Spinoffs can be popular hits on their own ("The Simpsons" spun off from "The Tracy Ullman Show"), or just horrible ("Joanie Loves Chachi," "AfterMASH"). They can seek a completely different tone than the original show ("Melrose Place" was much more nighttime soapy than earnest "Beverly Hills, 90210"), or just reassemble some familiar faces and hope to coast ("Joey" should have stayed in New York with his "Friends"). What will happen with the new, as-yet-unnamed, Kate Walsh-starring "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff, which I'm dubbing "Addison's Anatomy"?

According to Scoop columnist Jeannette Walls, some of Walsh's fellow castmembers aren't too thrilled about the new show. And many "Grey's" fans I've talked to are leery about the spinoff. They generally hate the idea of losing Addison, who's been a rich addition to the show, and they wonder which characters, if any, will go with her. (Most rumors say the rest of the cast is staying put, at least for now.) What will happen to her budding relationship with Alex Karev, or her conflict-filled past with McSteamy, not to mention the new role she's taken in ex-husband Derek's life?

It's unclear, too, if Addison's spinoff will keep her in Seattle -- where Seattle Grace staffers could presumably drop in from time to time -- or if she'll return to New York, where the character comes from. A New York-based show would mean a whole new cast (unless McSteamy also returned home?), but would those characters click with viewers in the same way that George, Bailey, the Chief, and the others have done?

Although I've mentioned before that "Grey's Anatomy" is less about the patients than it is about the doctors' relationships, I wonder, too, if the show will only focus on Addison's medical specialty -- neonatal surgery. Is that varied enough for an entire show? Week after week of sad pregnant women and tiny little rubber babies, some surviving, some not? Yes, pregnancy shows like "A Baby Story" draw in the female viewing audience, but will this work for an hour-long drama?

We do know that the new show will begin with a two-hour "Grey's" in May that will set everything up for the spinoff. And we know that Hunky Taye Diggs (or "Taye Diggs, Show-Killer," as a co-worker calls the actor, who didn't last long with either "Kevin Hill" or "Day Break") and Hector Elizondo are signed for the new show. We know that"Grey's" creator Shonda Rhimes will run the show. She's done such an ace job with "Grey's," but I can't help think of an interview I once read with "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" showrunner Joss Whedon. When asked about a scene in which sun-shunning vampire Angel appeared in a top-down convertible, Whedon admitted that moment was when he realized "I can't do two shows." Can Rhimes?

Did Eddie Murphy storm out of the Oscars right after he lost? Why was Jack Nicholson bald? What was up with those dancers? Did an actor really admit to wanting his co-star to lose? Let's delve into a few of those unanswered Oscar questions before putting the show, and the new gold hardware, on the shelf for another year.

Q: Why was Jack Nicholson bald?
A: It's for his new film. Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play terminally ill cancer patients who flee the hospital for one last crazy ride in "The Bucket List." We hear it's due out in November.

Q: Was Meryl Streep, star of "The Devil Wears Prada," really wearing Prada?
A: She was. Her dress was by Prada, but you could barely see it under the clunky 1960s earth-mother beads. Fashionistas are still snarking about her look. But as this pre-awards article points out, Streep has too much movie-star cred to care what anyone else thinks.

Q: Is it true that Alan Arkin, co-star of young Abigail Breslin in "Little Miss Sunshine," wanted the little girl to lose?
A: Yes. Arkin told "Access Hollywood" he thought enough was enough, and that Breslin needed to be left alone to have a real childhood. Perhaps he read child Oscar-winner Tatum O'Neal's book and doesn't want that kind of life for Breslin.

Q: Was Helen Mirren, star of "The Queen," really asked to have tea with the queen?
A: Not quite. A palace spokesperson says "it is speculation, but we are looking at a number of options." So: Maybe, but it's far from a sure thing. Reportedly, Queen Elizabeth II has said she is choosing never to watch the film.

Q: Was Eddie Murphy really a sore loser?
A: According to Us Magazine and other sources, Murphy left immediately after losing the best supporting actor award to Alan Arkin, and went home, not attending any Oscar parties. And the LA Times reports that Murphy's limo driver was called to pick him up mid-show, even before co-star Jennifer Hudson won her best supporting actress trophy. Draw your own conclusions.

Q: What was up with Jennifer Hudson's metallic jacket?
A: Hudson told TODAY's Matt Lauer that her outfit was her only Oscar regret. The New York Post claims that Vogue editor Andre Leon Talley "insisted" she wear it and "went ballistic" when she tried to substitute something else. Talley was also doing ABC's pre-show fashion coverage -- are we shocked that he loved Hudson's ensemble?

Q: Who were those dancers who acted out movie symbols behind a screen?
A: Pilobolus Dance Theater, a Connecticut-based dance company.

Q: How long do the winners get for speechifying?
A: Supposedly 45 seconds, but the orchestra was pretty gentle as far as playing them off this year. There was also a Thank-You Cam set up backstage, with the intent being that winners could recite their lists of names into the cam, which then broadcasts the messages on Oscar.com. See, Mom, I did mention you after all!

Q: Wasn't Sacha Baron Cohen going to present an award?
A: He reportedly would only agree if he could do it in character as Borat, and ABC said no. Because it's not like anyone went to see that massive blockbuster or anything.

Q: Who will host next year's Oscars?
A: Rumor has it that Jerry Seinfeld's little bit about movie-theater garbage was essentially his audition tape. (Seinfeld has said "no" to the job before, however.) He'd be the ideal host for an awards show about nothing.

