If you happen to stay up tonight to watch the New Year’s Eve shows (when they ring in 2008 at 11 p.m. CENTRAL time), be sure to see how well Ryan Seacrest and Carson Daly do without writers. Thanks to the strike that will not end, they’re flying solo.
If that’s not enough to keep you up, just know, Dick Clark could make an appearance — just like Father Time.
Mariah Carey’s always up for these kinds of things, too.
In Times Square this year, they’ll be dropping confetti that has been written on. Apparently, you can “make a wish” on a piece of confetti that they’ll drop at midnight. Who knows if the wishes will come true. But if you put your phone number on the slip of paper, you just might get a phone call from a drunk in Times Square.
Happy new year! Let’s make 2008 great.

Driving between Sioux City and Sioux Falls on Christmas Eve (and back) can be a real experience — particularly when the weather doesn’t want cooperate.
Driving to Sioux Falls, the fog was so thick I lost Beresford along the way. I almost missed the Sioux Falls exit, too, but (luckily) there’s more than one.
Driving back (on Wednesday after more than six inches of snow had blanketed Sioux Falls) I realized several things:
1. Everyone from Missouri and Texas must have been in South Dakota for Christmas.
2. Semis don’t slow down.
3. “Turn off your cruise control” (a message posted by the highway patrol) seemed obvious until 20 cars zipped around me.
4. RVs are not made for icy roads (six were in the ditch).
5. Fog likes to hide Beresford (I couldn’t even see the clock at Slumberland).
6. Before heading out, it’s a good idea to have a full tank of windshield cleaner.
7. You cannot answer a cellphone when you’re driving on ice.
8. The Clampetts were ahead of me.
9. Dirt does not keep ice from being slippery.
10. There’s no place like home.

It’s becoming a bit clearer who could be walking the red carpet come Oscar night.
“No Country for Old Men,” “Michael Clayton” and “Atonement” are getting lots of early awards. Also, “Juno,” “There Will Be Blood” and “Sweeney Todd” could figure in.
I just saw “Atonement” and it’s a sweeping, proto-Oscar film that suggests what Merchant/Ivory might have done with “The English Patient.” The ending is so devastating you’ll think about it for hours. But, the Oscar action probably won’t belong to the film’s stars (Keira Knightley and James McAvoy). It’s the one-two punch by Saoirse Ronan and Vanessa Redgrave (as the same person) that lingers.
Likely for Best Actor: George Clooney (”Michael Clayton”), Daniel Day-Lewis (”There Will Be Blood”), Philip Seymour Hoffman (”The Savages”) and Johnny Depp (”Sweeney Todd”). Tommy Lee Jones is a sure-bet, too, but he could be relegated to Supporting Actor (for “No Country”). He was great in “In the Valley of Elah” but that film disappeared without a trace.
Likely for Best Actress: Ellen Page (”Juno”), Julie Christie (”Away from Her”), Angelina Jolie (”A Mighty Heart”), Marion Cotillard (”La Vie En Rose”) and Cate Blanchett (”Elizabeth: The Golden Age”).
The Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild nominations vary in several areas (SAG went wild for “Into the Wild”; Globes folks loved “Atonement”) but they did have some similarities. “No Country for Old Men” and “Michael Clayton” did well in both, suggesting they’re locks.
Amy Ryan (the deadbeat mom in “Gone Baby Gone”) has gotten so many pre-Oscar awards she’s a shoo-in to be nominated and win Best Supporting Actress. Javier Bardem (”No Country”) and Casey Affleck (”The Assassination of Jesse James”) are Most Likely to Succeed in the Best Supporting Actor category.
Now, let the games begin.

Nobody has a better window onto the world of presidential candidates than Denise Bryce. She’s at The Journal’s front desk and, easily, she’s our best ambassador. She’s also one of the first people candidates meet when they come into the office.
How do they stack up? We asked.
Hillary Clinton, she said, had the most star power. “She was very friendly” and, as we told you before, had “rough hands.”
Barack Obama, another big name, shook hands with his fingertips. “He had a nice smile and he seemed smaller than I thought he’d be. He wished me a Merry Christmas, too.”
Chris Dodd was probably the most personable, she said. “He visited about his daughter who wondered if Santa Claus would find her in Iowa.”
Bill Richardson “had one of the biggest entourages of them all.” He was cordial, she said, but most of all she recalled him as being “big.”
John Edwards was “very animated…and handsome. He had a good handshake, too.”
Although Mitt Romney was probably the slickest of the bunch, he didn’t leave a lasting impression. “I hate to say this, but I don’t remember much about him,” Denise said. John McCain (who traveled with just a few people) and Joe Biden were also fleeting.
Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson have not been at The Journal and have not been put to the Denise test.
Clinton, however, worked the room better than the rest and, Denise said, “had the firmest handshake.”
A sign? Denise won’t say. But she has met more presidential candidates than just about anyone.

