How's this for an odd occurrence of non-product placement? On Wednesday night, during the ABC sitcom block -- actually during 'Modern Family' -- there was a commercial for Stouffer's Family Size dinners. The commercial referred to 'The Middle,' making the case for how positive it is for families to sit down and share a meal together.

It was a great idea for a commercial, but did anybody at Stouffer's realize that with the exception of Thanksgiving, the Hecks don't actually cook dinner? They're usually bringing in bags of take out from a burger joint. You see hamburgers and fries and lots of paper products, but it was only for Turkey Day that anybody actually fixed dinner.

I don't understand why certain commercials get to become "banned." I've seen a few since the latest multitude of Super Bowl commercials, and most of those have been funnier that anything shown on TV! Who the heck decided these commercials weren't fit for television? There were even a couple of questionable ones shown during the game this year, ones that offended quite a few people. Who cleared those monstrosities?

Case in point, the following "banned" Wendy's commercial, from 2007, for their four-alarm spicy chicken sandwich. The scientist holds said sandwich out to his assistant with tongs, so you know right away this thing means business. I haven't had fast food in years, but I gotta say I started wondering where the nearest Wendy's joint was so I could try one of these bad boys; that fourth "hint" (hit?) of spice is a doozy. Continue on for the video. (And for those who don't get the headline, read up on LOLCats.)

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Here's a story that's bound to bring a smile to your face (it did mine). During the protracted, agonizing Writer's Guild strike, at least one Hollywood scribe chose not to lounge by the pool and wait it out. My Name Is Earl creator, Greg Garcia, decided to "get back in touch" with the TV viewers of America. He took a job at a fast-food restaurant, never letting on to his fellow employees -- or anyone else -- that he was an Emmy-winning writer/producer. As a cashier and occasional janitor, Greg spent the month of January rubbing elbows with the real world. You might wonder, why would he do it?

His answer is simple: "I've wanted to do a book about taking different jobs and what it was like to do them," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "This was the first. It may be a while before I do the second. But it's just about the fact that we live behind gates and work behind gates, and as a writer you start to lose touch with the audience. You start running out of life experience."

This week we learned that Earl does suffer from envy, but that karma can pack a mighy punch. Number 202 on Earl's list of past misdeeds was returning a wallet he stole in a gas station bathroom. For him, it was the motherlode--a thousand bucks that he, then-wife Joy, and brother Randy spent on a wild shopping spree at Jasper's, a mall inside a storage unit. After returning the merchandise, Earl tracks down the man (Jeff) whom he stole from, and finds out the money was earmarked for his honeymoon with his overly tanned wife. Although Earl has returned the money, Jeff can't easily take time off from work, so Earl decides to fill in for him at his job.

It turns out that Jeff works at a local fast food joint where cleanliness can be a bit "spotty." Plus, the restaurant's manager, Mr. Patrick, is not exactly the model boss. He is quite abusive to his employees, and Earl has to put up with his bullying ways in order to make it through the week. It's not easy for Earl--we see flashbacks of him punching out a number of his past bosses because he couldn't stand their management styles.

Mr. Patrick really lays it out on Earl, including making him eat a french fry covered in dirt. Earl's patience is wearing then, but he soldiers on. He keeps thinking that karma will one day get it's vengeance on Mr. Patrick, but the signs don't point in that direction.