Q: Was this the longest Oscar telecast ever?
A: No, though many agree it felt that way. This year's show clocked in at  3 hours, 29 minutes. Five years ago, in 2002, the show took 4 hours, 4 minutes (Much was made of the fact that both the 2002 and the 2007 telecasts were produced by the same person, Laura Ziskin.) But Ziskin may not have turned in the longest-ever Oscars.  This Washington Post piece says the 2000 telecast ran 4 hours, 11 minutes

In last week's Multi-link Monday, the definite hit of the five links was the pie-eating game, in which you have 15 chomps to make an entire online pie disappear. As readers pointed out in the comments, one way to do it is to bite out a four-leaf clover in the center first, and then move to the edges, rather than starting with the edges.

Not sure if we'll have such an addictive link this week, but here we go.

• Just can't decide where to go for lunch today? Spin the Wheel of Lunch! Once you enter in your ZIP code and either "lunch" or a cuisine (try "pizza"), the Wheel of Fortune-like wheel will take the decision-making out of your hand. (Via the always-fun Tech_Space.)

• Terrorism is an awfully grim subject, but someone has managed to make it side-splittingly funny. Well, it's not the terrorism that's funny, it's the way this Web site humorously captions government cartoons meant to show you how to protect yourself. My favorites are "If you hear the Backstreet Boys, Michael Bolton or Yanni on the radio, cower in the corner or run like hell," and "After exposure to radiation it is important to consider that you may have mutated to gigantic dimensions: watch your head."

• I'm inspired by this site. Someone scanned in their mom's recipes, on the wonderfully vintage, decorated, food-stained recipe cards. There's something so homey and family about this site. I love flipping through my mom's recipe box, and because I keep most of my recipes online, I'm not keeping the same kind of neat paper memories for my family. (Click on the individual recipe cards to enlarge them.)

• "P.S.: This letter was sloppy cause I was crying." You can just feel the agony when you read these real letters from kids at summer camp. Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah indeed. (Via my pal, Amy.)

• I think I tried for all of the 1980s to work a Rubik's Cube, and I maybe completed it once. Maybe. I can't imagine how long it took to build these beautiful Rubik's Cubism portraits with dozens of Cubes. So cool. (Via Metafilter.)

We knew it wasn't going to be Meredith. Even though it was reported that an important "Grey's Anatomy" character was going to die, and even though Meredith spent part of last week's episode floating in chilly Elliott Bay and seeing dead people, the majority of viewers who chimed in on my earlier Weblog entry agreed that the show was not about to kill off its main character.

My pal Will over at Clicked pointed out that characters have indeed died on other shows, but my argument is that "Grey's Anatomy" is a world away from "Six Feet Under," and that Mary Alice on "Desperate Housewives" was created to be mostly a voiceover, not a character.

But the show had promised a major death, and the writers delivered, killing off not Meredith, but her Alzheimer's-stricken mother, Ellis. The episode was dramatic, in true "Grey's" style, with Meredith walking a fine line between life and death, and Denny and Dylan there to help her walk it. The scene at the end, where Izzy leaves the hospital, passing the ghost of Denny, and senses him without actually seeing him, was heartbreaking.

But the loss of Ellis feels wrong to me. It does more than just create a big dramatic loss for the main characters to deal with. Instead it takes away one of the main elements that made "Grey's" different.

Who can forget the "Grey's" pilot, and how it ended with Meredith sitting in a nursing home, visiting her quite young, but still Alzheimer's stricken mother, who didn't remember her? That moment snapped me to attention. What appeared at first to be your average who's-sleeping-with-who hospital show showed promise.

We lead such unique lives, in this world, and TV often gives us short shrift. So many adults serve as caretakers for older parents, or have had Alzheimer's or another illness touch our lives. I know it's touched mine. But that's gritty, not glamourous. That's real life, and it seldom turns up on the screen.

On the outside, Meredith looks like your typical, too-good-to-be-true character. She is beautiful, young, smart, set to make a lot of money as a doctor. On the surface, the character would seem to have everything going for her. Meeting her mother not only explained a lot about Meredith's "dark and twisty" mental state, but it made her come down to earth. She felt real, no longer like a glamorous stereotype that only scriptwriters could create.

I, for one, appreciated the recurring Ellis plotline, and thought it was for the most part handled thoughtfully. Ellis, we learned, wasn't too fond of Meredith even before she began to show Alzheimer's symptoms -- and probably should never have had children. It's not only rare to see an Alzheimer's plotline on a show like this, it's rarer still to see a mom who's indifferent about motherhood. Rare, but then again, that's what made it feel real.

I suppose that most of the press about this episode will focus on the Meredith angle, the fact that she didn't die, and that in the end, she even somewhat made up with her mother, who told her, finally, "you're anything but ordinary." But for me, the loss of Ellis took away one of the points that made "Grey's Anatomy" special.

We've just witnessed an ugly example of what big money can do for you: It can take away your peace, even after death.

If Anna Nicole Smith hadn't married J. Howard Marshall, a billionaire 63 years older than she was, the cable news networks might have actually had to cover the Iraq War today. Instead, we were treated to a spectacle so ludicrous you had to laugh out loud, and then shake your head, embarrassed that you were finding humor in a woman's death.

In Logical Land, there should never have been a doubt about where Anna Nicole should be buried. Sure, at 39, she was probably not thinking about her final resting place, but once her 20-year-old son Daniel died shockingly early, and she (or her companion, Howard K. Stern, or her entourage, or whoever) decided to bury him in the Bahamas, that should have been the end of it. Naturally, a mother, especially one who, according to Stern, rarely left her room and was certainly never the same after her son's death, would want to be buried next to her child.

