Wedding Blog: Dana & Scott Tie the Knot

If you are lucky enough to have a large group of friends, inevitably some of them will be awkward, especially around girls during high school. But somehow, people grow up and eventually get married, even TallSkott.

I've known TallSkott for about half my life. At first he was a big doof who just wanted everyone to like him, so he gave them candy for a quarter and free movie rentals. I believe TON's Dad still has an outstanding $41 bill at West Coast video (or whatever it was called, neither jusTON nor I can remember).

But Scott always wanted to be your friend, which I think is why he never chose a sports team, he just wanted to run with the crowd. He and I were golfing buddies (until I got struck on the hip by an errant drive). We were a dominant 2 on 2 basketball team (until jusTON and Leary beat us). We were part of an unstoppable Jewish bowling team (until I grew too much to still be called "medium jew"). We were gambling buddies (until we got tired of those long drives back from AC after losing). Strike the last one, we're still gambling buddies and recently played online poker at his apartment.

Which brings me to Dana, you can definitely see Dana's touch in their apartment, it's a girl's apartment that a guy happily cohabitates. But that's the thing with Scott. He's just happy to be there. Especially after some failed past experiences with women (prank calling Jen Levanthal, "I so wanna touch your ass", the whole Queenie debacle).

So when Scott met Dana we were all happy for him. The first time I met Dana, I recall Scott grabbing her ass, and she lovingly slapped it away. She fit the requirements for Scott's girlfriend. She's short, that was a key. She's Jewish. She's outgoing. She's good natured enough to deal with Scott's weird habits. And she's demanding enough to break him of a lot of those weird habits.

Scott's dietary restrictions are now legendary. The turkey and muenster cheese, the refusal to pass the lobster bisque. But now Dana and Scott go out for sushi. And that's a good relationship, when the partners become greater than the some of the parts.

So the wedding day came. WARNING!!! The following will be told strictly from my perspective so if you have comments of other funny things that happened feel free to add them.

Scott was sooooooooooooooooooooooo nervous. At 4:25 (five minutes early) he sent a group text message to the groomsmen saying "where r u guys?" He must have eaten 40 altoids in the few hours leading up to the ceremony. During the ceremony he alternated giggling and coughing fits. But he made it through.

And Scott looked good. He had a sort of pinstriped tuxedo with a black bow tie. Scott loves a bow tie for some reason. And Dana. Good lawd. At most weddings the bride looks beautiful, but Dana looked damn hot. The difference is subtle, but there is a difference between beautiful and hot.



Scott gave a firm stomp to the glass. And the party began.

I made a beeline to the bar and started with a couple Heinekens. Then we got a couple shots from the Vodka infusion. One was berry and one was pineapple. Thankfully, I don't really care for fruit so I went back to beer. Otherwise the cocktail hour was good, but I spent most of it drinking.

Scott's favorite part of any wedding/bar mitzvah is the hora. We love being the chair lifters. Thankfully I had front right of the ladies' chair, smoothly lifting, Dana, her mom, Elaine and Scott's mom, Stefanie. I don't know how the other guys got Scott and Howie up in the air, but they did.



Right after the the hora the band (which was awesome by the way) got into a couple good songs to get the group dancing. Then for some reason they moved into "Sweet Home Alabama." Half the crowd was like "wtf?" but then Scott and Dana's friend Alex got up there and started jamming with the band. It was a really nice touch and Alex told me afterwards it felt so cool to be up there "shredding."





After that there was more dancing and partying, and of course, more drinking. We had to get the best man, Matt Fox ready for his toast. Matt was very apprehensive about giving the speech so the only thing to do was fill him full of some liquid courage. Matt had about 12 shots before the speech and that must have been the right number because the speech was awesome. On his way up we seranaded him with the Jose chant (Matt Fox, MattFoxMattFoxMattFox...Maaaat Fox, Matt Fox). He had everyone laughing including the bride and the groom.





The rest of the night kind of flew by for me. We kept dancing. We kept drinking and we had a great time. These pictures probably say it all.









