Newsweek Summarizes Decade in Seven-Minute Video

The folks at Newsweek attempted the difficult and controversial job of trying to summarize an entire decade -- 2000-2009 -- in a little over seven minutes by creating this video.

At the end of the video, the narrator asked what they missed. I can think of a few things just off the top of my head: Multi-kid mania (Angelina/Madonna adoptions, Gosselins, Octo-Mom, Duggars); the crazes involving High School Musical, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus and vampires; the Boston Red Sox breaking an 86 year curse (I still get teary-eyed at the memory), the first Latina on the U.S. Supreme Court and the skimpiness of their handling of 9/11. I think Borat got more airtime than did 9/11.

I'd love to hear what you think they left out of the decade summary.

Boy Band Mania . . . Counting Down 'Til Jonas Flick Hits Theaters

I've got a 10-year-old daughter who has several posters of the Jonas Brothers decorating the walls of her bedroom. (I get a kick out of embarrassing her by occasionally walking into her room, putting my hand over my heart and shrieking, "Oh! Joe Jonas! I looovvvve you!")

Despite the fact that she's distinctly unimpressed with my fawning girl impression ("You're too old to like Joe Jonas!" she chastises.), my daughter's been counting down the days until Disney's Jonas Brothers' 3-D Concert film appears in theaters on February 27 for a "special limited engagement." (This seems like it'll be eeriely similar to the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus 3-D concert film extravaganza of last year where I had to buy tickets in advance and then wait in a big line in order to get seats in the theater because it wasn't going to be in theaters long.)

The fact that a couple of my daughters' other favorite singers -- Taylor Swift and Disney Channel star Demi Lovato -- also appear in the film only adds to her excitement . . . as did the appearance of the J-Bros in the Hannah flick did last year. Does this mean we'll be seeing some other up-and-coming youth star in a Taylor Swift 3-D movie NEXT year? (Link to the video is here.)

DVR Held Hostage

I'm one who tends to feel proud whenever my children acquire a new skill, master something they've never done.

Usually.

But I'm NOT proud of the fact that the three grade schoolers have learned how to program the DVR (for the uninitiated, that's a Digital Video Recorder, or TiVo-like recording device). Last year at this time, when you looked at the list of programs The Spouse and I had recorded and saved on the DVR -- before the kids learned how to work the DVR -- one would've found a variety of programming, mostly for grown-ups, with an occasional SpongeBob or Hannah Montana thrown into the mix.

No longer.

Just the other day, when The Spouse and I were scrolling through the list of recorded shows seeking the latest episode of Swingtown, I was stunned by just how many kids' shows and movies had been saved. So I decided to count them. Out of 25 TV programs and movies that are currently being saved on our DVR, only five of them were shows I'd recorded. Twenty of them were programs the kids had programmed. Here's the list (movies/shows I recorded are bolded and have an asterisk):

-- Minuteman (TV movie from Disney Channel)

-- Luck of the Irish (Disney Channel movie)

-- Max Keeble's Big Move (Disney movie)

-- Jump In! (Disney movie)

-- Camp Rock (Disney movie)

-- The TV Set (movie)*

-- The Wild (Disney movie)

-- Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire (movie)

-- Hannah Montana (Disney TV show)

-- Army Wives (Lifetime TV show)*

-- Cory in the House (Disney TV show)

-- My Boys (TBS show)*

-- SpongeBob (Nickelodeon show)

-- Cory in the House (different episode)

-- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (Disney show)

-- Mad Men (AMC show)*

-- Army Wives (different episode)*

-- Disney Channel Games (reality show)

-- Tom & Jerry

-- Phineas and Ferb (Disney show)

-- Kim Possible (Disney show)

-- Phineas and Ferb (different episode)

-- Tom & Jerry (different episode)

-- Kim Possible (different episode)

-- The Princess Diaries (Movie)

(Note: At one point last month I realized that The Girl had set the DVR to record every airing of Hannah Montana and all the memory in the DVR was being eaten up by the perky teen's sitcom, so I deleted most of the scheduled recordings, otherwise there'd be 15 different episodes on this list.)

A little bit of knowledge goes a long way.

Image credit: Disney Channel.