Thumbs up to Fresno State alumnus Brad Lewis, producer of this year’s Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature Film, “Ratatouille.â€Â Lewis, along with Roy Christopher bits of the Tower Theatre, was the third member of the Fresno community well-represented at the Academy Awards ceremony last night. Maybe more importantly though, we’re proud to see recognition for the best movie starring a rodent since “The Great Mouse Detective.â€Â

Thumbs down to the loss the women̢۪s basketball team suffered this weekend to the Utah State Aggies. The score for the game was 44-40. We̢۪re glad to know that at least the scorekeeper had an easy night.

Thumbs up to the end of the writer’s strike. That the WGA was able to settle meant we were able to sit through another overlong and overwritten Oscars ceremony. Seriously though, we’re looking forward to the return of “Law and Order,â€Â “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,â€Â “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,â€Â “CSI: Miami,â€Â “CSI: NYâ€Â and “Law and Order: Criminal Intent.â€Â Without our television writers, we’d be stuck with reruns and would never have any original TV material to watch.

Thumbs down to Freeway 99 for being two lanes for long stretches coming into and going out of Fresno. That the freeway is only two lanes means drivers have to choose to drive either slow or fast. Sometimes we just want to drive medium! Although, more often, we just want to drive faster.

Thumbs up to the men’s baseball team who won their game on Sunday against UC Davis with a score of 6-3. The game was interrupted by a two hour rain delay. The game started up again not because it had stopped raining entirely, but because — well, we’re guessing it was just because they were tired of sitting around. In any case, we applaud the team’s perseverance — and their victory.