To put the icing on the cake we drove (well, actually only Leslie was able to) Greenspan aka Juice aka Green-spiggity to the train station because he had to get up for the Jets game the next day. I feel badly for anyone who might have been on the train with him. Almost as bad as I feel for Mrs. Poop who had to sit in the back seat with me on one side of her, and Juice on the other as we sang "What a beautiful wedding, what a beautiful wedding...but haven't you people ever heard of closing the God damn door."

All in all it was a great night that those of you who can remember it won't soon forget. I'll leave you with some pictures of the bride and groom.

Weekly Picks

Another bad week for me. I started off losing 4 of 5 early games, then rebounded thanks to the Colts and Patriots. I still finished 3-4 dropping me to 11-11 for the season. Worse still, Adam and Harley gave back some ground and are now 5 points out of first. 7 more games offer a chance to turn it around in a big way.

ST. LOUIS RAMS -2.5 kansas city chiefs
Rams have lost two in a row. Chiefs won two in a row. Chiefs are 0-3 on the road, but the last time I paid attention to that I picked the Eagles over the Jaguars. However, I do believe that the bloom is coming off the rose with Damon Huard. El Jay should be able to run all over the Rams but I think Bulger and Jackson will get it done and the Rams will win by a field goal or more.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS +1.5 new orleans saints
I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out Tampa Bay. First I thought Bruce Gratkowski would suck, but instead he came out like a house of fire. Last week I finally bought in and expected him to keep it close against the Giants in a windy Paulsfriendlands but he sucked. I thought the Saints were good, but they got killed by Baltimore. I think New Orleans will rebound.

BUFFALO BILLS -3.5 green bay packers
Green Bay has been coming on like a house of fire and can actually even their record at 4-4 if they can win this game. I do think that Favre may be motivated to play his best ball now that the team is getting better. And even though this is in Buffalo I would have thought the spread would be smaller. But the Bills have lost 3 in a row so once again I will go against momentum and take the Bills.

DETROIT LIONS +5.5 atlanta falcons
I don’t know if Michael Vick has figured it all out yet. But I know Jon Kitna hasn’t. Take the Falcons.

BALTIMORE RAVENS -3.5 cincinnati bengals
I continue to put my blind faith in the Bengals even though they haven’t really rewarded it. I don’t believe that all of Baltimore’s offensive problems were solved last week so I am going with the Bengals.

SAN FRANCISCO 49ers +5.5 minnesota Vikings
I always like to go against last week, especially for Monday Night games. The Vikings got creamed on Monday night and lowered their esteem in the eyes of the bettors and handicappers. I don’t think they are that bad. But I know the 49ers are, so I’ll pick the Vikings to bounce back.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS -7.5 oakland raiders
No way the Raiders win three straight. It’s not going to happen. I swear. Will they lose by more than a touchdown to Seneca Wallace and Maurice Morris? I think so. Go with the Seahawks.

NPH Through the Years

Doogie Howser Theme:


NPH in Harold and Kumar:


How Barney became Barney:


NPH Visits the Big Brother House:


Best of Barney (very long):

Playing Against Type

Neil Patrick Harris has come out of the closet. There have been rumors about him for a long time, starting with his role in "Rent." But he may have been trying to quell those rumors when he appeared in "Harold and Kumar" with a bunch of naked strippers. Then of course is his role on "How I Met Your Mother" as the womanizing Barney. I'll still check out Barney's Blog which inaccurately named Darwin's as a Cougar hangout. And of course I will still call him NPH. Horstman recently proclaimed NPH to be his favorite actor. I hope he still feels that way.

More on his coming out, from People Magazine:
Neil Patrick Harris is gay – and wants to quell recent reports that he had denied it. The actor tells PEOPLE exclusively:

"The public eye has always been kind to me, and until recently I have been able to live a pretty normal life. Now it seems there is speculation and interest in my private life and relationships.

"So, rather than ignore those who choose to publish their opinions without actually talking to me, I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love."

