Station Break

Pop Culture and More

Washington Post staff writer Paul Farhi was online Tuesday, Dec. 2, at 1 p.m. ET to talk about the latest news and personalities from the pop culture world.

Today: Did you hear what Britney's up to NOW?! Yeah, neither did we. And if you're like us, you don't care, either. Besides, there's far more important pop-culture flotsam and jetsam to sort out -- like more Stupid TV Anchorman Props and why that woman in the State Farm Insurance commercials is so obsessed about her deductible that she talks about it in public restroom stall.

A transcript follows.

Farhi is a reporter in The Post's Style section, writing about media and popular culture. He's been watching TV and listening to the radio since "The Monkees" were in first run and Adam West was a star. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Los Angeles, Farhi had brief stints in the movie business (as an usher at the Picwood Theater), and in the auto industry (rental car lot guy) before devoting himself full-time to word processing. His car has 15 radio pre-sets and his cable system has 500 channels. He vows to use all of them for good instead of evil.

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Paul Farhi: Greetings all, and welcome to our heavily discounted Holiday Doorbuster-Everything Must Go! chat...Well, here's something to chew on. It's now officially official (once again): "Media exposure" makes your kids do really bad things--eat too much, smoke and drink, take drugs, have risky sex, and generally turn into a pretty sorry individual.

Okay, not exactly. And maybe not at all. Despite the scary headline on today's Post story("Media Bombardment Is Linked to Ill Effects During Childhood"), this study of studies didn't actually say that about watching TV, surfing the internet, playing video games, and listening to that devil music. It said these "ill effects" (a phrase only newspapers and researchers ever use) are *correlated* with heavy media exposure.

Correlated.

Kind of an important distinction. It means that two things run in parallel; when one thing ("media exposure") goes up, so does the other (weight gain, drug use, etc.). It doesn't mean that one *causes* the other (as the article later points out).

So: It may well be that already troubled kids turn to "media" as an escape from other stuff that's going wrong in their lives. That is, "media exposure" doesn't CAUSE bad stuff to happen--it just happens to be the way people cope when real difficulties--divorce, poverty, lousy health care, laziness, depression, you name it--are weighing on people.

This raises a potentially optimistic conclusion: Maybe we ought to be praising "the media" for being such a great distraction for our kids. Thank you, "Mortal Kombat III," for being there for me when Mom or Dad couldn't or wouldn't. Thank you, Guns n' Roses, for your fine musical stylings when I was flunking algebra. And thank you, Facebook, for all of the fake "friends" at a time when I didn't have any real ones.

Or maybe not. But surely if kids got what they needed from parents, schools, peers and the rest of the world, we wouldn't be talking about this in the first place. As they tend to say in academic circles, we need more study...

And speaking of media distractions, here are the ratings for Washington's local news programs in November (a month formerly known as a "sweeps" but no longer). All I can say is, WRC, channel 4, continues to command amazing viewer loyalty, even as its network parent (NBC) continues to head into the dumper. And, oy, poor WUSA, channel 9. It used to be a contender. Even with its network, CBS, leading in primetime, it's hardly in the game:

5 p.m. to 6 p.m.:

1. WRC, channel 4, 168,000 viewers (plus 36,000 from Nov. '07).

2. WJLA, channel 7, 112,000 viewers (plus 14,000).

3. WTTG, channel 5, 70,000 viewers (minus 19,000).

4. WUSA, channel 9, 40,000 viewers (minus 12,000).

6 p.m. to 6:30/7 p.m.

1. WRC, 200,000, (plus 8,000).

2. WJLA, 160,000, (plus 66,000).

3. WTTG, 61,000 (minus 7,000).

4. WUSA, 50,000 (minus 14,000).

10 p.m. to 11 pm.

-- WTTG, 155,000, (minus 16,000).

11 p.m. to 11:30 pm.

1. WRC, 187,000, (plus 62,000).

2. WJLA, 147,000 (plus 33,000).

3. WUSA, 116,000 (minus 4,000).

4. WTTG, 81,000 (minus 13,000).

Okay, let's go to the phones...

