For he has reunited Michael and George Michael Bluth.

It’s classic steam vs. sail over at TheStreet.com where Priya Ganapati writes this rosy story about Sony’s PS3 prospects. Ganapati declares:

Sony’s (SNE – Cramer’s Take – Stockpickr – Rating) PlayStation 3 game console may finally be ready to break out.

Retail giants such as Best Buy (BBY – Cramer’s Take – Stockpickr – Rating) and Target (TGT – Cramer’s Take – Stockpickr – Rating) are expected to feature the PS3 console in their weekly retailer advertisements starting this week in a move that could signal Sony has sorted out production problems with the next-generation device.

Sony had faced delays in the mass production of blue laser diodes, a component of its Blu-Ray hi-definition DVD player that is part of the PS3 console, which pushed the launch of the console in Europe to March 23.

The company launched the PS3 in North America on Nov. 17, but supply of the consoles has been tight.

Now PS3 supply levels are “stabilizing,” says Dave Karraker, spokesperson for Sony Computer Entertainment America.

“We are seeing more units of PS3 in stores on a regular basis and not the extreme sellouts that were there soon after the console was introduced,” says Karraker. “And with supply levels stabilizing, you can expect to see increased marketing for PS3.”

Best Buy featured its first ad for the PS3 on Feb. 18, while Target is slated to put one out on Feb. 25.

On the matter of Sony’s supply problem, that seems to have been solved since about the first week of January, which is when major retailers began reporting that they had PS3 units sitting on their shelves. As for the question of advertising circulars, the PS3 was being advertised in Best Buy and Circuit City circulars in my Sunday paper. I remember, because at the time I noted how silly these ads were since the supply of PS3s was so tight. (I believe–but can’t be certain–that the PS3 appeared in at least the Best Buy circular during the Christmas season, as well, but my memory on that count may be faulty.) Perhaps Ganapati meant that this is the first ad Best Buy has featured for the PS3 in 2007?

There is a larger question about the strage angle of this story–namely why the piece is mostly positive even though Sony’s raw sales data (which Ganapati mentions later in the piece) are so bad and the company is having a senior management shake-up in Europe just weeks before the launch of the PS3. But that’s less important and is really a matter of perspective. Ganapati is certainly entitled to her analysis of the situation and she may be right that the PS3 is about to break out.

Who’s your favorite NFL player, non-Eagle, non-Brady Division? Maybe it should be Manny Lawson, who seems to actually write this brilliant column for the ’49ers’ website:

Let’s talk about this San Francisco Crab Festival on the 24th that I have volunteered myself for. I don’t know what all it entails. I hope it is not dealing with live crabs because I’m not too fond of getting pinched. I try to stay away from that. Maybe we can race crabs, I don’t know. I’m not sure what it’s about. If it’s just eating crabs, that’s good. I can do that. I’m a huge seafood guy.

I haven’t really gone anywhere since the season ended, and it seems like they are really trying to send me home. All I do is work out and run and watch film, and now I guess they are trying to send a strong hint that I need to go away, go on vacation or get away from football because they have taken my weight room away from me. I have been kicked to the curb.

They are calling it a “re-modeling” but they know that I don’t know of any gyms around here to go to, and I don’t have one in my little neighborhood. And I don’t understand this treatment. It’s not like I loiter or walk around the building aimlessly bothering everyone. I have my routine, come in and I leave. I don’t think they love me any more.

I guess it is good that they are renovating our weight room, changing it and making it more efficient to players’ needs, but what about mine?

But I figured something out. If they take everything out of the weight room, where are they going to put it? Well, I discovered that they just shifted it to our locker room, so I can just lift in there. There’s always a loophole so in a few hours, I’ll be back in here getting my swole on. I’m sure they are laughing and thinking, “Let’s see if Manny can find the bench press.” Well, I found it.

I haven’t cleared 200 in bowling yet. I got 192 bowling and I choked on the last frame. I still can not believe. All I needed was 8 pins out of 10! I had been hitting at least nine pins all day with my little curve ball, but on that last one I decided I’d try to roll it straight down the lane. It didn’t work. Instead it went straight into the gutter, so I’m still not a pro and I still don’t have my own ball or my own shoes.
Vickiel Vaughn has bowled on his own too, and he did the same thing, came close to 200 but choked on the last frame with a gutter ball.

My choke really hurt my feelings. I just sat there. They know me by name because I go there so much so they were checking on me in there to see how I was doing, and I was just so upset. I just sat and thought about it for a bit. It was tough to swallow.

