Listen, I wouldn't recommend that people eat the food products of Pizza Hut, so I'm not sure how I feel about a duckling eating something from there. Is the duckling protected by some sort of inner-duck stomach enzyme? So many unanswered questions.

Speaking of ducklings, if you missed the episode of the FX show Louie entitled "Ducklings" that aired on August 25th, you need to find a way to see it. You'll have to wait until next month to watch it on Hulu, but I don't think you should wait that long. You might forget and then you'd miss out on one of the best single episodes of a television show I've ever seen. Call your friends, maybe someone still has it on their DVR. You need to see that episode.

The New York Times' Virginia Heffernan has a blog post decrying the state of reality television, bringing up a list of reality show stars who feel like their lives have been ruined by appearing on various programs for our amusement. While I guess it probably really does suck to be on one of the Real Housewives shows, the premise seems to ignore the fact that no one is making you be on these programs. I doubt they would exist if there wasn't a constant stream of insecure fame-whores looking to get on TV and make a buck, so I don't know if you can blame reality TV for just bringing to light problems people had anyway:

But, like game-show contestants, most reality participants lose. And on reality shows, they lose what they came in with — their marriages, their families, their cultural capital, their professional reputations, their actual money and in some cases their freedom. (More than one “Real Housewives” husband has landed in jail.)

One year ago, Charles Ommanney, an award-winning Newsweek photographer who appeared on “The Real Housewives of D.C.,” told The Times, “I was naïve and foolish to sign off on doing this,” he said. His career had suffered, he explained; his marriage collapsed. “I regretted it. I lost touch with everyone, and mix that with my marriage falling apart and the show taking over, it was very sad.”

Just after Mr. Armstrong’s death, Danielle Staub, another real person who collaborated in a portrayal of herself as demonic (on “The Real Housewives of New Jersey”), gave a TV interview in which she said that she knew just how Mr. Armstrong felt. She too had felt suicidal, and moreover she considered emotional problems an occupational hazard. “So many families — not just the Armstrongs — have fallen apart as a result of these shows,” Ms. Staub said.

Sure, it's hilarious when people fall down, but the second worst part* of any giant impending storm is when weatherpeople and their idiot producers feel like it's somehow necessary to shoot outside, with the wind and rain battering the poor TV personality. We get it. Storm bad. No need to risk being swept away by God's wrath on the East Coast for a two minutes of forgettable pseudo-news coverage.

* Ranking significantly beneath the destruction and human misery, clearly.

To be honest, you probably could slap "Here Comes the Sun" in the background of nearly any movie trailer and I'd get a little watery-eyed (note to the people who make movie trailers: please don't), but when Martin Scorsese spends four years on a documentary on the life of George Harrison, I'm already clearing out my calendar in early October to watch it.

Living In The Material World will air in two parts on HBO October 5th and 6th.

You're not helping your cause here, Charlie Sheen, with the Dr. Strangelove reference. I'd probably watch the Comedy Central roast in his "honor" if I could be promised a full mental breakdown on stage in the midst of the parade of second rate comedians mocking him, but I suspect he'll just be hanging out making the same stupid face I was sick of back when everyone was saying "winning" for a week. Still, this will be more watchable than the new look Three and a Half Men that it's airing at the same time as, I suppose.

• Flickr
• These children are dying. And you can't do a damned thing about it.

Some time in the mid-'90s, universally-beloved AM radio personality Rush Limbaugh had an ongoing bit regarding SUVs. Essentially, Limbaugh would read, word-for-word, an article from the Marxist lamestream media about how a sport utility vehicle drove off a cliff, or ran over a pedestrian. Limbaugh's goal was to point out how the media framed these accidents: the stories were worded as if the vehicle itself had caused the accident like a modern-day version of Christine, not the vehicle's driver.

No particular reason for embedding this particular video, other than I enjoy crosswords and get excited when I see people on TV filling them out. It makes me feel like a cool kid for a moment.

[NYMag]

Halfway through the latest episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm earlier this week, I had to pause and take stock. I have always loved Curb, and I've always thought it was one of the finest half hours of comedy on television. But this season has been different. This season is a step up, a comedy writer at the very top of his game, doing his very best work. A step up, mind you, for a 64 year-old who also created a show many consider the greatest sitcom of all-time.

Here's what's really astounding, though: this season of Curb, helmed by the most accomplished television comedy writer in history writing some of the best material of his career, still isn't the best comedy on television. It's not even the best comedy airing right now, in the middle of summer. That's when I realized: we're in the golden age of comedy television.

I suspect that none of the stories on the new-ish Tumblr site Chuck Woolery Took Me From Behind are factual, and they're a little disconcerting to read, but gosh, I applaud the ingenuity of the bold soul who conceptualized this brilliant site.

My agent sent me on a general meeting with the casting department at the CBS-Radford Studio. This is in 1991, I think. When I got there, the receptionist told me to wait in the lobby and gave me a water. I was just leafing through one of the trade magazines when all of a sudden this kid who introduced himself as Ron and couldn’t have been older than 17 approached me and asked me to follow him. I went in to a big conference room with a bunch of executive types who all just nodded and smiled politely but didn’t get up or say anything, then followed Ron through another door into a pretty dark office. He told me it was the Studio Commissary, then left me alone. About 5 minutes later, the door opened, and in walks Chuck Woolery, who I recognized from watching The Love Connection. He looked very put together. After sizing me up for a moment, but without saying a word, Chuck handed me a single autographed headshot (except the weird thing is he’d autographed my own headshot), then brusquely took me from behind.

From 8 p.m. to midnight, Arizona Public Media will present four programs about space exploration featuring UA scientists and missions.

More from Arizona Public Media:

The evening begins with Phoenix Mars Mission: Ashes to Ice at 8 p.m.

Phoenix Mars Mission, led by Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, is the latest mission seeking to unlock the secrets of the Red Planet. The Phoenix Mars Mission team seeks to verify the presence of water and habitable conditions in the Martian arctic.

NOVA: Is There Life on Mars? at 9 p.m.

More than four years after they landed on Mars, NASA's twin robot explorers, Spirit and Opportunity, have lasted 16 times longer and driven 20 times farther than expected. Along the way, they've endured the worst Martian storm ever recorded and survived near-fatal software glitches, a broken wheel and hair-raising climbs and descents on steep slopes.

400 Years of the Telescope at 10 p.m.

This visually stunning program chronicles a sweeping journey, from 1609, when Galileo revealed mankind's place in the galaxy, to today's thrilling quests to discover new worlds in the universe.

Phoenix Mars Mission: Onto the Ice at 11 p.m.

Phoenix Mars Mission: Onto the Ice follows the Phoenix Mars Lander's 422-million mile journey through space. The final destination is a carefully selected landing site in the northern Martian plains. But before the Lander can begin touching, tasting and sniffing Martian soil in search for signs of life, it first must land on the planet safely.