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washingtonpost.com: Media Bombardment Is Linked To Ill Effects During Childhood (Post, Dec. 2)

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Fox 5 commercials: Maybe I've been watching WAY too much TV, and the local Fox 5 in particular, but my head is about to explode from all their ads for the Fox 5 D.C. Web site! On their 10:00 news, I swear they must throw in two ads every commercial cycle. MAKE THEM STOP!

Paul Farhi: Yes, and they mention it/Chyron it constantly during the newscast, too. Well, it figures: TV is a troubled medium, just like print. And just like the print media, TV stations are trying to build up their Web traffic. They're using their TV stations to do it. I guess that's called cross-promotion.

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Beltsville, Md.: Paul, how come I can't pick up any Redskins stations in FM? They're all on strange frequencies I don't usually use, and don't seem to have any bandwidth near my home.

How come there isn't a major FM flagship station?

Paul Farhi: Mr. Snyder laid his radio bets mostly on AM, via WTEM 980. But the Redskins DO have several FM stations carrying the games (check local listings, as they say). They're just little bitty FM'ers, and hard to pull in in a lot of places.

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Rockville, Md.: What's up with the weird Sprint television ads lately, with the creepy black and white, the creepy violin music, and the equally creepy CEO walking around squinting, using his hands too much, mumbling unprofessionally, and actually saying, like a nerd, "Pretty cool, huh?" HORRIBLE! They're like horror movies -- without the sense of humor.

Additionally: No one over the age of 50, or any CEO walking around in black and white with creepy violin music playing, should ever say, "Pretty cool, huh?" It just sounds stupid.

Paul Farhi: I had a similar reaction. I'm not comfortable when CEOs start trying to sound "with it." They should just stick to the job of losing billions of their shareholders' dollars and be happy with that. Plus, look closely: the Sprint guy is walking around Central Park all bundled up, like it's...right now. But the trees in the background are full and apparently green. Looks to me like they shot those ads in August, and tried to make 'em look like December. They failed.

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KIDS: Parents who let their kids watch TV unrestricted also tend to neglect other childrearing roles.

Paul Farhi: Logical, but not always. I was always pretty liberal about how much my kids watched (as long as other stuff was done), but "unrestricted" is way too strong a word to describe the policy in my house.

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Clifton, Va.: What's with all of the phone ads suddenly -- from different companies -- who all use this bad music and show people getting information from their phones and jumping around from cut to cut -- as if this is new technology? Everyone's had phones now -- including with cameras, the Internet, keyboards, video aspects, songs, whatever -- for years now. It's not new, it's not news! And stop with the smug music and editing and people hitting keyboards -- we know, we know, we know already! Enough!

Paul Farhi: Maybe this is an indication that cell phone technology has plateau'ed (though I still find the iPhone pretty cool, to coin a phrase Sprint CEO Dan Hesse might use). The cellphone folk need to add some new features. I'm rooting for an invisibility shield.

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Hollywood, Calif.: I know that many of the holiday ads were produced months ago, but I find something almost unnerving about watching the diamond, Lexus and other high-end product ads that are now shown 24/7. "Make your family happy this Christmas and lease a car you cannot afford"?!

Remember when we used to get nuts and an orange in our stockings??

Paul Farhi: No, actually, I don't remember that...As for the ads, I'm on fake-snow watch. A lot of those commercials have really snowy locales. Since I doubt they were really shot LAST winter, they've gotta be doing it with plastic snow. Just sayin'....

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Alexandria, Va.: The Lexus ad, where Anne Marie gazes enviously at her neighbor's Christmas pony, should have ended with an adult Anne Marie gazing enviously at her neighbor's Christmas Lexus.

Paul Farhi: I think that series is really good. Love the way they've tricked up the kid scenes to make it look like 1977 or something.

