Say It With Me: 39 Days, 20 People, One Survivor

• The Monologue:
• Wide reciever Hank Baskett was released by the Eagles and signed with the Colts, which means his wife, Kendra Wilkinson, is moving to Indy with him. With McNabb hurt, going from catching passes from Kevin Kolb to passes from Peyton Manning is a solid move. Which is great for Kendra, seeing as how her last significant other hadn't had a solid movement in decades.
• George Takei and his husband are going on The Newlywed Game. I think that is a perfect reason to link to this. It's bleeped, but if you don't know what she said then a) welcome to Planet Earth and b) google The Newlywed Game and you'll find out.
• The president spoke in College Park this morning to a group of students, half of whom were probably drunk. Still a better percentage than Congress.
• Random Pop Culture:
• Survivor is back!!! More than anything else, the show relies on its casting department, which has done a fantastic job the last few seasons and again in this one. Up to this point, the most notorious villain in show history was Johnny Fairplay, who lied about his grandmother dying in order to gain sympathy. Almost as bad was Natalie from Fans vs. Favorites, who used the men viciously one after another. Can't forget the great dragonslayer, Coach, of course. None of them hold a candle to the villain in this season, Russell. He's a multi-millionaire oil company owner from Texas. Only, he told everyone that he's a fireman in New Orleans who barely escaped Katrina and lost his dog in the flooding after the levee broke. Yes, he lied about Katrina to gain sympathy. He also made alliances with all of the women he thought were stupid and called it his "dumbass-girl alliance". It's fun as hell to watch, but I don't think I respect his putridity the way I have for other villains. He's scrambling too much and trying too hard. He'll make it interesting for a bit, but he's not a serious threat to win the game.
• Who is? Still learning the names, but I love the older woman cop, whose intuition about the other players has so far proved dead on. I also like the rocket scientist (yes, literally a rocket scientist) from the other tribe who looks like he could fly under the radar and busted out the best line of the night with "You can't come in over budget. Our budget is coconuts!"
• Can you tell I'm excited for Survivor to be back? To say it again, this is my favorite -- not the best, my favorite -- show on TV. Not only is it as compelling as anything else, but it completely revolutionized the medium when it was introduced nine or so years ago. Probst is the quintessential reality host and the mix-and-match group dynamics just never get old.
• Also caught Community, the new show starring Joel McHale, among other people like Chevy Chase and the actress that plays Campbell's wife on Mad Men (kudos to my wife for catching that). It definitely had some laugh-out-loud moments. It's not as even as, oh, I don't know, My Name is Earl was, but it has potential. I'll tune in next week.
• Man, Thursdays are freaking loaded. Don't know how I'll be able to watch everything once it all gets going, considering my DVR can only record two things at once. At this point, I'm on Survivor, Community, 30 Rock, C.S.I.:, and Grey's Anatomy. I'm excited that the new season is starting and, with the exception of a few shows here and there, the daily pop culture dregs of summer will soon be gone.
• Have I mentioned how little I like the new Yahoo page? Way too much pop-up crap.
• Random Music Video:
• NSFW and audio only. Ben Folds has a new album coming out for which he wrote the music and Nick Hornby wrote the lyrics. Heaven? Here's the demo for the first song. "So I come to find out we're against abortion and premarital sex is against our religion." Pretty funny stuff: