[Shrek] Some random stuff 2

One of my favorite shows has been canceled, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I've liked everything Aaron Sorkin has done, but like his first series Sports Night, Studio 60 was too smart for its audience. It would have been nice if NBC had given it a chance by keeping it on some sort of reasonable airing schedule. I pay attention to when it's being aired and I'm not sure when it comes back to finish its run. Changing a show's schedule like that is a killer. I figured NBC would have learned that lesson with another Sorkin gem, West Wing. Guess not.

Another of the new shows that aired in the fall of '06 I liked was Smith, which starred Ray Liotta as the head of a team of professional thieves. It was canceled after just three weeks in another case of being far too smart for the people watching it. Based on the network schedules released so far it seems all the other shows I watch ("all the other" being a misnomer, I watch like seven network shows) have survived to next season, excluding The Sopranos of course.

And what's with all these game shows in prime time? Not a single one of them is any good, nor is any all that entertaining. The same goes for these reality shows. Survivor used to be at least interesting, now everything that happens there is contrived by writers and editing. Donald Trump, who is the biggest gas bag on the planet and has the worst comb over this side of the Mississippi River, has had his show The Apprentice canceled. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. There's no word if he's blaming Rosie O'Donnell for getting axed by NBC yet.

Changing gears, someone needs to explain to me why the price of gas is rising so quickly. The cost of a barrel of crude oil is fairly stable and lower than it was last summer, and there's been no significant raise in demand. So why is the price skyrocketing? I'm sure it has something to do with most of the oil companies and their record profits. I'm all for the free market, but something needs to be done about these fat cats.

And while you're explaining about the cost of gas maybe you can explain to me how convenience stores and gas stations can sell milk cheaper than supermarkets. Fiona and I generally buy our groceries at the off-priced market Price Rite or at BJ's Wholesale Club, so I was shocked at the prices I saw when we wandered into Price Chopper today. Some of the "sale" prices were obscene. The story is the same at Shaw's, the market we used to go to on occasion before they closed the one that was most convenient for us to get to.

To prevent this from being all negative, Fiona and I will be heading to the Tornadoes' free preseason game Tuesday at the HIP. Fiona has been waiting for local baseball to start up since the last game ended. We'll be skipping our bowling night to go, so we prebowled this afternoon so we'd have scores for the week. I'm looking forward to Josie and Rich telling us about the complaining the other teams will do because Fiona and I were a little over our averages.

Perhaps they'll whine in their blogs about it.