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Tysons Corner, Va.: Really, nothing personal, but can someone who actually knows the Koons family politely tell them that having Crystal, if that's her name, do their radio and television ads are actually putting people off from buying their cars and even visiting their dealerships? Honestly. She may be a nice person, she may handle administrative and managerial duties well for her family's longtime, successful business, but, well, she is just not suited for radio or television ads -- to the point where her ads are turning off people and causing them to simply shop elsewhere. Some of us have tried telling the dealership -- but they get defensive and/or don't respond! That's customer service! Everyone with a local business needs to follow simple advertising rules: Do NOT put a family member in the ad, under any circumstance, any more; and please hire professional actors who know how to talk, broadcast, emote, use their body and eyes correctly, present themselves on camera and on the air correctly, and who have actual training, ability and education regarding acting and talking on the air. And you cannot use cost as an excuse -- there are literally hundreds of local, qualified actors who will do local ads for non-outrageous fees. If paying an actor means that your company will not induce ridicule and will not lose customers because of your horrible ads, then do it.

Paul Farhi: Maybe you prefer Tammy Darvish?...Everything you say may be true, but remember the Golden Rule of advertising: No ad agency ever got fired because it decided to put the CEO in the ads.

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WUSA news: It was great before they changed the format to reduce the amount of Derek McGinty discussing actual news for adults with an 8th-grade-plus education, replacing that format with more of the new people doing touchy-feely human interest crap. If I recall correctly, that happened about a month ago, so clearly I'm not the only viewer it annoyed.

Paul Farhi: Maybe, but Channel 9's slide goes back a lot longer than that. Years. They were hot on Jim Vance's and Doreen Gentzler's heels back when Gordon Peterson and Maureen Bunyan were in the anchor chair. And no surprise that Channel 7 is gaining with Gordon and Maureen, et al, in the anchor chairs.

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Malibu, Calif.: That "Rosie Live" monstrosity on Wednesday was horrible -- amateurish, badly-written, badly-produced, badly-acted, and just above a high school revue, no offense to our fine high school students nationwide. But the show was just horrible. You can start with the host -- sorry, Rosie, you are not a variety show host. You came across more like a kid hosting a backyard show for neighbors, not as a professional entertainment show host. And you're not at the level of singing and dancing to do those things in your own show. And if you host a show -- some simple rules are not to load up the thing with other NBC performers -- crass and tacky; don't sing a song about products -- unbelievably crass, tacky and dumb; and please don't have Liza Minnelli gamely trying to resurrect old glories -- not to be mean, but her voice is shot, her presence said desperate, and pairing her with Rosie O'Donnell was just weird. If you're going to do a variety show, have a subtle, entertainment "man about town" host like Ed Sullivan, Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin or Johnny Carson, or have a genuine entertainment talent host, like Carol Burnett, Sonny and Cher (really), Dean Martin (really), Jackie Gleason and others. Start with the talented host, and work outward from there.

Paul Farhi: The public clearly agreed with you by not watching it. It was supposed to be tryout for a fulltime variety show hosted by Rosie. Now it won't be.

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Local TV Station Web sites: The hardest thing to find on any of them is the actual program schedule of what they are showing on TV.

Paul Farhi: They sure don't make it easy, do they? I've had to search and search at times. This would seem to be Job No. 1 for any station....

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Gaithersburg, Md.: Note to Best Buy: The next time you hire amateur, non-engaging people to be in your television ads, please, do not give them coffee or caffeine or other stimulants; give them some acting advice; and lower the volume on the sound mixers. The current ads are doing nothing but causing people to mute their TVs -- and shop for electronics at another store.

Paul Farhi: My, my. We are crabby about holiday ads today, aren't we?...I kind of like that series. The anecdotes aren't bad; the young people are enthusiastic. And given the alternative--lots of prices and black boxes filling up the screen--it's not an uncreative way to brand Best Buy. Plus, with Circuit City on the ropes, BB's got a clear field this time around.

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Arlington, Va.: I'm a sports guy and I must say that Brett Haber at WUSA is one of my least favorite sports newscasters, or whatever, in the area. For me it's Feldie, Hellie a little behind then a big drop off to the WJLA guy followed by another big drop to Haber. That's my explanation for why WUSA is faltering -- and I'm sticking to it.

