I was chatting with a guy in my cooking class, and he mentioned he was from Austin. I told him I wanted to visit Austin sometime to do the Ride for the Roses, and he said his brother was best friends with Lance Armstrong and helped to organize the ride.

"Wait, your brother is Bart Knaggs?" I asked, in some disbelief.

"Yeah!" he said.

I met Bart the first time I visited the Tour in 2002. On the last day of our trip, he joined us for dinner at our hotel. Good guy, and a bull of a rider.

Today I read that one of the finalists is New York Citi Habitats real estate broker Judd Harris. He was one of the brokers who showed me apartments when I first arrived in NYC. He was one of the more humane of an otherwise sleazy profession, though he didn't find me any sterling properties. I'll have to check in on American Idol from time to time this season to cheer him on. May he sell to Simon, Paula, and Randy better than he did to me.