Subway sticks with Phelps, doesn't want to offend customers with the munchies

Give the Subway sandwich chain some credit. They’re sticking with Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps as a sponsor, even after a photo surfaced of him smoking pot from a bong.
Subway probably doesn’t want to tick off its marijuana-smoking customers who get the munchies.
The blogosphere has been cracking wise about this latest development in golden boy Phelps’ fall from grace.
One wag suggested that Subway offer a sandwich for $4.20 after the marijuana culture term 420. (See Wikipedia entry on 420 for background.)
Another thought White Castle would be a better endorsement deal for the swimmer and proposed that he star in “Harold, Kumar and Michael Phelps Go to White Castle.”
And so on and so on.
Breakfast cereal giant Kellogg dropped its endorsement deal with Phelps because of the controversy. But most of his major sponsors, including Visa, Speedo, luxury Swiss watchmaker Omega and sports beverage PureSport’s maker Human Performance Labs, have stood by the athlete, according to news reports.

At Life Time Fitness, sometimes you’re the show

Health club chain Life Time Fitness must spend a fortune on shower curtains, based on my observations at the company’s Skokie, Ill., facility.
I’ve been a member of LTF since 2004 and a while back I noticed that many of the shower curtains in the men’s locker room had small holes in them.
At first, I naively assumed that the holes were tears in the plastic from normal wear. Then it dawned on me, based on location of the holes (eye level or slightly below), that they were deliberately cut as peep holes. Duh.
When enough of the curtains get holes, LTF has to replace them. They’ve had to do this a lot at my local LTF. For Life Time Fitness, it’s a necessary cost of doing business, I guess.
Any gym is probably going to attract a few pervs.
An Internet search reveals a few other men with similar observations. They’re experiences occurred at a Life Time Fitness in Centreville, Va,; a Gold’s Gym in Austin, Texas; and an unidentified gym in New York City.
Am I bothered by the fact that some guy might be checking me out in the shower?
Not really. As Woody Allen once said in one of his movies, “Can I help it if I turn on both sexes?” (Or something to that effect.)

Oscars catch the viral marketing bug

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is using some online viral marketing to drum up interest in this year’s Oscars telecast.
With a slate of nominees heavy on art films rather than Hollywood blockbusters, this year’s movie awards ceremony could be similar to last year’s low-rated affair. So the Academy has revamped its Oscars.com Web site and created a fun interactive marketing campaign to promote what it’s calling “the biggest movie event of the year.”
At one Web site, people can create a custom video where they are the subject of an Entertainment Tonight-style gossip story. You type in your name and it appears printed on screen, on tattoos, a license plate and even protester signs throughout the fictitious news report. (See photos above featuring yours truly as a bad boy Hollywood celeb.) You can then e-mail the video to friends and family.
Will this viral marketing approach get people to tune into the Feb. 22 show? We'll see. But the Academy has its fingers crossed that this year’s show, hosted by actor Hugh Jackman, does better than last year’s show, which was the lowest rated since Nielsen began using its “people meter” measuring system in 1983, according to the New York Times.

Deadline schmeadline. Hard cutoff date for analog TV broadcasts not so firm after all

Just kidding, America. You know all those ads and public service announcements you’ve been seeing for over a year now about the last day for analog TV broadcasts being Feb. 17, 2009. Well, we weren’t serious after all.
That’s the message Congress is sending with its passage of a bill today to extend the digital television transition date by four months until June 12. President Barack Obama has pledged to sign the bill into law.
The move was strictly political. Lawmakers were worried about upsetting constituents who aren’t ready for the change. (Read: procrastinators.)
The delay will impact emergency responders who are waiting for the freed-up wireless spectrum for enhanced communications. The delay also will postpone the launch of new commercial wireless Internet services that will use some of the spectrum.
Measuring service Nielsen estimates that 5.8 million U.S. households — or 5.1% of all homes — are not ready for the upcoming transition to all-digital broadcasting. The least prepared segments of the population are African-Americans (8.7% unready), Hispanics (8.5%) and people under 35 (8.6%), Nielsen reported Feb. 5.
Households affected are those with analog TV sets that receive over-the-air programming with antennas. They need to get special converter boxes, which the federal government is subsidizing. People with cable, satellite or telco television are not affected because those services already use converter boxes.
News flash: Americans will never be 100% ready for the analog-to-digital TV switchover. Come June 12, there is likely to be a set of stubborn, lazy, ignorant or very poor people who still haven’t made the switch. I’m estimating 2% to 3% of U.S. households will not be ready by the new date. Stay tuned.

