The piemaker was able to make a profitable venture out of this by teaming up with a private detective to solve murder cases and pocket the reward money. After all, what better way to find out how the victim died than by resurrecting him for a minute and asking him about it. Things became interesting (and this is where the pilot episode takes off, really) when Ned’s childhood sweetheart was murdered on a cruise ship. He revives her and ends up letting her live beyond the customary minute which results in the death of the funeral home director. To eliminate the guilt baggage, the funeral guy was portrayed as a contemptuous opportunist who steals valuables from the bodies that are brought in.

Naturally, Ned and Chuck – the childhood sweetheart – fall in love but must live with the tiny complication of not being able to touch each other. Come to think of it, this is the dream TV show of moral conservatives. No sex scene whatsoever. In one episode where they kiss, each was enclosed in a transparent body bag. I’ve only watched two episodes so far though so I don’t know what’s still in store. I guess each episode will feature a murder case for them to solve and enough cutesy romantic stuff to keep the plot alive. And Ned still keeps the secret of accidentally causing the death of Chuck’s father so that’s another fodder for tension and conflict.

As I mentioned earlier, the show makes itself a little different by having a stylized design and narration technique. The colors are bright, vibrant, and downright bubblegum-inspired. There’s also an omniscient voice-over narrator that pops out every now and then. The dialogues are crisp, witty, and funny and the actors are all charming in their own way. The overall appeal reminds me of the French film Amelie. The actor who plays Chuck even looks a little bit like Audrey Tautou. Chi McBride who also appeared in the first season of House portrays the private detective and the waitress is played by Kristin Chenoweth who I thought looked really familiar until I remembered where I first saw her: in the humdrum Robin Williams comedy film RV.

The defensive wall of United was nothing short of awesome. For a team that’s more famous for its fierce attacks and the lightning speed runs of Cristiano Ronaldo, it’s refreshing to see Rio Ferdinand and Wes Brown in full action once in a while. As for Barca, they’re lucky to have Lionel Messi on their ranks. The kid is sheer brilliance and can definitely give Kaka a run for his money.

Overall, it was a riveting game and a spectacular display of first-class football. Here’s to hoping tomorrow’s match will be just as much of football extraordinaire. And no more traumatic own goals. Please.

It didn’t help that Riise was also on the line up. Yeah yeah he made one (really idiotic) mistake (at a very crucial time in this entire season) and everyone makes mistakes and he should be given another chance blah blah blah but I’m still sore about that f’ed-up header so forgive me if I don’t want to see him playing too soon. Liverpool picked up in the second half, scoring two goals to get a draw, but by then I was more interested in the scab on my big toe than in their humdrum performance. And I couldn’t take any more of Voronin. It’s torture to watch him play.

What’s utterly absurd about all these criticisms against Obama’s statement is that they were nothing more than blatant misinterpretations of what he really said. I didn’t think he was being elitist or condescending. I thought he was merely being truthful. When people lose their jobs and the economy gets worse by the minute and all the while their president cheerfully declares “we’re gonna be just fine,” I’m pretty sure they’re not exactly in the most positive mood.

When people get screwed over and over by government, of course they’re going to be bitter and cynical and when somebody comes along talking about social welfare and economic reforms, the initial reaction would naturally be skepticism if not outright distrust. So they end up casting their votes based on the candidates’ religious affiliation or policies on gun ownership because it’s no use discussing health care and economic programs which will ultimately fail anyway. And Clinton says this point of view is out of touch. Hmm… I wonder what planet she’s living in right now.

The way Hillary is making such a big deal out of this merely shows her desperation and it doesn’t make her look good at all. Let’s talk about Iraq or the economy or health care or just anything remotely important because this “bitter” brouhaha is already going overboard.

Who cares if he’s not a statesman. George Bush is a dumb-ass monkey and he got to be the so-called leader of the free world. And contrary to what Walter Veltroni said, we do need a premier who sticks up his fingers and tells dirty jokes at European summits. Otherwise we’ll all be bored to death and the mainstream media won’t have anything to talk about and that’s just tragic.

Just imagine smooth talker Il Cavaliere making a pass at Carla Bruni, model wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, at the next EU summit. I can already tell that this is going to be a fun year.