Happy Anniversary!

One year ago today, I decided it would be fun to write a blog. It started because I would send Mrs. Poop daily e-mails with funny stories, and I thought more people would like to read them. I had no idea how much it would grow and how much time it would take to do it the right way. I started it as News U Can't Use and my first real post was about objectionable t-shirts at Abercrombie & Fitch. Since then I've morphed the blog into the Poop you know and love with over 1700 more posts. I'll try to check the archives everyday to see what was important a year ago, and will start a new feature called "Last Year on the Poop" to showcase old, funny stories.

The NFL is Poop - Week 8

What is going on here?
Tennessee, Green Bay and Oakland are all on 2-game winning streaks. Prior to that the teams had started the season a combined 1-14. Tennessee beat Washington and Houston (allowing 22 points each time) but I hesitate to say Vince Young is coming around. They dominated Washington with the run and forced a lot of turnovers against the Texans.
Green Bay also beat two bad teams, Miami and Arizona (2 of the 3 1-win teams in the NFL), but with Brett Favre and easy games still on the schedule, they could be in the process of turning their season around.
The Raiders puzzle me more. Sure, they beat the Cardinals who were coming off that devastating loss to the Bears. But they also rebounded to beat the defending champion Steelers.

Did Michael Vick Figure It Out?
It's possible, but still to early to say. He's only played two good games in a row, in order to be a good passer he needs to consistently play at that level. But it seems as if he is finding his receivers at the precise point they need to catch the ball, which was his real problem all along, not tucking and running too quickly. If it turns out that he has learned to become a great passer while continuing to use his legs as a weapon, look out world.

Romocop
Parcells finally figured out that you cannot win when your QB turns the ball over all the time and makes horrible decisions like Drew Bledsoe. Had he gone to Romo earlier the Cowboys might be in better shape.

Game of The Week
Colts 34 Broncos 31
Another example of why in the NFL defense wins, but offense makes for the best games. Despite the great D the Broncos had all season, they could not stop Peyton Manning and the Colts. There were only 3 punts total in the game. The last 8 possessions of the game all ended in points. For 29 minutes in the second half teams were on scoring drives. The score might not have been so close had the Broncos not been able to rush for 227 yards, most of that in the second half. But there may be a rematch of this game later down the road, and thanks to this result, it will probably happen in Indianapolis.

Game to Watch
Colts vs. Patriots
This game is always the premiere matchup each year. And it happens each year because both teams keep winning their divisions. The Patriots should be decided underdogs but they are actually favored by 3 points because of what they did Monday night against Minnesota. They've shown time and time again that they know how to gameplan and throw off their opposition. That Tom Brady quick hit 6-for-6 drive to start the game was a thing of beauty.

A Brief Rant About the Redskins
Bye week, nothing to get too excited about. But the Cowboys are coming up and it would suck to fall to 2-6 at the hands of those bastards. If Romo plays the way he did Sunday night the Redskins defense has no chance.

Cheerleader of the Week
Tandra from the Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders.
Tandra as you can plainly tell has enormous boobies, but somehow she's still single. She lives with her 3 German Shepherds and 1 chihuahua. Two things that will endear her to Mrs. Poop: her favorite movie is "Wedding Crashers" and her biggest personal goal is to earn a degree in nursing. Tandra likes fishing, baseball, mingling, dancing and tantra. Well, I'm not positive about that last one but we assume someone named Tandra likes tantra.



If the Super Bowl Were Played Today
Once again I'd have to say the Bears would beat the Colts by the score of 28-20. The Colts are starting to look a little better (even though they barely eked out a victory their offense is finally clicking) but the Bears absolutely murdered the 49ers. The Patriots are one team that can ruin this equation, either by beating the Colts this week or the Bears at the end of the month.

Gotta Love the Waffle House

Employees at a Waffle House restaurant on Charlotte Pike called police early Friday morning, reporting that a naked woman entered the eatery.

The woman was accompanied by a naked man who was driving out of the parking lot behind the restaurant when police arrived.

