I know I tend to be more of an upper cable channel watcher, but I'm hoping I'm not the only one watching Mad Men, because it's terrific.

For the record, so is Damages, if you like shows where everyone is different than they appear.

And Rescue Me is finally coming up to speed this season. I was worried for a little while.

C'mon --- anyone at all?

Here's something I found on another site that I thought was well worth sharing:

What your Starbucks order says about you.

I can tell you it didn't say anything kind about me :o)

Is anyone else sick and tired of the "faux" news teasers that the local stations run night after night after night? The ones about events that took place in other states, but they try to make you think took place nearby? Or the ones that make something sound horribly dangerous or unhealthy, only to find out that the real story is almost completely the opposite?

Even though I've gotten tot he point where I can smell fake "big" news from a mile away, it bothers me that their calamity-spewing teasers scare small children and concern elderly people, like my father-in-law who can't stay up until the 11 p.m. news, but saw the scary teaser ad at 8:15 p.m.

I was having a discussion with someone last night and it came around to how funky things seem to be in the world today.

Anyway, what we kept circling around was whether things these days are worse than they have been in a long time; are they about the same as always, we just hear more about the bad stuff (or hear about the bad stuff over and over and over) because of the Internet, 24 hour news channels and talk radio; or are things not as bad as it all sounds --- it's just that the relative good in the world gets pushed aside for all of the sleazy, slimy stuff, thus making it really hard to find and hold up to the light?

What do you think?