Of all the "endings" the one that was the most powerful to me was that of Omar Little. It's taken me a bit to process it, but I feel like THAT was the death that he had coming to him. If you accept the fact that he was a tragic character, that he lived strictly by the sword, then it made sense that he should have died that way, although as Snoop says, "Deserve got nothing to do with it."

I was such a fan of his character. He was truly larger than life. No matter how many stashes he took or robberies he pulled off, he was a consummate professional. The jump from the 4-story window only confirmed what we suspected, that he was part gangster and part superman.

Except that is not the story that David Simon is really telling! NO ONE is the superhero. No one rides off graciously into the sunset. It is in THAT sense that Omar's death makes the most sense, as a balancing act between sudden, violent death and his glorious acts of valor, such as they were.

And I applaud him for thi epic story. The great virtue of "The Wire" was its complexity and it's refusal to give us easy answers.

Thank you so much for this, Mr. Simon. I only wish that I had a person to watch this with. It's too engaging to watch alone.

. . . not just to see Opus, but because I can't wait to read what stupid things the readership has to say. Oh boy! I can't wait for this week's slew of shit. Fire away!

This week's prize goes to the person with the most crippled, stunted sense of humor.

While I can understand what it is that Dr. Zaroff is trying to say here, I have to disagree. We are not children, we're adults, and any modern human with half a brain in their head would know that combining all the drugs that were found in Ledger's system is a legitimate health hazard. People need to learn to take responsibility for their own lives. We can't be babied through every single interaction of our lives. And what sort of "normalcy" is it that the doctor is defending when people are quadruple medicating themselves?

You know, maybe Mr. Ledger was not suicidal, but I also cannot imagine that he was his own best guardian, given the circumstances under which he died.

. . . but what I'm hearing is that a lot of Clinton supporters feel entitled to our vote because we are women and feminists.

I can see how it is that conservative America might have needed Buckley at one point. All of the wealthy, well-appointed types probably felt frustrated and voiceless during the latter half of the twentieth century. And it was Buckley's relaxed, pithy style that made him so attractive, even to his opponents.

Most Americans, wealthy or not, LOVE a good, old-fashioned, blue-blooded elitest. Someone who knows which fork to use, drinks the right kind of liquor and speaks the Queen's English. Having Buckley in America was kind of like keeping a member of royalty as a house pet. He didn't resemble us at all, but that only made him more attractive.

Buckley was the face of patriarchy and privilege at a time when it desperately needed good pr. To me, it's irrelevant that his modern-day media contemporaries have such a different approach to public persuasion. They're both clumsier and more aggressive. But why is it that we should be eulogizing either? Democracatic ideals can be subverted with a crowbar as well as the velvet glove approach; It's all bullshit to me, however you dress it up.

Yes. Of course. A vote for Obama is OF NECESSITY a vote against Hillary and, by extension, ALL WOMEN. I'm glad that the media has mapped it out for me. Thanks for the clarification. I don't know where I would be without you. Thinking for myself perhaps? Naah. Surely that is beyond my ability.

I remember a time when Oscars NEVER went to foreign films, such was the xenophobia of Americans.

And, keep in mind, American movies of 2007 were pretty abysmal. Whose fault is it that Hollywood has been drained of flavor?

Complaining about the idiosyncracies of a cartoon is like getting mad at misspelled graffiti. He's a penguin who wears pajamas; It's not supposed to be sensible. You're really concerned about the logistics of nose flossing? The readership of Salon is really starting to scare me. I thought we were the intelligent, well-rounded demographic. Turns out that it's just not so.

Why do we always equate entertainment industry cash cows as "owning" the world? Don't they just own revenue?

It's a very consistent way to write about the biz, but it never fails to depress me. I mean, half the people in the United States watched the Super Bowl, that still doesn't mean diddily squat to me. And, I would imagine, not withstanding residents of Massachusetts and New York, it didn't mean too much to anybody else, not when you get right down to it.

It's unfortunate that young children are into this, but, more importantly, why are WE talking about it and dedicating screen space to it?