Last year, before watching Fox's terrible drama "24", I committed myself to documenting each episode with as much detail as possible. I complained, pointed out inadequacies, For reasons unknown, I never posted my running journal from the season finale. You will find it below.

For readers unfamiliar with my "24" posts: I never refer to Jack, Bauer, JB or Jackie, it's always Jack Bauer. This is a sign of respect, fear, and mocking derision. Last year I counted the number of people killed by people besides Jack Bauer (NJBDs), the number of torture scenes, my prediction ratio, and the number of people knocked down by Jack Bauer (JBKDs). It's too difficult to determine if Jack Bauer has killed someone or has simply knocked them out and thus any time someone is debilitated by Jack Bauer, it's counted. In the coming year, I'm going to focus less on the metrics, and more on the constructive criticism. I'll also try to include a few idiotic "24" links (Esquire:Feature Story:WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Jack Bauer). This one took 2 people to write? Amazing.

You may ask, "If you hate the show so much, why do you watch?" I have two answers, one altruistic and one exhibiting self weakness. I don't know, I can't help it. I watch so you don't have to.

The "24" journal will be a weekly feature of Unlikely Words starting this Sunday and Monday night as we bang out 4 episodes in a hurry.

Without further adieu, last year's finale.

Woah. In watching the scenes from last week, I realized that Bierko’s caravan was taken out by an “IED”. It seems Logan’s administration has issues with IEDs also! Another Bush parallel. Let’s get right into the finale.

8:02: That gas doesn’t last long, does it? And Bierko doesn’t seem to be wasting any time. Just so we’re all clear. The poisonous gas that can dissipate from a submarine in less than 3 minutes will totally destroy financial and population centers. This was also the same gas that killed about 12 people in a gigantic mall. The submarine must be porous.

8:05: Of course Christopher Henderson needs a gun. He needs to make up for himself.

8:06: There’s a survivor on the sub? Good thing they have Jonny Teenager on the sub. An inside man, that’s all Jack Bauer needs. Just give him a shot.

8:11: How is Officer Rooney talking without the guard hearing him? Jack Bauer can turn anyone into a killer as long as he’s got a radio. There’s a little Jack Bauer in all of us, apparently.

8:12: NJBD: 1 (Bad guy by Rooney). It didn’t go as planned, but it went well enough. Why was Jack Bauer so cavalier about shooting that guard? Didn’t that make noise?

8:13: JBKD: 1 (Bad guy). Jack Bauer should really take that machine gun.

8:17: JBKD: 1 (Bad guy). The way that guard was killed was unnecessarily dramatic. Did it need to be like that?

8:18: NJBD: 1 (CTU Agent). JBKD: 1 (Bad guy).

8:19: JBKD: 2 (Bierko and his buddy). It was clear from the very beginning of this show that the missile launch wasn’t going to be a big deal. “You were never going to let me go, were you?” “No.” And I wasn’t going to give you a loaded weapon, either. Something tells me Christopher Henderson would check his gun when he got it to make sure he got bullets. He probably would be able to tell by the weight of the gun how many bullets he had left. Jack Bauer would have been able to tell, and Christopher Henderson was his mentor. Jack Bauer just sentenced Christopher Henderson. Jack Bauer is judge. Jack Bauer is jury. Jack Bauer is executioner.

8:26: “He fired on me, I didn’t have a choice.” That’s a Jack Bauer euphemism. Bill Buchannon has heard that one before.

8:29: “There’s still Bauer to deal with.” This quotation will go down in history as the biggest understatement in history.

8:30: Come on, Mike. You know you’ve scene a body in the back of a Secret Service car before, you know what to do.

8:32: There’s nothing like the love and devotion of a good Secret Service man.

8:38: “This is a real mess, Jack.” Another understatement.

8:38: It’s exciting to consider the possibility of Jack Bauer torturing the sitting president.

8:40: Morris, eh? CHLOE’S EX-HUSBAND?! WOAH, WOAH, WOAH. I didn’t think “24” could surprise me anymore. Stop wasting Morris’s charm, Chloe. Amazing. I’m back on board. Just when I thought I was done with the show, they introduce a new character with about an hour left in the season finale. Bold.

