As we all know, and are probably tired of hearing because it makes us so damned depressed, the recession is hitting everyone hard. Businesses are closing left and right, people are losing their jobs, and unemployment rates are hitting levels not seen since the days of leg warmers, headbands and tainted Tylenol. It's bad enough that even if people still have a job, their employers are taking extensive belt tightening measures to make sure they are prepared for the worst.

One of the things being eliminated from families' budgets during this belt tightening is their cable or satellite hookup. With costs that can total over $100 a month, families are just not ready to dump that kind of cash on something they feel doesn't have any value. That doesn't mean they are going without television (especially after the DTV switchover) and turning to a simpler life of canning vegetables, making quilts, and attending square dances. Rather, they are switching off their hi-def flat screens, turning on their computer flat screens, and getting their TV fix over the Internet.

This week we got to see Earl take a back seat to his brother Randy in the karmic quest to do good things for other people. Randy pretty much has sponged off of Earl his whole life, from Earl's days of petty theft right up until his older brother's lottery win. It seems the time is now for Randy to find his purpose in life and find a job and make something of himself.

Number 18 on Earl's list was his telling an extremely inappropriate story at his old friend and crime partner Hank's birthday party a while back where he drunkenly described some very wild behavior at Hank's bachelor party. Hank later on is arrested and is about to be put away in prison for a long stretch, so Earl visits him before he's put away for good. Hank requests that Earl give him one good day to make up for the bad day, and to do it before noon on the day he's going to be sent up the river. At the same time, Randy strikes up a hysterically meaningful conversation with another convict and decides to look for work.

Hank's requests include a visit from his grandmother, a copy of his hometown newspaper, and a box of donuts from Yummy's Donut Shop, where he encounters his old one-legged girlfriend from whom he stole a car off of years ago. It doesn't seem like it would be too hard to accomplish, but Earl struggles over the course of a few days to get things right, including picking up Hank's grandmother and struggling to put her prescription eyedrops in her eyes.