I'm surprised that Salon still uses the word "housewife" so unselfconsciously.

...it's a hilarious smackback to all the "married-with-kids-automatically-makes-you-a-mature-unselfish-wise-superior-human-being" bullshit. I have yet to see a parent on there who hasn't mouthed some "breeder bingo" excuse for having kids, even though it's plain they can't handle children or didn't think enough about having them in the first place. And it never ceases to amaze how many of them can be so high-achieving/well-off and be brain dead when it comes to the simplest details of raising kids.

The true experts on children are, of course, the childless.

Sheesh.

I hate to be Dougie Downer here, but what about the Suze Orman experience on PBS? There is something dirty about her constant shows on my local station. It used to be that we had a couple of fundraisers a year, but now one of every three months is filled with crappy programing of Suze, metaphysical hacks like Wayne Dryer, syrupy "folk" and classical music, crappy 50's and 60's musical reviews that are nothing but infomercials.

I have read justifications for the new format in saying that it produces more revenue. I guess that is possible if you run a month of fundraising crap every 2 months. PBS is trying to be more hip and produce programs with higher production values to compete with cable...but to what end?

Sorry, but I find that a more useful topic than the fluff that you are producing.

And their ilk, on the radio for instance. Their advice is basically save more however you can even if it hurts. Which I guess is meaningful for people who have enough to save. Most people need help with spending less. We all do. Then after that we have more to save. Although I guess my biggest beef is that it's all so last generation isn't it? Are people honestly planning on not working and just hitting golf balls for 30 years?

What's wrong with you? Chicken isn't $7 a lb (anywhere but whole foods), you sound as out-of-it as george bush 1 buying milk.

YOU AREN'T ALLOWED to bitch and moan for the working class, any more than you are allowed to bitch and moan at Carlin for not voting.

YOU ARE ALLOWED to write about TV shows. Yours isn't cultural criticism (Paglia does that professionally), yours is telling people which quirky TV to watch, how to easily waste a few moments in their week. Stop freaking out! Life isn't passing you by! You dig thru the cultural clearance sale underwear bin, looking for numbers that still might be sexy if the customer is shaped like X, and stands like Y, in Z light. Otherwise weird TV just plain sucks; sure, it is still worth watching, just not worth you talking about it. Wrap your head around that for a second.

This said, I love you, always have since early Polly (even tried to hire you). But woman, you are depressing me. If you want to leave TV PR behind, than god dammit do so... but the first 5-6 paragraphs of your work are becoming more worthless every damn column. You are killing me. PLEASE stop.

Thx. Morgan

has always seemed like a "Dog Whisperer" spin off to me.

Chicken breast is $7 a pound. Just bought some today. And milk is $6.95 a gallon at Winn Dixie unless you buy WD brand, which has at least 50% water added (or tastes like it). What are the working poor eating? Ramen noodles?

Maybe Suze will start advising them to raise chickens and keep a milker in the spare room, and invest the savings.

I worked for a PBS affiliate years ago, and although it was a community-supported station (that went dark because the community didn't want to pay for it) I know what happened with the fundraising process at the other stations.

First, "Public Television" is a misnomer. It isn't for the "public" at all, unless you think the rich and pretentious-college-educated are the sole members of the public. The "public" part of it was Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Zoom and shows of that ilk.

Those shows were the residue of PBS's former identity as National Educational Television. They got rid of that "educational" name quickly; it brought back memories among adults of the child abusers and dominatrixes that make up 98 percent of American teachers. Bad for business. Except that the PBS "educational" shows turned out to be a profit center for the Children's Television Workshop, with the sale of Sesame Street toys. (Sadly not for the PBS network or affilate stations.)

There were a lot of genuinely popular shows, for such things as sewing and painting, but most of those were done by universities with TV departments like the University of Michigan, not by the independent PBS stations.

PBS realized they couldn't do shows to appeal to the general public; commercial TV already did that. So they went for the rich and intellectual, and their shows reflected that. How many people needed to see a show like Aviation Weather except those rich enough to own airplanes? Or Wall Street Week in the era before internet brokers?

Since PBS is a network for and by the rich, and now receives most of its support from megacorporations, of course it's going to reflect the view of the rich and conservative; censorship of gay-themed shows and sexually controversial material is standard operating procedure among the PBS affiliates, in those cases when the network itself didn't kill such material.

When I graduated college, there was a meeting of St. Louis college folk about starting a "true community TV station," because people were sick of the PBS affiliate sucking up to the rich and powerful. They wanted to produce programs that were closer to the needs of working people and the poor. They never got the chance. About the only place such a thing can exist is on YouTube, and only people with fast internet can see it. Which the megacorps are determined to keep out of the hands of the poor as well.

By the way, you'll note I didn't say a word about Havrilesky this week. She wasn't exceptionally bad. Bravo!