State of the Union time means it's State of the Show time on Conan. Last night's was pretty good, but not as good as previous years. Tourettes Syndrome Mayor McCheese was pretty funny though and it was good to see summer colours Frankenstein and the Cactus Chef who plays Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" on the flute. But there were no appearances by Shoe-berine, Coked-up Werewolf, or Fidel Castro Rabbit DJ. And sadly, the Fed-Ex Pope seems to be officially retired.

I had a laugh at the first line in lemon-red's article about The Shield on Stylus. I don't know anyone who watches this show either. I'm not one to TV bully, but I haven't been this excited about a show since Oz. There's no sci-fi black clouds of Lost, no shitty "zoom in on that" flux capicator technology of CSI, no plotholes of 24, and no repetitiveness of Law & Order. It's all tension and character driven; I know, what a concept.