money and Damages panels.

And in the "random" category, some genealogist has figured out which celebrities are related to the Presidential candidates. Hmm... I wonder if I'M distantly related to Brad Pitt, too...

Not Buffy-related, I promise

Here's a nice piece briefly outlining the strengths and weaknesses of the three Presidential candidates, courtesy of Andrew.

I have to go to a "welcome reception" tonight for the Speaker's symposium on crime and violence (which I will be at ALL DAY tomorrow, joy), so I'm trying to psych myself up to mingle with strangers. I wonder if there will be free booze.

OMG it just keeps coming

I read somewhere that someone was complaining that the coverage for the Buffy reunion was disappointing, and I'm wondering what the hell kind of expectations they have, because there's been tons of articles and reports and photos and video. I'm sure you're all probably sick of it by now (but not a whole lot else going on, so...).

Anyway, here's another MTV report, as well as IGN, which is probably the most detailed write-up I've seen without being a complete transcript. And believe it or not, I haven't even posted everything I've found, just the good stuff.

Also Whedon-related, he's considering some Buffy alums in the casting of Dollhouse. If it was anyone at the panel last week, they played it very cool, as Dollhouse wasn't even mentioned. I'm guessing it'll probably be recurring or guest characters from Buffy, none of the big names.

So, did anybody watch HIMYM last night? I thought Britney was fairly unremarkable. She wasn't great, but she wasn't stand-out terrible, either. I did notice her line delivery was kind of awkward, but I honestly couldn't tell if that was just her or the way the character was supposed to be played. I thought Sarah Chalke, on the other hand, was great, and I wish she had time for more appearances. In any case, here's hoping it gave the show the ratings boost they needed.

MORE Buffy panel

It's never-ending! Here are a few fan accounts of Paley Fest, including this one with video clips, this one, which has pics of James and Joss signing autographs and also talks about the Pushing Daisies panel, and this hilarious photo account of the all-important "Angel or Spike?" question.

Monday morning comes again

Hope everyone had a happy Easter. I had a parent-filled weekend, but they bought me things and fed me, so I'm happy.

First up, here's more coverage of the Buffy reunion. You can also see video clips from all the Paley events here, although the Buffy one is little more than the introductions and a little from Joss and Sarah. The Chuck panel had some pretty hilarious clips, though. I also found a podcast of the entire Buffy panel, as long as you don't mind the very loud girl in the audience.

In other news, Jericho has been canceled again, for good this time. Not really a surprise, although it's a little disappointing. I felt like the show really blossomed in the 7 episode run, and it deserved at least a full second season.

Some speculation on Dollhouse's chances from Matt Roush, as well as an update on Bones from David Boreanaz. And this is cute: Reasons I miss Psych. I miss it, too!

Oh, and don't forget to watch How I Met Your Mother tonight - it's the Britney episode!

Buffy Reunion!

Last night was the much-anticipated Buffy reunion panel at Paley Fest, and there's a shitload of coverage. Here's the TV Guide recap, as well as panel moderator Matt Roush's thoughts. Additional write-ups from E!'s Kristin, who is asking for Buffy quotes, along with Scifi Wire, iF Magazine, the Futon Critic, and TVSquad. Pics are up at Getty Images. The Paley Center will be posting their own photos and video clips, so I'll probably add that later. Also, there's talk of a DVD possibly being made available for purchase, but it requires the permission of everyone on the panel.

Once more, with coherency

Okay, now that my squee has subsided somewhat, here's the full recap of the Friday Night Lights panel at Paley Fest. Even though they're trying to hold it in for another couple weeks, the news is just bursting out of them, you can tell. :) I'm so excited about this renewal!

Also, here's the recap from the Pushing Daisies panel as well, which I missed earlier this week, if anyone's interested.

Shh!

It's happening.

But nobody's supposed to know.

SQUEE!!

Those things should come with warning labels!

I've never heard of a laptop giving someone a black eye before. I mean, not unless someone beat you up and tried to steal your laptop. But apparently Charlie Rose tripped on a pothole, and chose to faceplant on the sidewalk rather than scratch up his new MacBook Air. (Or he got his ass kicked and just won't admit it.)

Gotta watch out for those laptops. They're hazardous.

