Tidbits 2/27

• American Idol mentions ... The top 10 guys performed last night:
• Los Angeles Times -

  Do Not Argue. Every winner has had their bad night on the road to the Kodak. Simon hated Kelly at first and ripped Carrie Underwood to shreds on a few occasions. Clay Aiken protests to still carry the wounds from Cowell’s taunts of his wardrobe.
  

• All Your TV -

  The final singer was David Archuleta, and the 17-year-old is arguably the best male singer this season. He's very much a Clay Aiken kind of singer. Pure, powerful voice, lots of charisma and vulnerability. He also has the weakenesses of Aiken, one of them being a singer that might be a tough fit for today's pop music world.
  

• Washington Post - must be a very slow news day for the Post... I don't know how they can categorize Clay as neglecting his "civic duty", especially Clay devoted his entire Christmas to visiting Mexico for UNICEF...
  

  An investigation by The Reliable Source found that the most successful "American Idol" runner-up in history has made it to only one of the quarterly meetings of the Presidential Committee for People With Intellectual Disabilities since he was appointed by George W. Bush a year and a half ago.
  
  The Claymates argued that: (1) A friend of a friend is on the committee and says yuh-huh, Clay has so been going to meetings! (2) Maybe Clay keeps his name off the books to avoid getting mobbed by fans; and (3) Haters don't really know, do they?
  
  But our investigation (i.e., we called and asked) found that the former special-ed teacher in fact has skipped six of the seven meetings since he was named to the panel in September 2006, not even opting to drop in via conference call. A rep for Aiken -- now on Broadway in "Spamalot" -- declined to comment.

• Clay - The Man ... "Love Everlasting" ... new graphics and Clay goodies celebrates 5 years since Clay performed "Everlasting Love" on AI2