NEWS ITEM: Fan reaction to the series finale of the popular HBO series The Sopranos was so negative, that angry fans overloaded HBO's website, causing it to crash. HBO has also received literally tens of thousands of cancellations from angry subscribers.

Somebody goofed big time (ya think?). After 8 years and 6 eventful seasons, people planned their weekends around the end of The Sopranos. The consensus opinion is that The Sopranos ended not even with a whimper, because nothing happened. The family was shown eating onion rings at a table, then the screen suddenly went to black. That was it.

This isn't the first time TV has pulled the rug out from under loyal viewers.

The once-great legal show The Practice, which had already gone downhill a few years earlier, had one of the weakest, lamest, most limp-wristed finales ever. Fans of The Practice had a divine right to expect so much better.

The hugely-rated MASH finale was needlessly depressing, and left you with vague information on what would become of some of the characters.

At least they had finales. Married....With Children, one of Fox's longest-running shows, wasn't even granted the professional courtesy of a farewell episode. After the network indicated to the producers that the show would be back for a 12th season, Fox pulled the plug while everyone was on summer hiatus. So much for loyalty to all the talented people who worked on MWC, and their millions of loyal fans.

Nikki Finke of deadlinehollywooddaily.com put it best, when she wrote today that what the producer of The Sopranos, who also wrote & directed the finale did, was to "shit in the fans' faces." Finke immediatly followed with "This is why America hates Hollywood."

The attention paid to the Paris Hilton story as opposed to other worldly news items is appalling.

You gotta admit, as gawdawful as President Bush has been, First Lady Laura Bush is about as inoffensive, unannoying, and perhaps as likeable as any First Lady has been. She's also been mainly invisible.

Michael Richards & Don Imus both were the victims of bum raps and modern day verbal lynch mobs. Some people need to look up the dictionary meaning of "humor."

Considering their renegade, iconoclastic, anti-establishment history, I think I could become a fan of the Oakland Raiders.

I could like small towns, but the fact is, in their own way, some of them have become more dangerous than big cities because of the meth lab culture.

Reading some show biz blogs, it appears that the top management at NBC is one tangled mess. That would make it a better show than their prime time schedule. They should televise meetings.

Steve Whitmore, LA County Sheriff's Dept. spokesman, has been very busy this past week, explaining the Paris Hilton situation. That makes him a better actor than his father, James.

How come there are no Indian casinos in Nevada? They have plenty of Native Americans there.

Yesterday, for the first time ever, at age 46, I tried smoking a cigarette. I damn near coughed my innards out. My lungs don't want that stuff in them. Never again.

I read where tickets to some events at the Beijing Olympics are selling slowly, particularly archery & shooting. Especially those seats behind the targets.

If you're concerned about free speech and media consolidation, I submit the following for your approval:

http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=5634&IssueNum=209

It makes you wonder what you're really watching.

I have spent the last 24 hours intensely checking out every fact and every lead, asked many questions to many people, and have gone without sleep, well, some sleep anyway, my coffee danish, television, and the latest world news.

Something is going on. I know it. I can sense it. I can feel it in my bones. Something is definitely not right.

My computer & I have been all over checking this out. I can't believe with all the leads out there, that I can't find a paper trail or a smoking gun.

The public has a right to know, and I aim to give them the truth that they can handle.

What, pray tell, am I babbling about? What are sinister forces doing to the world?

I am intensely searching for a correlation between the Anaheim Ducks winning the Stanley Cup & Paris Hilton's release from jail a few hours later.

What are the odds? There must be a connection between the two. There has to be.

This series of totally improbable events can't be a sign of the Apocalypse, can it?

I want answers, and until I do get answers, I'm staying right on top of this.

The truth is out there somewhere. Probably on the Santa Ana Freeway, which leads to both the Ducks' home arena and Paris' jail site. Well, it's a starting point.

I'll get to the bottom of this, or my name isn't Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Q: What did the first President Bush say to his son, the current President Bush, on the 4th anniversary of the Iraq war?

A: "That's ok, son. I didn't know when to pull out, either."