Say it ain't so, Magglio

Well, the early reviews of "Halloween" are in, and I must say I'm quite gratified. I've been called a "cruel bastard," which is certainly a measure of success considering the subject matter of the piece. It was also called "kinda sappy," which would be bad, except the reader making that comment understood that it was supposed to be -- there's a difference between a writer writing something sappy, and the characters doing something they know is sappy; I was going for the latter, and it apparently worked. And then that same reader told me it was "some of the best writing [I've] ever done," which just makes me all glowy.

So, with that nice feeling, it's hard to get too upset about the Cardinals walking away with the World Series last night. I won't say they "won" the Series, because they didn't win it so much as the Tigers lost it -- I've never seen a team play as badly as the Tigers did in those five games. Fielding errors, baserunning blunders, idiotic choices for starting pitchers, normally patient hitters swatting at every pitch thrown their way: I think we might have a fix on our hands. And I'm not sure I'm kidding. If I hear reports about Magglio Ordonez or Curtis Granderson taking money from mobsters, I won't be shocked.

I also just watched "The Wrap Party," the most recent episode of Studio 60, and am sad to report that it kinda sucked. Dull, talky, predictable, and it felt about three hours long. If Sorkin's out of gas already, then maybe it is better no one's watching.