Andrew Koenig, aka "Boner" from Growing Pains, is missing:

Andrew Koenig, 41, who starred as Boner on the late 80s sitcom Growing Pains, was set to arrive in Los Angeles on Feb. 14 after a trip to Canada, according to the Vancouver Police Department.

--snip--

Andrew still hasn't returned to his Venice, Calif., residence. His father says there wasn't a specific situation that would've prompted his disappearance.

Two things:

1) Boner's dad is Chekhov from Star Trek? That blew my mind in something like 7 different ways.

2) Does anyone else find it strange that an early primetime show from the 1980s/90s had a supporting character named "Boner" on it?

I interviewed Mike Sha, founder of Wikinvest, for Bundle.com. Check it out here. Mike had this idea that ordinary people could inform their own investment ideas, and it's paying off pretty big.

Labels: Bundle, Mike Sha, Wikinvest

You should become a fan of Y.P.R. on Facebook.

If you do, you'll learn a whole lot about us. If this frightens you, good. Embrace the fear. It's makes you feel alive! ALIVE!

Labels: Facebook, YPR

I interviewed Will Leitch for Bundle, which is a fantastic new website to which I'm contributing.

Here's the interview. Enjoy.

Labels: Bundle, Will Leitch

There's an old episode of Family Feud on now, and it's a "celebrity" edition starring the female stars of General Hospital and All My Children (from like 1982 or something). This got me thinking about how, in that time frame, the idea that Luke and Laura were going to get married on General Hospital was a big deal outside of the show. They were on the cover of People magazine (image courtesy People). 20 million people watched. That's how big soap operas were as recently as the early 1980s.

Is there anything that could happen on a soap opera now, short of someone dying on the set or something, that would hit the pop culture radar? Anything at all? I can't think of a single thing. Admittedly, I know little about soap operas, but a cursory search of popular magazine covers over the last decade revealed nothing about soap operas.

It just struck me as interesting how our morning/afternoon TV tastes have shifted. When I was a kid, in the morning, you watched game shows. In the afternoon, there were soap operas. Now, in the morning, there's talk shows. And in the afternoon, there's courtroom shows (and some soap operas).

I don't know how to end this post, except to say that game shows are awesome.

Labels: TV

When I was in elementary school, we had two distinct February holidays: Lincoln's Birthday (celebrated on or around February 12) and Washington's Birthday (celebrated on or around February 22*). This meant that we had two four-day weeks back to back. It was freaking awesome.

*So, Washington was actually born on February 11, but he was born before we adopted our current calendar, so his birthday got adjusted 11 days when we move to the Gregorian calendar. Don't say that I never taught you anything.

Somewhere along the line, someone concerned with productivity, efficiency or some other nonsense decided that we were having too many days off in February and merged the two holidays into President's Day.* That's total crap. What's the real harm in having an additional, free day off? Is that additional 9 hours of work (6 hours at the Post Office, DMV or other governmental service) really hitting the bottom line that hard?

*By the way, we all know this should be Presidents' Day, right? I'm just saying

Especially in a week like this, where there's tons of snow on the ground here, and we could all go out and enjoy it.

Labels: 2010, fun (no)

Let's play this like a Choose Your Own Adventure book ...

You're Steve Winwood, an aging rock star with a solid career whose best moments are between 20 and 40 years in the past. You hear that The Who have been offered the halftime gig at the Super Bowl. You're happy for them, but also seething silently, because you think you're just as talented and British as they are.

You're at home, eating Cheetos off of your gut, watching Dr. Who on DVD and drinking Miller Genuine Draft straight from the can when the phone rings. You hesitate before answering it, thinking it may be your creditors, but you take the chance and pick up the receiver.

"Hello?" you say, somewhat hesitantly, but also trying to take these advice of your therapist. Be more positive!

"Steve Winwood?"

"Speaking."

"Hey Steve, this is Big Powerful Exec at CBS. How's it going?"

"Pretty good. This isn't about my cable bill, is it? Because I sent the check yesterday ..."

"No, no, calling about the Super Bowl telecast. We'd like you to play. Are you available?"

"Well, I'd have to check my calendar, but I think we can do that."

"All right, great. Listen, I'm going to have my assistant call you back with all the details, and get you a ticket down to Miami and all that stuff."

Your eyes widen. "Miami! I haven't been there in years. I'm going to have to get a straw hat."

"OK, Steve. You'll be playing in the parking lot 60 minutes before kickoff. Don't forget the sheet music to 'Higher Love.'"

"You got it, boss."

You hang up the phone and your mind starts racing. You don't know whether you want to buy your straw hat or finish your Cheetos and Dr. Who DVDs first.

To go out and buy your straw hat, turn to page 19
To finish wathcing Dr. Who, turn to page 78

Labels: Steve Winwood, Super Bowl