Spring cleaning

I don't know if anyone uses the tags, but I've realized that while there's a generic "TV" tag, there are also some shows that I talk about, how shall we put this, incessantly. So I just went through today and did a bunch of new tags for specific shows. You can now find series tags for: 24, Battlestar Galactica, Bones, Buffy (which includes Angel and sometimes unrelated Whedony things), Daily Show/Colbert (gosh, I haven't watched that in forever... damn my early bedtime), Friday Night Lights, Jericho, and Veronica Mars.

Hi, kids. I'm kinda tired today. My bedtime has started edging later again, I think because my schedule is still off from staying out all night and sleeping all weekend. Gotta start going to bed at 11, otherwise I'm dragging all day. Man, I feel old.

Anyway, Jericho last night drifted back into "WTF?" territory. And they were doing so well. In the rare chance that it gets picked up, here's a piece of advice - stick to the killing off and mourning of beloved characters and stay away from the government conspiracies. Because when Jericho does conspiracies... they kinda don't make any sense. I think they've explained the bomb plot like, three times now, and I still don't get it. Was the CIA behind it? Or just rogue members of the CIA? Or were Hawkins and the others CIA who infiltrated the terrorists? If this whole plan came from Mystery Phone Guy, then is he higher up than Valente? Is he Valente? No, he can't be, because he's been tracking the bomb, and if Valente knew where the bomb was, he wouldn't have needed to buy it from Sarah. But if MPG has been tracking the bomb this whole time, why didn't he just come find it and take it? Why has he been needling Hawkins to give it to him willingly? And why does he think that blowing up Cheyenne is a good idea? For that matter, why did he think blowing up the first 23 cities was a good idea? If his goal is to get rid of Jennings & Rall, he's not doing a very good job of it.

Oh, who cares? Hawkins is AWESOME. Jake is AWESOME. The Hawkins and Jake show, that's all I need. (Although, sidebar, I thought it was absolutely adorable when the Rangers sent the ransom note to Beck: "We have your trucks and your supplies and your guns. Give us Jake." Hee! They came up with a plan without Jake, how cute! I just wanted to pat them on the heads.)

Anyway, in other news, this week is the Paley Fest, which I desperately wanted to go to, but Kelly wouldn't go with me. Fortunately, TVGuide has me covered, and so I'll be posting their coverage of my favorite shows. Here's the report from the Chuck panel, as well as more information on the Chuck comic books. (Seriously, more comic books? I was willing to try it out for Buffy and Angel, but this is pushing my limits here.) Later this week: Friday Night Lights and the Buffy reunion panel (which, by the way, is supposed to have live streaming video coverage)! Next week is Damages and Mad Men.

Also Joss-related, he's writing a web musical starring Neil Patrick Harris as a "low-rent super-villain" called "Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog." I am not making this up.

Oh, and Battlestar Galactica will NOT be making a movie, but they will do a 2-hour TV special for the prequel, "Caprica." Okay. I just want my season 3 DVDs. (Now available from Blockbuster!!)

Wear green today

Happy St. Patrick's Day! There are bagpipers outside Tara Station (the most un-Irish sounding Irish bar in town), and we can see/hear them from our office. One-sixteenth of me is celebrating.

The rest of me is pretty much exhausted from celebrating my birthday. After going out with Lindsay on Thursday night, and going to happy hour with people from work on Friday, I went out with Christi and some med school people on Friday night. Way to make me feel OLD. They're all still on a college schedule, where you go OUT at 11pm, rather than going to BED. They kept me out until 2:30, did birthday shots at The Quarter and then went dancing at Hardware, which is this semi-sketchy club that reminds me of nothing so much as the basement of Delta, except Delta never had waitresses who danced Coyote Ugly-style on top of the bar. I'd just like to go on record stating that I DID NOT dance in the cage. Christi and Diana and Alexis did, but in the event I ever run for office, I'd like to have as few incriminating pictures out there as possible.

So, naturally, I spent most of my actual birthday sleeping in and recovering. I did manage to do some shopping and bought "happy birthday to me" presents.

Happy birthday phase 2 starts on Friday, when my parents come to visit. Whee!

Unrelated, but has anyone else noticed there's an economic crisis going on? Apparently, the President hasn't.

Happy birthday to ME!!

Okay, I'm a little early, but why restrict celebration to only one day? After going out for drinks with Lindsay last night, I came home to a flower delivery from my parents, and Andrew, my fellow former intern, took me out to lunch today. Whee!

