Three new programs debut tonight, and all of them are losers. What are the odds of that? Pretty good, I'd say, considering the current state of television. ...more

March 31, 2009

Our country is in the throes of a very unstable economy of which there is no solution except to delay the inevitable collapse of things we have become accustomed to — primarily having everything we want right now. ...more

February 12, 2009

Afternoon baseball belongs to the nostalgic "good old days." ...more

November 5, 2008

It comes around every four years, all the sputtering to the effect that the political conventions are a big, noisy waste of time and money, muscling in on eight precious prime-time TV hours that would be better given to reality shows that, fake as they are, are still more real than the staged politics. ...more

August 30, 2008

One recent Saturday night, my 81-year-old in-laws, once serious league bowlers, got to throw strikes and pick up spares, just like in "the old days." ...more

February 25, 2008

It was a dark and stormy night, and all of Hollywood was a-twitter. ...more

February 14, 2008

When the Hollywood writers union first went on strike, we hardly noticed because our favorite shows all had several weeks of episodes already "in the can," as they say in the entertainment industry. When those episodes ran out we watched reruns for a while, but that got old in a hurry. So, eventually, we shut the TV off after the evening news and made an amazing discovery … there is life without television. We read books, played cards, listened to classical music, and called our families out-of-state who were suddenly free to talk because now our calls were not interrupting new episodes of their favorite shows. It's not easy to admit it, but I realized I knew more about what was going on in the lives of characters on "House" and "Gray's Anatomy" than in the lives of my brother and niece. ...more

February 3, 2008

In the weeks leading to Christmas, an online wine retailer gave 15 percent discounts to anyone who sent in a photo of its newspaper ad snapped with a camera phone. ...more

January 2, 2008