Jude's Thursday Dish #40

Happy 40th Dish! Sadly, I have no time today, so this post is probably missing some good Dish and will definitely not have any pictures of clips. Enjoy anyway!

1. I'll miss you, Paula Abdul. Sure, in early seasons, your critiques were useless, but fortunately, you infused the panel with some heart. However, this last season, you were the only judge that made any sense. Hard to believe, but true. Randy dawgged on as usual, Kara tried to translate for Randy and couldn't have an original thought, and Simon was obviously phoning it in. "Idol" won't be the same without you.

2. I am SO sick of Summer TV. Scratch that. I'm SO sick of Reality TV, which let's face it is the only thing on in the summer. Tuesday night I wasn't feeling hot, so I vegged in front of the TV and watch "More to Love." I had to turn it off. Those "Bachelor" type shows are hard enough on the cast-off's egos, but to see really heavy girls get rejected? It's just painful. In theory, it's a good idea. Not everyone is a size 2 and these reality dating shows should reflect that. But the insecurity level is high and it just makes it uncomfortable to watch. The girls definitely had more personality than most you'd find on "The Bachelor" and many were very lovely. But one confessed she had never been on a date. The girls kept saying they wanted someone to love them for who they were and not care about their size. Dumping a hot skinny girl with a bloated ego is one thing, but dumping a vulnerable, self-esteem challenged fat one, I can't take.

Then, I moved over to the lame VH1 and watched the first episode of "Megan Wants Millionaire." I was introduced to this Megan chick when I watched the first season of "Beauty and the Geek." I guess since then she's become a reality TV-whore and been on 3 or 4 other shows. She's famous for nothing except her two big Girls. She stars in this dating show where a bunch of fame-hungry Millionaires are trying to court her. The guys are terrible. One, a REALLY rich plumber, was so annoyed by this Buster from "Arrested Development" look-a-like Trust Fund Baby that he ran up to him and smashed a silver piggy bank Megan gave him. For no good reason other than he didn't like the sound of his voice. Megan is obviously not smart enough to come up with her own quips. It's obviously scripted for her. She's not only to blame. The guys are shallow and only want a former Playboy model on their side. It's a train wreck.

3. Sooo, this leads me into a new challenge: STOP THE SURFING! If you can't find anything good on TV (and let's stop encouraging these stupid shows), go online and watch episodes of some really great TV that you may not have discovered yet. I tuned into Amy Poehler's "Parks and Recreation" a couple of times when it aired on TV, but went to NBC.com and watched all 6 episodes in a row in one sitting. It was HILARIOUS. You should check it out. It reminds me of the first season of "The Office" when it was still really awkward and hadn't caught on yet. Or watch "Mad Men" or even rent or check out the library old shows that have been cancelled. If you haven't watched "Arrested Development" or "Veronica Mars" yet, you are missing out.

4. Two helpful movie-related websites to recommend. First, www.runpee.com will tell you the good times to leave a movie if you have to go to the bathroom. Great for really long films like "Harry Potter." I was turned on to this by my friend, Cydamarie. Unfortunately for me, it was after the said viewing of "Harry Potter" and I had drank a ton of Diet Coke.

Second (and I think I've blogged about this before), but www.kids-in-mind.com. It goes into all the details about why a movie is rated a certain way. I try not to read those details, because then you get images in your mind and that's not good either. But when I was tempted to go see "Funny People" and read that there were 151 F-words (in a 2 hour 20 minute movie!), I was more than happy to pass.

5. We took Katie to see "G-Force" at the drive-in. She loved it, we thought it was "eh", but going to the drive-in with your kid is a blast!

That's it for this week!