So, in honor of me turning the big 2-4, I have all sorts of TV news for you! (What do you mean, I do that all the time? Shut up! No, it makes sense... I'm turning 24, and 24 is a TV show, and... yeah.)

Anyway, yesterday I mentioned that Scrubs had escaped cancellation by moving to ABC. If you're curious about other shows that are "on the bubble," as they say, check out this list. The accompanying article also gives the prospects for some of the more anticipated shows. I'm happy to see that Friday Night Lights and How I Met Your Mother are looking good for renewal. Not so much for Reaper and Jericho. I have to admit, Reaper has sort of lost my interest. The show came back last night, with the last however many episodes are left, and I found myself only half-watching it. It's a shame, since it had such a promising pilot, and I had pegged it to be a new favorite show, but it's been something of a letdown since. I won't really miss it if it goes away.

Jericho, on the other hand, has been breaking my heart the past couple episodes. It felt a lot like a guilty pleasure last year (so bad it's good), but this 7-episode second season has really been stellar. It's almost like an actual TV show! Last week's ep, with the tragic death of Bonnie, and this week's, portraying the aftermath, were just fantastic in delving the emotional depth and ratcheting up the conflict between the townies and the government goons. There are only two more episodes left, and it's not looking good for renewal - and I'm finding that I'll actually be sorry to see it go.

Oh, I've also been watching New Amsterdam, about a New York City cop who saved the life of a Native American woman back in the 1600's and she rewarded him with immortality. It's pretty cool so far, although I find the flashbacks ( showing New York in its various incarnations over the past 400 years) more interesting that the present-day crime drama part of it. It's on Fox, which means it probably won't last more than a few weeks (it's only aired three episodes, and it's already been in three different time slots), so I'm not getting attached, but I'm enjoying it for now.

In other news, Rob Thomas (and no, Megan, that is NOT the lead singer of Matchbox Twenty, although he did make in-jokes about them on Veronica Mars) has been given the green light to give his failed show "Cupid" a second try. The original was from 1998 and starred Jeremy Piven, and was canceled faster than you can say... something clever, I don't know. As you'll note, Thomas was also tapped for the 90210 spin-off, so if both shows are successful, he'll be a pretty busy guy.

Craziness!!

First and foremost, since Megan mentioned it, here's a report from John McGinley that Scrubs has been picked up by ABC for another full season. They start filming again March 24th. (And that's why Sarah Chalke is too busy for more than one episode of HIMYM.)

This is kinda weird - they're making another spin-off of Beverly Hills 90210, and Rob Thomas might be writing it. Not really what I expected from the creator of Veronica Mars, but okay. I never watched 90210 or Melrose Place, so I doubt it will interest me.

Billy from BSG auditioned for Joss' new show, Dollhouse. Yay! I love Billy, I miss Billy. I wish he hadn't died. (Sidebar: WHEN are the season 3 DVDs coming out?? I'm about to chew my arm off.)

Oh, and in further awesomeness, Spike is getting his own After the Fall comic! I don't know if you've been following the Whedonverse comic developments, but After the Fall is the continuation of "Angel" set a couple months after that rainy battle in the alley. They're doing an arc called "First Night," which flashes back to tell the story of what happened during/immediately after the battle. One issue of that arc focuses on Spike and Illyria, and the Spike: ATF series apparently spins off from that. Whee!!

Also, just a random shout-out for the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which comes out April 18th. It was written by HIMYM star Jason Segal, and also stars Kristen Bell (!!!) and Paul Rudd. I'm super-excited, though I still probably won't see it until it's on DVD. I'm just like that.

Update on HIMYM

Alicia Silverstone dropped out because of Britney Spears, and will be replaced by Sarah Chalke (from Scrubs). Because of Sarah's limited availability, the role will be scaled down - making her unlikely to be the Mother - and the creators want to find another role for Alicia... assuming there's a fourth season for her to guest star in.

#1 reason why I need a boyfriend

I need a man around to open my jars!

That's not a euphemism - I can't tell you how much of my lunch hour today was spent wrestling with a pickle jar. And remember the jar of spaghetti sauce that I had to throw out, because I couldn't get the lid off? Granted, I'm not exactly exceptional in upper-body strength, but I shouldn't need to work out in order to get a freakin' jar open!!

