HEY, KIDS! I suspect the ratings for the Oscars will be down this year, both because this seems to be the trend for awards shows and because none of the Best Picture nominees were blockbusters that seized the public imagination.

Nevertheless, I note that both Defamer and Prof. Ann Althouse will be live-blogging the Oscars, should you want the MST3K version of the event.

Prof. Althouse was good enough to provide the link to The Unofficial 2005 Oscars Drinking Game, which should at least provide an excuse as to why you don't remember any of the show by next week.

[UPDATE: MATT DRUDGE has a heads up on a New York Times story about a Robin Williams song nixed by the Oscars' producers.]

[2ND UPDATE: You can tide yourself over until Oscar-time by catching up on the Razzies, at which President Bush, Britney Spears, Halle Berry and Donald Rumsfeld were all "winners."]

Finally, while I sound a bit down on the Oscars, that won't stop me from having my own take up early Monday morning -- after all, the gold men are made in the Windy City! Plus, I'll have a full compliment of the regular trivia you've come to expect.

HOLD o­n! HAVE THE JAYHAWKS REALLY BROKEN UP? More Cowbell has a little scoop suggesting the answer is o­nly "maybe."

MOBY pens a tune for Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson to sing.

PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: After getting judicial permission to do a gig, he gets into a fight with his band's guitarist.

BOB DYLAN: "I wouldn't even think about playing music if I was born in these times... I'd probably turn to something like mathematics. That would interest me. Architecture would interest me. Something like that." Which would explain the "love minus zero" equation...

THE ANTI-CRISTO: In response to "The Gates" Cristo has installed in New York's Central Park, Geoff Hargadon installed "The Somerville Gates." The web site was an immediate hit.

CATS AND DOGS: A Hawaiian lawmaker is proposing a bill that would ban the slaughter of dogs and cats for food. Some are protesting.

SCREENWRITER CHARLIE KAUFMAN finally wins a Writer's Guild Award for Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Best Adapted Screenplay went to Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor for Sideways.

LEFTIES are the future, according to Wired.

CULT OF THE iPod is criticized by columnist and blogger Andrew Sullivan.

WHAT'S o­n GEORGE W. BUSH'S iPod? That question and a survey of the Bush family's knowledge of pop culture (or lack thereof) is o­nline at The Contra Costa Times.

EDUCATION BLOGGING: The third edition of Carnival of Education is now o­nline.

SWEDEN is discovering the conflict between their open borders and their lavish welfare state.

DEMOCRACY IN LEBANON? Walid Jumblatt, head of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party, once expressed regret that U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was not killed in a missile attack during a visit to Baghdad and, until recently, accommodated Syria's occupation. Now he's leading an intifada to oust Syria. "It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq," explains Jumblatt. "I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world." Jumblatt says this spark of democratic revolt is spreading. "The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it." Coincidentally, Der Spiegel makes a similar analogy.

DEMOCRACY IN CICERO? The Chicago suburb witnessed a stunner Tuesday night as underdog Larry Dominick declared victory in a close race against Town President Ramiro Gonzalez, the hand-picked successor to imprisoned Betty Loren-Maltese. I'm o­nly half-joking here: such an election is, relatively speaking, a big deal in the infamously corrupt town. The Sun-Times article notes that "Cicero's election, as usual, drew a wide swath of poll watchers to make sure everything was o­n the up and up, including a contingent of federal monitors."

CHANGES IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY are surveyed by the Seattle Weekly.

NEKO CASE is interviewed about her current and upcoming discs in The State.

KORN founder and guitarist quits after finding God.

JACKO'S JURY is selected. There are no African-Americans, which is an issue MJ could raise o­n appeal, should he be convicted. I wonder if the State of California would argue that Jacko is really not black anymore.

CBS NEWS MEMO SCANDAL: The network has hired a gumshoe to trace the source of the apparently bogus memos regarding President Busy's Texas Air National Guard service.

FAT AND SIN: Prof. Ann Althouse, guest-blogging at GlennReynolds.com, weighs the connection.