Her mother wanted her in Texas? Her mother hadn't seen her in person in over a decade, although boyfriend Larry Birkhead said that when pregnant, Smith cried out for her mother.

Smith wanted to be near her idol, Marilyn Monroe? That's easy to believe, but that was almost surely before her son died, and his burial place was set. Family trumps movie-star idols, at least in Logical Land.

But we don't live in Logical Land, we live in Crazy Currency Land. If there's money involved, someone will put up their dukes and fight for every last penny, no matter how unseemly the circumstances. Thankfully, it appears that the judge's decision will allow her to rest next to her son, but did it really take such a big circus to get here?

If we make this big of a fuss over a woman who idolized Marilyn Monroe, it's lucky for all of us that the real Marilyn is already gone. Were she to die today, the ensuing craziness would make the uproar over Princess Diana's 1997 death look like a quiet day in church.

Bury Smith in the Bahamas, next to her son. And if it were up to Logical Land, someone would stop the battle over Marshall's billions and donate them all to charity.

If you believe, as I do, in judgment after death, there are a lot of people who will have more than a little explaining to do about how they've acted, chasing the almighty dollar. A lot of people will have to explain how they ruined a five-month-old girl's chances at a normal life. And a lot of people's motives are going to come up wanting.

"Rest in peace" shouldn't be just a carving on a tombstone. It should be an inalienable right, for plumbers or for Playmates.

If you're a music star who wants to make headlines, it can't hurt to have your name twined with that #1 television show, now running three times a week, "American Idol."

First, Courtney Love claimed that she had been approached to replace judge Paula Abdul on the hit singing contest. Fans of the show went nuts. Sure, Paula had her moments, but in whose universe is Crazy Courtney an improvement? Just as viewers were passionately swearing they'd never watch FOX again if La Love started chugging Cokes next to Simon and Randy, "Idol" producer Nigel Lythgoe joined the fray.

Lythgoe told Us Magazine that he never called Courtney about any job on "Idol," saying he was "afraid someone may have misrepresented me." In other words: She got punked. What he didn't say but probably was thinking: Consider the source! It's quite possible Courtney hears herself getting job offers 24-7 from various planets that none of the rest of us have yet visited.

That rumor was barely put to rest when another arose: Next, "sources" -- including Robin "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" Leach -- were claiming that Michael Jackson would be making an "Idol" appearance.

While Jackson certainly has enough songs for the "Idol" finalists to each sing half a dozen each with no repeats, it was almost impossible to visualize the troubled Jackson of recent years, complete with facial mask, showing up to coach the Idols through a week of practice and performance. And of course, that rumor was also blown apart, this time by Jackson's own rep.

But reporters remained desperate for just a crumb of news about "Idol" personnel changes, and today it looks as if they've finally hit on one or two that could be accurate. Jennifer Lopez is reportedly set to perform on the April 11, and another rumor says Gwen Stefani will beat her to it, performing  March 28. MSNBC.com's own Jeannette Walls reported that an upcoming issue of Star says it was Lopez and husband Marc Anthony who approached the show.

It's all good for "Idol": More publicity for a show that already gets heaping helpings of it. Every rumor just gets the show's name in the paper again, while if the show simply came out and announced its guest-star lineup, as "Dancing With the Stars" just announced its cast, all the fun of speculation and wild rumors would be over.

There's really no reason why "Idol" can't get creative when it comes to guest stars. A recent MSNBC.com poll suggested such tongue-in-cheek theme nights as Hasselhoff Night, Creed Night (Chris Daughtry, come back!), Smiths night, or Weird Al Yankovic Night. It's fun to think of the Idols, even the perky and the country-western ones, having to get all morose and sing the Smiths' "Girlfriend in a Coma," and the occasional "Idol" metalhead could rock out with Weird Al's "I Love Rocky Road."

Let's start a rumor of our own: Which singers would you like to see on "American Idol"? Which theme nights should the show tackle? The sky's the limit here in FantasyLand, much as, apparently, it is in Courtney Love's mind.

It's Presidents' Day, one of those oddball holidays. Most of us don't even get the day off, we have to work all day and go home with not even any new mail delivery to possibly cheer us up (if bills and junk mail can cheer a person up, which...not usually). At least the traffic is usually a bit better. So here's a Multi-link Monday to help you get through working a non-holiday holiday.

• Save Boston from the evil Mooninites! This online game is kinda like Whack-A-Mole, and I'm equally terrible at both versions. Mooninites pop up on in Beantown and it's your job to shoot them down. (Via Metafilter.) Also, reader Matt sends this link, which includes a YouTube mashup of Jack Bauer from "24" helping Boston through its Mooninite crisis.

• So you won't have time to see all the Oscar-nominated movies before the big show, but you want to talk intelligently about them? Or maybe you just want to be able to spoil their endings for the unsuspecting? Moviepooper, a fun movie spoiler site, offers spoilers for all the Best Picture nominations. (Psst...In "The Queen," Princess Diana DIES! No, really! Also, in "Letters from Iwo Jima," we win the war. I know!)

• How did I miss these? Valentines from "The Office" characters were apparently available at Target this holiday. Perfect for the Dwights, Michaels, Jims, Pams, and Creeds in your life. (One commenter notes that "Grey's Anatomy" valentines were also available..."Be My McDreamy!")

• I could swear I've linked to this addictive online game before, but I didn't include it in my roundup of favorite links. Can you eat this entire pie in just 15 bites? I've never been good at these space-allocation games, so of course I fail. It takes me around 20 bites. The nice part is that even if you don't succeed, you can try, try again, with no calories acquired.