Paul Farhi: Oldtimers (me) fondly remember the days of Glenn Brenner (with Gordon Peterson cross talk). Nothing like it on the local stations since.

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Parallel Universe: So, if the media started to move away from the violent, disgusting, dark, meaningless claptrap toward a less violent, more civilized, lighter, more meaningful presentation, the sponge-brained children would eventually stop taking guns into nightclubs, stop drunkenly dragging police officers down the Beltway, and stop stabbing bus drivers for not providing a $2 token?

Who could live in such a world?

Paul Farhi: Yes. More Disney Channel and PBS would solve all of our kids' problems. Or not.

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CEOs in ads: You wrote that no ad agency has ever been fired for putting the CEO in an ad and I'm sure that's true but I still think it's a terrible trend! I agree with the previous posters (re: Crystal Koons and Sprint guy) and can think of other bad examples. For instance, the first time I saw the SC Johnson commercials with the 3rd-gen family member CEO guy, I seriously thought he was "mentally challenged." I don't know what it is about him, but he doesn't seem altogether right to me.

Paul Farhi: I don't know a thing about Mr. Johnson, but I am curious about S.C. Johnson calling itself "a family company." What does that mean? Is it like the "family" bookstores, which are signalling that they're selling Christian stuff, without actually saying they're selling Christian stuff? I really don't know.

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Rockville, Md.: Paul, do all the Redskins radio stations delay the signal by ten seconds, or only the one I listened to Sunday. (It's been a few years since I did the simulcast thing. Has it been that way for a while?)

Paul Farhi: Yes, for a while. The delays reflect the various transmissions between (or maybe among) the satellites, phone lines, cables and what not that all the media carrying the game use (i.e., Fox may have a satellite lag in its transmission, but 980 WTEM may not. Or vice versa).

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Look at what a phone can do!: Paul:

I'm (near) technology-free by choice. It would be interesting for you or some other reporter to talk to those of us who don't care -- despite Dan Hesse's entreaties -- what a cell phone can do! or how great satellite radio and TV are, or how much I 'need' a GPS in my car.

I want my phone to make and receive calls. It does that; in my house and in my office. I've never felt the need for a cell phone. In 10 years, only twice have I thought it would be nice to have had one handy.

I don't have cable/satellite/fancy TV. I'm not a TV snob, just don't watch a lot and I certainly don't feel I'm missing out. (the digital converter box isn't great, but if the 'Skins come in clear on a Sunday afternoon, that's fine by me and I can't wait to see how crisp Lost is come January!)

I'm not a luddite. I've been a Mac user for over 20 years. I have an iPod -- for music. I drive a Prius (Metro during the week) and when I don't know my destination, I pull out a map before turning on the car. I shop online. I e-mail, I read the news sites (and subscribe to the print Post).

I just could never justify the expense of those gadgets and feel no need to be "plugged in" 24/7. It's not that the technology isn't useful; I believe it's taken over people's lives and most don't realize how much they're missing on the other side.

We're out here, and we're happy without all that gadgetry.

Paul Farhi: Me, I was just like to get a computer that doesn't mess up. My (almost) brand new Dell did so again this morning. Grrrr.

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No one over the age of 50 should ever say, "Pretty cool, huh?" : Okay, GenXer, who think you invented it all. Who do you think first used the expression COOL? Boomers.

Paul Farhi: I hear ya, but it still sounds dorky coming from that guy in a TV commercial.

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Speaking of Darvish: I have a question for the people losing their hair. Did car dealerships always brand their cars with their logos? A good example is the DARCARS you see on many of Darvish's sold products. Why do they do this? Was car rustling a big problem in the 50s?

Paul Farhi: I don't remember a time when the dealer didn't put his/her little logo on the rear of the car. And, boy, does that look bad. You're driving behind a $50,000 Lexus and you see that thing (plus the dealer-ad on the license plate frames) and you think, tack-ee!

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New England: Hi Paul,

Please accept an out-of-area rant. We don't have a New England Paul Farhi or I'd write to him.