Some police departments have too much time on their hands

A lot of stories have been written about the photo of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps smoking a bong at a November party at the University of South Carolina.
Enough already.
He fessed up and apologized. He called the behavior "regrettable," "inappropriate" and said it showed "bad judgment."
Now the Richland County, S.C., sheriff’s department is investigating the case to see if charges can be brought against Phelps.
Seriously? I can’t believe they’d waste their time investigating what is likely a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.
Talk about demonstrating bad judgment. What’s going to be their evidence? A photo that could have been taken who knows where and who knows when. Maybe some eyewitness statements, if they’re lucky. Any hard evidence has gone up in smoke.
Doesn’t Richland County have any real criminals – murderers, rapists, pedophiles, burglars, thieves, robbers, scam artists and the like to track down? If not, I’d suggest that the department is overstaffed based on the crime rate and needs to be downsized.
The taxpayers in Richland County should be upset that the sheriff’s department is wasting resources on a nothing crime.
The time might be right to decriminalize marijuana. After all, we now have a president in Barack Obama who admits trying marijuana (and cocaine) in his teenage years. The so-called drug war has lasted decades and doesn’t have much to show for it, except overcrowded prisons.
If the government legalized marijuana, it could reap billions in taxes to help rebuild the country’s infrastructure. Tax dollars spent on law enforcement efforts to stop the cultivation and trafficking of marijuana could go to health care, including helping those people with addiction problems.
Legalizing marijuana should be seriously investigated and considered. But it would take some brave politicians to bring it up.

Cancellation of Lingerie Bowl bodes ill for nascent Lingerie Football League

The cancellation of last weekend’s Lingerie Bowl is evidence that plans for a Lingerie Football League are in trouble.
Organizers pulled the plug on Lingerie Bowl VI on Tues. Jan. 27 after weeks of problems, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
First, they had trouble finding a venue.
Then, after finding a new home at Caliente, a nudist resort near Tampa Bay, Fla., they clashed with owners who wanted the Lingerie Bowl to be “clothing optional” for attendees. Event organizers say they weren’t comfortable with having naked people at the game and Caliente didn’t want to make more parts of its resort restricted to “clothing required.”
The Lingerie Bowl, in which teams of attractive, scantily clad young women play football, was to have taken place on Sat. Jan. 31. It was then going to air on pay-per-view during the Super Bowl halftime.
Organizers of Lingerie Bowl VI had a whole year to plan for the event, but still couldn’t pull it off. Plus, the organizers didn’t even post the news on their Web site, which as of tonight still listed details of the event that never was.
It’s the second year in a row that the Lingerie Bowl has been canceled. Last year, organizers were forced to cancel the event after they failed to get special-use permits from Scottsdale, Ariz., in time, according to news reports.
That can’t bode well for plans to have a Lingerie Football League this fall.

(Photo of Chicago Bliss safety Lindsey Vecchione)

Best and worst movie trailers from Super Bowl

Who won Super Bowl XLIII?
I’d say either “Star Trek” or “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”
Yes, it was a great last-minute victory by the Pittsburgh Steelers, but they were heavily favored anyway. So, let’s turn to the commercials, which are a major part of the annual TV spectacle.
To me, the movie trailers were the most memorable and enjoyable part of the commercial breaks.
The studios promoted 11 movies during the big game. With 30-second spots costing $3 million, these are the movies that Hollywood is betting on to score big at the box office.
Trailers for the “Star Trek” franchise reboot by J.J. Abrams and the “Transformers” sequel both grabbed my attention. They were the only two I replayed on my DVR during the game. Let’s call it a tie for best movie trailer during the game.
In interviews, Abrams says he looked more to the original “Star Wars” films for inspiration for his young Kirk, Spock and McCoy movie than the previous “Star Trek” films. That was probably a wise move. The Star Trek universe has gotten too bogged down with its own mythology. Judging from the trailer, Abrams obviously wants to deliver a fun space adventure.
The “Transformers” sequel looks like another mega-budget, action-packed, explosion-filled picture from Michael Bay. Although it was hard to tell what was going on in the trailer, it had enough robot-on-robot fighting and Megan Fox to keep the fanboys happy.
Two issues though: One, although I really liked the first chapter, I’m not sure there’s much else they can do with these Transformer movies. Probably just new robots and new locales to destroy. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the filmmakers are going to hit the law of diminishing returns.
Two, everyone’s going to call this movie “Transformers 2.” So why not just call it that? Instead of the pretentious, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” This ain’t “The Lord of the Rings.”
I’d also give thumbs up to the comedy “The Year One” starring Jack Black and Michael Cera and directed and co-written by the consistently funny Harold Ramis.
The worst movie trailer was probably “Land of the Lost” starring Will Farrell. Dorky and unfunny.
For technical reasons, the “Monsters Vs. Aliens” trailer was pretty unwatchable. The 3-D home viewing experience is terrible with those paper glasses with yellow and blue lenses. The colors are washed out and the 3-D experience wasn’t that compelling. It gave me a headache.

Other movies previewed during the Super Bowl included “Duplicity,” a spy rom-com starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen; “Up,” the latest Disney/Pixar animated film; “Race to Witch Mountain,” Disney’s remake of its own “Escape to Witch Mountain”; “Angels & Demons,” the follow-up to “The Da Vinci Code”; and “The Fast and the Furious,” the fourth in the street racing series.
Then there’s “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” starring Dennis Quaid. This trailer actually looks pretty good until the movie’s title appears. “G.I. Joe”? Who’s the target market? I’d be embarrassed to say that name at the box office window.