THE END OF AN ERA? 

I got a disturbing call from Lopes on Tuesday on the way to the non-concert in Lafayette. "I don't quite know how to tell you this, but the jig might be up." I asked what jig, already sensing the answer. He tells me that he went to buy a pack of Skittles for Jelly and him, but after he put in his dollar, the machine said: Please make another selection. Uh-oh. They decided at work that our vendor friend might be on to us.

What Lopes didn't do was type in F4 without inserting money. When you enter a selection without insierting money, the machine tells you how much you need to put in to acquire the item. On Thursday at work, I ventured downstairs to unlock the mystery of the Skittles. Lopes had thought only clicking F4 resulted in the Please-make-another-selection response. But I discovered that the whole row of candy bars yielded the same response. The machine won't give you a price for anything on the F row. It just says Please make another selection.

The vendor came as usual Friday to fill up the machines. However, you still can't buy anything on the F row. The possibile scenarios.

1) The F row not working is a coincidence. It just happened to stop working. On Friday, the vendor only filled up the empty racks with goodies. The people that would fix the F row don't know about it yet. 

If that's true, the Skittles situation becomes: a) When the row is fixed, the fact that the Skittles are five cents aren't noticed. b) When fixing the F row, the person realizes that everything is a dollar but the Skittles and makes the correction.

2) Someone figured out the Skittles faux pas and shut down the row. At some point, the machine will get corrected to make Skittles a dolloar, and the row will be available again.

THE TINA CURSING CORNER

My mom doesn't like keeping wood stored in the shed. "I hate wood. You have to worry about fucking termites."

Mom and I are watching Cheers. A drink is served. "What the fuck is that? That's not a martini glass."

I'm finishing the blog when mom comes into the living room half-awake. I tell her about Obama's misstep. "We're going to have an old fart in the fucking White House again."

Mom is anxious to read the paper at 3 a.m. "Where's the fucking paper boy this morning? Dragging his ass?" (In case you didn't know, the paper boy is my dad.)

I ask mom what my daily top list should be. "Fuck."

TV WEEK IN REVIEW

Every Friday during the fall TV season, I'm going to give some thoughts on the week in TV. SPOILER ALERT!

Best scene: Heroes. HRG tries to kill Sylar by putting six bullets in him. The bullets pop out of Sylar's body, and he heals because he has Claire's power. Sylar tells HRG he got that trick from his daughter. An infuriated HRG then tries to shoot him in the head (the only way to kill Sylar now), but Sylar waves his arm and moves the gun out of HRG's hands. Elle tries to stop Sylar, but he subdues her. At the last second, Elle gets off a big bolt of electricity and knocks Sylar out.

Best line: How I Met Your Mother. Barney tries to leave a voicemail on Robin's phone with encouragement from Lily. He gets scared and mumbles something in a high-pitched voice before hanging up mid-sentence. Barney tries to play it off and tells Lily. "It's cool. I left a voicemail." Lily's response: "You left a voice all right. But it certainly wasn't male."

I didn't see that coming: The Office. I really thought Jim would wait until the middle of the season to propose to Pam. Then, those oh-so-clever writers had Jim tell me that he was going to wait until after Pam finished school because they didn't want to be apart for the first three months of the engagement. I admit it. You got me, guys. But what was the point of Pam laughing at that dude's drawing? I thought he was to be the person to cause a rift between Jim and Pam. Maybe he still will.

New show to watch: Worst Week. Mondays at 8:30 central. CBS. I was wondering if I would watch any new shows this season. I answered that about 10 minutes into Worst Week. Yes. Premise: Guy gets girl pregnant. Guy and girl get engaged. Guy and girl try to tell girl's parents, who hate guy. Guy screws up every situation to further piss off parents. In episode one, guy thinks girl's dad died, and so he tells girl and her mother. They cry. But dad wasn't really dead. He was just taking a nap at a funeral home. Guy also showed up to girl's parents' house in a garbage bag. Yeah. You read that right. Funny stuff, I tell you.

I've heard that before: Two and 3/4 Men. Charlie is shocked to learn that condoms aren't 100 percent effective. He says they should write it on the box. He learns that they do. He says it should be in big letters and something something something. Where have I seen this joke before? Hmm. Oh yeah. A season eight episode of Friends when Ross learns that Rachel is pregnant. What a rip off. 

THE GENE POOL DIP (I MEAN TIP) OF THE WEEK

If you wear any sort of clothing with writing on it, always make sure you know what it says. If there is something written on the back of your shirt, don't be caught off guard when someone reads it and makes a comment. If you have a hat on, know what it says or what the symbol on it means. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Obama learned this lesson the hard way in Friday's debate. He had to look down at his bracelet because he didn't quite remember the soldier's name. Well, Obama. I have a bracelet, too. In fact, I have seven bracelets. And I know what all of them say. Of

course, none of them came from Green Bay. (At right are my seven bracelets. I'm currently wearing the one for the Cubs (blue) on my left wrist and the one for the Saints (black) on my right. When the playoffs start Wednesday, I'm switching wrists.)

PARTING SHOTS

Lopes gives a sarcastic answer to something.

Shams: "Ya'll are a sarcastic bunch over there."

Liam: "Always. That's the only way to live. This close to getting fired."

I'm writing the blog.

Me: Mom, what curse word do I say the most?

Mom: I don't know. Fuck?

Retro quote: September 26, 2004

I'm at work.

Bob: Is your cousin hot?

Alessa: Yes. Her boyfriend's name is Rhett.

Bob: I didn't say anything about a boyfriend.

THE DAILY TOP LIST

My top five swear expressions.

5) Motherfucker.

Which is different from Tina's Motherfuck.

4) Son of a bitch.

Does that really count?

3) What the fuck?

I get it from my mama.

2) Suck it. 

Been saying that one since 1997.

1) Fuck off.

When someone is aggravating me.