the best groundhog day ever!

So this year the Oscar nominations are happening on Groundhog Day.

The big deal this year is that there are ten movies nominated for best picture instead of just five. It could cause problems. People may vote for more of their personal favorites instead of what they find obvious and the splintering could cause a mediocre title to get the prize. Also, people complain about how long the ceremony goes -- honoring twice as many movies for the most important award surely won't make things go quicklyer.

Still though, the previews of the best picture nominees are one of my favorite things about the ceremony. If it's longer because of more clips, I won't be disappointed at all. Also it will be exciting to see some of my favorite movies get nominated. If there weren't ten, I doubt both Inglourious Basterds and Up would get that sort of credit, but I think there's a good chance it'll happen for both.

The other big thing is that Kathryn Bigelow is a shoe-in for a nomination for best director. Most people who bet on these sorts of things say she's the hands-down favorite for winning the whole thing. If that's the case, hopefully James Cameron, her ex-husband, will be nominated too so that she can shove the Oscar right in his face. Actually, I guess it would be an even bigger burn if he wasn't even nominated, but surely he will be.

Okay, so we also got Lost premiering its final season on Groundhog Day.

The last season was probably my least favorite, even though its really bizarre time travel ruckus was quite popular with people less geeky than I. Good for them.

I simply don't know what to say about it now though. The hydrogen bomb blew up last season, right? I guess conceivably they could end the story and in a gigantic "screw you" to the audience they could just introduce new characters and tell a completely different story for their contractually guaranteed final season.

This I'll promise you: we will not be satisfied with the final episode of Lost. If the last 14 episodes is just Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse sitting in a chair explaining in detail all the questions, there still wouldn't be enough time to make sense of everything and wrap it all up. We'll see what happens in the premier though.

I swear there's something else that needs to be mentioned -- besides Punxutawney Phil. Speaking of Phil though, I never take notice of what the groundhog sees. Has anybody noticed if Punxutawney Phil has been averaging above .500 on his predictions? I'd like to know.

Anyway, Joe tells me February 2nd is also Super Bowl Media Day. That's true, but I don't think it's what I'm thinking of (go Indianapolis btw). I think it's more of a real-life kind of thing. If you think of it, tell me.