THE SMART LIST

You will talk about: The new Mariah Carey album. Mariah is probably our favorite pop artist of all time (except for Prince). We love her hyper-speed talking-as-singing approach and, of course, the amazing voice. In the last few weeks we’ve heard all about how she’s had more No. 1 singles than Elvis, but why did no one tell us that Kenneth from “30 Rock” was in her first video? People! We need to know things like that. (Tuesday)

The little ones will talk about: “Best of Both Worlds Concert” CD and DVD. One good thing about kids’ stuff is that it generally doesn’t seem to be too expensive. It costs exactly $9.99 on Amazon.com to purchase this Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus CD and DVD with concert highlights and backstage footage – plenty of material to entertain a 5-year-old for untold hours. A bargain at double the price, if you can stand Cyrus’ chirpy pop. (Tuesday)

Will anyone talk about? The 20th season of “Real World.” MTV is awesomely marketing the latest installment of the classic reality show as “Real World XX.” We’re with it! As for the show itself, it was filmed in Hollywood, and the “job” the kids had to perform was to learn to do improv comedy. Really scraping the barrel, guys. (Tuesday)

We’ve been talking about: The “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” ad campaign. Our household is split on whether those scrawled signs around town that say “My mother never liked you Sarah Marshall” and “I hate you Sarah Marshall” are funny or dumb. Either way, we hear the movie is fun! (Friday)

We will talk about: Passover. We’ve always thought of Passover as a Jewish Thanksgiving with more stuff to do. At Thanksgiving you just eat; at Passover you have to get through a whole series of stuff before you are allowed to eat. This year we might try making our own gefilte fish. Might! (Saturday)

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Deborah Netburn