My Celebrity Crush Of The Month (10.3.9)

January: Rebecca Hall, for being the heart as Vicky and the longed for as Varya.

February: Will Chase, for being Thomas Weaver in another short-lived musical.

March: Joseph Cotten, for a screen presence that's still vibrant after all these years.

April: Nora Arnezeder, for making my jaw drop with her angelic voice.

May: Ellie Frederickson, for capturing my heart in the mere minutes she was onscreen.

June: Roger Federer, because I cried as much as he did when he won the French Open.

July: Jake Silbermann, because I'm a sucker.

August: Melanie Laurent, for being dangerous and beautiful while fighting Nazis.

September: Brett Gardner, for being a speedy, scrappy player.

My Derailed Olympic Bid

I was a firm opponent of the New York Olympic bid 4 years ago and couldn't be more enthused that Chicago has failed to clinch the United State's first Olympic bid since Atlanta in 1996. Reasons are simple and non-political. Granted the current economic climate, does this nation really need to pour over $10 billion dollars in for the event? Is the trade off of having an "international unity" in Chicago really worth the additional debt that city will face for a decade after the game exits?

Look at the last four Olympic hosts. Atlanta is STILL recovering economically after the 1996 games and anyone who has visited the city in the last decade can tell you it's a very slow process. Sydney's (2000) tourism actually saw a decline since their games, Athens (2004) is still struggling to come up with a solution to $7 billion euros, the remainder of their debt and well, the Chinese government would never reveal anything that would shame them so we'll probably never know what kind of hit Beijing took last year.

The granddaddy of them all? The Montreal games of 1976. They've just paid off their debt 2 years ago- three whole decades after the games.

So is it worth it?

My Asian Politician

Asians in politics is a rarity. First, a sad truth- not many Asian Americans care enough to partake in the system. Second, even if they are interested, it's nearly impossible to break through the race barrier. Enter John Liu.

After winning the democratic run-off for City Comptroller last week, Liu is poised and heavily favorited to win the general election this election day. If he does pull out the victory, he'd be the first Asian American to be elected into public service in the New York. Quite a feat if you ask me, considering the only other elected Asian officials I know of are all based in California. Should I vote based on race? No, probably not- but it certainly nudges me to do more research on Liu and his republican opponent Joe Mendola. (Newsday)