An officer tried to stop the suspect but the man drove away, leading police on a chase through west Nashville and downtown. Speeds reached more than 100 miles per hour.

Police laid spike strips to slow the suspect, who eventually crashed at the corner of Eighth Avenue North and James Robertson Parkway.

Metro police were unsure why the man was naked.

"We don't even know where his clothes are," said one officer.

No word on what charges the couple faced.

My Alma Mater

NEW YORK (AP) City and state education officials are investigating claims that a high school tampered with students' scores on key state tests.

Teachers at Susan E. Wagner High School in Staten Island say administrators pushed to raise some students' scores on Regents science, English and history exams last June, teachers' union spokesman Stuart Marques said Thursday.

A group of 17 science teachers reported the allegations to United Federation of Teachers representatives last month, and the union quickly alerted city Department of Education officials, Marques said.

City schools Chancellor Joel Klein called the matter "serious."

"It's a serious allegation," he said, "and we'll do a serious investigation on it."

State Department of Education spokesman Tom Dunn said the state also was looking into the claims.

Wagner Principal Gary M. Giordano did not promptly return a telephone call to his office Thursday. But his lawyer, Mark Fonte, called the charges "ridiculous" and "truly unfair."

Public high school students must pass at least five Regents exams to graduate, and the tests are used as measures of schools' performance. Schools score their own students' tests, using state guidelines.

Wagner has about 3,000 students.

He's Right, That Was Pretty Gay

Former NFL receiver Brian Kinchen will not work as an ESPNU commentator this week because of a comment he made during Saturday's broadcast of the Northern Illinois-Iowa game.




Kinchen was explaining the need for receivers to make catches with their hands because they are "tender" and can "caress" the ball. He then paused and said, "that's kind of gay, but hey . . . "

"The comments were inappropriate, and we apologize for them," ESPN's Vice President of Public Relations Josh Krulewitz said yesterday.

Kinchen's future with ESPNU is under review, Krulewitz said.

Kinchen, a former tight end who played at LSU and in the NFL from 1988-2000 with Miami, Cleveland and Baltimore, also apologized for his remarks.

It's A Start

Throw out these three things: they blew a 19 point 4th quarter lead, they kept going to Jamal Crawford even though he shot 4-22 and there are still 81 games left.
If you can forget those three things then you can be a pretty happy Knicks fan this morning.
They won. In triple overtime. They played pretty good defense especially in the first three quarters and they showed signs of being a decent team.
Quentin Richardson who gave them nothing last year scored 31 points including the game winners.



Eddy Curry had a double-double and played tough.
Most importantly they hung tough and won in spite of Isiah's coaching.

Vicious Attack Ad

Derek Calls Me Out

Pizza Parlor Derek, in his Columbus blog preview called me out for taking so long to write about Farrell Kaye. Two funny things about this. First of all, he has no idea who Farrell Kaye is and why he is interesting. Second, no blogger in the blogosphere is worse with deadlines than Pizza Parlor Derek. I correctly predicted that he would not keep up with episode recaps of "The Office." But apparently PPD has been busy catching up with old friends. But I do have to hand it to him, even though TallSkott and The Concierge did most of the research I just haven't found the time to sit down and bring the Farrell Kaye stuff into a coherent post. But I will. And soon.

Song of The Week

Gettin' Some - Shawnna



This message has been approved by the Concierge

Mota Suspended

Many of us wondered how Guillermo Mota came to the Mets and all of the sudden rebounded after an awful start to the season with Cleveland. Now we know. Mota tested positive for something (not clear what) on a drug test and will serve the third 50 game suspension (effective Opening Day) since Major League Baseball toughened its policy.

To his credit he didn't pull a Palmeiro, he took full responsibility for his positive test and said "I used extremely poor judgment and deserve to be held accountable. To my teammates and the entire Mets organization, I am sorry. I truly regret what I did and hope that you can forgive me. To baseball fans everywhere, I understand that you are disappointed in me, and I don't blame you. I feel terrible and I promise this is the first and last time that this will happen."