8:50: Give the First Lady an Emmy. She is the best actress of all time! If you can’t keep him in the city with your heart, use your sex. How many times have this President and this First Lady had sex during this administration? 3, 4 times? No one responds to language like, “You’re the President” like Charles Logan. They’re going to have to delay the flight, but we all know Charles Logan will be ready in 3 or 4 minutes. After showering of course.

Morris O’Brian is the best new character on TV. Morris, Curtis, and Pierce. That’s “24” next year!

This is interesting… We’re not really in suspense anymore. But this is interesting because the writers are telling us that having a corrupt president is worse than any terrorist attack. I would agree. These writers are angry leftist bloggers, that’s the only thing that’s certain.

9:02: JBKD: 1 (Navy Pilot).

9:03: Can Jack Bauer fly a helicopter? I mean. Of course he can, but does he know if he can?

9:05: Again. AGAIN! The First Lady can get anything she wants just by playing to Charles Logan’s need for praise.

9:06: JBKD: 2 (Secret Service detail). Doesn’t say a whole lot for the protection offered by the Secret Service.

9:07: No one has ever been more surprised than Charles Logan or more afraid. I’m not willing to believe that the Navy pilot wouldn’t have some sort of recourse. Otherwise presidents would be getting kidnapped over and over again.

9:09: JBKD: 1 (The other Navy pilot).

9:10: The Charles Logan we’ve been watching for 23 hours would roll over in a second to save himself. He wouldn’t stop blabbering until they stuck a sock in his mouth. Do Jack Bauer and Morris O’Brian remember each other from company picnics and happy hours?

9:16: Charles Logan is tougher than Walt Cummings? I don’t think so. They’ve never reconciled the fact that President Logan was involved in whatever Walt Cummings was working on and President Logan pretended not to know Walt was involved. Though they almost certainly would have bumped into each other at planning committee meetings.

9:20: The President and Jack Bauer are playing chicken to see who has less to lose.

9:21: Jack Bauer just blinked. What the F. It’s probably the handcuffs or phone or pen. They’ve got microphones and the President is about to tell all. Just wait. Or maybe that’s too obvious?

9:28: Good shot of streaming Fox News on a Sprint phone. Someone just got a bonus.

9:29: Woah! I thought he loved her, and then he goes and hits her? Crap.

9:30: He’s not so stupid. Charles Logan knows his wife doesn’t love him anymore. I think he’s digging his own grave now. Admit it, Charles. She’s leading him on. This is awesome. Keep going. More, more, more. What happens in the presidential compound stays in the presidential compound! Or does it?

9:38: This seems to bring in the NSA wiretapping scandal (again?) with the Attorney General unwilling to even listen to the tape.

9:43: Where did Jack Bauer get those bumps on his head?

9:45: It did seem strange that the phone call was on the landline and couldn’t get patched through to the cell. But how is this all going to end? Maybe next year is the Curtis show!

9:50: I wonder if Buchannon is going to ask Karen Myers to dinner? HAHAHA YES, HE IS! Sweet. Or breakfast.

9:51: Morris O’Brian is charming…

9:53: The Chinese. Of course. We should have known.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. I really don’t agree with the carry over from year to year. Especially because the last time it happened (when David shook hands with poison) I don’t remember anything coming of it except some strange scarring. I can’t remember what season that was (the 2^nd to 3^rd?), though, so maybe I’m crazy.

This concludes the “24” journaling project. I hope you enjoyed some part of the around 16,000 words I wrote on the subject over the last 20 some odd weeks.

Total for tonight, 9 JBKCs, 0 tortures, 2 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio N/A

Totals for the season, 46 JBKCs, 5 tortures, 150 NJBDs, Prediction Ratio 45% (5 out of 11)

People on Yahoo noticed the ridiculous pants the referees were wearing during yesterday's Patriots/Jets play off match up (playoff matchup? play-off match-up? (I'm uncomfortable with hyphens, now you know (but I LOVE parentheses))).

Instead of the short pants and long socks that referees always wear, Bill Vinovich and crew all had what looked like black track pants with a white stripe down the side. The folks on Yahoo Answers claim these pants are part of the cold weather optional uniform. Now, what I want to know is which ninny referee needed the warm weather option on this brisk, New England, January afternoon? I understand that in the future, when Massachusetts averages a balmy 63 degrees throughout the year, the idea of a referee wearing his winter gear will be outrageous, but… well, the future is now, Sunday was warm, and the refs had on the referee equivalent of snow pants. And it was outrageous.

