THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

VIRTUAL STAN: Web designer extraordinaire Jason Santa Maria is nicknamed "Stan."  As a gift, o­ne of his friends, Rob Weychert, created Virtual Stan.  Hear him sing "Roxanne."

DO YOU REMEMBER HUSKER DU?  They do at Metafilter.  Stop by for Mpls. memories, reunion rumors and to feel yourself age as someone asks, "Is there a toy so called by Hasbro?"  You bet your pop-o-matic!

POPMATTERS gives a good review to the tribute disc, Sunday Nights: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough.  It gets a seven o­n the Pitchfork.

ARCADE FIRE: The critical darlings perform and are interviewed on Turnpike, from Lawrence, Kansas.

GOLDEN FIDDLE has pictures of a rehabbing Courtney Love... or are they of Sally Struthers?  You be the judge. Also noted on the Fiddle: "Modest Mouse and Guided By Voices are o­n Austin City Limits this Saturday. Check yer local listings."

AMERICAN IDOL is the most-watched show of the 2004-05 TV season, drawing 33 million viewers eager to hear the atrocious caterwauling of the early rejects.  The same dynamic explains the popularity of Ashlee Simpson.

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS is targeted by the Rev. James Dobson's Focus on the Family and the American Family Association for appearing in a video they claim will promote homosexuality (though he apparently does not in the video).  A hard-hitting investigative report from the New York Times (as reprinted in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer) notes that the celebrity sponge "has become a camp figure among adult gay men, perhaps because he holds hands with his animated sidekick Patrick." InstaPundit Glenn Reynolds nails it: "Not many people, forced to choose between SpongeBob Squarepants and James Dobson, are going to pick Dobson."

TOUCH MY ARMADILLO! Touch it, go ahead, touch it...

BURGLAR takes daughters to work in Van Buren, Arkansas.

PROFESSOR KEN KING checked in by e-mail.  I'm not sure, but I think he may be at Space Camp.

ONLINE ATHENS reviews A Question of Temperature, by the Chris Stamey Experience. (Registration or BugMeNot required)  The reviewer seems to be a strict grader, but the review seems quite positive.

LILEKS has the perfect candidate to attract the younger demo to the CBS Evening News after Dan Rather steps down as anchor: Kent Brockman.

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN; this is your brain o­n politicians.

WALKING DOWNHILL has different health benefits from walking uphill.

FBI ALERTS BOSTON POLICE about four possible terror suspects perhaps heading their way.  Maybe sorta kinda.  But better safe than sorry.

ALLEGED SPAMMER SUES SPAMEE for libel and interfering with the alleged spammer's business by reporting unsolicited e-mails to the ISP.

JULIANNA HATFIELD  is offering song downloads at her site, with payment o­n the honor system.

HE'S SORRY...SO SORRY...SO VERY SORRY: Harvard Prez (and Clinton Treasury Secretary) Larry Summers issues his third apology for remarks he made last week that scholars in the U.S. said was a message women lack the ability to excel at math and science.  RELATED: Pate fans will note that no such remarks will be associated with Iowa State University, which defines "derogatory or demeaning comments about women or men in general" as sexual harassment.

THE HASSELHOFFIAN RECURSION: View at your own risk. This site disclaims any and all liability for eye or brain damage suffered from clicking on the above link.

PC MAGAZINE: Columnist John Dvorak may have been the last person on Earth to discover that o­nline stories that mention porn boosts traffic to your site from search engines.  He's at it again.

MARGE SIMPSON, Wilma Flintstone, Jane Jetson and Velma Dinkley land an endorsement deal for Dove styling products.

CLARE DANES neatly sums up the public interest in Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

AMATEURS beat NASA and the European Space Agency in processing Titan probe pictures with inexpensive computer software.

ONLINE ADVERTISING: Video ads are in, pop-ups out for 2005.

JOHNNY RAMONE memorial unveiled; Nicholas Cage, Vincent Gallo, Rick Rubin, Rod Zombie and others attend.

THE RASPBERRIES: Ken King will kill me for not noticing they were coming to Chicago (Actually, Ken will just be disappointed; Mark Flora would kill me).  They rawked, or power-popped, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

AWARDS SEASON: Ann Althouse simulblogged the Golden Globes. Drunken Stepfather has pictures of women in dresses. Dateline: Hollywood charts how red carpet coverage divides our country. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announces its nominees for the BAFTA awards.

CLEAR CHANNEL: The radio giant wants to get into the digital music biz in the next year or two.

WILLIE NELSON is getting into the alternative fuel biz. Not for tax reasons, I hope.

THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES is showcasing some new material in concert; at least o­ne reviewer likes it.

MLK DAY AFTERWORDS:  Since MLK Day fell o­n the 17th this year, not many people noted that it was also the 60th anniversary of the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg, who saved approximately 100,000 Jews from slaughter during WWII.  He was o­ne of o­nly two people in history to be given honorary U.S. citizenship.  Anti-slavery activists used MLK Day to protest the U.N.'s failure to recognize genocide in Darfur.  Columnist William Raspberry thinks that half of King's legacy is being continued by Bill Cosby.

THE NEW YORK TIMES is partnering with a Swedish pornography distributor.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO joins a growing list of colleges with a student-funded sex magazine.  The debut issue was a hit.

CLINT EASTWOOD is ticked over the failure of Warner Brothers to fully back Million Dollar Baby, noting that the studio did not want Mystic River, either.  Great films that make a ton of money, directed by a legend... yeah, who would want that?

LILEKS: The first part of his Monday Bleat pays tribute to Ember's.  Having known a few people with the same types of memories Lileks has, I also thought of the post-Pate show jaunts to Perkins.

NANO-TERMINATORS: Scientists at UCLA have created tiny robots powered by rat muscle cells.

DEEP IMPACT: The NASA probe scheduled to shoot a copper projectile into a comet next July may rank with the Wright brothers in 1903, Sputnik in 1957 and the first human lunar landing in 1969. It may even save humans from extinction some day.

AL KHANSA is Al Qaeda's online women's magazine, with articles including dietary advice for suicide bombers and tips o­n how to "dominate the passions" before blowing yourself up.

HARVARD PREZ LARRY SUMMERS sparked an uproar at an academic conference Friday when he said that innate differences between men and women might be o­ne reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers.  Not mentioned is that Summers was Treasury Secretary in the Clinton Administration; I suspect that had he been in the cabinet of a Republican, it would have been noted in these news accounts.

SERIOUS: A Romanian couple name their son Yahoo!

BRAD AND JEN WIRE: Jen moves in with her hairdresser; Brad will hawk Heineken during the Super Bowl; Jolie denies rumors; an animated GIF tells the tale.

FACIAL NEWS: Duprey Cosmetics signs a promo contract with Traci Lords.

IRAQ: Aussie blogger Arthur Chrenkoff regularly rounds up good news from Iraq, stating that "[w]hat follows is not the full picture of Iraq--merely that part of it you don't often see o­n the nightly news or the pages of newspapers."

KRISITN HERSH,  formerly of Throwing Muses, discovers it's bad timing to name your new band 50 Foot Wave and your new disc Golden Ocean.

ON THE PITCHFORK: An essay and review of those final Guided by Voices shows.

KATE STELNICK weighs 100 pounds, but polished off an 11 pound burger.  Now that's a thickburger.

BILL GATES IN TEEN BEAT?  The Monkey Methods blog seems to have dug up the photos [Warning: this site disclaims any liability for any eye damage cause by viewing said photos].

VODKAPUNDIT reluctantly notes that the new Battlestar Galactica is not terrible.  I reluctantly agree.