On the "American Idol" finale this week, Luka W. sent me this before David Cook won: "I've liked both Cook and Archuleta from the start and was impressed with both of them last night. For the life of me, I don't understand the lopsided comments of the judges, though. Cook would definitely be the most marketable and give the Idol franchise a chance to have a rocker on its roster. Cook could do for rock what Carrie did for country. From the standpoint of elevating the franchise and legitimating Idol, wouldn't supporting Cook be the way to go? I'm not sure what Idol has to gain by favoring Archuleta."
David Cook
David Cook
On whether Simon knew the winner ahead of time, Caren doesn't think so:
"I think he just realized after the fact that David A did not win the night, and he needed to set the record straight. After the judges' proclaiming Archuleta the winner Tuesday night, I was resigned to the fact that A was going to win. I also got the feeling from Cook that he was happy to finish second...But Wednesday morning, I started seeing people report a lot of evidence that Cook might win (Cook's t-shirts sold out more quickly than Archuleta's at the finale, for example)...Cook winning really restored my faith that Idol does count the votes, and it's not a pre-ordained winner who is young and package-able."
OnDVR's cutting out before Seacrest could tell us which David had won, Julie B. writes:
"SO annoying!! Two hours of self cheer-led performances I didn't care about (to be fair, I fast forwarded through most of it) just to get '...and the winner is David....' ...would you like to delete this show...' That was excellently choreographed. Seeing as how Fox is the mega marketing machine that it is, I'm not at all surprised. They want to ensure that from now on, you WATCH live and you LIKE it live, darn it..."
Vladik S. says:
"I am pretty sure that reality shows are intentionally extending the finales past the scheduled end times so that people with DVRs miss out the best part. I've noticed that a few times over the past year or two with other highly rated finales where they went a few minutes over so the DVRs stop recording and miss the end."
Note from Jane: Of course, the remedy is to be sure to extend the time you want the recording to stop--but you have to remember to do that, and I never remember.
On the stories about the legal business of medical marijuana, an interesting email from Ed at LA Container, in Yorba Linda, CA:
"We have been selling small plastic containers that we manufacture here in the good old USA to the medical Marijuana biz ..for approx 3 years.. What a crazy business it is. When we first started marketing to the sector the other partners laughed at me. They are not laughing now. It is approximately ten percent of our total sales volume and growing... We have a few of these guys who use almost 20,000-30,000 containers a month..."
Jason J. writes:
"Forget bartending school, I am going to the school of bud. BTW - as I sit at my desk in pain (played 3 hours of hoops last night and my knees are not happy with me) I wonder, how come Vicodin doesn't come in more than one flavor or variety?...I think the pharm industry should follow the same logic as the Satan's sticky and give me some variety like "Pineapple Express" (new movie about bud coming out) or "Agent Orange" - heck even a nice "Purple Haze"would work. All the fun, none of the smoke, and totally legal."
And Jeff J. wonder about boomers who smoked pot recreationally when they were younger:
"How many are partaking in pot to ease those old age aches and pains? I have myself thought about when I reach 'that age' and don't want to be addicted to some Pfizer product, how I would get myself some pot?"
Questions? Comments? Funny Stories? Email funnybusiness@cnbc.com