• Reader-submitted link: Jolita sends this fun video that was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, in which some of the real actors from "Lost" present a parody of what their final episode might look like, with the requisite CES nods. Scroll down to the YouTube link to watch the video; if you're too impatient to watch it, there's even a transcript provided.

Stop reading here if you haven't yet watched Thursday night's "Grey's Anatomy" episode, the second of a three-episode arc about a ferry accident. (Need a summary? Our chart is here.)

If you've seen it, you know that Meredith spends a lot of the episode floating around in the chilly waters of Puget Sound (Elliott Bay, to be specific). Of course she's saved by no one other than her boyfriend, hunky Dr. McDreamy, and in that scene she's about as ghostly white as can be.

By the end of the show, she's back at Seattle Grace, flatlining despite the best efforts of her co-workers. She jerks awake only to see Denny Duquette and Dylan, the blown-up bomb squad guy. Like the little kid in "The Sixth Sense," she's seeing dead people, and they assure her she's dead, too.

Experienced TV watchers know there's no way Meredith can be dead, just like there was no way she could be left to drift in the Sound, or no way she could have been found by an anonymous rescue squadder -- she had to be found by her McDreamy, and the title character in a hit show does not die. (What's that they sang in the "Sunset Boulevard" musical? "Nobody dies except the best friend...")

But with that said, what is going on with "Grey's" these days? Does the show want to become "ER," with a Crisis Of The Week every single week, making each hour-long episode into a Big Drama with a ferry on fire, a bomb inside a patient, a toxic mix of meds in the hospital? Because that's exactly what drove me away from "ER," and I can see it happening again here.

 "Grey's" is set in a hospital, sure, and handles its day-in, day-out hospital plots well. But in the bigger picture, the patients are just artful window dressing for a nighttime soap about the loves and losses of a bunch of really attractive doctors.

Here's the analogy I keep coming back to: If you've ever acted, you know that the makeup artists have to just glob a ton of makeup onto your face before you go out on stage. It's much, much more than you would ever wear out on the street, because the camera needs that overkill.

It's as if the scriptwriters on "Grey's" are thinking the same way: We've got to add more, more, more BIG events, bombs, explosions, fires, or we'll lose the audience. The problem is, there are a million places on TV to go for flames and blood, not to mention about a thousand movies in the theaters eager to offer the same thing. Not as many of those other shows offer the intriguing net of relationships "Grey's" has drawn.

Focusing on the personal, rather than the patients, set "Grey's Anatomy" apart from the beginning and helped make it a hit. The show should stick to its strengths and dial back on the danger.

I think of Valentine's Day as one of those Hallmark holidays, created so we all spend money on greeting cards and roses and chocolates. But then I think: What's so bad about roses and chocolates, and if a greeting card reminds someone to reach out to someone they love, who am I to object?

And I can't help but fall under its spell: A friend and I sometimes buy a whole box of those little-kid cartoon valentines and sign them all from different people (famous folks, fictional characters, people we used to know) and swap the entire box. Nothing like getting a Scooby-Doo valentine "signed" by Bill Gates. (It's a long story...)

With that in mind, here are my favorite Valentine's Day-related links, and feel free to add in your own.

• Perhaps my favorite Valentine's Day link: The ACME Heart Maker allows you to create an image of your own candy conversation heart.

• The site above also links to a place that will make real personalized candy hearts, for weddings and other special occasions. (Like the personalized M&Ms that I'm fascinated with, they're pretty pricey -- $299 for 10 pounds!) The site also shares the bizarre news that the white conversation hearts are pineapple-flavored. They ARE? Maybe just this particular brand.

• Unfortunate Valentine's Day cards are highlighted here. I'm kind of scared of the giant mutant pear-monster, myself. 

• Candy Blog has been reviewing Valentine's candy all week. Some of the candy is quite gourmet and fancy, but I'm a sucker for the heart-shaped Junior Mints, half of which are filled with red minty goo instead of white for the holiday.

• I've seen anatomical chocolate hearts before, but really, the gummi ones look more realistic.

•  In 2005, Matt from X-Entertainment got a hold of some oh-so-1980s kiddy valentines, featuring Mario, the California Raisins, the Legend of Zelda and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Cowabunga, dude! Be my valentine!

• I think of Marshmallow Peeps as more of an Easter treat myself, but not only do they sell Marshmallow Peep hearts, the company suggests projects you can make with them. (Here's a .pdf link to instructions for a Marshmallow Heart bouquet.)

I was out of town last week and missed out on all the initial fuss over Anna Nicole Smith's death, but things are only continuing to get weirder.

This Associated Press article, in which a reporter checks into a Hollywood, Fla. suite similar to the one where Smith spent her last hours, presents an eloquent take without being maudlin.

The reporter's lead is especially poignant: "Anna Nicole Smith rode the elevator with everyone else, to a room that wasn't the most expensive, at a hotel that wasn't the nicest, in a hardscrabble part of town with the right name on the wrong coast."  (My smart-alec side wants to point out that a $1,600 suite is probably a pretty nice suite regardless, but I still like his phrasing.)

You'll seldom see the late Playboy Playmate mentioned in the same sentence as acclaimed writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, but there are echoes in that article of Fitzgerald describing his parents' home on St. Paul's ritzy Summit Avenue as "a house below the average on a street above the average."

And maybe that's not as weird as it sounds -- the most interesting thing about Anna Nicole to me was that she was never able to lose the part of her that was Vickie Lynn Marshall who worked at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken in Mexia, Texas.

