Here’s my recap of “American Idol” of March 16. Please add your thoughts.

The judges strut their stuff onto the big stage and Ryan Seacrest walks down the stairs. Ryan intros the judges and then talks up the fabulous venue before intro-ing the Top 12 Idolers.

The theme tonight is the Rolling Stones, which should prove a challenge for some. I wonder if the Stones are going to show up to mentor the Idolers? No? ‘Kay.

Michael Lynche and “Miss You”: He shows better range than I thought he had, going down low for the soul and up high for the falsetto. Going first is tough, but he brought it and then some. But someone please tell that guy to stop dancing, because the knee-bends just aren’t cutting it.

How cool was it to see Ryan just get right into Simon’s face about his “advice” to Mike? Simon’s always been a jerk, but this season he’s so obviously just killing time until his new show starts next year, I was glad to see Ryan call him out on it.

Didi Benami and “Play With Fire”: I like the arrangement, and she sounded pretty good at first. But she had just a tad bit too much fake angst on her face and that momentary fingerwag was ridiculous. Her ending was weak as she kind of lost the thread.

Casey James and “It’s All Over Now”: He gave the song a country-blues twang, and it’s the best he’s sounded. He seemed to be having a great time on the song, and thank goodness he didn’t put his hair in a ponytail-with-tendrils.

Lacey Brown and “Ruby Tuesday”: This is a great song, but she put too much of a little girl voice on it. Too many notes sounded weak and nervous. And seriously, what was up with that mess of an outfit that looked like she had an old tablecloth wrapped around her?

Andrew Garcia and “Gimme Shelter”: This guy has never reached the level he did during the Hollywood auditions, which is disappointing. He sounded like he couldn’t even hold a note steady and at times went seriously off pitch. Maybe nerves got the best of him. There wasn’t much heart in this performance.

Katie Stevens and “Wild Horses”: She has a good strong voice, but it’s just not been inspiring. On this one, she started off kind of weak and the key sounded a little low for her, but she finished off well, and seemed to feel the song more toward the end.

Tim Urban and “Under My Thumb”: Perhaps not the best song choice to be sung in such a sweet, earnest way by such a babyface. Not for one minute did I believe this guy was going to keep anyone under his thumb. And the reggae? Ugh.

Siobhan Magnus and “Paint it Black”: Best of the night. She not only totally changed up her look this week, she rocked this song. It wasn’t a carbon copy of the original, but her take wasn’t so far off as to be unrecognizable. I liked her jumping an entire octave for the second half of the song, and proving that her hitting that note a few weeks ago was not a fluke. She’s a contender.

Lee Dewyze and “Beast of Burden”: He took it country and it was pretty good. He has a pleasing rasp in his voice (and he reminded me of Everclear’s Art Alexakis) that fit with the genre. It was a little repetitive, but a good performance for him.

Paige Miles and “Honky Tonk Woman”: Weird song choice for a young woman and she sounded really uncomfortable on the verses in her lower register. But she gave it a bluesy feel when she could take it up higher on the refrain. By the end, it had sort of morphed into a Vegasy feel. Just weird all the way around.

Aaron Kelly and “Angie”: He went with his strength, choosing a song that worked and one that he could go all “boy band” on. He brought some character to the middle of the song, he hit all the notes just right and he put some real feeling into the song.

Crystal Bowersox and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”: Ooooh, walkin’ and strummin’. For some reason, Bowersox has become Adam Lambert for me, with the constantly flipping the bangs back and the too-cool-for-school vibe. She sounds OK, but … I dunno. She’s predictable. Maybe it’s the white girl dreads (if your hair don’t naturally lock, don’t wear ‘em) or the fact that she all but said she’s really above “Idol.” But it was just all right for me.

Siobhan and Aaron won the night for me. What do you think?

Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales has written an interesting profile on Robert Osborne, who is the original host of Turner Classic Movies.

Of course, the Lewiston Tribune was first by 16 years. Back in 1994 then-Trib A&E reporter Nicole Peradotto did a feature on Osborne when he was named host of the fledgling cable network. Osborne is a native of Colfax, and one of the things the Trib’s A&E section has always done a lot of is cover the “local kid makes good” story.

That 1994 story can be found here.

Shales doesn’t mention Colfax in his story, only that Osborne graduated from the University of Washington.

Osborne joins Yakima Canutt (1895-1986) as one of the most famous Colfax natives. Canutt was a famed Hollywood stuntman and second-unit director (he directed the famous chariot race in “Ben-Hur”) and was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1966 “for achievements as a stunt man and for developing safety devices to protect stunt men everywhere” according to IMDB.com.

Famous movie critic Roger Ebert was in the news after appearing on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show to show off his new voice. A long battle with thyroid cancer, which later spread to his salivary glands and jaw, required repeated surgeries which means he can no longer talk or eat.

The effect has been devastating, but a recent profile by Chris Jones on Ebert in Esquire was where I first saw and learned the true damage the disease has wrought on one of America’s most famous talkers.

I’ve always tried to keep up on his reviews because I enjoy his writing though I never particularly followed his TV show. When I learned he had started a blog, I began checking in on that regularly. The guy is a helluva writer and he appears to have a large following there, if the number of comments he gets is any indication.

Here’s a post he did after the Esquire piece was published. The post now has more than a thousand comments.

There’s a good read on the Tacoma News Tribune site about former Washington State University football player Junior Tupuola, who enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 46 where he serves as a chaplain in Iraq.

Tupuola came to WSU as a freshman in 1980. He’s led an interesting life since then capped so far by joining the Army in late 2008 at age 46.

I took a phone call this morning from a gentleman who wanted to know why the Tribune hadn’t published a story about a Canadian politician choosing to come to the United States for heart surgery. After a quick trip to Google, I was able to find the story, even though he thought the man’s name was Smith and it actually is Williams.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams recently decided to have heart surgery in Miami, Fla., instead of his home country.

The man who called me thinks Williams’ decision shows that the United States health care system is superior to Canada’s. I told him I think it means that people who have money can go anywhere in the world to get any type of health care they want. I have known or heard about people who go to Canada for drugs, the Philippines for a nose job and Mexico for weight-loss surgery. We agreed to disagree and then discussed the Close to Home section, which I edit. It was a pleasant conversation.

So here are links to a couple of stories in the Toronto (Ontario) Globe and Mail about the controversy which is causing a stir in Canada. You can make up your own mind about the decision.

‘It’s my health, it’s my choice,’ Danny Williams says

Surgery Williams underwent only advisable ‘for cosmetic reasons,’ expert says