My Sick Mind

Today is Free Cone Day, which isn't some sort of veiled reference to an old comedy sketch - it's free ice cream cone day at your local Ben and Jerry's retail outlet. If you can find one nearby , stop in and demand your free ice cream. It's the least you can do. It's a gamble on my part, but I'm betting that you can't find one close enough to where you are that would make it worth your while to make a special trip for a free ice cream cone. I'm just saying. For me, I'd have to drive to the 60 miles to Atlantic City or cross the $4 bridge to Philadelphia, and as much as I love B&J's, it just ain't worth it somehow. For you gamblers, U of Penn students or Amtrak customers - invite the head freeze. Regular readers will remember Box Wars , the three-day affair between me and my next-door neighbor. Today marked day two of The Yellow Pages Bag. Around here, the local phone company drops the new phone books at what passes for our doorstep....

In case you haven't heard , Tim Kring, executive producer of NBC's onetime hit drama "Heroes," got himself in hot water with recent comments about viewers and DVRs. Kring said that DVRs are making it tougher for serialized shows like "Heroes." At a screenwriting conference earlier this month, Kring said of the serialized trend: "It's a very flawed way of telling stories on network television right now, because of the advent of the DVR and online streaming. The engine that drove [serialization] was you had to be in front of the TV [when it aired]. Now you can watch it when you want, where you want, how you want to watch it, and almost all of those ways are superior to watching it on air. So [watching it] on air is related to the saps and dipshits who can't figure out how to watch it in a superior way." I used to like television. Back when it was free and the shows weren't infested with advertising. You might not be old enough to rememb...

Some (most) of you don't appreciate the significance of Monday night. That's why I'm here. My entertainment habits are broken down into two categories - fact and fiction that is so unbelievable that it's capable of being true. That's why I was so drawn into Heroes . I missed out on the first season, and didn't get into it until midway through the second season. A friend at work loaned me the DVDs of first season of the show, and I watched all 16 hours in less than two weeks. That's how drawn-in I was over the story of ordinary people with extraordinary abilities. A few weeks ago I bought the second season. I finished watching it tonight, just in time for Monday's 3-hour third season premiere. For those of you who don't know anything about the show or would like to - Monday's premiere will be an hour of catch-up followed by a two hour episode. I'm guessing that the catch-up hour will be enough for the uninitiated to become fans. The wri...