Erin and William are probably at the airport in Calgary right now, heading to Edmonton. Good luck with that flight, you two.

Last night was pretty low key - I didn’t do much of anything. Made supper, watched some TV, did some web browsing, watched The Amazing Race, went to bed.

I’ve got a cold though, so I’ve been sneezing and coughing quite a bit. I’m also pretty stuffed up. I suspect that I’ve just got the cold that William had just before they left for Calgary. The weather is warming up some, which is nice — not that it ever got that cold to begin with.

Back to the title of this post though. I make it no secret that I watch “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” regularly. I don’t remember exactly when I started watching it, but it was certainly before 9/11 happened. What I’ve seen is that since 9/11, the show has taken a much darker/more serious direction, and I don’t think it’s nearly as good. It’s turned into some nightly political diatribe, and the funny bits seem to be fewer and further between.

Maybe I should explain a bit. When I started watching the show, the guests were minor celebrities plugging movies, tv shows, bubblegum weight books, or whatever. They’d throw in the occasional journalist, magazine writer, political hack, whatever, but for the most part, the interview section was a break from the “daily events” portion of the show. Now, it seems like every guest is the author of this “important” political book about how the Cotton trade influences the price of sugar in Columbia or something. I don’t mean to trivialize some of the serious political books that have been plugged, but the net result is that the show’s tone is dragged way down into darkness and despair. It plays into the angst of the “anybody but Bush” crowd, and I guess that’s probably by design. It’s less about parodying the news, and more about how depressing the world is.

Now, having said that, keep in mind that I still watch the show. I just seem to tune out more and more of the interviews - even skipping through them to get to the end of the show. Clearly, the show has been changed by 9/11, but I wish they’d bring back stories like the steroid guy - offbeat news, as opposed to “an offbeat take on the normal news.”

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Arr, why buy a house, when ye can buy a house boat.” - Captain McAllister