Let's see. On TV tonight we have Get Down Tonight: The Disco Explosion (PBS), Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (WB), WWE SmackDown! (UPN), Extreme Makeover (ABC), and Survivor (CBS). It makes me glad that we have cable so that we have alternatives such as Hunting 201, 101 Most Sensational Crimes of Fashion!, and the Essence of Emeril, where we can learn how to make cheese herbed popovers. Is it any wonder that this - http://www.tvbegone.com/ - is one of the hottest items for Christmas?

The lead story in our local paper told us about poisoning rats in an old factory in Gardner. The stories about war, famine, and disease in other parts of the world were below the fold and on the inside pages.

Oh, and this gem from yesterday's paper: " The bloodstains and nauseating smell discovered inside a Crescent Street apartment Monday could have been caused by the tenant, a 37-year-old Russian illegal immigrant, who had partaken in serious drinking days before the discovery and also suffered from minor bleeding wounds, authorities said yesterday.... The odor and scene at [the tenants]’s apartment led investigators Monday to believe a decomposing body might have been inside. " He's not dead. He just smells that way.

Yesterday the town where I work was having problems with its water system. An email went out to all employees in the two buildings, urging us to limit our use of the rest rooms until the problem was resolved. Mercifully the crisis was resolved quickly.