Anyway, more political stuff, to celebrate Hillary being in town! (I watched the rally live on PCN today - it'll be on again at 8pm if anyone wants to watch. We watched it in the office, and mostly made fun of CBK, who was wandering around like an Alzheimer's patient who had no idea how she'd gotten there... which actually may not be far from the truth.) The governors of my current and former states got together to write an op-ed about the superdelegates. And although Gov. Ed would prefer Hillary for Prez, he says that an Obama/Clinton ticket would be okay, too. Honestly, I think that's the best way to unite the party - whichever one wins, the other ought to be VP. It may be a bitter pill to swallow, but they better do it if they want a Democrat to win.

Also, an article comparing this election with 1972. That's the one where the Republican candidate (Nixon) won 49 states, so I'd really like to avoid fitting that mold. It does seem like the Democrats do their damnedest to lose sometimes. Makes me crazy. If it weren't for my morals, I'd probably become a Republican.

Hi, guys. I'm so sleepy today. I had weird dreams last night. :( But, on the plus side, I did get an Easter basket in the mail from my aunt and uncle! Yay chocolate overload!!!

Come to think of it, maybe it was too many Reese's Pieces right before bedtime that caused the bad dreams.

Anyway, Hillary's in town today. I'm not going, because I have a job, but I'm sure she'll be back again sometime before April 22nd.

In other political news, Eliot Spitzer's going down. For those of you who are not me, Spitzer is currently the governor of New York, and apparently was implicated as a client of a recently-busted prostitution ring. I just remember Kathy being a huge supporter of his (Kathy worked on the Rendell campaign with me, and knew about Spitzer because she went to college in New York. She's now working for Hillary in Boston), and she thought he was such a great guy, so this was a real surprise.

OMG, Britney Spears is guest starring on How I Met Your Mother?? Why??? (This kind of reminds me of when Paris Hilton guest starred on Veronica Mars. Except she had to play a spoiled rich bitch, which she's actually pretty good at.)

Manic Monday

Oh, man. I just had a great memory of my fake aunts and cousins singing that song at karaoke on one of our vacations. I think it might have been Myrtle Beach.

Anyway, raise your hand if you had a good weekend. I was actually very productive - washed about a billion dishes, cleaned the bathroom, bought Colleen's wedding present, got my car washed, got my hair cut, and went grocery shopping. Wait a minute... none of that was fun. WTF? And I didn't even get to vacuuming and laundry, which I have to do tonight. I guess I've officially become a grown up, when my weekend consists of nothing but cleaning and errands.

I was also super-pissed when I woke up on Sunday morning and realized it was an hour later than it should've been. Damn you, Daylight Saving Time! I like the whole "fall back" thing, where I get an extra hour. Not so much on this "spring forward" crap. Do I look like I have an hour to spare?

Oh, I did spend some time rewatching season 1 of Veronica Mars. I'd forgotten just how much I love that show, and season 1 is by far the best season. Like, Buffy-level awesomeness.

Official countdown: 5 days till my birthday! I'll probably be sharing my day with all kinds of rowdy St. Patrick's Day celebrations, but that's okay, I guess. My parents were going to come up to visit, but I'm going home the weekend after that for Easter, so maybe not. (I happened to be in Bryn Mawr on Thursday, so I met my mom for lunch, and I said, "You know, since I'm seeing you today, and I'll be coming home in two weeks, maybe you don't need to come visit me next weekend." And she was like, "What? Did I hit my quota?" I think she was kinda sad, actually.)

Political update from Gail Collins, who I'm finding has a knack for tongue-in-cheek humor. Love her take on James Buchanan.

Randomness for today: China is cracking down on government-sponsored alcoholic lunches. *sigh* End of an era.

More political crap

I'm sure you're tired of it by now, but SIX WEEKS OF PA!!!! Y'all are gonna hate me. Ben (or as my mother calls him, "the guy with the good handshake") took a leave of absence to do field ops for Hillary, so I'll probably be calling him up to volunteer or do fundraisers or something.

Here's some funny stuff on the crazy shit that goes on in the Texas primaucus, among other things. Also, everyone's been talking about math these days, counting delegates and wondering whether Hillary can net enough to win. But here's some other interesting math related to Obama's chances in the general election. I think it's slightly disingenuous, because you have to assume that some states that Hillary won, any Democrat would win (like California and New York), yet they're not included in Obama's totals. But it's must-win swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania and Florida that we really need to consider, and Hillary is looking stronger in all of those.