She could change her name, she could color her hair, she could put Mexia in her rearview mirror, but you were never going to mistake her for someone who was to the manor born. Just like Fitzgerald, whose battles with money, class, and the surrounding issues were legendary, she never fit in.

Time for a new Multi-link Monday, because even the best employee needs a five-minute distraction or two.

• I just love Comics with Problems, a Web site rounding up those old Important Issue comic books from days gone by. Because really, you might not listen to your mother or your doctor about taking care of yourself while you're pregnant, but you'd certainly listen to that preachy and fictional Rex Morgan, M.D.

• There's a whole photo group on Flickr devoted to pictures people take of Gummi Bears in weird poses. My favorite: A scooter poses a problem for the Family Gummi. (Via Metafilter.)

• Yes, people do dumb things on game shows. But no one is this dumb. Snopes.com debunks an urban legend about a woman on "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" who supposedly didn't know which was larger: The moon, or an elephant.

• The first three "Star Wars" films slimmed down and turned into a silent movie. The Force is strong with this one.

• Enter the New Yorker cartoon caption contest online, or just flip through past winners or current suggestions, and vote for your favorite. When I read the winning captions it always seems so easy, but when I look at the uncaptioned new cartoon I draw a giant blank.

The Super Bowl commercial madness continues, even though the game has been all but forgotten. Just wanted to blog a few updates:

• She said yes: The Seattle man who wanted to propose during the Super Bowl had to downsize his plan a little bit. He proposed during "Veronica Mars" instead, on an ad only seen locally. But she said yes!
• Seattle satirist wants to know why America, and the Blockbuster commercial, are condoning mouse abuse. (It's a joke.)
• We won't have that bizarre Snickers ad to kick around any more.
• This is old, but since we discuss commercials here, I wanted to mention that the "Man Laws" ads for Miller Lite  (not Budweiser, as I originally wrote) have also been put on ice.

I'll be back with a new Multi-link Monday on -- well, you know when.

No Multi-link Monday today due to everyone still wanting to talk about the Super Bowl ads. We'll get back to that, and to our comic-strip choice, soon, but I wanted to share a few last Super Bowl loose ends.

• Everyone wants to know what happened with the man who was going to propose marriage in a SuperBowl ad. MSNBC.com's Allison Linn talked to the groom-to-be and got the latest. No, he didn't propose during the game, since an ad cost $2 million and his online pledge campaign only reached $75,000. But he's planning to give it a shot during Tuesday's "Veronica Mars" episode. He's keeping his hometown a secret for now, so most of us are unlikely to see it. You can follow his quest at MySuperProposal.com.

• At press time, Blockbuster's pet-store animals clicking and dragging their friend the mouse was voted the top commercial by MSNBC.com readers, and AOL readers agreed.

• My former employer, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, asked two ad execs to pick their favorite Super Bowl commercials, and they chose three of the absolute worst ads that ran: The Snickers kiss, Bud Light's face-slapping, and FedEx Ground's office with people who look and act as their names suggest. Said one exec of the Snickers ad "It was just laugh-out funny."  That explains a lot, actually.

• This has nothing to do with the ads, but I thought it was funny: Indianapolis had to close its schools when too many bus drivers called in with attacks of Super Bowl-inspired 24-hour flu. Or something like that.

That first post was getting a little long, so I'm moving the Super Bowl TV commercial discussion over to a whole new post. You can still read and post about the first-half commercials, though.

Short version: Budweiser's stray dog turned Dalmatian is very cute. He's about the only ad that's received resoundingly positive comments, and we haven't even seen a Clydesdale-starring ad yet.

Just a note: If anyone sees a regional ad that they think is worth commenting on, feel free to describe it in the comments, since we all see different ones at certain times. Here in Seattle we just saw a Washington Mutual ad that I am guessing is regional. It involved a bunch of old naked bankers who were thrilled because they can bank online without getting dressed. Yeah, that's about it. I had to TiVo it and watch it again to see if I was missing the point, but...no. Uh, those were some pale and scrawny naked legs, there.

My colleague Sunny Wu continues to refuse to swap blogs with me. Thanks a lot, pal. Obviously, he knows a good thing when he sees it, and he has the far more interesting subject matter this year.

ETRADE: BANK ROBBERY
Yes, we do feel our banks rob us.

COKE: RUBE GOLDBERG-ESQUE MACHINE
Cute. This feels more like a real Super Bowl ad to me. It looks like it took some time to prepare, and it reminds me of the old "Mousetrap" game. Someone has commented that the Coke ads have all been shown in movie theaters. Remember when there were no commercials in movie theaters? Seems like 100 years ago.

BUD LIGHT: MONKEYING AROUND
I'm a sucker for the animals. I liked this one. Wait, what'd ya say?

SHERYL CROW COLORS HER HAIR
Sheryl Crow colors her hair: Film at 11! Tom in Manhattan wants to know if I'm happy now, what with my earlier ranting about how the ads are all aimed at beer-swilling "Animal House" types. Happy? Not until she pours a pitcher of water on her shirt! Oh, OK, just kidding. I give you this: That ad was definitely not aimed at "Animal House" types.

OFFICE TYPES GO 'GLADIATOR' FOR CAREER BUILDER
Heh, I liked this one more than their other ad. Thumbs-up for the Post-It-Note suit and the three-ring binder-heads.

TACO BELL LIONS
It's no Budweiser muddy puppy, but it's fun anyway. They've saved the better ads for the second half, I guess -- or at least the funny animal ads.

VAN HEUSEN SHIRTS
No one can say this one didn't appeal to the women, what with the shirtless stud doffing his VanHeusen shirt.

