Legal Briefs

MISS USA. At some point while watching 30 Rock and The Office last night (both strong new episodes), I caught an ad for NBC's coverage of the Miss USA pageant in Vegas this year. The spot was great! The promo featured 2 great moments in beauty pageant history - both occuring in the last 12 months. First, they ran a clip of last year's Miss USA falling on her ass at the Miss Universe contest. They followed that up with the unfortunate but ironically hilarious clip of Miss South Carolina trying to answer a softball question at the 2007 Miss USA pageant. Although I usually reserve my pageant commenting for my annual Miss Universe post, I feel compelled to endorse NJ's Miss USA delegate this year. I can really get behind her. My only problem is that her hometown is BROOKLYN, NY; her favorite food is Pizza from Joe & Pat's on Staten Island; and she attended Wagner College on said island. Are you kidding me? How does that work? Did we trade NY for her? If so, who did we give up?

Other notes:

• Miss Texas is OK in my book for listing Tombstone as her favorite movie and Ultimate Fighting as her favorite sport (although UFC is more of a brand, the sport is MAA);


• at least 2 contestants listed Mexican as their favorite food (hopefully not as a pre-pageant meal);


• Miss DC listed her dream job as President of the United States. Way to dream!; and


• Miss Alabama is nice.

DAVE BARRISTER. For some reason, I've become quite an anglophile over the past year. I can neither explain nor defend this proclivity.

Music - my "go-to" driving CD has been Keane's "Under the Iron Sea" for the better part of a year now and my iPod "Workout" mix is littered with pop singles from British artists including Mika ("Big Girls"), Muse ("Starlight"), Rooney ("When Did Your Heart Go Missing?"), Paolo Nutini ("Jenny Don't Be Hasty"), among others.

TV - I've also become a bigger fan of Brit-Coms. This probably started with The Office, but I've since been introduced to Spaced (with Simon Pegg), and The IT Crowd (Coming to NBC this Fall). My inner-nerd also really enjoys the new Dr. Who series. (I'm sure BT would argue that my inner-nerd is more outer than inner. )

Pets, Soccer and Everything Else - I now have an English Bulldog and my favorite brand of soccer is the English Premier League (Fox Soccer Channel). My preferred news outlet is the BBC World Service on XM. My favorite spy remains James Bond (Casino Royale was brilliant!) and my favorite boy wizard is Harry Potter.

MR. & MRS. DAVE LAW. As many of our faithful readers know, I am recently engaged to be married. The wedding will be in October of this year. Since becoming engaged, 2008 has been a very emasculating year for me, my friends. Wedding planning has been like living with The Velvet Mafia, Grady and Julio.

The virtually interminable procession of florists, reception hall booking agents, stationery vendors and wedding band front men has permanently skewed my decision-making feminine.

Whenever I mention wedding planning to male friends, the first thing they all mention is using the scan-gun to register for gifts. It's as if this is the only modestly fun aspect of wedding planning for a guy, and it's the first thing they all associate with the process. Getting to use the "gun" to register for gifts is vastly overrated. After years of playing Time Crisis at the local movie house, there's nothing uniquely fun about "blasting" the UPC code on a set of linens with a repurposed Photon pistol.

LEGAL LINKS.

I thought I'd end my post with 4 really cool websites designed to enhance your cell-phone's productivity.

1. Skyfire. This is a full web browser similar to the one pre-loaded on the iPhone. Using Skyfire, you can view websites on your mobile phone the same way you view them on your PC. There is no loss of content. Unfortunately, this software is still being beta tested and is not available for immediate download. You have to submit your email address and wait for them to contact you.

2. vTap. This software is immediately downloadable. It's a powerful search engine and video/audio file player which allows you to view virtually any video that's posted on the internet on your mobile phone (including all YouTube videos). I have this software and use it a lot.

3. Jott. Jott.com is a free web-based service that will transcribe anything you dictate through your mobile phone and send the transcript to anyone you choose as either a text message or e-mail. I use it for sending text messages while driving.

4. ScanR. ScanR will convert any picture you send it into a file format of your choosing and email it back to you. It can also read type-written words in the picture you send. The software can create a text file which can be manipulated by you from a picture you take on your cell phone. It's great for business cards and scanning any document when you're away from your desk.

That concludes this not-so-brief "Legal Briefs" post.