I suspect (as I've discussed with my brother Joe) that the point of ethanol isn't to reduce greenhouse gasses, but to reduce dependency on foreign oil. The US is still an agricultural superpower, and farmers vote. Further, the technology for refining and burning oil is fairly mature, but we have a long way to go with biomass, which can only get more efficient as the market dictates.

You can't trust Bush to do the right thing, but this is at least less of a bad thing than usual. Meanwhile, renewable energy technology will continue to become more viable. For the moment, I'm glad that conservatives are being pushed in the right direction. With luck, adults will be in charge after the 2008 elections and we can really work toward solving the problems we created.

Just a few days after Yom Kippur, Ask The Pilot sheds some guilt. While I don't condone either example of pilfering, I understand the need to bring home a physical object, to make a personal connection. And the need to share the experience. Patrick got a book deal and a good story out of his keepsakes; more than just a conversation starter.

My own expiation: I brought home three pebbles from Antarctica. You're not supposed to take anything from the pristine land, but it's a continent, larger than Europe, and I didn't think anyone would miss them. There's nothing unusual about the rocks, and I have to keep them in a marked baggie just to remind everyone of what they signify. I'm happy with my souvenirs, though I'm more happy for the pictures (link off my web site). I had no trouble with customs.

Yes, this is trivia, but that's inevitable when talking about "the best" tv show or "favorite" opening credits. I might go so far as to say that everything to do with television and the entertainment industry is trivia. There's a lot of trivial information which is important only in discussions such as this one. Today's youth simply doesn't have the experience to judge older shows, never having lived through them.

Yup, kids today don't watch enough tv...

I think you're overstating newer attempts to squeeze time. Most "classic" tv theme songs were a minute long. Some were reprised at the end of the show, others not. Producers always tried to keep the time for intro and outro short. Now, we don't even have as many reruns and syndication usually just hacks out a scene from the middle. Indeed, one of the best reasons to watch tv on DVD is to see the real end credits, not those unreadable things squished to make more ad space. I might go so far as to say that if producers made a better product, including a good opening and watchable credits, they wouldn't have to sell as much ad time to pay for it.

I haven't seen the pictures in question, but your description makes the subject matter tame and the camera vicarious. It's not like she posed naked or her boyfriend distributed videos of them skinnydipping. Merely being seen in the altogether is nothing (hey, look in a mirror, bozo). Real titillation comes when you catch people doing something fun but shameful (see Spears, Brittney).

As is often the case, Futurama called it:

"Thanks to the internet, I'm now bored with sex." -- Fry

Shockwave Radio Theater regularly plays "Folk Songs for Yuppies". TV theme songs. Sometimes, covers of tv theme songs. I have loads of fun slipping in and out of eras and mental images . Many people have mentioned some of favorites, and I'll try not to repeat, but here are some more that stick in my mind:

Of the current shows, I really love Two-and-a-half Men, the occasionally used opening with the 2 1/2 of them in tuxes lip syncing the great (and short) theme.

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson

Green Acres

The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite (oh, those teletypes!)

The Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck Show (Overture, curtain lights! This is it, we've hit the heights...)

It's About Time (It's about space, about two men in the strangest place...)

Did you know that Desi Arnaz wrote lyrics to the theme to I Love Lucy? Great stuff. Better than the Gene Roddenberry lyrics to Star Trek, or the Bonanza words...

While distaff words are all well and good, you have to wonder about the wives of holier-than-thou moralists. What do they say to one another? It's too late for Mrs. Larry Craig to talk to the former Mrs. Jim Bakker, but she could still talk to Mrs. David Vitter or any of the ever-increasing number of wives (and the occasional husband) of those who were caught out-and-out lying to them while trying to pass laws that they are transgressing. Mark Foley is an example, and Florida Rep. Bob Allen another.

The right wing women came down hard on Hillary Clinton (if you'll pardon the imagery), notably Mrs. Vitters. Now that they have been shown to be fools, are they going to apologize to her or are they going to ask her advice? After all, as a previous letter writer defined the term, Bill didn't cuckold Hillary. It wasn't "sex" in the "possibility of offspring" sense of the word. By that definition, the Unresigned Sen. Craig didn't cuckold his wife either. Ah, the finer points of language.

I'll stick to calling Suzanne Craig a "conservative idiot" or, to remove the redundancy, a "fool".

The Minneapolis Star Tribune often feels like a GOP list of talking points with bridge column and sudoku, but at least the comics page is good. This week's Opus, in all it's glory, is on the front page of the Sunday Funnies as usual.