The most important innovation for 'Desperate Housewives' wasn't its being a prime-time soap opera, ... That's played well since 'Peyton Place.' Rather, it was its post-modern treatment. It worked well as prime-time escapism, but also there was a darker current that played like a cross between 'American Beauty' and 'Dynasty.'

If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons and take his gun away.

At the same time, it is a cheap way to achieve maximum effect for the union. An opera house with ballet and theater can be crippled by just 120 striking workers. Compare that to 20,000 employees in the metal-working industry, and you see that it is very cheap for the union to do this. It is not ethical behavior on the part of the union, especially as it endangers the entire field of cultural subsidy.

My critics feel there was a lack of fairness in the opera, because the Palestinians are treated with romantic harmonies and choruses of longing, and the Jews are treated unfairly because all we hear about them are their bodily ailments. And, yes, you do hear about Marilyn and Leon Klinghoffer's bodily problems, like their hip replacements, because that's exactly the sort of thing that a retired person on a cruise would talk about.

I listened to time clicking like hooves on pavement. But time isn't something you can rein in. It moves on without pause, taking us with it no matter how much we wish it otherwise.

he said. ''It's significantly more difficult to make a sitcom that has broad sociological touch points. The same dynamic plays out on the big screen. You can have a constituency for 'Monster-in-Law' and 'Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,' but never the two shall meet.