TUNDRA: TRUCK STOPS ON A RAMP
If I want a truck that I can drive in "Fear Factor," this is it.

EMERALD NUTS: ROBERT GOULET MESSES WITH YOUR STUFF
Robert Goulet channels Michael Scott from "The Office." I am pretty sure I have never heard of this snack brand.

SIR CHARLES AND DWYANE WADE: T-MOBILE
"Is this your dad?" Is this an old ad, or just similar to one I've seen before? It reminds me of seeing an interview with Sacha Baron Cohen in character as Borat, where he says he was thrilled to see "Ashton Kutcher and his mom Demi Moore" at his movie premiere, or some such.

DON'T JUDGE BY OUR NAME: FED EX GROUND
This reminded me of those jokes we loved in grade school: What do you call a guy in the ocean with no arms and legs? Bob! Ha ha...ha?

K-FED FOR NATIONWIDE
The most talked-about ad before the game: K-Fed working the fryer. If only it were true, but instead K-Fed is turning down $25 million as not enough to support his lifestyle.

HITCHHIKER WITH AN AXE: BUD LIGHT
At first I thought that was the Geico caveman, but it was just a crazy simulation. But I liked this one for its broad humor and the shock in the voice of Axe Man as he spots Leatherface's chainsaw-toting kin. Also, I just watched the original "Hitcher," so I am not offering a ride to anyone.

ACURA: HELPING PEOPLE ADVANCE
We were supposed to have hovercraft! They promised us hovercraft!

JACK IN THE BOX: JACK'S KID WANTS TO BE A VEGETARIAN
Is this national or regional? We didn't have Jack in the Box fast fooderies in Minnesota where I used to live, but even if this isn't national, it's pretty funny. The son of the Jack in the Box clown gives a school speech saying he wants to be a vegetarian, but it turns out he means "veterinarian." Reminds me of the 1980s song "Cause I'm a Blonde," where Julie Brown sing-says "I just want to say that being chosen as this month's Miss August is like, a compliment I'll remember for as long as I can.  Right now I'm a freshman in my fourth year at UCLA, but my goal is to become a veterinarian,  'cause I love children."

CRABS BOW DOWN TO BUDWEISER
Animal ads. Hard to lose with animal ads, I'm tellin' ya. My pal Sunny makes the joke that had to be made: "The beach ... crabs ... Budweiser -- sounds like a bad spring break I had during college."

PRUDENTIAL: ROCKS HAVE MANY PURPOSES
Reminds me of a project in a class I took where we had to create an ad campaign for a regular ol' rock. I marketed mine as a pesticide-free insect repellent. However, readers have a more-modern interpretation, as several comments refer to the fact that "a rock" sounded to them like "Iraq."

ELVIS HAS BURNING LOVE FOR THE CR-V
The car ads are just all running together for me, but I like the song.

AMERICAN CHOPPER GUYS FOR HP
This just reminds me I used to really like "American Chopper." And now I don't even know if it's still on.

IZOD SNOW GLOBE/BEACH
Izod is still around? Do they still have the little alligators and the popped collars? They pretty much owned every high school hallway in the 1980s, even for those of us who were as far from preppy as you could be.

JAY-Z AND DON SHULA: FUTURISTIC FOOTBALL-CHESS FOR BUD
Bud is just flooding the zone with ads. I'm not sure where they were going with this one, except to make people say "Huh, Jay-Z and Don Shula, wouldn't have pegged them for chess players."

FLOMAX
That was great of "Saturday Night Live" to let them slip in a parody ad there, considering "SNL" runs on a different network and all. Wait, what? It's not?

ONE FINGER IS VERY POWERFUL: ETRADE
They forgot one powerful use of a single finger: If you are a Mooninite, you can shut down Boston. I liked this ad, though: Save Holland! And as someone in the comments noted, it sure did look like the Geico caveman was the accused murderer.

CAREER BUILDER GUYS STILL RE-ENACTING 'SURVIVOR'
Those binder clips on the guy's chest looked pretty darn painful. I wouldn't have expected this ad campaign to be a series, but I think the ads are improving as the game goes on. Or maybe I'm just getting woozy.

HONDA CARS SWERVE AROUND TRAFFIC CONES
See what I mean? The car ads are just all running together. That could have been any car model out there, and unless I'm going to be driving around traffic cones in the desert, the visuals don't make me want to buy a car.

GO DADDY MARKETING RERUN
Hey, why not start rerunning them? We might have missed the subtle nuances the first time around.

GREEN TEA SNAPPLE: WHAT IS EGCG?
Still don't know what EGCG is, still don't really care.

NFL: RECOVERING FROM FOOTBALL
Oh yeah, you're laughing, but this is a pretty apt depiction of how many football fans are about to feel in about a half-hour. Liked the jazz funeral music. Hey, Brett Favre. There's a guy who needs a new agent -- he can just never seem to get any publicity. You never hear or read about what he might be doing.

AND...GAME!
What, no Clydesdales?

Thanks for following along with me, and for your comments, inevitably wittier than mine.

Couple notes:

--If you want to read a really interesting story about the big game, check out this NY Times piece on the shirts that are made proclaiming each team the big winner. (Note: I'm having trouble with the Times link at the moment, but am leaving the mention up in hopes it will get fixed.) The losers' shirts are quietly shipped off to be worn thousands of miles away, by people who don't care who won or lost, but are happy to have a shirt. And the story also discusses how Reebok workers have to carefully stalk the sidelines with the shirts, ready to get them into the stars' hands as soon as the clock runs out. I found it fascinating. If you need a NY Times login, try BugMeNot.