Is WGBH the only PBS station that does incessant fund-raising, or does this occur in your area, too? Last night was another back-to-the-oldies promotion hosted by, yes, Connie Francis! Way to grab that upcoming demographic, guys. Hey, maybe she'd be free to host that Rosie show.

The response to complaints is, It must work or they wouldn't do it. Is this possible? I do support the station, but never during pledge drives. It only encourages them.

But I swear, half the year is devoted to pledge drives.

Paul Farhi: I'm actually the Mid-Atlantic Paul Farhi, but I would be willing to sell franchises up your way, NE....And, yes, of course--pledge drives are the plague of almost all (maybe all) public radio and TV stations across this great land o' ours. It's a very important source of funding for the stations. Until we figure out how to fund public broadcasting without it, we'll be stuck with it.

And Connie Francis? Wow. I know public stations really flog programming during pledge drives that they'd never put on during non-pledge periods, but Connie Francis? Wow.

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I am curious about S.C. Johnson calling itself "a family company." : They are privately owned -- as opposed to stock being available for purchase -- exclusively by the Johnson family.

Paul Farhi: Ah. So the Washington Post Co. is a "family" company, too. Question: Why would this make me want to buy Lemon Pledge(r) or Glade Air Fresheners(r) from them?

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Upper Marlboro again: Gaithersburg too? What is wrong with you people? I actually like having real people show up in ads. Now, the fact that my daughter worked at Best Buy for the better part of last year, and will this winter break may make me prejudiced, but I like having the associates get a few extra bucks to talk about what they actually do! My daughter has actually come home with one of those stories; helped a guy pick out an entire kitchen solution before his poor, befuddled brain dripped out of his ear...I like those!

Paul Farhi: Yeah, I'm kinda partial, too...But Upper Marlboro: "Kitchen solutions"? When did "stuff you can buy" become "solutions"?

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Cranky Thanksgiving Leftover: Every year my wife complains about the amount of food and work required to prepare Thanksgiving, then afterwards she complains about the conversation and parenting skills of our guests. Why can't we just have a national holiday where we complain and eat at Denny's?

Paul Farhi: Brilliant! Now we need a catchy name for it. Open to suggestions...

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Herndon, Va.: Mr. F -- I hope the Station Break singers and dancers are well bundled up for the winter. About those ratings -- really, how accurate are they? Everything I read seems to indicate there's the possibility for a huge margin of error. As far as "family" spokesmen on the TV are concerend -- To avoid any libel suits, I just note in the "plains" city in which I grew up, a local family dealership featured the owner's daughter -- ugly as sin, horrible voice and trying to dress sexily (VERY BAD IDEA). It was a miracle to me the dealership sold any cars, but someone who worked there told me the daughter was the apple of daddy's eye and the first person who had suggested a new ad campaign without the daughter had been fired on the spot. The ads were still running when I left town.

Paul Farhi: Fair question. I won't vouch for Nielsen's accuracy, per se. But I will say that those ratings are MORE accurate than they were before. Reasons: Refinement of survey sampling methods over the years, use of electronic "people" meters (as opposed to silly diaries) to record what people are watching and which people are doing the watching.

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Charlottesville, Va.: No rant, just a catchy, but awful jingle:

"The most exclusive gym in the world is yours. Fitness Reeesooource."

Paul Farhi: I wonder: Aren't most great jingles "catchy but awful"? We're not talking great music. Just music that you remember. Ear worms.

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Out dated TV commercial: Michelin last night, trying to sell tires that are fuel efficient in these days of high gas prices!

Um, I paid $1.79 for gas in 1996 in Yosemite and thought that was INSASNE back then.

Paul Farhi: Boy, have advertisers ever been caught in a switcheroo there. I know oil prices will fluctuate (and it won't be long till we're back over $4, $5, $6 a gallon again), but all that "fuel efficiency" talk seems so last summer at the moment.

