Best and Worst of 2006

My Life
Best: Bob and Judi's baby boy finally left the nest in 2006 getting a one bedroom apartment in Framingham, MA among many immigrants legal and not so legal. Also, being able to put 2006 TIME Person of the Year on my resume.
Worst: This Coco Crisp-esque slump I'm currently in which has caused the apartment to YET be christened.

Personal Sports Moment
Best: Syracuse's Big East Tournament run was magic just short of its 2003 National Championship run. Of course it was so unexpected because of an entire regular season of disappointment to that point, but the manner in which those games were won, me following the Syracuse-UConn game through e-mail, and yes, Gerry McNamara "meeting the moment" made for a very fun week of sports for me.
Worst: The AFC Championship Game easily beats out Syracuse's loss to Texas A&M half of which I couldn't see, the Red Sox getting swept in a five game series to the Yankees and SU's entire football season.

Television (Scripted)
Best: HBO's The Wire. The best written show on television by far, so good that when I attempted to write about it for this blog, I realized that I watched a show with no hot girls, no dramatic score, uplifting moments or any other hook that would attract my friends to watch and wondered why I did. Yet no week will ever go by without me watching a first run episode of this show.
Worst: Three-way tie between 24's "Season of Death", The Sopranos' "Season of Dreams" and Entourage's "Season of Nothing". As bad as these shows were in 2006 I am still giddy for the new seasons to start in 2007.

Television (Reality)
Best: Real World Road Rules Challenge (Fresh Meat and
The Duel). Hot cancer patients, 35 year old catty bitches, token Massholes, this show has everything including people getting "sports hernias" when not even playing real sports. Diem, Beth, CT, Danny, Wes, Brad, Evan, Casey, Robin, Derrick, Aneesa, Kina, Jodi how can I live without you?
Worst: Flavor of Love 2. Good Worst though. Even with a cast so dull they had to bring "New York" from Season 1 to shake things up, this is 60 minutes of non-stop laughter every week. "New York" made it all the way to the final 2 only to lose to someone nicknamed "Deelishus" with a gigantic ass. I can only hope "Deelishus" and Flav don't find true love and we get a Flavor of Love 3.

Politics
Best: What do you do when you're a longshot Republican challenging a longtime incumbent in democratic Southwest Wisconsin? Run the most outrageous political ad ever. This ad had some readers almost wanting to move to Wisconsin to vote for Ron Kind.
Worst: Tie between Mark Foley's IMs hitting on a congressional page who jerks off upside down or John Kerry saying that U.S. Troops in Iraq are stupid then trying to pass it off as a bad joke. Actually the way the election turned out maybe we have to give the Worst of 2006 label to Foley.

Scandalous Trend
Best: Pageant girls making out. Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Nevada all were seen swatting tongues for attention in 2006. And every single consequence that has is a good one for us. The more publicity these pageant princesses get for making out in downtown nightclubs, the less slutty other girls are going to feel doing it at a bar or club near you.
Worst: "Ooopsie" shots. There were times when I wanted nothing more than to see Lindsey Lohan's nipple or Britney Spears' cooch but to see them because these girls have become coked up trainwrecks is disturbing enough to take the enjoyment away.

Year
Best: Josh Hughes had the Best Year in 2006 of anyone I know, being named Pizza Parlor Man of the Year would make it TOO GOOD of a year so I'm not naming him that. He welcomed a daughter, Isabelle in October, will win his FIRST Fantasy Sports league after this Sunday, padded his Sportsbook account by following my College Football coverage, and took me around Washington, DC for a week in July where he showed me the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, and Chipotle Mexican Grill. Congratulations Josh!
Worst: The rest of you and mainly myself for slacking off on The Pizza Parlor in 2006, making keeping up with this blog my stated New Year's Resolution which will hope to make the NEW Pizza Parlor a much better reading experience in 2007!

Happy New Year!