It was just a matter of time before television got on the show choir bandwagon. Now, in “Clash of the Choirs,” a “holiday-long” series of shows, five singers square off in a competition designed to bring money to their favorite charities. In other words, they’re not going to bust a hump. Still, it’s fun to see how Patti LaBelle, Blake Shelton, Michael Bolton, Kelly Rowland and Nick Lachey teach others. Shelton’s the funniest — he says he doesn’t know anything about directing a choir and proceeds to demonstrate as much. LaBelle is probably the most skilled, but she takes the easy route (Gospel? sure). Several of the others (Bolton specifically) have one person do all the singing and the others provide backup. The concept is good — choir vs. choir: Bring It On — but the producers are so eager to show hard luck stories they ignore the grooming process. Instead of seeing how Patti gets someone to hit a high C, we hear how 1. Soldiers need time off to sing 2. A father and daughter just want to sing for the wife/mom who’s battling cancer 3. An old friend from Nick’s past has to struggle to get off work…and on it goes. This has the potential to be another “Dancing With the Stars.” So far, it’s settling for “America’s Got Talent Part Deux.”
Show high school going against high school in a REAL show choir competition and you’ll see drama. The true story has yet to be told.

John Edwards and Bill Richardson stopped by the office this week.

John did the full handshake with everyone on his way to The Journal’s conference room (and he has smooth hands — take note, Hillary). Bill did a wave by. He said hello, too.

Interestingly, Richardson had more hangers-on than any of the candidates yet to visit the office. They filled the lobby and talked a lot on cellphones (do you suppose someone said, “Guess where I am? That’s right. THE JOURNAL NEWSROOM!”) Richardson was really tan and looked more like Horatio Sans than he’d like.
Edwards, meanwhile, is really, really thin. He said he hasn’t gotten any Christmas shopping done, yet. But I bet he’d like some of those Fly SUX T-shirts.

Photo ops: None. Do you think I made a mistake by not pulling out the instamatic?

Last week’s shootings at Westroads Mall showed just how screwed up Americans’ priorities have become. The young man accused of killing eight said he was sure the tragedy would make him “famous.”

“Famous.” The word stings.

Today, young people see fame as a career goal — no matter what the price. They don’t realize fame should be a byproduct of a life well led.

Still, we see husbands who kill their wives, starlets who crash their cars and musicians overdosing on the streets on the covers of magazines and the fronts of newspapers. Something has gone seriously wrong.

Instead of chronicling every move Britney Spears makes, those media hounds should try to help her. Instead of signing book deals with felons, publishers should refuse to give them  ink.

Television shows shouldn’t be so eager to make stars out of people who haven’t accomplished anything. While reality television is cheap to produce, it shouldn’t be the path networks take. “The Bachelor” is nothing more than a prime time brothel; “Survivor” is a game of kill or be killed; “The Apprentice” is merely another name for back-stabber.

Sadly, these are role models we’re giving a generation. Cheat, lie, steal — even kill — and you might get that all-important title, “famous.”

At this time of year when families get together, we should show those young people who real role models are — good parents, good siblings, good friends — and prove that fame doesn’t matter. It’s fleeting. But goodness remains.

Perhaps we’ve learned something from the Omaha tragedy. Unfortunately, the lesson comes with a very large price tag.

For next year’s Christmas card, that is. Hillary Clinton came to the Sioux City Journal office Monday afternoon and, yup, stopped for photos. She remarked at how bright the office (not us) was and worked the room better than the Little Yellow Dog. She was extremely friendly and took time to chat with just about everyone. She’s the first former First Lady to stop at The Journal. She’s not the first politician to hit the office.
Still, she is in the running to be my 2008 Christmas card co-star (Naomi Judd is this year’s winner). She told me to stand up, too (I crouched down so that we’d be the same height — do you think she says the same thing to Bill?) and she was more than willing to shake hands. Her hands, by the way, were a bit rough — too much Purell is my take — so if Chelsea is looking for something to get mom, hand lotion would be a good bet.
Meanwhile, she’s now the frontrunner on my Christmas card list. We’ll see, though, if Barack, Mitt, John, John, Chris, Mike, Rudy and the rest stop by. The race is on.