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Sprint Commercials: And the worst part about those ads is that they're acting like they're offering this groundbreaking new service. Imagine, being able to ask Sprint customer service reps to explain the features of your phone at the store! Imagine! What a world! Having been an unhappy (yet lazy) Sprint customer for 8 years I can say that that would be quite a world indeed, however I think it's a little bit embarrassing that they are acting like basic customer service is some sort of new, revolutionary concept worthy of said-creepy ad explosions.

Okay I'm done now. Phew.

Paul Farhi: Thank you. Thank you very much. Say, you don't work for Verizon, do you?

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Lexus ads: Weingarten hates 'em! Check out the intro to his chat today. Farhi-Weingarten smackdown!

washingtonpost.com: Gene Weingarten Chat

Paul Farhi: Must not plug competition...must not plug compe...Well, let me just say, I have the utmost respect for Mr. Weingarten. But he is, sadly, a nincompoop on this one.

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Potomac Village: Our upper-middle-class family in Montgomery County has been quietly going to Denny's on Thanksgiving for about 15 years now -- because it's fun and cheap and no one has to cook. And, yes, the food's pretty good, too! And, you know what, if you don't like cooking Thanksgiving dinner -- do not cook it. If you don't like the people, even family, have a few drinks during the day -- that makes everything easier. (Don't drive anywhere after, though.) And we can call the new holiday Dennysgivingday. And after Denny's, we can all go bowling! Tradition!

Paul Farhi: Very sorta campy, PV. Personal disclosure: Back in the day, the Mrs. and I (before she was the Mrs.) would have a standing "date" on Saturday nights at Denny's. I say "date" because it was really "whenever I got off deadline after the paper went to bed on Saturday" (I was usually on the late shift), and Denny's was the only joint open at that hour in our little town.

Wow, that was a really pointless reminiscence, huh?

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Washington, D.C.: Here's an ear worm for you: those chimneysweep ads with their horrible jingle, kind of sung/chanted by some woman with a less than one octive range. They're mostly on WUSA, I believe.

Paul Farhi: Classic! I think those have been franchised around the U.S. and A.

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A Catchy Name for Our New Holiday: "Thanks-venting"?

Paul Farhi: Not bad!

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Catchy, awful jingle: From the 1970s: the Jhoon Rhee self defense ads. 'Nuff said.

Paul Farhi: Classic II! And local.

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Nebraska Ave.: Thanks for the local ratings update. So, have the locals officially abandoned the "sweeps" months of Nov., Feb. and May? Have the national nets done the same?

Paul Farhi: The locals have, thanks to Washington being continuously wired with "people meters." But the networks haven't. Reason: Many markets (particularly smaller ones) don't have the meters, and get demographic data on their audiences only four times a year (though July is kind of an afterthought these days, I guess). As long as there's a patchwork of meters out there, the networks will probably keep hyping their shows during traditional sweeps months.

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washingtonpost.com: Joon Rhee TV Commercial

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Rockville, Md.: So I'm watching 60 Minutes last weekend (yes, the one where Andy Rooney admits to stealing rolls from restaurants to have as breakfast the next morning) and there's a PSA (!) telling women to give their husbands a prostate exam (at a urologist, presumably) for Hannukah. "What could be better than a kosher prostate?" was, I believe, the tag line, accompanied by the clarinet strains of Hava Nagila. Comments?

Paul Farhi: Dang! I watched "60M" on Sunday, and saw Andy's roll-stealing bit, but I missed the prostate-exams-for-Hanukah PSA. What next? Liver checks for Purim? Angioplasties for Rosh Hashana?

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"I can't wait to see how crisp Lost is come January": To the person who doesn't care about the new gadgets: Are you getting a new TV in January? Because if not, then Lost will not be crisper (or is it crispier) in January. Digital signals are transmitted now. It's advisable to use your converter now if you have it to see if you have any issues. Even if the transmission power goes up, you either get the digital signal or you don't. You either get the 0s and 1s or you don't. It doesn't get crisper with more power, just reaches further distance.

Oh, and it's February, not January when this happens. Thou shall not mess with TV signals until well after the Super Bowl.

Sincerely, TV Snob

Paul Farhi: Thanks, TV Snob. What are you doing for Hanukah this year?