--Our business section is asking you to vote on your favorite ad, in an NCAA-tournament style bracket. Please check it out.

Thanks again!

Are you ready for some football? Or, more importantly, are you ready for some Super Bowl ads? As I mentioned last week, I'll be blogging about the big game's commercials right here, and invite you to join in via the comment field. Note that we're talking ads only here, leaving the rah-rah rooting and reviews of the on-field action to others. And I may not get to every single ad, so if I skip one and you want to chat about it, bring it up in the comments.

If you're more interested in the gridiron action than the ads, check out my colleague, Sunny Wu's, blog of the on-field action. He may dip into our territory too, mentioning certain commercials as the ads appeal to him.

And our business section has set up a NCAA-tourney style bracket of the ads, which promises to be a lot of fun, too. Check that out here.

FIRST HALF:

JESSICA SIMPSON FOR PIZZA HUT
Wait, was that a Super Bowl ad? They almost slipped that right past me, it was so ordinary. Was there anything in that commercial that you couldn't see in any random ad the rest of the year? Cheesy Bites indeed, emphasis on the "cheesy." And I hear a rumor this is just part of a series. Oh, yay.

BUD: ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS
So they play Rock, Paper, Scissors with real rocks and paper. Rock wins. As a friend of mine says, "It IS a rock, after all. Should beat anything." But I'm not actually even sure what beer was being advertised, which you'd think is the point.

DORITOS READER-SUBMITTED AD
We've certainly heard a lot about these. Can regular folks make ads any better than Madison Avenue? Based on this one, where people smash into a bunch of things because they're Doritos-happy, my guess is "no." Reminds me of the VW ads where you start closing your eyes early because the accidents are kind of upsetting.

BLOCKBUSTER PET STORE
Animated animals are usually pretty cute. But the "clicking and dragging" of the real mouse? Yeah, just came across as mean to me. PETA no doubt has Blockbuster on speed dial. From your comments, though, I'm the only one who thought it wasn't hilarious.

SIERRA MIST BEARD COMBOVER
Yuck, although perhaps not that far from what Donald Trump may be trying for his next hairdo. At first I thought this was the Geico caveman trying a new gig. It also reminds me of today's "Ask the Ethicist" in the NY Times, in which a teacher isn't hired simply because he has a beard. The Ethicist, as usual, is no help.

SALESGENIE.COM
Just...what? Is it 1970 all of a sudden? Slick salesman with the red sportscar impressing the ladies? Oh, I don't know. And I have no idea what the site even does.

SIERRA MIST MARTIAL ARTS
OK, kind of funny. Am I the only one out there who thinks "Sierra Mist" is one clunky name for a soft drink? I mean, I guess a two-word name works fine for "Mountain Dew," but "Sierra Mist" comes off to me like a Safeway house brand, or something. I guess we'll be seeing a lot of that product tonight, though.

TOYOTA TUNDRA
Truck races through a steel door, stops at the edge of a cliff. What is it with these ads creeping me out? Not that we haven't seen this in every sci-fi movie, but you have to wonder if they ever didn't make it through the door in rehearsal. Reminds me of "SNL": "Bring in the stunt baby!"

MOON OFFICE
Heh, I like the floating dog. What is this ad for? Oh, "Firefly." Er, I mean, FedEx. My favorite ad so far.

BUD LIGHT AUCTIONEER WEDDING
Who couldn't use that guy at a wedding every once in a while? Let's cruise through the ceremony and get to the buffet, already. Not bad.

SNICKERS MEN MAKE OUT
Stupidest. Ad. Ever. My friend Andy checked out the Web site listed, and notes that there are four endings to this commercials and viewers are supposed to vote on the one they like best. How about I vote that this commercial be sealed in Kryptonite and buried at the bottom of the sea, never to be seen again by anyone? How about that?

CHEVYS MAKE EVERYONE SING
It took me a second to get this, but I guess the pitch was based on "there are a lot of popular songs that mention Chevy." Got it? I do like hearing the music, though.

BUD LIGHT LANGUAGE CLASS
Were all beer ads written by people who were already drunk on the product? I tell ya.

LETTERMAN-OPRAH
Really a promo, not a commercial, but I'll post about it here since people are bound to love it. And Oprah living in Chicago and Dave being from Indy, it even works in that regard. Somehow I think Dave and Oprah would be pretty fun to watch the game with. You just know they'd have something smart to say about that stupid Snickers ad. Oprah would deliver a smart lecture on how it's really OK for men to kiss and Dave would rip off Paul Schaffer's chest hair, or something.

Did I lose the coin flip, or something? Who knew that covering the commercials would be boring, and the game itself would actually be full of tricks and treats? Hey Sunny, want to trade jobs?

GO DADDY MARKETING BABES
Yeah, no women watch the Super Bowl, or use your Web site, whatever it is. Don't worry, we're not in the least bit offended when we're shown as being sprayed down with hoses for the enjoyment of men. Keep right on appealing to the brain-free. What did Bill Cosby have his characters say? "Russell, you're like school in summer. No class."

COKE AND COMPUTER-GENERATED PEOPLE
I thought this was an ad for "The Sims" until the last second there. Although I guess it more closely resembled "Grand Theft Auto." Is this a game Coke, with their relentlessly family-friendly, perky image, really wants to be down with?

BUD: HUNGRY DOGGY IN THE SPOTLIGHT
My new favorite ad. Hungry, lost mongrel gets splashed with mud, can now pass for a firetruck Dalmatian and is accepted up onto beauty queen's lap. Awwww. Good use of "Ain't That a Kick in the Head," too.

