I saw a few minutes of this and was disappointed that it did not seem to be an actual variety show. The late night shows still have music and stand-up comedy guests; why not throw a few magicians and ventriloquists into the mix? It would hardly be a ratings winner, but surely this will not be either. At least a…

The TNN show hosted by country vocal group the Statler Brothers was said to be the highest-rated show on cable at one point in the 1990s. I don't know if that could really have been true even in that very different era.

Hugh Laurie was best in the small role of Mr. Palmer in Sense and Sensibility.

At least 99% of uses of the terms "flyover states" or "flyover country" are from people from the interior states complaining about the term. I don't know if I have ever heard it used in earnest by a coastal person. (If it is real, it must have originated on the California side, since a true New York or Boston snob…

Most of this is vaguely or implicitly at best in the Bible proper, but traditional Christian doctrine has the patriarchs and prophets before Jesus in Limbo, where they are not being punished (although it is technically part of Hell) but are also not yet in the presence of God. Then Jesus harrows Hell after the…

Actually, there seems to be very little evidence that this list was ever really fully implemented anywhere. I would be curious to know which songs in particular you are thinking of.

I am actually curious to know which American authors are studied in Canadian schools or are well-known in general. Even in the U.S., Wharton would not be in the top tier, but her name would be known to educated people.

Montagues and Capulets as Crips and Bloods (or Jets or Sharks - as noted, this has been done before) makes sense. England and France in those roles is much dumber. They must know of the real wars going on these days, right? Why are they not the point of comparison?

The Jets were actually out of existence for a while, but they are back, so this dream is now possible.

There must be some similar Canadian book about stoic unhappy rural people. You certainly have such people in real life, right?

My main memory of this video is of Stipe saying it was an attempt to rejuvenate the music video art form that he described as "dead, dead, dead."

Yeah, that was a twist I was not expecting. It was actually kind of perversely refreshing.

No one has suggested wedding night impotence ("Band of Gold") yet.

The 1996 Dole-Kemp website is actually still around under what appears to be the original URL, although it too is being maintained by someone else for archival purposes: http://www.dolekemp96.org/m…

Unfortunately no video: http://snltranscripts.jt.or…

Even though it was no more of a reality show than any other game show was, it was definitely portrayed as part of the dawning reality era by the media at the time.

He would have been the only celebrity to reach millionaire level. It was a real shame.

The bigger names seem to be adults, though. Taylor Swift is 25 now (although she was a teenager when she began her career) and Katy Perry is 30 (!). Or are there equally big teenage names that I am lucky enough not to have heard of?

I agree - these are not private thoughts but are as much a part of his public comedy persona as any standup routine he ever did, if not more so. Personally I find the comments lame and stupid rather than offensive and don't want to ruin his career, but this is not an invasion of privacy.

Maybe this makes me a bad person, but when someone dies in a car accident because he didn't wear a seat belt, I do feel a bit judgmental towards him. I might not feel the same way toward a policeman who failed to wear a bulletproof vest, because the idea of a bulletproof vest might never cross my mind, but if the…