Odd Friday Happenings

Good evening.

I am reporting live from upsate New York. You will be happy to know that we happened on a hotel that provides free Internet access. Who would have thought this Internet thing was going to catch on?

Well, I just wanted to post a URL that describes the "Tom Cruise, Matt Lauer Fight". This seems to prove that Tom Cruise has completely lost his mind and now lives in some sort of fantasy world where he is an expert on anything that he reads about.

Let'e put this in perspective. I read a book titled "Bringing Down the House." Its a fascinating book about MIT students who figured out an elaborate card-counting scheme that would help them win at blackjack with incredible frequency. So, if I lived in the same world as Tom Cruise, this would make me an expert on blackjack, card-counting, statistics, mathematics and the life of MIT students since that is the focus of "Bringing Down the House"! However, I know absolutely nothing about cards. This is evidenced by my inability to understand or remember the rules of Crazy 8s. I am assuming that my lack of knowledge in the other, above named, topics goes without saying.

In addition, Tom Cruise called psychiatry as a "psuedoscience." Listen, I am a Computer Scientist. If there is anyone who knows about the psuedosciences, it's Computer Scientists.

However, it gets better. I was flipping channels tonight and landed on "Scarborough Country". Let me just say that I cannot stand that guy, but they were talking about this so I decided to give it a listen. Joe introduced the expert that would discuss this issue: Dr. Drew. Almost all of you will recognize him as the cohost of the now cancelled MTV show Loveline. (It should be noted that the radio version of the show still exists as a nationally syndicated program hosted by Dr. Drew and Adam Corolla.) Yes, Dr. Drew is a medical doctor specializing in addiction. However, for most people he is a goofy guy who talks about the sexual dysfunctions of teenagers while sitting next to a cohost who's resume includes a stint as the host of Comedy Central's flagship show "The Man Show."

So, let's recap: we have celebrities claiming to be experts while celebrity experts comment on the validity of the first celebrity's claims.

Could we actually get a real expert to talk about this before Americans start to dismiss those who seek psychatric help as weak, stupid, incompetent or disposable? Oh wait, it may already be too late. According to the CNN QuickVote, 21% of the respondents agree with Tom Cruise and believe that psychiatry is a psuedoscience.

Before I sign off, I want to report one more interesting tidbit that I learned this evening: I went to Furman University as an undergraduate. Furman is located in Greenville, South Carolina. It turns out that the flight that killed the lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd (no, his name is NOT Lynyrd or Skynyrd) took off from Greenville. As a guy who considers Lynyrd Skynyrd as one of his favorite bands, I am ashamed to say that I didn't know that until tonight. I suppose it pays to watch CMT.