SwineFlu

My apologies to the pig farmers, but let's be honest: it's one thing to call this H1N1 when it's a distant threat, but when it gets personal, swine is the operative word.

I've got it. It's unpleasant to admit it - like copping to smoking - but there's the truth. I've been sick for over a week, and if you or someone you know has been sick that long, chances are it's the swine flu. Sorry to break it to you. I know you're probably trying to pretend it's just a cold. I did that for the first four days.

Sick for a week! I haven't been down like this since I was kid. And usually, when I'm down, I'm out. I sleep like the dead, emerging only for a few prime-time can't-miss shows. But this swine flu is a festering little bug - I'm confused, cranky and highly contagious but not knocked out enough to sleep the day away. Which brings me to my thesis: daytime TV.

Podcast time again! In this episode, Jason Hughes and Michael Pascua join me to talk about TV's doings this week:

• The whole Balloon Boy fiasco and why the 24-hour news networks were so fixated on it,
• Reality news from Michael, including a flu scare on Dancing With The Stars,
• A discussion on why The Simpsons, especially the "Treehouse of Horror" series, is in decline,
• Another dip into our Ask TV Squad mailbag,
• Our picks for the week, and much more.

Run time is 46:02.

You can listen to the podcast below, or download it by subscribing to our RSS podcast feed. It is also available via iTunes. Feel free to leave us feedback in the comments.

By the way, the music at the beginning and end of the podcast is "Life" by Justin Trawick.

Here's another mystery for the sleuths of 'Bones': What was the bug that benched Booth (David Boreanaz), shutting down production on the Fox crime procedural Monday for the first time ever while the actor recuperated?

The initial rumor, spread by none other than show runner Hart Hanson, was that Boreanaz had swine flu. But both Hanson and 'Bones'' production company rushed to quash that rumor, insisting that the 40-year-old actor simply suffered from garden-variety flu, and that production would, with luck, resume on Tuesday.