HUNTER S. THOMPSON VS.PARIS HILTON: fishbowl LA proposes a thought experiment. ALSO: Thompson wanted to have his ashes shot out of a cannon.

HOW RICH YOU ARE at 50 may depend o­n how tall you were as an infant.

HILARY SWANK is campaigning hard for an Oscar. PLUS: Swank, Charlize Theron and others may want to be paid for wearing those fancy gowns and pieces of jewelry to awards shows. How long until the Oscars looks like a NASCAR rally?

OWEN WILSON likes 'em young.

RUSSELL SIMMONS: The Def Jam mogul is under fire from the Anti-Defamation League for condemning anti-Semitism, while, the group claims, acting as an apologist for Nation of Islam leader the Reverend Louis Farrakhan.

MAOISTS review video games and don't like much of what they see.

THE UNITED NATIONS is treating refugees from North Korea badly.

A REUNION OF JAYHAWKS IS NOT A JAYHAWKS REUNION: Mark Olson and Gary Louris aare playing some gigs together (as noted here last week), but Louris says the Jayhawks are dead.

ROCK AND ROLL MYTHS are debunked over at The Observer.

OZZY OSBOURNE is being sued by people who bought "remastered" CDs in which Ozzy replaced the bass and drum tracks, perhaps to avoid paying royalties to his former bandmates.

PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: Spiked takes a look at why the press is giving so much coverage to his drug habit, but stayed away from similar stories about other rockers.

REVENGE OF THE SITH: How long until Lucasfilm lawyers manage to shut down this spoiler-filled plot summary and photo gallery?

GONZO MEMORIES: Hunter S. Thompson is remembered by collaborator and friend Ralph Steadman, novelists Tom Wolfe and Roger L. Simon, rock critic turned MTV hack Kurt Loder and columnist Christopher Hitchens. Garry Trudeau featured a Thompson quote and a 3-D animated dancing Duke at the Doonesbury site. Thompson's last piece featured a round of golf with Bill Murray, who was cinematically connected with Thompson as well as golf. But it appears we have not heard the last from Thompson yet.

TOM CRUISE has put up a Scientology tent o­n the set of Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Maybe he thinks the movie is a prequel to Battlefield Earth?

FORGET ROACH MOTELS: Now cockroaches can die looking for love in all the wrong places.

THE CSI EFFECT o­n juries and o­n entry into the field of forensic science was discussed at a major science conference in Washington DC.

BIOPOLITICS: Are cochlear implants a medical miracle or a cultural threat to the Deaf community?

A 9/11 LEVEL TERROR ATTACK WITHIN SEVEN YEARS? A statistical study suggests it, but we should be wary of predictions based purely o­n statistics.

TiVo DEATH CULT: Although Tuesday's Red Eye in Chicago (the fluffy tabloid version of the Chicago Tribune for Gen-Xers) was stilll leading with stories about "Cult TiVo," a TiVo deathwatch is underway at Engadget, but Slashdot considers the alternatives.

ACCUSED KOURNIKOVA STALKER was arrested after turning up naked at the wrong house o­n a neighbor's pool patio and yelling, "Anna! Save me!"

PIXIEDISCS is selling a limited run of the Pixies 12 final shows of 2004.

SLASH had his trademark top hat stolen at the Grammys.

ON THE PITCHFORK: Following in the wake of last year's well-received Ramones documentary, We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen premieres o­n the 25th.

BRITNEY NOT THE BRIGHTEST BULB IN THE BOX: Feuding with US Weekly, she calls publisher Jann Wenner a "big old fat man," apparently unaware (though the interviewer is spinning otherwise) that Wenner also publishes Rolling Stone. Wenner declined to be interviewed but said in a statement, "My hope is that Kevin Federline will look as good at my age." No doubt. ALSO: How bad is it when Cher calls you a ho?

VIDEO GAME COMPANIES may be the next big acquisition targets, according to Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone, who recently increased his interest in Midway Games: "Any [media] company that doesn't recognize that games by companies like Midway are competing with them for both audience and advertising has its head in the sand."

UNITED NATIONS SCANDALS have moved American public opinion against the previously popular organization.