Monday Links (3/8)

I somehow convinced myself it was worth watching the Oscars last night, which, given the limited amount of alternative entertainment options I had, made sense at the time. And yet, as usual, I thought the telecast was awful.

I'm glad "The Hurt Locker" did so well. I haven't seen all of the Best Picture films, but it was definitely my favorite of those I have seen. (And no, I haven't seen "Avatar" yet. I think I'm going to see how long I can avoid it just because I'll be among a very elite few who skipped it.)

I was also happy to see Jeff Bridges take the best actor nod -- although I thought George Clooney was spectacular in "Up in the Air" and Jeremy Renner's performance in "The Hurt Locker" was probably vastly under-appreciated.

Of course, my all-time favorite Jeff Bridges character is The Dude -- and after hearing that acceptance speech, I'm assuming there wasn't a lot of acting done to play that role on Bridges' part. He didn't seem to be into that whole brevity thing, if you know what I mean.

The overall show was terrible though. What was with all the random Clooney cut-aways? I assumed there was some sort of inside joke going on, but you know who doesn't find inside jokes funny? Everyone who's not in on them.

That might have been OK if they'd written some real jokes, but Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin were awful. The whole Don Rickels insult comedy schtick only works if the jokes are funny. Saying Woody Harrelson is high is like making a joke that the sky is blue.

I love James Taylor as much as anyone, but the wide shots of him instead of the close-ups of the dead people during the "In Memoriam" portion was a poor choice.

And seriously -- you have an extended dance number for what reason? But you squeeze the final three awards into about four minutes?

I did enjoy the short-subject documentary speech being hijacked by a random woman who I think works at a bagel place in lower Manhattan. Actually, here's the real story.

Again, I'm not sure why I watch this every year. It's simply a three-and-a-half-hour tribute to pretentiousness with poor production values -- and NBC was supposed to have the market cornered on that.

OK, some Zach Mettenberger-free links...

-- The AJC has the full SEC tournament schedule posted, and Georgia is getting the late game Thursday.

-- I had a story in Sunday's Telegraph talking with Caleb King and Washaun Ealey about their lofty goals for the 2010 season -- including both reaching that 1,000-yard mark.

-- Get the Picture takes a look at the supposed penalty problem last year and sees that Georgia actually won the games in which it had the most flags.

I'm with The Senator on this one, but I will say that flags did help kill drives last year that could have turned into points -- and what could have happened never shows up in the stats. I can also add that the collective stress level of UGA fans will probably be reduced significantly if the secondary has a better defensive philosophy on the deep ball than to simply get flagged for pass interference.

-- David Paschall talks to Stacy Searels about how well Georgia's offensive line is expected to perform in 2010.

-- Bubba N Earl take a look at what's on the docket for UGA's pro day this year. It's not going to be quite as star-studded an affair as last season, but it'll be good to see Rennie Curran and Jeff Owens & Co. back out on the field one more time.

-- Former Georgia player Jason Ferguson has been suspended by the NFL for eight games for a violation of the league's policy on performance-enhancing drugs. (In related news, regular poster J-Ferg has been cleared on all charges of artificially enhancing his comments.)

-- Apparently the charges have been reduced against former Georgia star Jermaine Phillips in a case involving felony battery.

-- Bleacher Report lists Georgia among its 15 programs with the most to prove in the coming season.

-- The performances keep getting uglier for the Diamond Dogs.

-- Yahoo! has it's hoops All-Americans out, and there's no mention of either of UGA's stars, while Wesley Johnson gets screwed and lands on the second team.

-- Sounds like a number of cool "Seinfeld" extras will be on the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" Season 7 DVDs. Having said that, I'll probably just get them from Netflix.

-- Another of my "Friday Night Lights" favorites is leaving the show. Bummer.

-- Some news for "Dexter" fans... next season will pick up right where the last season left off.

-- Entertainment highlight of the weekend? Zach Galifianakis shaved his beard while hosting "Saturday Night Live."

And wrapping up the Oscar talk, I figured it's worth noting that there were plenty of "Lost" moments, too -- the show's composer won an Oscar, as did former guest star Fisher Stevens. Plus, Evangeline Lilly was in "The Hurt Locker."

Which is all to give me an excuse to post this random theory about "Lost" as we close in on a Ben-centric episode tomorrow...

1.) Ben is the one who brought Locke into camp with The Others then convinced him to kill his father to gain the trust of The Others (despite the fact that it was actually Sawyer who did the killing).

2.) Ben is the one who murdered Locke and then brought his body back to the island.

3.) The Man in Black took over the appearance of Locke and had the trust of The Others because of it. This allowed him to get close to Jacob and, of course, Ben killed Jacob.

4.) As we saw after Keamey killed Ben's daughter, Ben has had the ability to summon the smoke monster (i.e. the Man in Black) all along. (This is also when Claire was presumably killed, and she now works with the Man in Black.)

So... could it be possible that Ben was never working for Jacob? That he's been working for the Man in Black all along? That while Jacob was busy setting up the pieces to get the Losties to the island, it's been Ben manipulating them for the Man in Black ever since they got there?

Again, just my theory. But if it's not true, all of those things I listed don't really make nearly as much sense.