But first, let’s cover the four top talents who will go on to next week.  I’m torn between five.  But, I know who wins.

One, Fighting Gravity and Michael Grasso are Las Vegas acts all the way.  Fighting Gravity can be compared to the Blue Man Group while Michael Grasso could be up with Criss Angel.

Two, Prince Poppycock could make his own show about anything at all he wanted.  He could do a show as awesome as Pink Floyd or Queen.

Three, Michael Grimm has to make it into the top four.  His soul voice tonight was exactly like the real thing.  Not a note out of tune.  They were all there.

But, the one who wins is Jackie Evancho.  It’s hands down.  If it were about talent and not votes, she would win without a fight.  She has the best talent of all of them.  She is not even rough around the edges.  She’s polished and the fact that she’s ten just makes it even more phenomenal.  When she opens her mouth and this full grown adult’s voice comes out, it’s the most amazing thing I have ever seen.

So, those are my top five who will make it in the top four.  If I were to really narrow it down, I could take Fighting Gravity out of the running.  But, that’s only because I didn’t think their show tonight was as good as the others they’ve performed.

But, don’t worry about who is going to win.  It’s Jackie.  Besides, I want to be a part of making Piers Morgan’s dream come true.

It is phenomenal to watch such a young lady with such a mature voice.  It’s hers and you will be amazed.

What has been going on is quite a stir.  But, has anything really changed at all?  Jay Leno recently adopted a whole new style and I’m not quite sure why.  But the more I watch George Lopez, the more I get the idea.  That’s the way Hollywood works.

When one success breeds another success, copycats show up all across the networks.  Reality shows speak tremendously to this truth.  One reality show bred another.  Now, there is a reality show on every channel.  You can watch one at just about any time of the day.

So, George Lopez changes the approach to late night television and throws the desk out the window.  He brings the stage closer to the people in a more “get up close and personal” type of touch.  When I saw Jay Leno’s new show, I realized a lot of those same changes.  Of course, Jay Leno also has some of the same gimmicks that have entertained us for years.  So, it’s not an exact rip off and to be honest with you, I’m really not sure which came first…the chicken or the egg.

But the fact of the matter is that while this approach has worked for day time with Oprah and Ellen, George Lopez has been the only one to pull it off for late night.  Jay Leno’s time shift and stage changes have only resulted in a drop in ratings, which is really what television executives think it’s all about.  And if they run the show, Jay Leno needs to find a way to bring his ratings back up to speed.

But for now, that fate seems to actually be in Conan O’Brien’s hands.  That is until he makes his decision.  He has options.  In fact, he could have more lucrative options with other networks.  So, it could really turn into a stirred up mess by the times it’s all settled.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

I watched a guy walk into a bank with leaves to cover his face.  He ripped it off, clean and easy.  But, they put a die charger in the bag of money and it exploded just as he got out of the bank.  The cops found a guy who matched the slightly camouflaged description.  But, the dead give away was the ink that was still on the man when the cops caught up to him.

I watched a guy on the dashboard police camera hand his wallet over to the police officer.  That’s all fine and dandy.  But, it had his heroine in it.  That’s about the time you hear the guy turn from a tough guy into a crying little girl.

I’ve watched plenty of drunk people cracking their heads on hard pavement, plaster walls, glass windows and steal bars.  I’ve watched them jump off of bridges, cross busy highways and drive cars with flat tires to get away from cops.  I watched three people conspire to insurance fraud…and tape it.  These shows have all kinds and they can bust a gut at times.

What I find most interesting though is who is willing to comment on these shows.  Everyone’s been in trouble.  Most of them, I find funny and have no reason to speak bad of now.  But, I absolutely love the commentators who speak without remembering their own past.

Tonya Harding is a regular on the show and she makes some real stupid statements from time to time.  She was talking about one stupid criminal who forgot to check with his probation officer and video taped himself doing drugs as well as some other things.  Part of Tonya’s sentence was probation and there are just some topics you should stay away from when you are judging others.  She mentioned the probation and I say, “Tonya, stay away from that one.  You’re no better than he is.”

Danny Bonaduce is another one I think lets some interesting things just fly out of his mouth.  But, his are in an entirely different way.  Danny don’t pull any punches when it comes to admitting that he hasn’t led that most perfect life on earth.  But, he plays the bad card way too many times.  We’re watching a police officer give a man a ticket who is just ranting and raving. The officer is maintaining his demeanor.  It is quite impressive.  Bonaduce says that if he was an officer, all of his police reports would end with, “…and that’s when I shot him.”

