All of the SHARPE movies (which is, what, 18 now?)

The thing is, they're NOT primarily State-funded any more, and haven't been since the '90s. Gingrich 's Congress cut Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding to the point that NPR was about to go under (as PBS was considered more important); the only thing that saved them was a huge bequest from Joan Kroc and a…

They're mostly East Coast.

Does Wimpy still exist anywhere? They were good when I was there in '88, but I didn't see a single one in 2006.

At some point it was still open whether they'd get a fifth series; Gareth Thomas agreed to appear only if they'd definitively kill Blake on-screen.

It's pretty common in Oregon as well. (To the point where a lot of fast-food places and delis even have Diet Dr Pepper as a fountain choice.)

It goes in cycles. When I was a kid (70s-80s,) Safeway had a ton of different brand names for their own stuff: Lucerne dairy, Mrs Wright's bread, Town House canned goods, Bel Air frozen foods, Empress jams and jellies, Edwards coffee and Cragmont pop (including The Skipper as it was then) are the ones I remember.

Rayner's reviews (good and bad) are some of the best ever…but as always, the bad ones have the best lines. (There's one from a year or two back of another ridiculously expensive restaurant in London - this one a steakhouse - that includes the line "At these prices they shouldn't just be serving me a steak, they should…

DSL over fiber, 56M. Charter Cable was crap even for TV - there was no way I was going to trust or pay them for Internet or phone.

Most of this only applies to eggs that haven't been refrigerated. If you're buying eggs in a supermarket - even the organic, free-range ones - they're normally about 3 weeks old by the time they reach the store shelf. (There's always a three-digit number next to the "Best By" date - it's the Julian date the carton…

I think Oregon noticed that Washington basically got screwed on that deal. You can buy booze more readily, but the prices went higher (between increased taxes and the state no longer being the wholesaler.)

Oregon's liquor stores are state-franchised; they're locally-owned, but the state Liquor Control Commission is the only source they can buy from. Prices are the same at every store (including sales.) Basically, you pay whatever price the OLCC bought it at, plus a $26/gallon tax.

Stores in CA are allowed to sell liquor until 0200, then have to shut down sales until 6 or 8. (Supermarket computers are actually programmed not to accept any booze ring - ups during those hours.)

A good friend (now gone) was a Kentucky native and still owned property there for years - in the biggest whiskey-producing county in the state. Which was also a dry county. Every year or three, he said, there'd be a ballot measure to lift the prohibition - every time, the same two groups would get it voted down: the…

I wouldn't say useless. My favorite cookbook is the 1942 edition of one that started in about 1918 - if you want to make damn near anything from scratch, it's perfect. (Including squirrel stew and roast possum.)

Not too many others have had a full cast replacement from beginning to end in any case - MST3K is the only other one I can think of.

Well, it was button #3 on most TVs into the '90s. The name varied depending on where you were in the UK (and in London, what time and day of the week it was.)

And UPN's formation was what caused Babylon 5 to move to TNT last-minute; its original syndication PTEN was a joint venture between Warner Brothers and Chris-Craft TV, and Chris-Craft decided to make most of their stations UPN and pull out of the partnership.

Oh, I know. It was more of a general observation.

True. When I was an Armed Forces broadcaster, we had to appear in service dress uniform when at the anchor desk, but 99% of the time we were still in fatigues/utilities from the waist down.