GARMIN JAPANESE MONSTER MOVIE
Wow, that was either really stupid or loopily wonderful. I need a second to decide.

MEN RUN FROM TRAINING SEMINAR: CAREER BUILDER
I am sensing a theme here: Let's only appeal to men. Only men watch football. Only men buy products. Only men need Web sites. Or maybe: Only men make the ads?

DORITOS VIEWER-MADE AD: CASHIER GETS FLIRTY
This is what Doritos picked out of X zillion viewer-made submissions? Maybe we should leave the commercial-making to the pros. Except that pros apparently made the Snickers commercial, so perhaps there is a flaw in my theory.

MEN STRIP FOR CHEVY
How do parents watch this game with their kids? I mean, seriously: They have to explain to them that this is supposed to be funny?

BUD: SLAPPING REPLACES FIST-BUMPING
Sometimes you start to wonder: Is it me? Does everyone else think this is funny except for me? How did this ad get past a zillion focus groups and ad execs? Am I a humorless prude out of touch with modern America? Or does the emperor have no clothes? And right now I'm thinking: Hey, that emperor, he is NEKKID.

PEOPLE DRESSED UP LIKE DISEASES/CONDITIONS ATTACK A HEART
What?

GM: ASSEMBLY LINE ROBOT DREAMS OF SUICIDE
This is much funnier, only not in a way GM ever intended, if you read "Rivethead." Or saw "Roger and Me," where one scene focuses on the short-lived theme park AutoWorld, where a robotic autoworker sings a love song to the robot replacing him on the line. Also, some folks are questioning the suicide element of the ad, both for sheer taste issues and because the robot was so darn cute kids worried he might actually jump.

COKE: BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Not that we're not big fans of Rosa Parks, but Coke pretty much phoned that in. Show the product, show some incredible phrases about history, hope viewers associate the two. Phoned it in.

The latest from the sports desk: Game blogger Sunny Wu is refusing to swap jobs with me. Seems he prefers this lively, close game to these not-so-lively ads. Also, reader revolt is forming in the comments because I am a "Negative Nancy" who does not like enough of the ads.

SPRINT: CONNECTILE DYSFUNCTION
Nope, that one's not going to help me shed the "Negative Nancy" label, either.

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER PROMO
It's not a real commercial, but I have to comment on the "How I Met Your Mother" promo in which the characters go to great lengths to try and get through the day after the Super Bowl without learning who won. Heh. I kind of appreciate that because it feels almost impossible to do in this day and age -- as we at MSNBC.com discover when we receive angry emails after almost every major sporting event or TV show from people who are furious that we spoiled the result for them.

DORITOS: BLACK HISTORY, TAKE TWO
That one worked better for me than the Coke ad: Doritos (I mistyped as "Coke" at first) shows little snippets of people, mostly African-Americans, watching the game. Obviously going for the Black History Month angle, but in a more subtle way.

COKE: MR. HADLEY GETS DARING
Not a bad ad, here, but overall, I'm missing something...missing the great Super Bowl ads of the past, like herding cats and Mean Joe Greene...the ads you really talk about the next day. Mr. Hadley isn't awful, but neither is he especially memorable. Unlike, say, this game.

GEICO: THE CAVEMAN IS BACK
Readers loved these furry-faced guys in our summer commercial contest, and it's fun to see them back. I also like ads that rely on images and music rather than BRAYING AND SCREAMING THE PRODUCT NAME, so I liked it. Welcome back, Cave Guy!

HALFTIME QUICK RECAP:
BEST AD: Budweiser stray dog gets mud splashed on him, becomes a star
WORST AD: Snickers is grossed out by men kissing, but not by chest-hair ripping.

This post is getting a little long, so while I'll leave it open for comments on first-half ads, we'll continue with discussion of the second-half ads at a new URL.

One of Test Pattern's self-set missions is to stay on top of the best and the worst of TV commercials, especially in summer, with our annual commercial contest (last year's winners are here, 2005's are here, and 2004's, led by nasty ol' Digger the Dermatophyte, live here). So naturally, I'll be watching Sunday's Super Bowl as much for the ads as for the game itself.

Some of the past ads are great. My absolute favorite of all time is the Budweiser football-playing Clydesdales. The majesty of the horses, the incongruity of them playing football, and the worldly wise rasp of the cowboy who watches them kick the extra point and tells his friend "they usually go for two." Cowboys and animals must make ads memorable for me, because I also love the "cat herding" one from a couple years back. And of course, I laughed at the poor hapless FedEx caveman whose trusts his delivery to an unlucky Pterodactyl and later gets chewed out by his unfeeling boss.

My least-favorite ads? Anything involving Fabio. The Burger King Whopperettes. The Bud Bowls, after the first few.

What are your favorite Super Bowl ads, and which ones were million-dollar flops? Are you a fan of Terry Tate, Office Linebacker? How about the poor guy who has to work with an office full of monkeys? The Mountain Dew extreme athletes?

Come Sunday, I'll be blogging about the ads here at Test Pattern, and I invite you to join in and share your comments. Bookmark http://testpattern.msnbc.msn.com/ and check back during the game,  we'll see if we get a preview of any of the ads we'll be nominating for 2007s Best and Worst commercial honors.

In the meantime, here are some related Super Bowl commercial links:

• Are these the 10 best Super Bowl ads?
• And these the 10 worst?
• Regular Joes are now making Super Bowl commercials
• K-Fed flips burgers in Super Bowl ad
• iFilm has many of the ads available to watch online