The best laid plans

After two decades of construction, Boston's Big Dig project is finally coming to an end (officially, as of December 31, 2007). At last count, the project has cost taxpayers over $14,600,000,000. Far worse, it has taken the lives of four workers and one civilian.

On the bright side, Boston's central artery has been transformed from this:



to this:



yay!

If the Big Dig had been my idea, I think I would be committing ritual suicide right about now.

Whaaaa?!

I am curious (and somewhat dubious) to see what the late-night talk shows come up with when they return in January sans writers. Especially in Stephen Colbert's case, I believe he could still put together a funny show without the help of a full writing staff. The Daily Show also has a ton of on-screen talent who I believe are capable of being funny without a script.

But questions over the format of both shows -- which rely heavily on writers -- remained unanswered Thursday, with many segments of both thought to be off limits according to WGA strike rules.

Strike rules?! How do they get to have rules? Isn't this like a petulant child refusing to join in a game, and then trying to disrupt everyone else from having a good time? The WGA's stance strikes me as unfair, unreasonable, and downright un-American. There I said it; all striking workers are communists. Or, to use the modern term, terrorists.

Bottom line: even if hiring scab writers or other work-arounds are considered "against the rules" who cares? What are the writers going to do, strike harder? They would be crazy to bring any kind of lawsuit against the AMPTP, as that would surely end all negotiation talks between the two sides. The conventional wisdom is that writers need jobs more than producers need writers. If the WGA doesn't come to its senses soon, they will get what they deserve: a permanent vacation. Somebody wake up the Gipper and bring him back so he can fire these guys and start over.

Music to my ears

After Talks Fail, Writers' Strike Could Drag On

"There's a huge transition in our business," Steven Bochco, creator of the TV hits "L.A. Law" and "NYPD Blue," said in a recent interview. "This may hasten the demise of the model that we've all worked under."

I would love to see this strike turn network television on its head. I've said it before and I'll say it again. With a few notable exceptions, unions are evil. If you aren't happy with your contract, go work somewhere else. If you can't get more money somewhere else, guess what? You don't deserve more money. Who needs television writers anyway? If it weren't for sports in HD, I would totally drop cable. Just give me the Internet and a good book.

How did we get here?

Like many football fans, I was recently up in arms over the current feud between big cable and the NFL Network, which prevented me from watching Packers-Cowboys in the comfort of my own home (and will similarly prevent me from watching Pats-Giants on Dec. 29). But then I read this article by the Sports Guy, and realized that this is nothing new. I've always been annoyed that I can't watch any and every NFL game that I want to each week. Well, I could if I had DirecTV and was willing to pay for Sunday Ticket, but I don't and I'm not. That being said, there's a larger issue here that needs to be addressed. It's hinted at in this article about the Packers-Cowboys game:

The league hoped to get 70 cents per customer per month from the cable carriers for distribution on their popular basic digital tier. If the NFL could sell its network to cable companies across the country, including Comcast and Time Warner's 38 million subscribers, the rate would generate more than $300 million in subscription fees annually. That would be before a single second of commercial time was sold.

So, the NFL Network wants to get paid by both advertisers and the cable carriers. No big surprise, that's just how it works. But if you stop and think about it for a minute, why should it work that way? It seems to me the revenue stream should be flowing in the other direction. Advertisers pay big bucks to networks that have the best ratings, but those networks (at least in this case) are only able to achieve high ratings thanks to the millions of viewers who are watching on cable. The way I see it, I should be getting paid to watch commercials. How do I make this happen?