Did anyone else notice that the seat-fillers were really not doing their job this year? Tons of empty seats in every shot.

Yeah, that was weird.

New Nickel!!

[link]

Contains spoilers.

Also, later in the year another version of the nickel will debut - complete with spelling controversy.

edit: I dinna can spell...

ditto on what Lyra Jane said.

Laura Linney had bad eye make-up at the GGs too.

I hate nickels in general, but I like these new ones.

Bush jokes at the Oscars? I'd've thought they would steer clear of anything political after the Michael Moore stuff.

This may just be my environment here though, since everyone is very pro-Bush and support-the-administration. I hear that people in America think the Iraq war isn't going well, but I don't live it, so anybody joking on Bush in a public setting seems very outre.

No luck on briquettes, because I've been trying to find someone to give me any information on having a layette shipment sent out. Maybe I can talk the DH into going out for dinner.

It's starting to snow. Raquel, I think you picked a good winter to move to the Mediterranean.

You know, it's a good point that snow that doesn't shut the city down is a real pain. At least I am not having to deal with the snowplows either not showing up or burying my car this year. Still, I'll trade you guys for a couple of days!

Cintra Wilson's snark was especially mean and bitter this year. Still, she had a few lines I liked:

This was the Oscars that begged the question: Does Jay-Z own the Accounting Firm PricewaterhouseCooper? Because that's the only explanation I could come up with for that joyless, airless, tense, inhuman ordeal of a Beyoncé concert.

I mean, Jay-Z -- OK, he's the new Sun King -- he appears to have eaten Jack Nicholson whole and taken over his seat. Also, he had to keep a proprietary eye on his girlfranchise, Beyoncé.

These are wartime Oscars, and they looked it: cheap, tense and cobbled-together from graphics-rations donated by the E! Channel. No frills, no batteries, no butter, no seat-fillers and no entertainment -- just repeated overdoses of Beyoncé, who looked like a chandelier made out of Audrey Hepburns.

Not a fan of the freakish close-up of Jefferson. Like, okay, it was one thing when they gave Jackson a face-lift on the $20 bill, but I just don't want to be able to count the pores of long-dead people on my money.

I blame HDTV.

Not a fan of the freakish close-up of Jefferson.

I gotta agree. And call me a traditionalist, but I like my dead presidents to be portrayed in profile.

The project Sean Penn and Jude Law are working on. The man is loyal. But he so needs to get a sense of humor.

On the nickles. Does this mean the phrase for a frugal person, "he/she can squeeze a nickle until the buffalo squeals", will come back into vogue?

Allyson, thanks for that snark definition. Some of the TWoP recappers could learn a thing or two from you. Did you see Sars and Wing's blow-by-blow thing? It was just mean. I didn't bother.