Friday Musings.

- If I'm not mistaken, Academy Award nominations come out next week. Though I have not seen as many new releases this year as I normally do I think Sacha Baron Cohen deserves a nomination for playing Borat. It's not a traditional Oscar role but I always say the nods should go to people who play roles so well you couldn't picture anyone else playing that role (a recent example was when I thought Jim Carrey should have been nominated for playing the Grinch). Nobody could have played this role as well as Cohen.

- Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival has opened and he appears to be taking it a little too seriously. If you want to be a serious independent film festival concentrate on films, not politics. And stop having corporate tents and extravagant giveaways. Sundance has evolved into nothing but a corporate schmoozefest.

- There's been a lot of hand ringing by hysterical Leaf fans (is there any other kind?) about Andrew Raycroft. I'll admit the difference between this Leaf team and the teams with Curtis Joseph and Ed Belfour in net is that Raycroft is not stealing games the way they did, but the Leafs defense is awful. Raycroft is not a superstar nor was he touted as one. He needs good team play around him.

- I'm on record as saying Michael Vick is really not bright enough to be a good NFL QB but getting caught with a water bottle with a hidden compartment containing something like dope is pretty stupid even for him. I don't care that he smokes dope because I think 75% of the players in the NFL and NBA do too, but everyone in North America knows you can't take a water bottle on a plane anymore.

- Apparently Phony Phil Mickelson has lost 25 pounds. Part of the fun of rooting against Phony was seeing his man boobs flopping around. I'll miss that.