Friday, October 10:

8:00PM - 8:30PM

Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal #4814. Another whole week has gone by and good old Gwen Ifill and National Journal are here to fill us in. For the record, I like to pretend the National Journal is a sidekick, like Robin to Batman, Starsky to Hutch, or chocolate sauce to chocolate ice cream.

8:30PM - 9:30PM

NOW on PBS #440.  It’s the Emmy award-winning weekly newsmagazine. It looks at issues facing our democracy. The show is hosted by David Brancaccio. And, even better, they still send me e-mails (I think that makes me cool and them nice). Thanks, Now, you guys are awesome!

9:00PM - 10:00PM

Bill Moyers Journal #1226. It’s Bill Moyers. It’s his 1,226th journal (not really, but I’m not going to explain to you the way in which TV shows are numbered at this point in time, maybe later if you’re nice). He’s a good journalist so I assume this will be good journalism (at least the odds are it will).

10:00PM - 11:00PM

Slavery and the Making of America – "Liberty in the Air". The second hour of this repeat series looks at slavery in this country and its ramifications from the 1740s through the 1830s. It covers the Revolution, the Second Constitution, and the start of the emancipation movement.

Saturday, October 11:

9:00PM – 10:00PM

Austin City Limits – "Bettye LaVette/Pinetop Perkins".  I'll tell you this right now, I don't think that this show has ever had two people with finer names on the show.  LaVette is an R&B vet, and Pinetop is a pianist.  But, as I say, far more important than what they do (depending on who you are anyway), is their names…Pinetop.  I love it.

Have you gone back to read up on the ride and its creation?  Excellent, excellent, excellent.  I'm dying to know what you think.  Would you ride it?  How would you change it?  What would you do?  I'm very curious and excited to get the opinions of others.  I want you to be brutally honest with me.  Just remember, I bruise easily and have a very fragile ego.