Brett Favre has been reinstated to the Green Bay Packers after a shameful episode of tantrum throwing, cry-baby antics. When told the Packers weren't interested in having him return, he acted like a baby until he got his way.

It's not surprising, after his womanly retirement speech where he blubbered like a baby. popslant  was embarrassed just watching it, and all Wisconsonians should be embarrassed as well. He may be a great quarterback, but he's not much of a man.

What kind of lesson does this teach those children who look up to sports figures? That if you cry and scream and whine, authority figures will just cave in and you'll get your way.

Welcome to 21st century America.

The game of pinball is alive and well, thanks to the Family Guy pinball machine! popslant  spent a few hours playing this machine, and could not have been more enthusiastic at the great features included!

Pinball machine used to be one ball, one level affairs that might seem staid in today's world of first person digitial video games, but The Family Guy pinball machine steps up to challange this video invasion with a multi-ball analog funfest that was hard to stop plugging quarters into.

Our favorite feature was the inclusion of "Stewie Pinball," a separate baby-sized mini pinball game that takes over from the main game when you score up to it. Mini flippers on a mini board, with its own set of targets and ramps, take the game of pinball to new levels. The main board features great multi-ball play, and if you really get the game going, you find yourself playing multi-ball pinball on the main level while playing the mini Stewie Pinball at the same time!

Hilarious quotes from the TV series, including some lines never actually uttered on the TV show, add to the fun.

Victory is mine!

The playing field of the Family Guy pinball machine	Stewie Pinball! A mini game within the big board.	3D character models from the TV series accentuate the play!

Fast food outlets have marketed the ubiquitous "Extra Value Meal" for some time, but popslant  recognizes it for the ploy that it is! Namely, a way for them to up-sell you to more merchandise!

We know that the most expensive items for these places to provide are the sandwiches, which could be termed "loss leaders." They make their money on the sides, especially the drinks, which cost them pennies to provide. So, if they can get you to buy these items in addition to the sandwiches, they make more money.

popslant  has no problem with that - if you want fries and/or a drink, it is great that you can save a little money by ordering them at a special package price. Of course, the fries and the drink are usually the most unhealthy part of the meal, nothing but empty calories and too much sugar and salt, so we choose not order them. In any case, what we object to is the heavy-handed approach in pushing these "value meals" onto the public. We are tired of ordering a sandwich and automatically being charged a full meal price.

Just last week, we were once again in a fast food outlet and ordered a sandwich. The total price was far beyond the price of the sandwich, and when we inquired why, we were told that's how much the meal costs. Of course, we didn't order the meal, we explicitly asked for a sandwich. We caught the mistake, and the order was corrrected and the proper price paid. The problem is that this happens way to often for our liking. English is english - if we wanted a "value meal" we would have asked for it.

The question we have is: how many people order a sandwich and don't catch the mistake, then return home with their order, only to find they bought and paid for items they did not want? By then, who is going to return extra items and obtain the refund? Few people, we assume. Thus, these "value meals" become akin to a scam, where people are automatically upcharged without their knowledge.

popslant  is sick of this. It happens almost every time. So, to these outlets we say: stop making assumptions and trying to upsell us! When we order a sandwich, just give us the sandwich!

popslant  was weaned on Budweiser, a great American beer, Now that it has been taken over by European company InBev, we are being forced to re-evaluate our priorities.

We like a good European beer like many people do, but if we're going to have an European beer, we prefer one that is actually European, such as Heinekin, St. Pauli Girl or InBev's flagship beer, Beck's. If we want to drink an American beer, we'd prefer that the company that owns it is actually American. Of course, they claim that the headquarters is going to remain in St. Louis, but where do all the profits go?

And the biggest question of all: what happens to the Clydesdales?

Without a doubt, Kevin Eubanks is the lamest of the late night bandleaders. The first rule in rock guitar playing is to stand up and play, yet he sits on his stool night after night like a boy instead of a man. Last night he played "Purple Haze," as the show went into commercial break. Wow, Kevin, way to reach for the low-hanging fruit—playing a song that is more appropriate for a high-school level garage band than a national late night TV show.

The Tonight Show theme song is a mess. The horns are decent, the percussion is good, but the guitar is abyssmal. Weedly wee goes Kevin, playing a lugubrious warble over the top of it all that has neither melody nor hooks. It's as if he's just trying to play guitar without the music. Hey! Look at me! I'm playing the hell out of this thing!

popslant  prefers Max Weinberg and his band of 7 over Kevin Eubanks any day. Or even Paul Schaffer, who has grown ever more bizarre over the years, but still does a pretty decent job.

