An-"gel-of-a" US Open

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Congratulations to Angel Cabrera - the victor of Sunday's 107th U.S. Open Golf Championship played at the Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. Angel (pron: on-hell) is the first Argentine to win the prestigious title ever, and the first Argentine to win a major in 40 years. I love that the first two majors of the year have each been won by guys no has ever heard of (Zach Johnson won the Masters back in April).

It was SUCH an exciting finish. My favorite moment was when Roger Maltbie informed a freshly beaten Tiger, just to the side of the 18th green: "We were all talking about it, and to our recollection, you never made more than a 12 foot putt during the entire course of this championship. True?" I really wanted Tiger to say, "That may be true, Roger. But have you seen my wife?"


Terry called a great celebrity look-a-like for our latest Major Champion: Alfred Molina (Spiderman, Dr. Otto Octavius)

Angel Cabrera

Alfred Molina

Did watching the Open make you want to play in a tournament? Sign up for The Fifth Annual Bud Traynor Classic.

Leavin the hood

I paid for it the next day, but I made it out of Washington Heights on Wednesday night. I took a car service down and met my family at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. We were guests at a small reception MSKCC holds every year to honor the Group Affiliates that raise money for their research efforts. There is always a keynote speaker and it's a real privilege to gather in such an intimate setting and hear about some of the latest advances.

Two years ago I was seated next to the keynote speaker during dinner. He was a normal guy and we casually chatted about his recent trip to New Zealand. When he stood up to address the group I learned that he was basically the man who invented the modern bone marrow transplant procedure. He is literally responsible for saving the lives of thousands and thousands of children. (Oh yea? Children with cancer, huh? Well I convince people to buy things they don't need. Where would the economy be without me?! Where would people get the money to pay for your fancy cancer medicine? Ask yourself that, my friend.)

Wednesday night's speakers educated us on the latest in gene therapy, and it's clear that amazing developments are just on the horizon. Treatments are about to get much more targeted, precious time will be wasted far less frequently and doctors will have the ability to manage many types of cancers as chronic conditions for very long periods of time. Think HIV - no longer lethal as long as it's managed with the right drugs. One of the speakers focused on a lung cancer example, and it made me sad that my dad couldn't have benefited from some of the new treatments now available such a short time after his death.

Anyway - it got us inspired for this year's Fifth Annual Bud Traynor Classic. For those that don't know, it will be played at Bethpage on Monday, August 6th and as always, we will donate the proceeds to MSKCC's research programs.

Vaguely related side note, the Chief of Neurosurgery at MSKCC is one of the doctors I consulted with when selecting a surgeon to remove my acoustic neuroma. It goes without saying he was very accomplished and obviously a great guy, although I didn't ultimately select him. His celebrity lookalike was Steven Spielberg.

Dr. Philip Gutin on the left and Mr. Steven Spielberg on the right:

A slow boat to China

Finally caught this week's 24 episode last night, so here is the week's Absurd-o-meter. As always, they're right on. Love the family drama happening between Jack's dad being back in the picture and Jack's nephew also being Jack's son (dontchya think?). And I'm afraid Eric's prediction seems more and more likely - Doyle may be taking over for Bauer in some future day from hell. Very upsetting.

By the way, I can't find a recent photo of Marie Osmond for a better comparison, but she was on The View today. She reminded the audience that she has eight kids, and I swear one of them is Michelle Dessler:







In Daily Intel's 24 Absurd-o-Meter, we each week count down the most incredibly ridiculous (ridiculously incredible?) plot points in the last hour of Jack Bauer's crappy day. This week saw CTU get invaded, a certain computer stud get shot in the head (tragically, his goatee seemed unharmed), and the little-explained, absolutely nutso return of Jack's family. Let's get to the absurdity, shall we?

3. How hard is it to go to the bathroom? So Lisa Miller, Acting President Daniels's aide-slash-lover, gets involved in a Charlie's Angels–style scheme in which she has to get her other lover, a mimbo lobbyist who sells state secrets to the Russians on the side, to read her PDA. Otherwise, says presidential chief of staff and official-mimbo-tricking-scheme-supervisor Tom Lennox, she'll be executed for treason. Let's just ignore the many implausibilities in this setup and focus on the mission itself, in which Lisa finds herself entirely unable to leave the dude alone with her purse. She tries to go to the bathroom to "freshen up"; he stops her, pointing out that she showered about an hour ago. Somehow, she lets this logic keep her from going to the bathroom. She couldn't say she has to wash her face? Needs a tissue? Has to use the toilet? Just walk over? Nothing? C'mon, Lisa! So they make out. By the way, here's what else happens with this plotline: She makes another attempt to go to the bathroom and is, once more, somehow incapable. They end up gettin' it on for the rest of the episode. Tight plotting this is not. Absurdity factor: 5.

2. Maybe it's time to up the security at CTU. As a commenter on Ain't It Cool News so aptly put it, "CTU is easier to get into than Lisa Miller's pants!" The Chinese invasion of the premier counterterrorism office goes extremely smoothly; the evil goateed muscley dude in charge even kills good goateed dude Milo, who pretends he's the head of CTU to save Nadia, whom he kissed a few hours ago. Nadia, for her part, has been exchanging meaningful glances with Agent Doyle. The smoldering tension between the pair began, lest you forget, with Doyle revealing that he's read the Koran, the Bible, and the Upanishads, and this information somehow making Nadia forget her lip-lock with Milo. But weep not for Eric Balfour, the actor who plays Milo, who's landed a lead role on the wittily named CBS pilot Protect and Serve. He plays a cop. Absurdity factor: 5.

1. What the hell are those Bauers still doing in CTU? The extremely annoying Marilyn Bauer and her suspiciously Kiefer-coiffed son Josh have apparently been hanging around CTU since we saw them last, seven episodes ago. Why? The show doesn't even bother with much of an explanation for what they're doing in spy-ville at two in the morning, half-heartedly offering some awfully convenient spiel about them having to stay there overnight and be processed in the morning. Then Marilyn tries to get Josh to get some sleep on a cold, hard bench. Strange way to treat innocent bystanders, especially compared to the way they treated Old Man Philip Bauer, who, as predicted, made his dramatic return. But once we saw Marilyn and Josh appear at CTU for no plausible reason, it was sadly obvious that Philip would be showing up too. Absurdity factor. 7. —Ben Wasserstein

Rocker Referral?

Something is going on. Too many aging rockers are starting to look the same. It started with what seemed to be more than a passing resemblance between Richie Sambora and John Taylor. Now I think I see the same visage on Jon Bonjovi. Is there a surgeon offering a "rocker rate"?




























We know at least Bonjovi and Richie know each other. Is it so hard to believe they are passing along the good doc's name? Word of mouth is a powerful thing.....





















Meanwhile, someone should really pass the doc's name along to Keith for God's sake.


















(Gina, thanks for the lead)

This just in: Anna Nicole Smith Still Dead

My filter on the Anna Nicole Smith autopsy report: can anyone really look at this Dr. Perper guy (chief medical examiner for Broward County) and tell me he does not have a big honking something growing under his skull on the left side? He's a medical examiner. Examine that.

I am obsessed with brains right now.