APROPOS OF THE XPN COUNTDOWN: Back in the 1960s or 1970s, the answer to the poll may have been different. Even the 1980s. But at some point, just as Rafael Palmeiro's longevity positioned him as a superior player to the Will Clarks and Don Mattinglys of the world, so, too, must we reconsider the answer to this question as the Rolling Stones have continued as a going concern for such an impressively long time following the demise of their Liverpudlian rivals. And so I ask, in the hopes that a nice, long comment thread will follow:

Greatest Rock Band Of All Time?
	Beatles
	Rolling Stones
Free polls from Pollhost.com

WE EXPECT YOU TO DYE, MR. BOND: Why, oh, why, did they go with some blond unknown as the new James Bond rather than household favorite Goran Visnjic?

(Full disclaimer: I've never actually sat through an entire Bond movie.)

J'ACCUSE! The San Francisco Chronicle asks a question for the ages: Do we really want our grandchildren to grow up in a world without customized vans?

EDMUND BACON (1910 - 2005): Sadly, the man more responsible than any other (okay, other than William Penn, whose grid design for Center City has held to this day) for the contemporary look of Philadelphia passed away today at the age of 95. (Obit #2.)

Society Hill, Penn Center, LOVE Park (which he skateboarded in protest in 2002), the replacement of the "Chinese Wall" with JFK Boulevard, the development of the Far Northeast where I grew up . . . all Bacon. "It's almost inconceivable to think of what Philadelphia would be if Society Hill weren't there," Bacon said in a 2004 interview. "I had a long-range view of what I was doing, and I held in total contempt anyone who opposed it."

One has to admire that attitude. Also, he raised a good kid (and five others).

LIFE IMITATING ART YET AGAIN: Josh Holloway (the actor playing Lost's most brilliantly named character) and his wife were apparently robbed at gunpoint in their Honolulu home on Wednesday.

Think Holloway's gonna change his name to Mr. Mahalo and walk around seeking revenge with an unsent letter crumpled up in his back pocket?

FRIDAY XPN BLOG: We're into the top fifty Greatest Albums Of All Time, and now that David Gray (WHAT? #45? Ahead of Purple Rain, Automatic for the People and Darkness at the Edge of Town?) is out of the way, it should be all about the expected, only in an unexpected order.

Figure that the top ten must include Sgt. Pepper and the White Album, Born to Run, Nevermind, whatever Dylan is left and London Calling, but what else? Joshua Tree? And how high will XPN fave Jeff Buckley place with Grace?

Let me also toss out this question: what will be the highest-ranking album by a female artist? (For the 885 song list, it was Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You" at #15, followed by "Respect" at #35.)

WATCHING MY DOG, WHAT A LOVELY WAY TO SAY HOW MUCH YOU LOVE ME: In general, Gilmore Girls is a show that can do very little wrong in my book. It has perhaps the richest tapestry of supporting characters on television or elsewhere, the dialogue is both snappy and poignant, and of course there's the briliant core troika of Emily, Lorelai, and Rory.

But the estrangement of Lorelai and Rory -- the core conflict of the new season -- has elicited more than a few grumbles. Grumble grumble, these grumblers grumble, the backbone of the show is the relationship between mother and daughter, and keeping them apart is destroying the fundamental essence of Gilmore Girls.

I myself am a low-level grumbler. Point one: there has been no shark jumpage. Keeping Lorelai and Rory apart for a few episodes isn't going to kill anyone. (If the show could survive the entirely unappealing Jess, it can survive anything.) However, there is also Point Two: the Rory/Lorelai feud, as written, missed a real opportunity to complete an arc that the writers started last season when Rory chose a path at Yale that represented everything Lorelai hated and Richard and Emily adored -- Logan and the sense of rabid entitlement that he and his band of merry socialites enjoy without a shred of self-awareness.

Watching Lorelai watch Rory live a more traditionally Gilmore sort of life was a heck of a lot more interesting than watching Lorelai pine for Rory from afar. DAR wunderkind Rory would gain additional nuance Lorelai were around to react with a mixture of pride and pain (as we saw last season when Lorelai watched Rory climb out of Logan's limousine). And much as I enjoyed seeing Emily rip out and snack upon Shira Huntzberger's lungs, it doesn't compare to Emily and Lorelai baring claws at one another.

Ultimately, I think that the powers that be missed an opportunity to tell a really resonant story: what do you do when the life your daughter chooses to lead, while not obviously wrong, isn't exactly the one you want for her? They didn't need to move Rory into the Gilmore pool house to tell us that story.

As long as I'm proposing changes, here are some other suggestions for things to kill:

• Lane and the band. Or at least Zach. Why in the world would Lane waste her time with this nitwit? If she's got to have a rock star to boink (or not boink, as the case may be), at least make it Sebastian Bach. Sheesh.
• Logan the whipped boyfriend. Why exactly did they make him a regular if all he's going to do is drag Finn to the pool house and get Rory a sound system for the DAR party at the price she wanted?
• Sookie and Jackson's kids. Yawn.
• Paul Anka the Dog. Not funny.

And a few things to keep at all costs:

• Paris the Marxist Revolutionary! The best writing they've offered Liza Weil in months.
• Logan the thisclose-to-being-an-asshole-but-still-remarkably-appealing guy he was last season when he brought Rory to the secret society thing.
• Kirk. In whatever ridiculous incarnation you like, he's comedic gold.