A study in the Washington Post says that women have better verbal skills than men. I just want to say to the authors of that study:"Duh." - C. O'Brien

Congrats to Conan O'Brien for taking over Jay Leno as host of the "Tonight" show... I know it won't happen until 2009, but I'm terribly happy for my favorite late night host/writer. Rock on, Conan. Rock on.

Conan to Take Over 'Tonight' in Five Years

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - NBC announced Monday that Conan O'Brien will take over from Jay Leno as host of the "Tonight" show. But he'll have time to write his jokes — the planned succession won't happen until 2009.

The announcement solves a delicate problem for NBC, which realized O'Brien was getting antsy in his "Late Night" time slot (12:35 a.m. Eastern) and wanted to keep him from jumping to another network.

Leno planned to make the announcement on Monday's edition of "Tonight," a special celebration of the talk show's 50th anniversary.

"In 2009, I'll be 59 years old and will have had this dream job for 17 years," Leno said. "When I signed my new contract, I felt that the timing was right to plan for my successor and there is no one more qualified than Conan."

"Plus, I promised Mavis I would take her out for dinner before I turned 60," the notoriously workaholic Leno said about his wife.

Leno took over from Johnny Carson (news) on "Tonight" in 1992 and after a few years of trailing the man he beat out for the job in the ratings — David Letterman — he passed the CBS star and has been dominant in the time slot.

An unknown at the time, O'Brien had the thankless job of taking over from Letterman on "Late Night," and he was nearly fired after several weeks of painful shows. But he recovered and has been a critical and commercial success.

But O'Brien has openly talked about wanting to move on and, in the late-night world, that means an earlier time slot.

--With the Daily Show winning an Emmy, let's see if NBC won't court the hell outta Jon Stewart to take over "Late Night". (The idea of such a lineup is getting me all sorts of excited. You'll have an Irishman and a Jew rocking the NBC latenight airwaves!) Conan O'Brien is one of the funniest writers around. A few years back, he wrote for Saturday Night Live and the Simpsons. You can actually find Conan in the background as an extra/featured player in some old SNL skits. His zany sense of humor has characters like the masterbating bear, camel toe suzie, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog frequently popping up in sketches on Late Night. We'll see how that plays out when he takes over the "Tonight" Show at 11:30pm.

On another note:

MIDNIGHT MADNESS IS LESS THAN A MONTH AWAY!!!!!!
With Jamar Smith gone, the Terps need another physical presence on offense and cannot afford to have Power Forward Travis Garrison play so inefficiently. Garrison is going to need a post move he can RELY on.

Can you smell that? That's college hoops in the air, baby!! Are you ready? Let's see what the conferences bring to the courts this basketball season.

Who's getting their dancing shoes ready and polished for the BIG DANCE in March? Can't wait, fellas...CAN'T WAIT.

Aside from the ACC, I'm looking at the BIG EAST and the BIG 10 conferences this season for some great games.

Switching gears. Slightly.
--Was Bobby Knight in D.C.? For politcs??

Knight spoke at the National Press Club

Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Bob Knight went to Washington to speak, not to serve.
The fiery Texas Tech coach was the guest speaker at the National Press Club on Monday, offering his opinions on several basketball topics and downplaying any ambitions to make the jump to politics from the world of sports.

...Knight's appearance was part comedy, part serious discussion of issues he's raised before. He brought a copy of the NCAA rules manual and belittled its thickness as compared with other documents.

"Here's a copy of the United States Constitution," Knight said. "It's got 15 pages, and it's served us for a long time. ... Moses wrote 10 things on a rock that have lasted millenniums."