HEY, KIDS! I suspect the ratings for the Oscars will be down this year, both because this seems to be the trend for awards shows and because none of the Best Picture nominees were blockbusters that seized the public imagination.

Nevertheless, I note that both Defamer and Prof. Ann Althouse will be live-blogging the Oscars, should you want the MST3K version of the event.

Prof. Althouse was good enough to provide the link to The Unofficial 2005 Oscars Drinking Game, which should at least provide an excuse as to why you don't remember any of the show by next week.

[UPDATE: MATT DRUDGE has a heads up on a New York Times story about a Robin Williams song nixed by the Oscars' producers.]

[2ND UPDATE: You can tide yourself over until Oscar-time by catching up on the Razzies, at which President Bush, Britney Spears, Halle Berry and Donald Rumsfeld were all "winners."]

Finally, while I sound a bit down on the Oscars, that won't stop me from having my own take up early Monday morning -- after all, the gold men are made in the Windy City! Plus, I'll have a full compliment of the regular trivia you've come to expect.

HOLD o­n! HAVE THE JAYHAWKS REALLY BROKEN UP? More Cowbell has a little scoop suggesting the answer is o­nly "maybe."

MOBY pens a tune for Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson to sing.

PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: After getting judicial permission to do a gig, he gets into a fight with his band's guitarist.

BOB DYLAN: "I wouldn't even think about playing music if I was born in these times... I'd probably turn to something like mathematics. That would interest me. Architecture would interest me. Something like that." Which would explain the "love minus zero" equation...

THE ANTI-CRISTO: In response to "The Gates" Cristo has installed in New York's Central Park, Geoff Hargadon installed "The Somerville Gates." The web site was an immediate hit.

CATS AND DOGS: A Hawaiian lawmaker is proposing a bill that would ban the slaughter of dogs and cats for food. Some are protesting.

SCREENWRITER CHARLIE KAUFMAN finally wins a Writer's Guild Award for Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Best Adapted Screenplay went to Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor for Sideways.

LEFTIES are the future, according to Wired.

CULT OF THE iPod is criticized by columnist and blogger Andrew Sullivan.

WHAT'S o­n GEORGE W. BUSH'S iPod? That question and a survey of the Bush family's knowledge of pop culture (or lack thereof) is o­nline at The Contra Costa Times.

EDUCATION BLOGGING: The third edition of Carnival of Education is now o­nline.

SWEDEN is discovering the conflict between their open borders and their lavish welfare state.

DEMOCRACY IN LEBANON? Walid Jumblatt, head of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party, once expressed regret that U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was not killed in a missile attack during a visit to Baghdad and, until recently, accommodated Syria's occupation. Now he's leading an intifada to oust Syria. "It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq," explains Jumblatt. "I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world." Jumblatt says this spark of democratic revolt is spreading. "The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it." Coincidentally, Der Spiegel makes a similar analogy.

DEMOCRACY IN CICERO? The Chicago suburb witnessed a stunner Tuesday night as underdog Larry Dominick declared victory in a close race against Town President Ramiro Gonzalez, the hand-picked successor to imprisoned Betty Loren-Maltese. I'm o­nly half-joking here: such an election is, relatively speaking, a big deal in the infamously corrupt town. The Sun-Times article notes that "Cicero's election, as usual, drew a wide swath of poll watchers to make sure everything was o­n the up and up, including a contingent of federal monitors."

CHANGES IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY are surveyed by the Seattle Weekly.

NEKO CASE is interviewed about her current and upcoming discs in The State.

KORN founder and guitarist quits after finding God.

JACKO'S JURY is selected. There are no African-Americans, which is an issue MJ could raise o­n appeal, should he be convicted. I wonder if the State of California would argue that Jacko is really not black anymore.

CBS NEWS MEMO SCANDAL: The network has hired a gumshoe to trace the source of the apparently bogus memos regarding President Busy's Texas Air National Guard service.

FAT AND SIN: Prof. Ann Althouse, guest-blogging at GlennReynolds.com, weighs the connection.

HUNTER S. THOMPSON VS.PARIS HILTON: fishbowl LA proposes a thought experiment. ALSO: Thompson wanted to have his ashes shot out of a cannon.

HOW RICH YOU ARE at 50 may depend o­n how tall you were as an infant.

HILARY SWANK is campaigning hard for an Oscar. PLUS: Swank, Charlize Theron and others may want to be paid for wearing those fancy gowns and pieces of jewelry to awards shows. How long until the Oscars looks like a NASCAR rally?

OWEN WILSON likes 'em young.

RUSSELL SIMMONS: The Def Jam mogul is under fire from the Anti-Defamation League for condemning anti-Semitism, while, the group claims, acting as an apologist for Nation of Islam leader the Reverend Louis Farrakhan.

MAOISTS review video games and don't like much of what they see.

THE UNITED NATIONS is treating refugees from North Korea badly.