Rick Springfield is set to return to General Hospital, reprising his role as Dr. Noah Drake. I will not lie: I watched this show as a teen. Everyone else was doing it, there was a character with the same name as me (and it wasn't Bobbie Spencer, there's your hint), and of course, he of "Jesse's Girl" was on the show. I was totally hot for Rick Springfield, I loved his music, and I kept on with the show for him. I don't have too many embarrassing musical vignettes in my history but pining to go see Rick in concert might count as a slight one. Buying that first Mariah Carey album was another, but she had some pipes! As for Rick, I was young and you must admit he was (and is!) attractive. "Jesse's Girl" has a nice hook - as I recall the rest of the album didn't fare quite as well. I remember many a school bus ride through the dilapidated streets of midtown Macon, GA bouncing in the seats with my best friend, squealing like what we were: teenaged girls on the cusp of our sexual awakening. Luckily, we both moved on to another, more musically hip crush not long after.

(did I mention they might be really adorable in black patent?)

If I had a dime for the number of pages I've read from Berenstain Bears books, I'd be - well, I'd have enough to get those new Danskos I'd like to have. So it is with sadness and a dread of telling my children that I report, many hours after you yourself have heard it, that Mr. Berenstain (aka Papa Bear?) has died. Our childhood heroes pass on and it makes us feel older, and we wonder who will take up the mantle. And maybe no one will, so we will weep the harder.

I promise to stop talking about it soon! (Spoiler alert!)

But you gotta love Dan Radcliffe's iTunes playlist!

Hope Thre's Someone.....Antony & the Johns
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).....Arcade Fire
Man Ray.....The Futureheads
Carrion.....British Sea Power
Buddy Holly....Weezer
Music When the Lights Go Out.....The Libertines
Gouge Away.....The Pixies
Me Ves y Sufres....Hope of the States
What I'm Looking For....Brendan Benson
Boredom (live).....Buzzcocks

Very British but with some appropriate Yank music (and Canadian) thrown in! Old school (good old school even!) mixed with some new buzz bands (British Sea Power and Hope of the States may never be very big but he may have picked a winner with the Futureheads).

Dan, should you ever read this, I'm so proud of you, hon. You have clearly been studying hard, working hard, and listening hard. I hope music offers you a complete release from the pressures of being Harry.

So many things have changed my life temporarily...I throw that phrase around a lot, "it changed my life", but if you can't change what good are you? I had a wonderful, affirming, renewing trip to the city. I think it did my entire family a world of good. And of course I saw GOF and loved it. Maybe even liked it better than the book - the sense of bittersweet endings was so lovingly illustrated in the movie. And as scary as the graveyard scene was in the book I think I was not prepared for the full-on force of malevolence that is my boy Ralph Fiennes. So there's a mini-review for you - of something that didn't change my life for good but made it a tiny bit better. Go see it, if only for this costume.

Scores of you have complained that I am always talking about my sick Internet crushes and movie-star boyfriends...well, my husband has a few of his own so all's fair, etc. But honey? Just take a look at your darling's c.v. and realize that #6, while quite admirable for our two youngsters, was not her most crowning achievement. And she wasn't even good.

And now for today's political commentary. You didn't think I had it in me, did ya? Well, I do. And I have it bad. For this guy! He's smart, well-spoken, well-traveled, and apparently a loving husband and father. So what's not to love? That he is calling for resignations of certain architects of "winning" Presidential campaigns? That he is going on every talk show in the country decrying our deep commitment to the current Iraq war? That he did a glam photo spread in Vanity Fair?

Maybe Plamegate will fade away into the distance sometime or maybe not, but I know one thing: that guy has an astounding head of hair and he wears great tie.

And that is today's political commentary.