I've been super busy today, appearing on National Public Radio's Tell Me More, Kathy Fountain's Your Turn midday talk show on WTVT-Ch. 13 and filing two stories for my day gig, the St. Petersburg Times. So I apologize for not taking a little blogspace earlier to note a tiny milestone: my 42nd birthday today.

Fear not, I left my cubbyhole at the Times early today, hanging out with my family for a wonderful dinner -- even got the best gift a TV critic could expect: a new cellphone which plays TV shows!

i also managed to get in on a few crucial discussions. On WTVT, we talked about studies showing Florida high schools are dropout factories, noting how that may not be a fair term. On NPR, we talked about the writers' strike and its impact on black writers, and then talked about a high school newspaper in Iowa which found several copies seized by administrators when a controversial poll on racial attitudes upset some students.

We'll get back to my regularly scheduled blog soon enough. But while I have a few hours left, I'm going to figure out how to make Rihanna's Umbrella play every time I get a call from my kids. Boo yah!

And because I'm feeling punchy, here's a link to the funniest Web site I've seen in a long time. Unfortunately, some people didn't get the joke (scroll midway down the page to see a New York Times story on the controversy). Click through and tell me what you think.

And because I love giving Kathy a hard time, here's a look at her long-ago interview with Hulk Hogan on her Donahue-style talk show for WTVT 14 years ago. Check the hair -- on Kathy and Hulk!