ALSO, THERE SHOULD BE A FLUX CAPACITOR: Today's tip for Hollywood executives--if you're going to make a time travel movie, I certainly admire some sort of explanation of the physics involved and "wormholes" that helps make it sound borderline plausible. But spending the first two-thirds of the film waiting for time travel to occur does not exactly make for an entertaining film, especially when much of that time is spent in a mixture of creepy voyeurism and incomprehensible techno-babble. Also, please make sure your villain has a comprehensible motivation, rather "I'm a patriot! It is my destiny to blow up this boat!"

IS THERE ANY BETTER WAY TO START THE WEEKEND THAN A GOOD PETER FALK JOKE? With TV Land this week announcing its list of the 100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catchphrases, Cracked fires back with its own list of TV's Greatest Off-Screen Quotes and Catchphrases including William Shatner's very own Sandy Koufax moment: "I don't give a good goddamn about your production schedule, Roddenberry. The Vulcan and I don't kill Klingons on Yom Kippur!"

HAPPY LIFE DAY! In a time of year when we remember our favorite holiday movies and holiday specials, and how things can go wrong between them (Grinch holiday special? Brilliant. Grinch film? Intolerable.), it's time to take a moment to remember those holiday specials that have not become perennials, and one in particular. And, yes, most of it is on YouTube, including the opening, featuring a multi-minute scene entirely in Wookiee, without subtitles.

SO MAYBE IT'LL COMMEMORATE A NEW HOLIDAY--ALOTT5MA DAY: Due to scheduling difficulties relating to the holiday season, the planned NYC ALOTT5MA gathering to celebrate year's end and related celebrations has been postponed till early in the New Year, but will happen (we promise). One possible concept is to gather first for a Watson Adventures thing, followed by drinks and/or dinner to allow folks to have a grand time in a relaxed environment (and the MOMA one, which includes admission that can be used for an additional hour after the hunt is complete, looks to be a pretty good deal).

WELL, YES, I DID CALL YOU A DISGUSTING RAT, BUT IN MY DEFENSE, I MEANT IT: I'm going to spoil in this Survivor post, but I'll vamp a bit so you have some time to quit reading.

We haven't blogged Survivor in a while, and I'm not sure why. I think it's been a great season with really compelling characters and thought-provoking subtext. In particular, race. I thought it was a little annoying at the beginning of the season when so many people -- frankly, mostly (but not completely) white people, which I found amusing -- thought that the segregation idea was the most offensive thing since Marge Schott. What has been interesting, though, is how that played out after they junked the segregated tribes. As it turned out, the tribe that was the most focused on racial identity and unity was the white tribe, with two separated groups of contestants from that tribe openly worrying that the other races were going to stick together, then two of them making a bold (risky, stupid) split from their mixed-race tribe to get back together with their old friends. The question of how much of this was driven by personality, friendship, or strategy rather than race seems to me beyond the point -- the insoluble conundrum is how much race affected those other calculations. In the long run, I think that the experiment has been fascinating, and the fact that it is also discomfiting is part of what makes it good TV.

Second, the racial angle opened the show up to some characters we wouldn't otherwise get to see. For example, any other season, a smart but nerdy guy who can't stop himself from talking about mass vs. surface area or the idea of rational self-interest would be marked as an outsider and dismissed quickly, but because of the way that the tribes were fractured and forced into alliances, he emerged as a dominant and unusual reality player.

Third, and here's the spoiler, I think Candice was fundamentally a good person who made two huge errors in judgment. The first was falling for that jackass, and the second was letting the first error lead her to the idiotic move of jumping from one tribe to another. I don't think she really deserved the exiles, which after the first week seemed unjustifiedly mean-spirited (as opposed to strategic), and which probably got to her emotionally more than they would have to any other player. I was glad to see she was positive when leaving, because I really thought she could have been more damaged by the process than anybody since Deb.

DOES ANYONE ELSE REMEMBER THE RIF (READING IS FUNDAMENTAL) PSA WITH ED ASNER? When you haven't read a single book on the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2006, it's hard to make a witty blog posting title (I did, however, check one out of the library and read reviews of a couple of the others).

And if 10 weren't enough, here is the paper's 100 Notable Books.

So, ALOTT5MAians what were your the highlights of your 2006 reading list. I'll put out Alison Bechdel's amazing graphic novel/memoir Fun Home for starters. (NYT review)

THURSDAYS, 8PM TO 10PM: Thank you, NBC, for putting together a mighty nice comedy block, even if I don't quite have the time or stamina to make it through the whole thing. I know that Isaac's more the Scrubs guy than I am, and I hope he'll have something to say, but I have to note that there may be no other live action show that packs more gags and laughs into a single half-hour than J.D. and the gang. Also, quite frankly, I'll follow Elizabeth Banks to any venture she pursues, so, yay.

On Office: not a great one, because I'm a little tired of the whole "Michael gets everyone together in the conference room and does something ridiculous while Stanley works on his crossword" shtick, but, y'know what? Kevin saves every episode. Also, Creed.