Mota had a 1.00 ERA in 18 innings with the Mets but evidently got off the juice for the postseason when he had a 5.40 ERA and fatally blew a 2 run lead in Game 2 of the NLCS.

The Concierge is now looking for a new favorite Met.

Girlz Is Dumb

For Halloween Mrs. Poop made cookies in the shapes of various Halloween items. I ate a bat, and a witch's hat and said "hats for bats...keep bats warm."
She said "what are you talking about?"

Hatchet Job

Why is a publication called "Women's Wear Daily" covering the change in editors at a business news magazine? I don't know either but here is their take:

UN-FORTUNE-ATE: Halloween brought scares of a different kind to the halls of Fortune when staffers learned at a noon meeting that Time Inc. editor in chief John Huey had promoted Andy Serwer to the magazine's managing editor. Serwer replaces Eric Pooley, who was saved from eviction from the Time Inc. offices when he was given an unspecified corporate job working on "investigative projects."

While many regard Serwer as a "good guy" and a "great television brand," many wondered whether he'd have the editorial clout to helm the biweekly business title. An editor at large at Fortune since 1998, Serwer has spent most of his tenure as a columnist, penning the "Street Life" column and longer features on business personalities such as Dell Computers founder Michael Dell. Serwer is also the daily business anchor of CNN's American Morning news show, and has been a fixture on the cable network for more than five years.

But Serwer, who said Huey approached him "a few days ago" for the position, lacks editing experience, save for a stint editing front-of-book pieces for Fortune a decade ago when Huey was its managing editor, nor has he managed a staff of any size. Moreover, his columns and features for the title were considered fluffy by many of his peers (one said his column read like it resulted from making one phone call) and sources close to the magazine heard Huey gripe about Serwer's inability to write big middle-of-the-book features in his early years. "He's everywhere and has done a great job with the brand of Andy Serwer," sniped one business journalist, who described Serwer's columns as "bad jokes behind Wall Street and basketball."

But Serwer's multimedia experience and his brand power are what propelled Huey to give him the job. "I am confident that he will bring his knowledge of both the story and the multimedia landscape to the helm of Fortune in exciting ways that will work to its great advantage in the future," said Huey in a statement. Moreover, Serwer believes his "people skills" will make up for his lack of editing experience.

"I know about working well with people. I know how collaboration works. I've got a great bunch of people around me and they'll help me fill a bunch of holes," said Serwer (though some of those great people are the same ones sources said were passed over for the job, such as editor at large Peter Elkind). And despite the knocks, Fortune staffers are psyched for the fun-loving Serwer's spirit. "What we plan to do is reenergize this place" Serwer added. "We've got some terrific talent coming here dying to do really cool stuff. It's a matter of kicking ass and having fun."

What the Papers Are Saying

Wall Street Journal:

"Time Inc., in its latest bid to reinvigorate its flagship business magazine, named a new managing editor of Fortune.
Andy Serwer, a columnist and Fortune veteran, will take the post, effective immediately. He succeeds Eric Pooley, an award-winning journalist and former top editor at Time, who spent less than two years in the job. He will remain with the company to work on investigative projects.
In addition to his duties at Fortune, Mr. Serwer, 47 years old, is a regular contributor to CNN and CNNMoney, an Internet venture between Time Inc. and Time Warner Inc. sister company Turner Broadcasting. His experience working across multiple platforms was a key reason Time Inc. Editor in Chief John Huey selected him, company executives said.
A self-described iconoclast with little editing experience, Mr. Serwer has spent most of his career at Fortune. He said that expanding Fortune's presence on CNNMoney, which carries content from Time's other business titles as well, is a top priority.
"I feel like we can still do a lot more amazing things there," he said. "We're really at the very beginning."
The appointment, which came as a surprise to many Time Inc. insiders, is the latest in a series of personnel decisions by Mr. Huey aimed at re-energizing the publisher's marquee titles.
Unlike Mr. Serwer, Mr. Pooley operated as a typical editor behind the scenes. Company insiders said Mr. Huey wanted a Fortune editor who would actively use the media to promote the magazine."