Mainly though, I’ve watched a lot of movies. . . .

He goes on. He’s awesome, with a capital Awesome.

I don’t know much about these guys, but I really admire the sketch “Keyboard Kid”: It takes gimmicky lighteheartedness, adds tragedy to it, and somehow pulls the whole thing back into lightheartedness again. Pay close attn to the actor’s face and tell me you don’t notice the shade of Buster Keaton. Also worth checking out is “Girls Can’t Be Trusted.” Derrick My appreciation does not extend to the skethc called Bro Rape.

Galley Wife SLL sends along this MSNBC story on the future of robotics:

For example, imagine a body suit with sensors that can guide you through a golf swing like Tiger Woods’. Or a robo-birdwatcher that can tell you where to look for that rare ivory-billed woodpecker. Or an android gardener that can show you where to plant your seeds . . . As baby boomers become older, they’ll still want to lead active lives–but they may well welcome a little robotic help to do it.

SLL responds:

Sure. Tell that to Admiral ADAMA.

“My name is 6. Look over there at that rare ivory-billed woodpecker!!”

The ghost of Mike Kinsley must have been hovering elsewhere for Slate to have published Troy Patterson’s conventionally intuitive piece on the UFC.

This isn’t meant as a complaint, but perhaps Patterson would have been in a better position to comment on the UFC phenomenon had he watched more than what appears to have been a single clip-show from Spike. His ultimate conclusion might have been the same–and might well be right–but surely there are depths left unplummed here, like, for instance: Dana White’s NASCAR-like control of the sport; the evolving standards of rounds, judges, and most important, weight classes; the financial success of the UFC enterprise; and the sports media’s continuing insistence on ignoring UFC even while much smaller and more obscure sports (arena football, women’s college volleyball, etc.) get column inches in sports sections and time on both ESPN and local news sportscasts.

Again, I’m not rendering a moral verdict here. The UFC might still be little more than cockfighting with homo sapiens. But the story seems more complicated and serious than Patterson has made it out to be. And it certainly deserves more a more serious attempt to grapple with it. So to speak.

Still, Slate should be encouraged, not chastised, for avoiding knee-jerk counterintuition. So good for them.

PS: Galley Sister MAL suggests that the “arm bomb” Patterson refers to was most likely an “arm bar.”

Pajiba has a great ode to character actors. This isn’t the typical love letter to Phil Hoffman–it’s about guys who are still character actors and haven’t made the jump to character leading men–guys like Zeljko Ivanek, James Rebhorn, and Nicky Katt (who I thought might break out after Way of the Gun). Sample awesomeness from their special shout-out to Galley Friend M.C.:

Jon Polito — The Greasy Gunman
Good grief, Jon Polito has been in everything. From Silvio the landlord in the reverse-peephole episode of “Seinfeld,” to detectives on both “Homicide: Life on the Street” (with fellow listee Zeljko Ivanek) and “Crime Story” (with listee Michael Rooker), all the way through Flags of Our Fathers, with hundreds of film and TV stops in between, Polito has been everywhere. Everywhere. But it’s his roles in a series of Coen brothers films that have been some of his most memorable character creations. Polito often plays a slimy character with vague underworld overtones, as in the stellar Miller’s Crossing, where he plays Johnny Caspar and gives a wonderful little soliloquy about “character” and “ethics.” Polito was only 40 when he took on the role of Caspar, originally written as a man in his mid-50s, but his mix of anger and self-pity turned the character into something both charismatic and vaguely unsettling. He’s strong enough to yield the spotlight to the rest of the ensemble in whatever he does, and that only makes him more watchable.

Don’t miss this great piece.

Bonus: Did you realize that Peter Stormare was Slippery Pete in the Seinfeld Frogger episode? I didn’t.

I checked out of the Sherman-Palladinoless Gilmore Girls a while back, but Galley Wife SLL is sticking out season seven, perhaps in the hope that in the series finale Luke will discover that there are hundreds of Gilmore Girls scattered across the planet and when Miss Patty does a special dance they all start talking really fast.

But no matter the show’s fall from grace, last night’s episode (written by Rebecca Kirshner) featured one of the great phrases in recent television history: “Molotov Mocktails.” Kuwaiti communist radicals the world over would surely rejoice.

The lovely and talented Miss Kirshner is, of course, a Buffy alumna. Whedon should send her flowers this morning.