Since you are a Sorkin fan be sure to catch Newsroom now on HBO ( 3rd episode tomorrow night but you can catch up on HBOGo )

As to the gay in Rescue Me being shoved in your face and forced down your throat, I think there was one Presidential candidate who really knows where you are coming from :

“If people thought about gay sex as much as I do, they’d understand how disgusting it is.”
( Bill Maher channeling Rick Santorum )

<bg>




>>>Like anyone should trust me after my recent recommendation of "Rescue Me."
>>>
>>>Hey, baby, trust me.
>>>
>>>I have moved right on to "The West Wing." Probably three years ago I bought the complete series box set cheap on eBay, based on all the awards it received. There it has sat ever since on top of one of my bookshelves, literally gathering dust. It must have been my father's death that stirred me to take it off the shelf, since it was his favorite TV show. He had probably every season in individual DVD collections.
>>>
>>>This show is so good it's almost unbelievable. Characters, plot, dialogue, on and on. I am not going to look up how many Emmys it won, for fear of spoilers, but it was a lot. You see the whirlwind of activity of an American Presidential staff that is on duty 24 hours a day and reacting as fast as it can to unfolding events. You think yeah, I'd do that, go without sleep for 8 years to be part of it. Martin Sheen is terrific as President Bartlet but the focus is on his staff. It's masterful writing because within about two episodes you already care about a dozen of them.
>>>
>>>I am so confident in this recommendation I have a plan in mind already. When I finish watching it I will make it a traveling trophy of sorts. That is something my dad would have liked. It will be a while until I have finished watching, even at this rate. There were over 100 hour long episodes (less than 45 minutes each on DVD). I will mail it to the first person who asks with the only condition being that they do the same to the next person. And so on.
>>>
>>>Insanely great.
>>
>>Maybe you should push them out a few at a time? No point in someone having 100 hrs to watch before they pass any on.
>>
>>At my current rate of TV consumption it would take me two years, at least, to finish.....
>
>That's a good suggestion and I am going to take it. Each season is in a jacket of 7 DVDs or so and I will mail them out that way. John Baird is first on the list. All he has to do is agree to pass it along to whoever #2 is. This is cool.
>
>Like you, I watch little television. Most days I don't watch a thing and when I do watch it's usually sports. Once in a while, though, I get onto a TV series and watch them like I'm drinking water from a fire hose. Bill Gates reportedly watches series the same way. The only thing that separates us is a few billion dollars ;-)
>
>Guess what? I took my bicycle down from its hooks on the garage wall and went over to a nearby trail for a spin. For once I am not starting with overly grandiose plans, just a few miles a day. No goal whatsoever other than trying to ride every day.
>
>PS -- now here is a question for the many people here who know far more about science than I do. My TV is a projection HDTV. Recently the projection lamp burned out, as they do every three years or so (if you cohabit with teenagers), and I had to replace it. The picture seems noticeably sharper. I had assumed the lamp is binary, it either works or it doesn't, but do they in fact degrade over time? Dust getting onto the lens or something like that? Just curious.