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The TV writers' strike continues, and I'm starting to quiver in fear. Word is they're getting close to a resolution, but if it doesn't come, and networks run out of new episodes, I'm going to demand federal intervention. Bring on the strikebreakers. The landscape of reality TV is looking pretty grim, other than perennial all-stars The Amazing Race, which this year has an Asian woman and her pops, and Ryan Seacrest's hot ex-girlfriend (what? so he's not gay?) and Project Runway, which thus far has been hysterical. If you're not down for that, allow me throw in yet another plug for the greatest television show of all time (for both genders and all ages!), Friday Night Lights.

I don't normally comment on blogs that aren't written by my friends, but Freakonomics had a post about the relative power of labor unions in the NFL and MLB (the post was actually pretty lousy), so I had to respond. I left a brief but insightful comment, and noticed later in the day that I was the "Comment of the Moment" on the front page. Probably as famous as I'm ever going to be, so now is the time to capitalize with the ladies. The only difficulty is finding ladies who care. Minor technicality.

There was a fascinating story in the Wall Street Journal (subscription might be required, I'm not sure) about Larry King getting defrauded by a life settlement company. Life settlement is a rapidly growing and immensely creepy industry. Basically, what these firms do is buy your existing life insurance - they give you cash up front, and pay the remaining premiums on your life insurance. When you die, they collect the face value of the insurance. Meaning, of course, that they are rooting for you to die as quickly as possible. A pretty unsavory business to be in. Larry King, for his part, somehow sold $15 million of life insurance for only $1.4 million (despite being a 70-year old diabetic who has undergone triple bypass heart surgery), then also somehow paid $700,000 in commissions and fees, so after tax and his own attorney fees (that attorney should lose his license), he got nothing. I'm not sure what this means other than that Larry King may not be the brightest bulb in the box.

I have a RSS feed on my Google homepage from People.com. It feeds whatever the highest ranked news stories are, and I'm always baffled by what the highest ranking stories are. For instance, for the last several days, Hulk Hogan's divorce has been the #1 most read story. Really? Hulk Hogan's divorce? There was like a 2-week span where Brooke Burke and David Charvet's baby was the top story. There wasn't even a freaking baby - her publicist just said she was pregnant. I'm surprised they even qualified as celebrities. We need some real stuff to happen. Maybe OJ could go kill someone else. I hope I don't really mean that.

Finally, I leave you with an incredibly inspiring feature from the Onion News Network about a fat kid who devised a brilliant way to go into the swimming pool without being mocked - he kept his shirt on while swimming! (Honestly, this clip completely killed me - you have to watch it).