New York Times:

Time Inc. abruptly removed Eric Pooley as the managing editor of Fortune magazine yesterday, and named Andrew Serwer, a senior editor at large, to succeed him, becoming the magazine’s third top editor in less than six years.
John Huey, editor in chief of Time Inc., a unit of Time Warner, gave no reason for the change, which was effective immediately, and did not return calls seeking comment.
Mr. Serwer said in an interview that Mr. Huey had told him over the weekend that he wanted him to take the helm.
“I found out about it a couple of days ago,” he said. “It was a surprise to me that John wanted me to do this job.” He added that Mr. Huey “has a way of making surprising moves sometimes.”
Time Inc. has been promoting the conversion of much of the content of its print magazines to other forms, and Mr. Serwer, 47, has been in the forefront of that effort. He writes for Fortune, writes a blog and appears regularly on CNN, becoming what many of his colleagues said they considered to be the public face of the magazine.
Colleagues said that Mr. Huey gave the impression of wanting to move Fortune to a new level of public awareness and create “buzz” and saw the opportunity to do so with Mr. Serwer.
“I have an understanding of how stories go from print to the Internet to TV and what works and the cycle of news, and that’s really important,” Mr. Serwer said. “I think that’s something he wanted to tap into.”
The move comes as Portfolio, a new monthly business magazine from Condé Nast, prepares for its debut in April. Portfolio has been poaching writers from several news organizations, including Fortune, which has lost three.
In the interview, Mr. Serwer said that he welcomed the competition from Portfolio and suggested its entry into the marketplace would reinvigorate the whole category of business magazines, which has been flagging in part because so much business information is available on the Internet. He said he had so little time to prepare for yesterday’s announcement that he had no specific plans for the magazine, but added that he and Mr. Huey tended to see eye to eye."



New York Post:

"In a move that one insider described as "a lightning bolt out of the blue," Eric Pooley was removed as the top editor of Fortune and replaced by Andy Serwer, a longtime staffer.
Serwer, 47, who has a daily gig on CNN and a 50,000-name mailing list for his Internet blog, is seen as a triple threat, which is considered a vital resource in the new Time Inc.
"I understand how media works across three different platforms," said Serwer. On his relative paucity of management experience, the 21-year veteran of Fortune said, "I'll be relying on a lot of good people, but I also think a lot of it is instinctive."
Pooley, who was seen as aloof and detached, frequently worked behind closed doors. At one point in February, he called the staff together to do a public mea culpa, and pledged a more open policy."

Guess Who Eats Together at the Carnegie Deli

Met an old friend for lunch yesterday. Brian Cohen aka BC, the man who lived with me for the first two years of college was staying in Manhattan so I walked over to his hotel, which was only a couple blocks from the Carnegie Deli.
Nothing like a couple Jews enjoying smoked meats (he had the corned beef, I had the roast beef). He prefers the light green pickles, I like the dark green. And when the bill game to $35, he offered me the $18. He is the perfect lunch companion.
Unfortunately, as we have gotten older and moved geographically father away we haven't kept in touch all that well (but he is an avid "Poop" reader so we're not completely disconnected).
We talked about work, our wives, our houses, balding and how old we're getting now that we are talking about our wives, our houses and balding. When we meet for lunch again in a few years I anticipate a spirited discussion of our swollen prostates.
We also discussed our considerable weight gain, as we've put on close to 100 pounds combined since our college days.
The weather was great so I decided to walk to Penn Station and he had some time before his meeting so we walked downtown.
At about 50th street, BC exclaims "there's Gilbert Gottfried." I whip my ahead around (almost get poked in the eye by some guy handing out pamphlets) but wouldn't you know it, there was Gilbert, the voice of the AFLAC duck.
At 34th Street we said our goodbyes and vowed to stay in touch. But you know the mark of a good friend is someone who you may not see for a few months, but when you do it's like you're still sitting in Booth Hall cursing Pete Thamel and watching Conan.

