Some Thoughts

Just saw another commercial for Yahoo's new "Life Engine" campaign, this time the one with Al Franken and Ben Stein. I have to tell you, I think these commercials are great, especially the one with Gray Davis, but I'm at a total loss as to what they're for. At first I thought it was a set of new features that Yahoo was offering, but after as many as 5 whole minutes of research I discovered that it's apparently just a new graphical interface in which users can search for things. Basically it's a branding gimmick that Yahoo's powers that be were duped into paying an ad agency to develop ("see, we think of Yahoo as not just a search engine, but as a whole LIFE engine..."). Life Engine? Really? I guess business development over at Yahoo wouldn't be doing their jobs if they didn't try to take over the web, but come one, who's really going to use Yahoo for their sports information needs when ESPN.com is just seven letters away? In a world where netizens have literally billions of choices of where to meet people, read the news, and do internet searches, why would Yahoo think they'd use just one homogenized site for all of it? I just saw another spot, this one not nearly as good as the others I've seen - it features a sign language girl and some guy who snaps his fingers all over the place. They end it with the following tagline: "Yahoo. Search Engine....Life Engine." What does that mean? We may never know.

Now then, I'd like to announce that I'm officially taken with Tina Fey. I saw her on Letterman the other night, going toe to toe with the big guy. I watch Dave pretty frequently and I'd have to say that he's just screwing with about 85% of his guests, kind of how John Stewart does with the Kirsten Dunst types that come on his show. But watching Tina stand in there and engage Letterman as a complete equal, well, that sealed it for me. There's something so attractive about a woman who could probably run circles around me in conversation and look great doing it. And yes, by the way, I look at every interaction I have with another human as a battle of wits. It's just my way. Back to Tina, I do have one complaint: it's possible she may have a gigantic scar raking across the left side of her face. I couldn't ever get a good angle while watching Dave the other night, plus they cake the guests' faces with makeup, but I know I saw something there. Somebody please email me and confirm this, ok?

Dear Tina, I love you.