(S05E02) "People hear juicy gossip, they're gonna spread it around. This is a firehouse. Take away the rig, the gear, and testosterone, it's nothing but a goddamn sorority in here!" - Needles

I'm not sure truer words have ever been spoken on this show before. Needles summed it up pretty good, huh? He might have been making a joke at Black Shawn's expense, but think about what he's really saying. Get rid of the exterior and the interior of a fireman is the same as everybody else - timid, scared, and emotional. Th arrival of Genvieve Lazard, the french journalist penning the 9/11 book, certainly made that clear on a few occasions for the guys of 62 Truck.

(S02E14) If you had to have just one takeaway point from this particular episode, it would be that Randy Hickey, of all people, is a studmuffin!

Thankfully, this episode again featured Earl crossing an item off his list. Although we've seen this season expanded storylines and not a total reliance of the "formula" of the first season, I think the show is much better when the story has something to do with Earl's list. Let's remember that the premise of the show is Earl making amends for his past wrongs and his good fortune allows him to do this.

Did anyone else think of Zinedane Zidane when Pierre walked into the Crab Shack and headbutted Earl right to the floor? There was another brilliant French sporting reference later on when Lance Armstrong's name was mentioned and Pierre went into a tirade--but in French.

If you just can't wait until tonight's season premiere of The Office, Slate has a little something to whet your appetite: clips from The Office. Well, more specifically, they have clips from Le Bureau and Stromberg, the French and German versions, respectively, of the original British classic.

The article, written by Liesl Schillinger, examines the reasons why the remakes -- including the American version -- were done, paralleling how each fictitional office is portrayed with how each country views their respective 9-to-5 grinds. For instance, the "Tim and Dawn" equivalent in Germany are even better looking than the American "Jim and Pam," and are already fooling around under the desk. And, the British and French Offices emphasize that life isn't all about work, while the American version reflect our nation's desire to revolve our lives around the workplace, even if we don't actually do much productive work. Not a bad read for a lazy Thursday afternoon at work.

While I certainly have no moral issues with pot use, I've never understood why a person would wear a shirt with a huge pot leaf on it. I mean, I love blueberry waffles but I'm not going to wear a shirt with a picture of blueberry waffles on it, even though it would obviously be the coolest shirt ever. Of course, if you're trying to promote a TV show called Weeds you'll probably have a few pot leaves on your garments. Just don't tell the French.

While in Cannes, Lionsgate, which produces the Showtime series, had their booth visited by French officials, who confiscated boxes of shirts and caps with pot leaves on them, claiming they encourage drug use. The producers were asked to provide a script, an episode of the show, and a letter saying the garments do not promote drug use.