Amy Jo Johnson's News and Views

Saturday marks the 41st birthday of Amy Jo Johnson, better known as Pink Ranger Kimberly Ann Hart, or your first childhood crush.  Either her or Mark-Paul Gosselaar, depending on what you’re into.  An accomplished gymnast until the age of 17, Amy Jo stopped competing to pursue acting, and never looked back.  Acting in the Power Rangers television series before graduating high school, she returned to the pink and white to fight Japanese people in monster suits one last time, and win our hearts for good.  After the Power Ranger phenomenon died down (for other people, anyway), Amy Jo had a few other acting gigs, as well as performing as frontmanlady and guitarist for her band Valhalla.  She also paints in oils and acrylics.  In other words, she’s basically perfect.  Seriously, I dig her. If you’re reading this, Amy Jo, know that forty-one isn’t too old for me.  And I love blue.  I could be your Billy.  Think about it.

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Where was I?  Oh, right, news and views!  Comin’ atcha.

–The Bluegrass is still basking in the warm light that is the Harrisons’ commitment.  That could also just be the residual buzz from Keeneland opening day, but since I couldn’t make it, I’d like to think it’s the Harrisons.

-Speaking of Keeneland opening day… it’s Keeneland opening day!  The best two-month sporting event since the Olympics (and let’s face it, probably better than that) will keep Lexingtonians occupied for the better part of October.  Hope you have too much fun without losing too much money.  Check out Tomlin’s Keeneland primer if you’re a betting dilettante, or just want to lose particularly quickly.

-Unfortunately, Keeneland being open means that the already-low attendance for football games might get even lower.  Typically, the University will try to have October home games in the evening so that folks can double-dip on Kentucky goodness (at least according to the loading screens in NCAA ’08); tomorrow, however, the Cats play host to the Bulldogs tomorrow starting at 12:21.  I don’t want to speculate on what this will do to ticket sales, but my instincts say it won’t help.  My instincts also sometimes tell me to push the button on the mousetrap to see if my finger is stronger than a mouse, though, so maybe don’t trust my instincts.  (I bet it totally is, though.)

-Regardless of attendance, we know that at least two people will be in Commonwealth tomorrow afternoon to see what’s up: Jalen Whitlow and Patrick Towles.  With Max Smith out with an injury and Morgan Newton contemplating the more profound parts of his feet, the starting QB duty falls on the two true freshmen, with the bulk of the pressure on Whitlow.  Jalen performed very well in a “breakout” half last week against USC, before ultimately failing to put up points after the intermission.  We’ll see if both sides of the ball can’t keep up the first half effort throughout a much more winnable game.

–More winnable doesn’t mean probably winnable though, unfortunately.  Stuart Hammer’s prediction post has the Cats losing 15-24, with a 28.2% chance at a win.  Keep your fingers crossed, and your taunts loud.

-I don’t like Glee, but I like Louisville less.  Apparently what the Cards thought of as a pretty cool thing (because they were desperate for any sort of attention, probably) has turned on them.  With the most recent episode wondering whether the drinking water in the 502 was clean to drink, or just quasi-filtered horse bilge, the last laugh is… well still on the people who watch Glee.  Seriously, because it’s terrible.  At least it has Jane Lynch, though.

-This is the photo of the day for Kentucky fans, because it’s hilarious that Cal and staff are trying to act anxious:

-Finally, on a very interesting and promising note, ESPN and CoachCal.com spent some time today discussing the upcoming  “All Access Kentucky” programming to air on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. later this month.  The first three half-hour episodes drop on the 17st, 24rd, and 31th of October, so keep your mid-week evenings free from commitments.  I expect we’ll see more back-stage footage of recruiting moments, like the one above, as Cal continues to sweat out the rigorous challenges of recrui…. hahahaha, sorry.  It’ll be a cakewalk, c’mon.  But we’ll watch it all the same.  And love it.

Will “The Tater” Totten and I will be around tomorrow to get you through your gameday, so get some sleep, sweet prince (or princess).  Kickoff is at 12:21, and Cane’s opens at 9.