AND THE WINNER IS...

Today at Romancing the Blog, Abby Godwin talks about going Cold Turkey when it comes to turning off the television.

Now, I have to admit that I've never been a particularly big fan of TV. Perhaps if when I was growing up, I had been glued to it the way most of my friends were, I would feel differently about it. But in our house, it was routinely referred to by my father as the "boob tube" and the "idiot box," and he did not allow it to be turned on, except for two hours on Friday nights.

So, to me, TV has always been something of a treat, not to be engaged in mindlessly. For that reason, I'm still pretty selective about what I watch. My husband, John, is even more adamant about what he will and will not watch, and if something doesn't pique his interest immediately, he more often than not jumps up and disappears into our office or his workshop.

As a result, in our house, every single TV except for that of my son, Shane, is routinely set on a news channel, because most of the time, that's what we watch. (Shane's own TV usually has a video game on it.)

Still, like everything else, there are exceptions to this rule. For the past several Sunday nights, I've been caught up in Bleak House, broadcast by PBS, and the truth is that if it hadn't ended last weekend, I'd be watching it tonight, instead of the Academy Awards. But since Bleak House has concluded, I've decided that I will tune in to see the Oscars.

For many years now, just like other families, my own has engaged in the game of predicting who will win the Oscars. Sometimes, our private "ballots" are wildly diverse, and sometimes, a clear "winner" emerges for each category. Then there are years like this one, where our results are mixed, with us being almost unanimous in our picks in some categories and all over the board in others.

This year, our most hotly contested races are for the Best Supporting Actor and Best Actress awards (for simplicity's sake, we always limit our picks to the Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Picture categories). If one of us is especially undecided about some category, we allow a second choice for it, but consider that you have "fudged" if you've had to use one of your second choices to get all the winners right. *g*

So, just for fun, here are my family's predictions for the Oscars (note that our selections are not necessarily based on who we personally would choose to win, but, rather, on who we believe the Academy will actually pick):

Best Supporting Actor: Among us, George Clooney (Syriana) is ahead by a single vote.
Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) lacks just one vote to make her our unanimous choice.
Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) lacks just one vote to make him our unanimous choice.
Best Actress: In this category, we have a tie between Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) and Keira Knightley (Pride and Prejudice). But if we add in our second choices, it's Witherspoon who walks away with the Oscar.
Best Director: Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) lacks just one vote to make him our unanimous choice.
Best Picture: Crash lacks just one vote to make it our unanimous choice.

Do you agree or disagree with my family's picks? Who do you think will actually win? I'll be tuned in to find out. Will you?