"Randy, Paula and Simon" has a certain rhythm to it, don't you think?  Well, that trio of American Idol judges is about to get a fourth, at least according to news reports.

Songwriter Kara DioGuardi will join RP&S this season, cementing a spot in what has been a revolving chair of guest judges in past cycles of Idol.

By now, the third paragraph, if you're counting, you may be wondering the same thing I was about two minutes ago. 

Kara Who?

Well, according to the World's Most Prolific and Accurate News Source (read: Wikipedia) DioGuardi is from New England (it doesn't specify which state).  She's apparently written songs that were recorded by Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Jewel, Christina Aguilera and -- now we know she's really made it -- Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers.

The good news: Thank God.  I've blogged before about the vicious cycle of American Idol's predictability -- everything from the audition circuit to Simon's scathing sidenotes -- and how it was making me looney tunes -- and making me tune out.  New blood is a good thing.

The bad news: I don't know that even she can save this viewer's sanity, because I'm supremely soured on the show.  Who knows? Maybe millions of others will disagree.

Now, a few questions:

1. How will "the judging that matters" work during preliminary rounds?  As in, who and how many of the four judges will it take to decide who makes it to Hollywood?

2. In the news reports, a producer says Kara will bring "more girl power" to the panel.  The real question is, will she be more sober than Paula?

3. If pitted against one another in a tug-of-war match for Kara's love, who would win: Ryan or Simon?

Please comment!

As promised in this week's installment of Tete-a-tete, here are the YouTube videos that have served to bring my family to a higher plane of love and mutual understanding, or something similar.

Disclaimer: I am not liable if The Gummy Bear Song gets stuck in your head. It's a total earworm. Please proceed with caution. 

Behold the power of bacon.

It comes in lollipop form.

It comes chicken-fried.

And it can wake you up in the morning. 

There is no better food.

Fo' sizzle. 

Some randomness, you just can't make up. Randomness like the unexplained insertion of a spaghetti-eating cat into a morning-show interview about binge drinking.

Joel McHale nailed it. "It was, for lack of a better word: art."

Check it out:

It's almost time for school to start again, which means there will be naive young things posing for their yearbook photos, unaware that if fame ever grips them, that picture will haunt them for the rest of their natural lives.

If you're not famous, but you regret your yearbook picture all the same, play around with a new one here.  

It's a good time-killer, and sorta creepy to see what you'd look like if you were born a decade or two earlier.

While doing research for today's Daily TWiP, I stumbled across a rather awesome blog by the name of Claudia's Room. The blog's author has decided to go back through and reread all of her old Baby-sitter's Club books and write about how she views them now versus how she viewed them when she first read them as a kid.

If you remember reading these books growing up, chances are you will find this blog addicting. There's some colorful language and full-on ranting against some aspects of the characterization and plots, but it's apparent that underneath, the blog's author really does cherish the books and is having a bang-up time smashing a few mailboxes along Memory Lane.

A few gems:

- "Mrs. Arnold calls for an emergency sitter cause she lost one of her contacts and has to get it replaced. Doesn't she have glasses?"

- "Stacey calls Claudia 'pigheaded and selfish.' Cough. POT. Cough. KETTLE. Cough. BLACK. Cough. Got that frog out of my throat."

- "Ever notice that none of the BSC 'rents ever say, 'No, you can't have fifty million children over here. I will not be responsible for that many kids in my yard.'"

- "Claudia 'was wearing denim overall shorts, a short black T-shirt, red-and-white pin-striped stockings that came over the top of her knees, red thick-soled patent leather shoes, and a black felt derby.' I can't believe I'm going to say this, but this outfit almost works. Of course I could just be distracted by the shoes, cause WANT!!!!"

The detailed descriptions of Claudia and Stacey's fashionably unique outfits were always a high point of the books for me. Those two were seriously too cool for school, at least by my nine-year-old standards.

Looking back, I can't believe these characters were supposed to be 11 and 12 years old, 13 at the most. I never had as much drama as they did when I was in junior high school. I wasn't even allowed to babysit until I was in high school. Even now, they still seem like they're more mature than I am.

Have you ever been faced with a questionable cake?

I don't mean one that tastes as if the baker might be moonlighting as a brick mason.  I mean one that makes you go, "Um. Well. That's different."

And when I say "different," I mean it in the same way your cousin Charlie who ate paste and wore his red cowboy boots everywhere was "different."

Still not following?