The first episode of the new series of American Idol is giving me a headache.

It's very hard to watch....veery, very hard to watch.

I sit here, cringing.  Wincing visibly, I'm told, at the attempts some people are making to 'sing'.

I am constantly amazed at people's ability to sweeten the truth, to make it a little easier on themselves.  People manage to talk themselves into believing anything....and then are devastated when they are told what the rest of us can see - that they can't sing, never were able to sing, never WILL be able to sing, and that they're not going to Hollywood.

I'm telling myself that this is what it must be - because it's either that or we have a epidemic of narcissisism.