"And as if it wasn't enough that he was Jewish and mentally retarded..."

Yep. It's time to go for Oscar Gold. Tee-hee. Anyway...

- The nominees for Best Animated Feature: Ratatouille, Surf's Up and Persepolis. I thought for sure that Bee Movie and The Simpsons Movie would be the other sure-fire contenders to lose to Ratatouille. Go figure.

+ Nominated for the first time are composers Marco Beltrami (3:10 to Yuma) and Michael Giacchino (Ratatouille). I'm pulling for both of them, despite not having heard a note of Yuma.

- American Gangster earned only one nomination...but it was a deserving one (+): Ruby Dee for Supporting Actress. Her scenes with Josh Brolin (strangely not nominated for this or No Country for Old Men) and Denzel Washington were terrific.

+ Javier Bardem picked up a Supporting Actor nod for No Country for Old Men. As essentially an amalgam of the Terminator, the Predator and the boogeyman, his turn in that film was quite memorable.

- You gotta love some of the noodleheads at Ain't It Cool News. Transformers picks up three nods (Sound, Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects) and no one says anything, but Norbit gets one nod (for Rick Baker's impressive make-up) and all of a sudden, 'Oh, Norbit got an Oscar nomination. The world is ending! Whaaaaaaa!' Seriously, it makes me sick to breathe the same air.

+ Sweeney Todd got just what one would expect (Costume Design, Art Direction) and something I did not (Best Actor - Johnny Depp).

? Lars and the Real Girl earned a nod for Original Screenplay. I heard about the film, but the premise seems a little...out there. The reviewer in my local paper was especially put off by it (** out of four, in case you were wondering).

- Juno is a Best Picture nominee...and, as such, is officially overrated.

- No nod for the genius animated short "How to Hook Up Your Home Theater". If you loved thost 'How-to' Goofy shorts from the '40s and '50s...chances are you've seen and loved it like I have.

+ Three Original Song nominations for Enchanted. One would think that they're in danger of cancelling each other out, just like with Beauty and the Beast in early '92...oh, wait.

Definitely going to be watching the show on February 24th...assuming there's going to be one, of course.