Just a hunch

I'm guessing, by day's end, the closing of more than 7,000 U.S. Starbucks coffeehouses for up to three hours for training purposes will get more press than any story about foreclosures, subprime lending woes, stagflation or the cost of milk and gasoline.

Yes, we can ignore the worst economy America has seen in a decade because a chain of caffeine-slingers decides it needs to motivate its employees at the expense of people drinking coffee after 5:30 p.m.

Yes we can.

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Guest blogger Amazing Chriskin predicts the Oscars

I, The Amazing Chriskin, have stepped in for Mr. Harrop on this Sunday afternoon to offer you my predictions for tonight's 80th Annual Academy Awards (winning picks in blue, losing picks in red):

BEST PICTURE: "There Will Be Blood" ("No Country For Old Men," I can't be angry about this one)
BEST DIRECTOR: Joel and Ethan Coen, "No Country For Old Men" (LONG OVERDUE!!!)
BEST ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood" (DRAINAGE!)
BEST ACTRESS: Julie Christie, "Away From Her" (Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"... mon dieu!)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Javier Bardem, "No Country For Old Men" (CALLED IT, FRIENDO)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Cate Blanchett, "I'm Not There" (ACTUAL WINNER: Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton")
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: "Juno" (Hope for strippers everywhere)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: "No Country For Old Men" (The Dude abides)
BEST SONG: "Raise It Up" from "August Rush" ("Falling Slowly" from "Once")
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Marco Beltrami for "3:10 to Yuma" ("Atonement")
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: "Ratatouille" (BINGO)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: "Mongol" ("The Counterfeiters" won, as Austria bests Genghis Khan)
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: "Sweeney Todd" (ACTUAL WINNER: "Elizabeth: The Golden Age")
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Roger Deakins (Twice nominated, Roger seemed to cancel himself out -- "There Will Be Blood" wins!)
BEST ART DIRECTION: "Sweeney Todd" (BARBER-IC!)
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: "No End In Sight" ("Taxi To The Dark Side" - At least Michael Moore didn't have to make a fool of himself with an acceptance speech)
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: "Freeheld" (You go, girls!)
BEST FILM EDITING: "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (ACTUAL WINNER: "The Bourne Ultimatum")
BEST MAKEUP: "La Vie en Rose" (OUI OUI)
BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED): "Peter & The Wolf" (Howlin' good pick)
BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE): "The Mozart of Pickpockets" (Requiem for a Winner!)
BEST SOUND EDITING: "Transformers" ("The Bourne Ultimatum")
BEST SOUND MIXING: "Transformers" ("The Bourne Ultimatum" - Darn you, Damon)
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: "Transformers" ("The Golden Compass" - really?)

OSCAR NIGHT RECAP: Harrop here again... Chriskin was less than amazing in his Oscar picks, not even breaking the .500 mark. But I can't complain, as Joel and Ethan Coen finally get the kind of Oscar appreciation they should have received for "Fargo." I'm somewhat sad to see "There Will Be Blood" not come away with much beyond Day-Lewis' Oscar, but it's great to see Paul Thomas Anderson go in a new route... It's not crazy to say he'll be back to Oscar Night again, next time as a winner. Jon Stewart is funny on "The Daily Show," and decidedly not so on the Oscars... bring back Steve Martin if Billy Crystal doesn't want to do it; maybe let George Clooney run the show from now on instead of letting him go off and make socially conscious, critically acclaimed films. Somewhere, Donald Theodore "Donnie" Kerabatsos is smiling... Walter, too, probably.

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"I like things being destructed"

These guys were pumped to see Mervyn's at the old Buckingham Square Mall bite the dust. This is one of my new favorite Aurora-flavored YouTube videos at the moment. I doubt I'm the only Sentinelite proud of our former reporter J.C. O'Connell's brief appearance at the 1:11 mark in the video... and it's good to see someone THAT excited to see Mayor Ed Tauer. Go get 'em, Ed!

UPDATE: Unless I'm mistaken, you can also catch a glimpse of a Sentinel photographer later in the video. The first Sliced Bread reader to point out this section of the video will receive, courtesy of yours truly, one piece of authentic Sentinel memorabilia. No purchase necessary, all Sentinel employees and their families are not eligible to win.

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