Tuesday recap - Bye bye Phil

I'm surprised how much I enjoyed country night. Phil, Melinda and Jordin all did better than I expected. My wife was saying how good LaKisha was and I'm like, "Huh?", so it was nice of the judges to vindicate me.

Despite the fact Phil had his best performance in weeks, I'm still puzzling over his comment about how this is his genre, country is what he wants to do. Buddy, maybe you should have figured that out a littl earlier. You know, when it would have made a difference.

I've been down on Melinda for awhile, despite her technical skills, because it was all so old and boring. Tuesday, she picked something much more contemporary and did it up right. It shows she might have a smidgen of pop potential.

If I were Phil, I'd come out tonight in uniform, just to remind people that he's in the service and make them feel extra-guilty for giving him the heave-ho.

What'd you think of Chris' Virginia Tech shout-out? It certainly sounded more sincere than Simon's, but coming right after his performance, it seemed a little calculated. Of course, this is "Idol" -- no reason in the world why it couldn't be both sincere and calculated.

I don't think any of this matters, really. Phil is still on the chopping block, probably (and rightly) followed by Chris. And then things get interesting -- for the first time in weeks.

Quick "House" note: I don't know why, but I really liked that episode. It had every stock ingredient of every other episode, but the pieces just seemed to fit together better than they have in a few weeks. Maybe it was me.