Looking beyond the guitar playing is his smarmy personality. We know you think you're cool Kevin, as you make wise-cracks to Jay and treat him like a square, but you're not. Your self-indulgent quips just show how vain and egotistical you are. Oh sure, you may indulge Jay by being the butt of a joke in one of his skits, but through it all you are dripping with an annoying narcissism. No we're not making this up, all you have to do is look at one of your album covers. Get over yourself, or get a room and stop trying to remind us of how great you think you are.

I hope you're saving your money Kevin. Jay's run of the Tonight Show is over next year, so in 2009, you'll be out of a job. See ya...

Sacha Baron Cohen is back, and he's fooling people again. His latest victim is a former Mossad agent who was duped by Cohen's character Bruno, a fictional German rock star.

In an interview with former Israeli Defense Forces officer Yossi Alpher, Cohen made light of the the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and feigned confusion over the differences between Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization, and humous, the tasty chickpea spread. Another particularly amusing exchange was when Cohen stated that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict was not so bas as the conflict between Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston. It slowly dawned on Alpher that perhaps something less than serious was going on.

popslant  is happy to see Cohen return to his roots and back in fine interviewing form. Borat had its funny moments, but was mostly insipid. Let's hope this new film production is better.

You've no doubt heard by now that the creator of the Pringles' Potato Chip can was buried in one! Fredric J. Bauer was so proud of his accomplishment he made the request before he passed on.

Created in 1966, the can has become a bona fide pop culture icon. One reason may be is that they are like the duct tape of potato chip containers. popslant  has seen the empty cans used for pencil holders, strapped to drum sets to hold extra sticks, and even made into makeshift devices for smoking "tobacco and tobacco like substances."

We have to give the guy props for being the ultimate recylcer! But I don't think a Pringles Potato Chip will ever taste quite the same again...

We love Photoshopped images, and one of the best places to see some good Photoshops is at Pixeloo.Blogpsot.com. Pixeloo has some great "Untooned" cartoon characters featuring some great work. The creepiest is the realistic version of Homer Simpson, but we were drawn to the Jessica Rabbit image for some reason...

Visit Pixeloo to see more!

Heavy Metal magazine, a favorite in the late seventies and early eighties, is still publishing and still features some of the best comic art out there! I hadn't read Heavy Metal since the eighties, when I thought they began to decline somewhat, so out of curiosity, I picked up the latest issue.

The stories were fresh and enjoyable, and the artwork top-notch. One thing that is not missed is the preponderance of serialized stories, one of the things that made early Heavy Metal mags a bit of a drag. Almost every story was part of a serial. Not quite so anymore, and a welcome change.

Missed are some of the classic Heavy Metal artists such as Moebius, Phillippe Druillet, and Philippe Caza. Boris Vallejo has artwork in it though, and Richard Corben was seen in some recent issues. Oh well, the Moebius' of tomorrow have to come from somewhere, don't they?

Another element missing would be cover art that does not feature a pin-up girl on every single issue. I like to look at the ladies as much as anyone else, but early issues had covers featuring all sorts of subjects, in addition to the occasional voluptuous sexpot. Viewing the covers for the recent issues made me think I was looking through nudie mags rather than comic books. The last issue not to feature a pin-up girl was 10 years ago.

August 1978	March 1979	November 1998
Artwork by a classic early HM artist Philippe "Caza" Cazamayou. Globular!	Here's one for the gearheads! "S*M*A*S*H" by Angus McKie features a crazy tank battle!	This cover by Zook is the last HM cover to feature something other than a pin-up girl.

The winner was actually David Cook in a stunning upset to puppy dog David Archuleta. It was pretty much a toss-up anyway, but here at popslant  we thought Archuleta had it locked, even though Cook is by far the more engaging performer.

By choosing Cook, America shows it has some semblance of dignity after passing over the most talented of all, curvy diva Carly Smithson. Smithson showed once again that she was the best singer in the competition during her performances on Wednesday night's show. Her version of "Jesus Christ Superstar" a few weeks back, was the best performance of the season. Ironically, that was the performance that got her cut from the show. Maybe American pop culture has a problem with Christianity? Or maybe some just don't want to be reminded....

The final show was a taste of what fans are going to get on the summer tour. All top 10 performers were there, some we've missed, such as Smithson and the beautiful Kristy Lee Cook, and others we were happy to see left behind, such as Jason Castro and David Hernandez. And those who fall somewhere in between, such as Chikeze, or of course, this guy:

Note to Jordan Sparks: Your song was awful, horrible, complete and utter total dreck. That style of singing, which we here at popslant  like to call double trochaic sucktameter is overdue for a quick merciful death. Besides the fact that such vocal histrionics generally sound rhythmically clumsy, the whole singing genre is overdone, overused and does not impress.

Note to Carrie Underwood: Keep up the good work. You've become sort of the Alanis Morrisette of country music, and it works. You're our favorite American Idol winner.

Of course, Carly Smithson is our favorite Amercian Idol who didn't win.