Considering the number-crunching going on, lots of Democrats are looking back at those illegal primaries in Michigan and Florida, and wondering what the heck to do about them now. With a race as closely contested as this one, I can't imagine discounting two entire states (even if one of them is Florida, perennial voting fuck-up). They have to do something. I doubt they'll award the delegates according to the illegal primary votes, but Obama's "let's just split them 50-50" suggestion is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. If you're not going to let them actually make a decision who to vote for, why bother seating the delegates at all? I think they should force the states to hold new primaries. Yes, it's expensive, but you know what? The state party screwed themselves by breaking the rules and moving the primary up in the first place. Make them pay for the second election, and I guarantee you not a single state will break the rules next time.

Super amazing news!!

Friday Night Lights has a future!! I'm so excited! I don't know what it means that NBC is partnering with DirecTV (will I have to get DirecTV to be able to watch it?), but even if I have to download or wait for the DVDs, I'm just happy that it's coming back.

More interesting TV news - is Alicia Silverstone the Mother? She's guest starring as a love interest for Ted in multiple episodes of How I Met Your Mother, and if the show doesn't get picked up for season 4, she could be the LAST love interest we see with Ted. The producers have promised they'll reveal the mother before the series ends, so if this is it... it could be her.

Also, there's going to be a 2-hour 24 movie, a "bridge" between seasons six and seven to air in the fall before the January premiere. However, this article does not answer two vital questions - first, will it be in real time? And second, will they call it "2"?

The other comeback kid

Isn't that what they called Bill Clinton in 1992? I don't really remember, I was only 8, but that's what they tell me. So, Hillary won three out of four yesterday, including both big states, Ohio and Texas. She's definitely not giving up, which means six weeks of PA campaigning, baby! Wheee! Seriously, there's a couple scattered primaries this week that no one cares about, and then six weeks of nothing. Which means everything and everyone is going to be fully focused on PA. Finally! We matter!!!

In a complete non-surprise, McCain won every primary yesterday, earning enough delegates to officially claim the nomination, and Mike Huckabee finally dropped out.

Here's an interesting discussion of what Hillary needs to do to win the "moral claim" to the superdelegates. It's a tricky question, especially given the leftover sentiments from 2000 about winning the popular vote. As the op-ed points out, primary delegates don't carry the constitutional weight of the Electoral College, and so if it comes down to one person winning the popular vote, and the other winning the delegate count, the popular vote will mean that much more. And then it's up to the superdelegates to cast their votes in support of the "rightful" winner, however they figure that out.

Sidebar - what's up with people writing fake memoirs lately? Does it really make the story that much more interesting if it's "true"?

Too much vitamin C!

So, I went food shopping the other day, and I bought a 5 lb. crate of clementines. I love clementines - they're small, easy to peel, and very juggle-able. However, I can't imagine what possessed me to buy FIVE POUNDS of them. Granted, they don't come in smaller packages. But why didn't I just buy oranges?

Anyway, today has been utterly gross, even though it's much warmer this week (yay spring!), it's been raining buckets. Yesterday was nice, though - and I went for the first run of the year last night. Well, I'm kind of out of shape after the winter, so it was more like a slow jog, but I do enjoy the river.

Has anyone watched The Wire? It's in my queue, but I haven't been itching to watch it or anything (I'm working on Brothers & Sisters right now, which I'm enjoying). But I noticed that apparently Michael Nutter is a big fan, and he's having the series finale screened at City Hall. That's kind of hilarious.

Also, here's a video comparing Obama to Matt Santos. I haven't watched it yet, since I'm still at work.

And this is the awesomest thing ever: one million monkeys typing. Okay, so they're not really monkeys, but it's still cool.

It's hearing day!

Today is our first budget appropriations hearing - woohoo! Okay, not that exciting.

Anyway, mostly political stuff today. Maybe I'll come back later with fun stuff if I have time. First, of course, tomorrow is the all-important primary in Ohio and Texas (and also Rhode Island and Vermont, but we care less about them). Here's a hilarious Q&A on what to expect (including a definition of the "Texas primaucus," colloquially known as a clusterfuck). Also, an exploration of the possible outcomes of the primaries, and some thoughts on what a GOP campaign against Obama would look like.

And for your daily dose of random: Garfield minus Garfield. As the website boasts, "Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?" It's funny, but also a little creepy.