SIDE SALAD - Everything crunchy is good.

'HURRY CHILDREN, SCURRY, SCURRY!'

Comedian Lewis Black did a couple standups last night in the middle of the Weather Channel's usual evening weathercasts. It wasn't as hilarious as I thought it might be - mostly because the spots were too short and too infrequent.

It was more than a little weird to see the car-dealer-slick Dave Schwartz introduce a "special guest." But Black found his rhythm, announcing that Schwartz had the easiest job in the world. "If I knew that guys like Roker and Willard Scott would break out, I would have gone to meteorology school instead of theater school."

He also delivered a travel report on airport delays. "Logan Airport in Boston is listing zero minutes. That's a lie."

If you didn't have DVR and the ability to fast-forward through all the bland forecasts and bad jazz, it would have been frustrating to watch. But with the remote, you could zap ahead. It was well worth it just to see Schwartz juxtaposed by the rumpled and barely-keeping-it-together Black.

At one point, he asked Black to give the atmospheric moisture report.

Black turned to the green screen showing the flowing moisture patterns and reported:

A lot of people would call this atmospheric moisture. Where do they get this from? Where does this map come from? This is actually a sonogram. That's right. They go to hospitals and they get sonograms of infants.

Now if you look here, see where this green, see where it's moving around here? If you look closely - it'll come around again - that'll be a baby boy.

Posted by Jeff at November 10, 2005 07:22 AM