Conan vs. Jay

The news is full of the NBC debacle. Was giving Leno five hours of prime time each week a brave experiment or an unimaginative way to save money? Is Conan's Tonight Show underperforming in the ratings compared to Leno's? Will NBC be sorry if Fox snaps Conan up because Leno's audience is so much older? Has Leno been a weak lead-in for the affiliates who count so heavily on the local news for revenue? Or is the new owner of NBC, Comcast, eager to dump Leno because it's hungry for scripted comedies and dramas that sell better ON DEMAND?

It's all interesting from a marketing and programming POV, but as a viewer? At 10:30 (CST) I'm strictly Colbert Nation.

A good place to give

UNICEF is devoted to "The State of the World's Children," always a noble goal, but especially important now, when we see the devastation in Haiti.

I admit it -- I'm an "America First" kinda girl. If a hurricane, earthquake, tsunami, etc., happens to another country, it doesn't grip me the way Katrina did. When I see celebrities adopting children from far off lands to draw attention to the plight over there, my first impulse is to scream, "There are children in Chicago who could use help, too!"

But this Haitian nightmare has touched even my hard heart. Especially when, this morning, I saw a plane arrive in Port au Prince from Cuba. If Cubans, who have less than we do, can pitch in, so can I.

So I made a donation to UNICEF.

For I'm not only a citizen of the United States, I'm a citizen of the world. And we must help children because they cannot help themselves.