Hoping Freak Show's Wife Reappears

From Variety:
Harold and Kumar are coming back.
Mandate Pictures has greenlit a sequel to 2004's "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," with John Cho and Kal Penn reprising their respective roles as Harold and Kumar.

Mandate's Nathan Kahane and Greg Shapiro are producing. New Line will handle worldwide distribution as a negative pickup.

Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg will co-direct from their script, which follows the duo on the lam after they try to sneak a marijuana-smoking implement onboard a flight to Amsterdam, and are suspected of being terrorists. Hurwitz and Schlossberg also wrote the script for the original, which grossed $18 million domestically.

Shooting is expected to start early next year in Shreveport, La.

The Price Is Wrong, Bitch

After giving out prizes on "The Price is Right" for 35 years, Bob Barker is going to retire.
His last show will be June Seventh, 2007.
Barker said he wants to step down while he's "still young." He turns 83 on December 12th.
The search for a new host has been going on for two or three years.
After years of banging the spokesmodels and encouraging viewers to have their pets spayed or neutered, we'll miss Bob Barker.
One time I saw an episode of TPIR when Bob was laughing after coming out of the commercial break. He explained that the college kids in the audience were begging him to say that famous line from "Happy Gilmore".

No Longer Seen On CNN

ANDY SERWER NAMED MANAGING EDITOR OF FORTUNE

(New York, October 31, 2006) - Andy Serwer has been named Managing Editor of Fortune it was announced today by John Huey, Editor-in-Chief of Time Inc. Serwer succeeds Eric Pooley, who will now be working with John Huey and Time Inc. Managing Editor Jim Kelly on investigative projects. The appointment is effective immediately.

Serwer (47) will oversee the leading biweekly business magazine, which is known for its unrivaled access to industry leaders and decision makers throughout the world.

No matter what project Andy takes on, he handles it with intelligence, wit and energy,” Huey said. “It is also safe to say that no journalist knows today’s business story better than Andy Serwer. I am confident that he will bring his knowledge of both the story and the multimedia landscape to the helm of Fortune in exciting ways that will work to its great advantage in the future.”

''I really am thrilled to be running a magazine with such a rich history and such a bright future,” Serwer said. “I look forward to working with my longstanding colleagues – the best business journalists on the planet. We're going to have a blast.”

As editor-at-large at Fortune since 1998, Serwer writes the “Street Life” column as well as stories about the personalities and behind-the-scenes action on Wall Street. His work has ranged from his provocative column in every issue to major cover stories on everything from the young Michael Dell to Michael Price (“The Toughest S.O.B. on Wall Street”) to the business of the Rolling Stones to the first look inside the financial and philanthropic workings of America’s richest family, the Waltons.

In addition to his magazine work, Andy became one of the industry’s first internet stars nine years ago with his daily market round-up on Fortune.com, also called "Street Life," that has more than 50,000 e-mail subscribers. He has also been the very successful business anchor of CNN’s American Morning news show. He will continue to have an on-air presence on CNN.

Serwer joined Fortune in 1985 as an intern from the Columbia Journalism School, and was later promoted to associate editor. He quickly went on to become one of its most insightful, popular and productive writers. In addition to covering Wall Street, investing, information technology, and entertainment for the magazine, Serwer has also edited and written the front of the book section of Fortune, which includes breaking news and features focusing on business personalities, media, and technology.

The May 22, 2000 issue of the New Yorker summed up Serwer's contributions to Wall Street coverage like this: "Achaea had Homer, the Spanish Civil War had Hemingway, California had the Beach Boys, and now our hyperactive stock market has its own poet singer-Andy Serwer." In 1999, Serwer was named 2000 Business Journalist of the Year by TJFR Business News Reporter, which called him "perhaps the nation's top multimedia talent, successfully juggling the roles of serious journalist, astute commentator and occasional court jester. He's a prototype and inspires others in business journalism to test their skills in other media." Marketing Computers also ranked him sixth on its "Top Ten Web" list of Internet journalists that year.

