Every American Wants A Clean Slate, But

Like Many Other Touchstones Of Twenty-first-century Pop Culture, 'the Sopranos' Was Hatched In The Late Nineties, Predicting A Future That Never Arrived. It Was Designed For A Decade That Would Be Just Like The Nineties, Except More So, In An America That Enjoyed Seeing Itself As Smarter And Braver And Freer Than Ever Before.

Anyone Watching '30 Rock' Always Knew Tina Fey Was Playing A Fictionalized Version Of Herself, A Workaholic Comedy Writer Who Also Plays One On Tv. She's The Boss; Liz Lemon Just Works Here.

Falling In Love With Renee Was Not The Kind Of Thing You Walk Away From In One Piece. I Had No Chance. She Put A Hitch In My Git-a-long.

The Word 'repulse': I Hate This Word. I Believe 'repel' Is A Perfectly Good Word, And 'repulsion' Is The Noun, As Well As The Title Of An Excellent Dinosaur Jr. Song. A Compulsion Compels You; An Impulse Impels You. Nobody Ever Says 'compulse' Or 'impulse' As A Verb. So Why Would You Ever Say 'repulse'? This Word Haunts Me In My Sleep, Like A Silver Dagger Dancing Before My Eyes. Renee Looked It Up And I Was Wrong. But I Still Kind Of Think I'm Right.

You'd Think If Anyone Could Charm America Into Caring About The Evening News, It Would Be Katie Couric, The Tri Delt From Virginia Who Became America's Sweetheart On The 'today' Show. But Her Ratings Have Been Dismal - She Comes In Last Place Every Week.