Lighten up!  It’s just a guy going off about a ticket that he probably can’t afford.  Sure, he shouldn’t have been speeding if he can’t afford it.  You can raise those arguments all day long.  But, many of us have been there.  Most of us can relate.

And the thought of Danny Bonaduce being a cop is a joke itself!

I narrate. And let’s just say that it is a…uh…electrifying story! Bwah ha ha ha ha ha…Have a Happy Halloween!

And be safe…Don’t let Danger strike! He lurks everywhere…

Listen to it here:
The Lonely Daughter: How Her Day Turned Out

If you want to read some of it before you check it out, here it is:

It had started out as a beautiful day. Gene and his four year old daughter had walked the beach earlier that day in the cool breeze of the morning sun. Then, they enjoyed breakfast at the Capeview Café before going shopping for her Halloween outfit and candy to hand out to all the kids who would be trick or treating to their house in only a few short days.

It was sad that Gene had lost his wife a few years earlier and was raising his daughter by himself. But, he managed to do a great job. They woke up most mornings and made themselves pancakes. She would stir the batter and he would do the flipping. He homeschooled her since he made his living making furniture and chose to work his own hours while she was fast asleep, so he was all she knew.

He had plans of letting her get to know some other kids in a few years, but for now he was content with keeping her all to himself. After they returned home from their Halloween shopping, she went to her room to play with her new Halloween costume and he went into the kitchen to make lunch for the both of them. She came down the steps with her costume on when it was time to eat lunch and Gene caught a glimpse of how much his daughter had turned out to look just like her late mother. What an angel she made. It was as if her mother was still alive…

But, I normally can find my answers pretty quick.  IMDB.com can answer questions like who was in what movie and what else they might have been in as well.  Those kinds of questions really bug me.

Wikipedia is a rich source of information and then of course, you always have Google.  Google just about anything and you’ll get your answer.  You just have to know what is a credible site.  Not all information on the internet is accurate.  But, it is the quickest way to research.

But now, I have this burning question and I can’t find an answer anywhere.  Years ago, there was a lady’s voice on the landline phones who would tell you when you didn’t dial right.  “If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and try again…”

Her voice is still used for those calls, but now they have different voices broadcasting different messages.  Cell phones have hundreds of messages for whether a phone is out of the area or whether it has been disconnected.  They are computerized voices that might have been created at first with a human voice. But, knowing the answer to that question isn’t bugging me.

I want to know who was the lady who recorded her voice to give you, “If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and dial again?”

I know there had to have been a lady somewhere.  She may even still be alive.  But, she never got credit.  And her voice is one of the most famous in the world.

I learned typing on a typewriter.  Are there any that still exist?

We walked around listening to radios through our headphones until the tape player came out?

We had to buy an artist’s entire album.

I played Space Invaders and Donkey Kong on my Atari 2600.  It came with Pong and Asteroids.  I don’t think any other games existed at the time.

I wrote letters and called people on the phone.  I got tangled up in the phone chord every once in awhile.  The first phone I ever made a phone call on had a rotary dial that took two minutes to dial a number. click click click click click

We had to wait for a movie to come out in the video store and we had to sit through commercials on the television.  That was the bathroom break.  I’m not saying video stores and commercials don’t exist today.  I’m just saying that’s what we had to do.  There are other options available now.

We had to look things up in encyclopedias and dictionaries.  Or read a book.

I have mixed emotions about it.  I mean, I would rather sit in front of the computer and type in a search that comes up with a million and one sites that I can begin exploring and finding my answer.  I love being able to correct my work before I print it.  I love being able to put together a CD with only the music I enjoy.  It does seem as if we live in a world that in many ways, has a lot less waste.

But, I think children of today are missing a rich education because they are handed the easy way and they never learn the foundation from which teachers can build.  When a teenager is on the internet instant messaging her friends and using abbreviations like omg and lmao, she then starts writing like that in other areas of her life.  She writes her term papers with abbreviations and misspellings like “u” and “b.”

“Win u get 2 b da prez, dats win u own da world.”

OMG!!!

So, in many ways it’s a far better world.  I just don’t want anyone to lose sight of where we came and how far we’ve come.  Our history is an important part of our future.