Mr. Serwer received a bachelor's degree in history from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, graduating with departmental honors in 1981. He received an MBA from Emory University in Atlanta and a master's in journalism from Columbia University.

Right Up My Alley

Miami's zoo has a temporary exibit on excrement titled ``The Scoop on Poop,'' which invites visitors to explore the science of shit.
It was created by Clyde Peeling's Reptiland in Allenwood, (Pennsylvania). It's scheduled to appear at zoos in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh next year.
Stool sample models abound: hay-like football-sized balls from an elephant, kidney-bean-looking pellets from a porcupine and coal-like lumps coated with fur from a black bear.
Zoo officials and the exhibit's creators say it's educational, not just gross. Visitors can smell the stench of flowers that mimic dung to attract flies for pollination. Videos include one of a hippo spreading its droppings around to mark its territory.

Happy Halloween

Who Needs iTunes?

If you listen to music, mostly while you are at your computer playing online poker or blogging, then you don't need iTunes. Believe it or not youtube is a much better resource for music. Watch this space for a Song of The Week (roughly every week).
Sure there are copyright issues but not a worry for the listener/viewer. Pretty much every popular new song is on youtube, though older selections might be harder to find. As an example I was going to say that youtube does not have "I've Got Love On My Mind" by Natalie Cole, but:

Any Consolation?

Shawn aka Jems, sent me an e-mail expressing satisfaction that the Cardinals went on to win the World Series:

"To me, the Cardinals proved that when they're ON they ARE a good baseball team. I feel less like we flopped more like they won now. That Tiger team stormed through the AL at a 7-1 pace, which Yankee fans and even Mets fans concede is far superior to the NL. The Cardinals did play 6 weeks without Pujols early in the season, and were on pace to win 92 games or so prior to completely flopping in September.

Additionally, the Mets series now becomes a part of the story. It will be included in the folklore of this season. The Endy catch will get recognized in history, as highlights will show how the Cards bounced back from that and still won. If the Tigers won, no one even remembers the Mets made the playoffs or pushed it to 7 games. We go down as the stiffest competition they faced."

I disagree with this. It leaves an even worse taste in my mouth because I know we should have beaten the Cardinals and could have beaten the Tigers. Going in we thought the Tigers were invincible and on some magic carpet ride. Instead it seemed they were gassed and their hitters were exposed. The Cardinals are arguably the worst World Series Champion of all time (they have the worst regular season record, I believe). Because I feel the Mets should have beaten them, the fact that they won it all makes me feel even worse.

In terms Shawn can understand: Some guy makes a stupid call and outdraws you to knock you out of a poker tournament. He ends up winning the whole thing. Does that mean he's actually better than you thought he was? Or does it mean that if you could have gotten that one card, maybe you could have won?

No Smoking At Legal Sea Food

One of my favorite restaurants (the place we ate the night I proposed to the future Mrs. Poop) is now a completely smoke free environment. The menu included a codicil that the only smoke allowed was from Red Auerbach's cigar. Auerbach died of a heart attack at age 89. A story I heard, perhaps apocryphal, is that one time a diner asked him put out his cigar claiming Legal was a non-smoking restuarant. He replied "read the menu."
His career with the Celtics really was quite remarkable and even more so he made Bill Russell the first black head coach in any sport. For some reason he had some bad feeling towards Phil Jackson later in life but he will always be remembered as a brilliant basketball man and the architect of the Celtics' dynasty in the 50s and 60s.

So Long Champ

Former heavyweight champ Trevor Berbick died at the age of 52 (we think). Berbick beat Muhammad Ali in Ali's last fight, and lost to Tyson in 1986 when Tyson won the belt. He died in Jamaica and was found with a wound to his head. SCZA found a couple good youtube clips of Berbick. First, his parking lot fight with Larry Holmes. Then his sanctioned title bout that launched the career of Mike Tyson. So long, Trev.