Another satisfied customer

Talk about someone in need of an irony supplement. This reader, corresponding by p-mail (click on the yellow sheet to read), wonders what my problem is. Seems that Capital One commercial I enjoyed so much is "lengthy, violent, unfunny and obscure." Somedays I feel like I am writing to two mutually exclusive audiences...but the truth is, I get a lot of attaboys from a lot of readers who prefer calls and letters to e-mail. Just because they don't like cutting-edge technology doesn't mean they don't like edgy TV.

The latest "American Experience" extravaganza, a two-nighter on Las Vegas, certainly meets the "lengthy" criterion. "I love Vegas, and so, apparently, do the producers and sponsors of this program," writes Marshall Letcher. "But the show was a very disjointed, pointless, redundant, mixed-up series of episodes -– sort of like a typical night of partying on the Strip. Why would PBS show such schlock? A far cry from their Ken Burns 'Jazz' series or the 'Unforgivable Blackness' show with Wynton Marsalis’ wonderful score." I'm just plain worried that public television has no new ideas left in the tank, a suspicion that the announcement of Create, an all-digital channel made up of public-TV home improvement show reruns, does little to dispel.

Barry Mitchell, the polka guru of ABC's "World News Now" (or at least he was the last time I watched it, uh, which was a while ago), writes, "Please spread the word about my website and brand new music video, 'Intelligent Design.' http://www.barryfunny.com." What's the matter with polka...