Was this the best game to try these pants out? Have they used them anywhere else? It was 4 degrees a few years ago for a play off game in Foxboro, that wouldn’t have been a better time for the woolies? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I will pledge to spend a reasonable amount of time trying to quench our collective curiosity.

New year, new co-blogger, new feature!

Introducing the Music Week in Review (ta-daaaah!) in which I lay bare the contents of my iTunes "Added This Week" smart playlist, and tell you what I thought of each song. Because you were dying to know.

My rating system in iTunes is based on how likely I am to skip the song when it comes up. 5 stars means almost never, 1 star means almost always. (1-star songs tend to get deleted.)

Without further ado, my additions between January 1 and January 7, 2007.

Chloe Day, "With You With Me" from IndieFeed.com. Cute! Pretty guitar work, vocal layering, and self-aware lyrics. Apparently, though, her usual genre is "Trip Hop / Gothic / Industrial" (according to her MySpace page, which isn't my thing. Also, too much makeup. 3 stars.

Doveman, "Teacup" and "Honey": I downloaded these songs after rediscovering Salon's Audiofile column. Doveman is the band of the outgoing editor of the column, Thomas Bartlett. I... don't love it. "Honey" has a kind of breathy Sufjan Stevens or Stuart Murdoch thing going, only not as good. They're sung in such a gaspy tone that it's hard to imagine how they'd perform live. Together, though, "Teacup" and "Honey" sound nice and soothing, as I have a bit of a sore throat. 2 stars.

Apostle of Hustle, "My Sword Hand's Anger": Very promising title! Swashbuckling! Or possibly maiden-rescuing! Verdict: meh. I need a strong hook to get me into a song and this one doesn't really have it for me. The chorus is peppy, but the verses make me sleepy. 3 stars.

Kelly Harrell, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again": A curiosity, to be sure. Worth a first listen; probably not much more than that. And yet, despite myself, I'm kind of bopping my head along. Fine: 2 stars.

James Yorkston, "Summer Song": Weird. I like the pretty guitars. The harmonies have a kind of desperate quality that's not particularly musical, but which is pleasant nevertheless. When the the other instruments kick in around 2:40, it's beautiful. The whole song is a bit Iron and Wine-y, maybe? 3 stars.

Plush, "No Education": Audiofile says, "one of the great musical achievements of recent memory, an album that inspires hyperbole along the lines of 'one of rock's great lost albums.'" I say, seriously? Liam Hayes sounds a bit like a fey Alex Chilton, or possibly Jeff Buckley with a cold. The orchestration is quite something, but I can't quite get totally on board. Maybe further listenings will open my ears. 3 stars.

Plush, "I Sing Silence": A rough mix from the upcoming Plush album. See above. So much potential. I love the music, but I'm distracted by the vocals. 3 stars.

Oren Bloedow, "Your Childish Dreams": Pretty. Boring. 3 stars.

Hallelujah The Hills, "Hallelujah The Hills": More than anything, this reminds me of "We Didn't Start The Fire," which is probably not a good thing. 2 stars.

Masonic, "End Of Summer": I don't know why I like this song so much. I think I'm an absolute sucker for quarter note organ hits. Her voice isn't quite right, but I'm digging on this one. 4 stars.

The Main Drag, "A Jagged Gorgeous Winter": Hey! Neat electronic beat. Maybe it's a little long? My mind wandered. 3 stars.

This has been Matt's Musical Week In Review. I left out the other things in my "Added This Week" playlist, which include the This American Life podcast, and 3 episodes of Scrubs that I bought. What? I like Scrubs. There's no shame in that.

While Matt will be providing sustenance, pithiness, and thought provoking posts, I'll be doing nothing of the sort. For the first couple days/weeks, I'll be feeling my way around wordpress and generally not carrying my weight. I am a datamonger and an informationmonger. Last year, during "24" I blogged every episode while watching it. Over the weekend, I'll be posting some of those in their proper dates. I never posted the finale post, which seems strange to me, so I'll be posting that in the next couple days to lead into the big premiere next week. I find myself hating "24" but I can't stop. I have two cats. And Netflix. I'm married. There's more, but I'm get a better feel for YOU before telling you.

Here's a link full of easy online games for you in farewell. I haven't played most of these games, but I've played a few of them and they are definitely addictive. Consider yourself warned.