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New England, again: I meant to mention -- the obviously youthful broadcaster on WGBH radio was reading a promotion for the oldies fund raiser on WGBH TV. She invited us to remember songs by "Little Anthony and the Imperialists."

Paul Farhi: Those damn PBS lefties!

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Silver Spring, Md.: The "Look at what a phone can do!" person reminds me of the classic Onion story: "Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television" Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television (The Onion, Feb. 9, 2000)

Paul Farhi: Nice. Excellent Onion reefer!

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Pittsburgh, Pa.: I've been using a computer for almost 25 years (first was an Apple 2E!), and don't consider myself technologically challenged. But I can't imagine why people would rather use a GPS than an atlas, unless they're too @#$%&-! stupid to read a map. And except for in an emergency, why would anyone want to take a photo with a cell phone instead of a real (film or digital) camera, when the quality in the latter is so much better?

Paul Farhi: Pittsburgh-area Man Would Rather Use a Map.

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In defense of gadgetry: While I will still take the print edition over the Internet edition (it's easier on the eyes), I see nothing wrong with having a whiz-bang phone/MP3 player/net device combo gadget. Why? It cuts down on environmental waste. Seriously, think about it. Instead of buying three devices that all need to be manufactured (or two devices, and a new map every couple of years), you just get one. That saves paper because you're not buying maps, and, if enough people did it so that demand for multiple devices dropped and demand for combo devices rose, you'd reduce the amount of harmful chemicals used in the production of these devices because you'd reduce the total number of devices a person wants.

Me? I'm looking at smart phones right now so I can get one when my home telephone dies (it's on its last legs), and I'll be ending my land line service at that time too. As for being "plugged in 24/7," that's what the power button is for.

Paul Farhi: I guess so. But it costs a lot, environmentally, to manufacture and ship that device in the first place. If the environment was your concern, how about doing away with it altogether?

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Pittsburgh, Pa.: To New England, who asked "Is WGBH the only PBS station that does incessant fund-raising, or does this occur in your area, too?"

It happens here in River City too on WQED. Sigh. I think it's everywhere on PBS. BTW, I saw my first ever pledge-pitch while living in the D.C. area in the mid-'70s -- done by the then already-legendary Paul Anthony. It's so cool (you should pardon the expression) still to hear him each Friday evening doing the V/O on "Washington Week"!

Paul Farhi: If we can't kill Pledge Drives, maybe PBS stations could develop a little personality around it. Maybe get local entertainers to liven up the proceedings. Maybe a little poetry slam. Maybe Krystal Koons vs. Tammy Darvish in a steel-cage match. I dunno. Something.

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Andy Rooney admits to stealing rolls from restaurants to have as breakfast the next morning: If they're rolls that were already brought to his table, then they were served to him and he paid for them, so why shouldn't he take them home? What would the restaurant do with them otherwise? Would they be re-served to another patron, would the staff eat them, would a cook turn them into croutons, or what? Or would they be discarded (perhaps later to be eaten by dumpster-divers)?

Paul Farhi: Hmmm. Yes. Perhaps "stealing" is too strong a word; a restaurant patron has effectively paid for his/her rolls when they're brought to her/his table. But it does seem--oh, I don't know--just a bit tacky. My grandparents used to grab the Sweet n' Low when we went out to Norm's or Shipp's or where ever we went. It always struck me as a very Depression mentality.

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Arlington, Va.: The Best Buy ads are okay, except for the one who sounds almost snarky in her disbelief that someone had never heard of a Web cam.

Paul Farhi: Was that snark? It kind of sounded like wonderment to me (as in, "I just discovered a primitive tribe that has never heard of electricity, lasers or 7-Elevens. Incredible!").

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Paul Farhi: Folks, that's the kind of eclectic chat I've come to expect (and possibly fear) every week. And I thank you for it, but now I think we should all return to the real world, or whatever variation on reality that each of us inhabits. Fear not, however: We shall do this again next week. Bring your cranky, bring your rants, or just plain bring it. I'll do the same. Until then, as always...regards to all! --Paul.

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