"The Clinton condom will be the top of our line," said Guangzhou Rubber Group spokesman Liu Wenhua, adding that Clinton should be honored by the product. "The names we chose are symbols of people who are responsible and dedicated to their jobs," he said.

Ugh. Should someone market a line of pink caskets as the Mao line?

The one thing that I appreciate on House -- aside from smart people playing smart people, and the rude zingers -- is the understanding that medicine is so often a total guessing game. They start treating a guy for disease X, and the treatment almost kills him, and only then do they figure out he's got disease Y.

With that baseline, it's sort of a miracle that any malpractice lawsuit goes forward.

I think the show is a lot easier to take if you swallow the notion that all the head-scratchers all end up in the same place, and that one doctor can be conversant in that many specialties.

the few I saw did seem more obviously formulaic to me than say E.R. or Chicago Hope

The A story in 90% of the episodes is "Why is this person dying?" The beats are of a Law and Order-type regularity. The B story is about House pissing people off.

Which was why "Three Stories" stood out so -- completely different rhythm.

Oh! Rent trailer! Man, I've never seen it, bu that damned soundtrack is embedded in my brain -- don't own it, never have, never even cued it up.

But did it really define a generation? Which one?

Nilly - how are you?

I like calling him Almanzo, though he's still warming up to the nickname. Then again, the one nickname he's come up with for himself is Bob.

All I know about Rent is that, if I were not making any money in New York, I would be living somewhere other than Manhattan, and thus paying less rent.

I can't imagine the show defined a generation, since Gen X was already handily defined, and Gen Y, who are not Gen X's children (hello to the word "generation"!), are to be blamed for Britney and the boybands.

Now the IT department is bickering about backups, or something. Jesus.

Happy Birthday, Sophia!!!!

Watching House when you have a killer headache is not a good idea. I went from "I must have a tumor" to "It's a blot clot" to "Oh my God, I'm going to have a stroke" in the space of the hour.

That's exactly why I can't watch it. (Or, in other words, I EAT HAM!!!!)

Happy Birthday, Sophia!

When I opened my eyes this morning, it felt like Friday. Then I realized it was only Wednesday, and made the sound of ultimate suffering.

I like calling him Almanzo

I read a thing! I can't remember where! Turns out "Almanzo" was pronounced with a short "a" so the middle syllable was "man". Which makes the nickname "Manly" make so much more sense.

Still no explaination as to why he ran out of Buffy and Joyce, however.